What Israelis and Palestinians think of Kerry

News Analysis: Kerry bids to revive peace talks amid slim hope

XINHUA NEWS 2013-12-06

by Matthew Kalman

JERUSALEM, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry returned to the Middle East this week for his eighth visit this year trying to save the stalled talks, but analysts here predict slim prospect for his fresh efforts.

The current Israeli-Palestinian talks began in July but appeared to be stuck after 20 sessions in Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Jericho, half-way through the nine-month time frame agreed with the Americans. At least one recent negotiating session has been cancelled. One of the two main Palestinian negotiators, Mohammed Ishtayeh, has resigned, saying the gaps between the two sides block any chance of reaching a peace deal.

But Kerry remains optimistic, declaring that he perceives "some progress" where others see very little.

While the core issues of refugees, borders, settlements and Jerusalem remained firmly unresolved, Kerry set out to demonstrate U.S. resolve on one practical issue by presenting a plan for future security arrangement drafted by General John Allen, the former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

The plan was designed to meet Israeli demands that the Jordan Valley would not become a porous route for militants entering the West Bank via Jordan, while allaying Palestinian fears that satisfying Israel's security needs effectively meant Israel's continuing occupation of the West Bank.

Analysts, however, said there will be little chance that the security plan presented by Kerry is well received by both sides.

Dr. Gerald Steinberg, professor of political science at Bar- Ilan University, said Israelis were dismayed by what they believe was Kerry's eagerness in Geneva to accept "a bad deal" over the Iranian nuclear program and had no intention of accepting U.S. promises when it came to the security of Israel's eastern border.

"Israel is very concerned about security issues," said Steinberg. "The United States is in no position now to reassure Israel that it will protect Israeli security after what happened in Geneva, so the talks were in crisis before they started and there's no public indication that there is a package on the table. "

"We're talking primarily about the area of the Jordan Valley, the border with Jordan. Israel is very reluctant to give up that territory without international guarantees, so there's going to be a lot of skepticism over whatever Kerry brings," he said.

From the Palestinian point of view, Kerry's plan seems to favor Israeli security needs over the basic Palestinian demand that the occupation of the West Bank must come to an end, and soon.

"What we are witnessing today is a security arrangement proposed by the Americans, focusing on security which is the Israeli obsession," said Dr. Mahdi Abdul Hadi, chairman of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs.

"Israelis are searching for the best formula for security, which means the containment of the Palestinians in cantons. In line with this, here come the Americans with formulas for security like John Allen's formula now with early-warning stations on the West Bank and full Israeli control of the Jordan Valley, maintaining Israeli control of Area C and again containing the Palestinians."

As part of the 1993 Oslo Accords, the West Bank was divided up into three administrative regions: Areas A, B and C.

According to these interim accords, Area C, which makes up 60 percent of the West Bank and contains all the major Jewish " settlement blocs," is under full Israeli civil and security control.

Both Steinberg and Abdul Hadi agreed that the talks have achieved very little so far on any of the key issues.

"Frankly, the Americans have not done anything to try to resolve those issues because they don't really understand how to deal with them," said Steinberg.

"I don't think people should fool themselves. There are no peace talks. There are meetings searching for formulas," said Abdul Hadi.

The Palestinians fear that the U.S. strategy is to normalize Israel's relations with the Arab world without securing full Palestinian statehood.

"Washington comes with a serious message to the Israelis to get out of the military ghetto, to normalize its relationships with the Gulf States and the Arab countries. They want to stop Mr. Netanyahu from spoiling this kind of game," said Abdul Hadi.

"Everybody knows that Mr. Netanyahu is not going to deliver. Everybody is expecting to maintain the status quo as is," he said.

But Steinberg disagreed, saying that Netanyahu was determined to move forward on the Palestinian issue, even if he could not fully satisfy Palestinian aspirations for a completely independent state on all of the West Bank.

"My guess is that after nine months, if there's no framework for agreement, there may be Israeli unilateral moves," said Steinberg. "The Israeli government under Prime Minister Netanyahu does not want to see this situation stay at the status quo as it's been since 1967."

Israel will probably take some moves to change the boundaries even if there's no agreement, he said, adding that there will be more territory for the Palestinians, less Israeli involvement except in security issues.

"They are going to take unilateral moves, perhaps like what happened in 2005 when Israel withdrew from Gaza. The only difference now would be that Israel would not withdraw its military presence from vital areas of the West Bank," he predicted.

Deutsch Files $3 Million Suit Against Israel Antiquities Authority

Suit says that the police investigation, lengthy trial and public denunciation by officials nearly dealt a death-blow to Deutsch’s academic career and caused the loss of millions of dollars in past and future business.

By Matthew Kalman

BIBLE & INTERPRETATION
December 2013

Nearly two years after the spectacular collapse of the Jerusalem archaeology forgery trial and his sweeping acquittal on all charges, Robert Deutsch, proprietor of the Archaeological Center in Old Jaffa, has filed suit demanding more than $3 million in damages from the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Jerusalem District Attorney and individual officials behind the 10-year prosecution. Deutsch, one of the most prominent antiquities dealers in Israel, was acquitted in March 2012 on all six charges against him after being accused of “forgery with the intention of aggravated fraud” of various artifacts together with Tel Aviv antiquities collector Oded Golan and others.

Deutsch filed suit on 28 November in the Tel Aviv District Court against the Israel Antiquities Authority, its director Shuka Dorfman, the head of its anti-theft unit Amir Ganor, the Jerusalem District Attorney and Assistant District Attorney Dan Bahat who led the prosecution. He is seeking 12 million shekels ($3.4 million) in damages – an astronomical sum for Israel. In an interview, Deutsch said the multi-million-dollar damages demanded were “a drop in the ocean” compared to the wreckage wrought to his reputation and business by the affair. Deutsch was never accused of any involvement with the alleged forgery of either the James Ossuary or Jehoash Tablet, but when those items propelled the sprawling, 18-count indictment sheet into the headlines, as the main co-defendant his name was yoked to the allegations against Golan.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Israel's Arab student revolution

CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION November 25, 2013

One Academic's Efforts Aid Arab Students Across Israel

Yosef Jabareen is now an assistant professor of architecture and urban planning at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. His efforts there to help Arab students enroll and succeed have inspired a nationwide program. (Oded Bality, AP)

By Matthew Kalman
Haifa, Israel

A year after Yosef Jabareen graduated from college, the only work he could find was as a hotel waiter or as a night watchman at a Jewish cemetery. Despite having a degree in mechanical engineering from the prestigious Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, he began to suspect that he had little chance of finding work in his field because he was an Arab.

