RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/20/editorial-a-back-channel-to-riches/

President Obama’s campaign promise of an “all of the above” energy policy has vanished more quickly than his promise to enable everyone to keep a favorite doctor or a preferred health plan.

Settling into his second term, Mr. Obama has dropped the pretense of a balanced view of energy. He’s raising barriers to affordable fuels, such as oil, coal and natural gas.

Email messages made public as part of a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency shed light on how EPA officials are working closely with radical environmentalists to coordinate messaging, determine locations for public hearings and help gather public comment to beat the drum for expanded regulations.

The documents show that the Sierra Club and the Environmental Defense Fund schemed with EPA officials to attack natural gas in 2012. Regional EPA administrator James Martin emailed the general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund of the advantage of setting up hearings in Denver.

“One last point in its favor,” he wrote, “it will make Roy Palmer nervous.” Mr. Palmer is an executive with Xcel Energy, a leading natural-gas utility in Colorado.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/21/editorial-union-thuggery-in-philadelphia/

Burning down a church strikes most Americans, including dissenters and nonbelievers, as a crime beyond comprehension. But the FBI last week provided the evidence to charge 10 members of a Philadelphia ironworkers union with torching a Quaker church.

Calling themselves “Those Helpful Union Guys” or “THUGs,” they sabotaged a nonunion construction site two years ago at the Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting House.

In a scene out of “The Sopranos,” the violence against these peaceful churchgoers was designed to send a message to the neighborhood that this would happen to them, too, if they hired nonunion labor. Welcome to the city of brotherly hate.

At the request of the U.S. attorney, a grand jury indicted members of Ironworkers Local 401 for conspiracy, assault, arson and related crimes.

“While unions have the right to legally advocate on behalf of their members, my office will not tolerate the conduct of those who use violence to further union goals,” promised U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger. “Union officials and members who commit arson, destroy property, use threats of physical harm, and engage in other acts of violence to extort victims on behalf of their union need to be criminally prosecuted.”

Unfortunately, union violence is fairly commonplace but rarely prosecuted. Because of a quirk in U.S. law, those who engage in such thuggery often get away with it.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/nobel-laureate-shechtman-eyes-presidency/ After receiving the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2011, world-renowned Israeli scientist Dan Shechtman is now eyeing the presidency. In an interview with Channel 1 Friday, Shechtman said he sees himself as a candidate for the position. “I think I can change things for the better in this country,” he said. “I’m doing it […]

http://www.israelnarrative.com/ http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/

RE: PROFESSOR SCHECHTMAN-

Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman has won the 2011 Nobel Prize in chemistry, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Wednesday.The Academy honored Shechtman for the discovery of “quasicrystals” – patterns in atoms which were thought impossible, adding that Shechtman’s discovery in 1982 had fundamentally changed the way chemists look at solid matter. (October 2011)

Fast forward- Lecture in Sweden on February 19, 2014

“Nobel Prize winner, Dan Schechtman, candidate to be Israel’s next president visited Sweden to give a lecture.

At the end he was asked about Israel’s attitude to her Arab population.In response he asked if it were true that Finns constituted about 10% of Sweden’s population.

He then asked if Finnish is an official language in Sweden as Arabic us in Israel? Negative answer.He then asked if there were any programs in Sweden to enable the Finnish community to develop? Again, a negative answer.

Professor Schechman then enlightened his audience of the special projects in Israel for our minority populations.Surprising how hypocritically critical some superior-minded people can be in Europe.”

For more on Professor Schechtman’s presidential bid see here

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2014/02/david-singer-kerry-oblivious-to-demise.html

US Secretary of State John Kerry and the US State Department continue to cling to the illusion that the Palestinian Authority still exists – despite PLO insistence that it does not following this Decree on 3 January 2013:

Decree No. 1 for the year 2013

On the use of the name of the State of Palestine and its emblem on letterheads, seals and related official documents

President of the State of Palestine

Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization

Based on the Statute of the Palestine Liberation Organization

And after reviewing the Fundamental Law of 2003, as amended

Based on the Resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations No. GA 11317, deciding to upgrade the status of Palestine to the status of observer state in the United Nations Organization.

