Sunday, May 04, 2014
PM: ‘We would not be here without their sacrifice’
Israelis began to mark Memorial Day on Sunday afternoon, commemorating 23,169 fallen soldiers and 2,495 terror victims who fell throughout the history of the State of Israel and the Zionist movement. Commemoration ceremonies will continue throughout the country until Monday night, when Memorial Day ends abruptly with the start of celebrations marking Independence Day.Danny Danon: ‘Every Man Has a Name’
The first official event began at 4 p.m. Sunday at Yad LaBanim, or “Memorial for the Sons,” in Jerusalem. The event was attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose brother Yoni fell during the IDF’s rescue of Jewish hostages in Entebbe, Uganda, in July 1976. It was also attended by other families of the fallen, Israel’s chief rabbis, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, Supreme Court Chief Justice Asher Grunis, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and other top officials.
“On this day, the nation adopts us and unites with us, and with the heroes of the nation,” Netanyahu said, speaking for the families of the fallen. “They came from all parts of the country, from all segments of Israeli society, and the simple and most concise truth is this: We would not be here if not for their sacrifice. We would not be here without their readiness to give their lives so we could be here. This right, this sacrifice, the ability to risk their lives in the face of the horrors of war — all this was not available to us before the founding of Israel.”
Living among us today are thousands of people who have been named for a father, an uncle or another hero of Israel they will never meet. When I was born, I was honored to be named in memory of one of these thousands of heroes and therefore became part of a living legacy that walks among us to remind our society of those who fell defending our country.Danny Ayalon: In Memory
I was named in memory of Danny Vardon, my father’s commander in the Negev reconnaissance unit.
Throughout my childhood I tried to learn as much as I could about this man, who to me was legendary.
In Israel, Memorial Day and Independence Day go hand in hand, showing how we cannot celebrate our independence without commemorating those who Alterman titled “The silver platter on which the Jewish state was given.” That duality of sorrow and happiness will be shown across the country, as groups of young, and not so young men, visit their fallen comrades’ families. They will come to lessen the mother’s sorrow, but she will end up comforting them. They will come in tears after visiting his grave, but will leave with smiles as even after all these years, his squad mates show up like clockwork, never missing even once.Stand With Us: Defaming the IDF on Remembrance Day
Isaiah wrote “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” The sages teach that there were hundreds of prophets, but only those that carried a message for prosperity were recorded in the Bible. We must heed Isaiah’s prophecy, yearning for the day when peace will come with our neighbors, and we will not train for war anymore. But until that day, we mark and commemorate those who have given their last full measure of devotion, adhering to what King David wrote in Psalms: “Behold the Guardian of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep”.
This year, as Israelis pay tribute to their servicemen and women, a very different event will be taking place on Independence Day in London. Yachad – the British version of lobby group J-Street – together with the New Israel Fund, will be hosting “Breaking the Silence”, a notorious anti-IDF group. No one serious would suggest that Israel is beyond criticism but this is strange yet deliberate timing. Should we surmise that if Israel-bashing is a year-round sport, why should this night be different from any other?
If past experience is anything to go by, the audience will be treated to a flurry of half-truths and accusations aimed solely at blackening the name of Israeli soldiers. Indeed, “Breaking the Silence” has made its name by promoting a distorted and unfair portrayal of the IDF via its website and tours.
Multiple arrests of anti-Israel activists outside Israeli-owned Ecostream shop in Brighton.
As many as eight anti-Israel activists were arrested yesterday outside Israeli-owned Ecostream in Brighton, on England’s south coast. Ecostream belongs to Sodastream, which has a factory on the West Bank. Although Sodastream employs many Palestinians the anti-Israel lobby prefers to see the factory destroyed along with the livelihoods of Sodastream’s Israeli and Palestinian workforce.NGOs that don’t want Israel to reach its 67th year
Every Saturday anti-Israel activists flock to Ecostream to call for its boycott. They are always met by the stoical counter-protesting of Sussex Friends of Israel. Yesterday, however, the anti-Israel activists were swelled by the presence of Palestine Solidarity Campaign affiliated trade unionists from the NHS, NUT, GMB, NUJ and the University of Brighton.
