Israeli energy minister courting top foreign energy firms
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israel is courting foreign investors ahead of a planned natural gas and oil explorations tender the Energy Ministry plans to issue in November, Israel Hayom learned Wednesday.
Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz is currently visiting London, meeting with dozens of energy and financial services companies ahead of the tender. He is scheduled to continue on to Singapore next, for a series of similar meetings.
The ministry has mapped out a series of future exploration sites, which Steinitz is presenting to potential investors. The presentations also outline projected and expected timetables, competition and regulation guidelines, market reviews, and projected revenue for future gas and oil exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Steinitz’s presentations have reportedly garnered great interest, including from the international financial media. The energy minister has been able to snag the attention of dozens of the world’s top energy firms, such as Woodside Petroleum, the Edison Energy Group, Santos, and the Indian Oil Corporation, to name a few.
“We have embarked on a dialogue with neighboring countries, and after years of delays and putting a uniform regulatory framework in place, things are moving forward,” Steinitz said. “Israel is poised to become a key player in the regional gas industry.”
The tender is expected to be finalized by the end of March 2017.
*
Second Temple flooring restored from Temple Mount
(JNS.org) For the first time, 2,000-year-old flooring from King Herod’s Second Temple courtyard in Jerusalem has been restored by archaeologists.
Elaborately decorated floor tiles were discovered by the Temple Mount Sifting Project team while combing through tons of earth illegally removed in 1999 from the Temple Mount by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, which manages Muslim buildings on the site.
The Temple Mount, site of the two former ancient Jewish temples, has long played a key role in Jewish affairs and worship.
“It enables us to get an idea of the Temple’s incredible splendor,” said Dr. Gabriel Barkay, co-founder and director of the Temple Mount Sifting Project, in a prepared statement.
The tile patterns were restored by Frankie Snyder, a member of the Temple Mount Sifting Project by using mathematical skills in geometry and finding similarities in tile design used by King Herod.
So far, seven different tile designs of the flooring have been successfully restored.
“Though we have not merited seeing the Temple in its glory, with the discovery and restoration of these unique floor tiles, we are now able to have a deeper understanding and appreciation for the Second Temple, even through this one distinctive characteristic,” Barkay said.
*
Czech Republic keeps Jerusalem on the map in textbooks
(JNS.org) The Czech Education Ministry reversed its decision requiring the company that prints atlases for the country’s schools to stop naming Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Education Minister Katerina Valachova told Czech Radio on Tuesday, the Prague Daily Monitor reported.
“Jerusalem is Israel’s capital from the viewpoint of the declaration of the country to which this relates, which means Israel,” Valachova said. “If there is a sentence relating to all of the international steps, I believe that this fact will not offend either side.”
Palestinian Ambassador to Prague Khaled Alattrash convinced the government to force textbook publisher Shocart to rewrite all books listing Jerusalem as the capital or risk losing certification.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat wrote to Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka on Sept. 4 urging him to rescind the decision.
“Jerusalem is on the map!” Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat responded to the decision.
Barkat said he’s thankful to the Czech government for its decision and “for refusing to surrender to Palestinian incitement and lies. I am pleased that my letter to Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and the additional diplomatic efforts have positively impacted this decision.”
*
Palestinian Authority’s Abbas was a KGB agent, report says
(JNS.org) Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was allegedly a KGB agent in Syria in the 1980s, the Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday on a Channel 1 news broadcast.
A 1983 document from the archive of former Russian defector and KGB operative Vasil Mitrokhin included a list of sources and agents who worked in Damascus, including a note revealing Abbas’ Russian code name “Krotov [mole].”
The list was provided to Channel 1 by Israeli researchers Isabella Ginor and Gideon Remez from Hebrew University’s Truman Institute. The researchers obtained the archive, released last year, after requesting the entire file from Cambridge University.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special Mideast envoy, Mikhail Bogdanov, was the Soviet Union’s ambassador in Damascus in 1983. Bogdanov has been advocating this week for a meeting between Abbas and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Moscow.
It’s unclear what the nature of Abbas’s work was as an operative and whether he was an agent before or after 1983.
*
Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman. Comments intended for publication in the space below MUST be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the United States.)