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February kicks off with ample sunshine
First weekend in February sees rising temperatures and a drop ...
First weekend in February sees rising temperatures and a drop in humidity after a rainy January - perfect hiking weather.Sunshine has returned to Israel after a drenched January broke the average in recent years, kicking off February's first weekend with warmer temperatures and a drop in humidity on Saturday.Gentle winds blowing in from the east brought with them the dryer weather, and the wide gap between day and nighttime temperatures. Partly cloudy skies were expected along the coast, with highs of 17 degrees in Tel Aviv and its environs, 15 degrees in Haifa, and 16 degrees in Ashdod, according to the Israel Meteorological Center.Similar temperatures can be expected in Beersheba and Eilat, with humidity hovering between 35 and 45 percent, respectively. Jerusalem was expected to see partly cloudy skies, and highs of 14 dipping down to 4 degrees overnight. The pleasant temperatures and dry weather were expected to continue for the next few days, ending Tuesday evening with a drop in temperatures along the coast and light showers.Click here to play
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'Iran threats against Jewish targets in US growing'
Guarded and "soft" sites, such as synagogues, schools and community ...
Guarded and "soft" sites, such as synagogues, schools and community centers, are under increasing threat by Iran.The threat against Israeli and Jewish targets in North America by Iran is on the rise, ABC news reported Friday, after the Iranian regime vocalized again its intention to aid in the fight against the "Zionist regime" in the face of Western sanctions.Guarded and "soft sites," such as synagogues, community centers and schools, are the primary targets by Iran, a letter circulated by the Consul General for Mid-Atlantic States and obtained by ABC news claimed."We predict that the threat on our sites around the world will increase," the letter stated.Police and intelligence officials have stepped up monitoring Israeli government buildings and Jewish centers in cities across the US and Canada, telling local officials to remain wary of the potential threat from Iran, such as the bombing of an Argentine community center in 1984 that killed 85 people. This development has been ongoing for a number of weeks, ABC reported.The report came after Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamanei said on Friday he had "no fear of saying that we will back and help any nation or group that wants to confront and fight against the Zionist regime (Israel)." He also stated that the Islamic Republic would not yield to international pressure to abandon its nuclear course, threatening retaliation for sanctions aimed at Iran's oil exports. His comments came a day after Israel’s top political and military leadership issued a series of warnings to the Islamic Republic in some of the most candid comments on the nuclear threat in years.Speaking at the Herzliya Conference, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said there was a consensus among many nations today that if diplomacy and sanctions failed to stop Iran, a military strike should be launched.“If sanctions don’t achieve the desired goal of stopping [Iran’s] military nuclear program, there will be a need to consider taking action,” he declared.Reuters and Yaakov Katz contributed to this report. Click here to play
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Middle East trails again in green energy growth
Vestas estimates renewables accounts for only 0.2 percent of power ...
Vestas estimates renewables accounts for only 0.2 percent of power production in the Middle East and North Africa.ABU DHABI/DUBAI - Talk of a Middle Eastern green energy boom is likely to prove no more than a mirage with little hope of the region saving clean technology companies from the shrinking project pools of Europe.Instead India, China and Latin America offer some hope for green energy companies struggling in a European market drowning in debt and a North American market awash with gas."We expect some growth will happen here in the Middle East but it will take time for this to become a robust industry," Juan Araluce from Danish wind energy giant Vestas told Reuters at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.Vestas estimates renewables accounts for only 0.2 percent of power production in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), compared to a global average of around 3 percent and many European countries already well into double digits."It is not even one tenth of the world average, which is already low, and if we split between the Middle East and North Africa much of the 0.2 percent happens in North Africa," the head of Vestas' Mediterranean operations said. "But it should also be looked at as a huge opportunity."The world's leading turbine maker has just 600 megawatts (MW) of installed wind capacity from Morocco to the Arabian Peninsula, compared to 3,650 MW of turbines it has supplied to Spain alone.Vestas, which in early January announced plans to cut over 2,300 jobs in a bid to restore profitability, faces stiff competition from Chinese and Indian turbine makers in Asia but expects much more growth in Brazil and Mexico than in MENA.Solar power has not fared much better in a region of intense and prolonged sunshine and vast expanses of largely uninhabited land for photovoltaic (PV) panels.Major oil exporters Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have built a few small solar plants and have plans to build more. But active solar projects are still rare, with Saudi Arabia building less than 100 MW in the last three years.Egypt has one of the most ambitious regional goals, having set a target of 20 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2020, but even that target has been passed by the European Union average, with Spain already getting over 30 percent from green sources in 2009 and Italy 23 percent, according to EU figures.Abu Dhabi green vehicle