[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 09/21 Links: Dear Fellow Liberals: I'm Done Apologizing for Israel; Israeli pop. hits 8.9mil

From Ian:

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Dear Fellow Liberals: I'm Done Apologizing for Israel

As a liberal American Jew, I'm tired of apologizing for Israel's actions regarding its own security, and as of last month, I'm done with it. I'm done for the following two reasons: my eldest child, Sam, motivated by a desire to do something more meaningful than argue about religion, policy and politics, is currently serving as a lone soldier in the IDF, and he spent much of July in Gaza, as part of a team dismantling terror tunnels. In New Jersey, where the rest of his family lives, we didn't know, from one day to the next, if we'd ever see him again. The second reason is that Israel, despite its highly imperfect record (unlike that of, say, America or France or England or Pakistan or Kenya or Argentina…) is the world's sole guarantee against another frenzy of murderous hatred against my people, a hatred that is once again raising its voice, and fists, not only among the dispossessed Muslim residents of Europe, but, most especially, in the official organs of the chattering, and highly influential, classes—so much so that the off-hand remarks of my long-ago dinner companion seem almost reasonable.
Facts are such nifty things, so solid, so sure. Yet we as a species don't seem to cotton to them, especially when it comes to Jews.
In Pakistan, one human rights group estimates that 1,000 women are murdered in honor killings by their families every year. In Nigeria, Islamic militants have killed more than 1,500 people in 2014, according to Amnesty International. And the death toll from the slaughter in Syria—just spitting distance from Israel—adds up to a robust 191,000. But the world—or at least the world as personified by the British law professor with his fondness for exaggeration—doesn't pay a lot of attention to these Muslim but non-Palestinian corpses. Nope: you've got to be a dead person in Gaza or Hebron to claim the world's sympathy. Merely being an Arab, or a Muslim, doesn't cut the mustard, because when Muslims are murdering other Muslims—like more than 2,400 Iraqis killed by other Iraqis in June of this year. The civilized world, or at least the chattering classes, does little more than shrug.

Anatomy of a hanging

The show trial is underway and the guilty verdict is guaranteed, as a United Nations panel makes a pretense of investigating human rights violations in the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas.
To his severe discredit, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has sanctioned a proceeding whose transparent rigging would be at home in a totalitarian regime. Israel is, of course, the defendant going down the tubes.
Hamas started the conflict by firing thousands of rockets indiscriminately into the Jewish state from heavily populated areas of Gaza, and prolonged the suffering by violating ceasefire after ceasefire that Israel honored.
While each Hamas rocket was a war crime, too much of the world attacked Israel for retaliating in self-defense. Among those in that camp is the UN Human Rights Council, a body dominated by Israel's foes that has focused incessantly on Israel while turning a blind eye to abuses by the world's worst regimes.
With the end of hostilities, the Council empaneled a commission "to investigate all violations of international humanitarian law" during the war. But it dispatched the panel with marching orders to convict Israel.

UN Watch: UNHRC chair on Qatar: "I see no objection"

Mr. President,
No less than 78 out of the 84 country statements in this report offer praise for the human rights record of Qatar. That's over 90 percent.
Yet the truth, Mr. President, is the opposite.
Let us be clear:
The truth is that the 1.4 million migrant workers in Qatar object to this report because they are dying at the rate of one a day from inhuman conditions. At the current pace, more than 4,000 migrant workers will die to build the infrastructure for Qatar's 2022 World Cup.
The truth is that the women of Qatar object to this report because they are denied basic rights to equality, for example denied the right to be elected to the Shura legislative council.
The truth is that journalists and aid workers who are abducted by the ISIS terrorist group and face beheading object to this report. In the words of Germany's development aid minister, Gerd Mueller, from August 20th: "Who is financing these troops? Hint: Qatar."
The truth is that the Palestinians, Israelis and other victims of Hamas war crimes — their exploitation and targeting of civilian populations, mosques, hospitals and schools — object to this report. As one Arab diplomat said to the FDD, as quoted in its testimony before the U.S. Congress, "Qatar finances Hamas strongly."

