Israel claims control over split village

GHAJAR, Golan Heights - Israel's foreign minister on Wednesday visited an Arab village cut in half by an international border and insisted it will remain under Israeli control.

A border drawn by the U.N. in 2000 splits the village of Ghajar between Lebanon and the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed. There is no fence through the town and it is effectively controlled by Israel despite the murky legal situation.

Talking to reporters at the sensitive village, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman ruled out handing it over. "There is no arrangement here. All of Ghajar is under Israeli sovereignty," he said. "Therefore there will be no concessions here, not to Lebanon and not to Syria."

He noted that Ghajar's residents have taken Israeli citizenship, unlike most other residents of the Golan Heights.

Lebanese media have reported that the U.N. has suggested posting its south Lebanon peace force, UNIFIL, in the village along with one Lebanese soldier to symbolize sovereignty. Lieberman acknowledged that there were suggestions from the U.N. without providing details.Readmore

Israel confirms second swine flu death

::By Haaretz:: A 24-year-old woman who died in a Nahariya hospital Saturday night had been ill with swine flu, the Health Ministry confirmed Sunday.

The woman, identified as Jihan Musa of the western Galilee village of Tarshiha, was the second Israeli confirmed to have died after contracting the virus.

The hospital's manager, Massad Barhum, told Haaretz that the woman had arrived at the hospital on the weekend after receiving treatment at an emergency room for a serious inflammation of the lungs.

Barhum said she was placed in intensive care but died Saturday night.

Last week the first swine flu death in Israel was recorded when Eilat resident Shimon Azran, 35, died at the city's Yoseftal Medical Center.

A 44-year-old Tel Aviv man who had been hospitalized with swine flu at Ichilov Hospital and then recovered, died Friday night of complications from a bacterial infection.Readmore

UN says Israel, Hezbollah want to keep truce

BEIRUT - Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah want to maintain the truce that ended a devastating 2006 war despite a series of incidents that have raised tensions along the border, a U.N. envoy said Friday.

Michael Williams, the U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon, also said he was confident that the U.N. Security Council would renew the mandate of peacekeepers when it expires next month.

"There is not a shadow of doubt," Williams said, following discussions with officials in Israel and Lebanon, as well as representatives of Hezbollah, that the parties are interested in renewing the mandate of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon.

"The fact that we have had difficulties and real challenges underlines the imperative of the renewal of that mandate and I am confident that the Security Council will do so," he told The Associated Press in an interview.

UNIFIL has called the July 14 explosions at the Hezbollah arms depot near the border a "serious violation" of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 that ended a monthlong war three years ago in which 1,200 were killed on the Lebanese side and about 160 in Israel.Readmore

Israeli official: US should honor past deals

By Josef Federman, Writer

Israel deputy prime minister said Tuesday the Obama administration's call to freeze West Bank settlement construction undermines past agreements between the U.S. and Israel and damages American credibility.

The comments by Dan Meridor underscored the growing rift between Israel and the U.S. over construction in the settlements. Meridor, a respected veteran of Israeli politics, is considered a moderate voice in the new Israeli government.President Barack Obama has urged Israel to halt all settlement construction as a confidence-building move to restart stalled peace negotiations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he would not build any new settlements, but that construction must be permitted inside existing settlements to accommodate what he calls "natural growth" in their populations. Nearly 500,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem - areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and claimed by the Palestinians as part of a future independent state.Readmore

The Temple Will Never be Rebuilt', Islamist Movement Says

(By Israelnn)The deputy chief of the Islamist movement in Israel Kimal Al-Khatib told thousands of children in a Saturday Islamist protest on the Temple Mount that the Jewish Temple will never be rebuilt. His speech was published in the Jerusalem-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper Monday morning.

"If the Jews think that their mourning will end and they will rejoice by destroying the Al-Aqsa mosque and building their Temple, we say to them that their dream will not be fulfilled and they will continue to mourn. Al-Aqsa is for Muslims only," he said.

Al-Khatib was referring to the traditional period of mourning Jews commemorate every summer for the destruction of the Holy Temples on Tisha B'Av (The ninth of the Hebrew month of Av). The Second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans, while the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque were erected in 691 and 705 CE.

The Head of the Islamist movement in Jerusalem, Icharma Savri, also spoke to the assembled children. He previously served as the Chief Mufti of the Palestinian Authority.Readmore

Jewish athletes converge on Israel for Maccabiah

RAMAT GAN, Israel - Thousands of athletes paraded through a packed Israeli stadium Monday at the opening ceremony of the 18th Maccabiah Games, known as the Jewish Olympics, which bring together Jewish sportsmen from around the world.

