From Ian:
Chloe Valdary: Peace, the Grand Delusion of the Jews
In 2015, the Jewish community is at a crossroads. Jews are being mowed down in the streets of Europe. Students are being intimidated on college campuses. Jewish-owned businesses and homes are being vandalized. The indigenous status of Jews in their homeland is either callously trivialized or completely denied by prominent voices in the media and elsewhere, including in academia and the United Nations. The 21st century is beginning to feel all too much like the torment of the 1930s and ’40s.
Yet, we pledged to ourselves, “Never again.”
This is not merely an adage—it is a demand. The time has come to ensure that the demand is met.
We must draw on our courage and have the audacity to force those who humiliate and threaten us to pay a price. Peace—if it means that we must lie down and be denigrated and even slaughtered while our enemies cheer, is not only wrong—it is evil.
How many more supermarkets will be attacked before we rise? How many more synagogues, schools, and homes will be assailed? How many more innocent Jews will be slaughtered while praying, or pelted with rocks while driving home?
Will we silently submit to these injustices unfolding around us? Will we be satisfied with telling ourselves that we have a higher moral claim because we want “peace?”
Col. Richard Kemp: Hamas tunnels like Auschwitz
One of the keynote speakers at the United Israel Appeal’s (UIA’s) General Division functions, Kemp was in Israel last year during much of the duration of Operation Protective Edge, where he was in contact with ground troops, generals and politicians.
He said the judgments he formed from his observations were the “mirror opposite” of the “lies, distortions and abuse” reported in the international media.
“The first item on the agenda of every war cabinet meeting … was Palestinian civilian casualties. That tells you something serious about the priority and the emphasis given by the Prime Minister and his cabinet to the issue,” he said.
He said Hamas wanted dead civilians to show the world, in order to demonise Israel “because they know – it’s been proven time and again in history – that the IDF cannot be defeated militarily”.
He also recalled his visit to a Hamas tunnel.
“There were railway lines running down the floor of the tunnel,” he said.
“Something troubled me about that tunnel, I couldn’t work out what it was and then it came to me. A few months before I was in Auschwitz and I saw similar feats of engineering … but on a much larger scale.
“The purpose of both of those things was to kill Jews. The tunnel was intended to send Hamas fighters to massacre as many Jews as they could find.”
Hero of the Middle East: The Israeli Messenger
In its evident, inexplicable eagerness to sign just about any deal with Iran to allow it nuclear weapons capability, the U.S. State Department has removed Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah -- two of the world most undisguised promoters of terror -- from its Foreign Terrorist Organizations List.
Iran's President, Hassan Rouhani, has even openly admitted that Iran's diplomacy with the U.S. is an active "jihad." How much plainer does a message have to get?
The Islamists have nothing but contempt for Europe's weakness.
The West needs to paralyze Iran, rather than appease it.
A series of significant defeats to Islamist organizations will counter the effects of their efforts to entice young people to join them, especially ISIS.
In these terrible times, critical for the future of our region, Netanyahu spoke to the representatives of the American people, despite the objections of many Israelis and Americans. He was willing to accept personal, political and diplomatic setbacks in order to look after his people's security.
Michael Lumish: One State. Two State. Red State. Blue State.
Anyone who has followed my scribblings over the last few years knows that I have slowly gone from a two-state advocate to flirting with the single-state idea. I gave up on the possibility of a negotiated two-state agreement when it became obvious to me that the Palestinian-Arabs had no intention whatsoever of ever coming to a reasonable conclusion of hostilities.
This has led me to the only possible conclusion, which is that Israel must unilaterally declare its final borders and remove the IDF to behind those borders. What those borders should be, I leave entirely to the Israelis. Should Israel annex the historical homeland of the Jewish people in Judea and Samaria?
Maybe.
In truth, I go back and forth on the matter, but have been leaning more and more toward the affirmative.
