[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 10/19 Links: Why Europe Is Irrational About Israel; ASA pretends to partially drop Israel boycott

From Ian:

---

Caroline Glick: New York Times post – There should be no Palestinian state

The New York Times online debating forum Room For Debate asked me to participate in an online forum regarding the rationale for recognizing the non-existent state of Palestine.
Here’s what I wrote:
When Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven announced his decision to recognize the non-existent state of “Palestine” earlier this month, he inadvertently gave the game away.
Lofven said, “A two-state solution requires mutual recognition and a will to peaceful coexistence. Sweden will therefore recognize the State of Palestine.”
The Palestinians refuse to recognize or peacefully coexist with the State of Israel.
Like his coalition partner Hamas terror master Khaled Mashaal, and despite his sweet talk to Western audiences, PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas has pledged, repeatedly, over decades that he will never, ever recognize Israel. During his speech to the UN General Assembly last month he reverted to PLO language from the 1970s, referring to Israel repeatedly as “the occupying Power,” and “the racist occupying State.”
So when Lofven recognized “Palestine,” he joined the Palestinian campaign to destroy Israel. He used the language of the “two-state solution,” to reject the Jewish state.

Eugene Kontorovich: ASA pretends to partially drop Israel boycott

Stephens tried to mislead me about the ASA’s policy, and is likely trying to mislead the Westin. The clear policy is to restrict participation by Israeli scholars in a way that no other nationality is subject to.
Even the belated claim to waive the boycott for the annual conference would not preempt legal liability. Academic conferences are organized, scheduled and registered months in advance. The discriminatory effects of their policy have already been realized. The fact that the policy was selectively not enforced for one Israeli academic (Mohammed Wattad of Zefat College School of Law) on the program does not mean it was not otherwise enforced.
However, the ASA’s attempts to deny their policy, and then belatedly modify it on an ad hoc basis says little for their integrity. Having adopted their boycott to much public fanfare, they want to be able to quietly deny it – when it suits them.
Their reaction also suggests they understand the weakness of their legal position.

Why Europe Is Irrational About Israel

Coming soon after Sweden’s recognition of a non-existent state of Palestine, the British Parliament’s 274-to-12 resolution to recognize “Palestine” flags a sea-change in European sentiment towards Israel. France is thinking of following suit. The European Community bureaucracy, meanwhile, has readied sanctions against Israel. One remonstrates in vain. The Gaza War should have taught the world that Israel cannot cede territory to Mahmoud Abbas, now in the 10th year of a 4-year term. Hamas has the support of 55% of West Bank Palestinians vs. just 38% for Abbas, and Hamas openly brags that it could destroy Israel more easily from firing positions in the West Bank. Only the Israeli military keeps Abbas in power; without the Israelis Hamas would displace Abbas in the West Bank as easily as it did in Gaza; and a Hamas government in the West Bank would make war on Israel, with horrifying consequences.
To propose immediate Palestinian statehood under these circumstances is psychotic, to call the matter by its right name. The Europeans, along with the United Nations and the Obama administration on most working days, refuse to take reality into account. When someone tells you that Martians are transmitting radio waves into his brain, or that Elvis Presley really is the pope rather than an Argentine Jesuit, one doesn’t enquire into the merits of the argument. Rather, one considers the cause of the insanity.
The Europeans hate Israel with the passion of derangement. Why? Well, one might argue that the Europeans always have hated Jews; they were sorry they hated Jews for a while after the Holocaust, but they have gotten over that and hate us again. Some analysts used to cite Arab commercial influence in European capitals, but today Egypt and implicitly Saudi Arabia are closer to Jerusalem’s point of view than Ramallah’s. Large Muslim populations in Europe constitute a pressure group for anti-Israel policies, but that does not explain the utter incapacity of the European elite to absorb the most elementary facts of the situation.

