Israel beats Egypt to the punch on selling electricity to Europe

(Carl) A new Israeli electrical plant being built in Ashdod is to be used to export electricity to Europe via Cyprus and Crete - and the Egyptians are seething about it. Calling the project Israel's "High Dam," after Egypt’s major Nile dam and electrical power station, the reports note that the project will receive joint European-American funding. The project will both aid Israel in reducing its dependence on gas imports and allow the Jewish state to export electricity to Cyprus and Europe.

The Israel Electric Company (IEC) and Greece's DEH Quantum Energy are expected to sign the MOU in a few weeks' time. This will lead to a feasibility study, which will be followed – if all goes well – by ratification of the project by the Israeli and Cypriot governments, in the course of 2012.
The cable will be 270 km. long. Another cable will connect Cyprus and Crete, which is part of the Greek electricity grid. An MOU for the longer cable has already been signed between Greece and Cyprus.
According to the Egyptian newspaper Rose al-Youssef, both former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and businessman Hussein Salem, owner of the company in charge of exporting Egypt's gas, who is currently a fugitive in Spain, knew about this project when they signed deals with the Israeli government.
The closeness of Israel to Cyprus and Greece helped make the High Dam project more feasible, since Israel will be linked to the Cypriot and Greek electricity networks with 53,000 kilometers of connections under the sea to European shores, and is later expected to extend for another 600 kilometers inside European territories.
The electricity generated by the High Dam will provide more than 10 European countries with an electric power estimated at 2,000 megawatts and will reach 4,000 megawatts by 2020.
Israel made information about the dam project available to the majority of European countries involved, but did not notify Egypt, Rose al-Youssef claimed.

Heh.

Samaria in a sewage stalemate

Jooos Good For Terrorists to POOP ON! - Ecological Intifada (Image: Sewage west bank part of Israel complains of Palestinian ecological damage) - (SHARON UDASIN - The Jerusalem PostIMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis - Website: www.imra.org.il via WritingTW) All but one of 22 Palestinian villages refuse connection to sewage line, Environmental Protection Ministry says. Swirling in the strikingly green valley below the southern Samaria community of Nofim is a rambling stream amid grass and trees – filled with dangerous quantities of sewage.A subterranean sewage pipe connects to the underbellies of four of the five
surrounding settlements – Nofim, Yakir, Etz Ephraim and Sha’arei Tikva – and will within a few months also connect to that of Ma’aleh Shomron, bringing all of the effluent to a treatment facility in Eliyahu.
Despite Israeli offers to connect the 22 surrounding Palestinian villages to the same pipe, all but one of them refused the proposal, Environmental Protection Ministry and Shomron Regional Council officials explained during an exclusive tour of the area on Thursday.
Instead, their sewage flows into the aquifer below and ends up directly in the stream, according to the officials.
“That’s a testament to the fact that we are doing everything we can to prevent pollution in Judea and Samaria, but nevertheless, the Palestinians refuse to cooperate,” Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan told The Jerusalem Post during the tour.
Although planned about 15 years ago, the pipeline was only constructed about eight years ago, and a decade ago sewage from the settlements as well flowed directly into the stream, according to Shomron Environmental Association director Itzik Meir. Erdan expressed hope that donor countries would agree to only continue giving the villages financial support if they agree to connect to the sewage pipeline. Meanwhile, he also said he hoped that the relationship between the local Palestinian and Israeli communities would improve, though he certainly has doubts about this matter.
“Hopefully I will be surprised,” he said.

Piece Activist

When the leader of Palestine AKA Abbas AKA Abu Mazen speaks at the U.N., when he isn't talking about his fake Piece, he is usually tipping his hat to Al Gore and the lemmings in America by talking about a clean environment. You would think with all the U.S tax payer dollars going to the Muslims in Israel to prop up a fictional Nazi State called Palestine that he would do something about this. ...but the problem is that the Muslims don't love their land. They just don't want the Jews to have it.“It’s important for me to reveal whether they’re making political use of water,” Erdan said. “Or maybe it’s a problem of misunderstanding – but that is hard for me to believe.”
Another Environment Ministry official was slightly more optimistic, explaining that one of the 22 villages had, in fact, recently agreed to hook up to the sewage pipe, a deal that would be finalized in a few weeks time. The official said he could not reveal the name of the village at this point. Yet a third official told the Post he suspected that the local Palestinian governments were unwilling to connect their villages due to “political
reasons” – simply “because they don’t want to recognize Israel as a presence in the area.”
The Palestinian Water Authority could not be reached by press time.

