Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Catch Tuvia Tenenbom!
He brought up Jibril Rajoub, the senior Palestinian Authority official who was the former head of the Preventative Security Services.Generations of Palestinian refugees are in Iraq
“He’s charismatic, a genius, he’s amazing,” said Tenenbom. “He could have put my image [as Tobi the German] in Google and he’d know who I am. He didn’t do that because we matched and clicked.”
There were some people whom he found more difficult to appreciate, such as Israeli peace activists and European foundation employees. During an interview with an employee of a German foundation, Tenenbom, who felt the group was only pretending to be seeking peace in Israel, said, “Listen to me, why are you doing this? We all know the story, Germany and Israel. Why can’t you be a little more sensitive?”
The book, first released in Hebrew, and later in English, has done well, with many but not all reviewers praising it for its humor and sass, as well as for what Tenenbom sees as its major accomplishment: shedding light on what he considers the true nature of European foundations and their presence in Israel.
“There’s a facade of peace and love but it’s all hate and hate,” he said. “The Europeans hate the Jews, they don’t even know how much they hate the Jews. It’s so embedded in their culture, so ingrained in them and that’s what everybody sees but nobody sees.”
Palestinians sought refuge in Iraq after the creation of Israel in 1948. At best they were second-class citizens. And since the 2003 US-led invasion, they've been caught in the crossfire of a brutal conflict not of their own making.Palestinian refugee condemns 'life of humiliation'
Awad's father, Khaled Hamad, would like to return to his native land.
"If Israel said come, I'd throw away my Palestinian nationality and become an Israeli," Khaled Hamad said. "I'm serious."
Salma Mohammad, 21, echoes Awad's sentiments.
"All our lives, from our grandparent to our parents to our children, we've been moving from one place to another," Mohammad said. "We want a future for our children, but there's no future in Iraq." (h/t Yoel)
Ripe for Exploitation: HRW’s Israel Obsession and Allegations of Child Labor
On April 13, 2015, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a 74-page publication under the heading of “Ripe for Abuse: Palestinian Child Labor in Israeli Agricultural Settlements in the West Bank.” According to the press statement, which was copied widely in international media platforms, “Settlement Agriculture Harms Palestinian Children” through allegedly “low wages and ...dangerous working conditions in violation of international standards.”
As with many other HRW accusations and publications on Israel, as documented by NGO Monitor, the claims in this publication are entirely unverifiable and based solely on interviews. HRW provides no evidence that it even attempted to confirm any of the claims, many of which quote children, independently. Furthermore, in this instance, the allegations are inherently unverifiable, since there are no permits, pay slips, paperwork, or other documentation for the supposed child workers. Indeed, according to an Israeli official interviewed in in response to HRW’s allegations, “It is a horrific lie. There is no justification for employing children, not just morally and legally but financially as well.”
As the publication’s methodology section makes clear, HRW’s researcher (Bill van Esveld) began with a conclusion condemning Israel, and then sought evidence to persuade the intended audiences, particularly journalists readily influenced by NGO allegations
Low-Hanging Fruit: Human Rights Watch and Palestinian Child Laborers
"Israel's a sort of low-hanging fruit" a Human Rights Watch (HRW) board member acknowledged in an illuminating 2010 interview, and the organization's latest report "Ripe For Abuse: Palestinian Child Labor in Israeli Agricultural Settlements in the West Bank" exemplifies HRW's skewed and distorted treatment of Israel.Did Human Rights Watch and The Telegraph use a misleading photo in report on illegal Palestinian child labor?
Take, for example, the report's accompanying publicity video, which got picked up by the Sydney Morning Herald. In the video, HRW researcher Bill Van Esveld claims that Palestinian children "have no option to work on Palestinian farms. Most of them don't exist anymore."
But this claim is belied by the facts. The Palestinian date sector has enjoyed significant growth in recent years. According to a report published by Paltrade and the Ministry of National Economy, among others ("The State of Palestine National Export Strategy 2014-2018"):
Palestinian fresh fruit exports have grown at a rate of 52%, compared to global import growth of 21% over the same time period.
