We post the following because we were present in New York City at the first dinner Rabbi Marc Schneier hosted the Bahraini Ambassador to the UN. That was at the time an extension of Rabbi Schneier’s outreach to Muslims in the US – when he organized joint dinners between Jewish and Muslim communities in various places in the US. Eventually common interests will lead the way to the de-Jure acceptance of Israel as well.

Gulf states ready for peace, says well-connected US rabbi Marc Schneier, who has good ties with Bahraini royal family, urges Netanyahu to take a page out of the Sadat playbook and make the first public overture Rabbi Marc Schneier with King Hamad at the Bahraini Crown Palace, December 2011. (photo Walter Ruby/Foundation for Et hnic Understanding) By Raphael Ahren April 23, 2013 Israel should publicly commend Bahrain for labeling Hezbollah a terrorist organization and it should try to build strategic alliances with all Gulf states based on a common opposition to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a prominent American rabbi with ties to the Bahraini royal family said. Rabbi Marc Schneier, an American congregational leader who recently met with the Bahraini king and the crown prince, urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit an Arab country and seize Israel and Sunni Muslims’ common distrust of Tehran as a path toward warming relations with parts of the Arab world. However, an expert on the politics of the gulf states said that while Bahrain’s move to blacklist Hezbollah did present “an opening,” a real improvement of bilateral ties remains elusive and would likely stay under the radar. “We’re so myopic, we’re so focused on Europe, and here you have a very significant development that took place in Bahrain,” Schneier told The Times of Israel, referring to the tiny Gulf state’s recent decision to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization. “I am calling for a conversation to take place, a conversation that needs to begin within Israel about looking east, not only looking west.” Schneier bemoaned the fact that the Bahraini parliament’s March 26 decision to outlaw the Lebanese-Shiite group received little press coverage in Israel, and that Jerusalem didn’t comment at all. “No one’s even discussing this,” he lamented. “After Bahrain passed this legislation, I was simply amazed how little attention this was given in Israel. It is a landmark event, particularly because it’s an Arab country that has called on other Arab countries to follow suit.” “Israel needs to remember it lives in the Middle East and not in the Middle West,” Schneier added. “There is an opportunity to begin to create some kind of strategic alliance with the gulf states, which have been very expressive about their concerns about Iran and its satellite organizations like Hezbollah.” The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem declined to comment on Schneier’s remarks, but a diplomatic official told The Times of Israel that “If the Bahrainis had wanted Israel to say something, they could have sent us a message through diplomatic channels. Since they didn’t, we didn’t.” The Bahraini Foreign Ministry did not respond to a Times of Israel query on this matter. Schneier, perhaps best known for being the founder of The Hampton Synagogue, which is frequented by affluent and prominent US Jews, is the co-founder and president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding. In the framework of his interfaith work, he developed a relationship with Bahrain’s ambassador to the US, Houda Nonoo, the first Jew to represent an Arab country in Washington. In December 2011, Schneier was received by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa at the royal palace in Manama. The king told him that Bahrain and Israel have a common enemy in Iran. He has been in “close contact with the royal family ever since,” Schneier said. Rabbi Marc Schneier with Crown Prince of Bahrain Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, who is also deputy supreme commander and first deputy prime minister (photo credit: courtesy Foundation for Ethnic Understanding) In March, Schneier returned to Manama to meet with the heir apparent, Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, who is also the deputy supreme commander of the Bahraini army and first deputy prime minister. He “validated and reconfirmed” his father’s statements about Israel and Iran, Schneier said. Israel and Bahrain do not maintain diplomatic relations, but in 2005 King Hamad told the US ambassador that his state has contacts with Israel “at the intelligence/security level (i.e., with Mossad),” according to a secret US diplomatic cable published two years ago by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. He also indicated willingness “to move forward in other areas, although it will be difficult for Bahrain to be the first.” The development of “trade contacts,” though, would have to wait for the implementation of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the king told the ambassador. Other WikiLeaks documents show that senior officials from both countries have spoken in recent years, such as a 2007 meeting between then-foreign minister Tzipi Livni and Bahraini foreign minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed Al Khalifa in New York. The Bahraini foreign minister in 2009 also signaled that he was willing to meet Netanyahu to try to advance the peace process, but ultimately decided not to go ahead with the plan. Frederic Wehrey, a senior associate in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, agreed that the gulf states and Israel have a common foe in Iran. “The designation of Hezbollah is certainly an opening; it shows that they’re concerned about this non-state actor that Israel obviously regards as a dire threat as well,” he said.   However, a real rapprochement between Manama and Jerusalem remains unlikely, asserted Wehrey, who focuses on political reform and security issues in the Arab Gulf states and US policy in the Middle East. “On a strategic level, yes, there is a shared threat, but that doesn’t negate the very issue they’re facing from domestic parties and their populations. Many Bahrainis and citizens of other gulf states feel strongly about the Palestinian cause and the governments will therefore have to tread very carefully in how it approaches relations to Israel,” he said. “If there are ties, they would be under the table and hidden from the public view.” According to the website of the kingdom’s foreign ministry, Bahrain supports the creation of a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 lines and the “right of return of Palestinian refugees.” Manama also holds Jerusalem responsible “for the unfortunate, deteriorating, and painful situation in the Palestinian lands as a result of Israel’s aggressive practices including: assassinations; settlement-building; and the erection of the Separation Wall; as well as attacking holy places, and imposing economic blockades,” the site states. It is not even clear why Israel would want to develop overt ties with Bahrain, added Wehrey, noting that the autocratic regime is currently facing enormous criticism for its poor human rights record and the way it suppresses public unrest. A strong affiliation with such a state – which is not a regional powerhouse like, for instance, Saudi Arabia – “might actually damage Israel’s position,” he said. But Schneier, speaking to The Times of Israel from his home in New York, believes that if Jerusalem made a genuine effort to negotiate a peace treaty with the Palestinians, then Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Oman would be willing to recognize Israel and normalize relations. “All gulf states are ready,” he said. “We now have the opportunity, or the tension, to move that thing along because of Iran.” The rabbi called on Netanyahu to make the first step by approaching the Arab states. “I believe the prime minister should take a page out of Sadat’s playbook and either show up at one of the capitals of the gulf states or appear before the Arab League,” he said, referring to Egyptian president Anwar Sadat’s 1977 visit to Israel, which laid the foundation for a peace agreement between the two countries signed two years later.   “There is a precedent for it,” Schneier said. “As long as Israel continues to do its share at trying to arrive at a resolution with the Palestinian people, then I believe there is an opportunity here.”

Secretary General Meets Ruler of Sharjah and Praises Halal Food Exhibition and Conference

His Highness Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of the Emirate of Sharjah, received on 10 December 2012, the Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.

The OIC Secretary General praised Sharjah for hosting the International Halal Food Middle East Expo and Conference on 10 – 12 December 2012, stressing the significance of this occasion for enhancing economic and trade cooperation between the OIC Member States, which would boost intra-OIC trade.

The two sides discussed ways and means to develop cooperation between the OIC and the United Arab Emirates as well as the situation in the Islamic world.

