[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 07/04 Links: Saudi prince to visit Israel; London neo-Nazi protest met with large counter-rally ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Saudi prince to visit Israel in unprecedented overture

In an unprecedented overture, Saudi Arabian prince and wealthy media tycoon Talal Bin Waleed announced Thursday that he is planning a seven-day-trip to the Jewish State and urged all the Arab nations in the region to "strive for a more peaceful, prosperous and homogenous Middle East," according to Saudi Arabian news media.
"All my Muslim brothers and sisters must understand that it became a moral imperative for all inhabitants of war-torn Middle-East, namely Arabs, to desist their absurd hostility toward Jewish people," Okaz reported the prince saying, an Arabic-language Saudi news agency.
"My sovereign, King Salman has instructed me to open a direct dialogue with Israel's intellectual (community), building amicable ties with our Israeli neighbors," Bin Waleed added.
Bin Waleed also mentioned in his statements that he hopes his visit would herald a new beginning in "peace and fraternity" between Israel and its Arab neighbors, stressing the importance of fostering better relations between each other's military and intelligence communities.
The Saudi prince said that he plans to pray at the Al-Aksa mosque located on top of the Temple Mount when he visits Jerusalem's old city, the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest site in Islam.
It was not clear when the Saudi prince would embark on his visit to Israel.

London neo-Nazi protest met with large counter-rally

A neo-Nazi rally in central London on Saturday afternoon was met with a large counter-protest by Jewish and anti-racism groups.
Only about two dozen people showed up for the neo-Nazi demonstration ostensibly against the “Jewification” of London’s Golders Green neighborhood — where the protest was originally scheduled to be held — and Shomrim, the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood watch group. The area has a Jewish population of 40 percent.
Authorities moved the rally to Richmond Terrace in Westminster instead, fearing public disorder.
The new location was secured by some 200 police officers who cordoned off an area for the neo-Nazis.
They displayed Palestinian and Confederate flags and waved several national banners, including those with the “White Pride” slogan.
The neo-Nazis were soon outnumbered by counter-protesters, numbering some 200 according to media reports, and shouting slogans such as: “Nazis off our streets” and “We are black, white, Asian and we’re Jews, and there’s many, many more of us than you,” according to a report in the Evening Standard. (h/t Effect)

Ben-Dror Yemini: Saying one thing and doing another

There is something very despairing in the free world's war against global jihad and the terrorism it produces. We should pay close attention particularly to France, a country that has turned into a terror victim and does not shy from making blunt statements about it, including a rare recognition that this is a "war of civilizations." Normally, European leaders are afraid of even uttering this factual truth. Not in France, though. They stress there, and rightly so, that this isn't a war against Muslims, but against jihad. And they don't try to hide it.
The problem is that France says one thing and does the complete opposite. The most important of the boats that attempted to reach the Gaza Strip this week was the Marianne. All of the useful idiots were on it. The boat sailed with the aid of the French NGO Platform for Palestine (Plateforme des ONG françaises pour la Palestine). Practically all of the organizations under this umbrella are a part of the BDS campaign against Israel.
This platform, as the umbrella organization, issued a call for boycott against Israel and led the campaign to pressure the French mobile company Orange to cut all ties with Israel. The problem is that this organization gets funding from the French government through the French Development Agency (AFD). Is this how you fight radicalization?
Gaza flotillas, as we've previously learned, are a result of instructions coming from the Hamas regime, which has been recognized as a terror organization by the European Union. The Hamas charter openly calls for the annihilation of Jews. And not just Jews. Hamas television also airs propaganda that says: "We must kill the Jews, we must kill the Christians, we must kill the Communists - every last one of them."

