Thursday, March 01, 2018
1946 US report says ‘Poles persecuted the Jews as vigorously as did the Germans’
A US State Department report from May 15, 1946, found “evidence that Poles persecuted the Jews as vigorously as did the Germans” during the World War II Nazi occupation of Poland.Despite uproar, contested Polish Holocaust law goes into effect
The declassified report was distributed Thursday by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the same day that a Polish law making it a crime to accuse the Polish nation of Nazi-era atrocities took effect. Also Thursday, senior Israeli and Polish diplomats met in Jerusalem in a bid to resolve differences over the law.
The report highlights Polish anti-Semitism and persecution of Jews in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust, and traces it back to a long history of Polish anti-Jewish legislation before World War II and anti-Jewish activities by Poles during the Holocaust.
The 1946 document “analyzes the policies of the Polish Government, the current anti-Semitic manifestations, and the possibilities for Jewish survival in Poland” in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust.
The report found that “native Poles” abetted the activities of the Germans during World War II.
The report, which was declassified in August 1983, speaks of anti-Semitism as “a traditional feature of Polish political and economic life,” saying that “the continuance of the conflict between the Government and the opposition in Poland is conducive to a resurgence of anti-Semitism, which is easily employed as a weapon in this conflict.”
The State Department conceded that following the Holocaust, “the government has made anti-Semitism a crime,” but, it said, “the outrages continue, although on a somewhat reduced scale.”
The controversial Polish law that criminalizes accusing the Polish nation of crimes committed by Nazi Germany during World War II has gone into effect.Polish sock brand sparks uproar with "Adolf Hitler" footwear
The law has sparked a crisis with Israel, where officials fear its true aim is to repress research on Poles who killed Jews during World War II, something Polish officials deny or minimize.
As the law took effect Thursday, the Polish and Israeli teams on the task force established to resolve the standoff over the law held their first meeting.
Poland's president signed the legislation into law last month, but also sent it to the constitutional court for review. Polish officials have said no criminal charges will be brought until the court has made its ruling, expected in several weeks.
But prosecutors are also already looking for now-criminal instances in which Poland is wrongly accused of wartime activities.
A pair of socks bearing the likeness of Adolf Hitler's face has caused quite a storm. According to the website of "Nanushki", the Polish brand responsible for the controversial footwear, the product was designed “to bring order to the socks drawer”.
Not everyone is so amused, with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum posting to their official Twitter account that Nanushki is using “one of the biggest criminals in history for marketing purposes”.
Following backlash, the socks were officially renamed as "Patrick" on the company's site, with the claim that Patrick is a businessman who loves cars and has a unique sense of dressing.
Farrakhan Discusses Ellison’s Prior Membership in Nation of Islam, Compares Him to Jesus’ Treacherous Apostles in Anti-Semitic Rant
Radical Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan called out Rep. Keith Ellison (D., Minn.) for his prior membership in the organization and compared him to the Apostles who betrayed Jesus in an anti-Semitic speech on Sunday.In Anti-Semitic Rant, Louis Farrakhan Confirms DNC’s Keith Ellison Was In Nation Of Islam
Farrakhan is known for making outlandish, anti-Semitic and racist comments, as well as promoting conspiracy theories. Ellison, a Muslim and the deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee, previously defended Farrakhan in the 1980s and 1990s before distancing himself when he first ran for Congress in 2006.
In recent weeks, he's dealt with reports he attended a private dinner in 2013 that also featured Farrakhan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
Farrakhan claimed in 2016 he had recently met with Ellison in his hotel suite. Ellison has responded they have "no relationship" and the stories about the two are part of a smear campaign by his political opponents.
"Keith was in the Nation in 1995," Farrakhan said, calling him a "beautiful brother" who sold the Nation of Islam's The Final Call newspaper. "And, being in Minnesota … he wants to help his community. He's a lawyer so he wants to help his community, so he wants to become a congressman. "
Some in the crowd catcalled when Ellison's picture was shown, but Farrkhan said he wasn't there to "bash my brother."
