From Ian:
J Street U Slammed for Insensitive Post Following Murder of Baby
J Street U, the campus arm of the George Soros-founded organization which claims to be pro-Israel, is garnering negative attention after an insensitive post following the murder of a Jewish baby in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
Rather than simply express sympathy with the family of the murdered three-month-old, who was killed in a Hamas-endorsed attack, J Street U felt it was necessary to editorialize. "In Jerusalem, a baby has been killed and 8 wounded by a terrorist from the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, the same neighborhood where last week new Jewish settlers moved in," the group wrote on its page.
"In Jerusalem, a baby has been killed and 8 wounded by a terrorist from
the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, the same neighborhood where last week new Jewish settlers moved in."
"That's just a wrong post, in so many different levels. Allowing the blood of anyone who lives where you don't want them to live. So it's ok to kill any settler in the West Bank? J (S)treet- your mind is just twisted," Hen Mazzig on StandWithUs commented on the post. "That's from an Israeli leftist."
Michael Dickson, StandWithUs' Israel Director joined Mazzig in chastising the campus group. "And in one line, you express no remorse for the 3 month old victim, you blame Jews for the murder of a Jewish baby and expose your amoral mindset," he wrote. "A disgusting justification of terror; you should feel ashamed."
“Are you saying the "settlers" are responsible for what happened?” asked Lori Lowenthal Marcus of the Jewish Press. “That really is the soft bigotry of low (no?) expectations.”
Jewish Voice for Peace, a rapidly anti-Israel organization, proved wiser than J Street and elected to simply pretend the incident never happened on its Facebook feed. Hours later, J Street U linked to a two-sentence-long statement from its parent organization condemning the attack.
Netanyahu decries world’s ‘flaccid response’ to Abbas
The day after an East Jerusalem man with ties to Hamas drove his car onto a light rail platform, killing a three-month-old baby and wounding eight, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the international community for failing to criticize Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The Palestinian leader “both glorifies the murderers and also embraces the organization to which the terrorists belong, Hamas,” Netanyahu said during a briefing with security officials in Jerusalem’s national police headquarters. “And faced with these actions of the Authority chairman, we find only a flaccid [response] internationally. [World leaders] are unwilling to say two words, even one word of criticism of him [Abbas]. We do not share this weakness. We will stand firmly for our rights and obligations to defend our capital.”
“The attack in Jerusalem is supported by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas,” Netanyahu said, in an apparent reference to the praise that the terrorist, Abdel Rahman Al-Shaludi, received Thursday from a Jerusalem branch of Abbas’s Fatah organization.
Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians accept US request to delay Security Council bid for statehood
The London-based pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported on Thursday that the Palestinian Authority has agreed to delay by two months its plan to seek a Security Council resolution calling for an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines within three years.
The paper quoted Palestinian sources in Ramallah as saying that the PA leadership will give US Secretary of State John Kerry a two-month window to present his own plan for peace. The sources said that the PA leadership was nevertheless determined to proceed with the Security Council bid.
The sources also told the newspaper that the PA leadership is prepared to return to the negotiations with Israel but not according to “old mechanisms.”
The Palestinians are now conditioning the resumption of the talks on Israel presenting a map with its borders and a full cessation of settlement construction during the talks, according to the report.
Kerry said on Wednesday that current relations between Israel and the Palestinians were "unsustainable" and that the United States was conscious of the urgency of the situation.
Israeli official: EU proposal to negotiate West Bank redlines is a death warrant
The European Union is asking Jerusalem to weave the rope with which they will come to hang Israel, a senior diplomatic official said Wednesday in response to reports that the EU is interested in negotiating with Israel over its redlines in the West Bank.
Haaretz on Wednesday published an internal document drawn up by EU officials in Brussels that outlined the content of a sharp message regarding Israel’s construction beyond the Green Line and its policies in the West Bank that the EU’s Ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Andersen has been instructed to deliver at the “highest possible level” in the Foreign Ministry and National Security Council.