Scandal of UN award to Palestinian group

Last week its peacekeeping force fled the Golan Heights and sought sanctuary in Israel, leaving ISIS and the Al Nusra Front in control of the Syrian buffer zone; its schools in Gaza were used to hide caches of Hamas missiles during last month's war with Israel; and now the UN has awarded a prestigious award to a Palestinian organization closely linked to a violent terrorist group.
The news that the UN's 2014 Equator Prize is to be awarded to the Palestinian Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) for its work in Gaza has been met with dismay by many in Israel as the UAWC is closely affiliated to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a violent terror organization that has committed a series of atrocities in Israel over the last four decades.
Racing against time, an appeal lodged by Shurat HaDin (Israel Law Center) has been sent to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, urging that the prize, due to be awarded as soon as Monday, September 22, be rescinded. Many in Israel view the UN as a joke – but this is surely one sick joke too far.

As UN Withdraws From Syria, Israel Concerned About Their Future (satire)

The UN has begun removing its forces from the Syrian/Israeli border, after separatist fighting in the area has gotten very close to UN bases and in some cases even targeted UN forces directly.
In a statement issued Tuesday night, UN chairman Ban Ki Moon explained: "Our forces are not intended to be used in combat situations – that's why we are called peacekeeping forces. Everybody knows our weapons are for show; hell, our tanks are painted white – only an idiot would think that'd serve as camouflage anywhere other than the arctic."
Several countries had already withdrawn their forces months ago, explaining that their soldiers "had not volunteered to give their lives for some random country, and had intended only to play soccer in exotic locations." The few countries that still have forces in the area, such as the Philippine peacekeeping forces, also plan on extracting their forces to safer locations. "Places that aren't as war-torn, but could still benefit from a good observation force," according to a Philippine spokesperson.

Danny Danon: Abbas is not the solution

Just a few short months ago Abbas made the fateful choice to reject negotiations with the State of Israel. At that time he formed instead a unity government with Hamas. With Hamas' refusal to accept the Quartet's principles, including recognition of Israel's right to exist and renunciation of violence, the government of Israel announced that it was ending all talks with the overtly terrorist-supported PA. Unless Hamas completely changes its raison d'être, allowing the PA to return to Gaza would merely mean that the Hamas members administering Gaza will be replaced with Hamas-appointed officials playing the same role.
Even if Abbas dissolves his partnership with Hamas and succeeds in retaining control of the PA, either by unilaterally extending his term in office again or by holding and winning new elections, it would not mean the end of Hamas rule in Gaza. What is to stop Hamas from overthrowing Abbas the day after he returns to Gaza? This is not only what Hamas did in Gaza in 2007; it is what Hamas was planning to do in Judea and Samaria all along, as our security forces discovered just last month.
As leaders we must be honest with constituents. Returning Abbas and his cohorts to Gaza will not resolve any problem or make the residents of Israel any safer. The terrorists will remain the de facto rulers of Gaza under such an arrangement and continue to threaten Israel. If anything, artificially installing a PA government in Gaza will likely limit Israel's ability to act militarily during the next inevitable flare-up down south. The international community has mistakenly labeled Abbas as a peace-seeking moderate and is unlikely to stand by if Israel were to conduct another military operation in Gaza under such circumstances.
I understand the need to find a silver lining in a bleak situation. It is a very human tendency to search for hope in dark times such as these. We must recognize, however, that Abbas is not a savior for the situation in Gaza. Only the military removal of the Hamas regime will bring about a chance for sustained security for the citizens of Israel. It may not be a utopian peace, but for the foreseeable future management of the conflict by Israel, Egypt and our other regional partners is the best possible solution for the predicament called Gaza.

J Street's Ben-Ami's Latest Assault on Israel

It should have surprised no observer of the Arab/Israeli conflict that when Israel decided to designate a thousand acres of land in the Gush Etzion section in the southern part of Jerusalem as state land, J Street's President Jeremy Ben-Ami would be quickly found among those rushing into print to condemn the action.
Among American progressives, there has always been more hand wringing about Dovid building a condominium than the Ayatollahs building a nuclear bomb.
Now, according to Ben-Ami, the future of peace in the Middle East is jeopardized by what he calls, in a Los Angeles Times editorial, the "seizure" of a thousand acres of land "near Bethlehem." Ben-Ami sees this action as so detrimental to the peace process and Israel's best interests— which he understands better the Israelis—that he unhesitatingly calls for the American government to put unrelenting pressure on the Israelis. This pressure would be directed not just at the recent land "seizure" but at Israel's entire settlement policy.
Ben-Ami's concern for the future of Israel would be far and away more credible if J Street had not funded the campaigns of all eleven members of congress who either abstained or voted against the resupply of the Iron Dome anti-missile system in the middle of the recent war in Gaza.
Money that Ben-Ami collects from George Soros, the mysterious Hong Kong businesswoman Ms. Consolacion Esdicul—apparently a Soros cutout—and a mixture of progressive and naïve American Jews works directly to impede Israel's ability to protect its civilian population from the death raining on it out of Gaza.