Masdar has made significant renewable energy investments in countries where political and public support for clean energy brings with it big incentives.Back home, it has only around 10 MW of solar capacity up and running at the famous but far-from-finished Masdar City, with a 100-MW concentrated solar plant - the world's biggest - under construction and another 150 MW planned nearby.The UAE's richest emirate is taking the lead in the energy hungry Gulf, targeting 7 percent of electricity from alternative sources by 2020. But that 10-year goal was exceeded by 21 of the 27 EU member states three years ago.Solar vs Wind The calm summer air of the Gulf may not be suited to large scale wind farm development and the strongest winds typically blow in winter when demand for electricity is at its lowest.But supporters argue more should be done to encourage large scale projects to harness solar power in a region where electricity demand is tied to the power of the sun through air conditioning."Recent falling costs of solar power, excellent fit to demand patterns, and rising regional gas prices, mean that PV is now economically viable or close to it in most MENA countries," according to a new report commissioned by the Emirates Solar Industry Association (ESIA).The report called on governments to rationalise energy pricing in a region where gas is often sold at well below cost while millions of barrels of oil burnt in power plants are supplied at a fraction of international prices."Saudi Aramco and (UAE oil firm) ADNOC have a choice for every new barrel of oil they produce," Daniel Zywietz the managing director of Ambata Capital Middle East, an advisory group for renewable energy projects in the region, said."They can give it to an electricity company for five dollars a barrel or give it to Japan for $105 a barrel."The International Energy Agency estimates that the Middle East accounts for almost half of the $409 billion that the world spends annually on fossil fuel subsidies.Artificially low fossil fuel prices make renewable energy technologies, which already rely on subsidies in other parts of the world, even more unattractive in the Middle East."In the Middle East the leadership is interested but there's no momentum because conventional energy is accessible," Tulsi Tanti, chairman of Indian wind power giant Suzlon, said.But fuel subsidies have also helped drive excessive demand growth in a region where only Qatar has a lot more gas than it needs while its neighbours increasingly rely on costly gas imports or burn more of their own oil - factors that should help drive green energy growth.Omani Solar Oman, whose fossil fuel production is unable to keep pace with rapidly rising internal demand and which aims to get 10 percent of its energy from renewables by 2020, has attracted a group of German private investors who plan to build 400 MW of solar power capacity the small non-OPEC oil and gas producer.The $2-billion project, which includes facilities to manufacture solar panels for export, could help the spread of solar power in the region, eventually. Like so many renewable energy projects, the timeline for building the Omani plants is unclear."If you are looking at the speed of things, we always have to keep in mind that yes big projects take time but at the same time if you do them well, the renewable sector can actually accelerate quite quickly," Frank Wouters, director of Masdar Power said.So too is the completion of the UAE's Masdar City, hailed as the world's first carbon-neutral city when construction began in 2008 and whose early stages of development are already a must-see for visiting heads of state.But the ambitious project may also have been set back by the financial problems that have weighed on projects around the world over the last few years.Four years on, only the Masdar Institute Campus and the futuristic pods of its Personal Rapid Transport (PRT) system are operational and completion of the city of 40,000 people and 50,000 commuters is not expected until 2025."There's only one building," a Masdar City security guard said on Tuesday, when asked if the computer-controlled pod would give a full tour of the city.Click here to play
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PA's Abbas, Hamas's Mashaal to meet in Qatar
Palestinian leaders set to negotiate "reconciliation measures," issues resulting from ...
Palestinian leaders set to negotiate "reconciliation measures," issues resulting from PA-Israel "peace talks failure."Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will meet with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Qatar on Sunday, AFP quoted Fatah party spokesman Azzam al-Ahmad as saying.According to Ahmad, the two Palestinian leaders will negotiate potential "reconciliation measures" with the goal of forming a unity government. They will also discuss issues resulting from the "failure of talks” with Israel. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met in Jordan in January on five occasions. The Palestinians are expected to decide by the middle of the month whether to continue this channel of talks. Israel and the Quartet are in the process of assembling a package of economic gestures to keep the Palestinians directly engaged with Israel in low-level talks in Jordan.Ahmad also said that a meeting originally scheduled for February 2 had been delayed indefinitely, according to AFP.Fatah and Hamas have failed to make progress toward ending their dispute. The two parties have yet to agree on the make-up of the proposed unity government and other issues related to security and elections.In addition, Hamas has accused the PA of continuing its security clamp-down on Hamas supporters in the West Bank. Hamas officials said Wednesday that PA security forces have arrested more than 70 supporters of the Islamist movement in the past three months.Herb Keinon and Khaled Abu Toameh contributed to this report.Click here to play
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US anxious over possible Israeli plans on Iran
Two US officials say J'lem still undecided on Iran attack; ...
