Wednesday, September 04, 2013
Elder of ZiyonJewish fanatics who have declared openly their intention to turn al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City into a Jewish shrine Wednesday provoked Muslim worshippers at the mosque when they entered the walled compound in large numbers and under police protection, according to Muslim officials.I count at least four lies in that one sentence alone.
In 2009, the current administration flattered and cajoled Bashar Assad, returning the U.S. Ambassador to Damascus and partially lifting sanctions on the regime (including on aircraft engines, which had major implications later as the war intensified). For the next two years, a stream of American politicos visited and chatted up Assad; this was the period of the famous "Rose in the Desert" paean to Asma Assad in Vogue magazine and dinner with the Kerrys. They called Bashar Assad a "reformer"and hoped for change.FLASHBACK: Harvard Group Honored Bashar al-Assad's Wife in 2011
There was no change, and in August 2011 the Administration demanded that Assad resign, shifting America's desired outcome from an "improved Assad" to "no Assad."
According to The New York Times, the Harvard Arab Alumni Association (HAAA) honored Mrs. Assad at a dinner in Damascus two years ago.The Democrats’ ‘Smart Power’ Lies in Ruins
Prior to the dinner the group posted this announcement on its website:
We are greatly honored to hold our Arab World Conference under the esteemed patronage of Her Excellency Mrs. Asma al-Assad, the First Lady of Syria, and are privileged that Her Excellency will deliver the conference's keynote address. A thought-provoking, inspiring and tireless leader and advocate, the First Lady's address will certainly be the highlight of our event.
Democrats Suddenly Realize What They Miscalculated About the World: EverythingBarry Rubin: Turning Point: Obama and Israel, The Next Three Years
As we await Congress’s decision on authorizing the use of U.S. military force in Syria, Democrats are suddenly realizing that their foreign-policy brain-trust completely misjudged the world.
Being nicer to countries like Russia will not make them nicer to you. The United Nations is not an effective tool for resolving crises. Some foreign leaders are beyond persuasion and diplomacy. There is no “international community” ready to work together to solve problems, and there probably never will be.
It is not every day that one can announce a shift in world history, but this day is today. And we are now in a new era in the Middle East and the world. This is not a joke--definitely not a joke--and as you will see, it is not an exaggeration.Syria Debate Shows America’s Moral Collapse
Let me explain. For the last seven weeks I have been in the United States, mostly in Washington D.C. I have spoken and listened to many people. As a result, I am in a position to describe for you with a high degree of accuracy what the policy will be for the next 3.5 years, and perhaps for many more.
The administration has crossed a line to, in simple terms, backing the "'bad guys."
Why are we so determined to remain indifferent in the face of men, women and children convulsing to death from Sarin gas? I have no satisfactory answer, but during this period of the High Holy Days, we are obliged, in my view, to confront this question as we reflect on our moral health. After all, we Jews have spent the last seven decades asking whether more could have been done to avert the Holocaust. Could we not have bombed the railway lines to the concentration camps? Could we not have smuggled more weapons to resistance fighters, both Jewish and non-Jewish? Well, yes, we could have done much more, but we also could have done a lot less. Imagine if the current crop of politicians currently dominating the Syrian debate, from U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) to the leader of the British Labor Party, Ed Miliband, had been in office instead of Roosevelt and Churchill. (On second thought, don’t.)Jewish Groups Support ‘Strong Response’ to Syria’s Use of Chemical Weapons
The umbrella organization representing more than 50 Jewish groups on Tuesday issued a statement saying that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his people requires a “strong response.”Netanyahu: We Have an Iron Dome – and an Iron Will
Prior to the statement by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the White House held a conference call to brief Jewish leaders on the situation in Syria.
“The use of such indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction represents moral challenges that require a strong response,” the Conference of Presidents said.
“We need to see to [our] security. This is our first obligation, as well as mine as Prime Minister, and this is a challenge for us because the reality around is challenging,” Netanyahu began.Peres: Assad will Disappear – One Way or the Other
“In the end, our lives depend on an iron wall. We are building an iron wall, an Iron Dome, and we have an iron will,” he declared.
“These are the things that give us the strength to defend ourselves and also to tell those who would attack us: it is not worth your while. These are the fundamentals that protect the State of Israel. Everything else is happening here now.”
However, he continued, intervention may not be the right path. "War is a very serious business and I would suggest to every leader to think as much as they can before rather than afterwards,” he said, adding, “I admire President Obama's attempt to examine every possibility to bring this horrible situation to an end.”Report: Syrian Forensic Chief Defects with Evidence of Chemical Weapon Use
Peres echoed other Israeli leaders in saying that Israel has no plans to intervene in Syria, but is prepared for any attack. An attack is unlikely, he added, explaining, “If Syria attacks us we will overcome them and that is why I believe it won’t happen… We have one of the best security infrastructures and one of the best militaries in the modern world.”
The Syrian opposition has stated today (Tuesday) that Abdul Tawwab Shahrour, head of the forensic medicine committee in Aleppo, has defected to Turkey.Former Iranian President: Assad Attacked His Own People with Gas
According to Syrian opposition representatives, Shahrour is in possession of evidence pointing to the use of chemical weapons by the Bashar al-Assad regime in an attack that occurred earlier this year. More than 20 people were killed in an attack at the Khan al-Assal district near Aleppo on March 19. The Assad regime has previously denied allegations that it used chemical weapons during the attack.
According to the Syrian opposition, Shahrour has both documents and eyewitness accounts proving the use of chemical weapons during the events and contradicting the Assad regime's version of the events, which he intends to reveal at a news conference.
“The Syrian people are experiencing harsh conditions. On the one hand, they are bombed with chemicals by their own government, and on the other hand, they can expect American bombs,” concluded the former Iranian president.Obama garners bipartisan support for Syria strike
Not only has Iran defended Assad throughout the civil war in Syria, the Islamic Republic has provided him with military support during his fight against rebels trying to topple his regime.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner emerged from a White House meeting and told reporters: “This is something that the United States, as a country, needs to do. I’m going to support the president’s call for action. I believe that my colleagues should support this call for action.”Senate resolution sets deadline, bars ground forces in Syria
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi also said they will support Obama because the U.S. has a compelling national security interest to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the draft resolution that the Foreign Relations Committee will vote on Wednesday.U.S. Air Force Lacks Preparedness for Syria Strike
The measure would set a time limit of 60 days for any mission, and it says the president can extend that for 30 days more unless Congress has a vote of disapproval.
Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, chairman of the committee, and Sen. Bob Corker, the top Republican, agreed on the measure late Tuesday. The White House had no immediate reaction to the draft resolution before Obama departed for Sweden and then Russia, to attend the G-20 summit.
General Mark Welsh has said recent cutbacks to the U.S. Air Force have limited it's readiness to carry out a major offensive.Iran will not tolerate fall of Assad, establishes joint ‘war room’ with Syria, Hezbollah
Welsh was quoted by the Journal of the U.S. Air Force on August 28.
Emphasizing cuts including the grounding of tactical combat squadrons earlier this year, Welsh said the Air Force would carry out any mission assigned to it but added, "We are not going to be as ready as we would like."
The trio aim to provide a coordinated response to any American aggression against Syria or Iran, which Mashregh News said would include counterattacking with missiles aimed at Israel and American assets in the region.‘The fire is approaching’: Syria and its allies threaten regional war
According to the Fars News Agency, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered a warning recently during his recent meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “The Islamic Republic will defend Syria,” FNA reported that message read, “because of its support for the resistance front against the Zionist regime [Israel], and is vehemently opposed to any intervention by foreign forces in Syrian internal affairs.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia fighting side-by-side with Assad against the rebels, will strike back at American ships if an attack takes place.Hamas dismisses talk of strike by Egypt against Gaza
“The resistance [Hezbollah] and the armed forces are now one body,” said a senior Syrian official on Monday. “In my assessment, Hezbollah will side with Syria in certain operations targeting warships in the Mediterranean.”
The threat is not an idle one. During the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, a land-based missile launched by Hezbollah struck an Israeli warship off the Lebanese coast, killing four sailors and severely damaging the vessel.
Hamas officials on Tuesday urged Palestinians to ignore rumors to the effect that the Egyptian army is preparing a military offensive against the Gaza Strip.Five Reporters Killed, 80 Detained Since Morsi's Ouster
“The talk about a possible Egyptian military operation in the Gaza Strip is baseless,” a Hamas official said. “We urge our people not to pay attention to the rumors flying around.”
A Palestinian journalist in Gaza City said that there was “increased talk” about a possible Egyptian military strike in the Gaza Strip.
Reporters Without Borders has issued a scathing report on the treatment of reporters in Egypt since the removal of President Mohamed Morsi in early July:11 Brotherhood members sentenced to life in prison
Since 3 July, a total of five journalists have been killed, 80 journalists have been arbitrarily detained (with seven still held) and at least 40 news providers have been physically attacked by the police or by pro-Morsi or pro-army demonstrators.
A Suez military court has given 11 Muslim Brotherhood supporters life sentences relating to charges of violence following the dispersal of pro-Mohamed Morsi sit-ins in Cairo and Giza last month.Iran Is *Really* Good at Evading Sanctions
The 11 defendants were given 25-year sentences.
Forty-five others were given five years each, while eight defendants were acquitted of charges of assualting army troops, burning military vehicles, throwing Molotov cocktails and attacking churches in Suez governorate.
What is obvious is that sanctions have forced Iran’s efforts to go underground, adapt, and become more intricate as time goes by. Sanctions are successful in the specific sense that the more strict they become and consistently they are enforced, the harder it is for Iran to achieve its goals. It is not enough, however, to simply add companies to the sanctions list. Authorities must rigorously enforce sanctions by going after the individuals and companies who help evade them, seizing their assets, and even arresting and extraditing those involved. They must also constantly update their lists to reflect the ever-changing corporate structure of Iran’s overseas procurement networks.
Nothing is straightforward in these operations, except the Iranian leaders’ dedication to their goal of acquiring nuclear weapons. And whether sanctions will successfully deter them or it will require different measures to do so is still very much an open question.
Wednesday, September 04, 2013Elder of Ziyon
Peter BeinartWednesday, September 04, 2013Elder of ZiyonEveryone travelling to attend the FIAT/IFTA World Conference, no matter if the conference is held in the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Ireland, Beijing or the United Arab Emirates, must make sure to get a valid visa before entering the country. This is the sole responsibility of the attendee of the conference, and FIAT/IFTA does not have any influence on diplomatic relations between the country of a visitor from anywhere in the World and the country in which the World Conference takes place.Yes, they do. They have a lot of influence; by exercising the right to cancel the conference and to embarrass the host country into doing the right thing, just like tennis officials did in 2009 after Shahar Peer was denied a visa. Their pressure ensured that Israeli Andy Ram was able to play shortly thereafter:
Tennis governing officials warned that holding future tennis events in Dubai could be in doubt if the Emirates - which does not have diplomatic relations with Israel - continued to ban Israelis. The ATP, which runs next week's men's tournament, gave the UAE a Friday evening deadline to decide whether to grant Ram a visa.Also after Shahar Peer was denied a visa, the Women's Tennis Association threatened to no longer go to Dubai, and the Tennis Channel refused to broadcast the tournament.
"No player, who qualifies to play an ATP World Tour event, should be denied their right to compete on the basis of ethnicity, nationality or religion and we are happy that the Dubai Tennis Championships and the UAE have shown that they share that view," ATP president, Adam Helfant, said in a statement.
“I hope that this affair is finally coming to a satisfactory resolution. Meaning that our film ‘Israel: A Home Movie’ will be shown during the conference in Dubai. This for me was the most important element,” The filmmaker, Arik Bernstein, told The Algemeiner in an email.
The President of IFTA, Jan Müller, confirmed to The Algemeiner in an email that Bernstein would indeed not be attending the conference, but rejected any responsibility for his ban.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Bernstein, holding an Israeli passport, is not allowed to enter Dubai, due to political reasons. Neither IFTA, nor me as chairman and any other member of this federation of television archives. (sic) And neither the host of this conference, television company MBC, can be hold responsible for this sad issue,” he wrote.
The recent decision by the organizers of the 'International Federation of Television Archives' competition to disqualify an Israeli film is a ridicule of artistic freedom and a clear case of institutionalized bigotry.
