Thursday, October 10, 2013
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.Standwithus to Place Pro-Israel Posters in Vancouver Skytrain Stations
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 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.”10 Ignored Facts of Moslem and Jewish Populations in Israel (h/t Daphne Anson)
“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.
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.MI5 Chief Warns British Public of Terror Threat
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?
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.Canadian Muslims Protest "Honor Killing" Label As Racist
According to a BBC report, the new head of MI5, also said Islamic terror had become more complicated to track than ever before.
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.New Director of Israel On Campus Coalition Vows to Empower Jewish Students
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.”
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.'Alarming' Anti-Israel Campaign On Rutgers Campus
“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.”
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.‘Anti-Semitic Elmo’ goes to jail
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.
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.Pope Francis Reiterates Desire to Visit Israel
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.
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.Top 10 incredible Israeli advances in vision
“There is still anti-Semitism in the world,” Edelstein said. “I ask you to use your influence to combat it.”
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.Israeli Technology a New Step in Finding a Parking Spot
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 developers have introduced the newest parking solution on the market.BrightSource takes solar thermal energy home to Israel
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.
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.Fox buys Israeli TV series at French festival
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.
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.Israelis Star in Nobel Prizes, so Why Doesn’t BDS Boycott Them?
“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.
Intentionally or not, TIME magazine’s report did not note that two of the winners were Israeli citizens.Nobel Prize Winner's 'Traumatic' Escape from the Nazis
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.
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.
