[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 12/12 Links Pt2: Fury over Israel ban at Shoah memorial; Putting Lipstick on the BDS Pig ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Organisers of a national Holocaust memorial event have banned any mention of Israel.
The trustees of Holocaust Educational Trust Ireland (HETI) have instructed the host of the country's main Shoah memorial event in January "not to refer to the Jewish State or the State of Israel during any part of the ceremony".
The ban follows a similar bar imposed just days before this year's Holocaust Memorial Day in Ireland, when long-standing host Yanky Fachler was told to avoid mentioning Israel.
He reluctantly complied when his objections fell on deaf ears but, afterwards, complained in writing to the organising body, HETI - only to be told the rule will again apply at January's event at Dublin's Mansion House.

Palestinian human rights activist implores Malala: No money to Hamas, UNRWA

Palestinian human rights activist Bassem Eid is asking Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai to keep her promise to share her award money with the children of the Gaza Strip but to prevent the funds from falling into the hands of Hamas. In an "Open Letter to Malala" Eid shared with The Media Line, the noted activist told the young Pakistani laureate that "Hamas acts according to the principles of radical Islam, not of the UN principles."
"I appreciate your decision to contribute your prize money to the children of Palestinian refugees in Gaza, because they really need your help. Yet, I must advise you that if you want to make such a donation, please come here to do so in person and not through UNRWA - the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
If you send funds through UNRWA, Palestinian refugee children will never benefit from it, because UNRWA funds in Gaza wind up in the hands of radical Islam." (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Clarifications required for BBC reports on Shati incident

As we noted here the other day, the Israeli Military Attorney General (MAG) has published the findings of some of the investigations conducted into incidents which occurred in the Gaza Strip during Operation Protective Edge.
One of the incidents investigated was the deaths of ten civilians on July 28th at the Shati refugee camp, along with an alleged attack on Shifa hospital on the same afternoon. The findings are as follows:Tweet Shifa
"Various media reports alleged that on 28 July 2014, an incident occurred involving a strike on medical clinics belonging to the Al-Shifa Hospital, as well as a strike on a park where children were present in the Shati Refugee Camp, and as a result of which ten persons (including nine children) were killed and tens injured. Some of these reports alleged that the strikes were carried out by the IDF. As a result, and in accordance with the MAG's investigation policy, it was decided to refer the incident for examination by the FFAM [Fact Finding Assessment Mission – Ed.].
Following a thorough review conducted by the FFAM, such a strike by IDF forces could not be identified. However, Israel's technical systems recorded in real-time the path of a salvo of missiles fired from within the Gaza Strip, seemingly by Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which landed in the medical clinics and in the Shati Refugee Camp at the time of the alleged incident. Under these circumstances, and in light of the fact that the strike on the hospital was the result of rocket fire from Palestinian terrorist organizations, the MAG ordered the case to be closed."

To Whom It May Concern

To whom it may concern in Europe and the US:
We are tired of hearing that withdrawal from Judea and Samaria will bring peace. We know and you know that it would bring another Gaza. So stop saying it.
We are tired of hearing that land beyond the Green Line is 'Palestinian land'. The Green Line is simply an armistice line that has no political significance. You know this too.
We are tired of hearing about the "Palestinian people." They are no different from the Arabs of Syria or Egypt, from which most of their ancestors migrated in the last 150 years or so. There is no Palestinian language or religion, and until very recently they considered themselves simply 'Arabs'. Their culture is almost entirely defined by their opposition to the Jewish state.

