Who are the Kurds?

Video Of The Week - IDF Veterans Organize Pro-Kurdish Protest - https://tinyurl.com/yxzywmry

15-10-2019

Between 25 and 35 million Kurds inhabit a mountainous region straddling the borders of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia. They make up the fourth-largest ethnic group in the Middle East, but they have never obtained a permanent nation state.

Where do they come from?

The Kurds are one of the indigenous peoples of the Mesopotamian plains and the highlands in what are now south-eastern Turkey, north-eastern Syria, northern Iraq, north-western Iran and south-western Armenia.

Today, they form a distinctive community, united through race, culture and language, even though they have no standard dialect. They also adhere to a number of different religions and creeds, although the majority are Sunni Muslims.

Why don't they have a state?

In the early 20th Century, many Kurds began to consider the creation of a homeland - generally referred to as "Kurdistan". After World War One and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the victorious Western allies made provision for a Kurdish state in the 1920 Treaty of Sevres.

Such hopes were dashed three years later, however, when the Treaty of Lausanne, which set the boundaries of modern Turkey, made no provision for a Kurdish state and left Kurds with minority status in their respective countries. Over the next 80 years, any move by Kurds to set up an independent state was brutally quashed.

It is in the interest of both Israel and the United States, for the security and stability of the region, that a Kurdish state be established.

The Kurds are the world's largest nation without a country, with a population of about 35 million people. They are an ancient people that share a special historical connection to the Jewish people.

The Kurds in general, and especially those who live in Turkey and northern Syria, are the most progressive and Western in that region. They are the main force that fought against ISIS and endured thousands of deaths, under a special joint leadership of men and women.

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Palestinians Steal Electricity

Video Of The Week-Israeli Innovation And Its Impact !! https://tinyurl.com/yxu8ssu9

For the full article go to Gatestone by Bassam Tawil 1-10-2019

     - Apparently, the Palestinians believe that they have a "right" to free electricity -- even if that leads to the collapse of their own electric company.

   - This conviction is in keeping with the longstanding Palestinian perception that someone else -- preferably Israel and Western donors, but basically anyone else -- should pay their way in the world, particularly their electricity bills.

    -Palestinian officials are using the electricity issue to incite not only the international community against Israel, but also their own people. These officials are telling Palestinians that Israel is seeking to punish Palestinians for no good reason, and that their anger should be directed against Israel, not against the electricity thieves or the Palestinian leadership.

   -The controversy surrounding the unpaid electricity debts is yet another example of the Palestinians' unceasing search for ways to blame Israel for self-inflicted miseries. Instead of assuming responsibility for the electricity theft and unpaid bills and taking punitive measures against the offenders, the Palestinians are doing what they do best: trying their utmost to convince the world that it is all Israel's fault.

For a long time now, many Palestinians have refused to pay their bills to the Arab-owned Jerusalem District Electricity Company (JDEC).

Many other Palestinians, taking a more direct line of theft, have been stealing electrical power from their company, a crime punishable by fines and/or incarceration in any country that respects law and order. The thieves do so by directly hooking to the power line ("cable hooking") or tampering with electric meters.

The JDEC purchases electricity from the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC), the largest supplier of electrical power in Israel. However, because of the electricity theft and widespread non-payment of electrical bills, the JDEC has not been able to pay its debts to the Israeli supplier, IEC.

On September 22, the IEC announced that it has begun cutting power supply to some Palestinian villages and cities in the West Bank to put pressure on the Palestinians to pay their debt of 1.7 billion shekels (about $483 million). The IEC has been trying for years to collect the debt, which over the years has continued to grow. While there has been sporadic payment of some of this debt, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has not forwarded any money to the Israeli company since January 2019, when Israel cut by about half the money it transfers to the Palestinians because of the salaries the PA pays to families of terrorists.

While the Palestinians openly admit that their company loses millions of dollars each year because of the non-payment and electricity theft, they are at the same time claiming to the world that Israel is imposing "collective punishment" on them by cutting the power supply. The Palestinians, in short, are asking the international community to condemn Israel for daring to demand that they pay their debts for the electricity they purchase from the IEC.

