Saturday, May 02, 2015
‘Don’t give up on Or,’ pleads family of Israeli missing in Nepal
Family and friends of the last Israeli missing in Nepal insisted they still hoped to find him alive Saturday, a week after a deadly quake hit the Himalayas, and they urged the public not to give up on him either.IDF Rescue Dog Searches for Victims in Kathmandu Rubble
“Rescue teams told us about instances in which they rescued people healthy and whole, even after a month,” Or Asraf’s friends told the Walla news site, as hopes of rescuing more survivors from last week’s earthquake dwindled.
“We’re not giving up and we’re asking everyone — from the teams on the ground to the people at home — not to lose hope and not give up on Asraf.”
Nepal’s government on Saturday ruled out the possibility of finding more survivors buried in the rubble from last weekend’s massive earthquake as it announced the death toll had risen to 6,841. Over 14,000 were injured.
A GoPro camera strapped onto an Israeli Army dog revealed first hand the search for survivors of Saturday’s deadly earthquake in Nepal.Israel Army Rescue Dog searches for Nepal earthquake survivors
In a 30-second clip, posted by the IDF on Facebook, the canine is shown walking across rubble in Kathmandu and through evacuated buildings looking for survivors. The dog sprints past demolished homes and still standing structures where walls are torn apart and personal belongings are scattered across the floor.
The short video provides a glimpse into the extent of the damage wrought by the natural disaster that killed more than 6,000 people, while thousands of others are still unaccounted for.
Aside from searching for survivors, the Israeli Army is also helping to treat wounded Nepalis. Three days after the earthquake, a 260-member IDF delegation, including 127 medical personnel, arrived in Nepal and set up a field hospital to help the injured. The hospital has provided medical care to 246 people since opening on Wednesday morning and doctors have already performed some 15 life-saving surgeries, The Times of Israel reported.
Slain Jerusalemite’s Father: Israel is at War, But We’re in Denial About it
Rabbi Uri Sharki, whose son was run over and killed in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem last month, said “Because we are in the midst of a struggle, we should assume that the [incident] was a terrorist attack until proven otherwise.”
It took five days for the attack that killed Shalom Yochai Sharki to be recognized as a terrorist attack because police had to prove it was not simply a traffic accident.
Sharki sees this hesitation as part of a larger issue that has overtaken Israeli society. He said that he understands that from the perspective of “professional ethnics,” the police have to remain cautious about giving definite answers, “and I also do not want to condemn an innocent man. But the question is, what is the underlying assumption?”
Sharki explained that, for police, an incident is not a terrorist attack unless it is proven to be so afterwards.
“But, it is also possible to operate in the opposite manner: for the starting point to be that this is a terrorist attack, until it is proven otherwise,” said Sharki.
Guy Bechor: Democrats are losing Jewish vote
Obama is reaching the end of his term, and the question is what is the extent of the damage he has caused, and may still cause, to the continuation of the Jewish support for the Democratic Party, which was born following the Democrats' support for Israel from its very first days. This support has two dramatic implications in the upcoming presidential election, which may see a tight race.Israel’s military edge at risk as Obama ‘scrambles’ to placate Arab fears on Iran deal
The first implication is that there are at least three important states in which the Jewish vote can tip the scales: Florida (with a Jewish population that keeps growing), Illinois and Pennsylvania. Florida is critical for a victory, either Republican or Democratic. The second implication is that the Jews are known as generous donors to the Democratic Party. Now, as the US Jewry is shifting to the right, like in Israel, the amount of donations to the Republicans is increasing.
There is another measure of the Jews' shift to the right: The two parties' attitude towards Israel. The Republicans' starting point since Gallup began studying this attitude was low: In 1988, only 47% of Republicans identified with Israel more than with the Palestinians; today, 83% identity with Israel – nearly an all-time record. The jump in the Republicans' solidarity with Israel can also be attributed to the fact that many Jews have joined the party.
In the same time period, from 1988 to this day, the Democrats' solidarity with Israel more than with the Palestinians rarely crossed the 50% mark (today it stands at 48%). From 1993 to 2001, only 35% of Democrats identified with Israel more than with the Palestinians. So many Jews are asking themselves: If the Democrats are not very fond of Israel, why should we be fond of them?
