When I first saw the sea of blue panels amid the scorched desert sands, driving along Highway 90 this June, I knew that Ketura Sun was a crucial – albeit late-coming – addition to the uniform landscape of the Arava.

At 4.95 megawatts, the medium-sized solar field was the first of its kind in sunny Israel. The field is capable of powering a supply equivalent to seven percent of Eilat’s energy needs and aims to fulfill one of David Ben-Gurion’s original visions, Arava Power Company president, Yosef Abramowitz, had told me during a Jerusalem Post visit to his company’s field. The visionaries behind the gleaming field – which is made up of 18,500 photovoltaic panels from Chinese company Suntech – were, along with Abramowitz, Ketura resident Ed Hofland and US businessman David Rosenblatt.

But it took way too long – and quite a great struggle on the part of Arava Power – to get this field going, leaving Israel trailing far behind cloudy Germany and several other European nations in its efforts to harness the sun’s light, and transform it into usable, clean energy. Abramowitz, dubbed “Captain Sunshine” by kibbutz residents, and his partners fought a five-year, uphill battle with 24 government offices to get the permits necessary to start building the field. Yet despite the ever-present bureaucratic challenges, the company plans to press on with its solar ventures.

Next in Arava Power’s plans is to construct Israel’s first large-sized solar field, at 40 megawatts, directly across Highway 90 from the current photovoltaic oasis.

And with the government’s July decision to approve a widespread increase in renewable energy allocations – with specifically 460 megawatts for large solar fields, in addition to the 300 megawatts total available for medium fields – it is the hope of clean energy entrepreneurs that more fields like Ketura Sun will be popping up across the country’s deserts sooner, rather than later. The hope among industry experts is that solar energy and other renewable sources, combined with natural gas, will eventually be able to power the country and minimize its reliance on “dirty” sources, like coal, jet fuel oil and diesel.

On winning the Post’s poll for top environmental story of the year, Arava Power echoed these sentiments.

“Arava Power is gratified to share the excitement of The Jerusalem Post readers in naming the launch of Ketura Sun, Israel’s first commercial solar field, the most important environmental story of the year,” said Rosenblatt, co-founder and vice chair of the Arava Power board. “Ketura Sun is both proof of concept and a down payment on the solar revolution that is expected in Israel in 2012 and in which Arava Power expects to continue to play a meaningful role.”

Rosenblatt emphasized his hope that the successful launch of Ketura Sun would be a catalyst for similar such ventures all over the country.

“Hopefully next year, Jerusalem Post readers will have to make the tough choice for top environmental story of the year between launch of first Beduin commercial solar field, the groundbreaking on Israel’s first large field (40 megawatts at Ketura) or increasing Israel’s renewable target by 2020 from a low 10 percent to the European Union standard of 20%,” he added.

The Jordan News Agency has published an unusually inciting report that the monthly recital of Psalms in the Old City was a “storming of the Temple Mount.” Similar allegations often are reported by Palestinian Authority and other Arab media, but Jordanian media is normally more restrained.

The recital of Psalms at several closed gates to the Temple Mount is performed by thousands of Jews, under close police guard, around the beginning of every new Hebrew month, and the eve of the month of Tevet this week was no exception.
Its coincidence with the Chanukah festival gave Jordan News Agency’s Ramallah correspondent an opportunity to report, “Jewish extremists on Monday stormed al-Aqsa Mosque compound by crossing Bab al-Magharibe bridge [the entrance used by non-Muslims to the Temple Mount].

“Settlers roamed the compound’s yard under the protection of Israeli police and soldiers.”
The report also alleged that rabbis urged “their supporters to storm al-Aqsa Mosque in the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah to perform religious Talmudic rituals in its yard.” The reporter wrote that the Jews were “drumming and chanting…racist slogans against Arabs and Palestinians.”

The Jordanian report carried an illustrative picture from its archives of the Al Aqsa mosque covered by smoke, presumably from rifle fire or grenades thrown by Jews “attacking” the holy site. 

In fact, Jerusalem police keep the monthly recital of Psalms far from the entrance to the Temple Mount and delivered a briefing to the participants before the procession to the closed gates, warning them not to stray from the prescribed route and not to engage in any incitement. There rarely is any trouble, the worst usually being a rock or bottle thrown by an Arab resident from a home overlookng the procession route.
Drums and music accompany the participants who recite several Psalms at several gates before dispersing. The last stop usually is an area generally closed to Jews and facing the Temple Mount.

