[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 02/05 Links Pt2: Did Sky News Presenter Justify Anti-Semitism?; UK '14 Record year for anti-Semitism

From Ian:

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Anne Bayefsky: How the UN Mixes Anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, and Israeli War Crimes

At the end of the anti-Semitism meeting – which was informal because formal agreement by the General Assembly to address the subject would have run smack into Arab and OIC intransigence –a joint statement was issued. The lack of formality meant it could not take the form of an official UN resolution. It does not explicitly mention Israel, but it is tangible. Fifty states signed on to what could be called the New York declaration on anti-Semitism.
Tellingly, 90 percent of the signatories are fully free democracies (on the Freedom House scale), while only 45 percent of all UN member states are fully free. The countries that participated in the event but refused to sign the commitment to combating anti-Semitism, not only included Lebanon, Turkey, Qatar and Russia, but, disgracefully, Brazil, India, Mexico, New Zealand, South Korea, South Africa, and Switzerland.
Less than a week later, at the UN Holocaust commemoration held on January 28, 2015 in New York, listeners heard the gut-wrenching story of one of the few surviving twins of the Nazi Dr. Mengele's hideous experiments. Jona Laks concluded her account of the horrors of Auschwitz and surviving the Nazi death marches, only to be turned away from her former home in Poland, with this: "In 1948, an orphan, and completely alone, I made my way…to the soon to be born State of Israel. I began to rebuild my life. Only then, I began to get the feeling that I was a human being again, with a name and no more just a number."]
It was a precise and authentic message understood long ago by the majority at the United Nations, but no longer.

Did Sky News Presenter Justify Anti-Semitism?

During Thursday morning's review of the press on Sky News, the two studio guest reviewers made this point perfectly clear, particularly Jonny Gould. But what about Sky News presenter Eamonn Holmes' reaction?
Jonny Gould: "The fact that it is happening around the Gaza conflict and as a consequence of it might be an understanding as to how to tackle it, but it can never be justification.
Eamonn Holmes: "It can, if you are Palestinian."
Jonny Gould: "If you are an anti-Semitic Palestinian, yes."
What exactly did Eamonn Holmes mean? The context of the conversation was specifically dealing with anti-Semitism in Britain. Would Holmes find it justifiable for a Palestinian living in the UK to carry out an anti-Semitic act against a British Jew?
Or is he simply stating that Palestinian anti-Semitism against Israeli Jews is understandable and even justified?

Why Do Palestinians Believe Crazy Things?

We have not seen any polls that asked Palestinians whether they believe there was a Holocaust. But a May 2009 poll by the University of Haifa found 40% of Israeli Arabs believe the Holocaust was a hoax. Note that this astonishingly high number was among Arabs who have been far more exposed to modernization and Western thinking. It seems likely that the number of Palestinians who live in Judea-Samaria or Gaza and deny the Holocaust is even higher.
Why do Palestinians believe this stuff? We leave it to sociologists, historians, and political scientists to analyze the religious and cultural factors that encourage conspiratorial thinking. We merely take note of the fact that such thinking is widespread among the Palestinians, and the implications for Israel are significant.
Hamas, in Gaza, and the Palestinian Authority, in part of Judea-Samaria, already each have a de-facto state. Hamas lacks one major thing: total control of its borders. Israel's partial blockade prevents them from acquiring tanks and jet fighters. The PA, for its part, also lacks one major thing: a full-fledged army.
So when the international community, the Jewish left, and the State Department demand that Israel lift the Gaza blockade and give the PA a sovereign state, Israelis have to ask themselves: Who would be in charge? Would reasonable, rational people run the State of Palestine? Or would the tanks and planes be in the hands of people who – by an overwhelming majority – sincerely believe crazy things, whether about 9/11 or the Holocaust or a dozen other issues?
Wishful thinkers – and there is no shortage of them in the Obama Administration, the pages of the New York Times, and the offices of various "peace" groups – look at the rest of the world and think that everyone is pretty much "just like us." But the polls say otherwise.

