'Apocalyptic Scenes' As Fires Erupt In Haifa, Israel?
The northern coastal city of Haifa has been one of the hardest hit as
Israel closes its third day of intense battles against hundreds for
fire related incidents, with 60,000 people evacuated, acres burned, and
thousands of homes left without power.
Haifa Fire Department Spokesman Uri Chobotaro described "apocalyptic
scenes" within the city nestled in the Carmel mountain range that is
home to some 270,000.
"We have seen some apocalyptic scenes," he says. "We have seen houses
burning down. We have seen trees, we've seen streets with people
running out."
"But the way I see things, the most important detail that I can be
proud of is that we have no loss of life and this is most important
thing," he emphasized.
Haifa is no stranger to the dangers of wildfires. In 2010, the city
was hit by another catastrophic fire, which has become known as the
Carmel Disaster.
The Carmel disaster was the deadliest fire in Israeli history
claiming 44 lives. It started on Mount Carmel, located just south of
Haifa, burnt 50 square kilometers (12,000 acres) and destroyed 74
buildings.
Chobotaro said that Haifa learned a lot from 2010 and has been working to better its fire services.
"Since 2010 we managed to increase the amount of fire fighters
drastically, we have increased the number of fire trucks- we have new
fire trucks, we are building new fire stations and the fire planes help
us a lot," he explained.
- Asked if the Haifa fire department had seen any indications of arson behind the fires, Chobotaro described the speed with which they erupted around the city.
- "Im working at Haifa fire services in our central station today at approximately 9:00 in the morning and we are doing checks on our equipment," he recalls. "Suddenly out of nowhere we see a lot of smoke and big flames. Somebody lit on fire the field that is next to us—huge flames, it was a matter of seconds."
- "The flames almost took our fire station and the fire trucks. Five minutes after this another one at the Halissa neighborhood, another five minutes gone and we had another one south of Haifa and ten minutes again after it started in another place," he continued.
- "It makes no sense."
Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav explained why the fire danger in Haifa is so high.
"This is a very green city," he told i24news. "It is
surround by forests and to set fires in the forest is a very easy game
and this was executed in very many positions throughout the day."
"For the first time we have had to deal with many points of fire,
which becuase of the very strong and extreme wind, has covered a vast
area," he added.
As Israeli officials work to discern which fires were arson and which
were caused by human negligence or nature, the former Head of Israel's
Arson Investigation Unit Shalom Tsaroom 
explains what type of indicators
investigators will be looking for.
explains what type of indicators
investigators will be looking for.
"The chief of the police declared that most of them are arson cases
but our mission as fire investigators is to prove it- not only to say it
but you have to prove it and find evidence," he told i24news.
"If we found for instance, in a fire, that it was started in a few
places at the same time, this is one of the indicators that we are
talking about arson."
Asked how the authorities can trace arson based fires back to those
started them, Tsaroom says that "it depends on what evidence you can
find."
"If you can find for instance a shoe print you can do something with
this. If you can find remains of Molotov cocktails or Molotov bottles,
in some cases you can develop fingerprints, etc."
Ofer Bloch, CEO Israel electric company, declared a state of
emergency because of the fires. At the fires' peak 12,000 people in
Haifa were without power, which was shut off intentionally to minimize
damage. As of Thursday night, power had been restored to most homes,
leaving less than 3,000 people without electricity.Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told i24news that at the end of the night, the eight fires burning in and around Haifa were largely under control.
Source: i24News, Agencies
Israel Cuts Water Supplies To West Bank During Ramadan?
Israel's national water company has cut crucial water supplies to large areas of the occupied West Bank.This leave tens of thousands of Palestinians without access to safe drinking water during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Mekorot, the main supplier of water to Palestinian towns and cities, siphoned off water supplies to the municipality of Jenin.
Also several Nablus villages and the city of Salfit and its surrounding villages.
- Ayman Rabi, the executive director of the Palestinian Hydrology Group, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that in some areas people had not received water for more than 40 days.
- "People are relying on purchasing water from water trucks or finding it from alternative sources such as springs and other filling points in their vicinity.
