Third Day in Haifa

So wonderful to be in Haifa on Shabbat - I had the opportunity to go down to Zamir Beach and watch all the spirited beautiful circle dancing on the beach. The Israelis have so much "ruach" and zest for life in spite of all the difficulties they face on a daily basis. The hospitality of the people here is overwhelming- they invite us into their homes to share Shabbat dinners and today being "TuBishvat" makes this a very special Shabbat. Tonite we will be participating in a TuBishvat" seder!

Arrival in Haifa

Arrived in the beautiful port of Haifa today- so feels like a second home to me- friends waiting to greet me outside the Dan Panorama Hotel which sits at the top of Carmel. Looking out from my bedroom I watch the sunsetting over the Mediterranean and feel so blessed to be here. More to come!

Spanish Journalist Article about Media and Israel

NOT EVERY LEFT WINGER IS ANTI-ISRAEL
Pilar Rahola



Pilar Rahola is a Spanish politician, journalist and activist and member of the far left. Her articles are published in Spain and throughout some of the most important newspapers in Latin America.

Why don't we see demonstrations against Islamic dictatorships in London, Paris, Barcelona?

Or demonstrations against the Burmese dictatorship?

Why aren't there demonstrations against the enslavement of millions of women who live without any legal protection?

Why aren't there demonstrations against the use of children as human bombs where there is conflict with Islam?

Why has there been no leadership in support of the victims of Islamic dictatorship in Sudan?

Why is there never any outrage against the acts of terrorism committed against Israel?

Why is there no outcry by the European left against Islamic fanaticism?

Why don't they defend Israel's right to exist?

Why confuse support of the Palestinian cause with the defense of Palestinian terrorism?

An finally, the million dollar question:Why is the left in Europe and around the world obsessed with the two most solid democracies, the United States and Israel, and not with the worst dictatorships on the planet? The two most solid democracies, who have suffered the bloodiest attacks of terrorism, and the left doesn't care.

And then, to the concept of freedom. In every pro Palestinian European forum I hear the left yelling with fervor: "We want freedom for the people!"

Not true. They are never concerned with freedom for the people of Syria or Yemen or Iran or Sudan, or other such nations. And they are never preoccupied when Hammas destroys freedom for the Palestinians. They are only concerned with using the concept of Palestinian freedom as a weapon against Israeli freedom. The resulting consequence of these ideological pathologies is the manipulation of the press.

The international press does major damage when reporting on the question of the Israeli-Palestinian issue. On this topic they don't inform, they propagandize.

When reporting about Israel the majority of journalists forget the reporter code of ethics. And so, any Israeli act of self-defense becomes a massacre, and any confrontation, genocide. So many stupid things have been written about Israel, that there aren't any accusations left to level against her.

At the same time, this press never discusses Syrian and Iranian interference in propagating violence against Israel; the indoctrination of children and the corruption of the Palestinians. And when reporting about victims, every Palestinian casualty is reported as tragedy and every Israeli victim is camouflaged, hidden or reported about with disdain.

And let me add on the topic of the Spanish left. Many are the examples that illustrate the anti-Americanism and anti-Israeli sentiments that define the Spanish left. For example, one of the leftist parties in Spain has just expelled one of its members for creating a pro-Israel website. I quote from the expulsion document: "Our friends are the people of Iran, Libya and Venezuela, oppressed by imperialism, and not a Nazi state like Israel."

In another example, the socialist mayor of Campozuelos changed Shoah Day, commemorating the victims of the Holocaust, with Palestinian Nabka Day, which mourns the establishment of the State of Israel, thus showing contempt for the six million European Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

Or in my native city of Barcelona, the city council decided to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel, by having a week of solidarity with the Palestinian people. Thus, they invited Leila Khaled, a noted terrorist from the 70's and current leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist organization so described by the European Union, which promotes the use of bombs against Israel.

This politically correct way of thinking has even polluted the speeches of president Zapatero. His foreign policy falls within the lunatic left, and on issues of the Middle East he is unequivocally pro Arab. I can assure you that in private, Zapatero places on Israel the blame for the conflict in the Middle East, and the policies of foreign minister Moratinos reflect this. The fact that Zapatero chose to wear a kafiah in the midst of the Lebanon conflict is no coincidence; it's a symbol.

Spain has suffered the worst terrorist attack in Europe and it is in the crosshairs of every Islamic terrorist organization. As I wrote before, they kill us with cell phones hooked to satellites connected to the Middle Ages. An yet the Spanish left is the most anti Israeli in the world.

And then it says it is anti Israeli because of solidarity. This is the madness I want to denounce in this conference.

