 |
||
 |
        |
 |
 |
||
| MP3 Radio | Website News Briefs: | |||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
 |
 |
1. 60 Day Extension on Beit El Demolition
by Maayana Miskin
The Supreme Court ruled Sunday that demolition of two unpopulated buildings in Beit El, north of Jerusalem, may be postponed by 60 days. State attorneys requested the deferral in hopes that the extra time will allow them to find a solution other than demolition.
The court ordered the buildings destroyed by May of this year after the left-wing group Yesh Din filed suit claiming they have been built on land owned by a Palestinian Authority Arab man.
However, the question of who owns the land has not yet been resolved in court. Beit El residents were not heard in the initial case, and have appealed to a lower court, arguing that the land is in fact legally theirs.
State Prosecution attorney Osnat Mendel told the court that the state is re-examining the status of buildings in Beit El as a whole, and needs time to complete its work. In addition, she said, the state is not prepared for a demolition at this time.
Justices Asher Grunis, Edna Arbel, and Yoram Danziger partially granted the request, giving 60 days instead of the 90 that Mendel asked for.
Yesh Din attorney Michael Sfard expressed annoyance at the verdict.
Comment on this story
by Maayana Miskin
The Supreme Court ruled Sunday that demolition of two unpopulated buildings in Beit El, north of Jerusalem, may be postponed by 60 days. State attorneys requested the deferral in hopes that the extra time will allow them to find a solution other than demolition.
The court ordered the buildings destroyed by May of this year after the left-wing group Yesh Din filed suit claiming they have been built on land owned by a Palestinian Authority Arab man.
However, the question of who owns the land has not yet been resolved in court. Beit El residents were not heard in the initial case, and have appealed to a lower court, arguing that the land is in fact legally theirs.
State Prosecution attorney Osnat Mendel told the court that the state is re-examining the status of buildings in Beit El as a whole, and needs time to complete its work. In addition, she said, the state is not prepared for a demolition at this time.
Justices Asher Grunis, Edna Arbel, and Yoram Danziger partially granted the request, giving 60 days instead of the 90 that Mendel asked for.
Yesh Din attorney Michael Sfard expressed annoyance at the verdict.
Tags: Beit El ,Supreme Court ,demolition
More on this topic
Comment on this story
2. Obama Ready to Concede to Iran on Uranium Enrichment
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
President Barack Obama is prepared to make a major concession to Iran on uranium enrichment while The New York Times says analysts downgrade the chance of war. The newspaper cited dissension in Israel over a military strike, tighter sanctions and hints of Iranian flexibility as reasons for optimism.
The readiness by President Obama to support Iran’s continuing enrichment of uranium to concentrations of 5 percent is in direct opposition to the position of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who told CNN earlier this month, “They have to stop all enrichment," including even 3 percent grade uranium.
The Obama administration now is willing to allow 5 percent enrichment if Iran were to take other major steps to curb its ability to develop a nuclear bomb,” The Los Angeles Times reported Monday. The “other steps” apparently refer to inspection by United Nations officials and undefined safeguards.
Iran already is producing 20 percent enrich uranium, less than the 90 percent needed for fuel for a nuclear bomb but enough to cut by more than half the time needed to enrich to levels above 90 percent.
The proposed concession by President Obama might suit him well politically against de facto presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He probably will oppose the concession as another sign of weakness while the president may be able count on support from an American public more concerned with the domestic economy than with foreign affairs.
The New York Times, which generally takes a conciliatory line on Iran and Hamas, quoted former Obama administration diplomat Dennis Ross as saying, “While there isn’t an agreement between the U.S. and Israel on how much time, there is an agreement that there is some time to give diplomacy a chance,”
He added, “It doesn’t mean the threat of using force goes away, but it lies behind the diplomacy.”
The newspaper stated that the Obama administration thinks that talks two weeks ago in Turkey between Iran and Western leaders left the United States with a more optimistic outlook that Iran will be more flexible to solve the crisis over its unsupervised nuclear development.
President Obama intends to introduce tighter economic sanctions on Iran by July 1. American officials believe the looming threat of tighter economic sanctions convinced the Iranians to take the negotiations more seriously, and that in turn has reduced the threat of war.
“We are in a period now where the combination of diplomacy and pressure is giving us a window,” one administration official was quoted as saying.