This Palestinian audacity ("wakaha" in Arabic) reached its peak when the chairman of the JDEC, Hisham Omari, met this week with United Nations officials in Jerusalem to complain about Israel's decision to cut off the power supply to some Palestinian areas in the West Bank. Omari was quoted as accusing Israel of imposing "collective punishment" on the Palestinians and warning that the Israeli move would have "grave repercussions."

In the eyes of the chairman of the Arab electricity company, his company's failure to pay its debts to Israel is an issue that needs to be brought before the UN. Obviously, Omari did not tell the UN officials he met with about the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have not been paying their bills or who are stealing power from the JDEC. This embarrassing detail might distract from their attempt to blame Israel for daring to demand the payment of the electricity debts.

In the context of the Palestinians' effort to exploit the controversy over their electricity debt to incite their people against Israel, Thafer Milhem, head of the Palestinian Energy and National Resources Authority, went as far as claiming that Israel's attempt to collect the debt was part of the Israeli government's "systematic policy of pressuring President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian government to comply with Israeli dictates." Milhem said that the Palestinians have contacted several international parties to complain about the Israeli company's decision to cut off power supply to some Palestinians. He, too, accused Israel of imposing "collective punishment" on the Palestinians by insisting that they pay their debt.

The Palestinian officials' attempt to internationalize the controversy over their unpaid debt to the IEC is part of a larger and ongoing effort to deceive the international community into believing that Israel is "punishing" the Palestinians for no good reason. Sadly, the attempt to hold Israel responsible for the crisis is based on lies and deception.

The Palestinians themselves admit that rampant theft of electricity and the widespread failure of Palestinians to pay their bills is the main reason behind the crisis. Yet, the Palestinians feel a bit queasy about telling the world that they are stealing electricity from their own company.

The JDEC chairman, Omari, who demanded UN intervention to force Israel to continue supplying power to the Palestinians despite their debt, was recently quoted as admitting that his company was facing a financial crisis because of its inability to force Palestinians to stop stealing electricity and start paying their bills.

Omari revealed that "large Palestinian consumers" owed his company 100 million shekels (about $28.6 million). He said that Palestinian consumers' total debts to his company were estimated at 800 million shekels (about $229 million). More than half of the debt belongs to Palestinians living in refugee camps, where consumers have long been stealing electricity and refusing to pay their bills, he said.

Attempts by the JDEC to collect money for unpaid bills in West Bank refugee camps have been met with violence. JDEC employees who entered the camps to collect debts or cut off power to consumers are often threatened and beaten. The Palestinian security forces have done almost nothing to help the company or its employees.

Omari also criticized Palestinian courts for failing to deal with Palestinians who are stealing electricity and refusing to pay their bills. "Some of the Palestinians [in the refugee camps] place private guards near electricity generators to prevent the company employees from cutting the power," he said. "Others block the panels with chains or rocks so that we cannot open them..." He warned that the continued electricity theft and refusal to pay bills "threatens the existence of the [Arab electricity] company."

Palestinian officials are using the electricity issue to incite not only the international community against Israel, but also their own people. These officials are telling Palestinians that Israel is seeking to punish Palestinians for no good reason, and that their anger should be directed against Israel, not against the electricity thieves or the Palestinian leadership.
Addressing its Palestinian customers, the Arab electricity company claimed that Israel's effort to collect the debt is part of an Israeli scheme to take control of the company and "Judaize" the Arab neighborhoods and institutions in east Jerusalem. The Arab company's message to Palestinians who are stealing electricity and refusing to pay their bills is: "If you find yourselves without electricity, you should blame only Israel."

Apparently, the Palestinians believe that they have a "right" to free electricity -- even if that leads to the collapse of their own electric company. This conviction is in keeping with the longstanding Palestinian perception that someone else -- preferably Israel and Western donors, but basically anyone else -- should pay their way in the world, particularly their electricity bills.

The controversy surrounding the unpaid electricity debts is yet another example of the Palestinians' unceasing search for ways to blame Israel for self-inflicted miseries. Instead of assuming responsibility for the electricity theft and unpaid bills and taking punitive measures against the offenders, the Palestinians are doing what they do best: trying their utmost to convince the world that it is all Israel's fault.