In the comments of my latest Sunday column for the Elder of Ziyon entitled, The Expiration Date on "Palestine", J_April argued against the single-state solution.
Manchester’s New Jewish Ghetto
When I visited Manchester, shortly after the Paris attacks, nerves in the community were still on edge and there was much discussion of people moving to Israel and also of increased security measures. At Broughton Jewish Primary School there were two guards on the door instead of the usual one. At other schools in the area there was talk of hiring post-army Israeli security guards: The feeling was that IDF-trained soldiers might stand a better chance of protecting them from masked gunmen who might show up to kill their children, the same way that Jewish children were being killed by Islamist gunmen in France. Some schools were also holding drills to prepare the children for the possibility of an attack. Synagogues such as Sunnybank in Bury and the Prestwich Hebrew Congregation were in discussions over spending large sums of money on building high-security fences to protect their congregants.
Security has always been a part of Jewish life in Britain. Synagogues here have had guards on the door since the threat of Palestinian terrorism in Europe became prevalent in the 1970s. The Community Security Trust (CST), a charity founded in 1994, is now a professional organization that involves 60 permanent employees and thousands of volunteers in its work. But there is currently a renewed sense that the community is drawing inward in response to outward hostility, and some are starting to erect higher barriers, physical and mental, between themselves and an outside world that bristles with ever more ominous and immediate threats. Volunteers who do synagogue security duty now receive special CST briefings in which they are told to “do what they can” to delay an attacker, buying those inside the shul time to lock the doors.
One rabbi I spoke to has invested in surveillance cameras to monitor the space outside his synagogue, which already has grills over all the windows. “The synagogues in London are all behind gates,” he said. “Increasingly the ones in Manchester are too, and these days the gates are all closed.”
Argentines pay tribute to victims of 1992 attack on Israeli embassy
Survivors and family members of those who were killed in the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires gathered in a memorial square on Tuesday where the building once stood.
On March 17, 1992, a truck bomb ripped through the Israeli embassy, killing 29 people and wounding hundreds.
Twenty-three years later the crime remains unresolved.
Jorge Cohen, who worked as a press spokesman at the embassy and survived the blast, expressed his sadness and frustration that no one had been held responsible for the attack in more than two decades since it occurred.
He said, "And now I'm writing this speech, trying to think about how to live with this ghost that I was, that I am and that I will be. How much time is left for this ... person without knowing what has happened, without thinking that 23 years later there would be no charges or suspects or people in prison. Were they aliens, were they invisible?"
(Posthumous) Islamist Comedy Award for Charlie Hebdo
Now, another past recipient of the [Rowntree] Trust’s generosity has also soiled the sheets: the Islamic Human Rights Commission, who have given an “Islamophobia Award” to the staff of Charlie Hebdo. This, barely two months after eleven people were murdered by a terrorist at Hebdo’s Paris headquarters. IHRC also made four “positive” awards: recipients did not include Ahmed Merabet, the (French Muslim) police officer who was murdered outside the Hebdo offices as he lay wounded on the pavement.
Rowntree gave the IHRC £60,000 from 2005 to 2007. The funding ended shortly after IHRC’s “Prisoners of Faith Campaign Pack” for convicted terrorist Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman.
IHRC is an Islamist advocacy group that organises London’s al-Quds Rally, an annual event called by the late Ayatollah Khomeini to demand Israel’s destruction. The rally’s Iranian and Lebanese iterations are especially prone to venomous anti-Israel and anti-American hatred.
IHRC also organises another annual event, the Islamophobia Awards. IHRC claim it helps to show that Muslims have a sense of humour: something that is notably absent from the fascistic al-Quds rallies by Hizbollah, Revolutionary Guards and others in Beirut, Teheran and elsewhere.
This year’s Islamophobia Awards went to Maajid Nawaz, Theresa May, Fox News, American Sniper…and the staff of Charlie Hebdo. The event was covered by Iranian broadcaster Press TV.
