Thanks to a Brooklyn lawyer, a scam in the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn has been exposed.

The victims were the Herzog family, the largest kosher winemakers in the world, according to the New York Daily News.

The family was distributing checks to people collecting donations for yeshivas and charities. The checks would be deposited in the U.S., and then the cash would be taken to Israel.

A senior law enforcement official reportedly told the Daily News that if an organization is not a legitimate charity or if other people are receiving any part of the donation, it’s illegal.

The Herzogs closed their account about a year about when they were tipped off that some of the solicitors may have been illegitimate. This resulted in bounced checks, which had those attempting to cash those checks asking questions.

The Herzog family hired a Satmar Hasid in Williamsburg, Elimelech Horowitz, to look into the issue. He was given cash to settle some of the donation claims.

On May 3, Horowitz claimed he was kidnapped then released by masked men demanding $35,000. Soon after, the Herzogs received a threatening phone message urging them to pay the $35,000.

A male voice in the recording reportedly said, “I know where you live; I know where you work; I know where your family lives.”

A private investigator hired by the family set them up with armed security and referred them to George Farkas, a lawyer with experience in the Orthodox Jewish community, including the case of Nechemya Weberman, convicted of sex abuse last year.

Farkas reportedly could immediately tell the abduction story was fraudulent.

The first indication was the caller mispronouncing “Shabbat,” the Jewish day of rest. The recipients of the Herzog money were Jewish, so it was unlikely they would mispronounce a Jewish holy day.

Farkas called Horowitz to his office, and told the Daily News that Horowitz confessed within 20 minutes: There had been no kidnapping, and Horowitz had been pocketing the money he’d been given to settle claims.

“He hired some schmuck on the corner to make the threats,” Farkas told the News.

The Herzog family gave a statement expressing sadness “that we were victimized for no other reason than our charitable generosity.”

But the Herzogs are reportedly not pressing charges because Horowitz promised to pay back the money he extorted.

Another source reportedly told the Daily News there may be other victims scammed by solicitors from Israel who hire drivers to use false sad stories to solicit money from wealthy Jewish families. The checks are subsequently cashed by a yeshiva or charity, the driver gets a cut and the rest is sent back to Israel, according to the Daily News report.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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Israel has carried out an air strike targeting a shipment of missiles in Syria bound for Hezbollah guerrillas in neighboring Lebanon, an Israeli official said on Saturday.

Israel had long made clear it is prepared to resort to force to prevent advanced Syrian weapons, including President Bashar al-Assad’s reputed chemical arsenal, reaching his Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah allies or Islamist insurgents taking part in a more than two-year-old uprising against his government.

Hezbollah, allied with Israel’s arch-enemy Iran, waged an inconclusive war with the Jewish state in 2006 and remains a potent threat in Israeli eyes. Israelis also worry that if Assad is toppled, Islamist rebels could turn his guns on them after four decades of relative calm in the Golan Heights border area.

The target of Friday’s raid was not a Syrian chemical weapons facility, a regional security source earlier said.

A U.S. official, who also declined to be identified, had told Reuters on Friday the target was apparently a building.

The Israeli official who acknowledged the raid and described its target spoke on condition of anonymity. Israel’s government has not formally taken responsibility for the action or confirmed it happened.

The attack took place after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet approved it in a secret meeting on Thursday night, the regional security source said.

CNN quoted unnamed U.S. officials as saying Israel most likely conducted the strike “in the Thursday-Friday time frame” and its jets did not enter Syrian air space.

The Israeli air force has so-called “standoff” bombs that coast dozens of kilometers (miles) across ground to their targets once fired. That could, in theory, allow Israel to attack Syria from its own turf or from adjacent Lebanon.

Lebanese authorities reported unusual intensive Israeli air force activity over their territory on Thursday and Friday.

A Lebanese security source said his initial impression was that Israeli overflights were monitoring potential arms shipments between Syria and Lebanon, potentially to Hezbollah.

“We believe that it is linked to Israel’s concerns over the transfer of weapons, particularly chemical weapons, from Syria to its allies Lebanon,” said the official, who asked not to be named.

Syrian government sources denied having information of a strike. Bashar Ja’afari, the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, told Reuters: “I’m not aware of any attack right now.”

ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSILES TARGETED?

But Qassim Saadedine, a commander and spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army, said: “Our information indicates there was an Israeli strike on a convoy that was transferring missiles to Hezbollah. We have still not confirmed the location.”

Rebel units were in disagreement about what type of weapons were in the convoy. A rebel from an information-gathering unit in Damascus that calls itself “The Syrian Islamic Masts Intelligence” said the convoy carried anti-aircraft missiles.

The rebel, who asked not to be named, said: “There were three strikes by Israeli F-16 jets that damaged a convoy carrying anti-aircraft missiles heading to the Shi’ite Lebanese party (Hezbollah) along the Damascus-Beirut military road.

“One strike hit a site near the (Syrian) Fourth Armoured Division in al-Saboura but we have been unable to determine what is in that location”.

Saadedine said he did not think the weapons were anti-aircraft. “We have nothing confirmed yet but we are assuming that it is some type of long-range missile that would be capable of carrying chemical materials,” he said.

In January this year, Israel bombed a convoy in Syria, apparently hitting weapons destined for Hezbollah, according to diplomats, Syrian rebels and security sources in the region.

Israel has not formally confirmed carrying out that strike.

Lebanese acting foreign minister Adnan Mansour was critical. “Attacks such as these will result in more tension and blow up the situation which it promoted,” he said.

“This will not give Israel the peace or security that it wants, in its own way, rather it will push the region into an inflamed struggle and into the unknown.”

Giora Eiland, a former Israeli army general and national security adviser, said the apparent deadlock in Syria’s civil war, now in its third year, meant the Netanyahu government had to be prudent in any military intervention.

