Rabbi brothers singing "Sounds of Silence" on Israeli talent show (video, updated)

This is very cool, although their accents sometimes get in the way:




Somehow, I don't think that they're going to cover "Ceclia" though...

UPDATE: They are apparently well-known street musicians, called The Breslov Brothers, and have even covered....Pink Floyd!



They don't have to worry about Roger Waters dropping by to listen, though!

Also check out their Tears in Heaven.



(h/t Malca)

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10/12 Links: Leftist Enablers of Hezbollah and Hamas, Iran Arrests ‘Homosexuals and Satanists’

From Ian:

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The Leftist Enablers of Hezbollah and Hamas

Chomsky and his comrades on the Left couldn’t care less what happens to real people as a result of the actions of terrorist groups like Hezbollah. Any group that hates the “Great Satan” has got to be alright for the Chomskyites, who meanwhile seek comfort and security in the land they so glibly condemn.
Such willful moral inversion is not confined to academia, of course. For example, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and Gaza flotilla spokesman Edward Peck said after meeting with a group of Hamas leaders, including Hamas’s leader, Khaled Mashaal: “These guys were entirely rational.” Peck added that he found Mashaal to be “moderate in many senses.”

Syrian Attacks on Lebanon and Global Terrorism Shake Hezbollah Branding, “Western Apologists”

The damage has been compounded by a series of recent terrorism convictions, across multiple continents, in which Hezbollah operatives were linked to potential or actual attacks. Reviewing Washington Institute fellow Matthew Levitt’s book “Hezbollah” this week, Michael Totten described the effect on Hezbollah:

And yet Hezbollah is still often described, by itself and by its Western apologists, as an indigenous Lebanese “resistance” movement in a twilight struggle against the Jewish state. It is, in fact, a multinational terror operation with Iran as its funder and controller. “Hezbollah’s role in Iran’s shadow war . . . has cast the group as a dangerous terrorist network capable of operating everywhere from Europe to Africa and Asia and to the Americas,” Mr. Levitt writes.

Richard Millett: War On Want event: “Palestinians live in apartheid ghettos.”

Last night 200 students crammed into Room G2 at SOAS where they heard a new phrase employed in order to accuse Israel; “apartheid ghettos”. “Apartheid ghettos” neatly combines the horrors of Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa. But this time, in sick role reversal, it’s Jews who are the Nazis (see photo above).
Meanwhile, Daniel Machover, a solicitor, called for “the destruction of the political system in Israel” and for “an end to the Zionist project”. All obvious code for the destruction of Israel, although he wouldn’t admit it.

Tunisia orders tennis player to withdraw from match against Israeli

Tunisia’s tennis federation ordered the country’s top player to withdraw from a match against an Israeli at a tournament in Uzbekistan.
Malek Jaziri had been scheduled to play Israel’s Amir Weintraub on Friday in the quarterfinals of an ATP Challenger tournament in Tashkent. He withdrew before the match and Weintraub advanced to the semifinals of the lower-tier event.

Caroline Glick: Israel’s blind watchmen

Intellectual reliance on the leftist-dominated media; blind trust rather than critical analysis of statements by foreign sources and colleagues; lawyerization of military operations; over-dependence on technology; politicization of the senior ranks; and discrimination against religious officers have all been pointed to as factors that have contributed to Israel’s senior defense officials’ failure to foresee any major development and insistent blindness to their significance.
Certainly all have played a role in bringing about this dismal state of affairs.
But whatever the cause of our military and intelligence leadership’s insistence on getting everything wrong, the fact is that they are Israel’s Achilles’ heel. Until steps are taken to rectify this situation, Israel’s technological prowess and tactical brilliance will remain of limited value for securing the country and our interests.

Abbas blames Israel for Palestinian fiscal crisis

“The economic situation is very difficult and the central reason for this is the Israeli occupation,” Abbas said in an interview with Palestinian government television. “Israel exploits our resources and lands which directly leads to an increase in the deficit which we must contend with.”
According to Abbas, Palestinian Finance Minister Shukri Bishara informed him that the PA won’t be able to pay government salaries unless it receives international aid. The Palestinian government employs approximately 150,000 of the nearly two million Palestinians living in the West Bank.

Report warns of loose missile threat in Syria

The Syrian government’s shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles and launchers could imperil civil aviation if they fall into the hands of terror groups, according to an independent report examining the global proliferation of portable missiles.
The report released Friday by the Federation of American Scientists, a prominent Washington group that focuses on issues of science and security, warns that some opposition factions inside Syria are already wielding small numbers of anti-aircraft systems in combat against Syrian government forces. Citing video and photo evidence from opposition forces, media and official accounts, the FAS study says some portable launchers and missiles have been seized by opposition forces during battles with Syrian troops, while others have been smuggled in to rebel fighters from neighboring countries.

Al-Qaeda leader urges unity among Syrian jihadis

Ayman al-Zawahiri said fighters must “rise above organizational loyalties and party partisanship” and unite behind the goal of setting up an Islamic state.
Al-Zawaihri also urged Syrian regime opponents not cut deals with Western-backed and secular groups. Islamist rebels have battled with secular and Kurdish rebel groups over Syria’s border crossings with Turkey for several weeks, leaving dozens dead.

Once again from Nobel, a prize for the prospect of peace

Once again this year, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded not to an extraordinary individual, but to an organization tasked with a great challenge well before positive outcomes from its work have materialized.
The Nobel committee, by awarding it the peace prize, has cast the OPCW as a practical and powerful tool for the execution of peace. And yet the ability of the OPCW to deliver is far from assured.

Hollande to Netanyahu: We'll Remain Tough on Iran

French President Francois Hollande reassured Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday that France will remain "tough" with Iran on its controversial nuclear program, reports AFP.
Hollande told Netanyahu in a telephone call that France would wait to see if the more moderate politics of Iran's new leader Hassan Rouhani, who replaced hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June, would translate in his "actions", the Elysee palace said, according to the news agency.

Iran Arrests Network of ‘Homosexuals and Satanists’

The website of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reported the arrest of “a network of homosexuals and satanists” in the western Iranian city of Kermanshah, close to the country’s border with Iraq, on Thursday, The Guardian reported.
A source told The Guardian “the raid took place on Tuesday night when some 80 people, including both straight and gay Iranians, had gathered for a birthday party in Kermanshah. At least 17 people who had tattoos, make-up, or were wearing rainbow bracelets were blindfolded and taken to an unknown location, according to a local source. Partygoers were filmed by the elite forces and had their mobile phones confiscated.”

Coptic Leaders Condemn Obama Adviser's Anti-Coptic Tweets

Major Coptic leaders are condemning Mohamed Elibiary, an Obama administration Homeland Security adviser, for suggesting that Copts who raise awareness of anti-Christian violence in Egypt promote "Islamophobic" bigotry.
Elibiary sent out a series of tweets that Coptic leaders found offensive last month. The tweets appeared to chastise the Coptic community for lobbying on behalf of their relatives in Egypt. He targeted them because they had aligned themselves with conservative groups that he called "Islamophobic."

Egypt to renew nuclear program in another setback for the West

In reports from the Egypt that have thus far eluded the Western media, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is reporting Friday that senior figures in the Egyptian government are now pledging to restart their once mothballed nuclear programme.
Analysts and diplomats consulted in Europe by The Commentator say that American and European officials have been aware of such rumblings for several weeks, but have not yet worked out a clear policy position. They add, under condition of anonymity, that this is no longer a Left-Right issue, but a policy matter dominated by confusion.

Car Bomb Damages Swedish Consulate in Benghazi

A car bomb exploded outside the Swedish consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, Friday, causing serious damage to the embassy and damaging adjacent buildings.
No casualties were reported from the explosion.

