Thursday, December 04, 2014
The Jews tolerated by Islam
Al-Habbash also has interesting insights on what the “peace process” means to him, to his boss, and to Islam in general. On 19 July 2013, he delivered a sermon in the presence of Mahmoud Abbas, a sermon that was broadcast on PA television. In it, Al-Habbash explained that when the PLO signed the Oslo agreements with Israel, it did so in order to walk "the right path, which leads to achievement, exactly like the Prophet [Muhammad] did in the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah." The Hudaybiyyah peace treaty was a 10-year truce that Muhammad signed with the Quraish Tribe of Mecca in 628 AD. Two years after signing the truce, however, Muhammad attacked and conquered Mecca. Al-Habbash stressed that Muhammad’s agreeing to the Hudaybiyyah treaty was not "disobedience" to Allah, but rather "politics" and "conflict management." He added that in spite of the peace treaty (or, rather, because of it), Muhammad did eventually conquer Mecca. The Hudaybiyyah agreement, Al-Habbash emphasized, is not just past history but a religiously permissible deceit for lack of a better option.The 'New Anti-Semitism' Comes of Age - And How to Deal With It
This is the man who was invited by BGU to talk about “religious tolerance.” Like Muhammad in 628, the PLO today is blessed with an unlimited number of useful idiots, especially in academia – both in Israel and in the United States. In the past few years, Hillel (the Foundation for Jewish campus life in the US) has opened its gates to the most anti-Israel organizations, supposedly to encourage “dialogue” under the euphemism “Open Hillel.” In December 2013, the Hillel branch of Swarthmore College became the first Open Hillel by declaring that it would no longer abide by the organization's “Standards of Partnership,” which bar Hillel from hosting speakers who support the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement against Israel, or demonize or delegitimize the State of Israel. Other Hillel chapters have followed suit, such as the one at Berkley. This trend is encouraged, and often funded, by J-Street and by the New Israel Fund.
What Al-Habbash means by “religious tolerance” is that Islam’s enemies can be tolerated only after being subjugated or eliminated. And if the enemy is willing to cooperate with his own demise, blessed be the useful idiots.
In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the United States, internationally acclaimed author, lecturer and Arutz Sheva columnist Prof. Phyllis Chesler walked over to her computer and typed the sentence: "Now we are all Israelis."JPost Editorial: Prisoner of Zion in the US
It was then, she says, that she understood that a new kind of anti-Semitism had been declared, and it was then that she began her research for the original version of "The New Anti-Semitism: The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About it", published in 2003.
Over the last decade, the alarming escalation of global anti-Semitism has taken on a new and much more pernicious tone, leading Prof. Chesler to devote much of her time over the last year to expanding and revising the original book, whose updated version has just been released by Gefen Publishers.
Arutz Sheva sat down with Dr. Chesler to find out what factors informed her decision to re-release her book and to hear her analyses of the crisis that touches us all.
The US government’s justification for denying parole to Jonathan Pollard after nearly 30 years in prison is a lie, eight senior American officials, fully versed in the classified file, recently revealed.
The government’s claim that the information Pollard provided to Israel “was the greatest compromise of US security to that date” is “patently false” and “not supported by any evidence in the public record or the classified file,” they write in a letter to President Barack Obama. Yet the government used this “fiction” to deny parole.
The unjust, “deeply flawed” parole hearing that their letter describes joins a long list of failed legal processes that have denied justice to Pollard for three decades.
Over the years, there were only two occasions when Pollard came close to freedom – at the Wye Plantation talks in 1998 and last spring. In both instances, Pollard was a bargaining chip played by the US as a quid pro quo for the release of Palestinian terrorists. Both deals fell through and Pollard remained in prison.
In his book The Missing Peace (2004), senior US diplomat Dennis Ross explains that while Pollard’s sentence is excessive, he is apparently too valuable as a bargaining chip to be released simply as a matter of justice.
The Priceless Treasures on the Temple Mount
In contrast, Jerusalem or Zion appears in the Torah, 823 times and in the Koran, not once.Jews from Muslim lands: ‘Day of commemoration not enough’
Pipes posits that Jerusalem now looms so large in Muslim consciences “because of politics. An historical survey shows that the stature of the city, and the emotions surrounding it, inevitably rises for Muslims when Jerusalem has political significance. Conversely, when the utility of Jerusalem expires, so does its status and the passions about it. This pattern first emerged during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad in the early seventh century. Since then, it has been repeated on five occasions: in the late seventh century, in the twelfth-century Counter-crusade, in the thirteenth-century Crusades, during the era of British rule (1917-48), and since Israel took the city in 1967. The consistency that emerges in such a long period provides an important perspective on the current confrontation.”