Waitrose magazine includes Taste of Israel advert - and is hammered online for ignoring 'illegal occupation of Palestine'
A Waitrose magazine showcasing the food of Israel has been hammered online for ignoring what activists regard to be the 'illegal occupation of Palestine'.
The supermarket chain's monthly food magazine 'Waitrose Kitchen' contained a 32-page brochure called Taste of Israel.
But the glossy advert, sponsored by Israel's Government Tourist Board, has sparked outrage among campaigners - with some claiming it ignores what they believe is an 'apartheid regime'.
The travel and food pull-out, in the February edition, contains an 'A-Z food glossary' of Israeli ingredients and dishes as well as a guide of its 'Top 10 restaurants'.
It also includes 'market tours' interviews with top Israeli chefs and an article explaining 'Why Israeli wine is winning awards, plus five wines to taste.'
Recipes in the insert include shakshuka, white fish on vegetable ragu, endive salad, and 'instructions for creating the perfect falafel and hummus'.
Swastikas Found at Jewish Fraternity at Vanderbilt; University Condemns
The Vanderbilt University Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Susan Wente on Monday condemned acts of antisemitic vandalism at a Vanderbilt fraternity house committed over the weekend.
According to a statement issued by the university, three swastikas were found at the Alpha Epsilon Pi Jewish fraternity house. Two swastikas were spray-painted in the fraternity elevator, and another on its basement door. The university believes the swastikas were painted late Saturday night.
The University said it does not know who painted the swastikas, but is investigating the incident as a hate crime.
“Regardless of who is responsible and what the motivation was, the university condemns the reprehensible depiction of this symbol that since the time of Nazi Germany has come to be associated with hate, antisemitism, violence, death and murder,” Wente said
Northeastern Beats Back BDS
Last night, the Student Government Association (SGA) at Northeastern University in Boston voted down a divestment resolution proposed by the local Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter, with the final tally including 9 for and 25 against (with fourteen abstentions).
This scale of this victory didn’t come from nothing, but was rather a case study of pro-Israel students doing everything right – especially with regard to following the rules that have led to virtually every success I’ve seen in the fight against BDS over the last 14 years.
To set the stage, SJP actually has a substantial presence at Northeastern which allows them to engage in numerous agitprop campaigns as well as muster the organizational oomph needed to put a divestment resolution in front of student government. At the same time, their scale has given them the people power needed to make flesh some pretty nasty stuff, including their move last year to stuff eviction notices under fellow student’s doors in a particularly Jewish dorm (a stunt which got their organization temporarily suspended).
When that suspension was reversed (in no small part due to legal threats made by attorneys from the Lawyer’s Guild – a group that primary exists today to serve as consiglieres to the BDS movement), the organization may have deluded itself into thinking the student body was now on their side when they chose to bring a divestment referendum petition to last-night’s SGA meeting. But while lawyers might be able to make conflict-adverse administrators stand down, they can’t eliminate the (accurate) impression on campus that SJP is a bunch of fanatical jerks.
University of Kent 'extremist' Muslim preacher talk in Canterbury is axed
THE UNIVERSITY of Kent has been slammed by students after an Islamic extremist preacher, who has expressed homophobic and anti-Semitic views, was banned from giving a talk on the Canterbury campus.
Haitham al-Haddad, who has referred to homosexuality as a "scourge" and said "a man should not be questioned why he hit his wife", was invited by the Kent Islamic Society to give a talk on Sharia law on March 4.
But it appears a decision at the 11th hour by the University of Kent banned the Imam, who presides over a Sharia Court, from speaking at the campus, under their code of practice. The Times has contacted the university for comment.
The Kent Islamic Society was unavailable for comment at time of publication, but writing on their facebook page after the event was postponed, a spokesperson "apologise unreservedly" for any inconvenience caused.
