Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Step Away, Do Nothing, Pat Self on Back
Obama administration officials spent much of the spring and summer trying to position themselves as grand strategists. The president's West Point speech was the test drive of their revised national security strategy. It cautioned that "our most costly mistakes came not from our restraint, but from our willingness to rush into military adventures without thinking through the consequences -- without building international support and legitimacy for our action, without leveling with the American people about the sacrifices required." The speech was panned by both the right and the left, precipitating a reconsideration of releasing the National Security Strategy on which it was based (the last was delivered in 2010); it sounds even more laughably self-satisfied in light of the costly mistakes their "restraint" has occasioned in Libya, Syria, and Iraq.Who Occupies Gaza?
The White House likes to defend its inaction by reiterating that there are no good options. And that is true, although it is not newly true. Windows of opportunity open and close, as Helmut Kohl famously worried about German unification. Options get better and worse with time and with opportunities taken and missed. But the Obama administration's philosophizing is cold comfort to the people experiencing the consequences of our inaction. We should beware buying another whole generation of mistrust from the people of the Middle East by our callous indifference to their problems and solipsistic attempts to ennoble our inaction.
If there actually is an Obama Doctrine -- and it's a debatable point, given the contradictions in the administration's policies -- it is this: Step back, criticize others who step forward, and laud our own moral superiority for doing nothing. Meanwhile, Islamist militias have encircled Tripoli and taken control of the airport. The Western governments that signed the statement encouraging a cease-fire are setting Libya up for continued humanitarian catastrophe and themselves up for another rush-to-the-crime-scene intervention. America is not incapable of devising and executing grand strategy. But the Obama administration evidently is. (h/t Alexi)
There Is No Israeli Siege On Gaza
National Founder of SJP Calls To Silence Jewish Groups The Evening Before The Jewish New Year
University of California at Berkeley professor and founder of the national student group “Students for Justice in Palestine” (SJP) Hatem Bazian announced an “International Day of Action” to call for a complete academic and cultural boycott of Israel on September 23rd- the Eve before the Jewish New Year.VIDEO: Gazan Children Cheer For Rockets To Hit America
The anti-Semitic nature of the day included calls for “No joint research or conferences with Israeli Institutions, No to University Presidents' Visits to Israel, No Campus Police Training or Cooperation with Israeli Security” in addition to demanding the elimination of all study abroad programs in Israel. The effort is to prevent all academic interaction with the Jewish state and to limit people’s ability to interact with Israel and Israelis.
The attempt to isolate Israel extends to a boycott of Jewish and Israeli on-campus organizations as well. Professor Bazian has also commanded his group to demand “No to University Coordination and Strategizing with the ADL, JCRC, AJC, Stand With US, ZOA, Israeli Consulate to Limit Students Pro-Palestine Constitutionally Protected Activities.”
A video from Al Jazeera’s coverage of the Israeli-Hamas war in July has recently circulated, showing footage that no mainstream American news outlet would dare cover: Gazan children cheering as rockets are fired into Israel, saying they wished the rockets would hit America instead.
CNS News reports:
For Al Jazeera's "America Tonight," foreign correspondent Nick Schifrin reported during an older segment entitled "Israel invades Gaza" on July 17. "Palestinian fighters fire a barrage of rockets," he noted, with two flying towards Tel Aviv. As the camera focused on children clapping and cheering, Schifrin translated, "They tell me they hope they land not on Israel, but in the United States."
Douglas Murray: The reluctance to talk about the link between beheadings and Islam
Of course there is no one reason why somebody leaves Britain and beheads an American journalist in a desert. I am sure we can all agree that a range of factors are at play. But why do the Islamic extremists so often bring beheading into it? It’s not just in the Middle East. Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam. Drummer Lee Rigby in South London. Why do the extremists seem so keen on beheading? It is more difficult than shooting someone. Obviously it is also a far more effective way to terrorise people.“Gaza = Auschwitz”
But surely one part of the reason beheading is chosen – if not the major part – is the fact that the Qu’ran has verses telling believers, in certain circumstances, that this is the appropriate way to kill those who are not Muslim? Is this not an important point? What about the fact that the founder of Islam himself engaged in such acts? There will be those who say I am making this up, so I suppose I ought to refer people to the sources.
