==================

April 15, 2010

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General
========
The good news
-------------
Teva bought Ratiopharm, the largest generic company in Europe for $5 billion.
In the yearly science competition of high school students one group has develope
d a seeing eye dog robot and another group developed an unmanned sea cycle.
A new first: An Arab woman was appointed as an associate professor. This happene
d at Tel Aviv university.
Dr Yoram Levanon, the founder of Exaudios, studied for many years how voice into
nations betray emotions, and has developed software which can be used by phone a
nswering companies. He has recently received $1 million, the yearly prize for th
e best startup company.
The Israeli company Profiler1 has developed an algorithm that analyzes the perso
nality of a person from 3 facial photographs. The analysis is based on a large d
atabase of pictures and character analyses.
The largest Seder in Israel took place at Kibbutz Naan, with 1200 participants.
The kibbutz had been privatized but continues the tradition of a communal Seder.

The not so bad news

--------------------
Summer time started on March 26. Two somewhat rainy days followed. The Pessach w
eek had only one hot day and the rest had lovely Spring weather. About 1 million
persons visited Jerusalem and 2 millions visited the national parks. The Kinere
t beaches were free of charge, for the first time in 30 years, and 200,000 perso
ns filled them and left enormous amounts of garbage. It was reported that 0.5 mi
llion tons of garbage accumulated in the parks. (This would be 250 kg per person
visiting the parks. Absurd!)
In a popularity vote of their homes and neighborhood Rishon won first place, nex
t came Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Haifa received the 10th place with Bee
r Sheva, Petah Tikva, Bnei Brak and Ashkelon at the 11 to 15 positions.
For the first time since the last elections a public survey shows greater suppor
t for Forward than for the Likkud. A vote for the Knesset in mid March would hav
e resulted in: 32-Forward, 29-Likkud, 13-Liberman, 10-Shas, 8-Labor.
In a popularity survey for the job of Minister of Defence General Ashkenazi, the
chief of staff, received 44% and Ehud Barak received 25%.
Abner Netanyahu, son of, won the first place in the Israeli bible quiz, and will
compete in the international bible quiz.
Another USA-Israel crisis. A new tax on imported fish held up the import of gefi
lte fish from the US to Israel.
The Dead Sea Works employees received, in addition to the regular Passover gifts
, a special gift of a mobile computer. The Union head said: "I know that many of
our people do not know how to use a computer, but they may give it to their chi
ldren".
A wounded vulture was added to a group of two vulture families in the Carmel bir
d sanctuary. However, he turned out to show no interest in the females but in on
e other male, and was declared a homosexual by the park vet. In March, after 8 y
ears in the park he was seen to lay an egg. (The park vet did, too).
For the first time in 8 years, Kassam ridden sderot celebrated the Maimuna in op
en parks.