Co-Founder Of Women's March Enthusiastically Attends Anti-Semite Farrakhan's Speech
On Sunday in Chicago, vehement anti-Semite Reverend Louis Farrakhan gave his “Saviours Day Address,” in which he poisonously attacked the Jewish people. You would think that people supposedly fighting for equal rights would shun such a hateful human being, but look who showed up:
As the ADL reported of Farrakhan, “He even mentioned the Women’s March, saying that while he thought the event was a good thing, women need to learn how to cook so their husbands don’t become obese. Tamika Mallory, one of the March organizers, was in the audience, and got a special shout-out from Farrakhan. Mallory posted two Instagram photos from the event, which Carmen Perez, another Women’s March organizer, commented on with 'raise the roof' emojis.”
Mallory is the national co-chair for the Women’s March; in May 2017 she tweeted this for Farrakhan's birthday:
Thank God this man is still alive and doing well. He is definitely the GOAT. Happy Birthday… https://t.co/WKC38G6TW2
— Tamika D. Mallory (@TamikaDMallory) May 11, 2017
Jewish Americans Deserve Better Than The ADL
It is true that Jews are most often the victims of the rare faith-based hate crimes in America. In 2016, the FBI reported that 21 percent of hate crimes were prompted by religious bias and, of those, 54.4 percent were victims of crimes motivated by an anti-Jewish bias. (The next closest is anti-Muslim crimes, at 24.5 percent.) This consists of 834 total hate crimes against Jews in 2016, the vast majority non-violent. That is 834 too many, of course, but also 834 of among tens of million criminal offenses. Those genuinely concerned about anti-Semitism don’t do anyone a favor by exaggerating the problem.Anti-Israel Protestors Fail to Stop Pro-Israel Event At University Of Virginia
It should be pointed out, though, that there is a population that runs into anti-Jewish sentiment more than most. The ADL and its activist head, Jonathan Greenblatt, would have you believe that “white supremacy” is the leading cause of anti-Semitism on college campuses throughout the United States. The narrative must be fed, after all. The ADL tells us that from Sept. 1, 2016 to Feb. 1, 2018, “346 incidents” of Nazi types handing out propaganda on campus were recorded. This, according to the ADL, is the most disturbing trend on campuses.
As one of my Twitter followers correctly noted, “The idea that Jews are more likely to encounter white supremacists than aggressively anti-Israel bds groups is utter delusion.”
The BDS movement, for example, embraced not only by most progressive groups these days but also by some school administrations, specifically — and, for that matter, exclusively — targets businesses that deal with the ideologically diverse population of Jews. As the AMCHA Initiative, a group that tracks anti-Semitism on campus, puts it, “BDS campaigns are coordinated internationally by groups committed to the elimination of the Jewish state, including terrorist organizations such as Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, that engage in and promote the murder of Jews worldwide.” How many “incidents” do you think are there on college campuses of the BDS spreading its message?
Unsurprisingly, this effort is associated with the uptick in anti-Semitism on campus. In 2016, researchers at Brandeis University conducted a study concentrating on Jewish undergraduate students at 50 U.S. campuses who had applied to go on the Birthright Israel trip. The study found that CUNY schools and University of California systems had become “hotspots” of hostility towards Jewish students. The more campuses were involved in BDS, the higher their rates of anti-Semitic harassment and hostility, driven by animosity toward Israel.
There is a long history of leftist anti-Semitism and a corresponding history of liberal Jewish groups belittling its importance. Jew hatred, of course, isn’t confined to one fringe. But Nazis and Klansmen remain stigmatized and excluded by the vast majority of political operators. On the other hand, terror-apologists like Linda Sarsour, a leader of the Resistance who claims Zionism is incompatible with feminism, are being increasingly welcomed into the fold of mainstream left-wing activism.
The idea of Zionism being an “inherently white supremacist ideology” has gained some popularity not only on campuses but among a growing group of progressives. While the ADL notes this trend — and it has to be stressed that the ADL does often note instances of anti-Semitism on the Left— it has a bad habit of burying that pertinent news to create a more convenient plot for political purposes.