JCPA Hamas Policy after Operation "Protective Edge"

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal recently revealed Hamas' unfolding strategy in the wake of the Gaza war, particularly the use of the international system as an economic safety net after every terror offensive.
Hamas will use international legal instruments to participate in the Palestinians' delegitimization campaign that seeks ultimately to bring an end to the State of Israel.
Mashaal understands that the use of violence and terror does not incur punitive measures against Gaza by the international community. On the contrary, it is remunerated with generous economic aid for rehabilitation and development.
Hamas' real aim is to use the Palestinian national reconciliation to infiltrate the PLO and wrest control from within.

Israel, Hamas indirect talks scheduled for Cairo on Tuesday

Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas over an extended cease-fire agreement are expected to begin in Cairo on Tuesday, diplomatic officials in Jerusalem confirmed on Saturday night.
The Egyptian-mediated talks are set to start some 28 days after Operation Protective Edge ended on August 26.
That 50-day campaign ended with an unconditional ceasefire that was to be followed up by indirect talks in Cairo that were to start within a month and deal with the terms of a longer cease-fire.
While Israel will raise its demands to prevent the rearming of Hamas and for the eventual demilitarization of Gaza, Hamas will demand opening the crossings from the Strip into Egypt and Israel, the transfer of funds for salaries, and the building of an airport and seaport.

British MPs to vote on motion calling for Palestinian state

British MPs will have an unprecedented opportunity to vote on whether there should be a Palestinian state when the House of Commons resumes after its current party conference break on October 13.
A group of MPs from all major political parties, headed by Labor's Grahame Morris – including Conservative MP Crispin Blunt, Liberal Democrat Sir Bob Russell, and Green Party former leader Caroline Lucas – have secured a debate under a relatively new procedure for a full-scale, whole day's debate in the Commons chamber.
The motion reads: "This House believes that the government should recognize that state of Palestine alongside the State of Israel.'' With those proposing the motion appearing determined to push the issue to a vote, seasoned Westminster observers fear a vote in favor of immediate recognition of a Palestinian state could cause a substantial shift in public opinion and lead to added pressures on the government to change its current policy, which favors securing an agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians before considering granting Palestinians recognition.
The debate will offer the MPs the first-ever opportunity to vote on the vexed issue. As the topic for debate has been chosen by backbenchers, it is very unlikely party whips will order MPs to attend or advise them how to vote, so predicting any possible outcome is virtually impossible.

Labour candidate Vicki Kirby suspended for anti-Israel tweets

A Labour party candidate has been suspended after launching a tirade against Israel on social media, calling it "evil" and questioning why the Islamic State (Isis) hadn't yet attacked it.
According to the Sunday Times, Labour's candidate for Woking, Vicki Kirby, also said Hitler might be the "Zionist God", in a series of comments made on her Twitter account.
She is reported to have posted: "We invented Israel when saving them from Hitler, who now seems to be their teacher," while another said: "I will never forget and I will make sure my kids teach their children how evil Israel is!"
Another tweet read: "Apparently you can ask IS/ISIS/ISIL questions on ask.fm. Anyone thought of asking them why they're not attacking the real oppressors #Israel?"

Moroccan Poet: Arab World is Imperialist, 'Palestine' is Jewish

Asserting that it was in fact the Arab world which had pursued expansionist policies, Mezzane quipped that according to their own definition of the term, "Arabs are more Zionists than the Jews."
The Arab world, she said, believed that it was "God's chosen people, and they have the right to extend their territory, at the expense of other nations."
Mezzane's own people, the Amazigh, are one of the indigenous non-Arab nations of northern Africa which who were conquered and subjugated by the invading Arab armies during the Muslim conquest in the seventh century.

