From Ian:
Graphic anti-Israel display casts shadow over Amsterdam
Local visitors and tourists in Amsterdam's Dam Square were welcomed over the weekend by disturbing images of the bodies of Palestinian children supposedly killed by IDF soldiers – images posted by pro-Palestinian activists who also protested Israel in the square.
The display appeared in the famous square in the center of the city under the title "Save the Palestinian Children." Included in the display was a photo of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu representing Satan with red eyes and the teeth of a vampire dripping with blood over the body of a dead and bleeding Palestinian baby.
A blue Star of David appeared as a tattoo on the prime minister's forehead under the title, "Can't get enough." A side graphic listed numbers of the dead and wounded in Gaza during a specific time period.
Israeli Ambassador to Holland Haim Divon responded to the display saying, "This is indeed appalling, outrageous and repulsive. This is part of the smear campaign that provokes nausea and disgust. Unfortunately there are a number of groups whose hate for Israel knows no limits.
"They don't raise their voice when atrocities occur daily in our region or elsewhere." Divon concluded by saying that the embassy was looking at ways to convince the local government to take a firm stance on the issue. (h/t Yenta Press)
The truth about international law and BDS
The BDS folks, and the people among us here who are sort of in favor of "at least" boycotting Judea and Samaria, back up their argument using international law. Well, Judea and Samaria aren't "Palestinian territories" -- at most they are disputed territories: We also lay claim to them based on the juridical concept of "permission of the nations," history, justice and the Bible. These arguments were made by world-renowned legal scholars from the time of the Six-Day War in 1967 and onward.
In any case, the enemies of settlement on the central mountain ridge claim that international law prohibits helping the economic activity of an occupying force in belligerent territories. Well, here's a surprise: There is no such law. When the BDS storm was raging, Professor Eugene Kontorovich, an expert in international law and a senior member of the Kohelet Policy Forum, published a research paper in the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law titled "Economic Dealings with Occupied Territories."
Kontorovich examined legal rulings and economic conduct of European nations and demonstrated that from a European perspective, there is no international law that forbids economic activity in occupied territories. European companies operate in Western Sahara, a region occupied by Morocco in 1979 and unrecognized by any country; the same goes for northern Cyprus, which was occupied by Turkey in 1974.
While Europe prohibits business dealings over the Green Line, it signs business contracts with Morocco that aid the Moroccans' presence ("the occupying force") in Western Sahara -- French firms included. They don't do that because they don't care about the law when it comes to Morocco, but because no such law exists!
French Islamists had Jewish store 'hit list' and nuclear bomb manual
Fourteen members of a banned Islamic group stood trial in Paris on Monday on terror charges after police found a “hit list” of Jewish stores marked "targets" in files belonging to its leader.
Several of the stores belonged to the Hyper Cacher chain, like the one in which four people were killed in a hostage drama two days after the Islamist killings at Charlie Hebdo, the satirical weekly.
The 14, all members of a now-banned Islamist group called Forsane Alizza ("The Knights of Pride" in Arabic), are charged with "criminal conspiracy related to a terrorist enterprise". Some also face charges of illegal possession of weapons. All face prison terms of ten years if found guilty.
The group was dismantled amid a crackdown on radicals shortly after a 2012 killing spree in southern France by Mohamed Merah, who attacked a Jewish school and soldiers, killing seven people before being gunned down by police.
The “hit list” was found during a March 2012 raid on the home of group leader Mohamed Achamlane, 37, in which they also seized an English-language manual on how to build a nuclear bomb, along with three demilitarised assault rifles, three revolvers and “easy recipes” for home-made explosives.
On Achamlane’s hard disk, investigators found a file called “target.txt”, containing the names of ten Jewish stories, five of which belonged to Hyper Cacher.
Sarkozy: There Are Schools in France Where You Cannot Teach the Holocaust
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy told an audience in Israel on Monday that there exist schools in France where teachers cannot teach about the Holocaust.
“It’s true there are schools [in France] where you cannot teach the Holocaust,” Sarkozy said during an open discussion at the 15th Annual Herzliya Conference, according to a journalist from French BFM TV.
French law prohibits Holocaust denial in the classroom.
