Israel Articles - News from Israel and Middle East

The Israeli film Ajami was selected as one of the five nominees for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. This is the third year in a row that Israel has received an Oscar nomination in this category, and Israel's ninth nomination overall. Ajami, a drama about crime in the city of Jaffa, adjacent to Tel Aviv, was directed by Scandar Copti, an Israeli-Arab Christian, and Yaron Shani, an Israeli Jew.

"Nobody wants peace more than the people of Israel, the Israeli government and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu," Nir Hefetz, Netanyahu's media adviser, told Israel Radio on Monday morning. Continue

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Israel's first international conference on preparedness and response of health care systems to disasters and emergencies will convene in Tel-Aviv on 11-14 January 2010.

The IPRED conference, the first international conference for emergency preparedness and response, opens today, Monday, January 11, 2010, at the Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv. Opening speeches will include the head of the Home Front Command, Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, the Director General, Ministry of Health, Dr. Eitan Chai-Am and the Mayor of the city of Tel-Aviv-Jaffa, Mr. Ron Huldai.

The conference is a joint initiative of the Israeli Ministry of Health and the IDF Home Front Command. These organizations work in close collaboration to assure effective preparedness and response of the health care system to mass casualty events and all other events that may impact the public health.

The IPRED conference will provide the participants with a unique opportunity for sharing knowledge, skills and experiences in emergency management, while networking with leaders of emergency preparedness from many parts of the world. It will enable the world's disaster and emergency experts and researchers together to review and assess best practices and state of the art preparedness to emergencies.

The first two days of the conference will be devoted to the presentation of the various aspects of handling emergency scenarios and will include workshops, presentations, round-table discussions and hands-on experiences based on advanced training tools. Hundreds of senior officials from Israel and abroad will take part in the conference, including leading guest speakers in the field such as:

* Mr. Arjun Katoch, India - Chief, Field Coordination Support Section of OCHA Emergency Services Branch and responsible for managing the United Nations Disaster Assesment and Coordination team (UNDAC). Mr. Katoch, charged with coordinating initial aid to disaster struck areas, participated and aided over 140 emergency and disaster events worldwide.
* Dr. Kristi Koenig, USA - An internationally recognized expert in the fields of homeland security, emergency management and emergency medical support.
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The main goal of the operation was achieved: restoring security and a normal fabric of life to southern Israel.

In 2008, 1750 rockets and 1528 mortar bombs were fired from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip against communities in southern Israel. In addition, during the three weeks of the operation, Hamas launched another 571 rockets and 205 mortar bombs at Israel. Yet, in the year since the operation, only 127 rockets and 70 mortar shells have been fired into Israel. This dramatic decrease in the number of missiles hitting the south is positive proof of the operation's success.

Background: In November and December of 2008, the calm agreement that had been in effect since June 2008 began to deteriorate. By December 26, the number of rocket and mortar bomb attacks against communities in southern Israel had reached almost 3000. As then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a statement to the press, life in the south had become unbearable.

On 27 December 2008, Israel launched an attack against the Hamas terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

In his statement, PM Olmert clarified the operation's goals : "The operation in the Gaza Strip is designed, first and foremost, to bring about an improvement in the security reality for the residents of the south of the country. …I made it clear to the residents of Gaza that we are not acting against them and that we have no intention of punishing them for the actions of Hamas. We will see to the needs of the population in Gaza and will do our utmost to prevent a humanitarian crisis that will impinge upon residents' lives" (PM Olmert 27 Dec. 2008).

Since the end of the IDF operation in Gaza (18 Jan 2009), 668,393 tons of aid and 100,645,680 liters of fuel have been delivered to the Gaza Strip.

Some 2009 statistics: Humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip has increased by close to 900 percent in 2009 compared to the previous year (Col. Moshe Levi, head of the IDF's Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration, Nov. 16, 2009).

Since the beginning of 2009, the IDF has allowed over 4,000 Palestinians from Gaza, together with 3,600 escorts, to enter Israel (or via Israel to the West Bank) for medical treatment.The IDF has also issued over 18,500 permits for Palestinians to leave Gaza and enter Israel or travel overseas (statistics as of November 16, 2009).

Based on its rich experience in developing cutting-edge technologies in such fields as water management, recycling and reuse of treated wastewater, desert agriculture and afforestation, the challenges presented by climate change may well serve as a lever to position Israel as a regional and global center of knowledge on adaptation to climate change. Dr. Yeshayahu Bar-Or, Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, strongly believes that "in about 20 years, Europe will experience some of the conditions that Israel faces today. Therefore, Israel has a great deal to offer to the international community in terms of technologies for effluent irrigation, combating desertification, agriculture and forestation in desert conditions and salinity reduction."

Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is an especially difficult challenge in Israel, a country undergoing economic growth against a backdrop of continuous increases in both population and energy consumption. Yet Israel is determined to address the difficulties. Current efforts are concentrating on assessing greenhouse gas emissions under different scenarios while identifying the steps necessary to reduce these emissions in an economically viable manner. Among the measures which have already been proposed are energy savings, both in buildings and in street lighting, by means of energy efficient light bulbs. Also on the agenda are energy conservation, energy efficiency in power plants, industrial plants and residential buildings, clean public transport and more.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection is advancing an integrated policy aimed at reducing both greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollutants. Two parallel developments are helping to meet these objectives: the accession process to the OECD, which is already catalyzing Israel to adopt environmental policies and meet environmental standards that are effective and economically efficient.