Israel ramps up cyber defense with new national body

Israel is stepping up its cyber-defense efforts. The government on Sunday announced establishment of a new cyber-defense authority to coordinate cyber-security efforts among government, industry, and the civilian sectors. Just last year, it set up the National Cyber Bureau and the two steps show that the nation is taking cyber threats seriously, now that it's a favorite target for politically motivated hackers.
Heading the new effort will be the National Cyber Bureau head, Dr. Eviatar Matania, who will be given "the authority to defend the civilian sphere from cyber threats and will constitute an operative agency that will act alongside the National Cyber Bureau, which will continue to build and maintain the State of Israel's national strength as an international leader in the field," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
Experts say Israel is the target of almost daily attacks, especially denial of service (DDOS), in which hackers try to flood a site with messages to paralyze it. Israeli cyber-security arms have been so effective in blocking the attacks that most never even cross the threshold of public awareness. Such attacks multiplied during the summer war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, but none caused significant damage.

Arab Terrorists Throw Rocks at School Bus in Jerusalem

Arab terrorists threw rocks at a bus carrying Jewish schoolchildren in the neighborhood surrounding the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem Sunday morning, in the latest terror-related incident in the capital.
No injuries were reported, but the bus's windshield was damaged.
Police are currently sweeping the area for suspects.
Jerusalem City Council member Aryeh King, who is closely involved with establishing a Jewish presence in the area, lamented the lack of security after news of the incident first broke.
"What a great start to the last week in the year," he stated. The Jewish New Year, or Rosh Hashanah, begins Wednesday evening. "Three masked terrorists attacked a student bus (including six of my children, among others) traveling to the old city."

Palestinian mother celebrates her son's death:‎ ‎"This is the first time I see joy in my heart"‎

During a riot in Jerusalem, a 16-year-old Arab named Muhammad Sunuqrut was killed. At his funeral, his mother told PA TV:
"This is the first time I see joy in my heart. This is the first time I see such joy. Thank Allah for giving him Martyrdom (Shahada)." [Official PA TV, Sept. 12, 2014]
PA TV has broadcast many Palestinian mothers who have expressed joy over the deaths of their children in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, because it grants the deceased the exalted Shahada status - Martyrdom-death for Allah, which bestows many rewards on the "Martyr" and his family.

Palestinian mother celebrates her son's death:‎ ‎"This is the first time I see joy in my heart"‎

Palestinian Delegitimization Campaign Against Palestinians Fleeing Gaza

You might have heard of several instances recently where immigrant boats were rammed or have sunk in the Mediterranean sea, with several hundreds of dead being Palestinians fleeing Gaza.
As a result, Palestinians have started an international appeal for marine safety… just kidding, they've started a vile delegitimization campaign against Palestinians fleeing Gaza and Hamas.
This was published by the US trained and funded "National Security Forces". In it you can see a Gazan jumping off a cliff, chasing a dream of westernized living.
Another image meme which has featured prominently on several Palestinian Facebook pages is this:
The caption reads:
"Every beginning has an end, live as a Shahid, end as a Shahid"
Meaning if you become a terrorist, you'll die like one and be praised as a hero. If you flee Hamas and Gaza as a refugee, you'll die a nobody.

Islamic hate speech on PA TV: Jews are "most evil among creations," "barbaric apes, wretched pigs"

Egyptian TV Host: I Can Understand Suicide Bombings in Israel, But Not against Muslims or Christians

Watch: UK Pro-Israel Activists Demand Qatar Stop Funding Terror

A coalition of British pro-Israel activists held a hard-hitting flash-mob protest against the Qatari government in London Friday, in what they say is just the opening salvo in their battle to force the oil-rich gulf state to end its funding of Islamist terrorism throughout the Middle East.
Activists from Sussex Friends of Israel (SFI) and the new-formed Israel Forum Task Force (IFTF) donned orange jump suits reminiscent of those seen in execution videos posted by the "Islamic State" (IS) terrorist group, and read an open letter to Qatari leader Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani outside Qatar's London embassy.
Qatar is the leading state sponsor of Hamas, the Islamist group which rules the Gaza Strip and whose charter calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and advocates murdering Jews as a holy duty.

Steven Salaita: Free Speech or Anti Israel Hate?