The former French president, who left office in 2012 after losing to current President Francois Hollande, apparently insisted three times during his 45 minutes of discussion that France is not an antisemitic country.
Recent reports have indicated that as many as three antisemitic attacks are committed against Jews in the country every day. The number of French Jews undergoing the immigration process to Israel doubled in 2014 compared to the year before.
On the Arab theft of Judeo-Palestinian heritage: Chutzpah or Hasāfah?
The Arabs themselves don’t really believe in a State of Palestine. Their only interest is abolishing the sizable Jewish presence between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River...
While it is entirely understandable that the Yishuv chose the name Israel for their state, it has had unfortunate and unforeseen consequences. By rejecting the labels Palestine and Palestinian, the Jews cut themselves off from their own history and identity, and bequeathed both the name and history of Palestine to their Arab enemies. So we are now in a situation where the indigenous people of Palestine call themselves Israelis and the people who flocked from all over the Ottoman and Arab world call themselves Palestinians. What’s worse is the fact that the latter now claim to have been the indigenous people of Palestine all along – and the world believes it.
It is time to remind the world that the Jews are the true Palestinians. Why else would there be a Palestinian Talmud or a newspaper called The Palestine Post (now The Jerusalem Post). Why, until the creation of Israel, were the Jews known as Palestinians? Why did Immanuel Kant refer to Jews in Europe as “the Palestinians living among us”? Why did pro-Yishuv campaigners in the early 20th century produce posters calling for “Jews of America to register as a member of the Zionist Organisation of America” for “the freedom of Palestine”? Why did the 1939 flag of Palestine have a Star of David on it? Why did Frank Sinatra appear at a benefit concert for the Zionist cause at the Hollywood Bowl in 1947 entitled “Action for Palestine”? These are questions that cannot be easily answered by the people posing as today’s Palestinians.
All things considered, the people who fraudulently claim to be Palestinians have done rather well. Having been on the losing side in various wars and having sided with the Nazis during the 1930s and 1940s, the Arabic-speaking Palestinians have managed to appropriate a sizeable chunk of Jewish-Palestinian heritage, have received billions of dollars in aid, are able to make huge demands on Israeli, EU and US policymakers, have been offered a state of their own on several occasions, and are a cause celebre on the Left and in the liberal media.
I’m tempted to use the wonderful Jewish word chutzpah to describe the audacity of the Arab-Palestinians. But the Arabic cognate of the same word (ḥasāfah) does not mean “brazen nerve” but rather “sound judgement.” And I suppose the theft of the name and heritage of Palestine has indeed proved to be very sound judgement for the Arabs who, if nothing else, seem to be winning the propaganda war against the Israelis.
Why is there no BDS against China for its Occupation of Tibet?
This is what US President Barack Obama said when the Dalai Lama visited the White House in February 2014...
"The President reiterated his strong support for the preservation of Tibet’s unique religious, cultural, and linguistic traditions and the protection of human rights for Tibetans in the People’s Republic of China....In this context, the President reiterated the U.S. position that Tibet is part of the People’s Republic of China and that the United States does not support Tibet independence...."
Note the difference in tone when the president speaks of the Palestinian Arab bid for independent statehood:
"The Palestinians deserve to be free in their own land."
"The status quo in Palestine is unsustainable."
Why has President Obama never made similar statements about Tibet?
In his 5 point peace plan the Dalai Lama called to stop Chinese colonization of Tibet.
NGO Monitor: Report Fills Gaps in UN´s Investigation of Gaza Conflict
Jerusalem - In parallel to the forthcoming report of the UN Human Rights Council's Commission of Inquiry on Gaza, NGO Monitor and UN Watch have prepared an independent, fully-sourced, systematic, and detailed book on issues related to the 2014 Israel-Hamas conflict. This publication, submitted to the Human Rights Council and all UN member states, provides missing context and covers issues that are likely to be minimized or ignored altogether in the report of the Gaza Commission of Inquiry, but that are critical to understanding and analyzing the 2014 war.
"Like previous UNHRC missions examining Israeli military actions, such as the Goldstone Commission, the report to be issued in a few weeks will likely employ a skewed narrative and heavily rely on unverified claims provided by a group of political advocacy NGOs," said Anne Herzberg, NGO Monitor's legal advisor. "Many of these groups are active in BDS campaigns."