UK 'sees record' of anti-Semitic incidents in 2014

A record number of anti-Semitic hate incidents were reported in Britain last year, fueled by the conflict in Israel and Gaza, a charity that monitors such crime reported on Thursday.
The Community Security Trust (CST), which records anti-Semitism and provides security for Britain's Jewish community, said that 1,168 anti-Semitic incidents were reported over 2014.
It was more than double the 535 incidents seen in 2013, and the highest annual total seen since CST began records in 1984.
London police said a similar increase was recorded in their crime records, and that patrols had been increased in key areas.
British Home Secretary Theresa May called the report "deeply concerning" and said: "No one should live in fear because of their beliefs or who they are. I am committed to working with Jewish community leaders and law enforcement to tackle anti-Semitism. Britain without its Jews would not be Britain… There is still some way to go, but we are listening, and we are taking robust action against anti-Semitism wherever we find it."

Muslim Spokesman Denies Sending Vile Anti-Gay Tweets To British Journalist

Asghar Bukhari, founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK, has denied subjecting British journalist Douglas Murray to a string of homophobic insults from a pseudonymous Twitter account. The account, @eastlondoner786, called Murray a "bum bandit" and "coward gay prik" who "hides behind his screen… must be a homo fing." It also sent him a message reading "gays spread aids."
With a string of abusive, poorly-spelled messages, which include remarks such as "this country went downhill as soon as bum bundits where allowed a say" and "i think msot people hate guys its only normal too. i bet if uk did a anoymonous poll 99% will agree its disgusting. i do," the anonymous account has been taunting Murray since December 2014.
A tipster told Breitbart News last week that longtime Murray antagonist Bukhari was behind @eastlondoner786. The account, in common with Asghar Bukhari, loathes Murray to the point of obsession and is foul-mouthed and abusive to its interlocutors, including historian Tom Holland, to whom the account wrote: "Rich coming from scum who fink being gay is NORMAL."
It equates Zionism with Nazism, as Bukhari does, uses the phrase "Israhell," as Bukhari has before on Twitter, identifies itself as being from east London, as Bukhari is, and has tweeted Bukhari's articles a number of times. The account does little besides tormenting Murray and a few other figure such as the Quilliam Foundation's Maajid Nawaz.

Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer Meets Senior Jewish Democrats Amid Fears VP Biden and Others Will Skip Netanyahu Address to Congress

Ron Dermer, Israel's Ambassador to the United States, has met with senior Jewish Democrats on Capitol Hill following reports that Vice President Joe Biden and other leading Democrats may skip Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress next month amid growing tension between the Israeli Prime Minister and the White House.
Dermer, Israel's American-born envoy to the U.S. since 2013, met with Reps. Jerry Nadler, Nita Lowey and Steve Israel of New York; Jan Schakowsky of Illinois; Sander Levin of Michigan; and Ted Deutch and Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, Politico reported.
The seven met for about an hour in Israel's office in the Rayburn House Office Building. The congressman's office confirmed that the meeting took place and that it was "spirited."
"I organized the meeting with Ambassador Dermer, and I invited key Congressional Democratic supporters of Israel to attend," Rep. Israel said. "There were a wide range of views that were discussed, but one thing we all agreed on emphatically is that Israel should never be used as a political football."