Message of the OIC Secretary General on the Occasion of the Human Rights Day (10 December 2012) The world has witnessed, in recent years, the rise of protest waves of all scales and forms against violations of the full enjoyment by thousands of citizens of their civil and political economic, cultural and social rights. Extreme poverty continues to plunge millions of people into abject misery. The right to adequate housing, drinking water and sanitation, education, health services, and decent jobs are still beyond the reach of one billion people around the globe who live on less than one dollar a day, despite MDGs recommendations aimed at reducing poverty by half by 2015. Freedoms of expression, thought and religion, freedom of association, assembly and peaceful protest are violated in many countries which are still learning Democracy. The right to vote and the freedom to militate within a political party and vote for a candidate of their choice are not yet guaranteed to all citizens. Women, ethnic and religious minorities, internally displaced people, refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants continue to pay a high price in the countries of origin and destination and are often victims of serious human rights violations. These crowds assembled spontaneously and massively multiplied in countries where citizens have felt themselves marginalized in the management of and participation in the public life and the daily affairs of their country, although that impacts directly on their daily lives. These gatherings which brought together both the young and the old, men and women, the unemployed and students -among others- were carrying messages of rebellion and despair from a large segment of our societies. The feeling conveyed is not much of uncertainty about a bright future, but rather that of weariness of the maneuvers of the regimes in place that have monopolized public life and deprived many citizens of hope. The slogan chosen for the Human Rights Day this year: “My voice counts” is a message to political leaders to encourage them to adopt a more inclusive and consensual approach in the conduct of public affairs. All segments of society, taken as a whole and without any discrimination, should be involved in the national debate on public policy options aimed at promoting universally-recognized human rights: the right of everyone to benefit fully and with no restriction from public resources and from the benefits to which they are entitled as citizens. People’s effective participation in public life and in the management of the daily affairs of society at the political, economic, social and cultural levels remains the cornerstone of any quest for peaceful coexistence between the citizens of the same country, in a climate of harmony, complementarity and respect for diversity. The OIC, through its Secretary General, has never ceased in the past years to promote the language of dialogue and consensus in the management of public affairs. Member countries’ strategies of political, economic, social and cultural development cannot be achieved without greater involvement of all the forces of the nation. This implies that the inalienable rights and freedoms of their citizens, acknowledged universally and subscribed to at the national level, should be the major foundation which guides any just and inclusive action towards the Islamic Ummah. It is necessary today to guarantee to our people an environment that is both healthy and open to the free expression of expectations, fears and legitimate hopes within a pluralistic and democratic nation; a requirement whose legitimacy is recognized and defended by the international community.

OIC Participates in 4th UTSAM Symposium on Combating International Terrorism and Trans-border Criminality The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) took part in the 4th edition of the Symposium on International Terrorism and Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) held by the International Terrorism and Transnational Crime Research Center (UTSAM) over 7-9 December 2012 in Antalya, Republic of Turkey. This year’s edition of the Symposium stood out by the wide diversity of expert participants representing academia, law-enforcement agencies, international and regional organizations as well as NGOs. The working papers and debates during the three-day event focused heavily on the evolving nexus between terrorism networks and cross-border criminality, particularly in fragile and failed States. The OIC emphasized the need for reinforcing the international legal arsenal within a multi-pronged approach that should address the roots causes of the phenomena of terrorism and extremism. It also highlighted the endeavors deployed by H.E. the Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu,  to hold a high-level international conference under the auspices of the United Nations in a bid to develop a joint action by the international community against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and to articulate a consensual definition of terrorism. Among the prominent issues explored during the Symposium was the imperative of tackling the corruptive power of transnational criminal networks by dismantling their infrastructures and pre-empting any alliance between transnational criminality and terrorist activities. ============================== OP-ED: Egypt, Arab Sunni Politics, and the U.S.: A Problematic Road Ahead By Emile Nakhleh Reprint |   | Print | Send by email WASHINGTON, Dec 5 2012 (IPS) – The bad news about Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s expanding constitutional powers is the threat of another dictatorship in Egypt. The good news is that normal politics is returning to Egypt after decades of brutal authoritarian regimes. Recent mass demonstrations in support of and opposition to Morsi’s new draft constitution and the political tug of war between Morsi and the judiciary, especially the Judges Club, signify a healthy sign of democratic politics, which the Egyptian people had fought for before and since Tahrir Square. Egyptians are openly debating the meaning and implications of each of the 234 articles in the new constitution, ranging from setting a two- to four-year presidential term to freedom of worship and social justice. Related IPS Articles Elected a President, Got a Dictator Pressure Builds for U.S. Response to Egypt Power Grab Syria Stands Between Egypt and Iran Opponents of the document correctly claim that it is excessively religious, especially with the role assigned to al-Azhar Islamic University, and is barely inclusive. Rights of women and minorities are not clearly spelled out although followers of other Abrahamic religions have the right to select their own religious leaders and conduct their personal status matters according to their religious dictates. These raucous and often turbulent constitutional debates and the verbal scuffles between the judiciary and the executive branch seem to signal the advent of rational politics and the promise of pragmatic political compromises. The upcoming popular referendum on the document will tell whether the Egyptian people support or oppose the draft document. Egypt has not witnessed or enjoyed this type of political jockeying at the popular level since before the middle of the last century. Even if the draft constitution is adopted, Morsi can serve a maximum of two terms – again, something Egyptians have not known for generations. The United States should not get involved in this debate and should allow the Egyptian people to sort out their political differences. Privately, Washington should point out to Morsi that tolerance, inclusion, and minority and women rights should be the hallmark of governance in the new Egypt. Constitutional tensions in Egypt, however, should be viewed in the broader context of the emerging Arab Sunni order in the region. This new regional Sunni alignment is led by Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, and tacitly supported by Turkey. It is perceived in the region and globally as a front to isolate Iran and diminish its regional influence, bring down the Assad regime or speed up Assad’s fall, and help break up the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah “Axis of Resistance.” This Sunni architecture could also pull Hamas away from the Iran-Syria camp and move it closer to the Sunni fold. The recent military confrontation between Israel and Hamas in Gaza had the unintended consequence of strengthening Hamas’ regional posture and cementing relations between it and Sunni Arab leaders, ranging from Qatar to Tunisia. Although Washington has quietly endorsed the new regional Sunni politics, U.S. policymakers and intelligence and policy analysts should consider the possibility that in the long run, the new order could also spell trouble for Arab democratic transitions and for the West. The short-term gains, while critical for the region, are already happening. Iran is becoming more isolated and its relations with Arab states and non-state actors are fraying. Assad is on his way out, and within months if not weeks, Syria will be begin to experience the convulsions of a new post-Assad political order. The forceful Western warnings, including by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to Assad about the possible use of chemical and biological weapons could be the prelude of Western military intervention in Syria to remove Assad. It’s time he should be removed. The Hezbollah alliance with Iran and Syria is already breaking up. Hezbollah and its leader Hassan Nasrallah have lost much of their legitimacy as a symbol of resistance or “muqawama”. Nasrallah’s vocal and consistent support of Assad is viewed in the region as naked realpolitik, which has undercut his standing as a regional leader. In the long run, the emerging Sunni order could undermine the gains of the Arab Spring and threaten the transition to democracy in post-authoritarian Arab countries. More importantly, the new order could embolden Sunni regimes in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and elsewhere in their continued repression of their Shia communities and other ethnic and religious minorities. While the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Qatar are pushing for Assad’s removal, they are not necessarily wedded to democratic principles or to granting their citizens, especially in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, equal rights. Nor are they enamoured by the principles of “freedom and human dignity” highlighted in the Egyptian draft constitution. Unless the emerging Arab Sunni order commits itself to the principles for which millions of Arab youth fought two years ago, and unless it goes beyond just containing Iran and toppling Assad, it will remain problematic and fraught with uncertainty. *Emile Nakhleh is former director of the Political Islam Strategic Analysis Programme at CIA and author of “A necessary Engagement: Reinventing America’s Relations with the Muslim World”. Islamist Vigilantes Begin to Police Egypt – Published by IPS on December 6th, 2012 Written by: Cam McGrath CAIRO, Dec 6 2012 (IPS) – As Egyptians debate how deeply Sharia should influence the new constitution, and in the face of clashes that left five dead on Wednesday, some extremists have taken to the streets to enforce their own interpretation of “God’s law”. In recent months, these self-appointed guardians of public probity have accosted Muslims and minority Christians they accuse of violating the provisions of Islamic law. Ishaq Ibrahim, a researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), says reports of incidents began after the 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak. Witnesses have reported seeing “bearded zealots” threaten women they deem dressed immodestly, break up parties playing “un-Islamic” music, vandalise shops selling alcohol, and in one case, chop off the ear of a man accused of abetting immorality. Ibrahim says evidence is circumstantial, as only a few of the perpetrators have been caught, but the attacks appear to be the work of ultraconservative Salafi Muslims.[related_articles] Salafis follow a puritanical school of Islam, aspiring to emulate the lifestyle of Prophet Muhammad and his companions, and putting conspicuous emphasis on beards and veils. Salafi political parties won nearly a quarter of the seats in the now dissolved lower house of parliament and have vigorously demanded Sharia as the sole source of legislation in Egypt. While homegrown Salafi groups once carried out a bloody insurgency aimed at carving out an Islamic caliphate, their leaders have since renounced violence and pledged peaceful dialogue. Prominent Salafis, however, have threatened violence against “idols and blasphemers” – one recently vowing to “cut off the tongue” of anyone who insults Sharia or Islam. Or cut off their hair perhaps? Mirette Michail was standing with her sister in downtown Cairo when six women wearing niqab (the full Islamic veil) attacked her, beating her and attempting to set her hair on fire – presumably as punishment for not veiling. The women disappeared into the crowd when two male passersby intervened, she reported. It was the third tonsorial assault in less than a month. Earlier, two women in niqab cut the hair of a Christian woman riding the subway and pushed her off the train, breaking her arm. A 13-year-old Christian girl also had her hair cut by a fully veiled woman while on the subway. Such incidents are unusual in Cairo. The capital still retains its relatively cosmopolitan atmosphere, with young couples holding hands in public, tourists piling off buses in shorts and t-shirts, and many upscale establishments serving alcohol. But in provincial cities and rural areas, long governed by a culture of conservative Islam, activists have reported an alarming increase in cases of moral vigilantism. Extremists appear to be organising small groups to patrol neighbourhoods and enforce their own interpretation of Sharia – by brute force if necessary. Amal Abdel Hadi, head of the Cairo-based New Women Foundation, says the absence of an effective police force since last year’s uprising and the expectation that Egypt’s new constitution will mandate stronger application of Islamic law has given these groups a sense of legitimacy. “When you have in your constitution that the state should ‘safeguard ethics and public morality’, it’s a green light for these groups to operate,” Abdel Hadi told IPS. “You’re constitutionalising the role of the community in defending traditions using vague and rhetorical phrasing that allows for extreme interpretations.” Last January, a shadowy group claiming affiliation to the Salafi Calling announced on Facebook that it had established the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, an Islamic morality police modeled on Saudi Arabia’s mutaween. In Saudi Arabia, mutaween agents and volunteers patrol the streets, enforcing strict separation of the sexes, conservative dress codes, observance of Muslim prayers, and other behaviour they consider mandated by Sharia. Until 2007, these government-sanctioned enforcers of Islamic law carried rattan canes to mete out corporal punishment. While there is no proof that the Egyptian group ever transformed its online presence into a physical force, its unveiling coincided with a series of incidents in the northern delta provinces. The Arabic press reported that groups of bearded men armed with rattan canes raided shops, threatening to flog shop owners caught selling “indecent” clothing, barbers found shaving men’s beards, or any merchant displaying Christian religious books or icons. The attacks culminated in the murder of Ahmed Hussein Eid, a university student stabbed to death during a run-in with some roving enforcers last June. According to police reports, three Salafi men approached Eid and his fiancee as they were out walking in Suez’s port district. The men castigated the couple for standing too close, and when Eid rebuked them, one of the men pulled out a knife and fatally stabbed him. Al-Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, has issued statements condemning reports of individual efforts to enforce Sharia. As has the ruling Muslim Brotherhood. But Salafi leaders have been equivocal, denying any affiliation to moral vigilante groups while defending the concept – provided it is through “peaceful intervention”. “The idea of having such a committee is legitimate and in accordance with the Quran,” Islamist lawyer Montasser El-Zayat told one local media outlet. “Such a committee should promote virtue with virtue, and prevent vice with virtue as well. And, of course, it would be better if (it were) run by the government and not by an independent group.” Police, criticised for mothballing reports of vigilante incidents, responded to a public outcry following the fatal stabbing in Suez. The three Salafi assailants were apprehended and each sentenced to 15 years in prison. EIPR’s Ibrahim says moral vigilantes have kept a low profile since the sentencing. But this may simply be the calm before the storm. “Islamists (control the political agenda) so it’s not in their interest to create problems for the time being,” he says. “They want to focus on the constitution first, then comes the application of Sharia.”

