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Wednesday, August 19, 2015

08/19 Links Pt2: UN lets Iran inspect own nuke site; Why is the Red Cross holding seminars for Hamas?

From Ian:

UN to let Iran inspect its own alleged nuclear activity site
Iran, in an unusual arrangement, will be allowed to use its own experts to inspect a site it allegedly used to develop nuclear arms under a secret agreement with the UN agency that normally carries out such work, according to a document seen by The Associated Press.
The revelation is sure to roil American and Israeli critics of the main Iran deal signed by the US, Iran and five world powers in July. Those critics have complained that the deal is built on trust of the Iranians, a claim the US has denied.
The investigation of the Parchin nuclear site by the International Atomic Energy Agency is linked to a broader probe of allegations that Iran has worked on atomic weapons. That investigation is part of the overarching nuclear deal.
The Parchin deal is a separate, side agreement worked out between the IAEA and Iran. The United States and the five other world powers that signed the Iran nuclear deal were not party to this agreement but were briefed on it by the IAEA and endorsed it as part of the larger package. (h/t djcelts)
Why is the Red Cross holding seminars for Hamas?
This past Sunday, The New York Times ran a story encapsulating all that is wrong with the Western world’s approach to extremist Islamic fundamentalism.
In a report appearing in its first section, the paper revealed a startling bit of news: “Red Cross offers workshops in international law to Hamas.”
That’s right. The global institution, which claims that it works “to prevent suffering by promoting and strengthening humanitarian law and universal humanitarian principles,” is busying conducting seminars for terrorists in Gaza on how they can be, umm, more humanitarian when attacking Israel.
What’s next? Teaching table manners to the Taliban? The Times article goes on to describe the three-day seminar that the Red Cross conducted for Hamas last month. It included role-playing and case studies, noting that “one exercise involved an armed group firing on an invading tank from the garden of a civilian home near a hospital.” How educational! Mamadou Sow, head of Red Cross operations in Gaza, breezily noted to the Times that earlier this year, when he presented Hamas leadership with a critique of their conduct during last summer’s Gaza war, they “welcomed it” and “indicated that they are a learning organization.”
The article does not indicate whether Sow was able to maintain a straight face while uttering such inanity.
But lest you suspect that Hamas’ indiscriminate firing of thousands of rockets at Israel may indicate that it is somewhat indifferent to the value of human life, Red Cross leaders went out of their way to stress that “they have seen an increasing commitment from Hamas leaders and linemen alike” to respect international humanitarian law.
Huckabee: Israel has more of a connection to Shiloh than Americans have to Manhattan
Republican presidential candidate made no apologies Wednesday at a Jerusalem press conference for holding a fundraiser a day earlier in the West Bank settlement of Shiloh.
"I would happily go to Shiloh anytime" he said.
"I think it is very important that as Americans we show support for Israelis in their capacity to build their neighborhoods in their own country."
Huckabee, who stressed he did not see Judea and Samaria as occupied, said Israel - - with a 3500 year historic tie to Shiloh -- has more of a connection to lands in Judea and Samaria than Americans have to Manhattan, which goes back only 400 years.
"I feel like it is the right thing to stand with Israel in making sure they have the right to secure their homeland with safe and defendable borders, he said.
"It is interesting to me that our government has put more pressure on the Israeli government to stop building bedrooms in their own neighborhoods, than on Iran to stop building bombs."



New military advocate general prepared for ICC fight
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon appointed Col. Sharon Afek to be the new military advocate general for the Israel Defense Forces on Monday.
Afek will take over for the current chief attorney, Maj. Gen. Danny Efroni, who has served in the position since 2011.
For nearly 25 years, Afek has served in some legal capacity in the IDF, amassing experience in various aspects of military law that will allow him to serve as the army’s top attorney, Ya’alon said in his announcement.
“Afek brings with him to the position the utmost in professionalism, straightforwardness, a moral backbone and a wide legal and military vision,” Ya’alon said.
“[These are] the most important characteristics to have against the meaningful challenges that stand before the military advocate general, both those that are internal and external,” he added, alluding to possible lawsuits against the IDF in the International Criminal Court.
France laying groundwork to recognize ‘Palestine’
Indications the French do not intend to bring a Middle East peace resolution to the UN Security Council in the coming months were strengthened Tuesday after Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius met his Palestinian Authority counterpart and made no mention of the resolution in a statement after the meeting.