After switching disciplines and earning advanced degrees from Harvard and the Technion, Mr. Jabareen is now an assistant professor of architecture and urban planning at his alma mater here.

He is also a key figure in an effort to make sure that other Israelis of Arab descent get access to educational opportunities and don't face the type of discrimination he did.

Israel recently started a $170-million program designed to end what its education minister has described as the "moral stain" of chronic lack of investment in the educational development of the country's 1.6-million-strong Arab minority. Arabs make up more than 20 percent of Israel's population, but in 2011-12 they were just 12.5 percent of the country's undergraduates, 4.5 percent of Ph.D. students, and just 2 percent of the faculty members at Israeli colleges, according to Israel's Council for Higher Education.

The new program is based in part on what Mr. Jabareen has done at the Technion, which is often referred to as Israel's MIT.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

This time it's for real?

SAEB EREKAT: Can it really be goodbye, or is it just "au revoir" like all the other times?

Statement on Resignation of Palestinian Negotiations Team

In reference to the latest reports concerning the resignation of the Palestinian negotiations team from the final status negotiations, the PLO – Negotiations Affairs Department would like to announce the following:

1)      Several days ago, Dr. Saeb Erekat and Dr. Muhammad Shtayyeh wrote to H.E. President Mahmoud Abbas explaining that they would not be able to continue fulfilling their duties as negotiators, and thereby requesting that the President relieve them of their positions. This request was motivated by a number of factors, including: an unprecedented escalation of colonization and oppression against Palestine and the Palestinian people by the State of Israel; a lack of seriousness from the Israeli government about reaching a two-state solution; and the Israeli government’s failure to fulfill commitments undertaken before the resumption of direct negotiations on July 29th 2013.

2)      Of particular concern was the Israeli government’s political use of the release of pre-Oslo prisoners in order to advance its illegal and profoundly damaging settlement enterprise throughout the occupied State of Palestine. This, combined with the false allegation that an agreement between the PLO and Israel was made in order to exchange prisoners for settlements, has demonstrated bad faith and a severe lack of integrity on the Israeli side.

3)      The resignation of the Palestinian negotiators was presented after Israel had already approved 6,296 settlement units during the first three months of negotiations. This figure is higher than the total amount of settlement units approved during the five months prior to the resumption of negotiations (5,577 units). The resignation was not presented as a response to the latest announcement by the Israeli Ministry of Housing to advance almost 20,000 settlement units, but as a response to several policies that continue to undermine the prospects of a negotiated two-state solution, including accelerated settlement activity. PM Netanyahu’s call to “reconsider steps for evaluating planning potential” in illegal Israeli settlements does not halt the thousands of units Israel has approved, and continues to approve, in the occupied State of Palestine.

4)      This resignation relates only to the current negotiations team: it does not invalidate the commitment made by the Palestine Liberation Organization to continue negotiations until the end of the 9 month period agreed with Israel and the US, which ends on April 29th. 2014.

5)      The Palestinian leadership will continue its process of internal consultations and its contacts with the Arab League, Russia, the European Union, the United Nations and the United States, along with other international partners, in order to advance the cause for a just peace between Israel and Palestine, which includes ending the 1967 Israeli occupation and reaching a solution to all final status issues based on international law.

State of Palestine
Palestine Liberation Organization
Negotiations Affairs Department

14 November 2013

FURTHER READING: 20 YEARS OF SAEB EREKAT RESIGNATIONS

Scientific vandalism

How the IAA and Israeli Police wrecked the James ossuary 

Stain of stupidity: The red smear left by the application of silicon by the Israel Police Forensics Laboratory in their fruitless attempt to prove forgery has contaminated the word "Yeshua" (Jesus) inscribed on the ossuary and destroyed much of the little patina that remained

BY MATTHEW KALMAN

Tel Aviv

It could be the earliest inscription of the word “Jesus” ever found, but we may never know. In their fruitless zeal to prove that the inscription “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus” was forged by Oded Golan or an Egyptian craftsman working under his direction, the Israel Antiquities Authority permitted a series of destructive tests that proved nothing and may have destroyed the chances of ever knowing the truth.

The worst contamination can be seen in the reddish stain now smeared across the word “Yeshua” (Jesus) in the photograph above.

The Israel Police Forensics Laboratory applied red silicon to the inscription to create a mold that might show it was a modern addition. The procedure proved nothing, but it left reddish stains in the grooves of the letters and ripped out the ancient patina that covers archaeological items and helps determine their authenticity.

“In the summer of 2004 the Israeli police, with permission of the IAA, made a red silicon mold of the inscription destroying the 'letter patina' by pulling out this 'soft' patina which cannot be observed anymore, thus, destroying evidence. Consequently, the alleged small amount of masking letter patina is absent now and cannot be studied further,” observed Amnon Rosenfeld and Shimon Ilani, the geologists who first studied the ossuary before it was revealed to the public in 2002.

Superintendent Yehudah Novoslaski, deputy for signs and material in the Forensic Department of the Israeli Police, told the Jerusalem District Court that he produced a silicon mold and photographed it. “I found differences in the engraving tools between the first part of the inscription ‘Ya’akov Bar Yosef’ and the second part ‘brother of Yeshua’,” he told the court. But the judge was not convinced.

“There is no dispute that the casting of the silicon by the forensics people changed the physical condition of the inscription of the ossuary,” said Judge Farkash.