Shit!

Brazil Moves Away from Iran

(Portrait of the president as a young Marxist guerrilla News of the Restless) A young Dilma Rousseff, being interrogated by the Brazilian military junta in the 1970s. She looks pretty fearless and pugnacious, no? Here’s the story behind the picture, courtesy of Cubadebate:

(stonegateinstitute.org | by Anna Mahjar-Barducci)
Relations between Brazil and Iran are shaky. In an interview with the Brazilian paper Folha de Sao Paulo, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, who has worked as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's top media adviser, declared that the Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff, is distancing herself from Iran. Javanfekr actually accused Rousseff of having ruined the relations between Iran and Brazil that former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula managed to build. "The Brazilian president has been striking against everything that Lula accomplished. She destroyed years of good relations," Javanfekr said. In another interview with the state-run Iranian agency, IRNA, Javanfekr said: "Brazil's new president has newly taken over the post and should be given enough time to gain a better understanding of Iran-Brazil relations and the previous administration's efforts to strengthen ties."
Under the Lula's presidency, in 2010, in a deal brokered with Turkey and Brazil, Iran signed an agreement to send uranium abroad for enrichment. In the agreement, Iran announced its readiness to swap 1,200 kg of its low-enriched uranium for 20% enriched fuel on Turkish soil. The deal failed, however, after the U.S. rejected it. The same year, Rousseff was elected as the Brazilian President and relations between Iran and Brazil stopped being so friendly. The reason was Rousseff's support of a U.N. investigation on human rights abuses in Iran, an initiative led by Washington. As reported by the New York Times, the decision was viewed as a shift from Lula's previous relations with Tehran.
Al-Jazeera noted that even during the electoral campaign, Rousseff, whenever asked about Iran, would say that for her, human rights would come before business – a thought that seems to have made the Iranian government uncomfortable. In 2011, when the Iranian regime realized that the new Brazilian President would not be friendly to Iran as her predecessor had been, the Iranian ambassador in Brazil commented that Rousseff was "badly informed" about events in Iran. "Rousseff," wrote Al-Jazeera, "who was tortured in her youth at the hands of Brazil's dictatorship, and has risen to be Brazil's first woman president, had given signs all along she wanted to cool off relations with Iran. Cooling? No. She now appears to be dumping a bucket of ice water on it. Freezing it."
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast said that Iran attaches great significance to relations with Brazil, and dismissed the remarks on Tehran-Brasilia ties attributed to Presidential media adviser Javanfekr, saying they were misinterpreted: "Iran attaches high significance to its relations with Brazil as the largest Latin American country and an emerging global power. In line with this fact, interactions and negotiations between the two countries are following their normal trend; no change has been made to Tehran's attitude toward its relations with Brasilia," Mehmanparast added that "relations between Iran and Brazil have a history of more than 110 years. It seems that certain media outlets and third countries are not happy about good relations between Iran and Brazil and have desperately resorted to a media campaign."
Brazilian media, however, that the Iranian government is indeed extremely irritated with Rousseff, and that in revenge to the new Brazilian policy the Iranian government is making the life of Brazilian businessmen difficult. The Brazilian paper Folha de Sao Paulo reported that the Iranian government put restrictions on Brazilian meat exporters. The Brazilian multinational JBS, for example, kept thousands of tons of bovine meat on hold for three weeks in an Iranian port. The paper also claims that Iranian meat importers reported that the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter to customs ordering limits on the entry of Brazilian products to Iran.
After the interview released by Ahmadinejad's adviser criticizing Rousseff, the Iranian President declared his intention to visit Brazil in the near future. The Iranian government also stressed that Ahmadinejad would come to Latin America only to meet with Rousseff and not with other leaders in neighboring countries.
The Iranian President nevertheless just came back from a tour in Latin America that brought him to Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Ecuador, and that intentionally did not include Brazil. Ahmadinejad, however, apparently now feels it was a mistake to neglect Brazil, the largest country in South America and one with a rising economy. The Iranian president apparently hopes once again to charm the Brazilian government, which could be an important political and economic partner. Under Lula's presidency, in fact, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that among the Latin American countries, Brazil was the largest trading partner of Iran. Data also shows that in 2008, Iran's trade with Latin America tripled to $2.9 billion.
While the Iranian government hopes to revive the lost friendship, the Brazilian government seems to hope that the Ahmadinejad's trip to Brazil will not happen so soon. The website "Brazil Dispatch" reported that Brazilian commentators "rejoiced that Brazil had been spared the embarrassment of hosting Ahmadinejad during his recent tour of Latin America." Political commentator Sergio Leo, writing in the newspaper Valor Economico, pointed out that Ahmadinejad's decision not to visit Brazil during his recent Latin American trip was welcomed by the Brazilian government. Leo commented that Brazil's relief at not being approached was exorbitant. The main issue, according to local media, was that while Rousseff seems unwilling to compromise on human rights, the Iranian government is equally unwilling to respect them. This is why for Ahmadinejad now, any rapprochement with Brazil will not be easy.