No BBC follow-up on Lyse Doucet’s Rawabi water story
Readers no doubt recall that last month the BBC’s chief international correspondent produced a series of reports for radio, television and the corporation’s website on the topic of the construction project in Rawabi – all of which gave the impression to BBC audiences that the problems concerning the new city’s water supply were Israel’s fault.
The JWC has still not convened but the go-ahead was given for Rawabi’s water supply to be connected at the end of February – some three weeks after Doucet’s reports appeared – and residents are now expected to move in around May.
Since the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office’s announcement that the Israeli Water Authority would connect Rawabi to its grid despite the Palestinian Water Authority’s continued refusal to convene the JWC, the BBC has failed to produce any follow-up reporting on that topic.
British Prime Minister David Cameron Pulls Report on Muslim Brotherhood
British Prime Minister David Cameron pulled a report on Monday that was widely expected to recommend against labeling the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.
The review, led by Britain’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Sir John Jenkins, also was expected to suggest that the Muslim Brotherhood’s activities in the United Kingdom should be more open and remain under review. No concrete policy recommendations were expected; however, the report was expected to name a network of linked organizations alleged to be involved in extremist activities.
This network reportedly included a complex web of at least 60 organizations, think tanks, TV channels, and charities with links to the Muslim Brotherhood. The British government decided in December that it would release only a summary of the full report.
Cameron requested the report, reportedly at the instigation of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Egypt Wants To Replace Cairo With A $45 BILLION Capital In The Desert
The Egyptian government announced an ambitious plan on Friday to build a “new Cairo” in the desert east of the thousand-year-old capital, to the tune of $45 billion from foreign investors.
Housing minister Mostafa Madbouly made the announcement at the start of a 3-day international economic conference in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, saying that he hopes to complete the 270-square-mile project in just 5 to 7 years.
The project, which is yet unnamed, reflects a recent wave of investment in Egypt, especially from wealthy magnates in the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf countries. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have been outspoken in their support for Egypt’s government since the current president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, ousted his predecessor, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi, in 2013.
The Emirati businessman behind this particular enterprise is Mohamed Alabbar, the real estate developer responsible for the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
The Saudis and Egyptians Get It on Islamic Extremism: Why Doesn’t Obama?
Events in February, half a world apart, should give the staunchest “Team Obama” supporters pause to question this Administration’s mental health in understanding the evil plaguing the Middle East, primarily, and the West secondarily.
Obama’s February 18th “Countering Violent Extremism” (CVE) summit discussed possible causes for such behavior, avoiding all links to Islam.
So nebulously written were U.S. Department of State CVE promotional materials that Voice of America reported the week prior the summit’s focus would be on “American Extremism.”
A visitor to Planet Earth attending the CVE would have fared no better in understanding the raison d’etre for such extremism, while recognizing that social grievances, like poverty, were being held accountable. Of course, as an intelligent life form, an extraterrestrial would have departed the summit wondering why so many other poverty-stricken regions fail to generate the same violent extremism historically dominant in the Middle East.
Officials: Statues ISIS Destroyed in Mosul Museum Were Fakes
Baghdad museum director Fawzye al-Mahdi claims the “invaluable artifacts” at a Mosul museum that the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) destroyed in a video are in fact replicas.
“None of the artifacts are originals,” he stated. “They were copies. The originals are all here.”
After the video was released, experts around the world noticed that some of the artifacts were fake. They could tell the statues were made of plaster.
“You can see iron bars inside,” explained Mark Altawheel from the Institute of Archaeology at University College in London. “The originals don’t have iron bars.”
IS general looks like shawarma
One of the Islamic State’s most ruthless commanders is being mocked online for his fashion choices, as anti-IS activists compare him to a shawarma kebab.
Abu Wahib, the 28-year-old commander of the Sunni Al-Anbar Lions militia, was photographed recently standing next to a black IS truck in Iraq’s Anbar province, wearing brown camouflage and a black beret.