There was some confusion as to how the silicon mold came to be made. Jonathan Pagis, the police officer who led the investigation, told the court he asked the forensics laboratory to “examine” the ossuary, not to carry out invasive tests. Pagis said he gave no orders for the mold to be taken.

The silicon casting “polluted” the ossuary, said Orna Cohen, a member of the IAA committee of experts that ruled the ossuary was a fake, but ended up testifying for the defense.

“I saw a picture of what happened to the ossuary. What trauma it had. In fact when using the casting silicon for taking a mold you have to put some substance that separates the object from the silicon, because the silicon sticks to everything and pulls it out,” she told the court. “Even if there was a patina I guess that the patina was drawn out.”

She said the inscription was now “contaminated. It will be hard to say anything about the ossuary itself.”

Judge Farkash concluded that, far from assisting the prosecution, the forensic damage had hampered the defense case to such an extent that it actually worked to the advantage of Golan.

“There is a possibility of a high degree of confidence that the casting of the silicon removed other materials that were in the inscription of the ossuary. This damage prevented Golan from examining the ossuary itself with the help of experts on his behalf in order to review counter opinion to contradict the opinion of the prosecution," said Judge Farkash. “We are dealing with a criminal case... we have to determine the accuracy of the evidence. In this situation, in light of the principles of the case law cited above regarding the failings of the investigation, and considering the entirety of the evidences for this charge, I believe that the casting of the silicon affected Golan’s defense so he was deprived in such a way that it strengthens the reasonable doubt regarding his guilty charge.”

Oded Golan said he would check the damage to the ossuary and see if can be restored.

“It’s not in the same condition as before the trial. The inscription was defaced, contaminated. They poured red silicon into the inscription and they let it dry and when they took it out they took the patina. It’s ruined. I have to evaluate the damage, see if it can be restored and if there is the possibility of carrying out further tests on the inscription in future that will allow us to show its authenticity. The government said the second half of the inscription was forged – the words “brother of Jesus” – and that’s where the major damage has been done,” Golan said.

READ MY EXCLUSIVE 10-YEAR COVERAGE HERE

IAA releases James ossuary

Public will be able to see limestone box that may have been casket for Jesus’ brother  

Ancient burial box is inscribed 'James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus'

BY MATTHEW KALMAN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 10

TEL AVIV — A modest limestone casket could be the first object ever found from the family of Jesus Christ.

The stone burial box bearing the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" has been hidden from public view at the Israel Antiquities Authority since 2003.

READ THE STORY HERE: http://jamesossuarytrial.blogspot.co.il/2013/11/iaa-releases-ossuary.html

Holocaust profiteers

Nazi memorabilia dealer apologises for trying to sell 'fake' death camp uniform on eBay for £11,000 as victim's family call for police probe

• Viktor Kempf, 62: 'I would like to apologise for awaking bad memories'
• But victim Wolf-Gierszon Grundmann's outraged family say it is a fake
  
• Police in Vancouver, where Kempf lives, are poised to open a fraud case

By Simon Murphy and Matthew Kalman


MAIL ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2013

A Nazi memorabilia dealer who tried to sell a concentration camp victim’s clothes on eBay for more than £11,000 has apologised – and pledged to return the garment to the man’s family.

Dealer Viktor Kempf, 62, claimed the striped uniform belonged to Wolf-Gierszon Grundmann, who died in Auschwitz in 1941.

Last night Kempf said: ‘I am ready to present the uniform to the family as a donation. And I would like to apologise to them for awaking sad feelings and bad memories.’

The complete Auschwitz prisoner uniform, including cap, shirt, trousers and shoes, which seller Viktor Kempf claimed belonged to Wolf-Gierszon Grundmann. But Mr Grundmann's outraged family claim it is a fake

Several Star of David armbands, used to identify and demean Jews, were on eBay for up to £165

However, experts and Mr Grundmann’s relatives believe the uniform is counterfeit and have asked police to investigate.

• Ebay's sick trade in Holocaust souvenirs: Outrage over auctions of Death Camp relics

How the Mail on Sunday broke the story last week

Last week an investigation by this newspaper revealed how online auction site eBay was profiting from the sickening trade in Holocaust relics.

It caused global outrage and led to an apology from eBay, which removed 30 items from sale – including the uniform – and pledged to make a £25,000 donation to charity.

Mr Grundmann’s disgusted relatives accused Kempf, who lives in Vancouver, Canada, of ‘trying to make money out of a personal tragedy’.

Mr Grundmann’s daughter’s half-sister, Fani Simon, 66, said she would be asking Canadian police to investigate Kempf.

Ms Simon, who lives in Tel Aviv, Israel, said: ‘This is terrible and upsetting. I feel very angry.

‘We are absolutely sure this uniform is a fake, which means someone stole his identity.’

Another of the uniforms since removed by eBay, with close-ups of the buttons and material for buyers

Vancouver Police last night confirmed that they are ready to open a fraud investigation.

Kempf told The Mail on Sunday he bought the uniform from a collector in Holland, who had obtained it from an American dealer. Kempf added: ‘I never thought that I would cause any harm. It is not illegal to buy and sell these items.’

Dr Shimon Samuels, of the Simon Wiesenthal centre for Holocaust studies in Paris, said genuine clothing from Nazi concentration camps was rare: ‘When the camps were liberated there was a fear of typhus and everything was burnt as a precaution. So it is very unlikely that anything beyond a few rags would have remained.’

Detailed records of victims, including serial numbers, are kept by Holocaust museums and are easily accessible online – making identity fraud simple. Mr Grundmann, of Proszowice, Poland, arrived at Auschwitz on January 16, 1941. A few months later his family received a letter saying he had died.

Toothbrushes apparently used by Auschwitz victims were on sale at £145

A battered case inscribed with the name Samuel and a Star of David, listed at £492

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles, said: ‘It is flat out disgusting for eBay, to profit from the prison garbs of Holocaust victims. They are on the same page as advertisements for major companies like Kia and McDonald’s. This is taking the sale of Nazi death camp memorabilia to the mainstream. It is deplorable.