It takes a Marxist to know a Marxist and the Left

Abbas Blocks Young Leadership, Ensuring Hamas Victory

Fatah leaders in the West Bank Judea and Samaria announced this week that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is their only candidate for the presidential election expected to take place in May 2012.

Fatah will never regain the confidence of a majority of Palestinians unless it paves the way for young activists to rise to power. The Palestinians are not stupid and they are not going to vote again for the same Fatah candidates they voted out in the 2006 parliamentary election. Fatah's failure to reform and inject fresh blood into its veins is a guaranteed recipe for a Hamas victory in any election.
(stonegateinstitute.org)

Report: Dempsey told Israel US won't join 'unauthorized' attack

(Carl) United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey told Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Barak this week that the United States will not join in an 'unauthorized' Israeli attack on Iran, according to a report in the Left-leaning Inter Press Service.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey told Israeli leaders Jan. 20 that the United States would not participate in a war against Iran begun by Israel without prior agreement from Washington, according to accounts from well-placed senior military officers.
Dempsey's warning, conveyed to both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, represents the strongest move yet by President Barack Obama to deter an Israeli attack and ensure that the United States is not caught up in a regional conflagration with Iran.
But the Israeli government remains defiant about maintaining its freedom of action to make war on Iran, and it is counting on the influence of right-wing extremist views in U.S. politics to bring pressure to bear on Obama to fall into line with a possible Israeli attack during the election campaign this fall.

There have been no reports in either Israeli or US media regarding what was said in Dempsey's meetings here. Frankly, I have doubts as to how much credence to give this report. DEBKA is telling a very different story.

it's just libel... even if it were true. it's the crowd accusing others of being Israel First. They sound like Pharaoh

#OWS #Occupy Oakland chapter votes to support #BDS #pennBDS

(h/t Like4Israel)(JPost) The Oakland, Calif., chapter of the Occupy movement overwhelmingly endorsed a proposal in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.
According to Twitter accounts by pro-Palestinian activists pushing the proposal, the statement won nearly unanimous backing in a vote Wednesday following a brief discussion. A lengthy statement on the Occupy Oakland website attacked US aid to Israel and suggested that Israel had "prodded" the United States into the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Oakland branch of the Occupy movement, which focuses on what it sees as economic discrepancies in the United States, has become increasingly visible for its refusal to repudiate violent action and clashes with the police. Last month, members of the movement broke into the Oakland City Hall and set fire to public property, including an American flag. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the branch's actions have caused a schism within the movement.

At Indianapolis strip club, the dancers have Big Blue fever

If I wanted to look at asses I would of rooted for the Cowboys

(Robert Sabo/NY Daily News) Janay Council, Kendra Gill (in Manning jersey), Jeannie Williams, Spencer (in Cruz jersey) and Jessica Moody prepare in the dressing room.

