FactsOfIsrael.com covers the basic facts on the State of Israel and the Middle East. This includes Maps, the History of the region, Statistics, and more. We also post articles related to the Victims of Palestinian Terrorism, Anti-Semitism, Jewish History, and also a bit of Humor, News and Opinions.

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Fact 318: "In June 2002, US President George Busg said: 'Today, the Palestinian authorities are encouraging, not opposing, terrorism.' The Palestinian Authority, he added, had 'rejected [Israel's] offered hand and trafficked with terrorists.' Bush's sentence was brutal and unequivocal: 'Peace requires a new and different Palestinian leadership,' he pronounced."

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Israeli Astronaut takes with him into space a small pencil drawing made by a 14-year-old boy who was killed in Auschwitz (11.25.2002)


NewsThe BBC has an article that describes how Ilan Ramon will become Israel's first astronaut and how he'll celebrate the Sabbath in space:




Ilan Ramon, Israel's first Astronaut


Israel's Science Ministry has said it is investigating ways to allow Colonel Ilan Ramon, the country's first astronaut, to cast his ballot [for the 2003 Israeli elections] aboard the space shuttle Columbia, scheduled to lift off on 16 January 2003.

Israel's first space traveller faces other difficulties: How does a Jew observe the Sabbath in space? More precisely, if he or she is in a low-lying orbit where the sun rises and sets every 90 minutes, what constitutes the Biblical "seventh day of rest?"

Colonel Ramon is not particularly religious on the ground, but believes it is important to mark the Sabbath in space.

"My mother is a Holocaust survivor who was in Auschwitz and my father fought for the independence of Israel not so long ago," says the 48-year-old veteran fighter pilot from the Israel Air Force.

"I was born in Israel and I'm kind of the proof for my parents and their generation that whatever we've been fighting for in the last century is becoming true.

"I feel I'm representing the whole Jewish people," adds Colonel Ramon, who will be Columbia's payload specialist on its 16-day mission designed to study how the human body adapts to the zero gravity of space. [...]

Among the nine personal items Nasa will let Colonel Ramon take with him into space will be a small pencil drawing made over 60 years ago by a 14-year-old boy who was killed in Auschwitz. Petr Ginz's "Moon Landscape" is an emotional work created by the Czech boy during his imprisonment in the Theresienstadt ghetto. [...]

While his mother survived the Nazi horrors, Ramon's grandfather and many extended relatives perished in the death camps.

An official at Yad Vashem says: "'Moon Landscape' connects the dream of one Jewish boy who is a symbol of the talent lost in the Holocaust to the journey of a Jewish astronaut, who is a symbol of our national revival."


To find out how Ilan Ramon will be able to celebrate Sabbath in space, see below. I also copy an information page on Ilan Ramon from Nasa's website.

Update 2/3/2003: Here are some related articles to the incredible stories of Ilan Ramon and Petr Ginz -

NASA sends first Israeli astronaut into space (1/16/03)

Tragedy over Texas skies: seven astronauts killed
in explosion of space shuttle Columbia (2/1/03)

Artist Barry Munden creates painting in memory of Ilan Ramon and Peter Ginz (2/2/03)

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Palestinian terrorist murders three Israelis; dozens wounded (07.02.2008)


Palestinian Terrorism

A Palestinian terrorist used a bulldozer to run over cars and overturn a bus in Jerusalem, murdering three Israelis and wounding dozens, including a 6-month old baby girl -


One of the cars crushed by the Palestinian murderer

[...] A resident of east Jerusalem rammed a bulldozer into cars, buses and pedestrians on one of Jerusalem's busiest streets, killing three people and wounding at least 45 others - including a six-month-old baby girl - before being shot dead by security personnel.

The three fatalities were identified as Jerusalem residents Zen Raluay, 68, Elizabeth Goren Friedman, 54, and Batsheva Onterman, 33 - the mother of the six-month-old baby. Goren Friedman and Onterman were buried late Wednesday night in the capital, and the details of Raluay's funeral were yet to be made public.