Douglas Murray: Isis murder a homosexual man (but presumably it has nothing to do with Islam)

I see that Isis have begun the holiday season by 'executing' (or murdering) a man who they say was homosexual in Syria/Iraq. They did this in the traditional manner, by throwing him off a tall building and then stoning him to death. They have helpfully provided photos of the process online.
An accompanying statement from Isis reads:
'Following the example of Muslims Caliph Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq (ruled 632-634), the Islamic court in Al-Furat province sentenced a man who performed acts of the people of Lot [i.e.,homosexual acts] to be cast off the highest place in the town and then stoned to death. Allah's command [is valid] in both the past and the future.'
If they deign to notice this, I expect the usual people to now say (a) That this has nothing to do with Islam/ is not Islamic/is more to do with Buddhism than Islam. And (b) That thirty years ago some Christian fundamentalist attacked an abortion clinic so it's really not worth worrying about.

Kurdistan: Waiting to Be Born

Still another variable is a political reality: it seems that none of Kurdistan's neighbors wants to see an independent Republic of Kurdistan. This opposition is based on domestic and foreign policy realities. The regimes of Turkey, Iran, and Syria, for instance, which all have large Kurdish minorities, apparently do not want Kurdish irredentists within their states to seek either autonomy or union within an independent Iraqi Kurdistan, and view an independent Kurdistan as both diluting regional powers and as a possible ally for Israel.
As the former Minister for Human Rights of the Kurdistan Regional Government [KRG], Mohammad Ihsan, declared in an interview, "One thing for certain is that the Kurds of Iraq will never again allow themselves to be ruled by Arabs, be they Sunni or Shia." A member of parliament from the Kurdish Governorate of Dohuk, Dr. Renaas, who has responsibility for the Kurdistan Regional Government's relations with Turkey and the United States, asserted in another interview that "the Kurds are determined to avoid mistakes of the past, when they allowed themselves to be duped by the promises of great powers."
Kurds are conscious and proud of Kurdistan's role in today's Middle East -- on the front line of civilization -- in the battle against Islamist barbarism and chaos displayed by the ISIS juggernaut. Kurds also are embittered by Baghdad's decision to block arms deliveries to Kurdistan during the height of the peshmerga's fight against ISIL this past summer. Kurdish flags are omnipresent. Few Iraqi flags dot the cities and villages of Kurdistan; Kurdish is the public and private language of all. Arabic is rarely spoken. There will be no going back to Baghdad. Kurdistan is waiting to be born.

European Islamic Radicalism Now Surfacing in America, Ayaan Hirsi Ali Warns

Hirsi Ali, a former member of Dutch parliament who came to the United States after repeatedly receiving death threats in The Netherlands, was addressing the 2014 Gala Celebration of the American Friends of the Open University of Israel in New York.
Hirsi Ali continued, there are legitimate concerns about what she described as "the indoctrination of children."
"On one side, the Islamic extremist side of things, they cry, 'You're an Islamophobe,' and the rest of society says, 'Let's leave them to it, let's not be bigoted,'" Hirsi Ali observed. "I think you have seeds of the same dangers that I saw in Europe, because now in the United States of America, the population of Muslims is relatively small compared to that of various European countries and their demand for Shari'a Islamic law, or aspects of that, is there and it's strong in some states and in some cities. But across the nation, it's not as strong as it is in some of these European countries."
Hirsi Ali also scorned the Obama Administration's failed efforts to negotiate a deal with the Iranian regime over its nuclear program.
"I think that the Islamic Republic of Iran is now taking us for a ride. They're not going to concede," she said. "We need to show the Iranians that we are a power to reckon with and that we will absolutely not let them develop a bomb."

Disturbing state of affairs

Since a Palestinian entity would fails all the tests of statehood specified in the Montevideo Convention its bid would probably fail. Even if a majority were achieved, the US would exercise its veto, despite Barack Obama's disaffection with Benjamin Netanyahu. But suppose that the Security Council did embrace the Palestinians and welcome them into the family of nations. What can we expect the morning after?
The PA is generally viewed as weak, corrupt and incompetent by its constituents. Abbas is a feeble leader lacking Arafat's charisma, unloved by the shabab, the Arab street. While the PA has its own police force, its authority is largely propped up by Israel. An extensive network of Shin Bet informers ensures plots against the PA are kept under control and the presence of the Israeli military prevents its overthrow.
But once Palestine becomes a nation-state the PA's first act would have to be to demand the withdrawal of Israeli forces from its now sovereign territory. Under threat of international sanctions, Israel would have to cede to the pressure. The inevitable consequence would be the overthrow of the PA by Hamas or another Islamist group.
Hamas, committed to the extermination of Israel, has shown ingenuity manufacturing and acquiring missiles and rockets and building of tunnels. In the West Bank it would have far greater access to arms and munitions infiltrated from Jordan and Syria.

