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Wednesday, September 30th 2009,
Tomorrow, U.S. diplomats and their Russian, Chinese and European counterparts will join Iranian officials to discuss the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. The meeting follows new Iranian missile tests and exposure of a second covert Iranian nuclear enrichment facility. Iran enters the negotiations defiant. “The announcement of the enrichment facilities will be Iran’s winning card,” Kayhan newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Supreme Leader, editorialized last Sunday.
The meeting will be a nail in the coffin of the Obama doctrine. Throughout his campaign, President Obama preached unconditional diplomacy. “We need a President who’ll have the strength and courage to go toe-to-toe with the leaders of rogue nations, because that’s what it takes to protect our security,” Obama declared during his campaign.
Within a week of his inauguration, Obama offered Tehran an olive branch, promising that should Iran unclench its fist, it would find a willing partner in him.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Middle East Report, Opinion on September 30, 2009 - י"ב תשרי תש"ע at 9:47 pm
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Sep. 30, 2009
Matthew Wagner , THE JERUSALEM POST
Religion is often blamed as an obstacle to peace between Muslims and Jews. However, the demand for lulavim (palm fronds) ahead of Succot may now foster trade with the Gaza Strip.
Gazans will be permitted to export lulavim to Israel after Religious Services Minister Ya’acov Margi received special permission to do so from Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
Margi was approached by importers of lulavim to intervene after suppliers in Egypt, Israel’s main source, tripled their prices.
Israeli importers told The Jerusalem Post that Egyptian suppliers in El-Arish and other locations who provide the bulk of lulavim formed a price cartel this year and demanded $1.50 per lulav, about three times the price demanded in previous years.
"If you add shipping and packing costs, customs and value-added tax, the wholesale price of a lulav is at least NIS 8, as opposed to about NIS 3.5 usually," said one importer who preferred to remain anonymous because he was discussing wholesale prices.
"I expect lulav prices to rise between 10 percent and 15% compared to last year as a result," he said.
Importers said that while Margi’s attempt to open the Gaza lulav market was commendable, it was "too little, too late."
"The expensive lulavim are already in the market," and part of the demand was being met by growers in the Jordan Valley, said another importer. "So new merchandise from Gaza won’t have much of an impact, even if it arrives tomorrow."
Margi’s spokesman Alon Nuriel said in a statement that Barak agreed to open up Gaza’s lulav exports in coordination with the Agriculture Ministry and the IDF’s coordinator of government activities in the territories.
Nuriel also provided the letter signed by Barak’s aide, attorney Ruth Bar, authorizing the export.
This article can also be read at
http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1254163546001&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Islam, Judaism, Middle East Report, Monotheistic Religions, News Articles, Recent Posts on September 30, 2009 - י"ב תשרי תש"ע at 7:58 am
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Top: Fossil of Anchiornis huxleyi from the province of Liaoning, China. Bottom: Artist’s rendering. (Credit: Xing Xu)
ScienceDaily (Sep. 29, 2009) — A fossil of a bird-like dinosaur with four wings has been discovered in northeastern China. The specimen bridges a critical gap in the transition from dinosaurs to birds, and reveals new insights into the origin evolution of feathers.
The transition from dinosaurs to birds is poorly understood because of the lack of well-preserved fossils, and many scientists argue that bird-like dinosaurs appear too late in the fossil record to be the true ancestors of birds.
In the journal Nature this week, Xing Xu and colleagues describe an exceptionally well-preserved fossil of Anchiornis huxleyi from the province of Liaoning, China. Long feathers cover the arms and tail, but also the feet, suggesting that a four-winged stage may have existed in the transition to birds.
Anchiornis huxleyi was previously thought to be a primitive bird, but closer inspection reveals that it should be assigned to the Troodontidae — a group of dinosaurs closely related to birds.
The authors date the fossil to the earliest Late Jurassic, meaning that it is the oldest bird-like dinosaur reported so far, and older than Archaeopteryx, the earliest known bird.
They conclude that the presence of such a species at this time in the fossil record effectively disputes the argument that bird-like dinosaurs appeared too late to be the ancestors of birds.
Journal reference:
Adapted from materials provided by Nature.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Evolutionary Biology, Recent Posts on September 29, 2009 - י"א תשרי תש"ע at 9:11 pm
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By Alon Pinkas, Politico, September 24, 2009
Before it began, while it took place and once it ended, Tuesday’s trilateral summit in New York among President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was a “Seinfeld” summit. As George Costanza put it in a famous episode parodying the real-life sitcom, “I think I can sum up the show for you in one word: Nothing.”