According to the document, the EU “considers the preservation of the two-state solution a priority.
Europe Pretends Palestinians Don’t Exist
In 2011, Newt Gingrich found himself in hot water with the liberal press for saying the Palestinians were an “invented” people. His critics misunderstood the point he was trying to make, which is that Palestinian Arab nationalism as a unifying ideology is a recent phenomenon. He said as much not to disenfranchise the Palestinians but to defend the Jews of Israel from such disenfranchisement, in which the international community buys into Arab lies about Israel in order to delegitimize the Jewish state.
But Gingrich’s comments pale in comparison to the European Union’s new posture. To Gingrich, a century ago the Palestinians didn’t exist. To the Europeans, the Palestinians don’t currently exist. They do not want a true peace process, which would require good-faith negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. They want some clumsy 21st century neocolonialist glory in pretending that Brussels isn’t a global joke but rather a crusading imperial bureaucracy on the march dictating the boundaries of a changing Middle East. It isn’t enough that Europe has made its Jews feel unwelcome enough to flee the continent; they must also evict Jews thousands of miles away.
Of course, Europe’s track record of manufacturing countries and borders in the Middle East is about as good as one would expect when the goal was to divide the region against itself: the record is terrible. So now that those European-imposed or inspired borders are collapsing in a regional societal disintegration, it’s doubtful anyone is silly enough to take Europe’s advice on what the new boundaries should be once the dust settles, if it settles.
EU Hypocrisy: Helping Palestinian Authority Violate Oslo Accords
An Israeli NGO is set to release a report it says shows tens of cases in which the European Union has actively worked to breach the Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, by changing the facts on the ground in Area C to unilaterally harm Israel in final status talks with the Palestinians.
The report is significant as it comes at the same time as the EU has made a renewed push to threaten Jerusalem with sanctions if Israel makes "unilateral moves" which European states deem to be harmful to their vision of a "two-state solution."
Regavim, a legal rights group dedicated to ensuring responsible, legal and accountable use of Israel’s national land, has already sent an official letter outlining some of their findings to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman Wednesday, along with a call to stand strong against growing diplomatic pressure on Israel to make concessions by the EU.
"Once upon a time, the EU would pressure Israel by funding hostile NGOs, now it has cut out the middle man and is actively engaging in settlement activity on behalf of the Palestinians," Ari Briggs, International Director of Regavim stated.
Irish parliament calls on government to recognize Palestine
The Upper House of Ireland’s parliament on Wednesday passed a motion calling on the government to recognize a Palestinian state, making it the third European country in less than a month to throw its weight behind Ramallah’s unilateral statehood bid.
The motion, proposed by a senator from the country’s main opposition party, was passed without a vote, as it had received backing from a majority of lawmakers before the discussion.
The motion that was passed read: “Seanad Éireann [the Senate of Ireland] calls on the Government to formally recognise the State of Palestine and do everything it can at the international level to help secure a viable two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
Ireland was the first European country to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization and has traditionally been one of Israel’s bitterest critics in the EU.
Beyond ‘Klinghoffer’: Opera’s Composer, Librettist Have Broader Jewish Problem
Adams and Goodman make up an aptly matched pair. Their Jewish problem seems to include an obsession with what they imagine to be Jewish guilt. This should not be surprising on the part of Goodman, perhaps, since during the writing of “Klinghoffer” she rejected her American Jewish heritage and joined the Anglican Church. The church’s leadership has been known in recent years for its hostility toward Israel. Goodman is now a parish priest in England.
But is “Klinghoffer” the only Adams/Goodman opera that contains elements of anti-Semitism, including the stereotypical notion of Jewish guilt?