The main fruit exports from the State of Palestine are nuts, dates, grapes, strawberries and almonds. The bulk of export growth for the sector has been driven by a rise of exports of dates. Palestinian exports of dates have risen from US$324,000 in 2007 to US$1.2 million in 2010, reflecting an absolute growth of over 250%.
The child in the photo appears to be perhaps 11 or 12.White House Ally Addresses ‘Israel Lobby’ Conspiracy Conference
However, a look at the original photos taken by a Reuters photographer suggests that the photos used by The Telegraph and HRW may be misleading.
The series of photos, which include the photo of the boy used by The Telegraph and HRW, were taken by Reuters’ photographer Mohamad Torokman in 2010, and appear to illustrate work at a Palestinian farm.
It certainly appears that the photo of the underage boy seen in the HRW report (and in the Telegraph story) is working illegally on a Palestinian farm. (The boy is quite possibly Mr. Issawi’s son.)
One of the White House’s key partner groups for promoting an Iranian nuclear deal addressed a conspiracist-laden conference aimed at combating “the power of the Israel Lobby” in Washington, D.C., on Friday.JPost Editorial: Israel should recognize the Armenian Genocide
Reza Marashi, the research director for the National Iranian American Council, which has been meeting regularly with White House officials to help sell the Iran deal, called on the audience to help “create the space for the White House” to pursue diplomacy with Iran.
Organizers billed the conference—titled “The Israel Lobby: Is it Good for the U.S.? Is it Good for Israel?”—as “an unprecedented, frank and overdue look at the power of the Israel Lobby in the United States.”
Marashi’s remarks on Iran capped off a day of speeches from authors and former public officials who warned about the influence of the “Jewish lobby” and its “agents [who] exist by the hundreds and hundreds” across the United States.
“For the White House to do the kinds of things I think everybody in this room would like [it] to do requires citizens, interest groups across the board to be active and to create the political space for them,” said Marashi.
“If people like you and I lead, I think you have a willingness in the White House to follow,” he added. “Let that be a message if nothing else resonates with you going forward.” (h/t Bob Knot)
Exhibiting his characteristic moral clarity and sensitivity, Pope Francis referred to Turkey’s brutal massacre of about 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children during World War I as genocide.UN chief won’t call 1915 slaughter of Armenians ‘genocide’
The “first genocide of the 20th century” was how the pope referred to it during a Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican to mark 100 years since the Armenian killings.
In his speech, Francis intertwined that genocide – perpetrated by Muslims against Christians – with contemporary persecution and massacres of Christians in the Middle East, Africa and Asia at the hands of Muslims.
Ahead of April 24, the Armenian Day of Remembrance, the State of Israel should follow the pope’s lead and recognize the premeditated massacre for what it was – genocide.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon considers the slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks 100 years ago “atrocity crimes,” but he isn’t supporting Pope Francis’ description of the killings as “the first genocide of the 20th century,” the UN spokesman said Monday.Israel’s heroes and Palestine’s zero
Turkey denies the killings were genocide and in response to the pope’s comments on Sunday Ankara recalled its Vatican ambassador and accused Francis of spreading hatred.
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed by scholars as genocide. But Turkey insists the death toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that Ban took note of the pope’s comments and is fully aware of “the sensitivities related to the characterization of what happened” in 1915 and the April 24 commemoration of the 100th anniversary of “the tragic events” by Armenia and others around the world.
Arafat could have said yes to Barak at Camp David, but he chose hatred over peace. He turned down the most generous offer that any Israeli leader could ever consider, and he chose to go back to his familiar role as a gang leader rather than to engage in nation building.Rubio Announces Candidacy, Blasts Obama's 'Hostility to Israel'
Abbas told the United Nations without any sign of shame that he considers the Palestinian terrorists in Israeli jails to be “fighters for freedom and peace”. The fact that Arafat, the terrorist, the coward, and the fraud is the Palestinians’ national hero is not dissociated from the fact that Palestinians have been unable to build a society for themselves while their Israeli neighbours have thrived.