Jordan News Agency editor Abid Bambra told Arutz Sheva Tuesday morning, “We are not responsible for the accuracy the correspondent’s article.”
Questioned abut the incitement, she said that any complaints could be directed to the agency’s office.

David Ha’ivri a long time activist for Jewish rights on the Temple Mount said, “The account by Jordan News is ridiculous. The Temple Mount is closed to Jewish visitors asides for highly restricted visits, which are monitored by both Israeli police and Islamic Walkf. Jews are not even allowed to utter a prayer on the Mount which is Judaism’s most holy place. Recently I was detained by the police and taken in for questioning on suspicions that I had bowed down there.”

The “City of David” neighborhood, home to a major archaeological dig and located across the road from the Western Wall, plans a new tourist center that is likely to arouse anger at the United Nations, the Obama administration and the Palestinian Authority.

The planned center and parking lot over the excavations is years away from construction, and the plans are to be discussed in a Jerusalem committee Wednesday. The Associated Press already has reported the plan and referred to the center’s sponsor, the Elad Foundation, as a “hard-line Israeli group.”

Elad, similar to other nationalists, has urged Jewish development in the area in accordance with its being an official part of Jerusalem. The international community, however, does not recognize Israel’s right to all of Jerusalem that was restored to  the country in the Six-Day War in 1967.

The City of David is at the entrance to the Silwan Valley, a hotbed of contention and frequent terrorist attacks by Arabs objecting to a Jewish presence in the area. Silwan is also the site of the underground water tunnel built by Judean King Hezekiah during the first Temple period. In the “City of David” excavations, a signet ring from the time of Jeremiah with a Hebrew inscription was found.

There has been a steady growth in the number of Jewish families living in the City of David, and there is a long line of people on the waiting list for homes that are often bought from neighboring Arabs.

Meanwhile, the Tourism Ministry announced on Tuesday it is investing more than $5 million in 2012 to maintain and conserve Jewish sites in the Old City, Rachel’s Tomb at the southern edge of Jerusalem and the grave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi) on Mount Meron.

The refurbishment and rehabilitation plan of the National Center for the Development of Holy Sites of the Ministry of Tourism also includes new projects at the grave of Samuel the Prophet (Neve Samuel) in northern Jerusalem and  the grave of Rabbi Akiva in Tiberias.

“Israeli and international Jewish tourists visiting the Jewish holy sites are important anchors in the Ministry of Tourism’s activities both in Israel and abroad,” said Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov.

“If Jesus were to come this year, Bethlehem would be closed’, the London Guardian reported this week. And what if Abraham were to visit?
The Guardian article painted a bleak picture of an “Apartheid wall” and military checkpoints that supposedly have stagnated the city of Bethlehem, located immediately south of Jerusalem. This idea was also used by anti-Israel NGO’s (see NGO Monitor’s “The NGO’s that Stole Christmas” posted on Arutz Sheva for details.)
The writer, Phoebe Greenwood, also details the nearby Jewish communities that are “strangling” the city and quotes a Catholic priest bemoaning the exodus of Christians from the ancient city. He neglected to mention that the reason is mistreatment by the Muslim PA.
Many businesses in the communities employ neighboring Arabs, who are able to travel freely while Jews are not allowed into Bethlehem and other “Apartheid” areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
Foreign media headlined the alleged problems of Bethlehem – until Christmas Eve, when suddenly there were reports of nearly 100,000 visitors who apparently were able to pass the “Apartheid wall.”
All of the reports from foreign news services, such as the Associated Press, routinely traced Christians’ problems to Israel. “Like the rest of the West Bank, the town fell on hard times after the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation broke out in late 2000,” according to AP.
Justus Reid Weiner, an international human rights lawyer who teaches at Hebrew University, in an interview by Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld posted on Arutz Sheva recently, says that Christians lost their majority status in Bethlehem soon after Yasser Arafat assumed control of the Palestinian Authority.
Weiner added that “under these regimes, the resident Christian Arabs have been victims of frequent human rights abuses including intimidation, beatings, land theft, firebombing of churches and other Christian institutions, denial of employment, economic boycott, torture, kidnapping, forced marriage, sexual harassment, and extortion”.
“And Muslims who have converted to Christianity are the ones in the greatest danger”.
In the previous years under Jewish control, the economy in Bethelhem, as in all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, flourished after being suffocated under Jordanian rule, until the Intifada under Arafat. Under Jordanian occupation between 1948 and 1967, all holy sites were barred to both Christians and Jews, except for visiting dignitaries, until Israel opened up the sites after the Six-Day War in 1967.
Neither the Guardian nor foreign news services noted what would happen to the Biblical Abraham if he were to return today for a visit to the Temple Mount, where he sacrificed a ram after G-d told him not to sacrifice his only son, Yitzchak (Isaac).
After the Six-Day War, Israel recognized Muslim claims to the Temple Mount, Judaism’s most sacred site, but Muslim authorities have used their de facto control to haul out tons of earth containing artifacts dating from the First and Second Jewish Temple, whose existence has been increasingly denied by the Palestinian Authority in specific and the Arab world in general.
Jews are barred from praying on the Temple Mount and are not even allowed to carry any holy articles with them. With Muslim observers supervising visits, police have frequently arrested or removed Jews for various violations, such as singing or reciting a prayer even in a whisper.
The Palestinian Authority has been insistent in claiming that the Temple Mount, as well as all of the Old City, is sovereign PA territory and will be the seat of a country it wants to establish. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has stated that in a Palestinian Authority country, no Jews would be allowed, which would preclude a visit by Abraham to the place that is the foundation of the belief in one G-d.

