News from Jerusalem

We must press Hamas

Two pressure levers can be utilized in order to prompt Hamas to free Gilad Shalit. However, our government is scared of criticism – mostly internal, followed by external pressure. What do I mean? We see various civil rights groups crying out in the face of every staged photo showing the “suffering” of Gaza residents. I’m not saying that many residents are not suffering. However, they chose to keep suffering.
 
Moreover, we are already us...

Smart Israeli ID project underway

Ministry of Interior awards HP with new ID contact, tasks company with manufacturing five million cards. Project estimated at $67.49; pends Knesset approval of biometric database bill

After a decade of deliberations and tenders, the Ministry of Interior has finally decided to award Hewlett-Packard with the "smart ID card" contract.

The smart ID is meant to allow every Israeli citizen to perform a variety of online functions pertaining to government bureaus, ...

FAO calls for new world order for agriculture

The World Food and Agriculture Organization's director-general Jacques Diouf has appealed to the world leaders to meet next year to design a new world agricultural order and find $30 billion a year to eradicate hunger from the Earth once and for all. Addressing a special session of the FAO’s 191-member-nation governing conference in Rome, he said the world summit was needed because, “after more than 60 years (since FAO’s foundation) it is essential ...

Teflon terrorists

Were it not for last week's Islamist battering of Mumbai, the big story in Israel would be Friday night's mortar attack from northern Gaza against an IDF base near Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Eight troops were wounded, two seriously. Doctors were forced to amputate the leg of one of the soldiers.

Hamas is planning for the next war. It wants to deter the IDF from interdicting its tunneling into Israel, and from blocking its placement of bombs along the border. When th...