UN Watch and NGO Monitor's 215-page book, Filling in the Blanks: Documenting Missing Dimensions in UN and NGO "Investigations" of the Gaza Conflict (PDF), focuses on some of the central dimensions related to international humanitarian law and human rights that are essential to understanding the context and combat in asymmetrical war. These issues include the production and import of rockets and missiles to terrorist organizations based in Gaza and the financing of Hamas in violation of international law; evidence regarding the abuse of humanitarian aid provided by different sources to Gaza and Hamas; and the credibility of reports and allegations from NGOs regarding the 2014 conflict.
Both Israel and Hamas Won’t Be Included on UN Children’s Rights Blacklist
United Nations has decided to leave both Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas off the list of countries and organizations that harm children, despite a recommendation by a U.N. official.
Nevertheless, in a report, Ban urged Israel “to take concrete and immediate steps, including by reviewing existing policies and practices, to protect children, to prevent the killing and maiming of children, and to respect the special protections afforded to schools and hospitals.”
In a report issued last month, the U.N. special representative of the secretary-general for children and armed conflict, Leila Zerrougui, recommended the blacklisting of the Israel Defense Forces for allegedly regularly causing harm to children. The designation would have placed the IDF in the same group as terrorist organizations such as Islamic State, Boko Haram, and the Taliban.
At the time, the Israeli Foreign Ministry called out the world body for hypocrisy.
Palestinian children parade with toy machine guns
Children in a kindergarten run by a Palestinian charitable organization recently held a graduation ceremony in which preschoolers wore military uniforms and brandished toy machine guns as they performed a parade routine to a song vowing violence against enemies, a media watchdog group said.
The ceremony was filmed by a television station affiliated with the Palestinian Authority and posted on the internet last week, according to the US-based group MEMRI, which translated and posted the clip on Monday.
The kindergarten is in Anabta, in the Tulkarm area of the West Bank, and belongs to the Anabta women’s charity association, MEMRI reported.
A large photograph of the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat was on the stage where the children performed.
The room was festively decorated, and the performance was watched by what appeared to be several dozen adults.
EU official to Israel: Don’t demolish unauthorized Palestinian village
The European Union on Monday called on Israel not to demolish the illegal West Bank Palestinian village of Sussiya, whose tents and shacks in the South Hebron Hills are home to some 340 people.
“On behalf of the EU, I call on the government of Israel to reverse its plans to carry out demolitions here in Sussiya,” its representative to the Palestinian territories, John Gatt-Rutter, said on Monday.
As part of a stepped-up campaign by the EU and the Palestinian Authority against such IDF demolitions, Gatt-Rutter visited the village in the morning, along with PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, under the watchful eye of the IDF, which was stationed just outside.
“Sussiya has become a byword for policies that deprive the Palestinians of their land and their resources,” Gatt-Rutter said.
He and Hamdallah sat by a plastic folding table under a tent, to speak with villagers and representatives from 23 of the 28 EU countries, all of which have representative offices that handle relations with the Palestinian territories.
Orange Operates in Other Disputed Areas, But Condemns Only Jews
French Ambassador to the US Gerard Araud later defended the move on Twitter as a means of upholding the Fourth Geneva Convention, which called Israel's presence in the regions liberated in 1967 "illegal" and added that it is "illegal to contribute in any way" to the "occupation" or these territories.
But an in-depth investigation launched after the public fallout between Stephane Richard, the Israeli company Partner, and most of the Israeli public and political system, reveals that Orange - which is partially owned by the French government - regularly operates in other zones of political conflict without as much as a peep of protest.
The Kohelet Policy Forum, which studies the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, revealed in a report published on Army Radio Tuesday that Orange operates in numerous zones of international conflict.
For example, a simple survey of the company website reveals that it operates, among other places, in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, a disputed territory between Azerbaijan and Armenia which is formally part of Azerbaijan; and in Tuva and Kutuzov Island, two areas of dispute between Russia and China since the 1980s.
Several European companies that are at least partially state-funded operate in Western Sahara and disputed areas of Cyprus as well.
"France, like many other states, says that when there is an occupied territory or territory with settlers - other countries cannot do business there, it's against international law," Professor Eugene Kontorovich of the Forum stated. When it comes to Israel they say - 'It's not because we do not like you, it's because it's against international law' - but when we examine their behavior in other areas that meet this description, we see no reference to international law in general."
