Israel

NETANYA, Israel - The huge reservoirs of natural gas discovered off the coast of Israel now flowing toward shore have the potential to transform the once energy-strapped country into a lean, green manufacturing machine - capable of supplying cheap, clean energy to its citizens, factories, and vehicles for a generation. Until now bereft of the petroleum bonanza that created the modern Middle East, Israel suddenly finds itself a major player in the Mediterranean, and perhaps even the European, natural gas market.

It began in 1950 with a coaching assignment at the Maccabiah Games in Israel and a couple of coaching clinics. "I was doing the clinics in English and Yiddish," Irving Mondschein recalled. "I was able to communicate fairly well with them. The Israelis asked me to do some more clinics. I was well known over there. One day, they asked me to coach their Olympic team. " At age 27, Irving Mondschein found himself coaching Israel's first Olympic team at the 1952 Helsinki Games. Today, the 62-year-old Havertown resident is both head track coach at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the U.S. track coaching staff for the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.

Has Israel "destroyed more fauna and flora than anyone in history?" Were the early Zionist pioneers "racists" and "colonialists"? Is Israel's democratic form of government no more durable than the Arab dictatorships? The answer is yes - according to the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies at Villanova University. Amid the lush greenery and serene atmosphere of Villanova's campus in suburban Philadelphia, the Arab and Islamic Center is working overtime to blacken Israel's name through lectures, seminars, literature and the media.

Listening to the talk shows and interview programs, one tires of hearing malicious and fallacious statements charging Israel with being responsible for both the inception and practice of the current terrorism. Unfortunately, the hosts and interviewers do not sufficiently correct the slander and thereby, unwittingly, encourage the audience to accept the lies as truths. What does Israel have to do with the terrorism committed by Iraq and Iran against each other? Where is Israel's involvement in the massacres committed in Lebanon by the Muslims against the Christians and vice versa?

CAIRO - Egypt's Islamist president delivered his fiercest condemnation yet of Israel's offensive in Gaza on Friday, warning that the blood Israel sheds will be a "curse upon it" and presenting post-revolution Egypt as the new Arab champion for the Palestinians. Mohammed Morsi made the remarks in a speech at a mosque after weekly Friday prayers, dramatically stepping up his rhetoric against Israel hours after his prime minister visited Gaza in a show of support for its Hamas rulers.

Against a backdrop of furling flags and frigid temperatures, an estimated 2,500 people gathered in Center City yesterday to light a fire for Israel. Sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, the rally at John F. Kennedy Plaza was organized in support of Israel's recent and controversial incursion into Gaza. Unlike similar events held around the country last week, the hour-long gathering went off without incident. No arrests were made, no rocks thrown, no anti-Semitic obscenities hurled.

After failing to persuade the United States to delay announcing a Mideast peace initiative, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned yesterday that "only Israel" can make decisions affecting its security. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, meanwhile, blamed Netanyahu for creating "a real impasse" and said the United States "needs to intervene urgently to put the peace process back on track. " Netanyahu said in Jerusalem that "The United States can - and from our point of view ought to - propose different ways of helping the parties to make progress in the process.

When I look at a world map, I sometimes wonder what the insane fuss in the Middle East is all about. Sure, I listen to the experts, the pundits and even Henry Kissinger. But then I look at the map and it still makes no sense. If I look closely and squint, I can find a country that has about 8,000 square miles. That's Israel. To give you an idea how small that is, you could take about 40 Israels and put them together and the whole thing would still be smaller than Texas.

On Friday afternoon, students at the Harry B. Kellman Academy of Beth El in Cherry Hill, ushered in the Sabbath with a song of support. At 2 p.m., they joined thousands of other children at similar schools across North America to sing music and lyrics in support of the children of Israel, who have been living through the nightmare of air raids and war. "Ahd yavoh Shalom," the students sang. It meant: until peace comes. The song was originally meant to be sung as a message of solidarity during wartime.

After a one-year hiatus in its Israel study program, Akiba Hebrew Academy in Merion Station has sent 42 high school juniors - 60 percent of the 11th-grade class - for a semester in Israel. School spokeswoman Hallie Freedman said that while the decision to study in Israel has been difficult for students and their families, it "shows a tremendous commitment to the state of Israel at a time when terrorist acts continue to devastate the region. " Students will study Jewish history, among other subjects, and take a series of trips throughout the country.