Documentary exposes the downside of wind power

(Louis Armstrong - Blue Yodel No.9 (1997, "The Complete RCA Victor Recordings 1932-56")

(americanthinker.com)We hear a lot from the President, his environmental allies, and crony capitalists regarding the wonders of wind energy. Obama's favorite crony capitalist, who is also a prominent supporter, heads up General Electric, a prime beneficiary of the wind power subsidies, grants, and mandates that have poured forth from the federal government ever since the president took power. These subsidies -- giveaways -- will be severely cut back at the end of this year unless Congress and the President extend them.
Now comes a documentary " Windfall" that reports on the many downsides from wind power development that you will not hear about from its promoters: neighbors suffering from the effects of these towers and their spinning propellers, among them. But the problems go beyond the "whopping, whopping" and strobe effect of the blades rotation. The movie is a revelation about the dark underside of green energy. These schemes might enrich their promoters who donate to Democrats. They also might give a warm and fuzzy feeling for  environmentalists in big cities whose exposure to them may be limited to seeing them along the road as they motor to their vacation homes. But they cause a lot of misery for the common folks left behind.
Here is a trailer of the documentary.
The Wall Street Journal reviewed the movie when it first started hitting the film festival circuit:

The film offers few experts on either side of the debate; rather, it allows local townspeople to discuss their own research, experiences and fears, such as the wind turbine's "flicker effect," as the machines pass across the sun and cast immense shadows, as well as the dangers of their low frequency hum.
Robert Bryce, author of "Power Hungry: The Myths of 'Green' Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future," and a frequent critic of the wind industry (in the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal), says the "infrasound" issue is the most problematic for the wind industry. "They want to dismiss it out of hand, but the low frequency noise is very disturbing," he explains. "I interviewed people all over, and they all complained with identical words and descriptions about the problems they were feeling from the noise."

A more updated review by John Anderson for the Wall Street Journal was published on Friday;

They're sustainable, they produce no emissions and they'll reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil. Right? Not quite. And living next to one seems like a nightmare.
Ms. Israel's movie proves, once again, that the best nonfiction cinema possesses the same attributes as good fiction: Strong characters, conflict, story arc, visual style. The people of Meredith, be they pro or con the wind-turbine plan being fast-tracked by their town council, are articulate, passionate, likable. The issues are argued with appropriate gravity, and even though Ms. Israel, a Meredith homeowner herself, is clearly antiturbine, the other side gets a chance to speak its piece: Farmers, an endangered species, need income. Turbine leases are a way to it. But not only do the energy and ecological benefits fall short of what they're cracked up to be, the turbines themselves are an environmental disaster: The monotonous whoosh of the propellers, the constant strobing effect caused by the 180-foot-long propellers, the threat of ice being hurled by the blades, the knowledge that it's never going to end, all adds up to a recipe for madness. And that's just during the movie.

European nations have indebted themselves to spread this inefficient fad across their continent. Now they are slashing the subsidies for this boondoggle. The wind industry cannot survive without the oxygen of taxpayer dollars. Barack Obama made clear in his State of the Union address that he intends to double down and continue to waste billions of dollars on these green schemes and the public be damned.
Informed citizens whose money will line the pockets of wind promoters may want to check out this well-reviewed movie.

S.Africa's Malema loses appeal, suspended from ANC

(jpost.com) JOHANNESBURG - A ruling South African ANC appeals panel on Saturday upheld a decision to expel its firebrand youth leader Julius Malema for bringing the movement into disrepute, sending into the political wilderness one of the leading voices for nationalizing mines. The decision will likely derail the career of Malema, one of the country's best known politicians whose calls for radical transformation of Africa's largest economy unnerved investors and drew harsh criticism from some African National Congress leaders.The appeals panel upheld his conviction but turned back for further deliberation a decision on how long the suspension will be. Malema cannot escape suspension under ANC rules. Malema was found guilty in November by a separate disciplinary committee and sentenced to a five-year suspension. That committee will hear in 14 days testimony for mitigation of its sentence.

Report: Russia warns of 'scandal' in UN Syria vote

MOSCOW (JPOST) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned of a "scandal" if a Western-Arab drafted resolution comes to a vote on Saturday in the UN Security Council, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.
The remarks, which Itar-Tass said Lavrov made in an interview to be aired later on state-run Rossiya-1 television, suggest Russia would likely veto the resolution if its latest proposed amendments were not taken into account.
"If they want another scandal for themselves in the Security Council, then we probably cannot stop them," Lavrov said, according to Itar-Tass. Rossiya-1 said the interview was recorded early on Saturday.
Lavrov said he hoped the draft would not come to a vote without changes "because our amendments to this draft are well-known."