What motivates the Arabs is not their fundamental attachment to Jerusalem or the Temple Mount but their desire to prevent Jews from exercising sovereignty over both. Similarly they are not motivated to create a 22nd Arab state, Palestine, but to destroy the one Jewish state, Israel. In order to achieve their goals, they create false narratives which they fortify with propaganda, lies and threats of violence.
Not mentioned in this rundown is the Arab destruction and disregard of the ancient remains that would advance our knowledge of the temple periods.
San Francisco-based Gina Waldman, president of JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North America told the education committee she was incensed to see that none of the Israel tourism websites she searched made mention of the various museums around the country dedicated to telling the story of Jews from Muslim countries, such as the Libyan Jews Heritage Center and Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center, both in Or Yehuda.Crushing Labor Unions, Harbingers of a PA Dictatorship
Waldman, who escaped Tripoli in 1967 as anti-Semitic mobs attacked their Jewish neighbors, also asked for assurances that the curricular materials on Jews from Arab countries and Iran produced in Israel will be translated into English for use in North America and elsewhere.
“It is important to educate our children not only here in Israel, but also abroad, because unless we can share our history and heritage and show that the conflict here created two groups of refugees, our children will not be able to fight the psychological war against Israel…We need to create a foundation for our children to understand the conflict in a much deeper way,” she said.
According to Stan Urman, JJAC executive director, one of the key pieces of information young Jews are missing when they engage with others about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the fact Jews have been indigenous to the Middle East for 2,500 years.
“Jews were in the region 1,000 years before the arrival of Islam,” he said.
Amidst all the current debate over how Israel should define its national character, an equally important topic has attracted almost no attention: what would be the character of a Palestinian state?France's theater of the absurd
The question has gained urgency in view of the latest – and little-noticed – authoritarian actions by Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Annoyed by some recent strikes, Abbas on November 9 responded by suddenly outlawing the 40,000-member Union of Public Employees, which is the largest Palestinian Arab trade union.
Let us leave aside the rich irony of the progressives’ cause celebre – the Palestinian Authority – banning “Palestine’s” largest public sector union.
My tendency to respect elected officials precludes me from believing that the 339 members of the French Parliament who voted in favor of a decision to recognize a Palestinian state truly believe that they have helped advance peace and the establishment of Palestine. If they hadn't already done so themselves, I would give them a round of applause in appreciation of the hypocritical theatrics, which were more appropriate to the Comedie-Francaise.Pentagon front-runner Carter, quietly supportive of Israel, loud on stopping Iran
It's hard to believe, but 151 representatives opposed the decision. Is it possible that they oppose a Palestinian state? Oppose peace? The decision by France's parliament is hypocritical and does nothing to promote peace in our region. At most it promotes a sense of satisfaction in those who did support Palestinian statehood and feel that they are approaching the status of Gandhi, Mandela, or Mother Theresa, but have actually torpedoed the peace process. What's just as bad, they are contributing to the growing hostility toward the Jewish community in France.
And maybe this is a matter of demographics as far as the parliamentarians from the Left are concerned, and it's an election strategy -- courting the Muslim vote.
Hagel’s nomination in 2013 chafed at some in pro-Israel circles, sparking concern that his Senate confirmation would be held up due to comments he made in the past about the influence of the “pro-Israel lobby.”Still Pursuing a Palestinian State at the Expense of Peace
Carter, however, is relatively quiet on Israel — at least publicly. But what he has said has been supportive.
His first official trip to Israel was in 2013 — shortly after a visit by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon. Carter met with Ya’alon, then-national security adviser Yaakov Amidror and Defense Ministry Director Udi Shani, who hosted an official dinner for him.
Observing members of the Oketz IDF Canine Unit, Carter told the soldiers that “protecting America means protecting Israel, and that’s why we’re here in the first place.”