‘These precious items only belong in museums because they are witnesses to history. This trade is demeaning to everyone who died in the Holocaust.’

eBay has broken no UK laws by selling materials from the Holocaust. But the same trade is banned in Germany, Austria and France. In 2000 Yahoo was sued in France for allowing an auction of Nazi memorabilia.

Mrs Clarke, whose father was shot just a week before Auschwitz was liberated by Russian soldiers in 1945, said: ‘Many survivors of Auschwitz burnt their uniforms. But I do know of some who kept theirs, and other mementoes.

SELLING HOLOCAUST MEMORABILIA: IS IT ILLEGAL?

‘HOLOCAUST’ SALES: WHY CAN’T EBAY  STOP THEM?
The company said it uses a filter system which is supposed to pick up restricted items uploaded by sellers, but admitted that goods can slip through the net. eBay said that in light of The Mail on Sunday’s findings, it would be redoubling its efforts to remove items of concern.
HOW MUCH DOES EBAY MAKE FROM THEM?
The site makes ten per cent from the final sale price of items and receives a listing fee ranging from free to a few pounds depending on type of sale and country which it is being sold from. In the case of the concentration camp uniform priced at $18,000, the company would receive a listing fee of 50 cents (31p) and royalties of $1,800 (£1,125) should the item sell for its full price.
WHERE DO THEY COME FROM?
The authenticity or origin of Holocaust items cannot be immediately verified, but the sellers claim the memorabilia is genuine and in some cases have stated that it was originally sourced from the victims’ families.
IS IT ILLEGAL?
The sale of Holocaust memorabilia is legal in the UK but outlawed in Germany, France and Austria.

Profiting from pain: Woman's curlers from the Warsaw Ghetto were listed at £17

Wooden clogs were up for sale as part of a female concentration camp victim's uniform

The striped pyjama-style concentration camp uniform was worn by death camp inmates

Palestine's polonium problem

Who Poisoned Yasser Arafat? The Palestinians.

THE FORWARD November 7, 2013, 1:45pm

By Matthew Kalman and Matt Rees

Inside Yasser Arafat’s Ramallah headquarters, the top military and political and money men of the Palestine Liberation Organizaion would speak about their leader in hushed, nervous tones.

They told of a chairman who was falling apart. He wore unwashed clothes. He rambled about the old days in Beirut.

Then he was gone. Poisoned with polonium, as Swiss scientists all but confirmed this week after a study of his exhumed bones. But that’s only the start of the tragic tale of Arafat’s death.

For almost a decade Palestinian leaders have sought to avoid acknowledging that the symbol of their resistance to Israel was poisoned. Now they face a new challenge: to escape the inescapable conclusion that they themselves administered the poison.

The deadly tensions that would ultimately kill him were created by Arafat himself. He was a larger-than-life leader whom no novelist would dare to fashion. His regime consisted of a cast of surreal Dickensian characters: brilliant thinkers, wily money-men and desperate rogues. He set his favorites against each other, like gladiators in an arena where weapons were never far from reach.

The Palestinian Authority had collapsed around Arafat as the violence of the intifada swept 3,000 of his people to their deaths and drew Israeli tanks into every town and village. To the dismay of those around him, Arafat chanted daily about the “millions of martyrs” he expected––though in reality by the time he died, Palestinians had ceased to court death and were hunkered down for the end of a rising they acknowledged was a mistake.

“He’s always talking about the old days in Beirut, when he was in his bunker,” one of his police chiefs told us. “He thinks this situation is the same.” But someone knew how different, how desperate the situation was. That the Palestinians needed a different kind of leader if they were ever to achieve freedom.

And for that, Arafat had to go.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

BUY THE MURDER OF YASSER ARAFAT HERE

Between joy and despair

Tension among Israelis after release of 26 Palestinian prisoners 

Release of prisoners on demand from Palestinian leaders as precondition for peace talks sparks conflict in Israeli cabinet
_____________________________________________________________
Matthew Kalman in Ramallah
theguardian.com, Wednesday 30 October 2013

_____________________________________________________________

Israel released 26 long-term Palestinian prisoners in the early hours of Wednesday, triggering street parties in the West Bank and Gaza that continued through the night accompanied by music, fireworks, automatic gunfire, and outrage from Israelis over the release of terrorists.

The prisoners released on Wednesday were the second group in a total of 104 prisoners who were convicted of killing Israelis before the signing of the Oslo peace accords and who have been jailed for more than 20 years. Their release was demanded by Palestinian leaders as a precondition to the peace talks being conducted under the auspices of the US.

The move created tensions in the Israeli cabinet and ignited strong emotions in the Jewish state. In an attempt to calm the storm of opposition from his rightwing supporters, the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, announced more than 1,000 new housing units and other projects in East Jerusalem and West Bank settlements.

In Palestine, news of further settlement construction could not dampen the celebratory mood as 21 of the freed political prisoners were greeted by the Palestinian president,Mahmoud Abbas, and senior officials at an official celebration in the presidential compound in Ramallah. The men laid a wreath at the grave of Yasser Arafat before being presented to a 3,000-strong crowd of family, friends and supporters who had waited until 1am for the emotional reunion. In Gaza, five additional prisoners were greeted with similar celebrations as they returned to their homes.

"We welcome our brothers, the heroes, coming from behind the bars to a world of freedom and liberty," Abbas told the crowd in Ramallah, enjoying a rare moment of achievement in his logjammed dealings with Israel. "Today our happiness is great, but of course it will not be complete until every single last prisoner has been liberated."

"I promise you now there will be no agreement if there is one prisoner remaining," he vowed.

In nearby El Bireh, hundreds greeted the triumphant homecoming of Israr Samarin and Musa Kar'an, who in 1991 ambushed Tzvi Klein, an off-duty soldier driving to his home in a nearby settlement, and shot him in the head. With loud music blaring from the speakers and supporters firing automatic weapons into the air, the pair mounted a stage constructed in the street to express their happiness.

"Thank God for having achieved this freedom for us," Samarin said. "My feelings now in front of my family and all these neighbours have erased all the pain I experienced in prison."