It is time to stop the politicization of art. "The festival organizers," says David Lonner, CCFP advisory member and CEO of Oasis Media Group, "substituted artistic and professional considerations with one-sided political ones." We, Creative Community For Peace, a coalition of entertainment industry executives [CCFP] and fans worldwide who have signed our petition [Petition], reject this injustice. We believe art and must be embraced as a tool to transcend political tensions.
So here’s the deal. If you hold a major event in Dubai you, your sponsors and your other participants are excluding Israelis (and by Israelis we mostly mean Israeli Jews).If your organisation is based in Australia, as a forthcoming case may well prove, you might even be committing an actual crime!
Wednesday, September 04, 2013Elder of ZiyonClashes broke out between Palestinians and Israeli forces after Jewish rightists entered the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Wednesday, locals said.Arabic media has been warning for days that Jews will be visiting the Temple Mount today, Rosh Hashanah Eve. Of course, Jews visited yesterday as well, and the day before.
Local youths threw stones at a group of around 40 Israeli rightists who entered the compound, witnesses said.
Israeli forces responded by storming the mosque compound and spraying protestors with pepper spray, lightly injuring three women.
Israeli police closed all gates leading to the mosque and prevented worshipers under 50 from entering. They also stopped dozens of buses in Jerusalem carrying Palestinian worshipers to the mosque and told them to turn around, Israeli media reported.The area was reopened to all in the afternoon.
Tuesday, September 03, 2013Elder of ZiyonIn recent days, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has been attacked after an Israeli film-maker released a film, “Camp Jihad,” alleging that UNRWA promoted anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in its 'summer camps’. These false accusations have been repeated in various media outlets.What I find funny is that at the UNRWA website itself, it shows this photo (from a Syrian UNRWA camp:)
UNRWA has conducted a lengthy and detailed investigation into the film and we categorically reject the allegations it contains. The film is grossly misleading and we regret the damage it has caused to UNRWA and the United Nations.
“We have very great tasks in light of what is occurring throughout our region both near and far. While they shoot at each other, we build for each other,” the Prime Minister said.Netanyahu Lauds Israeli Secret Services
“Our state is peaceful, certain of the strength of the IDF and sure in itself because it knows that it can defend itself. I will not allow anyone to harm the State of Israel. I ask you to go out and enjoy the holiday [Rosh Hashana, Jewish New Year] and if someone thinks of harming the tranquility of the holiday, he knows what awaits him,” he said.
In a visit to the headquarters of the Shin Bet, which is headed by Yoram Cohen, Netanyahu thanked the agents for their tireless work in preventing terror attacks, singling out their latest achievement in apprehending a Ramallah-based Hamas cell that was planning to attack shoppers in Jerusalem's Mamilla mall.Attempted terror attacks not news for the BBC
"These accomplishments can be felt in the meaningful reduction of the number of deaths from terror in recent years,” he said. “No one can guarantee that this quiet will be maintained, but the Shin Bet and security services are prepared to continue to defend the citizens of Israel from every threat.”
On the evening of Friday August 30th an explosive device was detonated near an Israeli army patrol jeep on the border with the Gaza Strip. No injuries were sustained.'Pro-Palestinian' Campaign: Free Baby Adelle's Attackers
On the morning of Monday September 2nd two more explosive devices were detonated near an IDF patrol along the same border, fortunately with no injuries caused.
On Sunday, September 1st the Israeli security services announced that a plan to carry out a terror attack in the Mamilla shopping mall in Jerusalem had been foiled.
None of the above is apparently considered newsworthy by the BBC.
Pro-Palestinian organizations have launched a European advertising campaign calling for the release of five Arab youths who are suspected of throwing rocks at a car six months ago, causing grievous head injuries to Adelle Biton, a Jewish three-year-old.An open letter to the UNRWA: I’m a Palestinian Refugee, Too
In a large scale rally in London last Friday, protesters called for the release of the “the Hares boys,” as they are now known. The five youths are from the village of Hares in Samaria, near Ariel. The central message in rally was that the youths are being held “for no reason,” because of “an accident they had nothing to do with.”
Dear UNRWA:Peace on paper is not peace on the ground
Congratulations! Whereas most other refugee services go out of business just a few years after any war, you’ve not only managed to keep your jobs but also to make your organization, your budget and your payroll grow exponentially for over 64 years. This is an astounding and unprecedented world record!
The key to your unparalleled success is also the reason for which I am writing to you. In virtually all other refugee cases, the goal of the altruistic assistance agencies was and is to help the persons displaced by war and violence to be absorbed into a new country. Why? To establish a new home, to get on with their lives, and to guarantee a brighter future for their children. What a stupid mistake!
Within only a few years, these agencies and NGOs resolve all the problems of resettling these refugees, thus putting themselves out of their tax-free jobs. What kind of business plan is that?!
Despite a 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan signed by the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and King Hussein, this agreement has yet to be put in effect in the hearts of the people of the neighboring countries.What More Must PA Do to Show Its Disinterest in Peace?
As a Jordanian, I was taught in school and at university that Israel is our first and last enemy. Why is this? People in Jordan (and almost all Arabs in the Middle East) think that Israel seeks to destroy them. It is common to hear conspiracy theories asserting that the decisions by governments of the United States, Russia and Europe that have adversely affected Arab countries can all be traced back to the Jews. Therefore, it is logical to conclude that if we stop Israel, or expel them from the Middle East, our situation will be better.
Under pressure from his own party’s opposition to “normalization” with Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday canceled a meeting with Israeli Knesset members who had formed a caucus to support the recently revived peace talks. Normally, this would call the whole point of peace talks into question: Someone too scared of the anti-normalization thugs to host a meaningless gabfest with Israeli MKs isn’t likely to have the guts to sign a final-status agreement containing real Palestinian concessions. But in this case, anyone paying attention to Palestinian behavior since the talks began already knew they were nothing but a farce.Bennett: Stop the 'Peace Cult'
The following are just a few of the steps Palestinians have taken over the last month to prove their lack of desire for peace:
“These days, we are discovering what a difficult neighborhood we are living in," Bennett said at the Bayit Yehudi party's ceremonial toast for the new Hebrew year (Rosh Hashana) in Modiin, which was held in the presence of Chief Rabbi David Lau, members of the party's Knesset faction, and 700 Bayit Yehudi delegates and candidates in municipal lists.So who still thinks Israel is the root of Middle East problems?
