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Israel is worlds largest exporter of drones
Today
A new study has found that Israel is the world’s largest exporter of unmanned aerial vehicles, better known as drones .
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Morsi government goes after more reporters
Today
Egypt’s challenging media environment has become even more difficult, with two journalists at a newspaper critical of President Mohamed Morsi ordered to face an expedited criminal trial for defamation.
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Tunisian female activist arrested
Yesterday
Tunisia's interior ministry has said that a female activist has been arrested for painting a feminist message on the wall of a mosque and trying to expose her breasts.
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Internet celebrity arrested for murder
Yesterday
The man who became an Internet sensation because of a lively, expletive-laced interview he gave earlier this year is now under arrest. Caleb McGillvary, dubbed “Kai the hatchet-wielding hitchhiker”, for using his hatchet to subdue a man who ran over an African-American in California in February, is now under arrest for murdering a pensioner.
NYT interview: Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid says Jerusalem should not be the capital of any future Palestinian state in an interview with The New York Times
Bank heist: a man in Beersheba shoots four people dead in a bank robbery before turning the gun on himself and ending his life
Drone report: a new study shows that Israel is the worlds largest exporter of drones mainly to Europe, Asia and Latin America in trade worth more than USD 4.6 billion over the past 8 years
Freedoms assessment: US State Department reports that the Israeli governments respect for freedom of religion has remained consistent through 2012 but that it has engaged in ‘detailed discussions’ with Israeli officials over rights concerns that have persisted for multiple years
Bank heist: a man in Beersheba shoots four people dead in a bank robbery before turning the gun on himself and ending his life
Drone report: a new study shows that Israel is the worlds largest exporter of drones mainly to Europe, Asia and Latin America in trade worth more than USD 4.6 billion over the past 8 years
Freedoms assessment: US State Department reports that the Israeli governments respect for freedom of religion has remained consistent through 2012 but that it has engaged in ‘detailed discussions’ with Israeli officials over rights concerns that have persisted for multiple years
Jewish babes battle for world’s sexiest title
The hottest ladies on the planet always tend to have a few similarities – with 2012 heralding a new common theme – the top two are both Jewish – but the question is in which order.
Esquire Magazine has just anointed Ukrainian-born brunette Mila Kunis as the world’s sexiest babe. 29 year old Kunis immigrated to the US in 1991 with her parents and brother.
Earlier this year, Maxim Magazine readers chose blonde bombshell Bar Refaeli as their most titillating beauty. Israeli Refaeli was also the cover model of the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition.
Golden Globe nominee Kunis also came third in the Maxim poll and is currently the face of Christian Dior handbags. With both Jewish girls sitting pretty at the top of the beauty league, the world will be keeping abreast of which holds onto the coveted accolade next time around.
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Hundreds demonstrate against Malmo anti-Semitism
Several hundred Jews and people of other faiths and none have marched in the southern Swedish city of Malmo to bring attention to intolerance and anti-Semitic attacks in the Nordic country . The city has a large immigrant Muslim community and attacks on Jews have spiked in recent years.
Niklar Orrenius, local journalist:
"Malmo is an immigrant city which is a safe haven for refugees from all over the world, but the first refugee group that came here was Jews fleeing persecution from Russia, Poland and the Holocaust. But now what's happening now the last year is you see that Jews are moving out of Malmo because some of them don't feel safe."
In recent years Sweden's government has come under criticism for failing to provide adequate protection to the country's small Jewish community and address the issue of anti-Semitism even after an explosion rocked a building in a Jewish community in Malmo last year .
Niklar Orrenius, local journalist:
"For many years the authorities, especially here in the city of Malmo, it seemed like they turned a blind eye to this persecution really, or this harassment of Jews in the city, but last year they have, the government in Sweden have granted money to, for security, for Jewish security, so they have changed the windows in the synagogue to more safe windows and things like that, but obviously that's not the real solution to the problem of anti-Semitism, it's more like...a bandaid, really."
In 2010 a group of Jews were attacked during a peaceful demonstration in support of Israel and in August several hundred Jews and non-Jews marched in Stockholm in solidarity with Malmo's persecuted Jewish community. Malmo’s mayor, Ilmar Reepalu, said that a group of Jews who were attacked during the peaceful demonstration had brought the violence upon themselves for not distancing themselves from Israel and its actions during the month-long Gaza War in 2008-09 . One demonstrator spoke of how he was harassed while working as teacher.
Henryk Grynfeld, former teacher:
“At the time I was working as a teacher at a school in Rosengard, where the majority of my students are from the Middle East and there I was the target of harassment from the students which was only because I was Jewish.”
A local Jewish community leader attempted to put the problem into perspective for the country’s 20,000 Jews.
Willy Silberstein, Swedish Committee Against Anti-Semitism:
"I think that it is a small minority that harasses Jews in Malmo, the big majority is here with us, but still the enemies are strong enough to be a big problem, that's why I'm here."
Anti-Semitism in Malmo first drew international attention in 2009, when riots broke out due to the presence of Israeli professional tennis players in the city.
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Jews and Money
With the title Jews and Money the Frankfurt Jewish Museum uses the old castle of the Rothschild banking family to stage an exhibition about the stereotype of the rich Jew . We see how stereotypes and clichés about the millionaire Jew developed from the middle ages to today.
- Why this exhibition? What is the purpose of this exhibition?
