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☆ Exclusive: Israeli bid for U.S. visa waiver hangs on Palestinian-American access test
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Dan Williams | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

But progress has been hindered because of restrictions on entry to Israel for Palestinian Americans from the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Although it has not been advertised beforehand, Israeli and U.S. diplomatic sources said the trial would start on Thursday. U.S. officials assessing the trial will also focus on whether Palestinian Americans or other Arab Americans are subjected to selective grilling by Israeli security personnel. A U.S. official estimated that, of that number, between 45,000 and 60,000 were residents of the West Bank. An Israeli official gave lower figures, saying that out of 70,000 to 90,000 Palestinian Americans worldwide, about 15,000 to 20,000 were West Bank residents.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu's, Eli Cohen, Washington's, Biden, Isaac Herzog, Dan Williams, Edmund Blair Organizations: U.S, Visa, West Bank, U.S . State Department and Homeland Security Department, Ben, Reuters, U.S . Embassy, Interior Ministry, National Security Council, Ben Gurion, BDS, Israel, Arab American Institute Foundation, West Bank ., Thomson Locations: Israel, JERUSALEM, U.S, United States, Palestinian, Ben Gurion, Tel Aviv, Ben, Jordan

☆ Netanyahu Rushed to Hospital, but in ‘Good Condition,’ His Office Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-15 | by ( Patrick Kingsley | More About Patrick Kingsley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, was rushed on Saturday to a hospital to undergo medical tests after experiencing “mild dizziness,” his office said. Mr. Netanyahu, 73, arrived on Saturday afternoon at the Sheba Medical Center, a leading hospital near Tel Aviv, and remained “in good condition and undergoing medical evaluation,” his office said in a statement. A spokesman for Mr. Netanyahu said on Saturday that the prime minister was fully conscious during the journey to the hospital and subsequent tests, and that he was joking with the hospital’s staff and doctors. Mr. Netanyahu had spent the hottest part of Friday beside the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel, where temperatures reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit, his office said in a later announcement. He felt mildly dizzy on Saturday, and went to the medical center on the advice of his personal physician, Dr. Zvi Berkowitz.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu, Netanyahu, Zvi Berkowitz Organizations: Sheba Medical Locations: Tel Aviv, Galilee, Israel

☆ From rockets to recruitment, Israel's military refocuses on AI
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Dan Williams | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

For the next flare-up, Colonel Eli Birenbaum, chief of the military's operational data and applications unit, has plans to use artificial intelligence aggregation to predict the salvoes. Currently, he said, there are "many hundreds" of personnel dealing broadly with AI-related projects, and who constitute 20% of military technologists. He has government backing, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu increasing the defence budget and pledging to make Israel an AI "powerhouse". During their mandatory service - two years for women, 32 months for men - military technologists earn a monthly $335. For Israel, AI target-acquisition will not spell automated target-destruction, Birenbaum stressed.

Persons: Nir Elias RAMAT, Eli Birenbaum, Birenbaum, Benjamin Netanyahu, Dan Williams, Supantha Mukherjee, Nick Macfie Organizations: IDF, REUTERS, Reuters, Google, Thomson Locations: Ramat Gan, Israel, Gaza, Tel Aviv

☆ The 'mammoth meatball' grown in a lab probably doesn't taste like woolly mammoth at all
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

It probably doesn't taste like woolly mammoth, a meat specialist and mammoth DNA researcher said. The Belgian startup Paleo says it added woolly mammoth myoglobin to a plant-based burger. The mammoth meatball doesn't have either of those elements from woolly mammoth. Mammoth myoglobin doesn't necessarily bring mammoth flavorThough he didn't taste it, Ryall said everyone could smell the meatball while it was cooking. So why make a mammoth meatball that doesn't taste like mammoth?

☆ Some Israeli army reservists rule out call-up if judiciary weakened
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Emily Rose | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

"I've told the army that if the judicial reform passes (in parliament) I won't continue to come," Colonel N told Reuters, asking not to be further identified. Most Israelis are conscripted into the military for 2-3 years, and some continue as reservists into middle age. While reservists have helped Israel prevail in a string of wars, the army has relied recently on standing forces. 'HUGE DAMAGE'Experts warn the Israeli military could be weakened by reservists rejecting call-ups. "This definitely inflicts huge damage on the capability and capacity of the Israeli forces," Israel Ziv, a former head of army operations, told Reuters.

