Exploratory drilling in the Golan Heights?
I received this via email from a contact who lives in the Golan Heights:
In recent days, local residents of the south Golan have discovered
that a company called Afek Oil (headed by [former MK and high-ranking IDF officer] Effi Eitam) intends to begin
exploratory drilling for oil at ten sites in the south Golan at the end
of this month.
The company is actually a subsidiary of the
American firm Genie Energy which includes some big names such as Howard
Jonas (CEO), Dick Cheney, Rupert Murdoch and Lord Jacob Rothschild. They
are also involved in shale oil production in the Piceance Basin in
Colarado and in Emek Ella in Israel.
Somehow, Afek Oil seems to have secured all manner of
permits without the knowledge and involvement of the local residents
here.The local residents are in the process of launching a public
campaign to stop this (disclosure - including me: one of the sites is
literally outside our front gate).
Beyond the obvious environmental and public health
concerns, locals are worried about the effect on tourism. With the Golan
being relatively remote and employment here hard to come by, many rely
on tourism for their main or supplementary income (it is not uncommon
here for people to have two or three jobs a bit like crofters in
Scotland). The Golan 'brand' of clean air and water and unspoiled
landscapes is obviously at odds with Big Oil and with the somewhat
antiquated Israeli law dictates that if oil is found in exploratory
drilling, it must be exploited, so clearly the initial stage is more
than likely to be just the beginning.
People here are also very concerned about another
important aspect of this project. We are already in the cross-hairs of
the BDS movement and others seeing as we are perceived as 'occupied
territory'. Many of our businesses here which export abroad go to great
lengths to remain under the BDS radar. But there is no way that Syria,
the Arab League and the UN/EU are going to sit quietly whilst an
Israeli/American company drills for oil in the Golan Heights and the
resulting unnecessary publicity is liable to damage existing businesses
too.
It will of course also be yet another issue which
those of us involved in defending Israel in the international arena will
have to tackle.
In subsequent emails:
You might wish to add something about the glaringly obvious fact that
17m high drilling platforms two or three kilometers from a border now populated
with Al Qaeda linked terrorists seems to be pushing our luck too!
Details of the planning application can be found at the link below if you search according to the case number 21440/ג
Petition:
http://www.atzuma.co.il/golanyarok
Both of those links are in Hebrew.
Hmmm....
Labels: Dick Cheney, Golan Heights, oil and gas exploration, Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Miurdoch apologizes for anti-Semitic cartoon
The Sunday Times of London is
having a hard time coming up with a real apology for that
anti-Semitic cartoon in Sunday's edition, so owner Rupert Murdoch has apologized for them. See the tweet above.
Labels: anti-Semitism, Holocaust Memorial Day, Rupert Murdoch, Times of London
Murdoch: Nightmare for Israel if Obama wins
Here's another prominent supporter of Israel who sees a win by Barack Hussein Obama - God forbid - as a nightmare for Israel:
Rupert Murdoch.
“Nightmare for Israel if Obama wins,” he tweeted, adding, “Biden outright lied about personal relations with Bibi.”
The media mogul who’s company owns The Wall Street Journal, Fox News,
The New York Post and other major media assets, also included harsh
criticism for United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice and the White House, as well as advice for Mitt Romney in his tweets.
Murdoch has long been viewed as a friend of Israel and has been honored by a number of Jewish organizations. At the Innovate. Invest. Israel. Conference that took place just over a month ago in New York,
Murdoch recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, saying, “As far
as I’m concerned, what was right for King David is right for me.
Therefore, to me, Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Israel.”
Put it this way: It's sure not going to be a walk in the park for Israel if God forbid Obama wins.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, Rupert Murdoch
Murdoch fallout to hurt Israel?
I have largely ignored the growing scandal involving wiretapping allegations against employees of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp in England. Perhaps, I shouldn't ignore it. Despite the fact that News Corp is partly owned by the Saudi royal family, it owns some of the most pro-Israel mainstream media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal and Fox News Corp. Will Israel lose a strongly pro-Israel voice as a result of Murdoch's troubles? Israel's supporters in the English-speaking world say there is cause for concern.
Murdoch’s sudden massive reversal of fortune -- with 10 top former staffers and executives under arrest in Britain for hacking into the phones of public figures and a murdered schoolgirl, and paying off the police and journalists -- has supporters of Israel worried that a diminished Murdoch presence may mute the strongly pro-Israel voice of many of the publications he owns.
“His publications and media have proven to be fairer on the issue of Israel than the rest of the media,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice-chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. “I hope that won’t be impacted.”
Murdoch’s huge stable encompasses broadsheets such as The Wall Street Journal, the Times of London and The Australian, as well as tabloids, most notably The Sun in Britain and the New York Post. It also includes the influential Fox News Channel in the United States and a 39 percent stake in British Sky Broadcasting, or BSkyB, a satellite broadcaster. Murdoch founded the neoconservative flagship The Weekly Standard in 1995, and sold it last year.
