Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: Erasing Christian History
For Palestinian Christians, the destruction of the ancient Byzantine church ruins is yet a further attempt by Palestinian Muslim leaders to efface both Christian history and signs of any Christian presence in the West Bank and Gaza, under the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas. A growing number of Christians feel they are being systematically targeted by both the PA and Hamas for being Christians.Douglas Murray: Trevor Phillips is finally discovering the pitfalls of the term ‘Islamophobia’
Bulldozers were used to destroy some of the church artifacts; some Palestinian Christians accused both Hamas and the PA of copying ISIS tactics to demolish historic sites.
"Where are the heads of the churches in Jerusalem and the world?... Where are the Vatican and UNESCO? Where are the leaders and politicians who talk, talk, talk about national unity and the preservation of holy sites? Or is this a collective conspiracy to end our existence and history in the East?" — Sami Khalil, a Christian from the West Bank city of Nablus.
The plight of Palestinian Christians does not interest the international community. That is because Israel cannot be blamed for demolishing the antiquities. If the current policy against Christians persists, the day will come when no Christians will be left in Bethlehem.
Later on he says:
‘Twenty years ago, when, as chair of the Runnymede Trust, I published the report titled Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All, we thought that the real risk of the arrival of new communities was discrimination against Muslims.’
And then:
‘Non-Muslims who live and work in areas with a large Muslim presence have been uneasily aware of the emerging differences for a long time, but many are too worried about being tagged as Islamophobes to raise the debate.’
Well isn’t that the problem right there? I am as happy as anyone to see the liberal dams cracking when it comes to the big issues of our time. But it is harder to celebrate those causing those cracks when they are the very people who put up those dams in the first place.
It was the mainstreaming of the fraudulent concept of ‘Islamophobia’ and the whole grievance-industry set up by Trevor Phillips, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission and their ilk that made Britain so incapable of answering this problem any earlier. Even now Trevor Phillips remains principally helpful in waking up to things just a few years too late. So although his proscriptions for how to deal with this problem may be helpful, even this late in the day, they miss perhaps the biggest remaining ‘unsayable’.
Ryan Bellerose: What Would Happen If They Won?
If the Arabs win: First, I hope you didn’t like those human rights you got so used to, because you won’t get to keep those. That whole equal rights for everyone thing? Not so much. If you are a woman, your rights are roughly equal to half that of a man. You won’t be able to leave the house without supervision and if you are lucky enough to get raped, you better hope there is a witness besides yourself or you will likely have insult to injury and be stoned – and not stoned in a good way. Are you gay? Don’t worry, as long as nobody finds out you should be fine. If they do, I hope you are OK with being thrown off a roof. That’s if they don’t hang you by a crane. Oh, you are a Christian? Cool story bro – as long as you pay your dhimmi taxes (roughly double) they will only ask that you NEVER TALK ABOUT YOUR RELIGION IN PUBLIC AGAIN or carry a bible in public. Upon pain of death by the way. If you are like me and are a “pagan” Indian who doesn’t follow the bible as your central holy text, don’t worry, you will be given the chance to convert to Islam before they kill you. It’s all good, though. They believe in human rights, just as long as they don’t contravene the Koran. If one needs proof of any of my assertions, one need only look at EVERY SINGLE MUSLIM MAJORITY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. Find me one that isn’t rife with human rights abuses, where religious freedom or even basic human rights are respected. And this is the side that the so-called social justice warriors have chosen, the new left who are supposed to be all about human rights. Yet they are literally siding with the one ideology that would take them all away. They make no bones about their goal of regaining control of any land ever conquered by Muslims and establishing a caliphate, and then why stop there? They want the whole world to spread Islamic peace and love. Oh and before you tell me all about those Muslims who don’t agree with the majority view? I know more than a few and they will be killed too. Now what would happen if the Jews won? What would happen if the Jews achieved their goals of peace and self-determination in their ancestral lands? You would be able to buy Kosher food at the supermarket. Full stop. That’s it. You are gay? Cool story bro, you want a sandwich? Wanna have a pride parade? Don’t care. Women want to do crazy things like vote and drive? Sure, have you seen how Jews drive and park in Israel? It can’t get worse by letting women do it too. And by the way, if you are a woman, you can have equal rights. Christians want to worship God and stuff? Cool just don’t force your proselytizing on anyone and it’s fine. Indians? You want to worship God and stuff in your own way? Cool, as long as you aren’t harming anyone, that’s fine too. Jews who don’t follow the majority view? That’s probably the majority – those people argue more than anyone i have ever seen. That’s probably why they don’t give a shit if you agree with them or not.PMW: Palestinian author condemns Antisemitism
