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| Sunday, Jun 24 '12, Tammuz 4, 5772 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1. Israeli ‘Smart Garage’ Helps Cure NY Parking Pain
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu  Israel’s Pango company has parked itself in New York with a “smart garage” app to help cure the headache of parking in New York City. Pango’s first entry into the United States allows users who install the app to pull into a smart garage and press a button to summon a valet according to TechCrunch.com. The first garage in the service is located at East 77th Street and Lexington Avenue. On their way back to the parking facility, motorists can summon the valet so that their car will be ready for them on arrival. The parking fee is charged directly through the Pango service, which operates in major cities in Israel and allows drivers to pay by phone instead of having to fiddle with coins for parking meters or parking sticklers that are dispensed from coin-operated machines. Pango told TechCrunch that the company is targeting other major metro areas “as well as bringing their on-street and non-valeted garage parking models live over the next few months.” On-street mobile parking service, similar to that in Israeli cities, was inaugurated in Latrobe, last month. Pango has entered into app-friendly partnerships with parking garages in 50 cities across five countries — Israel, Poland, Germany, France, and the United States.
Tags: New York City ,car ,Traffic Jam
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2. Parking Permits to Parents of Autistic Children
by Hana Levi Julian, MSW, LCSW-R  Minister of Transportation Yisrael Katz has ordered officials to continue issuing disability parking permits to parents of children diagnosed with autism. The move comes in direct contradiction with an order issued last week by the government, which had decided to stop issuing the passes. Katz said he authorized the continuation after he discovered the vast majority of requests for the passes had been denied in recent months by the medical board in charge of issuing the passes. He said that he believes the passes are “very important” to the families of autistic children as it makes it far easier for the families to ensure their mobility. Children with autism -- and particularly those who are young -- are often extremely difficult for their parents and caregivers to manage. Such children can be impulsive, stubborn and hyperactive, and also find it difficult to cooperate when there is a change in routine. As a result, it is especially important for parents to find parking as close to their destination as possible in order to ensure their children's safety, as well as the safety of those around them.
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3. Dozens of Syrian Army Officers, 3 More Syrian Pilots Defect
by Chana Ya'ar  Dozens of Syrian Army officers have defected to the opposition forces and taken their weapons with them. A First-Lieutenant and 39 other military officers switched sides during fierce fighting at Deir al-Zor airport over the weekend, according to one of the defectors. On Sunday, government forces shelled the area for a second day. At least 20 people had died by midday, according to activists who reported to human rights organizations. A commander in the Free Syrian Army (FSA) confirmed to a journalist with the Egyptian Al Ahram newspaper that the defecting officer said the numbers of government troops who fled are expected to double. Both France and the United States had high praise late last week for a Syrian Air Force colonel who also defected, having flown his Mig fighter jet to a military base in Jordan, calling him “extremely courageous.” The pilot, Col. Hassan Hammadeh, had been based in southern Syria. He landed at the King Hussein Air Base in Mafraq, 45 miles (70 kilometers) north of Amman. On Sunday, a Jordanian newspaper reported meanwhile that three more Syrian pilots also defected to Jordan, hours after Hammadeh had made his move. However, the three pilots were without their aircraft. "The three pilots entered Jordan after crossing the border illegally, and they were housed in one of the provinces of the kingdom after the authorities provided security,” according to the report in the Jordanian Al-Arab Al-Yaum.
Tags: Syria ,Jordan ,defections ,Mig
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4. UNESCO Convenes, PA to Gain Recognition as Country?