According to video obtained by the Haym Salomon Center, approximately a dozen anti-Israel protestors stormed Clark Hall Thursday night on the University of Virginia campus, attempting to shut down an event featuring Reservists on Duty (ROD), an education group of Israel Defense Forces reservists.Unilad should remove and apologise for promoting its David Icke video monologue to over a million people
Hosted by the Brody Jewish Center - Hillel at UVA, the group's Facebook page described the event as intended “to share their personal stories and answer tough questions from the university community. The idea behind the panel was to humanize the conflict, learn about Israeli society, and allow for honest conversation.”
The panel of IDF reservists, two men and two women, had barely begun their introductory remarks when the disruption broke out.
“We were so excited to get this panel started," explained ROD volunteer Asher Stern. “There were people in the crowd that wanted to learn, and some who already held dissenting opinions. But they were there to listen and dialogue.”
Clearly not interested in a conversation were the protestors. With megaphones, signs and flags, the anti-Israel activists stormed the room, chanting slogans such as “long live the intifada.”
The controversial viral social media site Unilad has produced a propaganda video for conspiracy theorist David Icke, whom Campaign against Antisemitism exposed in our own video last year.Dutch university shutters activists center that hosted Palestinian ex-terrorist
The video, entitled “David Icke: Conspiracy, Illuminati & Lizards” is a ten-minute long monologue documentary which Unilad has promoted hailing Mr Icke as “the man whose life mission is to expose the nature of reality, inform on what is really happening behind the news headlines and who is really running the world. Full of conspiracy, the illuminati and lizards, we talk to him about his theories and incredible life story.”
The fact is that Mr Icke’s conspiracy theories are not harmless nonsense: they preach a world view in which the world is in the grip of a conspiracy run by the “Rothschild Zionists” who are the product of an alien “reptilian” bloodline. Mr Icke cites many prominent Jews around the world as evidence of “Rothschild Zionist” infiltration of global power structures.
His disciples believe his antisemitic theories about Jews and when we have drawn respectable venues’ attention to his views they have cancelled his appearances, but Unilad decided that he was worthy of a special video documentary.
Unilad’s video has been viewed 1.2 millions times on Facebook alone. It is atrocious that Unilad has decided to broadcast the repugnant views of Mr Icke to an even wider audience.
A Dutch university shut down an activists’ center for its hosting of a lecture by a Palestinian ex-terrorist, where Jewish journalists were not allowed to enter.Arsenal must act after Robert Peston tweets he is “ashamed to be Arsenal supporter” after witnessing antisemitism at match
The Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam shuttered the Verrekijker Center, whose name means “binoculars,” on Wednesday, following the hosting there of a speech by Rasmea Odeh, from which reporters for the Jewish Dutch weekly, NIW, were refused entrance because they were Zionists, according to reports in the Dutch media.
Odeh spent 10 years in an Israeli prison for her role in a 1969 bombing attack at a Jerusalem supermarket that killed two Hebrew University students, Leon Kanner and Eddie Joffe.
“The collective responsible for the use of the Verrekijker has been told to leave the premises and leave it empty,” read a statement by the university, which in the past has resisted pressure to ban the hosting of individuals deemed anti-Semitic or to be inciting violence against Israel.
But the university did not cite Odeh’s involvement in terrorism and repeated calls for violence as the reason for punishing Verrekijker, referencing instead the establishment’s failure to inform the university of the event in advance, which a spokesperson said was a violation of trust.
ITV news reporter, Robert Peston, has tweeted that he feels ashamed to support Arsenal after attending the club’s Carabao Cup Final match against Manchester City at Wembley on Sunday.McMaster University completes probe into anti-Semitic remarks
Mr Peston tweeted: “One of those moments when I am ashamed to be Arsenal supporter on way to Wembley because moron gooners [Arsenal fans] singing antisemitic song about how they have foreskins & Spurs fans don’t. Well many of us truer supporters are circumcised as is their/our hero Ozil (I assume). Shut the f up”.