Poll: Americans Support Netanyahu Speaking to Congress

A report at Politico says "dozens of House Democrats are privately threatening to skip" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's March 3 address, while Vice President Joe Biden has yet to commit to attendance. They might want to rethink their position, as a new Rasmussen poll finds considerable public support for Netanyahu's speech.
According to Rasmussen, likely voters support Netanyahu's address to Congress over the objections of President Obama by a margin of 42 to 35%, with 23% undecided. The poll also found 44% of voters worried that relations between the U.S. and Israel have deteriorated during Obama's presidency, while only 9% think the relationship has grown stronger. The overall approval numbers for Obama's policy on Iranian nukes, the topic Netanyahu will address, looks better for the president, but it's still a close shave — 38% support, 35% disapprove. Unsurprisingly, the internals for all of these questions find strong Democrat approval and Republican disapproval for Obama, although the Republican disapproval is noticeably stronger.
Some of the popular opinions on these topics could be described as superficial — in addition to partisan loyalty, there will be people who fail to see anything wrong with the leader of a major U.S. ally delivering a speech to Congress and either have not heard the White House's complaints about broken protocols or consider such objections petty.

Why is Thomas Friedman Worrying About Anti-Semitism?

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who has repeatedly claimed that Israel controls Washington, is warning that if Israel's prime minister addresses Congress next month, "anti-Semites will claim Israel controls Washington."
Does Friedman really believe that? Or is he cynically using Jewish fears of anti-Semitism to stir opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?
In an emotion-laden February 4 column, Friedman mustered every argument in his arsenal against the invitation to Prime Minister Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress. It would be "churlish," "reckless," and even "dangerous," Friedman thundered. He revealed that he has "polled many of [his] non-Jewish friends…and they don't really like this."
The notion that non-Jews dislike the invitation is one of the major arguments of Friedman's column. He cites it again and again, most notably when he declares that if Israel's prime minister goes ahead with the address, "anti-Semites, who claim Israel controls Washington, will have a field day."
Yet it is Friedman himself who has repeatedly given them that field.

Friedman Spreads Anti-Semitic Libels About Netanyahu Speech

But Friedman, who is at least smart enough to seem to harbor some doubts about whether Obama's diplomacy can succeed, isn't satisfied with asserting that Netanyahu is making the mistake. Instead, he uses this controversy to return to one of his favorite hobbyhorses: the way pro-Israel political donors, such as billionaire Sheldon Adelson, are trying to buy Congress in a way that runs contrary to U.S. interests. Claiming, without backing the charge up with reporting, that Adelson hatched the idea is one thing. He even says someone should have told Netanyahu and Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer "anti-Semites, who claim Israel controls Washington, will have a field day." The fact that it is Friedman who has floated this charge in the Times when he complained about the ovations Netanyahu earned the last time he addressed Congress is unmentioned in the column.
Even worse, Friedman then goes on to write that if diplomacy fails and the U.S. is forced to use force to address the Iranian threat, the Netanyahu speech will serve as a smoking gun proving that it was Israel that manipulated America into what might prove to be another disastrous war.
Of course, Friedman frames this as helpful advice intended as advocacy for what is in Israel's best interests. But by raising the specter of anti-Semitism as well as of what must be considered nothing short of a potential blood libel, Friedman is tipping his own hand.

Who s 'chickensh*t' now, Tom Friedman?

Friedman writes:
Netanyahu's concerns about Iran are not without merit. But his aggressiveness is also not without critics in Israel.
Again, the reverse discrimination mode – Netanyahu is criticized in Israel which means – yes, Mr. Friedman, which means what? It means that Israel is a democracy, it means that we are a mature society to debate such issues and it also means that if Obama has opponents in the US who criticize him and his policies, what should Israel think?
Friedman is illogical in building a case for Netanyahu not to explain to the US Congress his case for an Iran policy that will have disastrous results not only for Israel, the Middle East and Europe but America as well.
Exactly who is a chickensh*tter, Tom, Bibi or Barack?

British Anti-EU Party Roiled Over Opposition to Kosher Slaughter, Parliamentary Candidate Threatens to Resign

A British parliamentary candidate has threatened to resign from from the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) over its support for a ban on slaughtering animals without pre-stunning, which would mean the outlawing of Jewish and Muslim methods of preparing meat fit for kosher and halal consumption.
Jeremy Zeid, a Jewish UKIP supporter who is standing for the party in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Hendon, north-west London, described the announcement as a "monumental mistake," the Jewish Chronicle reported.
"If it's not reversed, if they insist, if they enforce pre-stunning, I would have to leave. If there was a ban on shechita and brit milah (the circumcision of 8 day old male Jewish infants,) I would resign immediately," Zeid said. "I support shechita, it is moral and probably the most ethical method of slaughter. If I don't stand up for fellow Jews, who else is going to?"

