Army Times: U.S.: Laws of war apply to cyber attacks

In light of alleged collaboration between Israel and the U.S. in creating computer worms, it is significant that according to the Army Times, Harold Koh, the State Department’s chief legal adviser, announced yesterday that it was U.S. government policy that certain cyber attacks may constitute a "use of force." I think we can expect other nations to begin clarifying their positions regarding what determines whether a cyber attack is a "use of force."

By Aram Roston - Staff writer

Posted : Tuesday Sep 18, 2012 20:18:17 EDT 

The U.S. government believes that cyber attacks can amount to armed attacks, and are subject to international humanitarian law and rules of war, the top State Department lawyer said Tuesday.

Harold Koh, the State Department’s chief legal adviser, unveiled the U.S. government’s position on the rules of cyberwar at a conference hosted by U.S. Cyber Command at Fort Meade, Md.

Koh announced that it was U.S. government policy that certain cyber attacks may constitute a “use of force,” a legal term defined by the UN Charter. Functionally, such cyber attacks are only legal if a military engagement is authorized by the United Nations, or if the attacks are launched in self defense.

Koh also introduced a series of 10 legal principles about cyberwar. The first is the general rule that international law does indeed “apply to activities in cyberspace.”

Some cyber attacks, Koh said, can “amount to an armed attack or imminent threat thereof” and could trigger a nation’s right of self-defense. Presumably, that means that if a country is attacked with a cyber weapon, it can fight back, either with conventional military force or a cyber weapon in return.

Koh said that to constitute a “use of force” under international law, a cyber attack would probably have to “proximately result in death, injury or significant destruction.”

Cyberwar was until just years ago little more then futuristic fantasy, but capabilities have developed so quickly that deploying cyber weapons now requires legal oversight. Koh’s announcement is an important development because the DOD has been grappling with the issue.

Indeed, shortly before Koh spoke, the CYBERCOM chief of staff Rear Adm. Margaret Klein had complained that there was “a lack of clear legal guidance” about what laws applied to the use of cyber as a weapon.

CYBERCOM oversees the Defense Department’s offensive and defensive cyber operations, and is led by Gen. Keith Alexander, who also runs the National Security Agency.

Koh emphasized that in using any cyber weapon, a country had to “distinguish military objectives from civilian objectives,” and had to avoid targeting civilian infrastructure.

Michael Schmitt, head of the international law department at the Naval War College, said the announcement came at an important time.

“The problem,” he said, is that people were wringing their hands in despair: ‘Oh my God, does international law apply?’ Non-lawyers seemed captivated by the idea that these weapons operated in a legal void.”

“It is significant,” he said, “that the legal advisor comes out and says unambiguously that international law applies.”

Schmitt headed a group of experts sponsored by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn, Estonia, which prepared a draft manual on international law in cyberwar.

The United States is one of the few governments believed to have engaged in cyberwarfare, in particular the Stuxnet attack against Iran’s nuclear centrifuge infrastructure. Koh’s announcement of a legal doctrine on cyberwar comes just months after new reports surfaced about the Obama administration’s alleged central role in deploying the Stuxnet worm.

Guest Post: What to Know About Buying a Home in Israel

Avner Slater, Adv.

Buying a Home?  Selling a home? Be Informed!

In my previous article I discussed the importance of rental contracts and knowing what they say. This time I would like to discuss some of the issues related to purchasing a home in Israel. The following are a number of important points to work out prior to the purchase:  How much can I afford? What is the actual price of the apartment including all fees and taxes? What kind of mortgage is right for me? How do I make an offer? What are the steps in the legal work of buying property?

How much can you afford?  

The first thing you need to figure out is how much you can afford. You will need to look at how much money you have available yourself, how much you can borrow if any from family, and what kind of mortgage payments you would be able to make every month, should you choose to take a mortgage. This is a very important step – do not skip it. Get all the numbers down on paper rather than just floating in your head. Once you have your complete financial picture on paper, things will be clearer than they were before. Now let's take a look at some additional costs and expenses you should know about. 

Additional costs to take into account

Before you decide how much you can spend, you need to know about several additional costs. In comparison to the price of the apartment, these sums are really quite small, but knowing about them in advance will prevent unpleasant surprises.

