Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, March 10, 2005

More new, cool Israeli weapons

Besides the tank protection system mentioned, Israel also recently announced:

Israel successfully test-fired its Long Range Artillery (LORA) missile March 3, scoring a dead-on hit of a sea-based target some 200 km from the launch site on Israel's coast.

Revealed for the first time in public are digitalized mobile headquarters and a robot, unmanned security vehicle (USV) to be deployed along the security fence.

Israel Aircraft Industries presented a smart mortar bomb, called "FireBall," with pinpoint accuracy guided by GPS.
The "Eye Ball R1" is a high-tech camera packaged into a hand-held impervious ball, which can be thrown into any building, tunnel, or cave to enable remote observation from relative safety.
The Mosquito UAV measures 12 x 14 inches [30 x 34 cm], has a silent motor, and offers real-time high-quality video for up to 60 minutes, flying at 300 feet.

Also,

The Israeli kibbutz company Palsen Sasa has won a contract to provide armor for U.S. military vehicles in Iraq.
The company will provide armor for 2,000 trucks and other vehicles in kits that can be assembled on site by U.S. troops in Iraq.

Israel creates revolutionary tank shield system

Those crazy Jews are at it again :)

The IDF has revealed a revolutionary new protective shield system for its armored vehicles that intercepts and destroys missiles and rockets with a shotgun-like blast just before they hit.

The system is called Trophy and was shown in public for the first time during this week's arms fair at the Tel Aviv Exhibition Grounds during a conference on Low Intensity Conflict sponsored by the IDF's Ground Forces Services.

The Trophy was developed by RAFAEL together and Israel Aircraft Industries' Elta Group and General Dynamics. Known as an 'active protective system' (APS), it is seen as a major milestone in weapons design since it in theory reduces the need for heavy armor for vehicles.

According to RAFAEL, the system works against all types of guided anti-tank missiles and rockets, including the ubiquitous rocket propelled grenades. The company said the system includes four flat-panel antennas and a search radar that are mounted on the armored vehicle.

They can detect incoming projectiles from 360 degrees and calculate their approach. Its computer then determines the exact moment and angle to fire its neutralizers (small metal pellets like a shotgun blast).

In an effort to cushion the effects of their daily stress, hundreds of Israelis held a mass pillow fight in Tel Aviv's central Rabin Square on Tuesday night, Israel Army Radio reported.

"The Pillow Fight Club" organised the fight to "improve the morale" of their tense countrymen.

A pamphlet issued by the club laid down clear rules, including using only soft pillows and forbidding pummelling anyone who was not armed with a a pillow "unless they request to be hit".

Participants appeared to take the event seriously, with one saying she tested her pillows on her little sister before deciding which one to take to the fight.

"Particularly in these days with so much violence and many people feeling the need to vent their aggressions, it's a great thing," another told the radio.

Less pleased seemed to be the municipality cleaners, who had to sweep up the thousands of feathers which covered the square after the fight.

Another account of the event:

Hundreds of people gathered in the city center of Tel Aviv, Israel for a pillow fight. The participants battled one another fiercely causing down and cotton to fill the air of the city center.

In Tel Aviv, hundreds of young people gathered for a pillow fight. Each and every one of them had been mobilized through text messaging and Internet communications. Despite being strangers to one another, participants had no problem picking out a common enemy. One man came prepared with a gigantic hammer made of pillows, but ended up becoming everyone’s common enemy. The down and cotton from destroyed pillows filled the air.

“I'm having the best time. I came from Haifa and this is what happened to my pillow. It just blew up. It's amazing. I want to go back to the pillow fight,” said this pillow fight participant.

An Internet community called “Mobile Clubbing” mobilized this pillow battle. The group often uses text messages and emails to invite young people to different public events.

The United Nations must recognize Hezbollah as a force to be reckoned with in implementing the U.N. resolution calling for the withdrawal of all Syrian forces from Lebanon and the disarmament of the country's militias, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday.

He was responding to a question about the disarmament of Hezbollah, which showed its strength Tuesday at a huge pro-Syrian rally in Beirut attended by hundreds of thousands of people who chanted anti-U.S. slogans. Two huge banners read in English: "Thank you Syria" and "No to foreign interference."

Annan said the world needs to accept that in every society different groups may hold different views.

"Of course, we need to be careful of the forces at work in Lebanese society as we move forward," he said.