Spurs, the nickname for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, has traditionally enjoyed the support of a large number of Jewish football fans and Campaign Against Antisemitism has reported previously about clubs such as Chelsea, Arsenal and West Ham using antisemitic chants against Spurs fans. The song that Mr Peston is referring to includes the lyrics: “I’ve got a foreskin, haven’t you? F***ing Jew!”
In another tweet, Mr Peston wrote that he felt “racially abused by alleged fellow supporters”.
A spokesperson for Arsenal said: “We absolutely condemn any form of antisemitism at the club. We work hard to encourage diversity and inclusion through The Arsenal for Everyone programme and will continue to drive forward this campaign to our supporters.”
McMaster University has completed its investigation into numerous alarming tweets from students linked to a campus Palestinian rights group which lauded Hitler, supported terrorist organizations, and vilified Jews.Ryan Bellerose: Cry-bullies: Social Media in the Age of BS
But McMaster officials refuse to say what penalties were imposed upon the culprits under the student code of rights and responsibilities.
Director of communications Gord Arbeau says it's not the university's practice to provide details about actions taken against individual students.
"The investigation is complete and the code has been applied to those individuals who are current McMaster students with regard to postings made during their tenure as students," Arbeau said by email, noting the university has no jurisdictions over former students.
Punishments for violating the code range from warnings, completion of specific tasks, restitutions, issuing of behavioural contracts, fines, loss of privileges, suspensions and expulsions.
McMaster became aware of the disturbing personal social media posts — which started in 2011 and continued into 2017 — via internet reports published in mid-December by anti-Semitic watchdog Canary Mission and Algemeiner.com, an American-based Jewish and Israel news service.
The tweets in question were linked to students allegedly associated with the campus group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR). Tweets included comments such as "Hitler should have took you all" and "Where is Hitler when u need one? I literally ask this every day."
When I was a kid there were two kinds of bullies, the big dumb kids who pushed you around and tried to take your lunch or your lunch money and the smaller sly kids who poked at you and then ran to an authority figure crying when you responded. The big dumb kids were pretty easy to deal with, you just punched them in the guts and usually they found smaller easier prey. The second were harder to deal with because if you did punch them you got punished severely. To deal with them, you had to expose them as the whining cry-bullies they were. The best way to do this is to draw attention to their BS, make certain that people can see what they are doing for themselves. In an age when everyone sides with the “little guy,” this can be tough.Paris suburb rescinds symbolic recognition of ‘Palestine’
Pro-Palestinian activists (actually anti-Israel activists) love to claim they are being persecuted and silenced on social media, they claim that their positions are unpopular because of “Jewish control of social media” which in itself is not only a ridiculous assertion but one that itself is based in antisemitic notions of some super Jewish conspiracy to silence dissent. Haters like Steven Salaita and Miko Peled have made careers out of being cry-bullies and claiming to have been “unfairly silenced,” but both of them are demonstrably antisemitic and they are the norm, not the exception.
Their claim of unfair persecution is an easily debunked assertion when one looks at the facts.
Fact: The Pro Pallywoodians who actually do get banned, ALWAYS openly flaunt their Jew hate, in order to actually get banned.
Their antisemitism must be beyond doubt and even then, often obviously antisemitic people are left unbanned. Obviously antisemitic Facebook pages and Twitter accounts are often left up even after being reported. David Duke, Hatem Bazian, BDS groups, and other purveyors of nonsense have been allowed to remain, despite some pretty obviously antisemitic posts.
Brian Ruhe, a mentally disturbed individual who claims that “Hitler is the messiah” and that Buddhism is compatible with Naziism. We also have Greta Berlin who reposted Holocaust denial videos “for discussion”, and Steven Salaita who was denied tenure for his obvious antisemitism with gems such as ” Zionism, making antisemitism honorable.” Ken O’Keefe, who has bragged in public about being “proud to be an antisemite,” is also allowed free rein on Twitter. Canary Mission and Aussie Dave have documented a plethora of open antisemitism and Hitler worship by pro Pallywood supporters on social media, so I will stop there or this blog will become too long. I am not talking about soft antisemitism which permeates social media either; I am strictly talking about hard, almost Nazi-like antisemitism.
