RUTHFULLY YOURS

In yet another controversial decision, the Goldsmiths College Students’ Union has rejected, by a margin of around 60 to 1, a motion to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day and all victims of genocide.

Education officer Sarah El-Alfy urged students to vote against the proposal, rejecting it as “Eurocentric” and “colonialist”.

One unnamed student added that, “The motion would force people to remember things they may not want to remember,” whilst another added argued that as the Union was “anti-Zionist” she couldn’t commemorate the Holocaust.

This follows news that the NUS voted against a motion condemning ISIS and supporting the Kurdish resistance as to do so would be Islamophobic.

The Tab reports that Goldsmiths Student Union President Howard Littler responded by saying, “Someone brought up Israel-Palestine out of the blue but I made a point of information and said I didn’t want to conflate the two,” further commenting that the controversy was just a “storm in a teacup.”

The motion called on the Union to recognise the “unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust, of the other genocides, of totalitarianism and racial hatred,” adding that, “commemorating the victims of genocide, racial hatred and totalitarianism, and promoting public awareness of these crimes against humanity, is essential to sustaining and defending democratic culture and civil society, especially in the face of a resurgence of neo-fascism, racial hatred and neo-Stalinism across Europe.”

Obama’s foolish green agenda interferes with the military’s core mission

The Pentagon’s “2014 Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap,” published last week, demonstrates how thoroughly and deeply liberal “climate change” ideology is being embedded in our military establishment. To undo the damage will require a determined effort by our next president.

We’ve already seen how the climate change ideology has wasted scarce defense dollars, such as Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus’ decision to spend $26 a gallon for 450,000 gallons of biofuel — about $11.7 million — when $5 a gallon diesel fuel would have met the same need. That, of course, came at a time when the Navy fleet was shrinking to the smallest size since the end of World War I.

The new roadmap implements two of President Obama’s executive orders, which direct all federal agencies to integrate climate change considerations in all their operations, planning and mission objectives. On the first page, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel writes that the Pentagon is very busy determining things such as the effect of climate change on Mr. Obama’s military “shift” to the Pacific and how it should be included in war games. He adds, “Politics or ideology must not get in the way of sound planning,” but that’s exactly what the mandates he describes will accomplish.

The report accepts as fact all the hyperbole of climate change and on that basis mandates that every aspect of Pentagon operations and planning should be adapted to consider those “facts.” It claims that climate change is a “force multiplier,” so great a national security risk that it may cause disease, trigger instability in and among nations and foster terrorism.

“We do not wish to live together with dirty beasts like you…”

The Norwegian news portal VG Nett is reporting that a Muslim terrorist group, Ansar al-Sunna’, is threatening that if a section of the nation’s capitol isn’t transformed into a sharia-complaint Muslim nation, an attack rivaling 9/11 will be launched upon the Scandinavian nation.

VG Nett has stated that the Norwegian Police Security Service (Politiets sikkerhetstjeneste – PST) is already familiar with many members of this particular terror group.

As translated by Michael Laudahn,

“If norwegian soldiers can take planes to Afghanistan, then Osama and Mohammed can also take planes to Norway, inshaAllah.

Now, the government must wake up and assume responsibility, before this war spreads to Norway. Before the counterpart reacts. Before moslems take the step necessary.

Do not confuse the moslems’ silence with weakness. Do not profit from the moslems’ patience. Do not force us to do something that can be avoided. This is not a threat, only the words of truth. The words of justice.

A warning that the consequences can be fatal. A warning about a 9/11 on norwegian ground, or larger attacks than the one carried out on 22 july. This is for your own good and in your own best interest.’

We do not want to be a part of norwegian society. And we do not consider it necessary either to move away from Norway, because we were born and grew up here. And Allah’s earth belongs to everybody.

But let Grønland become ours. Bar this city quarter and let us control it the way we wish to do it. This is the best for both parts.

We do not wish to live together with dirty beasts like you.”

Pearl Harbor, 9/11, Ebola

When all the debris is cleared away from the present controversies concerning the possibility of an outbreak of the deadly virus Ebola in the U.S., an important geopolitical marker will be registered.

Epidemics have invaded U.S. shores before of course. There was the notable worldwide influenza epidemic [“Spanish ‘flu”] of 1918 which claimed 50 million lives worldwide. As World War I was ending, it laid low almost half of the then mobilized American soldiers, killing more than died in combat. In an era of poorer sanitation, long before antibiotics and the sulfa drugs and some of today’s routine emergency medical procedures, more than 375,000 died in the U.S. But it was also the world of steamships not of vast international air traffic.

Today on an annual basis the highly mutable influenza virus, often sweeping out of south China, claims an average of 200,000 victims in the U.S. with deaths often reaching 35,000 among the more vulnerable, especially the elderly.

Again with the prospect of an invasion of Ebola – against which there is not yet a cure with mortality in Africa running as high as 70% – Americans face a possibility, however remote, of a health catastrophe.