Two US officials say J'lem still undecided on Iran attack; Israeli strike would have implications for US election.The Obama administration is increasingly anxious about Israeli leaders' provocative public comments on Iran's nuclear program but does not have hard proof that Jerusalem will strike Iran in the next few months, US and European officials said.The US uncertainty and lack of information about Israel's plans on Iran were behind an alarming assessment of the situation reportedly voiced by US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the officials said.David Ignatius, a Washington Post columnist who specializes in intelligence matters, reported that Panetta believed there was a "strong likelihood" that Israel would attack Iran's nuclear program within the next six months -- as early as April, Ignatius wrote.Three US officials who follow the issue said their understanding was that the United States did not have concrete intelligence suggesting an attack by Israel on Iran in that time frame was likely or actively being prepared.The current US assessment is that for months Jerusalem had been making contingency plans and tentative preparations both for such an operation and for possible Iranian retaliation, two of the officials said.Nonetheless, said the officials, indications were that Israel's leadership had not made a final decision to attack Iran.Ken Pollack, a former White House and CIA official with expertise on the Gulf, said the sudden rise in public discussion of an Israeli strike on Iran's known nuclear sites -- including increasingly dire warnings from leaders in Jerusalem -- were misleading."If Israel has a good military option, they just take it, they don't talk about it, they don't give warnings," said Pollack, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. "So the fact that they are talking about it, to me, is one tip-off that they don't have a good military option."We should never rule out the possibility of an Israeli strike and the odds have probably increased in recent months as a result of a number of different factors. But ... there are a lot of disincentives that have prevented Israel from launching a strike for 10 years," Pollack said.Panetta evades direct response to Post articlePanetta was vague when asked by journalists to confirm what the Washington Post had reported."Frankly, I'm not going to comment on that," he told reporters traveling with him in Europe. "David Ignatius, you know, can write what he will but, you know, with regards to what I think and what I view, I consider that to be an area that belongs to me and nobody else."When pressed further, Panetta said: "There really isn't that much to add except that, you know, that they're considering this and, you know, we have indicated our concerns."Asked about the background to Panetta's reported views, one of the US officials noted that officials in Jerusalem, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, had been "increasingly vocal" in expressing concern that Israel might be "running out of time" to stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb. The official said that some Israelis have indicated their view that in the next three or four months the need for Israeli action could become critical.But the view of many career experts inside the US government is that Iran's nuclear development program, which Tehran insists is for civilian nuclear purposes, is unlikely to pass the point of no return in that time frame.Earlier this week, US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified before Congress and publicly re-stated the long-standing view of US intelligence agencies that Iran's leaders have not yet decided to build a nuclear weapon.Many, if not most, Western experts believe it would take Iran at least a year to build a weapon once leaders decided to go ahead.But some Israel leaders and experts believe that an attack would have to be launched earlier if Iran's nuclear effort is to be set back seriously. Barak has warned that Iran's nuclear research could soon pass into what he called a "zone of immunity," protected from outside disruption.Barak was recently quoted telling the Herzliya Conference, "Later is too late," one of the US officials noted. The official said that US policymakers had to be concerned about the possibility of an early Israeli attack "given that Barak and Netanyahu seem so determined to do it."Political implications in WashingtonOne of the US officials said that while Israel may have the military capability to delay Iran's nuclear effort for a period of time, to deal the Iranian program a serious and long-term setback would require additional military power, presumably from the United States.But Panetta's alleged remarks and other Obama administration's statements indicate the White House is focused on dissuading Israel from taking action - and distancing itself from an Israel strike if persuasion fails.A strike on Iran and Iran's response, including attempts to close the Strait of Hormuz, which is vital for oil shipments, could seriously harm the US economy, jeopardizing US President Barack Obama's chances for re-election. Obama also would likely come under intense domestic pressure to back Israel's actions."The US is not too excited about engaging with Israel or being part of anything at this point," one official said.A European defense analyst, who has access to classified all-source intelligence, said that while Iran's behavior was relatively predictable, the greatest uncertainties facing the US and its allies stemmed from Israel's stance.Despite internal power squabbles, the analyst said, Iran has been "quite restrained and limited in its responses." Recent inflammatory comments by Iranian leaders, such as threats to block the Strait of Hormuz, were relatively low-intensity compared to other threats and physical confrontations in the Gulf of past years."Israel is, practically speaking, the wild card in the pack," the analyst said. "We have no specific information on when or if they will attack but based on their past history and current stance, it is something we do expect at some point."Click here to play
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Katz:‘Growing chance Israel will strike Iran in 2012'
Military correspondent says that diplomacy will not work; the jury ...