Last year I wrote about how the Obama Administration and much of Europe is so focused on creating a Palestinian State that they are hurting the chances for peace. With the flood of European parliaments voting to recognize the “State” of Palestine, most recently the French Parliament, it has become increasingly clear that peace is a distant afterthought to those calling most loudly for a Palestinian State.White House said to mull settlement sanctions
In the past year the supposedly moderate Abbas, who has become the West Bank’s Dictator-for-Life, walked away from negotiations and pursued a unified government with Hamas, the genocidal and anti-Semitic organization that is on the US and EU lists of terrorist organizations. Despite having a clear and logical formula in place that Hamas was supposed to have fulfilled before being granted any legitimacy, namely the Quartet Principles of renouncing violence, recognizing Israel, and abiding by all previous agreements signed between the PA and Israel, the international community dropped those requirements as fast as it could and welcomed the new form of ‘Palestinian unity.’
Senior officials at the White House and the US State Department held a confidential meeting to discuss the possibility of leveling sanctions against Israel to deter the Israeli government from launching new construction projects in settlements across the West Bank and in East Jerusalem neighborhoods, Israeli officials were quoted as saying on Thursday.EU members said drafting UN resolution on Israeli-Palestinian peace
According to Israeli daily Haaretz, the Obama administration discussion took place following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s October meeting with US President Barack Obama in Washington and against the backdrop of the subsequent public spat over Israeli building plans in East Jerusalem’s Givat Hamatos area.
The White House has not yet decided how or when to implement any such sanctions against Israel, the report said, quoting senior Israeli officials. US officials had no comment on the report. (h/t Yenta Press)
France, Germany and Britain were leading the effort with Paris at the forefront, Haaretz reported Wednesday night. According to the report, the US is aware of the French, German and British initiative.Jewish leaders pan Australian lawmakers’ attempt to recognize Palestine
The resolution is set to outline the principles of a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians in the timeframe of two years. The Palestinian draft also reportedly calls for a two-year deadline, but specifies that this is for a full Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory.
While Germany has refrained from moves that would unilaterally recognize a state of Palestine, both the British and French parliaments have gone that route, albeit symbolically.
On November 17, the European Union harshly condemned Israel for settlement expansion, threatening to “take further action” to respond to Israeli moves deemed harmful to the two-state solution, but refrained from announcing concrete sanctions.
Jewish leaders in Australia branded an attempt to recognize a Palestinian state in federal parliament as “an exercise in empty symbolism.”UN begins inquiry into attacks and weapons in Gaza
Labor lawmaker Maria Vamvakinou, a co-convener of the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine group, tabled the private members’ bill in Canberra Monday calling on the Liberal government of Tony Abbott, one of Israel’s staunchest allies, to recognize a Palestinian state.
“Australia, and indeed this parliament, must now recognize the state of Palestine. Australia must vote yes at the UN for Palestinian statehood. Fifty six per cent of Australians are in favor of this and 135 countries have already done so.”
The debate, timed to coincide with the United Nation’s International Day of Solidarity With the Palestinian People, was adjourned; no resolution was passed.
The United Nations has begun investigating Israeli attacks that hit U.N. facilities during last summer's Operation Protective Edge and how Palestinian terrorists came to store weapons at several U.N. schools, officials said on Wednesday.What’s Left? – Arguing with Mike
A team of U.N. investigators arrived in Gaza on Tuesday to conduct the inquiry, three months after the war ended. They had already met with Israeli representatives in Jerusalem. The investigation is expected to last three weeks.
"They are visiting the affected sites, they are conducting meetings and interviews with people who were involved," Robert Turner, the director of operations for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Gaza told reporters. "It is specifically to look at violations of neutrality of U.N. installations."
Continuing my conversation with Mike Lumish regarding the Left’s relationship to anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, those who were hoping to see sparks fly have probably been disappointed so far since that debate began in agreement that “The Left” is not the enemy, but the battleground over which much of the current anti-Israel battles are being fought.Boycott Fever at MESA
But now that we’ve established the basis for our argument (with “argument” defined as a constructive engagement where people differ over important matters vs. a fight where people just yell at one another while never giving an inch), I’d like to take issue with a couple of points in Mike’s most recent response.
First, pointing out President Obama’s 2011 statement equating the Arab Spring with the struggle for civil rights in the US is a perfectly reasonable way to criticize the President’s lack of perception (as well as history, given how revolutions have historically gone when the ruthless are around to seize them). But I’m not sure it can be used to clinch an argument over the Left’s conflicted relationship with the Jewish state.