I open one of my copies of the Qu’ran (Arberry translation, OUP) and read Chapter 8 (‘The Spoils [of war]’). Verse 12 has God saying:
‘I shall cast into the unbelievers’ hearts terror; so smite above the necks, and smite every finger of them.’
Five years ago, during an earlier Israeli operation in Gaza, the British novelist Howard Jacobson explained why “call[ing] the Israelis Nazis and liken[ing] Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto” goes far beyond mere “criticism” of Israel:Khaled Abu Toameh: Another plot to overthrow Abbas?
Berating Jews with their own history, disinheriting them of pity, as though pity is negotiable or has a sell-by date, is the latest species of Holocaust denial. . . . Instead of saying the Holocaust didn’t happen, the modern sophisticated denier accepts the event in all its terrible enormity, only to accuse the Jews of trying to profit from it, either in the form of moral blackmail or downright territorial theft. According to this thinking, the Jews have betrayed the Holocaust and become unworthy of it, the true heirs to their suffering being the Palestinians.Experts call this Holocaust inversion. Based in the claim that Israel now behaves toward the Palestinians as Nazi Germany behaved toward the Jews, it originated in post-World War II Soviet propaganda, and from there spread to the Soviets’ Arab clients. It is now fully embedded in the Arab-Muslim world, where it grows and mutates in symbiosis with outright denial that the Holocaust occurred or a radical reduction of its genocidal scale, ferocity, and number of victims. Holocaust inversion has a graphic omnipresence in cartoons all over the Arab and Iranian press, where Israelis are regularly portrayed in Nazi regalia. Elsewhere in the Middle East and beyond, it has surfaced in the rhetoric of populist demagogues and the media. In Turkey’s new president and long-time prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it now has a champion in a head of state. In Europe, Holocaust inversion is busy spreading beyond its original locus of infection and finding a home among intellectuals and activists, especially on the Left. (h/t MtTB)
The source said that after receiving the information, Abbas ordered PA security forces to keep an on eye of a list of Palestinian figures and to probe their bank accounts, phone calls and correspondence through social media.Strange Bedfellows
In addition to Fayyad, the source said, the suspects include former PA General Intelligence Service chief Tawfik Tirawi, who is also a top Fatah official, and PLO Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo. The source also named ousted Fatah official Muhammad Dahlan as complicit in the alleged plot.
The source claimed that the suspects were apparently in touch with jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life terms in prison for his involvement in terrorist attacks against Israelis.
Another source said that Abbas and his aides were surprised to hear about Fayyad’s alleged involvement.
When Israel lifts its head and looks about after its seven-week confrontation with Hamas, it will find that it has some unexpected friends.‘Don’t Hear O Israel!’
“Hamas is responsible for the slaughter in the Gaza Strip,” wrote Turki al Faisal, the former head of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence services, in Asharq Al-Awsat. He cited the organization’s “haughtiness” in firing rockets at Israel “which contribute nothing to the Palestinian interest.”
Iraqi journalist Adnan Hussein last week condemned Hamas’ public execution of more than 20 Gaza residents on charges of spying for Israel. He termed the street executions as “barbaric acts that resemble the brutality of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.” He wrote in the daily Al-Mada that Hamas and other jihadi groups in Gaza “awaken the wild Israeli beast” by provoking it with acts such as the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens last month, which sparked the Gaza War.
Carlo Strenger noted in Ha’aretz that most Arab governments have refused to comment publicly on this war: “From Morocco through Egypt to Saudi Arabia, almost no Arab state was willing to support Hamas in this conflict.”
In the words of journalist Gil Michaili, anti-Zionism is the “cement of beur [French North African] identity,” powerfully uniting the otherwise heterogeneous populations of Muslim North African descent. As French sociologist Vincent Tiberj showed in 2005 in an extensive public survey of young people of North African, African and Turkish Muslim origin, anti-Jewish and anti-Israel prejudice among them was 10 to 15 points higher than in the general French population of the same age group and has turned into a distinctive identity feature.Iron Dome -- Are The Critics On Target?