Consider the Adams/Goodman opera “Nixon in China” (world premiere 1987, Met premiere 2011). It offered relatively humane depictions of President Richard M. Nixon and Chinese leader Mao Zedong—a mass murderer on the scale of a Hitler or Stalin—but not a similarly sympathetic picture of U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, a Jew. In a 1988 review of the opera, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Tim Page wrote that Kissinger is depicted as “a venal, jabbering, opportunistic buffoon.” Others remarked that Kissinger is portrayed as cruel and cunning.
Met manager given BBC platform to defend Klinghoffer opera
And indeed, that is precisely what happens in this article: it is not an interview but an unchallenged monologue by the Met’s Peter Gelb with some stage setting in the form of background information provided by Caffrey.
Whilst Gelb is given a platform for the promotion of his claims that “it’s not anti-Semitic” and “[i]t does not glorify terrorism in any way”, Caffrey makes no attempt to challenge him with the rather obvious fact that many people disagree with his evaluation or to investigate Gelb’s basis for his claims. Moreover, readers are unable to judge the veracity of Gelb’s claims for themselves because at no point in the article does Caffrey make any attempt to explain what aspects of the production have prompted the allegations which Gelb denies.
Aid to the Palestinians: A Case of Flagrant Discrimination
The disproportionate dispensation of international aid to the Palestinians is discriminatory and biased. The Palestinians receive considerably more aid per capita than the economic aid offered to African states; and international aid to the Palestinians indirectly abets Palestinian Islamist terrorism.
If officials in any developed country would dispense aid to their citizens the way the international community dispenses aid to the Palestinians, they would be placed behind bars for blatant discrimination if not racism. This would clearly be the verdict of any court that compared international aid to the 4.2 million Palestinians (World Bank estimate), to Ethiopia, a western ally, and other African states.
The facts of this discrimination are beyond dispute. In 2013, Ethiopia received 3.2 billion dollars in financial aid. The Palestinians in 2013 received approximately 2 billion dollars in aid, and this was before the last round of hostilities between Israel and Hamas.
On the surface, these figures in themselves do not seem so prejudicial. The Ethiopians after all receive over 50 percent of the amount of aid the Palestinians receive.
But two considerations, indispensable in allocating resources in any fair means test, change the picture radically.
First, Ethiopia’s population is twenty times even the most generous estimate of the combined populations of the West Bank and Gaza: 94 million Ethiopians compared to 4.2 million Palestinians. This means that the average Palestinian receives fifteen times more aid per capita (US$476) than the average Ethiopian (US$35)!
Top Hamas official claims group barely scathed by Gaza operation
The summer war in Gaza barely set back Hamas’s military capabilities, the movement’s political second-in-command said in comments published this week, countering Israeli claims that the movement was significantly harmed during Operation Protective Edge.
“After all the bombing and war, Israel reduced Hamas’s military capabilities by less than 7%,” Abu Marzouk said in a lengthy interview with Egyptian daily A-Shorouk published Monday.
Abu Marzouk also admitted that the kidnappers of Israeli teenagers Gil-ad Shaer, Naftali Fraenkel and Eyal Yifrah on June 12 belonged to Hamas, but carried out the operation “as individuals, without the knowledge of the organization’s leadership.”
“Palestinians, regardless of their organizational affiliation, will never stop looking for ways to free their prisoners,” Abu Marzouk added. “Therefore, I can’t rule out future kidnapping attempts to free the prisoners in Israeli jails.”
A Tale of Three Twitter Feeds: Hamas Tweets in Arabic, English, and Hebrew
Hamas ensured that its dual messaging system was preserved by its attitudes toward foreign journalists who did not tow the regime’s line. As reported in GlobalPost, in an interview with the Lebanese Al Mayadeen television, Hamas spokeswoman Isra al-Modallal emphasized, “some of the journalists who entered the Gaza Strip were under security surveillance.” If these journalists were “fixated on the Israeli narrative” by insisting on covering Palestinian rockets, “these journalists were deported from the Gaza Strip. The security agencies would go and have a chat with these people. They would give them some time to change their message, one way or the other,” she explained. Al-Modallal’s comments were confirmed by the Foreign Press Association in Israel and Palestine’s Aug. 15 statement “protesting in the strongest terms the blatant, incessant, forceful and unorthodox methods employed by the Hamas authorities and their representatives against visiting international journalists” in Gaza.