Following a meeting in Paris between Fabius and PA Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki, the French Foreign Ministry issued a statement that indicated Paris was beginning to set the groundwork for future French recognition of “Palestine.”
“The meeting,” according to the statement “also provided an opportunity to prepare for the first French-Palestinian intergovernmental seminar, the first session of which will be aimed at strengthening our relations in the political, economic and cultural spheres.”
One senior Western diplomatic official told The Jerusalem Post recently that the French backtracked from their UN proposal after facing objections from both Israel, who objected to the idea of imposing a solution form the outside, and the Palestinians, because they were unhappy that the resolution did not give them everything they wanted.
Instead, he said, the French would likely offer a trade off: recognition now instead of the resolution. The French parliament, along with a number of European parliaments, recommended taking such a step last year, after the Swedish government became the first significant Western European country to do so.
US 'concerned' over Israel's treatment of Arab-Americans at Ben-Gurion
US State Department spokesman John Kirby on Tuesday expressed concern over the treatment of Palestinian-Americans traveling to Israel.
According to the US State Department's website, "many Palestinian nationals or dual nationals seeking to enter via Ben-Gurion have been sent back to the United States upon arrival."
"Others have been allowed to enter Israel but told they cannot depart Israel via Ben-Gurion without special permission, which is rarely granted," the website explains.
Israel views anyone in possession of a Palestinian Authority ID card as a Palestinian resident, regardless of whether they are also a US citizen. Those eligible for the ID card include anyone with a parent or grandparent who lived in the West Bank or Gaza. Israeli law dictates that all Palestinian Authority citizens enter the country through the Allenby Bridge on the Jordanian border.
Where Was Israeli Flag in Herzog-Abbas Confab?
Labor/Zionist Union leader Yitzhak Herzog has come under Facebook fire since Tuesday for agreeing to sit for a photo with Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas – despite the fact that there was no Israeli flag behind him, as protocol demands.
Herzog posted a photo of the meeting on his Facebook page and wrote: "Don't be worried. Don't be afraid. Dare to ensure a better future for our peoples.”
Comments from critics were fast and furious. “You sly fox,” wrote Amir Moyal, sarcastically. “Abu Mazen said not to bring a flag, but you are not worried, not afraid, you dare!!!! You played a trick on him with a blue tie, which, along with the white shirt, is precisely an Israeli flag!!!! Now there's a leader for you!!!”
"Next time, bring a flag from home,” wrote Yaki Morad.
"What do you want from him, guys?”, asked Irit Hodorov. “The Israel flag is in the laundry.”
Ronen Braverman asked: "If you represent the 'Zionist' union, where is your country's flag?” And Amir Levy imitated 1970s children's cartoon riddles and wrote: “Dear children, please help Buji [Herzog] find what flag is missing in the picture.”
US may pull out Sinai force that helps keep Israel-Egypt peace
The Obama administration is quietly reviewing the future of America’s three-decade deployment to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, fearful the lightly equipped peacekeepers could be targets of escalating Islamic State-inspired violence. Options range from beefing up their protection or even pulling them out altogether, officials told The Associated Press.
The American forces have helped marshal peace in the peninsula since Egypt’s 1979 historic peace treaty with Israel. Some 700 members of an Army battalion and logistics support unit are currently there. They mainly monitor and verify compliance, and have little offensive capability. Several other countries also provide personnel.
Egypt has battled militants in northern Sinai for years, but attacks against its military and police have expanded since the July 2013 coup of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, with the Islamic State affiliate based in Sinai claiming responsibility for several large-scale assaults. Egypt’s army under current President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is trying to snuff out the insurgency.
For the United States, the fighting is troublesome, centered in the heart of the volatile Middle East near key maritime trading routes and alongside the most durable peace yet established between Israel and an Arab state. And it risks putting the so-called Multinational Force and Observers in the cross-hairs.
A year after Gaza war, Israel tests new anti-tunnel measures
A year after Hamas used cross-border tunnels to launch deadly attacks during the Gaza war, Israel is testing new techniques to detect the hidden passages as a "top priority", sources say, but has yet to announce the system fully operational.
