Friday, September 13, 2013

  • Friday, September 13, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Today, Islamic Jihad held a demonstration against Israel allowing Jews to have anything to do with Jerusalem.

It does not look that big, compared to other previous rallies, although perhaps the venue was not as large.


The Hebrew says "We will sacrifice ourselves for Al Aqsa"




From Ian:

Egypt Tanks Cross Gaza Border Fence
Two Egyptian army tanks have crossed an initial border fence leading to Gaza for the first time on Thursday, witnesses said.
The Hamas administration in Gaza neither confirmed nor denied the incursion, only commenting that no Egyptian tanks had actually entered the Gaza Strip itself.
Witnesses told the AFP news agency that two tanks "crossed the first Egyptian border fence along the corridor between Egypt and (Gaza), and drove along the road running next to the cement wall that Egypt built."
They said it was the "first time Egyptian tanks have been in this area, although they didn't cross into the area ruled by Hamas," adding that the soldiers on top of the tanks had masked faces.
Hamas gives landmines to Egyptian Islamists, trains them in planting car bombs
The Hamas Islamist group ruling Gaza has been teaching Egyptian Islamists how to plant bombs in cars, Egyptian state television said on Thursday.
Hamas also gave 400 landmines to Egyptian militant groups, said the television. Hamas is an offshoot of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.
Hamas rejected the allegations on Thursday.
"This is completely incorrect," said Fawzi Barhoum, spokesman for the Islamist group. He said that the report was an "attempt to demonize Hamas".
Prof. Gilboa: The Time to Decide is Now, Obama
Arutz Sheva met this week with Gilboa, the Director of the Center for International Communication at Bar-Ilan University, who has made it clear that "time is running out" for United States President Barak Obama to diplomatically handle the crisis in the Middle East.
"Everybody agrees that this is going to be the time for decision, otherwise, if nothing is going to be done, Iran will become a nuclear power. Obama has shown in the chemical weapons crisis in Syria that what he promises may not really become policy," Gilboa said.
Analysis: Syria chemical weapons proposal is Putin’s masterstroke
If, for whatever reason, the Syrians do choose to part with an appreciable fraction of their chemical weapons capability, President Vladmir Putin will be able to bask in an aura of statesmanship. It was he, after all, who proposed this path.
And if the Syrians prove recalcitrant and obstructive, no one will blame the Russian president – on the contrary. He has always denied that the regime used chemical weapons in the first place. Why would anyone think he would care whether they hand the weapons over or not? It will instead be seen as a further achievement for him, as the Americans squirm and try to justify why they are not returning to the path of military action, even though the will of the “international community” is being flouted.
Putin will be able to claim credit in the event of Syrian compliance, and in the event of Syrian defiance.
Vladimir Putin’s Trollpolitik
This is Putin just taunting Obama, speaking to the president as Obama used to speak to his predecessor. It’s difficult to know which part Obama will find most insulting. “The law is still the law” is a good one coming from the unreformed KGB gangster. The same goes for Putin’s plea for Obama to listen to his people. Then there is his professed concern for America’s allies, in which Putin suggests Obama is gambling with Israel’s safety.
7 Hypocritical, False and Misleading Statements in Vladamir Putin's NYT Op-ed
2. "A strike ... could undermine multilateral efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and further destabilize the Middle East and North Africa. It could throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance."
Hypocrisy. Russia has been supplying Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with weapons and has been helping Iran with its nuclear program. Putin seems less concerned that these actions would destabilize the region and "throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance."
Syria Expert says 'Assad Can Potentially Win this War'
"There is a wide gap of the Russian proposal and what the United States is expecting of Russia and of Syria. The Americans are speaking of the destruction of chemical weapons, while the case for the Syrians and Russians, they are ready to declare that Syria has such weapons. It can end with no agreement and we can end up where we were a week ago."
Syria Joins Anti-Chemical Weapons Treaty, U.S. Unimpressed
State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters that the U.S. option to use military force remains on the table while discussions proceed with Russia on how to remove Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.
Asked about Syria submitting a document to United Nations and seeking to join the agreement, Harf said, “The Chemical Weapons Convention is an important thing ... but that that would not be a substitute for working with us and the Russians to verify and ultimately destroy their stockpile.”
Report: Assad Scattering Chemical Weapons
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Bashar Al-Assad has begun scattering his massive stockpile of chemical weapons to as many as 50 different sites across the country.
The US newspaper claimed in a report Friday that a secretive military unit at the center of the Syrian chemical weapons program had been charged with moving the lethal stockpile, making it difficult for the international community to track. The newspaper cited US and Europeans intelligence agencies as saying: "Unit 450 is in charge of mixing and deploying chemical munitions, and it provides security at chemical sites."
Syrian rebel chief claims Assad gave Hezbollah nerve gas
According to a report Friday in Saudi Arabia’s al-Watan newspaper, Syrian National Coalition member Kamal al-Labwani said the rebels obtained documents and testimony from a defector from one of the Syrian government’s chemical weapons research centers that indicate Syrian President Bashar Assad transferred roughly one metric ton of VX nerve gas to its ally, Hezbollah.
Al-Labwani told al-Watan that he forwarded documentary proof of his claim to the US Embassy in Jordan and British intelligence in Doha. The al-Watan report could not be independently confirmed.
UN: Syria targets hospitals, denies healthcare as 'weapon of war'
