02/19 Links Pt2: “Everyone Agrees”: Second Draft on the MSNM’s Contribution to the Arab-Israeli Conflict; No Hate of Halimi? The French Won’t See Antisemitism for What It Is ~ EoZ

From Ian:

“Everyone Agrees”: Second Draft on the MSNM’s Contribution to the Arab-Israeli Conflict

I have, over the past year, slowly put together a video using my archive of recordings of BBC Global and CNN International’s news broadcasts. It portrays a mindset among journalism that has them “in the name of the ‘whole world’,” misinforming the whole world by reciting Palestinian war propaganda as news. “Everybody knows it’s Israel’s fault” that there’s no peace settlement.

Among other violations of journalistic principles of presenting the relevant evidence, I indict the MSTVNM (mainstream TV news media) for not letting their audiences know what Palestinian leaders – both PA and Hamas – say in Arabic, thus compounding the misdirection involved in highlighting and affirming what Palestinian spokespeople say in English. I therefore include footage generously provided by both Palestinian Media Watch and the Center for Near East Policy Research.

Given the strong claims that I make, I also post two items:
the links to the sources that I used in the video other than BBC and CNN.
my source, that is the logging and transcription of much of the footage from which I drew my material, which includes time stamps.

Anyone who thinks I have unfairly “cherry-picked” my passages is welcome to review the body of material from which I drew them. I think research will confirm that I left out many more examples that strengthen my case (too long or too complicated, so repetitive), and that any counter-examples of the MSTVNM presenting the Israeli side offer neither the open endorsement of the journalists (that so often accompanies their presentation of the Palestinian position), nor at any point, their repetition in the journalists own words.

Everyone Agrees: The BBC and CNN on UNSC Resolution #2334 and Kerry’s Speech

No Hate of Halimi? The French Won’t See Antisemitism for What It Is

In taking stock of this monstrous event, the French authorities focused primarily on Traore’s psychological state, allowing reports of his supposed mental frailties to seep into the press. Irritatingly, they never addressed the question of how someone who was allegedly stoned and in a state of hysteria still had the presence of mind to climb from one building to another.

Certainly, the psychiatrist, Dr. Daniel Zagury, who interviewed Traore, concluded that he had indeed engaged in an antisemitic attack while under the influence of drugs. At the same time, he emphasized that Traore was not sufficiently intoxicated to be unaware that he was inflicting torture and then murder on a defenseless woman. Moreover, Zagury pointed out the Islamist-inflected antisemitism embedded in Traore’s labeling of Halimi as “Satan,” noting that the idea that “the Jew is on the side of evil, of the evil one” is a common antisemitic theme.

But Zagury also observed that by going through the process of a trial, Traore was at risk of a “delusional relapse.” That was enough for the magistrate, Ihuellou, to remove the charge of an aggravated hate crime.

As things stand, Traore will not be tried for murdering Halimi because she belonged, as her brother William Attal put it, “to the Jewish people.”

Sarah Halimi’s Jewish affiliation will be, at most, a subsidiary element in a trial that will become a cautionary tale about drug use, rather than the antisemitic hatred that has established itself as an integral part of the culture of France’s Muslim immigrant communities. If the French judiciary continues refusing to see what the executive branch — all the way up to President Macron — sees all too clearly, future grandiose assurances that antisemitism is fundamentally alien to French values won’t be worth the paper they’re written on.

The British activist who went from radical Islam to staunch Israel ally

In the summer of 2001 Maajid Nawaz traveled to Jerusalem for the first time to visit the Al Aqsa mosque. He journeyed via Jordan, so desperate was he not to set foot in what he considered “Israel proper.”

“I pretty much would describe my views as typically anti-Semitic and typically anti-Israel,” he recalls. “I denied the legitimacy of the State of Israel and believed that it had no right to exist and that the caliphate would one day come to… liberate the land and return it to Muslim dominion.”

Still only in his early 20s, Nawaz, the child of a middle-class British home, was a university student and rising star activist in Hizb ut-Tahrir, a revolutionary Islamist organization founded in Jerusalem in 1953.

But shortly after arriving in Alexandria to continue his studies, his activities on behalf of the group — which seeks to resurrect and recreate the caliphate in Muslim-majority countries and impose its strict interpretation of Sharia law — landed him in an Egyptian jail. Nawaz would spend five years as a political prisoner before being released and returned to the UK in 2006.

In Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s grim prisons — notorious for their widespread torture and mistreatment of inmates — Nawaz began a journey which would radically change his views and his life.

IsraellyCool: The House of Hate That Carl Bildt

Carl Bildt, former Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs and former Prime Minister of Sweden, is now the Co-Chair European Council on Foreign Relations. He is also still an extreme hater of Israel.

As expected @netanyahu is on the warpath. Compares Iran nuclear agreement with Munich 1938. Does not seek peace. #msc18 #MSC2018 pic.twitter.com/qYSRmrKQX4
— Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) February 18, 2018

Yes, Iran obviously sent a drone into Israel airspace. Israel regularly violates the airspace of Lebanon and Syria. #MSC18 #msc2018
— Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) February 18, 2018

Here is how he covered the speech of Israeli PM Netanyahu at the Munich Security Conference.
Which begs the question: is he being paid by the Iranians to be evil, or does it just come naturally?

IsraellyCool: Why Israeli PM Netanyahu May Not Be Happy With New Entebbe Movie

A few months ago, I posted a trailer for upcoming film 7 Days in Entebbe. At the time, I remarked it looked great, and nothing in the trailer suggested it will paint the terrorists sympathetically.

Yep, just watched it again and hold by that assessment.

Although, according to this article, some people – including Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu – may not be pleased with it, for other reasons.

The Israeli Prime Minister has always maintained that his brother played a heroic role in a historic 1976 hostage crisis, but director Jose Padilha’s drama tells a different story.

When the Focus Features thriller 7 Days in Entebbe makes its world premiere in Berlin on Monday, it is certain to draw the ire of one of the most prominent world leaders.

That’s because the film, which chronicles the 1976 Israeli rescue mission of a hijacked Air France jet en route from Tel Aviv to Paris, sheds new light on the events that claimed the life of Benjamin Netanyahu’s older brother.

For decades, the Israeli Prime Minister and his family have held to a version of the events, in which Yonatan “Yoni” was the key hero who ensured the rescue of all but four of the 106 hostages and was killed by a terrorist from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine at the end of the raid. But in the film, Yoni (Angel Bonanni) plays a less significant role in the mission and is shot by a Ugandan soldier earlier in the mission (the hijackers had diverted the jet to Uganda where then-dictator Idi Amin welcomed them).

“It’s not a narrative that the Israeli Prime Minister is going to like at all,” says historian Saul David, whose book Operation Thunderbolt: Flight 139 and the Raid on Entebbe Airport serves as the basis for Gregory Burke’s screenplay. “He’s put a lot of pressure, even on people who are involved in the story. I mean he hasn’t actually said, ‘Change the story.’ But, ‘This is the way it happened, didn’t it’?”

NGO Monitor: Human Rights NGO Employee Praises Terrorists on Social Media

According to an article in Makor Rishon (January 26, 2018), Murad Jadallah, a field researcher working for the Israeli non-governmental organization (NGO) Yesh Din, tweeted praise of the terrorists Sameer Kuntar, Yihye Ayash, and Hassan Nasrallah. The article also details how the NGO employee shared a photo of himself posing with Salah Hamouri (June 29, 2013) – a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist responsible for planning the assassination of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Chief Rabbi of Israel.

Yesh Din’s website describes Jadallah as a “field researcher” but provides no further details.

Jadallah’s Twitter account has been closed. Below are screenshots of relevant tweets.

Until recently, Murad Jadallah also worked as a legal researcher for the Palestinian prisoners NGO Addameer, one of the primary organizations active in campaigns aimed at delegitimizing the State of Israel’s justice system. The organization advocates on behalf of Palestinians prisoners convicted of terror offenses, including those guilty of planning terror attacks and the murder of innocent civilians, referring to them as “political prisoners.” Furthermore, Addameer is an “affiliate” of the PFLP terrorist organization (as designated by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel). Several of the NGO’s employees were convicted by Israeli courts for membership in the PFLP.