Argentina refuses to accept late Nazi’s remains

Argentina on Friday refused accept the remains of Erich Priebke, a former Nazi SS captain sentenced to life in prison for his role in one of the worst atrocities by German occupiers in Italy during World War II.
Priebke, who died in Italy earlier Friday, was to have been buried beside his wife in Argentina, where he fled in the aftermath of the war, according to an AFP report.

Pope warns of anti-Semitism as Rome commemorates Holocaust

Pope Francis urged vigilance against any resurgence of anti-Semitism ahead of the 70th anniversary of the deportation of Rome’s Jews to Auschwitz.
Pope Francis made the warning Friday during a meeting at the Vatican with Italian Jewish leaders, including Riccardo Di Segni, the chief rabbi of Rome.

Evangelicals and Israel

At a time when the state of Israel lies under existential threat from jihadist Islam, and under ideological and diplomatic assault in foreign ministries, international organizations, churches, universities, editorial offices, and other circles of advanced Western opinion—and when even some Jews in the Diaspora seem to be growing disenchanted with the Zionist cause—millions of evangelical Christians unabashedly continue their outspoken, wholehearted, stalwart defense of both the Jewish state and the Jewish people.

Israel Daily Picture: Holy Sites in the Holy Land -- More Pictures from the Emory University Collection, Part 2

The original photos are "stereographic," but we present just "one" of the nearly identical images to save space.
Many of the photos, taken between 1895- 1905, are accompanied by a travelogue describing the sites written by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut (1843 - 1930), an American Methodist clergyman. It was published in 1913.

Stand With Us: I Love Israel Because...

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10/11 Links Pt2: IDF's YomKippur73 Tweet Sends Oil Stocks Saoring, IAF's Flying Camel Squadron

From Ian:

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What Russia’s Mideast Rise Means for Israel

Although Israel has attempted to stay out of the Syrian civil war, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren told The Jerusalem Post in mid-September that the Jewish state “always wanted Bashar Assad to go” and “always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran.”
Despite Assad’s ties to Iran and to Hezbollah, Trenin told JNS.org that Russia may actually be more concerned with the growth of Sunni extremism, particularly in Chechnya in the north Caucasus mountains, where Russia has been fighting Al-Qaeda-linked extremists such as the Caucasus Emirate for decades.
In fact, Russia may not have a stellar reputation in other parts of the Middle East. Arab Gulf leaders have historically criticized Russia’s policies in Chechnya and are distrustful of Russian ties with Shi’a Iran.
Russia is using its involvement in the Middle East to uphold “the world order based on national sovereignty and the U.N. Security Council’s supremacy in matters of the use of force, checking Islamist extremism, and achieving equality in Russia’s own relations with the United States,” Trenin said.

Historical IDF tweet sends oil soaring

The tweet reported on Israeli bombing raids on Syrian airports to stop Soviet weapons transfers and carried the hashtag #YomKippur73, intended to clue readers in that this was part of a series of messages by the IDF commemorating the war.
Instead, international Brent traders misread the tweet as a clue that oil would soon become scarcer, and began buying, sending the price from $110.40 a barrel to $111.50, according to Reuters.

Lt. Colonel discusses motivations of women and children suicide bombers

Berko also described the scope of child involvement in terrorist attacks.
“There are instances of recruiters waiting for children right out of school. They would just go after students like drug dealers,” she said. “I spoke with a 15-year-old boy in prison, and you could tell he had been beaten and abused.”

Abbas’ UN speech contradicts his “refugee” history

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas recently spoke in the UN (Sept. 26, 2013) and claimed:

"I am personally one of the victims of the Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel), among the hundreds of thousands of my people uprooted in 1948 from our beautiful world and thrown into exile."

However, Palestinian Media Watch documented that earlier this year, when describing why he and other Arabs in 1948 left Abbas' town of birth, Safed, a mixed Jewish Arab town, Abbas did not say that he and other Arabs were "thrown into exile," but explained that they left on their own out of fear. He stated that in 1929, there had been a "most severe" massacre of Jews in the cities of Safed and Hebron, and that Arab residents of Safed feared the Jews would take revenge. Accordingly, Abbas explained, they left Safed on their own, "overcome with this fear," and "it caused them to begin to leave the city in a disorderly manner."

Fatah Official: Israel Should be ‘Removed’ From Region if Peace Agreement Not Reached

In an interview with i24 News, Fatah official Jibril Rajoub said that if Israel doesn’t reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians it should be “removed” from the region.
“Peace is not a Palestinian interest, it’s an international interest, and the interest of the world is to put an end to this struggle. I think it’s also an Israeli interest – Israelis should decide whether they are part of the Middle East or an alien body. If Israel is an alien body it should be removed,” he said.

UN Watch: "Israel Violates Syrian Human Rights," Arabs Tell UN

At the UNHRC's "Hate Israel Day," Syria, Egypt and Pakistan for the Islamic States accused Israel of violating the human rights of Syrians. Attacks by Islamic terrorists in Kenya and Pakistan were ignored. UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer asked why.

Arrests in Al Bireh prompt BBC mention of Psagot attack

This report once again underscores the all too prevalent phenomenon of ‘last-first’ reporting – as seen so often in relation to missile attacks from the Gaza Strip which are frequently ignored unless Israel takes action, and with subsequent reports focusing on the Israeli response rather than the cause of that response.
This report also of course prompts the question of whether BBC audiences would have found out about the incident in Psagot at all if no arrests had later been made, as well as raising the issue of an editorial process which apparently only finds an attack on a child newsworthy when it comes as context to an Israeli action involving Palestinians.

Another Week, Another Example of Bias at The New York Times

Nearly every week, the New York Times provides another example of its bias against Israel. The most recent is Jodi Rudoren's Oct. 8th article about a group of Knesset members who met Palestinian president Abbas at his headquarters in Ramallah. The New York Times version of the meeting differs in many respects from other accounts in the media. Unlike others, Rudoren's article becomes a vehicle to denigrate Israel's leader, with the injection of editorial comments and opinion to portray him as an obstructionist compared to the Palestinian leader who is shown as a peacemaker.

Presbyterian "Peacemakers" Go Off the Rails, Again

Things got so bad a while back that the organization was forced to take down its Facebook page because of some of the ugly cartoons that IPMN activists posted there. At one point, IPMN activist Noushin Framke encouraged Hamas – an anti-Semitic organization that seeks Israel's destruction – to hold onto kidnapped IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit until the Palestinians achieve right of return. She has also denied the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state. Such statements are contrary to the IPMN's mandate to educate and inform members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) about the Arab-Israeli conflict.
They are acts of demonization and defamation that incite hostility toward Israel, which seems to be the actual intent of the organization's leaders and activists.

British Couple Horrified by Wedding Day Anti-Semitism Caught on Tape (VIDEO)

A British couple was shocked to find that the videographer hired to capture their wedding for posterity spent the evening mocking guests and making anti-Semitic remarks, The Jewish Chronicle reports.
Anthony Aurelius could be heard on the tape calling the bride “unattractive” and referring to guests as “f****** cows.” But the real tipping point came when he surmised, “I don’t think I blame Hitler” and referred to Jews as “the meanest people in the world,” adding, “there’s not a lot of niceness about them is there?”

IsraellyCool: Roger Waters Objects To Translation Of Interview With Israeli Journalist

Last month, I posted the English translation of an interview rock’n'roll BDShole Roger Waters had with an Israeli journalist.
Waters has now written a letter complaining about the translation, claiming it is a “serious distortion of the actual interview” he gave.