Beyond standard military secrecy, the reticence to trumpet the measures may be to mask lingering short-falls in the system and avoid giving Israelis a false sense of security as they return to homes near the Gaza Strip abandoned during the war.
Israel has been testing half a dozen technologies for spotting movement or cavities below ground, or the resulting disruption of the earth above, using dummy tunnels in a desert base in southern Israel security sources said.
Foreign geologists and surveillance experts have been helping, the sources said, declining to give more details.
The anti-tunnel system is a "top priority" for Israel's Defense Ministry, said one security source involved in the project, adding: "It's working, but it still isn't 100 percent."
Full coverage of the sandy, 65-km (40-mile) border is a tall order, however. For now, equipment can be seen, half-buried, half-exposed, dotted along stretches of the fortified frontier.
IDF soldier hurt in West Bank bomb attack
An IDF soldier was wounded Wednesday night when an explosive device was hurled at him during a routine patrol near the West Bank settlement of Har Gilo, on the southern outskirts of Jerusalem.
The soldier was transferred to a nearby hospital for further medical treatment, and IDF forces began searching the area for the perpetrators of the attack.
Earlier Wednesday, a toddler and her father were lightly wounded in a rock-throwing attack on Road 443 north of Jerusalem. The two-year-old girl and the father, who were not immediately named by police, were hit by glass shards from the car’s window, which shattered when it was hit by a thrown rock from the side of the road near the West Bank village of Bir Nabala.
According to police, the incident was the second time a car was hit with rocks on the highway Wednesday evening. Both incidents saw damage caused to the vehicles, but only in the later one were passengers hurt.
Temple Mount: Elderly Jewish Woman Assaulted - Police Do Nothing
An elderly Jewish woman was assaulted while visiting the Temple Mount Tuesday morning - and police did nothing to protect her or arrest her attacker.
Brenda Rubin, a resident of Jerusalem who made aliyah from the US seven months ago, was visiting the Temple Mount for the first time when the violent attack occurred.
Despite being Judaism's holiest site, Jews (and other non-Muslims) are forbidden from carrying out any forms of worship of prayer on the Temple Mount, due to pressure and threats of violence by Muslim groups. The Mount is the site of the ruins of the two Jewish Temples, and where ancient Jewish tradition says the third one will be rebuilt.
The Waqf Islamic trust, which runs the Al Aqsa Mosque complex built atop the ruins of the Temples, has full control over the site under an agreement between Israel and Jordan. Jewish visitors are closely monitored by Waqf guards and Israeli police throughout their limited visitation hours, with those suspected of praying often being arrested and expelled.
At the same time, Islamist groups have in recent years escalated a campaign of harassment, attempting in vain to stem the growing numbers of Jews ascending the holy site in spite of the harsh restrictions.
Home of Dalia Lemkos's Murderer to Be Razed
The security establishment has informed Maher Al-Hashalmoun of Hevron, the terrorist who murdered 25-year-old Dalia Lemkos Hy"d of Tekoa last November, that it intends to raze his home.
His family has been given 48 hours to file a motion appealing the demolition order. A final date has not yet been set for the demolition, and the family is indeed expected to file an appeal.
The military court in Ofer Prison north of Jerusalem sentenced the Arab terrorist to two life sentences in March, rejecting the Lemkos family's request for the death penalty.
The terrorist, Maher Al-Hashalmoun of Hevron, intentionally ran over Lemkos at a bus stop outside Alon Shvut in the Gush Etzion region of Judea before getting out of his car and stabbing her to death. He then attacked two other Israelis with the same knife, inflicting wounds before being neutralized and apprehended.
"We have decided to place two life sentences on the accused, one for the murder of the deceased and the second for his additional attempts at murder. These punishments are not enough to provide comfort for the family of the deceased, but they are enough to decry and express revulsion at the acts of the accused," read the court ruling.
4 Jews, 1 Arab Wounded in Jerusalem Rock Attack
Five people, among them four Jews and one Arab, were lightly wounded on Tuesday night after Arab terrorists hurled rocks at a bus and two cars in the eastern A-Tur neighborhood of Jerusalem located on the Mount of Olives.
Aside from the injuries, the windshields of the bus and the two private vehicles were damaged in the assault.
Magen David Adom (MDA) teams arrived on the scene to provide medical treatment to the wounded.