"But even the Hezbollah — if I read the message on the placards they are using — they are talking about non-interference by outsiders ... which is not entirely at odds with the Security Council resolution, that there should be withdrawal of Syrian troops," Annan told reporters.

What part of "Thank you Syria" does Kofi fail to understand?

Now, to what really happened:

JERUSALEM – The giant Hezbollah rally that drew nearly half a million purported supporters of Syria's occupation of Lebanon actually was a staged hoax with non-Lebanese citizens, Syrian workers, students and municipal employees coerced into joining the protest, former Lebanese Prime Minister Michel Aoun told WorldNetDaily in an exclusive interview this morning.

"Yesterday's huge protest calling for Syria to stay made it look to the world like a large segment of the Lebanese population actually wants to live under Syrian occupation," said Aoun, speaking to WND from Paris. "But the protest wasn't what it appeared to be. It was an elaborately staged affair."
...
"This was not a Lebanese showing, and many of those who actually were Lebanese were not there because they support Syria. We know that at least three Palestinian camps were present. And there are 700,000 Syrian workers inside Lebanon, many of whom are not even supposed to be there. They were urged by Syria to attend so it looks like many Lebanese are protesting. Plus Syria bused in their own citizens from Syria through the border into Lebanon to join the rally."

The former prime minister also accused Hezbollah and pro-Syrian Lebanese intelligence forces of coercing students and municipal workers to attend.

"They shut down the schools and all the government and public buildings and pressured students and workers to get to the rally," he said.

Sharon: Jews will remain in Hevron - what does that mean?

Sharon said yesterday:

The attack this morning at the Cave of the Patriarchs is an attempt to harm Jewish freedom of worship in one of its most sacred places. All around the world, we fight for the right of Jews to pray without harm, and protect the freedom of worship for all people – Jew, Muslim or Christian – to pray in their sacred places in Israel.

We will continue to defend the right of any person to pray at the Cave of the Patriarchs, and will not tolerate the attempts of the terror organizations to prevent Jews from doing so.

Jews will continue to pray at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and to live there.

It would be nice to know exactly what this means. Is he saying that Hevron is a "red-line" and he will never accept Israel without Hevron? Or that he would insist that Jews be allowed to live there under Palestinian rule? Is he meaning something like "G-d willing, Jews will remain there" without any plan? Is he referring to Jews living in Hevron proper, or Kiryat Arba - without the protection of the fence?

Or is it, simply, a lie to quiet the angry Israeli right?

Islamic Jihad head who ordered Tel Aviv bombing used to be a professor in Florida

Once again, reason to be proud of American academia. USF had the honor of employing at least 2 major terrorist figures, Shallah and Al-Arian.

A PALESTINIAN terrorist leader who spent five years at Durham University has been targeted for assassination by Israel after he was blamed for last weekend’s bomb in Tel Aviv, which killed five people.

Ramadan Shallah, 47, the head of Islamic Jihad, is accused by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, of ordering the attack by telephone from Damascus. A transcript of the call is believed to have been given to Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state.

Abdullah Badran, 21, the bomber, made clear in a videotape he left behind that he was acting on behalf of Islamic Jihad.

Shallah’s role underlines the extent of his transformation from an unassuming PhD student who spent 1985-90 at Durham, writing a thesis on Islamic banking in Jordan.

[...]

Shallah moved from Durham to the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he taught Middle Eastern studies and headed the World and Islam Studies Enterprise, a think tank affiliated to the university.

His academic life came to an abrupt end in 1995 with the assassination of his friend, Fathi Shiqaqi, the head of Islamic Jihad. Leaving behind his comfortable life in Florida, Shallah took his place.

Israeli flower cells shaped like Star of David

This is too cool!

Israeli 'survivor' flower boasts cells in shape of Star of David

"We have never before seen a structure like this in the cell walls of plants," says Dr. Rina Kamenetsky. "This is a very rare structure - maybe even unique."

It's known as the ultimate survivor. It grows wild in Israel, thriving in the harsh dry conditions that would kill many other plants.

And what do the cells of this hardy survivor - a native Israeli Persian buttercup - look like under a microscope?

A Star of David.

"It really is symbolic," says Dr. Rina Kamenetsky, a researcher at Israel's Volcani Institute, who made the surprising discovery while trying to understand the survival mechanisms of this resilient bulb, known in Hebrew as nurit, and in Latin as Ranunculus asiaticus.

The flower from the Holy Land is also known in botanical circles as a type of 'resurrection plant' which, explains Kamenetsky, means that it can live without water, and is 'resurrected' when water becomes available.

