Argentina’s army signed a $111 million contract with Israel to upgrade 74 tanks made in Argentina.
The deal to upgrade the Argentinian Medium Tanks, or TAM, was signed in Buenos Aires by the Argentina’s Minister of Defense Agustin Rossi and Mishel Ben-Baruch, director of the Israeli Ministry of Defense’s International Defense Cooperation Division.
“This is an extremely important step, not only for the project but for the excellent relations between both countries. It’s also the beginning of a great friendship between the two ministries,” said Ben Baruch, who also praised the work done by Israeli and Argentinian technical teams to reach the agreement.
The agreement includes different tools designed to ensure that Argentina can develop its own technology and capabilities provided through co-production projects with Israel, and also human resources training and technical assistance to upgrade the tanks in Argentina.
Rossi said in a statement released by the Defense Department after last week’s signing that the deal “is a strong boost” for the local defense industry and described it as “an investment of $111 million.”
“The modernization of the TAM is emblematic because it is a tank designed and made in Argentina,” said Santiago Rodríguez, the Defense Ministry’s secretary of Science, Technology and Defense Production. “The production line will be installed in our country, where locally manufactured components will be incorporated,” he added.
A few days ago, the Jerusalem Post ” target=”_blank”>Business Insider), “It’s not the fault of German people, it’s not the fault of European people. You have to get to the source… they want to crush Greece.” And by “they” he means “the Rothschilds and Zionists.” You also cannot confront pastors, university professors, and other opinion leaders who express anti-Semitic views.
What you, me, and everyone else can and must do is unite. There is strength in our unity and we must utilize it. Take AMCHA cofounder, prof. Tammi Rossman-Benjamin for example. In all her tremendous efforts to curb anti-Semitism on US college campuses, she has Rise and Shine Read More »
Former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren’s dual loyalties — and his frustration with the growing separation between Israel and America — were evident in his remarks July 1 when he appeared at the Museum of Tolerance to discuss his recently released, controversial memoir.
“Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide” (Random House) is an autobiographical account following an American native who made aliyah and renounced his American citizenship in order to serve in the Israeli government.
“I always thought of myself as a person who can span the divides,” Oren, who is based in Tel Aviv, said during the 90-minute event, which was billed as “A Special Evening with Michael Oren” and drew a crowd of about 300 people.
The book is, as times, critical of President Barack Obama’s approach to Israel, alleging that he hurt the U.S.-Israel alliance by putting “daylight” between the countries and by implementing policy decisions that caught Israel by surprise.
Watch the full event. Story continues after the video.
Museum of Tolerance Director Liebe Geft delivered an introduction, and Oren then spoke for approximately 20 minutes before participating in a lengthy back-and-forth with Journal President David Suissa, who joined the former ambassador onstage. Oren attributed the current divide between the two countries to the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Obama just see the world differently.
“You have two men who have profoundly different worldviews,” said Oren, a historian who served as ambassador from 2009-2013 and now is a member of the centrist Kulanu Party in the Knesset.
He called Obama “political correctness incarnate” and said that Netanyahu has no patience for that trait. But he also laid blame, in part, on American-Jewish writers who, he said, author op-eds criticizing Israel.
“Open up any op-ed page — it’s a bunch of Jews yelling at each other,” he said in one of many remarks that garnered laughs from the audience.
A theme in the book is dual loyalty, Oren said, explaining he is open about being loyal to both the U.S. and Israel. But, he added, somewhere along the line he made the conscious decision to prioritize his loyalty to Israel. (That said, he still loves his native land, particularly American football.)
Oren has acknowledged the intentional timing of the book’s release coinciding with the U.S. nuclear negotiations with Iran, of which he is a critic.
At the Museum of Tolerance event, he discussed the backlash he has faced since the book’s June 23 publication as well as the reaction to op-ed essays he published in advance of the book. Some critics have been from the Jewish community itself, including Anti-Defamation League National Director Abe Foxman, who described a section of an Oren essay published in Foreign Policy Magazine that draws a connection between Obama’s attempts to create inroads with the Arab world and the president’s relationship with his “Muslim father” as “amateur psychoanalysis.”
“What’s sad to me is it has to do with the state of American-Jewish leadership,” Oren said regarding the backlash, referring to how American-Jewish leaders are far from united in their opinions about Israel.