A member of the anti-Islamic State group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently named Abu Mohammed posted a picture of the bearded Wahib next to a photo of shawarma being roasted on a spit with the caption #same, the Daily Mail reported Tuesday.
Abu Wahib, who has a $500,000 bounty on his head, is regularly mocked online for his distinctive long hair and unibrow.
ISIS's not-so-special forces: Slick new propaganda video backfires as elite jihadi fighter gets stuck sliding down a rope
Eight-minute propaganda video shows ISIS soldiers training in a busy city
They rappel down tall buildings as hundreds of people watch from below
Extremists practice army crawls on pavements and fitness through traffic
'Elite' extremist soldier gets stuck on rope after descending down building
'They wouldn't worry regular soldiers' says former SAS-man Andy McNab
Follows release of images which showed Islamic State's 'sniper battalion'
Two Thousand Attend Funeral of German Woman Who Died Fighting ISIS
A crowd estimated at 2,000 turned out for the funeral of Ivana Hoffmann in Duisburg, Germany, over the weekend. Hoffmann, 19, was killed fighting ISIS in Syria as a volunteer in the Kurdish YPG force.
A number of the attendees at Hoffmann’s funeral were Communist activists. “Born in Germany to South African parents, Hoffman was a member of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) in Turkey and joined YPG fighters about six months ago,” said a statement from the party, according to the Associated Press.
The BBC adds that the Communist Party statement referred to Hoffmann by her preferred pseudonym, “Avasin Tekosin Gunes,” and declared her to be “immortal.”
Perhaps these associations are the reason world media coverage of her death has been somewhat muted, although it would seem to be a highly newsworthy event. The UK Guardian, which certainly doesn’t care about Hoffman’s penchant for posing in front of big red hammer-and-sickle flags, notes that she is “the first female Western fighter to die in battle against the Islamic State in northern Syria.”
Life under Isis: The everyday reality of living in the Islamic 'Caliphate' with its 7th Century laws, very modern methods and merciless violence
It is one of the strangest states ever created. The Islamic State wants to force all humanity to believe in its vision of a religious and social utopia existing in the first days of Islam. Women are to be treated as chattels, forbidden to leave the house unless they are accompanied by a male relative. People deemed to be pagans, like the Yazidis, can be bought and sold as slaves. Punishments such as beheadings, amputations and flogging become the norm. All those not pledging allegiance to the caliphate declared by its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, on 29 June last year are considered enemies.
The rest of the world has watched with fascinated horror over the past eight months as Isis, which calls itself Islamic State, imposed its rule over a vast area in northern Iraq and eastern Syria inhabited by six million people. Highly publicised atrocities or acts of destruction, such as burning to death a Jordanian pilot, decapitating prisoners and destroying the remains of ancient cities, are deliberately staged as demonstrations of strength and acts of defiance. For a movement whose tenets are supposedly drawn from the religious norms of the 7th century CE, Isis has a very modern and manipulative approach to dominating the news agenda by means of attention-grabbing PR stunts in which merciless violence plays a central role.
Head of Shiite Militia Credits Iranian General With Saving Iraq From Islamic State
The head of the Badr Organization, an Iranian Shi’a proxy militia, Hadi al-Ameri – who is also a member of the Iraqi Parliament – credited Iranian general Qasem Soleimani with halting the advance of the Islamic State terror organization in Iraq.
Addressing concern over the extensive presence of Iranian military personnel in Iraq, al-Ameri said, ”whoever is talking about the Iranian advisors must give them respect and honor, for if not for them or the presence of the brother Qasem Soleimani (the leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force), Iraq would have been entirely under the control of ISIS, and the Iraqi people must erect a statue to this hero out of gratitude and recognition.”
He added that “the presence of the Iranian experts who are accompanying the Hashed Al-Shaabi [popular committee] forces in the battles going on in Salahuddin province is a source of pride.”
He then questioned the “sensitivity of some over the presence of Iranian advisors, even though there are over 4 thousand American advisors in Iraq?!”