"We as a people love peace, but it must be a peace that protects our honour, that restores our rights and liberates our land, and will uproot all the settlements that strangle our existence and our very selves on this land of Palestine," he said.

For Palestinians the prisoners have become symbols of resistance to Israeli occupation, but many Israelis were shocked by the insistence on the release of prisoners they consider to be cold-blooded killers. Victims' relatives waged a legal battle up to the last minute to stop the release, arguing that it would encourage more violence.

More than 3,000 Israelis staged a demonstration on Monday night, forming a human chain around Ofer prison where the prisoners were being held. A smaller group returned just before the deadline on Tuesday.

Meir Indor, leader of the Almagor association of victims of terrorism, said such moves "bring more casualties to the area and more violence. There are other terrorists, young ones, who see those terrorists going out and are being glorified by the Palestinian authority, and they say, well, we can do the same, we will kill Jews and we will be released very soon. So we are fighting for justice for our loved ones, but we are fighting for the other people so they will not be killed."

On Sunday, the economy minister Naftali Bennett's pro-settler Jewish Home party launched an attack on his cabinet colleague Tzipi Livni, who is leading the peace talks.

"The release of prisoners in exchange for the dubious right of Tzipi Livni to meet with Saeb Erekat is most terrible. With all due respect, halting the release of murderers is even more important than justifying Livni's being in the government," the party said in a statement, which was furiously denounced by Livni's supporters as an incitement to violence on the eve of the 18th anniversary of the assassination of the former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Bennett stood by the statement and his party's proposed legislation to block further prisoner releases.

"We are witnessing a tremendous offensive against us," Bennet said. "The goal is to domesticate us, to force us into the herd mentality. What can we do? We have a different view. Those who support a Palestinian state get support; if you're against, you are called the extreme right, you're called a fascist.

But we will not remain silent. We have clear positions and this assault won't silence us."

Gila Molcho, whose brother Ian's three killers have each been freed in the last three exchanges, said she was reliving the "terrible experience" of the day in 1993 when he was hacked to death while working for a European aid organisation in Gaza.

"My brother was a humanitarian. He liked to help people. He was working in the Gaza Strip to help create jobs for the Palestinians," she said. "We are not a gesture."

Expressing Israel's moderate voice, Gershon Baskin, a veteran Israeli peace activist who helped negotiate the exchange of more than 1,000 prisoners for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011, said Israel had no choice: "These prisoner releases leave a bad taste in the mouth, but Israel had agreed to release these prisoners by 1999."

Water solutions

Israeli water technology meets China's needs
CCTV, October 23, 2013


By MATTHEW KALMAN, CCTV Correspondent
A large delegation of Chinese officials are in Israel this week for the Water Technology Conference where the latest in hydro innovation is being showcased. And some of the front water technologies that are on display might just suit China’s needs.
High level Chinese officials from the ministry of economy, ministry of water resources and Shandong province were in Tel Aviv this week for a major Water Technology Conference. China-Israel cooperation on water problems has grown rapidly in recent years, bringing fresh drinking water through desalination, new irrigation techniques for farmers and major efforts to reduce pollution.
One of the many joint ventures is the Guangdong China-Israel Industrial Park. "Israel has very advanced water treatment technology. In China we have a huge market, in fact it’s one of the biggest water treatment markets in the world. So the park here is to serve as a platform to connect Israeli technology and the Chinese market," said Pan Huageng, chairman of Guangdong China-Israel Industrial Park.
On display were the new methods developed here that has made Israel a world leader in water, waste and irrigation technology.
"Israel was not blessed with water. We don’t have much water in Israel. We’ve got a lot of desert so we had to generate our own water. Over 50% of our municipal water is desalinated water. 80% of the agriculture water is re-used," Israeli Minister of Economy Naftali Bennett said.
The Israeli company IDE built China’s largest desalination plant in Tienjin, producing 200,000 cubic metres of fresh water every day. IDE operates 400 plants in 40 countries.
"We were extremely lucky in Israel to have a severe shortage of water for many years. This really brought Israel to develop technologies very early on. The first desalination test plants in the world 50 years ago were in Israel," said Ron Yachini from IDE Technologies.
Two-thirds of Israel is desert, so for more than half a century people here have been grappling with water issues. Today, Israel’s technology sector is one of the most active in the world. The combination of technology and water has made Israel one of the global addresses for water solutions.
Israeli technology is already deployed throughout China in drip irrigation, waste water management and desalination and from the high interest that’s being shown in today’s conference, it seems that Israeli footprint is only going to grow larger.

Writing Arafat's Murder

YASSER ARAFAT was a larger-than-life leader whom no novelist would dare to fashion. His regime consisted of a cast of surreal Dickensian characters: brilliant thinkers, wily money men and desperate rogues. He set his favorites against each other, like gladiators in an arena where weapons were never far from reach.

Conventional journalism couldn’t cope with such an overload of passion and politics. Devised to report on the activities of democratic governments and regulated businesses, journalism is helpless when faced with autocracies and corrupt political machines answerable to no one and capable of unconscionable lies that are sometimes impossible to check.

That fact was hammered home in the last week, when the conventional media reported both that Arafat was poisoned with polonium – and that he wasn’t. In a world now governed less by the authority of nation states and more by semi-criminal oligarchies and ultra-powerful global corporations, stories like the Arafat murder require a different kind of journalism.

Polonium poisoning first entered the picture with a report by Al Jazeera last year. It prompted a French magistrate to open a criminal investigation into Arafat’s suspected murder. Arafat’s bones were exhumed in November 2012 and samples given to French, Russian and Swiss scientists for examination.

Then everyone settled in to wait.

The results were due to be delivered early this year to his widow Suha and to a Palestinian Authority inquiry. So far there has been a deafening silence on what, if anything, the tests reveal.

Last week, nine years after his death, the late Palestinian chief leaped back into the headlines. Or rather his underwear did. Along with his toothbrush and other items kept by Suha.