SCANDAL as a smokescreen

Formr CIA Chief Woolsey: Obama Should Stick Closer to Israel

You know Woolsey is with the CIA because he doesn't admit that Pollard is a war hero that saved lives when America refused to give Israel and Jews information about Saddam's chemical arsenal. Oliver North gets a TV show, but a man who really stood up against Islam and threats from penetrating within the CIA (which did get penetrated) is Pollard. This is spin to defend the CIA's cruel midevil position... but we should expect this from an agency that was run by Bush Sr. who put Baker in as Sec of State and is the model for the Obama foreign policy

(Israel National News)
Former CIA director R. James Woolsey spoke to Arutz Sheva on Thursday, on the sidelines of the 12^th Annual Herzliya Conference. Addressing the security situation in the Middle East in the wake of the Arab Spring, Woolsey said revolutions are usually divided into three phases: The first phase is very enthusiastic, the second phase is when the liberals take over and look like they’re going to move things well, and the third part is what he called the “non-attractive” part.
“We can hope that a number of these Arab revolutions veer off before they get to a most unattractive phase three,” he said. “There’s been a lot of progress away from dictatorship and toward people being able to rule themselves, but it’s far from perfect and there is a lot of uncertainty. We don’t know where these Arab revolutions – really, any of them – are going.”
Woolsey spoke about the relations between Israel and the United States, and differentiated between the tension with the Obama Administration and the general relationship between the two countries.
“I think there’s still some tension with the Obama Administration. I don’t think there’s fundamental tension between Israel and the United States,” he said, adding that the Obama Administration thought that “making nice” with the Iranians and the Syrians would work, but that did not work.
“It has not worked out well, and I hope that the Obama Administration is learning that one wants to stick closer to one’s friends than to kowtow to one’s enemies,” he said.
Woolsey, who has previously called for the release of Jonathan Pollard from prison, repeated that position in the interview. He noted that Pollard’s sentencing judge laid down three criteria for parole: That Pollard express contrition, that he help the United States understand exactly what was taken and the implications, and that he agree to forego any proceeds from anything written or televised about what he did. That is, if he writes a book about his experiences, the money would go charity.
Woolsey said that he knows that the first two conditions have been met by Pollard but added that he does not know whether the third one has been met. Nevertheless, he said, “He’s now been in prison well over 20 years, well over the time any spy from any friendly country has spent in American prisons, and he didn’t get anyone killed.”
“From my point of view,” Woolsey added, “if he would just satisfy that third requirement it ought to be possible for either parole or some kind of executive clemency to set him free.”

Israel Warns US Jews: Iran Could Strike Here - ABC News

might be a good time to avoid going to Jewish orgs, synagogues and other public forums for Judaism. Might also be a good idea to get any relatives out of any Jewish themed assisted living facility. Hide any mention of your faith. Fear is how they rise... and it works. and yes you have to abide to survive.

(I had to spend four months working unpaid in a tax paid facility that also housed Occupy Wall Street. The anger is real and I know from getting to know the street even here in Poughkeepsie NY that there will be casualties)

(abc) Exclusive: Israel Warns US Jews: Iran Could Strike Here. The Israeli security bulletin came in the midst of heated rhetoric on the part of the U.S., Iranian and Israeli political religious and military leadership and follows the recent assassination of a key scientist in Iran's nuclear enrichment program. If the rhetoric is to be believed, there is a deep concern that Israel might launch a military strike against Iran during the spring of 2012.
The intelligence community assessment of that possibility, based on interviews conducted by ABC News, is considerably more nuanced, taking into account as it does the political will of the United States during an election year, the fragile nature of Great Britain's coalition government , the willingness of other allies to join in an offensive, the roles of Russia and China and Saudi Arabia in such a confrontation, and whether Israel would really be willing to launch a unilateral strike.
"But in this situation, the political rhetoric is actually quite important," one official told ABC News. "And that is why the official position -- of the U.S, England, France, Canada, Israel and allies -- is that nothing is off the table."
An apparent shift in the Israeli/U.S. relationship has complicated matters, however, said the official. In the past, Israel would probably have given the U.S. a heads up were it to launch a strike. Now that might not be the case. Among the English-speaking allies of the U.S., say multiple intelligence officials, there is currently a very limited expectation of any early warning.
While much of the public attention has focused on Israel and the rifts within its leadership on how to respond to Iran's nuclear weapons program, the reality for Iran's leadership is also problematic. After threatening to strangle the world oil supply through the straits of Hormuz, Iran "has boxed itself into a corner," said one Western intelligence official. "It would be quite humiliating for them to back down."