Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel s environment reporter.
View of Haifa s oil refineries and other industrial areas, on May 5, 2017. (Yaniv Nadav/Flash90/File)
A top-level committee of officials set up within the Prime Minister’s Office recommended on Monday the closure “as soon as possible, and within no more than a decade,” of the polluting Bazan Group Oil Refineries in northern Israel’s Haifa Bay and its oil storage complex in nearby Kiryat Haim, as well as the transfer of Haifa Chemicals, a fertilizer plant, from there to the Negev desert in the south.
It issued its “draft government strategic plan” for public comment, before formally advising the government. It said that the closure of the plants had to be conditioned on maintaining the country’s energy security.
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel s environment reporter.
View of the Ashalim solar power station in the Negev desert, southern Israel, on August 21, 2020 (Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90)
The Energy Ministry on Sunday unveiled a 136-page roadmap which, it said, would enable the energy sector to dramatically cut greenhouse gases in the coming decades.
The announcement, which targets a cut of 23% by 2030 and the electricity sector to do so by 30%, with respective cuts of 80% and up to 85% by 2050, comes just days before Earth Day on Thursday and US President Biden’s two-day virtual climate summit, to be attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
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In this photo released by the Lebanese government, US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale, speaks after meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun, at the presidential palace, in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon on April 15, 2021. (Dalati Nohra/Lebanese Official Government via AP)
A senior US official on Thursday offered Washington’s assistance in facilitating negotiations between Israel and Lebanon to resolve their maritime border dispute.
“These negotiations have potential to unlock significant economic benefits for Lebanon,” said US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale in a statement to the press after meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun, at the presidential palace, in Baabda, east of Beirut.
Screen capture from video of Lebanon s Public Works Minister Michel Najjar. (YouTube)
Lebanon’s outgoing minister of public works said Monday that he has signed a decree that would increase the area claimed by his country in a maritime border dispute with Israel.
Israel’s Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz responded by accusing Lebanon of “blowing up” negotiations between the two countries to resolve the issue.
Lebanese Public Works Minister Michel Najjar told reporters that he has signed an amendment of the decree that would formally extend Lebanon’s claims by 1,430 square kilometers (550 square miles).
In addition to angering Israel, the unilateral move was likely to also annoy the US, as neither of the allies are expected to recognize Beirut’s extension of the disputed area.
MK Bezalel Smotrich
Earlier this week Israelâs High Court issued a dangerous decision which has the potential to change the very future of the State of Israel, both in its character as the Jewish State as well as regarding how laws and policies are made.
As has been widely reported and analyzed, the decision by the Court establishes that for the first time in Israelâs modern history conversions performed outside of Israel and under Reform and Conservative auspices will be recognized by the State of Israel and those converts will be recognized as Jews in every sense.
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