JERUSALEM, May 22 (Reuters) – Barcelona’s youth coach Oscar Garcia will take charge of Maccabi Tel Aviv for the next two seasons, the Israeli Premier League club said on Tuesday.

Garcia, who guided Barcelona’s youth team for two years, was persuaded to coach a senior team for the first time by his former Barcelona team mate Jordi Cruyff, the Maccabi sports director.

Garcia, 39, played as a forward with Barcelona, Valencia and Espanyol before retiring in 2005. He represented Spain up to under-23 level but never as a full international.

“Maccabi Tel Aviv is pleased to announce the appointment of Oscar Garcia as the club’s head coach after he signed a two-year contract,” the club said in a statement on their website (www.maccabi-tlv.co.il).

The club did not release other details of Garcia’s appointment.

“I look forward to confronting all the challenges that await us and I commit to do my best for the club’s success,” Garcia said.

Maccabi are Israel’s richest club but Canadian owner Mitch Goldhar’s $35 million investment on players before last season failed to yield desired results. Caretaker coach Nir Levin guided the club after Motti Iwanir was sacked in December.

TEL AVIV, May 15 (Reuters) – Hapoel Tel Aviv captured Israel’s State Cup for a third consecutive season on Tuesday, beating Maccabi Haifa 2-1 through an injury-time winner from Nigerian striker Nosa Igiebor.

The win capped a turbulent season for Hapoel who, despite finishing as league runners-up to outsiders Hapoel Kiryat Shmona, showed inconsistent form which was not helped by tension between club owner Eli Tabib and some players and fans.

Hapoel’s hat trick of cups was a repeat of the feat they achieved between 1937-39, before the formation of the state of Israel in 1948. It was their 15th cup and a repeat of last season’s final, when they beat Haifa 1-0.

Haifa missed out on a spot in Europe by finishing fifth in the league, their first absence from continental competition for four seasons.

Hapoel went ahead in the 58th minute after a defensive error by Haifa allowed Croatian midfielder Mirko Oremus to shoot low past diving keeper Nir Davidovich.

Haifa equalised in the 62nd when substitute Dele Yampolsky rose to head the ball over Hapoel’s Cameroon-born Armenian goalkeeper Edel Apoula.

Hapoel capitalised on another Haifa lapse late in the match when Igiebor ran into the area to slot the ball past Davidovich.

MICHMORET, Israel (Reuters) – Women’s RS:X windsurfing world champion Lee Korzits is relying on her affinity with the waves to help her to an Olympic podium place in London, but the Israeli knows the unpredictability of her competitors could cost her more than a medal.

Korzits, Israel’s main medal hope at the 2012 Games, almost drowned twice after being hit by rivals and the accidents convinced her people were more of a threat than the elements.

“Nature is stronger than all of us,” the 28-year-old told Reuters. “Many people don’t know how to feel nature’s movement as I can and sometimes they make mistakes.

“I also make mistakes but I have learned from them … I’m more scared of people in the sea than of nature, I have to fit in with nature.”

In Hawaii, Korzits had to be pulled to safety after another surfer crashed into her from behind, cracking two of her ribs and fracturing a bone in her leg.

At the 2010 European championships in Poland, Korzits was knocked off her board by a fellow competitor and was trapped under the waves. She lost consciousness and had to be rescued by a nearby motorboat.

Korzits’s coach Ben Finkelstein said her most important asset was her knowledge of the sea and her ability to predict wind and wave patterns, enhancing her control of the sailboard.

MICHMORET, Israel, May 14 (Reuters) – Women’s RS:X windsurfing world champion Lee Korzits is relying on her affinity with the waves to help her to an Olympic podium place in London, but the Israeli knows the unpredictability of her competitors could cost her more than a medal.

Korzits, Israel’s main medal hope at the 2012 Games, almost drowned twice after being hit by rivals and the accidents convinced her people were more of a threat than the elements.

“Nature is stronger than all of us,” the 28-year-old told Reuters. “Many people don’t know how to feel nature’s movement as I can and sometimes they make mistakes.

“I also make mistakes but I have learned from them … I’m more scared of people in the sea than of nature, I have to fit in with nature.”

In Hawaii, Korzits had to be pulled to safety after another surfer crashed into her from behind, cracking two of her ribs and fracturing a bone in her leg.

At the 2010 European championships in Poland, Korzits was knocked off her board by a fellow competitor and was trapped under the waves. She lost consciousness and had to be rescued by a nearby motorboat.

Korzits’s coach Ben Finkelstein said her most important asset was her knowledge of the sea and her ability to predict wind and wave patterns, enhancing her control of the sailboard.

JERUSALEM, May 11 (Reuters) – The International Sailing Federation’s (ISAF) decision to drop windsurfing from the Olympics in favour of kiteboarding likely came about because some delegates didn’t realise what they were voting for, Israel’s sailing chief said on Friday.

“The delegates were probably confused or didn’t understand the motion fully because of language difficulties, or some may have been napping at the presentations and then cast their votes without realising the implications,” Yehuda Maayan told Reuters.

Maayan’s comments came as the Spanish Sailing Federation admitted it had voted in error.

“The RFEV (federation) made a mistake in the vote between kitesurf and windsurf as an Olympic sport for Rio 2016. Spain supported and supports keeping windsurf (RS:X) in the 2016 Olympic Games,” the federation said in a statement on their website.

“Despite all this, at the last moment the Spanish representative in the ISAF Council voted in favour of kite, an error caused by the confusion in the voting system of which the federation president, Gerardo Pombo, takes full responsibility and for which he asks forgiveness from all the Spanish windsurfers.”

The ISAF was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters.