The not so good news

--------------------
A court order banning any news of a supposedly spying case, was busted by public
ations abroad, and only two weeks later the court cancelled the ban. It turned o
ut that Anat Kam, a 23 year old student, had copied, 3 years ago, at the end of
her army service, some documents to a disk, from the computer of the General of
the center, Nave. The documents showed that the army had been deliberately bypas
sing orders of the Supreme Court against indiscriminate firing. A few months ago
she gave the disk to the reporter Uri Blau. Uri Blau published this story. In t
he past he had published stories about business deals of Ashkenazi's son with th
e army, the flow of money into virtual companies owned by Ehud Barak's daughters
, the involvement of MP David Rotem in fake documents for buying lands at Beit E
l. The prosecution did not touch these cases, but Uri Blau was not loved by the
authorities.
Uri Blau refused to give up his sources but made a deal with the Shabak to retur
n secret documents in his possession and turn over his computer to the Shabak. T
he Shabak agreed not to use his material to find the leaker, but did not keep th
is deal. Anat Kam was interrogated and told everything. She was charged with tre
ason (liable to life imprisonment) and despite being so dangerous, the court put
her under house arrest. The Shabak claims that Uri Blau has more secret documen
ts, and started an attack on the media. Uri Blau was on vacation abroad, and dec
ided to extend his vacation till he was sure that he will not be charged with tr
eason (against the criminals he had exposed).
More details rolled out of the 6 months old case:
The army prosecutor and the Attorney General had investigated the documents publ
ished by Uri Blau and decided that the army had not disregarded the orders of th
e Supreme Court.
The judge in the case has criticised severely the Center General's security cont
rol of documents.
Anat Kam had asked a soldier friend to Burn a file of presentations and a file o
f documents to two disks. She used the disks to copy part of the material to her
computer, from which she gave most or all of the documents disks contents to Ur
i Blau. The two original disks had disappeared.
It took the Interior ministry (Controlled by Shas) 4 months to agree to change t
he address in the identity cards of a 118 year old man and his legless wife, at
East Jerusalem, without the couple's presence at a ministries office.
A bank robber who had been identified by security cameras, and his pictures were
 plastered over all the media, continued to rob banks on camera without being st
opped by the bank security or apprehended afterwards by the police. The police f
inally trapped him by a fake homosexual invitation to his Facebook account
The national inquiry committee that assessed the water policies of Israel produc
ed a harsh document accusing all past and present governments, the Treasury and
the water authority of mismanagement of the water in Israel.
In order to reach the bottom of the list of the 100 highest paid managers in pub
lic
companies in 2009, you have to earn 397,000 IS a month. The public rage continue
s, but the fat managers rule the roost. The Treasury opposes control or higher t
axes on high salaries, because the Treasury experts expect to become highly paid
managers in the future.
The manager of Bank Leumi gets a salary (not including bonuses) that is 330 time
s the salary of the bank cleaners. The new manager of Bank Hapoalim get double o
f that salary. MP Shelly Yehimovitch has proposed a law to limit the salaries of
managers to no more than 50 times of the lowest salary in that organization. Ot
her law proposals try to tie the salaries to the success of the company over a f
ew years. However, the fat cats manage to freeze all such proposals.
The Haifa religious council employs 160 Kosher inspectors and continues to fight
internally about who of its many top rabbies control this host.
The only building at Jerusalem in the Bibi list of 150 national monuments is the
old Turkish railway station. Unfortunately, it was built mainly of wood, and wa
s used by homeless persons. It caught fire in March and was severely damaged.
The Supreme Court decided (2:1) that Arabs in prison will have to eat Matzot in
Pessach.
Yigeal Amir's younger brother married the 17 year old Yigeal's step daughter (By
Larissa).
10 wild boars continue to roam gardens in Central Carmel, looking for food.
30,000 tons a year of dead fowls are thrown yearly in uninhabited areas in the N
egev. In the rare cases where the culprits are caught the fines by the courts do
not discourage them from continuing to foul the open spaces, which can be easil
y located by sighting the carrion eating birds that converge to the spots.
A secret (Secret no more) report by the Education ministry shows that 82% of the
grade schools use some of the hours that should be dedicated to core subjects,
particularly history and geography, to subjects that weigh more in the evaluati
on of schools. 35% of the teachers do not teach the subjects of their specialtie
s and 52% of the schools use the budgets for special children for other purposes
. THe report also confirmed that religious school were getting more government f
inancial support than non religious schools.
Although the distribution of gas masks through the post offices has started and
will take 3 years, the Rear command claims that in an emergency the rest of the
masks will be distributed in a few days. However it turned out that only half th
e masks are available now and 1.25 billion IS are required to manufacture the re
st. The more expensive masks for bearded persons are not available at all.
Turkish made sweat shirts were used in a campaign to buy blue-white (Israeli mad
e) goods.
Quotes
======
B. Michael: "There used to be in Jerusalem a single madman for each neighborhood
. Everyone knew him by name and by sight. Nowadays there is a single sane person
in each neighborhood."
Yediot:" The US is the central negotiator in any peace talks that will not take
place"
A headline: "Orange (A cell phone company) is buying Tapuz (An Internet portal)"
.
Miri Buhadna (Model, after her illegal servant was arrested):"How will I clean m
y large house for Pessach?"
Mike Herzog: "Mubarak told me that he wears Israeli made underwear, but without
labels".