Jewish leaders said that Murdoch’s view of Israel’s dealings with the Palestinians and with its Arab neighbors seemed both knowledgeable and sensitive to the Jewish state’s self-perception as beleaguered and isolated.
“My own perspective is simple: We live in a world where there is an ongoing war against the Jews,” Murdoch said last October at an Anti-Defamation League dinner in his honor. “When Americans think of anti-Semitism, we tend to think of the vulgar caricatures and attacks of the first part of the 20th century. Now it seems that the most virulent strains come from the left. Often this new anti-Semitism dresses itself up as legitimate disagreement with Israel."
Murdoch, 80, has visited Israel multiple times and met with many of its leaders. In 2009 he was honored by the American Jewish Committee.
“In the West, we are used to thinking that Israel cannot survive without the help of Europe and the United States,” he said at the AJC event. “Tonight I say to you, maybe we should start wondering whether we in Europe and the United States can survive if we allow the terrorists to succeed in Israel. “
Read the whole thing.
Curiously, there's a line in the story that Murdoch had Fox force Glenn Beck out due to
discomfort in the
Jewish community over Beck's
attacks on
Kapo George Soros. If that's true, it's a bit surprising, given that the last paragraph I quoted from the story could have been written by Beck.
Regardless, it would be a tremendous loss for Israel's cause if Murdoch were to be forced out of the media business. Let's hope it doesn't happen.
Labels: Fox News, Glenn Beck, News Corp, Rupert Murdoch, Wall Street Journal
400 rabbis urge Fox to sanction Glenn Beck
400 rabbis spent at least $100,000 for ads in the Wall Street Journal and the Forward on Thursday urging Fox News chairman
Rupert Murdoch to sanction Glenn Beck for 'attacks' on George Soros and to demand that news director Roger Ailes apologize "for his dismissive remarks about rabbis' sensitivity to how the Holocaust is used on the air."
The letter states, “In the charged political climate in the current civic debate, much is tolerated, and much is ignored or dismissed. But you diminish the memory and meaning of the Holocaust when you use it to discredit any individual or organization you disagree with. That is what Fox News has done in recent weeks, and it is not only ‘left-wing rabbis’ who think so.”
Mr. Beck’s three-day series defaming Holocaust survivor George Soros sparked the letter from rabbis. At that time, Mr. Beck claimed Mr. Soros survived the Holocaust as 14-year-old boy by collaborating with the Nazis to send other Jews to the death camps. Mr. Beck said, that Mr. Soros “used to go around with this anti-Semite and deliver papers to the Jews and confiscate their property and then ship them off. And George Soros was part of it. He would help confiscate the stuff. It was frightening. Here’s a Jewish boy helping send Jews to the death camps.”
Mr. Beck’s three-day attack on Mr. Soros was hardly the first time he has misused the Holocaust to incite viewers. The rabbis’ note Mr. Beck has made “literally hundreds of on-air references to the Holocaust and Nazis when characterizing people with whom [Beck] disagree[s].” Beck routinely compares American leaders to Nazis, has likened his crusade against progressives to that of “Israeli Nazi Hunters,” and has said that putting the “common good” first leads to “death camps.”
In the face of mounting criticism by Jewish groups, Fox News chief Roger Ailes dismissed criticism of Mr. Beck in an interview with the Daily Beast as nothing more than “left-wing rabbis who basically don’t think that anybody can ever use the word ‘Holocaust’ on the air.”
Apparently, these rabbis didn't bother to read what
Soros himself said about his wartime experiences. If they had, they would have discovered that Soros is a lot less genteel about his experiences than the rabbis are. Soros
dishes it out as well as he takes it - which is much better than the rabbis.
As to Ailes, I don't have the entire list of who signed the letter, but a look at what they say about it shows he's not far off.
The letter signed by rabbis from across the United States -- including the heads of the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements as well as prominent Orthodox rabbis – accuses Mr. Beck and Fox News Network head Roger Ailes of diminishing the memory and meaning of the Holocaust.
...
Lead supporters (organizational affiliation listed for purposes of identification only):
Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, Vice President, American Jewish University, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies
Rabbi Dan Ehrenkrantz, President, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Rabbi Daniel Nevins, Dean, Jewish Theological Seminary Rabbinical School
Rabbi Yael Ridberg, President, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association
Rabbi Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus, President, Central Conference of American Rabbis
Rabbi Steven Wernick, Executive Vice President, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President, Union for Reform Judaism
Notice - NO Orthodox leaders. So who are the 'prominent Orthodox rabbis'? Hint: Their names aren't Feinstein or Kotler or Solomon or Schachter or Tendler. (I'm not even naming Israeli rabbis). But their names might be
Schneier. So why is Ailes wrong?
Labels: Fox News, George Soros, Glenn Beck, Rabbis' letter, Roger Ailes, Rupert Murdoch