Kamenetsky brought samples of the native Israeli type of this Mediterranean species to study during a sabbatical leave at the University of Guelph in Canada last year. She and her Canadian colleagues discovered that the storage roots of this particular Persian buttercup have a special mechanism for resisting drought and heat that is found in no other plant to date - a finding they published recently in the journal New Phytologist.

But Kamenetsky also found an additional surprise: under a microscope the cells of the root assume the form of interlocking Stars of David.

"When my Canadian colleague Professor Larry Peterson saw it, he called me over right away and said: 'Look, Rina: here's something especially for you.' I was truly amazed," she told ISRAEL21c.

It was the first time that Kamenetsky, a leading floriculturist, had seen a Star of David pattern on the cells of any plant.

It turns out that the cell walls of the storage roots of this particular plant serve as a shield. In winter, when the first rain comes, the cell walls block the sudden influx of water which could cause the cells to burst. At the same time, they protect the cells from dehydration by absorbing water.

The cell walls that serve as a year-round shield also happen to look like a shield - the shield of David.

"We have never before seen a structure like this in the cell walls of plants," she says. "This is a very rare structure - maybe even unique."

US says: 'Half measures insufficient!' Ooops...they meant Syria, not Abbas.

Tough talk against a murderous terror regime, that, um, Europe doesn't seem to like either.

The United States considered "half measures" unsatisfactory, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in response to the redeployment of Syrian forces in Lebanon.

"This does not add up to Syria leaving Lebanon. Nobody has said all troops are leaving Lebanon," a State Department official said.

"We will continue to hold their feet to the fire, not accept half-measures and call a spade a spade - that is, when they make these announcements about a withdrawal that is neither complete or immediate, we will call it for what it is,” the official said.

With all that bravado, I wonder when the White House will call Abbas a Holocaust-denier?

Terror attack at Judaism's 2nd holiest site

Another day, another terror attack that is considered "acceptable" and not worth risking the fictional peace process over. We're back to 1994, with the exception of an American president who is committed to giving the terrorists their own country. And, really, who cares about Hevron/Hebron? Only "settlers" and other Jews, not the enlightened secular Zionists who are now demonizing them worse than the terrorists.

An Arab terrorist injured four people this morning, one seriously, in a shooting attack at Hevron's Tomb of the Biblical Patriarchs.

Shortly before 9:00am, an Arab terrorist sprayed gunfire at Israelis standing at the entrance to the Machpela Cave, the tomb of the Biblical Patriarchs in Hevron. Four people were injured including a Border Guard soldier who sustained serious wounds.

The soldier and a lightly injured comrade were transported to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem's Ein Karem neighborhood. Two other lightly wounded security personnel were treated at the scene.

IDF responds to Hevron Arab attack. Photo: Hevron

The terrorist emerged from the crowded Hevron kasba market to perpetrate the attempted murder. Arab residents of Hevron have been put under strict curfew as security forces sweep the area for the attacker and possible accomplices. Military forces are still operating in the city at this time.

A policeman and former border guard patrolling the site responded by shooting at the attacker, forcing the possibly wounded terrorist to flee the scene. Hearing cries of "wounded," army medic and local resident, Yisrael Bromsohn, immediately ran to the site of the attack. Bromsohn administered emergency first aid to the critically wounded victim until additional medical personnel arrived.

Ariel Levy, who was at the tomb entrance during the attack, said, "I was with another person and we were just going into [the building] when we heard the automatic gunfire a few yards away. We quickly hit the ground." Levy said that all of the injured were border guards on duty at the site.

Medics treat today's victims in Hevron. Photo: Hevron

According to Jewish tradition, the Machpela Cave is the burial site of four biblical couples: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah, and Adam and Eve.

In addition to the morning attack at the Machpela Cave, security forces in Hevron arrested an Arab possessing a letter that declared his intention to carry out a suicide bombing. The would-be terrorist was captured after security forces received intelligence warnings of a suicide bomber in the Kiryat Arba area.

Hypocrisy of releasing prisoners while PA executes "collaborators"

I was wondering why nobody seems to care about "collaborators" who are planned to be executed by the peace-loving PA this month.

In an urgent plea to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Minister-without Portfolio Natan Sharansky said the government must demand that the Palestinian Authority immediately stop the execution of those alleged to have collaborated with Israel.

