Tuesday Links Part 2

From Ian:

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Church of Scotland Shreds Bible Canonizes Palestinian "Scripture," Flunks Exams

Thanks in part to immigration, for the first time since John Knox there are more worshipers on a Sunday in Roman Catholic churches than in the Kirk (Church of Scotland). The Church of Rome, despite its recent travails, retains the advantage that it would never publish a document that had not been vetted by serious theologians.
The State of Israel, on the other hand, is doing very well, thank you, and need not care two hoots what the Church of Scotland thinks about it. Israel's GDP is higher than Scotland's.

The Palestinian ‘Popular’ Violent ‘Resistance’

A new report from the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center shows how Abbas encourages the perpetration of steady low-level violence in the West Bank as part of his effort to stay in power. His calls for on-going “low-level” violence help him and the PLO to compete for Palestinian violence with the U.S.-designated terrorist Hamas organization.
Congress should inquire why this Administration is set on rewarding this violent group that also threatens the political stability of Jordan. Considering the bloody results of U.S. “tacit” support to other allegedly popular resistance movement in the region, such as the “reform” minded Muslim Brotherhood, it’s time we stop funding any violence advocating group, first and foremost with the PA. Additional U.S. support would only fuel more of the same. It’s time to acknowledge what the Palestinians have been telling us all along; they will not budge an inch unless they can –as the map hanging in Abbas’ office – and Arafat before him — shows, take over the Jewish state.

Abbas: PLO Charter Reflects What Palestinians Want

At an event marking the 49th anniversary of the PLO’s founding, Abbas (according to a translation by the Palestinian news agency Ma’an) declared that PLO founder Ahmad Shuqueiri “was asked to figure out what the Palestinians wanted, and he returned with the convention for the PLO.” In other words, according to Abbas, the PLO’s founding document is an accurate reflection of what Palestinians want. And lest anyone has forgotten the contents of that 1964 document, still available on the website of the PLO’s UN mission, here are a few choice quotes:

NPR Romanticizes Child's Attacker

Indicative of the sharp bias is the story’s focus. On the occasion of the release from intensive care of a Jewish child severely injured in a stone-throwing attack by Palestinians, NPR turns not to the dangers faced by Jews under threat from such lethal violence but to extensive, sympathetic treatment of the grievances of the Palestinian perpetrator, Tareq Hammed, and his mother. A brief introductory reference to the child, Adele Bitton, is followed by lengthy commentary devoted to the complaints of the Palestinians, to such things as Hammed being arrested late at night, soldiers shouting at, handcuffing and blindfolding him – and his not having time to change clothes. Hammed’s mother is given a platform to lament that she’d also been witness to her husband’s arrest by Israeli soldiers, the implication being not that father and son were two of a kind, assaulting the innocent, but that they were a family of courageous resistance fighters.

Experts Join Forces in New Book to Combat Online Hate

Two of the U.S’s leading experts on bigoted speech and the Internet have joined forces as authors of a new book that lays out a blueprint for governments, industry leaders and societies to take proactive steps to stem the tide of hate speech on the Internet.
Abraham H. Foxman, the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League and a longtime leader in the fight against anti-Semitism and bigotry, and Christopher Wolf, ADL Civil Rights Chair and one of the nation’s leading practitioners in the field of Internet and privacy law, outline the challenges posed by online hate and propose a series of solutions in their new book, Viral Hate: Containing Its Spread on the Internet.

German seminary to probe Nazi jokes claim

A Catholic seminary in Germany says it is investigating claims that trainee priests made anti-Semitic jokes, played far-right music and gave Nazi salutes.

Last of Boston Marathon bombing victims leaves hospital

A 29-year-old preschool teacher who lost most of her left leg in the Boston Marathon bombing left the hospital Monday, saying she was excited to head home to the Baltimore area so she could hug loved ones, eat steamed crabs and spend time with her students.
“I just want to sit on the floor with them and read them a story,” Erika Brannock said of students at Trinity Episcopal Children’s Center in Towson, Md.

Remembering the Way-to-Go War

The name “Six-Day Dar” instantly conjures up Israel’s lightning victory over Syria, Jordan and Egypt in 1967. However, if some citizens had had their way, Israelis could instead be marking the 46th anniversary of the War of the Boulders this week.
According to a report in Yedioth Ahronoth, there are several letters in the IDF archives at the Defense Ministry which propose various civilian suggestions for the name of the war.

Jewish community mourns passing of Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a ‘true friend’

The US Senate lost its oldest member, its last surviving WWII veteran, and one of its staunchest pro-Israel advocates early Monday morning with the death of 89-year-old Senator Frank Lautenberg.
Lautenberg succumbed to pneumonia at a New York hospital just after 4 a.m.

WHO approves Israeli-developed circumcision device

The World Health Organization approved an Israeli-developed non-surgical circumcision device that could soon be used throughout Africa to help control AIDS.
PrePex, a disposable and easy-to-use device made of rubber bands that obviates the need for anesthesia, stitches or a sterile setting, received WHO approval on Friday, The New York Times reported.

Israel still tops in tech, says start-up expert

There are many active high-tech scenes but few that are truly pioneering, according to a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who is on a mission to map, catalog, and analyze the world’s start-up ecosystems. And Israel, he says, is one of those few.
“True innovation is really rare,” Bowei Gai told The Times of Israel at the Israel-Asia Summit, held last month at the Peres Peace Center in Jaffa.

Israel helped design Intel's new Haswell processor

Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC) has unveiled its fourth-generation microarchitecture-based Intel Core processor, codenamed Haswell, at the Computers expo in Taiwan. The new processors, designed for ultrabooks and tablets, were partly developed in Israel. The Haswell is manufactured by 22-nanometer process. Intel says that it extends work station's battery life by 50% compared with the third generation processors, which will give ultrabooks more than nine hours working time.