Report: Israeli ‘spy vulture’ caught in Lebanon
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A vulture that was recently released from the Gamla wildlife preserve in northern Israel has been caught in southern Lebanon and is being held on suspicion of spying for Israel.
A local news website in Lebanon published a photograph of the vulture, bound by rope to prevent its escape, likely because of the transmitter attached to its leg.
“We expect them to understand that wild animals are not a threat,” said Ohad Hatzofeh, an avian ecologist with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA), “and we hope the Lebanese release the vulture.”
Allegations of animals spying for Israel are not uncommon in the region.
In 2013, an Israeli “spy eagle” was caught in Lebanon. According to one Lebanese news site at the time, local hunters who caught the eagle alerted authorities after discovering an ID ring attached to its leg with the words “Israel’ and “Tel Aviv University” printed on it.
Hezbollah claimed that the eagle was one of many birds sent by Israel to spy and gather information via GPS transmitters across the Middle East. The report pointed to the “arrest of birds carrying similar devices” in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and most recently in Egypt.
The INPA said the bird was born in a breeding and re-acclimation center in southern Israel, and had been released into the wild some two years prior.
In August 2015, Hamas claimed to have captured an Israeli spy dolphin, said to have been equipped with “spying equipment,” including cameras,Army Radio reported. It was captured off the Gaza coast by a Hamas naval unit, the radio report said.
In 2012, an eagle with an Israeli tag was captured in Sudan and accused of being a Mossad spy. In 2010, an Egyptian official said Israel-controlled sharks could be involved in a number of attacks on tourists in the Red Sea.
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Israel Hayom remains Israel’s widest-read daily newspaper, report says
(JNS.org) Israel Hayom continues to be the widest-read daily newspaper in Israel, according to the latest Target Group Index (TGI) report reviewing media consumption in the Jewish state in 2015.
According to the report, published Wednesday, Israel Hayom’s exposure rate on an average weekday was 39.5 percent in 2015—up from 39.3 percent in 2014.
The report noted that Israel Hayom held a statistically significant lead over its closest competitor, Yedioth Ahronoth, which had a 35.4 percent exposure rate on an average weekday in 2015.
Israel Hayom CEO Tzipi Koren said, “We are deeply grateful to our readers, who have made us the top newspaper in Israel for the past five years already. Their unwavering loyalty is a strong tailwind that pushes us forward and gives us fortitude and inspiration.”
The TGI report reviews media consumption among Jewish Israelis ages 18 and older, representing a population of 4.2 million people, on an annual and semi-annual basis. The report is based on a survey conducted by Kantar Media TGI Research and is supervised by the Israeli Advertising Association.
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Israeli victim of stabbing attack Shlomit Krigman laid to rest in Jerusalem
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Shlomit Krigman, the 30th victim to be killed during the current wave of Palestinian terror in Israel, was laid to rest Tuesday at Jerusalem’s Har Hamenuchot cemetery beside the grave the Dafna Meir, an Israeli mother of six who was the terror wave’s 29th victim.
Krigman, killed just before turning 24, was critically wounded on Monday in a Palestinian stabbing attack in Beit Horon on her way to visit her grandparents. She was evacuated to Hadassah Medical Center on Mount Scopus, where doctors battled through the night to save her, but succumbed to her wounds early Tuesday morning. Hours later, hundreds of people accompanied her on her last journey.
Krigman was born on Moshav Shadmot Mehola in the Jordan Valley and in recent years had been living with her grandparents, Ilana and Moshe Krigman, in Beit Horon. Krigman completed two years of national service, the second of which she spent in a communal house with other graduates of the Bnei Akiva youth movement. She completed her bachelor’s degree in industrial design at Ariel University of Samaria and was most recently employed at a bookstore in Jerusalem.
“She was very creative and an amazing girl,” her close friend Einat Dermer said. “We grew up together and Shlomit was always happy and full of life. A really beautiful person, both inside and out. She had a lot of love for everything around her, for her family, for her boyfriend, Noam. She had modesty and a constant desire to improve. Everything she did was always came from a desire to add light and goodness. That was what was so beautiful about her.”
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Israeli defense minister challenges Turkey to stop buying Islamic State oil
(JNS.org) Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon accused Turkey of supporting the Islamic State terror group by purchasing its oil.
“As you know, Daesh (Islamic State) enjoyed Turkish money for oil for a very, very long period of time. I hope that it will be ended,” Ya’alon said during a meeting with Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos in Athens.
Turkey and Israel, whose diplomatic ties deteriorated in 2010 following the Mavi Marmara flotilla incident, have reportedly been close to normalizing relations in recent months.
Ya’alon also accused Turkey of “permitting jihadists to move from Europe to Syria and Iraq and back, as part of Daesh’s terrorist network, and I hope this will stop too.”
“It’s up to Turkey, the Turkish government, the Turkish leadership, to decide whether they want to be part of any kind of cooperation to fight terrorism. This is not the case so far,” Ya’alon said.
The defense minister’s comments come amid a flurry of diplomatic activity between Israel, Greece, and Cyprus this week. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and 10 Greek government ministers are scheduled to travel to Jerusalem and meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday.
Following their meeting in Jerusalem, Netanyahu and Tsipras will head to Cyprus to hold a tripartite summit with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades. The three leaders will discuss eastern Mediterranean energy and security issues, such as the vast oil and gas fields in the region as well as the outlook in Turkey and Syria.