A Palestinian TV cultural program interviewed a Palestinian author who criticized the tendency to demand hatred of Jews.At Jews for Bernie event in NY, anger boils over at Sanders campaign
Author Ounallah Abu Safieh: “Why now, in the present situation, do I hear that I have to hate the Jew because he is a Jew? No!” [Official PA TV, March 14, 2016]
He argued that that from a religious perspective, God is one and the source of all religion. He also argued that in the past, Jews, Christians and Muslims lived together and that Muslim leaders often had Jewish advisors:
“I also see that all of us are from one source, even the religions. Servant of the One God [the main character in Abu Safieh’s book, Ed.] has a theory about the matter of religious division. The source of religion is one, and what is added was created by man in his opinion. It is something that we men created, which caused one to be a Shi'ite, one to be a Sunni, one a Christian, and one a Jew. Originally He is one. As the source is one, what prevents me from praying in a church, or a mosque, each one according to his way? [...] Salah Al-Din's doctor was a Jew. In the kingdom of Muslim Spain, all of the advisors in Muslim Spain, the advisors of the kings and rulers were Jews, those in charge of the treasury and economy and information.”
It might have been the last place you’d expect anger to erupt against the Bernie Sanders campaign.Where Israel Bashing Pays Off
But at a Jews for Bernie brunch in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood on Sunday, the frustration seemed to boil over when some silver-haired Jewish supporters of Sanders began deriding what they described as the campaign’s lackluster response to perceived missteps by the Democratic presidential candidate on Jewish issues – most recently, last week’s interview with the New York Daily News in which Sanders grossly overestimated the number of Palestinian civilians killed in the 2014 Gaza conflict.
That interview and other Sanders campaign blunders on issues of Jewish concern, several of them complained, are making it more difficult to make the case to fellow Jews to support the Vermont senator in his bid for the White House.
When campaign staffers at Sunday’s event tried to steer the public conversation away from those concerns to focus on the logistics of canvassing, a few attendees became visibly irritated.
“I’m very frustrated with the campaign,” Lisa Harbatkin, 72, of Manhattan, told JTA. “Given where today’s left is on Israel, I felt Bernie was too fuzzy on the Palestinians, but good enough. But as the campaign progressed, I became more upset. I wish he wouldn’t hang out so much with Cornel West” – the contentious African-American studies professor who has expressed support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against Israel.
“Sanders has been tone deaf on Gaza. And the interview with the Daily News was appalling,” she said. “He doesn’t go to the AIPAC conference, but he’s going to the Vatican? I mean, come on!”
This is the sort of thinking that is common on the American left, including left-wing Jews, who cling to their preconceptions about Israeli perfidy and ignore the reality of the Middle East. Sanders doesn’t bother to consider that poverty in Gaza is the result of Hamas misrule, especially since Israel withdrew from the strip in 2005. If their poverty is to be blamed on the partial blockade of the area enforced by Israel and Egypt (though Israeli convoys of food and medicine kept flowing into Gaza even while Hamas was firing at Israel), it is because that independent Palestinian state in all but name is a terrorist enclave.Israel’s US Ambassador Slams Sanders for ‘Disproportionate Force’ Comment, Inflated Gaza Casualties
Though he is right to say Palestinians are deserving of respect and dignity, but if they think the lack of a state and the continuing Israeli presence in the West Bank is the problem, then why doesn’t Sanders ponder why they have repeatedly refused Israeli offers of statehood and independence? Even now, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas refuses to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders are drawn and speaks (when addressing Palestinians in Arabic as opposed to speaking to Westerners in English) of all of Israel as being “occupied” territory.
Sanders’ distortions about Israel would not have earned him cheers from a pro-Israel audience like that at the AIPAC conference and they aren’t likely to do so from similar Jewish audiences in New York. Why then is Sanders doubling down on a controversial approach to the Middle East just as the largest number of Jewish primary voters are about to have their say about the Democratic race?
Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer on Sunday night rebuked Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders for inflating the number of Palestinian civilians killed in Operation Protective Edge.An open letter to Senator Sanders
“While those numbers were partially corrected, the claim that Israel acted with disproportionate force was not,” Dermer said. “That claim is just as libelous as the claim that Israel killed 10,000 innocent civilians. Israel did not act with disproportionate force in our war in Gaza in 2014.”
Dermer made this comment during his speech at a gala at the Chelsea Piers in New York City hosted by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA).
Dermer also said that while Israel faced a barrage of Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza prior to and during the war, it “went to unprecedented lengths to keep Palestinian civilians out of harm’s way.”
“Israel has upheld values in a way no country has when faced with similar threats,” Dermer told the CAMERA audience. “Instead of defaming Israel, the international community, and certainly anything who hopes to lead it, should be praising Israel. [And] in light of the comments said this week, and in memory of the 67 soldiers who paid the ultimate price in that war precisely because our army did not act in the way we are accused of acting, let me say it again, the IDF deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for how it acted during the war in Gaza.”
What I also recognize however is that the main obstacle in making these changes is not the Israeli government but the terrorist groups running the show in these territories. Millions upon millions of dollars have been squandered and stolen from the Palestinian people, not by the Israeli government but by the very people who claim to want to lead them to a better life.Why Does Bernie Sanders Hate Israel?
In truth, these people, the very same people you have empowered with your words, are cynical and devious criminals more concerned about Israel’s destruction and their personal lot than they are about the well-being of their population.
Someone recently made the argument to me that as a Jew you need to overcompensate in order to not seem too biased on the side of Israel. Even if I do believe that is what you were doing, the question that needs to be asked is, at what cost? Your words mean something. If you want to be the leader of the free world, why would you take the side of an organization that not only wants to destroy the freedom of the people of your origin, but obstruct the freedom of their own? If it is to increase support among your constituency, you are going against the very thing you base your entire campaign on – a different kind of politics. If you want to be a true leader, a leader that guides the country and the youth of America to a better future, I urge you to first recognize the responsibility you have to clearly distinguishing between right and wrong. That, Senator Sanders, is indeed a very big deal.
Anti-Israel haters generally fall into two categories. There are those whose hate is ideologically driven and rooted in political or religious indoctrination. These individuals are impervious to fact-based reason or logic. Often they are cognizant of the bankruptcy and hypocrisy of their cause but nevertheless choose to disregard obvious flaws in their argumentation as their odious positions bear no relation to logic and are dictated by a convoluted mix of irrational bias and mindless hate.Bernie Sanders’s Five Most Ignorant Anti-Israel Statements
Then there are those whose hate for the Jewish State stems from sheer ignorance. Unlike their hate-driven colleagues, they are not necessarily malevolent, just devoid of knowledge of the facts. They are therefore inclined to adopt erroneous positions based on erroneous information, the bulk of which is provided by people falling into the former category.
At college campuses for example, the core of the anti-Israel contingent is generally composed of an alliance between Islamo-fascists and hard left ideologues – both immune to reason – and scattered among the periphery are ignorant stragglers in desperate need of a cause to latch on to.
So which category does presidential candidate Bernie Sanders fall into? Sanders has always been a hard-left ideologue, long on socialist oratory but short on substance. He was hyper-critical of Israeli actions during Operation Protective Edge – Israel’s 2014 summer offensive against the Hamas terrorist organization – and was one of only 21 senators not to co-sponsor a senate resolution in support of Israel during its counter insurgency campaign against Hamas. Sanders was also one of a handful of lawmakers who boycotted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 2015 address to the joint session and was in fact, the first senator to announce his intent to boycott the speech.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)continues to embarrass himself by making uninformed and false anti-Israel statements that seem to parrot radical left, BDS-style, Palestinian propaganda talking points. In many cases, Sanders’s objectionable comments expose his ignorance of foreign policy, especially regarding Israeli-Palestinian affairs.Clinton: ‘Not accurate, fair or useful’ to primarily blame Israel for peace failures
Here are Sanders’s top 5 most ignorant statements about Israel, in no particular order.
1 – Israel killed “over 10,000 innocent people” during the 2014 Gaza War.