UK Jewish leaders slam MP for attacks on Israel, ‘poisonous slur’ against British Jews

Britain’s official Jewish leadership on Wednesday condemned a leading Conservative member of Parliament for recent comments in which it said he “likened those expressing any support for settlements to anti-Semites, sexists and homophobes.”
The Board of Deputies of British Jews also suggested that Sir Alan Duncan MP, a former vice chairman of the governing Conservative Party, “was raising the anti-Semitic theme of a Jewish lobby” when he told a BBC interviewer ahead of Monday’s Parliamentary vote on recognizing Palestine that America was dominated by “a very powerful financial lobby.”
In other remarks, the Board protested, Duncan “suggested that anyone he termed a ‘settlement endorser’ should not be allowed to be involved in British politics.”

Kobani Crisis: Western Muslims United in Support of Gaza, So Why Aren’t they Rallying Behind the Kurds Fighting Isis?

During the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas, Muslims around the western world were involved in organising large protests to condemn Israel and to show the rest of the world their dissatisfaction at the death of Gazans. To be fair, there has been a unified response from the overwhelming majority of Muslims in the west.
Campaigns such as the Fatwa by Shaykh Usama Hasan and the videos by clerics such as Abu Muntasir have condemned Isis, and both initiatives have been extremely helpful. Furthermore, the#notinmyname campaign has been good at highlighting to non-Muslims that Isis do not represent us (Muslims) but things tend to be left there.
That’s all well and good, but where are the Muslims who took to the street because of Israel’s attack on Gaza now? Why are they not taking to the streets to support the Kurds, many of whom are Muslims too, when they have been suffering from potential genocides at the hands of Isis in towns such as Kobane?

Turkey's Love Affair with Hamas

"The Palestinian cause" is a unique charm that brings together Turks from different ideologies. Turkish Islamists view it as an indispensable part of "jihad;" the conservatives feel attached to it because it has a religious connotation; for the leftists it is part of an "anti-imperialist" struggle; the nationalists embrace it just because most Turks embrace it. In the 1970s, when a dozen Turks a day on average were killed in street violence, the "Palestinian cause" was the only issue that otherwise warring fractions of the Turkish left, right and Islamists could agree on.
But it was the Islamists who, in the 2000s, made the biggest gains from the concept. Since 2002, when they came to power, they have reaped enormous political gains from the "Palestine-fetish," to which they also love to be ideologically attached. For the Turks, it has been like abusing alcohol and wanting to have a healthier life. It still is.
Turkey's leaders, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, are probably the loudest supporters of the Palestinian cause in world politics today. Only one flag, other than the Turkish, is sported at their party's election rallies: that of "Palestine." It was because of the "Palestinian case" that Erdogan and Davutoglu premeditatedly chose to move from friendly relations with Israel to a "cold war." Votes and ideological satisfaction followed.

UN Watch condemns EU majority for backing Venezuela’s Security Council bid

Despite Venezuela’s record of human rights abuses against judges, students and peaceful protesters, and its backing of Syria’s Assad regime, a majority of EU member states today were among the 181 states that voted Venezuela onto the UN Security Council, drawing the ire of human rights activists.
“It’s an outrage that at least 16 of 28 EU states today empowered and legitimized a repressive government that openly sides with the murderous Syrian regime,” said Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, an independent human rights group which recently brought Venezuelan human rights victims to testify before the world body.
“Electing Venezuela to the UN Security Council is like making a pyromaniac into the fire chief,” said Neuer.