Based on the recommendations of the Palestinian Committee in charge of the steps to be taken in this regard, and based on the powers vested in us, and in conformity with the public interest,

We decided the following:

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Israeli doctor discovers new bacterium. (Thanks to Nevet www.broadview.org) Dr. Itai Amir of Israel’s Maayanei Hayeshua hospital discovered a new strain of bacteria when examining a patient’s blood culture. Eisenbergiella Tayi assists in digestion and has tremendous scientific importance, according to hospital experts.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/177420#.Uv_E1Pus9-e

Non-invasive blood-flow monitor. CerOx from Israel’s Ornim is the only non-invasive device on the market monitoring blood flow to the brain in patients with severe brain trauma. The CerOx device uses ultrasound and near-infrared light to measure oxygen saturation and prevent brain damage. It has just raised $10 million.

http://www.ornim.com/10-million-fundraising-orbimed-ge/

Treating depression in Sweden. Israel’s Brainsway has installed its Deep Brain Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) systems at Stockholm’s Karolinska University Hospital where they will be used immediately to treat patients with depression. Sweden has one of the highest rates of depression in the world.

http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-brainsway-device-goes-operational-in-sweden-1000917703

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePbkiGuIk_s

Neck device keeps hearts beating. (Thanks to Atid-EDI) Israel’s BioControl Medical has developed the first medical device to treat chronic heart failure using neuro-stimulation. It operates by stimulating the vagus nerve on the right side of the neck. Trials are being conducted at 80 centers in the US, Europe and Israel.

http://www.biocontrol-medical.com/press_item.php?ID=27

Reducing chemotherapy side effects. Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered the cause of mucositis – a devastating intestinal inflammation in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. The problem is Interleukin-1 (IL-1 beta), a protein secreted by the stressed mucosa, which can be blocked.

http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=139129&CultureCode=en
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOG

Green energy from overlooked sources. Israel’s Energy Industries uses local natural resources to implement energy solutions for its customers. Methane from organic waste in Ghana; hot springs for greenhouses in Georgia; solar power for Israel’s Ben Gurion University and Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

http://www.jspace.com/news/israeli-company-turns-overlooked-resources-green-energy/

One of the most innovative companies in the world. Prestigious American magazine, Fast Company has ranked Israel’s Water-Gen number 21 in its list of fifty Most Innovative Companies. Water-Gen has developed a unique patented technology that produces drinking water out of air, plus a mobile water purification solution.

http://israelnewtech.com/2014/02/water-gen-chosen-one-fast-companys-50-innovative-companies-world-2014/

Generating a third of US’s solar power. The 392-megawatt concentrating solar power (CSP) plant built by Israel’s BrightSource Energy is now delivering renewable energy to the California grid. The five-square-mile Ivanpah Solar Energy Generating System in the Mojave Desert is the largest plant of its kind in the world.

http://www.greenprophet.com/2014/02/brightsources-ivanpah-the-worlds-largest-solar-thermal-project-is-live/

Iron Beam is hot topic at Singapore Airshow. Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems publicized its new laser missile shield at Asia’s largest aerospace and defense exhibition. “It’s exactly like what you see in Star Wars. You see the lasers go up so quickly like a flash and the target is finished.” said Rafael’s Amit Zimmer.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/israel-laser-shield-moves-closer-deployment

http://www.nationalreview.com/node/371710/print Slowly but surely President Obama is unwinding, rolling back, and even cancelling his very own Obamacare. A couple of years ago he told Republicans not to mess with his plan. He said he’d veto any changes. But now, in substantial ways, he’s messing with his own plan. By various counts, the president has made […]

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/4746/hezbullah_s_al_manar_tv_says_jews_invented_superman_to_conquer_the_world

The powerful Islamist terror group Hezbullah, which aims to destroy Israel, continues to push anti-Jewish hysteria of the most bizarre kind. But you wouldn’t know it from Western media

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV has recently been pushing propaganda to the effect that the Jews created Superman as part of a plan to control America and then push Jewish goals all over the world, The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has reported.