The Obama administration is said to be “scrambling” to find ways to reassure Arab allies that it is not abandoning them, despite the imminent nuclear deal with Iran. To that end, it is considering a range of options such as weapons sales that might reduce Israel’s hitherto sacrosanct military edge, the New York Times reported Friday, including selling the F-35 fighter jet to the United Arab Emirates.House committee approves Israeli missile defense funds
Among the options cited by the paper as being under consideration: A defense pact under which the US would commit “to the defense of Arab allies if they come under attack from outside forces”; joint training missions for American and Arab military forces; designating Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as “major non-NATO allies,” a step that would loosen restrictions on weapons sales and offer “a number of military advantages that are available only to NATO allies”; and approving the sale of its advanced F-35 stealth fighter to the UAE three years after it is delivered to Israel.
The administration is hurriedly weighing such options ahead of a Camp David summit set for May 14 for President Barack Obama and Gulf allies, the New York Times said. Countries might reportedly “downgrade” their participation at the summit, intended for foreign ministers, if the president does not come up with a satisfactory offer.
The US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee has approved $474 million for Israel’s anti-missile systems.New Bipartisan Congressional Resolution Demands Release of Americans Held by Iran
Included in the US-Israel cooperative missile defense funds is $41.4 million for the short-range Iron Dome rocket defense system, which Israel says was key in repelling rocket attacks during last summer’s war with Hamas.
Also included in the amendment approved Thursday are $165 million for David’s Sling, another short-range system, and the longer-range Arrow-3 missile defense programs, as well as $267.6 million in research and development funds.
Reps. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the committee chairman, and Adam Smith (D-Washington), its ranking Democrat, initiated the allocation as an amendment to the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, which now must be approved by the full House and Senate.
Rep. Dan Kildee (D – Mich.) introduced a bipartisan Congressional resolution Thursday calling on Iran to “release all detained Americans immediately,” The New York Times reported.Map Shows That Iran Has No Intention of Defeating ISIS
Characterizing the resolution as the product of legislative anger at Iran, the Times reported:
The latest evidence of indignation was seen on Thursday when Representative Dan Kildee, Democrat of Michigan, announced at a news conference in Washington that he had introduced a bipartisan congressional resolution that says in part, “Iran should release all detained Americans immediately and provide any information it possesses regarding any Americans that have disappeared within its borders.” …
Mr. Kildee’s constituents include the family of Amir Hekmati, 31, of Flint, a Marine veteran whose parents emigrated from Iran. He was seized while visiting relatives in August 2011, convicted of spying and sentenced to death, a verdict later reduced to helping a hostile country, with a 10-year sentence.
The other Americans known to be incarcerated are Saeed Abedini, 34, of Boise, Idaho, a Christian pastor imprisoned since 2013 on charges of disturbing national security, and Jason Rezaian, 39, of Marin, Calif., The Washington Post’s Tehran correspondent, who was arrested last July and is facing espionage charges.
A map of the current position of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), as well as Iranian anti-ISIS forces, shows that while Iran will continue fighting ISIS, it has no interest in defeating the terror organization. The map was created by security researcher Michael Pregent, who was interviewed yesterday by Armin Rosen of Business Insider.Iran's FM denies Islamic Republic jails people for their opinions
As the map demonstrates, the jihadist group’s domain lies beyond both Iran and the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government’s priority defensive boundary. As Pregent told Business Insider, the map shows that “Iran has no intent of defeating ISIS.”
As Pregent notes, ISIS has been defeated nearly everywhere the group has been fought on the ground. “The map tells a story,” he told Business Insider. “ISIS is able to maintain territory because it’s unopposed. But where it’s opposed it loses territory, in both Iraq and Syria.”
The black ring cutting through central Iraq and Syria is there because the region’s military actors just aren’t interested in challenging the group in those areas.
Iran's Foreign Minister is facing a flurry of criticism after suggesting in a recent television interview that the Islamic Republic does not persecute individuals based on their opinions.Arab Antiquities Robbers Caught in the Act
Mohammad Javad Zarif, whose representation of Tehran during the P5+1 nuclear negotiations in Switzerland brought him into the public eye, sat down with Charlie Rose on Friday for a sixty-eight minute in which he was asked about the ongoing detention of Jason Rezaian, an American-Iranian journalist that has languished in the Iranian prison system for the past nine-months.