In parallel, security forces are conducting a wide search in the area in an attempt to track down the terrorists who threw the potentially lethal rocks.
Shortly before the attack it was reported that rocks were thrown at the light rail in Jerusalem as it passed through Shuafat, one of three Arab neighborhoods that was removed from light rail service after the stations were destroyed by Arab rioters last year.
No one was wounded in the attack but damage was inflicted on the train; indeed, the trains suffer from constant rock attacks, with the cracks in the windows visible to passengers.
Palestinians Seek to Blind Israeli Bus Drivers With New ‘Paint Bombs’ Attacks
Palestinian rogues have begun hurling glass bottles filled with paint at buses and other Israeli vehicles with the purpose of blinding the drivers and causing them to crash, Israel’s 0404 news website reported on Tuesday.
According to the report, one attack occurred overnight Monday shortly before 2:00 a.m. when a bus traveling on Route 270 from Jerusalem to the West Bank settlement of Ofra was attacked with a Molotov Cocktail, stones and these “paint bombs.”
The Molotov cocktail failed to ignite, but the assailants scored direct hits on the bus with the stones and paint.
The paint attacks have been increasing across Judea and Samaria, 0404 said. In most incidents the attackers aim primarily for a car’s windshield, in order to block the driver’s vision and cause them to lose control of the vehicle.
Corbyn invited “friend” to parliament who rejoiced in death of UK soldiers
An anti-semitic Arab extremist who has delighted in British troops’ murders is a “friend” of Jeremy Corbyn and was invited into Parliament by him, The Sun can reveal.
The Labour leadership runaway frontrunner hosted notorious Belgian firebrand Dyab Abou Jahjah to address a meeting at the House of Commons in 2009.
The 66-year-old Islington MP also spoke at an anti-war rally alongside Abou Jahjah in central London.
Both came after the Lebanese-born Muslim activist – now banned from the UK – spent a decade stirring up hate.
As the war in Iraq raged in 2004, Abou Jahjah publicly said he “considers every dead Dutch, British and American soldier a victory”.
He has also dubbed the 9/11 terror atrocities “sweet revenge”, attacked Europe for “Jew-worshiping”, referred to gay people as “Aids spreading fagots”, and been arrested in his hometown of Antwerp for organising an Arab riot.
Activist says “every dead Dutch, British and American soldier a victory”
He has also caused uproar by publishing twisted anti-Jewish cartoons, including one showing Adolf Hitler and 15-year-old Holocaust victim Anne Frank both naked in bed with the caption: “Write that in your diary, Anne”.
Now “Jews For Jeremy” enter the fray to defend Corbyn.
Now a group of Jews for whom Israel can do no right have set up a Facebook page to jump to Corbyn’s defence.
Jews For Jeremy “reject the smears of the Jewish Chronicle and other opponents of Jeremy who are trying to portray him as an antisemite, or somebody who has deliberately associated with antisemites.”
One guesses that when Corbyn described Hamas and Hezbollah as “friends” he hadn’t read the Hamas Charter which calls for the murder of all Jews and the destruction of Israel.
And did he really not know that Hezbollah is heavily implicated in the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 and the bombing of the AsociaciĆ³n Mutual Israelita Argentina building in the same city in 1994? These bombings claimed the lives of 114 people in total and left many hundreds more injured.
Friends? Really?
One of the main protagonists in Jews For Jeremy is the comedian Ivor Dembina. Dembina once joked that Jews have so monopolised the memory of Auschwitz despite many non-Jews having also died there that they refer to it as “Ourschwitz, not Yourschwitz”. He might even have reprised this “joke” for his audience at the Edinburgh Festival in his Free Gaza! show on Monday.
Ken Loach’s Barmitzvah
Ken Loach is a well known Jewish director. One of the Jews that control the film industry, in fact.
Here’s Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, in The Independent:
Some of the people Corbyn has been closest to are conscientious and ethical British Jews. The late Mike Marqusee, a Marxist, New York secular Jew who migrated to the UK, was his friend. So, too, is Ken Loach, a liberal British Jew and fierce defender of Palestinian rights. There are others, dismissed by Zionists as “self-haters” because they reject blind loyalty to Israel.