Michael Lumish: Saudi Arabia to Go Nuclear

This story has largely gone under the radar in the western press, particularly the American press, and reading most of the reports, so far, this all sounds relatively benign. The National Interest even claims that the deal is “good news” while blandly noting that “a friendlier Saudi-Russian relationship raises some concerns for the United States.”
My suspicion – and it is only a suspicion – is that the Russian-Saudi deal is, at least in part, a reaction to the nuclear deal that United States President Barack Obama hopes to shortly conclude with Iran. Analysts are predicting that Obama’s Iran nuke deal will fuel a nuclear arms race throughout the Middle East and, in all likelihood, this is what we are looking at. It could be that the primary motivation of the Saudis is simple economics. By building nuclear facilities for domestic energy consumption they can sell more oil on the international market. What is also quite likely, however, is that Saudi Arabia, like Iran, has cast its eye on the potential for a nuclear weapon. It seems highly unlikely that Sunni-controlled Saudi Arabia, not to mention Sunni-controlled Egypt, is going to look kindly upon a Shia bomb in the neighborhood.
The Russian-Saudi deal is a preliminary step that will allow Saudi Arabia to begin its own nuclear weapons program. They may not do so, however. It could be that Saudi Arabia, and the rest of the Sunni-Arab world, are perfectly content to see their Shia rivals become the dominant Muslim force in the region, but I would not bet on it.
Ultimately, this development may have dire consequences not just for the Middle East, but the entire planet. Given the instability brought about by the misnamed “Arab Spring” a nuclear arms race throughout the Middle East is potentially disastrous. As such weaponry begins to proliferate within the region there is absolutely no telling whose hands they might end up in. Imagine the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) with nuclear weaponry.

French synagogues batten the hatches after Lyon jihad horror

French police have said that the jihadi attack near Lyon last week was part of a wider terror operation and, as a result, Jewish institutions across the country are taking extra security measures.
Sources say that further terrorist attacks could happen at any moment and that while there are many targets, Jews and Israelis are clearly on the front line.
It is widely understood that the army, the police, industrial facilities and Christian sites also face high threat levels.
Ten weeks ago, French police arrested a jihadist who was about to attack one or several Catholic churches in the Essone area, south of Paris.
In the horrific attack near Lyon, which took place last Friday, Yassin Salih, 35, killed and beheaded his boss, Hervé Cornara, 54, at a parking lot near the Air Products chemicals factory on the edge of Saint-Quentin-Pallavier.
Posing as an Isis (Islamic State) executioner, he placed his victim's head at his feet, shot a selfie and sent it using WhatsApp to a friend who had actually joined Isis in Syria.

UK terror threat: US Air Force base CANCELS July 4 celebrations in Britain over ISIS fears

Organisers at RAF Lakenheath - home to the USAF 48th Fighter Wing - and nearby RAF Mildenhall were forced to pull out of the July 4 celebrations due to "the most current local threat assessments".
Tomorrow's event, marking US Independence Day, would have attracted more than 25,000 visitors to the nearby village of Feltwell in Suffolk, which is also attended by thousands of service members and their families every year.
They were expecting to enjoy displays by the Red Arrows, the RAF Falcons' parachute team, and a show of vintage aircraft flying in the skies as well as live bands and fireworks.
However, due to the fears of the threat posed by Islamic State (ISIS) sympathisers - following last week's Tunisa terror attack and the upcoming anniversary of the London 7/7 attacks - security chiefs cancelled the planned the two-day festival last night.
Colonel David Eaglin, 48th Fighter Wing vice commander said: "While we were certainly looking forward to this year's celebration and hosting the US and UK communities, we have to put public safety first and foremost.

Military Experts: UN Human Rights Council Report on Gaza War Will Encourage Terror

A United Nations Human Rights Council hearing on last year’s war between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas was highlighted by testimony on Monday from three military experts who said that the Council’s recently commissioned report on the war would encourage further terrorism.
The three experts were Col. Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan; Major General Michael D. Jones, former Chief of Staff of U.S. Central Command; and Lt. Col. Geoffrey Corn, the U.S. Army’s former senior expert on the laws of armed conflict.
Kemp’s testimony dealt mostly with Hamas’ tactics, which were designed to maximize civilian casualties. Kemp accused the commision of “validat[ing] and encourag[ing] Hamas’s tactics” by failing to condemn the terrorist group.