Windsurfing is one of Israel’s most successful Olympic sports, having yielded three out of its seven medals, including its only gold, and a number of Israelis have featured highly at world and European championships over the years.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s Supreme Court postponed the razing of five unauthorized buildings in the West Bank on Sunday, a ruling that gave the government more time to argue against their demolition and placate pro-settler political partners.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government agreed last year to remove the apartment blocks on the edge of the Beit El settlement, after a court ruled they were built on private Palestinian land.

But Netanyahu has come under intense pressure from within his own right-wing Likud party and from other pro-settler coalition allies to delay the demolition.

The court said it would freeze the demolition, originally scheduled for May 1, for 60 days and meet again at the end of that period to hear the government’s argument.

“No later than 60 days from today the State Attorney’s office will present an updated declaration and according to what it says, we will decide how to proceed with this petition,” part of the court’s ruling said.

A statement by the Yesh Din human rights group that helped the Palestinian land owner bring the petition said the ruling showed the court had bowed to political pressure.

Yesh Din director Haim Erlich said it was “a disturbing decision that raises the concern the Supreme Court cannot withstand the heavy pressure exerted on it by the Israeli government”.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula has turned into a “kind of Wild West” exploited by Islamist militants with Iranian help to smuggle in weapons and stage attacks on Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.

The open desert border between Israel and Egypt was relatively quiet for three decades after they signed a peace treaty in 1979. But the Jewish state says that since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising last year, Cairo has lost its grip on the desolate Sinai and tensions are rising.

Earlier this month, Israel said a rocket fired from the Sinai hit its Red Sea resort of Eilat, causing no injuries. Last August, cross-border infiltrators shot dead eight Israelis and Israeli soldiers repelling the attack accidentally killed five Egyptian guards.

“The Sinai is turning into a kind of Wild West which … terror groups from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda, with the aid of Iran, are using to smuggle arms, to bring in arms, to mount attacks against Israel,” Netanyahu told Israel Radio.

“We are acting against this reality and we are in … continuous discussions with the Egyptian government, which is also troubled by this,” said Netanyahu.

Iran denies supporting militants against its arch-enemy.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was quoted as saying on Sunday that the situation in Egypt was more worrying than what was happening in Iran, and called for a significant boost to troop numbers along the southern borders.

JERUSALEM, April 20 (Reuters) – A violent on-pitch brawl at the end of a second division match on Friday prompted the Israel Football Association to cancel the rest of the weekend’s league fixtures in the two top divisions.

Fighting broke out between players and club officials of second division leaders Bnei Lod and Hapoel Ramat Gan, their nearest rivals. The two clubs were battling for a lone promotion spot to the Premier League and the match ended in a 1-1 draw.

“After consulting with Sports Minister Limor Livnat, the chairman of the Israel Football Association decided that all fixtures in the Premier League and the second division this weekend should not be held,” an Israeli FA statement said.

The incident was captured at the end of a live broadcast and over a dozen players and club officials could be seen participating in the free-for-all with punches and kicks flying in all directions.

A police officer at the scene said detectives would use video footage to identify culprits.

Israeli FA chairman Avi Luzon said he had taken the rare step of stopping the matches because he feared that the recent rise in violence at soccer matches could lead to a loss of life.

“I am stopping the matches, I don’t want us to reach a situation where somebody could possibly be killed,” Luzon told Channel 2 television.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s defense minister said on Tuesday that Israeli military action against Iran remains an option even while nuclear negotiations are under way, and voiced strong doubts whether the talks would succeed.

Asked whether the negotiations, which began in Turkey on Saturday, could persuade Iran to halt uranium enrichment, Ehud Barak told Army Radio: “It does not look to me as if it is going to happen – not now, in the wake of Istanbul, and not … after the (Baghdad round of talks next month).”

Barak is due to meet U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in Washington on Thursday amid speculation in the Israeli media that Israel has promised its main ally that it will refrain from attacking Iran while the talks continue.

“We are not committing to anything,” Barak said, when asked whether any such pledge had been made. “There is not, there has not been, there should not be and there cannot be (such a promise).”

Barak has said that Iran could soon enter a “zone of immunity” against Israeli attack as it puts its nuclear installations deep underground, comments that raised international concern that a strike could be nearing.

In the interview, he reiterated Israeli fears that the negotiations between Iran and a group comprising the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany could drag on and waste what he described as “precious time”.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to open a rift with Washington over the talks by saying that a five-week break between the Istanbul meeting and the next session in Baghdad on May 23 gave Iran a “freebie” to continue enriching uranium.

JERUSALEM, April 15 (Reuters) – An Israel Football Association appeal court on Sunday deferred a three-point deduction against Premier League strugglers Maccabi Petah Tikva until next season, easing their relegation plight.

Last week a lower tribunal docked the club three points and suspended a player and a coach as punishment for an on-pitch brawl that broke out following their 2-1 league win against Hapoel Haifa on March 31.

The decision means Petah Tikva will start next season with minus-3 points. The club argued that the original punishment was unfair because it directly influenced the relegation battle and the deduction had pushed them into the drop zone.

The appeal court said that in coming to its decision, it had taken the club’s good disciplinary record into account.

“Undoubtedly, the small number of the club’s previous offences should be considered when weighing the severity of punishment,” the judges said in their ruling.

Petah Tikva were also ordered to play their next home game at a distance of at least 50 kilometres from their home base. A fine of 25,000 shekels ($6,666) they incurred was left in place.

In last week’s ruling, the court also suspended three Hapoel Haifa players after the ugly scenes led to Haifa striker Ali Hatib being head butted by Petah Tikva goalkeeping coach Ami Genish.