- "Families are having to live on two, three or 10 litres per capita per day," he said, adding that in some areas they had started rationing water".
The city of Jenin, which has a population of more than 40,000 people, said its water supplies had been cut by half, and warned that it would hold Mekorot solely responsible for any tragedies resulting from water shortages during the hot summer months. Mekorot did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment.
According to the UN, 7.5 liters per person per day is the minimum requirement for most people under most conditions but in some areas 
of Palestine - where temperatures exceed 35C - the minimum requirement is much higher.
Since 1967, Israel has limited the water available to Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since its forces occupied the territories.
Israelis, including settlers, consume 5 times more water than Palestinians in the West Bank, 350 liters per person per day in Israel compared with 60 liters per Palestinian per day in the West Bank. THE ONLY COUNTRY ISIS FEARS IS ISRAEL?
The United States and Russia may be hitting ISIS harder than
anyone, with constant attacks from the air, but Israel is the only country the
Islamic State group truly fears, according to a German reporter who spent 10
days with the organization in Iraq and Syria. 
“The only country ISIS fears is Israel," Jürgen
Todenhöfer, 75, who visited the territory under the control of ISIS accompanied
by his son, told British online news site Jewish News. "They told me they
know the Israeli army is too strong for them.”
Todenhöfer, a former member of the German Parliament from
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, made his trip in 2014,
writing a book that was published this year: "My 10 Days in the Islamic
State." He was the first Western journalist allowed extensive access to ISIS territory - and to return safely from the trip.
“They think they can defeat U.S. and U.K. ground troops, who
they say they have no experience in city guerrilla or terrorist strategies. But
they know the Israelis are very tough as far as fighting against guerrillas and
terrorists,” Todenhöfer said.
terrorists,” Todenhöfer said.
- "They are not scared of the British and the Americans, they are scared of the Israelis and told me the Israeli army is the real danger. We can’t defeat them with our current strategy. These people [the IDF] can fight a guerrilla war," he said in the report.
- Todenhöfer described the stages of ISIS' plan for world domination: First to conquer all the Middle E The terrorist group, says Todenhöfer, would love to tie down American and British ground forces in a protracted urban war. "In Mosul there are 10,000 fighters living among 1.5 million people in 2,000 apartments, not in one place - so it would be difficult to fight them. ISIS fighters are ready to die in a war against western soldiers," he said.
On Saturday, ISIS released a voice recording of what it says is its leader Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi threatening that Islamic State militants would attack Israel. "With the help of Allah, We are getting closer to you every day," al-Baghdadi told his Israeli listeners.
"The Israelis will soon see us in Palestine. This is no longer a war of the crusaders against us. The entire world is fighting us right now."
Source: Haaretz
PALESTINE IN DEMOGRAPHIC WAR WITH ISRAEL
When Israel launched its demographic war against Palestinians in 1947, it was carried out through military tactics that were difficult to conceal from the international community. The unresolved result of that war can be seen in refugee camps all over the Arab world.
According to U.N. figures, between 1947 and 1949 Zionist military forces forcibly expelled or caused to flee approximately 800,000 Palestinians (amounting to 75 percent of the Arab population of what became Israel).
In 1967, more than 200,000 Palestinians fled their homes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during Israel’s offensive against Jordan and Egypt and the subsequent occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
Since 1967, Israel has continued its demographic war but the tactics have become obscured through the use of so-called legal and political criteria.
Source: Al Jazeera
MOTHERS OF ALL PALESTINIANS MUST BE KILLED - ISRAEL MP?
A
well-known Israeli politician and beautiful parliament member has branded
Palestinians as terrorists, saying mothers of all Palestinians should
also be killed during the ongoing Israeli assault on the besieged Gaza
Strip.
Ayelet Shaked of the ultra-nationalist Jewish Home party called for
the slaughter of Palestinian mothers who give birth to "little snakes."
"They have to die and their houses should be demolished so
that they cannot bear any more terrorists," Shaked said, adding, "They
are all our enemies and their blood should be on our hands. This also
applies to the mothers of the dead terrorists.”
