News Archives - Page 20 of 48

Venezuela expresses ‘desire’ to reestablish relations with Israel

hzMarch 23, 2017March 23, 2017News

Times of Israel

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro

Venezuela’s foreign minister expressed to his country’s chief rabbi “the desire to establish full relations with the State of Israel” eight years after the South American nation expelled its Israeli ambassador.

“We suggested to start with a period of courtship, which means a beginning through consular relations, so that later it will become a marriage, which would be Israel’s own embassy again in Venezuela, as we have always had here,” Venezuela’s Sephardic chief rabbi, Isaac Cohen, told AJN News.

hzMarch 23, 2017March 23, 2017News

Washington Post

US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman

The Senate on Thursday confirmed David M. Friedman to be the next ambassador to Israel, making him the first of President Trump’s selected foreign emissaries to take his post.

Friedman earned the support of only two Democrats in the 52-46 vote: Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). No Republicans opposed him.

Republican support for Friedman was a sure thing despite a rocky confirmation hearing last month, punctuated not only by protesters critical of his statements opposing a Palestinian state and supporting Jewish settlements in the West Bank, but also by Democratic senators concerned about the harsh rhetoric he has used to attack politicians whose Israel policy differs from his.

hzMarch 22, 2017March 22, 2017News

Reuters

Part of the Mobileye Driving Assist System

Intel’s $15.3 billion acquisition of Mobileye has catapulted Israeli hi-tech into the global league, and is likely to stimulate investment in the sector’s other late-stage startups, where funds are most needed.

Fundraising in late-stage startups – more mature firms that are already selling products rather than just the bright but unexploited ideas of entrepreneurs – has begun to increase. According to the Israel Venture Capital (IVC) Research Center, it rose to $2.9 billion in 2016 from $2.4 billion in 2015 as investors search for a higher yield on their investments.

Venture capitalists believe the U.S. semiconductor giant’s purchase last week of Mobileye, which specializes in technology for driverless cars, should accelerate the trend.

“A concern over the years has been that compared to the U.S., Israel cannot produce outsized returns,” said Adam Fisher, a partner who manages the Israel office for California-based venture capital fund Bessemer.

hzMarch 22, 2017News

Times of Israel

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot

The head of the army sought to downplay concerns over the threat of Hamas tunnels infiltrating Israel to Gaza Wednesday, while admitting for the first time that the military is destroying the subterranean passages with ground-penetrating bombs fired from afar.

Army chief Gadi Eisenkot told lawmakers that while the tunnel threat was important, the Jewish state was not at risk of being subsumed by Hamas fighters infiltrating from Gaza.

“The underground threat is most serious, and that is how we treat it. But I don’t think it’s right to define them as an existential or strategic threat, and intimidate ourselves,” he said.

hzMarch 21, 2017March 21, 2017News

Times of Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (2nd L)

Russia has not changed its policy on coordination with the Israeli air force in Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday, denying reports that Moscow had told Israel to end airstrikes in the war-torn country and vowing to continue attacking weapons convoys.

“It’s simply incorrect to say the Russians are changing their policy toward us,” he said.

The report on Russia changing its stance came after an Israeli airstrike on Friday to which Syria responded by firing anti-aircraft missiles at the departing Israeli warplanes. The Israeli strike reportedly nearly missed a Russian asset and Moscow summoned the Israeli envoy following the exchange.

hzMarch 21, 2017March 21, 2017News

Times of Israel

Muhammad Murtaja, 40, arrested by the Shin Bet for allegedly helping funnel money from Turkish charities to the Hamas terrorist group

The Shin Bet security service accused two Palestinian men of funneling Gaza reconstruction funds from Turkish charities to the Hamas terrorist group.

The manager of the Gaza branch of the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA), Muhammad Murtaja, was arrested last month on suspicion that he was working on behalf of Hamas, the Shin Bet announced on Tuesday.

Mehmet Kaya, the head of the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation, known by its acronym IHH, was also implicated in the Shin Bet investigation. However, Kaya has not yet been arrested.

hzMarch 20, 2017News

Algemeiner

A North Korean ballistic missile launch

North Korean exporting of missile and other military systems to countries and terrorist organizations around the world directly threatens the Jewish state, Israel’s Channel 2 reported on Monday.

According to Channel 2, Arab media outlets reported over the weekend that an arms shipment on its way to Hezbollah was attacked by the IDF in Syria late Thursday night/early Friday morning. The shipment, according to these sources, included advanced North Korean missiles. Channel 2 added that the nuclear reactor in Syria which Israel destroyed in September 2007, was built for President Bashar Assad with the aid of the regime in Pyongyang.

hzMarch 20, 2017March 20, 2017News

Times of Israel

A soldier training with the man-portable and hand-launched skylark mini UAV

An Israeli drone was downed in Syrian territory on Monday, the Israeli military said, confirming an earlier report in the Syrian and Lebanese media that the unmanned vehicle was shot down by Syrian aerial defense systems.

Syria said the drone, a Skylark, was downed over Quneitra in the Syrian Golan Heights. Lebanese terror group Hezbollah posted pictures of the downed drone on its social media pages.

The Israeli military said the circumstances of the incident were being checked, but that there were no immediate suspicions that classified data could be retrieved from the device.

hzMarch 20, 2017News

Reuters

An inactive version of Israel’s air defense system, David’s Sling

Israel’s multi-tier air defense missile system will be fully operational early next month with the deployment of the David’s Sling interceptor, a senior Israeli air force officer said on Monday.

David’s Sling, designed to shoot down rockets fired from 100 to 200 kilometers away, will be the final piece of a shield that already includes short-range Iron Dome and long-range Arrow-2 and Arrow-3 missiles.

“In the next two weeks we will declare operational the David’s Sling and at that time we will have completed our multi-tier (defense capability),” said the officer who could not be identified under military rules.

hzMarch 20, 2017News

JTA

A United Nations Security Council meeting at U.N. Headquarters in New York, Dec. 21, 2016

The Trump administration is boycotting a U.N. Human Rights Council session on Israel and “other occupied Arab territories,” citing the body’s bias against Israel.

A State Department statement said the United States “unequivocally” opposes the council’s agenda item for Monday titled “Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.”

“As an expression of our deeply-held conviction that this bias must be addressed in order for the Council to realize its legitimate purpose, the United States decided not to attend the Council’s Item Seven General Debate session,” the statement said. “It does not serve the interests of the Council to single out one country in an unbalanced matter. Later this week, the United States will vote against every resolution put forth under this agenda item and is encouraging other countries to do the same.”

The statement concluded by calling on U.N. member states “to pursue much-needed reforms in the UN Human Rights Council.”

Venezuela expresses ‘desire’ to reestablish relations with Israel

Senate confirms David Friedman as ambassador to Israel, with little Democratic support

Mobileye deal to fuel investment in late-stage Israeli start-ups

Saying tunnels not existential threat, IDF head admits hitting them from air

Netanyahu denies Russia told Israel to halt airstrikes in Syria

Shin Bet: Hamas stealing Gaza aid from Turkish charities

Report: Pyongyang Military Exports Directly Threaten Israel; Latest Arms Convoy to Hezbollah Struck by IDF in Syria Contained North Korean Missiles

Israeli drone shot down by Syria forces

Israel to declare air defense shield fully operational: officer

US boycotts UN Human Rights Council session on Israel