2 – Sanders accused Israel of a “disproportionate” response during the Gaza War.
3 – Sanders claimed that Israel bombed “hospitals” during the Gaza war, implying that the Jewish state actually attacked civilian medical facilities.
4 – Sanders compared the democratic, pro-human rights, terrorist-condemning Israeli government and society to the anti-democratic, human rights abusing, terrorist-supporting Palestinian leadership, as well as Palestinian society in general, which is also mostly supportive of terrorism.
5- Sanders claimed Israel enforces an “economic blockade” of Gaza.
Starkly differentiating herself from the Obama administration in which she once served, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton lambasted the Palestinians for failing to seize past opportunities for peace with Israel, and said she had a “long memory” of Palestinian inaction on the peace front. Asked in an interview whether it was fair for the US administration and mainstream US media to primarily blame Israel for the failure of peace efforts, Clinton was categorical: “No, it’s not accurate or fair or useful.”Biden to headline J Street’s annual gala for second time
The former secretary of state, who did not directly criticize the president or even mention him by name, was speaking in a telephone interview with the New York Jewish Week, conducted on Friday and published on Tuesday. New York holds potentially critical primaries on April 19.
Further distancing herself from Obama, who has had a famously strained relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Clinton said she and the prime minister “get along well,” and promised that the inevitable differences between the two allied countries — she is a perennial critic of the “unhelpful” settlement enterprise — would be handled “quickly, respectfully and responsibly” if she were elected president.
US Vice President Joe Biden will address J Street’s annual gala next week in Washington, DC, the organization confirmed Monday.Fighting Anti-Semitism Is Responsibility Of All, Says Ex-UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband
The speech will mark the second time the vice president has addressed the organization’s annual conference, having first spoken at the progressive pro-Israel lobbying group’s conference in 2013.
Biden will speak at the gala dinner on April 18, the second night of the two-day conference, according to a report in the Washington Post.
On its Facebook page, J Street wrote, “Confirmed: Vice President Joe Biden at J Street’s 2016 National Gala.” The schedule for the event on the J Street website had not yet been updated to include Biden’s speech.
Other speakers at this year’s J Street conference include Israeli Knesset member Stav Shaffir, also addressing the event for the second time, US senator Tim Kaine, and New York Times columnist Roger Cohen.
David Miliband, the former foreign secretary, has called anti-Semitism “repulsive” and warned it must be exposed and defeated, amid growing controversy over attacks against Jews from within the UK Labour party.UN French Ambassador at Algemeiner Gala Issues Call for ‘Ballistic’ Battle Against Antisemitism (VIDEO)
Mr. Miliband, who narrowly lost the Labour leadership contest to his brother Ed in 2010, said the response to anti-Semitism “can’t be to turn away. It must be to engage, not to ignore.”
There was a duty to “highlight and expose the perpetrators and what they stand for. To fight and defeat their ideas”, he said.
Speaking at the annual dinner of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Mr. Miliband cautioned: “It should not be the Jewish community’s fight alone. It is everyone’s fight, everyone’s responsibility.” He added:
“And this is to me so important because there is a wider lesson as well. Just as the fight against anti-Semitism is not just for the Jewish community, so the Jewish community has something to contribute to the fight against all forms of discrimination.”
France’s ambassador to the UN recently called on the world to combat antisemitism, which he said is posing a growing threat to Jews and non-Jews alike.Despite boycott pressure: Hundreds of top British and Israeli scientists meet at Oxford
In an interview at the third annual Algemeiner “Jewish 100 Gala” in New York City late last month, François Delattre asserted that “the fight against antisemitism is an existential fight for each and every one of us.”
“The only way to fight against antisemitism is to be ballistic against it, to admit any words, any action,” he said. “Otherwise, the old antisemitism will come back again and that’s something Europe cannot tolerate today. We have to have a zero tolerance policy vis-à-vis any form and any kind of antisemtism.”
French-Israeli artist Ron Agam, who was also present at the gala, held at Gotham Hall, praised the ambassador’s stance on antisemitism, telling The Algemeiner on Monday: “In a time where the United Nations is a nest of antisemitic attacks, to have a friend like French Ambassador François Delattre, the Jewish people and Israel should cherish this man and France’s position against antisemitism.”