Syrian government forces have deliberately targeted hospitals, attacked field hospitals with fighter jets and prevented the sick and wounded from receiving medical care, UN war crimes investigators said on Friday.
In a special report, they said that the forces of President Bashar Assad had waged a campaign using "the denial of medical care as a weapon of war", especially against people living in opposition-controlled areas.
"There is also evidence that some anti-government armed groups have attacked hospitals in certain areas," said the independent inquiry led by Brazilian expert Paulo Pinheiro.
Syrian Shells Land in Golan Heights as Israeli Hospitals Treat Victims of War
While there are no reports of injuries or damage resulting from the shells on Thursday, wounded Syrians continue being admitted for treatment in Israeli hospitals. Most recently, a Syrian man with a wound to his head, a one-year-old, and a 10-month old were admitted to Western Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, according to the Jerusalem Post and Israel Radio.
U.S. Calls on Egypt to Cancel State of Emergency
The United States on Thursday once again called on Egypt's interim authorities to lift a state of emergency which has been in force since August. The call came after Cairo announced it would extend the state of emergency for two months.
"We remain opposed, as we have from the beginning, to the state of emergency. And we urge the interim government to end it immediately," State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters, according to the AFP news agency.
U.S. and Iran are edging toward direct talks
Signaling a possible thaw in long-frozen relations, the Obama administration and the new leadership in Iran are communicating about Syria and are moving behind the scenes toward direct talks that both governments hope can ease the escalating confrontation over Tehran's nuclear program.
President Obama reportedly reached out to Iran's relatively moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, through an exchange of letters in recent weeks. The pragmatist cleric is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 24, and after years of the United States cold-shouldering his ultraconservative predecessor, U.S. officials say it's possible they will meet with Rouhani on the sidelines.
Beyond that, U.S. and Iranian officials are tentatively laying the groundwork for potential face-to-face talks between the two governments, the first in the rancorous 34 years since radical students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and founded the Islamic theocracy. Diplomatic relations have been broken ever since.
U.S.: Iran Nuclear Developments Are 'Troubling'
Both the United States and the EU expressed hope that the election of Hassan Rouhani, who has been described by the West as a relative moderate, would lead to a softening of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear defiance.
At the same time, they also said Iran had continued to increase its nuclear capacity in recent months and that no progress had been made so far in a long-stalled UN investigation into suspected atomic bomb research by Iran, which denies any such activity.
They warned that they may seek diplomatic action against Iran at the next quarterly meeting of the 35-nation board of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in late November, if no progress has been achieved by then.
Iranian Media Lauds Humiliating Blow for U.S.
Iran's conservative press trumpeted as a "humiliating blow" the decision by its arch-foe the United States to put on hold plans for a military intervention in Syria following a surprise Russian initiative aimed at defusing the stand-off.
"By taking the Russian initiative seriously, Washington will send a signal to Tehran that it's willing to take risks and make compromises for peace," Reza Marashi of the National Iranian American Council, a Washington-based advocacy organisation, told the AFP news agency.
Erdogan vows to squelch efforts to 'create chaos' as police disperse protests
Riot police used tear gas to disperse pockets of anti-government demonstrators in several Turkish cities for a third night and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan vowed to stamp out what he described as efforts to "create chaos."
Officers backed by armored vehicles and water cannon played cat and mouse into the early hours of Friday with groups of youths in the streets of Kadikoy, on the Asian side of Istanbul, dismantling their makeshift barricades of garbage and rubble.
There were similar protests in Ankara and reports on social media of unrest in the Mediterranean coastal cities of Antalya and Antakya, but the troubles were not on the same scale as the weeks of rioting which rocked Turkey in June and July.
Taliban attacks US Consulate in Afghanistan
Taliban militants attacked the US Consulate in western Afghanistan on Friday morning, using a car bomb and guns to battle security forces just outside the compound in the city of Herat. It was not entirely clear whether any attackers managed to breach the facility, but at least two Afghans died, while the US said its personnel were all safe.
The attack, which also injured several people and wound up leaving five alleged militants dead, underscored the perilous security situation in Afghanistan, where US-led troops are reducing their presence ahead of a full withdrawal next year. The insurgent strikes are no longer concentrated in the country’s south and east, but occur with troubling frequency in the north and west, which have been the more peaceful areas in years past.
Al-Qaida calls for terror attacks in US to 'bleed America economically'
In his audio speech, Zawahri said Muslims should refuse to buy goods from America and its allies, as such spending only helped to fund US military action in Muslim lands. He added that Muslims should abandon the US dollar and replace it with the currency of nations that did not attack Muslims.
Zawahri spoke approvingly of one of the worst attacks on US soil since Sept. 11, 2001, the bombing of the Boston Marathon in April, which US authorities say was carried out by two ethnic Chechen Muslim brothers. The attack killed three people and injured 264.
Zawahri sought to paint the bombing as part of al-Qaida's violent transnational campaign of jihad or holy war against US interests, even if it was relatively small-scale.
  • Friday, September 13, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Egypt is heavily dependent on tourist dollars for its economy.