Dastardly Cultural Appropriation In Gaza

We bring you chapter 745 in the ongoing saga of "Concentration Camp Gaza".
Presenting the Mazaj Restaurant and Cafe
For those of you who still claim that Gaza is "starving", I present the menu of the Mazaj
Fresh fruit tarts and layer cake, just like the Warsaw ghetto
The Mazaj in Gaza offers its discerning clientele "American" food. I call cultural appropriation!

Morningside Heights — and lows

In most places, Richard Falk would be dismissed as a kook. Not at Columbia. The university's Heyman Center for Humanities just announced that Falk will deliver a lecture named for the late Edward Said.
Said, of course, was a Columbia professor of English known more for his advocacy than his scholarship. An apologist for the Palestine Liberation Organization, he regularly denounced scholars who disagreed with his sweeping generalizations about the Arab world as blinded by European colonialism.
In this sense, Richard Falk has earned the right to have his name associated with Said's. Falk, for example, has sided with the conspiracy theorists over 9/11.
While still a UN special rapporteur on Palestinian human rights for the United Nations, he described the Boston Marathon bombing as an act of "resistance" to "the American global-domination project."

Ex-Haaretz Readers Walk Out of Publisher's Event

Another audience member announced he will not renew his subscription of 39 years until Levy apologizes. The next, who identified himself as a Haaretz reader for 35 years, announced theatrically that he will turn his back to the stage and only then speak. He is received with applause. He demanded Levy's apology as a condition to renew his subscription. Various other speakers, including ex-pilots, echoed similar sentiments to loud applause.
As members of the agitated audience left the room, those remaining heckled Schocken who admonished: "You were Haaretz subscribers, you can be 'Haaretz unsubscribers' but we can still talk like civilized people." The diminished crowd grew increasingly hostile as the publisher argued that Levy was had been proven right when he wrote a similar article in the past. Finally, Schocken gave up on the possibility of convincing many to renew their subscriptions, and the former Haaretz readers left the room.

New Year's Greetings From Hamas

The narrative of Palestinian victimization remains too compelling to relinquish. With a Palestinian truck driver as her tour guide, Jodi Rudoren reported (September 17) on the recent upsurge in violence by young Jerusalem Arabs. Just as she had relied almost exclusively upon Gaza resident Fares Akram (the Times stringer who also reports for Al Jazeera) as her primary source of access to beleaguered Gazans, so she was guided through the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya to whitewash the violence inflicted by rock-throwing Arab boys and men, hundreds of whom have been arrested by Israeli police.
Rudoren's bias, whether or not to her credit, is always blatant. The source of the violent upsurge, she wrote, was "the abductions and murders of three Israeli teenagers, followed by the gruesome abduction and murder" of a Palestinian teenager. Revealingly, only the abduction and murder of the Palestinian boy was "gruesome." She noted that "Palestinians report attempted kidnappings, aggression and racist taunts by Jews." She did not disclose what Israelis report, nor reveal the response of the Israeli owner of the gas station that was assaulted and looted by unidentified "masked youths" throwing stones and Molotov cocktails.
Ms. Rudoren's Palestinian contacts, not surprisingly, offered variations on a familiar trope. The father of a 10-year-old, who runs a children's center, revealed: "I'm not trying to convince them not to throw stones. I'm not going to tell them not to burn the gas station." (Perish the thought.) A "community leader" in Issawaya, whose claim that his family has lived there for "800 years" is reported by Rudoren as though officially documented, blamed the recent outburst on "the settlers' violence." What violence – surely not the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli teenagers – Rudoren did not document. But she carefully quoted a mother of five who revealed "I hate all Jews. . . . I even tell my children to go and throw stones. It is normal. It is a reaction to what the army is doing."

New York Times Corrects Grossly Inflated Figure for Palestinian Refugees

CAMERA's Israel office has prompted a correction of an article which appeared in the Sept. 15 print edition of The International New York Times. Due to an editing error, the article incorrectly reported that Gaza children studying in UNRWA-run schools are the children of Palestinians who left or fled their homes in 1948 and 1967.

Suicide bomber hits Hezbollah in Lebanon

A suicide bomber killed a number of people Saturday at a Hezbollah checkpoint near Lebanon's border with Syria Saturday, hours after news that the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda had executed a Lebanese soldier.
Lebanon has long been on edge over the three-and-a-half-year civil war in Syria. Violence frequently spills over into the country and troops have been battling jihadists in eastern Lebanon sporadically since August.
Hezbollah's fighters have been supporting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a war against mostly Sunni Muslim rebels.
A security official in the Lebanese city of Baalbek said Saturday a suicide bomber blew himself up near a Hezbollah checkpoint in the Khraybeh area in the Bekaa Valley.