But tempers rose and not before long the number of anti-Israel activists was depleted as protester after protester was led away to the back of a police van. A heartbreaking sight, indeed. (h/t Bob Knot)
On Tuesday, most Israelis will celebrate 66 years of independence and freedom, marking the re-establishment of sovereignty for the Jewish people after two thousand years of exile. But for a small and vocal group of Israeli NGOs (non-governmental organizations), this day commemorates the Palestinian nakba – the Arabic word for catastrophe. This term is used in reference to the war, led by five Arab armies, which sought to erase the Jewish state from the map after the UN General Assembly voted for a “two state solution” on November 29, 1947.Report: India foils Pakistani terror plot targeting Israeli, US consulates
Using money provided by a number of European governments and intensely anti-Israel church groups, these radical Israeli NGOs fill an important function in today’s political war that seeks to roll back history to before 1948. Their slogans call for a “one-state” framework, meaning the eradication of Israel as the internationally recognized homeland of the Jewish people. They are not peace groups in any sense – for them, the “two-states for two peoples” formula is anathema. (h/t Bob Knot)
According to the Times of India, Hussain is said to have told his Indian interrogators that the Pakistani intelligence outfit, ISI, was planning to send two men from Maldives to Chennai, and that his task was to arrange for their travel documents and hideouts.Ali Abunimah’s Orwellian Definition of Anti-Semitism
Indian authorities were reportedly tipped off to Hussain by intelligence agencies in an unnamed southeast Asian country which had gotten wind of plots to target Israeli and American diplomatic missions, the Times of India said.
Indian investigators reportedly found incriminating evidence against Hussain, including pictures of the US and Israeli consulates and their immediate surroundings and access points. According to the Times of India, these photographs were electronically mailed to Hussain’s handlers in Pakistan.
Veteran anti-Israel activist Ali Abunimah is currently touring US campuses to hawk his recently published book “The Battle for Justice in Palestine.” As anyone even vaguely familiar with Abunimah’s prolific writings at his Electronic Intifada blog will know, his idea of “justice in Palestine” requires doing away with the world’s only Jewish state, and the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) campaigns against Israel that he champions so tirelessly are designed to help achieve this goal.BDS in Canada: Through the eyes of an author
Among those who have enthusiastically endorsed Abunimah’s new book is Columbia University professor Joseph Massad, who also introduced Abunimah at one of his recent book tour events at Columbia University. In case anyone in the audience was concerned that Abunimah’s agenda and activism is ultimately anti-Semitic, Massad was ostensibly eager to allay such concerns: as a student attending the event highlighted on Twitter, Massad described Abunimah as “a fighter against antisemitism.” Given the fact that some of Massad’s own writings on Israel echo ideas and language that can be found on racist and neo-Nazi sites such as David Duke or Stormfront, it is downright preposterous for Massad to claim any expertise on anti-Semitism except as an avid practitioner.
Needless to say, Massad would firmly reject this accusation. However, he would do so primarily on the basis of the bizarre notion that anti-Israel activists are entitled to their very own self-serving definition of anti-Semitism – a notion that Ali Abunimah fully supports.
Already years ago, Abunimah made it abundantly clear that he not only regarded Zionism as “one of the worst forms of anti-Semitism in existence today,” but that he also equated Zionism with Nazism.
Nora Gold’s newest book; Fields of Exile will really make you take a step back and think. In the first novel written about BDS on campus you really get a view from the ground of how BDS can tear apart a Jewish student’s campus life.Roger Waters to Rolling Stones: Anywhere But Israel
The protagonist, Judith, is a Canadian olah who returns to Canada to complete an MA in social work after 10 years in Israel. She is a left wing activist who participates in Peace Now and demonstrates against the occupation. The novel is set in 2000 during the 2nd Intifada. The reason that Gold makes her heroine a lefty is clear. On campus it doesn’t matter where you are on the Israeli political spectrum. If you are Zionist you are the bad guy.
So Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters, and sidekick Nick Mason, in a Salon blog post criticize the Rolling Stones for scheduling a show in Tel Aviv, calling it “the moral equivalent of playing Sun City at the height of South African apartheid. “Disingenuous report from BBC Trending promotes Palestinian agitprop
The septuagenarian rocker, who might be considered by some to be a few bricks short of a wall, and who himself has played Tel Aviv, has brought attention to himself recently through the use of colorfully provocative gestures and language for demonstrating antipathy toward the Jewish state. At a 2013 concert in Belgium, Waters released an inflatable larger than life pig prominently inscribed with a Mogen David tattoo. Defending that bit of showmanship in an interview last December with the vehemently anti-Israeli CounterPunch magazine, Waters compared Israel’s policies toward Palestinians — which he characterizes as ‘ethnic cleansing’ — to those of apartheid South Africa, Vichy France and Nazi Germany.
The article relates to a story which broke last week concerning an incident which took place near Beit Hadassa in Hebron. At least four Palestinian activists – not two as Hebblethwaite claims in her piece – from the opaquely funded organization ‘Youth Against Settlements’ approached a soldier with the clear intention to provoke a reaction. Two of them were filming the pre-planned provocation and the video was later uploaded to the internet.US Law to Ban Discrimination Against Companies in Judea-Samaria
Later mistaken reports stated that the soldier had been removed from his brigade as a result of the incident, sparking a wave of expressions of support from fellow soldiers and others, not – as Hebblethwaite disingenuously claims – praising the soldier for aiming his gun at the youths, but expressing identification with a soldier targeted by the agitprop of a group of organized provocateurs who, as Hebblethwaite herself reports, were aiming to create an incident designed “to “shame and embarrass” the Israeli military”.
Republican Congressman Steve Stockman, who represents the 36th District of Texas, tabled the proposal, which "terminates US government funds for any international project that prohibits participation of Israeli organizations operating beyond the 1949 armistice line," according to a statement by his office.PM: ‘Jewish Israel’ law vital to counter assault on legitimacy
The proposed law was submitted in response to what Stockman said amounted to anti-Israel discrimination by certain international institutions. He singled out the European Union and other European countries in particular, noting the double-standard they apply regarding projects in "occupied territories."
Speaking at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu rebuffed criticism of the plan, saying the state currently lacked “adequate expression” of Israel’s “existence as the nation-state of the Jewish people” in the country’s set of Basic Laws.Iranian commander: Front line now in southern Lebanon
“It will define the national right of the Jewish people to the State of Israel, and will do so without harming the individual rights of all Israeli citizens in the State of Israel,” he said. “It will fortify the Law of Return as a Basic Law. It will anchor in Basic Laws the status of the national symbols – the flag, the anthem, the language and other components of our national existence.”
Explaining the immediate trigger for the bill, Netanyahu said Israel’s Jewish status is under “constant and increasing assault from the outside, and even from within.”
A top adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei boasted of Iran’s robust influence in the Middle East Saturday, claiming victory in Syria, and said that his country’s first line of defense is now the Lebanese border with Israel.Head of Maronite church in Lebanon to accompany pope on visit to Israel
“Our frontmost line of defense is no more [in southern Iran], rather this line is now in southern Lebanon [on the border] with Israel, as our strategic depth has now stretched to the Mediterranean coasts and just to the north of Israel,” Yahya Rahim Safavi said in a speech to a group of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) veterans, the semi-official Fars news outlet reported Saturday.
Despite his efforts to downplay the political significance of the visit, the trip will be noteworthy considering that Lebanon and Israel are technically at war. Lebanese citizens are not permitted to visit Israel, nor are Israelis allowed to cross the border to the north. The only exception is Maronite clergy, who are permitted to travel as part of their function within the church.Lebanese Church Calls Mission to Israel a 'Historic Sin'
"It is a religious visit and in no way a political one,” the patriarch insisted to AFP.
According to the report, al-Rai will not meet any political figures in Israel. He is scheduled to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
In response, the leading Arab nationalist daily As-Safir ran a critical piece headlined "Historic sin: Rai goes to Israel".Due to Israel's military superiority, Abbas rejects armed confrontation
Calling it a "dangerous precedent", the daily argued that the trip would "not serve the interests of Lebanon and the Lebanese, nor those of Palestine and the Palestinians nor Christians and Christianity."
It speculated on whether the patriarch, who is also a Roman Catholic cardinal, "would shake hands with Israeli leaders who will be in the front row to welcome Pope Francis to Jerusalem".