Military correspondent says that diplomacy will not work; the jury is still out on sanctions.The Jerusalem Post’s military correspondent, Yaakov Katz, joins us at the Herzilya Conference 2012, where the topic of the day is Iran. Katz opines that the international community needs to be cautious about how much faith it instills in diplomacy as a means to prevent Iran from developing its nuclear program. His claim is that Iranians are experts at fooling and toying with the West, making people believe that sincere talks are going on and in the meantime using those talks as a delay tactic while they forge ahead in achieving their nuclear aspirations. With regards to Iran’s relationship with Gaza, Katz says that both Hamas and Hezbollah are well-known proxies of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, receiving weaponry as well as financing. “We know that there are Iranian artillery rockets in the Gaza strip which have the ability to reach Tel Aviv. There are also sophisticated anti-tank missiles and roadside bombs. The Iranians are continuing to actively support Hamas as well as supporting embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s attempts to stay in power."So what sort of timeframe can we expect for Iran to finally have a nuclear weapon?According to Katz, if Iran were to go the “break-out” stage today—the so-called stage in which the Iranians enrich their uranium to 90 percent (which is military-grade level)—according to the consensus of Israeli and Western intelligence, it would take around a year for them to have a crude nuclear device. That’s what it makes it so critical to stop them at this stage. Katz avers that Israel will take military action sometime in 2012, possibly in 2013. At the moment Israel is giving the crippling sanctions, such as the oil embargo passed by the EU or the proposed sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran, a chance to see if they could have the effect of forcing Iran to face the dilemma of either continuing with its enrichment program or abandoning it. If the sanctions prove ineffective, the IDF has the ability to set back the Iranian nuclear program by up to 3 years through military strikes. Click here to play
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Samaria in a sewage stalemate
All but one of 22 Palestinian villages refuse connection to ...
All but one of 22 Palestinian villages refuse connection to sewage line, Environmental Protection Ministry says.Swirling in the strikingly green valley below the southern Samaria community of Nofim is a rambling stream amid grass and trees – filled with dangerous quantities of sewage.A subterranean sewage pipe connects to the underbellies of four of the five surrounding settlements – Nofim, Yakir, Etz Ephraim and Sha’arei Tikva – and will within a few months also connect to that of Ma’aleh Shomron, bringing all of the effluent to a treatment facility in Eliyahu. Despite Israeli offers to connect the 22 surrounding Palestinian villages to the same pipe, all but one of them refused the proposal, Environmental Protection Ministry and Shomron Regional Council officials explained during an exclusive tour of the area on Thursday.Instead, their sewage flows into the aquifer below and ends up directly in the stream, according to the officials.“That’s a testament to the fact that we are doing everything we can to prevent pollution in Judea and Samaria, but nevertheless, the Palestinians refuse to cooperate,” Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan told The Jerusalem Post during the tour.Although planned about 15 years ago, the pipeline was only constructed about eight years ago, and a decade ago sewage from the settlements as well flowed directly into the stream, according to Shomron Environmental Association director Itzik Meir.Erdan expressed hope that donor countries would agree to only continue giving the villages financial support if they agree to connect to the sewage pipeline. Meanwhile, he also said he hoped that the relationship between the local Palestinian and Israeli communities would improve, though he certainly has doubts about this matter.“Hopefully I will be surprised,” he said.“It’s important for me to reveal whether they’re making political use of water,” Erdan said. “Or maybe it’s a problem of misunderstanding – but that is hard for me to believe.”Another Environment Ministry official was slightly more optimistic, explaining that one of the 22 villages had, in fact, recently agreed to hook up to the sewage pipe, a deal that would be finalized in a few weeks time. The official said he could not reveal the name of the village at this point.Yet a third official told the Post he suspected that the local Palestinian governments were unwilling to connect their villages due to “political reasons” – simply “because they don’t want to recognize Israel as a presence in the area.”The Palestinian Water Authority could not be reached by press time.Click here to play
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'Israeli gas must first supply local market'
Energy expert Nick Butler says that revenue from natural gas ...