Conclusion:

I am not Jewish. Ideologically I am left and by profession a journalist. Why am I not anti Israeli like my colleagues? Because as a non-Jew I have the historical responsibility to fight against Jewish hatred and currently against the hatred for their historic homeland, Israel. To fight against anti-Semitism is not the duty of the Jews, it is the duty of the non-Jews.

As a journalist it is my duty to search for the truth beyond prejudice, lies and manipulations. The truth about Israel is not told. As a person from the left who loves progress, I am obligated to defend liberty, culture, civic education for children, coexistence and the laws that the Tablets of the Covenant made into universal principles.

Principles that Islamic fundamentalism systematically destroys. That is to say that as a non-Jew, journalist and lefty I have a triple moral duty with Israel, because if Israel is destroyed, liberty, modernity and culture will be destroyed too.

The struggle of Israel, even if the world doesn't want to accept it, is the struggle of the world.

Media Coverage of Israel's Aid to Haiti

Israel: Bringing Hope Amidst Haiti's Rubble
Some of the positive stories emerging from Israel's remarkable aid effort.



Many of you have asked for sources of information on Israel's role in aiding the victims of Haiti's devastating earthquake. While Israel is one of many nations operating in Haiti, the IDF's field hospital and search and rescue team have caught the attention of some media outlets. Here are just some of the positive stories emerging from Haiti's tragedy:

Fox News (17Jan): Israeli doctors in Haiti
Sky News (17 Jan): Sky reporter spends a day in the rubble with Israeli rescue team
IBA News (17 Jan): Israeli rescue team in Haiti
LA Times (17 Jan): Israel: Sending soldiers of peace to Haiti
CBS News (18 Jan): Israeli IDF hospital the "Rolls Royce" of medicine in Haiti
ABC News (18 Jan): Miracle birth amid Haiti's rubble
WABC News (18 Jan): Brother of Queens NY resident rescued from rubble by Israeli rescue team
U.N. MINUSTAH (Jan 18): Haiti: Israeli field hospital working around the clock
CNN report (18 Jan): Patients desperate for better medical care

Israel's Contributions to Haiti Disaster

ISRAEL' DISPROPORTIONATE RESPONSE

Many countries and world leaders have accused Israel of responding disproportionately to aggression from Hizballah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
However, it is time that the world press and media speak of another disproportionate response from Israel.

The terrible disastrous earthquake in Haiti has generated responses from many nations. The US has sent supplies and personnel, Britain sent 64 firemen and 8 volunteers, France sent troops for Search and Rescue. Many large and wealthy nations of the world sent money. The Arab and Moslem world nothing.

Israel, a nation of 7.5 million people has sent a team of 220 people that include Medical personnel and will establish the largest field hospital in Haiti, treating up to 5000 people a day, an experienced Search and Rescue team and medical supplies. As in previous earthquake disasters, such as in Gujarat India in 2001 and in Turkey, in the bombings in Kenya, Israel has been one of the most generous givers of aid and assistance

Turkey seems to have forgotten this help as its extreme Moslem Government is cozying up to Iran.

Judge Goldstone, where are you now? Eating your heart out and hanging your head down in shame I hope.

The favorite occupation in the UN is Israel bashing. More resolutions have been passed condemning Israel than all the so called democratic nations such as Sudan, China, Russia and others for their crimes against their minorities.
I think it is time that the world should know about Israel's disproportionate response.

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Israel's Help in Haiti Disaster -Contributed by Lawrence Siskind

As I imagine all of you are doing, I’ve been following the horrific news from Haiti. One aspect struck me as noteworthy, though I haven’t seen any mention of it in the mainstream media.



Israel has been particularly energetic in helping Haiti. Its Foreign Ministry just announced that Israel will send a delegation to establish a field hospital there. The hospital will include 40 doctors and 24 nurses, and is scheduled to leave Thursday evening. Capable of treating 500 patients, it will include an intensive care unit, two operating rooms, a pharmacy, and an X-ray lab. Search and rescue agents from the Homefront Command will also be sent. Diaspora Jewish groups are also rushing to get aid workers, supplies and money to the disaster zone. An advance five-member IDF-Foreign Ministry team left for Haiti on Wednesday, including experts in engineering, medicine, logistics and rescue operations from the IDF's Home Front Command. A team of four ZAKA volunteers (which is known for collecting body parts from terrorist bombing for proper burial), which was in Mexico to recover body parts of victims of a helicopter crash that killed Jewish businessman and philanthropist Moises Saba Masri and three of his family members, was now moving onto Haiti to help there. An Israeli coalition of humanitarian groups, IsraAID, is sending a 12-man search-and-rescue team, which includes emergency medical staff.