First, there are three tax terms you should be familiar with: Purchase Tax -Mas Rechisha, Capital Gains Tax- Mas Shevach and a municipal tax called Hetel Hashbacha. The first applies to the buyer and the next two to the seller. 

Purchase tax  

Purchase Tax applies to the buyer. There is a difference between first time buyers (referring to someone who does not currently own a home in Israel) and those who already own a home in Israel. Currently a first time buyer will pay as follows:

• Up to a bit over NIS 1.4 million, no tax is required.
• If the price is over NIS 1.4 million, the tax is between 3.5% and 5% of the difference, i.e. if you buy an apartment for NIS 1.8 million, no tax on the first 1.4 million, 3.5% on the next NIS 280,000, and 5%  on the rest.
• If you already own an apartment and are now buying a second, you will pay between 5% and 7% from the first Shekel.

These are approximate amounts and may change from time to time, sometimes in your favor. 

Capital Gains Tax

Capital Gains Tax may be imposed on the seller in case of profit gained from the sale. A very common exemption from this tax is that once in 4 years, one can sell an apartment without paying capital gains tax. So if you haven't sold an apartment in the past 4 years, this exemption will most probably apply to you and you will not have to pay this tax. 

Hetel Hashbacha

The last of the three taxes is Hetel Hashbacha. This tax is imposed by the municipality, as opposed to the other two which are paid to the government tax authorities. This tax may apply to the seller in a case where the value of his property has risen as a result of recent zoning changes (i.e. granting of building permits, building of a new park, etc). A seller should find out in advance, before the signing of the contract, if he will be required to pay this tax, as he must take it into consideration when setting the price. 

Additional taxes may apply if the transaction involves a company, building rights or undeveloped land.  

Mortgages

Arranging a mortgage takes time. It can take between 4 and 8 weeks from the application until the money is available (and don't let any bank tell you otherwise). The bank will want to have the property appraised, to make sure they can get their money back if for any reason you stop paying your mortgage and the house has to be sold again.

Mortgages can be complicated, as there are many different types, and you must figure out which one is right for you. For instance, do you want a Dollar mortgage or a Shekel mortgage? Do you want your loan linked to the Dollar or the Madad (index)? Do you want a fixed interest rate? Do you plan to pay it off over 20-25 years, or do you hope to pay it off sooner? Normally a bank in Israel will give you up to 65% -70% of the value of the property. Sometimes you may be able to get up to 80%. Some banks charge a filing fee of about NIS 4,000. In addition there will be fees for registering a lien (Mashkon), registering a note of caution (He'arat Azhara), and getting a notarized power of attorney, all in the bank's favor, which may total about NIS 1,500. The bank will also require that the buyers get life insurance, and make the bank the beneficiary. Today there mortgage agencies (brokers) who can help you through the mortgage maze and even get you better deals, for a fee of 1% of the loan.

Engineer

Prior to signing the contract, I recommend having an engineer check out the condition of the property and give you a written report, including estimated costs of things that should be repaired. If you are buying a free standing house (a villa) as opposed to an apartment, this is a must. This may cost approximately NIS 4,000, depending on the size of the property.

Realtor and legal fees

If you are using a real estate agent, their fees are 1% to 2%.  Legal fees run between 0.5% and 1.5% of the sale price (plus VAT). This fee does not include litigation, if G-d forbid, a dispute occurs which requires litigation. Buyers often ask about using the same lawyer as the seller. This is not recommended. The lawyer's job is to protect his client's best interest. This job will not be easy if he is representing two opposing sides of a deal. So long as the deal is simple and going smoothly, it can sometimes work. But again, if a dispute arises, the lawyer will not be able to represent you properly. 

The contract price

If the price in the contract is in Shekels, it is often linked to the Dollar or to the Index - the Madad, which may mean a Shekel increase of 1%–2% per month. If you're buying a new apartment from a Kablan (builder/contractor), which is in the process of being built, the payments are always linked to the index. Since the contract period (the time while your apartment is being built) may span a period of 2-3 years, you must be aware that the price in the contract will be going up little by little until you complete the payments. In addition, you must pay 1.5% for the Kablan's lawyer, aside from your own, as strange as this may seem.  

