Why is Israel Cutting Power to Jericho? - Israel Today

Why is Israel Cutting Power to Jericho?

Thursday, March 31, 2016 |  Israel Today Staff

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Israel will no doubt be condemned by those failing to take the whole situation into account, but it has been compelled to cut power to the ancient city of Jericho over a massive unpaid electric bill.

The Palestinian Authority currently owes the Israel Electric Company over 1.7 billion shekels ($450 million).

In yet another effort to force the Palestinian leadership to pay up, power will be cut intermittently to Jericho in the coming days.

An Electric Company official was quoted by Israel National News as saying the Jericho power outage would be “open-ended.”

But Israel has tried in the past to get the Palestinian Authority to honor its debts, only to roundly condemned by the US State Department.

The episode just confirms for many Israelis why the two-state solution as it stands will not lead to peace. A Palestinian state will remain wholly dependent on Israel for even basic needs like electricity, but will fail to pay for those services, confident that the international community would never allow Israel to demand recompense.

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Gaza Resident: We Are Biting the Hand That Feeds Us

Monday, July 14, 2014 |  Israel Today Staff

While observers of the latest round of violence between Israel and Hamas are certain to hear many negative claims against the Jewish state, the residents of Gaza are also quietly expressing ire at their terrorist overlords.

“Everybody here hates Hamas,” Gaza taxi drive Abu Ali told the Associated Press. “But they’re too afraid to say so publicly. Our food comes from Israel but what we give them in return is rockets — rockets that don’t even make little holes in the ground.”

Abu Ali, as he indicated, is not alone. In the upcoming issue of Israel Today Magazine, we spoke to a young Gaza-based peace activist who said he wished Israel would just reoccupy the coastal enclave so that local residents could be rid of Hamas rule.

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As of Monday afternoon, Hamas and its terrorist allies had fired nearly 1,000 rockets and missiles into Israel over the past 10 days, resulting in an ever harsher Israeli response.

Early Monday morning, Israel struck dozens of terrorist installations in northern Gaza, an area the IDF had warned local civilians to evacuate on Sunday.

And while Monday was relatively quiet compared to last week, several volleys of missiles were aimed at Tel Aviv and its environs. All of the missiles that were expected to hit populated areas were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system.

Israel also used a Patriot missile battery to intercept an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that made its way from Gaza to the nearby coastal city of Ashkelon. Hamas claimed that it had launched a fleet of six UAVs, but Israelis laughed off the assertion, noting that if they can accurately detect and track an incoming rocket, they would have noticed this Hamas “air force.”

Hamas was also busy doing damage to its own people beyond inviting military reprisals. One of the rockets fired during the morning house struck the main cable carrying electricity from Israel to the Gaza Strip, leaving 70,000 local residents without power.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Israel Electric Company to not bother fixing the cable for the time being to avoid placing its technicians in harm’s way.

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LARGEST MENORAH IN THE WORLD TO BE IT IN TEL AVIV

Largest Menorah in World To Be Lit in Tel Aviv

Israel Electric Company will light the 28 meter tall record breaking menorah on eighth night of Hanukkah, December 4.

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By Ari Yashar, Israel International News

First Publish: 11/27/2013

Illustration: giant menorah in Tel Aviv Port

Flash 90

The largest menorah (candellabrum) in the world will be lit in Tel Aviv on the eighth and final night of Hanukkah.

The Jewish holiday commemorating the Maccabean revolt which ended the Greek Empire's occupation of Israel was over 2,000 years ago.

Following Greek edicts outlawing Judaism the Maccabees rebelled, successfully expelling the Greeks, rededicating the Second Temple, and establishing their own monarchy. The Hanukkah holiday in particular celebrates the miracle of the menorah in the Temple staying lit for 8 days on enough oil for only 1 day.

Israel Electric Company (IEC) created the menorah, which will be presented on December 4 at a formal lighting ceremony at the Reading Power Station in Tel Aviv. The ceremony will be attended by the Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy & Water Silvan Shalom, the Chairman of the IEC Board of Directors General (Res.) Yiftah Ron-Tal, and the Director of the Ministry of Energy Orna Hozman-Bechor.

The menorah, which has been submitted to the Guiness Book of Records, measures in at 28 meters (92 feet) high. The branches of the menorah will shine 9 white light beams until midnight to a height of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) where they will be visible from the surrounding region.

Shalom and Ron-Tal will light the menorah, together with Eyal Niefeld who lost his eyesight in a terrorist attack in 2005. He suffered the injuries in a suicide bombing that killed 9 and wounded 37 on the bus he was riding. Currently Niefeld works at Israel Electric under an initiative to integrateemployees with special needs.

Back in 2004 the IEC took part in building a 21 meter (69 feet) tall menorah in Jerusalem, the largest in the world at the time.

The menorah is an ancient symbol in Judaism. Just in September an archaeological find from the foot of Temple Mount revealed among other artifacts a gold medallion engraved with a menorah from the early 7th century CE.

Two weeks after the find, a 1,500 year old stamp bearing the menorah symbol was unearthed in Akko.
Meanwhile just this week it was discovered that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been digging at an ancient Hasmonean fortress, an important site in the Maccabbean revolt. The discovery raises fears that historical finds at the location, which is in "Area A," will be lost.