The problem is that in the Middle East, “nothing” is not funny but dangerous. That is why both Israel and the Palestinians would be wise to seriously consider an important concept that Obama expressed Tuesday. In clear and unequivocal words, Obama presented an idea that none of his predecessors expounded: The resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an American interest. If Obama develops this into a coherent policy, “nothing” will no longer be acceptable. But while formulating this policy, the administration should be aware of Israel’s fundamental concern.
Here is the most excruciating dilemma: Israel wants out of most of the West Bank, yet the Palestinians cannot govern effectively and guarantee security. A Palestinian state may be supported all around the world on grounds of self-determination or as a conflict resolution formula, but if it is established prematurely, it will implode and fail. A failed state on its border is a perilous development that Israel cannot and should not accept considering the Palestinians’ proclivity for terrorism. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts on September 25, 2009 - ז' תשרי תש"ע at 8:04 am
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By Rabbi Hyim Shafner, Jewish Journal, September 24, 2009
Yom Kippur is the process of changing ourselves, changing our own colors so that we can receive the Divine light that is always flowing for goodness. God does not change. Only we change. May we all change for the better this Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur will arrive this week and thousands of Jews will attend synagogues. Why is it that so many attend synagogue on Yom Kippur, but not the rest of the year? What is it about Yom Kippur that draws us? No doubt because it is a holy day, we want to be present. But many of us are just hedging our bets. If we have a bad year we don’t want to have to kick ourselves for not participating in Yom Kippur as we should have. If we go on Yom Kippur and pray with sincerity at least we will not have ourselves to blame for whatever bad happens. We will have done what we could.
For many of us even quite religious Jews who go to synagogue every day or every Sabbath, this kind of thinking is still part and parcel of our Yom Kippur. Some of the liturgy in fact serves to reinforce it, such as the Unisaneh Tokef –which hinges on,“Who live and who will die?” But such an approach is a very selfish take on the holiest day of the year. If I am going to pray on Yom Kippur just so that I can have a good year it’s really just about me and my physical welfare, its really just selfishness.
As Morethodox Jews I think we need to turn to the Chassidic commentaries to reclaim the true nature of Yom Kippur. Rabbi Yehuda Leib Alter of Ger in his book the Sefat Eemet says that the phrase, which we repeat many times in this season, “Remember us for life God who wants life, and write us in the book of life for your sake, living God” means that we are asking not for lengthened physical life, but rather for the life of the spirit. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Recent Posts on September 25, 2009 - ז' תשרי תש"ע at 6:36 am
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Elul 29, 5769, 18 September 09
by Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Riskin, Arutz Sheva
(Israelnationalnews.com) "This day, the world was conceived…." (from the Rosh HaShanah liturgy)
We are approaching the formidable "festival" period, which will last for more than three weeks beginning with Rosh HaShanah, the anniversary of the creation of the world, continuing with Yom Kippur, the Day of Forgiveness and Purity, and concluding with the glorious eight days of Sukkot and joyous Simchat Torah, when we dance with the Torah scrolls.
On each of the festivals, we read a Biblical passage that relates to the meaning of the day, so it’s strange that on Rosh HaShanah we read stories from the early experiences of the first Jewish family, Abraham, Sarah, and the two boys Ishmael and Isaac. Rosh HaShanah is the anniversary of the creation of the world, which makes it a natural time to read the majestic opening passage of the Torah, "In the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth." Given that, in any case, we are now concluding the annual cycle of the reading of the Torah, wouldn’t it make sense to start the year by recommencing the cycle of Torah readings from the beginning of Genesis?
But that is not the only strange thing about our festive season. In the middle of our holiday period is the Yom Kippur fast, replete with the exhortation to "afflict our souls". And then, after this day of affliction, we rush to erect a seven-day virtually make-believe home, exquisitely decorated with fragrant vegetation, a green garden roof, and wall hangings of Biblical personalities and Holy Temple scenes. What single idea connects these disparate sacred days?
I believe that the unifying scheme for the festival month of Tishrei will emerge when we contemplate the natural human reaction to New Year’s Day. Amidst all the festivities, it’s a time when we nostalgically remember those who were with us last year, but are no longer. The older we are, the more conscious we are of our mortality.
There are two contrasting approaches to human mortality. The Greco-Roman way was to cry out, "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die." It’s a hedonistic approach to the world, living for the moment and disregarding the consequences. Judaism took a different approach. While declaring Rosh HaShanah a Yom Tov on which we wear our best clothes and enjoy sumptuous meals together with our families, the rabbis saw that there was also a more somber message. "Repent one day before you die," they said. Since none of us knows exactly when we will pass away, our sages felt that we should always take stock of our actions and repent for our misdeeds.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Judaism, Monotheistic Religions, Recent Posts on September 18, 2009 - כ"ט אלול תשס"ט at 7:37 am
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by Daniel Pipes,
September 16, 2009
http://www.danielpipes.org/7638/one-cheer-for-obama-foreign-policy
The Obama administration has established an alarmingly naïve and dangerous record on Arab-Israeli issues, leading me to worry about spectacular policy failures ahead. But it has initiated one innovative and positive policy deserving high praise.