The hawkish camp points out that Iran has a history of not keeping its word while conducting a policy of dragging out talks and negotiations in order to buy time for proceeding with development towards nuclear capability.
A policy of skepticism towards Iran is being undermined by dissension in Israel, stoked by openly harsh comments by former Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chief Yuval Diskin. He flatly charged that Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Netanyahu cannot be trusted to determine policies on Iran, and opined that a military attack on Iran could actually spur it to accelerate its nuclear program.
In addition, IDF Chief of Benny Gantz told an Israeli newspaper last week that he agrees with officials in the Obama administration that Iran has not yet decided to build a nuclear bomb.
Comment on this story
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
President Barack Obama is prepared to make a major concession to Iran on uranium enrichment while The New York Times says analysts downgrade the chance of war. The newspaper cited dissension in Israel over a military strike, tighter sanctions and hints of Iranian flexibility as reasons for optimism.
The readiness by President Obama to support Iran’s continuing enrichment of uranium to concentrations of 5 percent is in direct opposition to the position of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who told CNN earlier this month, “They have to stop all enrichment," including even 3 percent grade uranium.
The Obama administration now is willing to allow 5 percent enrichment if Iran were to take other major steps to curb its ability to develop a nuclear bomb,” The Los Angeles Times reported Monday. The “other steps” apparently refer to inspection by United Nations officials and undefined safeguards.
Iran already is producing 20 percent enrich uranium, less than the 90 percent needed for fuel for a nuclear bomb but enough to cut by more than half the time needed to enrich to levels above 90 percent.
The proposed concession by President Obama might suit him well politically against de facto presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He probably will oppose the concession as another sign of weakness while the president may be able count on support from an American public more concerned with the domestic economy than with foreign affairs.
The New York Times, which generally takes a conciliatory line on Iran and Hamas, quoted former Obama administration diplomat Dennis Ross as saying, “While there isn’t an agreement between the U.S. and Israel on how much time, there is an agreement that there is some time to give diplomacy a chance,”
He added, “It doesn’t mean the threat of using force goes away, but it lies behind the diplomacy.”
The newspaper stated that the Obama administration thinks that talks two weeks ago in Turkey between Iran and Western leaders left the United States with a more optimistic outlook that Iran will be more flexible to solve the crisis over its unsupervised nuclear development.
President Obama intends to introduce tighter economic sanctions on Iran by July 1. American officials believe the looming threat of tighter economic sanctions convinced the Iranians to take the negotiations more seriously, and that in turn has reduced the threat of war.
“We are in a period now where the combination of diplomacy and pressure is giving us a window,” one administration official was quoted as saying.
The hawkish camp points out that Iran has a history of not keeping its word while conducting a policy of dragging out talks and negotiations in order to buy time for proceeding with development towards nuclear capability.
A policy of skepticism towards Iran is being undermined by dissension in Israel, stoked by openly harsh comments by former Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chief Yuval Diskin. He flatly charged that Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Netanyahu cannot be trusted to determine policies on Iran, and opined that a military attack on Iran could actually spur it to accelerate its nuclear program.
In addition, IDF Chief of Benny Gantz told an Israeli newspaper last week that he agrees with officials in the Obama administration that Iran has not yet decided to build a nuclear bomb.
More on this topic
-
Iran Dares Obama to Discuss Who Owns NY -
CIA Memo Reveals Admiral, Not Obama, In Charge of Bin Laden Raid
-
Panetta: I Hope Gantz is Correct on Iran
-
Peres: No Need to 'Wave Swords' When it Comes to Iran
-
Barak: Iranians Determined to Fool the World
-
Barak: Lieberman's Wrong, Iran is a Greater Threat than Egypt
Comment on this story
3. Netanyahu’s Father Passes Away at Age 102
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Prof. Benzion Netanyahu, father of the Prime Minister, passed away in his Jerusalem home early Monday morning, He was 102. His funeral will begin at 5 p.m. at the Har Menuchot Cemetery in the Givat Shaul neighborhood in Jerusalem.
The senior Netanyahu was the aide to Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the “father of Revisionist Zionism,” and was a professor of Jewish history and was known as a strong nationalist.
Benzion Netanyahu was born in Warsaw and moved with his family to Israel in 1920. One of his sons, Yonatan, was killed in the raid on Entebbe, and he is survived by two other sons, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Dr. Iddo Netanyahu, a radiologist and writer.
After arriving in Israel, the Netanyahu family lived in Tel Aviv and Tzfat before settling in Jerusalem.