JCPA: New Poll: 75% of Israeli Jews Oppose a Palestinian State on the 1967 Lines, Israeli Withdrawal from the Jordan Valley, and the Division of Jerusalem

According to the latest poll conducted on October 12-14, 2014, by Shivukim-Panorama for the Jerusalem Center, 75% of the Israeli Jewish public continue to oppose Israel’s withdrawal from the Jordan Valley and the division of Jerusalem.
Moreover, the rise of the Islamic State in the Middle East has made the Israeli public even less ready for territorial concessions in the West Bank. While 70% report that the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) has not affected their position, 17% say it has made them less ready for concessions, while 5% say they are more ready for concessions.
Some 75% of Israeli Jews oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state if it means an Israeli withdrawal from the Jordan Valley. A similar percentage would oppose the replacement of the IDF with international forces in the Jordan Valley. Notably, 52% of Israelis who identify with “the left” oppose the replacement of the IDF with international forces in the Jordan Valley.
Overall, 74% of Israeli Jews oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines, while 76% oppose a Palestinian state if it means the division of Jerusalem.

PLO wants to link ending Islamic extremism, Israeli conflict

The Palestinian Liberation Organization called Saturday for a comprehensive strategy against Islamic extremism while addressing the conflict with Israel, alluding to controversial remarks by US Secretary of State John Kerry.
The top US diplomat, after his return from a Middle East trip, infuriated Israeli ministers Thursday when he said the unresolved conflict was fueling recruitment for the Islamic State group.
“There wasn’t a leader I met… who didn’t raise with me spontaneously the need to try to get peace between Israel and the Palestinians, because it was a cause of recruitment and of street anger and agitation,” he said.
Reacting to that, PLO secretary general Yasser Abed Rabbo told AFP that “linking the fight against terrorism and the end of the Israeli occupation is a strategic position that we support.”
The PLO is “ready to work hard with the American administration and all regional leaders to develop mechanisms to implement different levels of the strategic direction announced by Kerry,” he said, without elaborating.

I Also Think The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Caused Ebola By US Secretary of State John Kerry (satire)

You Israelis are so hypersensitive. You overreact to every little distortion, every little indication that I’ve swallowed the big Palestinian lie hook, line, and sinker. But you should save your bile for when I make pronouncements far more offensive than attributing the threat of the Islamic State to the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That’s bupkis. I also contend that the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict caused the Ebola outbreak in Africa.
The repetition of the Palestinian narrative that they are the indigenous people dispossessed of their land by foreign Zionists has succeeded: not only does most of the world view Israel as an illegal usurper, but they completely forget that there never was such a country as “Palestine” from which the citizens could be dispossessed. The ease with which the made-up notion has become current demonstrates an important principle of diplomacy, which happens to be my specialty: I can say anything I want, despite all the contradictory evidence, and expect to be taken at my word. So here I go: Ebola is the result of the unresolved conflict between Israel and her neighbors, and the only solution to the epidemic is for Israel to cease building homes for Jews in their historic heartland.
No evidence is necessary. All I have to do is make noise about it, repeatedly, and the world will eventually buy it. That’s the way international diplomacy works.

Lieberman: Abbas is anti-Semite trying to ignite holy war

Later on Saturday, Lieberman said that Abbas had again revealed his true face as a "Holocaust denier who speaks about a Palestinian state free of Jews." The foreign minister added that Abbas was and remains an anti-Semite.
"Behind the suit and the pleasantries aimed at the international community, he is raising the level of incitement against Israel and the Jews and is calling for a religious war," Lieberman said.
"Abbas has effectively joined the frontlines of extremist Islamist organizations, such as the Islamic State and the Nusra Front, who sanctify religious war," Lieberman said. (h/t MtTB)

How the US refused to help find a missing IDF soldier

To this day the soldier's body, as well as that of another soldier who died in battle named Lt. Hadar Goldin, still remain in the hands of Hamas. Recent reports indicate Hamas is interested in negotiating a swap for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and that Israel has appointed an IDF officer to head up these negotiations.
Lingering questions remain from this episode. Senior law enforcement officials, on condition of anonymity, have told me that the withdrawal of authority to the FBI to retrieve the Facebook records for Israel came from the Attorney General's office. But why would Eric Holder's office reverse such a request, especially since it was so urgent and came from such a close ally? And if it was not the attorney general's office that reversed the request, who did? It could only have come from someone very high up in the U.S. Government. (h/t MtTB)