Some 350 leading British and Israeli medical researchers are currently meeting in Oxford for the third annual BIRAX Conference organized by the UK-Israel Science Council. The large event is taking place as bilateral science cooperation thrives despite calls to boycott Israel.Major International Anti-BDS Conference Concludes in Los Angeles
The boycott efforts did not deter 250 British researchers from 33 institutions across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland from attending.
BIRAX, a joint UK-Israel research initiative tackling some of the world's most debilitating diseases, has invested over £7 million in bilateral research since it was founded in 2011. The 15 joint research projects funded by BIRAX so far include the use of heart cells to restore damaged heart muscle; and the use of breath tests for the diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease. BIRAX was initiated by the British Council and the British Embassy in Israel, the Pears Foundation and UJIA.
The conference will showcase the latest developments in regenerative medicine, including joint research by UK and Israeli researchers to fight diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, heart conditions, and other global health challenges. The conference is also aimed at creating more opportunities for scientists from both countries to collaborate.
An international coalition representing more than 50 Jewish and pro-Israel advocacy groups came together in Los Angeles this weekend to strategize about the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.Agritech agreement between Israel and NSW
Hosted by pro-Israel educational organization StandWithUs, the conference — called “Combating The Boycott Movement Against Israel” and attended by several hundred students, professors, professionals and others — featured two days of lectures, panels and strategy sessions, with a keynote address by famed Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz. The various sessions focused on BDS and its ramification in different areas, including on campus, in the legal arena, churches, community, business and culture.
Regarding one session, devoted to the “money trail,” the president of Israel-based watchdog organization NGO Monitor Gerald Steinberg, told The Algemeiner: “In some areas we challenge BDS on the one-to-one level, or the retail level, by debating BDS advocates directly, or by countering them on campus. But what we are doing is looking at them wholesale, trying to discover just who is funding the various groups behind the BDS movement.”
The Premier of New South Wales, Mike Baird today witnessed the signing of an agreement in Israel between the University of Sydney and the Agricultural Research Organisation of Israel to help agricultural innovation flourish in NSW.Making friends worldwide – the Technion way
The memorandum of understanding between the two institutions will concentrate on teaching, training and research activities in the areas of dairy, poultry and aquaculture.
“Agriculture is a vital sector for both New South Wales and Israel, and with similar dry and arid climates it makes sense to share knowledge, expertise and innovative research,” Mr Baird said.
“We have a range of measures in place that support farmers to become more resilient and better prepared against drought conditions, to drive growth in the state’s agriculture sector into the future.
“This agreement allows us learn from our shared experiences, and explore how the latest technological advancements could play a role in new farming methods that would help farmers with water, stock and land management.”
We at Technion-Israel Institution of Technology do not subscribe to either of these approaches. While we are happy to note that indeed no real harm has been detected so far, we are very much aware of the pressing need to combat BDS in general and particularly the threat is poses to our university and other academic institutions in Israel. Scientific research nowadays is based on international collaboration and no university, no matter how strong it is, can continue to push the frontiers of science on its own without a worldwide network of collaborations with other leading academic institutions. Israeli academia is no different – we need the world and, frankly, the world needs us, even if it does not always say it in so many words.Meanwhile, back at San Francisco State University...
To address this need, the Technion has taken a strategic decision – rather than confront the BDSers in platforms of their choice and play the game according to rules they are trying to dictate, our policy is to ignore them and define our own ground rules. Instead of arguing with these people, we have developed a proactive globalization policy that seeks to build bridges of goodwill and mutual benefit that serve as solid proofs of the fallacy and distortion in the BDS arguments. In less than a decade, we have signed more than 200 agreements with leading academic and research institutions as well as research divisions in large multinational corporations worldwide. Based on our experience in recent years, I believe I can safely say that Technion has come up with an effective method to overcome the threats of boycott and isolation, while advancing our own academic and scientific goals.
When evaluating potential international partnerships, we always follow a very simple principle: ensuring that the proposed partnership is mutually beneficial to all parties involved. Once it is established that there is real value added to both parties, not just to Technion, the road is paved toward the creation of a true and long-lasting partnership among equals.