Since MESA is beginning a discussion about boycotting Israel, it’s time to start a discussion about boycotting MESA. Back in 2007, the writer Hillel Halkin responded to British academic boycott resolutions with a call to shift gears. It is wrong, he said, “to turn the issue into one of the unacceptability of boycotts.… There is, in fact, nothing wrong with boycotts, academic or otherwise, if they’re aimed at the right targets.” Halkin called on supporters of Israel to “fight back” in “a massive and organized fashion—or, to call a spade a spade, by means of a counter-boycott.”VIDEO: Ferguson Protestors Call For Officer Wilson's Death, Claim Black People are the Real Jews
I’m doubtful whether a counter-boycott could be applied to individuals, as Halkin suggested, and not just because there are too many of them. But institutions? Why not? The BDS campaign claims that boycotting Israeli academic institutions is a perfectly legitimate response to their “complicity” in Israel’s oppression of Palestinians. Well, what about MESA’s complicity in promoting rabid hatred of Israel that some believe spills over into Jew-hatred? What about MESA’s complicity in the whitewashing of Hamas? In the spring, BDSers Rashid Khalidi and Judith Butler mobilized signatories to a letter insisting that “boycotts are internationally affirmed and constitutionally protected forms of political expression.” By the simplest logic, that applies equally to counter-boycotts. And why shouldn’t the same bare-knuckle techniques used by the academic boycotters not be deployed against them in an academic counter-boycott?
In the midst of the riots following the grand jury decision last week, Ami Horowitz took to the streets of Ferguson to interview African American protestors. The results were charges of inherent racism in white America, calls for the killing of Darren Wilson, the condemning of Barack Obama’s presidency, and one protestor insisting that blacks are the “real Jews.”Barnard College President Delivers Introductory Remarks At SJP Event
Horowitz: I’m a Jewish person.
Protestor: I’m a Jew. I’m the real Jew. I’m from a tribe called Judah. (turning down Horowitz’s high five) You’re not Jewish.
Horowitz: I think I’m Jewish. I pray a few times a day.
Protestor: You’re not Jewish. […] You see these black people out here? We’re the real Jews. You feel me?
Horowitz: Not really, no.
Protestor: This conversation is done. (h/t MtTB)
Barnard College president Debora Spar gave the introductory remarks at an event hosted by an anti-Semitic campus group attempting to liken the Palestinian situation in the Middle East to the community of Ferguson, MO. Leeza Hirt and Danielle Greenbaum, two Columbia undergraduate students, brought attention to the president's presence at the Students for Justice in Palestine event but noted that Spar touched on neither the Arab-Israel conflict or race relations in America.Americans Who Fund The Families of Terrorists
“She spoke about how Barnard has always valued free speech and discussed the importance that Barnard ‘engage in discourse on every conceivable topic, no matter how challenging that topic might be,’ the duo wrote in the Columbia Spectator. “President Spar rarely participates in student events. So why did Spar choose to speak at last night’s event if she was only going to deliver remarks so generic that they didn’t even incorporate any details from the event’s topic?”
A few days ago I wrote about the radical, extremist New Israel Fund and their support for groups that hurt the State of Israel.Months After Calling for Expulsion of Israel’s Ambassador from Dublin, Irish Republican Leader Gerry Adams Flies To Tel Aviv
This week, Israel’s Supreme Court will rule on the planned demolition of several terrorists' Jerusalem homes, including the terrorist who tried to kill American-born Rabbi Yehuda Glick, the terrorist who slammed his tractor into a bus, two who drove their cars into people near train stops, and those who murdered five Israelis a few weeks ago in a brutal massacre during morning prayers in Jerusalem. The day after that synagogue attack in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered law enforcement to destroy the homes in question. The following day, one murderer's home was destroyed – until the radical extremist organization Hamoked petitioned the Supreme Court on behalf of the terrorists and their families. There was a stay – which will be decided Wednesday in court.
As this article in Yediot Achronot notes, Hamoked is representing the families of terrorists. Hamoked is a grantee of the New Israel Fund, which has provided $688,901 worth of grants from 2008-2013.
Gerry Adams, the president of the Irish Republican Sinn Fein party and a member of the Irish parliament, is on his way to Tel Aviv to begin a three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian areas.Retrieved From The MEMRI-hole: MEMRI TV Back Up On YouTube
Irish website Newstalk reported that Adams will meet with Israeli Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog as well as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Adams has also been invited to visit Gaza by UNRWA, the UN agency dedicated solely to Palestinian refugees and their descendants.