Yisrael Beytenu opens Charlie Hebdo 'outdoor library' in Tel Aviv to protest ban

Banning Yisrael Beytenu from distributing copies of French magazine Charlie Hebdo's "survivors issue" is a violation of its right to freedom of expression, the party said Thursday, opening an "outdoor library" in which people could read the satirical weekly.
Yisrael Beytenu plans to appeal to the High Court on Sunday, in response to Central Election Committee chairman Justice Salim Joubran's Wednesday-night injunction against them distributing the magazine.
The party planned to give out copies of Charlie Hebdo, because the Steimatzky decided to only sell them online, and not in stores. The bookstore chain's decision came after MK Masoud Gnaim (UAL) said "the country and the [Steimatzky] chain will be responsible for the results" of selling Charlie Hebdo copies, and that doing so would be crossing a redline as far as Israeli Arabs and their leadership are concerned.
Joubran's ruling was a response to a petition by MK Ahmed Tibi (Ta'al), who wrote that distributing the magazines violates the law against giving gifts as part of an election campaign, and warned that doing so would likely disturb the peace, because it offends Muslims by mocking their religious symbols.

Abbas and Charlie Hebdo: More Hypocrisy

Last month, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas was, along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a prominent participant in the Paris unity rally after the Charlie Hebdo massacre and the slaughter at a kosher market. At the time, I noted the immense hypocrisy in having a figure who has engaged in Holocaust denial and who has also, even in the last few months, engaged in anti-Semitic incitement participate in such at an event. But weeks later we are learning that the disconnect between the symbolism of Abbas's visible role in that unique moment and what he and his government are doing is even greater than we thought.
As today's New York Times reports, Abbas has punished an editor of a PA publication that printed a cartoon that some readers thought might depict the Prophet Mohammed.
Mr. Abbas said it was necessary to take "deterrent measures against those responsible," Wafa reported. Ali Khalaf, an editor at the newspaper, Al-Hayat al-Jadida, said on Tuesday that the cartoonist and the editor in chief of the paper had been suspended.
The cartoonist, Muhammed Sabaaneh, claimed that his drawing was meant to depict a Muslim who follows the message of Islam, not to depict the prophet himself. It was instead, "a symbolic figure for Islam and the Muslim's role in spreading light and love for all humanity." But if he thought that sort of thing would be accepted in a Palestinian media that routinely publishes articles and cartoons that demonize Jews and Israel, he was mistaken.

Stand With Us: StandWithUs Canada Applauds Trent University Students for Defeating BDS on their Campus Jan. 29th, 2015

StandWithUs Canada congratulates the student leaders at Trent University who brought a successful motion to reverse a bigoted, discriminatory policy of the TCSA (Trent Central Student Association) to boycott Israel. We also applaud those student union members who saw through this racist and divisive policy and voted to overturn it.
The anti-Israel policy precluded "cooperation, collaboration, or joint projects with Israeli academic and cultural institutions in any form including sharing intellectual resources or property with Israeli universities, offering Study Abroad opportunities for students of Trent University, or hosting Israeli Academics, unless these institutions acknowledge Israel as an apartheid state."
The final vote on January 29, 2015: 47 For, 28 Against, 14 Abstained to rescind this policy, which blatantly discriminated against Israel - singling out one country, one group of people, for this condemnation.
We are so proud of this diverse partnership of students - Jewish, Christian, young people of all faiths - who stood together to challenge the bigotry manifesting itself on their campus.