Nonetheless, Al-Qassam still found it necessary to justify in English Hamas’ public execution of 18 Palestinian collaborators, in an article on its homepage titled “Palestinian traitors working for Nazi-Israel deserve death.” Nathan Brown, a professor of political science at George Washington University and an expert on Palestinian politics, emphasized in an interview the dissonance in how external and internal audiences interpret these actions. “In Western circles, people were struck by this extrajudicial execution that looks extremely brutal,” he said. “But internally those killed were traitors or collaborators and swift justice is what is necessary.”
While Al-Qassam’s English messaging was designed to show Hamas as the moral underdogs, the organization’s Hebrew social media team focused primarily on intimidating the Israeli public. One Tweet included an Al-Qassam fighter inside a tunnel aiming a rifle at the viewer with “see you later!” written in Hebrew. Another Tweet included the popular resistance quote translated into Hebrew, “With Blood and fire, we will redeem Palestine.” Yet although the Al-Qassam social-media team invested considerably in its Hebrew Twitter account—in contrast to its Arabic feed—Al-Qassam struggled to attract an Israeli audience. Written entirely in Hebrew, Al-Qassam frequently updated its feed and inserted videos, images, and info-graphics. Yet, only approximately 840 individuals followed Al-Qassam’s Hebrew feed by the end of the war, with some posts not even retweeted once.
Mashaal: Deif is Alive - but We Won't Show You the Proof
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal declared on Wednesday that the terrorist group has proof that Mohammed Deif, the leader of its “military wing”, was not killed by Israel.
Speaking to Vanity Fair magazine, Mashaal declared, however, that Hamas would not make this proof public.
"Israel failed to assassinate him, but was able to kill his wife and two children," said Mashaal, who was quoted by Israel’s Channel 10 News. "Deif is alive and will continue his war against the Israeli aggression and occupation."
While it is known that an Israeli airstrike during Operation Protective Edge this past summer targeted Deif’s home, there have been conflicting reports about his fate.
Hamas Doubts Wisdom of Recent War with Israel
A prominent Palestinian journalist sympathetic to Hamas, Salah al-Nuami, criticized Hamas for being “dragged” into the war without thinking through its devastating implications for Gaza and for making demands, like asking for Israel’s consent to a seaport and airport for Gaza, that only lengthened the war’s duration.
“Forcing Israel to meet these demands was impossible,” he wrote in an article published on several pro-Hamas websites.
Although Hamas spokesmen continue to claim victory in the war, concern over the war’s results were voiced by the second highest figure in Hamas’ political wing, Moussa Abu Marzouq.
Marzouq said that the situation was so dire that Hamas might have to engage in direct political negotiations with Israel in violation of a basic Hamas tenet. Some Hamas leaders have called for a redoubling of the organization’s military budget but others seem to believe it will be years before another round of fighting is feasible.
Is Peter Beinart Just a Troll?
A few years ago Peter Beinart was being treated as if he represented some new paradigm for bashing Israel while calling himself a liberal Zionist.
As it turns out Beinart is more of an opportunistic troll. His Open Zion venture fizzled and he’s reduced to ridiculous trolling like this Haaretz piece that teeters on Jewbaiting.
Is Beinart really incapable of grasping the difference between self-criticism and external attack?
If Beinart were to call himself a “miserable self-loathing hack”, no one would claim that he’s engaging in personal attacks. But if I were to call him that, I would be engaging in a personal attack.
There’s a difference between Hillary Clinton saying something negative about America and Vladimir Putin or Angela Merkel saying something negative about America.
Jewish BDS group protests Israeli performance in Argentina
A Jewish group affiliated with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel demonstrated outside of a performance in Buenos Aires by an Israeli dance troupe.