The attack began at noon when Husam Taysir Dwayat, a 30-year-old resident of the southeast neighborhood of Sur Bahir, drove out of a nearby light rail construction site and plowed his Caterpillar vehicle into anything and anyone, first on Rehov Sarei Yisrael and then on Jaffa Road, overturning a No. 13 Egged bus, flattening half a dozen cars and leaving destruction and carnage in his wake.   "People started screaming, 'He is running us over, he is running us over!'" said traffic policewoman Elinor Nahum, 22, who was the first to shoot and wound Dwayat after nearly being crushed herself.

"He tried to run over anything that moved," said Sami Grossman, a paramedic with the Zaka rescue and recovery organization, who quickly ditched his motorcycle when the terrorist aimed his bulldozer at him and any other vehicles nearby.   "I saw the bulldozer smash the car with its shovel. He smashed the guy sitting in the driver's seat," said Yaakov Ashkenazi, an 18-year-old yeshiva student.

I copy the full article below.

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Palestinian Homicide/Suicide bombers threaten us all (05.24.2002)


OpinionWith the latest Palestinian homicide/suicide bombings against unarmed Israeli civilians in Rishon-Le-Zion and Netanya, Thomas Friedman's article "Suicide bombers threaten us all" is more relevant than ever.

This New York Times' article destroys the myth that Palestinians that strapp bombs to their bodies, and murder unarmed civilians, do so out of "desperation".

It also point to the heart of the current conflict: a negative approach by the Arafat and his sympathizers to the whole process. They do not think in constructive terms such as what kind of an economy or educational system they wish to build, but concentrate on what can be destroyed in Israel and how to accelerate this destruction.

Finally the article points to the danger of supporting the Palestinians in their terrorist tactics:

"Let's be very clear: Palestinians have adopted suicide bombing as a strategic choice, not out of desperation. This threatens all civilization because if suicide bombing is allowed to work in Israel, then, like hijacking and airplane bombing, it will be copied and will eventually lead to a bomber strapped with a nuclear device threatening entire nations. That is why the whole world must see this Palestinian suicide strategy defeated."

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Firsthand report of massacre of Israelis at Kenyan beach hotel (11.28.2002)


VictimsAs I reported last night, Arab Muslim terrorists have attacked Israeli tourists in Kenya (click here for more information). Here's a firsthand account of the murders:

At around 7:30 a.m. local time we arrived from the airport in Mombasa at the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel, where we were greeted by beautiful dancing girls.

On the plane were hundreds of Israelis, most of them families on their Hanukka vacation who had come as part of a weeklong package tour organized by "Paradise Mombasa," an Israeli travel agency. [...]

We'd arrived in big buses and he suggested we go and have breakfast first, so our small group of 10 went to have breakfast and maybe five or 10 minutes later, we heard this massive explosion.

The hotel has thatched roofs and suddenly everything set on fire there were bits flying everywhere. In the distance all you saw was a mass of billowing smoke. Our hotel is situated right on the beach. We were all pushed towards the beach and everybody started helping everybody else.

I saw horrific sights: I saw people covered with blood, including children. people with gashes, with huge wounds in their backs, stretchers being carried out. Everyone seemed to be screaming.

The entire building shook. From what I can gather, a car crashed through the gates of the hotel and into the lobby. Bombs were then thrown from the car.

People were screaming for water, but there was no bottled water and the tap water is undrinkable. Our guide was missing. I tried to occupy myself tending to the children.

"I want to go home," they said. "Where are my parents?"


The Arab Muslims who deliberately murder children are enemies of humanity. I copy the full article below.

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Palestinian patients treated in Israeli hospitals cheer when Jewish victims of terror are brought in (08.21.2002)


OpinionThe Weekly Standard (www.weeklystandard.com) has a good article written by the comedian Larry Miller who visited Israel last week.

I was in two other hospitals recently, just a week ago, in Israel. It was part of my trip, to meet some victims of the terror bombings and their families. As an aside to this, you might like to hear something good and something not so good. [...]