“I don’t anticipate far-reaching consequences in Lebanon or Syria (from Israel’s actions),” Eiland told Israel Radio. “Israel appears to be conducting itself judiciously.”

Israel remains technically at war with neighboring Syria. It captured Syria’s Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East war, built settlements and annexed the land. Yet belligerence was rare and the borderland has remained largely quiet for decades.

But Israeli security concerns have risen since Islamist fighters linked to al-Qaeda assumed a prominent role in the insurrection against Assad.

They have also worried that Hezbollah could eventually obtain his chemical arsenal and other advanced weaponry. But there is no risk of that happening for the time being, a senior Israeli official said on Saturday.

“Syria has large amounts of chemical weaponry and missiles. Everything there is under (Assad government) control,” Defence Ministry strategist Amos Gilad said in a speech.

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Israeli President Shimon Peres on Saturday gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an additional 14 days to try to form a new government after he was unable to complete the task during an initial 28-day period.

Talks with potential partners have been deadlocked since elections on January 22 and if he is unable to form a government by March 16 a new poll could be called – a delay that also puts into question a planned visit by U.S. President Barack Obama.

Netanyahu’s Likud-Beitenu won 31 of the Knesset’s 120 seats – an eroded lead that forced him to cast a wide net for partners while juggling their disparate demands.

During the 28-day period, Netanyahu managed to forge a pact only with the party of former foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, whose six-member faction “The Movement” has given him 37 seats, way short of the minimum 61 needed to confirm a new coalition.

In a brief statement following his meeting with Peres on Saturday night, Netanyahu hinted that at least one potential coalition partner refused to sit alongside others.

Netanyahu has faced demands from the parties that placed second and fourth, Yesh Atid (There is a Future) and Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home), to slash mass exemptions from military conscription and cut welfare stipends to ultra-Orthodox Jews.

In coalition talks on Friday with Bayit Yehudi, Netanyahu’s chief negotiator said the right-wing party was unwilling to sit alongside ultra-Orthodox parties but Bayit Yehudi officials denied this.

Although he did not name Bayit Yehudi or Yesh Atid as the reason for his inability to form a coalition, Netanyahu said some parties were boycotting others.

“In these past four weeks I tried to form the broadest possible government … I think the ultra-Orthodox public is prepared to accept (demands by other partners) but the main reason that I have not managed to complete the task by today is … because there is a boycott of a certain sector,” he said.

Netanyahu’s outgoing coalition includes two ultra-Orthodox parties which have generally backed him on policies such the settlement of occupied West Bank land in defiance of world powers who support the Palestinians’ drive for statehood there.

Bayit Yehudi is even less accommodating of the Palestinians than Netanyahu, who says he wants to revive stalled peace talks.

NEW ELECTIONS

Should Netanyahu fail to co-opt allies for a parliamentary majority by March 16, Peres could hand the coalition-building task to another lawmaker and if after an additional period no government emerges, Israelis would have to return to the polls.

Netanyahu was backed by 82 of parliament’s 120 lawmakers to form the next government so Peres, whose only real executive power is to nominate a Knesset member to form a government, may opt not to pick another candidate and elections would be called.

Obama is due to visit Israel at the end of March and Netanyahu’s trouble in building a new government raises the question of whether he may call off that visit.

But when asked about Israeli reports he might cancel, an official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no talk at this point about the possibility of Obama scrubbing the trip.

White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said: “President Obama looks forward to travelling to Jerusalem, Ramallah and Amman later this month.”

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Another member of Obama’s second-term national security team, Senator John Kerry, sailed through his confirmation before being receiving the Senate’s overwhelming support on Tuesday.

But Hagel, a former Republican senator and decorated Vietnam War veteran who broke with his party over the Iraq War, can expect a much more confrontational hearing when he is grilled on a range of issues by members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Although most observers expect Hagel will eventually be confirmed – barring unexpected fireworks at the hearing – Thursday’s testimony will be contentious.

At least three Republican panel members, including James Inhofe, the party’s leader on the committee, have said they did not support Hagel’s nomination.

“We are simply too philosophically opposed on the issues for me to support his nomination,” Inhofe said in a January 15 statement. Such comments have angered Hagel supporters, who say two-term senator, who would be the first former enlisted soldier to lead the Pentagon, deserves at least a hearing.

Hagel’s confirmation hearing is set for 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT) on Thursday.

In the entire Senate, which would vote on Hagel if he is cleared by the committee, only one of the 45 Republicans – Mississippi’s Thad Cochran – has come out in Hagel’s favor.

He is expected to face tough questioning on Israel and Iran, his view of the Pentagon budget – Hagel is known as an advocate for tighter spending controls – and relations with China.

The Middle East, which has been the most intense focus of the anti-Hagel campaign, is likely to be the toughest issue.

“There’s a lot of misleading information out there about the senator’s views on Middle East policy. Senators are going to want to hear from Chuck Hagel directly on what his view is and what is the administration’s view,” said Mark Jacobson, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund and a former staffer on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

CHARM OFFENSIVE

Hagel, backed by the White House and Pentagon, has been on a charm offensive to win over recalcitrant senators since Obama nominated him this month to replace outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Facing a public campaign against his appointment by critics seeking to portray him as soft on Iran, anti-Israel and uncommitted to equal rights for women and gays, Hagel has been pounding the halls of the Capitol to hold one-on-one meetings with 53 senators before his hearing.

Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate Republican, said on Tuesday she had spoken with Hagel for 90 minutes and been satisfied on several issues, but stopped short of endorsing him.

“We had a good discussion, but it’s obvious that we have very different views on some fundamental issues,” she said.

Hagel also detailed his views in 112 pages of written responses to wide-ranging questions submitted by lawmakers.