The British medical journal The Lancet lent its backing to tests carried out at a Swiss laboratory in mid-2012. The report confirmed the scientific data that led researchers to announce that items used and worn by Arafat in his final days bore traces of Polonium-210, a deadly radioactive element. Toxicologists examined 38 items belonging to Arafat and compared them to other clothing held in storage before his death. They found traces that "support the possibility of Arafat's poisoning with Polonium-210." Some of his symptoms, they said, “might suggest radioactive poisoning."

But last Tuesday Vladimir Uiba, head of Russia's Federal Medical-Biological Agency, was quoted by the Interfax news agency denying that the bone samples exhumed from Arafat’s grave had revealed any trace of radiation poisoning. "He could not have died of polonium poisoning. The Russian experts found no traces of this substance," said Uiba.

Or did he deny it? The next day, a spokesman for his agency told AFP that no such statement had been issued. "We have not published any official results of our forensic review," said the spokesman. "Neither have we publicly confirmed or denied media reports about there being or not being polonium in Arafat's remains."

The tantalizing half-truths, hints and denials of the past weeks – and the failure of most news reports to identify the original Lancet article as confirmation of a year-old story or to pin down the accuracy of the Russian statement – reminded us why we chose a different way to tell the story of Arafat’s death in our book, "The Murder of Yasser Arafat."

Last week’s stories proved that conventional journalism is unable to cope with the gray areas where all the secrets are kept. The various news reports were delineated by clear rules for what journalists may or may not say, and they show little concern for the confusion into which they cast their readers. Unless someone comes right out and admits responsibility for killing Arafat, or until a respected authority proves beyond doubt that no-one killed him, readers of traditional journalism will remain in the dark.

We chose to address this story with the kind of writing that truly focuses on secrets and gray areas and structured our nonfiction treatment of Arafat's in the style of hard-boiled crime fiction. Every page of our book reads like fiction. Every word is fact. The news turmoil of the past weeks suggests that we chose the correct medium to write the story.

Our style accords with the reality of Arafat’s rule, after all. The roots of his downfall lay in the shadowy beginnings of the PA. It grew through his intertwined security forces and the overlapping economic machinery of his fiefdom. It was fertilized by financial corruption and fed by the hunger for power that drove his mini-dictatorship. For a decade, Arafat’s bizarre autocracy nurtured shifting loyalties, rivalries and hatreds that eventually could no longer be contained. Arafat paid with his life. A journalist ought to be able to write that clearly enough for a reader to get it.

Matthew Kalman is a foreign correspondent based in Jerusalem for The Daily Mail and co-director of "Circumcise Me: The Comedy of Yisrael Campbell." Matt Rees is former Jerusalem bureau chief for Time and author of seven books including the Omar Yussef Palestinian detective novels. They are the co-authors of  "The Murder of Yasser Arafat "(DeltaFourth).

READ THE STORY IN HAARETZ HERE

Blonde lost in translation

When Bar Refaeli told Yedioth Ahronoth she was all alone and looking for a guy who was strong and also a "מותג" I translated that as "famous" for the NY Daily News.

I guess I could have used "icon" instead. But it wouldn't have helped. Minutes later, she was denying she ever lamented being alone. 

LOL now I won't be stopped getting asked out by u guys ha?:) i'm single, happy and loving it!
— Bar Refaeli (@BarRefaeli) October 18, 2013

Did she think if she gave an interview in Hebrew to Israel's largest-selling newspaper no-one would notice?

UPDATE:  Haaretz investigates Bar-Gate

UPDATE: Sunday's most- read story on The Times of Israel

Problems of the underprivileged

Supermodel Bar Refaeli laments her single status

Bar Refaeli, 28, speaks to her inability to find a man — 'So what’s wrong with me? Why am I alone?'

BY MATTHEW KALMAN, KERRY BURKE AND LARRY MCSHANE  

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013

PASSIONATA/SPLASH NEWS

“I see him and I could melt,” the model says of Ryan Gosling. “He’s amazing. He’s my wow.”

She's the loneliest supermodel in the world — bar none.

Blue-eyed, blond beauty Bar Refaeli said she’s stumped by her inability to land a steady boyfriend, future husband and potential father to her children.

The entire male population of planet Earth shares her mystification.

“I don't understand it,” the 35-24-35 stunner said in a tell-all interview running Friday in the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

PHOTOS: BAR REFAELI'S HOTTEST MOMENTS

“I’m okay,” the 28-year-old former flame of Leonardo DiCaprio continued. “I look great. I’m cool. I like going out. I like being at home, I like movies, I like eating. So what’s wrong with me? Why am I alone?”

New York men suggested a love connection awaited the lonesome lovely somewhere in the five boroughs.

DOMINIQUE CHARRIAU

Refaeli attends "The Beaver" Premiere during the 64th Cannes Film Festival at the Palais des Festivals on May 17, 2011 in Cannes, France.

Union carpenter Jimmy McCloud said he’d sweep Refaeli off her feet and treat her to a night on the town.

In Bay Ridge.

RELATED: SEE IT: BAR REFAELI KISSES GIRL FRIEND ORNA ELOVITCH

“I’d show her a good Irish bar and a better time than Leo could — ever,” said McCloud, 30, of Brooklyn. “She won’t have to sit in the VIP lounge to have a good time.”

Pre-law student Mike Tejeda, 20, was already making plans for the honeymoon — with a promise from the Brooklynite to treat her like a queen.

“I’d take her to the Dominican Republic, where we can really enjoy ourselves,” said the Brooklyn College student. “I would do whatever she told me to . . . If she’s looking for something different, I’m that difference.”

Refaeli, in a wide-ranging chat, also reflects on her emotional breakdown when a six-year relationship with DiCaprio ended last year. She erupted in tears after seeing online photos of the “Gangs of New York” star with new gal pal Blake Lively.

ANDREW D. BERNSTEIN/NBAE VIA GETTY IMAGES

Refaeli and her then-boyfriend Leonardo DiCaprio attend a game between the Orlando Magic and the Los Angeles Lakers at the Staples Center in 2010.