Israel pans Switzerland for calling Palestine summit

Israel on Thursday voiced strong opposition to the Swiss government's decision to convene a conference to discuss the status quo in the Palestinian territories next week in Geneva, saying the move brought into question Bern's historic neutrality.
Switzerland has invited states party to the Fourth Geneva Convention to attend a summit to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem on December 17, despite American and Israeli pressure.
All 196 UN member states are signatories to the Fourth Geneva Convention, and in April 2014 the Palestinian Authority signed accession to the treaty.
The Foreign Ministry condemned the decision to hold the summit, calling it "a political move whose sole aim is to utilize the important stage of the Geneva Conventions for the sake of denigrating Israel.
"Israel, of course, won't take part in the conference, in addition to other states that clarified their objection to the Swiss government," the Foreign Ministry statement said, without mentioning which states. Senior Israeli officials had told Haaretz that the US, Canada and Australia intended to boycott the summit along with Israel. It called on all other signatory states not to take part in the convention.
The Foreign Ministry said it was reevaluating Switzerland's stances on other international humanitarian law issues in light of its decision to hold the meeting. (h/t Bob Knot)

PA Files 'Desperate' Writ to Stall Terror Trial

After losing a landmark decision on November 20 allowing them to be tried for terrorism charges in a $1 billion case, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) have now filed a very rare appeal to the Second Circuit of courts trying to squash the case.
Shurat Hadin (Israel Law Center) is leading the legal charge against the PA and PLO. In a press release on Thursday they noted that the appeal, known as a motion for a writ of mandamus, "concerns personal jurisdiction and should have been filed months ago."
"This is a desperate attempt by the Palestinian Authority to stall this long planned trial," said Shurat Hadin Chairperson Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, whose organization is representing 11 American families of terror victims in the case.
The November decision set a New York court date for January in which the Israel-based civil rights organization's lawsuit from 2004 will finally be heard, charging the PA over the involvement of PA and PLO members in seven terror attacks between 2001 and 2004 during the Second Intifada.

Wiesenthal Center Working With European Parliamentarians on Resolution Demanding Revocation of Anti-Semitic Hamas Charter

The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) is pushing for parliamentarians in those European states that recently voted in favor of establishing a Palestinian state outside of negotiations with Israel to demand the revocation of the anti-Semitic elements in Hamas's notorious charter, first drawn up in 1988.
Among the slanders the charter contains is the claim that "Jews" were behind the French and Bolshevik revolutions, along with frequent references to Jewish financial power and dishonest financial dealings. The charter also declares that "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it."
An online petition supporting the resolution had garnered almost 13,000 signatures within 48 hours of its publication, Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the SWC, told The Algemeiner.
Hier said that the SWC had reached out to "key allies" in the British, French and Irish parliaments, all of which have voted in recent weeks in favor of an independent Palestinian state. The initiative is also being launched in Spain, Belgium and Sweden, as well as the European parliament. Hier added that the SWC is currently considering a similar approach to members of Congress and the Canadian parliament.
Hier argued that it was not enough to merely condemn the Palestinian independence resolutions. "A better approach is to promote a resolution that demands the anti-Semitic Hamas charter be revoked," he said. "If they are willing to do that, it should be clear to the entire world that Hamas is beyond the pale."