Energy expert Nick Butler says that revenue from natural gas will not start streaming in until at least 2020.Before rushing to export natural gas, Israel must first use the commodity to supply its own market, British energy expert Nick Butler said at the Herzliya Conference on Wednesday.Israelis seem to be convinced that natural gas discoveries will lead to an immediate economic boom, but the fact is that even in a best case scenario revenues will not begin to stream in until 2020 at the earliest, Butler, a visiting fellow at King’s College London and a former BP Group vice president of strategy, said.The other panelists, including Israel Electric Corporation chairman Yiftach Ron- Tal, Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline chairman Amos Yaron and Delek Drilling CEO Yossi Abu, spoke in favor of striking a balance between supplying local demand and exporting gas.But Butler said it would be unwise to build a major liquefied natural gas exportation facility before more is known about how much natural gas the Levant Basin actually contains. It would take at least five years and cost $6 billion to $8b. to build such a facility, and that is before taking into an account that a location has still not been found for it, he added.Moreover, if Israel is going to export gas, it has to understand the market to which it is exporting, Butler said. He pointed out that the United States is now self-sufficient, and that the Levant Basin is not ideally placed to supply gas to the Asian market, given the competition from Qatar, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Australia.“There is a real risk that the cost of getting gas from here to there will reduce the net margin, and therefore reduce its value to owners and to the State of Israel,” he said.Turning his attention to the local market, Butler said he agreed with the forecasts of some of his fellow panelists that the majority of Israeli electricity would soon be manufactured from natural gas.“This is a developed economy. Israel is not a banana republic that has to export its natural resources. I don’t see why Israel could not develop gas grids in major cities to bring it to every business and every home. That is what has worked in most European countries, and there is no physical reason that cannot be done here,” he said.Energy and Water Minister Uzi Landau, who spoke before the panel discussion, said that continued gas exploration depended on being able to provide an assurance that some of it would be for export. Landau also addressed the topic of electricity production, saying that Israel would be open to selling power to Jordan and Egypt should they wish to buy it.Landau criticized the Environmental Protection Ministry, saying that it was motivated only by environmental concerns, something that restricts the supply of gas and would likely lead to electricity blackouts.In response, Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan said he completely rejects the notion that his ministry “exacerbated the shortage of natural gas.”Rather, the depletion has been caused by the overuse of natural gas on the part of industry, and the Energy and Water Ministry should have been engaging in longer-term preparations to prevent such deficits, a statement from the Environmental Protection Ministry argued.“The shortage of gas was known in advance and would have happened even without any guidance from us,” Erdan said. “The shortage stems from a long-term planning failure of the [Energy and Water] Ministry. If Minister Landau and his ministry were operating as required, the public could enjoy cheaper electricity and live in a cleaner and healthier environment.”Click here to play
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Old tranquilizer being phased out
Former best-selling minor tranquilizer has largely been replaced by benzodiazepines.The ...
Former best-selling minor tranquilizer has largely been replaced by benzodiazepines.The Health Ministry has adopted the policy of the European Medicines Agency by gradually halting the marketing of the tranquilizer/sleeping pill known to generations of Americans and others as Milltown.Its generic name is meprobamate, and there are numerous commercial names for it.The medication is a carbamate derivative and was the best-selling minor tranquilizer for a time, but has largely been replaced by the benzodiazepines.It was developed in the early ’50s and became the first blockbuster tranquilizing drug in the US. It was later synthesized and called meprobamate to overcome shortcomings, including the short period that it has an effect.The European Medicines Agency said that the drug, which is also used as a sleeping pill, should no longer be used because it caused confusion and unconsciousness (especially in the elderly) in some patients abroad and may be addictive. It is made in Israel by Rekah Pharmaceutical Industry Ltd and not widely used here, as there are better pills for its purposes.The ministry announced on Thursday night that it would phase out its use over a period of 15 months. No such step has yet been taken in the US.Click here to play
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Diplomacy: Warm support from the chilly North
Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird explains his government’s support ...
Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird explains his government’s support of Israel to the ‘Post.’The Hill Times, a Canadian weekly newspaper that covers that country’s politics, recently came out with its annual edition of the country’s 100 most influential people in government and politics. John Baird, Canada’s Conservative 42-year-old foreign minister, was listed as number three.“If you weren’t in politics, what would you want to be doing,” Baird was asked in the magazine interview. “Likely working on a kibbutz in Israel,” was his reply.Anyone who heard Baird either in private conversation or public appearances this week – he was in Israel for diplomatic meetings and to take part in the Herzliya Conference – would not be surprised by his answer.The man, appointed Canada’s foreign minister in May 2011, likes Israel – a lot.And Baird is not the only one. Since Stephen Harper became the country’s prime minister in 2006, Canada went from being a middle-of-the-road friend of Israel – somewhere between the US and the European Union – to setting the gold standard for support of the Jewish state. There is not a government on the planet today more supportive of Israel than Harper’s Canada.And the love runs both ways. According to the personable and informal Baird – he came out of the elevator for this interview at his Tel Aviv hotel without security guards, dressed casually, looking like just another tourist, and was introduced simply as “John” – one of the frustrations of the political life is a lack of appreciation.“The amount of warmth and love for Canada here in Israel is just unbelievable,” he said. “I was told about this beforehand, but it has been a real pleasure because often you will do things and deliver things for your own constituents and not get a lot of appreciation. But holy moly, that certainly is not the case here.”What follows are excerpts of the interview with Baird.You said in your speech this week at the Herzliya Conference that Israel has no better friend in the world than Canada. Where is that coming from? Is it Prime Minister Harper? Is it yourself? Is it the Canadian people? Because it hasn't always been this way.First and foremost it is some of the prime minister’s leadership. There is no moral ambiguity; he’s not one who believes in moral relativism. The prime minister’s leadership is very strong on this. There are a number of ministers – I'm one – who feel very passionately about Israel.I can recall being here once [a number of years ago] and talking to the Canadian ambassador and asking why Canada is so against Israel. “What do you mean,” he said. I said, “all these resolutions at the UN.” When he said they don’t mean anything, my response was, “Well if they don't mean anything why do we vote for them?” And his reply was, “Oh that just happens every year.”There are a lot of Canadians who agree with us; some disagree with us. But Mr. Harper has said this, and I have said it many times too, that too often in the past Canada’s [foreign policy] is just “go along to get along.” And it is easier to do that. If someone asked in the past about Canada’s foreign policy, the working assumption would be that it is whatever our historical policy has been and what the international consensus is among our allies. But now we base it on values and principles.Is this coming from a religious place for the prime minister? Is this religious-based support? No, I don’t think so. It is very similar to me. After the Holocaust it is tremendously important for there to be a Jewish homeland, a Jewish state that can be a place of refuge. In this region today there is only one liberal democracy, only one place that values and respects democracy, human rights and the rule of law. And that is our ally.My grandfather went to war in 1942 – the big struggle of his generation was fascism and then communism. The great struggle of my generation, of our generation, is terrorism. Too often Israel is on the front line of that struggle, and it is tremendously important that we take a principled stand and support our friend and ally.How well does that resonate in Canada? We certainly don’t do it for electoral advantage. It is not an electoral winner. Foreign policy is not a big issue in Canadian politics.How about the Jewish vote? There are 2,800 Jews in my constituency in Ottawa. I have 11,500 Muslims and Arabs. The Arab and Muslim population is much larger. So I don't think we do it for electoral reasons. We’ve gotten great support from the Jewish community in Canada, which we value, but it is not done with an electoral calculation in mind.Has it, or could it, hurt you politically? When you stand up for your values and you do something that is basically right, you are never hurt.How about around the world? Is Canada’s stature diminished in Europe because of your support for Israel? If, as the minister of foreign affairs, my job was to wake up in the morning and ask how to be popular, this probably wouldn’t be the way to do it. But at the same time it is not an albatross by any stretch. There are some who don’t share our views, who don’t agree to our intervention in international forums with unbridled enthusiasm.I was in the [Persian] Gulf for five days in late November and one of the Canadian reporters said, “Baird is going to the Gulf and this [Canada’s support for Israel] will be the elephant in the room for the entire five days.” No one brought it up. No one.People may disagree with our position, but they respect that we have differences. There are folks who didn’t agree with me. I don’t agree with them on everything. That doesn’t mean I stick my finger in their eye at every meeting, and vice versa.How about with Europe? Certainly Prime Minister Harper fought very hard for a balanced statement on the conflict at the G-8 [last may in France, when Canada was instrumental in softening a statement on the Middle East and keeping out any mention of the pre-1967 lines as a basis for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement]. Of course it would just be easier if Canada would just shut up, sit in the corner and not cause any problems. But we got good support from President Obama, for example, on that.But isn’t it harming your stature