One of the few Palestinians who could be a worthy hero, Bassem Eid, is shunned and disowned by the Palestinian Authority. Eid who has defended Palestinian human rights against both Israeli and Palestinian abuses is considered by pro-Palestinian activists to be a sellout. Sadly, considering that Arafat is their prime hero, this is no surprise.
What Abbas should tell the world is that his society needs deep reforms and drastic moral rebuilding. He should admit that Palestinians cannot expect a better future if they do not start by revolutionising their own values, if they do not ask themselves how someone with an atrocious track record became their prime national hero. There are times in history when drastic changes are needed, and today’s Palestinian society is a glaring example. Sadly for the Palestinians, there is no sign that pro-Palestinian advocates will be ready to start opening their eyes any time soon.
Marco Rubio, a 43-year-old Cuban-American Florida Republican senator, announced Monday evening that he would be seeking his party's nomination for the 2016 presidential election.After Presidency Announcement, Hillary Clinton Confidant Says She Would Get Along Well With Netanyahu
In his announcement speech, he vowed to bring America back to its world leadership role, and accused America's current leaders of forgetting that “when America fails to lead, global chaos inevitably follows.”
The leaders “appease our enemies, they betray our allies, and they weaken our military,” he said.
The time has come, he added to the sound wild cheering, “for our generation to lead the way to a new American century.”
He was more specific about foreign policy issues later in his speech when he said it was time for the US to once again accept “the mantle of global leadership” by abandoning “dangerous concessions to Iran and its hostility to Israel.”
Renowned Israeli-American businessman and Hillary Clinton confidant, Haim Saban, on Sunday described the newly-announced presidential candidate as a true friend of Israel and said she would get along fine with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Expert: Clinton Doubted Obama Policy on Israel
Saban told Channel 2 interviewers that, though Clinton never spared the Israeli premier any deserved criticism, “Her relationship with Netanyahu has had its ups and downs, but I think they will work well together if she becomes the next President of the United States.” Saban added that, “she will be a great president for the United States, for Israel particularly, and for the world in general.”
Saban did not only endorse Clinton’s position on Israel, but had general praise for her presidential candidacy. He said, “After eight years, a few of which she spent as a successful adviser to the president, and years of service in the Senate, there is no candidate that can come close to her level of skills and experience.”
The prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency has many Israeli analysts wondering what will become of the relationship picking up the pieces from Barack Obama. Will those proverbial pieces be thrown in the garbage for good, or will she glue them back together? Despite the fears of many conservative Israelis, there is a sense of optimism from several security and political experts in Jerusalem that Obama’s policies will be an extreme episode in the history of Israeli-American relations, even if there is another Democratic president in his wake.The GOP Finally Bucks Buchanan
“Hillary is a very pragmatic person,” says Zaki Shalom, an observer of Israeli-American relations at the Institute for National Security Studies. He illustrates that her perspective on Israel and the conflict with the Palestinians is very, very different than that of Barack Obama.
“I think that the event that would shape her attitude toward Israel is in the first place is the total failure of Obama to move ahead with the peace process.”
Pat Buchanan is a desperate man. The former senior staffer to Presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan finds himself a political pundit without a political party.Top British Universities Flunk Free Speech
For decades the 76-year-old has been an ardent proponent of social conservatism and a vocal opponent of the State of Israel. He is no longer welcome in today’s GOP which quietly subordinates social issues, such as abortion and school prayer, while embracing the Jewish State – making support for Israel and combating anti-Semitism a high priority in the upcoming presidential primary.
Put aside his well-known isolationist views. Before common sense labeled Buchanan an anti-Semite, conservative icons such as William F. Buckley, Jr. and Charles Krauthammer called him out on his bigoted rhetoric.
The universities were ranked using a traffic-light system: red for universities that ban and actively censor certain ideas on campus; amber for universities that chill free speech, and green for universities that have a hands-off approach to free speech.Pro-Israel Professor at Connecticut College needs your help
The results of the Free Speech University Rankings were staggering. Forty-seven universities were marked red, including Oxford and the London School of Economics; 45 were marked amber, including Cambridge, and a mere 25 were marked green. Results indicate that 80% of British universities censor free speech.