All right, back to the story. As I said, I went to two places to meet the terror victims. One was in Tel Aviv. I met an emergency room doctor, a woman, whose husband was killed a year ago in a bombing. She has two children. Had. Now she has one. She was on duty, weeks ago, in the middle of the night (Don't they call that the graveyard shift?), the night a disco was bombed. Maybe you heard about it. The victims were brought to her hospital. To her. Her daughter was one of them. Now the mother is a patient. "It was good of you to let her tell you her story," the head of the place told me. "It's therapeutic." Good of me? What do you say to that? "I'm glad I could help so much. Gotta go now. Soon I'll be back in the hotel room."

Then we went to Hadassah Hospital, in Jerusalem. This is the hospital where they brought the victims of the bombing at Hebrew University. I met a woman who had been having lunch that day, in the Frank Sinatra Commissary (really) with her daughter, a student. An "A" student, the mother told me. It wasn't possible for the daughter to tell me, since they were still trying to put her back together. At this writing she's still alive, thank God. Just. An "A" student, the mother kept saying. She was the lucky one, whatever that means. Hey, what's that on the table? Oh, it's a cup with the nails they took out of me. Some are still inside. They can't take them out yet. Oh. Okay. Gotta go. Wait, go in there, here's someone else, the brother of someone else, the fiancee of someone else, the father of someone else. Thank you for letting them tell their stories. Yes, I know, it's therapeutic.

Downstairs, before we left, the head of the hospital, an Israeli named Audrey, was showing me the children's waiting room. I couldn't help but notice, all around, an Arab woman with her son, an Arab family over there checking in, Arab children playing with the toys while waiting. The doctor saw the look on my face and laughed. "Oh, yes, we treat everyone." I guess I was astonished. She just shrugged. "We're Jews. This is how we live. It's also for the future. They're not going anywhere, and we're not going anywhere. There will eventually be peace. There has to be." When? A month? A year? A hundred years? More? She didn't know. I had to say it. You're incredible. You take everyone, you treat everyone, no one goes first, no one goes last, you just go in order of who needs help. That's, like, Mother Teresa stuff. "We're not saints, we're just doing our jobs. It's not easy, I admit. And it gets hard when they cheer when the bodies are brought in." I looked at her. What did you say? She sighed. "Yes, it gets hard when they cheer." This was one of the times during my trip when I held up my hands and said, "Stop. Wait." I turned and walked away to breathe deeply for a minute. I wonder if they've restocked that mini-bar. Yeah, probably. It's a good hotel.

I didn't meet one Jew the whole trip who didn't think there would be peace, not one. "We can work it out. We have to. They're not going anywhere. Neither are we."

Of course, it gets hard when they cheer.


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Tragedy over Texas skies: seven astronauts killed in explosion of space shuttle Columbia (02.01.2003)


NewsCNN (www.cnn.com) reports that this morning, a tragedy has occurred over the skies of Texas:

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Seven astronauts were killed today when space shuttle Columbia broke up about 38 miles above Texas on its way to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

President Bush said in a televised address to the nation Saturday the news had brought "great sadness to our country," but pledged, "Our journey into space will go on."

"These men and women assumed great risk in the service of all of humanity," Bush said. "In an age when space flight has come to seem almost routine, it is easy to overlook dangers. ... These astronauts knew the dangers and faced them willingly."

Bush said the nation grieved for their families.


I had posted two articles on Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut, who was part of Columbia's crew and was killed in today's tragedy - see:




NASA sends first Israeli astronaut into space





Israeli Astronaut takes with him into space a small

pencil drawing made by a 14-year-old

boy who was killed in Auschwitz



The Columbia crew included Kalpana Chawla, who immigrated from India in the 80's and became an astronaut in the 90's, Michael P. Anderson, one of the few African-American astronauts, and Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut.

Ilan Ramon's wife and four children were waiting for him in Florida, when they heard of the terrible news. For me, and for most Israelis, he will remain a hero, someone who brought us a bit of hope and light during these violent and dark times.

I must admit I rarely pray - but tonight my thoughts and prayers will be with Columbia's crew and their families.

I copy the rest of CNN's story below.

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Israel has the right to defend herself against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Arafat's murderers (01.08.2003)


OpinionThe Jewish World Review (www.jewishworldreview.com) has published a good article on how to deal with Arab/Muslim/Palestinian violence:

Since the Arabs could not tolerate the presence of Jews in their neighborhood they tried to destroy us whenever they could put an army together. Every time they lost a war they couldn't understand it, and they couldn't believe that they wouldn't win the next war. [...]

