Category Archives: Uncategorized

Israeli prime minister bows to a demand of the right, prompting criticisms of racism and weakening democratic values.

June 19, 2017   Uncategorized   No comments

 Jerusalem — Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, says he will introduce a law defining Israel as a Jewish state, giving high-level support to a controversial idea that has long been a demand of the Israeli right.

The state has never before officially defined itself as Jewish, though legislators have introduced bills to that effect over the past few years.

 

In a speech on Thursday, Netanyahu called Israel’s Jewish identity “the most basic ingredient of our national life”.

 

“It is my intention to submit a Basic Law to the Knesset that would provide a constitutional anchor for Israel’s status as the national state of the Jewish people,” he said in Tel Aviv’s Independence Hall, the site where David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the state of Israel in 1948.

 

Israel has never had a constitution; instead it has a series of “Basic Laws,” which are meant to someday be incorporated into a formal charter.

 

It’s unclear what practical impact the law would have: 66 years after independence, Israelis still disagree sharply on how a “Jewish state” should be governed.

 

The measure could simply be a symbolic declaration. But it could also go much further, requiring Israeli courts, for example, to interpret the law according to halakha, Jewish religious law.

 

Regardless of Netanyahu’s intent, the law would provide a basis for future governments to pass illiberal legislation.

 

“Behind these nice words, he may be hiding plans to put particular Jewish values as superior to democratic values,” said Yedidia Stern, a vice president of the Israel Democracy Institute.

 

“For example, if it means that Hebrew should be the only language of the country, the only formal language, then I’m against it.”

 

Netanyahu’s proposal has already received strong support from the right. Uri Ariel, the housing minister and a member of the conservative Jewish Home party, was quick to praise the prime minister. “I congratulate [Netanyahu] for his support of this law,” Ariel said. “It will pass in the Knesset. It has a majority.”

 

‘Racist’ law

 

The most vocal opposition came from Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who said hours after Netanyahu’s speech that she would oppose the law.

 

“I will continue to defend the values of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, and will under no circumstances allow anyone to weaken its democratic values and subordinate them to Jewish ones,” she said.

 

Mohammed Barakeh, a member of the Hadash party, called it a “racist law” that would discriminate against Palestinians, who make up one-fifth of the Israeli population.

 

The question of Israel’s identity became a central one during nine months of US-brokered negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which stalled last week.

Netanyahu insisted that the Palestinians recognise Israel as a Jewish state as a precondition for talks, a demand rejected by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president. Critics said the demand was a ploy by Netanyahu to scupper negotiations.

 

Abbas reiterated in a speech on Saturday that he would “never” grant Israel that recognition, saying that the PLO recognised Israel in 1993 and did not have to go further.

Netanyahu’s speech came days after Palestinian towns were targeted in two “price tag” attacks, in which car tyres were slashed and a star of David spray-painted on a mosque.

A Jewish man was also arrested for giving the Roman Catholic bishop of Nazareth a letter which told Christians to leave Israel within a week or be killed.

Source: Al Jazeera
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Israeli bombardment of Gaza escalates

June 19, 2017   Uncategorized   No comments

Israeli army carries out 160 airstrikes in Gaza overnight, stepping up a bombardment in which dozens have been killed.

Tel Aviv – The Israeli army carried out 160 airstrikes in Gaza overnight, escalating a bombardment that has killed at least 27 Palestinians and wounded more than 100.

Local media reported on Wednesday morning that one of the airstrikes targeted the house of a commander in the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. An unknown number of casualties were reported.

The latest strikes killed an 80-year-old woman at Al-Mughraqa village in southern Gaza City, according to al-Qedra.Another blew up the house of Hafez Hamad, a leader of the military wing of Islamic Jihad. He was killed along with at least four women and children, according to neighbours and hospital officials.

The Israeli cabinet has authorised the army to call up 40,000 reservists. Only a fraction of them have so far been mobilised, though officials hinted at a lengthy campaign in Gaza.

“We are preparing for a battle against Hamas which will not end within a few days,” defence minister, Moshe Yaalon, said on Tuesday.

Four rockets were launched from Gaza into Israel between midnight and sunrise, the army said, three of them at the southern city of Be’er Sheva.

A salvo of five rockets was fired at Tel Aviv during the morning rush hour. Most of them were intercepted by the Iron Dome system, and could be heard exploding south and east of the city centre.

The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they fired M-75s, a locally-made model with an 80km range.

One rocket was also fired overnight at Hadera, about 100km from Gaza, the longest-range strike yet.

Five members of Hamas were also killed in a makeshift naval commando attack on a military base in Zikim, near the southern city of Israel.

There were clashes overnight throughout the occupied West Bank between Palestinians and Israeli troops. At least six people were injured near Ramallah, and protests were also reported in Bethlehem and Hebron.

