In response to a
query from The Jerusalem Post to KKL-JNF about the gala, members of the
international steering committee of KKL-JNF’s World Leadership Conference of
Presidents voiced their support for the event.
This year’s WLC, which
takes place biannually, will occur on June 14 through 20 and includes the June
17 gala as part of its activities.
“We members of the committee, the
organizer of the World Leadership Conference of Presidents of KKL-JNF from 40
countries around the world, have decided to join in an event organized by the
Peres Academic Center,” a statement from the group said. “The Peres Academic
Center in Rehovot invited Former US president Bill Clinton, came to financial
terms with him, and paid him, a long time before the representatives of the WLC
of Presidents of KKL-JNF were part of it.”
The $500,000 will be
contributed to the William J. Clinton Foundation, which finances global
initiatives on public health, climate change, economic equality, childhood
obesity and other environmental and health concerns.
“As KKL-JNF
contributors we have decided to take part in this event, seeing this as a unique
opportunity to increase fund-raising towards the land and people of Israel,
while recognizing the KKLJNF’s ‘green’ activities around the world,” the group
statement said.
“We would like to emphasize that our participation at the
event is fully financed by our own funds and we intend to raise $100 million for
projects in the State of Israel.”
The fund-raising will take place
throughout the course of the week-long WLC, the committee members
stressed.
Representatives of the Peres Academic Center meanwhile
responded that Clinton will be a guest of honor at this special tribute evening,
which will include many government officials, public figures and
dignitaries.
Contrary to previous reports, the gala evening will not
include fund-raising, and participants in the event – many of who are friends
and supporters of the academic center – will not need to pay for their entrance,
a statement from the center said.
“The Peres Academic Center in Rehovot
announced that due to the high demand for attendance all places have been
booked, and we thank everyone who was interested in joining and regret that
additional places cannot be confirmed,” the statement added.
So Clinton is coming here to promote 'green activities' around the world, including global
initiatives on public health, climate change, economic equality, childhood
obesity and other environmental and health concerns. The JNF is paying for him to come. And you thought the JNF was about reclaiming swampland and planting trees in Israel. Climate change? Obesity? What does that have to do with their little blue boxes to which Jews have given money all these years?
US energy workers moving to Canada, maybe they should consider Israel?
The Los Angeles Times reports that lots of workers in the US energy industry are moving to Canada, a trend that seems likely to accelerate in light of Hussein Obama's reelection (Hat Tip: American Power).
U.S. workers, Canada wants you.
Here in the western province of
Alberta, energy companies are racing to tap the region's vast deposits
of oil sands. Canada is looking to double production by the end of the
decade. To do so it will have to lure more workers — tens of thousands
of them — to this cold and sparsely populated place. The weak U.S.
recovery is giving them a big assist.
Canadian employers are swarming U.S. job fairs, advertising on radio and YouTube
and using headhunters to lure out-of-work Americans north. California,
with its 10.2% unemployment rate, has become a prime target. Canadian
recruiters are headed to a job fair in the Coachella Valley next month
to woo construction workers idled by the housing meltdown.
The
Great White North might seem a tough sell with winter coming on. But the
Canadians have honed their sales pitch: free universal healthcare, good
pay, quality schools, retention bonuses and steady work.
"California
has a lot of workers and we hope they come up," said Mike Wo, executive
director of the Edmonton Economic Development Corp.
For those who might be inclined to think about moving to Israel, Israel also has a need for energy workers. We are developing several natural gas wells offshore, and there is evidence of oil shale in the sands here as well. So if you're in the energy industry and have ever thought about aliya, this seems like a really good time to look into it seriously.
I know one reader who's going to love this post. It's a cartoon of Debbie Wasserman Schultz talking about the Obama administration's energy policy (which is to make you pay more and more and more to use your car).
$95 billion in natural gas discovered off Haifa coast
A joint US - Israeli drilling project has discovered $95 billion worth of deposits of natural gas off the Haifa coast.
The largest reserve of natural gas, over 16 trillion cubic feet, has been discovered off the coast of Israel, and is estimated to be worth more than $95 billion, U.S. company Noble Energy Inc. announced on Wednesday.
Noble Energy owns 39.66% of the prospective discovery, alongside Israeli partners Delek Group Ltd. units Avner Oil and Gas LP and Delek Drilling LP (22.67% each), and Ratio Oil Exploration (1992) LP with 15%.
The reserve, Leviathon, is the largest amount of natural gas discovered in the world in the last decade and is located in approximately 5,400 feet (1,645 meters) of water, about 130 kilometers offshore of Haifa and 29 miles (47 kilometers) southwest of the Tamar discovery.
Last year, Israeli company Isramco announced that reserves of natural gas have been discovered at its Tamar 1 offshore drill site 90 kilometers west of Haifa, making it the largest ever discovered in Israel until now - three times bigger than that of the "Yam Thetis" consortium and worth $15 billion.
Noble Energy CEO Charles Davidson said, "Leviathan is the latest major discovery for Noble Energy and is easily the largest exploration discovery in our history."
CEO of Delek Group Yoram Turbowitz said "it is a sense of success mixed with worry and concern, that we will not be able to utilize the huge discovery in our hands to its limits.
He added: "I hope that the strategic advantage and the enormous accomplishment that we have made here due to large financial and professional knowledge invested will be utilized to its fullest."
"Obviously we need to produce something from the Leviathon reserve, but it will demand enormous investments in infrastructure," he said, adding that "the state will need to assist with regulations, planning and accompanying what will become the largest infrastructure project in the country."
Noble Energy president and COO David L. Stover said, "This discovery has the potential to position Israel as a natural gas exporting nation. For nearly a year now, we have had a team evaluating market possibilities, which includes various pipeline and LNG options. It's our belief that the natural gas resources at Leviathan are sufficient to support one or more of the options being studied. We are excited to be leading the exploration and development in this new basin and look forward to determining the best development option."
This was the lead story on all of the nightly newscasts. It's very significant for us economically. It should lower energy costs and make us energy independent for many years to come.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