We became so weary and fearful of the next possible war, that we blinded ourselves into believing all the fraudulent gestures of the Arabs about making peace.

We never realized the extent of our self-delusion until Prime Minister Barak offered the Arabs 98% of what they demanded and we were answered with an avalanche of suicide bombers taking more Israeli lives than ever before. [...]

For the first time in fifty years we have again become a lost, confused, helpless and paralyzed people. Somehow we have resigned ourselves to suffer the constant killing of our people, like another but slower Holocaust. We have paralyzed ourselves by our sickening irrational fear of "World Opinion," which is why we find it impossible to face one simple fact. We will never win this war unless we immediately threaten to drive every Arab out of Israel if the killing doesn't stop. [...]

It is about time we realize that public opinion is nothing but publicly expressed anti-Semitism and appeasing public opinion makes as much sense as Chamberlain's appeasement of Adolf Hitler. Jews dying in Israel disturbs them as much as watching your neighbor killing a cockroach, even if it doesn't fill you with pleasure you certainly don't feel remorse about it. That is why when suicide bombers kill hundreds of Jews not a word of protest is ever heard, but when we try to defend ourselves by retaliating against our killers the U.N. immediately is called in an emergency session to protect our assassins.


NPR/KQED, the leftist American shameless pro-Palestinian radio network, reported on the homocide bombing in Tel-Aviv two days ago as follows: "there has been no Palestinian attack against Israel since November".

That is simply a blatant lie: there have been dozen of attacks, including shootings, suicide bombing attempts, and much more violence, agression, and hatred from the Arab Palestinian Muslims. Israel's army has been successful in stopping the terrorists from the Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and Arafat's Tanzim - that's all. NPR's verbal diarrhea in anything related to Israel and Palestinian terrorism is shocking - please don't donate to NPR ever again, click here for details.

Like many Israelis, I am getting sick and tired of this constant intolerance, racism and terror coming from the Arab Palestinian Muslims - if they think we won't react, they are dead wrong. The forced removal of these murderous bastards might just be what we need.

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Racist Muslim murders Jew in Paris, France (01.31.2004)


Anti-SemitismFront Page magazine (www.frontpagemag.com) reports that a racist Muslim has murderered a French Jew... because he was a Jew:

Sebastian Sellam, 23, was a popular disc jockey at a hot Parisian night club called Queen. At about 11:45 p.m. on Wednesday November 19, the young man known as DJ Lam C (a reverse play on his surname) left the apartment he shared with his parents in a modest building in of Paris’ 10th arrondissement near la Place Colonel Fabien, heading to work as usual. In the underground parking lot, a Muslim neighbor slit Sellam’s throat twice, according to the Rosenpress interview. His face was completely mutilated with a fork. Even his eyes were gouged out.

Following the crime, Rosenpress correspondent Alain Azria reported, Sellam’s mother said the Muslim perpetrator mounted the stairs, his hands still bloody, and announced his crime. “I have killed my Jew. I will go to heaven,” he reportedly said. The alleged murderer’s family was well known for rabid anti-Semitism, Mrs. Sellam reportedly told Rosenpress, a point confirmed by the victim’s brother. Within the previous year, Sellam’s mother reportedly said, the family found a dead rooster outside their apartment door with its throat slit, and their Mezuzah was ripped from their door post. Leaving dead roosters is reportedly a traditional warning of impending murder.


I copy the full article below, which covers more on the rabid anti-Semitism present in today's France (French Muslims being the majority of perpetrators of racist and violent anti-Semitic acts).

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Why do Ha'aretz journalists show the Palestinian side of the story and why they sometimes regret it (06.30.2002)


OpinionHa'aretz (www.haaretzdaily.com) has published a lecture delivered by the Ha'aretz editor-in-chief, Hanoch Marmari, on May 27, 2002 as part of the 9th World Editors' Forum in Bruges, Belgium.