Peace talks
===========
Merkel, the German PM, called Bibi and discretely reproved him for the plans to
build a new Jewish section in East Jerusalem. Bibi gave a speech in which he cla
imed that he had called Merkel and she had approved his position. Merkel publicl
y rebuked him. Bibi's wishful memory betrayed him again.
After Bibi signed a document promising the release of Palestinian prisoners, rem
oving more checkpoints in the West Bank, and opening wider the gates to Gaza in
order to obtain a meeting with Obama, he gave a speech in which he boasted that
Obama accepted his need to build in East Jerusalem (untrue) and did not mention
the paper he had signed, and which he intended to forget immediately.
Michael Handelsaltz: "Netanyahu decided that the Palestinians are not the proper
party for peace. Therefore, an international bid should be issued in order to f
ind which nation is best fitted to be the neighbor of Israel."

==========
Post Gaza
----------
A kassam was fired. One person was killed. the first casualty in a year in which
about 230 rockets and mortar shells have been fired from Gaza. A second Kassam
followed a few hours later. The air force retaliated by bombing 5 tunnels and an
arms workshop. Another rocket was fired afterwards. 4 Kassams were fired the ne
xt day. The air force bombed another tunnel and another Kassam was fired. More K
assams followed at the rate of 1-2 a day. The air force bombed 4 ammunition stor
es and labs but the trickle of Kassams and mortar shells continued.
==========

Ministerial tricks
------------------
The building of a rocket protected new emergency annex next to Barzilai hospital
at Ashkelon, had been frozen for two years, due to the discovery of two, non Je
wish, ancient graves at the site. On March 21 the government approved 11:10:2. (
8 ministers voted with their legs) to move the construction site 300 meters from
the hospital, at an extra cost of 135 million IS, in order to appease Vice mini
ster Litzman who threatened to resign. The few more enlightened rabbies oppose t
he idea, but Litzman is a follower of the Rebbe of Gur. The head of the Health m
inistry resigned in protest.
Bibi has appointed a committee of non-experts to study the subject, headed by th
e head of the PM office. The Supreme Court was asked to block the committee. Rum
ors flew that the committee will advise the return of the emergency annex to the
first location, next to the hospital. Litzman did not believe that this will be
the result. Public response was stormy and Bibi froze the decision a day later.
A search of the Hebrew Google for the term Netanyahu folded (hitkapel) found 62
,900 items. Bibi informed Litzman that he (the nominal minister of Health) oppos
es the move of the construction site. Litzman did not resign and is looking for
constructive ideas about cleaning the reptile (sheretz).
Archaeologists claim that Ashkelon was built over at least 400,000 ancient grave
s without a peep from the rabbies.

Awful Lawful
------------
The pseudo civil marriage law, for religion-less couples, passed third reading 5
9:4.
Shas and Tora MPs left the hall before the vote. A few scores, only, can benefit
from this law.
The bank of Israel law passed third reading (28:1) and Stanley Fisher declared t
hat he accepts the nomination for a second term. Fisher agreed to uncover the sa
laries in the Bank of Israel, and they turned out to be about double than the eq
uivalent posts in government service.
The Knesset approved in first reading the Nakba law. Any public institute that c
elebrates the Nakba day will be fined by 3 times the cost of the celebration. Th
e original proposal called also for 3 years in prison. (Nakba day is the reverse
of the Israeli Independence Day - a day of mourning for Israeli Arabs).
Ex-MP Haiim Ramon is pushing a law proposal which will prevent the sale of goods
at less than 50% of their cost. The law is directed against the free newspaper
of Sheldon Edelson which threatens Yediot, the newspaper with the largest circul
ation.

Politics
========
Right wingers fight any educational attempt to educate for equal rights of Arabs
and Jews in citizenship studies, and the Education ministry follows suit.
The government declared, at the instigation by minister Braverman, that it will
invest 800 million IS over 5 years in 12 Arab communities that include about 30%
of the Arab population. The other 70% are not happy. The Libermans opposed the
decision and called Braverman, the minister for minority affairs, the minister f
or no affairs.
MP Yuli Tamir, ex-minister of Education, one of the Labor rebels, resigned from
the Knesset. She will be replaced by ex-minister Raleb Majadla. Tamir will becom
e the president of Shenkar college.
Groups of young people have started a new national leftist party, based on the m
anifest written by Eldad Yaniv and Shmuel Haspari. The booklet together with a f
lag for cars were sold by the bookstores of Tsomet Sfarim for 1 IS, subsidized b
y a 100,000 IS gift from Yaniv. After threats by the extreme right Tsomet Sfarim
stopped distributing the booklet. 5000 booklets were sold so far and the other
15,000 will be distributed freely at universities and colleges. The manifest tri
es to combine a socialist approach with ending the conquest of the West Bank by
separation from the Palestinians with agreement, or without

The economic crisis

===================
Israel became the first country in which the stock market has passed the top lev
els before the crisis.