How John Green Failed to Understand the Israel-Palestine Conflict

Crash Course – an educational YouTube channel founded and run by brothers John and Hank Green. The channel has over 2.6 millions subscribers and more than 178 million video views. John Green is also a New York Times bestselling author, widely known for his books "The Fault in Our Stars" and "Looking for Alaska".
After watching this video that was uploaded last week, I wrote this letter to John Green in defense of Israel.
In conclusion, I felt that by omission, wording and tone you took a side: the Palestinian side. John, you have been a role model to me. I have looked up to you as a writer, as a person who values family and good morals, and as an educator who understands the power of knowledge. This video does not eclipse that, though it highly dampens it.
Nothing I have said here has been with the intent of belittling the suffering of the Palestinians – that is very real and I don't deny that. I simply felt that anyone watching your video with no prior opinion on the matter would surely come away supporting the Palestinian side because the Israeli side was not represented as well as it could have been.
You are an educator and your video is presented as being objective. Thus, those watching your video will believe that it is indeed an objective explanation of the conflict. I think I have pointed out significant facts that show you weren't objective, and certain facts were omitted in order to promote an opinion.

Harvard, Israel, and Academic Freedom

In 2002, a group of Harvard students and faculty circulated a petition calling for the university to divest from corporations that do business with Israel. Lawrence Summers, then Harvard's president, rejected the petition. In response to today's renewed calls to boycott Israel on college campuses, including Harvard, and the American Studies Association's boycott of Israeli universities, Summers addresses the issue once more:
The response of most academic leaders to [the BDS movement] has . . . been of a generic nature, going to issues of avoiding the politicization of universities and not to the highly questionable nature of the specific acts. . . .
There are two problems with this line of argument. First, it is too broad. It is far from clear that academic boycotts are always inappropriate. Should American universities have cooperated fully with Nazi universities and loyal Nazi scholars in the late 1930s? . . .
Second, it misses the point. For the same reason that those proposing divestiture [in 2002] were advocating something that was anti-Semitic in effect if not intent, the academic boycott of Israel and universities and scholars from no other country is also anti-Semitic in effect and quite likely in intent. It [seeks] to demonize only the Jewish state. It [is] unrelated to the expertise of the American Studies Association.

Megyn Kelly & Ingraham Discuss Hamas on Campus


Anti-Israel activists threaten to silence LGBT voices at UC Santa Cruz

This weeks events at UC Davis highlighted the increasingly shrill intolerance of anti-Israel activists and their efforts to drown out opposing voices on California campuses. The exposure of the anti-Semitism at the heart of the BDS movement, the taunts of "Allahu Akbar"directed towards Jewish students and the poisoned campus climate have had a chilling effect that extends well beyond the boundaries of the bucolic Davis campus.
No, Davis is not alone in this struggle.
Tyler Gregory, the Director of Programs and Development at A Wider Bridge was recently invited to UC Santa Cruz by the staff of Hillel. The program was scheduled for the Lionel Cantu LGBT Center on campus. According to Tyler, his objective was " to engage LGBT students with Israel through the experiences of Israeli LGBT people – their challenges and victories, their fight for equality, and their desire to live and to love."
Tyler Gregory has documented how "students and faculty, unsuccessfully attempted to use intimidation to cancel the event", and failing that, threatened to drown out their voices.
No, it was not the Westboro Baptist church trying to silence the voices of LGBT activists. It wasn't a far right homophobic group, motivated by religious fervor. It wasn't a neo-fascist group.
Had it been, perhaps this story would have been more widely heard,
It was anti-Israel activists that threatened to silence LGBT voices at UC Santa Cruz

Leftists in European Parliament torpedo meeting with visiting IDF Major General

A planned meeting of Maj.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the coordinator for government activities in the territories, in the European Parliament was canceled on Tuesday shortly before it was to take place because of objections by left-wing politicians.
Mordechai, in Europe to discuss closer cooperation with the EU, a body extremely critical of Israel's polices in the West Bank, was scheduled to meet with the European Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Israel, a body responsible for "maintaining and developing Parliament's contacts and relations with the Knesset."
Italian MEP Fulvio Martusciello, the chairman of the group, sent a note inviting some members of the parliament to meet Mordechai, saying his visit presented an "excellent opportunity to carry an open dialogue, as well as raise issues of mutual interest."
The planned visit, however, triggered opposition.