Israeli archaeologists have uncovered the first archeological find to confirm written testimony of the ritual practices at the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

An Israeli Antiquities Authority archaeological survey at the northwestern corner of the Temple Mount yielded a tiny tin artifact, the size of a button, inscribed with the Aramaic words: “Daka Le’Ya,” which the excavation directors on behalf of the IAA, archaeologists Eli Shukron and Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa, explain means “pure for God.”

Researchers believe the artifact, dated to the first century, towards the end of the Second Temple period, is a seal similar to those described in the Mishnah. If they are correct, this is the first time physical evidence of the temple ritual was found to corroborate the written record.

The team believes the tiny seal was put on objects designated to be used in the temple, and thus had to be ceremonially pure.

In this vein, and in the spirit of Hanukkah, Jerusalem District archaeologist of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said: “It is written in the Talmud that the only cruse of oil that was discovered in the Temple after the victory of the Maccabees over the Greeks, “lay with the seal of the High Priest” – that is: the seal indicated that the oil is pure and can be used in the Temple. Remember, this cruse of oil was the basis for the miracle of Hanukkah that managed to keep the menorah lit for eight days”.

In addition to this artifact, the dig also yielded other Second Temple artifacts, some older from the time of the Hasmonean Dynasty rule, including oil lamps, earthenware pots, and containers filled with oils and perfumes, as well as coins bearing Hasmonean kings such as Alexander Jannaeus and John Hyrcanus

A new era of increasing instability is opening in East Asia.

The death of North Korean leader Kim Il-Jong is only adding another, if explosive, element to an already volatile equation:

    China enters a period of substantially slower economic growth, if not a crash, on the eve next autumn of a takeover by a new generation of undistinguished Communist Party leaders.
    Japan wrestles with efforts to remake its domestic politics, but buoyed by its always magnificent; if constipated; bureaucracy, pursues a security buildup despite, ironically, a left-leaning governing party precariously clinging to power.
    South Korea’s miraculous ascendancy to world economic leadership and prosperity is imperiled by its export-led strategy now facing world economic shrinkage, and with the prospect of continued harassment from the North.
    North Korea attempts continuance of its highly leverage Communist monarchy but its balancing act could well succumb to both internal rivalries and Western pressure to halt its profitable foreign arms sales.
    Taiwan goes to another democratic election in January under the evil eye of Beijing that fears recent increasingly binding economic ties may be countered by “nationalists” intent on maintaining de facto independence.
    The Obama Administration has made new commitments, particularly in Southeast Asia, of resistance to aggressive Chinese claims despite rapidly reducing the navy as it backs out of two, long and inconclusive wars.

Beijing’s high growth rate — despite its majority largely left out of the Coastal Cities boom — is dropping precipitously, because of inherent weaknesses built into its state capitalism and the world economic downturn. Having abandoned Maoism two decades ago, conventional wisdom held such rapid growth essential to sustain one-party, elitist rule. While there is no organized national opposition, there are increasing signs local Communist cadre have lost control. Massive infrastructure overexpansion, declining export prospects and untenable internal debt levels could produce a breakdown.