Major Jewish Group Lashes French Ambassador for Apparent Endorsement of Israel Boycott
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations called on the French ambassador to the United States to retract comments the group said “appear to be an attempt to support discriminatory actions against Israel.”
“In response to statements by the CEO of the French telecom company, Orange, regarding his company’s business in Israel, France’s Ambassador to the United States, Gerard Araud, tweeted messages seemingly justifying a boycott of Israel by raising extraneous issues regarding the status of the West Bank territories,” said the conference.
“It is as inappropriate as it is inexplicable, why the French Ambassador would make comments that seem to endorse the Orange executive’s unacceptable comments,” Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Stephen Greenberg, and Executive Vice Chairman Malcolm Hoenlein, continued.
“We believe the Ambassador must immediately and publicly retract his comments,” the Jewish leaders said.
Orange’s Decision To Boycott Israel Started With The New Israel Fund
On June 3, 2015, the CEO of the French telecom giant Orange, Stephane Richard announced that he would like to terminate the company’s ties with Partner Communications, Orange’s affiliate in Israel, reportedly due to Partner’s operations in the "settlements" over the Green Line.
While he will now apparently visit Israel to provide clarity to his comments, his intentions are clear. What prompted these statements? Several NGOs that lead the boycott against Israel in Europe, including the Israeli organization “Who Profits from the Occupation?” issued a report in France intended to pressure Orange.
Who Profits accused Partner (the Orange Brand partner in Israel), of aiding war efforts during Operation Protective Edge, participating in the Adopt a Soldier project, and offering discounted service rates to IDF soldiers.
"Who Profits from the Occupation?" is a project launched in 2006 by Coalition of Women for Peace, an organization which has received funding from the New Israel Fund.
France’s Sarkozy comes out against Israel boycott
Those who disagree with Israel’s policies need to find other ways to protest than by boycotting it, believes former French president Nicholas Sarkozy.
“The boycott of Israel is unacceptable,” Sarkozy told reporters in Jerusalem. “This is not the way France intends to conduct itself.”
And after hearing about what Israeli technology can do for France, Sarkozy quickly shifted his attention from the mechanics of not doing business with Israel to the many technologies Israel has developed – specifically cybersecurity tech, one of the strongest high-tech industries in the country. Impressed by the breadth and strength of Israeli cyber-protection systems in place, as well as those under development, Sarkozy had just one question for his hosts at the offices of Jerusalem Venture Partners on a visit Monday: How, asked Sarkozy, “did Israel become the Start-Up Nation?”
It was a fair question to ask at JVP, one of the world’s most successful venture capital firms (as measured by industry experts Preqin). Over the past two decades, JVP has raised over a billion dollars and invested in over 120 companies — with 28 of them having a successful exit, among them the recent IPO of CyberArk, and the acquisition earlier this year of CyActive by PayPal.
Lord Sacks: BDS makes it ‘almost impossible’ for Europe’s Jews to support Israel
The moral critique of Israel on human rights, embodied in the global boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, has managed to divide the Jewish public in the US and Europe, the former chief rabbi of the United Kingdom said on Monday.
Speaking at a roundtable discussion titled “Islam and BDS in Europe: a strategic threat?” at the Herzliya Conference, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks said that unlike previous anti-Semitic attempts to target Israel, the global BDS campaign has partially succeeded in its goals.
“Israel was always a uniting factor in Jewish life; it has become a divisive factor,” Sacks told the audience.
Modeled after the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, the global BDS campaign launched in July 2005 is aimed at amassing economic and political pressure on Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians. The goals of BDS actors are diverse, however, ranging from a call to end Israeli occupation of the West Bank to the elimination of Israel altogether.
Today, the BDS movement has made it “almost impossible” for Jews living in Europe to support Israel, Sacks argued. “Jews have been faced with a choice: live in Europe and criticize Israel or be silent, or leave Europe,” he said.
JPost Editorial: Beating BDS
On one level that means making sure the facts about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are known. But it also means going on the offensive. Governments that provide funding for activities and NGOs that actively seek to delegitimize Israel should be publicly criticized. Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely did precisely that when she demanded that the Swiss government stop using its country’s taxpayers’ money to fund organizations like Breaking the Silence.