Uri Avnery

November 17, 2012

Another Superfluous War

HOW DID it start? Stupid question.

Conflagrations along the Gaza Strip don’t start. They are just a continuous chain of events, each claimed to be a [or “in”] “retaliation” for the previous one. Action is followed by reaction, which is followed by retaliation, which is followed by …

This particular event “started” with the firing from Gaza of an anti-tank weapon at a partially armored jeep on the Israeli side of the border fence. It was described as retaliation for the killing of a boy in an air attack some days earlier. But probably the timing of the action was accidental – the opportunity just presented itself.

The success gave rise to demonstrations of joy and pride in Gaza. Again Palestinians had shown their ability to strike at the hated enemy.

HOWEVER, THE Palestinians had in fact walked into a trap prepared with great care. Whether the order was given by Hamas or one of the smaller more extreme organizations – it was not a clever thing to do.

Shooting across the fence at an army vehicle was crossing a red line. (The Middle East is full of red lines.) A major Israeli reaction was sure to ensue.

It was rather routine. Israeli tanks fired cannon shells into the Gaza Strip. Hamas launched rockets at Israeli towns and villages. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis rushed to their shelters. Schools closed.

As usual, Egyptian and other mediators went into action. Behind the scenes, a new truce was arranged. It seemed to be over. Just another round.

The Israeli side did everything to get back to normal. Or so it seemed. The Prime Minister and the Defense Minister went out of their way (to the Syrian border) to show that Gaza was off their minds.

In Gaza, everybody relaxed. They left their shelters. Their supreme military commander, Ahmad Ja’abari, climbed into his car and drove along the main street.

And then the trap closed. The car bearing the commander was blown up by a missile from the air.

SUCH AN assassination is not carried out on the spur of the moment. It is the culmination of many months of preparation, gathering of information, waiting for the right moment, when it could be executed without killing many bystanders and causing an international scandal.

Actually, it was due to take place a day earlier, but postponed because of the bad weather.

Ja’abari was the man behind all the military activities of the Hamas government in Gaza, including the capture of Gilad Shalit and the successful five-year long hiding of his whereabouts. He was photographed at the release of Shalit to the Egyptians.

So this time it was the Israelis who were jubilant. Much like the Americans after the Osama bin-Laden assassination.

———–

THE KILLING of Ja’abari was the sign for starting the planned operation.

The Gaza Strip is full of missiles. Some of them are able to reach Tel Aviv, some 40 km away. The Israeli military has long planned a major operation to destroy as many of them as possible from the air. Intelligence has patiently gathered information about their location. This is the purpose of the “Pillar of Cloud” operation. (“And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them the way – Exodus 13:21).