NGO Monitor: World Health Organization and NGOs Misrepresent State of Gaza Health

On February 13, 2018, Human Rights Watch (HRW), along with Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Amnesty International, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I), issued a joint statement condemning Israel’s procedures for granting access for Gaza residents to Israel for medical treatment. The groups cite a December 2017 World Health Organization (WHO) document that claims that 54 Gazans died while awaiting approval to travel to seek medical attention in Israel or in the West Bank. The WHO paper does not provide a source for this figure.

This NGO statement inaccurately and disproportionately blames Israel for these deaths, and largely ignores the centrality to this issue of Palestinian terrorism and Israel’s resulting legitimate security concerns
1. Questions on WHO Data

Seven of the WHO’s monthly updates for January-November 2017 make direct reference to fifteen total Gazans who passed away while waiting to travel outside of Gaza for medical treatment in 2017. The remaining four monthly reports make no mention of similar deaths, strongly suggesting that none occurred. WHO provides no explanation or source as to the large discrepancy between its monthly publications and its annual statistics.
WHO provides no methodology for claiming that there is direct causality between the deaths and the lack of a permit.
The monthly figures include at least one incident where the patient was waiting for “financial approval for referral out of Gaza,” a function performed by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and not Israel.
Additionally, the July update refers to a patient who died “awaiting referral out of Gaza,” without identifying whether he was seeking treatment in Israel or in Egypt.
The WHO’s December report directly contradicts earlier statements in the UN’s July 2017 Gaza funding appeal, which clearly notes permitting issues are the direct result of the PA delaying or suspending payments and referral approvals

Tony Greenstein is expelled by the Labour Party, but hundreds of cases are long overdue

Labour activist and Palestine Solidarity Campaign founder Tony Greenstein has been expelled from the Labour Party following a lengthy disciplinary process. Mr Greenstein has been expelled from the Party once before but he was allowed to rejoin.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “The National Constitutional Committee (NCC) of the Labour Party has today found that all three charges of a breach of the Labour Party’s rule 2.1.8 by Tony Greenstein have been found proved. The NCC consequently determined that the sanction for the breach of Labour Party rules will be expelled from membership. The Labour Party will make no further comment on this matter.”

According to a copy of the Labour Party’s legal arguments linked to by Mr Greenstein, the three charges all related to comments made by Mr Greenstein on social media and his blog. The first charge related to “repeatedly using ‘zio’ as a term of derision, stating ‘Gay zionists make me want to puke’ and referring to others as ‘Zionist scum’”, the second charge related to abuse including calling Labour MP Louise Ellman a “supporter of child abuse” and the third charge relates to an e-mail sent by Mr Greenstein to the General Secretary of the Labour Party in which he appeared to make a distasteful joke about the Nazis’ so-called “final solution”, their plan to annihilate European Jewry.

The Labour Party’s rule 2.1.8, which was used to expel Mr Greenstein, states: “No member of the party shall engage in conduct which in the opinion of the NEC [National Executive Committee] is prejudicial, or in any act which in the opinion of the NEC is grossly detrimental to the party.”

French Jewish group accuses Israel of causing anti-Semitism, loses state funding

French officials asked a Jewish group that supports a blanket boycott of Israel to pay back state subsidies that it received to combat racism but had used to accuse the Jewish state of causing anti-Semitism.

The Jewish French Union for Peace, UJFP, received in 2016 more than $22,000 from the General Commissariat for Equality in France, an inter-ministerial body set up by the government in 2014 to combat racism, the conservative news website Causeur reported Wednesday, based on data collected by the NGO Monitor watchdog group in Israel.

UJFP used the money to make a series of 10 videos comprising interviews with activists affiliated with the group. The introduction to each video contains a picture of a banner advertising the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, a separate banner accusing Israel of stealing Palestinian land, and images of Palestinian flags. The videos had text slides stating they are sponsored by the commissariat.

Calling for a boycott of Israel is illegal in France, where doing so is a form of incitement to discrimination or hate.

Jerusalem Error Corrected in The Sunday Times

The Irish edition of The Sunday Times (paywall) reported on calls within Ireland to recognize a Palestinian state. The story referred to a visit by the Irish Foreign Minister to Israel in January:

But why would such a meeting take place in Tel Aviv rather than Israel’s capital where its government is located?

It wouldn’t.

In fact, as his own department’s press release makes clear, Irish FM Simon Coveney met Netanyahu in Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv.