by Chana Ya'ar  UNESCO opens a regular session Sunday to consider 31 new sites for its World Heritage List – including the Church of the Nativity. The windswept Judean desert fortress of Masada along the shores of the Dead Sea is already a UNESCO World Heritage site. The United Nations agency, which is considering sites that are primarily in need of emergency status, is meeting in S. Petersburg until July 6. It is the first time that Russia is hosting the World Heritage Committee session – and the first time the committee is considering any site labeled with the geographic location of “Palestine” as an independent sovereign nation. Israel and the United States, among others, have objected strenuously, as they did when UNESCO voted 107-14 last year to recognize the Palestinian Authority as the country of Palestine and admit it as a member despite the refusal of UNESCO's own parent body, the United Nations, to do so. Should the committee decide to grant the church official status by adding it to the World Heritage List of endangered sites, UNESCO will have by default enabled the Palestinian Authority to gain official international recognition as an independent sovereign nation. A number of legal analysts also have said the move may de facto dissolve the Oslo Accords, which mandate that all final status issues be resolved through negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Tags: UNESCO ,PA Arabs ,PA UN Statehood Bid
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5. Turkey Calls for NATO Mtg Over Syria Attack on Jet
by Chana Ya'ar  Turkey has called on NATO to convene a meeting in the wake of Syria downing its jet in international airspace. Turkey said the jet was shot down Friday without warning and without provocation. Thousands of Syria refugees are being sheltered in southeastern Turkey after having fled the ravages of the civil war raging in their homeland since March 2011. TRT Television reported Sunday that Ankara has asked for the meeting this Tuesday based on Article 4 of the NATO charter. The aforementioned article states that NATO members “will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is threatened.” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters Sunday that Turkey's jet was downed after having accidentally entered Syria. Davutoglu vigorously denied the downed jet was on a reconnaissance mission. Syria, meanwhile, said in a statement issued through its official state media that it had killed several “terrorists” who infiltrated Friday from Turkey. The two countries share a border about 400 miles (600 kilometers) long.
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6. NY Times Op-ed: Blame Israel for Third Intifada
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu  A Third Intifada will erupt and it will be Israel’s fault, according to an op-ed in Friday's New York Times by Nathan Thrall, an analyst of The International Crisis Group which is partly funded by George Soros, who also is benefactor of the left-wing J Street lobby. Thrall is the same analyst who last month warned in the same newspaper that if Israel continues to oppose Palestinian Authority unity between terrorist Hamas and Fatah, it might face Al Qaeda instead of Hamas. This time around, he theorized that the reason for a Third Intifada might be “price tag” vandalism “by Jewish settlers” or “the construction of new settlement housing...” He added that whatever the cause, it will be Israel’s fault for allowing Israelis to “have come to believe they can eat their cake and have it, too.” Thrall focused solely on what he called PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ ostensible efforts for security cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government [that] would make Israel feel safer and remove its primary justification for continuing to occupy the West Bank.” He based his thesis that a new Intifada will break out on the claim that there have been “years of peace and quiet in Tel Aviv,” without mentioning the daily attacks on Jewish motorists and more than a few terrorist attacks in the Palestinian Authority, including the savage murders of six members of the Fogel family in Samaria last year. Thrall praised Abbas as “one of the key architects of the Oslo peace process” and “perhaps its last remaining believer.” Abbas “has been forced to pay lip service to the demands of those who advocate confrontation by issuing repeated pledges to confront Israel — by dismantling the Palestinian Authority or refusing to negotiate unless Israel freezes settlement construction — only to renege on each one,” according to Thrall. The journalist then suggested that Abbas may become the next Antoine Lahad, the leader of Lebanese forces who allied with Israel in the 1980s against Hizbullah terrorists. By painting the recalcitrant Abbas as a “peace partner” who has allegedly been patient with Israel, Thrall reasoned the lack of creation of the Palestinian Authority as new country has created distrust among Palestinian Authority Arabs and the PA security forces. Following the Palestinian Authority’s failures to be recognized as a state despite anti-Israel boycotts and a unilateral push for recognition from the United Nations, Thrall opined that PA Arabs have no options other than “popular protest and armed resistance.” “The first option faces enormous obstacles because of political divisions between Hamas in Gaza and Mr. Abbas’s Fatah in the West Bank,” he wrote. “If mass demonstrations erupted in the West Bank, Israel would ask Palestinian security forces to stop any protests near soldiers or settlers, forcing them to choose between potentially firing on Palestinian demonstrators or ending security cooperation with Israel, which Mr. Abbas refuses to do…. “The second option is armed confrontation.” Acknowledging “widespread apathy” among PA Arabs, he wrote, “A substantial number would welcome the prospect of an escalation…. “They believe that rocks, Molotov cocktails and mass protests pushed Israel to sign the Oslo Accords in 1993; that deadly strikes against Israeli troops in Lebanon led Israel to withdraw in 2000; that the bloodshed of the second intifada pressured George W. Bush to declare his support for Palestinian statehood and prodded the international community to produce the Arab Peace Initiative, the Geneva Initiative, and the Road Map for Middle East Peace.” In a new twist on history, Thrall also wrote that the expulsion of Jews from Gaza and the withdrawal of the IDF from the area in 2005 “had the effect of freezing the peace process, supplying ‘the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary,’ as a Sharon adviser put it, ‘so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians.’” Thrall’s conclusion, which dovetails with the Times’ editorial policy, is that history will credit Abbas but that “he has likely laid the groundwork” for a new Intifada, which is Israel’ fault because Israel supposed missed “a golden opportunity to sign an agreement with Abbas.”