A month after its controversial “recognition” of “the state of Palestine,” the Parisian suburb of Gennevilliers has rescinded its gesture under pressure from local government.French Court Denies 'Perverted Guru' Tariq Ramadan Bail, Citing Re-Offending Risk
The office of Mayor Patrice Leclerc, a Communist Party of France politician who, on January 21 made the so-called recognition in a document he then sent to other mayors, nullified the policy paper on February 14, the National Bureau Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, on Thursday said in a statement.
Leclerc’s recognition move was symbolic and has no bearing on French foreign policy. He nullified it following intervention by Pierre Soubelet, a politician for the France on the March! Party of President Emmanuel Macron. Soubelet, a former army general, heads the Hauts-de-Seine region, which includes Gennevilliers.
The mayor of the suburb of Bezons, Dominique Lesparre, a member of the communist party as well, also signed a declaration saying his municipality recognizes a Palestinian state. BMVCA has petitioned the Val d’Oise region to use its power to nullify the policy of the city council of Bezons.
Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan has been denied bail by a court of appeal after his arrest for rape, claiming that he is not only a flight risk but there is a possibility he may engage in the same type of behaviour he is indicted for.PreOccupiedTerritory: Obama Administration Fuzzy On Who Was Supposed To Stop Russian Meddling In 2016 Elections (satire)
Ramadan and his legal team have been attempting to get the Muslim scholar out of custody on bail for medical reasons after he was hospitalised for multiple sclerosis-related ailments earlier this month, French broadcaster RTL reports.
The scholar’s team argued for him to be released and allowed to reside at a Swiss Islamic association building with an ankle monitor, but the judges denied the proposition saying that Ramadan was too much of a flight risk.
Several women also testified at the hearing, denouncing the “brutal sexual behaviour” of Ramadan, leading one of the judges to add that even with an ankle monitor Ramadan could be expected to continue his behaviour and possibly commit further offences.
More than 100,000 supporters of Ramadan have signed a petition to have him immediately released and over 100,000 euros have been raised on the French crowdfunding platform CotizUP.
Supporters of Ramadan claimed last year on social media that the allegations were a “Zionist plot” before he was arrested in January by French police.
Former officials of the previous presidential administration and public figures who accuse Russia of interfering in the last presidential election admitted their uncertainty over who was in power in the US at the time and therefore responsible for preventing or addressing the problem.BBC Complaints claims anti-Israel slurs part of ‘legitimate debate’
Cabinet and federal department heads expressed uncertainty today in separate interviews about who might have overseen systems lax enough to enable Russian operatives to manipulate public opinion to a degree that might have altered the outcome of the election. Journalists and pundits voiced similar bafflement, including the occasional idle observation that someone should have been responsible for protecting the integrity of the electoral process, but, well, who knows who that might be?
“It’s a crime that Trump is in the White House now, and it’s got collusion with Putin written all over it,” declared former FBI Director James Comey. “The fact that the Bureau doesn’t seem to be taking this thing seriously right now seems highly suspicious. At the very least, you’d think they would be interrogating the heck out of whoever was supposed to be in charge of the organization when this fiasco went down. It’s the FBI that’s responsible for monitoring enemy espionage and other activities in our domestic scene. That’s the guy who should be getting in trouble for all this.”
“There’s a ministerial responsibility issue, as well,” added former Attorney General Loretta Lynch. “It’s not just the FBI itself, but the whole Department of Justice that has to answer for this colossal failure. The person they had running the department should really be getting the third degree right now, and should have as soon as this episode came to light. I don’t know what everybody’s waiting for. It all makes it look like someone is covering for the people who are most at fault. That itself should be a major scandal, but you don’t see the media or government watchdogs pursuing the story. As an American I find it embarrassing.”