“There is one place that is an island of stability – the state of Israel in the Land of Israel. This is the only place where there is peace. I am amazed by the bottomless fanaticism with which followers of the 'religion of peace' want to give our enemies parts of the country," he said.
This tribal and sectarian dispute, which has the potential to become the Muslim equivalent of the Thirty Years War, has about as much to do with Israel as did the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. And the peoples involved care very little, if at all, about the fate of the Palestinians – certainly much less than do Nigel Kennedy and Roger Waters.MEMRI: Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem, Head of Jewish Community in Yemen, Talks of Segregation and Persecution
Yet some western governments still fall for the bizarre idea that if the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians were to be sorted, then this would help to solve all the other conflicts in the region. Thus the French foreign minister Laurent Fabius declared last week, following a meeting with the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas: “The Israeli-Palestinian issue is …perhaps the central issue of the region.”
Approximately one in five "flagged" job applicants to the US's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had ties to either Hamas, Hezbollah or Al Qaeda, according to a Washington Times report.Guardian columnist acknowledges Muslim Brotherhood’s antisemitism
The report is based off of documents leaked by former NSA agent Edward Snowden.
These latest revelations indicate the high motivation among Islamist terrorists of various stripes to infiltrate US intelligence agencies.
Indeed, the Guardian’s coverage of the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power in Egypt last year ignored the group’s long and well-documented antisemitic record (consistent with the paper’s tendency to obfuscate other groups’ extreme Judeophobia), all of which makes Giles Fraser’s recent ‘CiF’ column on the Brotherhood quite unique.Guardian frames Egypt ‘Spy Stork’ row as sign of increased xenophobia under military regime
Though Fraser still advanced some characteristic moral apologetics for the group, he did nonetheless include the following:
”And, of course, I have no love in my heart for Islamist terrorism, nor the hateful antisemitism that is often present within the Muslim Brotherhood”
Whilst blaming the stork’s apprehension on the current mood of jingoism – in contrast, presumably, to the ‘enlightened internationalism‘ under the Muslim Brotherhood – is itself quite comical, those of us who’ve ‘covered’ previous instances of spy animals can refute the reporter’s thesis by noting other examples of Egyptian ‘xenophobia’.Iran’s Press TV claims army of pro-Israel propagandists occupy BBC
So why exactly are all of the above (and quite a few more) in such a tizzy? Well the former head of the BBC News website’s Middle East desk Tarik Kafala recently moved on to become head of the BBC Arabic Service (mabrouk!) and his replacement is Raffi Berg.BDS head draws fire after defending ‘Shoot the Jew’ chant
Mr Berg has been working at the Middle East desk for some time and apparently during last November’s ‘Operation Pillar of Cloud’ he tried to ensure that his colleagues adhered to BBC standards of accuracy by writing the following e-mails:
“Please remember, Israel doesn’t maintain a blockade around Gaza. Egypt controls the southern border. Israel maintains a blockade around its borders with Gaza, as well as a naval blockade. It also controls Gaza’s airspace. We’ve mistakenly said “around Gaza” in a number of recent stories, which has generated complaints.”
An anti-Israel rally at a South African University that saw protesters chanting “Shoot the Jew,” which was subsequently defended by the head of the country’s BDS movement, drew widespread condemnation.Facebook Fails to Enforce ‘Community Standards’ for Vile Anti-Semitic Page
Both backers and critics of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement in South Africa criticized the group’s leader for supporting activists at the Witwatersrand University rally who sang a modified version of the 1980s anti-apartheid song “Shoot the Boer,” the Mail and Guardian reported Monday.
Some members of the BDS movement, which supports a boycott of Israeli products as part of its pro-Palestinian stance, “made it clear they don’t think it’s a remotely acceptable slogan,” Prof. Steven Friedman, who teaches at both Rhodes University and the University of Johannesburg — and who supports the boycott idea, in addition to calling for a one-state solution — told the news site.
I was recently pointed in the direction of a Facebook page entitled The Untold History, run by a group out of Sweden that calls itself the European Knights Project, a partner of the Institute for Historical Review. On its masthead, it proclaims in all-caps that it is a “HISTORICAL SITE NON-POLITICAL,” but this is a sham. It is, in fact, a Holocaust denial site that not only presents bogus and falsified history, but also traffics in the vilest sort of anti-Semitism.Solar Power is the Path to Israel’s Energy Future
The perpetuation of a world powered by oil is one of the most anti-Jewish actions imaginable. A world that resists transitioning quickly from oil to renewables is a world that feeds the Iranian nuclear program, promotes radical whabbiism in Saudi Arabia and around the world, accelerates extreme climate change, pollutes our air, distorts world policy against Israel, and sends American and other troops off to bloody and expensive wars in Iraq and elsewhere.Is Shale the Key to Israel’s Energy Future?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has challenged us all to imagine a world without oil and has set up within his office a special bureau investing in oil substitute strategies.
One obvious question that remains is, if solar energy can be part of the solution for Israel’s own energy needs, why can’t Israel use solar—rather than develop its shale resources—to help the world reduce its dependence on oil? The reason that approach isn’t viable is that solar can be an alternative to fuels such as coal or natural gas only to the extent that it can replace those fossil fuels for producing electrical power. But because virtually no oil is used for producing electricity in the industrialized world, solar can do nothing to replace oil. In fact, rather than being used for generating electricity, more than 60 percent of oil used worldwide is consumed, instead, to produce liquid transportation fuels (gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel), while most of the rest is used as a feedstock for manufacturing petrochemicals. So, to repeat the point: because solar cannot be used to fuel cars, trucks or buses or as the feedstock for plastics and fertilizer, it is pretty much useless when it comes to replacing oil.
Tuesday, September 03, 2013Elder of Ziyon
Tuesday, September 03, 2013Elder of ZiyonEgyptian helicopter gunships attack Sinai militants
Egyptian helicopter gunships have attacked militants in the northern Sinai Peninsula in a continuing effort to control the largely lawless region.
Egypt Forces Attack Sinai MilitantsAP:
Egyptian helicopter gunships killed at least eight suspected militants in the restive north Sinai, while supporters of ousted President Mohamed Mursi geared up to rally against the government that replaced his.
Egyptian helicopters fire rockets at militants in Sinai, killing at least 8Notice that not one of these sources say "suspected militants" in the headline (Bloomberg does in the story.) None call them "extrajudicial killings" or "assassinations." Without any proof, it is assumed that Egypt's army is telling the truth, that the houses they hit had no civilians in them, and that everyone killed was an active militant.