Benzion Netanyahu frequently traveled to New York to promote Zionism and remained there in the 1940s to act as executive director of the New Zionist Organization of America.
He was against the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and returned to the newly-reestablished State of Israel in 1949. Benzion Netanyahu was editor of the mammoth Encyclopaedia Hebraica (Hebrew Encyclopedia.)
Five decades later, he opposed Prime Minister Netanyahu’s agreement to compromise on sovereignty over Hevron and was strongly against the “Disengagement” plan, under which the Sharon government, with Binyamin Netanyahu’s initial support, expelled 9,000 Jews from Gush Katif and northern Gaza, destroyed their homes and ordered a total withdrawal of the IDF from the region.
Comment on this story
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Prof. Benzion Netanyahu, father of the Prime Minister, passed away in his Jerusalem home early Monday morning, He was 102. His funeral will begin at 5 p.m. at the Har Menuchot Cemetery in the Givat Shaul neighborhood in Jerusalem.
The senior Netanyahu was the aide to Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the “father of Revisionist Zionism,” and was a professor of Jewish history and was known as a strong nationalist.
Benzion Netanyahu was born in Warsaw and moved with his family to Israel in 1920. One of his sons, Yonatan, was killed in the raid on Entebbe, and he is survived by two other sons, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Dr. Iddo Netanyahu, a radiologist and writer.
After arriving in Israel, the Netanyahu family lived in Tel Aviv and Tzfat before settling in Jerusalem.
Benzion Netanyahu frequently traveled to New York to promote Zionism and remained there in the 1940s to act as executive director of the New Zionist Organization of America.
He was against the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and returned to the newly-reestablished State of Israel in 1949. Benzion Netanyahu was editor of the mammoth Encyclopaedia Hebraica (Hebrew Encyclopedia.)
Five decades later, he opposed Prime Minister Netanyahu’s agreement to compromise on sovereignty over Hevron and was strongly against the “Disengagement” plan, under which the Sharon government, with Binyamin Netanyahu’s initial support, expelled 9,000 Jews from Gush Katif and northern Gaza, destroyed their homes and ordered a total withdrawal of the IDF from the region.
Tags: Binyamin Netahyahu ,Zionism
More on this topic
-
Netanyahu on Mt. Herzl: Terrorists Kill, We Build
-
'The Kibbutz Experiment': Making the Desert Bloom
-
Netanyahu: When Sirens Sound, We are One Family
-
WZO Lets Users Fly an Internet Israeli Flag for Independence Day
-
Lieberman Warns Netanyahu Egypt More Dangerous than Iran
-
Political Activism Returns With Vigor to Bar Ilan University
Comment on this story
4. Terrorists to Lose 50% of National Insurance Benefits
by Gil Ronen
The Knesset's Labor and Welfare Committee approved on Monday a bill sponsored by MKs David Rotem and Robert Ilatov (Yisrael Beitenu) that cuts by half the National Insurance benefits to terrorists who are citizens of Israel.
Terrorists who served at least ten years in jail will lose half of the benefits for unemployment, disability, old age, work accidents and more.
"While everyone in Israel talks about elections, in Yisrael Beitenu we are working as usual and fulfilling the promises we gave the citizens of Israel – citizenship means loyalty, and the absurd situation in which the state of Israel takes money from everyone's pockets to pay those who hurt and murdered Israeli citizens will cease," MK Rotem said.
"To my regret, because of a veto by the Justice Ministry, we will not be taking away all of the payments to terrorists, as we demanded in the original bill."
MK Afu Agbaria (Hadash) attacked MK Rotem in the course of the debate and said: "You are a terrorist yourself; you undermine the laws of the state."
Comment on this story
by Gil Ronen
The Knesset's Labor and Welfare Committee approved on Monday a bill sponsored by MKs David Rotem and Robert Ilatov (Yisrael Beitenu) that cuts by half the National Insurance benefits to terrorists who are citizens of Israel.
Terrorists who served at least ten years in jail will lose half of the benefits for unemployment, disability, old age, work accidents and more.
"While everyone in Israel talks about elections, in Yisrael Beitenu we are working as usual and fulfilling the promises we gave the citizens of Israel – citizenship means loyalty, and the absurd situation in which the state of Israel takes money from everyone's pockets to pay those who hurt and murdered Israeli citizens will cease," MK Rotem said.