"Iran does not jail people for their opinions," Zarif answered, despite the fact that Iran maintains one of the worst records for press freedom in the world, ranking 173 according to the 2014 Press Freedom Index, coming in just after Sudan.
Zarif outlined what he says is his government's plan “to improve and enhance human rights in the country."
But people who commit crimes, who violate the laws of a country cannot hide behind being a journalist or being a political activist, people have to observe the law,” he added.
Seven residents of Rahat, a Bedouin Arab town in the Negev, were caught on Wednesday night stealing antiquities from the archaeological site Tel Ma'aravim adjacent to Rahat.Palestinian youth tries to stab IDF soldier at West Bank checkpoint
The seven, all aged in their thirties, were caught in the act as they dug at the site looking for ancient artifacts, all while causing irreversible damage to the layers of archaeological evidence.
Border Patrol officers and the Israel Antiquities Authority captured the seven in a joint operation.
The Arab criminals were stealing ancient coins from the time of the Roman occupation of Israel 2,000 years ago, which ended the second Jewish kingdom in Israel.
Several of the antiquities thieves were found on the site trying to dig up antiquities, while others were several hundred meters away standing guard and trying to prevent anyone from interfering.
An IDF soldier escaped injury on Saturday morning when a 16-year-old Palestinian tried to stab him on a bus in the West Bank.Israeli Rescuers Try to Save Lives of Palestinian Men Who Drowned in Pond
The incident took place at the Tunnel road checkpoint between the Gush Etzion settlements and Jerusalem during a standard IDF security check.
The passengers of the bus were asked to disembark in order for the soldiers to carry out their search of the vehicle when one of them tried to stab a soldier with a knife, the IDF spokesperson said.
The soldier, a military policeman, succeeded to frustrate the attacker with the help of a civilian security guard.
Despite the best efforts of Israeli volunteer rescuers, two Palestinian men in their 20s drowned on Tuesday afternoon in a pond in the Jordan Valley .In Ramallah, Jimmy Carter urges Palestinian elections
“Two teams of Israeli volunteer rescuers arrived on the scene immediately from Samaria and from the Jordan Valley,” Nathaniel, an Israeli search and rescue volunteer, told Tazpit News Agency. “Our special aquatic team managed to locate and pull the unconscious Palestinians from the water, and began resuscitation attempts.” Unfortunately, these attempts were unsuccessful.
The deaths occurred after a group of young Palestinians went for a swim in one of the natural ponds of the North Jordan Valley. When two of the swimmers disappeared, the others contacted local Israeli security forces, who summoned civilian and IDF search and rescue units.
The Israeli medical team administered CPR until a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance arrived to ferry the men to a Palestinian Authority hospital, where they succumbed to their injuries.
Former US president Jimmy Carter on Saturday urged Palestinians to hold elections to end the de facto division of the West Bank and the Islamist-run Gaza Strip.Palestine wants Israel out of FIFA, eyes a three-quarters majority to pass proposal
He was speaking at a joint news conference with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the political capital Ramallah in the West Bank.
“We hope that sometime we’ll see elections all over the Palestinian area and east Jerusalem and Gaza and also in the West Bank,” said Carter, a member of The Elders, an independent Group of global leaders.
No election has been held in the Palestinian territories for nearly a decade.
Rajoub met Blatter in Manama during this week's AFC Congress and is keen for the Swiss to seek a solution. However, he is not optimistic and is in no mood to back down again.Hamas fighter said killed in tunnel collapse
"This is the third year in a row this has come up, first in Mauritius, then Brazil and now again," he explained.
"I don't think anything will change in the next few weeks. We are close to crossing the bridge and no-one can stop us having the proposal on the agenda even if some people would rather it was not."
It would need a three-quarter majority of FIFA's 209 members for Palestine's proposal to succeed and Rajoub believes it will happen.
"Don't think just because Israel is in Europe that Europe will support Israel any longer," he said, referring to the country's footballing ties.