The remarks are considered as a call for genocide as she declared
that all Palestinians are Israel's enemies and must be killed.
The development comes as many officials from various countries have
slammed Israel's airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.
The Turkish prime minister is the latest to condemn the offensive, accusing Israel of massacring the Palestinians.
The Turkish prime minister is the latest to condemn the offensive, accusing Israel of massacring the Palestinians.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lashed out at Israel, saying it is
committing state terrorism against the Palestinians in the region. - Speaking in parliament, he also questioned the world’s silence toward Tel Aviv’s ongoing atrocities.
- Reacting to Shaked's remarks, the Turkish premier said Israel's policy in Gaza is no different than Hitler's mentality.
Source: PressTV
ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER BARAK QUITTING POLITICS?
JERUSALEM, Israel - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud
Barak announced his resignation Monday, saying he will quit politics in
January to spend more time with his family.
His resignation comes at a
highly delicate time for Israel, which is observing a fragile
cease-fire with the militant Palestinian group Hamas after an eight-day
conflict that killed more than 160 people; the overwhelming majority
of them Palestinians in Gaza.
- Barak, who is married and the father of three children, said Monday at a news conference in Tel Aviv that he will continue as defense minister for the next three months, as elections are due in January. He said he won't contest the elections.
- Barak served as defense minister under former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert between 2007 and 2009, and retained the post under Netanyahu from 2009 until the present. He also held the title of deputy prime minister for both administrations.
He had previously served
as prime minister between July 1999 and March 2001, when he was
defeated in an election by Ariel Sharon(right photo). From 2001 until his return to
politics in 2005, Barak worked in the private sector.
Source: CNN
AFRICAN ASYLUM SEEKERS INJURED IN ISRAEL RACE RIOTS
Hundreds demonstrate in the impoverished Hatikva neighborhood of south Tel Aviv against the African migrant community.
TEL AVIV, Israel - Dozens of African asylum seekers were injured as race riots broke out in Tel Aviv on Wednesday night.
Thousands of protesters joined politicians to protest against the arrival of an estimated 60,000 asylum seekers in Israel in recent years. But after inflammatory speeches the demonstration broke out into violence.
Witnesses reported seeing men and women being beaten and shops and properties being attacked. Police said nine people were arrested.
Some work illegally and the majority live in the poorest areas of Tel Aviv where they find themselves in competition with working class Israelis mostly from a Middle Eastern or north African background. The sparse greens and parks of south Tel Aviv are dominated by the African migrants who sleep there at night.
Anger has been growing in the city and earlier this year the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the migrants threatened the Jewish character of Israel.
Source: The Guardian
TEL AVIV, Israel - Dozens of African asylum seekers were injured as race riots broke out in Tel Aviv on Wednesday night.Thousands of protesters joined politicians to protest against the arrival of an estimated 60,000 asylum seekers in Israel in recent years. But after inflammatory speeches the demonstration broke out into violence.
Witnesses reported seeing men and women being beaten and shops and properties being attacked. Police said nine people were arrested.
- The protesters were addressed by politicians including Miri Regev and Danny Danon of the ruling Likud Party. According to the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, Regev described the asylum seekers as a "cancer in our body," and promised to do everything "in order to bring them back to where they belong".
- Danny Danon, who heads a lobby group which seeks to deal with the issue of illegal immigration, said the only solution to the problem would be to "begin talking about expulsion".
- "We must expel the infiltrators from Israel. We should not be afraid to say the words 'expulsion now'," he was reported as saying.
- Thousands of asylum seekers have arrived in Israel from Eritea and South Sudan, escaping poverty but also oppressive regimes and political instability.Most are bound for Europe, but find Libya blocked to them by the government and civil war.
- Often travelers are taken to Israel by Bedouin people smugglers, abused and held to ransom for months at a time before they are deposited on the border where Israel is building a new fence. Once in Israel, they are looked after by Israeli non-governmental agencies and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
Some work illegally and the majority live in the poorest areas of Tel Aviv where they find themselves in competition with working class Israelis mostly from a Middle Eastern or north African background. The sparse greens and parks of south Tel Aviv are dominated by the African migrants who sleep there at night.Anger has been growing in the city and earlier this year the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the migrants threatened the Jewish character of Israel.