Jewish Student Union votes to deny membership to J Street U

The campus Jewish Student Union voted Wednesday to deny membership to J Street U at Berkeley, a Jewish student political advocacy group on campus whose application to join the union also was denied two years ago after the group faced accusations of being anti-Israel.
The bylaws of the Jewish Student Union, an umbrella organization for Jewish student groups on campus, stipulate that a member organization must not host speakers who demonize Israel, said Jewish Student Union President Daphna Torbati.(h/t Daphne Anson)

Report: Samsung Expresses Interest in Israeli Companies to Boost Mobile Division

The newspaper cites a Samsung document which mentions Israeli mobile search engine developer Everything.me as a possible target acquisition and video-chat app Rounds. The newspaper mentions specifically that acquiring Rounds would help Samsung compete with Apple’s FaceTime and Google’s Hangout.

Natalie Portman in TA for her Oz film

Israeli-born actress Natalie Portman, 32, is in Tel Aviv working on pre-production for her film adaptation of “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” by acclaimed Israeli author Amos Oz.
According to Channel 10 TV show “Good Evening with Guy Pines,” Portman spent the past week with her husband, dancer Benjamin Millepied, and their son, Aleph, at the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv. She also met with producers, including Ran Bergman, who recently produced “Looper,” starring Bruce Willis.

Prof. Warshel: PM Understood My Research in 1 Minute

Despite this, said Prof. Warshel, he succeeded in explaining the gist of his research to Netanyahu “in one minute.”
Netanyahu responded by saying that from now on, he would demand that his ministers, too, limit whatever statements they wish to make to one minute.

Italian cycling legend Gino Bartali honored by Yad Vashem

The clandestine World War II work of champion cyclist Gino Bartali was recognized Thursday when a ceremony was held in Jerusalem to mark his help in rescuing Jews in his native Italy.
The ceremony was held at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem to induct Bartali into the prestigious garden of the Righteous Among the Nations for his work during the German occupation of Italy.

IDF Blog: “The Eye in the Sky at the Heart of the Action”: The Story of the Flying Camel Squadron

There was a popular phrase going around the Arab world in 1947,” Capt. H tells us. “They said: When Israel has an air force, camels will fly. Needless to say that when the first IAF squadron was founded in that same year, it was nicknamed the Flying Camel Squadron.”
The Flying Camel Squadron’s motto is: “The eye in the sky at the heart of the action.” The squadron has participated in every single one of Israel’s wars since the 1948 War of Independence, and is responsible for providing visual intelligence that has made the Israel Air Forces’ strike capabilities legendary.

Israel Daily Picture: Seeing Double? A New Trove of Antique Pictures Uncovered at Emory University -- "Stereographic" Photos 100+ Years Old

The photography company of Underwood & Underwood specialized in publishing stereoscope collections, such as Palestine through the Stereoscope which was sold with a stereoscope, and 200 stereoscopic slides. The photos were taken in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the River Jordan, Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, and the Dead Sea between 1895 and 1904, and the accompanying tour book was published in 1914.

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Hatikva for Dummies

Silly stuff for Friday afternoon.



(h/t Yerushalimey)

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John Kerry lauds Malaysia as modern, innovative and multi-faith model

AFP reports:

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry lauded Malaysia Friday as a modern, innovative and multi-faith model for the world, heaping praise on a country the United States regards as a valuable Muslim ally.

On the final day of a curtailed Asian tour in which he has filled in for U.S. President Barack Obama, Kerry said Malaysia’s young people were an inspiration for the Arab Spring.

“Here in Malaysia, people of different heritages have been in conversation for a long time,” Kerry said in a speech to mainly young entrepreneurs in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

He cited the symbolism of Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Towers - the world’s tallest twin skyscrapers - having blended modern engineering, traditional Muslim design, Malaysian vision, a U.S. architect and Asian builders.

“Together, they... are a soaring reminder that Malaysia is much more than a marketplace. It is a human and economic mosaic - and it is a model for the world,” Kerry said.

The National Post, last year:

In Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, politicians and civil servants devote a surprising amount of time to thinking about Israel, 7,612 km away. Sometimes they appear to be obsessed by it. Malaysia has never had a dispute with Israel, but the government encourages the citizens to hate Israel and also to hate Jews whether they are Israelis or not.

Few Malaysians have laid eyes on a Jew; the tiny Jewish community emigrated decades ago. Nevertheless, Malaysia has become an example of a phenomenon called “Anti-Semitism without Jews.” Last March, for instance, the Federal Territory Islamic Affairs Department sent out an official sermon to be read in all mosques, stating that “Muslims must understand Jews are the main enemy to Muslims as proven by their egotistical behaviour and murders performed by them.” About 60% of Malaysians are Muslim.

In Kuala Lumpur, it’s routine to blame the Jews for everything from economic failures to the bad press Malaysia gets in foreign (“Jewish-owned”) newspapers.

The leaders of the country assume that Jews and Israelis deserve to be humiliated as often as possible. In 1984, the New York Philharmonic cancelled a visit because the Malaysian information minister demanded that a composition by Ernest Bloch, an American Jewish composer who died in 1959, be eliminated from their program. In 1992, an Israeli football player with the Liverpool team was refused permission to play in Malaysia; the team cancelled the visit. The government banned Schindler’s List, calling it anti-German and pro-Jewish propaganda. The same government later decided it could be shown if seven scenes were cut. Steven Spielberg refused, so the government removed all his films from Malaysia’s screens.

In 2003, the prime minister’s political party gave delegates to the United Malays National Organization copies of Henry Ford’s anti-Semitic book from the 1920s, The International Jew, a favourite of Hitler, translated into Bahasa Malay.

I'm not bringing this up to make Kerry look stupid. I'm mentioning it because, as we've seen by the refusal so far of HRW and Amnesty to condemn the "Khaybar" TV series, the people in the West who should be in the forefront of condemning Muslim and Arab antisemitism have abdicated that responsibility.

Muslim antisemitism is a given, or it is justified as a natural response to Israel's policies (or existence,) or whatever.

The problem is that by not expecting Muslims to live up to the same standards that are expected of everyone else, the West is enabling this attitude.

Arab and Muslim antisemitism is not anomalous - it is mainstream. And part of the reason is because Westerners tend to look the other way.

Muslims and Arabs aren't children. They aren't brain damaged. Like everyone else, they will act the way they are expected to act. And the only way to make them change their attitudes is by shaming them, by forcing them to face consequences for their actions. Nothing will ever change by us dismissing the uglier aspects of Muslim and Arab culture as just "one of those things."

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Former Meretz member shocked at college hatred of Israel

A must read in Times of Israel by Hen Mazzig:

As a young Israeli who had just completed five years of service in the IDF, I looked forward to my new job educating people in the Pacific Northwest about Israel. I was shocked, however, by the anti-Israel bigotry and hostility I encountered, especially in the greater Seattle area, Oregon, and Berkeley. I had been very liberal, a member of the leftist Zionist party, Meretz, but the anti-Semitism and hatred for Israel that I have seen in the U.S. has changed my outlook personally and politically.

This year, from January through May, I went to college campuses, high schools, and churches to tell people about the history of modern Israel, about my experience growing up in the Jewish state, and about my family. ...

When I served as a soldier in the West Bank, I got used to having ugly things said to me, but nothing prepared me for the misinformation, demonization of Israel, and the gut-wrenching, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic hostility expressed by many students, professors, church members, and even some high school students right here in the Pacific Northwest.

I was further shocked by how unaware the organized Jewish community is and how little they are actually doing to counter this rising anti-Semitism, which motivated me to write this article.