You know you're in trouble when you can't even get your walk-back story straight. Stung by the worldwide derision that met President Obama's fudging and fumbling of his chemical-weapons red line in Syria, the White House leaked to the New York Times that Obama's initial statement had been unprepared, unscripted, and therefore unserious. The next day Jay Carney said precisely the opposite: "Red line" was intended and deliberate. Which is it? Who knows? Perhaps Obama used the term last August to look tough, sound like a real world leader, never expecting that Syria would do something so crazy.

ROME - Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that the transfer of advanced missile defense systems from Russia to Syria would be a "destabilizing" factor for Israel's security. Kerry said the United States has expressed concerns about what such defensive systems in Syria would mean for Israel's security. He wouldn't address what the missiles might mean for Syria's civil war. He spoke to reporters in Rome after the Wall Street Journal reported that Russia was preparing to sell the weapons to President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

NETANYA, Israel - The huge reservoirs of natural gas discovered off the coast of Israel now flowing toward shore have the potential to transform the once energy-strapped country into a lean, green manufacturing machine - capable of supplying cheap, clean energy to its citizens, factories, and vehicles for a generation. Until now bereft of the petroleum bonanza that created the modern Middle East, Israel suddenly finds itself a major player in the Mediterranean, and perhaps even the European, natural gas market.

BEIRUT - Israeli warplanes struck targets in the Syrian capital Sunday for the second time in three days, officials and activists said, unleashing a series of massive explosions and raising fears of possible wider conflict in the region. The attacks, which Israeli officials said targeted sophisticated, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, marked a sharp spike in Israel's involvement in Syria's bloody civil war. Syrian state media reported that Israeli missiles struck a military and scientific research center near Damascus and caused casualties.

JERUSALEM - Once a year, Israel's Jewish war veterans don suit jackets and uniforms dripping in Red Army medals, the shiny bronzes and silvers pinned to their chests in tight rows like armor. About 500,000 Jews served in the Soviet Red Army during World War II. Most of those still alive today - about 7,000 - are said to live in Israel. Every year on Victory Day, which falls on Thursday this year, they parade in uniform throughout Israel to celebrate Nazi Germany's surrender to the Soviet Union.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday that Israeli military leaders kept him in the dark, during three days of face-to-face meetings, about their assessment that forces loyal to the Syrian government had killed rebel fighters with chemical weapons. An Israeli general made the assertion Tuesday at a conference in Tel Aviv while Hagel was in the country meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon. Hagel said Wednesday that the Israelis did not mention their finding even though the two sides had discussed at length common concerns about the threat posed by Syria's chemical-weapons stockpile.

ANKARA, Turkey - In a step toward restoring ties, former allies Turkey and Israel agreed Monday on the "methods and principles" of working out compensation payments for the victims of a deadly 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, Turkey's deputy prime minister said. Eight Turks and one Turkish American were killed and several other pro-Palestinian activists were wounded when Israeli commandos stormed the ship Mavi Marmara while stopping an international flotilla trying to breach a blockade of the Gaza Strip.

JERUSALEM - Israel's cabinet on Sunday approved a deal to allow more EU flights, hours after the country's airlines went on strike out of concerns that the agreement would cost them jobs and possibly ruin their companies. The approval of "Open Skies" raised the possibility of a longer, broader strike by Israel's major labor union. Already, hundreds of people scheduled to fly on Israel's three carriers, El Al, Arkia, and Israir, have been stranded. Later Sunday, Israel's main airline El Al expanded the strike to include all its flights.

JERUSALEM - Israeli forces have been holding a Palestinian American teenager in a military lockup for nearly a week after bursting into his family home and arresting him in an overnight raid after he allegedly hurled rocks at Israeli motorists in the West Bank, his father said on Thursday. The case highlights Israel's system of military detention for Palestinian minors, which has been frequently criticized, most recently by the United Nations, which said in March that an in-depth study showed it systematically and gravely violated their rights.

JERUSALEM - Israel dedicated its annual memorial day for the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust to mark 70 years since the Warsaw ghetto uprising, a symbol of Jewish resistance against the Nazis in World War II that resonates deeply in Israel to this day. At the opening ceremony at nightfall, President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both linked the desperate Jewish revolt of 1943 to the warrior mentality that enabled the...