Amid growing reports of Hamas rebuilding its subterranean infrastructure, the terrorist group on Saturday announced that one of its members was killed while digging a tunnel in the northern Gaza Strip.Palestinian gunmen turn heroes in UK production of ‘The Siege’
Nihad Khalif, 30, of the town of Beit Lahiya died when a tunnel collapsed near the border with Israel, the group’s armed wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said on social media.
The report of the fighter’s death came after amid of sustained efforts by Hamas to rebuild its offensive capabilities against Israel, including the conscription of new fighters, rehabilitating its cross-border attack tunnels and restocking its rocket arsenal with longer-distance rockets.
According to a Times of Israel report in April, Hamas has begun using heavy machinery and engineering tools to accelerate the excavation of attack tunnels leading from the Gaza Strip under the Israeli border. The equipment, sources in the Palestinian enclave said, includes small bulldozers with the ability to maneuver in tight spaces.
The Qassam Brigades shared a photo of the fighter on Twitter.
British Jewry is bracing itself for attacks on Israel ahead of the month-long national tour of a new play by the Freedom Theatre of Palestine called “The Siege.”Legal scholar Dershowitz wants honorary Israeli citizenship to counter BDS
The theater company, based in the West Bank town of Jenin, structured the play around the April 2002 siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The company, whose mission is “generating cultural resistance,” is bringing the play to the United Kingdom in May and is set to perform in a number of locales with large Jewish communities. According to the theater’s website, “The Siege” is supported by the EU, the British Council and the Roddick Foundation.
It will open in Manchester at Salford’s Lowry Theatre on May 13 and 14, and will then tour Britain, with performances at London’s Battersea Arts Centre and major stages in Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham and Glasgow, as well as some smaller venues.
The background story: Back in 2002 during the height of the Second Intifada, in an attempt to stem terror attacks, the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Defensive Shield and occupied parts of the West Bank, including Bethlehem. During a 39-day standoff, scores of suspected Palestinian gunmen holed up in the Bethlehem church, taking as human shields or hostages around 200 Christian clergy and civilians. By the siege’s end, eight Palestinians had been killed.
Prominent Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said on Friday that he would like to become an honorary citizen of Israel to fight the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS).Phyllis Chesler: 145 American Writers Think Honoring Charlie Hebdo is 'Islamophobic'
“I think the good answer to the BDS movement is to institutionalize what Evgeny Kissin did,” Dershowitz told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview.
Kissin, a world-renowned classical pianist, became an Israeli citizen in 2013 to stymie countries and organizations that sought to boycott Israel.
Kissin, the Moscow-born prodigy, said at the time “When Israel’s enemies try to disrupt concerts of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra or the Jerusalem Quartet, I want them to come and make troubles at my concerts, too: because Israel’s case is my case, Israel’s enemies are my enemies, and I do not want to be spared of the troubles which Israeli musicians encounter when they represent the Jewish State beyond its borders.”
Dershowitz said that if Israel offered “honorary citizenship to musicians and academics who could be subject to BDS” it could dissuade boycotts of the Jewish state. He added that those who accept honorary citizenship would not make full aliya like Kissin’s symbolic decision but use their citizenship as an act of solidarity with Israel to blunt BDS.
The PEN award to the survivors of the Charlie Hebdo massacre has drawn some very distinguished fire. On April 26, 2015, six PEN "table hosts," all highly regarded writers, publicly protested PEN's decision to give an award for "Freedom of Expression Courage" to these courageous survivors. This award, to be given on May 3rd, is separate from the literary prizes.Bowdoin College students start voting on total Israel boycott
By April 30th, the six (Peter Carey, Teju Cole, Rachel Kushner, Michael Ondaatje, Francine Prose, and Taiye Selasi) were joined by one hundred and thirty nine authors who signed a petition of protest. In all, this represents only 4% of their membership.
Salman Rushdie, a writer who knows what it is to pay the price for having criticized Islam and is also a former President of PEN had this to say: They are "six authors in search of character." He is right. They do not know how to stand up to the false charge of "Islamophobia."
Thus, one hundred and forty five authors have decided to shame PEN—publicly, and at the last minute—in order to make an "anti-Islamophobic" political statement which renders every critic of Islamic gender and religious apartheid, and every critic of Islamic terrorism, that much more vulnerable.