Furthermore, anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism have become a way to channel anti-government, anti-establishment and anti-elite frustration. Shouts like “Jews, go home!”, “Jews, France is not yours!” already erupted in Paris on January 26, 2014, during a mass anti-government demonstration whose goal was President Francois Hollande’s resignation and not Israel’s “racist,” “apartheid” and “genocidal” politics. Finally, the anti-Israel protests must be seen through the prism of a growing culture of urban violence and removal of the anti-racist taboo dominant in Western Europe through the 1980s.
Apart from supporting aliya, Israel’s government can do little to eliminate the threats facing European Jews.
Those acts of violence ultimately stem from a failure of the EU project and a failure of European states’ politics of identity, integration and memory. In the grim prediction of French columnist Ivan Roufiol this past month, “France could be confronted, in turn, to the same challenges that Hamas imposes upon Israel. The Salafism that spreads across the disaffected banlieues make possible similar intifadas.”
In the aftermath of the latest Gaza conflict, long-time missile defense critic Theodore Postol has repeated his assertions that the Rafael Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system is ineffective, missing 95 percent or more of its targets, contrary to Israeli claims that “the 84 percent success rate achieved in the Gaza war of 2012 has improved to 90 percent in the current conflict.” Despite the fact that the rockets have indisputably caused little damage on the ground, Postol accuses the Israeli government of “extended deception.”Academic left and Islamists joined at the anti-Israel hip
Postol goes on to say that “it is clear that the Iron Dome radar tracking and guidance system is not working as it should work”, but (again) this is an assertion, not a fact: the system may just not work the way Postol thinks it should work. For many reasons (including wind and manufacturing irregularities), the system won’t be able to predict the trajectory of a rocket precisely, and will guide the interceptor into a “basket” where its seeker can detect the target and guide the endgame maneuver.
Postol’s imagery shows that the interceptor is powered all the way to impact and is capable of performing endgame maneuvers. Why is it not possible that this is how the system is designed to work? Postol does not consider this, nor does he attempt to explain why it would have such a capability, combined with a fuze and warhead that would be ineffective other than in a simple head-on engagement.
No, they don’t come right out and say they support Hamas, but that’s the effective message of the petition these historians signed, which condemns Israel for “war crimes,” and asks the US to withdraw military aid from the country. And Hamas? It’s never even mentioned. It’s as though it doesn’t exist.BDS Victory Over SodaStream Equals 900 Palestinians Out of Work
I looked up the first eight or so people on the list, and it was an interesting exercise.
As expected, there’s a heavy representation from the various special interest “studies” departments that first caught on in universities as a result of Sixties leftist activism, especially the field of women’s studies.
For those who might wonder what all those feminists are doing on this list, considering Hamas’ treatment of women, the answer is that for the true believer, two and two makes five, or even six or seven or eight, if the left so wills it.
Others on the list are specialists in the Middle East, or in esoteric disciplines like that of Paul Buhle, whose field seems to be the history of radicalism (and, as an activist leftist from the 60s on, he certainly knows that terrain).
Lately Hamas has gotten a better press than ISIS, in no small part because of the propaganda efforts of leftists like so many of those on the list.
One of the biggest news stories that accompanied the start of 2014 was Scarlett Johansson being named as the global ambassador of SodaStream, an Israeli company based out of the West Bank settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, which develops home carbonation systems that allow users to convert tap water into sparkling water, in more than 100 flavors.Why was the word terror removed from the BBC’s report on reopening of Nariman House?
Fresh off of signing the contract with SodaStream, Johansson found herself quickly under fire for supporting a company in "occupied" Palestinian Territories, with New York Magazine referring to the company as "blood bubbles." Reza Aslan, a well-known writer and academic, later called Johansson a Nazi supporter for working with SodaStream.