Egyptian helicopter gunships fired rockets early Tuesday at militants in the northern Sinai Peninsula, killing at least eight and injuring 15 others in an ongoing campaign to put down Islamic radicals who have escalated attacks in the largely lawless region, Egypt's official news agency said.
Informed sources told the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper that the PFLP-GC has reached an agreement with the Syrian regime, Iran and Hizbullah to retaliate for a US-led military strike, and that Israel would be the first target of such retaliation.Palestinians in speeding truck penetrate airport security
Hussam Arafat, one of the leaders of the PFLP-GC, said that his group would not remain idle "while Syria is being slaughtered."
"Any Western aggression on Syria," he added, "would serve the interests of Israel and we will stand with Syria and join it in war."
Pro-Assad Palestinian terrorists based in refugee camps in Lebanon are also said to be preparing to "defend Syria against Western aggression." Many of these terrorists are affiliated with Syria's allies in Lebanon: the Shiite terror group, Hizbullah.
Earlier, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization also warned that its members would retaliate when and if Syria is attacked. The organization, based in Damascus, has a few thousand terrorists in Syria and Lebanon.
Additional roadblocks were immediately deployed and, when the truck breached a second barrier — nearly hitting the guard stationed there — security personnel shot at the truck, eventually causing it to stop. The two Palestinian men were ordered out of the vehicle and arrested.As the US pledged $148 million to the PA, the PA pledged $15 million to released prisoners
During an interrogation, the men, who hail from the West Bank cities of Jenin and Qalqilya, claimed that they were car thieves, and that they had just stolen the truck in the nearby town of Beit Dagan. They said that they entered the airport road by accident and panicked when they saw the Israeli security personnel.
The Palestinian Authority has announced that it plans to give 5,000 released security prisoners who served more than 5 years in Israeli prisons a Dignified Life Grant. The Head of the Statistics Department of the Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs, Abd Al-Nasser Farwaneh, said that the amount distributed would be "15 million American dollars." The PA's intention to use "American dollars" for released security prisoners, most of whom are convicted terrorists, was reported by the official PA daily the very same day that the US announced it was giving the PA "$148 million" - "American dollars" - for the PA's general budget.Abbas on Syria: ‘We Will Never Support the Bombing of an Arab Country by a Foreign State’
“We don’t accept for any Arabic country to be attacked and we condemn the use of chemical weapons by any group. The solution to the Syrian crisis must be political and there is no military solution. We want a peaceful solution for Syria,” Abbas said in a speech to Fatah’s revolutionary council, according to Ma’an News Agency.In turning to Congress on Syria, Obama overrules top advisers
Asserting that the U.S. is likely to attack Syria, Abbas was unequivocal in stating the PA’s “position towards it is fixed, we are against a military attack.”
People close to the deliberations say Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, national security adviser Susan Rice and UN Ambassador Samantha Power largely agreed about the need to use force to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad. While there were some differing views about the speed and the scope of an attack, there were no splintered factions the way there had been during first-term debates over taking action in Libya or launching the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.Israel ‘uneasy’ being painted by Obama as potential WMD victim
The advisers, two of whom are former senators, were also willing to proceed without congressional authorization. But on Friday night, after a week spent speeding toward military action, the president made a stunning turnabout and decided he wanted approval from lawmakers before carrying out an attack.
Israel is “discomfited that both Obama and Kerry mentioned Israel as a potential victim of Assad’s chemical weapons,” Israel’s Channel 2 news reported Monday night. "Israel," it quoted unnamed senior Israeli officials saying, “is not a victim. We don’t need America to take care of threats to Israel.”Israel shoots test missile over sea, raising alarms
Israel’s army, the sources said, was perfectly capable of protecting Israel from any dangers posed by Assad.
Russia raised a brief alarm in the Middle East Tuesday after apparently detecting a joint Israel and US missile launch test in the Mediterranean.Douglas Murray: The Syrian paradox
Israel’s Defense Ministry confirmed that it carried out a successful trial involving a new type of Sparrow target missile, which was meant to test Israel’s missile tracking capabilities.
The problem then is this. If any country carries out punitive strikes against the Assad regime they will undoubtedly and rightly be demonstrating the international community’s revulsion over the use of chemical weapons. But if the targets that are hit in the resulting strike are meaningful (government buildings, installations etc) then there is the risk that such an intervention could tip the balance in the Syrian civil war. If that balance is tipped and Assad is severely weakened or even falls as a result then whoever carried out the strikes will be at least partly responsible for what comes next. That is a responsibility which neither America, Britain, France nor any other Western power can handle and it is one which none of us wants.Kissinger’s good option
So – and here is the imponderable – the only purpose of strikes must be to hit targets which are meaningless. As I say in today’s Spectator podcast that means something akin to President Clinton’s futile lobbing of missiles at an aspirin factory in Sudan as a response to the 1998 al-Qaeda embassy bombings in Africa.
Kissinger believes Syria should and will break up in some fashion — indeed, the independent-minded Kurds have already created a de facto state with a potent military, the Druze have their own militias and Assad’s ruling Alawites, in preparation for a retreat to their traditional homelands should they lose the civil war, have heavily fortified Alawite territory. This break up, sooner rather than later, is Kissinger’s preferred outcome yet the West is misguidedly acting to thwart it.UK Government let British company export nerve gas chemicals to Syria
The Government was accused of “breathtaking laxity” in its arms controls last night after it emerged that officials authorised the export to Syria of two chemicals capable of being used to make a nerve agent such as sarin a year ago.Syria tried to buy banned weapons material from Swiss
The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, will today be asked by MPs to explain why a British company was granted export licences for the dual-use substances for six months in 2012 while Syria’s civil war was raging and concern was rife that the regime could use chemical weapons on its own people. The disclosure of the licences for potassium fluoride and sodium fluoride, which can both be used as precursor chemicals in the manufacture of nerve gas, came as the US Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States had evidence that sarin gas was used in last month’s atrocity in Damascus.