Iraqi Shiite Militia Leader "Abu Azrael": We Will Turn ISIS Members into Slurpees
In a March 17, 2015 interview on Hona Baghdad TV, Iraqi Shiite militia leader Ayoub Al-Rube'i, known as "Abu Azrael," said: "We turned [ISIS members] into slurpees, and by Ali, we will turn them into flour." Abu Azrael, the leader of the "Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi" Iraqi Shiite militia, further said: "We kill them even with shoes."
Iran Deploys Rocket, Missile Batteries in Iraq
Iran deployed missile and rocket batteries in Iraq to help in the fight against the Islamic State in that country, Israel Hayom reports.
While the White House insists it is not cooperating with Iran in fighting Islamic State, The New York Times reported Tuesday night that Iran has deployed missile and rocket batteries to Iraq to help Iraqi government forces recapture Tikrit from the Islamist terrorist group.
According to the report, U.S. intelligence agencies observed the deployment of heavy weapons in the past weeks. Iraqi forces in the operation to wrest Tikrit out of Islamic State hands number 30,000, of which two-thirds are part of the Iraqi armed and trained Shiite militias, the American sources said.
One defense official said in the report that Iran deployed Fajr-5 rockets and Fateh-110 missile batteries to the region, with another official saying there were other comparable Iranian weapons instead.
Feared general voted Iran’s person of the year
A powerful Iranian general who has been a key adviser in Iraq’s fight against the Islamic State group and has overseen Tehran’s actions throughout the region was voted Iran’s person of the year in an annual poll released Sunday.
General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, won 37 percent of the votes cast in the survey to mark the Persian New Year, Nowruz.
Once rarely seen, Soleimani is now frequently pictured in social media near the front line in Iraq and has been spotted close to this week’s battles in Tikrit.
He has become the public, if unofficial, face of Iran’s support for the Iraqi and Syrian governments against IS jihadists, reportedly landing in Baghdad hours after IS overran Iraq’s second city Mosul last June.
Pakistani Taliban Commander And Jihadi Editor, Recently Returned From UK, Killed By U.S. Drone; British Islamist Anjem Choudary's Tribute To Him Reveals Personal Association
A series of tweets and a tribute from leading British Islamist Anjem Choudary have revealed that a Pakistani army surgeon who sought asylum in the UK, worked at a hospital in London, treated jihadis in the UK, and returned in 2014 to join the Pakistan Taliban has been killed.
Dr. Tariq Mirza Ali, who had assumed the pen name Abu Obaidah Al-Islamabadi, joined Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaatul Ahrar (TTPJA) after returning to Pakistan, and began editing the group's newly launched English-language magazine Ihya-e-Khilafat ("Revival of the Caliphate"), aimed at recruiting jihadi youths from Western countries. Two issues of the magazine were published,
According to Anjem Choudary's tribute (below), Dr. Tariq Ali was killed March 12 in a U.S. drone attack. The tribute in English is dated March 13, and was published the same day on Justpaste.it. Anjem Choudary reveals sufficient details that his tributes could be used by British intelligence services to prosecute him in court for promoting jihad.
Former Lawyer Of Doctor Who Disclosed Bin Laden's Location Killed By Militants
The former lawyer for the Pakistani doctor who helped the Central Intelligence Agency track down Osama bin Laden was killed Tuesday.
Samiullah Afridi was shot and killed while returning to his home in Peshawar, according to Reuters. He quit representing Dr. Shakil Afridi in 2014, after receiving threats. He left Pakistan last November and had only recently returned. They are not related.
Two Pakistani militant groups claimed responsibility for the attack, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Jundullah.
Al Jazeera cites a statement by Taliban-linked Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, saying it ”accepts responsibility for the attack on Samiullah, the lawyer of Shakil Afridi, who was co-operating with the killers of Sheikh Osama bin Laden. The enemy should remember that we will kill each and every one of the killers of each of our brothers.”