Instead of Israel making yet more unilateral concessions to the Palestinians, in late May Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu called to “bring Arab states into the circle of peace.” U.S. special envoy George Mitchell and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak picked up on this and developed plans to integrate those Arab states into the diplomatic process. In mid-July, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asserted that “Arab states have a responsibility … to take steps to improve relations with Israel, and to prepare their publics to embrace peace and accept Israel’s place in the region.”
A month later, Barack Obama declared his hope that “we are going to see not just movement from the Israelis, but also from the Palestinians around issues of incitement and security, from Arab states that show their willingness to engage Israel.” According to Foreign Policy blogger Laura Rozen – later confirmed by the White House – Obama “sent letters to at least seven Arab and Gulf states seeking confidence-building measures [CBMs] toward Israel.” (Those states include Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.) Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts on September 16, 2009 - כ"ז אלול תשס"ט at 11:12 am
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Health News Digest, Sep 15, 2009
(HealthNewsDigest.com)-Making sure children get regular, comprehensive eye exams is a key way that parents can identify treatable problems early and help kids achieve their greatest potential-in the classroom, at home and in sports.
Studies show that around 60 percent of children who have been identified as problem learners actually suffer from undetected vision problems and may mistakenly be diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to the American Optometric Association.
For many children, their only regular vision assessment is a school screening; however, simple screenings are meant to indicate a potential need for further evaluation, not to diagnose or treat a problem. According to The Vision Council, recent studies estimate that 40 to 67 percent of children identified with vision problems during school screenings do not receive the recommended follow-up care by an eye care professional. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Education Report, Health Sciences, Recent Posts on September 15, 2009 - כ"ו אלול תשס"ט at 1:34 pm
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Andrew Donoghue, BusinessGreen 11 Sep 2009
A Ford car plant which was recently shut down as part of cost savings by the car maker is being converted into a facility for renewable energy companies.
The facility in Wixom, Michigan, which at the height of production had about 5,000 workers, closed in 2007 with the loss of 1,000 jobs. The site will now be converted into a business park for a series of renewable energy companies, which the backers claim could generate about 4,000 jobs.
Ford said it has been working with energy storage system provider Xtreme Power and solar panel maker Clairvoyant Energy, who will be the first companies to take up residency in the 320-acre site and its 4.7 million square feet of plant space. The two renewable energy providers have invested about $725m (£635m) to redevelop the site, with work expected to begin early next year and clean tech manufacturing expected to get underway in 2011. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Air & Water, Alternative Energy, Biomass fuels, Climate Change, Recent Posts, Science and Technology, Solar Energy on September 12, 2009 - כ"ג אלול תשס"ט at 11:19 am
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 Photo: Hugh Macleod/IRIN  |
| Farmers in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, where outdated irrigation systems causes water shortages despite the country’s above-average rainfall |
BEIRUT, 10 September 2009 (IRIN) – The politics of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, a rugged sliver of mountainside wedged between Lebanon, Israel and Syria, have long overshadowed what some Lebanese environmentalists call “the real issue” of the disputed area: its water resources.
Now activists are calling for hydro-diplomacy to take precedence over political manoeuvring as the most effective solution to one of the key stumbling blocks to Middle East peace.
Rising Temperatures Rising Tensions, a report published in June by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, considers water to be a major trigger for conflict in the Middle East, the world’s most water scarce region.
 There will not be enough water for our generation or the next. We will see social, economic, political and military conflicts – and in that order – within the next 20 years |
Lebanon and Syria say the Shebaa Farms, measuring just 22sqkm, is Lebanese territory, though the UN has ruled it part of the Syrian Golan Heights, which lie just to the east, across water-rich Mount Hermon.
Both the Golan and Shebaa were occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967 and the Israelis say disengagement from Shebaa can only come under a peace deal with Syria and withdrawal from the Golan.
However, Fadi Comair, director-general of Hydraulic and Electric Resources at the Lebanese Ministry of Energy and Water, argues there is more to Israel’s occupation of Shebaa than military-strategic concerns: “Israel’s occupation of the Shebaa Farms has to do with control of its water.”
Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group that fought Israel to a bloody stalemate in 2006, has the liberation of Shebaa as one of its strategic objectives.
 Photo: Hugh Macleod/IRIN  |
| UN peacekeepers patrol the Blue Line, the boundary between Lebanon and Israel, near the water-rich Shebaa Farms |
Water scarcity
Meeting the water needs of their rapidly growing populations has long been an existential challenge for the governments of the arid Middle East. Climate change is making that challenge more urgent and acute.