The confrontation didn't end there, however. The SodaStream ad Johansson appeared in would end up almost being banned by the Super Bowl - though they claimed it wasn't political - and she would end up stepping down from her long-held post as global ambassador of Oxfam due to a "fundamental difference of opinion." Obviously, anti-Israel crusader Roger Waters also condemned the actress for her unwavering support of SodaStream.
In the days that followed, many argued that Oxfam was being hypocritical and that the waves of protesters who began advocating for the boycott of SodaStream would hurt both Israelis AND Palestinians. After all, 900 Palestinians were employed at the company's biggest plastics and metals factory in Ma’ale Adumim.
Whilst the attacks were correctly described as “terror attacks”, readers will note that in the original version of the report the terrorists were described exclusively as “gunmen” from an anonymous “militant unit”. BBC audiences were not told the name of the terrorist organization to which they belonged or informed that it is proscribed by numerous bodies and countries including the UN, India, Pakistan, the US, the UK, the EU and Australia.Family of missing American student pleads for his return
Some four hours after its initial publication the article was updated and its title changed to “Mumbai Jewish centre reopens six years after attack“. Notably, the phrase “terror attacks” was expunged from the amended report’s introduction.
The family of missing American student Aaron Sofer issued a public plea Tuesday for help to bring him home.Culture, Economy Ministries withdraw Israeli funds from 'Palestinian' film
In a video distributed on social media, Sofer’s parents ask anyone who knows of his whereabouts to contact authorities.
“I beg of you, beg, you, please, if anyone sees … Aaron, please call the police immediately,” his tearful mother Hulda says in the video.
Israeli-Arab director Suha Arraf will have to return government funding for her film "Villa Touma," as she presented it to international film festivals as Palestinian despite the funding agreement stipulating the film must be considered Israeli.Israelis Demand End to ‘Turkish’ Coffee: ‘I’m Really Disgusted by Anything Connected With Turkey’ (VIDEO)
"Presenting a film that was funded by Israeli taxpayers and made by Israeli artists as a Palestinian film is unacceptable and unfair," Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said.
Israelis, it seems, are so fed up with the state of once-close relations with Turkey, that some are asking food giant, Strauss, to change the name of its classic Elite “Turkish Coffee,” to something, less… well, Turkish, Israel’s Channel 2 News reported Tuesday.Iran’s Threats to “Arm the West Bank” Must Be Taken Seriously
“Nowadays, I’m really disgusted by anything connected with Turkey,” one wrote on the firm’s Facebook page – and, incidentally, garnering thousands of “Likes.”
“What’s ‘Turkish’ about the coffee? The beans aren’t from there, and it’s produced in Israel,” one complained.
“It’s high time to change the name of the coffee to ‘Black/Israeli/Flavorful/Wonderful’ and so on – just not Turkish!” another wrote.
What should be a warning sign is the repetitive high-level statements regarding Iran’s intention to arm the Palestinian terror organization in the West Bank – an obvious threat to Israel, but also to the Palestinian Authority.Iranian General Threatens Surprise Attack on Israel
During the Arafat reign and after Hamas’ putsch in Gaza, Iran tried repeatedly to provide arms to the Palestinians via Sudan, through Sinai-Gaza tunnels, or on the ships Karine A, Francop, and Victoria. During the “Operation Protective Edge” military operation Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) launched Iranian-made rockets against Israeli civilians (Fajr 3 and 5), and Iranian know-how enabled them to manufacture thousands of rockets and mortar rounds. Iran also supplied the terrorist organizations with Austrian and Iranian-made sniper rifles (a clone of the HS50 Steyr-Mannlicher).5 The rifle and its armor-piercing bullets were also used against coalition forces in Iraq6 and by Hizbullah during the Second Lebanon War. Iran also supplied Hamas and PIJ with UAV technology used during the first days of Operation Protective Edge.
Iran’s latest statements demonstrate that it wants to remain relevant in the post-Operation Protective Edge era and prove to its proxies that it is still leads and supports their armed struggle against Israel.