in the world? Didn't you lose a 2010 vote to join the Security Council because of it? There is no doubt that it was unhelpful in the Security Council. I don’t think you could say there was one particular reason [why Canada lost to Portugal for a temporary seat on the Security Council]. But that was certainly one of the reasons.How about ties with Washington? When there was considerable tension here between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu, did Canada have any role to play in smoothing things over or running interference? I hope there is never a day when the prime minister of Israel needs the intervention of the prime minister of Canada in Washington.You said that Canada is Israel’s greatest friend in the world. Where is the US in this? I think the US is a good friend, too. I like to think we are better.In what sense? A stronger friend How does that manifest itself? Take the G-8 communiqué. It made reference to President Obama’s speech. It made reference to certain things he said in the speech. But if you want to talk about 1967 borders with land swaps, let’s talk about Israel as a Jewish state. If you want to talk about this, we can talk about a future Palestinian state being demilitarized. If you want to talk about the speech, we’ll talk about the speech. If you want to be general we can be general. If you want to be specific, we would want some of those more favorable comments toward Israel included in the communiqué.So you were out in front of the US on that issue? Yes. President Obama was very supportive in the end.Regarding the diplomatic process with the Palestinians, are we stuck conceptually? We have been trying the same thing since Oslo and it hasn’t moved. Is there anything you can recommend to do things differently? I wouldn’t say we haven’t come very far since Oslo. I visited Ramallah, and there is a Palestinian Authority with a president and prime minister. Their capacity on security has improved immeasurably in recent years.But the whole paradigm that we can negotiate a solution...I don’t think there is any other alternative. It may be an unattractive one, but it is the best and only. I don’t know how anyone can impose peace; I don't know how anyone can impose security. At the end of the day you want an agreement and a solution, but you also want to be able to shake hands and live in peace and harmony. Other than negotiations, I don’t know any other way to do it.Two years ago Canada cut its funding to UNRWA. Some at the UN have treated Canada like an ATM – we are the 17th-largest economy, but the seventh-largest contributor [to the UN].But does the change in your UNRWA policy represent a thinking that we may have reached the time where Palestinian refugees should be settled permanently and not left in refugee camps? I am not going to step on that landmine. I was just in Davos and had a long chat with one of my predecessors from the other party, John Manley. He made some statements on that [in 2001], and they burnt him in effigy in Ramallah. So I think I will choose my words on that very carefully. [Manley at the time said Canada was prepared to accept Palestinian refugees as part of a peace plan and to contribute to an international fund to assist with their resettlement.] I had a conversation with a European diplomat recently who said one way to get the Palestinians back to negotiations would be to use financial contributions as leverage. He said European public opinion would never allow it. Should that be considered? We have a $300 million development partnership with the Palestinian Authority, and by and large it is going toward increasing their capacity in security, police, justice, forensics – and I think those things are all positive. They are all good things for the Palestinian people and, I think, good things for the Israeli people as well. So let’s not cut off our nose to spite our face. We want to see a vibrant, prosperous, secure [Palestinian] state. They are developing that right now and we are keen in helping them do that. It is in Israel’s advantage as well.I think the bulk of our investments are accomplishing good things. I think Prime Minister [Salam] Fayyad’s government is a quiet success story. The security situation in the West Bank has improved immeasurably. The economy there has improved by leaps and bounds, and that is in everyone’s interest.Obviously we have strong differences of opinion in terms of going to the UN; we think it is the wrong way to go. But I don’t think you can threaten either side just encourage them.But if you don’t threaten the sides, how do you get them back to the table? Look at what happened at the end of 2000 [after the end of the Camp David talks]. There was all this external pressure for a deal, and when it collapsed it was not pretty scenario on the ground here afterward [the Second Intifada erupted]. I think we can encourage both parties to go back to the negotiation table. You are more likely to make progress by trying than not trying, and engaging rather than not engaging.In your speech at Herzliya you quoted Winston Churchill about the dangers of appeasing fascism. Is the west today appeasing terrorism?I think terrorism is a scourge and it requires leadership to confront it. There is no room for moral ambiguity. It is the great struggle of our generation.I was down in Sderot earlier today. Terror is not exclusively the death count, or those who are injured. What does a mother say to a child who can’t go to sleep at night because he is so scared? There are teachers teaching games to their students on what to do when they have 15 seconds [to get to a bomb shelter]. There is culture of fear that results from terrorism and the threat of terrorism. It is hard to quantify it. We can say “x number of people were killed in this or that incident” but there is a culture of fear that has gripped far too many people around the world.Has the West adequately stepped up to the plate to deal with it? I think Canada has. We have been very clear. We listed Hamas as a terror entity and won’t have any contact with them. I think that is the right thing to do.You met this week with the Palestinian leadership; what was your message to them? Look, there are many areas where