In them, he said that if confirmed as the next defense secretary, he would ensure that the military is prepared to strike Iran if necessary but stressed the need to be “cautious and certain” when contemplating the use of force.

Hagel also voiced support for a steady U.S. drawdown in Afghanistan, pledged to ensure equal treatment for women and homosexuals in the military and assured the committee that the United States would maintain an “unshakeable” commitment to Israel’s security.

Most observers expect Hagel will be confirmed by the committee, even if he is approved only 14-12, along party lines.

“I do think he’ll be voted out of committee tomorrow and then it will be interesting to see where things go on the Senate floor,” said Maren Leed, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In the face of intense lobbying by both Hagel supporters and opponents, many Republicans have said they will withhold judgment until after the hearing.

Democrats control 55 seats in the Senate and can approve Hagel with no Republican support, but they will need some backing from Hagel’s party to overcome procedural hurdles that could stop the nomination.

One has already emerged. Senator Lindsey Graham, a committee member, has threatened to keep the nomination from going to the Senate floor if Panetta does not testify about a September attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.

Democratic Senator Carl Levin, the committee’s chairman, said Panetta is already due to testify, and that would take place before the full Senate voted on Hagel.

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“They possessed hi-tech equipment and filming equipment to take footage of positions,” it said.

The Hamas radio said the men, who were suspected of working for Israel, were shot. It did not elaborate.

Gunmen chained the body of one of the alleged collaborators to a motorcycle and dragged it throughout the main streets of Gaza City.

(Photos via Twitter)

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Clinton left an Asian summit in Cambodia’s capital, which she was attending with Obama, and headed for Israel to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the first round of a new U.S. diplomatic initiative.

“We want to … send a clear message that it’s in nobody’s interest to see an escalation of the military conflict,” U.S. deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters in Phnom Penh.

Clinton’s mission appeared to signal growing U.S. alarm over the prospects of a threatened Israeli ground invasion of Gaza as Palestinian rocket fire and Israeli air strikes continued for a seventh day.

Washington has seemed powerless to affect unfolding events and has faced criticism of a hesitant response, and the Gaza crisis has dogged Obama on an Asia trip meant to show a “pivot” East as the United States winds down wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rhodes said the onus remained on Hamas to halt its rocket barrages into Israel and stuck to the administration’s stance that Israel had a right to defend itself.

But he said, “We all agree that the best way to resolve this is through diplomacy, so that you have a peaceful settlement that ends that rocket fire and allows for a broader calm in the region.”

Clinton was due to meet Netanyahu on Wednesday and then go to Ramallah in the West Bank to meet with Palestinian Authority leaders, presumably President Mahmoud Abbas.

She was then to travel to Cairo, where Rhodes would say only that she would meet “Egyptian leaders.”

That would likely mean an encounter with Egypt’s Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, who has spoken by phone several times with Obama since the Gaza crisis erupted and is seen as a possible linchpin in getting Hamas to back down.

“Secretary Clinton will emphasize the United States’ interest in a peaceful outcome that protects and enhances Israel’s security and regional stability, an outcome that can lead to improved conditions for the civilian residents of Gaza, and that could re-open the path to fulfill the aspirations of Palestinians and Israelis for two states living side by side in peace and security,” Rhodes said.

Asked whether Obama was specifically asking Netanyahu to hold off on any ground assault to give more time for diplomacy, Rhodes said: “No. The president has been very clear that Israel is going to make decisions on its security.”

Obama, weighing in with his first comments on the crisis on Sunday, said t would be “preferable” to avoid an Israeli ground invasion but urged Egypt and Turkey to do more to rein in Hamas, which Washington considers a terrorist group.

Obama promised to make Israeli-Palestinian peace diplomacy a high priority when he took office in 2009, but his administration’s on-again-off-again efforts have done little if anything to bring the two sides any closer to the negotiating table.

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“My boss has already been mobilized, and now I am responsible for the lives of half of Israel, but calling him for consultation will be hard,” Faina Milman, security official in charge of maintaining the separation barriers between Israel and the Palestinian territories, told Metro. “If the call-up expands, my colleagues will also be taken away. After that, how are we going to be work then will be unclear.”

“But judging by how our military works from the air, the operation on Gaza will be accurate and well-thought-out,” Milman added.

The mood among those mobilized is one of war. Even those Israelis, who support a more peace-seeking, pro-Palestinian politics, are going off to defend their country.

“I am for peace; I continually have arguments with my friends because politically I am not right-wing, I’m not raring to kill Arabs as they are. But I don’t want Jerusalem to be divided and for our lands to be given to Palestinians,” Ilya, a student at Jerusalem University, tells Metro. “For this reason, I am returning to the army.” During his past mandatory army service, Ilya was a driver – he may not shoot but is nevertheless helping the cause.

Ultimately, it’s a personal choice for an Israeli to serve as a reservist or not. What’s more, the army consists of lot of different departments, many of which do not pose any danger. “On account of my wife I signed a paper that I can’t be conscripted into the armed forces,” Sergey, a security employee at the Israeli parliament house (Knesset), admits to Metro.

At the Jerusalem bus stations, there is a bit of chaos. The regular bus schedule is cancelled, many people are left stranded as buses are being used to transport reservists to the Gazan border. About a third of people in the stations are clad in army uniform.

For the time being, the exact date of the ground operation remains unknown, but people are in confident mood. “Now we have the support of America and Europe, and it won’t change until we make some sort of error,” Milman said.

(Photos via Metro World News)

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The latest threat – Palestinian rockets from the Gaza Strip – is something new, but in a sense familiar.

Some in the throbbing metropolis strung out along on Israel’s sandy Mediterranean shores kept their cool on Friday, after sirens wailed and another explosion was heard, the second in 24 hours. No one was hurt.