...To give you a taste of the viciousness of the BDS attacks, let me cite just a few of the many shocking experiences I have had. At a BDS event in Portland, a professor from a Seattle university told the assembled crowd that the Jews of Israel have no national rights and should be forced out of the country. When I asked, “Where do you want them to go?” she calmly answered, “I don’t care. I don’t care if they don’t have any place else to go. They should not be there.” When I responded that she was calling for ethnic cleansing, both she and her supporters denied it. And during a presentation in Seattle, I spoke about my longing for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. When I was done, a woman in her 60’s stood up and yelled at me, “You are worse than the Nazis. You are just like the Nazi youth!” A number of times I was repeatedly accused of being a killer, though I have never hurt anyone in my life. On other occasions, anti-Israel activists called me a rapist. The claims go beyond being absurd – in one case, a professor asked me if I knew how many Palestinians have been raped by IDF forces. I answered that as far as I knew, none. She triumphantly responded that I was right, because, she said, “You IDF soldiers don’t rape Palestinians because Israelis are so racist and disgusted by them that you won’t touch them.”

Such irrational accusations are symptomatic of dangerous anti-Semitism. Yet, alarmingly, most mainstream American Jews are completely oblivious to this ugly movement and the threat it poses. They seem to be asleep, unaware that this anti-Jewish bigotry is peddled on campuses, by speakers in high schools, churches, and communities, and is often deceptively camouflaged in the rhetoric of human rights.

...My experiences in America have changed me. I never expected to encounter such hatred and lies. I never believed that such anti-Semitism still existed, especially in the U.S. I never knew that the battlefield was not just Gaza, the West Bank, and hostile Middle Eastern countries wanting to destroy Israel and kill our citizens and soldiers. It is also here in America, where a battle must be waged against prejudice and lies.

I implore American Jews: do more.

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10/11 Links Part 1: Chemical Weapons Inspectors Win Peace Prize, Iran's True Face

From Ian:

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'A Bad Deal is Worse than No Deal', Says Netanyahu

In excerpts of an interview with the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published in advance and quoted by AFP, he called for sanctions on the Tehran regime to be stepped up rather than eased.
"A bad deal is worse than no deal," the prime minister was quoted as saying.
Iran "will ask for a partial lifting of sanctions for cosmetic concessions that would leave them with the ability to have a nuclear weapons capability," Netanyahu told the German newspaper.

Netanyahu to Britain: Iran must stop calling for destruction of Israel

While the message was similar to the one he communicated in the US, he did frame it around distinctly European points of reference.
For example, Netanyahu referred to a picture in his office of Winston Churchill, and recalled what Churchill said about arming the Nazis.
“He said don’t let the Nazis arm themselves,” Netanyahu said. “Don’t let an implacable, radical regime have awesome power. And he was right, and there is a lesson to be learned here.”

In show of military might, Israel drills long-range air force attack

In a display of muscle-flexing to Tehran ahead of nuclear talks between Iran and world powers, Israel made a rare announcement Thursday that its air force had conducted a series of drills in which fighter aircraft practiced midair refueling and a simulated strike on a distant target.
A video, unprecedentedly uploaded to YouTube by the IDF Thursday, shows F-15 and F-16 fighter jets refueling midair over the water. It was published shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to a series of European TV interviewers, warning the EU not to ease sanctions against Iran. “When a murderous regime engages in soft diplomacy and uses calming words of peace, but nevertheless continues to acquire immense power — it must be stopped, immediately,” Netanyahu said.

Dore Gold: Iran's first 'charm offensive'

The first Iranian charm offensive required two parties to succeed: Iranians who skillfully employed a campaign of deception and gullible commentators in the West, who took at face value what the Iranians said. It can only be hoped that this time, with Rouhani's charm offensive, this dangerous combination will not reappear, leading the U.S. and its allies to repeat the errors in interpreting Iranian intentions, that were committed in the earliest days of Khomeini's rule.

Iranian liberal attacks pro-Rouhani propaganda of the Guardian’s Saeed Kamali-Dehghan

Rouhani was nominated by Saeed Kamali-Dehghan, who has served as one of the paper’s chief promoters of the lie that the new Iranian president is a “moderate” despite Rouhani’s involvement in terror attacks abroad and his role in crushing the pro-democracy movement at home.
Responding to the Guardian readers’ poll was a liberal Iranian blogger (currently living in London) named Potkin Azarmehr (whose blog serves as a platform for the voice of secular pro-democracy activists) who argued that the nomination of Rouhani evokes, for many liberal Iranians, memories of Ayatollah Khalkhali of Iran’s ‘Soviet puppet‘ Communist Party (Tudeh) after the 1979 revolution.

Iran cancels annual anti-Zionism conference

As part of an apparent effort to rebrand the Islamic Republic in post-Ahmadinejad times, the New Horizon Conference, scheduled to take place in November, was cancelled by the Foreign Ministry, reported The Telegraph.
Hardliners in Iran blasted the decision, which they see as another concession on the part of the new government. Iran’s recently elected president, Hassan Rouhani, has made a concerted effort to put a new face on the regime in Tehran. This after eight years of his Holocaust-denying predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iran FM on Hypocrisy of Personally Using Banned Facebook and Twitter: “That’s Life”

When asked why some top Iranian officials use Facebook and Twitter despite the regime banning access to the platforms, Vaezi tersely responded “you should ask them.”
As it happens someone has asked one of Iran’s top officials exactly that. David Keyes, executive director of Advancing Human Rights, last month pressed Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif on the topic. The Western-education Zarif, who maintains a verified Twitter account as well as a Facebook page, has been broadly described as one of the more nuanced and moderate members of Iranian president Hassan Rouhani’s cabinet. Zarif’s response to Keyes was somewhat less than nuanced:

Internal Conflict, Not Mossad, Suspected in Death of Iranian Scientist

When a key Iranian scientist was gunned down last week, many observers figured Israeli spy agency Mossad had struck again. But new signs point to deadly intrigue within the rogue nation’s fractious leadership.

Italy conference exposes 'Iran's true face'

It was meant to be a conference dubbed “The New Face of Iran – the opportunities for dialogue opening before an international audience during the days of President Rohani.”
The Italian Institute for Asia and the Mediterranean Basin arranged a formal event on Tuesday at the Italian Parliament in Rome, sponsored by the Iranian embassy in Italy. The institute invited the public to participate and sent invitations to media representatives. An Italian citizen working at the Israeli Embassy also registered for the event.
Having realized that the embassy worker had confirmed his attendance at the conference, the Iranian ambassador to Italy, Jahanbakhsh Mozaffari, said he would not attend that event, if the worker would be present. He requested that his attendance be blocked.

Hamas Leader to Visit Tehran

Khaled Mashaal, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, will visit Iran soon, the movement confirmed on Thursday, according to Kol Yisrael radio.
Hamas used to be heavily backed by Iran but the relations between the Islamic Republic and the terror group have been strained for the past two years because of the civil war in Syria.

Cutbacks in U.N. Food Assistance Set Off Outcry in Gaza

Hundreds of women and children protested cutbacks in a United Nations food-assistance program on Wednesday, the latest in a growing backlash by Palestinian refugees and their offspring in this forlorn coastal strip against the agency that for decades has provided them with nutrition, education and health services.
“People are getting poorer, and the agency’s directors nurture bellies,” they chanted outside the locked gates of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. “We are under siege!”

Chemical arms watchdog wins Nobel Peace Prize

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its efforts to stop the chemical warfare that has haunted the world from Hitler’s gas chambers to the battlefields of Syria.
Based in The Hague, Netherlands, the OPCW was formed in 1997 to enforce the Chemical Weapons Convention, the first international treaty to outlaw an entire class of weapons.