The emphasis of Israel's climate change mitigation plan and adaptation plan will be on reducing economic, social and ecological damages, on the one hand, and exploiting opportunities by developing innovative technologies and exporting expertise, on the other hand. After 2012, Israel may well be subject to formal commitments for greenhouse gas reductions, but hopefully, it will also have much to contribute to the world community in terms of technology to meet the challenges of climate change.
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Israel's foreign policy is a foreign policy which has to be managed during a very complex and severe conflict.

Address by Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon:
"Challenges for Israeli Foreign Policy"
Israel Council on Foreign Relations
Jerusalem, January 6, 2010

Shalom and good evening. We just concluded a meeting with the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Ms. Jane Holl Lute, of the United States. And in light of the near miss on the 25th of December, of the attack on Delta, it is very, very important for us to reinvigorate and actually to intensify the longstanding cooperation that we have on aviation security. But the challenge is really to be ahead of the curve, because aviation security, of course, has many faces. But we also have to look into the possibility of cyberterrorism, of infrastructure defense, and many, many other things, because evidently we are facing a very determined enemy, which is also unfortunately very able and innovative and is attacking us (when I say "us" I mean the entire civilization that we are all members of) on a very wide front. This just exemplifies, once again, the very deep and broad cooperation that we have with the United States, and we will continue on that issue as well.

I saw that the headline is "Challenges for Israeli Foreign Policy," and we have to understand that Israeli foreign policy is in a very unique position. It's a foreign policy which is under attack (meaning, by the way, that it is attacked internally and from outside), but also a foreign policy which has to be managed during a conflict, a very, very complex and severe conflict.

If we look at the battles we've had since the reestablishment of the State of Israel (and I always say "the reestablishment" because we were here many years ago, but nobody counts that), since then, they won. There were different tactics that were used by our enemies in order to bring us down, in order to vanquish us, in order to get rid of us, in order to defeat us, whatever term you want to use. The first one was a military tactic; and fast-forwarding, this, of course, did not succeed. And today, very, very skillfully, but also very fortunately, we have managed to build a defense with which we can defend ourselves, by ourselves, in a very credible way. And deterrence, of course, is the main element here on the defense, to assure our national security, our individual security and our very existence here.
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The consistent rejection by Palestinians of Israeli peace initiatives and its current refusal to negotiate leaves Israel questioning whether its neighbors are in fact committed to peace.

A commitment to peace has been a central goal of every Israeli government. While Israeli efforts aimed at attaining peace have resulted in the conclusion of peace treaties with both Egypt and Jordan, Israel's endeavors to achieve an equitable negotiated peace agreement with its Palestinian neighbors have been repeatedly rebuffed by the Palestinian leadership.

The most recent example of this enigmatic pattern of Palestinian behavior is the refusal by the Palestinians to even renew peace negotiations with the new Israeli government since the Israeli elections in early 2009.

The consistent rejection by Palestinians of Israeli peace initiatives and its current refusal to negotiate leaves Israel questioning whether its neighbors are in fact committed to peace.

Peace initiatives of the new Israeli government
(April 2009 - the present)

Since its inauguration in April 2009, the present Israeli Government has sought ways to re-engage the leadership of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in peace negotiations, which were unilaterally suspended by the Palestinians following Israeli elections.
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How can peace be achieved?
• What are the five principles for peace?
• How have the Palestinians responded to Israeli offers of peace?
• How has the Hamas takeover of Gaza affected the chances for peace?
• Could a Hamas-Fatah unity government be a partner for peace?
• How does Palestinian incitement harm peace?

Recognition
• Why should Israel be recognized as the Jewish nation-state?
• What is Israel's position regarding the creation of a Palestinian state?

Economics
• What has Israel done to improve the West Bank economy?

Settlements
• Is the West Bank "occupied" or "disputed" territory?
• Is Israel required to withdraw to the 1967 boundaries?
• Do Israeli settlements constitute an "obstacle to peace"?
• Do the settlements violate Israeli-Palestinian agreements or international law?
• Does the Palestinian demand for a total and permanent freeze on all settlement activity justify their refusal to negotiate?

Jerusalem
• What is the status of Jerusalem?

Refugees
• Do Palestinian refugees have a justifiable "right of return"?

One-state solution
• Would a one-state solution be an equitable settlement?

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Despite Israel's efforts to encourage the Palestinian Authority leadership to return to the peace talks, the PA continues to boycott negotiations and to incite against Israel and praise terrorists.

Despite Israel's numerous efforts to encourage the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership to return to the peace talks, the PA continues to boycott negotiations and to incite against Israel and praise terrorists.

Among the incidents that indicate an upsurge in incitement in the past month, are the official sponsorship of the naming of a Ramallah square after a terrorist who slaughtered 37 Israelis and the glorification of the murderers of the late Rabbi Meir Avshalom Chai, killed on 24 December 2009 in a drive-by shooting.

This incitement is occurring despite the fact that the current Israeli government, like previous governments, has made great efforts to advance peace. Time after time, it has declared its commitment to peace and its willingness to make the necessary compromises to reach that goal. It has also undertaken numerous acts, such as a moratorium on settlement housing construction, that tangibly demonstrate its commitment to negotiations while improving the lives of Palestinians living under the control of the Palestinian Authority. Additionally, like all Israeli governments, it invests a great deal of effort into educating for peace. Continue