Israel was throttling back for the sleepy sabbath weekend, and the freeways were humming with homebound traffic. About 40 percent of Israelis, more than three million people, live and work in Tel Aviv and the urban sprawl around it.

A surfing initiation class was out, practicing paddling in slack water as girls in cutoffs and flip-flops got out of the way of muscled guys on mountain bikes on the crowded cycle path.

The distant high-altitude rumble of warplanes mixed with the breeze from the sea as the sun sank beneath the horizon.

“Israelis are very cool. We’re used to living with this sort of stuff,” said Federico Broedner of Freddy’s Havana cigar shop in the heart of the city not far from the U.S. embassy – the seashore five-star hotel belt.

“People are glad they (the military) are doing something about it (the rocket threat from Gaza),” he said.

“My local customers are cool but the foreigners are worried. One man had a panic attack and ran out of the shop when we heard the explosion.”

In fact, some residents on Thursday and Friday were either too laid-back to care or not awake yet to the fact that this was not a drill, that the Palestinian rocketeers of Gaza finally have the city in their range, if not their sights.

Palestinians, and even many Israelis, believe some Tel Aviv residents are blind to the realities of the conflict.

In Gaza, at least 14 Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli strikes since the conflict escalated on Wednesday. Three Israeli civilians were killed by a rocket attack on Thursday in a town well to the south of Tel Aviv, where rocketing has become commonplace.

“A WEEK OR TEN DAYS”

Thousands of rockets have been fired at southern Israel since Hamas took over the enclave in 2007. Israel invaded Gaza in the winter of 2008-2009 to stop the rocket fire, a war in which 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed. Rocketing stopped for a few years but resumed again in 2012.

This is the first time that Islamist Hamas militants in Gaza have fired rockets with sufficient range to reach Tel Aviv and its outlying dormitory cities. None of the gleaming office towers that reflect the setting sun has been scratched.

Hamas, which also targeted Jerusalem on Friday, is gambling with a game-changing move.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the militants would be made to pay. A lethal strike on Tel Aviv would probably trigger an Israeli invasion.

Tel Aviv residents who remember the Gulf War 20 years ago say the rockets still seem less dangerous than Saddam’s Scuds, when Israelis wore gas masks in case the Iraqi leader topped his missiles with chemical warheads.

A nationwide early-warning system alerts Israelis to incoming rockets. Homes and offices have blast-proof rooms to retreat to within 30 seconds of the wail of sirens.

Those caught outside lie flat on the ground. Drivers get out of their cars and crouch or lie by the roadside until they hear an impact or an all-clear.

The new “Iron Dome” interceptor system is successfully tracking launches from Gaza and knocking out many of those rockets that look as if they might hit residential areas.

“Tel Aviv is on a normal footing. You can go to the beach, or to the movies,” a spokesman for the military’s civil defence command said on Israeli television after the latest rocket attack on the city. “After an explosion is heard, you can get back to normal 10 minutes later.”

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Israel’s leaders don’t want a Palestinian state, Jimmy Carter tells Metro in an exclusive interview. The former US President, who still conducts international negotiations and is now a member The Elders, won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize. He just returned from the Middle East.

METRO: The chances of a Palestinian state are fading. Whose job is it to fix this situation?

CARTER: The first priority would be for the Israelis and Palestinians to take the initiative. But the Israelis have continued with their massive settlement program in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the Palestinians say they won’t negotiate as long as Israel is continuing to take over their territory, so there’s deadlock. The United States is looked upon by the rest of the international community as the primary interlocutor, so the European Union members don’t take action. As a result, there’s no intermediary who can move things forward and initiate peace talks.

President Obama says he supports a Palestinian state, but even so there’s a deadlock. Does it take even more than the support of a US President to get a Palestinian state?

I think the big change is that the Israeli leaders have decided to abandon the two-state solution. Their policy now is to confiscate Palestinian territory, and they’ve announced publicly that it the Palestinians have to recognize not just Israel but Israel as a Jewish state, even though 20% of the Israeli community are non-Jews. [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has also decided that even the Jordan valley has to be under Israeli control. So, those factors indicate quite clearly that Netanyahu has decided that the two-state solution is not what he wants. He wants what is being called Greater Israel, Eretz Israel.

The Arab Spring had worldwide support. Now four diplomats have been killed and the region is considered less safe. Are dictators sometimes better than democracy?

I don’t think so at all. For example, the Egyptian people had a very safe series of elections. As the Carter Center, we’ve been here for several of these elections, and have also monitored the elections in Tunisia and Libya. I don’t think there’s any doubt that the termination of the dictators has been a major beneficial development. The outside world just tends to be too impatient. The United States declared our independence from Britain in 1776, and it wasn’t until 12 years later that we had a constitution. Egypt is going to have a constitution within a year of the President assuming power.

So we’re simply too worried about Islamists?

Look at the Muslim Brotherhood. I’ve known the Muslim Brotherhood leaders for 20 years. They were persecuted by the Mubarak government, imprisoned and so forth, and now they’ve gone to the people in an honest, fair and safe election. And, of course, they’ve prevailed because their candidate became President and they have a majority in Parliament. But they’re a very moderate group of Islamists, whereas salafists and others are much more radical, at least judging with Western criteria.

The YouTube video defaming Islam caused attacks and huge protests in the Arab world, including possibly the killing American diplomats in Libya. Who’s to blame? Is there too much freedom of speech in the US, or are Muslims too sensitive?