Security Council authorizes UN chief’s Syria plan

International inspectors have so far visited three sites linked to Syria’s chemical weapons program, a spokesman said Thursday, as the team races to destroy the country’s stockpile and delivery systems amid a raging civil war.

US raked over the coals by Arab media over its approach to Syria's chemical weapons disposal

The Arab media report that some Arab governments are irate about US Secretary of State John Kerry’s statement on Monday – that he was “very pleased” that experts had begun the process of dismantling Syria’s chemical weapons.
Sunni Arab states, particularly from the Gulf, were already upset with US President Barack Obama’s decision not to enforce his own red line and attack Syria.

Saudi Arabia Bails on US; Forms Own Rebel Alliance in Syria

Before deciding to bankroll a new Sunni rebel alliance, Bandar flew secretly to Moscow to speak directly to Putin in the hope of getting him to stop propping up Assad. According to the UPI report, Bandar offered to write a check for $15 billion of Russian arms and to prevent Saudi opposition to Russia's natural gas deals. Putin didn't bite. Bandar also moved to knock rival Qatar out of the picture -- possibly to the extent of having taken a hand in the out-of-nowhere abdication of Qatar's emir, Sheik Hamad, in favor of his more malleable son, Sheik Tamin bin Hamad al-Thani.

Rights group accuses Syrian rebels of war crimes

The August 4 attacks on unarmed civilians in more than a dozen villages in the coastal province of Latakia were systematic and could even amount to a crime against humanity, Human Rights Watch said in a 105-page report based on a visit to the area a month later.
Witnesses said rebels went house to house, in some cases executing entire families and in other cases killing men and taking women and children hostages. The villagers belong to the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam which forms the backbone of President Bashar Assad’s regime — and which Sunni Muslim extremists consider heretics.

Senior Israeli Official: Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty Will Outlive Cuts in U.S. Military Aid to Egypt

According to the Israeli official, a group of Gulf states, led by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, have offered between $12 billion and $15 billion in unrestricted aid to Egypt’s military rulers. As well as to support stability in the broader region, the two heavyweight donors are seen acting to counter Qatar, which has been financially supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.
“The Saudis don’t want Islamists in power in Egypt, or anywhere,” he said, describing a theological arms race being played out in mosque building across Europe, where Saudi Wahabi Islam vies for more new pulpits to counter the Qatari support of venues for Muslim Brotherhood preachers, and in Syria, where the two countries are supporting rival rebel groups seeking to overthrow Bashar Al-Assad’s regime.

Violence Plagues Sinai: Egyptian Commander Survives Attack, Military HQ Bombed

Egypt’s state-run MENA reported that General Said Abdel-Karim and at least three other soldiers were wounded by a bomb placed on the highway linking Al-Qusaima and Al-Housna in central Sinai on Thursday.
In the northern town of Rafah, assailants exchanged fire with security forces at a military intelligence headquarters, MENA reported. At Al-Arish, in the North, unidentified assailants opened fire on an armored personnel carrier and a security checkpoint. Israel’s Walla news said Israeli Border Police closed the Sinai crossing of Nizzana after shooting on the Egyptian side of the border.

4 Egyptian Security Men Killed by Car Bomb

They said the bomber slowly approached the checkpoint, waited for soldiers and policemen to start searching the car before he blew himself and his vehicle up. Five other people were wounded.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy declared Wednesday that the country's army would act against targets in Gaza, if necessary. Military sources pointed out that a list of targets in the Hamas-ruled area has been put together.

Egyptian TV Host: Our Enemy Is Israel for All Eternity


Top Lebanon Official: Hezbollah Trying To Create Underwater Drilling Crisis To Open New “Front With Israel”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea today slammed Hezbollah for trying to use purported threats to energy resources near the country’s coast as a pretext for generating tensions with Israel.
Caretaker Energy Minister Gebran Bassil, a politician from the Hezbollah-allied Free Patriotic Movement, has begun a process by which energy companies will bid to explore and eventually exploit contested maritime ‘blocks’ near the Israeli-Lebanese border. The move is a de facto claim of sovereignty over the contested territory, and – per the Israeli daily financial newspaper Globes – Israel will be forced to respond:

Canada: Mosque Mural 'Encourages Jihad'

Reformists from the Canadian Muslim community published a petition in which they called on the mayor of Toronto to remove the mural, because of the meaning of the quoted verse. They said that terrorist Islamist groups like Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the Pakistani army use the same verse to indoctrinate their fighters.
Tarek Fatah writes in the Toronto Sun that according to Quran scholars, the verse, “assistance from Allah is near and the quick victory assured,” is a blessing from Allah to Muslims who are about to achieve a victory against non-Muslims and conquer enemy territory. “This brings us to the question," he continues, "what is the enemy that the mural in Toronto wants the Muslims to fight against? Where is the non-Arab land that this mural wishes Muslims will conquer and be victorious in? Could it be Canada?”

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Abbas says "No peace without Jerusalem as capital of Palestine"

The PA's official WAFA news agency writes that Mahmoud Abbas has stated "I will not compromise on the 1967 borders as the border for our Palestinian state, there is no peace without Jerusalem as its capital."

I have yet to see a single journalist, columnist or politician ask him the simple question, "Why?"

Why is this a pre-requisite for peace? Why is a city that was ignored by Arabs for centuries suddenly so critical that peace is held hostage to it? Why, practically, can Ramallah not serve as a capital of a state, which it is effectively doing now?

The Jews accepted, reluctantly, the 1947 partition plan where Jerusalem was to be an international city. They didn't want to lose Jerusalem, but it was more important to have a land that Jews could flee to when they are persecuted, and it was promised (ha!) that Jerusalem would still have open access to all. They were people who were desperate to achieve their national aspirations and were willing to sacrifice, very dearly, their very souls for the chance.

Palestinian Arabs, on the other hand, don't seem to be very desperate. There is no sense of urgency for their supposed aspirations for a state. Instead of reluctantly accepting compromises that would lead to a state, they pile on ultimatum after ultimatum, threat after threat, if their maximal demands aren't met.

By saying "no peace" without dividing Jerusalem, Abbas is threatening terrorism if he doesn't get his demands.

This is not how people who want a nation act.

It is how crime-lords act.

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Followup: What media covered Egypt's killing two Palestinian Arabs on a boat?

Last month, I reported that Egypt fired on a boat of Syrian refugees, killing two Palestinian Arabs in cold blood.

The next day I noted that the world media completely ignored the story.

Since then, I see that the Anna Lindh Foundation reported the news:

Over the past month, Egypt has witnessed a rapid increase in illegal emigration attempts by Syrian and Palestinian residents due to a rise in anti-foreigner sentiment after the army ousted Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi, with some media accusing them of being Brotherhood supporters and participating in pro-Morsi sit-ins that were dispersed in a bloody August military crackdown.

There are 512 refugees currently being detained in Alexandria police stations, which are not equipped to deal with large numbers including women, children, the elderly, the injured and the sick, human rights lawyer Mahinour El-Masry told Al Ahram.

Most of the detainees are not prosecuted but deported to Turkey, Lebanon or Syria. Those registered with the UNHCR are taken to Cairo, the lawyer explained. Palestinian refugees who fled Syria face the worst fate.

They are deported back to Syria via Lebanon, El-Masry said, because there is no UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) office in Egypt. The last Palestinians deported to Syria after arrival in Beirut were arrested at the Damascus airport, he said.