As readers may recall, viewers of the January 27th edition of ‘Dateline London‘ saw panellist Nabila Ramdani promote a host of politically motivated falsehoods intended to delegitimise Israel that went completely unchallenged by the programme’s presenter.The Media and Ahed Tamimi
Ramdani: “I think the only group that Trump expressed his usual venal prejudice towards at Davos was the Palestinians. And of course at the time he was sitting next to his ideological ally and close friend Binyamin Netanyahu. And he effectively said that he wanted to stop millions of dollars of aid to Palestinians because the Palestinian Authority showed disrespect – as he put it – towards Mike Pence, his vice-president, during his recent visit to Israel. So essentially Donald Trump accuses the Palestinians of not being polite enough as their land is stolen, as they are routinely murdered in their thousands, imprisoned in their hundreds and undergo in all manners, all manners of human rights abuses. And there was of course no mention of the incredibly provocative decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem while completely ignoring the Palestinian right to East Jerusalem as their capital. And what I found particularly disdainful was the way Trump threatened to wash his hands of the entire Israel peace process, making out that he’d had quite enough of the boorish Palestinians, again signalling that they should somehow accept their fate and also be polite towards the billions of dollars poured into Israel to ruin their lives.”
Just last year the BBC responded to a complaint concerning similarly inaccurate claims made by Nabila Ramdani on the same programme with the same presenter by saying that it had “spoken to the production team and presenter to remind them of the need to ensure that any contentious remarks are challenged and questioned, at whatever point they are made during the programme.”
Palestinian teen Ahed Tamimi has been groomed from childhood by her anti-Israel activist parents, Bassam and Nariman, to violently provoke Israeli troops while being filmed. The purpose is to score propaganda points in the international media, targeting Israelis for opprobrium and creating celebrity for themselves, as well as to encourage other young Palestinians to follow her example of anti-Israeli violence.Neo-Nazi group targets Australian lawmaker with anti-Semitic poster
Writing about a 2012 confrontation between Ahed and Israeli troops, CAMERA's Tamar Sternthal discussed the cynical exploitation of Ahed and other children put in harm's way by their parents. She observed:
Rather than keeping their children at a safe distance from the often-violent clashes, the parents encouraged their children to play highly visible roles in the confrontation with the army...
...the Tamimi girls pulled off a photographic coup, as their parents had hoped. For this, they were rewarded with a meeting with Laila Ghannam, the Palestinian Authority's Governor of Ramallah, and President Mahmoud Abbas, who congratulated them for their "bravery."
But what if next time their parents send them out into a violent confrontation they are injured, or worse? This would be tragic — but think of the pictures and articles incriminating Israel in the next day's paper.
Consider the most recent case of Ahed, now fully groomed at the age of 17 for dangerous confrontation, who has become a symbol to promote anti-Israel violence.
In December, Ahed was filmed by her mother, Nariman, as she slapped, kicked, shoved and shrieked at two armed Israeli soldiers who remained impassive throughout the attack. Her mother posted the video on her Facebook page, ending with Ahed's filmed appeal for other Palestinians to physically assault Israelis for political reasons. She urged:
I hope that everyone will take part in the demonstrations as this is the only way to achieve the result. Our strength is in our stones, and I hope that the world will unite to liberate Palestine, because [U.S. President] Trump made his declaration and they need to take responsibility for any response that comes from us, whether it is stabbings or martyrdom operations [suicide bombings] or throwing stones, everyone must do something and we unite in this way in order for our message to be heard that we want to liberate Palestine.
An anti-Semitic poster was hung in the window of an Australian national lawmaker.In reported breakthrough, Israeli tech can now unlock any phone
The office of federal lawmaker Mike Kelly in the coastal town of Bega, New South Wales, was targeted with the poster printed by the neo-Nazi group Antipodean Resistance. The poster bears a large swastika and reads “reject Jewish poison.”
Mike Kelly’s wife is Jewish. Kelly represents the Eden-Monaro district.