UK: Students Set Off Fire Alarm to Disrupt Israeli Ambassador

British students launched fierce protests outside the London School of Economics Tuesday, Channel 2 reports, during a speech being given by Israeli ambassador to Britain Daniel Taub.
"Shame on you!" protestors shouted. "Free Palestine!"
One student bore a placard stating, "murderers not welcome at LSE."
About 100 students attended Taub's speech in a prestigious hotel in central London, according to Channel 2, with the talk entitled "Israel and the Middle East: challenges ahead." The event was held in partnership with the LSE Students' Union (SU) Politics and Forum Society and the LSESU Israeli Society and chaired by Professor Toby Dodge.
A group of 5-6 young men walked out, apparently setting off the fire alarm as they did so, temporarily disrupting the event. Within three minutes, however, it was shut off.

Ferguson comes to Nazareth and calls it "occupied Palestine."

In their riots that destroyed their town they made Ferguson look like Gaza.
Some of them traveled to the Christian town of Nazareth in the north of Israel which they called "the Arab capital."
In a video one black protester said, "We came here to Palestine to stand in love and revolutionary struggle with our Palestinian brothers and sisters. We come to a land that has been stolen by greed and destroyed by hate. We come here and we learn about laws that have been co-signed in ink and written in the blood of the innocent, and we stand here today with the people who courageously struggle to resist the occupation. People continue to dream and fight for freedom. From Ferguson to Palestine the struggle for freedom continues."
They were in Nazareth in Israel's Galilee. They call themselves revolutionary freedom fighters. They need to get themselves an education, and possibly a map.

Vaccines, Racists, and the Discriminatory Standard

Yes, in the United States, government often penalizes those who don't vaccinate their children. It's been that way for a long time. Why, then, hasn't US immunization policy been described as racist in the pages of major newspapers? You see, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have both relayed the absurd charge that Israel's policy penalizing families that don't immunize children amounts to anti-Arab discrimination.
Again and again, The Times has treated as credible the comically absurd list of supposedly discriminatory laws promulgated by the anti-Israel advocacy group Adalah. Israel has "50 discriminatory Israeli laws," a recent Op-Ed claimed, citing Adalah. Same thing on the news pages. Wall Street Journal fact-checkers also gave a pass to the same charge.
But even a cursory examination of the charge would show that Adalah's list includes, along with other completely innocuous statutes, Israel's law that withholds certain benefits from families (of any ethnicity or religion) that don't immunize their children.

Is a BBC documentary about Hamas' child soldiers upcoming?

The video below shows footage taken at a youth camp for 15 to 21 year-olds recently organized in the Gaza Strip by Hamas' Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades.
Among the few Western media outlets which reported that story were the Washington Post and the Telegraph. However, a tweet from Lyse Doucet suggests that the BBC is also going to cover the topic at some point.
Whether or not this is part of the documentary on children in the Gaza Strip about which Doucet was interviewed by the Guardian last September is not clear. It will however be interesting to see whether the opportunity is used to inform BBC audiences about Hamas' use of child soldiers – including during the most recent conflict – and whether or not it will be clarified that one of the UN conventions signed by the Palestinian Authority in April 2014 was the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, according to which no soldier should be under the age of 18.