First, the good news: Abu Ali's nine children are alive and well - as well as children can be among the ruins of the Jenin refugee camp. Please deliver this news to all of your friends who may have read, a few weeks ago, Abu Ali's mournful declaration: "All my nine children are buried beneath the ruins." Abu Ali's photograph was spread across a double page in a very distinguished and influential European magazine, under the title: "The survivors tell their story."

Israeli tanks and bulldozers had entered the camp, Abu Ali recalled. He went out to fill his car, telling his nine children to meet him at a nearby intersection. But the Israeli forces blocked his way back, and it was a week, he told the reporter, before he could return to the ruins of what had been his home. "It smells of death here," he is quoted as saying. "I am sure all my children are buried beneath the rubble. Come back in a week and you will see their corpses."

The reporter and his editors did not wait a week and published the tentative story as is. They were not satisfied with the extent of the tragedy that they could see with their eyes and legitimately depict in their copy. The desire to hype the story blunted their healthy journalistic instincts to doubt and double-check any story before publishing it.

While preparing this address, I made some inquiries about Abu Ali's case. First, final numbers indicate that three children and four women were killed during the fighting in the Jenin refugee camp. Second, Abu Ali's children were not among them. And third, the magazine did not bother to tell its readers of this relatively happy end to its story.


I copy the full article below. It's a long piece of writing, but it shows what goes on behind the scenes at Ha'aretz, a newspaper associated with the left of the Israeli political spectrum (close to Labor and Meretz - see the FactsOfisrael.com democracy page for more details). Mr. Marmari explains why Ha'aretz journalists show the Palestinian side of the story, and why sometimes they regret it. It is well worth the reading.

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New version of FactsOfIsrael.com screensaver released (10.24.2002)


AnnouncementI have just released version 1.5 of the FactsOfIsrael.com screensaver. Click here to check out some screenshots and download it for free.

Among other things, I completely changed the user interface (UI): the screensaver looks a lot better now.

I have also added 200 more facts to the screensaver database, bringing the total to 399 facts. There are also 120 images randomly displayed with every fact.

So check it out, and let me know what you think.

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Palestinian terrorist murders 7-year-old Israeli girl (09.05.2003)


VictimsThe "One Family Fund" (www.onefamilyfund.org) has published the story of Noam Leibowitz, a 7-year-old girl who was brutally murdered by a terrorist from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad:



Noam Leibowitz, 7
Murdered by a Palestinian terrorist


On June 17, 2003, Noam Leibowitz, 7, of Yemin Orde was killed and three members of her family wounded in a shooting attack near the Kibbutz Eyal junction on the Trans-Israel Highway.

In the first terrorist shooting on the Trans-Israel Highway, a terrorist managed to get under a cement wall separating the highway from Kalkilya, and opened fire at the Leibowitz car at around 11:30 P.M. Eight members of the family were in the vehicle, returning home from a bar mitzva celebration in Jerusalem. The terrorist first fired at the driver, then sprayed the rear window. Noam Leibowitch was killed. Her sister, Shira, who celebrated her third birthday that day, was seriously wounded. Noam's 11-year-old brother Moshe and 70-year-old grandfather sustained light injuries. [...]

Noam's father Shlomo spoke at the funeral of the enormous hole her death has left, of her joyfulness and her ready smiles. He related that on the way home from the bar mitzva Tuesday night, Noam had sung a song from the 2nd grade graduation party she was missing because of the trip to Jerusalem. "When I asked her why she was singing, she replied that when she sang, the other children always sang louder," he said. Noam's mother said, "Noam always took care of Shira. Now who will take care of Noam?" [...]

Noam Leibowitz was buried in Moshav Nir Etzion cemetery. She is survived by her parents, Shlomo and Galit, her brother, two sisters, and grandparents, Miriam and Shmuel Eliad.


The Palestinian terrorist groups Hamas ("Islamic Resitance"), Islamic Jihad, and Arafat's Al-Aksa brigades reject peace - they call for the destruction of the State of Israel and the genocide of her citizens. Click here for more information, or click here to see a list of homicide bombings executed by these murderous bastards since October 2000, when Palestinians rejected an independent State of their own.

I copy Noam's full story below.