France's Observer followed up:

According to refugees interviewed by FRANCE 24, as well as Egyptian human rights activists, the coast guard ordered the boat to turn around, but the captain, an Egyptian, refused to do so. They then opened fire, killing two of the refugees, a man and a woman. Witnesses among the refugees said the woman was shot in the back three times. According to a statement from the Egyptian authorities, the coast guard fired in the air, and the bullets accidentally hit the victims.

The boat’s passengers included numerous Palestinians who had fled Syria.

[A Palestinian Arab woman from Damascus said: ]
"When the coast guard approached and started shooting, everyone panicked. We didn’t understand why they were shooting; none of us were armed, and there were children on board! We refused to leave the boat, and tried to call Egyptian media outlets; a few journalists were there when the boat arrived at the port, but the soldiers wouldn’t let them talk to us. We were forced to get off the boat and were promised we wouldn’t be jailed, but then they locked us up in the detention centre. We’ve been here for three days now and don’t know when we’ll be let out. Everyone here is traumatised. We feel like we aren’t safe anywhere."

Finally, Salon mentioned it in a larger story of how Palestinian Arabs fleeing Syria are being screwed by their loving Arab brethren:

Palestinian Syrians in Egypt are caught in a particular legal limbo: UNHCR cannot register them because as Palestinians they fall under UNRWA’s jurisdiction. But UNRWA does not have a mandate to work in Egypt, so this population is left with little recourse.

It is truly bizarre that two refugee agencies, UNHCR and UNRWA, with different mandates, have to work with two separate refugee populations fleeing the same conflict, both insisting that they cannot help any of the other agency's refugees.

When will the world wake up and demand that Arab discrimination against Palestinian Arabs must stop, and insist that they be given the same rights in the Arab world as every other Arab? It's only been 65 years, and yet the Arabs - colluding with the Palestinian Arab leaders themselves - like the situation just as it is, with an ever-increasing "refugee" population that cannot be absorbed and naturalized, by law, into Arab countries.

This is the reason why so many Palestinian Arabs are risking their lives to travel in unsafe boats to Italy and the rest of Europe. They know they are being shafted, but the world prefers to blame Israel rather than work to solve the problem with their fellow Arabs.

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Saudi Arabia keeps ban on women driving

From Al Arabiya:

The Saudi Shura (Consultative) Council on Thursday rejected a move by three female members to put the ban on women driving up for discussion.

The Council, which counts 30 women among its 150 members, rejected a move by one female member to raise the issue during a discussion on Thursday of transport ministry matters, the official SPA news agency reported.

It said the issue was “irrelevant” to the discussions and “not within the transport ministry’s remit.”

In the past few days, rights groups have been posting videos of Saudi women illegally driving in the kingdom:

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Apparent terror attack in Jordan Valley; Israeli man killed (update)

Ha'aretz has the story:

An Israeli civilian was killed in an apparent terror attack outside his place of residence in the Jordan Valley on Thursday night. A woman who was with him was moderately wounded, but managed to escape and contact police.

The woman said she was asleep with her husband when they heard strange noises originating from outside their house. When they went out to investigate, they were attacked by Palestinians wielding iron rods and axes.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene. IDF forces are sweeping the area.

The woman was evacuated to Haemek Medical Center in Afula.

Horrific.

UPDATE: Details came out:

Retired IDF Colonel Seraya Ofer, 61, was murdered in a suspected terror attack outside his home in the northern Jordan Valley early Friday. The man's wife, Monique Omer, told security forces her husband was bludgeoned to death by two Palestinians wielding iron bars and axes.

IDF forces detained five Palestinian suspects while combing the area.

Omer said that at around 1 am she and her husband heard suspicious noises outside their home in the northern Jordan Valley community of Brosh Habika. The man was attacked by the Palestinians as he stepped outside to investigate, she said.

The wife, who witnessed the scene from the widow and fled the house, apparently phoned an acquaintance, who contacted the police while the woman was crawling through the bushes. During her escape the woman tripped and sustained cuts from a barbed wire fence.

Monique made it to a nearby road and stopped a passing car for help. She was evacuated to the Emek Medical Center in light to moderate condition at around 3 am.

She reportedly told paramedics, "Don't worry about me; go to him (her husband), save him."

In the hospital Monique said her husband "was a military man for a long time; an amazing man, amazing father, amazing grandfather and amazing husband. There is no one who did not love him or connect with him. How they managed to do this to him, I do not know. They surprised him. I don't know."

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10/10 Links Pt2: An Israeli Soldier to American Jews: wake up!, StandWithUs Posters In Vancouver

From Ian:

---

An Israeli Soldier to American Jews: wake up!

My experiences in America have changed me. I never expected to encounter such hatred and lies. I never believed that such anti-Semitism still existed, especially in the U.S. I never knew that the battlefield was not just Gaza, the West Bank, and hostile Middle Eastern countries wanting to destroy Israel and kill our citizens and soldiers. It is also here in America, where a battle must be waged against prejudice and lies.
I implore American Jews: do more.
Israel cannot fight this big battle alone. If you are affiliated with a Jewish organization, let it know you want it to actively, openly and unequivocally oppose the BDS campaign and those who support it. Inform yourself, your friends and families, by visiting websites of organizations like StandWithUs, Jewish Virtual Library, AIPAC, AJC and others that will update you and provide information about BDS and anti-Semitism.

Standwithus to Place Pro-Israel Posters in Vancouver Skytrain Stations

StandWithUs will display two different posters. One depicts Jewish loss of land from Biblical times to the present by juxtaposing a map of the ancient Jewish kingdom circa 1000 BCE, a map of the land designated as the Jewish homeland by the League of Nations in 1920, and a map of the much smaller Israel of today. The second ad, with pictures of Israeli and Canadian children waving their national flags, celebrates the shared values and freedom both countries enjoy.

Circumcision won’t be banned in Europe, officials say

Responding to President Shimon Peres’s recent personal appeal, Thorbjorn Jagland said there were no “legal provisions regarding the practice of circumcision of young boys for religious reasons.”
“Nothing in the body of our legally binding standards would lead us to put on equal footing the issue of female genital mutilation and the circumcision of young boys for religious reasons,” Jagland wrote in his letter to Peres.
“I understand the reaction of many people, specifically from the Jewish and Muslim communities, to the Resolution,” he emphasized.

10 Ignored Facts of Moslem and Jewish Populations in Israel (h/t Daphne Anson)


This hajj, Muslims need to ask questions about exploitation

But if Muslims feel aggrieved about human rights abuses and hajj, then perhaps they ought to take a look at what is happening under the shadow of the heavy machinery surrounding Mecca, for the skyscrapers and shopping malls of Islam's holiest city are not being built by pixies.
This week, the Guardian highlighted the abuse and exploitation of migrant workers who are preparing Qatar for the World Cup in 2022. Similar scrutiny should also be applied to the projects under way in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, although these have traditionally tended to excite more indignation over the demolition of buildings with historic and religious significance than the erosion of rights of the workers razing mountains. It is a good thing there is more awareness about Islam's heritage and the need to preserve it. A natural extension of this activism and discussion are questions about the people shaping Mecca: who are they, and what are their living and working conditions like?

MI5 Chief Warns British Public of Terror Threat

Making his first speech as the Head of Britain's intelligence Agency, MI5, Andrew Parker says there are thousands of Islamic extremists living in the UK who see the British public as a valid target for attack.
According to a BBC report, the new head of MI5, also said Islamic terror had become more complicated to track than ever before.

Canadian Muslims Protest "Honor Killing" Label As Racist

Are they willfully misleading? Or are Canadian Muslims who are fighting federal funding to investigate honor violence in the Muslim (and other) communities simply naïve victims of the same propaganda used routinely to explain away the religio-culturally-based murders of Muslim women?