US House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Slams UNHRC for Anti-Israel Resolution

Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs Ed Royce (R-CA) lambasted the United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday for adopting a resolution condemning Israel over alleged war crimes during last summer’s Operation Protective Edge.
“This resolution is a black mark on the Human Rights Council,” Royce declared, adding that “it undermines prospects for direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians to resolve their differences.”
Royce questioned the absence of any condemnation of Hamas’ alleged war crimes, which were indicated in the U.N. report but absent from the resolution. He wondered why the resolution failed to mention Israeli attempts to “minimize civilian casualties.”
“Today, the U.N. Human Rights Council kept up its record of bombarding Israel with biased and shameful resolutions. The goal of this international campaign against Israel is to question the democratic country’s right to self-defense to the point of rendering it virtually meaningless,” he said.

In a first, India abstains in vote on Israel’s Gaza op

India on Friday abstained from a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) vote for adoption of a UN Inquiry Commission report on Israel's 'Operation Protective Edge' in Gaza last year, which also calls upon both Israel and Palestine to prosecute perpetrators of war crimes.
While 41 countries (including most of the European Union) voted in favour of adopting the report, five, including India, abstained. The US was the only country to vote against it. Four other countries who abstained were Kenya, Ethiopia, Paraguay and Macedonia.
While media reports in Israel described India's decision as "an unprecedented achievement for Israel'', the MEA here was quick to issue a statement saying there was no change in India's "long standing position on support to the Palestinian cause''.
The NDA government has been hard-pressed to convince people that under PM Modi, it is not giving a new direction to its West Asia policy. The Centre had come under fire in 2014 when it voted in favour of another UNHRC resolution seeking a probe into Israel's Gaza offensive.
This time, the government said it was the reference to International Criminal Court (ICC) — which India doesn't recognize — in the report which had made it abstain. The report also calls upon Israel to cooperate with the ICC.

Clinton: Iran poses ‘existential threat’ to Israel

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Friday said that Iran poses an “existential threat” to Israel, and that she hoped the US and world powers would strike a deal which curbs Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
Clinton addressed 850 people at an outdoor amphitheater at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. The former secretary of state touched on foreign policy and the upcoming deadline for negotiations with Iran over the country’s nuclear program. She said she hoped the US would “get a deal that puts a lid on Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” but cautioned that it was “too soon” to know if that was possible.
Nonetheless, the presidential hopeful said Iran would still pose problems because of its sponsorship of terrorism and the “existential threat” it poses to Israel.

Clinton Hints to Donors: I'll be Better for Israel than Obama

Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic candidate for the presidency 2016, has been hinting to wealthy Jewish donors that she will be a better friend to Israel than President Barack Obama, Politico revealed on Friday.
According to the report, the former Secretary of State has stated to the donors that she would be better for Israel than Obama no matter the result of the Iranian nuclear negotiations.
But, even as donors increasingly push Clinton on the subject in private, they have emerged with sometimes widely varying interpretations about whether she would support a prospective deal, interviews with more than 10 influential donors and fundraising operatives found.
Clinton’s private responses in some ways resemble a foreign policy Rorschach test; donors who see a deal as important to world peace have come away thinking that Clinton shares their perspective, but so, too, do donors who oppose any prospective agreement as compromising Israeli security, noted Politico.
Publicly, she’s expressed support for the negotiating process, which she secretly initiated during her time as secretary of state, but has also said “no deal is better than a bad deal.”
Clinton’s campaign rejected any suggestion that she’s trying to have it both ways on Iran.

Breakthroughs appear in Vienna on Iran nuclear talks

Three major sticking points obstructing world powers and Iran from making an historic nuclear deal appear to have been resolved by their technical experts over the last 48 hours.
The US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany have reportedly agreed with Iran on a mechanism that would allow sanctions to snap back in place should Tehran violate any final nuclear agreement. Instead of restarting automatically, a committee made up of representatives from each nation would vote on whether sanctions should be reimposed in the event of "significant noncompliance."
A majority would decide the vote.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and his delegation remained largely silent from their Imperial Hotel in Vienna through another tense day of negotiations, just blocks away from the Palais Coburg, where the main negotiations are taking place. Kerry and US Secretary of Energy Moniz met with their Iranian counterparts over the weekend.
World powers are negotiating with Iran to cap, restrict, monitor and partially roll back its nuclear program for a finite period in exchange for sanctions relief.