One can only imagine SFSU president Les Wong sitting in his office proudly reflecting on the worldwide attention his university is finally attracting.Labour Councillor explains Hitler tweets: “I thought I was working at UNRWA” (satire)
In the meanwhile, the students are beginning to mobilize and fight back.
This remix of the notorious protest is making the rounds (satire)
A petition has been launched, demanding that Les Wong resign as president of San Francisco State University.
Pres. Wong has begun an "investigation", code for "stall until the next thing comes along to divert attention away from this".
Its not over by a long shot.
Recently sacked Labour Councillor Ayşegül Gürbüz held a brief Press Conference this morning explaining to the nation exactly why she had sent out a bunch of not-very-nice tweets praising Hitler and wishing for Iran to destroy Israel: She thought that she was actually working for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA).Channel 4 News Reporter: Afghans Fighting British “Occupiers” “The Real Heroes”
Ms. Gürbüz, who in fine sibling tradition had previously blamed her sister for the tweets, initially planned on telling the public that a canine had devoured her schoolwork. Yet at the Press Conference she admitted the truth. “I thought I was working for UNRWA. This was truly an honest mistake. I mean, if I thought I worked in an office environment where you could get fired for bashing Zios inappropriate remarks about the Jewish people, I would have been more circumspect. I mean, UNRWA doesn’t fire ANYONE!
When asked about her future plans, Ms. Gürbüz noted that she may go into game design before Labour quietly rehires her some time around August or September.
On Friday Channel 4 News reprimanded their reporter Assed Baig after Guido revealed his racially-charged tweets. They were only the tip of the iceberg. Back in 2012 Baig wrote a blog arguing that injured British soldiers do not deserve the charity of the public as “they knew what they were signing up for”. He goes on say British soldiers aren’t “heroes“, suggesting the “real heroes” are the “resistance” fighting them:What is missing from the BBC’s ME peace process narrative?
“They are not my boys or ‘our’ boys. This may sound harsh to some, but they knew what they were signing up for, they went to fight in an occupation of a foreign land. If they get injured in the process it is the government’s responsibility to take care of them, not for them to rely on the charity of the public… On the back of the envelope [from the Royal British Legion] there is a ‘send a message of support to an injured hero’ plastered next to a British flag. Hero? Really? Since when did we start calling paid soldiers, with Kevlar protection, air support, heavy machine guns, armoured vehicles and tanks heroes? In this narrative the farmer who is defending his country from the occupier is the bad guy. Who are the real heroes?
BBC audiences have thereby been steered towards a specific narrative, according to which were “the Middle East peace process” resumed and were it to bring about an end to “the continued occupation by Israel of the West Bank”, terrorism against Israelis would end.Palestinianism: The Western world's fastest growing religious cult
While promoting that narrative the BBC has managed to avoid telling its audiences about the PA president’s public rejection of recognition of Israel as the Jewish state and the PA’s rejection of the renewal of direct negotiations with Israel but another point concerning that narrative is also worthy of note.
Remarkably, the BBC’s chosen narrative takes it as read that Palestinian grievances would be brought to an end by Israeli withdrawal from the areas previously occupied by Jordan which came under its control in 1967. That premise is never examined by BBC journalists and all evidence to the contrary has been serially ignored over the years.
"Celebrity" Palestinianists include Roger Waters, Jeremy Corbyn, Barak Obama, and the entire editorial team at the BBC, Sky News and Guardian. Newly committed Palestinianists can gain rapid acceptance in the community with this mobile phone app.
The growth of Palestinianism also explains the 'poor Palestinians' receive per capita five times more international aid (most provided by European and US taxpayers) than any other people in the world.
Shocking video shows struggle between slasher and Israeli tourist victim inside a Manhattan subway station
Dramatic video shows the man suspected of slashing an Israeli tourist in the face and robbing him in the early hours of Friday morning while waiting for the subway in Manhattan.Never forget: Survivors mark 71st anniversary of liberation of Nazi slave labour camp in Germany where they were forced to work on Hitler's V-2 missiles
The footage from surveillance cameras captures the struggle between the victim and the suspect, dressed in a bright yellow top.
The victim, dressed in black, can be seen holding on to his hat, as he attempts to get away through a subway turnstile.