First of all, all the evidence now shows that the killings of the four American diplomats in Libya weren’t caused by the film but was instead a planned attack by al Qaeda. In the US, Britain, Norway, Sweden and other countries in the West we believe in the right of expression. Western leaders are often criticized in scandalous ways in paintings, words and sculptures, and that criticism is accepted as legitimate. But we deplore when there’s a scandalous statement like the ones made in that YouTube film. We regret that it has caused pain to believers in the Islamic faith, but it happens to our own faith as well. But freedom of speech includes freedom of blasphemy.

But isn’t it frightening in itself that a deranged YouTube video posted by an obscure individual can undo years of diplomacy?

Yes, it is frightening. I’m a Christian; I teach Bible school every Sunday. I’ve heard and seen statements made about my own faith that cause me pain. But I don’t want the blasphemous person who made the statements put in jail. Yes, it’s painful to see the reaction in the Arab world, but I think we have to anticipate it. People in the non-Muslim world who deliberately do this in order to cause Muslims pain underestimate the violence that can erupt from aggrieved Muslims. It’s painful and unfortunate, but when you have to choose between that kind of pain and the right of freedom to voice your opinions we come down on the side of freedom.

Carter facts

Family: Wife Rosalynn; four children
Background: Governor of Georgia. President of the United States 1976-1980. Nobel Peace Prize Winner 2002
In the news: Members of The Elders, peace negotiator. Heads the Carter Center, which monitors democracy and elections. Recently returned from the Middle East
Interesting fact: Devout Evangelical Christian; still teaches Sunday school every week.

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In remarks to reporters in New York, he also said he does not take seriously the threat that Israel could launch a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, denied sending arms into Syria, and called economic conditions in his sanctions-hit country “not as bad as they are portrayed.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hinted Israel could strike Iran’s nuclear sites and has criticized U.S. President Barack Obama’s position that sanctions and diplomacy should be given more time to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Iran denies that it is seeking nuclear arms and says its atomic work is peaceful, aimed at generating electricity.

“Fundamentally we do not take seriously the threats of the Zionists. … We have all the defensive means at our disposal and we are ready to defend ourselves,” Ahmadinejad said.

He is in New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly. His speech is scheduled for Wednesday.

On Sunday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with Ahmadinejad and warned him of the dangers of incendiary rhetoric in the Middle East. Ahmadinejad did not heed the warning.

Ahmadinejad alluded to his previous rejection of Israel’s right to exist. “Iran has been around for the last seven, 10 thousand years. They (the Israelis) have been occupying those territories for the last 60 to 70 years, with the support and force of the Westerners. They have no roots there in history,” he said, speaking to reporters through an interpreter.

The modern state of Israel was founded in 1948.

“We do believe that they have found themselves at a dead end and they are seeking new adventures in order to escape this dead end. Iran will not be damaged with foreign bombs,” Ahmadinejad said, referring to Israel.

“We don’t even count them as any part of any equation for Iran. During a historical phase, they represent minimal disturbances that come into the picture and are then eliminated,” Ahmadinejad added.

In 2005, Ahmadinejad called Israel a “tumor” and echoed the words of the former Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, by saying that Israel should be wiped off the map.

Amir Ali Hajizadeh, a brigadier general in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was quoted on Sunday as saying that Iran could launch a pre-emptive strike on Israel if it was sure the Jewish state was preparing to attack it.

Ahmadinejad said the nuclear issue was one ultimately between the United States and Iran, and must be resolved with negotiations.

He added, “The nuclear issue is not a problem. But the approach of the United States on Iran is important. We are ready for dialogue, for a fundamental resolution of the problems, but under conditions that are based on fairness and mutual respect.”

“We are not expecting a 33-year-old problem between the United States and Iran to be resolved in a speedy fashion. But there is no other way besides dialogue,” Ahmadinejad said.

U.S. President Barack Obama will underscore his commitment to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and address Muslim unrest related to an anti-Islamic video in his speech to General Assembly on Tuesday, the White House said.

‘BULLYING COUNTRIES’

Ahmadinejad also addressed a high-level meeting on the rule of law at the United Nations on Monday, saying states should not yield to international law as imposed “by bullying countries.”

In the past, Ahmadinejad has used his U.N. speeches to defend Iran’s nuclear program and to attack Israel, the United States and Europe. He has questioned the Holocaust and cast doubt on whether 19 hijackers were really responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

Western envoys typically walk out of Ahmadinejad’s speeches in protest.

Ahmadinejad said on Monday that Iran – under U.N., U.S. and European Union sanctions over its nuclear program – is used to economic restrictions and is not severely affected by them.

“The conditions in Iran are not as bad as they are portrayed by some,” Ahmadinejad said, adding that his country can survive without oil revenues.

Ahmadinejad added that Iran’s economy is in much better shape that that of the EU, which he said was “on the verge of disintegration and collapse.”

Iran has held several rounds of talks this year on the nuclear issue with six world powers: the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council – the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain – as well as Germany. The six powers are represented by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said last Wednesday that he and Ashton had agreed to defer more nuclear talks until the latter had consulted the six powers on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly this week.

There will be high-level side meetings on Iran’s nuclear program and the Syrian conflict during the General Assembly, but U.N. diplomats do not expect either issue to be resolved soon.

‘WE SEEK PEACE IN SYRIA’

The United Nations and Western officials have accused Iran of supplying weapons to Syria’s pro-government forces, while Syria’s government has accused Qatar and Saudi Arabia of arming rebels determined to topple President Bashar al-Assad.

Ahmadinejad rejected the charge that Iran was sending arms to Syria. “The so-called news that you alluded to has been denied vehemently, officially,” Ahmadinejad said in a response to a question. “We seek peace in Syria. We like and love both sides. … We see both sides as equally our brothers.”

“In Syria, the intervention and meddling from outside have made conditions that much tougher,” Ahmadinejad said. “We must help to quell the violence and help … (facilitate) a national dialogue.”