World powers, Iran reach tentative deal on sanctions relief

World powers and Iran have reached tentative agreement on sanctions relief for the Islamic Republic, among the most contentious issues in a long-term nuclear agreement that negotiators hope to clinch over the next several days, diplomats told The Associated Press on Saturday.
The annex, one of five meant to accompany the agreement, outlines which US and international sanctions will be lifted and how quickly. Diplomats said senior officials of the seven-nation talks, which include US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, still had to sign off on the package.
Still, the word of significant progress indicated the sides were moving closer to a comprehensive accord that would set a decade of restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for tens of billions of dollars’ in economic benefits for the Iranians.
Officials had described sanctions relief as one of the thorniest disagreements between Iran and the United States, which has led the international pressure campaign against Iran’s economy. The US and much of the world fears Iran’s enrichment of uranium and other activity could be designed to make nuclear weapons; Iran says its program is meant only to generate power and for other peaceful purposes.

Top Israeli official: Nuke deal will set up Iran to take over Middle East

The prospective nuclear deal with Iran would empower it to take over the Middle East and trigger a regional nuclear arms race, a senior Israeli official warned in an interview published Friday.
Ram Ben Barak, director general of the Strategic Affairs Ministry and a leading candidate to be the next head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, told the Makor Rishon newspaper that “the deal which is about to be signed will allow Iran to decide by itself when it will be nuclear [armed], and that is the most problematic.”
He said the lifting of sanctions would give Tehran “an ocean of money,” allowing it to buy influence across the Middle East and “advance to a position where no one will be able to threaten it and it will acquire control wherever it pleases.”
Ben Barak noted that there is “almost no area in the Middle East today where Iran remains uninvolved: Iraq, where Iranian interests are in line with US interests, Lebanon, where Hezbollah is effectively an Iranian division, and Yemen, which was mostly conquered by Iran.”

Iran ‘at forefront’ of fight against extremism, Zarif claims in video clip

Two weeks after the US State Department reported that Iran’s support for terrorism is undiminished, and as diplomats work to seal a nuclear deal, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday shared a video touting Iran’s fight against Islamic radicals.
In the video posted to YouTube, Zarif argued that Islamist extremism poses a far greater threat to global security than a nuclear armed Iran. He emphasized the need for the West and Iran to “open new horizons to address important, common challenges,” namely the “growing menace of violent extremism and outright barbarism.”
While he mentioned neither the Islamic State nor the United States by name, Zarif said the menace threatening Iran and the rest of the world alike was “embodied by the hooded men who are ravaging the cradle of civilization.”
“Iran has long been at the forefront in the fight against extremism,” he claimed. “I hope my counterparts will also turn their focus, and devote their resources, to this existential battle,” he said.
Zarif’s remarks came on the heels of a US State Department report on terror activity released last month which noted Iran’s “state sponsorship of terrorism worldwide remained undiminished.”

IDF Blog: When Hamas Tries to Establish a Terror Network – We Stop Them

Over the past few months the IDF, ISA and the Israeli police uncovered a Hamas terror cell in Nablus and surrounding villages. The leaders of the cell intended to rebuild a vast terror network in multiple Palestinian cities. Throughout the extensive investigation, 40 Hamas operatives were detained.
The investigation revealed that Hamas had established a command center in Nablus and started working on branching out to cities and villages nearby. The terror organization appointed regional leaders and divided responsibilities amongst them. Hussam Badran (1966), Hamas spokesperson and senior official based in Qatar, lead the establishment of the cell and transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Nablus headquarters.
The money was transferred to the cell as gold and jewelry purchased in Jordan and then smuggled into Nablus. Anan Sabba Ali Fatuch (1971), a Nablus gold trader, facilitated the transfer through his shop which was used for Hamas’ money laundering.
The investigation led to the exposure of an additional terror cell operating from the Farah refugee camp. Members of that group admitted to purchasing binoculars and military night vision equipment that would be used in a future terror attack.