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Israel hit with massive cyberattack targeting electrical grid
(JNS.org) Israel was hit with a massive cyberattack that targeted the country’s electrical grid over the past few days, Israeli Minister of Infrastructure, Energy and Water Yuval Steinitz revealed.
“Yesterday we identified one of the largest cyberattacks that we have experienced,” Steinitz said Tuesday during the CyberTech 2016 conference at the Tel Aviv Trade Fair and Convention Center, theJerusalem Post reported.
Steinitz said the computer virus was neutralized by his ministry and by Israel’s National Cyber Bureau.
The attack came amid record-breaking energy usage as Israelis weathered a recent cold snap, in addition to snow, sleet, and rain. Israel’s Electric Corporation reported a demand of 12,610 megawatts on Tuesday as temperatures dipped below freezing.
“I can tell you that the virus was identified and software was activated to neutralize it,” Steinitz said.
“This is a fresh example of what we need to be prepared to face at any time,” he added.
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CAMERA media watchdog prompts lengthy NY Times editor’s note on Israel
(JNS.org) The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) media watchdog group prompted an extensive New York Times editor’s note on Tuesday over the newspaper’s reporting on Palestinian home evictions in Jerusalem.
CAMERA had criticized a Jan. 14 article by reporter Diaa Hadid headlined “Evictions in Walled Old City Stir Up a ‘Hornet’s Nest,’”which detailed the legal dispute surrounding the eviction of the Maswadi, Hashimeh, and Sub Laban families in the Old City of Jerusalem, for only including interviews with the tenants themselves.
In an editor’s note published Tuesday and amended to the original article, the New York Times said the article “gave an incomplete description of the legal disputes in several cases.”
“The descriptions were based on the tenants’ accounts; the article should have included additional information from court documents or from the landlords,” the note said.
According to the editor’s note, in two of the evictions, the Maswadi and Hashimeh cases, court documents suggested that the tenants had not paid their rent, while in the other case, of Nora Sub Laban, the resident had not continuously lived in the apartment.
“While the reporter tried to reach representatives of the landlord in the Sub Laban case, The Times should also have tried to reach the landlords involved in the other cases and their lawyers,” the newspaper admitted.
“CAMERA commends Times editors for the comprehensive editor’s note which sets the record straight,” the media watchdog said in statement.
According to CAMERA, Hadid has a history of anti-Israel bias. She previously worked for Ittijah, an anti-Israel NGO.
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Pope Francis hosts Iranian President Rouhani, Vatican notes ‘common’ values
(JNS.org) Amid Israel’s ongoing concern about the White House-brokered Iran nuclear deal, Pope Francis on Tuesday hosted Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the Vatican to discuss possible solutions to the Middle East crisis.
After the leaders’ private 40-minute meeting, the Vatican issued a statement regarding the “relevant role Iran is called on to play” in combating terrorism and arms trafficking in the Middle East. The Vatican said that “common spiritual values” between Pope Francis and Rouhani emerged from the meeting.
Rouhani is leading an Iranian delegation on a four-day trip to Italy and France in hopes of reaffirming the Islamic Republic’s economic ties with Western nations. In Rome, top Iranian officials met with more than 100 Italian business executives from infrastructure companies, who agreed to billions of dollars worth of deals with Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Rouhani’s visit, which marks the first meeting between a pope and an Iranian president since 1999, comes shortly after the recent implementation of last summer’s nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. The nuclear deal includes about $150 billion in sanctions relief for Iran, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry recently admitted that some of that relief will likely fund terrorism. Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terror, including its funding of Hamas and Hezbollah, two groups sworn to Israel’s destruction.
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Sony announces it will buy Israel’s Altair Semiconductor for $212 million
(JNS.org) The Japanese electronics giant Sony announced Tuesday that it will acquire the Israeli company Altair Semiconductor for $212 million, with the deal closing in early February.
“Altair, an Israel-based company, owns modem chip technology and related software for LTE (Long Term Evolution), a 4G cellular standard for mobile devices. Altair develops and sells products focused on LTE technology, and its modem chips stand out for their low power consumption, high performance, and competitive cost,” Sony said, adding that it plans to use the acquisition to develop a “new breed of cellular-connected, sensing component devices.”
Altair was founded by former Texas Instruments executives CEO Oded Melamed, CTO Yigal Bitran, and VP of Marketing Eran Eshed.
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Israel’s 620-mile national trail now available on Google Street View
(JNS.org) The Israel National Trail is now the longest trail—620 miles—available for anyone in the world to see on Google’s Street View feature.
It took about 250 volunteers from the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and Google Israel three months to capture images, using 360-degree cameras, of the trail’s route from Kibbutz Dan, one of Israel’s northernmost points, to the southern tip of Eilat’s Gulf of Aqaba.
“After intensive work, we are happy that the Israel National Trail now joins world-renowned heritage and natural sites such as the Loch Ness, Petra, and Machu Picchu on Google Maps. We hope many more people in Israel and around the world will be exposed to the beauty of the Israel National Trail and the unique story of the country,” Google Israel CEO Meir Brand said.
National Geographic has named the Israel National Trail one of the 20 most beautiful hikes in the world.
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