Ken isn’t Jewish, in the sense of having been born to Jewish parents, or having embraced the faith. Ken Loach may have a Jewish son in law, but that does not make him Jewish, at least according to the conventional halacha. Rather, he is Jewish by reason of his devotion to a bearded messianic figure whose initials are JC.
A simpler mind might reason that YAB has merely confused Mike Leigh with Ken Loach. But we are living in neo-Biblical times.
Note to Former Pres. Jimmy Carter: PLEASE Boycott Israeli Products & Technology
Dear Editor,
I am Jewish, and therefore forbidden by my faith to rejoice in someone’s misfortune, even for individuals like Jimmy Carter, the worse (sic) president in the history of our beloved country. This peanut-grower sold his rotten soul to the enemies of the United States and Israel, Carter is an avowed anti-Semite who has no love for me or my people.
By my own admission, I’m a fair man who hates no one (although I may dislike some people) but I will take this opportunity to remind the cancer-stricken Carter to follow through with the boycott of Israeli products. He should refuse to be treated with any of the lifesaving medication that was discovered by Jews, or medical technology that was researched and developed by Jews – in Israel or any other place.
An unsolicited piece of advice!
Mr. Carter you must be treated only with lifesaving products discovered by your soul buddies, the Palestinians and other Arab scientists
What say you Mr. Carter?
BDS Usurps Black Lives Matter
The Anti-Israel movement has engaged in this usurpation of others’ causes or movements in the past with great success. The Anti-Israel movement strategically usurped the peace movement. They funded and created peace groups around the world, or propped up existing peace movements, so eventually the word peace would become synonymous with being against Israel. My own state’s peace group, Carolina Peace Now, has a de facto leader by the name of David Matos. For several years, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation was listed as David’s employer on his Facebook page.
Contrary to popular belief, this push for support by Black Lives Matter for the Palestinian people has nothing to do with making Palestinian lives better, though the members of Black Lives Matter who are new to this, which is most, probably believe it does. If that were the case, I would fully support it. Its sole purpose is an attempt by the Anti-Israel propaganda machine to portray Jews as white, European oppressors of people of color. This is the narrative that is being sold to Black Lives Matter — hook, line and sinker — never mind that a majority of the Jews in Israel come from the Horn of Africa or the Middle East and never mind that the Palestinian territories do not have Black Africans living there as free or equal citizens, yet Israel does.
The problems that the Palestinians have because of religious extremism, greedy and ineffective leadership, and lack of resources due to declaring war on the State of Israel are not discussed. Lies like a civilian massacre at Deir Yassin and Mohammed al Dura dying at the hands of Israelis, both proven to be falsehoods an in effort to demonize the Jews, are characterized as facts when presented by the Anti-Israel movement to potential supporters. Of course people will be angered when they hear these fairy tale atrocities and few seem to be eager enough to be factually knowledgeable to verify what they’re being told.
CTV Issues On-Air Clarification: Israeli Officer Didn’t Stab Palestinian to Death
On August 16, CTV News Channel Anchor Brad Giffen erroneously claimed that an Israeli officer had stabbed a Palestinian to death.
At 3:47pm (EST), Giffen erroneously stated the following: “A funeral was held today for a Palestinian man who was killed after a stabbing by an Israeli security officer. A large group of men carried the body of the 21-year-old through the streets of the west bank Saturday. The man stabbed by an officer in the back while he was doing a routine security check, another near-by officer opened fire and killed the attacker. It was the second stabbing attack on an Israeli security official on Saturday.”
Contrary to what CTV reported, the dead Palestinian man was the one who stabbed the Israeli officer, and not the other way around. The Israeli officer did not stab the Palestinian. In fact, CTVnews.ca confirms the veracity of this information via an Associated Press article on August 15 entitled: “2 Palestinians shot after stabbings on Israeli security forces in West Bank” which says:
BBC among broadcasters to repeatedly breach Ofcom code over propaganda content
International broadcasters including the BBC repeatedly broke the Ofcom code by screening programmes funded by foreign governments, charities and NGOs, an investigation has revealed.
News films and documentaries were acquired for nominal fees and the identity of the funders not disclosed to the audience – in what has been dubbed a “£1 programme scandal”. Ofcom has uncovered nearly 50 breaches of its code by CNN, CNBC and the BBC after a four-year inquiry into the global news channels, which are beamed into hotel rooms around the world.