Wife of UK Islamic State hostage pleads for his release

The wife of a British taxi driver being held hostage by Islamic State jihadists implored his captors to release him, saying Saturday she could not see how his death could assist any cause.
Alan Henning, a Briton who volunteered to drive a humanitarian aid convoy to Syria for a Muslim charity, was captured 10 months ago and is in the hands of the IS group.
In a statement released through Britain's Foreign Office, Barbara Henning urged his captors to "see it in their hearts to release my husband," given the circumstances in which he was in Syria.

Iraq said to foil Islamic State chemical attack

Soldiers dismantled seven chlorine gas-tipped rockets in the Diyala province, Foral al-Tamimi was quoted as saying in a report by the semi-official Iranian news site Press TV.
The rockets were to be fired at civilians in the predominantly Shiite city of Muqdadiyah, northwest of Baghdad, the report said.
In June, the Islamic State took control of a former chemical weapons facility in the area, where remnants of lethal chemical agents including sarin gas were kept.
Surveillance footage showed that some of the equipment had been looted, the Iranian report said.

Kurds Issue Dramatic Call to Arms as Fresh ISIS Massacre Looms

Kurdish fighters have issued an urgent call to arms amid warnings of an impending massacre by the Islamic State terrorist group in northern Syria.
The Kurdish People's Protection Unit (YPG) has been locked in a fierce battle with IS and other Islamist groups almost since the start of Syria's civil war. Despite being relatively isolated and receiving no foreign aid from any states the YPG has proven perhaps the most effective force in pushing back against IS.
But as the jihadis' focus shifts to consolidating power in northern Syria the Kurds have found themselves under fiercer attack than ever.
Some 70,000 Syrian Kurds have fled into Turkey since Friday when IS captured dozens of villages near the border as part of a push to control the entire border area between Turkey and Syria.

Jewish activists are not amused by 'Hipster Hitler' parody

Jewish activists in London are outraged at the recent publication of a new comic book that features Hitler as a fashionable character called "Hipster Hitler."
The book is based on a veteran web comic by the same name that stars the infamous Nazi fuhrer Adolf Hitler wearing thick-framed glasses and joke T-shirts.
According to the British weekly Hampstead & Highgate Express, a group of Jewish activists have threatened to buy and shred all copies of the book, describing the satirizing of Hitler as "anti-Semitic" and "sick."
The activist group, calling itself London Stands with Israel, are focusing mainly on a Jewish-owned comic store in Camden Town, according to the report.
The creators of the comic wrote on their website that Hipster Hitler was not created with the "intent of offending people."

Israel to up medical assistance to combat Ebola

Israel is set to increase its medical assistance to Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Camaroon this week to help combat the deadly Ebola virus, which has claimed the lives of over 2,600 people.
The decision came days after UN ambassador Ron Prosor pledged Israeli assistance to battle the rapidly spreading epidemic.
The Foreign Ministry has already dispatched two doctors to Cameroon, Yedioth Ahronoth reported, and was set to send other doctors as well as medical equipment and medications.
The IsraAID organization announced Friday it too would be sending two delegations to Western Africa. One team will be tasked with instructing citizens on hygiene to prevent the spread of the virus, while the other will treat trauma.

Israeli population climbs to 8,904,373 ahead of Jewish New Year

As Israelis prepare to ring in the Jewish New Year, the Population and Immigration Authority released a report on Sunday estimating Israel's population at 8,904,373.
This marks an increase of 173,811 in the total population, from 8,730,562 citizens registered with the Interior Ministry last year.
The number of new Olim to Israel the past year stands at 24,801.
During the past year, some 176,230 babies were born, of which 90,646 were boys and 85,584 were girls.

Stunning stalactite cave discovered in Jerusalem hills

A breathtaking stalactite cave has been discovered during construction work in the Jerusalem Hills, representatives of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and researchers from the Cave Research Unit of the Geology Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced Saturday.
Because the entrance to the cave still poses a danger, the site's precise location was not reported.
The cave was discovered after boulders at the construction site were blasted apart, revealing a large pit. When experts from the Nature and Parks Authority went in with flashlights, they found the stalactite cave, which is currently being explored and mapped.
Initial measurements indicated that the cavern is 200 meters (660 feet) long and its large rooms feature different types of stalactites.