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Many Arab Muslims hate Jews and Christians (09.09.2002)


OpinionIsrael Insider (www.israelinsider.com) has published a good article on how most of the Arab Muslim world hates Jews and Christians:

Anti-Semitism has long been a factor in the fate of Jews wherever they lived, but in the Middle East, it is embedded so deeply into its culture, its society, and the hearts of its people that it truly is beyond the comprehension of most Americans. [...]

Friedman, who has lived in and traveled widely throughout the Middle East, notes in the diary portion of his new book that "this sort of the-Jews-control-the-world conspiratorial thinking is deeply embedded in Saudi Arabia - more deeply, in fact, than in any country I have ever visited." He then called anti-Semitism "one of the great debilitating factors in Arab political life today, the notion that the future is always being shaped by forces or groups outside the Arab's control, so they are never at fault for anything that befalls them." [...]

"There really are people who hate Christians, hate Jews, hate secularism, hate the equality of women. At some point you have to either kill those people or be killed by them," says Friedman. And, of course, he is right.


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Fact 61: Israel gave autonomy to 92% of Palestinians after Oslo (07.07.2002)


NewsletterThe latest FactsOfIsrael.com newsletter has been sent.

This week's fact is Fact 61: Israel gave autonomy to 92% of Palestinians after Oslo.

Click here to check out the latest newsletter, and please subscribe if you haven't already done so.

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Cries of "Kill the Jews" overheard in Los Angeles, California (09.21.2002)


Anti-SemitismThe Los Angeles Independent (www.laindependent.com) reports that a pack of anti-Semitic bastards kicked and beat up 2 people in Los Angeles, California. These braindead morons did this while screaming "Kill the Jews!":

Two Jewish patrons of Good Bar, a nightspot already under fire for poor security and numerous criminal incidents, were assaulted near the club early Sunday morning by 10 to 15 men in what officials at the West Hollywood Sheriff's Station are calling a hate crime.

Two men of Middle Eastern descent are in custody for allegedly pursuing the two victims coming out of the club and cornering them at the intersection of Doheny Road and Sunset Boulevard before kicking and hitting them, causing bruises, cuts and other minor injuries. [...]

At 1:55 a.m., the two Jewish men, both 25 years old and of Middle Eastern descent, left the 9229 Sunset Blvd. club and were walking to their car when the group of Middle Eastern men pursued them, screaming religious insults and threats.

The two victims tried to flee to their car, but were cornered and beaten before they escaped to a nearby apartment complex, Sierra Towers, where two security guards offered them protection. [...]

John Griffith, a resident of Sierra Towers, says he saw more than 20 men surrounding the two victims and witnessed five kicking and beating the victims, repeatedly chanting "Kill the Jews!"


The hostility and violence against Jews seems not to be omni-present in California. But that is simply because most of us don't have any external signs of being Jewish - if I was a religious Jew and wore a kippa, I am convinced some bleeding-brain leftists and Islamic fanatics would not hesitate in attacking me.

I copy the full article below - don't expect to find it in the Los Angeles Times nor the San Francisco Chronicle.

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Israeli company helps California reduce its dependence on foreign oil (08.10.2007)


Hi-TechIsrael21c (www.israel21c.org) reports that Solel, an Israeli company, will build a huge solar power system in the Mojave desert:



Solar Power Panels generate Clean and Safe Energy


An Israeli company is doing its part to help Americans develop renewable, environmentally-friendly energy, and at the same time reduce dependence on foreign oil. Beit Shemesh-based Solel has announced that it has signed a contract with Pacific Gas and Electric Company to build the world's largest solar plant - to be established in California's Mojave Desert.



The project will deliver 553 megawatts of solar power, the equivalent of powering 400,000 homes, to PG&E's customers in northern and central California. When fully operational in 2011, the Mojave Solar Park plant will cover up to 6,000 acres in the Mojave Desert.



Solel is working closely with URS Corporation in the development of the park, which when completed will rely on 1.2 million mirrors and 317 miles of vacuum tubing to capture the desert sun's heat.


We have a solar power system that we purchased a few years ago. The solar panels sit on our roof and the system provides all of the energy we need to power our home in California. For pictures and more details, click here.

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