ISIS affiliate in Egypt claims rocket fire toward Israel

Islamic State's Egypt affiliate, Sinai Province, said on Friday in a statement posted on Twitter by supporters that it had launched three Grad rockets towards "occupied Palestine."
Israeli police said earlier they had found rocket remnants in an open area. No damage or casualties resulted.
An IDF source said the missile was launched from the Sinai Peninsula bordering Israel and Gaza. In statement made earlier Friday, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu also asserted that the day's rocket attack had emanated from the Sinai region.
The projectile attack caused 'code red' sirens to sound in communities in Israel's southern Eshkol Regional Council.

Molotov cocktails, ISIS grafitti in East Jerusalem

Security cameras captured a group of Palestinians Thursday, throwing Molotov cocktails at two police squads in Ma'ale ha-Zeitim in East Jerusalem while the neighborhood of Beit Hanina also displayed a disturbing sign supportive of violence - graffiti of the flag championed by ISIS.
The video appears to show police temporarily retreating behind their vehicles without offering any response to the Palestinian attackers. A member of the local neighborhood watch, Joshua Vander, told Ynet such incidents have become every-day occurrences and Thursday wasn't the first time he observed what he called a "weak" response by authorities.
According to Vander, security representatives told him that procedures during such incidents are more difficult during the month of Ramadan and that police are hesitant to respond with crowd control measures without an explicit order form their superiors.

MK Vows to Keep Working Against Israel in Hamas Magazine

Arab MK Jamal Zahalka (Joint Arab List) gave an interview in a Hamas magazine on Thursday, in which he attacked Israel's policies toward the Palestinian Arabs.
Zahalka accused Israel of silencing any voice which contradicts its import and export restrictions to Hamas - the terror group which has lobbed over 3,600 rockets at Israeli civilians in a one-year period alone - in comments to Hamas's Palestine magazine, the official news source for Gaza.
The MK defended MKs Basel Ghattas and Hanin Zoabi (Joint Arab List) for boarding anti-Israel flotillas as a means of protesting "suppression," and vowed that Arab MKs would continue working against the government in which they serve.
Their position on "achieving Palestinian independence and freedom" will not change, he said.
Zahalka then accused Israeli society of "racism" for various comments against Arab MKs' actions.

Hamas on the Temple Mount

Nothing quite like Hamas terrorist supporters on the Temple Mount openly waving their flags during Friday prayers..

Lion cubs stuck on Gaza border

Gaza’s Hamas rulers on Friday allowed a pair of lion cubs en route to a wildlife sanctuary in Jordan back into the Palestinian coastal strip after the animals and their entourage had been stuck for several hours on no-man’s land at a Gaza-Israel border crossing.
Earlier in the day, the cubs were taken from Gaza resident Saed Eldin al-Jamal, who had kept them over a year as pets at his family’s home in the border town of Rafah, and transported to the Erez crossing with Israel.
By the time they arrived at the border, the Israeli side had closed and the cubs remained on no-man’s land after Hamas guards refused to let them back into the Palestinian territory.
But after several hours, Hamas allowed them back in and the cubs’ entourage checked into a Gaza hotel, together with the lions in crates, to wait there until the Israeli crossing reopens on Sunday.
The Israeli security branch responsible for the crossings said the lions and their entourage showed up out of the blue after the crossing had closed and without any prior coordination and preparations, unlike in a previous case involving lions.

Egyptian Justice Minister Invokes Antisemitic Tropes to Damn Terrorists Behind Cairo Bombing

Egyptian Justice Minister Ahmed el-Zend invoked antisemitic tropes in cursing the terrorists behind a bomb blast in Cairo that killed state prosecutor Hisham Barakat earlier this week.
“God Almighty will treat [the perpetrators] as he treats the Jews; they will wander through the land, a day will come where no country will accept them and they will not find a home, since there are no homelands for vileness and wickedness,” said Zend on Lebanese Sada el-Balad TV, according to Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm.
In response, Jewish rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center called on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to demand an apology from the justice minister, who was actually appointed in May this year after his predecessor was forced to resign over class-prejudicial comments.
“Mr. President, in view of Egypt and Israel’s shared interests in the war against terrorism and the long history of the Jewish relationship with Egypt, we feel that the Justice Minister must apologize for his offense to the Jewish people – a statement we believe discordant to Egyptian policy and disrespectful to your own government,” wrote Dr. Shimon Samuels, the center’s director for international affairs.