Iranian military leaders on Tuesday vowed that Tehran would take military action against Israel in response to an alleged Israeli drone that was shot down in Iran on Sunday.Iran likens Israelis to egg-stealing pigs from 'Angry Birds'
Iran “will not give a diplomatic response,” but will air its grievances with Israel on the “battlefield,” senior Iranian generals were quoted as saying on Tuesday.
“Our response to this aggression will not be diplomatic, we will retaliate in the battlefield, but will not necessarily announce it,” Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the Lieutenant Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) was quoted as saying during a ceremony on Tuesday meant to commemorate “martyred” Iranian military personnel.
Iran brought a fresh, new pop-culture dimension to its long-standing anti-Israeli stance this week, with a display at a government-sponsored exhibition likening Israel to the egg-stealing pigs from the popular mobile game “Angry Birds”.Hamas is ISIS - ISIS is Hamas
The Iranian public can view the display at the Islamic Revolution Digital Media Exhibition, which opened in Tehran this week.
In the Angry Birds game, players use a slingshot to launch birds at green pigs who have stolen their eggs, the aim being to kill all the pigs in an act of violent revenge.
The Iranian display shows the pigs placed within Stars of David, as birds hurtle toward them on a suicide mission. To complete the picture, the display includes an Israeli flag.
Jordan Accuses Hezbollah of Plotting Attacks on U.S., Israeli Targets
Jordanian prosecutors charged eight people with planning to attack American soldiers and Israel’s embassy in the country, in addition to recruiting individuals on behalf of Hezbollah. A Syrian fugitive and seven Jordanians are accused of being part of a “conspiracy with intent to carry out terrorist acts,” according to an Investigative Project on Terrorism translation of a Jordanian daily Al Ghad story.Obama Authorizes Islamic State Recon Flights in Syria
The suspects are accused of being Hezbollah members. The Lebanese-based Iranian terror proxy is an illegal organization in Jordan and is designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. and other major Western countries. The seven Jordanians had automatic weapons, basic materials for manufacturing explosives, and small imaging devices to conduct intelligence operations when they were arrested in May.
The indictment reveals that this case dates back to 2006, when the main defendant became infuriated with the presence of American soldiers in Jordan. He then recruited others, who were all members of the “Association Against Zionism and Racism.”
US President Barack Obama on Monday authorized reconnaissance flights over the war-torn nation of Syria, in an apparent prelude to a possible US airstrike on Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorists in the country.Princeton Professor Robert P. George Authors Bipartisan Petition Calling Upon Obama Admin to Destroy Islamic State
The authorization was confirmed by an administration official speaking to CNN, who said the flights could begin at any point.
However, the US has not asked permission to enter Syrian territory from Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has been committing war crimes in a local bloodbath now in its fourth year, which has killed nearly 200,000 people according to the UN.
Princeton University Professor and world-renowned intellectual Dr. Robert P. George authored a petition calling upon President Obama and Congress to not stop, not contain, but destroy the Islamic State terror group. Dr. George has been called by The New York Times the most influential conservative Christian thinker in the United States.Gulf Journalist: Assad Has Been Ally, Not Enemy of ISIS
The petition is available on IraqRescue.org and features the signatures of prominent intellectuals, academics, and subject matter experts – individuals such as Dr. Russell Moore, President of the Ethics and Liberty Commission, and Benjamin Carson, M.D., Emeritus Professor of Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins. The petition is a bipartisan document that features signatures from individuals with various political affiliations.
Hassan Hassan, an Abu Dhabi-based journalist and analyst, wrote yesterday in The New York Times that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is no ally of the West in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).Assad’s American Reinforcements and Obama’s Plunging Credibility
According to Hassan, Assad had been able to combat ISIS earlier, but instead “allowed ISIS to grow and fester,” even “buying oil from it and other extremist groups after it lost control of most of the country’s oilfields and gas plants.” Syria, Hassan argued, had enabled ISIS’s growth, and would make a poor partner in the fight against it; instead, Hassan pointed to the opposition forces who had been successfully fighting ISIS since its formation.