Greek PM calls ties with Israel ‘strategic, long term’

Netanyahu, during his meeting with Samaras, praised the Greeks for taking a tough stand against the neo-fascist Golden Dawn Party and arresting six of the party’s MPs following a public furor over the murder of an anti-fascist rapper by a Golden Dawn member.
In a joint appearance with Samaras after their meeting, Netanyahu said he wanted to commend his government for its “resolute opposition to neo- Nazism, anti-Semitism and racism. You have taken important steps, courageous steps that demonstrate clearly that Greece is a land of tolerance and freedom.”

New Director of Israel On Campus Coalition Vows to Empower Jewish Students

Students need the tools to address the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement “before, during, and after a BDS campaign comes to campus,” he says.
“We’ve got to prevent anti-Israel forces from making inroads with campus leaders,” Baime says. “We’ve got to deny Israel’s detractors the opportunity to set the parameters of the campus conversation about Israel, and at the same time, we’ve got to fortify the confidence of the pro-Israel members of the campus community. Because in my view, the greatest threat of BDS is the erosion of confidence of the pro-Israel students and others on campus.”

'Alarming' Anti-Israel Campaign On Rutgers Campus

Some 1,000 students at Rutgers New Brunswick campus woke up to an alarming eviction notice, informing the students to vacate within 3 days time or have their belongings destroyed.
The Rutgers New Brunswick chapter of "Students for Justice in Palestine" (SJP) posted the eviction notices on Sunday evening on the residence hall doors on all five campuses as part of a campaign called "The Palestinian-style eviction movement."
The movement originated at New York University and has trickled across the nation, said Rutgers SJP President Aman Sharifi, and that this same campaign was demonstrated at schools including Harvard University, Florida Atlantic University and the University of California, Berkeley.

‘Anti-Semitic Elmo’ goes to jail

A man who gained notoriety for going on anti-Semitic rants while dressed in an Elmo muppet suit in New York was sentenced to a year in jail for trying to extort $2 million from the Girl Scouts, where he worked briefly on a computer project.
Dan Sandler, who has used the name Adam Sandler as well, showed no remorse for his crimes and said as much to Judge Robert Stolz as he was sentenced at the Manhattan Criminal Court, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Pope Francis Reiterates Desire to Visit Israel

During the meeting, after Edelstein urged Pope Francis to visit Israel, the pontiff emphatically replied, “I’ll come! I’ll come!” Edelstein also asked the pope to continue to combat anti-Semitism, the Jerusalem Post reported.
“There is still anti-Semitism in the world,” Edelstein said. “I ask you to use your influence to combat it.”

Top 10 incredible Israeli advances in vision

October 10 is World Sight Day – a perfect opportunity to present some of the amazing advances coming out of Israel for treating medical conditions of the eye and making life easier for people who are blind or visually disabled.
Ongoing research at Israeli universities is constantly testing new approaches, such as sensory substitution devices, or a substance in algae that improves vision in people with retinal disease.
Here are 10 of many Israeli innovations that are already, or someday will be, transforming the field of vision.

Israeli Technology a New Step in Finding a Parking Spot

Israeli developers have introduced the newest parking solution on the market.
Anagog, an Israeli location-based technology company, unveiled on Monday an automatic algorithm that can analyze and identify where and when a parking space will be available.
Unlike other services, Anagog company says the technology's automatic nature will update the user instead of the user having to update the system.

BrightSource takes solar thermal energy home to Israel

Some of the earliest pioneers of solar energy started in Israel 30 years ago with the company Luz. Luz went on to become Luz II, then BrightSource, which is now a US-based solar power company about to flip the switch on a massive 377-megawatt solar thermal farm in the California desert.
And at the start of 2014, the sun and stars will align and a dream will be coming true for Israeli solar pioneers and visionaries like BrightSource Israel CEO Israel Kroizer.

Fox buys Israeli TV series at French festival

The deal was made at the MIP Festival in France, an annual international television event for buying, selling, distribution and financing of media content, the Ynet news outlet reported Thursday.
“Malabi Express” was created by comedia Miki Geva, who also stars in the show. It follows the fate and fortunes of three Israelis who move to Brazil.

Israelis Star in Nobel Prizes, so Why Doesn’t BDS Boycott Them?

Intentionally or not, TIME magazine’s report did not note that two of the winners were Israeli citizens.
It is doubtful that TIME was suddenly being so pro-Israel that it wanted to bury the facts from the Boycott Israel movement, which includes academics in Britain and other countries in Europe as well some in Australia who want to punish for the supposed “occupation” Israel by breaking off ties with its universities.
That would mean the Israelis would not be able share research with them, but in this childish game, it is the anti-Zionists who would lose out. Perhaps they deserve their own punishment. If the BDS folks were intellectually honest, they would protest against the Nobel Prize judges for awarding professors from Israleli universities.

Nobel Prize Winner's 'Traumatic' Escape from the Nazis

Karplus was born into a Jewish family in Vienna in 1930 and narrowly escaped Austria when Germany took control of the country in 1938, he wrote in
a lengthy article in the Annual Review of Biophysics and Biomolecular Structure in 2006.
Karplus described how attitudes towards him and his family changed even before the Nazi takeover of Austria, and how two boys he and his brother had
considered their best friends began bullying them.

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1926: Egyptian and Zionist teachers visit each other

This is what peace would look like. And only one side wants it.

From the Palestine Bulletin, April 13, 1926:

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It's also the 40th anniversary of Austria capitulating to Arab terrorists over Schoenau

It isn't only the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War.

The Schönau Castle, in Austria, used by the Austrian government as a transit camp for Russian Jews who had been permitted to leave Russia prior to emigrating to the West or to Israel.

In the words of Yehuda Avner:

[On September 28, 1973,] a train carrying Jews from communist Russia en route to Israel via Vienna was hijacked by two Arab terrorists at a railway crossing on the Austrian frontier. Seven Jews were taken hostage, among them a 73-year-old man, an ailing woman and a three-year-old child. The terrorists issued an ultimatum that unless the Austrian government instantly closed down Schoenau, the Jewish Agency's layover near Vienna where the emigres were processed before being flown on to Israel, not only would the hostages be killed, but Austria itself would become the target of violent retaliation. The Austrian cabinet hastily met and, led by chancellor Bruno Kreisky, capitulated. Kreisky announced that Schoenau would be closed forthwith, and the terrorists were hustled to the airport for safe passage to Libya. The entire Arab world could hardly contain its glee...

Some analysts believe that Israel's leaders were so preoccupied with the events in Austria that they were not focused on what was happening in Egypt and Syria.

Meir went to Europe in late September:

[Speaking to the Council of Europe] she said, "Since the Arab terrorists have failed in their ghastly efforts to wreak havoc in Israel, they have of late taken their atrocities against Israeli and Jewish targets into Europe, aided and abetted by Arab governments." This remark caused a fidgety buzz to drone around the packed chamber, and it seemed to deepen when she spoke bitterly about the 11 Israeli athletes kidnapped and murdered at the Munich Olympics the summer before, an outrage compounded by the German government's subsequent release of the surviving killers in return for the freeing of a hijacked Lufthansa plane and its passengers.

"Oh yes, I fully understand your feelings," said Golda cynically, arms folded as tight as a drawbridge. "I fully understand the feelings of a European prime minister saying, 'For God's sake, leave us out of this! Fight your own wars on your own turf. What do your enmities have to do with us? Leave us be!' And I can even understand" - this in a voice that had gone grimmer than ever - "why some governments might even decide that the only way to rid themselves of this insidious threat is to declare their countries out of bounds, if not to Jews generally then certainly to Israeli Jews, or Jews en route to Israel. It seems to me this is the moral choice which every European government has to make these days."