In other words, it is screwed.
Five hotels were shut down in Hurghada, and four others in Marsa Alam and Safaga on Tuesday, bringing the total number of hotels that have been closed in the Red Sea Governorate, due to the tourism recession, to 86 hotels out of 248 hotels.

As for the hotels that managed to stay open, the occupancy level has declined to 24 percent, making use of the domestic tourism, as well as the Czech Republic, whose administration decided to end its travel ban to Egypt.
  • Friday, September 13, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Remember Dahi Khalfan, the Dubai police chief who would go on TV every day talking about his investigation in the murder of Mahmoud Mabhouh?

During the investigation he said that he would not allow any Jews into the country (translated by English-language media as "Israelis.")

He also claimed that mixed-gender schools cause people to take up cross-dressing. 

Khalfan has also been a very vocal opponent of Islamism.

All of his adventures seem to have given him some grudgiing respect for Jews. On his Twitter account today, he wrote that Jews are more trustworthy in business than Arabs are. He said Arabs are cheaters and Jews are more credible.

Shortly afterwards, he tweeted that if it wasn't for Jews, Arabs would still be riding on mules and donkeys instead of cars and planes, which he seems to believe that Jews invented.


  • Friday, September 13, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
The Saudi Arabian "Journal of Archaeology" has an article by an "expert" that claims to debunk the claim that the medallion recently found with a seven-branched menorah in Jerusalem has anything to do with Judaism.

The supposed scholar, named Abir Ziad, says that it is impossible that the find is Jewish - because there were no Jews in Jerusalem at the time.

You see, Ziad says, Titus banned Jews from Jerusalem in the year 70 CE and the ban remained in effect until Saladin revoked it in 1187.

This is of course news to every Western historian. There were only two times Jews were banned from Jerusalem: when Hadrian did it in 131 CE - a ban which was lifted during Emperor Julian's reign (361-363), and when Jordan banned Jews from the Old City from 1948-1967.

But expert Ziad has more proof. You see, all the mikvaot (ritual baths) that archaeologists have found in very high concentrations around the Temple Mount aren't Jewish at all - they are just ordinary baths. Apparently, Byzantines or someone established a Bathing District in Jerusalem very close to the Temple that never existed.

It is all an elaborate hoax, and all non-Muslim archaeologists are part of the conspiracy.

Beyond these absurd "proofs" - which prove nothing more than the fact that Muslim "scholarship is little more than a sham" - her next "proof" is worth a closer look.

She says that the menorah itself is not a Jewish symbol, and in fact some early Islamic Umayyad coins depict a branched candlestick along with the Islamic declaration of faith.

This is actually true:



So what is going on? Why did Muslims put what appears to be a menorah-type object on their coins?

Here's where it gets good.

Most of the candlesticks depicted have five branches, although apparently the earliest Islamic candlestick coins showed seven branches.

All of these coins were clearly patterned after Jewish coins from centuries earlier.



But there are some differences. As mentioned, most of them have five branches, not seven, and some claim that this was meant to represent the five pillars of Islam.

Notice the horizontal bar across the tops of the candlesticks (the medallion pictured above has that as well, but it is topped with flames.) Also, the base of the Islamic coins has two prongs, as opposed to the Jewish three-pronged base.

All of the "menorah" coins were minted in - Jerusalem.




The coin above says "Aliya, Madinet Bayit al-Maqdis" - meaning Aelia Capitolina, the Roman name for Jerusalem, and "City of the Holy Temple."

The Muslims knew quite well that the menorah symbolized Judaism, and that Jerusalem was the site of the Jewish Temple.

Their use of the menorah symbol was an attempt to co-opt the religious symbols of Judaism, but the symbolism of the golden Menorah in the Jewish Temples of Jerusalem was obvious to the designers as well as the people using the coins.

Other (real) scholars note that if you turn the Islamic coins upside down, the image resembles a dome - the Dome of the Rock.


The "base" of the menorah, with its two prongs,  slightly resembles a crescent. And apparently, in at least some of the coins, the writing is oriented for viewing it as a dome, not as a menorah.

According to this book, at least one other coin from the same era used a visual pun to show an image of an amphora (a type of jug used for ceremonial purposes) that, upside down resembled a poppy, another popular coin image.

It is very possible that the Islamic "menorah coins" of Jerusalem were specifically designed to show that the Jewish Temple, universally symbolized by the golden Menorah within, had been "overturned" by the Muslim Dome of the Rock that was deliberately built on that site! Muslims are particularly attuned to symbolism, and this would be a powerful symbol showing Judaism's holiest site replaced with a Muslim structure, with a mere turn of the coin.

The existence of these coins prove the exact opposite of what Abir Ziad claims. They prove that at the dawn of Islam, Jerusalem was universally understood by Muslims to be a Jewish city, housing the remains of the great Jewish Temple, and just as they deliberately built a structure on top of the Temple ruins to co-opt that site, they usurped the menorah symbol itself - and perhaps tried to symbolize their replacement of the Temple with the Dome on their coins!

  • Friday, September 13, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Russian-language site LoveOpium has a very nice photo gallery of Google's Tel Aviv offices: Check out the whole thing.








(h/t Yerushalimey)

Thursday, September 12, 2013

  • Thursday, September 12, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Hebrew and Arabic media are reporting that, for the first time, Morocco is exporting etrogim (citrons used during the upcoming holiday of Sukkot) to Israel.

According to some experts, the etrogim grown on Mount Atlas in Morocco are the closest one to the biblical "פרי עץ הדר" mentioned in the Torah. Spanish Jews prefer to use this strain of etrog.

The first shipment of 1500 etrogim have arrived, and apparently more are coming.

Also, there is no shortage of lulavim (palm fronds) also used for the holiday as there were last year, when Israel had to import them from Jordan. The entire supply of between 600,000 and 700,000 lulavim is being grown domestically this year.