While I am writing this, I don’t know yet how the whole thing will end. But some conclusions can already be drawn.

FIRST OF All, this is not Cast Lead II. Far from it.

The Israeli army is rather good at discreetly drawing lessons from its failures. Cast Lead was celebrated as a great success, but in reality it was a disaster.

Sending troops into a densely populated area is bound to cause heavy civilian casualties. War crimes are almost inevitable. World reaction was catastrophic. The political damage immense. The Chief of Staff at the time, Gabi Ashkenazi, was widely acclaimed, but in reality he was a rather primitive military type. His present successor is of a different caliber.

Also, grandiose statements about destroying Hamas and turning the Strip over to the Ramallah leadership have been avoided this time.

The Israeli aim, it was stated, is to cause maximum damage to Hamas with minimum civilian victims. It was hoped that this could be achieved almost entirely by the use of air power. In the first phase of the operation, this seems to have succeeded. The question is whether this can be kept up as the war goes on.

HOW WILL it end? It would be foolhardy to guess. Wars have their own logic. Stuff happens, as the man said.

Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, the two men in overall command, hope the war will wind down once the main aims are achieved. So there will be no reason to employ the army on the ground, enter the Gaza Strip, kill people, lose soldiers.

Deterrence will be restored. Another truce will come into force. The Israeli population surrounding the Strip will be able to sleep soundly at night for several months. Hamas will be cut down to size.

But will this whole exercise change the basic situation? Not likely.

Ja’abari will be replaced. Israel has assassinated dozens of Arab political and military leaders. Indeed, it is the world champion of such assassinations, politely referred to as “targeted preventions” or “eliminations”. If this were an Olympic sport, the Ministry of Defense, the Mossad and the Shin Bet would be festooned with gold medals.

Sometimes one gets the impression that the assassinations are an aim by [in] themselves, and the other operations just incidental. An artist is proud of his art.

What have the results been? Overall – nothing positive. Israel killed Hizbollah leader Abbas al-Moussawi, and got the vastly more intelligent Hassan Nasrallah instead. They killed Hamas founder Sheik Ahmad Yassin, and he was replaced by abler men. Ja’abari’s successor may be less or more able. It will make no great difference.

Will it stop the steady advance of Hamas? I doubt it. Perhaps the opposite will happen. Hamas has already achieved a significant breakthrough, when the Emir of Qatar (owner of Aljazeera) paid Gaza a state visit. He was the first head of state to do so. Others are bound to follow. Just now, in the middle of the operation, the Egyptian prime minister arrived in Gaza.

Operation “Pillar of Cloud” compels all Arab countries to rally around Hamas, or at least pretend to. It discredits the claim of the more extreme organizations in Gaza that Hamas has gone soft and lazy, enjoying the fruits of government. In the battle for Palestinian opinion, Hamas has gained another victory over Mahmoud Abbas, whose security cooperation with Israel will look even more despicable.

All in all, nothing basic will change. Just another superfluous war.

IT IS, of course, a highly political event.

Like Cast Lead, it takes place on the eve of Israeli elections. (So, by the way, did the Yom Kippur war, but that was decided by the other side.)

One of the more miserable sights of the last few days has been the TV appearances of Shelly Yachimovich and Ya’ir Lapid. The two shining new stars in Israel’s political firmament looked like petty politicians, parroting Netanyahu’s propaganda, approving everything done.

Both had hitched their wagons to the social protest, expecting that social issues would displace subjects like war, occupation and settlements from the agenda. When the public is occupied with the price of cottage cheese, who cares about national policy?

I said at the time that one whiff of military action would blow away all economic and social issues as frivolous and irrelevant. This has happened now.

Netanyahu and Barak appear many times a day on the screen. They look responsible, sober, determined, experienced. Real he-men, commanding troops, shaping events, saving the nation, routing the enemies of Israel and the entire Jewish people. As Lapid volunteered on live television: “Hamas is an anti-Semitic terrorist organization and must be crushed.”

Netanyahu is doing it. Adieu, Lapid. Adieu Shelly. Adieu Olmert. Adieu Tzipi. Was nice seeing you.

WAS THERE an alternative? Obviously, the situation along the Gaza Strip had become intolerable. One cannot send an entire population to the shelters every two or three weeks. Except hitting Hamas on the head, what can you do?

A lot.

First of all, you can abstain from “reacting”. Just cut the chain.

Then, you can talk with Hamas as the de facto government of Gaza. You did, actually, when negotiating the release of Shalit. So why not look for a permanent modus vivendi, with the involvement of Egypt?

A hudna can be achieved. In Arab culture, a hudna is a binding truce, sanctified by Allah, which can go on for many years. A hudna cannot be violated. Even the Crusaders concluded hudnas with their Muslim enemies.

The day after the assassination, Israeli peace activist Gershon Baskin, who had been involved in mediating Shalit’s release, disclosed that he had been in contact with Ja’abari up to the last moment. Ja’abari had been interested in a long-term cease-fire. The Israeli authorities had been informed.

But the real remedy is peace. Peace with the Palestinian people. Hamas has already solemnly declared that it would respect a peace agreement concluded by the PLO – i.e. Mahmoud Abbas – that would establish a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, provided this agreement were confirmed in a Palestinian referendum.

Without it, the bloodletting will just go on, round after round. Forever.

Peace is the answer. But when visibility is obscured by pillars of cloud, who can see that?

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

What’s New in the Gaza-Israel Battle.

The first and most important thing to say about the rekindled killing across the Israel-Gaza border is its sheer futility and waste. Neither side has the ability to completely wipe out the other, for that is what would be required to end this conflict for good. That will not happen, as both sides have proven over the past 35 years or so, since Hamas’ emergence in Palestine. Yet they are willing and able to keep fighting, despite the tremendous cost to their people.

More killing and destruction will not resolve this conflict, but a lack of a fair and negotiated resolution also means that more killing and destruction are inevitable. We should note three important new dimensions of the conflict on the Arab side, about the constantly improving technical capabilities of Palestinian resistance groups, the emergence of more radical Islamist groups over time in Gaza and around the region, and the impact of public opinion and the new, legitimate, governments in power in some Arab states. All three together suggest that a shift in the strategic balance of power may be underway in the Middle East, with huge implications.

The more advanced rockets in the hands of Palestinian resistance forces in Gaza that reached Tel Aviv Thursday generate a significant new dimension of psychological fear in Israel that mirrors the fear and tension that Israel’s aerial attacks have long inflicted on Palestinians and Lebanese. The ability of Palestinians today to fire rockets deeper into Israel, and, presumably, with more accuracy in due course, is just one indicator of the fact that time is not on Israel’s side. As long as the crime of dispossession and refugeehood that was committed against the Palestinian people in 1947-48 is not redressed through a peaceful and just negotiation that satisfies the legitimate rights of both sides, we will continue to see enhancements in both the determination and the capabilities of Palestinian fighters — as has been the case since the 1930s, in fact. Only stupid or ideologically maniacal Zionists fail to come to terms with this fact.

It is important to note the remarks by Gaza Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh Thursday night that Gazans and Palestinians everywhere will keep struggling for their national rights, with the key issue for them being the Palestinian right of return. His comments, and the resurgence of fighting, only remind everyone that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is about what happened in 1947-48, not only what happened in 1967. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius noted correctly this week that, “It would be a catastrophe if there is an escalation in the region. Israel has the right to security but it won’t achieve it through violence. The Palestinians also have the right to a state.”