The media regulator discovered a series of contraventions of its impartiality guidelines and found hundreds of nominal-fee programmes had been paid for by bodies ranging from United Nations departments to the Indonesian ministry of trade and a Cambodian casino firm.
It said the practice carried “inherent risk to independence and editorial integrity” and it has ordered an “industry-wide” meeting of news networks to address the matter.
The Ofcom probe, the biggest it has undertaken into television content, began after an investigation in 2011 by The Independent, which revealed that a London-based media company that had received millions of pounds from the Malaysian government for public relations work was making documentaries for the BBC on the subject of Malaysia.
Former NYT Editor Caught in 'Palestinian Donkey Cart' Lie
Ezri Tubi, spokesperson for the Samaria community of Yitzhar, released a video on Wednesday debunking the claims of Roger Cohen, a former editor of the New York Times who happens to be Jewish.
Cohen claimed that Palestinian Arabs ride around in "donkey carts" on "dirt roads" to their orchards, while Jews ride in fancy cars on modern highways nearby - so Tubi drove through the Arab village of Huwara located near his home to test the ex-editor's claims.
What Tubi found were luxury cars made by Mercedes-Benz and other leading makers, driven by Arab residents on clean paved roads.
"Recently I find myself growing very interested in the processes occurring in the public opinion of Jews in the US," said Tubi. "When I saw these lies said by this Jew eaten up by hate I was so angry. How can one lie like that? Anyone who drives on the roads in Judea and Samaria can't help but notice the fancy luxury cars of the Arabs."
By filming the routine traffic in Huwara, Tubi sought to make his point about the actual conditions in the region.
Liberal candidate wished Israel supporter had been aborted with coat hanger
The Liberal Party and their leader Justin Trudeau have a candidate to fire after this tweet from Ala Buzreba was unearthed:
Yes, Buzreba as a Muslim, actually wished for an Israeli supporter to have been aborted with a back-alley technique. Lovely young woman Trudeau has running for him huh?
How many more of these types of vicious candidates does Trudeau have?
Imagine if they ever obtain a position of power within government.
Both a Buzreba spokesperson and a Liberal Party spokesperson directed Global News to her tweets as her “official response” when asked for an interview. (see here)
Update: Buzreba has now resigned:
Anti-semitic graffiti reading 'Yid s**t' scrawled on London Jewish school
Anti-Semitic graffiti featuring a swastika and the words "yid s**t" was found scrawled on the fence of a girls primary Jewish school in London Monday, marking the latest in a series of anti-Semitic incidents in Britain's capital.
The use of the word "Yid" - Jew in Yiddish - as a racial slur has become popularized in recent years.
A month prior, the words "Yids out" were drawn on the same fence where Monday's incident took place.
"Targeting a Jewish School with anti-Semitic graffiti is very low. Nobody should have to face hate crime of any kind, especially young children," said Michael Scher from Stamford Hill Shomrim, a voluntary neighborhood patrol group.
Local authorities are searching for the culprits of the anti-Semitic incident, and are urging the public to contact them with any leads.
India seeks Israeli help to become next “Start Up Nation”
While Europe has been busy targeting Israeli researchers, artists and filmmakers in recent days, Asian countries like India, China and Japan are taking tangible steps strengthening its ties with Israel.
Last week Norwegian Film festival rejected an Israeli film dealing with disability on the grounds that it “did not deal with occupation” or “discrimination of Palestinians.” In Spain, a music festival barred the Jewish-American reggae star Matisyahu for refusing to comply with the demands of the organizers to publically denounce Israel and endorse the “Palestinian cause” — in keeping with the best traditions of Spanish Inquisition. In Paris “peace activists” threatened and harangued visitors attending a day-long festival celebrating Tel-Aviv’s culture with music and gourmet.
Meanwhile in India, thousands gathered to see the opening on yet another Israeli Agriculture Technology Centre in Gujarat State. Israel runs 30 such centres across India, training farmers in latest agriculture technology and farming techniques.
On the occasion India’s 69th Independence Day on August 15, 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the initiative “Start Up India, Start Up India”, aimed at encouraging individuals to start new ventures and businesses — not just in technology sector. Israel’s Ambassador to India H.E. Mr. Daniel Carmon expressed his country’s support in helping India achieve those aims.