Last year, Gaza farmers lost $1 million when Hamas forbade export of palm fronds to Israel. 
From Ian:

Oslo and Israel’s red lines
We fight for the red lines at any price with all our might.
Before the Oslo Accord, the public was united behind indisputable red lines: we would not give up the Golan Heights or the Jordan Valley or move the 1967 Green Line.
Jerusalem and the return of refugees were not even up for discussion. Nor was negotiating with terrorists.
And yet every single one of these red lines was crossed over the last two decades; the debate centered instead on how high a price we would be willing to pay for each one.
Israel Urged to Make Further Concession to Help PA Economy
In a report published ahead of a September 23rd meeting in New York of donors to the PA, the IMF said the Palestinian Authority faced a budget deficit of $300 million (225 million euros) by the end of 2013.
"The PA's finances are not viable over the medium term if the current model of financing large deficits with unpredictable aid flows is maintained," the report said.
It predicted that Palestinian GDP growth would slow from 11 percent in 2011 and 5.9 percent in 2012 to 4.5 percent by the end of this year.
Islamic Group Denounces Jerusalem Discovery as 'Fake History'
Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu hailed the magnificent discovery as a testament "to the ancient Jewish presence and to the sanctity of the place," which he said was "as clear as the sun."
But in an official statement, the Waqf dismissed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's celebration of the finds as "an effort to dismiss the Arab and Islamic nature of the holy city."
“An immediate Arab and Muslim campaign is needed to stop the Israeli attempts to Judaise the holy city of Jerusalem,” the statement read.
Israel replaced with Palestine on map in language class at SDSU
Sources told Team 10 the map was handed out by a professor on the second day of class in an Arabic language course. Sources said students were upset and unsure how to protest the erroneous map because they feared speaking out publicly could have a negative impact on their grades.
One student talked with Team 10, on the condition of anonymity.
"I don't really believe it was the right place for dialogue," the student said. "It is a language class, it's not a class about conflict."
Students gave the map to the non-profit, pro-Israel San Diego group, "Stand With Us."
Honest Reporting: How to Libel Israel: A Case Study
This incident also draws attention to the relationship between Oxfam and an anti-Israel hate site.
Thanks to the Internet, a story libeling Israel will remain in perpetuity to be recycled by anti-Israel activists who either ignore or have not seen a correction.
This is one reason that HonestReporting’s material is so important. It is critical that a counterpoint is also accessible online providing the truth and a rebuttal to the frequent accusations leveled against Israel. We hope that, ultimately, this very post from HonestReporting will also be present in a Google search the next time someone looks for the false story of how Israel denied the Palestinians of Gaza access to clean water.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper: Blaming the Jews, again
In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein used poison gas to murder thousands of Iraqi Kurds.
Simon Wiesenthal warned then that we would all pay a price for our silence in face of the tyrant’s crime against humanity. Imagine what the world would be like today if a coalition of the willing had punished Saddam, then and there for verified WMDs, but we didn’t. Now Assad has taken a page from Saddam’s mass-murder playbook.
Many of us believe that failure to act now could bring a wider and deadlier wider war later. But whatever the outcome – one thing is certain – they’ve already blamed the Jews.
Brendan O'Neill: The people milking the memory of the Holocaust to justify an airstrike on Syria are moral relativists and charlatans
Holocaust relativists don’t deny that the Holocaust took place; instead they unwittingly water down its historical uniqueness, its status as the greatest crime in history, by describing all sorts of modern-day, comparatively small-scale acts of war or barbarism as “Holocausts” too. Such inappropriate use of the H-word, usually as a form of moral blackmail to get people to support military action against some tinpot tyrant said to be “the new Hitler”, has the effect of making the Holocaust mundane, unexceptional, an event that happens again and again in human history. The only real beneficiaries of such relativism are the Nazis themselves, whose wickedness is implicitly diluted and diminished if we accept the idea that Holocausts like theirs happen all the time.
Scale-wise, try to get your head around this – Auschwitz was capable of exterminating five times as many Jews in one day as Syrians have been killed with chemical weapons in the whole Syrian conflict so far. And Auschwitz was operational for five years. And it was one of 11 death camps.
Shapiro: 'We Need To See A Future Without Terror'
U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro was among the participants at the JNF initiated 9/11 memorial ceremony outside of Jerusalem on Wednesday, in which he took the opportunity to promote the ongoing US-sponsored talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
"No one can understand our pain from the disaster like the Israelis who have experienced terrorist attacks. On this day we see the friendship between the U.S. and Israel," he said, adding: "We need to see a future without terror, but ...with peace; and for that, Israelis need to negotiate with the Palestinians in order to bring a solution - two states for two peoples."
MEMRI: Online Jihadis Celebrate 12th Anniversary Of 9/11
As in past years, online supporters of global jihad celebrated the 12th anniversary of Al-Qaeda's September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., using the event for their propaganda efforts. They boasted of Al-Qaeda's success in striking the U.S., posting photos and videos of the attack, photos and biographies of the hijackers, quotes by Osama bin Laden, and the like.
The following are examples of these celebrations, from social media and jihadi forums.
BBC & Sky News Commentator Laments Loss of Syrian Chemical Weapons
It looks like Abdel Bari Atwan, the former editor-in-chief of Al-Quds Al-Arabi, and a regular commentator on BBC and Sky News, is continuing his advocacy of weapons of mass destruction.
Having stated in 2007 on Lebanese TV: “If the Iranian missiles strike Israel, by Allah, I will go to Trafalgar Square and dance with delight,” Bari Atwan is now coming out in favor of Syrian chemical weapons:
WSJ op-ed writer Elizabeth O’Bagy fired for resume lie
The Syria researcher whose Wall Street Journal op-ed piece was cited by Secretary of State John Kerry and Sen. John McCain during congressional hearings about the use of force has been fired from the Institute for the Study of War for lying about having a Ph.D., the group announced on Wednesday.
“The Institute for the Study of War has learned and confirmed that, contrary to her representations, Ms. Elizabeth O’Bagy does not in fact have a Ph.D. degree from Georgetown University,” the institute said in a statement. “ISW has accordingly terminated Ms. O’Bagy’s employment, effective immediately.”
Hezbollah’s global footprint
Hezbollah then expanded its operations further into the Middle East – Kuwait in particular – then Europe. In 1992 and 1994 Hezbollah truck bombs struck in Argentina, first hitting the Israeli embassy and then hitting the AMIA Jewish community center. In 1996, another large-scale attack was successful – this time targeting the Khobar Towers military housing at a base in Saudi Arabia.
Ironically, it would be another organization’s largescale suicide attack that, for a time, would change Hezbollah’s calculus; following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Hezbollah’s operational attacks declined noticeably, but the networks were not abandoned, just refocused on fundraising and logistics. Networks in South America embedded themselves into global narcotics trafficking networks, shipping drugs to other Hezbollah agents across the Atlantic to West Africa along the tenth parallel, known to smugglers as “Highway 10.” From there drugs would travel to Europe and the Middle East, with the profits sent to Lebanon. In one case, Hezbollah agent Ayman Joumma was laundering as much as $200 million in drug money a month.
IDF Blog: What Lurks Beneath the Playgrounds of Southern Lebanon?