ISIS: Destroying Egypt’s Sphinx, Pyramids Is 'Religious Duty'

ISIS “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi told followers of his terror group that destroying Egypt’s national monuments, such as the pyramids and the sphinx, is a “religious duty” that must be carried out by those who worship Islam, as idolatry is strictly banned in the religion, according to reports.
UK radical Islamist Anjem Choudary echoed Baghdadi’s sentiments, telling The Telegraph: “When Egypt comes under the auspices of the Khalifa [Caliphate], there will be no more pyramids, no more Sphinx, no more idolatry,” saying that the ancient statues’s destruction “will be just.”
Another Islamist preacher, Ibrahim Al Kandari, agrees that the cultural monuments need to be destroyed to comply with the Shariah.
“The fact that early Muslims who were among prophet Mohammed’s followers did not destroy the pharaohs’ monuments upon entering Egypt does not mean that we shouldn’t do it now,” he told Al-Watan.
The jihadi terror threat to Egypt has steadily increased following the fall of its Muslim Brotherhood regime and the installation of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, who has pledged to rid the country of its radical elements.

Major Jewish Group Offers to Lead Google Team on Tour of Concentration Camps

A leading Jewish group offered to organize a week-long visit to Nazi concentration camps for the team behind a Google smartphone game that included the death camps as points of interest.
“The fact that such as idea would be raised, considered and approved shows that they need to shut off the computer and do some real learning,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The Algemeiner on Thursday. “So if they’re interested, we would be very happy to create an itinerary for them that I think would open their eyes.”
Google came under fire this week after a German newspaper reported that a new augmented multiplayer game developed by one of its start-ups approved the inclusion of the Nazi concentration camps.
In the game, called Ingress, players take on missions to unlock virtual portals and fight for humanity. Ingress adds historic locations to the game after suggestions are submitted by players and approved by staff.
Soon after the uproar, Google apologized for including the Nazi death camps and promptly removed them.

Rioters in Dutch city rail at ‘Jewish murderers’

Dozens of people chanted anti-Semitic slogans during riots that broke out in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood of The Hague over the slaying of a suspect by police.
More than 100 people chanted about “Jewish murderers” on Thursday night in the Schilderswijk, a neighborhood where a handful of Jews live in a Jewish-owned enclave surrounded by project apartments populated by low-income families, according to a report on the The Post Online.
The riots took place at a theater stormed by protesters approximately a mile away from the enclave, the De Telegraaf daily reported.
More than 200 people were arrested since protests broke out in the Schilderswijk over the death of Mitch Henriquez, an Aruban citizen, at the hands of police officers who suffocated him during his arrest at a park.

German NGO organizes 'Rent a Jew' program

The Munich-based European Janusz Korczak Academy launched a “Rent a Jew” project in late June that seeks to create contact between German Jews and non-Jewish Germans.
In a telephone interview with The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, a member of the academy’s board of directors, Eva Haller, said the project has a “provocative name” and aims “to engage young people on the grassroots level.”
“Many people in Germany have not had a chance to meet Jews in Germany,” she said. The German Jewish participants are under 30 and have completed their high school degree. There are approximately 20 German Jews involved in the project and the number will continue to grow, said Haller.
The young German Jews are available to speak before schools, religious groups, and other institutions.
Haller said the stress of the interactions with non-Jews will “not be to clarify religious or political questions, “rather to build interpersonal contacts for young people.”
However, she said, the participants are trained to answer political or religious questions.