The second major new element in this round of fighting is the steady expansion of militant Islamists in Gaza, such as Islamic Jihad and other small groups, who make Hamas look like a relative softie. The rockets being fired into Israel emanate from several Salafist Islamist groups that have sprung up in Gaza alongside Hamas in the last decade. This mirrors trends across the Arab world, where Salafists are serving in newly elected and legitimate parliaments. This also should serve as a wake-up call to the reality that has reigned since the 1960s: If Israel does not come to terms with the political groups that now hold power in Palestine and Arab states, it will surely have to deal with more militant ones in the future.

The third new element is the changed environment in Arab public opinion around the region, where young new governments more accurately reflect the sentiments of their citizens vis-à-vis the Palestine issue. We should keep our eyes on how Tunisians and Egyptians, in particular, react to the Gaza situation. They will not go to war with Israel, but they are likely to find new and meaningful ways to express real support for Palestinians, which will increase the political pressure on Israel.

Where this combination of new elements leads us over time is not yet clear. I hope it eventually pushes all sides to acknowledge that only a fair, negotiated, resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian and wider Arab-Israeli conflicts can serve the legitimate rights of all concerned, in a way that rockets in Gaza and Tel Aviv never will.

Rami G. Khouri is Editor-at-large of The Daily Star, and Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, in Beirut, Lebanon. You can follow him @ramikhouri.

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WE SAY THAT THE UN IS NOT THE BODY THAT HAS THE CAPABILITY TO DEAL WITH THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN ISSUE AND WE THINK THAT NO ADDED HARM WILL BE DONE BY ALLOWING THE ACCEPTANCE OF ONE OR TWO PALESTINES INTO THIS BODY – IT WAS MADE IRRELEVANT ANYWAY – FOR ALL TO SEE WHEN THOSE 120 STATES TROOPED TO TEHRAN TO ANOINT LITTLE AHMEDI-NEJAD TO BE THE HEAD OF THAT NEBULOUS UN GROUPING OF “NON-ALIGNED STATES.” YOU ASK JUSTLY – ALIGNED AGAINST WHOM? IS IT THE HATRED OF ISRAEL OR OF THE US THAT RULES THIS BODY, SOME OF WHOM ARE CLEARLY SYCOPHANTS THAT LIVED FROM US HANDOUTS?

THAT IS JUST THE START – THE SO CALLED GROUP OF 77 THAT CLAIMS 154 MEMBERS IS PUSHED AROUND BY THOSE 120 – UNDER THE 77 NAME – INCLUDING ALSO THE ECONOMICALLY SUCCESSFUL UPSTARTS.

FURTHER – IT IS THE WHOLE UN BODY THAT RELEGATED ISRAEL TO THAT OTHER INCOMPREHENSIBLE OLD NEW-WORLD OF WEOAG, AND THAT KEEPS ON ITS ROSTER THE GHOST OF THE DEFUNCT EASTERN BLOC STATES OF THE SOVIET ERA AND THAT KEPT THE ISRAELI PROBLEM ALIVE BY NOT ALLOWING FOR NORMAL ISRAEL REGIONAL MEMBERSHIP, AND THAT KEPT THE POISON OF ANTI-SEMITISM ALIVE.

WITH ISLAMISTS, AND GROWINGLY SALAFIST-ISLAMISTS, PUSHING THE WORLD BACK TO THE  SENSITIVITIES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN OF THE DARKEST AGES, IT SEEMS THAT THE CHANCE OF REACHING AN ACCEPTABLE REGIONAL SOLUTION FOR THE ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN DILEMMA WAS ALL THE TIME IN THE HANDS OF THE ARAB MONARCHIES. HISTORICALLY, IT WAS THEIR OPPOSITION TO THE PARTITION OF THE BRITISH MANDATE OVER THE OLD PALESTINE THAT CAUSED THE 1947-48 WAR AND THE LACK OF SOLUTION OF THE PALESTINE REFUGEE RESULTING PROBLEM, AND NON-RECOGNITION OF THE RESULTING POPULATION EXCHANGE THAT EVOLVED. NOW ALSO JORDAN IS IN DANGER OF INTERNAL UPHEAVAL. IF THE PALESTINIANS IN JORDAN, PUSHED BY ISLAMIST LEADERS AND PLAIN ECONOMIC REASONS, TAKE OVER THAT COUNTRY AS WELL, WILL SAUDI ARABIA, BAHRAIN, THE EMIRATES, QATAR, KUWAIT, …  BE FAR BEHIND IN THE LIST OF SUCH OVERTURNS? WHY DO THESE COUNTRIES NOT PUSH NOW FOR A JUST SOLUTION THAT DISMEMBERS THE REFUGEE CAMPS, GIVE FULL RECOGNITION TO ISRAEL, ESTABLISH FULL RELATIONS WITH ISRAEL, AND AS A FOLLOW UP LEAD TO NEGOTIATIONS FOR INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED BORDERS BETWEEN ISRAEL AND ITS NEIGHBORING PALESTINE – A CORRECTED VERSION, BENT TO REALITIES ON THE GROUND, OF THAT WHAT SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED IN 1947 – SOLVING THE PALESTINIANS’ PROBLEM THAT THEIR FATHERS CREATED BY ARAB REFUSAL TO RECOGNIZE THE RIGHT OF THE HISTORIC ISRAELIS TO RE-ESTABLISH A HOMELAND? ZIONISM IS NOT COLONIALISM, BUT A CLEAR CASE OF A PEOPLE THAT REESTABLISHED THEIR HISTORIC LAND LOST BY OCCUPATION AND THE SOLOMONIC SOLUTION SUGGESTED BY THE POST-WORLD WAR II UNITED NATIONS WAS ONE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE FOUNDING OF THE  UN.

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Also

Israel’s Shortsighted Assassination.

By GERSHON BASKIN for The New York Times as an OP-ED Contribution.
Published: November 16, 2012

Dear friends,

You might have noticed we’ve been a bit quiet with emails of late, but off email our movement is anything but quiet — and things are about to get a whole lot louder. So much so, that I wanted to send along a video to explain what’s in the works.

Most of you have likely heard the outcome of the US election by now. But what you might not have heard is that on the day after the election, we launched a 21 city “Do the Math” tour to jumpstart the next phase of the climate movement in the US. As Hurricane Sandy so frighteningly showed us, no matter who is President, they need to face the realities of a changing climate and take urgent action now.

But the US can’t solve this crisis alone, even if it’s leaders rise to the occasion. We need a bigger, stronger movement everywhere. Next week, I’m going to write again to explain our biggest global plan for the year ahead — or you can watch the video here to get a bit of an advanced preview.

This week, I want to just highlight two of the countless extraordinary efforts our 350 network is waging across the globe:

1. India Beyond Coal: On November 10th, our friends in India are mounting a national day of action to push the debate on development away from “how much coal can we burn” to “what energy can sustain a healthy and prosperous India.” Dozens of events are planned across 25 Indian states. Click here to get the full update and share the news online.

2. The Arab Youth Climate Movement: This Saturday, as India is moving beyond coal, the newly launched Arab Youth Climate Movement is staging actions all across the Arab world — from Morocco to Lebanon, Libya to Oman. Altogether, they’ll be spreading the message that — heading into the next UN climate meeting happening in Qatar this November and December — Arab countries need to address the realities of climate change and take a leadership role in tackling the crisis. Help spread the word here.

I could go on and on sharing updates from around the world. We’ll have plenty more news to share in the weeks and months ahead — including some more ways to get everyone involved, regardless of where you live. For today, watch this short video I recorded and share the news of these important efforts with your networks: www.350.org/nov2012

More to come soon. Onwards,

Bill and the 350.org team

This is the first  article that reaches us from PERSPECTIVES GmbH, Zurich, and it seems intended to save UNFCCC in the Post-Rio atmosphere when we see the UN reach out to novel ways of dealing with CO2 emissions. These new attempts do not call for decisions by consensus  that were easily defeated by a feisty Saudi representative.