Israel, Jordan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) all fall well below the internationally accepted threshold of 1,000 cubic metres of water per person per year (cmwpy). According to the IISD, Israel has natural renewable water resources of 265 cmwpy, Jordan 169, and OPT just 90. Only Lebanon and Syria have water surpluses, with Lebanon having a potential of 1,220 cmwpy and Syria 1,541.
Yet supply is dwindling rapidly. By 2025 water use in Israel is estimated to fall to 310 cmwpy, while the country’s own Environment Ministry has warned that water supply may fall by 60 percent of 2000 levels by 2100.
River Jordan
The IISD report goes even further, warning that the River Jordan, which is the key supplier of water to Israel, Jordan and OPT, could shrink as much as 80 percent by the end of the century.
Such drastic scarcity makes securing water supplies vital. The River Jordan rises in Mount Hermon, fed by tributaries in the Golan Heights and Shebaa Farms, and flows into the Sea of Galilee, also known as Lake Tiberius, before continuing south where it forms the boundary between Jordan, to the east, and the West Bank. After 320km it empties into the Dead Sea.
Major tributaries of the river include the Hasbani, which flows into Israel from Lebanon, and the Banias, which flows from Syria. The River Dan, which also supplies the River Jordan, is the only river originating in Israel.
 Photo: Hugh Macleod/IRIN |
| Women in the Shebaa Farms village of Kafr Shouba mourn the death of their son, a shepherd shot by Israeli soldiers in March 2006 after straying into the Blue Line area |
Water wars
The absence of hydro-diplomacy reflects conflict in the region. In 1965, Syria and Lebanon began the construction of channels to divert the Banias and Hasbani, preventing the rivers flowing into Israel. The Israelis attacked the diversion works, the first in a series of moves that led to a regional war two years later.
In 2002, when the Lebanese constructed a pipeline on the River Wazzani intended to supply households in southern Lebanon with water, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared the action a causus belli. In the July War of 2006, Israeli warplanes targeted southern Lebanon’s water network.
Bassam Jaber, a water expert at Lebanon’s Ministry of Energy and Water, argues the Shebaa is critical to Israel’s water needs, “especially because fresh water is critical when all sources within Israel are salty. The flows from the area help to regulate the saltiness of Lake Tiberius”.
And it is not just the direct overland flow that the Shebaa provides Israel. According to the Lebanese Water Ministry’s Comair, 30-40 percent of the River Dan’s water flows into it through underground supplies originating in the Shebaa. “Israel is worried that if Lebanon gains control of the Shebaa, it can then control the flow to the Dan river,” said Comair.
Hydro-diplomacy
As one of only eight states to have ratified the 1997 UN Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, Lebanon is calling on Israel to do the same.
“Israel is not a signatory to the relevant conventions on water, which is a big problem since they are at the centre of the issue of equitable use of water and reasonable sharing,” said Comair.
Israel has already shown that water can play a role in peacemaking. Its 1994 peace agreement with Jordan included a commitment to transfer 75 million cubic metres of water per year to Jordan in return for secure borders to the east.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Energy and Water is now calling for a regional water basin authority for the River Jordan, which would include Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and OPT. “How can you reach any agreements on the equitable sharing of international watercourses if there is no cooperation?” asked Comair.
 Photo: Annasofie Flamand/IRIN |
| A view from southern Lebanon across the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, from where the Jordan River rises |
Water solutions for all?
Not all are convinced Israel’s occupation of Shebaa is primarily about securing water.
“Water is no doubt one aspect of the socio-political conflict, but it is not the main driver,” said Mutasem el-Fadel, director of the Water Resources Center at the American University of Beirut.
He points to several projects currently being studied that could solve Israel’s water needs, without requiring continued occupation of the Shebaa, such as the Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal Project, the Mini-Peace pipeline from Turkey, wastewater reclamation plans and desalination projects.
“All combined they can be the water solution for all five countries in the area,” said el-Fadel.
But in the absence of hydro-diplomacy between Israel and Lebanon, the continued Israeli occupation of the Shebaa Farms will remain a key trigger to renewed conflict between the two countries.
“There will not be enough water for our generation or the next,” said Comair. “We will see social, economic, political and military conflicts – and in that order – within the next 20 years.”
hm/ed/cb Themes: (IRIN) Early Warning, (IRIN) Environment, (IRIN) Water & Sanitation [ENDS] Report can be found online at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86092
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Air & Water, Climate Change, Middle East Report, News Articles on September 11, 2009 - כ"ב אלול תשס"ט at 7:35 am
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