A number of Swiss lawmakers have since called the funding of Breaking the Silence a “scandal” and a “misuse of tax money.” A similar appeal should be made to Britain, which also provides taxpayers’ money to NGOs with political agendas to bash Israel.
Meanwhile, the US Congress is currently debating a bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority law, that would make US free-trade agreements with the EU conditional upon stopping politically motivated BDS activities against Israel.
This sort of legislation should be supported. The same principles were successfully negotiated into US free-trade agreements with Bahrain and Oman in the mid-2000’s, prompting both countries to end their boycott of Israel.
BDS activists are seeking to delegitimize a state that would have long ago made peace if its overtures had been reciprocated.
Diplomats: EU has Israel sanctions ready, and Uncle Sam may not be able to help
Israel wishes to delay the signing of a nuclear deal between world powers and Iran, but not solely because such an agreement would be dangerous to the Jewish State.
The concern is that immediately following such an agreement, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will become the UN Security Council's and European Union's top priority, and the international community will be freed up to deal with the party it sees as responsible for the stagnation in the peace process - Israel.
This is the widely-held assumption in off-the-record conversations among diplomatic sources in New York and in Washington. "A diplomatic attack against Israel is expected soon that will surprise even the pessimists in Jerusalem," a senior Western diplomat told The Jerusalem Post's Hebrew-language sister publication, Ma'ariv. "In the Security Council, in western capitals and at EU headquarters, they are just waiting for the Iran deal to be signed and for it to be approved by the American Congress."
The estimate is that the forced period of waiting will end in September. Then, as the UN General Assembly opens, the signal will be given to start the diplomatic attack against Israel.
Diplomatic sources involved in the western European capitals' handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict say that the EU has already prepared documents which list a number of sanctions that will be levied against Israel in the fields of trade, agriculture, science and culture if Jerusalem does not soon present a diplomatic initiative that leads to a meaningful breakthrough toward a solution to the conflict.
Dershowitz: BDS movement targets Israel but ignores human rights offenses worldwide
Citing a litany of nations across the globe guilty of egregious human rights offenses that have not been subjected to international boycotts, renowned jurist Alan Dershowitz lambasted the BDS movement at a B’nai B’rith International ceremony honoring Israeli journalists Monday night.
“Whenever I debate BDS, I always throw out the following challenge to my students all over the world,” Dershowitz told International Jerusalem Post editor Liat Collins in an on-stage interview at Jerusalem’s Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.
“Name a single country in the history of the world faced with internal and external threats comparable to those faced by Israel that has ever had a better record in human rights; a better record with compliance of the rule of law; a better record of concern for civilians?
“I have been asking that question now for 20 years probably to a million people around the world, and I’ve never gotten a single person even to stand up and name a country, because you can’t do it.”
Moreover, Dershowitz argued that the issue is not about BDS in itself, but rather “the singularity of directing that sanction against the most democratic state in the Middle East – one of the most democratic states in the world.”
Targeted for West Bank factory, Ahava cosmetics may open in south
The Ahava Dead Sea minerals cosmetics company, under pressure for operating in the West Bank, is considering opening a manufacturing plant inside Israel’s pre-1967 borders.
The company, owned by Kibbutz Mitzpe Shalem, located about one mile from the Dead Sea in the eastern West Bank, is considering opening a new production plant in the Tamar Regional Council to the south, the Israeli business daily Globes reported Monday citing unnamed sources.
The company, a target of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement for operating in the West Bank, framed the potential move as due to changing needs, not politics.
“In light of expanding production needs and changes in regulations for cosmetic products in some Western nations, Ahava is indeed examining the possibility of opening an additional factory. One of the possibilities is the Tamar Regional Council. Other possibilities are also being looked into. As of now there is no final decision,” the company said in a statement.
British film-makers demand cancellation of Israeli film festival
British film-makers demanded in a letter published by The Guardian Monday that cinema chains across the United Kingdom drop screenings for an Israeli film festival scheduled to open this week.
Seret 2015, the London-Israeli film and television festival, is due to open with a gala screening at the Bafta cinema on Thursday. Screenings are also slated at cinemas including Curzon Soho and Odeon Swiss Cottage in London, according to The Guardian.
