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Israel’s captains of industry fear boycott
(Ynet News) – A hundred of Israel’s leading businessmen and businesswomen will fly to Davos next week, armed with a poignant message for the prime minister: Maintaining a growing and stable economy requires Israel to make peace with Palestinians, the sooner the better.
Leaders and businesspeople ranging from Strauss Group Chairwoman Ofra Strauss to Google Israel CEO Meir Bren and former UN ambassador Dan Gillerman will descend on the Davos Economic Forum to urge Israelis and Palestinians leaders to reach a diplomatic solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
An a-political group of Palestinians and Israelis, which includes names such as Palestinian energy mogul Munib Masri, tech mogul Yossi Vardi, Amdocs founder Maurice Kahan, Bezeq CEO Avi Gabai, industrialist Gad Propper, Israeli low-cost supermarket magnate Rami Levy and former ambassador to the US Prof. Itamar Rabinovich, have signed on an initiative called Breaking the Impasse (BTI).
“Israel must reach a diplomatic solution – urgently,” a statement by BTI said. The group, led by Masri and Vardi, believes that a political solution, based on the two-state solution, is vital for the survival of both Israelis and Palestinian.
The economic forum convenes in Davos once a year and invites the biggest names in politics and business from around the world. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni will lead the Israeli political delegation. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Arekat will join Masri in leading the Palestinians.
UN agency: Iran stops high end uranium enrichment
(Ynet News) – Iran has halted its most sensitive nuclear activity under a ground-breaking deal with world powers, a confidential UN atomic agency report obtained by Reuters showed, paving the way for the easing of some Western sanctions.
The report by the International Atomic Energy also said Iran had begun diluting its stockpile of uranium enriched to the fissile concentration of 20% – a level that took it closer to the capability of producing fuel for an atom bomb.
The IAEA report to member states said: “The Agency confirms that, as of 20 January 2014, Iran … has ceased enriching uranium above 5% U-235 at the two cascades at the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP) and four cascades at the Fordo Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP) previously used for this purpose.”
It was referring to Iran’s two enrichment plants, at Natanz and Fordo. Cascades are interlinked networks of centrifuge machines that enrich uranium. Iranian state television earlier said Iran had suspended 20% enrichment at Natanz and that inspectors were heading to Fordo.
Op-Ed: Jewish Democrats’ surrender on Iran
(Ynet News) – A bill, proposed by fellow Democrat Bob Menendez and Republican Mark Kirk to threaten harder sanctions on Iran if no final agreement to dismantle the nuclear enrichment program is reached in the next six months, has the votes to pass in the US Senate with 43 Republicans and 16 Democrats cosponsoring it. However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, has blocked the legislation from coming to a vote at the White House`s request. The White house is further threatening to veto the bill if passed.
Ten committee chairmen in the Democratic-led Senate have pushed back against the new legislation. Sadly, but predictably, among committee chairs opposed to advancing the bill now are four leading Jewish senators who supposedly claim to be pro-Israel. They are Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee; Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the chairman of the Armed Services Committee; Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Environment Committee; and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the chairman of the Energy Committee.
It seems that Jewish Democrats will choose President Obama’s agenda every time over Israel’s survival and are even willing in the process to throw Israel under the bus and amplify anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic stereotypes.
On Tuesday, January 14, California Senator Dianne Feinstein’s suggested in a speech she delivered on the Senate floor that the bipartisan Menendez-Kirk bill would “let Israel determine when and where the United States goes to war.”
While AIPAC and the American Jewish Committee are fully and actively supporting the bill, Rabbi Jack Moline, the National Jewish Democratic Committee’s executive director, was willing to be used as an attack dog by the White House to smear his fellow Jews, accusing AIPAC and the American Jewish Committee of “strong-arm tactics, essentially threatening people that if they don’t vote a particular way, that somehow that makes them anti-Israel or means the abandonment of the Jewish community.”
Luckily, New York Democratic Senator Schumer has chosen this time to defy Obama and supports the bill.
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[Update] Iran uninvited after protest from US and Syrian National Council (SNC)
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has withdrawn his invitation to Iran to take part
in this week’s “Geneva 2” peace conference on Syria, his spokesman said.