A U.N. Security Council panel of independent experts that monitors sanctions against Iran has uncovered several examples of Iran transferring arms to Syria. The United States and Britain say they are providing non-lethal assistance to Syria’s rebels such as communications equipment, but not arms.

Ahmadinejad also addressed the issue of a California-made anti-Islam video, “The Innocence of Muslims,” that has sparked anti-American protests around the Muslim world. He appeared to reject Washington’s position that while it condemns the video’s content, freedom of expression must be upheld.

“Freedoms must not interfere with the freedoms of others,” Ahmadinejad said. “If someone insults, what would you do? … Is insulting other people not a form of crime?”

Since the controversy over the video erupted this month, some Muslim leaders have reiterated calls for a U.N. measure outlawing insults to Islam and blasphemy in general.

Ahmadinejad also was asked about a move by an Iranian religious foundation, in response to the “The Innocence of Muslims,” to increase its reward for the killing of British author Salman Rushdie.

“Where is he now?” Ahmadinejad asked of Rushdie. “Is he in the United States? If he is, you shouldn’t broadcast that for his own safety.”

Rushdie, an Indian-born British novelist who has nothing to do with the video, was condemned to death in 1989 by Khomeini, Iran’s late leader, over his novel “The Satanic Verses,” saying its depiction of the Prophet Mohammad was blasphemous.

Iran has a two-term limit for presidents. Ahmadinejad, widely seen as out of favor with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ends his second term next year. “But that does not mean I will be separating myself from politics,” he said.

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The ban would have ousted a handful of products sold at the grocery store that were imported from Israel, like hummus. A group opposing the ban, which calls itself “More Hummus, Please” fought to keep the products on the shelves in the weeks leading up to the vote. If the whole debate seems a little ridiculous to you, than you’re on the same wavelength as “The Daily Show,” which aired a special report about the hummus dilemma last night.

Reporter Samantha Bee sought to expose the truth in a hard-hitting investigation that brought us both sides of the issue.

“The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has raged for decades with countless casualties on both sides, but perhaps there is one victim of this war that might be the most tragic of all,” Bee said. “The Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn, New York.”

While “The Daily Show” pokes fun at the food fight, supporters of the ban say they’re not giving up.

“Although we finished with a very significant level of support, almost 40 percent, the results of the vote show that there remains much work to do in our efforts to educate co-op members on the importance of BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions),” said Park Slope food coop members who support the ban.

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Shortly before the man was wounded, there had been an explosion in a house the man was renting in the Ekamai area of central Bangkok. Soon after that, there was a third blast on a nearby road, Thai police and officials said.

“The police have control of the situation. It is thought that the suspect might be storing more explosives inside his house,” Thai government spokeswoman Thitima Chaisaeng told reporters.

Police later said they had apprehended another suspect at Bangkok’s main Suvarnabhumi airport, one of two men they were looking for who had been living at the house where the initial blast took place.

“We discovered the injured man’s passport. It’s an Iranian passport and he entered the country through Phuket and arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport on the 8th of this month,” Police General Bansiri Prapapat told Reuters.

The three explosions in Bangkok came a day after bomb attacks targeted Israeli embassy staff in India and Georgia. Israel accused Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of being behind those attacks. Iran denied involvement.

Hezbollah is a Shi’ite Islamist group backed by Syria and Iran that is on the official U.S. blacklist of foreign terrorist organizations.

Thai officials declined to speculate on whether the two men they had detained were involved with any militant group, but Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak blamed Iran.

“The attempted terrorist attack in Bangkok proves once again that Iran and its proxies continue to perpetrate terror,” Barak said on a visit to Singapore.

“Iran and Hezbollah are unrelenting terror elements endangering the stability of the region, and endangering the stability of the world,” said Barak, who spent a few hours in Bangkok Sunday.

Thai police said they were working to make safe an unspecified amount of explosives found in the house where the initial blast took place.

TAXI A TARGET

Police declined to make any link between Tuesday’s incident and the arrest last month of a Lebanese man in Bangkok who, according to the Thai authorities, had links to Hezbollah.

The police discovered a large amount of explosive material in an area southwest of Bangkok at around the time of that arrest. The United States, Israel and other countries issued warnings, subsequently lifted, of possible terrorist attacks in areas frequented by foreigners.

The Lebanese man has been charged with possession of explosive material and prosecutors said further charges could follow next week.

Tuesday’s blasts in the sprawling Thai capital were not near Israel’s embassy nor the main area for embassies.

A taxi driver told Thai television the wounded suspect had thrown a bomb in front of his car when he refused to pick him up near the site of the first blast. He was wounded slightly.

Government spokeswoman Thitima said police had then tried to move in and arrest the man but he attempted to throw another bomb at them. It went off before he was able to do so, blowing one of his legs off. A doctor at Chulalongkorn Hospital told reporters the other leg had had to be amputated.

Another doctor was quoted on television as saying three Thai people had suffered minor injuries in the incident, in addition to the taxi driver.

There have been no major attacks blamed on Islamist militants in Bangkok even though Muslim rebels are battling government security forces in Muslim-dominated southern provinces of the Buddhist kingdom.

In 1994, suspected Islamist militants tried to set off a big truck bomb outside the Israeli embassy in Bangkok, but they abandoned the bid and fled after the truck was involved in a minor traffic accident as it approached the mission.

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In one of the biggest ever such exchanges between the two sides, a pale and gaunt Sgt. Shalit was flown to his parents’ home in northern Israel after more than five years held incommunicado by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, while a first 477 of over 1,000 Palestinians to be released under the bargain left Israeli jails for Gaza, the West Bank and abroad.

