Intel to invest $25 bn in new Israel plant: government

JERUSALEM — US chip giant Intel will spend $25 billion on a new plant in Israel, officials said, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it the country's single largest foreign investment.

The "agreement in principle" would see the semiconductor firm build the facility in southern city Kiryat Gat that would open by 2027 and operate at least until 2035, Israel's finance ministry said.

As part of the deal, Intel's taxes to Israel would rise from 5 to 7.5 percent, the finance ministry said in a statement.

Intel in return would receive a grant of 12.8 percent of its outlay, the ministry said, in line with Israel's capital investment encouragement law.

Netanyahu said the new plant would constitute "the largest investment in Israel".

"This is a great show of confidence in Israel's economy, and shows the strength of the free economy we built here and the technological economy developing here," the Israeli leader said.

The two sides would begin finalizing the deal in a process expected to take a number of weeks, according to the ministry.

A spokesman for Intel in Israel had no immediate comment.

Intel has been operating in Israel since the 1970s with development centers and a production site that employ some 12,000 people out of the company's global workforce of 130,000, the finance ministry said.

In 2017, Intel acquired Israel-based Mobileye, which makes technology for automated driving systems in vehicles, for just over 15 billion dollars.

Agence France-Presse

Israel's confirmed coronavirus cases jump by 40 percent in 1 day

JERUSALEM - Confirmed coronavirus cases in Israel have jumped by 40 percent to 427 in the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday, predicting a steeper rise as mass-testing is implemented.

Having urged Israelis to stay home and approved cyber-monitoring of their movements to reduce infection risks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at least 3,000 coronavirus tests would be conducted daily, including at new drive-through stations.

"We will reach a situation in which there are many hundreds of new patients each day, and possibly more," Moshe Bar Siman-Tov, director-general of the Health Ministry, told Israel's Army Radio.

Up from the 304 confirmed cases reported on Tuesday morning, five of the 427 patients were in critical condition, the ministry said.

There have been no reports of coronavirus fatalities in Israel or the Palestinian territories.

In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials have confirmed 44 cases. None have been detected in the densely populated Gaza Strip.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Under pressure from Trump, Israel bars visit by two US Democratic lawmakers

* Women had planned visit to Jerusalem, West Bank

* Both back pro-Palestinian movement to boycott Israel

* Israeli law allows banning entry of boycott supporters

* Trump had urged Israel to bar visit

JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday barred U.S. Democratic congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar from making a planned trip to Israel, shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump called on his ally not to let them in.

Tlaib and Omar, the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, are members of their party's progressive wing and sharp critics both of Trump and of Israel's policy toward the Palestinians.

The moves, which were immediately condemned by many Democratic leaders in the United States as well as Palestinians, could help whip up support among Trump and Netanyahu's conservative voter bases as they head into election campaigns.

Israel holds a national election on Sept. 17 and Trump faces re-election in November 2020.

Tlaib and Omar have voiced support for the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement over Israel's policies toward Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Under Israeli law, BDS backers can be denied entry to Israel.

Omar called Thursday's decision an "affront" and "an insult to democratic values."

Israel had initially chosen to allow the visit. A source who took part in consultations Netanyahu held with cabinet members and advisers on Wednesday told Reuters that Israel backtracked due to pressure from Trump. The pressure was reported by the Axios news site on Saturday but denied by the White House.

"In a discussion held two weeks ago all the officials were in favor of letting them in but, after Trump's pressure, they reversed the decision," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In a tweet on Thursday, Trump wrote: "It would show great weakness if Israel allowed Rep. Omar and Rep. Tlaib to visit ... They are a disgrace!"

Asked if he had spoken to Netanyahu about the planned visit, Trump told reporters: "I don't want to comment about who I spoke to, but I think my social media statement pretty well speaks for itself."

"But I did speak to people over there," he added.

Trump's request appeared to contravene a U.S. government policy that says the United States seeks "equal treatment and freedom to travel" for all U.S. citizens regardless of ethnicity. It says those denied entry should be given a written explanation by Israel.

Trump has in recent months accused Tlaib, Omar and two other first-term Democratic congresswomen of color - dubbed "the Squad" - of hostility to Israel in a barrage condemned by critics as racist and widely seen as a way to drum up votes for 2020.

Omar is a favorite target. At a recent rally in North Carolina, supporters chanted "send her back" after Trump falsely accused her of supporting al Qaeda.

The 37-year-old lawmaker who represents a Minnesota congressional district immigrated to the United States from Somalia as a child. U.S.-born Tlaib, 43, has roots in the West Bank.

Omar has been criticized for statements critical of Israel, including a 2012 tweet referring to the country’s "evil doings" and a tweet this year saying that support for Israel is all about money. Omar has apologized for such statements.

Israel's ambassador in the United States, Ron Dermer, had said last month that Tlaib and Omar would be let in, out of respect for the U.S. Congress and the U.S.-Israeli relationship.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal Jewish advocacy group J Street, said Trump's strategy was about appealing to his conservative base, which includes evangelicals hawkish on Israel.