"To my regret, because of a veto by the Justice Ministry, we will not be taking away all of the payments to terrorists, as we demanded in the original bill."
MK Afu Agbaria (Hadash) attacked MK Rotem in the course of the debate and said: "You are a terrorist yourself; you undermine the laws of the state."
More on this topic
Comment on this story
5. London Olympics: Jerusalem Capital of 'Palestine,' not Israel
by Gil Ronen
Until Monday morning, the official website of the 2012 London Olympics portrayed Israel as a country without a capital, while Jerusalem was listed as the capital of "Palestine."
The website appears to have been fixed to show Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as well.
The fix may have been the result of a request by online advocacy group My Israel to its members, to demand that Jerusalem be listed as Israel's capital.
Last week, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) rejected a request from the families of the Israeli athletes who were murdered by Arab terrorists at the 1972 Munich Games to organize an official commemoration on their behalf.
Ankie Spitzer, whose husband, Andre, was one of the 11 Israelis killed, said the IOC did not want to enrage Arab countries by mentioning the tragedy at high profile events.
“They tell us that the Arab delegations will get up and leave, to which I said: ‘It’s okay; if they don’t understand what the Olympics are all about, let them leave,’” Spitzer said.
Screenshots of the website before the change (above)... and after it:
Comment on this story
by Gil Ronen
Until Monday morning, the official website of the 2012 London Olympics portrayed Israel as a country without a capital, while Jerusalem was listed as the capital of "Palestine."
The website appears to have been fixed to show Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as well.
The fix may have been the result of a request by online advocacy group My Israel to its members, to demand that Jerusalem be listed as Israel's capital.
Last week, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) rejected a request from the families of the Israeli athletes who were murdered by Arab terrorists at the 1972 Munich Games to organize an official commemoration on their behalf.
Ankie Spitzer, whose husband, Andre, was one of the 11 Israelis killed, said the IOC did not want to enrage Arab countries by mentioning the tragedy at high profile events.
“They tell us that the Arab delegations will get up and leave, to which I said: ‘It’s okay; if they don’t understand what the Olympics are all about, let them leave,’” Spitzer said.
Screenshots of the website before the change (above)... and after it:
Tags: Olympics ,Anti-Semitism ,Munich massacre
More on this topic
Comment on this story
6. Poll: Netanyahu Maintains Power, Even in Early Elections
by Elad Benari
Amid speculation that elections for the Knesset are imminent, a poll released Sunday found that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will retain his leadership after the next elections and will even receive more seats than he currently has.
The New Wave poll, which was carried out for the Yisrael Hayom newspaper, is in line with other polls recently released, all of which have shown that the Likud will maintain its power in the next elections.
The poll was conducted among 500 adult Israelis, including Arab Israelis, and found that that if elections were held today, Netanyahu’s Likud party would win 31 seats, four more than it currently has. Labor under Shelly Yechimovich would go up four seats and win 17 seats, while Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party would lose one seat, ending up with 14 Knesset seats.
The party which would drop the most, according to the poll, is Kadima headed by Shaul Mofaz. Kadima is currently the Knesset’s largest party with 28 seats, but the poll found that if elections were held today, it would drop to 13 seats. Former journalist Yair Lapid’s newly formed party would receive 12 seats.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s Independence party is absent from the poll indicating, as previous polls have predicted, that he will not pass the electoral threshold.
Respondents to the poll were also asked who they believe is most appropriate to be the next prime minister. Here too, Netanyahu is the winner with 29.1 percent of support. Trailing behind him are Lieberman and Yechimovich with 9.2 percent each and Lapid with seven percent. Only 4.6 percent of respondents said they believe Mofaz is most appropriate to be prime minister.
Mofaz said on Sunday that the real battle in the next election will be between him and Netanyahu.
Speaking at a Kadima conference in Petah Tikva, Mofaz said, “All the other parties, even Yisrael Beytenu and Labor, do not have candidates for prime minister.”
He added added, “We will rally all the forces in Kadima. The Israeli public will have to decide between an alternative government under my leadership and the option that Netanyahu will be prime minister for another four years without providing an answer to Israel's urgent problems.”
Comment on this story
by Elad Benari
Amid speculation that elections for the Knesset are imminent, a poll released Sunday found that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will retain his leadership after the next elections and will even receive more seats than he currently has.