French soldiers face disciplinary action for anti-Semitic photo
Commenting on the actions of the French soldiers who were photographed in front of the synagogue a few weeks ago, Louisfert said Tuesday that they had been identified after being redeployed elsewhere as part of France’s Vigipirate anti-terrorist detachments stationed in urban areas. They posed for the photograph in front of the entrance door to the Beth David synagogue in the 16th arrondissement, or municipal district, of the French capital with their left hand placed on their right shoulder and their right hand extended over their right thigh.
Dubbed the “quenelle,” the gesture is the brainchild of the anti-Semitic comedian Dieudonne, who invented several anti-Semitic words and gestures seen to be too vague to violate France’s law forbidding hate speech and Holocaust denial. The quenelle is thought to echo the Nazi salute. Diedonne has also referred to the Holocaust as “Shoannanas” — a combination of the Hebrew word for the Nazi genocide against the Jews and the French word for pineapple.
New biomed accelerator yields better dentures, obesity control
Using a wish list from medical professionals in Israel and the United States, participants in Israel’s first academic medical innovation accelerator have designed four unique products to vastly improve the delivery of healthcare.
The new Biodesign Innovation Program of the Hebrew University and Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem now seeks partners to further develop and commercialize these inventions, which include:
Archive of Jewish WWII Heroine Spy, Original ‘Bond Girl,’ Captures Renewed Interest at London Museum (VIDEO)
Born Krystyna Skarbek, in Poland, her Jewish mother was killed at a Nazi concentration camp, according to a report in the UK’s Daily Mail. After Poland fell to the Nazis, she enlisted with the British Army in ’Section D’ – for destruction – later called the Special Operations Executive (SOE), to run espionage, reconnaissance and sabotage missions in occupied territory. She was given the cover name of Christine Granville, which she adopted permanently after the war.
Her escapades, which include bombing bridges in France, escaping with a Polish officer from a Gestapo jail by convincing their jailers that she had tuberculosis by pretending to cough up blood (through biting her tongue), and rescuing her superior officer, and lover, from a Nazi field prison by running mental circles around his captives, earned her military honors, including an OBE, Croix de Guerre, George Medal and a Polish Patriot Shielf.
  • Thursday, September 12, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
In the early 2000s, because of the porous borders with Egypt and organized crime from Russia and elsewhere, Israel was a prime destination for women being trafficked as prostitutes.

Now, the phenomenon has disappeared.

Al Monitor has an interview with David Tsur, chairman of the Subcommittee on Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in Knesset.

While it is shameful that it was such a serious problem, it is fairly incredible that Israel solved it so thoroughly and in such a short amount of time. In this case, some credit also has to go to the US State Department, whose policy on the issue is what woke Israel up.

Al-Monitor: Do you remember when you understood that Israel had become a destination for trafficking in women?

Tsur: On a personal level, I realized it after 2001, at one of my first meetings with the Americans on the topic of terror. I was then the head of the operational headquarters of the Ministry for Public Security. After one of the discussions, the representative of the State Department asked me what was happening with trafficking in women. I didn’t understand what he wanted, and I had no data on it. In response, he told me that he must bring it to my attention because our situation is not good, and that we’re on the same level as Sudan and Somalia. Of course, I was insulted and said it couldn’t be because we’re a democratic country.
In retrospect, of course he was right. When we began to study the subject, we understood that most of the women were brought from Russia, Ukraine and Moldova. Law-enforcement personnel in those countries were sometimes part of this food chain, and looked the other way in exchange for bribes. When we researched it in depth we found mafias that had sprung up in these regions.
Israel became a destination because of the arrival of criminal elements who established a foundation for trafficking here, and also because of the peaceful border with Egypt, which was then porous. The Bedouins, who became a link in the smuggling chain, understood that they could make a good living out of it. And so developed a phenomenon that bordered on slavery. Israel became a prime destination. We were busy then with the terror of the second intifada, and we didn’t notice what was happening under our noses.