Following my post on YouTube going all Schwarznegger on MEMRI TV and terminating their account, it looks like common sense has prevailed.Associated Press Lays Down Smokescreen
Welcome back! Looking forward to many, many more videos highlighting the hatred directed towards Israel, the Jewish people and the West.
As depressing as that is.
This allegation, which has since been repeated by another former AP reporter, Mark Lavie, is a very serious one. Friedman indicates that the Associated Press' Jerusalem Bureau effectively excluded a prominent participant from the debate over how NGOs frame the Arab-Israeli conflict.Per the Guardian: A Palestinian certainly got shot; Israelis possibly “got stabbed”
Given the reliance of the Associated Press and other news outlets on groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International for commentary about human rights abuses and war crimes in the Middle East, it is reasonable to conclude that if AP's Jerusalem Bureau did decide to keep Steinberg and his group, NGO Monitor, out of its stories that it was intentionally stacking the deck in favor of Israel's critics.
In other words, it was propagandizing in a manner that blatantly contradicts the “Statement of Ethical Principles” adopted by Associated Press Managing Editors in 1994. (This organization now calls itself Associated Press Media Editors.) The APME's statement calls on journalists to avoid “practices that would conflict with the ability to report and present news in a fair, accurate and unbiased manner.”
Such behavior would also contradict the AP's “Statement of News Values and Principles” which calls on journalists to “avoid behavior or activists that create a conflict of interest and compromise our ability to report the news fairly and accurately, uninfluenced by any person or action.”
Note that the Guardian decided to lead with the fact that the Palestinian assailant was shot, while CBS simply informed readers that two Israelis were stabbed by a Palestinian. Of course, the other curious choice by Guardian editors pertains to the quotes around ‘after attacking Israeli shoppers’, and the absence of such a qualifier around Palestinian shot.Overview of BBC reporting on recent violence and terror in Israel
If AP based its report – as the story makes clear – on an official statement by Israeli police, then what accounts for the Guardian’s selective skepticism regarding only one element of the story?
The answer to this question should be obvious to anyone even remotely familiar with the Guardian’s coverage of the region.
BBC reporting on the surge of violence and terror during October and November 2014 was largely limited to fatal attacks, with dozens of other non-fatal incidents ignored. As we see, the reports adhered to a specific template which ‘explained’ events by attributing them to “rising tensions” caused almost inevitably by Israeli actions.French PM after rape of Jewish woman: Fight against anti-Semitism is daily struggle
For over a month, audiences have been provided with a picture of Israeli action and Palestinian reaction: a narrative which includes no Palestinian responsibility or agency and is carefully framed to exclude one of the story’s most important elements – the crucial issue of the repeated incitement and glorification of terrorism by Palestinian leaders and official organisations, with no independent BBC reporting on that issue having appeared at all to date.
In short, the BBC’s obligation to “build a global understanding of international issues” has once again been trumped by a political narrative.
Following the rape of a Jewish woman in a suburb of Paris on Monday, Prime Minister of France Manuel Valls condemned the attack as vile and said that it demonstrated that the fight against anti-Semitism is a daily struggle. Valls also expressed support for the victims' families.Survivor of Anti-Semitic Attack on Jewish Home in Paris Recounts His Ordeal (VIDEO)
The French leader made the comments on twitter on Thursday.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in a statement on Wednesday that the "anti-Semitic nature (of the attack) seems proven," saying that the assailants "started with the idea that being Jewish means having money," AFP reported.
The 21 year-old man, known as Jonathan, is recovering from the nightmare that he and his girlfriend went through on Monday at his parents’ home in the Paris suburb of Creteil, where they both returned to live just over one month ago.Is Sobibor to be the new ‘Disneyland’ of Nazi death camps?
The young couple were subjected to a brutal daylight attack by a trio of armed and masked criminals who repeatedly uttered anti-Semitic insults throughout the invasion, saying they were chosen “because [they] are Jewish.”
Jonathan’s girlfriend was raped by two of the assailants, while a third used his credit card to clean out their bank account via a nearby ATM. Two of the suspects, aged 20, have been arrested, and police are looking for the third.
Three months ago, Polish and Israeli archeologists excavated the symbolic core of the one-time killing center, the Nazi-built gas chambers where 250,000 Jewish men, women and children from all over Europe were murdered during the Holocaust.Malaysian Barber Forces Customers to Walk On Israeli Flag
Above these sensitive Holocaust remains, as well as atop the adjacent area of mass graves, cyclists regularly weave their way through the former death camp, known among locals as a “shortcut” between roads. Sobibor also attracts numerous dog walkers — and even some cat walkers.