“[The American Jews] felt rejected by real American society. Therefore, they tried to change society’s opinion of them by inventing cinematic characters that would serve as role models. That’s when it all began. Everybody wanted to be like Superman, the hero from outer space, who could not fit in society as Superman, so he invented a character that was better suited for American society – the feeble, bespectacled Clark Kent,” MEMRI quoted an Al-Manar reporter as saying.

As reported by MEMRI, the segment then moved into a back and forth interview with Professor Farroukh Majidi as follows:

MAJIDI: “If you hit the heart of somebody, the result is short term, but if you hit his brain, then the result is long term.”

REPORTER: “Incidentally, Superman was invented by the Jew, Joe Schuster.”

MAJIDI: “They try to make you believe that what you think comes out of yourself.”

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Into-the-fray-Can-Israel-survive-the-Jews-342116
The vindictive, borderline treasonous malevolence of the Left and the inept, borderline imbecilic impotence of the Right are emerging as the gravest threat to the sustainability of Jewish political independence

The right of return of the Palestinians is an integral part of UN Resolution 194… The moral and political injustice of dispossessing the Palestinians in the past shall not be remedied by creating new injustices
– Avraham Burg, “Say a big ‘thank you’ to Martin Schulz,” Haaretz, February 14, 2014

Liberation from Zionism is not a dirty word…. what lies behind Zionism nowadays are interests related to water, real estate… and a huge army hungering to justify its existence… We have to get rid of Zionism…
– Yitzhak Laor, “Get rid of Zionism,” Haaretz, June 3, 2011

We enthusiastically chose to become a colonial society… engaging in theft and finding justification for all these activities…
– Michael Ben-Yair , “The war’s seventh day,” Haaretz, March 3, 2002

For readers less familiar with the lesser- known protagonists in today’s Israeli socio-political milieu:

Avraham Burg was the speaker of Israel’s parliament, and chairman of the Jewish Agency, son of Yosef Burg, iconic leader of the right-wing National Religious Party that evolved into what is now Bayit Yehudi, headed by Economy Minister Naftali Bennett. Avraham Burg’s mother, Rifka Slonim, daughter of Jacob Joseph Slonim, Ashkenazi rabbi of Hebron, was a survivor of the 1929 Arab massacre of Jews in the city;

Yitzhak Laor is a well-known Israeli poet, author, and journalist, and lectured in the department of literature, Tel Aviv University;

Michael Ben-Yair was attorney-general under the governments of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. In a 2013 Facebook post, Ben-Yair labeled construction of Jewish communities across the pre-1967 lines “the most evil and immoral act since the Second World War,” deeming them worse than the atrocities of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia, the purges during Stalin’s reign of terror and the gory genocide in Darfur.

Bad week for Jewish sovereignty:

The last week or so has been a very bad time for the sustainability of Jewish political independence. It has been even a worse time for intellectual integrity in Israeli politics and a really atrocious time for Jewish solidarity.

Somewhat paradoxically, things got off to a not so bad start last Wednesday, when European Parliament President Martin Schulz gave what was, overall, a rather positive address to a plenary Knesset session that was far more laudatory toward Israel than critical. He was even unequivocally emphatic that “the EU has no intention to boycott Israel.”

But things went seriously awry when Schulz foolishly insinuated that Israel was depriving Palestinians of water, citing wildly inaccurate figures, which he admitted were uncorroborated, and which he had heard in a passing conversation with a Palestinian youth. This incident prompted an irate walkout of the Bayit Yehudi faction.

Of course the “water libel” against Israel is nothing new. Totally unfounded – indeed, outlandish – accusations that it is denying the Palestinians access to adequate water supplies have been leveled against it for years. But in the case of the furor over Schulz’s remarks two points should be made.

Cross-posted from National Review Online, The Corner http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2014/02/iran-nuclear-buildup-and-american-irrelevance The Menendez-Kirk “Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act of 2013” (S. 1881) threatens the Iranian regime with additional sanctions and appears to be the only way to counter the Obama administration’s flaccidity vis-à-vis Tehran. I am skeptical, however, that it can do much good. Like the megalomaniacs in […]