Even if he does not, he would still have to coordinate his trip with Israeli officials, the paper added, claiming that the visit "is part of the normalization between the head of the Catholic church and the occupier."
Fatah official: "Popular resistance" will not be peaceful
Fatah official: Soak the land with blood to "liberate" Jerusalem
Palestinian girl's family teaches her that Israel has no right to exist
Teachers, like arch-terrorists, are "exalted examples of sacrifice and bravery"
Hamas leader: We’ve never discussed disarmament
Hamas and Fatah have never discussed disarming Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, nor does Hamas intend to recognize Israel or abide by previously signed agreements, a Hamas leader announced on Saturday.Belgium Bans 'Anti-Semitic Hatefest' Featuring Dieudonne
Speaking to the press in Gaza, political bureau deputy chief Moussa Abu Marzouk said that Hamas and the other Palestinian factions have “temporarily” agreed to a Palestinian state on land conquered by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, “without recognizing the Zionist entity.”
Belgian authorities have banned a planned gathering Sunday of far-right figures including the French anti-Semitic comic Dieudonne, after it was slammed by Jewish groups as an "anti-Semitic hatefest".Czech court says ‘no’ to Jewish restitution claim
Citing security risks, the mayor of the Brussels district of Anderlecht banned both the meeting and any street protests connected to it, the Belga news agency reported.
Organisers of the so-called "European Dissidents' Congress" - a Brussels bookshop and a group called "Debout les Belges!" (Belgians, Rise up!) - had kept its venue secret until the last moment to prevent it from being banned.
The Czech Republic’s highest court has confirmed the rejection of a restitution claim by the descendants of a Jewish man who owned a snap button factory that was taken over by the Nazis and then nationalized.With new Israeli app, real life mimics TV hit
The Constitutional Court confirmed its 2010 verdict, which overturned a 2009 Supreme Court ruling and all previous rulings of lower courts that found in favor of three relatives of Zikmund Waldes, who owned the Koh-i-noor factory in Prague when the Nazis seized it in 1939 during their occupation of what was then Czechoslovakia. The heirs will also not get back a collection of some 20 paintings that were housed in the plant.
Intimate City, a new Israeli app, aims to enhance the experience of a city for visitors and local residents alike with a parsing algorithm to deliver useful information to users coupled with enhanced privacy features that could become an important element in apps that go beyond the travel space. Just as on Silicon Valley, a new TV show on HBO, the pair behind the app may be sitting on an innovation so big that it could make their start-up very attractive to other companies in the social networking business.Pratt & Whitney pay millions for Blades Technology stakes
“We created something new,” said Long Island native Becca Feinstein, who created Intimate City with Joseph Sibony, a Guatemalan national. “Intimate City redefines travel and how we share our travel experiences, allowing users to be as active as they choose while maintaining the ability to keep their lives personal and intimate.” The app was released in April for iOS and Android and already has several thousand users around the world, Feinstein said.
The Intimate City story is one of modern Zionism, combining aliyah with high-tech, said Feinstein.
“Joseph and I met on the Jewish Agency’s Masa Israel program several years ago and realized we were both interested in tech. Afterwards we came to live in Israel with the idea of going into the tech business, and we came up with Intimate City.”
Pratt & Whitney already own the other 49% stake of the Nahariya-based manufacturer of machine blades and vanes for the aerospace and industrial gas turbine industries.Israeli Company Literally 'Reinvents the Wheel'
Wertheimer founded Blades Technology in 1968 as Iscar Blades as a small operation meant to supply the Israeli Air Force with spare parts. Today, the company produces as much as 40% of all compressor and turbine vanes in the world and is a multinational corporation.
According to the company, its customers include Rolls Royce, GE, Samsung, and others.
An Israeli company has reinvented the wheel - literally.
Business Insider reports that Softwheel, a Tel Aviv company, has improved upon one of mankind's most basic tools - adding maneuverability and stability for wheelchair uses and cyclists alike.
Softwheel's "Selective Suspension Technology" is activated when a wheel encounters an impact above a certain threshold, according to the daily, moving the wheel hub to cushion the shock effect and lessening the impact for the rider.
The threshold can be pre-set by the user, who can change it at any time to adapt to the commute, according to PSFK.