The 55-year-old man had been sitting on a bench waiting for a southbound 6 train at Bleecker Street station at 3am when he was approached by the suspect holding a knife, the NYPD told Dailymail.com.
Officers believe the Israeli man had attempted to grab the knife from his attacker, but was unsuccessful.
During the struggle, the robber took an unknown amount of money from the victim before fleeing back on to the subway.
During the Second World War, it was a place of unimaginable horror, where thousands of people died under the brutal watch of the Nazi SS.Super-small diode could herald iPhones a million times more powerful
But today the site of Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, near Nordhausen in central Germany, was a place of quiet reconciliation, as a crowd gathered to remember the 71th anniversary of its liberation by U.S. troops.
Former inmates and other survivors of Nazi persecution laid flowers at the site of the labour camp, which is now a memorial and museum.
Those attending included Herman Rols, 98, from France, and Albert van Hoey, of Belgium.
Mittelbau-Dora originated as an external unit of Buchenwald, one of the first and largest concentration camps on German soil.
It was established as a concentration camp in its own right in the summer of 1943 - when it was known as Dora - and existed for just over a year and a half.
The iPhones and Android devices of a decade or two from now could be a million times more powerful than the ones on the market, thanks to research being done at Ben-Gurion University, in conjunction with the University of Georgia.Craig David enjoys Tel Aviv
A joint Israel-US team has built the first “molecular diode,” an electrical conductor that was built out of a single DNA molecule, constructed from 11 base pairs – the smallest such component ever built, and a milestone in the emerging field of molecular electronics.
“We are still at the very beginning of this, but our work has demonstrated that electricity can be conducted through a molecular component – meaning that we could eventually build transistors that would let us put a million more transistors and components into the same form factors we have today,” said Dr. Yoni Dubi of the Department of Chemistry at Ben-Gurion University. “There are very few research labs in the the world that can do this, but now that we have demonstrated that it is possible, the next step is to try it on other components, with the goal building molecular-sized transistors and switches, among other things.”
British R&B star Craig David made his debut in Israel this week with a high-energy gig in Tel Aviv.Israeli firm unveils 'Drone Dome' that defends against aerial attacks
David said his April 10 concert in Tel Aviv had “amazing energy” and announced that he would like to return.
The Walking Away singer also snapped selfies at the Western Wall and while sampling local cuisine.
The Jewish singer also took time to visit the Yad Vashem — World Center for Holocaust Research, Documentation, Education and Commemoration.
Rafael Advanced Defense Systems unveiled the Drone Dome on Monday, a system designed to detect and neutralize hostile drones.Old Testament may be older than previously thought, hi-tech analysis indicates
The Drone Dome, which went on display at the Laad Defense & Security Expo in Brazil, uses a radar and cameras to detect and track the movements of enemy drones flying in prohibited areas and then disrupts its electronic systems, thereby ending its flight.
The Israeli defense company said the system stops intrusions by micro and nano drones “used by terrorists to perform aerial attacks, collect intelligence, and other intimidating activities.”
“Drone Dome has 360-degree circular coverage and is designed to detect, track and neutralize drones classified as threats flying in no-fly zones. Drone Dome has a very fast response time, [and] it causes minimal collateral interruptions to the surrounding urban environment, with maximum safety to friendly aircraft,” the company said.
Using a radar and electro- optic senors, the system is able to detect drone intrusions, and issue an alert to the unmanned vehicle’s operator.
Scholars have long debated how much of the Hebrew Bible was composed before the destruction of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Judah, in 586 BCE.
While experts agree that key biblical texts were written starting in the 7th century BCE, the exact date of the compilation of these books remains in question.
Now, a groundbreaking new study by Tel Aviv University (TAU) published in PNAS this week, sheds important new light on the debate.
“There’s a heated discussion regarding the timing of the composition of a critical mass of biblical texts,” said Prof. Israel Finkelstein of TAU’s Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations, who led the research with Prof. Eliezer Piasetzky, of the university’s School of Physics and Astronomy.
“But to answer this, one must ask a broader question: What were the literacy rates in Judah at the end of the First Temple period? And what were the literacy rates later on, under Persian rule?”
According to the study, the researchers determined that widespread literacy was required for the massive undertaking, and it provides empirical evidence of that literacy in the final days of the Kingdom of Judah. (h/t Mightier than the Pen)
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