Israel prepares for protest flotilla
By YAAKOV KATZ
20/05/2010 02:30
9 ships plan to break the Gaza Strip blockade next week.
The IDF is gearing up to stop a flotilla of aid ships that is directed at breaking the blockade on the Gaza Strip next week.
Two ships, one named for international activist Rachel Corrie who was killed in Gaza in 2003, sailed from Ireland to Cyprus where they will join another seven boats scheduled to set sail for Gaza next Thursday.
The ships will carry hundreds of international peace activists as well as some 10,000 tons of construction material, medical equipment and school supplies. While the Free Gaza movement claims that the flotilla is needed to provide Palestinians in Gaza with basic supplies, the IDF pointed out on Tuesday that it had, in the past week, allowed over 14,000 tons of supplies into the Gaza Strip.
On Monday night, Foreign Ministry officials met with ambassadors from Turkey, Greece, Ireland and Sweden and informed them that the ships would be stopped on their way to the Gaza Strip. Defense Minister Ehud Barak has instructed the Navy to prepare for the operation, which due to the large number of vessels will require the participation of a large naval force.
The Israeli Navy has in the past stopped international aid ships from reaching the Gaza Strip. Last June, a ship from Cyprus that included a Nobel laureate among its passengers, was stopped en route to Gaza and towed to the Ashdod port.
Meanwhile Wednesday, Hamas sped up work it is doing on the Gaza port to expand it ahead of the flotilla's arrival.
The project is funded by a Turkish NGO, and according to a report by the Quartet, work is carried out daily by 40 workers who put in 18-hour days. The first phase of the expansion is slated to be completed by the arrival of the ships and includes increasing the depth of the port basin to 8 meters.
The second phase of the project is expected to be completed in two months and includes increasing the depth of the entire port. The third phase will be aimed at turning the Gaza sea port into a tourist attraction for local residents. According to the Quartet report, most of the raw materials for the expansion work comes from recycled rubble of buildings destroyed in the Gaza Strip.
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A New Holy Oil? Searching for Petroleum in Israel
NORTHERN ISRAEL -- Israel is a part of the oil-rich Middle East, but it needs to import most of its oil and gasoline.
Yet one company believes there is plenty of oil in the Holy Land and they intend to find it. A potential discovery could change the dynamics of the Middle East and Israel's future.
John Brown is the founder of Zion Oil and Gas. He started the company on what he said is a God-given, 30-year-old mission to discover oil in Israel.
"I was an alcoholic and God saved me and delivered me from alcohol," Brown said. "That was in '81. Jim Spillman came to the church that God took me to in Clausen, Mich. And Jim Spillman - that was before the book the Great Treasure Hunt was written - he explained to the congregation that there was oil in Israel and it was in the Bible. That absolutely amazed me."
Since then Brown has pursued his vision to explore for oil -- based on the Scriptures and specifically on the promises to the tribes of Israel.
"We have Biblical evidence of what God said the blessings of the deep that lies beneath and there's also a scripture in Deuteronomy chapter 33, I think it's verse 24 where He talks about Asher dipping his foot in oil," Brown added.
While some said that scripture in Deuteronomy means olive oil, not petroleum, Brown believes it can be translated both ways. But it is not only the Bible that keeps Brown drilling, it is the science.
"We like to say it's the geology confirming the theology," he said.
Zion Oil and Gas's second well is one of the deepest ever drilled in Israel. From the top of the rig to the bottom of the well, it is 18,000 feet, about three and a half miles.
They are currently testing the results of the second well while they start on a third well. Richard Rinberg, Zion Oil and Gas CEO, said they are cautiously optimistic.
"We have seen certain things and we have announced to the world that we have seen certain results that lead us to believe and we've had it independently confirmed that there are seven zones within this well that may, and I underline the word 'may,' contain hydrocarbons and the word 'hydrocarbons' is a family name for oil and gas," Rinberg said.
"There's definitely some chance in finding oil and I have not mentioned yet the chance which is there in the offshore," said Yaakov Mimran, Israel's petroleum commissioner.
One discovery in January 2009 did add some optimism. For the first time in Israel's history, Nobel Drilling, an oil company, announced they had discovered a natural gas field some 60 to 90 miles offshore of Israel. They estimated it contained enough volume to supply Israel's natural gas needs for 10 to 20 years.
"We've been very, very careful not to claim any direct geological connection," Rinberg said. "In my mind what it does show is that the joke that's been around Israel since 1948 that Moses went the wrong way and turned left instead of turning right to Saudi Arabia, frankly may be wrong."