Flag-waving crowds greeted long unseen loved ones as heroes and uncompromising talk on either side left few illusions for world leaders who urged Israel and the divided Palestinian factions to build on the long-awaited bargain brokered by Germany and Egypt to reopen wider peace negotiations.
In an interview with Egyptian television as he passed through on his way from Gaza, a visibly weak and dazed Shalit, 25, said of 5,000 Palestinians who remain in Israeli jails: “I hope this deal will promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians.”

But, while leaders made mildly conciliatory comments about each other’s role in achieving the deal, there was no sign of warmth across the frontline of the struggle for land and security between Palestinians and Israel.

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With U.S. credibility and influence in the Middle East at stake, Obama wants to dissuade the Palestinians from asking the U.N. Security Council for statehood in the teeth of Israeli anger and a U.S. threat to use its veto if it came to a vote.

But a senior Palestinian official, Nabil Shaath, said, “We will cordially and respectfully tell him ‘no.’”
The Palestinians, however, would give the Security Council “some time” to mull the statehood claim before they took it to the U.N. General Assembly, he told a news conference.

Flag-waving Palestinians filled the squares of West Bank cities to rally behind the initiative at the United Nations.

A year after telling the General Assembly he hoped to see a Palestinian state born by now, the U.S. president said creating such a state alongside Israel remained his goal.

“But the question isn’t the goal we seek — the question is how to reach it. And I am convinced that there is no short cut to the end of a conflict that has endured for decades,” he said.

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The immigration culture has produced a great wealth of flavors, color and aromas: from the shakshouka, an egg dish originating in Tripoli, to the European chulent stew, the Turkish shawarma meat wrap and the Moroccan tagine stew – all have a place of honor in the Israeli cuisine and all take on new interpretations in the hands of young promising chefs.

Until recently, most tourists’ culinary greeting in Israel took the shape of falafel – fried balls of chickpeas inside a pita bread, an overrated dish that had become the national dish. But in the last decade or two Israel – and particularly Tel Aviv, its cultural capital – has formulated an impressive culinary offering.

The current generation of Israeli chefs were brought up in traditional kitchens, and are giving classic dishes their own twist. Meir Adoni, for instance, the chef of Catit, one of Israel’s finest high-end restaurants, was brought up on his mother and grandmother’s Moroccan cooking. Adoni studied classical French cuisine and specialized in molecular cooking. Today he creates innovative dishes with echoes of his mother’s kitchen, like Bruschetta of veal brain with harrisa (a Moroccan spicy pepper sauce), lemon, lettuce and parsley butter. Meanwhile, Rafi Cohen, in his prestigious Rafael, serves couscous with spicy fish kebabs, and in Aviv Moshe’s Messa you’ll find shawarma.

The Israeli fusion phenomenon is also found outside of the fancy restaurants. One of the hot trends in Israel is the “return of the pita” – the flat Middle-Eastern bread that embraces foods from completely different worlds, like steak and egg, fish and grilled vegetables or stir-fried shrimp. On of those responsible for this revolution is celebrity-chef Eyal Shani.

Tel Aviv is the culinary capital of Israel. In this cultural epicenter you’ll find fancy restaurants alongside French-style brasseries, Italian-style trattorias, tapas bars and sushi bars. For a glimpse of what Tel Aviv can offer, check out Carmel market – as well as a huge variety of fresh fruit and vegetables you’ll find food stands, from kebab to sushi; and in the surrounding streets there are wonderful restaurants to be found.
An hour’s drive from Tel Aviv you can experience a whole other world of flavors in Israel’s capital, Jerusalem. Pay a visit to the market – Machane Yehuda market – where in recent years, chic cafés, small taverns and upmarket restaurants have popped up next to the meat and spice booths. Restaurant Mahneyuda, offers excellent food, dazzling colourful design, great music and wonderful atmosphere.

For more information check out: www.goisrael.com

Top 5 dishes

Shakshouka 

Shakshouka is a dish originating from the Tripolitan (Libyan) kitchen, a rich breakfast-dish of eggs cooked in thick, spicy tomato and pepper sauce. The dish is eaten with simple bread and can be found nearly everywhere, from common eateries, to neighbourhood coffee shops and chic chef restaurants. It is served in many variations – with cheeses, sausages or vegetables.

Hummus

Israelis take their hummus very seriously. This paste of pureed chickpeas mixed with tahini (sesame puree), herbs and spices, is usually eaten with a pita bread. The best hummus is found in Arab restaurants, in Jerusalem and in Galilee.

Israeli Breakfast

Israelis love their breakfast. The classic Israeli breakfast includes fresh vegetable salad, very finely chopped (with olive oil and lemon juice), an egg in various cooking styles, freshly-baked bread and cheeses. The food always comes a glass of fresh orange juice. This is served in lots of different ways at every coffee shop, hotel or restaurant.

Sabich

This Iraqi sandwich has evolved into a popular street food in Israel. Sabich is made up of a soft pita filled with slices of fried eggplant, hard-boiled egg, potato, fresh vegetable salad, parsley, onion, tahini and amba – a spicy yellow sauce with a very distinct smell. You’ll find it as street food as well as more sophisticated versions in restaurants.

Grilled Eggplant

Grilled eggplant is a dish you’ll find in many variations all over the country, from local coffee shops to high-end restaurants. The eggplant is placed whole on the grill, thoroughly grilled from all directions and then stripped from its skin. Tahini or yogurt is then poured on it, as well as various additions: chopped vegetables, meat, seafood or spices.

Travelors’ tips

Try

The trend for farmers’ markets is now worldwide, but it only caught on in Israel two years ago. For the past year, Tel Aviv’s farmers’ market has been housed in the renovated port marketplace. Growers come to sell their fruit and vegetable in the marketplace alongside stalls selling meat and fish, a bakery and a tapas bar.

