Pottery Shard Earliest Evidence of Written Canaanite Lingo
A sample of written text in the Canaanite language dating back to the 10th century BCE was unearthed this month in Jerusalem’s City of David. The inscription is engraved on a large pithos, an ancient neckless ceramic jar, and dates back to the rule of King Hezekiah. It is the only one of its kind to have ever been discovered in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Iranian Spy Indictment Issued Against Member of Anti-Zionist Jewish Sect
(JNS.org)—A 47-year-old Israeli man who belongs to the ultra-Orthodox anti-Zionist Neturei Karta sect has been indicted as an alleged spy for Iran. The indictment said the man contacted the Iranian embassy while in Germany in 2011 and offered to gather intelligence about Israel. An Iranian diplomat allegedly gave the man an email account for correspondence. The Israeli suspect—who was not named in the indictment—has been accused of treason.
Webydo’s Success
Forbes reports that Webydo (based in Tel Aviv with an office in New Jersey) is enabling professional graphic designers to create websites cheaper and faster. Founders Shmulik Grizim and Tzvika Steinmetz sought to build a powerful code-generator that could convert any graphic design into a functioning website that’s also fairly easy to update and manage by the designers themselves or their clients. In 2012, they released the first version. Today, 10,000 designers (mainly the U.S.) have created more than 60,000 websites using this online software. Webydo’s first investor is an Israeli-Arab, Hisham Adnan Raya, who made a small fortune building homes in Israel’s north. His accountant suggested he diversify some of his profits and introduced him to the men behind Webydo. The three men have since become close friends, taking holidays together and hanging out in Raya’s lavish home in the Arab town of Sakhnin. He says that Israeli-Arab politics simply doesn’t interest him. “In general,” he says, “if people are intelligent and hardworking, they tend to get along.”“At the end of the day, if you want to make money, you have to work with Jews, and with everybody.”
New Iran Sanctions Target Oil Sales, Require President To Report On Sanctions’ Impact
(JNS.org)—New Iran sanctions that overwhelmingly passed in the U.S. House of Representatives aim to cut Iranian oil sales from 1.25 million barrels per day to 250,000 per day by the end of 2014. The sanctions also establish a formal process requiring the president “to report to Congress every 60 days regarding the Iranian nuclear timetable and the projected economic effects of international sanctions on Iran.”
Passed in a 400-20 vote, the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act (H.R. 850)—authored by U.S. Reps. Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Ed Royce (R-CA)—also expands sanctions targeting Iranian human rights violations as well as the country’s automotive and mining industries. The bill gives the U.S. president authorization to “impose sanctions on a foreign person that knowingly conducted or facilitated a significant financial transaction with the Central Bank of Iran or other Iranian financial institution subject to sanctions for the purchase of goods (other than petroleum or petroleum products) or services by or from a person in Iran, or on behalf of a person in Iran,” according to the Congressional Research Service. Calling the House’s passage of the new Iran sanctions “forceful action,” the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) said it “urges the Senate to move quickly on its own version of sanctions legislation. …The window is rapidly closing to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability,” AIPAC said in a statement.