Israel and the Betrayal of the Intellectuals

It is not surprising, then, that 800 Israelis—with prominent intellectuals leading the charge—have "discovered" the road to peace between the Arabs and Israelis. They alone have found the path to peace that has eluded so many for so long.
Unable to convince their countrymen that strategic risks for peace are worth it, the intellectuals have appealed to the international community in what should be considered an act of treachery, because it bypasses Israel's democratic process and seeks to influence the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Intellectuals imbibe the elixir of their own lofty hubris. They believe they know what is best.
But they actually know little, because they have refused to learn from experience. The very idea that recognition of a Palestinian state by the members of the European community will advance the peace process is an embrace of the absurd. The idea that even a return to the 1967 armistice line, what Abba Eban called the "Auschwitz borders," would result in peace is wishful thinking.
What will come of this? It will push Israel deeper into a corner, harden the resolve of the far right, and give incentive to Palestinian intransigence and incitement. All these intellectuals have done is to attempt to enhance their own status in the international community at the price of the real, complicated, and pragmatic quest for peace.

Portuguese parliament urges Palestine recognition

The Portuguese parliament adopted a recommendation Friday calling on the government to recognize a Palestinian state, drawing votes from the majority and opposition.
The motion, filed jointly by the ruling center-right majority and the opposition Socialist party, proposes "recognizing, in coordination with the European Union, the state of Palestine as independent and sovereign".
However, Portugal's Foreign Minister Rui Machete said after the vote the government "will choose the moment best suited" to recognize a Palestinian state, adding that the government was "sensitive to parliament's call," and that "Israelis and Palestinians live together on a long-term basis in a peaceful way.

UN envoy meets with top Hamas leader in Gaza

The group says Robert Serry, UN coordinator for the Middle East peace process, held talks with Moussa Abu Marzouk of Hamas at the UN headquarters in Gaza City on Thursday. Hamas is shunned by the West as a terror group.
UN officials would only say that Serry meets with Hamas officials when needed.
The UN is leading rebuilding efforts in Gaza, where the war damaged or destroyed thousands of homes.
During the meeting, Serry told Hamas officials that some 20,000 homeowners would be able to obtain construction materials to repair their homes damaged during the summer war.

UN: Iran's Israel-Genocide Threats 'Totally Unacceptable'

Adama Dieng, UN Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Prevention of Genocide, on Tuesday emphatically stated that Iran's genocidal threats to "wipe Israel off the earth" are "totally unacceptable."
Dieng was at the UN's headquarters in New York to commemorate the Anniversary of the Genocide Convention that was first adopted on December 9, 1948.
Carmen Maria Rodriguez of Radio Marti asked the question that sparked Dieng's direct censure of Iran's recent waves of calls for Israel's annihilation.
Dieng went on to elaborate that not only are Iran's genocidal threats to wipe Israel off the map "totally unacceptable," but also that "Israel is a state, and has the right to exist as a state, and its security has also to be protected."

Liberal MP under fire over Israel

Australia - LIBERAL [Conservative] MP Craig Laundy has been slammed after alluding to the fact that "the issues that we as a globe confront today" can be traced back to the creation of the State of Israel.
In a speech in the Federation Chamber of Parliament earlier this month supporting a motion to recognise 2014 as the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, the Member for Reid in Sydney's western suburbs, admitted he has never been to the region but that many Palestinians "call my electorate home".
Laundy, who is co-chair of the federal Parliamentary Friends of Palestine, said, "A people were displaced and they have been fighting for their identity ever since. That is it simply. If you look at the Middle East and the issues that we as a globe confront today, we can trace it pretty much back to this region some 60 or 70 years ago. Anyone who stands in this place and argues differently is not being fair dinkum."
Referring to a two-state solution, Laundy said: "I believe this is used as a line to hide behind; it does not get past that. This is an issue we need to attack; we need to be real about it … for the last almost 60 years, the people of Palestine have not had a fair go."
Asked by The AJN if her colleague's opinions represented the party line, Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop said simply: "The Australian government's long-standing position is that we remain committed to Israel and a Palestinian state existing side-by-side in peace and security, within internationally-recognised borders."