ISRAEL COULD STRIKE IRAN WITHOUT US HELP
WASHINGTON, USA - US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has told France that Israel could strike Iran without US military support but the operation might not be successful, according to a leaked document published on Sunday.The US Defence Secretary Robert Gates gave his assessment at a meeting in Paris with former French defence minister Herve Morin, according to a secret summary of the session that was posted on the WikiLeaks website, part of a massive document dump of classified cables.
Source: AFP
Asked by Morin if Israel had the capability to strike Iran without US assistance, Gates "responded that he didn't know if they would be successful, but that Israel could carry out the operation," it said.- But Gates downplayed the value of any military operation against Iran, according to the document.
- The American defence secretary told Morin that he "believed a conventional strike by any nation would only delay Iranian plans by one to three years, while unifying the Iranian people to be forever embittered against the attacker," it said.
ISRAEL LIMITS MUSLIM WORSHIPPERS IN JERUSALEM
In a move to prevent violence during the holy month of Ramadan, the Israel authorities plans to deploy thousands of police in Jerusalem and restrict access to Islam’s holiest site in the city on Friday.
Source: Khaleej Times Online
- Sheik Mohammed Hussein, a top Muslim cleric in Jerusalem, charged that the restrictions were part of an attempt by Israel to make Jerusalem Jewish and are “meant to limit the Palestinian and Islamic presence in Jerusalem.”
- The stern security measures grew out of previous years, when Friday Ramadan prayers at Al Aqsa turned into riots against Israel. Friday is the Muslim day of worship and is marked by large communal prayers. This Friday is the first of Ramadan this year.
- The restrictions will not apply to Palestinians who live in east Jerusalem, who hold Israeli residency rights, or Muslim citizens of Israel, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
- The huge plaza in front of the silver-domed Al Aqsa Mosque, also home to the golden-topped Dome of the Rock shrine, has room for as many as 300,000 worshippers. In recent years, because of Israeli security restrictions, fewer have attended the Ramadan services on Friday.
- The Muslim shrines were built atop the ruins of the biblical Jewish temples, making the walled hilltop one of the most sensitive flashpoints in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven from the site. Both sides claim sovereignty there.
SPECIAL ORGAN DONOR CARDS IN ISRAEL ?
In order to encourage religious Israelis to participate in organ donation, Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger and the Chief Rabbinate's Council will issue special organ donor cards which will allow harvesting only according to the strictest letter of Jewish law.
Source: INN
- Organ donation has long been a controversy in the religious world because of Jewish laws pertaining to the burial of deceased persons with all of their body parts and fluids and the juxtaposed need to use healthy organs in order to save lives.
- An in depth halachic (Jewish law) investigation is being concluded by the Chief Rabbinate, according to a report by Israeli newspaper Yediot Acharonot.
- Though a law was passed in 2008 requiring brain death to harvest organs, as well as the usage of specific medical methods and instruments to confirm brain and respiratory death and to perform the extractions, many rabbis and their adherents feel the halachic questions have not been answered to enable them to be comfortable supporting organ donation or donating their own organs.
- Now, organ donor cards distinct from the National Transplant and Organ Donations Center (ADI) card will be geared toward religious potential donors, ensuring them that their organs will only be donated according to careful Torah and rabbinic stipulations. Rabbi Metzger is seeking a halachic seal of approval from the Chief Rabbinate's Council for the card.
- However, some rabbis may still withhold their approval, asserting that cardiac death, and not brain and respiratory death, should be the criteria for organ donation.
- The rabbinate will hold a special seminar on organ donation for 40 top rabbis, meant to provide them with tools to council and guide families through the painful spiritual and medical process of submitting their deceased loved ones' organs for life saving procedures.
TEL AVIV GAY CENTRE ATTACKS BY GUN MAN KILLED 3 AND WOUNDED 10
Three people have been killed and at least 10 others wounded when an unknown gunman attacked a community centre for gay teenagers in Tel Aviv before escaping.