Over forty artist and film-makers conveyed their disappointment in a letter sent to The Guardian, stating, “By hosting (the festival), these cinemas are ignoring the 2004 call by Palestinian civil society for sanctions against Israel until Israel abides by international law and ends its illegal displacement of Palestinians, discrimination against them, and occupation of their land.”
The letter goes on to say that because the films are funded by the Israeli government via its London embassy, the cinemas are tacitly complacent in Israeli government policy.
UK theaters refuse call to boycott Israel film fest
A large British movie theater chain rejected on Monday a demand by prominent filmmakers that it refuse to host an Israeli film festival slated to start this Thursday.
In an open letter in the British daily The Guardian, the filmmakers had urged Curzon Cinemas, Odeon Cinemas and the Bafta Theatre to drop their plans to host screenings of films from Seret 2015: The London Israeli Film and Television Festival because the event was receiving funding from the Israeli government.
Curzon Cinemas rejected the accusation that it was expressing a political position by hosting the festival.
“Curzon Cinemas hosts many festivals throughout the year, including the Human Rights Watch film festival, the London film festival and festivals representing regions from around the world including the Kinoteka Polish film festival, the Romanian film festival and many more,” said a company statement quoted by the Guardian.
“We have not previously considered asking questions about the funding of a festival booked at one of our cinemas, and we do not consider booking a festival as any kind of political comment,” the statement continued.
Brazilian University Targeted Israeli Students and Faculty at Behest of Pro-Palestinian Groups
An administrator at Federal University of Santa Maria in Brazil sent out an urgent request for information on all Israeli students and faculty members at the institution, the Inside Higher Ed reported today.
The university said it was gathering information to comply with Brazil’s version of a public records request — in this case from pro-Palestinian groups on campus. The idea that such information might be released to those groups has raised alarm in Israel and among Jewish groups in Brazil. Many have expressed fears that Israelis at the university could be harassed, and questioned why a university should be releasing such information about its foreign students.
The Federal University of Santa Maria has confirmed that one of its administrators did send out the memo, and that officials believed this action was required by Brazilian law to comply with the request from campus groups promoting the Palestinian cause.
But while the document, which has been published in the Brazilian press, is real, it featured a stamp that the university says is a forgery (at least as part of the university memo). The stamp says: “Freedom for Palestine, Boycott Israel.” Some of the original outrage over the request was based in part on the stamp. But even with the university disavowing the stamp, Israeli officials and others are reacting with anger to any activity that would assemble and potentially release lists of Israelis.
Honest Reporting: Benefits, Boycotts, and Bedouin
Listen to Yarden Frankl on the Voice of Israel
Is Israel forcing Bedouins off their land, or is there more to the story? The CEO of Orange telecom says he was unaware of the movement to boycott Israel. A Rand study concludes peace would be financially beneficial to Israel and the Palestinians. Plus, Jewish graves on the Mount of Olives were vandalized, but where’s the media coverage? Yarden Frankl joins VOI’s Josh Hasten to discuss this week’s media coverage of Israel.
BBC News website does ‘one man’s terrorist’
Imagine for a moment that the BBC News website published an article illustrated with a photograph bearing the following caption:
‘Scientists say the earth is approximately 4.54 billion years old but others say it was created between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago.’
Unless the body of the article included critical fact-based analysis of those two conflicting claims, we would be unlikely to consider the promotion of such a statement consistent with the requirements of the BBC’s constitutional basis, the Royal Charter, according to which it is required to deliver six public purposes which include “promoting education and learning” and to “build a global understanding of international issues“.
In the world of Middle East politics, however, the BBC permits itself the culturally relative indulgence of promoting statements such as the following – in this case in the form of a caption to an image used to illustrate an article titled “Egypt court overturns Hamas terror blacklisting” which appeared on the BBC News website’s Middle East page on June 6th.
“Hamas is designated a terrorist group by many nations, but to its supporters it is a resistance movement”.
Nuclear-neutered flies head to Balkans
Israelis heading to the Adriatic for a vacation in the next few months may be sharing their flight with some unexpected travelers: millions of sterile flies who are primed to go into battle against the Mediterranean fruit fly, a pest that has been wreaking havoc on citrus groves in Balkan countries.