Michael Lenarz, Frankfurt Jewish Museum:
“The exhibition is to show what are the reasons of the idea that Jews and money are closely connected , which is only imaginary and what is real behind that idea, and the fact is that public opinion concentrates on the few examples of very, very wealthy Jews who as well have political influence.”
Since a large percentage of the wealthiest people in the world are Jewish, a common question the world over is, ‘Why are so many Jews so wealthy?’ Their secret lies not in their genetics or intelligence, as some have believed, but in their religion. One historical reason is that, in the Middle Ages in Europe, the Christian Church forbade the charging of interest by money lenders so people had to borrow money from Jews instead of Christians.
- So here we see the cliché of the rich Jew in the middle ages, what do people think today, what is the cliché of the rich Jewish now?
Michael Lenarz, Frankfurt Jewish Museum:
“Well, the cliché is active today as well and you always have the fact that wealthy people always are regarded as Jews even if they aren’t.”
Now days if you are a millionaire chances are you are a Jew that is what people think.
Michael Lenarz, Frankfurt Jewish Museum:
“That’s it, that’s it, in fact there always are, if you look in the Internet, there you will find pages trying to make Rockefeller of Jewish origin.”
With the help of some surprising objects and images of the Rothschild banking family , the exhibition here at the Frankfurt Jewish Museum shows how stereotypes and clichés shape the picture that we have of ourselves and of ‘others.’ They are simplifications which help us to overcome our fear of the unknown.
Michael Lenarz, Frankfurt Jewish Museum:
“We have here some questions sent to us by the Chinese TV in 2011.”
- Two thousand and eleven?
Michael Lenarz, Frankfurt Jewish Museum:
“And you find in these questions all the stereotypes, which shows stereotypes developed in European middle ages are spread worldwide through literature, though the newspapers.”
- Stereotype which is shown here by the question from the Chinese television, the Jews are millionaires.
Michael Lenarz, Frankfurt Jewish Museum:
“The Jews are millionaires and the question is why are Jews millionaires and why are Jews objects of aggression perhaps because they are millionaires .”
It’s impossible to imagine modern culture without stereotypes and clichés, which help us overcome our fear of the unknown, but at the same time, can also provide us with a breeding ground for racism and anti-Semitism.
Wilson Ruiz, JN1 , Germany
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Israel gets natural resource boost from Tamar gas
The discovery of natural gas at the Tamar plant off the shores of Israel is potentially going have a life changing effect for Israel who has always been a country known with no natural resources, however not all looks so rosy with new found treasure.
Adrian Filut of Financial Newspaper, Globes, claims the government promises to make good use of the money it will earn from the natural gas.
Adrian Filut, Globes:
"For the first time can save as a nation because all the income which is going to be coming from the gas are not going to go to the current budget. The government is going to put all this money in a sovereign fund and it is going to be used for special circumstances it can be like security expenses or I hope for education expenses, that’s one side. The other side is, the electricity company that is using charcoals to produce electricity and the price of electricity has been rising in the last few years, its going to change as they will start using gas and so the cost of the electricity company is going to go down so as an Israeli will be paying less for electricity and of course its going to be cleaner."
Shauli Katnelson of the Israeli Export Institute believes the natural gas will do only good for Israel .
Shauli Katznelson, Israeli Export Institute:
"It has a very positive effect on the economy especially the expectations of the long term growth of the economy and it of course give a better feeling about being less dependent on external energy sources so it might give us more, I would say, independence of also getting some making decisions because up till now we were very very dependent on countries who are willing to supply us this energy resources and as we all know it is not possible to get it from every country in the area, in the neighborhood."
Binyamin Zomer from Noble Energy who is responsible for the gas plants in question, believes Israel will have more than enough gas for itself which will allow it to export some of it as well.
Binyamin Zomer, Dir. Cooperate Affairs Noble Energy:
"The tax issue, the government take issue, was resolved two years ago and that is a settled issue. It was 35% government take when we came here, today it’s 65% government take but that’s behind us and today really the big issue that we are focusing on is the export issue, we have found the largest discovery that’s 10 trillion cubic feet and we have a discovery a year later the Leviathan discovery which is an 18 trillion cubic feet discovery. Tamar takes care of Israel’s needs for the next several decades, some of the Leviathan will go to the domestic market but the potential in the basined here is such that, you know, in order for companies to make the investments today in that expiration you need to have markets and those markets will be met through exporting gas which is another benefit to Israel in the sense of, Israel which for years has been an importing country of all of its energy needs is now going to be an exporting country with the geopolitical benefits that it brings and with the tax revenues that will bring to Israel. If you are looking at 65% of Leviathan that is a huge amount of money that in the years ahead from Tamar and Leviathan combined you have government revenue of an excess of 100 billion dollars."
However, MK Nitzan Horvitz from the opposition is questioning the real motives of the government with the royalties money.
MK Nitzan Horvitz, Meretz:
"Everything can change in Israel, I mean, we are expecting huge revenues. So we can use it for education, health, housing etc. or we can channel everything to a pocket of some very rich multinational cooperation. So it’s up to us to decide. This is the struggle that we are having here, on the revenues royalties from the gas and second is whether we are going to keep most of the gas in our hands or we are going to sell most of it in the next five to ten years and then in like 15-years from now we are going to be left out without any gas at all."
Now that Israel seems to be having enough gas for decades to come, in 2014 Nobel Energy is going start looking for oil as well and who knows maybe there is another undersea treasure just waiting to be discovered.
Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 , Tel-Aviv