Kelly on Wednesday morning during a Parliamentary session told his fellow lawmakers about the placing of the poster, which he called “a sophisticatedly produced poster by the fascist group Antipodean Resistance, with swastikas and caricature portraits of Jews, describing ‘Jewish poison.’”
Kelly noted: “Part of their program is to pursue the legalization of the killing of Jews. My wife is Jewish, of course, so that also added extra poignancy to it. This is happening in our country, as well as what we’ve seen manifesting overseas. We have to be very proactive and forceful on this.”
An Israeli company is now reportedly able to unlock any phone, making it easier for law enforcement agencies to gain access to files and prompting Apple to issue a security update.Israeli breakthrough in noninvasive prostate cancer test
Petah Tivka-based Cellebrite markets itself as a, “global leader in the digital intelligence market,” offering its services for law enforcement, military, and corporate investigations.
Forbes reported Monday that an iPhone X was, “successfully raided for data by the Department for Homeland Security back in November 2017, most likely with Cellebrite technology.”
Cellebrite, a subsidiary of Japan’s Sun Corporation, has not made an official statement about its capabilities, but a source told Forbes that, in recent months, the company developed tools to break into iOS 11.
Scientists at Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot, Israel, have reported a breakthrough of successfully detecting prostate cancer cells with high sensitivity using Micromedic Technologies’ CellDetect noninvasive diagnostic test, developed at Kaplan over the past two years.Israeli unemployment rate lowest since early 1970s
The news comes less than a week after British actor and comedian Stephen Fry revealed he is being treated for prostate cancer, which afflicts nearly one adult male in nine sometime during his lifetime. Among many other celebrities who have battled prostate cancer are Robert De Niro, Mandy Patinkin, Harry Belafonte and Frank Zappa.
Current screening tests for prostate cancer deliver a high rate of false positive results (as low as 25% specificity), leading to unnecessary invasive diagnostic tests such as biopsies. In fact, for the past 10 years many experts have discouraged men without symptoms from undergoing an annual prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, commonly used for screening in the United States since 1994.
Trials of CellDetect, a new-generation cytopathological staining platform for accurate cancer detection, demonstrated successful detection of prostate cancer cells in urine samples with 91.3% sensitivity and 75% specificity.
Israel's unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest in nearly 50 years, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported this week.Argentina soccer team to visit Israel for World Cup warm-up
On Wednesday, the bureau released figures for January, showing unemployment at 3.7%, compared to 4% the previous month, December 2017.
The unemployment rate in January was also lower than the annual average in 2017, which stood at 4.2%.
The last time unemployment was this low was in the early 1970s, before the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when it was 3.4%.
The CBS said that in January, for the first time since the 1970s, the number of people classified as unemployed dropped below 150,000, to 148,000.
Israel's labor force participation rate stands at 3.86 million and for the first time includes more women than men: 1.82 million men compared to 1.840 million women.
The rate of employment for people aged 25 to 64 was 80% (68% for women and 87% for men). Unemployment levels for men in that age range dropped to 3.5% (compared with 3.8% in December 2017), and for women in that age group fell to 3.9% (compared with 4.2% in December 2017).
Meanwhile, Israeli goods exports increased by 6% over the past year, with high-tech exports growing by 7.5%.
Argentina's national soccer team will play against Israel in a pre-World Cup friendly international match on June 9, the Israel Football Association announced on Wednesday.Israeli, US scientists detect signs of dark matter in glimpse of earliest stars
The venue for the match is still to be set, the IFA said in its statement.
Since Israel abandoned the aging National Stadium in Tel Aviv, major international games have been played either in Haifa or Jerusalem.
"Discussions will continue in the coming days to finalize the contractual details for signing," the statement said.
Twice the world champion (in 1978 and 1986), Argentina has drawn Group D for the coming World Cup in Russia. It will open by playing against Iceland in Moscow on June 16, followed by games against Croatia in Nizhny Novgorod on June 21 and against Nigeria in St. Petersburg on June 26.