Tunisian tennis player withdraws rather than face Israeli

A Tunisian player retired from a match after winning the first set in a French tournament Wednesday, citing an injury that keeps him from facing an Israeli in the next round.
Malek Jaziri quit after winning the first set 6-3 against sixth-seeded Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the first round of the Open Sud de France.
Tournament organizers said in an email to The Associated Press that Jaziri, who called for a trainer twice during the match, "suffered again from an elbow injury he picked up" at the Australian Open.
Had Jaziri beaten Istomin, he would have played Israel's Dudi Sela in the next round.

Outrage at US auction house over sale of Holocaust memorabilia just days after 70th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz

This 'hugely offensive' collection of Holocaust memorabilia is set to go under the hammer in the US just days after the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
The auction has been branded 'deplorable' for including more than 75 Holocaust-related items such as a wrought metal street sign proclaiming 'Jews not allowed', a guide book on how to gas Jews and an anti-Semitic children's book.
Other items up for sale include a pair of spectacles once owned by vile Heinrich Himmler, the Nazi commander responsible for the building and running of their concentration camps, and the visor cap worn by a death camp officer.
A solid wooden disc with the words 'He who buys from a Jew is a national traitor' carved into it also features, as does a death certificate issued for Jewish man at Austrian death camp Mauthausen.

Wearable device slows brain tumor growth

A novel wearable device, already used on nearly 2,000 patients to slow the growth of cancerous glioblastoma brain tumors using electrical fields, is now being tested to judge its effectiveness against other types of solid tumors.
Novocure Chief Science Officer Eilon Kirson tells ISRAEL21c that the 15-year-old company's Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields) technology is being tested on ovarian and pancreatic cancer patients and patients with cancers that have spread to the brain.
At the same time, Novocure is involved in trials to see if TTFields can extend the life of even more patients with glioblastoma, the most common form of primary brain cancer in adults. Approximately 10,000 new cases are diagnosed in the United States each year.
"Electric field-based therapy had never been used to treat cancer beyond very local therapies," Kirson explains. "Treating entire parts of the body this way is a completely novel concept and technology, and there is no other one like it. Novocure owns the entire IP portfolio for the science and the product."

Coming soon – the world of driverless cars

Within a few years, you may be traveling in a car with nobody at the wheel. Whether you call it an autonomous, driverless or self-driving vehicle, this automobile of the near future needs a host of complex components, some now under development at Israeli companies and academic laboratories.
"You will be able to go to, let's say, Paris or Tokyo, rent a car, swipe a card and tell it where you want it to go. You won't have to know the area or the traffic rules," says Prof. Zvi Shiller, founder of the department of mechanical engineering and mechatronics at Ariel University and director of its Paslin Laboratory for Robotics and Autonomous Vehicles (RAV Lab).
The biggest benefit will be fewer traffic accidents than we have today – causing more than 30,000 casualties annually in the US alone — by eliminating human error in driving. But that requires a very, very smart car.
In the RAV Lab, Shiller and his students are developing algorithms that will automatically modulate speed and handling in response to constantly changing, unpredictable road conditions. Driverless cars will need this capability to meet future safety regulations.

Stopping the elephant slaughter

On one side are the bad guys: poachers who slaughter elephants for their ivory, capture African Grey parrots and other prized animals, and strip forests bare. On the other side are the good guys: park rangers who risk their lives to protect Africa's endangered animals and natural resources.
Hoping to tip the scales in this fierce war are people like Nir Kalron, a 36-year-old Israeli working to strengthen the continent's environmental security.
In vast expanses of misty jungle and arid savannah, Kalron's Maisha Consulting conducts anti-poaching and anti-trafficking intelligence and investigations, installs security technology, and trains rangers to more effectively clamp down on criminal activity.
In cooperation with African governments and NGOs such as the Wildlife Conservation Society and World Wildlife Fund, Maisha's seven-person team teaches the rangers intelligence analysis and data management; operational discipline; weapons and tactics; aviation; first aid; dog handling; sea rescue; Krav Maga hand-to-hand combat; arresting suspects and stopping vehicles.