BDS Opponents Mobilize Against 'Unrepresentative' UAW 2865 Vote, Citing Bias and Intimidation

Although BDS proponents are hailing the vote as a milestone, since it marks the first time that an American labor union chapter has declared its support for a movement that seeks the elimination of Israel as a sovereign state, their adversaries have countered that the vote was unrepresentative and stained by intimidation. Among the groups supporting the motion was the violently anti-Semitic "Students for Justice in Palestine."
Only 2,189 votes were cast in a ballot in which more than 52,000 union members were eligible to vote. Of those, 65 percent voted in favor of the BDS resolution. UAW 2865 said that in addition, "1136 members pledged to personally adhere to the academic boycott."
"This was far from a fair process," said Jonathan Kummerfeld, a member of Informed Grads, a group of rank-and-file United Auto Workers (UAW) 2865 members who formed to oppose BDS in their Union. "Over the past several months, the Union leadership invested thousands of dollars, together with the Union's institutional and human resources to promote a 'yes' vote."
Kummerfeld emphasized that BDS opponents were denied equal opportunities in making their case within the union, in flagrant violation of union rules. "The Union wrote and disseminated thousands of words in favor of BDS and refused to send members a single paragraph from the opposition," he said.
UCLA student Philippe Assouline said that BDS advocates intimidated their opponents during the vote. "The polls were often staffed by pro-BDS campaigners. One union member tried to have me forcibly evicted because I opposed BDS even though I was abiding by all the rules. Meanwhile pro-BDS campaigners were everywhere," Assouline recounted.

An analysis of two recent BDS campaigns and their implications

In the Concordia ballot, out of 35,000 undergraduate students eligible to vote, 1276 voted "yes" in support of BDS, while 1067 voted "no." 237 voters abstained. Mathematically, this means that only 3.6 percent of the overall student body voted "yes." From such data, it is impossible to conclude that college students at Concordia support boycotts of Israel. There are two conclusions we make from the data: (1) the vast majority of students don't care about the situation; and (2) the anti-Israel movement at Concordia is stronger than the pro-Israel movement, but neither holds sway over a large portion of the student body. That those who support BDS were more likely to vote, and that the pro-BDS side was more active in campaigning and rallying support, are demonstrated in assumptions #1 and #2. Only 7.3 percent of students even bothered to make their voices heard, and of those who chose a side, only 54 percent supported BDS. Basically, BDS won a slim majority of a very small minority — hardly a comfortable win for people who consistently brag about having a broad public consensus on their side.

Putting Lipstick on the BDS Pig

The BDS (boycott, divest, sanction) movement targeting Israel has had more success in the Kafkaesque confines of the modern American university than in the real world. Yet even in the academy, where both the rule of law and basic constitutional rights are heavily curtailed and anti-Semitism is tolerated if not fostered, it has begun to lose battles. That's because a few principled American academics still support academic freedom, and make their argument convincingly. Yet now another group of leftist academics is offering a way to target Israel while maintaining a façade of academic integrity.
The group is a leftist organization called the Third Narrative, which seeks to replace the prevailing anti-Israel narrative on the left with their own anti-Israel narrative, which they consider morally superior. It's as though one Illinois governor is claiming to be less corrupt than one of his predecessors. Fine, but let's remember just how relative your morality is here.
The Third Narrative's mission statement criticizes the overheated anti-Israel rhetoric of the left, but still wants the left to take aim at Israel:

Jewish MP in Britain says he's received multiple death threats

A member of Britain's Parliament said he has received death threats because he is Jewish.
Lee Scott, the Conservative lawmaker of the Ilford North constituency, said he has received five death threats in the past year.
On Tuesday, during a debate on anti-Semitism in Parliament, Scott detailed some of the abuse, including an incident in which a caller told him he should be "stoned to death."
The lawmaker said that he first received a threat after the last election in 2010, when two people called him a "dirty pig" and threatened to kill him.