Since 1998, the government of Syria made 14 attempted purchases which were flagged and rejected by the Swiss export control watchdog, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.German Intelligence Concludes Assad is Behind Chemical Attack
Among the items sought for purchase were a bioreactor, an industrial vacuum pump and valves, reported AFP. The State Secretariat’s spokeswoman, Marie Avet, said the 14 rejected deals were worth a total of 1.7 million Swiss francs ($1.7 million).
The German intelligence agency (BND) has enough evidence in its possession to conclude that President Bashar Al-Assad ordered the suspected chemical attack in Syria on August 21, Russia Today (RT) reported Monday, citing a report in the German weekly Der Spiegel.French PM Shares 'Proof' Assad behind Chemical Attack
French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has shared intelligence with lawmakers he says proves the chemical attack on 21 August came from government forces.Stream of refugees out of Syria passes 2 million mark, UN says
The dossier shared with the French parliament today (Monday) reportedly includes satellite images showing a large offensive on the Damascus neighborhood of Ghouta coming from government controlled areas to the East and West of the area held by rebel forces.
The intelligence is said to span nine pages and concludes that “Unlike previous attacks that used small amounts of chemicals and were aimed at terrorizing people, this attack was tactical and aimed at regaining territory.”
If the conflict continues 3.5 million people Syrian refugees are expected by the end of the year, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said.Report: Iran Thinks Israel is Close to Striking It
“At this particular moment it’s the highest number of displaced people anywhere in the world,” he told reporters in Geneva. “Syria has become the great tragedy of this century — a disgraceful humanitarian calamity with suffering and displacement unparalleled in recent history.”
Iran believes that Israel is close to stiking its nuclear facilities, according to a report in Lebanese newspaper Al Jumhuriya, cited by Maariv/NRG. According to the report, a senior Iranian official recently visited Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in his hideout in the Dahiya section section of Beirut to discuss this assessment.Hezbollah said to mobilize troops ahead of possible showdown
A senior military source confirmed to the Lebanese newspaper that the meeting had, indeed, taken place, but said that it had not been held inside the Dahiya – a neighborhood controlled by Hezbollah – but outside it.
The senior source said that the Iranian official is a military officer and that the meeting was devoted to the military and logistical readiness of Hezbollah for a confrontation with Israel, which, he added, is just “a stone's throw away” from Lebanon.
Members of Hezbollah have “disappeared” from villages across Lebanon, AFP reported Tuesday, citing Lebanese media and witnesses. The report noted that Hezbollah fighters in strongholds along the coast, in the Bekaa valley, near the Syrian border and in southern Beirut had left town, with many turning off their cellphones to avoid being tracked.Three Men Charged in Lebanon for Firing Rockets Into Israel
While security measures remain in place, checkpoints around the terror group’s nerve center in the capital are now being manned by teenagers instead of regular Hezbollah fighters, the news agency said.
Three men suspected of firing rockets into Israel from Lebanon last month were formally charged on Monday, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.Report: Hamas Members Arrested in Attack on Egyptian Police
State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged Lebanese nationals Youssef Mohammed al-Fleity and Omar Abdul Mawla al-Atrash and a third, unnamed individual, with shooting the rockets from southern Lebanon into Israel.
Egyptian authorities reportedly have arrested 11 people suspected of killing 25 Egyptian police officers in an ambush last week. Five of the suspects are Hamas members, the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat reports.Egypt army pummels Sinai militants, killing dozens
The arrests took place several days ago but were kept secret for security reasons, the newspaper reported. Three foreign nationals were among the suspects.
A Hamas spokesman denied the allegation, calling it part of an Egyptian campaign to delegitimize the group and justify Egypt’s recent closing of smuggling tunnels into Hamas-run Gaza.
Egyptian helicopter gunships fired rockets early Tuesday at militants in the northern Sinai Peninsula, causing “dozens” of casualties, a security official said.
He said the two aircraft surprised militant gatherings in three houses in two locations, al-Muqataa and Touma, south of the town of Sheikh Zuweyid near the border with the Gaza Strip.
Attacks by Islamic militants surged in the lawless Sinai after the toppling of Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi in a July 3 coup.
Tuesday, September 03, 2013Elder of Ziyon
Tuesday, September 03, 2013Elder of ZiyonPeter BeinartFor the most part, Palestinians do not speak in American synagogues or write in the Jewish press. The organization Birthright, which since 1999 has taken almost 350,000 young Diaspora Jews—mostly Americans—to visit Israel, does not venture to Palestinian towns and cities in the West Bank. Of the more than two hundred advertised speakers at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) 2013 Policy Conference, two were Palestinians. By American Jewish standards, that’s high. The American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum earlier this year, which advertised sixty-four speakers, did not include a single Palestinian.Beinart grudgingly admits:
...Guidelines like Hillel’s—which codify the de facto restrictions that exist in many establishment American Jewish groups—make the organized American Jewish community a closed intellectual space, isolated from the experiences and perspectives of roughly half the people under Israeli control. And the result is that American Jewish leaders, even those who harbor no animosity toward Palestinians, know little about the reality of their lives.
This lack of familiarity with Palestinian life also inclines many in the organized American Jewish world to assume that Palestinian anger toward Israel must be a product solely of Palestinian pathology. Rare is the American Jewish discussion of Israel that does not include some reference to the textbooks and television programs that “teach Palestinians to hate.” These charges have some merit. Palestinian schools and media do traffic in anti-Semitism and promote violence.But:
Still, what’s often glaringly absent from the American Jewish discussion of Palestinian hatred is any recognition that some of it might stem not from what Palestinians read or hear about the Jewish state, but from the way they interact with it in their daily lives.Beinart is at least as guilty of willful blindness as the American Jewish establishment he is insulting. His "Open Zion" site all but ignores the Palestinian Arab hate and antisemitism, just as he attempts to minimize it and contextualize it here as a natural result of things Israelis did. He says that most terror attacks are the result of anger at Israeli actions from the first intifada, without mentioning who started the first intifada. No doubt Israel's initial reaction was more severe than would be acceptable today, but at the time Palestinian Arabs from the West Bank and Gaza would travel freely to pre-1967 Israel and Israelis would visit freely to Arab areas, without fear.
Tuesday, September 03, 2013Elder of ZiyonSome 88 Syrian refugees, including 25 children, are waiting to be deported to other countries after being detained in Alexandria.Must be the occupation, since everyone knows that is the source of all the problems in the Middle East.