Never Too Late: Holocaust Survivors Make Aliyah in Their 90s
They met in the Bergen-Belsen death camp, got married - and immediately after World War II, they were able to escape the clutches of the Nazis and emigrated to Sweden, where they lived for five years before moving to the United States.
Now, decades later, and at the ages of 90 and 94, Feige and Felix Bandos realized their dream and immigrated to Israel. They made their home in the local council of Efrat in Gush Etzion, Judea.
Marilyn Broder, the couple's daughter who has been living in Israel for over 25 years, says that at first she couldn't believe her parents were making the move.
Oded Revivi, mayor of Efrat, also praised the new couple.
"In recent years, the Efrat Local Council has taken in hundreds of new immigrant families, both from the US and other countries," Revivi stated. "We are proud of these families, like the Bandoses, who strengthen the hold of our land and allow the Efrat Local Council to flourish."
Israel’s Hebrew U, Technion Among Top 100 Universities in Shanghai Ranking
Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Haifa-based Technion – Israel Institute of Technology have been selected at number 67 and 77, respectively, on the 2015 Academic Ranking of World Universities, which is also known as the “Shanghai Ranking.”
When it comes to specific fields, Technion ranked 18th for computer science and 44th spot in engineering.
The Shanghai Ranking has been published since 2003 with the purpose of improving the quality of Chinese universities by comparing them to other universities worldwide. The rankings take various factors into account, such as schools’ number of Nobel Prize and other award winners and their number of published scientific articles.
“Our excellent faculty, researchers, and staff will continue to train and cultivate the students at the Technion—Israel’s generation of the future,” Technion President Professor Peretz Lavie said regarding the institution’s ranking, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
Mariah Carey Mesmerizes Israeli Fans
Five-time Grammy Award winner singer Mariah Carey took the stage at the Live Park Amphitheater on Tuesday in Rishon Lezion, Israel, giving audiences a performance to remember for years to come.
Carey offered up a polished, Las Vegas-style show, complete with her amazing, five-octave vocal range, a golden microphone, and an array of stunning outfits.
Even before hitting the first note, Carey bonded with the 12,000-strong audience, something she made sure to do throughout the show, saying, “Hello Israel,” “I love you,” and “thank you,” in Hebrew, and repeating again and again how happy she was to be in Israel.
Together with her sidekick, R&B singer Trey Lorenz, Carey performed several duets, including I’ll Be There, which she dedicated to the late Michael Jackson.
Carey’s show featured a string of pop, soul, and R&B hits, which Israeli fans happily sang along with her, including Emotion, Shake it Off and My Home. Her performance in Israel was not originally part of her tour schedule.
Mariah Carey: Nobody tried to pressure me not to come here
At a press conference held at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Herzliya on Monday night, pop superstar Mariah Carey discussed her upcoming sell-out concert and her love of Israel.
Carey, 45 told reporters that she is excited to be back in Israel, adding that the tour was planned during her visit in June this year.
“I haven’t toured a lot in my life and I came here with my boyfriend James Packer a month ago and it was so exciting to be here that I decided I wanted to come back here and do a show,” she said.
The singer, who is traveling with her two children Moroccan and Monroe, spoke briefly about how motherhood has changed her life. “I would say it’s the best thing that’s every happened to me and music. It effected everything, it changes how I live my life entirely, and it’s the focus of who I am entirely. It changes the way I sleep, the way I live.”
Asked about her plans for this trip to Israel, the singer responded that she does not have much time and is traveling with her two children, but that she hopes to be back again to enjoy the tourist sites.
Egyptian-American Haisam Hassanein's Tel Aviv University Valedictorian Address


Newborn sand kittens delight at Israeli zoo
A cat once considered extinct in Israel is now making a comeback.
Rotem, a sand cat at the Ramat Gan Safari, gave birth three weeks ago to three kittens who were seen frolicking beside their mother Tuesday to the delight of visitors at the park.
Workers at the Safari were surprised by the birth, as Rotem lost her partner Sela one year ago, and the relationship between her and her new Swedish-born companion, Kalahri, was well — all claws.
Even though the two felines seemed disinterested in each other, caretakers decided to give love a chance. Rotem and Kalahri were left in the same room to spend nights together, during which they were unobserved; workers at the zoo had no idea if mating was taking place.
Surprise! Rare baby sand kittens born in Israel