Making an offer

When you decide you would like to buy a particular apartment, you do not necessarily have to pay the price being asked for it by the owners. You can always try making an offer for less. If the property is being sold through an agent, you should tell the agent what you are prepared to pay and have him or her put this offer to the owners. In fact, the agent, who wants the sale to be made, should be able to advise you what the seller is willing to settle for.

If the owners do not accept your first offer, you can make a higher offer. There is no limit on the number of times you can make offers on a property. Of course if there are others interested in the property, your offers will have to compete with theirs. If you are not taking a mortgage, and are able to make cash payments in a short period of time, this may also be tempting to the sellers and give you an advantage.

When the offer has been accepted

Once your offer is accepted, the seller's lawyer usually has the prerogative to draw up the first draft of the contract, and once he does, he sends it to the buyer's lawyer who can request changes. The sale period for second hand apartments is normally 2-4 months, during which the price is paid to the sellers in 3-4 installments. When you are buying an apartment which is not yet built, the duration of the sale is obviously much longer.  

Power of attorney (POA)

This is a subject which many people find confusing. Let me try to clarify. When giving POA to an attorney to sign documents or take actions in your name, all you have to do is sign the POA in your attorney's presence and he must certify that you signed before him. If however you are giving POA to someone who is not an attorney, i.e. a sibling, a parent, a friend or a mortgage bank then the POA must be signed in front of a notary (a notarized POA). If you wish to give POA to an attorney in Israel while you yourself are not here, you must sign the POA at an Israeli consulate, or get an apostille certification (basically, a notary certifies your signature, and then gets a certification of his signature). There are apostille services which offer pick up and drop off, so it can be done -for a price - without having to leave your home. When you are buying property, there will be additional documents, which you will need certified the same way.

Notary's fees are regulated by law, they all charge the same fee, depending on the service needed. Currently, notary's charge NIS 160 plus VAT for the first signature and NIS 64 plus VAT for every additional signature they certify. People often call me asking where they can find an American notary. For instance if they have to sign a document for an American bank, it will often require certification by an American notary. However, American notaries are not licensed to act as notaries outside of the US. Officially they cannot certify documents here in Israel. The only way to get this done is at the American consulate. [See my post on that here. JF] A possible alternative which often works but may not always, is to have the document certified by an Israeli notary. If he or she can produce the certification form in English, it may very well be accepted in the US.

The signing

The final contract between you and the seller is prepared when your attorney and you are satisfied with the outcome of all the enquiries, the legal negotiations have been completed, the preliminary mortgage approval has been received, arrangements to make the first payment have been made and the date of transferring possession has been agreed upon. Both sides get together with their attorneys present, to sign the contract and the rest of the documents needed for the sale. At this point both you and the seller are legally bound by the contract. If you pull out, you risk a fine of 10% of the contract price.

Taking possession of the apartment usually takes place about 8-12 weeks after signing of contract, although it can be more or less depending on what was agreed upon.

Buying property in the holy land is a tremendous zechus, bracha and opportunity. Still, before taking this very exciting step, make sure to take responsibility for getting the entire picture, or a good part of it at least. Don’t be intimidated – most issues and details can be worked out by an experienced real estate attorney, who will get you through the process smoothly. Wishing all buyers and sellers much Hatzlocha!

Avner Slater is a real-estate law attorney, living in Ramat Eshkol with his wife Yardena and their children. He may be contacted at EsqSlater@gmail.com or by phone 02-5825210.

Note: This article is not to be considered as legal advice or opinion. For legal advice, please contact legal counsel directly.

Life in Israel: New Rules For Lice In School

Life in Israel: New Rules For Lice In School

If your kid has lice in school, you might end up having to speak to Social Services. That's right. New policy being implemented by the Ministry of Education is putting more responsibility on the parents to rid their kids' heads of lice, and less on the teachers. 

According to Ynet, teachers are no longer allowed to check heads for lice in school or gan. To do so, they would have to be given explicit permission in advance by the parents. As well, if a kid is found to have lice, the teacher can no longer send the kid home.