RELATED: BAR REFAELI CALLS OUT ROGER WATERS’ BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL

“I suddenly choked up and I started crying uncontrollably,” she recalled. “No one knows that I went back to my room and broke down in bitter tears. I couldn’t stop crying.”

The next morning, she left her hotel room in Cannes with a friend who took her out swimming.

“It was like I was cleansed,” she said. “From that day, I haven’t cried since.”

The supermodel also offered some advice to those interested in romancing her.

RELATED: LEONARDO DICAPRIO REELS IN ANOTHER MODEL GAL PAL

“I’m looking for someone serious, who I can set up home with,” she said. “Someone who comes from a warm, loving family like mine, who has values like mine.”

PASSIONATA/SPLASH NEWS

Israeli model Bar Refaeli has once again shown off her amazing body in a new advertising campaign for lingerie brand Passionata.

Her turn-ons include self-confidence, physical fitness and generosity: “I’m very interested in going out with someone who is big and strong and famous.”

Her current dream guy is actor Ryan Gosling, replacing former fantasy flame Justin Timberlake.

“I see him and I could melt,” the model says of Gosling. “He’s amazing. He’s my wow.”

RELATED: LEONARDO DICAPRIO: MY WORK ISN’T ‘THE BEST THING FOR A RELATIONSHIP’

But Refaeli says she’s not set on a Hollywood hunk — and she’s willing to brave a blind date for a possible soul mate.

“I never say ‘no’ when people suggest I meet someone,” she confessed.

The lucky guy who lands the sultry swimsuit siren might be surprised to discover that Refaeli has no aversion to handling her own housework.

“I’m not at all a feminist,” she says. “I don’t want him to do my dishes. I’ll do the dishes, and I’ll clean, and I’m the one who wants to stay at home with the kids in the end.”

Final verdict in archaeology forgery trial

Supreme Court says Israel cannot hold Jehoash Tablet but challenges antiquities trade

Return of disputed Temple treasure ordered over objections of Israel Antiquities Authority - confirms total collapse of decade-long prosecution

THE JEHOASH TABLET: Scholars and the public will finally get to see it for themselves

By Matthew Kalman
Foreign Correspondent In Jerusalem
BIBLE & INTERPRETATION
October 2013

The Israel Antiquities Authority has failed in its last-gasp attempt to confiscate the controversial Jehoash Tablet from Israeli collector Oded Golan. In a verdict handed down on Wednesday, the three-judge appeal panel of Supreme Court justices decided by 2-1 that the inscribed tablet must be returned to Golan, who was acquitted last year of forging after a ten-year prosecution and trial.

The Supreme Court ruling caps a crushing defeat for the Israel Antiquities Authority following the sweeping 2012 acquittal of Golan and dealer Robert Deutsch on multiple charges of archaeological forgery. Israeli prosecutors advised by the Israel Antiquities Authority had argued that even though they continue to believe the inscription is a modern forgery, the reverse of the stone had been “dressed” in ancient times and was therefore classified as an antiquity that should belong to the state. But those arguments were rejected by the majority decision of the court. Oded Golan is now poised to reclaim both the tablet and the more famous item, the James ossuary, along with dozens of pieces confiscated by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Israeli police at the time of his arrest in 2003. Golan greeted the decision as “good news.” He says he plans to put both the ossuary and the tablet on public display.

The latest about-turn could be the final twist in a nail-biting finale to the decade-long pursuit of Golan. However, a sternly-worded ruling by the same court in September suggests that the battle over the future of the antiquities trade is just beginning.

In an 8,000-word ruling handed down on September 29, a panel of three Supreme Court Justices rejected Golan’s appeal against his conviction and sentence on three minor charges and used the opportunity to declare war on the antiquities market. Branding the trade in antiquities “damaging” and motivated by “avarice,” the ruling authored by Supreme Court Justice Daphne Barak-Erez depicts “a world of collectors exchanging treasures teeming with trembling hands and heart - often within the law, and sometimes without,” and notes with approval that “in most countries of the world there is a general ban on the trade in antiquities, because of their recognition as a national resource.” She further observed, that this "conception also serves as the basis for the antiquities law” in Israel.

The ruling places the Supreme Court on a potential collision course with the Israel Museum and other major archaeological collections in the country, which all display items purchased from the market. Israel Museum curators and experts have described a complex and well-oiled procedure of verification and testing carried out in the museum laboratories to determine the significance and authenticity of items offered by dealers. Many of the Israel Museum’s most notable archaeological exhibits, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, royal seal impressions and coins were purchased on behalf of the museum from the antiquities market and not discovered in authorized archaeological excavations.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

READ MY FULL COVERAGE OF THE TRIAL HERE

Wanted: secret agents

Jobs at the Mossad 

Today's job vacancies advertised at the Mossad are not for the faint-hearted.

Israel's James Bond wannabes hoping to spend their time quaffing cocktails in dinner jackets and shooting bad guys while scuba diving will find they have tougher challenges to overcome.

So if you want to join Israel's spy agency, put away the aqualung and hang up your skis. Top of the current crop of successful applicants will be long-time residents of geek city with at least five years' of experience in mechanical engineering and mastery of the latest engineering software.

Other skills in demand at the espionage agency include graphic artists and experts in computer modelling. An ability to demonstrate "alternative thinking" is an added plus.

But there is one opening for a trainee spy, no experience required. Quaintly titled "Electronic Engineer," this position for an entry-level candidate would most suit a young person acquainted with "digital communications" including satellite, mobile and RF used for global positioning. In other words, a teenage hacker.

Conflict on campus

September 25, 2013

British University Must Pay Student Who Said Adviser Was Biased Against Israel

By Matthew Kalman

The University of Warwick, in England, has been ordered to apologize to an Israeli master's student and pay her £1,000, roughly $1,600, after a national higher-education adjudicator found that the university had caused the student "distress and inconvenience" by refusing to replace her adviser, who the student said had an anti-Israel bias.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Israeli high-tech

 FUTURE

11 September 2013

Israel: Boot camp for start-up success

By Matthew Kalman  

Tel Aviv stands apart as a hub for tech innovation thanks to one single overriding influence: the Israeli armed forces.