The refugees detained are accused of attempting to emigrate illegally from Egypt. "They were deceived by someone in Alexandria who took money from them and convinced that they can emigrate from Egypt to Italy," said Safia Serry, an activist from Alexandria who is following the Syrian refugees file in the city.
...Serry adds that some of the Syrians detained in Alexandria received official refugee refugee IDs. "Many of those Syrian refugees got yellow IDs as refugees registered with UNHCR, while Palestinians who used to live in Syria and that came to Egypt as refugees got white IDs," Serry told Ahram Online.
"Things are harder for the Palestinians who do not have money as they have no passports, only limited travel documents," Serry said, adding that deported Palestinians have no option but to return to Syria.
Since 30 June, Syrian refugees have been facing accusations from media in Egypt of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, especially that some Syrian songs and chants, as well Syrian independence flags, were witnessed in the pro-Morsi Rabaa Al-Adawiya sit-in dispersed by force 14 August.
Several media figures like Youssef El-Hossainy and Mohamed El-Ghaity — as well as Tawfik Okasha, who asked viewers directly to attack Palestinians and Syrians in Egypt — have frequently attacked the Syrians on their TV shows, portraying them not only as supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, but as trying to destabilise the country and transfer the Syrian experience to Egypt.
Even among Egyptian political figures the die is cast against Syrian refugees. Mostafa El-Gundy, a leading member of the Constitution Party, called on the Egyptian people in July to kill any Syrian or Palestinian on the spot if caught at any major checkpoint after the ousting of Morsi. Rumours spread at the time of the Rabaa sit-in alleged that the Muslim Brotherhood were hiring Syrians to participate in their rallies and that Syrian women were offered as brides in Rabaa.
The media campaigns led to pronounced xenophobia in some areas in Egypt against Syrians. Some Syrian refugees have reported being attacked and harassed by angry citizens in Alexandria and 6th of October City. Some Syrian owned shops and small restaurants in 6th of October City area, where there is a large Syrian community since two years, have also been targeted.
Some Syrian families have been forced to leave apartments they rented as owners refuse to have Syrians as tenants after the media campaign, said Al-Atassi.
“Families are scared to send their children to buy anything from the street. They now fear to speak in Syrian accent for fear of being spotted and attacked in the street,” another Syrian activist in Egypt told Ahram Online, preferring to remain anonymous out of concerns for safety.
“I know a man who was attacked and stabbed by an angry mob just because he is Syrian. This man is a father who lost a child and a wife in the war and came to Egypt searching for safety for the rest of his family,” said the activist.
Monday, September 02, 2013Elder of ZiyonAsala Nasri's recent visit to Palestine raised many eyebrows in the entertainment world and media. The singer was the first ever Syrian to perform in Palestine since 1967. The performance was held in a small village near Bethlehem and was part of the “Layali Barak Suleiman” Festival.
But Asala's visit was interpreted as cooperating with Israel and a violation of Syrian laws. Syrian law states that any visitors to the occupied territory will be imprisoned for a period of 3-10 years.
Asala is known to be completely opposed to Bashar Al Assad's government and has openly spoken her mind about the ruthlessness of his regime that's killing the lives of innocent Syrians. A number of Syrian lawyers are gathering suitable documents to file a lawsuit against the star.
Now, weeks after the incident, the singer isn't scot free from criticism. Asala's brother and business manager Anas Nasri stated that his sister obtained her entry Visa into Palestine just like any other individual, adding that she had to go through Israeli checkpoints to enter the West Bank as well.
Anas argued that Asala isn't the only singer to perform in Palestine; stars like Egyptian singers Mohamed Mounir, Mohamed Fouad, Hani Shaker, Hussam Habib and Kuwaiti singer Abdallah Al Rowaished entered Palestine in the same way Asala did and none were accused of cooperating with Israel the same way his sister was.
A number of Syrian lawyers are gathering suitable documents to file a lawsuit against the star.
According to Sayidaty.net, the lawsuit was filed by supporters of the Syrian government of Bashar Al Assad as revenge against Asala for opposing Assad's regime and supporting the Revolution instead.
The lawyers further stated that Asala was granted her entry Visa to Palestine through Israeli officials. They're demanding that the singer is stripped of her Syrian citizenship for cooperating with Israel. Syrian law states that any visitors to the occupied territory will be imprisoned for a period of 3-10 years.
Since the beginning of what is called the ‘Arab Spring’, the official Palestinian Authority daily has been publishing opinion pieces accusing the US and Israel of being behind the civil wars in the Middle East in order to divide and weaken Arab states and strengthen American power. The deaths in the Arab world, including those in Syria following the chemical attack, are presented as actions in line with US policy. The official PA daily wrote today:Abbas: We are negotiating on the basis of the pre-1967 lines
“Events of mass killings do not upset [America] because they themselves have used killing as a means and a strategy to attain global domination… This is a tyranny and an effort whose goal is to divide every country… Americans aspire to topple the nation states that appeared in the Arab world after WWII.”
Abbas said he agreed to July’s resumption of talks “only once he’d received an official US guarantee that negotiations would be on a two-state solution based on the pre-1967 lines,” the report said. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had emphatically refused Abbas’s demand, ahead of the talks, to publicly state that negotiations for a Palestinian state would be based on the pre-’67 lines, and the United States has not made public any assurances it may have made on the issue to Abbas.Abbas says peace with Israel will be brought to a referendum for Palestinians 'everywhere'
Abbas also reportedly told the Fatah officials that the Palestinians are maintaining their demand that East Jerusalem be the capital of a future Palestinian state, a condition he called a “red line.”
Israel’s President Shimon Peres said Monday that Netanyahu had decided that Israel’s interests require a two-state solution, hence his readiness to resume negotiations with Abbas. Netanyahu had taken a “difficult decision” to restart talks with the Palestinians, said Peres, “and I respect that. I don’t believe he took it as an isolated step. He decided upon two states and no less important he decided against a bi-national state.”
Abbas, who was speaking at the opening of a meeting of the Fatah Revolutionary Council in Ramallah, said that Palestinians everywhere would be asked to approve an agreement with Israel through the referendum.U.S. Reveals: Indyk Took Part in One Peace Meeting
"If there is any development and an agreement, it is known that we will go to a referendum," Abbas clarified. "It won't be enough to have the approval of the Fatah Central Committee or the PLO Executive Council for an agreement. Rather, we would go to a referendum everywhere because the agreement represents Palestinians everywhere."