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UN REPORT ALARMED BY GROWING ANTISEMITISM

Video Of The Week - Israeli FM addresses the UN - https://tinyurl.com/yxrq5l3j

For the full article go to J.Post - https://tinyurl.com/y6kbfcu7

The United Nations finally admitted that the virulently anti-Israel BDS movement is a significant cause of Jew-hatred worldwide.

By United With Israel Staff

On Monday, the United Nations (UN) released an interim report by Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed that blasts the UN for its stance on BDS and exposes the movement’s role in promoting anti-Semitism.

The report, called “Combating Anti-Semitism to Eliminate Discrimination and Intolerance Based on Religion or Belief,” was presented to the Human Rights Council following recent addresses by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on anti-Semitism and religious freedom.

It discusses the “growing use of anti-Semitic tropes by white supremacists including Neo-Nazis and members of radical Islamist groups,” and slams “‘left-wing’ anti-Semitism [that] employ[s] anti-Semitic narratives or tropes” to criticize Israel.

The report concludes that “that the objectives, activities and effects of the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement are fundamentally anti-Semitic.”

Shaheed included, however, that “international law recognizes boycotts as constituting legitimate forms of political expression and that non-violent expressions of support for boycotts are, as a general matter, legitimate speech that should be protected.”

But, he stressed that “expression which draws upon anti-Semitic tropes or stereotypes, rejects the right of Israel to exist, or advocates discrimination against Jewish individuals because of their religion should be condemned.”

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Israel Can Be 'Wiped Out In Half A Day'

Video Of The Week - Iranian Threats on Israel and US - https://tinyurl.com/y29gfwyq

Article from Radio Farda, 22-09-2019, https://tinyurl.com/y6fddhbq

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative to Khorassan Province and the Friday Prayer Imam of Mashhad, firebrand cleric Ahmad Alamolhoda says "Iran is no longer limited to its borders."

In a sermon Alamolhoda said, "Iraqi Hashd al-Sha'bi, Lebanese Hezbollah, Yemeni Ansarallah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas in Palestine and the Syrian Homeland Front are all part of Iran."

Iranian media did not cover Aamolhoda's radical comments on Friday September 20, although all sermons delivered in major Iranian cities were extensively covered by the government-controlled media on Friday and Saturday.

Alamolhoda's official website covered the full text of his strongly-worded Friday prayers sermon on Saturday and some foreign monitoring agencies also published parts of it.

Mashhad Friday Sermon by Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda: The PMU, Hizbullah, Ansar Allah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Are All Iran; We Can Destroy Israel in Half a Day

Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hossein Nasrallah has said in the past that all of the group's activities and equipment were funded by the Islamic Republic.

However, this is the first time an Iranian official so close to Khamenei makes such a radical statement, particularly now that one of the groups mentioned by Alamolhoda, the Houthi Ansarollah in Yemen is alleged by Iran to be behind the attacks on Saudi oil facilities.

Alamolhoda said the groups are part of Iran and "regional resistance" and Khamenei is the Imam and the supreme guide of the "resistance."

Meanwhile, Alamolhoda warned against any military action against Iran and said: "In case of any aggression against Iran, Israel will be totally demolished within half a day."

"Iran is located to your North and South. Isn't Southern Lebanon the same as Iran? The drones that demolished Saudi Arabia came from Yemen. Isn't that Iran? Wherever in the region there is a resistance fighter, that is Iran," said Alamolhoda.

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Worldwide Water Crisis

       

VIDEO Of The Week - Is the world going into a water crisis? https://tinyurl.com/y2j7rrlu

Israel 21 C, By Abigail Klein Leichman - For the full article go to -  https://tinyurl.com/yyjsuhzk

A visit to the country’s largest desalination and wastewater-treatment plants reveals smart technologies and policies to keep the water running.

Israel has solved its water crisis! That’s a typical headline about Israel’s world-leading smart water management and advanced water technology.

Five years into a severe drought, it’s more accurate to say that Israel is constantly inventing and implementing practical solutions to a problem that is not entirely solvable.

Due to climate change, Israel’s October-to-March rainy season has been reduced to a handful of torrentially rainy days, causing most of the precious liquid to be lost to runoff. The North’s waterways are no longer an abundant trickle-down source for much of the country; the Sea of Galilee is approaching its lowest-ever level.

