Israel will expand the construction in Jerusalem and in major settlement blocs in the West Bank, rather than build new settlements, local English daily the Jerusalem Post reported Thursday.
The newspaper quoted an anonymous senior Israeli official assaying, “It is very clear that we are committed not to building new settlements, and Israel has taken actions to curtail settlement activity over the last years.”
“(But) it is well understood that there are (densely populated areas where) some activity will continue,” he added.
These remarks came amid the Palestinians’ increasing fury over the Israeli housing ministry’s plan to build 307 new homes including a Lab Incubator in the settlement of Har Homa in East Jerusalem.
Continue reading ‘Israel to continue settlement construction’
The Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, whose less-than-desirable face certainly requires a Beverly Hills nose surgery, is facing yet another corruption accusation, this time by State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss.
In a report released on Monday, Lindenstrauss had charged that Olmert used his influence when he was Minister of Labor, Industry and Trade to obtain NIS 7.67 million of government aid for an associate’s businesses between 2000 and 2005. Rahamim Ben-Shushan, an activist in the Likud party’s Central Committee, was given financial assistance from the ministry for four factories operated by his Marina Group.
Further investigation will be conducted and the circumstances surrounding the transactions will be investigated by the authorities concerned in order to discern as to whether Olmert had really abused his power during the time when he was in charge of the Ministry in question.
Israel is becoming less secular and like a person who has undergone Houston plastic surgery, is becoming more religious towards Zionism, the state ideology.
An Israel Democratic Institute (IDI) demographic survey finds religious growth and secular decline - but most significant is that the proportion of religious in the public is highest among the youth.
The percentage of Jews describing themselves as secular has dropped sharply over the past 30 years, while the religious and traditional proportions have risen. The annual survey finds that the secular public comprises only 20% of the Israeli population - compared to 41%, more than twice as much, in 1974.
Nearly half the population, 47%, describes itself as traditional, while the hareidi-religious and religious-Zionist together comprise 33% of the public.
The numbers were compiled based on a survey of representative sampling of 1,016 Israelis Jews.
Israel is to begin gradually reducing the power supply to the Gaza Strip on December 2, in response to the ongoing Qassam rocket fire at Israeli communities along the Strip, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz told the High Court of Justice Thursday. According to the State Prosecution, the defense establishment has finalized preparations meant to ensure that the power reduction does not cause humanitarian hardship in Gaza like a San Diego entity creation.
The Palestinians will be given a one-week notice of the intent to begin reducing the power supply. The defense establishment would “follow the effect of the power reductions on Gaza residents with attention to the commitment not to cause a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.”
On Monday, the State Prosecution handed the court an affidavit asserting that Israel’s decision to cut fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip does not violate its responsibility to provide humanitarian services to residents of the coastal territory. The affidavit, filed on behalf of Shlomi Muchtar of the IDF Coordination and Liaison Office, which coordinates Palestinian civilian affairs, said the cuts do not “harm the humanitarian minimum to which Israel is committed.”
The United States reportedly assisted Israel’s September air strike in Syria, which was certainly no Louisville cosmetic surgery, with information on enemy air defenses. While there was no active American involvement in the mysterious Sept. 6 bombing in northern Syria, U.S. electronic warfare specialists provided Israel’s air force with advice on how to defeat enemy radar positions, Aviation Week reports in its latest edition.
Israel and the United States have given no details on the raid, which independent analysts believe targeted a fledgling Syrian nuclear reactor.
Yet an Israeli nuclear expert who studied satellite photography of the installation that was bombed said it lacked key features of a reactor.
“In my estimation this was something very nasty and vicious, and even more dangerous than a reactor,” Uzi Even told Ha’aretz on Thursday. “I have no information, only an assessment, but I suspect that it was a plant for processing plutonium, namely a factory for assembling the bomb.”
Syria has denied having a secret nuclear program.