Three Israeli start-ups ensuring our online security this year

It’s no secret that Israel’s powerful tech startup scene is taking the world by storm and leading the startup nation. Cutting edge technology continues to cultivate in 2015 and ceaseless Israeli tech startups are sprouting from every corner. Out of the thousands of Israeli startups vying for our attention, only a tiny percentage will become star players on the field.
Security—both online and offline—has always been a top priority within Israel. And nowadays, online security is on everyone’s minds. Indeed, results from a recent Gallup poll show that people fear their online accounts getting hacked more than they fear having their homes burgled.
With this, here are the hottest security-focused Israeli startups that have raised significant rounds of funding and show no signs of slowing down anytime soon. These are the startups to watch out for, the ones whose services will help us sleep better at night knowing our online lives are protected.

Israeli Researchers Say Autism Can be Detected in Toddlers Through Smell

Researchers in Israel have discovered that a non-verbal smell test may be used to detect autism in toddlers, the U.K.’s Daily Mail reported on Thursday.
People might normally inhale deeply when smelling something they expect to have a pleasant odor, and try to limit inhaling air nasally when faced with a foul smell. However, those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) do not make the natural differentiation as others do, according to researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.
“The difference in sniffing pattern between the typically developing children and children with autism was simply overwhelming,” said Professor Noam Sobel from the Weizmann Institute of Science. “We can identify autism and its severity with meaningful accuracy within less than 10 minutes, using a test that is completely non-verbal and entails no task to follow.”
For their research, Professor Sobel and his colleagues measured the smelling responses of 18 children with autism and 18 without who were presented with pleasant and unpleasant odors. The average age of children in the study was 7.
The research showed that children without autism adjusted their inhalation of a foul scent within 305 milliseconds while autistic children didn’t adjust at all, the Daily Mail reported. The study found that the difference in sniffing response was enough to correctly diagnose the youngsters 81 percent of the time.

An Israeli secret agent in King Farouk’s court

At the junction of Jerusalem’s Bruria Street and Ben Gamla, sits Yolande Harmor Square. There stands a memorial plaque, stating, “From 1945, Yolande Harmor undertook activities in Egypt for the Political Department of the Jewish Agency which she performed with great courage and initiative.” But precisely who Yolande Harmor was, and what activities she undertook, remain relatively unknown.
During the 1940s, Yolande Gabbai de Botton — also known as Yolande Harmor —
provided intelligence to the political and military leaders of mandate-era Palestine, often at great personal risk. Now, several decades later, the nature and impact of her extraordinary clandestine life are revealed in a riveting, evocative and sensitive documentary film, “Yolande: An unsung heroine.”
Written and directed by veteran, independent Israeli filmmaker, Dan Wolman, the film received its UK premiere this month during SERET, the London Israeli Film and Television Festival. The film uses a combination of remarkable footage, photographs and interviews with Harmor’s colleagues including key players in the Haganah — some of which had been conducted for an earlier version of the film made by her son, Gilbert de Botton.
“We hadn’t known what she’d done,” says Miel de Botton, Harmor’s granddaughter and the film’s producer. “[All] we knew was that — under the cover of a journalist — she basically helped to form the State of Israel. We weren’t given any details.”

New Animation Marking 39 Years Since IDF Entebbe Raid Features Former Commanders (VIDEO)

A new animated short about Israel’s famed Operation Entebbe in 1976 features narration from commandos who were involved in the daring and successful hostage-rescue mission in Uganda, 39 years ago on Saturday.
The film, produced by Zionism in Animation, tells of the run-up and execution of the Israel Defense Forces mission to rescue the 106 hostages, most but not all of them Israeli, who were captured by Palestinian terrorists aboard an Air France Flight en route from Athens to Paris.
The former head of IDF special ops, Brig. Gen. (res.) Yiftach Reicher-Atir was part of the elite Sayeret Matkal unit tasked with storming the Entebbe airport. He was deputy to Lt. Col. Yoni Netanyahu, a commander of the mission and, ultimately, the only Israeli military casualty in the raid.
In the video, Rechiter-Atir describes a part of the bold operation that involved deceiving the Ugandan army to gain access to the airport terminal where the hostages were being held.