4-year-old Okla. boy puts quarter in vending machine, gets Nazi ring

The little boy in Tulsa was expecting a tiny toy, instead he got a symbol of immense hatred.
And then his mother started shouting.
Leona Kelley says she went a little nuts after she gave her son a quarter for the vending machine at the front of a Family Dollar store and out popped a ring with the Nazi insignia on it.
"You don't want to know what my reaction was," she told KOKI-TV. "I just started yelling at the store people like 'what the mmmm is this!' I'm like 'why is this here?'''
The plastic ring bore an eagle with a swastika in its talons, which was known as The Parteiadler, the emblem of Hitler's Nazi Party during World War II.

ZOA asks Scholastic to address omission of Israel from map in children's book

The book, "Thea Stilton and the Blue Scarab Hunt," was published by Scholastic as part of the children's series featuring the Geronimo Stilton character. Scholastic has called the omission of Israel from the map "inadvertent," and the company confirmed that it will cease the shipment of the current edition of the book while it is being revised and reprinted.
But in its Dec. 10 letter, ZOA asked Scholastic to take additional steps to address the situation, including: "(1) investigate how this omission occurred and why; (2) suspend relations with the book's author, illustrator and Italian publisher until the investigation is completed and those responsible are identified; (3) once the investigation is completed, terminate relations with those responsible for omitting Israel from the map; (4) ensure that Scholastic's editors and proofreaders have the requisite experience, competence and attention to detail to prevent such errors and omissions from recurring; (5) issue accurate replacement to those who have already purchased the book omitting Israel; (6) conduct a thorough review of Scholastic's other books to verify their accuracy, and (7) issue a public apology and a public statement reflecting all the steps that Scholastic will be taking to remedy the incident and prevent it from recurring."

Czech home owners find Jewish belongings from WWII

House owners rebuilding their attic in the Czech town of Terezinhave found photos, shoes and other possessions of Jews forced into a ghetto there under Nazi rule, a heritage project said on Thursday.
Terezin (Theresienstadt), a fortress and garrison town built at the end of the 18th century, was used by the Nazis as a transit camp for Jews rounded up in Czechoslovakia and deported from elsewhere in Europe. They were held in the ghetto until they could be transported to camps farther east.
Nearly 160,000 Jews went through Terezin. Most perished either there or in the death camps of Nazi-occupied eastern Europe. The camp remained in operation from autumn of 1941 till its liberation in May 1945 The discovery of the objects, some of which bore their owner's names, was disclosed by the Ghetto Theresienstadt project, which is funded by German and Czech sponsors.
"The unexpected finds such as these suggest that an abundance of precious legacies from the ghetto period are still waiting to be discovered in buildings throughout Terezin," the group said in a news release.

Woman Who Survived Auschwitz Concentration Camp Because Nazis Ran Out of Gas Turns 101

Klara Markus, from Sighetu Marmaţiei in northern Romania, survived three Holocaust concentration camps before the Second World War ended. The mother-of-two was a prisoner in Dachau and Ravensbruck before being sent to Poland's notorious Auschwitz death camp.
Shortly before the evacuation and liberation of the Auschwitz camp in January 1945, Markus was sent to the gas chambers. She was 30 years old at the time and weighed around 70 lbs, Daily Mail reported. She recounted the tale of how she survived that day.
"I was chosen towards the end of the day with a large group of other women and we were made ready for the gas chamber," she said. "But when they put us inside and went to turn the gas on, they found they had run out. One of the guards joked that it was our lucky day because they had already killed so many they didn't have any gas left for us."
"God was watching over me that day," she added.