For the first time, astronomers have glimpsed the dawn of the universe 13.6 billion years ago when the earliest stars were just beginning to glow after the Big Bang. And if that’s not enough, they may have detected mysterious dark matter at work, too.IN PICTURES: Israel celebrates Purim with 'Adloyada' parades
The glimpse consisted of a faint radio signal from deep space, picked up by an antenna that is slightly bigger than a refrigerator and costs less than $5 million but in certain ways can go back much farther in time and distance than the celebrated, multi-billion-dollar Hubble Space Telescope.
Judd Bowman of Arizona State University, lead author of a study in Wednesday’s journal Nature, said the signal came from the very first objects in the universe as it was emerging out of darkness 180 million years after the Big Bang.
Seeing the universe just lighting up, even though it was only a faint signal, is even more important than the Big Bang because “we are made of star stuff and so we are glimpsing at our origin,” said astronomer Richard Ellis, who was not involved in the project.
The signal showed unexpectedly cold temperatures and an unusually pronounced wave. When astronomers tried to figure out why, the best explanation was that elusive dark matter may have been at work.
When zeppelin fever came to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, 89 years ago
On Purim 1929, a famed German airship dropped confetti on 80,000 coastal revelers as, on board, two prominent Zionists read the Book of Esther above the holy cityPreOccupiedTerritory: US Tells Consulate Personnel To Avoid Purim Street Parties (satire)
Dr. Hermann Badt and Dr. Wolfgang von Weisl were not the first people to hungrily feast their eyes on the stretch of land the pair, ardent Zionists, hoped would someday serve as a Jewish state.
But the two, a senior Prussian Jewish official and a Revisionist leader, Viennese physician and journalist, were undoubtedly among the first served up the sight in a majestic mahogany-lined dining hall suspended in the skies by millions of cubic feet of ferociously pulsating hydrogen, while drinking turtle soup.
It was the Jewish holiday of Purim, 1929, and the two were among the 28 passengers — including ministers from Weimar Republic and the daughter of Count [Graf] Ferdinand von Zeppelin himself — and 41 crew members on board the austere Graf Zeppelin for an Egypt-bound voyage from Germany.
In just a few years, the tail of the proud German dirigible would be irreversibly tattooed with a swastika. Its world famous commander, Hugo Eckener, would be declared a persona non grata over his outspoken criticism of the Nazis, though he would survive World War II. Von Weisl, five months after the flight, would be stabbed and left for dead in Jerusalem during the Arab riots of 1929, though he would later recover; Badt, demoted from his political position, would flee the Nazis’ clutches to the land he was gazing at from above.
And the captain of what was then the largest airship in the world, Ernst Lehmann, would die of burns he sustained when his ill-fated Hindenburg erupted over a field in New Jersey in 1937, all but putting the dream of intercontinental airship travel to rest.
otices went out to American diplomats and their families today to the effect that official business may not take place at any venue hosting a Purim party Thursday or Friday, citing safety concerns.
The notice, posted on the consulate’s web site and sent to its email distribution list, cautioned American citizens in general to refrain from visiting the trouble spots indicated, and if one must visit or pass through any of the party locations, to maintain vigilance and always be aware of one’s surroundings.
The message came on the heels of a similar warning Tuesday to the effect that American diplomatic personnel are barred from entering certain areas under Palestinian control as a result of planned violent demonstrations in response to the Trump administration’s expediting of the planned embassy move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Noting similar sensibilities, the latter notice stressed the dangers Americans may face if they encounter an adeloyada, as the event is known in local parlance.
“Purim parties carry multiple dangers for US citizens,” read the message. “Beyond the typical risks associated with binge-drinking, loud music of questionable taste, unnecessarily lewd costumes, and general disregard for norms of behavior, the ‘Adeloyada’ confronts the US citizen with, inter alia, incomprehensible attire, clumsy attempts to strike up conversations in English, weird taste in beverages, and unpleasant smells.” The notice failed to clarify how this set of dangerous behaviors differs from encounters with local culture any other day of the year.