​Al-Monitor: So we woke up only because of the Americans?

Tsur: If I were a seasoned and professional politician, I would say that the decision to act was not related to the Americans, but the reality was that without the whip of the State Department, we would not have taken serious steps. We understood that if we didn’t address the problem, aid funds would be stalled, and very quickly we would have a new center of criminal activity on our hands.

Al-Monitor: So what did you do?

Tsur: When the US State Department reports put us on the blacklist in those first years, we understood the extent of the problem. At first it was placed in the jurisdiction of the central units in the police districts, and later an administrative body was created at the Ministry of Justice and the victims were treated a bit differently.
From the point of view of law-enforcement authorities, the women were prostitutes and were treated as part of the problem, not as victims who live in fear and don’t have enough to eat. We understood that if this had continued to be the approach, they would not agree to file complaints and testify and we would not be able to incriminate the traffickers. Simultaneously in 2006, the Knesset passed a draconian law against the traffickers, which set a 20-year jail sentence for a human-trafficking violation, and the message was very clear.
Women who filed complaints were treated at special shelters, where the state invested a lot of money in rehabilitation. Slowly, the phenomenon diminished. Of course, the closing of the border with Egypt helped a great deal with the disappearance of the problem. We handled it very aggressively, with cooperation among all law-enforcement agencies and the Ministry of Welfare.

Al-Monitor: In Israel 2013, there’s no longer trafficking in women?

Tsur: In the last three years, the phenomenon hardly exists. Actually, I can say that trafficking in women from Eastern Europe stopped entirely, and that it’s very rare to find a woman who was imported to Israel by a party or person. We know that according to the US State Department reports, the phenomenon of trafficking no longer exists in Israel. It disappeared. This was continuously verified by data and testimonies — not just data from the authorities, but also from external, critical parties.
(h/t Yerushalimey)

  • Thursday, September 12, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
Fantastic news from Arutz-7. We will see if it pans out:
Jews have long complained about the activities by Muslims on the Mount deemed inappropriate to a holy place, such as barbecues, picnics, and political demonstrations. One of the worst desecrations, say many Jews involved in the issue, are the soccer games that take place in the open areas of the mount, with the attendant cursing, fighting, and other unholy behavior. The High Court several years ago banned the practice, in response to several petitions – but police have never enforced the law.

That will now change, said Ahronovich.

Responding to a Knesset query filed last June by Feiglin, in the wake of an incident in which Jews grabbed a soccer ball being used for an illegal game, and gave it to police – who promptly returned it to the players – Ahronovich said that the police are obligated to uphold the law, and they will.

“The officers acted in contradiction to the law and their obligations,” Ahronovich said. “The query by MK Feiglin is definitely appropriate. Police will from now on conscientiously enforce the law, and I have ordered police commanders to do so. Police are already working through several channels that the sanctity of the site is preserved,” he added.
Mrs. Elder took video of one of the games last February:



It will be most interesting to hear the outrage from Muslims at not being allowed to treat their "third holiest site" as a playground.

But AP has already given them one excuse, saying that since there are no open spaces in the Old City, Muslim kids have no choice but to use it for soccer and volleyball and snowball fights.

But Jews walking and trying to pray there? That, you see, is "desecration."

(h/t OBoZ)

  • Thursday, September 12, 2013
  • Elder of Ziyon
From YNet:
Palestinian riot police prevented dozens of angry protestors from breaking into a building where the offices of Al Jazeera TV channel are located in the center of Ramallah.

The Fatah Youth movement called for a demonstration against Al Jazeera after a guest attacked the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

Ibrahim Hammami, a pro-Islamist writer and head of the Palestinian Affair Center said that Abu Ammar, another name Arafat is known by, is a traitor. Arafat, who died in 2004, is still seen a symbol for the Palestinian people.

Two days before the show, on the 20th anniversary of signing the Oslo agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Hamami wrote on his Facebook page that Arafat accomplished the Israeli dream 20 years ago.

A few days before that, Al Jazeera published a documentary called “The Price of Oslo,” unveiling what they called new historical information showing that the PLO recognized Israel and turned its back on the “revolution.”

At the demonstration, protestors held signs and pictures of the late Arafat, while chanting slogans.
“Yasser Arafat is a red line,” said employee Nibras Hussein, after she was not allowed to leave her job to partake in the demonstration. “Most people are working at this time. I am sure much more people wanted to protest Arafat’s insult but can’t leave their jobs.”

In front of the building, more protesters came to participate in the demonstration. Amna Mustafa was one of them: “I came to say I reject the Zionist-American conspiracy that is being waged through Al Jazeera channel by insulting and distorting the national figures and symbols,” Mustafa, a 33-year-old protester, said.
See how peaceful he is?
Notice the nature of the insult - not that Arafat was a terrorist, but that he was too peaceful! This is what gets the Palestinian Arabs upset. Similarly, Al Jazeera coverage of the Oslo anniversary concentrated on how the PA was too conciliatory towards Israel.

You will not have to look hard to find Israelis or Jews willing to call Sharon or Begin or Shamir "terrorists." But you will never find any Arab in an Arab country who would publicly say the same about Arafat. Both the insults and the defenses in the Arab world consistently come from the perspective that "my side is more anti-Israel, more intransigent, than your side is."

Arafat's family is threatening to sue Al Jazeera unless Hamami apologizes.