The Los Otros Judios, or “The Other Jews,” group demonstrated outside of an auditorium in downtown Buenos Aires on Wednesday evening against the Mayumana dance troupe.
Members of the group define themselves as Jews that “refuse to accept that Zionism and Judaism are synonymous.”
BDS Tabled Indefinitely at McGill University
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement continues to flop on campuses across North America. The latest failure occurred on the campus of Canada’s McGill University on Wednesday evening.
The motion calling on the Student Society of McGill University (SSMU) Fall General Assembly to “Stand in Solidarity with the People of the Occupied Palestinian Territories” was postponed indefinitely by a vote of 402-337.
“A large majority of student voters recognized that the motion, introduced by Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill, employed misinformation and misused the language of social justice to attack Israel politically,” Meryle Kates, Executive Director, StandWithUs Canada said in a statement. “While the motion’s supporters argued that this was a social justice and human rights issue like many they had debated in the past, most students saw through this rhetoric and rejected the motion’s narrow anti-Israel agenda.”
Sunday Times removes inappropriate photo of ‘Jew in plastic’ used to illustrate Ebola article
The blog Israellycool had a great post on Oct. 19th, noting a laughably inappropriate photo used by the Sunday Times (in their print and online editions) to illustrate a story about the fear of Ebola in the US.
The photo, Israellycool explained, was taken several years ago and depicted a religious Jew who briefly wrapped himself in plastic due to halakhic (Jewish law) concerns about Kohanim (descendents of the Biblical Aaron) flying over cemeteries.
The photo obviously has absolutely no relevance whatsoever to a story about American fears of Ebola.
‘Over Half’ of British Donations to Minor Syrian Relief Charities Go to Fund ISIS
Over half the UK’s humanitarian donations to Syria via smaller charities end up in the hands of ISIS and other Islamist groups, according to London-based anti-radicalisation think-tank the Quilliam Foundation.
“When you take out the major charities like the British Red Cross and the Red Crescent, more than half of the ‘aid’ that goes out to Syria ends up with militant groups,” Haras Rafiq, head of outreach at the Quilliam Foundation told Newsweek Europe.
Many people who give to the charities are unaware that this is where the money will end up, said Rafiq. “These are organisations which take advantage of well-intentioned people, giving money for what they think are humanitarian causes,” he added.
“The majority of this money comes from the UK and goes to ISIS,” Rafiq said, though other militant groups like the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front also benefit.
Ya'alon Confirms: Israel Providing Intelligence Against ISIS
First, however, he expressed confidence in the operation - specifically the chances of eliminating ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
"If you enjoy intelligence superiority, and air superiority, [then] in the end, you know, he should be found and he can be targeted," Ya'alon stated. "I believe it's possible."
Ya'alon deflected the idea that Israel would join the coalition itself, however.
"We have enough challenges - apart from ISIS, which is far from us," he lamented. "But, you know, we have a very good relationship with many parties who participate in the coalition. First of all [we have] the United States, and some other Western parties, as well as Arab parties."
"By having this bilateral relationship - sharing intelligence, and so forth - this is our contribution to the operation," he added.
Criticism to Become Crime in Turkey
Turkey is already “the world’s biggest prison for journalists,” according to Reporters Without Borders. President Erdogan has, in recent months, been on the war path since Turks used online news portals and social media to report on and discuss tapes which suggest that he and his family had embezzled money to the tune of over one billion dollars. Alas, with Erdogan secure in the presidency and the opposition largely cowed into submission, Erdogan is now taking his campaign against media and free thought to the next level. As “the Radical Democrat,” a blog which follows press freedom in Turkey closely and often breaks news about new and real threats to free expression in that country, writes:
"Draconian internet laws in Turkey are deepening yet once again with a new reform package that will bring by new measures against freedom of speech in Turkey. Previously, the government has already tried to silence masses through censorship measures, surveillance of netizens, blocking access to web sites, or even raids on online news portals’ headquarters. The most recent “development” on the laws against online free speech is the most recent law draft that foresees up to 5 years of imprisonment for tweeps that criticize the government online."