The simple fact that future generations of Saudis could benefit from a Saudi cooperation with those that tried to decrease the Global use of oil by inserting an oil use decrease for the common good, was anathema to the present robbers of the Saudi National resource – also to the corporations in the US and elsewhere that do business with them.

Will a budding middle class change the Gulf States as it is changing the Financial BRICs? Will there be young Princes that are ready to join global progressive thinking and be patriotic at the same time? If so, Perspectives might become the greatest Madison Avenue PR company, and it is good they put their office in Zurich.

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The Changing Role of the Gulf OPEC States in the UNFCCC – new paper in Climate Policy Perspectives series -

in the run-up to COP 18 in Doha, Axel Michaelowa and Mari Luomi put a spotlight on climate policy of the Gulf states: Given surging domestic energy consumption that is increasingly threatening oil and gas export revenues, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are initiating multiple experiments to improve energy efficiency and introduce renewable energy.

Cautious signals of a more constructive engagement of the Gulf Cooperation Council states in the international climate policy regime are emerging.

The resulting opportunities for constructive and innovative dialogues should not be wasted.

Climate diplomacy should try to strengthen the position of those groups that support new domestic energy policies. Technical support for Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) pilot projects by the EU and other progressive countries in the climate regime could serve as a catalyst for creating sustained synergies between new energy and climate policies in the Gulf region.

Download the paper “From Climate Antagonists to Low-Carbon Protagonists? The Changing Role of the Gulf OPEC States in the UNFCCC” at

fni.no/doc&pdf/FNI-Climate-Policy-Perspectives-6.pdf

Best regards,

Axel Michaelowa
Senior Founding Partner
Perspectives GmbH
Zurich Office
Klosbachstrasse 2
8032 Zurich
Switzerland
Phone + 41 448204208
Mobile +41 762324004
Fax +41 448204206
 michaelowa at perspectives.cc
www.perspectives.cc
Amtsgericht Hamburg , HRB 88480
Geschäftsführung / CEOs: S. Butzengeiger, M. Krey

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Similarly:

Event

World Energy Forum 2012

The World Energy Forum, which is being held for the first time outside UN Headquarters in New York, seeks to bring together world leaders, international organizations, financial institutions and other stakeholders to discuss progress towards cleaner, safer and more sustainable energy as well as how to achieve universal access to modern energy services. As 2012 has been designated as the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All, one of the main objectives of the Forum is to chart a roadmap for a sustainable energy mix that can fuel global economic and social development.

dates: 22-24 October 2012 location: Dubai (Dubai), United Arab Emirates contact: World Energy Forum Administration

phone: +1 212 759 3185   fax: +1 646 666 4349      e-mail: administration@wef21.org www: www.worldenergyforum2012.org/

From Pearls to Oil

Sunday, October 14
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Intercontinental Hotel Auditorium, Abu Dhabi

David Heard, Author, From Pearls to Oil
In conversation with Mark Beech, Cultural Landscape Manager, Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority; Philip Kennedy, Associate Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, NYUAD; Nick Cochrane-Dyet, Special Advisor, BP Abu Dhabi

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

UAE’s higher education : Will demand meet supply?

Khaleej Times – 02/10/2012

We did not go to Bangkok and we contemplate if to go to Doha, Qatar, November 2012 – in Rio we were inclined to go to Doha.

On the Climate Change UNFCCC runway we stopped counting at the Copenhagen meeting which was the Conference of the Parties – COP 15. Doha will be COP 18. The in-between Cancun and Durban meetings produced documents that did not move the subject forward. (We call them Copenhagen +1 and Copenhagen +2.) Now we all know that the first period of the Kyoto Protocol (COP 3) ends in 2015. (COP 1 was in Berlin in 1995). What next? If nothing is put forward as an alternative to Kyoto then the whole process will deserve a marker that says R.I.P. – Rest in Peace.

These days there is going on a save the convention – UNFCCC Climate Change meeting – 30 August–5 September 2012 in Bangkok, Thailand. We follow this by reading the faithful reportings of the IISD [ www.iisd.ca/climate/ccwg17i/ ] and the ECO reports of  Kyle Gracey of www.Sustainus.org

And the latter, in issue #4 has the following talk about the elephant in the room – this is an overhang of 13 billion tons of CO2 surplus AAUs that are supposed to be moved on to next Kyoto period. But this is equal to almost three times the total emissions of the EU, so this would lead to no decrease in CO2 emissions whatsoever by bringing in a suppply of hot air larger then the current commitment of the EU countries. Even without allowing the Russian hot air – this still will be a death blow to reductions beyond business as usual and thus no hope for the future.

{An Assigned Amount Unit (AAU) is a tradable ‘Kyoto unit’ or ‘carbon credit‘ representing an allowance to emit greenhouse gases comprising one metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalents calculated using their Global Warming Potential.^{[1] [2]} Assigned Amount Units are issued up to the level of initial “assigned amount” of anAnnex 1 Party to the Kyoto Protocol.^[3][4]

The “assigned amounts” are the Kyoto Protocol Annex B emission targets  (or “quantified emission limitation and reduction objectives”) expressed as levels of allowed emissions over the 2008-2012 commitment period.^[5]}

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We suggest to those interested in a positive outcome on climate negotiations to review carefully the outcome from Bangkok and search for an indication of the recognition that the Kyoto Protocol led – in all honesty – to no results – and thus there is an imediate need to find an alternative. We say – one alternative and not a new slate of alternatives that lead to a new series of climate travels. Only a Bangkok outcome that shows that there is such an alternative will avoid this new Doha collapse.

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Rio+20 – UNCSD coverage

Rio+20: Third PrepCom and the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD)

Coverage of Selected Side Events at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD or Rio+20)

Rio Conventions Pavilion

Sustainable Development Dialogue Days

–- If interested in the negotiations at Rio+20 that opened the way to a switch of negotiation-rails to something yet undefined – but clearly to something new after twenty years of talks that did not lead to real results on Sustainability as part of Sustainable Development – this as an example of what is needed in the Climate Change negotiations as well – please see – IISD Reporting Service Daily Rio+20/ENB Web Coverage.

World Future Energy Summit 2013 | 15 – 17 January 2013 | Abu Dhabi

BREAKING DOWN THE POLITICAL BARRIERS TO FOSSIL-FUEL SUBSIDY REFORM.

By Acil Tabbara (AFP) – May 27, 2012

FUJAIRAH, United Arab Emirates — A pipeline being built by the United Arab Emirates to pump most of its oil exports from east coast terminals bypassing the Iran-threatened Strait of Hormuz, will be operational in June, the ruler of Fujairah told AFP in an interview.

“The pipeline will be operational in June,” said Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al-Sharqi, whose east-coast emirate is one of seven that make up the UAE.

Construction of the 360-kilometre (225 miles) pipeline began in 2008.

The pipeline will have an initial capacity of 1.5 million barrels per day rising to 1.8 million bpd, which represents the bulk of the UAE’s current production of around 2.5 million bpd, Sheikh Hamad said.

The Habshan-Fujairah pipeline will carry oil from fields in Abu Dhabi on the Gulf to Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman.

Fears of a closure of the Strait of Hormuz intensified in recent months after Iran threatened to close the strategic outlet to the Gulf if Western governments kept up their efforts to choke off its oil exports in a bid to rein in its controversial nuclear programme.

In addition to the exports of the UAE and Iran itself, all the oil exports of Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar are shipped through the waterway. Iraq also pumps the bulk of its exports through ports on the Gulf.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, pumps most of its crude from its terminals on the Gulf but it can divert large supplies to terminals on the Red Sea.