Krav Maga pilgrims take down Brazil's anti-Israel bias

Sitting in a Tel Aviv hotel lobby last week, Marcia Almaida recounted how she managed to escape a knife attack. She wasn't talking about one of the recent stabbings of Israeli citizens by Palestinian terrorists in Israel and the West Bank, but rather about Rio de Janeiro, where she lives.
"There's lot of crime in Brazil. It's safer here in Israel," said Almaida, a Krav Maga athlete who was wrapping up a 10-day trip to Israel together with 45 other practitioners of the self-defense system initially developed for the Israeli military.
Almaida, 31, credited her Krav Maga physical and mental training with heightening her awareness of her surroundings and preparing her to quickly run away from the knife-wielding assailant she encountered in her hometown.
Krav Maga focuses on real-world situations and emphasizes threat neutralization through aggressive simultaneous defensive and offensive maneuvers. While it draws upon techniques from a variety of sports and martial arts, such as boxing, wrestling and judo, its origin is in the street fighting techniques that Krav Maga founder Imi Lichtenfeld used as he defended the Jewish quarter of Bratislava, Czechoslovakia from Fascist thugs in the 1930s. Following his immigration to Israel in the late 1940s, Lichtenfeld introduced Krav Maga to the IDF, and in 1964 he began training civilians.

Israelis to dedicate largest solar field in East Africa

Gigawatt Global will officially dedicate the 28,360-panel solar field, built in the shape of the continent of Africa, on land owned by the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village, a kibbutz-style orphanage for victims of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
The project, which is part of the United States government's Power Africa Initiative, an attempt to increase access to electricity throughout all of Sub-Saharan Africa, was constructed in just 12 months.
Government officials and aid workers in Africa believe that improving electricity access is the best way for countries to develop economically.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, around 70 percent of the population, 600 million people, do not have electricity, according to Power Africa.

Israeli tech will reinvent the microwave, says start-up

An Israeli start-up is getting ready to give your microwave a major upgrade. Using RF (radio-frequency) technology, Goji Food Solutions has developed a microwave-style oven that its developers promise will be used for much more than heating up food.
"Microwaves were never ideally designed for cooking," said Gabi Zada of Goji. "Microwaves 'shout' at food, emitting rays in any and every direction. RF tech can be controlled and regulated, so the cooking process is precise and perfect every time."
Imagine, said Zada, an oven where you could prepare a typical dinner – baked salmon, potatoes, a couple of vegetables, and even rolls – in a single oven all at the same time, and come back in 15 minutes to find everything cooked perfectly. The salmon would be steamy on the inside, and have just the right firmness on the outside; the vegetables would be crisp and tasty, the potatoes done to a turn, and even the rolls would be perfectly moist and tasty. All this, despite the fact that each of these items require different cooking times, methods, and levels of heat.

Algemeiner Honors Joan Rivers, Donald Trump, Yuli Edelstein at Second Annual 'Jewish 100′ Gala

The Algemeiner paid tribute to the memory of iconic entertainer Joan Rivers on Tuesday night at its second annual 'Jewish 100′ Gala in New York City. Melissa Rivers, Joan's daughter, accepted the posthumous award on her mother's behalf.
Other honorees at the star-studded event, which drew a crowd of 500 to the Capitale on Bowery, included philanthropists Joseph and Deborah Aronow, tycoon Donald Trump and speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edelstein. Both Edelstein and Rivers received the paper's Warrior for Truth Award, last received by Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, and Trump received the Liberty Award for his contributions to US-Israel relations. The evening also saw the unveiling for the first time of the second annual 'Jewish 100′ list of "the top 100 people positively influencing Jewish life."
The evening was hosted by Fox News' Heather Nauert and attendees included artist Ron Agam, actor Ron Rifkin and Israel's ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor. The event's Honorary Chairman was Elie Wiesel and it was chaired by philanthropists Bob and Amy Book, and Neil and Sharon Book.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/05/2015 06:00:00 PM