On Thursday, April 30, 2015, I reported on a developing story at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine: ALERT: Bowdoin College Students May Vote on Israel Academic BoycottUniversity of Sydney Staff Thinks Antisemitism Has a Place on Campus
The Bowdoin College Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) group may obtain sufficient signatures on a Petition to send a referendum endorsing the full academic and cultural boycott of Israel to a vote by the full student body.
This is not a mere “divestment” resolution. In calling on the full student body to endorse the complete boycott of Israel, the referendum appears to be taking an unpredecented move among college anti-Israel initiatives, which normally are narrowly tailored.
It is a resolution, much like that passed by the American Studies Association, that would cut all academic and cultural ties with all Israeli Universities and any Israeli scholar or student acting on behalf of or through those universities. The ASA boycott was condemned as a violation of academic freedom by over 250 University Presidents (including Bowdoin’s) and several major academic groups, such as the American Association of University Professors.
As of 5 p.m. yesterday, Bowdoin SJP apparently obtained the necessary signatures, even though the online petition is short of the 383 signatures needed. There were some students who signed on paper, I am told, to reach the required number.
The voting on the referendum has just started, as detailed below. But there is a question as to whether it even is procedurally proper.
The referendum may be procedurally defective under the Bowdoin student government Constitution since there was nothing in the text of the Petition which stated that the signatories wanted a referendum on the issue. The Petition did not contain the word “referendum” or any specific referendum language.
University of Sydney staff argued that supporters of the Islamic State be given a platform to “express” antisemitism, News.com.au reported on Friday.Man described by BBC as ‘a businessman’ gets terror designation
“I would say yes, we should ‘allow’ [individuals] to express their anti-Semitism — within bounds, of course,” wrote Philosophy Department lecturer Yarran Dylan Khang Hominh in an email chain among arts staff discussing freedom of speech.
His assertion was part of a larger debate over free speech on campus, after staff and student members of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions group faced disciplinary measures for disrupting a speech by retired British Army officer Richard Kemp.
One heckler, Professor Jake Lynch, was accused of antisemitism after he allegedly waved money in front of an elderly woman’s face, according to the report.
Following the protest, the BDS group continued to ruffle feathers on campus when it published an open letter on the freedom of expression on campus that criticized the university for canceling a speech by the spokesperson for an international Islamist group called Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is an outspoken backer of the Islamic State.
A man described twice by the BBC as “a businessman” in an article from September 2013 has been named as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US State Department.BBC amends inaccurate claim on Gaza mortar fire
“Hussein Atris is a member of Hizballah’s overseas terrorism unit. In 2012, Atris was arrested in Thailand in connection with a terror warning about a possible attack in Bangkok. Atris was found to be hiding nearly three tons of ammonium nitrate, a component in the manufacture of explosives. In 2013, a Thai court sentenced Atris to two years and eight months in prison for illegally possessing the materials. He was released in September 2014, and traveled to Sweden and later Lebanon, where he is believed to be located currently.”
In its reporting at the time of Atris’ arrest and trial, the BBC consistently misrepresented Hizballah’s terror designation, suggesting to audiences that the United States alone considers it a terrorist organization.
The BBC News website explained the source of the inaccuracy as follows:The Mulish Media and Civilian Casualties in Gaza
“It was, as you point out, a mistake to say the UN inquiry summary said it found that Israeli forces had fired 88 mortars at the girls’ school. It appears the error originated in a report by AP.” [emphasis added]
Agencies such as Associated Press are obviously not subject to the same editorial standards of accuracy and impartiality as apply to BBC content and therefore any agency material should surely be subject to rigorous fact checking before it is used (in this case, without any indication) in a BBC report.
Whilst this correction is clearly very welcome, the continued lack of a dedicated corrections page on the BBC News website of course means that it is highly unlikely that those who read the original version of the report would have returned to it three days after publication and seen the appended footnote.
