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Monday, October 21, 2013

10/21 Links Pt2: Roger Cohen’s Times Tirades, Return of Judean date palms, Mobile Solar for Phones

From Ian:

Islam, Not Nazism, Motivated Hajj Amin el-Hussini, Part 1
During 1938, a booklet Muhammad Sabri edited, "Islam, Judentum, Bolschewismus (Islam, Jewry, Bolshevism)", was published in Berlin by Junker-Duennhaupt [Dünnhaupt]. Sabri’s booklet included Hajj Amin el-Husseini’s 1937 declaration—also deemed by some as a “fatwa” (an Islamic religious ruling)—appealing to the worldwide Muslim umma. El-Husseini’s declaration was extracted and reprinted, separately, by the Nazi regime as "Islam und Judentum (Islam and Jewry)", and distributed to Muslim SS units in Bosnia, Croatia, and the Soviet Union.
Islam, Not Nazism was the Mufti's Motivation: Part 2
The numerous salient examples of Islam’s canonical Jew-hatred punctuating Hajj Amin el-Husseini’s 1937 declaration validated Perlmann’s concise overarching assessment of these foundational Islamic sources, and their tragic application across space and time, into the modern era.
El-Husseini’s promulgation of jihad and canonical Islamic Jew-hatred in pursuit of the destruction of Palestinian Jewry, and later, the nascent Jewish State of Israel, has reverberated across the ensuing decades.
Douglas Murray Islamists Target Islamists
At the prompting of the chair, Ayaan Hirsi Ali mentioned something about the terrible threats to her life which have existed ever since she started to speak out against the fundamentalists in Islam. The audience were clearly reminded what a brave and extraordinary woman she was; you could feel them warming ever more to her. The other side must have sensed the same and in a fatal moment -- for their argument, that is -- one of them pointed out that they had al-Qaeda and other death threats on their heads too. Even though, strangely, the audience applauded, the other side, in revealing this truth, had fallen into a trap that no one had even intended to set. If everybody on each side of the debate -- those arguing Islam is indeed a religion of peace as well as those arguing that it is not -- had these death-threats hanging over them, then why were we even debating the matter? As I recall, once this was pointed out, a sort of collective groan of realization went up in the hall and the debate was over.
Turkey: A House Divided
However, there is, in the EU report, no mention of the campaign of vilification led by the Prime Minister against the protesters, or reprisals against public employees who supported or took part in the protests; also, measures taken to prevent the recurrence of mass protests, such as tightened security on university campuses, no education loans for students who take part in demonstrations and a ban on chanting political slogans at football matches.
Not only the demonstrators themselves have been targeted but also the international media, which Prime Minister Erdoğan has accused of being part of an international conspiracy to destabilize Turkey. The "interest rate lobby" and "the Jewish diaspora" have also been blamed.
Roger Cohen’s Times Tirades
Nowhere in Cohen’s analysis can one find mention of the recent wave of Palestinian terrorist attacks as a possible deterrent to peace. In late September two Israeli soldiers were murdered. Then an Israeli nine-year-old was shot in the neck outside her home in the settlement of Psagot. The Facebook page of Fatah, the organization chaired by Palestinian Authority President Abbas, praised the child’s attacker as “the sharpshooter of Palestine” who had also killed one of the Israeli soldiers in Hebron. The terrorist “left a manly signature . . . as he tells the tale of those who love the homeland.”
But Roger Cohen’s incessant harping on Netanyahu, and blithe avoidance of Palestinian terrorism, fits comfortably into New York Times policy: All the news hostile to Israel that fits we print.
Temple Mount Reopened to Jews and Arab Soccer Game Halted (Video)
In what is an unusual response, after the Jewish visitors complained to the police about the Arabs playing soccer on the Temple Mount, which is both illegal and disrespectful, the police actually confiscated the ball, and stopped the game. At best, the Arabs simply ignore the police, and at worst, the the police simply let the soccer games continue unabated, despite the court order forbidding this disrespect on the Judaism’s holiest site.
NGO Monitor: German Funding for Political Advocacy NGOs Active in the Arab-Israeli Conflict
In contrast to the moral objectives, the funding supports radical organizations that oppose peace, and promote demonization, biased boycott movements as part of political warfare, and in some cases blatant antisemitism. Millions of euros originating with German taxpayers are provided annually to these NGOs. Funding frameworks include powerful political foundations associated with German political parties, which often seek to impose their ideologies and objectives on Israelis and Palestinians, as well as direct funding from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and other branches.
Group Appeals University of California Ruling; Says ‘Discriminatory Double Standard’ Against Jewish Students is Anti-Semitic
She asked the board to weigh its “willingness to invoke federal law so forcefully and immediately to protect African American students at UC San Diego from a hostile environment with racial harassment allegations” with its “unwillingness to consider the longstanding, pervasive and well-documented harassment of Jewish students at UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, and UC Santa Cruz.”