That the U.S. was not prepared is obvious; how could it be otherwise? That the Obama Administration did not take adequate measures when a threat was identified will be debated long after the November mid-term elections are decided and gone. At what level blame for the initial chaotic preparation for an onslaught should be assigned to the $3 trillion annual government and private health care establishment will also be a subject for discussion. Will the Ebola crisis focus the spotlight on hospital-acquired infections costing $30 billion annually and leading to nearly 100,000 patient deaths a year?

But what appears already clear is that the whole Ebola affair forces a turn on the political consciousness of the American electorate. It goes further than identifying the immediate culprits/scapegoats. Just as Pearl Harbor destroyed for all time the U.S. dogma that it was protected from foreign attack by two wide oceans, 9/11/2001 demonstrated how vulnerable the homeland – a word rarely employed before that time – was to clever if accident-prone fanatics. That both these episodes could have been prevented, that with 20-20 hindsight the most fundamental aspects of security were breached, is not a new phenomenon in the history of the U.S. and other great powers. Historical calamities, however destructive, most often are like personal disaster, are the result of pervasive stupidity — even in political circles.

Nonie Darwish zeroes in on the best strategies to confront and outsmart our enemy in the terror war.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/frontpagemag-com/tricking-and-dividing-the-muslim-world-on-the-glazov-gang-2/

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com
http://blogs.jpost.com/users/just-look-us-now
An Israeli-discovered link between diabetes and brain disease may lead to treatments for both.
· The new head of an Israeli hospital is from Israel’s minority Druze community.
· An Israeli startup is developing a 3D desktop printer that can print electronic circuits.
· Israel has abolished customs duty on imports of clean technology products.
· Three Israeli TV shows were big sellers at the Cannes international MIPCOM show.
· Israel hosted the largest vegan festival in the world.
· The birth rate in the Jewish State is the highest in the developed world.
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Link between diabetes and brain disease. (Thanks to Israel21c) In another brain disease discovery, Ben Gurion University researchers have found similar adverse protein interactions in Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Type 2 diabetes. Treatments to prevent these interactions could prevent all three diseases.
http://www.israel21c.org/headlines/why-diabetes-raises-risk-of-parkinsons/

The first medical inhaler for cannabis. Israeli biotech Syqe Medical has developed the world’s first metered-dose device for inhaling medical cannabis – vital for many patients suffering from MS or pain that does not respond to conventional treatments. The device can be produced on a 3D printer and controlled by iPhone.
http://www.greenprophet.com/2014/10/syqe-inhaler-medical-cannabis/ http://www.syqemedical.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miUYb_V2GMU

Eye surgery in Kyrgyzstan. (Thanks to Hazel) Israeli eye doctors performed 55 operations and examined over 250 patients at the Eye Microsurgery Department of Osh Interregional Hospital in Kyrgyzstan. (Note – the original website article has been deleted)
https://www.facebook.com/CaNewsEng/posts/548645325265461

It’s breast cancer awareness month. I missed reporting previously this report on Israel’s Channel 2 of the Octava cancer test from Israel’s Eventus. So this month it’s a good opportunity to include it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV2-IM4Vo_w
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

3D electronics printing. Israel’s Nano Dimension is developing a desktop-sized 3D printer that prints electrical circuit boards. It uses silver nano-particle processes developed by Hebrew University Professor Shlomo Magdassi to produce insulating and conductive inks for the circuits. Maybe one day you will be able to print your own computer or mobile phone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4m5skH0sGw
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/10/prweb12215397.htm http://www.nano-di.com/

The plastic center of attention. The International Polymer Processing Society (PPS) is holding its annual conference in Israel for the first time in its 30-year history. Top experts will discuss 3D printing, nano-technology, biodegradable polymers, super-hygrophobicity, medical polymers, smart materials and much more.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/boycott-be-gone-plastics-researchers-to-meet-in-israel/

The Israel Conference in LA. The Israel Conference Oct 30-31 in Los Angeles features 75 stellar speakers from Israel-facing hi-tech companies. The diverse cross-section of innovation and design from Israel provides the attendees with a front-row seat to the technologies and products of tomorrow.
http://www.israelscienceinfo.com/en/hightech/yossi-vardi-invite-75-leaders-israeliens-du-high-tech-los-angeles-the-israel-conference-les-30-31-oct-2014/

Converting kitchen waste to cooking gas. Israeli HomeBioGas units are transforming trash into bio-gas for Bedouin residents of Umm Batin near Beersheva. Israel’s environment ministry subsidized the 8,000-shekels cost per unit. Now 50 units are headed to the Dominic Republic as part of a test project.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/New-Tech/Generating-biogas-from-Umm-Batin-to-the-Dominican-Republic-378105

ECONOMY & BUSINESS

No customs duty for cleantech products. Israel has joined a group of 41 countries that have agreed to drop all customs duties on goods that contribute to a cleaner environment. The global deal will also make Israel’s vast range of clean technology products cheaper abroad and thus help Israeli exports.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/186129#.VDyqGlc0_B8

The first haredi incubator. “Yazam BaLev” (“an entrepreneur at heart”) is the first full-fledged accelerator that will provide support to haredi (very religious) Jewish hi-tech start-ups. The 4-month Jerusalem College of Technology program includes mentoring and training in how to present to potential investors.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/first-ever-haredi-tech-accelerator-opens-in-jerusalem/