Furthermore, Pyongyang provides new concern for Bejiing’s conflicted view of North Korea. China’s aid supports Pyongyang at the same time North Korea rejects “the China model”, the Kim leadership believing — after a failed trial — it could not maintain control were widespread private initiative permitted.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, refugee flows from an implosion resulting from the burden of one of the world’s largest militaries and developing weapons of mass destruction would not be the principal threat. What Beijing fears most would be Korean reunification, which led the young Communist China to risk intervention in the stalemated Korean War for control of the peninsula.

Again, conventional comparisons of Korean reunification to Germany are inappropriate. Assuming China could not prevent an internal crackup which might come suddenly — as it did to once seemingly impregnable East Germany and model Communist dictatorship Romania — South Korea could absorb a North Korean colony, and, in fact, longer term turn it to economic advantage.

To the consternation of Japan and the U.S., too, as well as China, the world might suddenly face a strong, new nuclear armed power.

As it has for a century, much will depend on China’s relationship with Japan, always uppermost in Beijing’s calculations. Beijing has rejected Tokyo’s proposal for defusing the Japan [East] Sea flashpoint by joint development of gas. Meanwhile, despite the leftwing careers of many now serving cabinet members and its declining population, Tokyo continues to move to quality manufacturing, heightened industrial R&D, and consolidating defenses with purchase of F35s from the U.S. [As always, Tokyo sees joint manufacturing arrangements enhancing Japan’s technology.]

The current U.S. defense appropriation dropped funds for moving American forces from Okinawa to Guam; probably not in the strategic interests of either country given the Island’s unique geographic centrality. The Japanese are pushing a trilateral strategic relationship with India and the U.S. — which may again include Australia now that Canberra is lifting its export ban on uranium to New Delhi — in a not very subtle effort to counter China’s Indian Ocean expansion, a continuing Tibet buildup and encroachment on northern India and Pakistan, and central Asian initiatives including Afghanistan.

Moves to end Japan’s postwar ban on arms exports could be strategically significant, negotiated, possibly, as part of the Obama Administration’s Trans Pacific Partnership still running up against protectionist Japanese agricultural interests.

Whatever else, pieces are moving rapidly on the Asian chessboard. But as always, unanticipated events are likely to dictate eventual outcome of the best laid plans of mice and allies.

The Congressional Research Service has reported that U.S. aid was improving
the military of Kuwait, the Gulf Cooperation Council sheikdom.

CRS said Kuwait, deemed a major non-NATO ally of the United States, has
expanded its military since the Iraq invasion in 1990. The report said
Washington has been equipping Kuwait to counter any threat from neighboring
Iran.

“Its [Kuwait’s] military has now nearly regained its pre-Iraq invasion strength of 17,000,” the report said.

Over the last three years, Washington sold to Kuwait equipment meant to contain Iran. CRS cited the PAC-3 missile defense system, AIM-120C air-to-air missile as well as anti-tank missiles. Kuwait has not been eligible to acquire U.S. military surplus.

Authored by analyst Kenneth Katzman, the report said the United States has used Kuwait as the key exit route for American troops assigned to withdraw from neighboring Iraq. The report said Kuwait could host U.S. forces meant to respond to any emergency in Iraq after 2011.

The main U.S. staging facility in Kuwait was identified as Camp Arifjan. The report also cited Camp Buehring, which contains a desert firing range as well as serves for the overhaul of equipment shipped from Iraq.

“It is at these locations that equipment from the Iraq battlefield are
being cleaned, repaired, and packed up for return to the United States or
stored in regional prepositioning sites,” the report said.

“Over the past three years, U.S. sales to Kuwait have also comported
with the overall goals of the Gulf Security Dialogue program designed to
contain Iran by enhancing the individual and joint capabilities of the Gulf
states,” the report said.

CRS said the biggest beneficiary was the Kuwait Air Force, which
received U.S.-origin F/A-18 fighter-jets.

“U.S. officials say that the U.S.-Kuwait defense relationship, enhanced
by the small amounts of U.S. assistance, has improved the quality of the
Kuwaiti military, particularly the air force,” CRS, in a report titled
“Kuwait: Security, Reform and U.S. Policy,” said.