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Israeli Bees to Help Save Japanese Crops

June 19, 2017   Uncategorized   No comments

Israeli bees are flying to the rescue in Japan in order to help pollinate their crops.

 

Israeli bumblebees are on the way to Japan to help make up for a lack of bees there caused by the increased use of pesticides in rice fields, Israel Hayom reports.

The Israeli bees are receiving “first class” treatment on their way to Japan and are being sent inside spacious hives, each of which contains an impregnated queen bee and 50 worker bees that supply her needs.

These special bees were raised and engineered by the Bio Bee firm, based at Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu in the Jordan Valley.

The bees will be deployed throughout Japan, where they will work busily to pollinate the produce, a process vital to ensure a good harvest, which in many instances cannot succeed without bees. As the bees suck up nectar from a flower, they shake it, which helps distribute the pollen.

bees

(Pixabay)

Bio Bee’s mass-produced earth bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) are created for pollination purposes only. They have been uniquely bred to carry out their mission even when the temperature drops, as well as in rainy, cloudy weather, when bees do not naturally work and prefer to huddle up in their warm hives.

This method has been successfully used in Israel for years. Israeli farmers are also affected by the global decline in the honeybee population. The advantage of these particular bees is that they tend to stay inside the closed greenhouse, rather than flying out to cultivate other people’s fields.

There has been a general drop in the global bee population, but the situation in Japan is especially acute because of the pesticide spraying of rice crops there. Many bees died after they ingested the poisoned nectar.

By: United with Israel Staff

shutterstock_196518893

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Israel: Arab States Seeking Nuclear Weapons Against Iran

June 19, 2017   Uncategorized   No comments

Israel has picked up signs of the beginning of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East as Arab states seek nuclear weapons to counter Iran, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon warned.

Moshe Ya’alon said Sunni Arab nations were not reassured by last year’s nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers and were making their own preparations for nuclear weapons.

According to a report in The Telegraph, Israel has picked up signs of the beginning of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East as Arab states seek nuclear weapons to counter Iran, Ya’alon warned.

 

 

 

 

 

“We see signs that countries in the Arab world are preparing to acquire nuclear weapons, that they are not willing to sit quietly with Iran on brink of a nuclear or atomic bomb,” Ya’alon said.

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Israel, Turkey, Russia and Egypt by Shoshana Bryen

June 19, 2017   Uncategorized   No comments
  • In 2011, the UN Palmer Commission Report found the blockade of Gaza — jointly administered with Egypt — to be legal, and said Israel owed Turkey neither an apology nor compensation.
  • Lifting the Israel/Egypt embargo on Gaza would empower Hamas, and thereby the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran and ISIS — which would seem an enormous risk for no gain.

Turkish sources assert that Turkish-Israeli governmental relations are about to come out of the deep freeze. But this is a reflection of Turkey’s regional unpopularity and glides over Turkish demands for Israel to end the blockade of Gaza. To meet Turkey’s condition, Israel would have to abandon the security arrangement it shares with Egypt — which has increased Israel’s security and has begun to pay regional dividends. To restore full relations between Israel and Turkey would irritate Russia, with which Israel has good trade and political relations, and a respectful series of understandings regarding Syria. Israel’s relations with the Kurds are also at issue here.

After the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla — in which Turkey supported the Hamas-related Turkish organization, the IHH, in its effort to break the blockade of Gaza — Turkey made three demands of Israel: an Israeli apology for the deaths of Turkish activists; a financial settlement; and lifting the Gaza blockade, which Turkey claimed was illegal. The last would provide IHH with the victory it was unable to achieve with the flotilla.

The Turkish-owned ship Mavi Marmara took part in a 2010 “Gaza flotilla” attempting to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza, which is in place to prevent the terrorist group Hamas from bringing arms into Gaza. (Image source: “Free Gaza movement”/Flickr)

In 2011, however, the UN Palmer Commission Report found the blockade of Gaza — jointly administered with Egypt — to be legal, and said Israel owed Turkey neither an apology nor compensation. In 2013, at the urging of President Obama and to move the conversation off the impasse, Prime Minister Netanyahu did apologize for the loss of life and agree to discuss compensation. While President Obama was pleased, Prime Minister Erdogan repaid the gesture by denigrating Israel on Turkish television and announcing he would force the end of the blockade. Israel’s condition — that the office of Hamas in Ankara be closed — was ignored.

Nevertheless, in February 2014, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Turkish television that Israel and Turkey were “closer than ever” to normalizing relations.” In December 2015, it was more of the same. And in February 2016, there was yet another announcement of imminent restoration of government-to-government ties. In March, Kurdish sources said Turkey was demanding weapons from Israel, but that Israel wanted to ensure that Turkey would not use them against Kurdish forces.

Israel finds itself

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