He also said he is unhappy with how personal the criticisms have become over the last couple of weeks.
“The attacks on the book haven’t been about the book. They’ve been about me,” he said.
The crowd skewed older and was, judging by the frequent breakouts of applause, sympathetic to Oren’s message. But he also spoke of the importance of cultivating young Jewish leaders in their 20s and 30s who would dedicate themselves to nurturing positive relations between the U.S. and Israel. This, he said, is the key to improving frayed relations between the two countries.
He treated the crowd to a discussion of, among other things, his experience writing a book from the first-person point of view, which was an intense and personal process.
“Yes, it took me a year to write, but it really took me more than five decades to write,” he said.
“I urge you to accept my earnestness in saying if I hadn’t written the book, I don’t know if could have lived with myself. … I wrote it for the love of my country and the love of my people,” he said, “and I hope that comes across in the book.”
Israel has reportedly given Egypt the green light to use advanced military force against Islamic militants in the Sinai and has closed a southern Israeli highway as a precaution.
Militants in the Sinai Peninsula affiliated with the Islamic State mounted coordinated attacks on Wednesday that left dozens of Egyptian soldiers dead, Egyptian media reported. Though the peace accord between Israel and Egypt limits the type of weaponry allowed into the Sinai, Israel has continued to waive those limitations to give Egyptian forces a free hand in fighting back against the jihadis, according to an anonymous Israeli official quoted in the Times of Israel.
Egypt has used F-16 warplanes and helicopters.
Israeli Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai told Al Jazeera that Hamas is supporting the militants in the Sinai.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Defense Forces announced Thursday that Route 12, a highway near the Israeli-Egyptian border, would be closed temporarily beginning Friday morning.
Fighting in the Sinai continues between Egyptian forces and the militants, with more than 100 militants reported killed since Wednesday, according to Egyptian media.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his condolences Thursday to “the Egyptian government and the families of those who were killed in battle with the cruel terror.”
He said, “We see in front of our eyes ISIS acting with extraordinary cruelty both in our northern border and at our southern border.”
Forty members of a Hamas terror cell said to be planning an attack in the West Bank were arrested.
The arrests took place over the past several months, Israel’s Shin Bet security service said Wednesday in a statement. The Israel Defense Forces issued a similar statement.
Indictments will be submitted to a military court in the next few days, according to the IDF.
Among the operatives arrested were Hamas officials who have been jailed in the past for their involvement in terror activities, according to the Shin Bet.
Cell leaders established a headquarters in Nablus and made “intensive efforts” to reestablish Hamas terror activities in the West Bank, the Shin Bet said. The cell was directed from Qatar, and orders were sent to Hamas operatives via email.
The IDF and Shin Bet investigation revealed detailed information regarding another Hamas terror cell planning a terror attack that was thwarted during the course of the operation.
The announcement of the arrests comes after several days of terror attacks on Israeli targets and calls by the Israeli public to crack down on Palestinian terror groups.
Steven Salaita, whose appointment as a professor at the University of Illinois was rescinded over his anti-Israel tweets, announced that he will teach in the fall.
Salaita has been hired as the Edward W. Said Chair of American Studies at the American University of Beirut, he said Wednesday in a tweet.
“I’ve really missed the classroom. I’ll do my very best to honor the legacy of Dr. Said,” he also said in a tweet.
Said was a Palestinian-American academic who taught at Columbia University until his death in 2003. Last summer, the university announced that Salaita would be joining the faculty. Chancellor Phyllis Wise later revoked the appointment, however, after being made aware of tweets by Salaita attacking Israel and its U.S. supporters in harsh language during Israel’s operation in Gaza last summer. The tweets appeared on Salaita’s personal Twitter account.
Donors to the university reportedly had complained about the tweets and called on the university to rescind the appointment.
Salaita has filed a lawsuit against the university, the board of trustees and several administrators claiming that they violated his constitutional rights, including to free speech and due process. He also is suing for breach of contract and intentional emotional distress. Salaita is seeking compensation and the job as a tenured professor in the American Indian studies department.
Students ask me: “What does artsot ha-brit, “the United States” have to do with brit, brit (milah), a “circumcision ceremony”? Then they add, jokingly: “Not everybody here is Jewish or circumcised.”