(h/t EBoZ)

From Ian:

Hinting at dismay with Obama, PM says Israel can rely only on itself
In remarks whose content and timing implied criticism of President Barack Obama’s handling of the Syrian chemical weapons crisis, and a concern that Israel could not depend on the US to thwart Iran’s nuclear drive, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday declared that nations that use weapons of mass destruction must pay a price, and said that his own actions as leader of the Jewish state revolved around the conviction that ultimately Israel had no one to rely on but itself when facing enemy threats.
Speaking at an Israeli Navy graduation ceremony, Netanyahu cited a 2,000-year-old saying by the Jewish sage Rabbi Hillel, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” And he said this rule “is more relevant than ever these days in guiding me, in my key actions as prime minister.” Its practical application, he said, “is that Israel will always be able to protect itself, and will protect itself, with its own forces, against all threats.”
Khaled Abu Toameh: Analysis: PA campaigns against Jews at Temple Mount
What is the PA trying to achieve through this campaign? First, the PA leadership is trying to show Palestinians and all Muslims that it is keen on defending Islamic holy sites against Israeli “conspiracies” at a time when the Arab and Islamic countries are doing nothing.
Second, the PA is probably trying to divert attention from its controversial decision to resume the peace talks with Israel. The PA has come under heavy criticism for dropping its preconditions for returning to the negotiations, including a full cessation of settlement construction.
Third, the campaign is designed to depict Israel as a country that has no respect for other people’s religion and holy sites. This would make it easier for the PA to demand control not only over the Temple Mount, but also over east Jerusalem, under the pretext that Israel is violating international laws and conventions in the city.
Arab Rioters Open Fire on Jewish Worshippers at Joseph's Tomb
A large contingent of worshipers who visited the Tomb of Joseph (Kever Yosef) in Shechem Wednesday night were attacked by gangs of Arabs, who threw rocks and bricks at them.
The worshipers were accompanied by a large number of IDF soldiers. The Arabs attacked the soldiers with rocks as well. Troops used anti-riot techniques to quell the mob.
At one point, one of the attackers opened fire at soldiers with an automatic weapon. Troops and civilians took cover, and soldiers fired back in the direction of the gunfire, hitting the terrorist who had opened fire on them and injuring him seriously. He was taken to a hospital in an Israeli city for treatment.
Joseph Tomb Attacks Spark Renewed Calls for Israeli Sovereignty
Ben-Dahan’s plea was echoed by other MKs and local leaders at the site. “It’s outrageous that Jews who come to pray at the tomb of the righteous Joseph have to sneak in like thieves in the night, just because the Israeli government is afraid to exercise its sovereignty under the Oslo Accords,” said Gershon Mesika, head of the Samaria Regional Council.
IDF Blog: Terror Attacks & Attempts You Never Heard About: Jan-Sept 2013
The Israel Defense Forces deals with terror on a daily basis. This year, an Israeli civilian was murdered as a result of terror, and many more were injured in attacks ranging from stabbings to rockets. There were over 20 attempts to hit Israeli civilians with rocket fire alone. These attacks seem small, and don’t normally make it to the news headlines. But they effect Israeli civilians every day. The IDF will continue to do everything in our power to prevent them.
Hevron Hills: Arab Gang Caught with Firebombs in Hand
Soldiers caught four young terrorists on Wednesday night, just moments before they could attack Israelis on a nearby highway.
The dramatic capture took place in the Hevron Hills in the Judea region, south of Jerusalem.
Soldiers with the Kfir Brigade noticed four suspicious figures hiding near a heavily used junction. They approached the four, who attempted to escape into the nearby Arab town of Kfar Awa. The soldiers were faster, and managed to apprehend them.
Terrorism Disguised as Charity
The Jerusalem District Court convicted three men today (Wednesday) for running a Hamas terrorist network in Israel's capital city, under the guise of charity work.
The men, Yaaqub Abu Asab, Kifah Sarhan and Ahmed Ali'an, are accused of managing Hamas' "Advisory Council" in Jerusalem, and were tasked with a diverse range of activities aimed at boosting Hamas' presence in the Jerusalem area and expanding its membership base, including propaganda, social welfare and religious services.
Fatah Activists Demonstrate Against Al Jazeera Over Arafat Slur
The protesters had to be physically prevented from storming the building by Palestinian Authority (PA) police, and were forced to make do with hurling epithets including allegations that the Qatari-based network was pursuing a "Zionist" agenda.
The activists were incensed by remarks made by a certain Ibrahim Hamami during a heated debate broadcast by the network, in which he branded former Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat a "traitor," due to having signed the Oslo Agreements in 1994, and thus implicitly agreed to a compromise with Israel.
IDF Discovers Bomb, Rifles at Gaza Checkpoint
The Israel Defense Force’s “Taoz” Battalion on Tuesday uncovered a bomb and a cache of rifles and cartridges in separate inspections at a Gaza border control checkpoint, Israel’s Channel 2 reported, citing the battalion commander Lt. Col. Amir Zuber.
In the morning, the battalion uncovered a bomb placed on an agricultural gate, and, in the evening, two “Carl Gustav” rifles and cartridges in a vehicle at the checkpoint.
US is ‘floundering’ over Syria, says ex-Mossad chief
Shabtai Shavit, who served at the helm of Israel’s overseas intelligence service from 1989 to 1996, accused the administration of President Barack Obama of “floundering” over Syria. He noted witheringly that the US had “balked” at firing “half a dozen Tomahawk missiles” at the Syrian regime in the wake of the August 21 alleged chemical weapons attack by Assad, that the US says killed 1,429 Syrians.
Replacing the Assad regime was a clear Israeli interest, he said, as it would significantly weaken Hezbollah, leaving Israel to confront Iran without its regional proxy.
Israel’s biggest gain in any action involving Syria would be to break the “axis of evil” between Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah, Shavit added in the rare interview Wednesday, on the sidelines of the World Summit on Counter Terrorism at Herzliya’s International Institute for Counter Terrorism (ICT) which he chairs.
Israeli President Peres: ‘Assad Cannot be Trusted’ to Honor Agreement on Chemical Weapons
Speaking at the Israeli Navy graduation ceremony Wednesday, Peres said, “Assad cannot be trusted to honor the agreement” but expressed optimism that Washington and Moscow could impose conditions on the Syrian president that would force him to give up his chemical weapons.
“I know both President Obama and President Putin and I am convinced that if an agreement is reached it will be reliable, explicit and significant. The agreement must ensure that Assad has no chemical weapons,” he said.
Leaked UN Inspectors' Report: Attack Looks Like Assad's Work
Excerpts of a report by international inspectors on Syria's chemical weapons use was leaked Thursday, and claims that the government of Bashar al-Assad was almost certainly responsible for the deaths of some 1,400 people in an August 21 chemical attack on a Syrian suburb.
The UN inspectors were sent to the country to assess the Syrian chemical weapons program, and were not expected to lay blame on any specific party for the attack. Western observers said that if the leak was accurate, it showed how overwhelmingly involved Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was in the attack.
UN Watch Slams UN ‘Apathy, Banality’ on Syria
The UN Watch watchdog group has slammed the United Nations for its “apathy” in the face of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
UN watch executive-director Hillel Neuer slammed the Human Rights Council in a meeting this week.
“Three weeks have passed since Syria gassed to death hundreds of its own men, women, and children — and still the council closes its eyes, refusing our call for an emergency session,” he accused.
“Madam President, why is this monstrous crime being treated here with such apathy, banality and triteness? Where is this council’s moral outrage? Where is its sense of urgency?” he demanded.
UN Watch: UN Rights Council Ignores Syria Poison Gas Attack, Slams Israel