She described the contrast as “a discriminatory double standard against Jewish students that is antisemitic in effect if not in intent,” and demanded that her claim be reopened for appeal.
Israel protests EU poster claiming ethnic cleansing of Bedouin
“Stop Prawer-Begin Plan, no ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Bedouin” read the poster seen at a conference October 17 in Brussels organized by the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, the European Parliament’s second largest bloc, on the Bedouin Arab minority in Israel.
The Israeli ambassador to the European Union, David Walzer, termed the poster “unacceptable” in a letter he sent to the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, who is a member of the Socialists and Democrats group.
“Europeans and Israelis are fully aware of the possible consequences of the irresponsible use of such words,” Walzer wrote.
Israel to Modernize Allenby Terminal on Jordan Border to Expedite Exports
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet today approved a plan to modernize the Allenby Terminal on the country’s border with Jordan. The new infrastructure and a modern X-Ray machine will speed up the crossing process, the government said.
The new X-ray scanning system will be installed and operated at the border crossing by Israel. The machine, itself, was donated by the Dutch government following a survey of Palestinian businesses that identified upgrading the system as a way to expand exports to Jordan by a third.
For Syrian refugees in Jordan, aid from Israel comes in a whisper
The help that Israel can give these refugees, the IsraAid volunteers and the director of the international aid organization both say, trickles in bag by bag, donation by donation. And if Israel’s involvement in Jordan is going to change political perceptions, they add, it’s going to happen in the same slow way.
“It’s not like we come in here and go, ‘We’re from Israel!,’” says the director of the IsraAid’s partnering organization. “You keep your mouth shut and you do the work. And maybe they will ask some questions after the fact, because actions speak much louder than words.”
Italian Tenor Andrea Bocelli: Israel Left a Very Powerful Impression on Me
Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, the best-selling classical musician of all time, said, writing in the Daily Mail on Sunday, that of all the stops in a long career of world tours, Israel was one of his favorites, .
“Places in the world I have especially enjoyed include Israel, which left a very powerful impression on me,” he wrote in the Mail ahead of the release this week of his latest album, “Love In Portofino.”
Israel’s Insuline, Johnson & Johnson to Test Market Device for Diabetics in Germany
Israeli medical device developer Insuline Medical Ltd. will test market a tool to improve the rate of insulin absorption for diabetics, through a marketing partnership with Johnson & Johnson unit LifeScan, Inc. that will start in Germany, Israel’s Globes business daily reported.
Nova Lumos Solar Lets People Pay With Phone and $20 Down
Nova Lumos, a new clean tech startup from Israel, has devised a mobile-based solar energy program for developing countries that produces clean electricity for less than it costs to purchase kerosene. What makes the project special, and really exciting, is that the company allows users to pay for it in some payments administered through the cell phone.
While1.5 billion people lack access to electricity, according to Nova Lumos, mobile phones have penetrated almost every corner of the globe. And in Africa especially, it has become common practice to conduct all kinds of business through cell phones.
Extinct tree grows anew from ancient jar of seeds unearthed by archaeologists
For thousands of years, Judean date palm trees were one of the most recognizable and welcome sights for people living in the Middle East -- widely cultivated throughout the region for their sweet fruit, and for the cool shade they offered from the blazing desert sun.
Microsoft moving to larger Haifa premises
Microsoft Israel already rents about 5,000 square meters of office space at Matam, and will move to the new premises when they are ready. The new eight-floor building will have 12,000 square meters of office space and 5,000 square meters of underground space. It is scheduled to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2014. PwC Israel Kesselman & Kesselman has also rented 1,500 square meters in the building.
US Holocaust Museum plans for a future without survivors
In part to expand its donor base, the museum launched a 20th anniversary campaign at the start of 2013. A key goal has been to develop plans for the years ahead, as the survivor population dwindles and the Holocaust recedes into history.
“The museum is set to double its collection during the next ten years,” Bloomfield said. “We’re building a new collection and conservation center, and strengthening our role as a global institution. The private support we get shows survivors that we are here to tell their story.”
Israel Daily Picture: The Walls & Gates of Jerusalem, Jaffa Gate -- More Pictures from the Emory University Collection, Part 4
William Seward (Abraham Lincoln's secretary of state) wrote in 1871 that the population of the Old City was 16,000, comprised of 8,000 Jews, 4,000 Mohammedans, and 4,000 Christians.
Two major architectural changes in the Jaffa Gate in 1898 and 1908 help historians date the early photographs of the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem. The first was the breaching of the wall in 1898 to permit German Emperor Wilhelm II to ride into the Old City without dismounting and with his escort of carriages. To built the roadway, a moat -- visible in pre-1898 photos -- had to be filled in.