Analysis: AKP Has “Iranized” Turkey
An analysis published Sunday in Turkey’s Today’s Zaman accuses the ruling Freedom and Justice Party (AKP) of consolidating its monopoly over Turkey’s government institutions in a similar fashion to how the clerics took control of Iran’s government following the the 1979 revolution that ousted the Shah.
An Istanbul-based political commentator, Ömer Yavuz, argues:
"In a nutshell, Iran’s clerical leaders hijacked the Iranian people’s revolution against the authoritarian rule of the shah and created yet another authoritarian regime of their own. Similarly, the Pasdaran has exploited both the popular sympathy for its sacrifices during the Iran-Iraq war, and the resources available to it as the vanguard of the regime, in order to enrich regime loyalists at the expense of the rest of the population.
What the AKP has been doing in Turkey is no different. To see the similarity, it would be enough to simply replace the supreme leader or Khomeini, in the account above, with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Pasdaran with the AKP as a whole, the Ghorb with the Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKI), the foundation with the Foundation of Youth and Education in Turkey (TÜRGEV) and other AKP-backed foundations and NGOs."
Norway: Jew? 'A Common Curse'
Norwegians hold the most anti-Semitic beliefs of all citizens in Nordic countries - warns the president of the Jewish community in Norway, Irwin Cohen.
According to him, the level of anti-Semitism is growing and in many schools throughout the country, being called "Jew" has become nothing short of a curse. "Along with the well-known curses, 'Jew' has become a dirty word common in many schools," he said.
Norway has seen its fair share of major anti-Semitic incidents in recent years.
Hostile Shouts of ‘Zionists!’ Shut Down CNN Ferguson Broadcast (VIDEO)
Media website Mediaite ran the following account of Sidner’s experience with the demonstrators:
On-the-ground video from Bassem Masri shows the aftermath, in which several protesters continue berating Sidner, telling her they are “holding [her] accountable” for CNN being among a crop of outlets “lying to us since day one.”
“If we don’t get it! Shut it down!” the crowd began to chant, as Masri declares that CNN is run by “Zionists.” The cable network’s cameraman began dismantling his equipment as Sidner and staff exited the scene to a chorus of goodbyes and shouts. Several protestors threatened: “If you continue lying, we’ll come shut you down in Atlanta.”
Missouri resident Masri is a known left-wing, anti-Israel activist whose Twitter profile reads “f*** all haters, Long Live Palestine.” The banner on his Twitter page is dominated by the hashtag #JSIL – a pejorative term for Israel conjured up by anti-Zionists in order to draw a parallel with the Islamic State terrorist group in Syria and Iraq. As Masri interprets it, JSIL stands for “The Jewish State of Israel Lies.”
Holocaust Denier Denies Not Denying Holocaust (satire)
Maher Shalalhashbaz, a regional governor, told reporters he had not said the Holocaust had not happened, and contradicted reports that he had contradicted his own previous statements contradicting the established historical record.
“I flatly deny failing to continue to deny what I have always denied, namely, that any specific targeting of Jews for extermination took place at the hands of the Nazis, which of course I deny, and deny I ever did not deny it,” he insisted. “Those who deny I do not still deny the Holocaust are merely trying to deny me a second term in this position.” Shalalhashbaz’s term ends next year, and there are several contenders to succeed or replace him.
“Though they will deny it, the individuals are only attempting to smear me with an alleged denial of my Holocaust denial, which is undeniably false,” he asserted. “No one can deny that I have always denied, and will continue to deny, that anything unique occurred to the Jews of Europe during World War Two.” If one fails to deny that, said Shalalhashbaz, it could deny the Muslim world success in ridding the region of Israel, the legitimacy of which Iran denies.