Abbas's calls for a referendum echo those on the Israeli side that any final status agreement with the Palestinians be put to a referendum. The Palestinian leader made similar comments regarding a referendum in an interview with a Jordanian newspaper in July.
The U.S. State Department revealed on Sunday for the first time that the U.S. envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian Authority talks had taken part in a meeting between the two parties since negotiations resumed in late July.Abbas cancels goodwill meeting with leftist MKs
"The negotiations have been serious, and U.S. Special Envoy Martin Indyk and his team have been fully briefed on the bilateral talks and also participated in a bilateral negotiating session," said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki. "As we have said in the past, we are not planning to read out the details of these meetings."
The State Department decided to make the disclosure regarding Israeli-Palestinian Authority negotiations after media attention about their course was overshadowed by the violent crackdown on Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and the Syrian government’s alleged use of chemical weapons against its people.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas canceled a pre-Rosh Hashana toast with more than 30 ministers and Knesset members that was set for Tuesday because he came under pressure from the anti-normalization movement in Ramallah.Analysis: The Hamas threat from the West Bank
Abbas invited the Knesset’s Caucus on Ending the Israeli- Arab Conflict to his headquarters in Ramallah after a Palestinian delegation was greeted by 30 MKs and ministers and a Palestinian flag at the Knesset on July 31. That meeting emphasized the need to have a show of force in Ramallah to boost the nascent Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
But the anti-normalization movement, which is strong inside Abbas’s Fatah party, criticized him for meeting such a high-profile Israeli delegation so soon after the IDF killed Palestinians in recent incidents in Jenin and Kalandiya. They also did not like it that he was hosting a toast in honor of the Jewish New Year.
There have been at least three known arrests of Hamas terror cells in the West Bank this year, prior to the latest investigation.Two bombs explode near IDF patrol on Gaza border
They all form part of a broader effort by it to recover its West Bank infrastructure, which was all but destroyed by Israel’s counter-terror operations a decade ago.
These incidents raise an unavoidable question: Can a future attack, one that isn’t thwarted, have direct repercussions on current relative calm between Israel and Gaza? To what extent are these two arenas interlinked? So far, these questions have not been put to the test, thanks to the lifesaving efficiency of the Shin Bet.
A similar incident took place Friday, when an IED exploded near an IDF patrol traveling along the Gaza border fence. No soldiers were injured in Friday’s incident.Robert Fisk finds Zionist smoking gun in likely U.S. attack against Syria
Aside from isolated rocket fire attributed to rogue Islamist groups, the border between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip has largely been calm since the ceasefire that ended last November’s Operation Pillar of Defense.
In addition to the obvious point that Iran, since the 1979 revolution, has been America’s enemy as well as Israel’s, even by the low standards of anti-Zionist agitprop, Fisk’s thesis rests on a comically thin argument. He would have Indy readers believe that the U.S. decision to engage in what will almost certainly be a very limited use of force against a few military targets in Syria, in retaliation for crossing President Obama’s red line over chemical weapons, actually represents a stealth plan to aid Israel.92-year-old former SS member on trial for WWII crime
It’s unclear of course how a few cruise missiles launched against Syrian chemical weapons sites would change the balance of power in the civil war, or even minimally disrupt Iran’s continuing military support for the regime in Damascus, or how any of this would affect Israel’s efforts to rein in Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. However, to those preaching to the anti-Zionist choir – and engaging in the facile “who benefits?” causation – such pesky questions regarding empirical evidence are obviously never relevant.
Germany put a 92-year-old former member of the Nazi Waffen SS on trial Monday on charges that he murdered a Dutch resistance fighter in 1944.Autotalks to get cars ‘talking’ on the road by 2015
Dutch-born Siert Bruins, who is now German, entered the Hagen state courtroom using a walker, but appeared alert and attentive as the proceedings opened.
For drivers, overtaking a truck is always a risk. Now, the latest craze of the auto technology arena, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication systems – or, cars that can “talk” to one another in real time – is promising to lessen that risk and heighten road safety.Gauzy Smart Glass Controls Light with an Eco Touch
Autotalks, founded and headquartered in Israel, has become a world leader in V2V as well as vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technology, which enables, for example, traffic lights and other infrastructure to respond to an emergency vehicle’s needs.
Israeli startup Gauzy has invented smart glass that goes from transparent to opaque with nothing more than a touch. Based on liquid crystal technology used in LCD screens, this revolutionary new product has great eco potential.New pathway to treat colorectal cancer, pulmonary fibrosis
Founded in 2009 by CEO Eyal Peso and CTO Adrian Lofer, who worked together at Alvarion, Gauzy aims to revolutionize the glass industry by introducing products that can control how much light passes through.
A type of white blood cell called a macrophage is one tricky customer. Expose macrophages to a certain stimulus and they’ll promote healing. But expose them to a different stimulus and they actually make the condition worse.Who wants to be a (Technion) millionaire?
A team of Israeli researchers is making unprecedented progress in mapping the mechanism of these “good guy, bad guy” cells and understanding their role in the progression of two deadly diseases: colorectal cancer and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), an incurable lung condition.
If you ever wondered about how to get rich, it turns out you should go to Haifa and walk through the gates of the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology. In a new list published by Bloomberg Rankings, the Technion tied for seventh among the world's universities for the number of graduates who are CEOs of U.S. tech companies with a market value of more than $1 billion.Israel Daily Picture: Happy New Year! Jews Will Blow the Shofar (Ram's Horn) in Synagogues on Thursday and Friday
Among the top 10 universities on the list, the Technion is the only one located outside the U.S.
Jews around the world prepare for Rosh Hashanna this week, the festive New Year holiday when the shofar -- ram's horn -- is blown in synagogues.BBC: The Story Of The Jews
The American Colony photographers recorded a dozen pictures of Jewish elders blowing the shofar in Jerusalem some 80 years ago. The horn was also blown in Jerusalem to announce the commencement of the Sabbath. During the month prior to Rosh Hashana, the shofar was blown at daily morning prayers to encourage piety before the High Holidays.
This epic five-part series presented by historian Simon Schama explores the story of the Jewish experience from ancient times to the present day.
Buy EoZ's book, PROTOCOLS: EXPOSING MODERN ANTISEMITISM