We do not know whether this error was a result of a knee-jerk inability to acknowledge Jerusalem as Israel’s capital or just a simple mistake.

Serial BBC failure to report rocket attacks comes home to roost

The same statement (together with the claim that “a rocket from Gaza fell near a house”) appeared in an article titled “Israel Gaza: Air strikes follow bomb blast on Gaza border” which replaced the previous one on the BBC News website’s Middle East page on the morning of February 18th.

While the “correspondents” who made that statement were not identified, it is of course significant that throughout 2017 BBC journalists based in Jerusalem ignored the vast majority of missile attacks that were launched from the Gaza Strip and that two of the three attacks that were reported were attributed – as in this report – to ‘rising tensions’ following the US announcement recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. In late 2014 and throughout 2015 the majority of attacks launched from the Gaza Strip were not reported in English and in 2016 the BBC ignored all but one attack. The four attacks in 2018 which took place before this latest one were similarly ignored.

It is hence unsurprising that BBC journalists describe the Gaza border area as “generally quiet” despite the fact that – as noted by the ITIC in a summary (Hebrew – see p. 42) of last year’s terror attacks – during 2017 there was a 50% rise in rocket fire against Israel compared to the previous year.

As has been noted here on several occasions in the past, the fact that the BBC routinely under-reports terrorism against Israel – including missile attacks – leads to audiences and BBC journalists alike being unable to put events into their appropriate context when Israel is obliged to respond.

BBC News Channel apologises for HMD broadcast errors

In a report aired on January 25th on the BBC News Channel the BBC’s Religion editor Martin Bashir referred to Holocaust Memorial Day as about to be “celebrated” two days later and misquoted Britain’s Chief Rabbi, claiming that he said that “our silence would be to mourn the loss of those six thousand Jewish men, women and children…” [emphasis added]

Mr Stephen Franklin submitted a complaint to the BBC concerning those inaccuracies and received a reply including the following:

“Thank you for contacting us regarding the BBC News Channel’s ‘Afternoon Live’ on 25 January.

We understand you feel our Religion Editor Martin Bashir used insensitive language to describe Holocaust Memorial Day and misquoted the number of Jewish victims.

During this timeframe Martin described events leading up to Holocaust Memorial Day and the people involved in the commemorations.

Please be assured, we strive to present accurate and relevant information throughout our news service. Reporters closely follow these guidelines while providing distinctive descriptions. They often deliver items under pressure and time restrictions, particularly in a live ‘rolling’ news environment.

We regret any editorial oversights but mistakes of this nature can occasionally slip through, despite the best endeavours of our experienced reporters.”

In light of that unsatisfactory response, Mr Franklin submitted a second complaint, to which he received an apposite reply from the Executive Editor of the BBC News Channel.

Promoting a well-worn narrative on the BBC News website

Readers also found promotion of the corporation’s standard mantra on ‘settlements’ which – in spite of ‘due impartiality’ requirements – fails to inform audiences of the existence of legal opinions that do not conform to the BBC’s chosen narrative.

“More than 600,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements built since Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.”

The BBC’s selected framing was further promoted in a photo caption:

“Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have long been a stumbling block to peace deal”.

As readers who bothered to click on the link to the Israel HaYom article upon which this report is based would see, the US president also answered questions additional topics including Iran’s presence in Syria and Lebanon, the JCPOA, relations between Israel and Gulf states and Egypt’s role in the ‘peace process’.

While the BBC apparently did not consider the US president’s comments on those topics interesting or important enough to report, it did go to the trouble of constructing an entire article around the three responses to the twenty questions asked by the interviewer which could be used to once again promote the political narrative the BBC has chosen to adopt.

British woman probed for Holocaust denial at German rally

German police are investigating a British woman for suspected incitement after she questioned the Holocaust during a far-right protest in the eastern city of Dresden.

A spokeswoman for Dresden police says Australian-born Michele Renouf is one of two people being investigated for remarks made at a neo-Nazi rally Saturday commemorating those killed in the 1945 Allied bombing of the city.

Videos of the rally posted online show Renouf saying the only Holocaust perpetrated in Europe was against German civilians. Publicly denying the Nazis’ well-documented murder of six million Jews is a criminal offense in Germany.

Renouf has in the past supported Holocaust-deniers such British historian David Irving.