Stifling free speech on campus is no longer restricted to Britain; it can be seen all over the world, including in the U.S.
"Campus censorship is something which can no longer be laughed off. Free thought itself is under attack." — Tom Slater, assistant editor at Spiked Online, Daily Telegraph.
"Supporting Israel is now labeled an act of 'racism' by some professors and certain campus organizations." — Daniel Mael, Senior, Brandeis University, U.S.
Freedom of speech is one of the fundamental values of our Judeo-Christian civilization. The day we give away free speech -- or Israel, which embodies it -- is the day we cease to exist.
StandWithUs is deeply concerned about a student-led defamation campaign to silence Connecticut College pro-Israel professor Andrew Pessin and by his administration's apparent inaction against this vicious attack. StandWithUs has already contacted the administration expressing its dismay, and there is a letter signed by a coalition of organizations being sent to the president and provost of Connecticut College demanding administrative action.Where BDS loses: unique steps in support of Israel on campus
We urge you to sign an online petition expressing support for Professor Pessin. And we urge you to email the administration directly, especially if you are an alumnus of Connecticut College. Below is a sample letter for your use as well as contact information.
Thank you for your action and support of a pro-Israel professor fighting a malicious campaign.
Leading up to the 67th birthday of the State of Israel, more commonly referred as Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel Independence Day), it may be difficult to stay upbeat given the rising anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism around the world. On American college campuses, the situation has been especially grave—but the picture may not be as gloomy as it seems.Stanford student candidate questioned over her Jewish faith
A report released in February by the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) revealed that pro-Israel activity on U.S. campuses has actually increased in the wake of the war between Israel and Hamas last summer and the uptick in terrorism against Jews in Israel last fall.
While by no means all-encompassing, the following is a snapshot of some of the college campuses on which pro-Israel activists have taken unique steps or have made major strides in their quest to support the Jewish state.
A candidate for the student Senate at Stanford University filed a complaint after she was asked how her Jewish faith would inform her decisions.Stanford Student Candidate Says Questioned About Being Jewish (Updated)
Molly Horwitz, a junior, filed the complaint with the student elections commissioner shortly after the March 13 endorsement interview with an umbrella group on campus, the Stanford Review student newspaper reported Sunday. The elections will be held Tuesday.
During the interview with the Students of Color Coalition, a member asked Horwitz, “Given your strong Jewish identity, how would you vote on divestment?”
In February, the student Senate passed a divestment resolution calling on Stanford to withdraw investments in companies that assist Israel in the West Bank.
Horwitz, a Paraguay native living in Milwaukee, told the coalition that she disapproved of the Senate vote for divestment, but reiterated her belief in the Senate’s democratic system and her hope for a peaceful Middle East, according to the Review.
Horwitz was among a limited number of candidates interviewed by the coalition, an umbrella for six student organizations.
Her endorsement application made reference to her Judaism, including statements such as “I identify as a proud South American and as a Jew,” and “I felt like I was not enough for the Latino community and further embraced my Jewish identity,” the student newspaper reported.
Horwitz has asked for a public apology from the coalition.
After publication, I received the following statement from Horwitz:What percentage of Q1 2015 terror attacks against Israelis was reported by the BBC?
“I am running for the student senate at Stanford. Candidates can apply for endorsements from various student groups. I applied for the endorsement of the Students of Color Coalition (SOCC), which has quite a large influence on campus. At my interview, SOCC asked, “Given your strong Jewish identity, how would you handle divestment?” I asked for clarification of the question because I wasn’t sure that the interviewer knew the significance of what she was asking. After I questioned why my Jewish identity was relevant, she scrambled and referenced my application, in which I stated that I was very connected to my Jewish heritage.
