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1. Netanyahu, Mubarak Meet on PA Talks
by Maayana Miskin
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu plans to meet on Monday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The two will discuss the resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
The two leaders are expected to discuss PA demands, among them the extension of the construction freeze in Jewish cities in Judea and Samaria and a building freeze in Jerusalem. The PA has demanded a complete building freeze in those areas as a precondition for talks. "If even one house is built, we will break off the talks," said PA negotiator Saeb Erekat.
Netanyahu will be accompanied by Minister of Trade and Labor Binyamin Ben-Eliezer.
Israel-PA talks may resume within the next several days, with the return to the Middle East of United State envoy George Mitchell. Talks will begin as indirect negotiations mediated by the US.
On Wednesday, Mubarak plans to meet with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Egypt and the Arab League have backed Abbas's demand to freeze Israeli construction in much of Jerusalem prior to the resumption of peace talks.
The PA demands that Israel ultimately hand over half of Jerusalem to the PA, which will make it the capital of yet another Arab state. Abbas sees all parts of Jerusalem that were under Jordanian control from 1948 to 1967 as rightfully belonging to the Arab world, including neighborhoods that have historically been Jewish.
Previously, Abbas agreed to direct negotiations with Israel in the absence of a construction freeze. However, following Israel's agreement to a construction freeze in Judea and Samaria, and US pressure on Israel over Jewish housing in northern Jerusalem, the PA began to demand an indefinite building freeze as a condition for talks.
2. Iran, Syria, Turkey Cementing Ties
by Hillel Fendel
Iran made a point of declaring its solidarity with both Syria and Turkey in recent days, on the heels of joint Turkish-Syrian military exercises.
Turkish and Syrian troops conducted three days of joint military drills and exercises last week, in the latest manifestation of the close ties between the two former adversaries. The exercises were aimed at increasing “cooperation and confidence between the land forces of the two countries, and rais[ing] border units' level of training and ability to work together," according to a joint statement.
On Friday, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi visited Syria’s capital, Damascus, and said that Iran will always remain alongside Syria as the latter prepares to "confront any threat." Appearing in a joint press conference with Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otri, Rahimi added that Iran will never stop for a moment supporting Syria against the “occupiers of the Palestine land.”
It was also announced during the visit that Iran and Syria are seriously considering the formation of a regional economic bloc, with Turkey and Iraq as their key partners.
Just a few days earlier, Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stressed the shared interests and concerns of his country and Turkey. He said that both can play important roles not only in safeguarding security in the region, but in “influencing the new world order.”
"Safeguarding the regional security and efforts aimed at influencing the new world order are the most important duties of our two countries," Ahmadinejad reiterated in a meeting with the newly-appointed Turkish envoy to Tehran. "Tehran and Ankara have lots of shared historic moments and interests, and at the international scene, too, our standpoints are quite close to each other… Iran and Turkey are also the center of the entire Muslims' reliance within the Islamic world, too."
Syria is immediately north-east of Israel, and Iraq is east of Syria; Turkey is located north of both Syria and Iraq, and Iran is east of both Turkey and Iraq. Israel has long eyed the improving relations among these three countries with concern, while at the same time once-warm Israeli-Turkish relations have cooled down significantly.
3. US Targets Israel as Anti-Nuke Conference Begins
by Hillel Fendel
The United States is working with both Egypt and Russia to rid Israel of its nuclear weapons, as part of a comprehensive plan to neutralize Iran’s nuclear power.
Reports of this nature are being reported in various news media. The Guardian (London) reports that the US and Russia have drafted an initiative to ban nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, while the Wall Street Journal says the Obama Administration is considering support for a “nuclear-free Middle East.”
The Guardian adds that the proposal involves the appointment of a special coordinator to conduct exploratory talks with Israel, Iran and the Arab states, followed by a regional conference. It is to be a central issue at an anti-proliferation United Nations conference beginning Monday in New York.
According to the Wall Street Journal report, the US is strongly considering opposing Israeli nuclear weapons more strongly than it ever has before. However, the US government has, at the same time, sent Jerusalem a message designed to calm Israeli anxieties on the matter, stating that the U.S. would not take such a drastic approach before it sees significant progress in the peace process between Israel and the Arab nations.
Specifically, Ellen Tauscher, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said the conditions are not right “unless all members of the region participate, which would be unlikely unless there is a comprehensive peace plan which is accepted.”
Such a message is actually not very calming, in that it does not state that there must be “peace” before the U.S. would take such a position. Furthermore, it is widely felt in Israel that its nuclear potential is as critical for maintaining peace as it is during times of war.
This may not be Israel’s official position, however – at least according to the Wall Street Journal. An Israeli source is quoted in the report as saying that Jerusalem’s vision is one of a Middle East without weapons of mass destruction, but that this must occur only as the climax of a peace process with all nations of the region.
The UN conference, held every five years, is to begin with an address by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose nuclear program and soon-expected capabilities have thrown the region into turmoil. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will also address the conference on Monday.
“The last NPT conference in 2005 ended in collapse,” the Journal reported, “but U.S. officials said they have been laying the groundwork for this conference for nearly a year.”
4. Israeli Start-ups Prepare for SmartCamp
by Maayana Miskin
Israeli start-ups are preparing for a June competition that could lead to the title World's Smartest Start-Up. The competition, SmartCamp, is run by IBM.