Zion Oil and Gas holds a license to drill on more than 300,000 acres within Israel. If they discover oil they hope to both help make Israel energy independent and bless the people of Israel with their charitable foundation. For now, the company continues to dig deep and look up.
"Only the Lord can grant the success," Rinberg said. "I believe He will, that's the faith belief. And when He does I'll take to my book of Psalms and I'll look at this particular comment. It says, 'From the depths I called You, O Lord.' And I'll say we called to you from 18,000 feet down underneath Israel and you answered us."
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Abbas warns of Israeli ‘provocations'
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH AND HERB KEINON
20/05/2010 02:19
J'lem hopes PA isn't looking for excuses to scuttle the peace process.
US envoy George Mitchell is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday morning, after having met a day earlier with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas told Mitchell Israeli "provocations" were threatening to foil the nascent negotiations.
Abbas hosted the American envoy in Ramallah and while welcoming the start of the US-sponsored "proximity talks," delivered a number of letters containing Palestinian complaints about Israel's actions on the ground, chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
Erekat said that the letters detailed Israeli "crimes" against Palestinians, including the recent killings of a teenager in the West Bank and an elderly man in the Gaza Strip.
He said the letters also detailed arrests of Palestinians by the IDF and "provocative" statements made by Israeli government officials.
"We hope that the Americans will obligate the Israelis to stop the provocations, which include invasions, arrests, settlement construction and the creation of new facts on the ground," Erekat said after the meeting.
One senior Israeli official, when asked about the letters, said Jerusalem hoped the Palestinians were not looking for an excuse to scuttle the talks. "We want this process to succeed," he said.
Erekat also said the Palestinians were keen on ensuring the success of the talks, and that they were focusing on final-status issues such as borders and refugees.
"We're not asking Mitchell about his talks with the Israelis, because these are proximity talks," he said. "We are negotiating with the Americans according to an agreed agenda."
Erekat also expressed hope that the parties would "exploit every moment" during the four-month proximity talks to reach agreement on the future borders of the Palestinian state.
Israeli officials have said repeatedly that final-status issues such as borders and refugees would have to be negotiated between the sides.
"The more difficult issues cannot have a resolution without direct negotiations," one diplomatic official stressed. "If they want to have a peace agreement, they are going to have to negotiate directly with us."
Abbas reportedly discussed with Mitchell the possibility of NATO troops being stationed in a future Palestinian state, something that has been raised in the past by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Netanyahu's position, however, is that in the foreseeable future Israel would have to have a presence on the eastern border of a future Palestinian state, to ensure that weapons do not pour into it, as they have into the Gaza Strip from Egypt, and to Hizbullah in Lebanon from Syria.
Mitchell met with Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday afternoon, soon after arriving.
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Rock Attacks on Highway 443
by Gil Ronen
Arabs hurled rocks Wednesday at several vehicles bearing Israeli license plates on Route 443, which connects Modiin and Jerusalem. No one was reported hurt but several vehicles were damaged.
Next week, security forces are expected to carry out the instructions they were given by a High Court panel headed by Court President Dorit Beinisch, to reopen the road to Arab traffic from the Palestinian Authority.
That decision was received with consternation by a large part of the Israeli public, because of concern that reopening the road to PA traffic would make those traveling on it vulnerable to terrorist attacks. The road was completely closed off to Arab PA traffic in 2002, following a spate of fatal shootings and other terror attacks that took place there.
Two months ago, a father and his baby son were lightly wounded when Arab marauders threw a fire bomb at their car as it traveled on Highway 443 toward Jerusalem. Several days earlier, terrorists fired several bursts of automatic gunfire from a passing vehicle at an IDF position near Beit Horon, off the 443 road. No one was hurt. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
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Israel to Release Hamas's 'Redbeard' Abu Tir; MK Up in Arms
by Gil Ronen
Arab news outlets have reported that Israel will release senior Hamas official Mahmoud Abu-Tir on Thursday. Abu Tir is a member of the Palestinian Authority parliament who was arrested by Israel following the abduction of First Sgt. Gilad Shalit in 2006.
He is a well-known figure among Israelis, not least because of his beard, which he dies red with henna, for obscure religious reasons.
Abu Tir had been sentenced to life in prison on terror charges but was released in 2005 after serving only seven years, and was allowed to run for the PA Legislative Council. He was elected to the council as a representative for eastern Jerusalem.
Israel released a former minister in the Hamas government, Wasfi Kabha, last month. Nine senior Hamas officials were released in September.
MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) pleaded with Defense Minister Ehud Barak not to release Abu Tir. In a letter he sent Barak on Wednesday evening, Ben Ari said he had been "shocked" to hear of Abu Tir's impending release. Abu Tir's hands, he said, "are soaked with the blood of Jews."
"In any normal country," Ben Ari went on, a man like Abu Tir "would find himself deep in the ground or at least in jail for the rest of his life," but Israel wants to release him. Abu Tir, he added, "is also a huge bargaining chip in the matter of Gilad Shalit."
Ben Ari suggested that Barak issue a warrant for the administrative detention of Abu Tir upon his release. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
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'Israel visit would improve ties'
By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDE
20/05/2010 02:20
Congressmen to Obama: "Strengthen longstanding US-Israel friendship."
WASHINGTON - Jewish members of Congress urged US President Barack Obama Tuesday to visit Israel as part of an effort to improve relations with the Jewish state.
The lawmakers conveyed the suggestion during a meeting Obama had with them at the Executive Office Building, his first invitation to Congress's unofficial Jewish caucus.
The overture came on the heels of a White House meeting with rabbis last week, a series of high-profile speeches by top administration officials to the Jewish community in recent weeks and ahead of the first-ever reception in honor of American Jewish History Month next Thursday.
"There's obviously concern for the way the administration is being portrayed" when it comes to its stance on Israel, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-California) explained to The Jerusalem Post following the meeting.
Outreach to the Jewish community has taken place after ties with Israel frayed over construction in east Jerusalem and difficulties in getting indirect talks between Israelis and Palestinians started earlier this year. The administration has been criticized in Jewish quarters for its public criticism of Israel and for blaming Jerusalem more than Ramallah for the strained atmosphere.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-New York) said the legislators on Tuesday "reiterated to the president the urgency for him to strengthen the longstanding friendship between United States and Israel," and "urged him to make clear to the Palestinians that the US will not do their work for them," according to a statement from his office.
He described the encounter as "a fruitful meeting" in which Obama "was receptive and genuinely interested in our advice."
The White House characterized the one-and-a-half hour conversation as "a wide-ranging and productive exchange about their shared commitment to peace and security in Israel and the Middle East."
"Many of us believe that President Obama himself needs to speak about this a little more himself," Rep. Steve Rothman (D-New Jersey) told the Post, stressing the need to push back against what he called the Republican "lies and mischaracterizations" about Obama's commitment to Israel.
He said that as part of this effort, the group recommended he return to Israel. Obama last visited during the presidential campaign in 2008.
"He didn't respond directly, but I believe it will happen," Rothman said.
According to Sherman, when the suggestion was made, "I think he nodded and smiled."
Other issues broached included Iran, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and the recent boost in US assistance to Israel's short-range missile defense program.
Participants said Obama reiterated his pledge that Iran would not be allowed to get a nuclear weapon, noting that all options remain on the table, and that he stressed he had no intention of imposing a solution on Israelis and Palestinians despite media speculation to that effect.
Thirty-seven House and Senate members - nearly all the Jewish legislators in Congress minus Republican Rep. Eric Cantor - attended the event. Among the senators in attendance was Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York), who had leveled some of the harshest criticism at Obama for his stance on Israel.
"I told the president, I told Rahm Emanuel and others in the administration that I thought the policy they took to try to bring about negotiations is counter-productive, because when you give the Palestinians hope that the United States will do its negotiating for them, they are not going to sit down and talk," Schumer said last month on the Nachum Segal radio show.
He also alluded to State Department officials' comments that seemed to suggest the US-Israel relationship hinged on its stance toward the peace process.
"That is the dagger because the relationship is much deeper than the disagreements on negotiations, and most Americans - Democrat, Republican, Jew, non-Jew - would feel that. So I called up Rahm Emanuel and I called up the White House and I said, ‘If you don't retract that statement you are going to hear me publicly blast you on this,'" Schumer said.
At that time, Schumer also said that many Jewish congressman would soon be meeting with Obama, "and we are saying that this has to stop."
Schumer's office did not respond to calls from the Post Wednesday.He also alluded to State Department officials' comments that seemed to suggest the US-Israel relationship hinged on its stance toward the peace process.
"That is the dagger because the relationship is much deeper than the disagreements on negotiations, and most Americans - Democrat, Republican, Jew, non-Jew - would feel that. So I called up Rahm Emanuel and I called up the White House and I said, ‘If you don't retract that statement you are going to hear me publicly blast you on this,'" Schumer said.
At that time, Schumer also said that many Jewish congressman would soon be meeting with Obama, "and we are saying that this has to stop."
Schumer's office did not respond to calls from the Post Wednesday.