I was deeply saddened to see my fellow student leaders unapologetically resort to anti-Semitism. I am running for the Stanford Undergraduate Senate in order to help foster an inclusive and welcoming environment at Stanford. I am upset that SOCC, a group which purports to encourage such an inclusive environment, instead engaged in anti-Semitism. This event has highlighted for me the importance of increasing education on anti-Semitism and the various ways in which it can manifest. It is my hope that the Stanford community can come together, reject this intolerance, and envision a future on campus in which all students, regardless of their religious beliefs, are welcomed and embraced.”
The Israel Security Agency publishes a monthly summary of terror attacks and its reports for the first quarter of 2015 provide the following information:Contrary to Guardian suggestion, Palestinian terrorists don’t primarily target soldiers and settlers
January 2015: total number of attacks – 124. Of those: 105 in Judea & Samaria, 18 in Jerusalem.
February 2015: total number of attacks – 96. Of those: 84 in Judea & Samaria, 12 in Jerusalem.
March 2015: total number of attacks – 89. Of those: 58 in Judea & Samaria, 31 in Jerusalem.
The BBC’s above reports relate to two stabbing incidents and one vehicle attack. Two additional stabbings, nine small arms shootings, forty attacks using IEDs (including pipe bombs and improvised grenades) and 256 incidents of firebombing were not reported. Also noteworthy is the fact that whilst most of the attacks – almost 80% – took place in Judea & Samaria, that was not reflected in BBC coverage.
As we see, the total number of attacks during the first quarter of 2015 is 309, which means that the BBC reported less than 1% of the incidents which took place.
Peter Beaumont’s Guardian report about a Palestinian stabbing attack on two Israelis, at the Sinjil junction near Shiloh on April 9th, was largely unremarkable, except for these final two paragraphs.The BBC News website’s muddled geography confuses audiences
Israel experienced a wave of similar attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem towards the end of last year, but the violence has mostly subsided and the current Passover holiday has been relatively quiet thus far.
Palestinians demand the West Bank, which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war, as part of their future state and object to an Israeli presence there. Militants often target soldiers and Jewish settlers.
It appears as if these passages represented an attempt to contextualize the terror attack in southern Samaria (the West Bank) as merely another act of Palestinian “resistance” to the Israeli occupation. However, though the final sentence within this narrative structure – Beaumont’s claim that “militants often target soldiers and Jewish settlers” – may be narrowly accurate, it is nonetheless extremely misleading.
Palestinian terrorists rarely make such distinctions – between soldiers and civilians, and residents of ‘settlements’ vs residents of communities within 1949 armistice lines – when choosing their targets.
The uninformed reader would obviously take that sentence to mean that the Spanish soldier was killed in a district called the Shebaa Farms, near a village called Ghajar located in that area. Seeing as the Shebaa Farms area (Har Dov) is located on the Israeli side of the ‘Blue Line‘, the implication is therefore that the soldier was in Israel at the time of his death. In fact, although the soldier may have been “near the village of Ghajar” (his position was apparently around one kilometer to the north-east), he was actually on the Lebanese side of the border where all UNIFIL forces are stationed.Shots fired at Nashville synagogue, no injuries | The Times of Israel
In addition, the BBC’s suggestion that Ghajar is in the Shebaa Farms (Har Dov) area is in itself inaccurate: Ghajar is part of the Golan Heights and its residents are Alawites – originally Syrian and holding Israeli citizenship since 1981.
Ghajar map
Even the BBC’s own map of the region does not place Ghajar in the Shebaa Farms area but nevertheless, the latter half of this short report is devoted to the standard insert on the Shebaa Farms seen in previous BBC coverage of the January cross-border attack by Hizballah. As was the case then, that insert is superfluous seeing as the story has nothing to do with the topic of the Shebaa Farms/Har Dov dispute and the incidents which are its subject matter did not take place within that area.
No one was injured when shots were fired outside a Nashville synagogue.Man arrested for throwing firecrackers outside NJ synagogue
The shots were fired outside the West End Synagogue on Monday morning, according to The Tennessean.
Police identified at least one bullet hole between two windows at the front of the building.