"This not a strategy that is primarily aimed at the Jewish community," Ben-Ami said. "It’s become another culture war issue."

'DENY ISRAEL'S LEGITIMACY'

No date had been formally announced for the congresswomen's trip, but sources familiar with the planning said it could begin over the weekend. They had planned to tour East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, which Palestinians want for a state.

Netanyahu said that Israel had the utmost respect for Congress but that Tlaib and Omar were promoting legislation calling for boycotts against Israel.

"Only a few days ago, we received their itinerary for their visit in Israel, which revealed that they planned a visit whose sole objective is to strengthen the boycott against us and deny Israel’s legitimacy," Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu could easily feel he owes Trump a favor after some of the U.S. president's decisions, such as recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, withdrawing from the Iran nuclear accord and moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

However, denying entry to elected U.S. officials was likely to further strain relations between Netanyahu, who has highlighted his close ties with Trump in his current re-election campaign, and the Democratic leadership in Congress.

"Israel doesn't advance its case as a tolerant democracy or unwavering U.S. ally by barring elected members of Congress from visiting because of their political views. This would be a shameful, unprecedented move," Democratic presidential hopeful and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren said on Twitter.

U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, the Senate's top Democrat, said in a statement: "Denying entry to members of the United States Congress is a sign of weakness, not strength. It will only hurt the U.S.-Israeli relationship and support for Israel in America."

Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian official with the Palestine Liberation Organization and founder of Miftah, a West Bank-based nongovernmental organization that is co-sponsoring the trip, called the decision to block it "an affront to the American people and their representatives."

"This ban is a clear case of discrimination and hostility based on political views and ethnic background, deserving of moral indignation and unequivocal condemnation in Palestine and the United States," Ashrawi said in a statement.

The Palestinians have broken off diplomatic ties with the Trump administration over what they see as its heavily pro-Israel bias.

Tlaib's grandmother and extended family live in the Palestinian village of Beit Ur Al-Fauqa.

"We were surprised today that they banned Rashida. It is unfair and racist that they banned her from visiting her country Palestine and her family in Palestine," said her uncle, Bassam Tlaib.

Netanyahu said that if Tlaib submitted a request to visit family on humanitarian grounds, Israel would consider it as long as she promised not to promote a boycott against Israel.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Israel gets F-35 fighter jets

NEVATIM AIR BASE, Israel - Israel on Monday became the first country after the United States to receive the U.S.-built F-35 stealth jet which will increase its ability to attack distant targets, including Iran.

The much-hyped arrival of the first two fighter jets was overshadowed by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's tweet that Lockheed Martin's whole F-35 project was too expensive , and the delivery was delayed for hours by bad weather preventing their take-off from Italy.

The squadron is expected to be the first operational outside the United States. The planes are the first of 50, costing around $100 million each.

"Our long arm has now become longer and mightier," said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Nevatim air base in the southern Negev desert.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, also attending the ceremony which was delayed until after dark, said the planes were critical to maintaining Israel's military edge in the region.

A U.S. squadron of the planes, which have suffered delays and cost overruns, became operational in August. The F-35 program is the Pentagon's largest weapons project.

"The F-35 program and cost is out of control," Trump said on Twitter, sending Lockheed Martin's shares down 4 percent.

Jeff Babione, Lockheed Martin's F-35 program leader, said the company understood concerns about affordability and had invested millions of dollars to try to reduce its price.

Israel, which finalized a 10-year, $38 billion arms deal from the United States this year, plans to maintain two F-35 squadrons.

Critics of the plane say it can carry a smaller weapons payload and has a shorter range than Israel's current squadrons of U.S.-built F-15s and F-16s.

But some experts say the F-35's stealth capabilities make up for this because it can be more accurate and fly a more direct route to its target. Israel's air force mostly flies missions close to home, in the Gaza Strip and against arms shipments to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria.

It is also believed to have carried out bombings in Sudan against arms shipments to Palestinian militants, and to have drawn up contingency plans against Iranian nuclear facilities.

Israel initially ordered 33 of the fighters but signed off on another 17 last month.

Nimrod Shefer, a retired Israeli air force major-general, said the new aircraft were a welcome addition.

"(There are) very low- to very high-altitude missiles ... and targets that are becoming more and more difficult to detect and to destroy," he said. (Writing by Ori Lewis and Maayan Lubell; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Robin Pomeroy)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Israel's Netanyahu recovering after hernia operation

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was recovering on Sunday after a hernia operation overnight in a Jerusalem hospital, his office said in a statement.

Surgery, at the prestigious Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital, was successful and lasted about an hour, it added.

Netanyahu, 63, was expected to be discharged on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday morning's weekly cabinet meeting will be postponed although a session of a ministerial committee expected to approve the release of a first batch of 26 prisoners ahead of another round of peace talks with the Palestinians on Wednesday will go ahead, chaired by Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com