Russian spying from Syria: Why and for whom?

srael can hardly be said to hold a balance of power with super-powerful Russia. But there are certain understandings in the eastern Mediterranean, where Israel remains a regional power, economically and militarily. And those understandings, carefully calibrated yet shifting during the course of the Syrian civil war, may have been rattled – despite the lack of official comment – by last week’s discovery of a Russian intelligence base in Tel el-Hara, Syria.
The Free Syrian Army revealed in an October 5 video that the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate’s OSNAC unit – its signals intelligence unit, much like the American NSA or Unit 8200 in Israel – had been operating from within a Syrian regime base near the border with Israel.
Russian troops had been collecting intelligence against Syrian rebels. This makes sense: Russia is deeply involved in the Syrian civil war and has often filled the role of international bodyguard for Bashar Assad. But the video also revealed that OSNAC officers had been collecting operational intelligence on Israel. This raises the question: To what extent has Russia been spying on Israel, and to what end?

Channel 4 News to Mosab Hassan Yousef: “Are you a traitor?”

In this interview with Channel 4 News Mosab Hassan Yousef (aka Son of Hamas), after being asked “Are you a traitor?” sets out why he renounced his father, renounced Hamas and became an Israeli agent.
He blames Hamas for dragging Israel into this summer’s war with Hamas and blames Hamas for using their own people as human shields. He says Israel is a democracy and has a constitution under which people of all religions live. It is a fascinating interview and is a prelude to the new film about him called The Green Prince.

Soccer team rapped for honoring suspected Hezbollah spy

Right-wing politicians demanded that sports authorities heavily penalize the Bnei Sakhnin soccer team after the club’s management held a controversial ceremony Saturday in honor of Qatari donors and prominent figures from across the Arab world, including Azmi Bishara, a former Knesset member who fled Israel amid suspicions that he had provided information to the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah during the Second Lebanon War in 2006.
“Penalties or fines are not sufficient measures for the action of the Bnei Sakhnin team last night!” Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat wrote on her Facebook page Sunday.
“Only removing the team from the [Israeli Premier] League will clarify to the management, which now suddenly acts so innocent, the severity of the ‘ceremony’ in honor of Azmi Bishara, who is suspected of committing treason and espionage for Israel’s worst enemies.”

PA revives medieval blood libels - Israel poisoned water wells during Gaza war

Two of the most destructive Antisemitic blood libels of the Middle Ages have been brought back to life by the Palestinian Authority to promote hatred of Israelis. In July, the official PA daily wrote that Jews use the blood of Palestinian children as the ingredient in Matzah - unleavened bread - for the holiday of Passover, as reported by Palestinian Media Watch.
Last month, official PA TV revived another medieval libel reporting as news that Israel was intentionally "injecting poison" into Palestinian water sources as a "war strategy" during the recent Gaza war:

Hamas reconstructing damaged Gaza attack tunnel

Hamas’s armed wing is reconstructing an attack tunnel damaged by Israel during Operation Protective Edge, the movement’s newspaper reported on Sunday, admitting that renovation work was carried out on the tunnel under the protection of a humanitarian ceasefire during the operation.
A reporter for Al-Resalah joined a team of tunnel diggers on the Gaza Strip border with Israel, but was not allowed to enter the tunnel for fear that it would collapse. The diggers, whom he described as “bees in a hive,” said they were motivated by the belief that “every inch they dig helps spill the blood of an Israeli soldier or kidnap one.”
The diggers assembled at the entrance to the tunnel at sunset, and told the reporter that breathing was difficult once underground. “We thank God for making us soldiers specializing in tunnel digging,” one operative told the daily. “True, the work is difficult, but we remember our reward with God and it becomes easier.”