Dresden police spokeswoman Jana Ulbricht said Sunday that officers ordered the rally dissolved after determining that two speakers had broken the law.

Julian Assange accused of antisemitism again over leaked Wikileaks messages calling reporter “rat” and “Jewish”

Leaked Twitter messages reportedly written by Julian Assange, the controversial founder of Wikileaks, included a disturbing attack on a journalist.

In August 2016, Associated Press journalist Raphael Satter had helped to write a story about the damage done to individuals by Wikileaks’ unredacted disclosures, and when he tweeted about it, Mr Assange reportedly wrote a message in a private Twitter messaging group using the Wikileaks verified Twitter account: “He’s always been a rat. But he’s Jewish and engaged with the ((()))) issue.”

The round brackets refer to a neo-Nazi device called “echoes” whereby they placed Jewish people’s names between three sets of round brackets in order to identify them for targeting. In response, many prominent figures decided to appropriate the device by using it in their own name on Twitter.

Wikileaks previously referred to the round brackets, tweeting in July 2016: “Tribalist symbol for establishment climbers? Most of our critics have 3 (((brackets around their names))) & have black-rim glasses. Bizarre.” Jews are often accused of tribal collusion by neo-Nazis. The tweet was later deleted.

Church leaders blast Iceland’s anti-circumcision bill

The chief official of Iceland’s National Church has blasted the country’s proposed ban on circumcision, saying that if the bill becomes law it will criminalize Judaism and Islam on the Nordic island.

“There is a danger that if the bill will become law, Judaism and Islam will be subject to criminal religious beliefs and that persons who adhere to them will be banned in this country or unwelcome,” Agnes M. Sigurðardóttir said in a report to parliament on the bill for the amendment of the criminal code concerning boys’ circumcision. “All such extremes should be avoided.”

As the draft law stands now, anyone found to have removed “part or all of the [child’s] sexual organs” would be guilty of violating the child’s rights, and would face a six-year prison term.

Sigurðardóttir said she was proud that the country has successfully banned female genial mutilation in 2005, but that a ban on circumcision was different given that it is a wide-held practice around the world and the bill seems to have missed that point.

“It is important that parliament and society should be in a position to discuss this delicate matter in such a way that there is scope for listening to the views of different cultures,” she said. “It is doubtful that the bill will be successful in promoting enlightened discussion.”

Christian O’Connell sends CAA apology for his “Diarrhoea of Anne Frank” Holocaust joke on Absolute Radio, but will he broadcast it?

Christian O’Connell has issued an apology for his distasteful Holocaust joke about “The Diarrhoea of Anne Frank”.

Campaign Against Antisemitism received complaints from listeners who heard Mr O’Connell’s show on Absolute Radio on 8th February. During the show, Mr O’Connell introduced a segment called “Update a classic” in which Mr O’Connell and his guests changed a word in the title of a classic book to comedically bring it up to date. Mr O’Connell’s suggestion was to rename the Diary of Anne Frank: “The Diarrhoea of Anne Frank”, to tittering from his guests, Richie Firth, Emma Jones and Glenn Moore. Mr O’Connell explained: “Diarrhea! She daren’t let go in case the Germans heard her.”

Whilst in hiding, Anne Frank and her family did indeed have to avoid flushing the toilet to avoid the noise giving away their hiding place. They were eventually discovered and all but Anne Frank’s father died of disease in concentration camps or were murdered.

Anne Frank died during a typhus outbreak in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp not long before it was liberated by British soldiers. She had been described as bald and shivering, and caring for her sister Margot who was in an even worse condition. Her sister fell from a bunk and died. Anne Frank died days later.

It is unsurprising that many people were upset by Mr O’Connell’s distasteful Holocaust joke.

Menorah that belonged to Auschwitz victims returns to grandson

A menorah that belonged to a couple killed during the Holocaust has been returned to their grandson, after his father gifted it to good friends of his parents before he left Germany.

Raphael and Alma Flatauer were killed in Auschwitz in 1943 but their children survived, having previously fled the country.

Their son, Hans, escaped to England, while Kurt left Germany for British Mandate Palestine in 1934, gifting the menorah before he left to their neighbor, Heinrich Grunge.