Eat

Itzik HaGadol (Itzik the great) is a great example of the popular  Middle-Eastern formula-restaurants. The method is simple: sit down and the table is immediately filled with dozens of little plates filled with fresh salads: eggplant salads, eggs salad, zucchinis, pickles, roasted and fried vegetables, hummus and tahini accompanied by huge pita breads straight out of the oven. For the main course it is best to choose a cut of meat that benefits from time spent on the grill. The place is huge and always buzzing with activity (a sign of freshly cooked food), service is great, just be sure to leave room for the main course after the abundance of starters.

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Palestinians swiftly dismissed the Israeli leader’s terms for a deal as placing more “obstacles” in diplomacy’s way, casting doubt as to whether frozen peace talks may actually resume.

Addressing a joint meeting of Congress after a testy exchange last week with President Barack Obama, Netanyahu reiterated his expectations ahead of further talks about the contours of a future Palestine.

They included Palestinian recognition of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people and the scrapping of Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s unity accord with the Islamist movement Hamas.

“Tear up your pact with Hamas. Sit down and negotiate. Make peace with the Jewish state,” he said.

Netanyahu explicitly suggested for the first time that Israel would cede some Jewish settlements in the West Bank, though others would be annexed under any future agreement.

In Israel, settler leaders and members from Netanyahu’s own Likud party also voiced their objections. But with no diplomatic breakthrough in sight, his ruling coalition did not seem to be in any jeopardy.

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Obama, addressing Israel’s staunchest U.S. supporters, repeated his view that long-stalled peace talks should start on the basis of the Jewish state’s 1967 borders, an assertion that angered Israel, exposing a deep rift in its relations with Washington.

But Obama, in his speech to Washington’s most powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, sought to ease tensions with the close U.S. ally, stressing that he expected the two sides to eventually negotiate an accord that includes land swaps accounting for the “new demographic realities,” signaling that Israel would be allowed to keep some settlements built on occupied land.

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The Lebanese army on the Lebanese frontier said 10 Palestinians died when Israeli forces shot at rock-throwing protesters to prevent them from entering the Jewish State. The Israel army said the Lebanese army had also used live ammunition in an attempt to hold back the crowds rushing the border fence.

Israel blamed the incidents on provocation inspired by Iran, intended to exploit Palestinian nationalist feeling.

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The killings on the night of March 11 in Itamar in the occupied West Bank caused shock in Israel and drew condemnation from the Palestinian Authority that exercises limited self-rule in the area.

Police said Amjad Awwad, 19, and Hakim Awwad, 18, from Awarta, a Palestinian village neighboring Itamar, were in custody. Hakim was detained on April 5 and Amjad on April 10, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

He said the two were suspected of having killed Udi Fogel, 37, his wife Ruth, 36, and three of their five children, Yoav, 10, Eldad, 4, and 3-month-old Hadas.

Hakim’s mother, Nof, told Reuters by phone that her son was innocent and suggested he may have been pushed into a confession by Israeli questioning.

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The system’s success in shooting down a Palestinian Katyusha salvo last week has been tempered by caveats. Officials want to curb any false hopes of security among Israelis who spent the conflicts of 2006 and 2009 holed up in air-raid shelters.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed “Iron Dome” as a “breakthrough,” but made clear it is not perfect and that Israel continues to rely on overwhelming military might.

Fenced off in Gaza, Hamas and other Palestinian factions have long looked to rocket and mortar fire as their main weapon against Israel. So has Hezbollah, lacking the armor or aircraft with which to repel Israeli sweeps into southern Lebanon.

Launched into cities and border villages, these rockets have the potential to inflict civilian casualties that, in the past, have triggered major Israeli military mobilizations.

But funding remains hazy given holdups in a $205 million grant from the U.S. Congress and Israel’s wider defense spending needs in the face of the political upheaval buffeting the Arab world. 

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South African jurist Richard Goldstone chaired a fact-finding mission which in a 2009 report to the U.N. Human Rights Council said both Israel and the Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza, were guilty of war crimes in the conflict.

Goldstone wrote in a Washington Post column published on Friday: “If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.”

About 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the devastating war that was launched with Israel’s declared aim of ending cross-border rocket fire from Palestinian militants.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a written statement issued on Saturday, called on the U.N. to cancel the Goldstone report.

“Everything we said has been proven true,” the statement said. “Israel did not intentionally harm civilians … the fact that Goldstone has retracted should bring the report to be shelved once and for all.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Israeli Channel 2’s Meet the Press that “the truth has come to light.”

Clearing the air

Israeli military investigations into cases of misconduct later shed light on civilian killings, Goldstone said.

“I regret that our fact-finding mission did not have such evidence explaining the circumstances in which we said civilians were targeted,” Goldstone said.

Goldstone also wrote that Israel has investigated “to a significant degree” incidents cited in his report, while Hamas has “done nothing” to examine its rocket attacks which were “purposefully and indiscriminately” aimed at civilians.

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No one claimed responsibility for the blast, which coincided with an upsurge of violence on the Gaza border that has led to fears of a new war between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, after months of relative quiet.

Medics said three people were seriously hurt by the explosion, which hit one of the main routes into central Jerusalem in the afternoon, shattering the windows of a nearby bus. A woman in her 60s died in the hospital.

Police said it was a “terrorist attack” — Israel’s term for a Palestinian strike. It was the first time Jerusalem had been hit by such a bomb since 2004.

In Gaza, a Hamas spokesman said the group, which does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, was seeking to reverse the recent rise in violence and “to protect stability and to work in order to restore the conditions on ground.”

At the height of a Palestinian uprising that began in 2000, but which died out in recent years, militants carried out dozens of often deadly bombings in Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem.

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The Iranian naval contingent described by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman would pose no significant military threat to Israel but could spell the closest-ever encounter by the forces of the two old foes, who are geographically distant. 

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