☆ Israeli protests target Netanyahu, visiting Pentagon chief at airport
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Dedi Hayoun | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Despite a heavy police deployment, convoys of cars flying the Israeli national flag streamed towards the concourses of Ben Gurion Airport, near Tel Aviv. Some local media said Netanyahu and his retinue had come in the early morning in order to evade highway closures. Others speculated he might reach Ben Gurion - usually a 30-minute drive from Jerusalem - by army helicopter instead. Netanyahu's spokespeople did not immediately comment on the whereabouts of the prime minister, who was due to leave for a two-day visit to Rome in the afternoon - after a hastily organised welcome of Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin at the airport. But he postponed, and relocated meetings to a venue near Ben Gurion, given concerns that the demonstrations could make it difficult to reach the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv.

☆ Israel says it's ready to send Syria quake aid soon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Dan Williams | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] People search for survivors under the rubble, following an earthquake, in Aleppo, Syria February 6, 2023. Asked who had made the request regarding Syria cited by Netanyahu, an Israeli official told Reuters: "The Syrians". Asked if this referred to opposition members or to President Bashar al-Assad's government, the official said only: "Syria". Israel's public broadcaster Kan said in an unsourced report that Russia had relayed the request for Israel to assist Syria. Israel and Syria have been in a state of war for decades, with periods of ceasefire.

REUTERS/Nir EliasSINGAPORE, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Israel's Cognyte Software Ltd (CGNT.O) won a tender to sell intercept spyware to a Myanmar state-backed telecommunications firm a month before the Asian nation's February 2021 military coup, according to documents reviewed by Reuters. Intercept spyware can give authorities the power to listen in on calls, view text messages and web traffic including emails, and track the locations of users without the assistance of telecom and internet firms. MPT uses intercept spyware, a source with direct knowledge of the matter and three people briefed on the issue told Reuters although they did not identify the vendor. Reuters was unable to determine whether the sale of Cognyte intercept technology to MPT was finalised. While intercept spyware is typically described as "dual-use" technology for civilian and defence purposes, Israeli law states that "dual-use" technology is classified as defence equipment.

☆ Misguided getaway sets off another security alert at Israeli airport
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File PhotoJERUSALEM, Dec 4 (Reuters) - A Palestinian car thief rammed through a checkpoint on the way to Israel's main airport on Sunday, authorities said, setting off a security alert in what they described as the result of poor navigation on his part rather than an attempted attack. Video circulated on social media showed passengers in Ben Gurion Airport's departure terminal crouching alongside their luggage as instructions sounded over loudhailers. Police said the suspect, a Palestinian in Israel illegally from the occupied West Bank, arrived at the airport checkpoint in a stolen car and raced through toward the main terminal. As in previous cases, the suspect was believed to have taken a wrong turn off the main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway, Israeli officials said. The violence has contributed to the rise of far-rightists likely to play significant roles in the incoming Israeli government.

☆ With balloons and contact cards, first Israel-Qatar flight heads to World Cup
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Amir Cohen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/4] Football fans queue before boarding the first direct commercial flight between Israel and Qatar for the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar, at Ben Gurion International Airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel November 20, 2022. "There were a few concerns, I cannot deny that," said Sagi Ashkevitz, who was flying out with three friends to his second World Cup. Those boarding the TUS Airways plane at Ben Gurion Airport had originally been told they would have a brief stopover in Cyprus. Six more Tel Aviv-Doha flights for the World Cup have been approved so far, Mizrahi said. Riad Ziadna, a member of Israel's Arab minority who held a soccer ball as he stood in the check-in line, said he believed the World Cup would be "the starter's pistol for coexistence all over the Middle East".

☆ Donald Trump may have had a bad week with US voters, but Republicans in Israel still love the former president
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Insider met with Republicans Overseas in Israel to discuss Donald Trump's popularity in the country. It's named in honor of former President Donald Trump, a figure who is generally beloved in the country. Trump Square's modest sign reads: "The USA's 45th president and the first to acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel." Joshua Zitser/Insider"Israel never had a president who is as supportive and helpful as US President Donald Trump," Rami Greenberg, the mayor of Petah Tikva, at the unveiling of Trump Square in 2019. A 2018 University of Maryland poll of 650 Israeli Jewish people found that 73% of those surveyed supported moving the embassy.

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