- Rescue services said that six of the wounded during the incident on Saturday were badly hurt.
- The shootings took place at the headquarters of the local lesbian and gay rights association on Nachmani street.
- Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said the attack was "most likely a criminal attack and not a terror attack," while representatives of Tel Aviv's gay community said it was a homophobic attack.
- Police are searching the area for the gunman, who fled the scene, Rosenfeld said.
- Police have ordered the temporary closure of all gay clubs in the Israeli city.
- Hundreds of Israelis held a rally in Tel Aviv in protest at the shooting, and candles were lit at the scene.
- Nitzan Horowitz, Israel's only openly gay member of parliament, condemned the "hate crime".
- He said it was "without a doubt the biggest ever attack on the Israeli gay community, we are all in shock".
- Israel Channel 10 TV reported that the incident occurred at "Cafe Noir", a popular hangout frequented by the gay community in downtown Tel Aviv.
- The station said that a man dressed in black entered the club and began shooting indiscriminately. They described the scene as a "bloodbath".
ISRAEL WILL FALL IN 20 YEARS
A study conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has cast doubt over Israel's survival beyond the next 20 years.The CIA report predicts "an inexorable movement away from a two-state to a one-state solution, as the most viable model based on democratic principles of full equality that sheds the looming specter of colonial Apartheid while allowing for the return of the 1947/1948 and 1967 refugees. The latter being the precondition for sustainable peace in the region."
The study, which has been made available only to a certain number of individuals, further forecasts the return of all Palestinian refugees to the occupied territories, and the exodus of two million Israeli - who would move to the US in the next fifteen years.
"There is over 500,000 Israelis with American passports and more than 300,000 living in the area of just California," International lawyer Franklin Lamb said in an interview with Press TV on Friday, adding that those who do not have American or western passport, have already applied for them."So I think the handwriting at least among the public in Israel is on the wall which suggests history will reject the colonial enterprise sooner or later," Lamb stressed.
He said CIA, in its report, alludes to the unexpectedly quick fall of the apartheid government in South Africa and recalls the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, suggesting the end to the dream of an 'Israeli land' would happen 'way sooner' than later.
The study further predicts the return of over one and a half million Israelis to Russia and other parts of Europe, and denotes a decline in Israeli births whereas a rise in the Palestinian population.Lamb said given the Israeli conduct toward the Palestinians and the Gaza strip in particular, the American public which has been voicing its protest against Tel Aviv's measures in the last 25 years may 'not take it anymore'.
Some members of the US Senate Intelligence Committee have been informed of the report.
Courtesy: Press TV
JERUSALEM - THE TALES OF A TWO CITIES
Tzipi Livni, who hopes to be appointed Israel's prime minister-designate, said on Monday Israel must give up considerable territory in exchange for peace with the Palestinians, drawing a clear distinction with her rival, Benjamin Netanyahu.She told a convention of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Organisations, "we need to give up parts of the Land of Israel", using a term for areas that include today's Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, repeating her well-known view that pulling out of Palestinian areas would be for the good of Israel, to maintain it as a Jewish state.
Livni told the US Jewish leaders that Israel must take the initiative and come forward with its own peace plan to head off international programmes. "Any plan put on the table will not be in our interest," she said.On the other hand,Netanyahu
ruled out unilateral pullbacks from territory, criticising Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, charging that it allowed the group Hamas to take over there. He said he, too, does not want to govern Palestinians, but Israel must maintain control of all borders, airspace and electronic traffic, indicating that his offer to the Palestinians would be considerably less than a sovereign state. "Regardless of how the solution is achieved, the Palestinians should run their lives," he said. "They should govern themselves, but they shouldn't have powers that would threaten the state of Israel."
Netanyahu and Livni, the current foreign minister, both claimed victory in last week's election. Each hopes to be picked by President Shimon Peres to form the next government.
Netanyahu appears to have the edge, because a majority of members in the new parliament agree with his views.
Source: Gulfnews.Com
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