SmartCamp competitions will take place in seven cities around the world: San Francisco, Boston, Paris, London, Dublin, Stockholm - and Petach Tikva. Companies that win in their respective countries will advance to the global competition.
The final stage of the competition will take place in Dublin in November.
Start-ups that were founded in the past three years, are under private ownership, and have a turnover of less than $1 million per year are invited to apply. The competition seeks companies that are “instrumented, interconnected and intelligent,” and that “fundamentally change the end-user experience or ecosystem.”
The competition aims to help start-up companies break into expanding fields such as energy, water, and health services. “To build a smarter planet requires making its systems, such as cities and transportation, smarter as well,” explains the IBM website.
Participants will be granted access to some of IBM's local investors and entrepreneurs. In previous years, several companies that did not win first prize from IBM received investment offers from IBM contact they met during the competition.
5. Israeli Invention Sees Through Walls
by Maayana Miskin
The Israeli company Camero has developed a device that reveals the location of people in another room. The new machine, called the Xavier 400, is roughly the size of a laptop computer and weighs less than three kilograms.
The device works using an Ultra-Wideband sensor that uses electromagnetic pulses to quickly determine the location of people behind walls and other barriers.
The Xavier 400's light weight and small size make it easy to transport, enabling use by combat soldiers in the field.
The system has already been proven useful in the field. When a child was kidnapped in a foreign country, the local elite police squad used the Xavier 400 to determine where in the building the kidnappers were located. They were then able to wait until the girl was alone in a room before bursting in to save her, thus saving her from possible harm during the rescue operation.
The device is already deployed worldwide, and will continue to be marketed to special forces, law enforcement agencies, and firefighting and rescue teams.
6. Religious Youth Sign Charter to be Presented to National Leaders
by Hillel Fendel
Dozens of youths signed a “religious youth charter” relating to the State of Israel last week, following a Sabbath during which they discussed in depth the complexities of their many-faceted relationship with it, facing them squarely.
The Sabbath and the signing event took place at the Yeshivat Hesder in Ohr Etzion, headed by Rabbi Chaim Druckman, head of the Bnei Akiva Yeshivot movement. A similar event for girls is scheduled to take place, in the same location, in the coming weeks, and the charter will then be disseminated throughout the country’s religious-Zionist yeshiva community.
Torah and commitment to the State of Israel are interwoven in the charter. “We commit ourselves to be involved in the pioneering jobs and roles in the army and in the country,” it states. “The foundation of the state is the Torah, and we can therefore not break this link and do anything that stands in opposition to the Torah – and certainly regarding the commandment to settle and build the Land of Israel.”
One of the rabbis involved in formulating the charter explained afterwards that the commandment to settle the Land was singled out only because it is the most “relevant” issue to the subject at hand.
The background for the charter and the deep Sabbath discussions is, of course, the increasing clashes between the demands of the Torah and the country upon religious youth, particularly in the army. Specific issues such as the demolition of Jewish homes and the eviction of Jews, women in the army, and the like increasingly demand difficult decisions by religious soldiers – which sometimes cost them prison time, feelings of guilt, and more.
Many religious-Zionist rabbis have ruled that involvement in demolishing Jewish houses and communities is forbidden. Some have added that soldiers must refuse outright to participate, others say that they must attempt to “get out of it,” and still others say that ultimately, refusal of such orders is not permitted. The Ohr Etzion charter straddles the first two approaches.
Yisrael Porat, a student at the Susia Yeshiva High School in the South Hevron region, had this to say after taking part in the Sabbath debates: “Our objective is, first of all to strengthen the bonds between religious youth and the State. It is important for us to declare publicly that despite all, our links are stronger than any crisis. We want to rehabilitate the ties in light of the current crisis and give the religious youth a forum to express themselves, bring up various dilemmas that they face, and exchange views and ideas.”
The charter is ultimately to be presented to the national political leadership, “in order that they see clearly where we stand.” The steering committee that is being formed for the youth also plans to respond to relevant issues in the media, “giving youth a channel via which to express themselves publicly and influence events.”
7. Religious Girls Compete for Top Math Prize
by Maayana Miskin
The final round of the worldwide Math Olympics for young religious Jewish women will take place Tuesday at 4:30 p.m., in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood of Jerusalem. Sixty-seven young women, 47 of them Israeli, will compete in the final round.
The competition opened with 1,885 participants from 85 schools in Israel and abroad.
Math Olympics take place two weeks after the global Tanach (Bible) competition, in which young men and women from Israel and around the world demonstrate their familiarity with Biblical texts.
The final round of the math contest will be filmed by Arutz Sheva television and broadcast by 15 Jewish communities worldwide. Among the problems the young contestants will be asked to solve are “Monty Hall”-type probability questions.
The finalists will be greeted via video by Nobel Prize winner Robert Aumann, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, among others.
Israel's Math Olympics began five years ago. The competition was the brainchild of Dr. Ziva Deutsch of the Michlalah - Jerusalem College for Women - and Akiva Kadari, creator of Elef Efes, a magazine about mathematics.
The first winner, Gili Golan of Petach Tikva, is now learning for her Masters degree in mathematics. Another previous winner, Ayala Glick of Rechovot, is studying for an undergraduate degree with a dual concentration in mathematics and physics. A third, Rachel Stern of Jerusalem, is currently in her national service year, which she is serving in the Defense Ministry; she hopes to go on to study medicine or science.