The shooting outside the 400-member Conservative congregation occurred hours before a Holocaust memorial ceremony at the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville.
A New Jersey man was arrested for throwing lit firecrackers outside a synagogue and yelling “God is greatest” in Arabic.Nazi-Hunters Praise German Efforts to Charge War Criminals
Rizek Musheisen, 21, of Clifton, fled in a car Saturday night after the incident at the Ahavas Israel Synagogue in neighboring Passaic, the Secure Community Network said Monday in a notification sent to Jewish community leaders and local law enforcement. The Orthodox synagogue, located about a half hour from New York City, was full of worshippers at the time of the incident.
His car was found in a parking lot shortly after the incident. Police found a bag of firecrackers in the trunk of the car.
Musheisen was charged with bias intimidation, possession of fireworks, harassment and criminal mischief.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center on Monday praised Germany's efforts to continue bringing war criminals to justice some seven decades after the atrocities of the Holocaust, AFP reported.Digitized Holocaust Documents Provide Glimpse Into Vibrant Vilna Ghetto
"The most important positive results achieved during the period under review (April 2014 to March 2015) were obtained in Germany," the Nazi-hunting group said in a statement upon the release of its annual report.
The report highlighted the "implementation by the local judicial authorities of a legal strategy, which paves the way for the conviction of practically any person who served either in a Nazi death camp or in the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units)".
The Los Angeles-based group's Jerusalem director, Dr Efraim Zuroff, said it would continue efforts to try and sentence Nazi war criminals.
"During the past 14 years, at least 102 convictions against Nazi war criminals have been obtained, at least 98 new indictments have been filed, and well over 3,500 new investigations have been initiated," he said in a statement.
The National Library of Israel plans to digitize a collection of documents that belonged to the Yiddish poet Abraham Sutzkever, who experienced the horrors of the Holocaust in the Vilna Ghetto.InfinityAR raises money, and prospects, for augmented reality revolution
Most of the ghetto’s Jews were killed by the Nazis, but thanks to Sutzkever, some of the ghetto’s rich cultural life was preserved. Sutzkever, along with fellow poet Abba Kovner and other intellectuals, worked tirelessly to make sure the memory of ghetto’s community would live on by collecting documents. Sutzkever managed to preserve the documents from the Vilna Ghetto using a tin suitcase he assembled after he fled the city.
“The contents of the suitcase provide unique insight into what went on in ghetto. … It shows how people led their lives under the shadow of death,” Gil Weissblei, who works in the library’s Archives Department, told Israel Hayom.
Despite the hardships, the ghetto had a vibrant community that attended concerts and lectures, provided education to its youths, and maintained a functioning library.
So far, the augmented reality (AR) consumer revolution hasn’t taken off as expected. Devices like Google Glass and others in that space proved to be too expensive and inflexible for use by most people. But a new system produced by Israel’s InfinityAR could change that, with a technology that will sharply lower the cost of AR equipment and make it easier for developers to build applications for gaming, medical research, education, and much more.Nano-bullet tech shoots down brain cancer in Tel Aviv U study
InfinityAR recently raised $5 million in a second round of funding, with money coming from Japanese SUN Corporation, a prominent player in the Japanese gaming and mobile market, New Zealand private investment fund Singulariteam Fund II, and US-based fund Platinum Partners Value Arbitrage Fund L.P.
The money will be used to fund development of devices based on InfinityAR’s solutions for the Japanese market. SUN Corporation is major player in the Pachinko industry – a form of gaming extremely popular in Japan.
The reason InfinityAR’s solutions could succeed where others have failed, said CEO Motti Kushner, is simple: His company can bring AR devices to market for a lot less money than others have been able to. Speaking at a recent event on machine vision technology in Tel Aviv, Kushner described InfinityAR’s stereoscopic camera tech, which, using sophisticated algorithms, renders images and blends them into a scene much more cheaply, efficiently, and quickly than other solutions based on 3D depth sensors.