‘Babes Of Hamas’ Pinup Calendar Selling Poorly (satire)

The “Babes of Hamas” pinup calendar was intended to support the cash-strapped organization in its efforts to rebuild its arsenal, tunnels, and logistical operations in the wake of a punishing war this past summer with Israel. However, the publication has sold anemically, forcing the organization to absorb tens thousands of dollars in expenses and to dispose of the hundreds of thousands of copies it had ordered several weeks ago.
The calendar features twelve wives and daughters of Hamas operatives, including those of senior Hamas officials, clad only in a full-body chador, hijab, and niqab, completely revealing their eyes. The photographs were taken at various romantic or scenic locations in the Gaza Strip early last month, such as the beach at sunset with a boatload of weapons being smuggled in the background, or in the cleaning products aisle of a well-stocked supermarket, to emphasize the privation caused by the Israeli blockade. As a bonus feature, the calendar also includes a life-size, fold-out poster of a well-oiled Kalashnikov automatic rifle completely uncovered, positioned such that its magazine intake socket is showing.

Israel to supply gas to Egyptian company

Israel on Sunday signed a memorandum of understanding with a company representing nongovernmental consumers in Egypt, under which the offshore Tamar gas field would supply up to 2.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year for the next seven years.
The arrangement with the Dolphinus Holdings company is estimated at some $500-700 million a year, according to TheMarker, Haaretz’s financial newspaper. The Globes business daily, however, reported that the agreement includes a clause that allows the supplier to cut the gas exports with little notice. Due to the flexible arrangement, the Egyptian company did not commit to purchasing a minimum amount, while Tamar agreed to supply a minimum of 5 BCM of natural gas over the next three years.
The gas will be transferred via the Israel Natural Gas Lines through the East Mediterranean Gas Company pipeline, which has been damaged by Islamist groups in the Sinai peninsula in the past few years.

Roadside bomb kills seven soldiers in Sinai

Seven Egyptian troops were killed and four more injured when a roadside bomb exploded in the restive Sinai Peninsula, Egyptian officials said.
The officials said the explosion Sunday ripped through a military armored vehicle traveling south of el-Arish, the provincial capital of northern Sinai. The troops were heading to an area to comb it for suspected militant activities. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.
Northern Sinai has been a haven for Islamic militants, who have waged regular attacks against troops and security forces.

Egypt warplanes bomb Libyan militias

Two Egyptian government officials say their country’s warplanes are bombing positions of Islamist militias in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.
The officials, who have first-hand knowledge of the operation, say the use of the aircraft is part of an Egyptian-led operation against the militiamen that involves Libyan ground troops.
The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Two Egyptian soldiers killed in tunnel collapse under Gaza-Sinai border

Two Egyptian army officers were killed on Saturday when a tunnel they entered under the Gaza-Sinai border collapsed on top of them, security sources said. Another soldier was injured by the collapse and two others are missing. Egyptian defense officials said the tunnel collapse took place near the Rahma neighborhood on the Egyptian side of Rafah.
The tunnel was first uncovered by Egyptian border patrolmen. When five soldiers entered the tunnel, it promptly collapsed, killing officers Mohammed Majdi and Islam Ahmed. The injured soldier has been identified as Ahmed Talas Ahmed.

Israeli doctor reported killed fighting for Islamic State

Othman Abdelkayan was slated to do a residency program at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba starting in May, but disappeared, apparently to Syria, Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon said.
“Security officials contacted and questioned us about him, and then we found out that he had joined the Islamic State,” the hospital said in a statement, according to several Israeli media reports.
Abdelkayan studied medicine in Jordan, and after he passed the certification test, he was granted a temporary license in Israel, according to Barzilai Hospital. He began an internship at Barzilai in February.
Abdelkayan’s family in the Bedouin Negev town of Hura said he was killed in fighting in Syria, according to several Israeli media reports.