This month, that menorah made its way back to Kurt’s son, Guri Palter – the fruits of an investigation launched by two German reporters who became intrigued by an empty house in the city of Osnabruck.

The dilapidated grand villa stands empty and conspicuous in an upscale part of the city. The so-called “stumbling blocks” or memorial plaques outside the house signal that Jews once lived in the house before they perished in the Holocaust, but it appears as though nobody set foot in the house for the past 20 years.

HBO to dramatize Stuxnet cyber attack in upcoming drama

Officially, Israel has made no claim of responsibility for the Stuxnet virus which attacked Iran's nuclear installations in 2010. Unofficially, experts have long believed that the Jewish state played a significant role - along with the US - in developing and deploying the cyber weapon.

And now the dramatic tale will make its way to HBO, which is developing a miniseries based on the real-life story. According to Deadline, the series will be titled simply Stuxnet, and is based on the 2016 documentary Zero Days by Alex Gibney.

Gibney will reportedly direct the dramatic adaptation of the film that was ordered by HBO and Carnival Films, which is best known for Downton Abbey. The filmmaker confirmed via Twitter that the HBO adaptation is taking place but did not say if he was involved.

Gibney's 2016 documentary made waves at the time for its reporting of many details surrounding the cyber attack.

Zero Days included interviews with Israeli officials Amos Yadlin - the former head of IDF Military Intelligence Directorate, Minister Yuval Steinitz and reporter Yossi Melman.

One drug could treat Alzheimer’s, MS, Crohn’s and more

Could one drug effectively treat incurable inflammatory diseases such as Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis as well as neurodegenerative maladies such as Alzheimer’s disease?

Yes, says Prof. David Naor, speaking with ISRAEL21c at the Lautenberg Center for General and Tumor Immunology in Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem.

All these diseases, he explains, are associated with pathological amyloid proteins that could be neutralized by the 5-mer peptide Naor has spent the last 10 years researching and developing with the support of the university’s Yissum technology-transfer company, the Israeli government and Spherium Biomed of Spain.

It will take several million dollars to start clinical trials of Naor’s novel, IP-protected peptide — a synthetic protein snippet that significantly reverses the damaging effects of inflammatory diseases and Alzheimer’s disease in mouse models, and restores the learning capacity of Alzheimer’s mice.

Israeli App Gives Cancer Patients Access to Support, Medical Information During Treatment

Founded in 2015 by Israeli entrepreneurs Eliran Malki, Irad Deutsch and Ohad Rubin, who each lost relatives to cancer, Belong is a free patient navigation app for cancer patients and their support network throughout their treatment regimen.

The proprietary big-data platform allows Belong users to connect, receive and share clinical information anonymously and discuss issues in public and private chats with doctors, professionals and patient communities. Machine-learning technology enables Belong to send out personalized alerts including information about relevant clinical trials.

Claiming to be the world’s largest digital cancer patient platform despite its staff of fewer than 50, Belong has partnerships with the American Cancer Society and Colorectal Cancer Canada (CCC), providing closed forums for members of these organizations.

The CCC forum, launched to coincide with Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month in March, updates members on news, events and activities, and gives them a streamlined way to contact the CCC for personal guidance and assistance.

“Belong’s unique app and advanced technology provides all the resources cancer patients need in one place. Our partnership will improve the quality of life for people living with cancer, and increase patient engagement, opening a modern, effective and up-to-date communication channel that enables real-time interaction,” said CCC President and CEO Barry D. Stein.

In rugged Negev desert, Israeli scientists plan for mission to Mars

Deep in a forbidding, cratered and rock-strewn wilderness, six Israeli pioneers tried their hand this month at life on Mars.

On Sunday, they took off their helmets and sucked in the highly breathable air of Israel’s Negev desert, where they had spent the last four days simulating a mission to the Red Planet.

The mission was the first of several planned “expeditions” to Mars, held in the D-MARS (Desert Mars Analog Ramon Station) facility near the town of Mitzpeh Ramon, in the rugged Ramon crater.

The experiment, one of several analog Mars missions around the world, was meant to help plan for a future manned mission to the Red Planet as well as boost Israel’s mostly nascent space program, which currently consists of tech know-how, a number of satellites, and a lot of dreams.

The initiative is funded by the Israeli Space Agency and the Israeli Ministry of Science, Technology and Space.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.