Each and every time, without fail, when escalating Palestinian violence provokes a large-scale Israeli response, the media and "human rights" activists portray Israeli military actions as indiscriminate and reckless, mainly harming Palestinian civilians, especially women and children. It is remarkable how intractable the media and its acolytes are in the face of emerging evidence refuting their favored motif that Palestinian civilians account for the bulk of the victims.40 Person Mob Assaults 2 Jews on Paris’ Boulevard Voltaire
During the Cast Lead operation (Dec. 27, 2008 to Jan. 18, 2009) and Protective Edge, the 50 day conflict between Israel and Hamas during the Summer of 2014, the media accepted without hesitation the fatality tallies provided by the U.N., even though the UN relies on the information provided by a terrorist entity, Hamas, that is a party to the conflict and has an obvious interest in misrepresenting the make-up of these fatalities. It is a curious thing, that so much credence is given to figures provided by a terrorist organization with a poor record of accountability, while contradictory figures from Israel, a country with a proven record of conducting independent investigations, are dismissed.
Both in 2009 and 2014, even as hostilities flared, information provided by the Palestinians themselves cast doubt on the claims that civilians made up the vast majority of fatalities. In both cases, independent Israeli organizations conducted investigations of the identities of the listed fatalities by the Palestinians. A study by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center disclosed that more than half of those killed in the 2014 conflict, for whom sufficient information existed to categorize their status, were identifiable as members of terrorist organizations or participants in the hostilities. To avoid the accusation of partisanship, the Center's report exhaustively catalogs each individual, showing the evidence of their participation in the hostilities and affiliation with terrorist groups.
Two Jewish residents of Paris were assaulted on the street by a gang of about 40 people on Friday, Israeli French JSS News reported on Friday.Antisemitic Graffiti Found in Istanbul: ‘No Parking for Pigs and Jews’
The attack against the two Jewish residents, both in their 20s, occurred about 2:30 p.m. on Boulevard Voltaire in Paris’ 11 arrondissement, according to the report.
Police launched an investigation into the incident and warned local Jewish businesses owners to be extra vigilant, JSS News said.
Witnesses on the scene said members of the Jewish community volunteered to watch over the many local Jewish businesses on Boulevard Voltaire, according to French antisemitism watchdog group the Bureau National de Vigilance Contre l’Antisemitisme.
The gang of attackers were associated with anti-Israel groups Gaza Firm and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, said security personnel responsible for protecting the Jewish community.
The attack marks the latest in a growing antisemitic trend in France and Europe as a whole. Earlier this year, Islamist gunmen seized a Kosher supermarket in Paris and killed four Jewish hostages. Just a few weeks later, a security guard was killed in Copenhagen when a lone gunman opened fire in front of the city’s Great Synagogue.
Antisemitic graffiti is becoming commonplace in Istanbul’s Gaziosmanpaşa neighborhood, the Algemeiner learned on Friday.Germans said to increasingly view themselves as victims of WWII
Slogans such as “no pigs and Jews allowed,” “no parking for pigs and Jews,” and “free Jerusalem, death to Jewish murderers,” were discovered spray-painted on various edifices throughout the area.
The appearance of hateful graffiti is new to the area, said local resident Suleyman Sahin, despite the fact that there are likely no Jews living in the neighborhood. Residents said that there could be political motives behind the graffiti, especially given the proximity of upcoming elections and an unpopular redevelopment plan.
About 95 percent of Turkey’s thousands of years old Jewish community lives in Istanbul today. According to some sources, the number of Jews in Turkey is about 17,000 people, a tiny fraction of the country’s 73.7 million person population.
Germany’s perception of World War II is rapidly changing, as cultural attitudes and literature are beginning to paint Germans as victims of a cruel Nazi regime rather than accomplices to it.Germans cannot turn backs on Nazi past, Merkel says
Following an increased focus on WWII’s alleged Allied atrocities, the deaths of an estimated 7-9 million German people, and the displacement of an additional 14 million, statistics have shown that Germans’ perceptions of the Nazi era have changed, according to a Thursday report by the London Times.
A recent survey conducted by the Forsa Institute, a German polling and market research firm, found that the majority perceived the Allies’ victory as a liberation for Germany from the Nazi regime, with only 9 percent of Germans viewing World War II as a defeat — dramatically down from 34% in 2005.
Florian Huber, the author of Child, Promise Me You Will Shoot Yourself, a literary examination of the mass suicide phenomenon that plagued Germany in the aftermath of the war, claimed history has paid little attention to the suffering of ordinary Germans during and after the Nazi regime.