And then, chopping the air with balled fists, her face as granite as her eyes, she thundered, "European governments have no alternative but to decide what they are going to do. To every one which upholds the rule of law I suggest there is but only one answer - no deals with terrorists, no truck with terrorism. Any government which strikes a deal with these killers does so at its own peril. What happened in Vienna is that a democratic government, a European government, came to an agreement with terrorists. In so doing it has brought shame upon itself. In so doing it has breached a basic principle of the rule of law, the basic principle of the freedom of the movement of peoples - or should I just say the basic freedom of the movement of Jews fleeing Russia? Oh, what a victory for terrorism this is!"

THE ENSUING applause told Golda Meir that she had gotten her message across to a goodly portion of the European Council, so off she flew to Vienna. Ushered into the presence of the impeccably dressed, bespectacled, heavy-set man in his mid-60s whom she knew to be the son of a Viennese Jewish clothing manufacturer, she extended her hand, which he shook while rising with the merest sketch of a bow, but not budging from behind the solid protection of his desk.

"Please take a seat, Prime Minister Meir," he said formally. "Thank you Chancellor Kreisky," said Golda, settling into the chair opposite him, and placing her copious black leather handbag on the floor.

"I presume you know why I am here."

"I believe I do," answered Kreisky, whose body language bore all the signs of one who was not relishing this appointment.

"You and I have known each other for a long time," said Golda softly.

"We have," said the chancellor.

"And I know that, as a Jew, you have never displayed any interest in the Jewish state. Is that not correct?"

"That is correct. I have never made any secret of my belief that Zionism is not the solution to whatever problems the Jewish people might face."

"Which is all the more reason why we are grateful to your government for all that it has done to enable thousands of Jews to transit through Austria from the Soviet Union via Schoenau to Israel," said Golda diplomatically.

"But the Schoenau transit camp has been a problem to us for some time," said Kreisky stonily.

"What sort of a problem?"

"For a start, it has always been an obvious terrorist target..."

Golda cut him off, and with a strong suggestion of reproach, said, "Mr. Kreisky, if you close down Schoenau, it will never end. Wherever Jews assemble in Europe for transit to Israel, they will be held to ransom by the terrorists."

"But why should Austria have to carry this burden alone?" countered Kreisky with bite. ....

THE CHANCELLOR settled his elbows on the desk, steepled his fingers, looked the woman directly in the eye, and said sanctimoniously, "Mrs. Meir, it is Austria's humanitarian duty to aid refugees from whatever country they come, but not when it puts Austria at risk. I shall never be responsible for any bloodshed on the soil of Austria."

"And is it also not a humanitarian duty not to succumb to terrorist blackmail, Herr Chancellor?"

Her words, sudden and raw and angry, were a declaration of war. What had begun as conflicting views between opponents was now a nasty cut-and-thrust duel between antagonists.

Kreisky shot back: "Austria is a small country, and unlike major powers, small countries have few options in dealing with the blackmail of terrorists."

"I disagree," seethed Golda. "There can be no deals with terrorism whatever the circumstances. What you have done is certain to encourage more hostage taking. You have betrayed the Jewish emigres."

The man's brows drew together in an affronted frown. "I cannot accept such language, Mrs. Meir. I cannot..."

"You have opened the door to terrorism, Herr Chancellor," the prime minister spat undeterred. "You have brought renewed shame on Austria. I've just come from the Council of Europe. They condemn your act almost to a man. Only the Arab world proclaims you their hero."

"Well, there is nothing I can do about that," said the Austrian in an expressionless voice, looking uncomfortably still. And then, with a hint of a shrug, "You and I belong to two different worlds."

"Indeed we do, Herr Kreisky," said Golda Meir in a voice cracked with sardonic Jewish weariness. "You and I belong to two very, very different worlds." And she rose, picked up her handbag, and made for the door.

As she did so an aide to the chancellor entered to say the press was gathered in an adjacent room awaiting a joint press conference. Golda shook her head. She asked herself, what was the point? Nothing she could say to the media could make any difference. Kreisky wanted to keep in the good books of the Arabs - it was as simple as that. So, she turned and hissed in Hebrew to her aides, "I have no intention of sharing a platform with that man. He can tell them what he wants. I'm going to the airport."

To him she said contemptuously, "I shall forgo the pleasure of a press conference. I have nothing to say to them. I'm going home," and she exited through a back stairway.

FIVE HOURS later she told the waiting Israeli press at Ben-Gurion Airport, "I think the best way of summing up in a nutshell the nature of my meeting with Chancellor Kreisky is to say this: He didn't even offer me a glass of water."

Golda Meir's visit with Kreisky was on October 2, only four days before the Yom Kippur War.

In December 1973, the Schönau Castle Jewish center was closed but the international outcry forced Austria to replace it with the Wöllersdorf National Association of the Red Cross of Lower Austria for refugees.

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The best high school in Israel is - Druze! (updated)

From Ha'aretz:

A little way past Carmiel, in the central Galilee, you turn northward at the Rama intersection and continue straight for several kilometers until the right turn to Beit Jann. On the edge of Mount Meron, 150 kilometers from Tel Aviv, you will find Beit Jann High School, the best secondary school in Israel. Best, that is, at least according to the conventional standard of percentage of students who graduate with a bagrut ‏(matriculation‏) certificate. The school was at the center of much media hoopla earlier this month after it emerged that the Druze town of some 11,000 residents had ranked third in the nationwide rate of high school seniors eligible for a bagrut in the 2011-12 school year.

To achieve that, the school, Beit Jann’s only high school ‏(though some young people from the town attend school elsewhere‏), underwent a veritable revolution: According to data recently received by the school, their graduating seniors in June 2013 had a bagrut eligibility rate of 100 percent. In this, it bested schools from far more well-to-do communities in the Sharon and other central regions − including private schools that have admission requirements and charge high tuition fees.

Beit Jann, one of the poorest towns in Israel, whose residents are ranked in the second-lowest decile in terms of socio-economic level by the Central Bureau of Statistics, will again be declared one of the communities offering the best education.

As recently as 1999, the bagrut eligibility rate for Beit Jann’s high school graduates was a mere 13 percent − among the country’s lowest at the time. Since then it has gone up gradually every year. Although one can graduate high school without earning a bagrut certificate, this state-awarded certification is required if a student wants to apply for university. In the 2011-12 academic year, the bagrut eligibility rate at Druze schools reached 54.8 percent, higher than the nationwide average of 49.8 percent and similar to the eligibility rate at Jewish schools ‏(55.3 percent‏).

This sea change at Druze schools was generated by the veteran teachers, who were not replaced and received no outside reinforcements. The student populations, too, were in some cases made up of the same young people who had been attending these schools for years, and who had even failed in the past. The dropout rate also fell.

It is an amazing story, worth reading in full.

Over the past few years, Israel has increased its funding of Arab and Druze schools a great deal. But in the end the most important factor in a school's success is when the administration and the community demand excellence.

The whiners are the ones who will always be left behind. And they are the ones who prefer to blame Israel for everything rather than try to solve the problem.

(h/t Yoel)

UPDATE: The Wondering Israeli points out a followup Mida article about the school. It points out that the success was not from cheating on exams, as some assumed - because the school admins discovered cheating in the late 1990s, the bagrut percentages plunged from 50% to 12% when they cracked down, and that's when the school administration decided to start the innovative program to bring the scores up.

It also points out that Beit Jann High School cannot be considered one of the top schools based only on the percentage of students passing the bagrut, because that is a minimum standard - other Israeli schools have much more advanced programs, even if they have lower bagrut scores.

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