ISIS Panics Over Intelligence Leak, Cracks Down on 'Informants'

Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists have showed incredible bravado, boasting to the Western world that they would "overcome" an international coalition and military campaign hours after airstrikes pummeled their Syrian stronghold.
But even ISIS became unnerved over the weekend, after multiple security breaches were shown to have revealed sensitive intelligence on the group to the international community.
Concerns over cyber-security are so high that ISIS released an Arabic-language publication to combat information theft.
“A number of security gaps have appeared that have benefited the enemy and have helped expose the identities of some brothers or identify some sites used by the [jihadists - ed.] with ease,” it begins, according to a copy translated by the Financial Times.

Kurdish TV Parody of ISIS


German judge sparks outrage, says anti-Semitism was only limited to Nazi period

A regional judge in Munich is embroiled in a highly charged dispute over her statement in a civil case that German anti-Semitism was limited to the Nazi period of 1933-1945, suggesting that post-Holocaust anti-Semitism is not a factor in Jew-hatred.
The Munich regional judge, Petra Grönke-Müller, sparked outrage on October 8 with her courtroom assertion during a civil case that “a fiery anti-Semite is someone in Germany who talks, with conviction, in an anti-Semitic way and, with conviction, does not condemn the Third Reich and cannot view the period 1933-1945 as separate from the background of history.”
The case, which goes to the heart of a modern understanding of anti-Semitism in Germany, pits a co-founder of the German Green Party, Jutta Ditfurth, against an extreme nationalistic journalist, Jürgen Elsässer.

Russian social network nixes ‘Miss Hitler’ beauty pageant

A page on a popular Russian social media network devoted to Adolf Hitler was suspended Sunday after holding a beauty pageant dubbed “Miss Hitler.”
The competition, hosted by the Adolf Hitler page on VKontakte and officially titled “Miss Ostland 2014,” drew 24 contestants.
The page, which had over 7,500 followers, encouraged women to enter the competition by posting sexy Nazi-themed selfies together with an entry explaining why they “love and revere the Third Reich of Adolf Hitler.”
VKontakte wrote that the page was “suspended due to calls to violent actions.”

Former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani to Lead Klinghoffer Opera Protest

The Met is being protested for staging an opera which seeks to humanize the Palestinian Arab terrorist thugs who hijacked an Italian cruise liner and singled out an elderly disabled Jewish man, Leon Klinghoffer, whom they shot and threw overboard to drown. The name of the opera is ‘The Death of Klinghoffer.’
Before the protest on Monday there will be a press conference, starting at 5:00 p.m., at which former New York City Mayor Rudy Guliani will be the keynote speaker.
Giuliani, of course, is the American official who has twice stared down evil and refused to sacrifice his principles to political correctness or even the dangling of millions of dollars.
In 1995 Giuliani expelled Yasir Arafat from a concert for world leaders at Lincoln Center in 1995, saying he could never forgive Arafat’s acts of terror.

What does the Internet think about Israel and Jews?

The internet is a dark and mysterious place, inhabited by legions of foul-mouthed trolls, who fill newspaper comment boards with reams of hate-filled bile. Many of these may be safely ignored, in the knowledge that the lonely and angsty souls in such forums are not representative of the general population. Google, however, provides a handy resource for keeping an (unscientific) finger on the pulse of the mood of the internet and discovering what people are thinking. Type something into Google, and the search engine’s “autocomplete” function will predict what you might be looking for: the suggestions, generated automatically by an algorithm, are “a reflection of the search activity of users and the content of web pages“.
So what does a foray into Google reveal about internet users’ attitudes towards Israel and the Jews? The short answer: It’s bad. The long answer: It’s worse than you think.

Berlin said to okay discount on arms to Israel after diplomatic spat

After months of negotiations, Germany has agreed to slash the price on a gunboat sale to Israel, after originally balking at the discount when peace talks with the Palestinians collapsed.
The agreement for three fast guided missile destroyers is now estimated to be worth about $766,274,080, about two-thirds of the original price.
The deal is expected to be signed within a matter of weeks, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported Sunday.
Israel had originally requested that Germany slash 30% off the nearly $1,150,000,000 price tag for the destroyers, just as Germany had done in previous arms deals between the two countries.