Last November, Haiti was one of 114 UN members to vote in favor of adopting the infamous Goldstone Report, condemning Israel for “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” for defending itself against rocket attacks from Gaza.



Apparently, Israel does not hold grudges.



(By the way, I haven’t noticed a single reference to any of Israel’s oil-rich neighbors sending a single volunteer or spending a single petro-dollar to help Haiti. I guess they’re too distracted by the Palestinian “refugee camps” which they’ve allowed to fester in their territory for the past 60 years.)





Lawrence J. Siskind

Harvey Siskind LLP

Four Embarcadero Center, 39th Floor

San Francisco, CA 94111

Tel: 415.354.0100

Fax: 415.391.7124

siskind@harveysiskind.com

NJDC Blog | NJDC

NJDC Blog | NJDC

Great Article by David Brooks in today's NY TImes

Op-Ed Columnist
The Tel Aviv Cluster

By DAVID BROOKS
Published: January 11, 2010
Jews are a famously accomplished group. They make up 0.2 percent of the world population, but 54 percent of the world chess champions, 27 percent of the Nobel physics laureates and 31 percent of the medicine laureates.

Jews make up 2 percent of the U.S. population, but 21 percent of the Ivy League student bodies, 26 percent of the Kennedy Center honorees, 37 percent of the Academy Award-winning directors, 38 percent of those on a recent Business Week list of leading philanthropists, 51 percent of the Pulitzer Prize winners for nonfiction.

In his book, “The Golden Age of Jewish Achievement,” Steven L. Pease lists some of the explanations people have given for this record of achievement. The Jewish faith encourages a belief in progress and personal accountability. It is learning-based, not rite-based.

Most Jews gave up or were forced to give up farming in the Middle Ages; their descendents have been living off of their wits ever since. They have often migrated, with a migrant’s ambition and drive. They have congregated around global crossroads and have benefited from the creative tension endemic in such places.

No single explanation can account for the record of Jewish achievement. The odd thing is that Israel has not traditionally been strongest where the Jews in the Diaspora were strongest. Instead of research and commerce, Israelis were forced to devote their energies to fighting and politics.

Milton Friedman used to joke that Israel disproved every Jewish stereotype. People used to think Jews were good cooks, good economic managers and bad soldiers; Israel proved them wrong.

But that has changed. Benjamin Netanyahu’s economic reforms, the arrival of a million Russian immigrants and the stagnation of the peace process have produced a historic shift. The most resourceful Israelis are going into technology and commerce, not politics. This has had a desultory effect on the nation’s public life, but an invigorating one on its economy.

Tel Aviv has become one of the world’s foremost entrepreneurial hot spots. Israel has more high-tech start-ups per capita than any other nation on earth, by far. It leads the world in civilian research-and-development spending per capita. It ranks second behind the U.S. in the number of companies listed on the Nasdaq. Israel, with seven million people, attracts as much venture capital as France and Germany combined.

As Dan Senor and Saul Singer write in “Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle,” Israel now has a classic innovation cluster, a place where tech obsessives work in close proximity and feed off each other’s ideas.

Because of the strength of the economy, Israel has weathered the global recession reasonably well. The government did not have to bail out its banks or set off an explosion in short-term spending. Instead, it used the crisis to solidify the economy’s long-term future by investing in research and development and infrastructure, raising some consumption taxes, promising to cut other taxes in the medium to long term. Analysts at Barclays write that Israel is “the strongest recovery story” in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Israel’s technological success is the fruition of the Zionist dream. The country was not founded so stray settlers could sit among thousands of angry Palestinians in Hebron. It was founded so Jews would have a safe place to come together and create things for the world.

This shift in the Israeli identity has long-term implications. Netanyahu preaches the optimistic view: that Israel will become the Hong Kong of the Middle East, with economic benefits spilling over into the Arab world. And, in fact, there are strands of evidence to support that view in places like the West Bank and Jordan.

But it’s more likely that Israel’s economic leap forward will widen the gap between it and its neighbors. All the countries in the region talk about encouraging innovation. Some oil-rich states spend billions trying to build science centers. But places like Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv are created by a confluence of cultural forces, not money. The surrounding nations do not have the tradition of free intellectual exchange and technical creativity.

For example, between 1980 and 2000, Egyptians registered 77 patents in the U.S. Saudis registered 171. Israelis registered 7,652.