Iran is Using Syria as a Testing Ground
To be sure, the security problem posed by jihadis is no laughing matter. As they continue to raid weapons storehouses once owned by the Syrian army, Israel must think ahead about a scenario involving a raid by al-Qaeda on a chemical weapons facility controlled by the Assad regime.
A reality in which al-Qaeda is armed with chemical weapons can never be accepted.
But right now, Iran is just a few months away from a working nuclear weapon, should it decide to obtain one. Its ally in Damascus massacred more than 1,400 civilians with sarin gas, and its ally in Lebanon stockpiles more rockets and missiles than any arsenal in the hands of most modern militaries.
For all of these reasons, a failure to deter the Iran-Syria-Hezballoh axis now could result in a future security deterioration, the outcome of which would be more extensive than any immediate threat posed by jihadis in Syria.
Khaled Abu Toameh: Egypt's War On Hamas
Until recently, Hamas leaders were careful not to engage in a direct confrontation with the new rulers of Egypt. But in recent days several Hamas officials are beginning to regard Egypt's security measures as an act of war against the Gaza Strip.
For now, the Egyptians do not want to admit that they are at war with Hamas, preferring instead to describe their measures as part of a campaign against terror. Hamas, for its part, has internalized the fact that it is at war with Egypt.
Hamas, as it is being pushed to the wall and increasingly isolated, faces two options: either to initiate a new confrontation with Israel to create Arab and Islamic pressure on Egypt to halt its war, or to confront the Egyptian army in a direct military engagement by joining forces with the jihadis in Sinai.
Hamas seeks to lower tension with Egypt
The Hamas Islamist group ruling Gaza sought to ease tensions with Cairo on Wednesday by ordering Muslim preachers to mute their criticism of the Egyptian government over what some of the clerics have called its war on Islam.
"Preachers should avoid speaking of the internal affairs of Egypt and focus on our Palestinian national issues and our struggle for the liberation of our land and the freedom of our prisoners (held by Israel)," said Ismail Rudwan, the Hamas-appointed religious affairs minister in Gaza.
Eye on Sinai
The sad fact of Egyptian reality is that Sinai is only nominally Egyptian and Cairo’s rule barely extends to it.
It was always nearly extraterritorial, an anarchic expanse whose Beduin tribes feel exempt from the jurisdiction of any central government. Their insubordination went chronically unchecked, under all Egyptian regimes. Any attempt to control them was met by violence.
Sinai’s disorderly domains irresistibly beckon jihadist militias including al-Qaida and its allies, to say nothing of Hamas across the line in Gaza. Egypt’s internal strife had opened new vistas for the forces of obdurate Islam and enhanced existing ones. Foreign firebrands, whose strings are pulled from Gazan control centers, flock in.
86 hotels closed in the Red Sea due to tourism recession
Five hotels were shut down in Hurghada, and four others in Marsa Alam and Safaga on Tuesday, bringing the total number of hotels that have been closed in the Red Sea Governorate, due to the tourism recession, to 86 hotels out of 248 hotels.
As for the hotels that managed to stay open, the occupancy level has declined to 24 percent,
making use of the domestic tourism, as well as the Czech Republic, whose administration decided to end its travel ban to Egypt.
Some Russian tourists have also been keen on visiting Egypt, via Ukraine, despite the official ban imposed by their country.

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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 14 years and 30,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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