Germany cannot simply draw a line under its Nazi past and must remain sensitive to the damage it caused to other countries including Greece, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday, just ahead of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two.Nobel medal of German scientist who shielded Jews fetches $395,000
Speaking in her weekly podcast, Merkel said she was looking forward to a May 10 memorial in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin. She and other leaders have said they will not attend Russia's traditional May 9 military parade amid tensions with Moscow over its annexation of Crimea and fighting in Ukraine.
In the German capital, the 70th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Berlin, the climactic battle of the war, was marked in tributes on Saturday. The war ended on May 8, 1945.
"There's no drawing a line under the history," Merkel said, dismissing a yearning that many post-war generations of Germans harbor.
"We can see that in the Greece debate and in other European countries. We Germans have a special responsibility to be alert, sensitive and aware of what we did during the Nazi era and about lasting damage caused in other countries. I've got tremendous sympathy for that."
Wieland is known for opposing the Nazi party’s racism and strove to protect Jewish students who were discriminated against by the 1935 Nuremberg laws. Students who were expelled from the University of Munich where he taught were able to stay on under Weiland’s auspices as “Gäste des Geheimrats” — guests of the privy councillor.NASA chooses Israeli challenge in International Space Apps competition
Two of Wieland’s students, Hans Conrad Leipelt and Marie Luise Schultz-Jahn, helped distribute anonymous leaflets of the anti-Nazi White Rose resistance group that engaged in non-violent protest by calling for opposition to the Third Reich.
Members of the group were eventually arrested and beheaded by the Gestapo. Liepelt and Jahn collected money for the widow and children of Kurt Huber, a professor who was a prominent member of the White Rose group. They were both betrayed to the Gestapo and put on trial. Wieland testified on behalf of Liepelt but the student was decapitated on January 29, 1945. Jahn was sentenced to 12 years in prison but after being freed with the end of the war went on to study medicine. She died in 2010.
For the first time in the history of NASA’s International Space Apps Challenge, the agency selected a challenge based on the work of an Israeli scientist.‘Tikkun Olam Makers’ Turn Technology Into Solutions for People With Disabilities
Prof. Alon Peled, of the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, developed a challenge based on his new book, Traversing Digital Babel – Information, E-Government, and Exchange, and on his Public Sector Information Exchange research project, one of the leading Hebrew University projects in the field of Big Data.
“The goal of this challenge was to find a way to transform NASA’s information assets so that they are easier to discover on the Web, so that citizens, entrepreneurs, and experts working in non-space domains can discover and use them. NASA receives the solutions developed during the competition and can then use these solutions to develop better keywords to tag the Big Data information assets that it develops and releases on the Web, for the benefit of all of humanity,” said Peled.
His project is supported by a Google Faculty Research Award and received funding from Yissum, the Technology Transfer Company of the Hebrew University.
The US federal space agency sponsored the 4th Space Apps hackathon in April 2015. During the global competition, 12,780 participants developed 947 projects in 133 locations worldwide.
From cyber-security to medicine to agriculture, Israeli innovators are coming up with ideas that make our lives safer, easier, and more efficient. These creations, in turn, simultaneously fund the Jewish state and yield profits for their overseas investors. A new organization is taking this entrepreneurial ecosystem to a new level, merging technological savvy with tikkun olam (the Jewish value of repairing the world) to solve societal needs.
Tikkun Olam Makers (TOM), a project of the Reut Institute and ROI Community, is bringing together strategic thinkers, engineers, designers, and project managers to solve unmet social challenges in disadvantaged communities. TOM is built on six core values: scalability, community integration, collaborative competition, affordability, smart development, and innovation.
In March, TOM held its second “make-a-thon” in Tel Aviv (an event dubbed TOM: TLV), partnering with the Ruderman Family Foundation to harness cutting-edge technology to design affordable aids for people with disabilities. The goal was to create solutions that increase integration and inclusion.
“The event was a direct meeting ground for people with special needs and the people with the ability to help solve [their challenges],” TOM Founding Director Arnon Zamir says of the 72-hour program, which produced 25 technological prototypes.