Economy
=======
The March inflation index rose by 0.1%
Movie theaters had been replaced years ago by movie clusters in malls. Now, thes
e are disappearing and are being replaced by movie cities, with 15 or more scree
ns, outside cities. The newest and largest is at Rishon with 26 screens, that co
st 450 million IS. It includes love halls, kids halls, scary halls, VIP halls, l
ecture halls, business class halls and a glass floor hall.
A "Reform" agreement was signed by the Broadcasting Authority (Not including the
reporters). The employees will get a raise of one grade + a 4% raise + a 5% cos
t of living adjustment, retroactive to 2008, and no firing in the next 7-10 year
s, except a number of persons who will retire this year. The employees concessio
n: They will sign time cards. The reporters signed a similar agreement a week la
ter. The result: No reform.
The students have signed an agreement with the Treasury. The students will get b
ack
100 million IS of their tuition payments (about 700 IS per students). The studen
ts agreed to a potential tuition raise in 3 years if the universities budget inc
reases proportionately by then.
A new report summarized the investment in construction in the West Bank:
858 public institutions, 717 industrial buildings, 555 schools and kindergartens
, 321 sports halls, 271 synagogues, 187 shopping centers, 21 libraries, 15 weddi
ng halls and 22,997 single family houses and 32,711 apartments. The total lengt
h of the roads built
for the settlers is 1.2 million sq.m. The cost of the public buildings is $0.5 b
illion, the roads $1.7, billion, the apartments $4.5 billion and the single home
s $4.5 billion.
The total cost so far $17.5 billion, (including many other items),most of it fro
m the public pockets to the settlers pockets.
Eldad Yaniv claimed that the governments, past and present, have wasted $100 bil
lion on the settlers at the West Bank.
The government will buy the privately built prison for 279 million IS.

Strikes
-------
The Haifa harbor employees. The want a bigger share of the shares of the harbor
when it is made into a public company.

Religion
========
Rabbi Ovadia Yoseph: "Only Jews live in Jerusalem. When the Messiah comes he wil
l destroy all the Goyim -Boom, Boom".
The rabbinate continues to prohibit cows from eating Chametz in the two weeks be
fore Passover. It now prohibits transport of flour to bakeries if it rains.
The Supreme Court was asked by a large group to force recalcitrant city rabbies
to
recognize marriages of converted Jews.
The Aguda school at Emmanuel continues to teach separately Sepharadi girls despi
te a Supreme Court order. Therefore, the Supreme Court ordered a fine of 5000 IS
a day for each day the separation continues.
The continuing scandals
=======================

2. Olmert
---------
A new multi million bribery case in Jerusalem that permitted the monster buildin
g on Holyland hill was uncovered. Key persons arrested were lawyer Uri Messer,
Olmert's ex-best friend and Uri Shitrit, the city engineer during Olmert's mayor
ship of Jerusalem.
The prosecution asked the court in Olmert's case to change the order of the case
s against Olmert, since Messer was supposed to give evidence in the first case.
Since Messer is the key witness in the first case against Olmert, the prosecutio
n asked the court to change the order of the cases. Olmert's lawyers, of course,
objected. The court decided to suspend the trial for one month and then to rest
art with a change of order.
The name of the most senior person in the bribery case was not disclosed, by cou
rt order, but was widely hinted by all media to be Olmert. In the draft of the i
ndictment, this unnamed person has received 3.5 million IS in bribes. The name o
f Olmert as the senior person in the bribery case was disclosed today. Olmert ha
s not yet been told, formally, that he is a suspect.
Ex-Mayor of Jerusalem, Uri Lupeliaski was arrested on suspicion of having receiv
ed bribes of over 3 million IS in the Holyland case.