School staff will hold more frequent lessons for parents and for the kids how to deal with, and specifically to prevent, lice. As well, schools will have to come up with special activities for both parents and kids, and even schedule days for dealing with lice."

If the educational staff is under the impression that the parents are not dealing with the problem appropriately despite their notices and warnings and attempts, they will be instructed to involve Social Services.

I don't know if these new rules will help, but it is good they are taking it seriously. No matter how diligent a parent is in checking the kids head, if there is even just one set of parents in the class that does not take care of their kids head, all the efforts of the other parents are wasted, as the next morning in class the lice spreads again. Maybe the threat of involving social services due to this issue might keep even the less-diligent parents (by less-diligent I only mean regarding the lice issue) focused on this.

My wife always says that lice don't like dirty hair. So putting conditioner or gel into your hair apparently helps keep them away. But a quick google search has revealed that this is not so true, see e.g.  http://www.nittygritty.co.uk/site/headliceandnits.asp#10. Gotta go tell my wife to bathe the kids.

Israel National News: Teachers: Kindergarten 'Change' Too Much Work

Israel National News/ Arutz Sheva reported today that the new kindergarten teachers we discussed previously are demanding that something be done to improve their working conditions. The new law provided for free schooling for 3 year olds but many of those children have not been toilet trained leading to a difficult teaching environment. The teachers say they cannot possibly meet the curriculum goals if they are constantly changing the diapers of their students. That certainly makes sense to me. And the article seems to suggest that having a curriculum for such young children is asking too much. Under the circumstances I think I'd agree.

The article:

The new law providing a free kindergarten education is great for parents, but, as it turns out, hard on kindergarten teachers. And to register their protest, unions representing the teachers this week declared a work dispute. Under Israeli labor laws, the teachers will be eligible to call a strike within two weeks, unless their grievances are addressed, the unions said.

Among the main problems for the teachers, said the union, is dealing with the personal needs of such young children. Many of the younger children are not yet completely toilet trained, and unlike in private nursery schools or day care centers, kindergarten teachers are expected to follow a curriculum – which does not leave time, or desire, for that matter, to change diapers, the union said. In previous years, the youngest children were no younger than four years of age, and in many cases teachers had tacit permission from school administrators to gently demand that parents ensure that their children were fully toilet trained before they came to school.

Teachers are demanding more help in the classroom. A typical kindergarten class has some 35 children, with one assistant helping the teacher. In a group where the majority of children have to be “changed,” it is impossible for teachers and assistants to get their educational work done, along with attending to the children's personal needs.

And unless their demands are met, the union said, kindergarten-age children – both toilet-trained and otherwise – will have to remain at home.

Israel Hayom | Arab Israelis may not have dodged probe over 2010 flotilla incident

Israel Hayom | Arab Israelis may not have dodged probe over 2010 flotilla incident:

High Court tells Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein he has 30 days to explain why he closed investigations of Israeli citizens, including MK Hanin Zoabi and Islamic Movement leader Raed Salah, who were on board Mavi Marmara ship in 2010 • Cases were closed in 2011 due to apparent legal difficulties.

Do We Need a Law Clarifying the Duties of a Paramedic?

The JPost reported on a story where the family of a man is blaming Magen David Adom, the Israeli paramedics, for not transporting the individual to the hospital after he apparently suffered a stroke. The paramedics say that the patient refused to be transported to the hospital.

From the article: 

[MK Rachel] Adatto [a physician] said that MDA paramedics are often in a dilemma. About 20 percent of all patients who need to be evacuated to hospital refuse to be taken. Thus, if the patient needs urgent medical care and refuses to be hospitalized, the paramedic is on the one hand exposed to lawsuits regarding inadequate treatment if he does not evacuate the patient, and on the other hand may be exposed to lawsuits if he acts against the patient’s will.

The Patients’ Rights Law (1996) gives the individual autonomy over his body and health. If the patient is unconscious and unaware of his condition, he can be hospitalized without permission being granted.

I think a law like this is probably a good idea. I'm surprised they don't have one already.

Here is an article from Australia about this topic and one from the US.