Saudi grand mufti calls for demolition of churches
Saudi Arabia’s top Muslim cleric called on Tuesday for the destruction of all churches in the Arabian Peninsula after legislators in the Gulf state of Kuwait moved to pass laws banning the construction of religious sites associated with Christianity.
Speaking to a delegation in Kuwait, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, who serves as the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, said the destruction of churches was absolutely necessary and is required by Islamic law, Arabic media reported.
Abdullah, who is considered to be the highest official of religious law in the Sunni Muslim kingdom, also serves as the head of the Supreme Council of Ulema (Islamic scholars) and of the Standing Committee for Scientific Research and Issuing of Fatwas.
Last month, Osama Al-Munawer, a Kuwaiti member of parliament, announced his plans to submit a draft law calling for the removal of all churches in the country, according to the Arabian Businesses news site. Al-Munawer later clarified that the law would only apply to new churches, while old ones would be allowed to stay erect.
Report: Israel Largest Maker Of Drones, UK Largest Importer
Over the past 30 years, the UK has become the world’s largest importer of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones), taking in a third of all deliveries, while Israel has risen to dominate the market as the largest exporter, outselling the U.S. 3-1, the Guardian reported, citing SIPRI, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
UAV is a general reference to an aircraft without a human pilot aboard, but the kind of UAV that’s being manufactured and perfected in Israel and the U.S. are the armed drones, which have been used in recent years by the U.S. military to attack Pakistan-based terrorists.
The bulk of the criticism voiced over the past decade regarding these attack is the vast amount of collateral damage they’re causing, as many civilians are killed along with the identified target.
According to the Guardian, though, those killer drones account for a surprisingly small fraction of the overall trade, a mere 2.5%.
Don’t touch that syringe!
Every time a drug is dispensed there is a risk of human error, and with that comes the risk of injury to the patient. In the case of radiopharmaceuticals for nuclear diagnostics and treatments, the technician dispensing the substance is also at risk.
The Israeli company RescueDose was founded to address this danger by revolutionizing the way liquid medication is prepared and administered, minimizing human contact and making the entire process safer for patients and medical professionals.
The Haifa-based company’s robotic dispensing system is already in use at the Nuclear Research Center in Soreq, which manufactures and distributes radiopharmaceuticals in Israel.
Technicians place vials of the drugs into the RescueDose unit and key in how much of each component is needed for a dosage. The system automatically adds the specified amounts to an attached syringe.
Where did I put the car keys?
Have you ever lost your smartphone? Your glasses? Your keys? Of course you have. The question is: How much time is too much time wasted to find them again?
Pixie Technology is the newest company on the market to make tracking gadgets that help you find your things.
The location tracking craze already has the likes of Tile, Chipolo, StickNFind, TrackR, Locca and Gecko promising that their tags, diskettes and stickers will keep you from ever losing anything again.
But Pixie Technology says its “location engineering” breakthrough offers something brand new and unique.
The company says it has created the world’s first Location of Things (LoT) technology platform that makes location an exact science by allowing users to create a digital map of their things. Pixie says it can help anyone pinpoint the location of lost items within inches.
Bar Refaeli wants to judge you
In the wake of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on March 3, which added to a growing rift in US-Israel relations, the Israeli embassy in the United States has started a contest to reignite the next generation’s enthusiasm for Israel. The hook: it involves Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli.
The contest is calling for American college students to film short, creative videos that display their love of Israel. One winner will earn a free trip to Israel, and three finalists will win a trip to Washington, DC to meet with Israel’s Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer.
Refaeli will be the contest’s official judge, but the grand prize winner won’t earn a meeting with the famed model. (Perhaps her fiance Adi Ezra is too jealous?) First place includes a meeting with the slightly less attractive Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.
Israeli musician Yoni Block and multimedia artist Yael Efrati will join Refaeli as contest judges. There is no word on whether they will judge contestants as harshly as the poster above implies Refaeli will.