New Israeli Technology Helps Treat Parkinson's Disease
New research dealing with the monitoring and treatment of patients with Parkinson's disease using wearable technology and advanced data analysis will be presented at a conference Thursday at Ariel University in Samaria (Shomron) by Dr. Shahar Cohen from Intel.
Intel's applied research for this project was done in collaboration with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, the largest private funder of Parkinson's research in the world.
The wearable technological device is something like a watch that patients wear on their wrist. This device allows for symptoms to be continuously monitored and recorded, making up to 300 observations per second on every patient, thereby providing a more accurate picture of the effects of the disease.
With the new technology, this device can record such things as pulse, slowness of movement, tremors and sleep quality.
Israel's ISDS to manage security at Rio Olympics
At the end of a three-year tender, the Olympic Committee and the agencies managing the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympiad have selected Israeli security company ISDS, owned by president and founder Leo Gleser, to provide security for the world's biggest sporting event. ISDS will be able to draw on a $2.2 billion budget for constructing and managing the complex security system for the event, which is expected to draw billions of spectators around the world. The news of the Israeli company's triumph in the huge tender was first published in the Israel Defense magazine.
ISDS will be an integrator for the entire security system at the various sites at which the games will be held, and will provide consultation and supply services for the various systems designed to ensure that the Olympic Games pass without incident. "We have a great challenge facing us," ISDS VP Ron Shafran said today. "We already have teams operating in Brazil, and unofficially operated there during the World Cup last summer. Since it was announced that Brazil would host the Olympic Games, we have greatly expanded our activity in the country, and competed in this long and difficult tender. Our teams are already preparing for the Olympics, designing our security concept and building technological systems to be installed at the various facilities where the competitions will take place in Rio and four other regions around the country. The games will begin on August 5, 2016, and will continue until December 2016, including the special Olympics."
Israel and Australia Sign New Work Visa Deal
Israel and Australia signed an agreement on Wednesday that will allow young adults from both countries to get work visas from the other. The deal was part of a recent effort to secure work arrangements for young Israelis abroad, to prevent them from getting in legal trouble when looking for work.
The agreement, signed by Israeli Ambassador to Australia Shmuel Ben Shmuel and Australian Deputy Immigration and Border Protection Minister Senator Michaelia Cash, stipulates that citizens ages 18-30 with no children will be able to request a one-year work visa. Five-hundred such visas will be allotted for Israelis seeking to work in Australia, and 500 are slated for Australians seeking to come to Israel. Prior to Wednesday’s agreement, Israelis who got travel visas were only able to stay in Australia for six months.
In Brazil, Israeli-perfected castor used for biofuel
In the biofuel business, the castor plant has become a sort of holy grail – much of that due to the efforts of Israel’s Evogene, which specializes in genetic modification of plants for industrial purposes. Brazil, South America’s largest country, could be next to benefit, as Evogene’s castor efforts are going commercial.
Evogene this week signed a deal with Brazil’s Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) to develop technologies for the advancement of castor cultivation there. The cooperation will focus primarily on technologies for controlling castor-specific diseases as well as practices for castor cultivation in rotation with soybeans.
Evogene has worked for years on developing strains of castor that would yield the highest amount of fuel while retaining high resistance to disease.
Pro-Israel German-language Jewish magazine launches
Seated in a café in the Hotel Kempinski in the bustling downtown shopping area of Berlin, Dr. Rafael Korenzecher explains why he launched Jüdische Rundschau, a new German- Jewish monthly magazine.
“We have a message and we are not a mainstream news outlet,” he says. Now, he stresses he “has the opportunity to reach the German public” and convey that “appeasement is a false policy.”
For Korenzecher, soggy capitulation means failing to confront Islamism in Europe and the Middle East, as well as the delegitimization of the Jewish state.
Jüdische Rundschau, loosely translated as “The Jewish Review,” devotes many of its articles to Israel, contemporary anti-Semitism and Jewish culture and music. The monthly, which Korenzecher launched in July, has a sister Russian- language publication.