In other words, it would benefit Assad. The Times explains that Obama has yet to accept that reality: “a mounting concern for the White House is how to target the Sunni extremists without helping President Bashar al-Assad.” How could the U.S. help Assad win the war without helping Assad win the war? That’s a tough one.Damascus Friday Sermon: ISIS Was Born from Hillary Clinton's Filthy Womb; Bashar Will Rule the World
Meanwhile, Obama’s credibility continues to plummet. The argument for staying out of Syria was that, well, we should stay out of Syria. Advocates of involvement in the Syrian war, especially early on when there appeared to be a window of opportunity, argued that staying neutral at the time might very well mean getting involved anyway at a later date, on someone else’s terms, with America’s strategic position weakened.
The idea that the U.S. could get dragged kicking and screaming into Syria was generally dismissed as warmongering. Yet now the conflict-averse president is doing just that. A year ago Obama began the preliminary process of building up to a strike on Syria. Now he is doing the same. The difference is that a year ago Assad was the target. Now he’s the beneficiary.
Anti-ISIS Propaganda on Iraqi TV: Iraqi Lion and Hawks Hunt Down ISIS Rats
Father Of Islamist Who Killed Foley Was A Bin Laden Lieutenant
The father of the ISIS terrorist that beheaded U.S. journalist James Foley is believed to have been a top lieutenant to Osama bin Laden, the UK Daily Mail reports.American woman is being held hostage in Syria
The father’s name is Adel Abdel Bari, and he is currently in New York waiting to be put on trial for bombing U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.
Bari has an extensive history in terrorism. Originally from Egypt, Bari was imprisoned and tortured following President Anwar Sadat’s assassination. He eventually applied for asylum in Britain after his son, Foley’s alleged killer Abdel-Majed Abdel Bari, was born in 1991.
The Islamic State militant group is holding hostage a young American woman who was doing humanitarian aid work in Syria, a family representative said. The 26-year-old woman is the third American known to have been kidnapped by the radical group.Analysis: New Turkish PM's 'Pan-Islamic' Foreign Policy
The Islamic State group recently threatened to kill American hostages to avenge the crushing airstrikes in Iraq against militants advancing on Mount Sinjar and the Kurdish capital of Irbil.
The 26-year-old woman was captured last year while working with three humanitarian groups in Syria. A representative for the family and US officials asked that the woman not be identified out of fear for her safety. All spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.
Turkey's new premier and outgoing foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu leaves his successor a troubled legacy after a bold policy to expand Turkish influence across the ex-Ottoman empire left the country painfully exposed to the Syria and Iraq crises.Zara offers striped Star of David shirt
Critics accuse Davutoglu of pursuing ideas that backfired disastrously by backing Islamic rebels in Syria who then went on to create the brutal Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.
Moderates are calling for a recalibration of Turkish foreign policy when outgoing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan takes the presidency on Thursday to mend fences with the West and pursue more realistic goals in the Middle East.
Yet this is far from guaranteed under Erdogan, who said his election victory was not just for Turkey but the Muslim world from Sarajevo to Islamabad.
For only NIS 80 ($23), your little tyke can have that fashion forward fresh-from-the-concentration-camp look now on sale at international chain Zara.Swedish city to play ‘Schindler’s List’ song for neo-Nazi meeting
The children’s 65% cotton, 35% polyester white shirt with dark horizontal stripes sports a fetching yellow Star of David badge on its left breast. It’s called the “sheriff,” and a closer look reveals that the word is indeed lightly etched upon the badge.
On social media giant Reddit, one commentor wrote, “it looks like the uniform jewish people were forced [to wear] during the holocaust. probably not intentional but a very clumsy move, especially for an European firm.” Another bluntly said, “Idiot…someone obviously didn’t pay attention in school.”
According to website 972mag.com, the shirt is produced in Turkey and is available in Zara’s Israeli, French, Albanian and Swedish online stores. Due to public pressure, it’s been removed from the chain’s UK stores.