Tags: Intifada ,New York Times ,Mahmoud Abbas
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7. Tension Rises as Cairo Awaits Presidential Announcement
by Chana Ya'ar  Tension is rising as Egyptians await the Electoral Commission announcement revealing the identity of the country's next president. Police and military officials have already tightened security around the country, and especially in Cairo's Tahrir Square, where personnel are moving into position to be able to prevent violence in case riots erupt. The iconic central area, where Egyptians ignited the January 25 Revolution that toppled the government of former President Hosni Mubarak, is filled with Muslim Brotherhood voters. If 60-year-old Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi, a U.S.-educated engineer wins -- an Islamist victory once considered impossible -- the candidate has said he will form a national coalition government. If Mursi turns out not to be the winner of this run-off election, it is anticipated the Square will erupt with massive, violent riots. Former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, who once also served as air force commander under Mubarak, is the other possible winner in the run-off election. A victory for Shafiq would mean a victory for the “old guard” and for the former regime in many eyes, and a blow to Islamist dreams of a Caliphate in Egypt. Former presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei, who once served as head of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters that he is worried about how the electoral results will be received by the Egyptian populace. If the Islamist candidate, Mursi, is not elected, warned ElBaradei, “we are in for a lot of instability and violence... a major uprising,” he was quoted by CNN.
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8. ‘Sounds of War Everywhere’ in Western Negev
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu  “You hear the sounds of war everywhere,” says a Western Negev resident as Gaza’s missile war on Israel continues. Meanwhile, Home Front Minister Matan Vilnai maintains that “quiet in exchange for quiet is proving itself so far.” Terrorists in Hamas-controlled Gaza attacked the agricultural communities of the Eshkol Region with two more mortar shells overnight, causing no damage or physical injuries, but leaving area residents in shock. The latest barrage is one of dozens of rounds of missile and mortar shell attacks in the 11-year-old Second Intifada, also known as the Oslo War, which broke out in September 2000 and escalated after the Israeli government ordered the expulsion of all Jews out of Gaza and the withdrawal of all soldiers in the summer of 2005. One missile scored a direct hit on a home last week. A mother and her child miraculously escaped to a bomb shelter before the rocket exploded. Dozens of children also were saved when they boarded a school bus minutes before a missile struck their bus stop near a kibbutz. Tazpit News Agency’s Anat Silverman reported that Eshkol Regional Council spokeswoman Ronit Minaker said, “This has been a very stressful time for us. You hear the sounds of war everywhere, and there is this feeling of constant pressure on your mind and in your body. You’re always watching yourself, thinking where you will take cover the next time the siren goes off. “Not everyone here has a bomb shelter. The worst is for the families. There are parents who lie on top of their children to protect them when the siren sounds.” Mainstream news agencies usually report only that the missile attacks on the agricultural region of the Western Negev explode “harmlessly” in open areas, neglecting to mention that hundreds of people have been hospitalized the past several years for shock and trauma. Minor injuries also are usually not reported. Tazpit stated that a kibbutz farmer, Max Yadger, was plowing his fields a few hundred feet from the Gaza security fence when an Arab terrorist fired at him, hitting the glass around the cab of the tractor and causing a light scratch on his face. “I crawled down from the tractor and hid behind the big wheel for protection, waiting for 15 minutes until IDF troops came get me,” Yadgar said. “It was a very scary experience and I’m still not completely past it. I took a few days off and time has been the best medicine so far. I went to a synagogue and prayed. All I have is a scratch on my face from this attack, but inside I’m rattled.” With the return to relative calm Sunday, Home Front Defense Minister Vilnai told IDF Army Radio that the security situation is complicated. Egypt has brokered another ceasefire with Hamas, which has had difficulty controlling rival terrorists. He said the government does not want to escalate the fragile situation. The uneasy quiet may erupt later Sunday, depending on Hamas' reaction to the announcement in Egypt of final election results and if the next president will be from the Muslim Brotherhood party, which spawned the Hamas terrorists movement decades ago. Israel also wants to avoid a large-scale counterterrorist operation while Russian President Vladimir Putin visits this week.
Tags: Gaza Terror Attacks ,Hamas ,shock trauma
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Monday, 25 June 2012