Sheikh Hamad, however, played down the possibility of a closure of Hormuz.

“I do not believe there will be a war,” he said, arguing that the tension with neighbouring Iran is just a “summer cloud that will clear.”

Iran held talks on Wednesday and Thursday in Baghdad with six world powers that nearly collapsed when they demanded Tehran give up enriching uranium to the 20 percent level seen as a key step towards weapons-grade.

In exchange, Iran would get some inducements such as aircraft parts for its dilapidated commercial fleet and technical assistance in nuclear energy.

Iran, which is suffering under Western sanctions, said the inducements were far too little and countered with a demand that the P5+1 declare that it has a right to enrich uranium.

The two sides agreed to meet again in Moscow on June 18-19.

Sheikh Hamad is hopeful that the new pipeline will “increase the geopolitical importance of Fujairah,” which “lies on a meeting point of east and west maritime routes.”

His small emirate, which has a population of just 170,000 people, wants to take advantage of its location to become an export hub for oil and gas.

Fujairah is already the world’s third largest centre for ship bunkering after Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, and Singapore, and wants to rise up on the list.

At the port that was opened in 1982, expansion work is in full swing, including the construction of two new platforms to receive large tankers, as well as large reservoirs, bringing the storage capacity to around 11 million cubic metres.

The ruler is expecting more investments in the petroleum sector after the emirate established last year a zone for oil industries.

Last year also, Fujairah opened a new power plant fed by a pipeline carrying gas from Qatar through Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

A terminal to export liquefied natural gas is planned in Fujairah by the Abu Dhabi investment arm, Mubadala, and International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC), which also belongs to Abu Dhabi, the richest emirate of the UAE.

The top 10 icons of Israeli high-tech.

Israel’s enterprising engineers and entrepreneurs have defined an industry for the world, from computer storage technologies and chip manufacturing to instant messaging and modern firewalls. They’re transforming communications, entertainment and mobility, rivaling Silicon Valley in California.

This high-tech legacy was actually begun decades ago by an iconic crew of Israeli men. Before the dot-com boom in the late 1990s, Israel was already a startup nation of highly educated engineers who were emerging from the army with a drive to build their country through industry.

In a two-part series, ISRAEL21c pays tribute to the icons of the country’s high-tech industry. We start here with a top 10 list of pioneers and catalysts of Israel’s high-tech industry.

The Israeli high tech “gene,” we note, also seems to be associated with the longevity gene. The founding fathers, now in their 70s, 80s and 90s, remain productive to this day.

1. Dan Tolkowsky

Born: 1921

Claim to fame: Founded the first venture fund to invest in Israeli high-tech and startups.

Tolkowsky, one of the grandfathers of the Israeli high-tech industry, co-founded the Athena Fund, which sired the companies that innovator Uzia Galil (see below) envisioned. Through Discount Investments, Tolkowsky helped provide the finance and commercial capabilities to the Israeli high-tech greats Elron, Elbit, Elscint, Daisy, Fibronics, Optrotek and Scitex. He continues to work in biotechnology and high-tech and gives strategic advice to Israeli high-tech companies traded publicly in Israel and abroad.

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2. Uzia Galil

Born: 1925

Claim to fame: At Motorola, he helped develop the world’s first color television. Started the first successful non-military high-tech company in Israel.

Galil, an electrical engineer, is known for founding Elron Electronic Industries, the first high-tech multinational holding company based in Israel. With a net worth of about $5 billion, it has grown to include some 30 companies that have invented items from medical devices to military technologies. Some of the more notable companies that have been steered, founded or led by Galil include Netmanage, Zoran, Elbit, Elscint, Chipx, Orbotech, Partner Communications, and Silicom Ventures.

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3. Ed Mlavsky

Born: 1929

Claim to fame: Founder of Israel’s first VC, the Gemini Israel Fund, linking Israeli brains to capital markets overseas.

A technologist in his own right, Ed Mlavsky has lent muscle to Israeli high-tech through networking and financing platforms he established, setting the stage for Israeli tech exports. Before there was Google, he was making lists of tech products and pitching them to firms abroad. He eventually went on to lead and shape the US-Israel Binational Research and Development (BIRD) Foundationfrom 1979 through 1992. He then founded Gemini, a fund that oversees dozens of startups specializing in a span of Israeli tech from Internet technologies to “green” IT. Mlavsky made significant contributions to the world solar industry as a founder of Tyco, now a New York Stock Exchange-traded solar energy company. He coined the term “edge-defined film-fed growth” (EFG), a method for making sheets of polycrystalline silicon for photovoltaic devices.

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4. Jacob Ziv

Born: 1931

Claim to fame: Developed data-compression technologies used in all personal computers.

The groundbreaking work of Jacob Ziv enabled digital communication to be fast and rapid. With Abraham Lempel, he co-founded the LZ family of lossless data compression algorithms to make digital data occupy less space so it can be transmitted faster. Their principle has led to modern data-compression standards such as MP3 for audio, GIF or PNG for imaging and PDF for text. Ziv’s work has also improved the storage capacity of hard drives and the performance of modems, and optimized fax technologies. Seminal in scope, his contributions to computer science have inspired a new generation of researchers.

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5. Efraim (Efi) Arazi

Born: 1937

Claim to fame: Created Scitex, often referred to as the flagship of the Israeli high-tech industry.

Effi Arazi founded and led Scitex Corporation (now renamed Scailex Corporation) in 1968. The company, later sold to Hewlett Packard, develops and manufactures hardware and software technologies, and equipment for the printing and publishing industries. This was Israel’s first high-tech firm and at its peak employed 4,000 people. Since then, Arazi has gone on to found additional graphics and printing companies.

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6. Dov Frohman

Born: 1939

Claim to fame: Invented a new memory chip for the personal computer industry, leading to the ubiquitous flash memory technology used today.

The electrical engineer got his start at Fairchild Semiconductor, the catalyst for many Silicon Valley companies. He followed many of his colleagues from there to Intel. A former VP at Intel, Frohman invented the erasable and programmable read-only memory called EPROM while troubleshooting an Intel product in the 1970s. At the time there were only RAM and ROM chips, both severely limited. Frohman’s invention was a paradigm shift for the personal computing industry. His new chip could be easily programmed and retain a long charge. EPROM is as important as the microprocessor itself, Intel founder Gordon Moore has said. Now retired, Frohman founded Intel-Israel and was its first general manager.

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7. Dan Maydan

Born: Circa 1939

Claim to fame: Made significant advances in semiconductor manufacturing.

Dan Maydan is an electrical engineer whose engineering breakthroughs in semi-conductor manufacturing are lauded by the Smithsonian Institution as having shaped modern society. For a number of years Maydan headed Applied Materials, which manufacturers semiconductors for the computing, LCD, glass and solar industries. In his early career at Bell Laboratories, he pioneered laser recording of data onto thin film, and made significant advances in other aspects in semiconductor manufacturing.

—————–

8. Joseph “Yossi” Vardi

Born: 1942

Claim to fame: “The Mirabilis Effect.” Often cited as a godfather of the Israeli high-tech industry and angel investor to dozens of start-ups.

Yossi Vardi is one of Israel’s first high-tech entrepreneurs and unofficial ambassador of the Israeli high-tech scene. You will find him at conferences around the world and at local events and luncheons championing the Israeli startup nation. Vardi has worn an impressive number of hats over the years, including high-ranking positions in the Israeli government in varying capacities, including peace negotiations. He founded or helped build more than 60 high-tech companies in Israel, including Mirabilis, creator of ICQ. This company was sold to AOL for $400 million, showing other young Israelis that huge fortunes could be made in high-tech innovation. Vardi began his career at age 26 by co-founding TEKEM, one of the first software houses in Israel. It was later sold to Tadiran.