'Israel must immediately demand of the PA that it stop the planned execution of suspected collaborators,' he wrote. 'It is unacceptable that the PA demands the release of terrorists from our jails, and we respond affirmatively because of the hope for an opening to peace, while at the very same time the PA is about to commit state executions of people accused of helping Israel thwart terror.'

He appealed to Sharon following a report that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is expected to approve the execution of collaborators. According to this report, the director of the PA Military Court advised that between five and 15 Palestinians are expected to be executed. The mufti of Jerusalem has confirmed this report.

'It is impossible to build a peace process based on blood. Such a process can only be based on the goodwill of both sides.

The cold-blooded execution of those individuals accused of cooperating to deflect terror directly contradicts the gestures demanded of Israel, tramples human rights, and with it any spark of hope for a better future in the Middle East,' Sharansky wrote.

AP compares Israeli and Palestinian child deaths; Sbarro's victim's father responds

AP seeks moral equivalence, as usual. Here is a response by Arnold Roth...read the whole thing.

It upsets me very much to see the agonizing story of child murders largely reduced to an AP statistical analysis. Counting bodies - whether it's factually correct or incorrect - ignores the central reality of terrorism. The terrorists want as many bodies as possible, and they don't make any effort to hide it. Counter-terrorism warfare causes innocents to lose their lives. This is awful - but it's not the same as the cold-blooded, deliberate viciousness that motivates people like the murderers of my daughter.

From personal experience, I have a better-than-average sense for how complex the journalism profession is. Still, you'll understand why I am so infuriated when an article which purports to compare the deaths of Israeli children with the deaths of Palestinian Arab children ignores the fundamental issue at the heart of the carnage: the Palestinians have a huge number of people interested in seeing more and more dead Israeli children.

If Israel failed to take the pro-active and energetic steps it does, many, many more Israeli children's lives would end in murder. The statistics in your article would then look very different. Israeli lives are saved every single day because of the work of the Israeli security forces. This is a reality of the asynchronous war of the past four years and for anyone aware of the facts, irrespective of political viewpoints, there's no room for doubt on the issue. The post-Arafat Palestinian political leadership acknowledges it. But instead of doing what moral and responsible people would - that is, forcefully preventing terror -they claim they prefer to 'discuss' and 'persuade' and not take the risk of arousing internal conflict within their own ranks. This is why it now falls to the Israeli security forces to police the Palestinians, with all that that entails.

There should have been some place found for this fundamental difference of standpoint in the article. Since it wasn't, the message is misleading and in my opinion false: poor Israeli families weaping over their misery; poor Palestinian families weaping over their misery; how tragic - but what can civilized people (meaning we readers of American newspapers that buy their stories from AP's wire service) possibly do? The cycle of violence continues.

But there is no cycle of violence in reality - not here. You know yourself, from living in the thick of things in Jerusalem, that if civilized people don't do everything in our power to stop the terrorists, they will spread their terror wider and wider. Understanding the flow of events is not about statistics - it's about terror. Almost every important thing in the way civilized society tries to regulate and manage itself today is about terror. Yet the word 'terror' did not appear even once in the article.

Time interviews Arafat the Second

What a surprise. The "peaceful" Abbas saying that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are also peaceful, that Israel is responsible for all Israelis killed in terror attacks.

This sickening, disgusting, lying piece of crap is the person that the US and Israel is relying on for "peace."

TIME: Now that you've been elected, your progress depends on your cease-fire with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the Islamist groups opposing peace. How secure is it ?

ABBAS: I concluded a truce with Hamas when I was Prime Minister. After I became head of the Palestinian Authority, I conducted talks with them, and they accepted without any pressure on them. It is a democracy. We have to deal with them accordingly.

TIME: But when they launch suicide-bomb attacks like the latest one in Tel Aviv?

ABBAS: They said they are not responsible and they'll stick to the cease-fire. All of [the Islamist factions]. Even those that are in Damascus.

TIME: Who was responsible, then, for the Tel Aviv attack?

ABBAS: It was individuals. We arrested five. If you ask me who is responsible, the Israelis are responsible. The bombers came from the suburb of Tulkarem to Tel Aviv, crossing the wall. So who is responsible? The wall and the Israelis.

TIME: Hamas won seats in municipal elections in January. Now the P.L.O. has an opposition?

ABBAS: This is proof that they are going to be a political party, which is good.

TIME: Israelis and Americans are shocked to think Hamas could be in your parliament.

ABBAS: Why not? They should be in the parliament. They will share responsibility. Israel has more than 33 political parties from right to left and in between.