we have agreements, areas where we have substantive disagreements. I am very impressed by Fayyad’s public administration skills. I think many of us in the West have taken note of his leadership and financial accountability and success in economy and security. He is certainly a good, strong leader who gets results.With President [Mahmoud] Abbas we agree with him on many things and we disagree with him on others. That is what diplomacy is all about. I found President Abbas to be very honest and up front, and I found that quite refreshing.What would Canada’s policy be if he formed a government with Hamas?We don’t support terrorism. That is our policy and it is crystal clear.Would you cut off contact with the PA? We just will not work with terrorists.How about Israel? What would you like Netanyahu to do now that he is not doing to move the process forward? I had a good meeting with the prime minister. We had a good exchange. I think good friends should have conversations and be honest with each other. I was [honest] with him and he was with me, and I'll leave that private.What about freezing settlement construction? I think unilateral action on either side is unhelpful. I will have to go through my newspaper clippings and see if there was great kudos when they did it the last time for 10 months; or great kudos when they withdrew from southern Lebanon; or withdrew from Gaza. I think the key is to return to negations without preconditions and, as Prime Minister Netanyahu said in his UN speech, stop negotiating about negotiations.Turning to Iran, how little do we know about what is going on there? What we know is that this is a regime that is enriching uranium and that has a clear nuclear arms program underway. That is undisputable. We know that Iran’s support of international terrorist organizations in the region – whether it is Hamas, Hezbollah or Palestinian Jihad – is an absolute disgrace and causing more problems.Iran supports a lot of evil and violence in this region particularly. And we know it has a disgraceful human rights record that is frankly deteriorating.And as a result, what should be done now? We need to take every single diplomatic measure to put pressure on the regime to take a different course. Obviously our first choice would be to see the Iranian people make change themselves.Did the West err in 2009 in not more actively supporting the protest movement inside Iran? I wasn’t the foreign minister at the time, so I didn’t follow it close enough to give you a substantive answer. Change is always better if it comes from within. We learned that from Libya. But Iran is the one thing that is omnipresent in foreign policy today.What does that mean? It and Syria are obviously the two subjects discussed at virtually every meeting, every forum, with every counterpart. Obviously it is a huge threat to the world.We don’t just fear that Iran would like to acquire nuclear weapons and we don’t just fear that this would lead to an arms race by others trying to counterbalance them.I fear that they would use them. Too often, people share these types of things with their friends, and these people have the worst circle of friends in the world today. They are incredibly dangerous, and of that we have no doubt.Are you concerned about a backlash against Jews if oil prices rise to $150 a barrel as a result of sanctions against Iran? I don’t see the correlation. I used to look at Iran through the prism of Israel. But the fear of much of the Arab world on Iran is palpable. It is a threat to Canada. It is a threat to entire international peace and security.How is it a threat to Canada? A nuclear arms race in this region threatens the whole world. If they use nuclear weapons on a friend or an ally, on one of our best friends, that is unimaginable.I think we have seen a new anti-Semitism emerge around the world – delegitimizing the state of Israel. We see it popping up in Canada: Israeli apartheid week on universities. It is all to delegitimize Israel.There was a political issue in Toronto where they have quite a large gay pride parade, and they had a “queers against Israeli apartheid” float. Outside of Israel, what is the record of any of Israeli neighbors on those [gay] issues? This is not to say that everyone who protests Israel is anti-Semitic, but everyone who is anti Semitic certainly protests, or tries to delegitimize the state of Israel, and we can’t be silent about that.The most horrifying thing at Yad Vashem in many respects is not the end of your tour of the museum, but the beginning. That’s the lesson I took away from it. Anti-Semitism would sort of show its face among non-élites here and there, and then grow to stereotypes in school text books and popular culture, and then escalate into a little bit of vandalism and violence. And then you see, gradually, step by step, the state started to turn its back and eventually lead these efforts. That’s why I think we have to treat these things very seriously.Yesterday at Yad Vashem the rabbi said it was the 79th anniversary of Adolf Hitler becoming chancellor. He wrote Mein Kampf 12 years before that. None of this was a surprise or a secret. So if you have the president of Iran making these outrageous statements and then trying to acquire nuclear weapons – I mean, what more do you need to inspire fear of the potential consequences? It would be easier to just shut up and hope for the best, but that’s not the best way to conduct foreign policy.That’s what a lot of people are doing. And that is a big mistake, and why we are speaking up in the strongest terms.I was in the Old City two years ago with a Canadian friend and he ran into a family friend, a young French kid in the IDF doing his service. He may have been 25. He was the victim of a hate crime in France, had the pulp beat out of him, and the rising trend of anti-Semitism caused him and his family to make aliya and come to Israel.France? In the 21st century this family uproots themselves and moves to a different continent because of that? So I am concerned about the new rise of anti-Semitism taking different forms. And that should be deeply disturbing for any fair-minded human being.Are we appeasing Iran? Canada and Israel are not.Click here to play