Organizers say these games are the largest ever, with 5,300 international athletes taking part alongside some 2,000 from Israel.

The United States had the second-largest delegation, with over 900 athletes.

"It's interesting to see so many people from different places coming together on one spot as a community," said Josh Winters, 22, of Burbank, California, a player on the U.S. fast-pitch softball team.

His father, Dan Winters, 46, also a softball player, was back for the games after first participating in 1993. "I always said that if I could share this experience with my family I would, and now I can," he said.

The Olympic-style ceremony saw the delegations march into the stadium behind their national flags. The festivities included hundreds of flamboyantly costumed dancers, singers, drummers and riders on lit-up bicycles. They also featured a children's chorus, an orchestra and some of Israel's top pop acts.Readmore

Police, ultra-Orthodox Jews scuffle in Jerusalem

Ultra-Orthodox Jews threw themselves under the wheels of an idling bus and in front of waiting cars to protest the opening of a parking lot on the Jewish Sabbath - an act they consider an abomination.

The municipality opened the lot on Saturdays last month to limit illegal parking in the city's ancient walled quarter. That enraged the ultra-Orthodox community and has provoked several straight weeks of protests because driving is a violation of the Sabbath under Jewish law.

Tensions between Jerusalem's religious and secular communities have been simmering for years as the ultra-Orthodox community has grown in size and influence. Secular residents say the religious are trying to impose their beliefs on Jerusalem, and the atmosphere is one reason thousands of secular Jerusalemites leave the city each year.

On Saturday, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox demonstrators flooded an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood near the parking lot, screaming "Shabbes," the Yiddish word for Sabbath, and occasionally lobbing rocks at police. Officers, some in riot gear, shoved them back as they tried to break through a security cordon.Readmore

Global Warming Effects in India Hit Jordan and Israel's Dead Sea Potash

:: Green Prophet ::A recent article in Israel's Globes financial newspaper, explores how Israel's valuable exports of Dead Sea mined potash to India will be reduced this year due to the weakest monsoon season in India in five years.

The article Weak Monsoon Dries up Israel Chemicals Ltd (ICL) Potash Exports may result in a reduction of Israeli potash exports to India by nearly 12% as compared to the amount shipped in 2008. And it could save the depleting face of the Dead Sea, heavily mined for this resource used in the fertilizer business.

At an amount of 2.42 million tons of the salt and potassium based chemicals, at a price of $460 US per ton, the prices that Israel and Jordan are seeing is a 26% drop from 2008.

China, another big potash producer, has also seen a reduction in its exports of the chemicals, and plans to reduce its prices to between $400 - 450 US per ton.Readmore

Israeli foreign minister suggests consul resign

JERUSALEM - Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman suggested Monday that a diplomat who warned that government policy was causing a dangerous rift in Israel-U.S. ties should resign.

Israel's consul-general in Boston, Nadav Tamir, wrote in an internal memo leaked last week that Israel's public clashes with Washington over the U.S. demand for a settlement freeze were causing "strategic damage to Israel."

"If someone is not happy and can't live with government policy, the way is not to criticize and leak but to resign," Lieberman told a meeting of Foreign Ministry officials. "With all due respect to the consul ... it is not his job to express political positions."

President Barack Obama has demanded a total halt to building in Israel's settlements in the West Bank. Israel has publicly rebuffed the demand, leading to the worst public clash between the two allies in nearly two decades.

The U.S. is Israel's most important backer, traditionally providing it with political support and large amounts of foreign aid.Readmore

Homeless Holocaust survivor leaves $100,000 gift

JERUSALEM - Hebrew University has received a surprise donation of more than $100,000 from an unexpected benefactor - a woman who survived the Nazi Holocaust and appeared to be destitute, a university official said Sunday.

Upon her death two years ago, a homeless Holocaust survivor living on the streets of New York City willed the gift to the university. The Jewish woman lived out of a shopping cart in Manhattan and had no known relatives, said Yefet Ozery, Hebrew University's director of development and public relations.

"She lived as a very poor woman. And when she died at the age of 92, it was discovered she had accumulated close to $300,000," Ozery said.

The university first learned about the gift three months ago but did not receive the money until this week. It will be used to fund scholarships for medical research students, according to the woman's wishes, Ozery said, refusing to disclose her name. The story was first reported by The Jerusalem Post daily.Readmore