The tech boom also creates a new vulnerability. As Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic has argued, these innovators are the most mobile people on earth. To destroy Israel’s economy, Iran doesn’t actually have to lob a nuclear weapon into the country. It just has to foment enough instability so the entrepreneurs decide they had better move to Palo Alto, where many of them already have contacts and homes. American Jews used to keep a foothold in Israel in case things got bad here. Now Israelis keep a foothold in the U.S.

During a decade of grim foreboding, Israel has become an astonishing success story, but also a highly mobile one.

Questionnaire by Yashiko Sagamori

An interesting questionnaire for Palestinian Advocates


By Yashiko Sagamori



If you are so sure that " Palestine , the country, goes back through most of recorded history," I expect you to be able to answer a few basic questions about that country of Palestine :


1. When was it founded and by whom?


2. What were its borders?


3. What was its capital?


4. What were its major cities?


5. What constituted the basis of its economy?


6. What was its form of government?


7. Can you name at least one Palestinian leader before Arafat?


8. Was Palestine ever recognized by a country whose existence, at that time or now, leaves no room for interpretation?


9. What was the language of the country of Palestine ?


10. What was the prevalent religion of the country of Palestine ?


11. What was the name of its currency? Choose any date in history and tell what was the approximate exchange rate of the Palestinian monetary unit against the US dollar, German mark, GB pound, Japanese yen, or Chinese yuan on that date.


12. And, finally, since there is no such country today, what caused its demise and when did it occur?


You are lamenting the "low sinking" of a "once proud" nation. Please tell me, when exactly was that "nation" proud and what was it so proud of?


And here is the least sarcastic question of all: If the people you mistakenly call "Palestinians" are anything but generic Arabs collected from all over -- or thrown out of -- the Arab world, if they really have a genuine ethnic identity that gives them right for self-determination, why did they never try to become independent until Arabs suffered their devastating defeat in the Six Day War?

I hope you avoid the temptation to trace the modern day "Palestinians" to the Biblical Philistines: substituting etymology for history won't work here.


The truth should be obvious to everyone who wants to know it. Arab countries have never abandoned the dream of destroying Israel ; they still cherish it today. Having time and again failed to achieve their evil goal with military means, they decided to fight Israel by proxy. For that purpose, they created a terrorist organization, cynically called it "the Palestinian people" and installed it in Gaza , Judea, and Samaria . How else can you explain the refusal by Jordan and Egypt to unconditionally accept back the "West Bank" and Gaza , respectively?


The fact is, Arabs populating Gaza, Judea, and Samaria have much less claim to nationhood than that Indian tribe that successfully emerged in Connecticut with the purpose of starting a tax-exempt casino: at least that tribe had a constructive goal that motivated them. The so-called "Palestinians" have only one motivation: the destruction of Israel , and in my book that is not sufficient to consider them a nation" -- or anything else except what they really are: a terrorist organization that will one day be dismantled.


In fact, there is only one way to achieve peace in the Middle East . Arab countries must acknowledge and accept their defeat in their war against Israel and, as the losing side should, pay Israel reparations for the more than 50 years of devastation they have visited on it. The most appropriate form of such reparations would be the removal of their terrorist organization from the land of Israel and accepting Israel 's ancient sovereignty over Gaza , Judea, and Samaria .


That will mark the end of the Palestinian people. What are you saying again was its beginning?















--

Interesting Article in Today's WSJ re: Chinese Companies Evading US Sanctions on Iran

From Today's Wall Street Journal
Text By PETER FRITSCH
Chinese companies banned from doing business in the U.S. for allegedly selling missile technology to Iran continue to do a brisk trade with American companies, according to an analysis of shipping records.

A unit of state-owned China Precision Machinery Import-Export Corp., for example, has made nearly 300 illegal shipments to U.S. firms since a ban was imposed on CPMIEC and its affiliates in mid-2006, according to an analysis of shipping records by the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, a nonprofit proliferation watchdog.

A Wall Street Journal review of the records and interviews with officials at some of the American companies indicate that the U.S. firms likely were unaware they were doing business with banned entities, and in many cases were tripped up by altered company names.

The CPMIEC shipments, worth millions of dollars, include everything from anchors and drilling equipment to automobile parts and toys. In many cases, CPMIEC acted as a shipping intermediary -- activity also banned under a 2006 presidential order.

The ability of CPMIEC and other foreign companies to continue doing business in the U.S. despite the sanctions comes as the Obama administration considers fresh economic sanctions against Iran. The illegal shipments suggest that U.S. sanctions have become so numerous and complex that they have become difficult to enforce.

More
Iran Plans Large-Scale War Games "We spend a lot of time convincing other countries that we need tighter sanctions on Iran when we need to better enforce our own laws already on the books," says Wisconsin Project director Gary Milhollin, a former consultant to the Pentagon on nuclear-proliferation matters.