The New Wave poll, which was carried out for the Yisrael Hayom newspaper, is in line with other polls recently released, all of which have shown that the Likud will maintain its power in the next elections.
The poll was conducted among 500 adult Israelis, including Arab Israelis, and found that that if elections were held today, Netanyahu’s Likud party would win 31 seats, four more than it currently has. Labor under Shelly Yechimovich would go up four seats and win 17 seats, while Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party would lose one seat, ending up with 14 Knesset seats.
The party which would drop the most, according to the poll, is Kadima headed by Shaul Mofaz. Kadima is currently the Knesset’s largest party with 28 seats, but the poll found that if elections were held today, it would drop to 13 seats. Former journalist Yair Lapid’s newly formed party would receive 12 seats.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s Independence party is absent from the poll indicating, as previous polls have predicted, that he will not pass the electoral threshold.
Respondents to the poll were also asked who they believe is most appropriate to be the next prime minister. Here too, Netanyahu is the winner with 29.1 percent of support. Trailing behind him are Lieberman and Yechimovich with 9.2 percent each and Lapid with seven percent. Only 4.6 percent of respondents said they believe Mofaz is most appropriate to be prime minister.
Mofaz said on Sunday that the real battle in the next election will be between him and Netanyahu.
Speaking at a Kadima conference in Petah Tikva, Mofaz said, “All the other parties, even Yisrael Beytenu and Labor, do not have candidates for prime minister.”
He added added, “We will rally all the forces in Kadima. The Israeli public will have to decide between an alternative government under my leadership and the option that Netanyahu will be prime minister for another four years without providing an answer to Israel's urgent problems.”
Tags: Binyamin Netanyahu ,Likud ,elections ,poll ,Yisrael HaYom
More on this topic
Comment on this story
7. Mofaz: It's Me or Netanyahu
by Elad Benari
Opposition leader MK Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) said on Sunday that the real battle in the next election will be between him and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Channel 2 News reported.
Speaking at a Kadima conference in Petah Tikva, Mofaz said, “All the other parties, even Yisrael Beytenu and Labor, do not have candidates for prime minister.”
Mofaz, who said he believed that the earliest possible date for elections is October 16, added, “We will rally all the forces in Kadima. The Israeli public will have to decide between an alternative government under my leadership and the option that Netanyahu will be prime minister for another four years without providing an answer to Israel's urgent problems.”
Mofaz’s comments come as speculation continues that Netanyahu will call an election soon. One of the speculations is that the coalition may fall because of disagreements on the Tal Law that regulated the exemption from service for hareidi yeshiva students.
On Saturday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that he will present a universal national service law to the Knesset to replace the Tal Law.
Lieberman threatened that his party would leave the coalition over the matter of the Tal Law. "We are a responsible party," he said. "We did everything to preserve the coalition. The best date for elections is the original date, but we are not hostages."
In what may have been a response to Lieberman’s threat, Netanyahu later said that he will not hesitate to hold elections if the coalition partners try to blackmail him.
On Friday it was reported that Labor chairwoman Shelly Yechimovich plans, in a few weeks, to submit a bill calling to dissolve the current government.
Yechimovich, who recently indicated she intends to run for the position of prime minister, said that “after three years of Netanyahu's government, Israel has reached unprecedented gaps between poverty and wealth.”
Yechimovich added that the current government has brought about “galloping erosion in the situation of the middle class” and “an international record for employment of contract workers.”
Political officials had said that Yechimovich’s proposal was coordinated in advance with none other than Netanyahu himself, but she has denied any coordination with Netanyahu on the issue.
Comment on this story
by Elad Benari
Opposition leader MK Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) said on Sunday that the real battle in the next election will be between him and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Channel 2 News reported.
Speaking at a Kadima conference in Petah Tikva, Mofaz said, “All the other parties, even Yisrael Beytenu and Labor, do not have candidates for prime minister.”
Mofaz, who said he believed that the earliest possible date for elections is October 16, added, “We will rally all the forces in Kadima. The Israeli public will have to decide between an alternative government under my leadership and the option that Netanyahu will be prime minister for another four years without providing an answer to Israel's urgent problems.”
Mofaz’s comments come as speculation continues that Netanyahu will call an election soon. One of the speculations is that the coalition may fall because of disagreements on the Tal Law that regulated the exemption from service for hareidi yeshiva students.
On Saturday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that he will present a universal national service law to the Knesset to replace the Tal Law.
