Israel, once energy poor, is expected to become a gas exporter by the end of the decade and the companies developing its huge offshore Leviathan find are about to pick a fourth partner to gain the crucial know-how.

The Ministerial Committee on Legislation approved Tuesday a proposal by Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz to set up an independent fund to manage the fees and royalties derived from natural gas sales...

*** The moment everyone has been waiting for has arrived: After more than four years of drilling and pipe laying, the flow of natural gas from the Tamar gas field, located some 90 km (roughly 56 miles) west of Haifa, has begun...

*** Could this be the hook in the jaw of Ezekiel 38???

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea said Saturday it had entered "a state of war" with South Korea in its latest threat aimed at the United States and its ally after two American B-2 bombers flew a training mission in the region.
"From this time on, the North-South relations will be entering the state of war and all issues raised between the North and the South will be handled accordingly," said a statement carried by the official North Korean news agency, according to a Reuters report.
The joint statement by the government, political parties and organizations said North Korea will deal with all matters involving South Korea according to "wartime regulations." It also warned it will retaliate against any provocations by the United States and South Korea without "any prior notice."

Scarcely noticed by the world and Israeli media (busy celebrating the Passover festival), Jabhat al Nusra is about to overrun southern Syria.
Using Western- and Arab-supplied arms smuggled in for the Syrian rebels from Turkey and Lebanon, the jihadists are taking up positions on the Israeli and Jordanian borders while also assuming control over the Yarmouk River and its tributaries.
Water in the Middle East has caused the outbreak of more than one armed conflict. And indeed 50 years ago, Israel and Israel fought a war, including aerial dogfights, to dominate that same Yarmouk River. The dispute was finally resolved when the United States stepped in and brokered an agreement for the distribution of its waters among Syria, Israel and Jordan.
Alarm over Nusra Front territorial gains has accordingly taken precedence over the chemical threat in the deliberations of the joint US-Israeli, US-Jordanian and US-Turkish command centers.
Al Qaeda’s Syrian wing has even been able to obtain from Iraqi jihadists its own stock of primitive chemicals - but weapons nonetheless.
The West hesitated too long before cutting off the supply of arms to the Syria rebels; it is already too late to prevent al Qaeda occupying international border regions and seizing control of an important regional water source. Dislodging them would call for a military offensive proper - which seems to be the rationale for the large military field hospital Israeli set up this week on its Golan border with Syria...

The B-2 Spirit is capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear weapons. The Pentagon said the mission was part of its ongoing Foal Eagle training exercise series, which began March 1 and ends April 30.
The exercise was announced a day after North Korea said it had shut down a key military hotline usually used to arrange passage for workers and goods through the Demilitarized Zone...

As reported in The Jewish Press on March 14, 2013, there is a new call for something previously unthinkable. Sinem Tezyapar, a Muslim TV producer in Turkey, has called for the rebuilding of the “Prophet Solomon’s” Temple...

Palestinian authorities in Bethlehem removed ‘State Monument,’ put peace dove in its stead, three days before president came to pray at Church of the Nativity...

Syrian opposition campaigners said on Monday that Syrian forces fired what they said were chemical weapons from multiple rocket launchers at rebels surrounding an army base in the town of Adra on the outskirts of Damascus, killing two fighters and wounding 23.

"Doctors are describing the chemical weapon used as phosphorus that hits the nervous system and causes imbalance and loss of consciousness," said Mohammad al-Doumani, an activist in the nearby town of Douma, where the wounded were transported...