More Israeli female soldiers fought in Gaza than in past wars, but some say not enough

After five days treating wounded Israeli soldiers on the battlefields of the Gaza Strip this summer, Staff Sgt. Noam Dan was taking a break with her unit when a commander from another army battalion walked past.
Dan, like the other soldiers, was wearing fatigues and a helmet and carrying a gun. But the commander's eyes stopped on the dark braid cascading down her back.
"He said, 'What are you doing here? You're a girl!' Before I could answer, one of my officers said, 'What do you mean? She fights better than any of you,' " said Dan, 21, a paramedic who lived out of a tank for more than a week straight during the Israel-Hamas war, treating injured Israeli soldiers as fierce battles took place nearby.
Dan's stories of saving lives under sniper fire are seen as heroic here, and since the fighting ended in a cease-fire last month, she has sat for multiple media interviews — in an attempt, she said, to encourage more Israeli women to join the growing ranks of female soldiers who serve in combat roles.

PreOccupiedTerritory: Body That Ran Crusades, Inquisition, Slams Use Of Religion For Violence (satire)

Tirana, Albania, September 21 – The head of the Catholic Church, an organization responsible for the slaughter and torture of millions in the name of religion, today denounced the perversion of religion to justify violence.
Pope Francis conducted a visit to Albania on Sunday, a country plagued as recently as the 1990′s by violence between Christian and Muslim citizens. The Muslim-majority nation saw fierce oppression of both religions throughout its history as a province of various empires, alternately part of the Muslim, Ottoman Empire and various nominally Christian European powers. Francis, whose church sponsored the 1096 Crusade that saw genocidal massacres of Rhineland Jewish communities, used the world "perverted" to describe the use of religion to support mistreatment of others.

PreOccupiedTerritory: IDF To Follow NY/NJ Model For Making Tunnels Impassable (satire)

Israeli defense experts noted the efficiency with which the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and a related agency, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority of New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, stymie commuters' attempts via tunnels to reach Manhattan each morning, and to return in the afternoon or evening. The Holland, Lincoln, Queens-Midtown, and Brooklyn-Battery Tunnels all effectively keep hundreds of thousands of commuters from getting to their destinations with any kind of predictability or reliability, a statistic that the IDF aims to replicate in frustrating potential infiltrators from the Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula, or, according to recently voiced concerns, Lebanon.
"No one stops up tunnels better or more often than New York and New Jersey," said Minister of Defense Moshe Yaalon. "The variety and efficiency of the techniques employed in blocking people seeking to traverse those tunnels under the Hudson and East Rivers looks to be a good model for Israel to emulate. If we can engineer lane closures, weather-related mishaps, hyper-congestion, or any of the other myriad techniques at their disposal, half as well as New York and New Jersey do it, we'll have a much easier time keeping Israeli communities secure."
Already, teams of Israelis have begun studying the Manhattan tunnel model in depth, with particular attention given to the Hudson River crossings. The combined annual traffic for the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels exceeds 60 million vehicles, and account for nearly 50% of the daily frustration, cursing, despair, and failure of New York-New Jersey commuters.

PreOccupiedTerritory: Even We Can't Keep Track Of All Our Conspiracies Anymore By the International Zionist Conspiracy (satire)

The twenty-first century is a pretty complex place. The world is teeming with more than seven billion souls, with international and domestic crises to manage absolutely everywhere. As you can imagine, the level of International Zionist Conspiracy involvement has never been higher, but the sheer number of events going on at any given time means that sometimes, even we can't keep track of all our conspiracies.
It wasn't always that way. Back when we assassinated Lincoln, there couldn't have been more than fifteen or sixteen active conspiracies, tops. There wasn't as much to control: the emerging railroad industry, the cotton trade, and pulling the strings of four or five European governments. There was no entertainment industry to control, and media was a joke. By the time of the Franco-Prussian War and our man Alfred Dreyfus, the number was up to twenty-five. That was fine, but we knew that true, lasting global domination would require a serious investment of time and manpower, so that when the First World War broke out as planned, we had no fewer than eighty active plots.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 9/21/2014 01:00:00 PM