Dutch firm severs ties with Mekorot over West Bank policy. Drinking water helps stave off dehydration.
Photo: REUTERS Vitens, the Netherland's largest drinking water supplier, decided Tuesday it will not do something both the Palestinians and Jordanians made abundantly clear the day before they are willing to do: work with Mekorot, Israel's national water corporation. Vitens explained its decision by saying that it had to do with Israel's alleged violations of international law. The firm said that it places great emphasis on moral standards and abiding by international rules, and as a result could not continue cooperative projects with its Israeli counterpart. Palumboliu : #ASA Resolution PASSES! 66... Professor of Comparative Literature, Stanford University. Biggest Dutch water board pulls out of Israeli deal, citing international law.
Biggest Dutch water board pulls out of Israeli deal, citing international law Wednesday 11 December 2013 Israel has described the decision by Dutch water authority Vitens to pull out of a deal with Israeli firm Mekorot as ‘absurd’, Nos television said on Wednesday.
Vitens signed the alliance with Mekorot two months ago but said on Tuesday it is pulling out of the deal. The company said in a statement it now concluded that the issue is politically sensitive. The hypocrisy of a black Miss Israel. Miss Israel 2013 is crowned, Yityish Aynaw.
In February, 21-year-old Yityish Aynaw became the first black Miss Israel. Born in Ethiopia, Aynaw was orphaned at the age of 12 and her maternal grandparents, already settled in Israel, sent for her and her younger brother. The rest, as they say, is history. Or it would be, if Israel wasn't still grappling with its own history of discrimination against black Ethiopian Jews since the first planeload were flown into Israel more than three decades ago. UN rings in 'The Year Of Palestine' by passing six resolutions condemning Israel. NEW YORK – The UN General Assembly passed six more resolutions concerning Israel on Monday, including one that called for Israel to return the Golan Heights to Syria.
Of the six resolutions one said Israel should cease imposing its jurisdiction on Jerusalem and another one, labeled 68/L.12, declared 2014 the “International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.” This resolution calls on the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People to “organize activities to be held during the year.” UN Watch president Hillel Neuer said in a statement that these resolutions and actions by the UN will do nothing to help either the Palestinians or the Israelis on the ground. “We’re concerned about a new year that will bring escalated politicization of influential UN agencies worldwide, doing nothing to help Palestinians or Israelis on the ground, while inflicting yet further damage to the world body’s effectiveness and credibility,” Neuer said.
Death of musical icon brings Israel to standstill. JERUSALEM (AP) — The sudden death of legendary Israeli singer-songwriter Arik Einstein brought the country to a virtual standstill Wednesday, with radio and TV stations airing nonstop retrospectives and throngs flocking to his grave to pay tribute to the father of Israeli rock.
For many, Einstein epitomized the soul of the country, representing a happier vision of Israel than the country that today is beset by divisions between rich and poor, Arab and Jew, religious and secular. Einstein, who died of an aortic aneurysm Tuesday at 74, also was hailed as the antithesis of modern celebrities in Israel and elsewhere — an unpretentious man who lived for decades in the same small apartment in Tel Aviv, resisting big-money offers of every kind. Although he was hardly known outside Israel, he was almost universally admired inside the country — a rare thing in a land with deep cultural divisions and antipathies, even among Jews. "Every country has one. The French had Yves Montand. In diplomatic realm, Israel struggles to win friends and influence people. Criticized for settling occupied land and stung by its failure to shape the new world power deal with Iran, Israel must rethink its strategy if it wants to avoid severe diplomatic setbacks in the coming months.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's fury about the Iranian nuclear accord has exposed Israel's limited reach on the international stage and has coincided with growing frustration abroad over its flailing peace talks with the Palestinians. Traditionally the closest of friends, Israel and the United States now stare at each other with barely concealed mistrust. Some of Netanyahu's allies suggest it is time for Israel to build up relations in other regions, such as Asia, to make sure that all its diplomatic eggs are not in one, American, basket. That might prove a valid long-term plan, but it will not help Israel win its short-term goal of getting Western partners to wring many more concessions from Iran in the next, decisive round of negotiations over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Israel Dreams Of A Future As An Oil Producer : Parallels. Hide captionGivot Olam CEO Tovia Luskin expects to drill 40 wells and build a pipeline to a refinery on the coast.
The company already has "proven and probable" reserves of 12.5 million barrels of oil. Luskin chose where to drill based on a passage from the Bible. Emily Harris/ NPR Givot Olam CEO Tovia Luskin expects to drill 40 wells and build a pipeline to a refinery on the coast. The company already has "proven and probable" reserves of 12.5 million barrels of oil. There's an old joke that if Moses had turned right when he led Jewish tribes out of Egypt, Israel might be where Saudi Arabia is today — and be rich from oil. "Israel has more oil than Saudi Arabia," he claims.
Analysis: Israel struggling to win friends, influence people. Meet the New Miss Israel. ReThink Israel. ReThink Israel.