The Party of the Swedes was scheduled to hold a public rally in Norrkoping, in central Sweden, on Tuesday.Archive of pre-Holocaust photos available online
The local ruling and opposition political parties allowed the town hall to play the music from the Steven Spielberg film on the 80 bells in its tower, thelocal.se website reported Tuesday morning.
Over the weekend, a Party of the Swedes rally in Malmo led to clashes between counterprotesters and police; 10 people were injured. About 1,500 counterprotesters gathered at the site of the rally. Some threw smoke bombs and fire crackers while shouting “No Nazis on our streets,” according to The Local newspaper. The police horses trampled some counterdemonstrators.
An archive of photographs taken by Roman Vishniac documenting the life of pre-Holocaust Eastern European Jews is available online.Wall Street’s new tech darling: Mobileye
The archive of the Russian-American photographer also documents the rise of the Nazis and the party’s effect on Jewish life in Europe.
It is a joint project of the International Center of Photography in New York and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.
The database includes most of Vishniac’s 10,000 negatives, of which only about 350 have previously been published, according to the Holocaust museum.
Mobileye (MBLY) designs technology to avoid auto accidents and may play a role in the development of self-driving cars that's getting so much buzz.Radar barrier could detect Gaza tunnels, experts say
Shares popped over 8% Tuesday after Wall Street analysts unveiled a series of optimistic forecasts for the company and the stock.
"Much like the airbag, anti-lock brakes, and electronic stability control over the past few decades, we believe Mobileye's monocular camera system is at the early stages of a 10-20 year mass adoption by the auto industry," wrote Raymond James analyst Tavis McCort in a research note.
Israeli defense planners have known about the extensive Hamas tunnel network for years, but the IDF did not find an effective way to detect and destroy them until the last round of fighting erupted, and Israel sent ground forces into Gaza to blow up the tunnels.ReWalk, which helps the paralyzed walk, goes public
The goal now is to find the tunnels without sending troops into Gaza. Radar is one idea, but an Israeli expert says more work needs to be done on it.
Ground-penetrating radar, known as GPR, is among the most promising technological responses to the tunnels, Israeli and American experts say. The radar – which can “see” into the ground – has been used from the surface to search for smuggling tunnels under the US-Mexico border. Radar installations are also installed in deep holes in the ground to search for attack tunnels under the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
ReWalk Robotics, the Israeli developers of an exoskeleton system that enables the paralyzed to walk, is going public, the latest step forward for a firm that is offering new hope to people who have lost the use of their legs.Israeli nurse delivers Syrian baby
The company announced Wednesday that it would seek to raise about $50 million with an IPO offering of 3.4 million shares at a price range of $14 to $16. With those numbers, ReWalk would be valuated at nearly $200 million. Shares would be offered on the NASDAQ stock exchange within 30 days, the company’s announcement said.
The IPO announcement follows FDA approval last month for the company to market its product as a system to enable paralyzed people to have greater mobility. ReWalk’s system received EU approval at the end of 2012. With the FDA approval, the company said inquiries by potential customers have increased significantly. As of August 1, 81 systems were sold, the company noted in its statement to the NASDAQ regarding its intention to offer shares.
A first-time mother from Syria is happily cradling her newborn at the Ziv Medical Center in Safed (Tsfat), after giving birth to a healthy 2.6 kg girl at the Israeli medical facility on Tuesday (August 26, 2014). This is the seventh birth of a Syrian baby at the northern medical center.
“We have already treated a number of mothers and babies from Syria and we do so with devotion and love,” said Esther Ambar, the nurse in charge of the Neonatal Department at the Ziv Medical Center.
The latest new Syrian mother to give birth in Israel is a 25-year-old resident of Quneitra. She told the Israeli medical staff that fighting in the Quneitra area made her pregnancy very difficult. “Because of the war there is a shortage of food and there are no health and birthing facilities. I knew that I was already in my 40th week and that the birth was imminent and there was no one who could help me. I heard from relatives and friends that Syrian casualties are transferred to Israel where they receive good care,” she said.
When her water broke, the young woman asked family and friends to take her to the Israel-Syrian border. The IDF transferred her to hospital.