English often prefers adjectives as qualifiers, as with the United Nations, the United States, whereas traditional, more normative Hebrew prefers nouns as qualifiers, as artsot ha-brit* “the Lands of the Union,” but ummot me’uHadot, “the United Nations,” is a more literal translation of the English.
Compare the terms for electrical engineer, which is mehandes Hashmal (an engineer of electricity); with criminal lawyer, which translates as ’orekh-din plili (ambiguous, as in English, implying the lawyer is criminal!).
*Brit, a noun, means circumcision, covenant (with God), and refers to an agreement, union; so, bnot ha-brit means “the Allies” (in World War I and II).
Yona Sabar is a professor of Hebrew and Aramaic in the department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures at UCLA.
“There’s no crying at Disneyland.” At least, that’s what my good friend Stuart K. Robinson says in his brilliant new book It all begins with “I”. And yet, that’s precisely what so many of us do. We cry at Disneyland!
I’m not a doctor, attorney, politician, stockbroker or theologian, but a quick read of the news tells me that things in our country are pretty good.
Unemployment is at its lowest level in 15 years
10 million more Americans have health insurance
The stock market is close to an all-time high
Over 500,000 people have gone to Israel for free on Birthright
The world's Jewish population is back to pre-holocaust levels
A potential nuclear non-proliferation deal is being negotiated
After years of debate, gay marriage has been legalized
Violent crime is at its lowest level in 40 years
We have the first black president in history—50 years after the Selma
So, why do we cry at Disneyland? Because change in any direction is uncomfortable. Yet, the only thing we know for certain is that things change. Kids become adults, liberals become conservatives (think Dennis Prager), warriors become peacemakers (think Menachem Begin).
I think we are “changing” in the right direction. Our societal advances are largely positive. I feel this because the resistance to the changes are significant—a sign that the change is something worth fighting for. If this were not the case, no one would care.
“You don’t have to see eye to eye to walk hand in hand. And you can disagree without being disagreeable.”
The issue is, that in our passion to pursue change, we often become mean and destructive, painting things black and white, demonizing the “other.” Pastor Rick Warren said: “you don’t have to see eye to eye to walk hand in hand. And you can disagree without being disagreeable.”
If history is to look kindly on us, we must first sow seeds of kindness. We should build trust and a little less cynicism. Be diligent in our pursuits, but not callous. Demanding, but fair. And above all: we must pursue justice!
As we celebrate this day of independence—all kvetching, whining, complaining and sighing aside—it's remarkable to see how much we have changed, and how far we have come in 239 years.
There’s a post that’s going around Facebook right now about how creative people have messier workspaces. That certainly fits me. I would show you a picture of the desk I’m typing at right now, but it would ruin your image of me as the consummate style guru. (OK, that may not be your image of me, but let’s move on.)
And don’t even get me started on my closet. It is so packed with clothes, that I can squeeze a shirt in there — without a hanger. Feeling I needed some professional help to get rid of my clutter and get more organized, I consulted with Christel Ferguson of Space to Love, a Los Angeles-based interior decorating firm that specializes in organization and decluttering (” target=”_blank”>jonathanfongstyle.com.
The home of one of the Palestinian terrorists who murdered four rabbis and a policeman in an attack on a Jerusalem synagogue was sealed by the Israeli military.
The eastern Jerusalem home of Uday Abu Jamal, 22, who was killed by police during the November 18, 2014 attack, was cemented shut on Wednesday. It is not known where his family was at the time of the action. The home of Ghassan Abu Jamal, 28, who also was killed during the attack, also located in the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood remains unsealed. The two men were cousins.
The government issued demolition orders for the home in the days following the attack by the cousins with meat cleavers and a pistol on the Bnei Torah Kehilat Yaakov synagogue, but the country’s Supreme Court held up the action after the families appealed the order.
Israel’s Interior Ministry also revoked the residency permit of the wife of Ghassan Abu Jamal, a West Bank Palestinian who was allowed to live in Israel under the Family Reunification Law.
“The terrorists and those who send them will continue to pay a heavy price. Terrorism has a price, including to the lone attacker. We will also apprehend the murderers who perpetrated the recent attacks in which Malachi Rosenfeld and Danny Gonen were murdered,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday night.