Since 2005, wastewater reclamation and seawater desalination have become key in assuring an adequate supply — 2.1 billion cubic meters annually — to Israeli households, industry and agriculture.

Some 31 percent of irrigation water originates from wastewater treated at more than 150 plants. Treated brackish water (not as salty as seawater) is supplied from 45 plants for both agricultural and non-agricultural needs.

Sixty to 80% of Israel’s municipal water, adjusted according to season and real-time demand, flows from large coastal desal plants in Sorek, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Palmachim and Hadera.

“In 2014, we thought we had enough [desalinated water] capacity, 600 million cubic meters, that it didn’t matter how much [rain] God will supply in the winter,” says Yaacoby, chief of staff to the CEO of Mekorot, Israel’s national water carrier. “That was a mistake. We are lacking 100 million to 200 million cubic meters of water per year in Israel these days.”. Two more desalination plants are to be completed in the next few years. “Altogether, in 2025 we will be getting 1.1 billion cubic meters of desalinated water,” Yaacoby says.

Sorek, world’s largest desal plant

Operational since 2013, Sorek is the largest seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant in the world. It is operated for the government by water-treatment pioneer IDE Technologies, established in 1965 by Technion-trained scientists. IDE is now a multinational company with 400 desal and wastewater treatment installations in more than 40 countries.

Mekorot distributes the desalinated, quality-tested water (after essential minerals have been re-added) to 57 municipal water utilities throughout Israel. From Sorek, it costs about 55 cents per cubic meter; somewhat more from the other four plants.

By comparison, it costs 10 cents to get a cubic meter of freshwater from Israel’s natural sources – whose supply is fast declining. In some other countries, desalinated water costs as much as $3 per cubic meter.

Desalination normally uses chemicals, which present an environmental problem when the brine is discharged back to the sea. IDE uses chemical-free biological and physical processes customized for each installation.

To avoid harming the little fish and fish eggs that pass through the screens on the intake pipes bringing in 40,000 cubic meters of seawater per hour, IDE is developing “nursery” tanks where the creatures are harbored until they choose to swim back to their habitat via rotating doors.

Wastewater reclamation

Covering 250 acres, Shafdan is the biggest wastewater treatment plant in a country that recycles more water (85-90%) than anywhere else. The reclaimed water, which is close to drinking quality, is pumped to Negev farms for irrigation. Shafdan uses biological and mechanical means to treat all sewage effluent from the Dan (Greater Tel Aviv) region, home to approximately 250,000 to 300,000 people, Shafdan, established in 1955, receives 470,000 cubic meters of raw sewage daily. Reclaiming the water from this sewage supplies 140 million cubic meters to Israeli farms annually just from this one facility.

Clouds and leaks

Mekorot’s WaTech runs several R&D centers that collaborate with industry and academia. One of these centers is at Shafdan, where there is an urgent need for more compact treatment methods in order to free up some of the valuable real estate on which the plant sits. A variety of pilot projects will determine the best path forward.

Cloud seeding was once thought a promising procedure for squeezing more rain from the skies. But experiments have been disappointing so far. Right now there is only one small cloud-seeding experiment over the Sea of Galilee.

That sea – actually a lake, called the Kinneret in Hebrew — today supplies a mere 50 million cubic meters of water to area villages in Israel and 50 million to Jordan every year. There is a new plan to take desalinated seawater from the new plants to enrich the Sea of Galilee by 2030,

More helpful in boosting available water supply is Israel’s exceptionally low rate of leakage, he adds. In most countries, an average of 30% of expensive treated water is lost through leakage before reaching customers. “Israel’s leakage rate is lowest in the world, on average 7-8%,” says Yaacoby. This is partly because Israel’s distribution infrastructure is relatively young and isn’t subject to extreme temperature fluctuations that can burst pipes.

The Israeli startup Utilis

 is revolutionizing leak detection, using satellite-mounted radar — developed originally to find water on Mars and Venus — to map out where drinking water is escaping from the system. Since 2016, Utilis technology has been employed in 27 countries including China, US and UK.

Assuring a wet future

While Israeli knowhow and technology have a well-deserved place in the world spotlight, conservation and awareness are critically important in assuring adequate and affordable water, emphasizes Oded Distel, director of Israel NewTech in the Ministry of Economy and Industry.

