Israel Briefs – October 20, 2014

False Alarms for Real, Homefront Officer Charges

“There is no such thing as a false alarm and there never was,” Major (res.) Ran Levy, a Home Front Command officer told Arutz Sheva on Sunday. Levy accused the IDF of lying when it said the sirens that sounded on Sunday morning were false alarms. “Once the system identifies a launch, it calculates within a short time the area in which the rocket is expected to fall, so there is no such thing as a false alarm.” He alleged that the IDF is covering up the truth for political purposes.

“It may be receiving instructions from the prime minister and the defense minister, so that Israel is not required to respond, since we are in a ceasefire now. I regret to say that [Hamas] are continuing to equip themselves with raw materials, cement and iron, and carry out tests, and they tell us these are false alarms so that we do not respond.”

German Gunboat Discount Survives Peace Talks

After months of negotiations, Germany has agreed to bargain price on gunboats to Israel, after balking at the discount when peace talks with the Palestinians collapsed. The agreement for three fast guided missile destroyers is now estimated to be worth about $766,274,080, about two-thirds of the original price. The deal is expected to be signed within weeks, Haaretz reported Sunday.

In May, Christoph Heusgen, Germany’s national security adviser, informed his Israeli counterpart Yossi Cohen that Germany would only be willing to sell the destroyers at full price. Heusgen asserted that following the collapse of peace talks about two weeks beforehand, the German government would not approve a discounted arms sale to Israel.

Tamar Gas to Flow to Egypt

The partners in the Israeli Tamar gas field say they have signed a memorandum of understanding with Egyptian company Dolphinus Holdings for the export of up to 2.5 BCM of surplus natural gas from Israel to private Egyptian industrial customers, over a period of seven years.

This article appeared in print on page 7 of the October 20th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.