The worst form of brain cancer, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), is considered largely incurable by doctors. Victims generally die within a year and a half of being diagnosed with the tumors. It’s such a devastating disease that the National Academy of Sciences calls it “the Terminator.” But an innovative nanotech-based “end-run” around cancer cells by Tel Aviv University researchers could provide doctors with a new way to treat – or even cure – GBM and other malignant killer cancers.Israeli team finds two proteins that can suppress cancer
The technique, developed by Prof. Dan Peer of TAU’s Department of Department of Cell Research and Immunology and Scientific Director of TAU’s Center for NanoMedicine, has proven itself in the past: It’s based on the “cancer bullet” system Peer and other TAU researchers developed that delivers chemotherapy directly to cancer cells, using bioadhesive liposomes (BALs), consisting of regular liposomes reduced to nano-sized particles that attach themselves to the cancerous cells. Peer and Prof. Rimona Margalit, with whom he developed the method, have published several studies showing its effectiveness.
A team of Israeli researchers at the Technion has discovered two proteins that can suppress cancer and control the cells’ growth and development.How a smartphone for the blind may save drivers’ lives
The study was conducted in the laboratory of Prof. Aaron Ciechanover, an Israeli Nobel-prize winner in chemistry, and led by Dr. Yelena Kravtsova-Ivantsiv. The team included research students and physicians from the Rambam, Carmel and Hadassah Medical Centers.
In a paper published in the journal Cell last week, the researchers showed how the proteins could repress cancerous tissues and detailed how a high concentration of a protein called KPC1 and another called p50 in the tissue can protect it from cancerous tumors.
An Israeli-developed smartphone for the blind is providing technology that will now help the fully sighted to drive more safely. RayGo is the first eyes-free patented smartphone system that lets drivers interact with their smartphones without taking their eyes off the road.Is Billionaire Roman Abramovich Planning Aliyah?
If driving while connected is set to become safer, it will be due in part to the work done by the Israeli team that developed Project RAY, a smartphone that enables the blind to interact with their devices. The RAY device allows users to navigate everything by voice and touch and provides responsive voice feedback to guide users as needed. RAY device users can call out the name of a contact, for example, and the phone will automatically dial the number. The device also has a unique touch component; all actions are taken by sliding a finger on the screen up, down, left, or right to have the device read email aloud, dial numbers, or send text messages.
It’s that touch and voice technology that RAY team members have adapted for RayGo, said device co-creator Boaz Zilberman, as they realized that they had something that could be useful not just for the blind but for others who should be keeping their eyes off their device’s screens while driving.
“You don’t usually find assistive technologies ‘filtering up’ to the general public to provide a mass solution,” said Zilberman. “Usually it’s the mass technology that is adapted for the disabled, but in our case, we adapted the tech we developed for the blind for more general use.”
Globes reported Monday that the 58th richest man on the planet, with an estimated fortune of $12 billion, has picked up a major asset in Israel, the lot on which stands the Varsano boutique hotel in gentrified, picturesque south Tel Aviv.Kim Kardashian, Kanye West meet Jerusalem mayor during quick Israel trip
Abramowich paid roughly $25 million for the lot, which was owned by the Guy and Yaron Versano (married to Israeli Hollywood actress Gal Gadot—a.k.a. Wonder Woman), in the old neighborhood of Neve Tzedek, near the border of Jaffa.
The lot is less than half an acre in all, and includes the hotel, which is slated for preservation, as well as a parking lot, zoned for housing.
Now, Abramovich lives with his family in London, but he has been expressing an interest for a few years now, according to Globes, in buying property in Neve Tzedek.
American reality television star Kim Kardashian and her rapper husband Kanye West met for a meal with Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Monday evening during the superstars' whirlwind visit to the region.
"We raised a toast to Jerusalem," Barak recounted of his encounter with the celebrities at a local restaurant.
The mayor added that during the meeting, he asked the Hollywood-based crew "to be ambassadors of Jerusalem and to spread the message around the world that Jerusalem is open and everyone is wanted here."
In a quick visit to Jerusalem, the famous couple had their toddler daughter, North West, baptized at a 12th century Armenian church in the old walled city.