“Whatever we eat or wear is tightly connected to water consumption,” he says. “Every cup of coffee takes 130 liters to produce from the phase of growing the beans to our cup. A pair of jeans takes 1,320 liters. One kilogram of steak takes 15,400 liters.”

The coming generation will only have enough access to safe water if countries stop wasteful practices like flood irrigation, get leakage under control, and incentivize conservation by charging consumers the actual cost of water.

“People have long expected to get water for free, and that is a big obstacle to building sustainable systems and leads to people not getting any water or low-quality water. When people pay for something it has a value and they are motivated to use it more efficiently.”

Distel believes Israel can serve as a role model for its reliable, sustainable, centralized water system in an arid land where there is no private ownership of water and everyone gets a monthly water bill.

“The outcome is that wherever you are in Israel, when you open the tap you get high-quality drinking water, which is not something that happens everywhere in the world,” Distel says.

Click here to find out about WaterLine, Israel NewTech’s English-language podcast dealing with water issues in the global arena.

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REAL Co-Existence In The Jordan Valley

Video Of The Week - REAL Co-Existence - Arab And Jewish Medics- https://tinyurl.com/y6jvrzbl

ISRAEL21c visits Israeli farm country, where a revived and thriving agriculture industry benefits Jewish and Arab residents.

By Abigail Klein Leichman  19-9-2019

They couldn’t believe we were living on a rocky hill. They said, ‘You cannot eat from this land! You won’t last long.’ But now my grandchildren are here too,” Rozenblum told a group of journalists in the herb-packing house at Moshav Naama, an agricultural community of 50 families.

Premium Medjoul dates are the main crop grown on the 21 Israeli communities of the Jordan Valley, including Moshav Naama. According to the Israel Plants Production and Marketing Board, farms in the Jordan and Arava valleys provide the majority of the Medjoul dates in the world market.

“Thirty-five years ago, you didn’t see one date here. It was all desert,” says Rozenblum.

The pioneers used Israeli agricultural advances, including drip irrigation with purified wastewater, to turn the valley into an oasis of date orchards, reviving a crop that thrived here in biblical times.

Long since moved off the hilltop, Moshav Naama has 5 hectares (about 12.5 acres) of date palms, annually producing between 50 and 70 tons of fruit sold through cooperatives under various brand names.

The families here also grow herbs, organic vegetables and table grapes. Rozenblum’s son raises tropical fish for export.

Not only did the original residents happily prove their friends in Jericho wrong, but they shared their cultivars and ag-tech expertise. As a result, several Jericho families were able to revitalize the city’s prosperous ancient date industry that had lain dormant for many years despite its abundant natural springs, Rozenblum says.

Ruled by Jordan from 1949 to 1967, and by Israel from 1967 to 1994, Jericho now is administered by the Palestinian Authority. Israeli citizens may enter only with a special permit.

But the warm working relationships forged in the 1980s and early 1990s continue to bear fruit. Jericho residents are among the 6,000 to 9,000 Palestinian Arabs – depending on the season — who rely on the Israeli farms of the Jordan Valley for employment.

Harvesting and packing dates, peppers, grapes, herbs and even pineapple in these 21 communities pays double the money they would earn doing agricultural work in Palestinian villages, Rozenblum says.

Jordan Valley Regional Council Mayor David Alhayani puts it this way: “We want them to work with us and they want to work with us.”

On his own farm, Rozenblum grows sweet basil and tarragon all year in greenhouses.

Because temperatures in the Jordan Valley can climb to 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) on summer days, the packing house is air-conditioned to keep workers comfortable while they sort and box the herbs for export.

“We ship via air to Europe, the United States, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan. By the next day it’s in the supermarket,” says Rozenblum.

In the past few years, a new crop of young Israelis began moving to the area, some of them returning to where they were raised. Although 70% of adults in the Israeli Jordan Valley communities work in agriculture, not all the newcomers are interested in farming.

“It’s a wonderful place to live and to raise children, and we are only 45 minutes from the center of Jerusalem and one and a half hours from Tel Aviv,” says Rozenblum. “Our children are coming back for the quality of life.”

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