————–

9. Yehuda Zisapel

Born: 1942

Claim to fame: The “Bill Gates of Israel” behind the world’s most successful incubator of telecom-related startups.

Yehuda Zisapel is the co-founder of RAD Group, a conglomerate of voice and date communications companies that collectively employs about 3,500 people. Business 2.0 magazine calls him the world’s most successful incubator of telecom-related startups, given that five of the companies he co-founded with his younger brother Zohar are traded on the NASDAQ. RAD’s first commercial success was a miniature modem. The company also founded and backed dozens of spinoffs, the first of which was Lannet Data Communications. This company developed the first Ethernet switch for data communications, eliminating the need for expensive coaxial cables.

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10. Kobi Richter

Born: 1945

Claim to fame: Co-founder and head of Orbotech.

Widely recognized for his work in cardiovascular stent technology with Medinol, Kobi Richter is considered one of Israel’s top entrepreneurs for co-founding and managing Orbotech (El-Op). The company develops advanced high-tech tools for inspecting and imaging circuit boards and display panels (LCD). Today these optical tools are used to automate inspection for quality control in high-tech hardware manufacturing for faster production with lower cost and less waste. One of the company’s many solutions is automated check processing for financial institutions.

—————–

Let us start first with a Thomas Friedman article-conclusion first!

If you ask “what are the real threats to our security today,” said Lester Brown of The Earth Policy Institute, “at the top of the list would be climate change, population growth, water shortages, rising food prices and the number of failing states in the world.

As that list grows, how many failed states before we have a failing global civilization, and everything begins to unravel?”

Hopefully, we won’t go there. But, then -

we should all remember that quote attributed to Leon Trotsky: “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”   —- Well, you may not be interested in climate change, but climate change is interested in you.

Folks, this is not a hoax. We and the Arabs need to figure out — and fast — more ways to partner to mitigate the environmental threats where we can and to build greater resiliency against those where we can’t. Twenty years from now, this could be all that we’re talking about.

Please go to the link for a very interesting article that tells us that the Arab Spring did happen in part because of the lack of attention to climate change on the part of government officials that were racking it all in to themselves – those official rapists of their countries.

Thomas Friedman is not the only one asking why Arab Spring now, and why the Arab World has not produced any democracies like other Islamic Countries – non-Arabs – actually did. Why is there no Arab State like Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, or Bangladesh? This last version of the Question was posed by Fareed Zakaria on today’s CNN/GPS show.

Seemingly – all Arab States that are within the huge North-Africa Middle-East area of the Arab conquests in the 12th and 13th Centuries have no real Civil Society. In all these States the economy is run by the people of the ruling Monarchy or by those close to the Government.
The people as such were kept low by an alliance of the rulers with the heads of the religion and the goal of this alliance was to fight another religious group – and here comes in the military that is completely loyal to the ruling power that is also the economy’s leader. This kind of socio-economic system did neither allow for the development of a meaningful Civil Society, nor a really forward looking Middle Class.

To above obervation by Fareed Zakaria we see the add-on by Thomas Friedman:  “The Arab awakening was driven not only by political and economic stresses, but, less visibly, by environmental, population and climate stresses as well. If we focus only on the former and not the latter, we will never be able to help stabilize these societies.”

Thomas Friedman tells us of draught in Syria and North Africa and how this draught pushed the societal lid and was part of the reason for this present day upheaval.

And a Warning – 12 of the world’s 15 most water-scarce countries — Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Israel and Palestine — are in the Middle East, and after three decades of explosive population growth these countries are “set to dramatically worsen their predicament.

Then think also about the observatio – “Alot more mouths to feed with less water than ever. As Lester Brown, the president of the Earth Policy Institute and author of “World on the Edge,” notes, 20 years ago, using oil-drilling technology, the Saudis tapped into an aquifer far below the desert to produce irrigated wheat, making themselves self-sufficient. But now almost all that water is gone, and Saudi wheat production is, too. So the Saudis are investing in farm land in Ethiopia and Sudan, but that means they will draw more Nile water for irrigation away from Egypt, whose agriculture-rich Nile Delta is already vulnerable to any sea level rise and saltwater intrusion.

The Link to Thomas Friedman:  www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/opinion/sunday/friedman-the-other-arab-spring.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120408

by Thomas Fuchs

The Other Arab Spring.

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, Published in The New York Times  April 7, 2012 as an OP-ED Column.

ISN’T it interesting that the Arab awakening began in Tunisia with a fruit vendor who was harassed by police for not having a permit to sell food — just at the moment when world food prices hit record highs? And that it began in Syria with farmers in the southern village of Dara’a, who were demanding the right to buy and sell land near the border, without having to get permission from corrupt security officials? And that it was spurred on in Yemen — the first country in the world expected to run out of water — by a list of grievances against an incompetent government, among the biggest of which was that top officials were digging water wells in their own backyards at a time when the government was supposed to be preventing such water wildcatting? As Abdelsalam Razzaz, the minister of water in Yemen’s new government, told Reuters last week: “The officials themselves have traditionally been the most aggressive well diggers. Nearly every minister had a well dug in his house.”

New York Times Op-Ed Columnist Thomas Friedman.

In print – Sunday, February 26, 2012 – based on a communication from oil advocate consultant to Saudi Arabia Phil K. Verleger.

During his long and distinguished career, Dr. Verleger has correctly anticipated most of the major structural changes occurring in the oil industry over the last 25 years. For example, in 1986 he became the first economist to fully comprehend and explain the appearance and development of energy commodity markets. Since then, Dr. Verleger has chronicled the evolution of these markets in The Petroleum Economics Monthly. Over a quarter century, he has examined many developments and anticipated the outcomes of a number of market manipulation strategies, including Metalgesellschaft’s disastrous trading program in 1992. More recently, Dr. Verleger was one of the first to examine and again correctly predict the impact of outside investment in commodities.

Dr. Verleger’s investigations have influenced developments in oil markets. His work includes two important academic studies on petroleum markets: Adjusting to Volatile Oil Prices (1994) and Oil Markets in Turmoil (1982). His research in 1998 contributed to Saudi Arabia’s adoption of a new market strategy in March 1999. In April 1999, Dr. Verleger correctly predicted that the Saudi strategy would take crude oil prices to the mid to high 20s.

In August 2004, Dr. Verleger warned that U.S. environmental regulations would cause crude oil prices to rise to $60 per barrel by limiting the availability of key petroleum products. He later wrote that the squeeze on product supply, combined with the absence of central bank concern, could take crude prices to $100. Both events came to pass.

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A Good Question.

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

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Josh Haner/The New York Times - Thomas L. Friedman

Verleger’s basic message was that the knee-jerk debate we’re again having over who is responsible for higher oil prices fundamentally misses huge changes that have taken place in America’s energy output, making us again a major oil and gas producer — and potential exporter — with an interest in reasonably high but stable oil prices.

	Daily Web Coverage - 16 January | 17 January | 18 January | 19 January

The fifth World Future Energy Summit (WFES) 2012 opened in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), on 16 January 2012. The first day of this four-day event was organized around the theme “Policy and Strategy Forum,” and comprised opening statements from Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO Masdar; Wen Jiabao, Premier, China; Kim Hwang-sik, Prime Minister, Republic of Korea; UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; and other dignitaries, followed by special addresses and ministerial panels. The WFES program also included roundtable discussions, an exhibition hall, and numerous other side events and activities.

Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General

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