Anne Frank Statue Dedicated in Buenos Aires

A statue of Holocaust victim and diarist Anne Frank was dedicated in Buenos Aires Wednesday, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported.
The statue, an exact replica of one located in Amsterdam, where Anne and her family hid during World War II, was inaugurated in the Kingdom of Netherlands Square in the Puerto Madero district - a popular tourist destination in Buenos Aires.
The Buenos Aires City Government and the Dutch Embassy in Buenos Aires together with the Anne Frank House and Museum of Buenos Aires - host to permanent exhibitions and educational programs since 2009 - dedicated the statue sculpted by artist Jet Schepp.
About 300 students from both Jewish schools and Buenos Aires public schools attended the ceremony.

US 'in conversations' to free Alan Gross, Obama says

President Barack Obama said the United States has been "in conversations" about trying to free American-Jewish contractor Alan Gross from a Cuban jail.
"We've been in conversations about how we can get Alan Gross home for quite some time," Obama told Jorge Ramos of the Florida-based Fusion television network, a sister to ABC.
Obama said the conversations were through a "variety of channels," but did not say whether that includes the Cuban government.
"We continue to be concerned about him. We think that he shouldn't have been held in the first place," Obama told Ramos.

Agritech firm SCR acquired for $250 million

Israeli dairy tech firm SCR, a pioneer in cow monitoring systems, has been bought by US giant Allflex. According to reports, the American company paid $250 million for the Netanya-based company. Allflex acquired 100% of SCR's shares, which were held by Israel's Tene Investment Funds.
Commenting on the sale, SCR CEO Yariv Avisar said: "The acquisition will allow us to find new opportunities in the area of milk production and allows us to expand to new markets and develop new products."
Established in 1976, SCR has developed systems to monitor cow behavior, enabling farmers to anticipate illness, ensure that cows are eating properly and determine when cows are in heat, so that farmers know the ideal time to inseminate their animals. The data is collected using tags equipped with sensors, which transmit the information to a database in the cloud.

Israel donates $10 million to UN Ebola fund

Israel on Thursday donated $10 million to the UN's Ebola aid fund.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman decided on the move, with his office saying it "reflects Israel's commitment to assist African nations dealing with the difficult epidemic."
Israel has also set up three field hospitals in disease-ridden areas in recent months, and has dispatched health specialists who help treat victims and guide the local population on recommended practices to stop the illness from spreading.

An Israeli app for diabetics goes global

An Israeli medical device is making inroads into the $12 billion diabetes monitoring and insulin delivery market.
There are hundreds of glucose meters on the market – needed by diabetics to measure their blood sugar levels and determine how much insulin they need to administer – but the Dario system is one of just a few that uses smartphones to manage the meter itself.
"Diabetics are very community-minded and share information and knowledge in forums via social media and other methods, and we see a lot of photos of people using the system, with very positive reviews about how much more convenient and easy it is than alternative systems," said Erez Raphael, CEO of Dario maker Labstyle Innovations.

Israel becomes charter member of elite 'digital government' club

Israel is one of five founding countries in a new UK-sponsored project to encourage the adoption of digital tools and systems to improve public services.
Along with Britain, South Korea, Estonia and New Zealand, Israel kicked off the D5 (for Digital Five) forum this week in London, with countries sharing their experience and expertise in digital governing.
The group plans to eventually expand its membership, but for now, the five were chosen because they are, according to the UK and international experts behind the effort, the "most digitally advanced countries in the world."

Love and persistence amid the Kassams

Laura Bialis found love, and the subject of her latest documentary, "Rock in the Red Zone," in Sderot, the southern town on Israel's periphery that has been barraged with Kassam rockets for the last 14 years.
It was during her fourth trip to Israel that the 41-year-old filmmaker, born and raised in Los Angeles, discovered the intensive music scene that has developed in Sderot over the course of many years. She also came across Sderock, a bomb shelter music studio, and its manager, musician Avi Vaknin.
Seven years later, "Rock in the Red Zone," which premiered at the Haifa Film Festival in October, will be screened in Sderot, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem this month.
Bialis is now married to Vaknin, and they're the parents of a four-year-old daughter.