The company growing the sterilized flies, BioBee from Sde Eliyahu in the Jordan Valley, specializes in developing natural and bio-friendly pesticides. It recently won a tender by the International Atomic Energy Agency to supply 400 million sterile flies, following a successful project conducted last year.
The sterile flies will be dispersed over a period of several months in citrus groves along the border of Croatia and Bosnia, and they are expected to push the harmful flies away from the groves, thus helping European farmers complete the season successfully.
The fly worms were raised in BioBee labs and underwent special sterilization in the factory’s radioactive facility, operating under the supervision of the Israeli Commission on Atomic Energy. They will be flown to Eastern Europe in a pupal stage and will only develop into flies when they reach their destination. (h/t Elder of Lobby)
New Israeli cyber-security technique: Daze and confuse hackers
The best way to beat hackers is to let them chase their own tail – by letting them mine phony data that ends up leading nowhere, said a cyber security executive.
“Statistically, we have found that our system of deceptive attack points catches almost all hackers who try to mine a system for information,” said Shlomo Touboul, the CEO of new Israeli cyber-security firm Illusive. “The fake attack vectors lead them in the wrong direction, keeping them busy with nonsense information. Meanwhile, the security department can gather information on them, including where the attack is originating from, and how it is being carried out.”
More than a “honeypot” – a trap set for hackers on a system – Illusive is a new paradigm of cyber-security tech, in which an invisible (to users) layer of security is overlaid on a system, set up especially for hackers who are able to breach traditional defenses, said the company.
Google co-founder Eric Schmidt is an investor in Team8, a unique accelerator/venture capital firm/incubator that takes Israeli cyber-security technology, develops it and gets it ready for the market, and then sends the newly formed company out for an exit.
Bon Jovi to perform in Israel: #BDSFail #BritishMediaFail
Last year we commented on a story in The Independent written by their Jerusalem correspondent Alistair Dawber on the cancellation of a previously scheduled performance in Israel by Eric Burdon (frontman for The Animals) due, according to his manager, to death threats Burdon received from BDS activists.
The Indy report included this passage:
“The issue of artists giving performances in Israel is controversial. In recent years, Jon Bon Jovi and the South African band Ladysmith Black Mambazo have cancelled concerts in support of the BDS – or Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions – movement.
So, it is true that Jon Bon Jovi cancelled concerts in Israel due to BDS?
In our post, we explained:
Aussie Dave [at Israellycool] posted a video of Bon Jovi being interviewed on the BBC earlier this year, prior to a live performance on BBC Radio, which includes a comment that contradicts claims of the boycott proponents. We’ve cut the longer video down to the 20 seconds relevant to the question at hand.
Bon Jovi confirms October 3 concert
Hard rock band Bon Jovi will perform in Israel Saturday night, October 3, ending a 13-country tour in Tel Aviv.
“It’s been half a year of work and a lot of cooperation to make this happy,” said Shay Mor Yosef of the Bluestone promotion group. “These are artists who have traveled throughout the world, and to announce Bon Jovi is historic and exciting.”
“This is one of the big ones,” added Mor Yosef.
The hard rock band, which was formed in 1983 in New Jersey, the hometown of frontman Jon Bon Jovi, has sold more than 100 million albums and performed over 2,500 live concerts.
The band has had a string of hits, including “Livin’ on a Prayer,” “You Give Love a Bad Name,” and “It’s My Life.”
Israel in ‘Top 5 Happiest Countries in the World’
Israel is one of the Top 5 Happiest Countries in the World, according to a new Better Life Index report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
“Israelis are more satisfied with their lives than the OECD average. When asked to rate their general satisfaction with life on a scale from 0 to 10,Israelis gave it a 7.4 grade, higher than the OECD average of 6.6,” reads the report.
Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland and Finland took the top four spots in global happiness. The United States did not crack the top 10 for the fifth consecutive year.
The OECD survey rates the 34 OECD member nations, as well as Brazil and the Russian Federation, on 22 variables — including income, education, housing, health, life expectancy, community and life satisfaction.
Israel regularly ranks high on ‘happiness’ surveys despite the image many people outside the country hold about this place.