Responsibility for enforcing sanctions falls to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, an office with 69 investigators and a 2009 budget of $29 million. OFAC is responsible for enforcing more than 20 sanctions programs targeting everything from nuclear proliferators and terror financiers to illegal imports of Cuban cigars.

OFAC hasn't fined any U.S. companies for trading with CPMIEC or other Chinese companies banned in 2006. In response to inquiries from the Journal, Treasury Department officials investigated CPMIEC and its subsidiaries further. On Thursday, OFAC added one CPMIEC unit to its list of banned companies.

"If we see U.S. companies that are knowingly engaging in transactions with a proliferation target or front company, or that those targets are attempting to circumvent U.S. sanctions, we pursue those cases aggressively," says OFAC Director Adam Szubin in an interview. Overall, he says, the sanctions program makes it difficult for nuclear proliferators to do business in the U.S.

New hand sanitizer deactivates swine flu | health

New hand sanitizer deactivates swine flu | health

Kudos to Israeli Female Scientist

ISRAELI WOMAN ACCEPTS NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY

In a formal but simple ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall last month, 70-year-old Weizmann Institute of Science Prof. Ada Yonath—a pioneer in the study of the key protein-producing ribosomes in all cells—became the first Israeli woman, and the ninth Israeli, to win a Nobel Prize, The Jerusalem Post reported. Before the ceremony, Yonath—one of five women to receive a Nobel this year and one of just 40 to do so in 108 years—said she hoped her award would encourage Israeli children, both girls and boys, to develop an interest in sciences in general and specifically chemistry. "There is a great feeling here," Yonath said. "There is a lot of pleasure in it. I have my entire family here, and this is a wonderful opportunity to spend time with them. I can't complain."

Reported in AIPAC news

Israel Killing "Activists" Not Terrorists
Headlines misrepresent IDF actions against terrorist murderers.



On 24 December, Israeli father-of-seven Meir Chai, 45, was murdered in a terror attack in the West Bank. This act of murder received scant coverage in the international media (irrespective of the timing during the holiday season). The Israeli response, however, which saw three terrorists responsible for the fatal attack killed in an IDF raid, generated some disgraceful headlines.

The Associated Press, whose content was reproduced in many international media outlets, led with:

3 Fatah Activists Killed in Israeli Raid
Why does the AP refer to "activists" and not terrorists? Even if the media is reluctant to call a terrorist by name, surely the use of the word "activist" is totally inaccurate, untruthful and simply downplays the nature of dangerous, armed and ideologically motivated murderers. There is a huge difference between "activism" and "terrorism".

Including the deaths of another three Palestinians, killed on the same day carrying out suspicious activity near the Gaza border fence, this New York Times headline was indicative of many media outlets' coverage:

Israeli Military Kills 6 Palestinians
Both the AP and NY Times failed to provide the relevant context in their headlines. The IDF did not set out to kill Palestinians for no reason. This operation was a direct response to a terror attack and was aimed at those who were directly responsible for the murder of an Israeli citizen.

In similar vein, the Daily Telegraph led with:

Six Palestinians shot dead in bloody Gaza anniversary
The newspaper's story referred to "three suspected militants". Yet, only a few lines later, the article states that Palestinian sources said two were members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. At what point does a "suspected militant" become a confirmed one?

Also interesting to note was the failure to publish the announcement that a ballistics analysis showed that weapons found in the house of one of the terrorists were those used in the murder of Meir Chai. This information was released by the IDF some hours before the Daily Telegraph's story was published yet was not included.

Regarding the other three Palestinians killed at the Gaza border fence, on December 28, the IDF detonated three explosive devices, discovered late Friday night, December 25, when four Palestinian suspects were identified crawling near the northern Gaza security fence in a suspected attempt to infiltrate Israel and carry out a terror attack. The explosives were found along with a rope ladder during searches that followed the incident, firmly supporting the suspicion that the infiltrators intended to cross into Israel and execute a terror attack.

The Observer, meanwhile, made a total mess of its coverage (see HonestReporting UK), including referring to the Israeli city of Modi'in as a "settlement", despite its location within the Green Line.

Please send your considered comments to any media outlets that reproduced the AP's headline - contact details for many media outlets can be found here.

Letters can also be sent to the New York Times - letters@nytimes.com - and the Daily Telegraph - dtletters@telegraph.co.uk - remembering to include a contact address and telephone number

Israel a leader in Global Technology

http://www.road90.com/watch.php?id=PeTgdgQZmH
worth watching to understand the importance of Israeli contributions to the world of technology