Rothschild Boulevard has always been one of the grandest streets in Tel Aviv, with its broad tree-lined central promenade and elegant Bauhaus architecture.
The cafes, kiosks and benches teem with young entrepreneurs who seem to survive on a diet of caffeine and wi-fi. Of Israel’s 5,000 tech companies, city planners have counted 600 start-ups in the single square mile around Rothschild. Israel has more companies on Nasdaq than any country beside the US and China, and it attracts more venture funding per capita than anywhere in the world. Its tech sector employs 230,000 people in a population of eight million, earning more than a quarter of the country’s total exports.
Just off the southern end of the boulevard is the Shalom Meir Tower – once the tallest building in the Middle East. A lift door in the corner of the mezzanine leads to a municipal library on the seventh floor that had been forgotten by all but its ageing clientele. In 2011, it was refurbished as a shared workspace for start-ups. The fourth group of 13 companies has just finished their four-month session, which includes meetings with potential partners, lectures by business experts, networking – not to mention a great view over the city's beach.
The pattern is repeated all the way down Rothschild, where incubators and start-ups compete for space among the coffee shops and restaurants. There are similar tech hubs in many cities throughout the world, but Avner Warner, Director of International Economic Development at the Tel Aviv Global City Administration, says Tel Aviv stands apart because of a single overriding influence on early-stage Israeli companies: the Israeli armed forces.
“The military gives them their technological experience, managerial experience and networks,” says Warner. “For the average person, the greatest barrier to being an entrepreneur is 'Where the hell do I start? What do I do first?' Most people just get confused at this point and go get a normal job. That’s the experience the army gives them. It’s understanding how you actually build a product, which is the same as managing a project in the army.”
Big data pioneers
Inside the HQ of the Mamram, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) technical support unit in nearby Ramat Gan, computer training course commander Capt. H (her full name is classified) says new recruits on a six-month intensive programming course study from dawn till night and are taught programming skills, teamwork, project management and – most importantly how to be creative. It’s like a school for start-ups.
“When you do a degree in computer science you study the technical things," she says. "You study how to write a code, mathematics. We don’t focus on that. We focus on how to work in a team. How to understand what your client needs and make software that fits his demands. How to write good code that you will be able to de-bug and maintain."
Tal Marian, founder of the TechLoft, a commercial shared workspace just off Rothschild, says the results of the military training are obvious. “Some of the military units work like a civilian organisation," says Marian. "They encourage entrepreneurship, the feeling that if you come up with a good idea that answers a real need of that unit’s mission, you will get the funding and manpower and the time you need."
After years of helping to solve the nation’s major security threats, the challenges of gaming and mobile apps pale by comparison, he adds.
Sometimes, the military technology connection is obvious. The miniaturised camera and power pack in the Given Imaging camera pill is based on equipment in the nose of a military drone, for example. Israel raced a decade ahead in the management and use of large data sets – or big data – that drive many consumer apps because of expertise developed by Unit 8200, the intelligence-gathering arm that is now the largest unit in the IDF.
IBM has spent nearly $1bn (£640m) on four Israeli companies that all developed big data storage solutions: Storwize, XIV, Diligent and FileX. Earlier this year, Google acquired the mapping app Waze for more than $1 bn.
The founders of Waze received their technical training in Israeli military intelligence. The giant Israeli tech firms Nice, Comverse and Check Point were all created by Unit 8200 alumni or based on technology originally developed by the unit.
Youthful exuberance
Across the boulevard, Yaron Tal is Chief Technical Officer of 6Scan, a website security start-up he founded with ex-army buddies. A white-hat hacker (one that works for non-malicious motives), since the age of 12, he was running his own web security consultancy by the age of 17, before being head-hunted for Matzov, the army’s cyber-security unit.
“Entrepreneurs in Israel are unique,” he says. “Their approach to problems is different to others because the army is a huge incubator for innovation and entrepreneurship. The army gave us a few million dollars at the age of 18 and asked us to build technology and systems that address problems that only people 10 or 20 years older are dealing with in other parts of the world. That kind of pressure and challenge really brings a lot of things out of you.”
Tal skipped university to work at a start-up before launching his own, but another important driver of the tech scene is the fact that Israeli university students pay only about $3,100 (£2,000) a year in tuition fees. They emerge from military service and three years of studying with zero debt, eager to take a year off to pursue their dreams.
That youthful exuberance, combined with the rigorous military training in technology and project management, has found a natural home among cafes running down the centre of Rothschild.
Recruiting to 6Scan became easy after they opened an office on the boulevard, according to Tal. “The street is full of start-ups. We talk together, help each other. There are no big companies here, which is great. We live very near the office. We love the vibe, the place, the other start-ups, the restaurants. It’s easier to bring developers to the company when you say it’s in Rothschild even though we don’t have much money to offer. We offer them equity and a good place to spend each day.”

35 Innovators Under 35

MIT Technology Review

INVENTOR

KIRA RADINSKY, 27

How good can computers get at predicting events?

In 2012, when Cuba suffered its first outbreak of cholera in 130 years, the government and medical experts there were shocked. But software created by Kira Radinsky had predicted it months earlier. Radinsky’s software had essentially read 150 years of news reports and huge amounts of data from sources such as Wikipedia, and spotted a pattern in poor countries: floods that occurred about a year after a drought in the same area often led to cholera outbreaks.

The predictions made by Radinsky’s software are about as accurate as those made by humans. That digital prognostication ability would be extremely useful in automating many kinds of services.

Radinsky was born in Ukraine and immigrated to Israel with her parents as a preschooler. She developed the software with Eric Horvitz, co-director at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Washington, where she spent three months as an intern while studying for her PhD at the Technion-Israel Insitute of Technology.

Radinsky then started SalesPredict, to advise salespeople on how to identify and handle promising leads. “My true passion,” she says, “is arming humanity with scientific capabilities to automatically anticipate, and ultimately affect, future outcomes based on lessons from the past.”

—Matthew Kalman