SanDisk founder Eli Harari to get top US tech medal

Flash memory has revolutionized the data storage industry, and one of the top pioneers of that revolution, Dr. Eli Harari, is to be honored by the US for his contributions to the fields of science and technology. Harari, founder and retired chairman & CEO of SanDisk, is to receive a National Medal of Technology and Innovation for his work in “bringing flash memory to enterprise storage and transforming the data center by helping enterprises achieve high performance, low-latency data access and scalability,” SanDisk said, after Harari and five other winners met with US President Barack Obama, who announced the winners at the White House last week. The medals will be presented at a gala event later this year, the White House said.
Harari, along with the other winners, has “expanded our understanding of the world, made invaluable contributions to their fields, and helped improve countless lives,” Obama said. “Our nation has been enriched by their achievements and by all the scientists and technologists across America dedicated to discovery, inquiry, and invention.”
First awarded in 1985, the National Medal of Technology and Innovation (NMTI) is considered the highest honor for technological achievement in the US, bestowed by the President of the United States on America’s leading innovators. Candidates can be nominated by anyone, and a committee of top tech officials makes the decision, forwarding it to the president for his approval.

Israelis as rich as most Europeans – report

Israelis are the sixth wealthiest people in the Middle East and Asia, and as wealthy as the average European, if not more so, according to a report by Credit Suisse. The Swiss bank’s latest Global Wealth Report portrays Israel as a prosperous country — and although the higher socio-economic groups in the country own much of the wealth, the distribution of that wealth is spread more equitably that in the United States, and it’s on a par with many countries in Europe.
“Wealth” is defined by the report as the net assets, meaning after debt is deducted, held by households or individuals in financial instruments and real estate. There is more of it than ever before, Credit Suisse says. Although governments have their hands full trying to pay bills and collect taxes, individual wealth, consisting of savings, property, investments, and other elements of net worth, have been growing steadily over the past decade. Global wealth in 2014 stands at $263 trillion, the report says, increasing by 8.3% over the past year, the highest growth level since 2007.
According to the report, $3,650 net is all an individual needs to be included among the wealthiest 50% of the world’s population, while to get into the top 10%, a person would need $77,000. Israelis easily qualify on both counts; the average Israeli adult is worth between $150,000 and $175,000, taking into consideration exchange rates. That is the sixth highest wealth level in the Asia-Pacific/Middle East region, which includes China and Japan. In this area, Israel is bested only by Australia, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, and Taiwan. Israelis are also a bit wealthier on average than Europeans. In Europe, the average adult is worth $145,977. North America — the US and Canada — where the average adult has assets worth $340,000, is the world’s wealthiest region.

Israeli teams go out of their way to help stranded trekkers in Nepal

The Nepalese government's search and rescue operation in the Himalayas has entered its fifth day, less than a week after hundreds of trekkers were caught off guard by a blizzard and an avalanche in the popular Annapurna Range.
Nepalese authorities have confirmed the death of 43 people, including 3 Israelis. Twenty bodies have yet to have been recovered due to the heavy snow. Rescuers said they would focus on helping the 22 people who are still stranded in Thorung La Pass, a mountain pass in the region. Michal Gili Charkesky, a 36-year-old Israeli woman from Givatayim, is still missing.
Harel Insurance chartered a helicopter to reach the Israeli trekkers, as other means of transportation were deemed unsafe. Nadav Khalifa, who has coordinated Harel's efforts in the region, told Israel Hayom Saturday that his team "tried to rescue all the Israelis who were stranded at high elevations; we managed to bring them down with the helicopter, we rescued 40 on Friday and another 20 a day earlier," he said.

--
Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 10/19/2014 01:00:00 PM