Lieberman threatened that his party would leave the coalition over the matter of the Tal Law. "We are a responsible party," he said. "We did everything to preserve the coalition. The best date for elections is the original date, but we are not hostages."
In what may have been a response to Lieberman’s threat, Netanyahu later said that he will not hesitate to hold elections if the coalition partners try to blackmail him.
On Friday it was reported that Labor chairwoman Shelly Yechimovich plans, in a few weeks, to submit a bill calling to dissolve the current government.
Yechimovich, who recently indicated she intends to run for the position of prime minister, said that “after three years of Netanyahu's government, Israel has reached unprecedented gaps between poverty and wealth.”
Yechimovich added that the current government has brought about “galloping erosion in the situation of the middle class” and “an international record for employment of contract workers.”
Political officials had said that Yechimovich’s proposal was coordinated in advance with none other than Netanyahu himself, but she has denied any coordination with Netanyahu on the issue.
Tags: Shaul Mofaz ,Binyamin Netanyahu ,elections ,kadima
More on this topic
Comment on this story
8. US Lawmakers Want Rights to Iron Dome Technology
by Rachel Hirshfeld
Lawmakers in the US House of Representatives have agreed to invest millions of dollars in the Iron Dome anti-missile weapon for Israel, as long as the United States can acquire the development rights to the weapon system, The Hill reported.
Members of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces subcommittee reportedly elected to set aside $680 million to assist Israel in buying the Iron Dome weapon in its version of the fiscal 2013 defense spending bill, according to the report.
In 2011, Congress approved approximately $200 million for Iron Dome buys, which US and Israeli officials claim has been vital in defending Israeli territory from short-range rocket and mortar attacks fired by terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
In March alone, the three Iron Dome systems deployed in southern Israel successfully intercepted 80 percent of the 300 rockets and mortars fired into the country from Gaza, Defense Department spokesman George Little said on March 27.
Subcommittee members stated that the system "proven very effective" in protecting Israel's southern borders in their portion of the House defense bill.
The funding would work to "ensure long-term cooperation" between the United States and Israel on Iron Dome development, according to members.
However, before the United States allocates the funds, House members want Missile Defense Agency chief Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly to "ensure the United States has appropriate rights to this technology," The Hill reported.
According to the subcommittee’s legislation, while the United States has invested nearly $900 million into Iron Dome work, to date it “has no right to the technology involved."
The House proposal would share rights to the weapon's proprietary technology "as is consistent with prior U.S.-Israeli missile defense cooperation," according to the subcommittee.
In addition the Department of Defense and O'Reilly "should explore any opportunity to enter into co-production of the Iron Dome system with Israel, in light of the significant U.S. investment in this system," stated the panel's draft bill.
Comment on this story
by Rachel Hirshfeld
Lawmakers in the US House of Representatives have agreed to invest millions of dollars in the Iron Dome anti-missile weapon for Israel, as long as the United States can acquire the development rights to the weapon system, The Hill reported.
Members of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces subcommittee reportedly elected to set aside $680 million to assist Israel in buying the Iron Dome weapon in its version of the fiscal 2013 defense spending bill, according to the report.
In 2011, Congress approved approximately $200 million for Iron Dome buys, which US and Israeli officials claim has been vital in defending Israeli territory from short-range rocket and mortar attacks fired by terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
In March alone, the three Iron Dome systems deployed in southern Israel successfully intercepted 80 percent of the 300 rockets and mortars fired into the country from Gaza, Defense Department spokesman George Little said on March 27.
Subcommittee members stated that the system "proven very effective" in protecting Israel's southern borders in their portion of the House defense bill.
The funding would work to "ensure long-term cooperation" between the United States and Israel on Iron Dome development, according to members.
However, before the United States allocates the funds, House members want Missile Defense Agency chief Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly to "ensure the United States has appropriate rights to this technology," The Hill reported.
According to the subcommittee’s legislation, while the United States has invested nearly $900 million into Iron Dome work, to date it “has no right to the technology involved."
The House proposal would share rights to the weapon's proprietary technology "as is consistent with prior U.S.-Israeli missile defense cooperation," according to the subcommittee.
In addition the Department of Defense and O'Reilly "should explore any opportunity to enter into co-production of the Iron Dome system with Israel, in light of the significant U.S. investment in this system," stated the panel's draft bill.
More on this topic
Comment on this story
