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Shabbos Times

 ISRAEL UPDATE

NEWS

Twice last week, official Palestinian Authority TV broadcast greetings to the murderers of the Fogel family from the relatives of the killers and from the PA TV host. On March 11, 2011, five members of the Fogel family were killed in their home in the Israeli town Itamar by Palestinian terrorists from the Awad family. Hakim Awad led the attack, killing the parents Ehud and Ruth and three of their children, aged 11 years, 4 years, and 2 months. The weekly PA TV program For You dedicated to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons let the mother and aunt of one of the murderers praise the terrorists as "heroes."  http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=6245

Commenting on Palestinian incitement yesterday, PM Netanyahu said : "The only way to enter into a discussion is through direct negotiations. Israel wants to do just that. We have our disappointments. One of them occurred this week when the Palestinian Authority's official television broadcasts a glorification of the killers who murdered an Israeli family, the Fogel family..... And they were on official Palestinian television presented as martyrs and heroes. This comes on the heels of the Palestinian Mufti's call to murder Jews wherever they are. Also broadcast on official Palestinian Television” http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Communiques/2012/PM_Netanyahu_Palestinian_incitement_29-Jan-2012.htm

Shin Bet arrests 3 in terror plot. An Israeli-Arab &  two Tulkarem residents are accused of planning a shooting attack against IDF soldiers  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4182851,00.html

Ma’ariv reports that King Abdullah has approved a joint 100 megawatt solar energy project that will straddle Jordan & Israel. A feasibility study for the project is currently taking place. The solar farm will cover 3000 dunams north of Eilat . Businesses see the project as leverage for economic cooperation between Israel and Jordan and an opportunity to develop the border areas of both countries. http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2012/01/israel-and-jordan-planning-joint-solar.html

Gazan terrorists have continued firing rockets and mortars into Israel throughout January, most recently on January 20th, 21st 22nd and 24th. Usually these attacks are reported in the Israeli media but not elsewhere, unless Israel takes action against the terrorists.. http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/prr/news-feed.php

Several shots were fired at the home of a resident of a Bedouin village in northern Israel recently, hours after he went on television to say he thought an attack on a local mosque was carried out by Arabs rather than Jews. http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=253744

The Al Jazeera news network recently  ran a short film about the Jewish Paramedic Service ‘United Hatzolah’. Entitled “Jerusalem SOS”, the film follows Jewish and Arab volunteer paramedics as they cross the “psychological divides” between their communities of East & West Jerusalem.  Hatzolah head Eli Beer wants to have Arabs all over the country working hand-in-hand with haredi, religious and secular Jews for his rescue organization. “I want about 3,000 volunteers, about 15 percent of of them Christian and Muslims.” http://yourjewishnews.com/15482.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiIA_35z4zM&feature=youtu.be

You may have seen recent reports accusing Israel of ‘Water Apartheid’ in the West Bank as a result of a report from the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French Parliament.  This important new study by Prof. Haim Gvirtzman, based on previously classified data, refutes Palestinian claims that Israel is denying West Bank Palestinians water rights negotiated under the Oslo Accords. The study also proposes a practical plan for Israeli-Palestinian water sharing in the future. http://www.biu.ac.il/SOC/besa/docs/GvirtzmanWP180112.pdf

HEALTH

The main drawback of radiation therapy for cancer patients is that it harms healthy tissues surrounding a malignant tumour under radiation bombardment. Now the Israeli company BioProtect has come up with a unique biodegradable "balloon" that physically separates cancerous and healthy tissues during radiation therapy for prostate cancer. http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/InnovativeIsrael/Safer_radiation_therapy-Jan_2012.htm?DisplayMode=print

AGRICULTURE – Israelis help Palestinian Arabs

The (Israeli) Civil Administration for Judea and Samaria has approved a plan to improve Palestinian Arab farming, supplying the necessary pesticides to agricultural areas in the Palestinian Authority.http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/HumanitarianAid/Palestinians/Agricultural_aid_Palestinians_9-Jan-2012.htm

A West Bank agricultural development team is hoping to form a partnership with Central and Northern Arava Research and Development by sending Palestinian agricultural students to learn desert farming techniques from Israeli experts. http://www.jpost.com/Sci-Tech/Article.aspx?id=255193

TECHNOLOGY

Better Place LLC has started its first commercial roll- out with 100 electric cars to Israeli customers. The company is in partnership with Renault SA to build and operate electric-car charging networks and battery-exchanging stations, starting in Israel and then in Denmark.“The first wave of electric cars is the ultimate proof that the change is here,” Chief Executive Officer Moshe Kaplinsky of Better Place Israel said.http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-24/better-place-begins-delivering-first-electric-cars-to-israel.html

Israeli ‘to-do’ app voted best app of 2011; the new Any.DO app was downloaded over 500,000 times in its first month. http://www.jpost.com/LifeStyle/Article.aspx?id=254003

THE ARTS

Buteina Halabi is a Druze artist who has dedicated herself to painting the Holocaust: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4164559,00.html

GAZA

Tossing yet another tender request on to his desk, construction engineer Wael Arabeed says: "I have so many offers, I can't even look at them. I'm too busy."Arabeed is the beneficiary of an extraordinary economic spurt in Gaza - not just in construction, but also agriculture, the hotel and restaurant industry, transport and manufacturing. All sectors have seen growth over the past year, with private sector employment increasing by more than 50%.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/22/gaza-construction-boom-black-market?INTCMP=SRCH

OPINION & COMMENT

Con Coughlin: “I am told by Western diplomats close to the exploratory talks that are currently taking place in Jordan between the two sides that the real reason they are running into difficulty is because the Palestinian delegation, led by the veteran Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, is refusing to take the talks seriously. For example, I am told by a Western diplomat working for the Quartet that when the Israeli delegation arrived for a meeting last weekend in Amman, the Jordanian capital, to present their latest security proposals, Mr Erekat simply refused to enter the room.” http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/concoughlin/100132355/the-palestinians-are-doing-their-best-to-derail-peace-talks-with-israel/

Andrew Percy MP : “I was indifferent about Israel and the Middle East. However, last year when I visited Israel and the Palestinian territories for the first time, I was left with a very different impression of the place: Israel is a country misunderstood and misrepresented.”  http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2012/01/andrew-percy-mp-israels-re-branding-is-a-matter-of-strategic-importance.html

Lorna Fitzsimmons: “By making Israeli settlements (plural) the issue, we inadvertently make the settlement (singular, and conflict-ending) almost impossible to reach because we block the direct negotiations which alone can secure a Palestinian state” http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/lorna-fitzsimons/nick-clegg-israel-settlements_b_1211170.html

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