During The Times of Israel’s visit to Sobibor on November 11 – Poland’s National Day – several visitors were observed picking through the newly dug out gas chamber remains – mostly bricks – and poking around in the sand with their feet.
To say that oversight and maintenance at Sobibor are below that of most public parks would be an understatement.
Each spring thaw, like clockwork for three generations now, the grounds literally spit out the most sensitive evidence of the Holocaust – the remains of Sobibor’s victims, in the form of hundreds of bone fragments — some the size of coins — left over from the Nazis’ attempt to destroy the evidence.
Reports have surfaced that a Malaysian hairdresser in Seremban requires his customers to step on an Israeli flag, serving as a doormat, upon entering his hair salon.Croatia to give Zagreb Jews $4 million property in Holocaust restitution
The barbershop in southeast Malaysia called "Hair Styles for Men" offers its customers a variety of special and unusual haircuts, provided they must step on a rug in the form of the Israeli flag.
Local media claims they have been unable to determine the barber's motives.
However, this is not the first time such an incident has happened in Malaysia. Malaysian news site, The Star, reported in August that dozens of Malaysians "are beginning to show their rage against the Israeli regime by stepping on their flag for its attack on Gaza."
Croatia will give land and an office building in Zagreb collectively valued at about $4 million to the city’s Jewish community as restitution for property expropriated during World War II.A cure for medical misunderstandings
According to the World Jewish Restitution Organization, the community will receive a six-story building and a surrounding land parcel owned by the government in the central part of the capital to replace a building once owned by the local Jewish burial society.
The Nazi-allied government confiscated the original building during the war and it was nationalized by the Communist government.
The income from the property will help to fund the operation of the Zagreb Jewish community’s senior-care facility and other communal programs.
Nine out of 10 Americans do not understand medical instructions from doctors and pharmacists, and 80 percent find hospital discharge orders confusing. Even more troubling, every five minutes, seven Americans seek emergency care due to an error with their medication.US Holocaust museum gets $25 million donation
Israeli physician Dr. Rami Cohen believes he has a prescription for this malady of misunderstanding: Telesofia Medical, his new proprietary platform for healthcare workers to easily create personalized instructional videos for patients.
“Sitting in front of the physician or pharmacist or nurse is probably the worst scenario in which to learn something new,” he tells ISRAEL21c.
“Patients are either in pain or just learned they have a disease, and that prevents them from paying careful attention as doctors bombard you with papers and jargon and a lot of technical stuff. That’s why so many people can’t really absorb it.”
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum will increase its educational programming in the US and abroad with a $25 million gift, the largest in the museum’s history.For its ninth Nobel, Bell Labs counts on Israeli tech
The gift, from the William Levine family of Phoenix, will be used to expand and diversify its reach, especially to young people, according to the museum. The museum’s National Institute for Holocaust Education now will be called the Levine Institute for Holocaust Education.
Levine is an investor and real estate developer who founded Outdoor Systems, an outdoor advertising firm. He was appointed to the museum’s governing council by President George W. Bush in 2007.
Over the years, Bell Labs has won eight Nobel Prizes – more than any other tech lab – and Marcus Weldon, the current president of Bell Labs, fully expects the organization to win a ninth, based on the work that will be done by its new Israel location.
Bell Labs on Monday night inaugurated its Israeli branch – the group’s first out-of-the-US location – at the Kfar Saba offices of Alcatel-Lucent, the multinational communications firm that now owns the organization. The Israel lab actually began work several months ago, but got its official kick-off when Weldon, along with other top Bell Labs officials and alumni, gave the Israel site their official stamp of approval.
Often called “America’s Idea Factory,” Bell Labs has a long and storied history of innovation and invention. Originally the engineering department of “the phone company” — American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) — Bell Labs researchers developed many of the building blocks of modern electronics and computers. In 1927, a Bell team transmitted the first television images; in 1937, it transmitted the first stereo signals via radio; a Bell scientist invented the photovoltaic cell in the early 1940; and in 1947, Bell scientists created the transistor, an invention that made modern computing possible. Later inventions included TDMA and CDMA digital cellular telephone technology, the compiled C programming language, the UNIX operating system, the first single-chip 32-bit microprocessor, and much more. (h/t MtTB)