Am Yisrael Buy. A new app Am Yisrael Buy helps users find products that were specifically made in Israel to buy. The name is obviously a play on the Hebrew phrase “Am Yisrael Chai” which translates as “long live the Nation of Israel.” The app is available for both Android and iOS smartphones and devices.
http://jewishbusinessnews.com/2014/10/18/am-yisrael-buy-app-helps-support-israel/

Israeli TV shows are big sellers. (Thanks to Israel21c) Turkey, Italy, Germany, France, Sweden and Spain have all signed deals for new original Israeli game shows and reality formats. At the MIPCOM TV market in Cannes, international TV producers bought “The People’s Choice”, “Help! I can’t cook!” and “300 Sec. Ride”
http://www.israel21c.org/news/world-tv-producers-scoop-up-israeli-shows-at-mipcom/

All good news here. Thanks to ex-Ambassador Yoram Ettinger for this report of recent Israeli global business successes. http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=10245

Israeli gas is a game changer. By end 2015, Israel may have binding agreements to sell billions of dollars of natural gas to Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. Even Turkey is interested. Israeli Energy Minister Silvan Shalom said Israel’s gas “allows us to enjoy both political and economic fruits”.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-10-13/israel-sees-gas-as-key-to-transforming-mideast-relations

CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT

Israeli dance troupe wins Cyprus folklore festival. Hadera’s 26-member “Colors of Dance” troupe won first prize at the Ninth Mediterranean Folklore Festival in Larnaca, Cyprus. 12 countries competed in the five-day festival, including Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Egypt and Georgia.
http://www.jpost.com/Metro/Victorious-Hadera-dance-troupe-returns-home-from-Cyprus-Folklore-Festival-378316

The world’s largest vegan festival. Israel hosted on Monday what organizers say is the largest vegan festival in the world. Ramat Gan’s Vegan Fest 2014 featured workshops, lectures, panels, concerts, some 15,000 visitors and (of course) meat and dairy-free food. Israel also has the largest proportion of vegans in the world.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/vegan-festival-said-to-be-worlds-biggest/

The balloons go up and down. (Thanks to Israel21c) This year’s International Hot Air Balloon Festival began near Mount Gilboa in the Galilee and finished at Park Eshkol in the Negev, watched by over 10,000 spectators. 16 balloons traversed the country, including from the US, Austria, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
http://www.israel21c.org/israel-in-pictures/hot-air-balloon-festival-2014/

The best bar in the Middle East. (Thanks to Hazel and Israel21c) Drinks International magazine listed Tel Aviv’s Imperial Craft Cocktail Bar as the best bar in Africa and the Middle East. Outside of Israel, however, the choice must have been somewhat limited!
http://www.israel21c.org/news/mideasts-best-bar-is-in-downtown-tel-aviv/

10 dolphins visit Israeli coast. Tourists to the Jewish State during the festival of Tabernacles included a school of 10 dolphins that entertained the survey team from the Israel Marine Mammal Research & Assistance Center.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/WATCH-Dolphins-swimming-off-of-Israels-Mediterranean-coast-378718

Two wins out of two. Israel made it six points out of six in soccer’s Euro 2016 qualifying Group B, with Omer Damari netting a hat trick in a 4-1 victory in Andorra. Previously, Israel had an encouraging 2-1 win in Cyprus.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Sports/Israel-beats-Andorra-4-1-in-Euro-2016-soccer-qualifier-378843
http://eajc.org/page32/news47666.html

THE JEWISH STATE

From Chief to Chief. In 1953 Yigael Yadin – the first Chief of Staff of the new Jewish State – discovered letters written by Simon Bar Kochba – the last commander of Judea. The letters, now on display in the Israel Museum, were addressed to commanders of the Jewish army – perhaps including Yadin, some 1820 years later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juwF2Eo_Z-0

Leader of Jewish legion returns to Zion. Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson led the British Army’s Jewish Legion to battle against the Turks in WW1. He was widely recognized as a “true righteous among the gentiles”. To commemorate the 147th anniversary of his birth, Lt. Col. Patterson’s ashes will be re-interred in Israel.
http://www.jns.org/news-briefs/2014/10/13/christian-commander-of-jabotinsky-and-trumpeldor-will-be-buried-in-israel#.VDysrlc0_B8=

Another rescue via Entebbe. The Ugandan Jewish community of Abayudaya had no Arba Minim (4 species) with which to celebrate the festival of Sukkot. So Melanie Lidman traversed facebook, Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Entebbe airport and Kampala to bring a set donated by total strangers to the eagerly awaiting Jews.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-great-ugandan-lulav-crisis-averted-with-a-little-help-from-my-fronds/

President Rivlin’s “green” sukka. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin used the theme “Sukkot in the Environment” when he invited the public to join him in his Jerusalem sukka. Visitors enjoyed activities and displays promoting recycling and reuse, green space, bio-gas from waste and sustainable construction.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/186108#.VDvVW1c0_B8

Israel has the highest birth rate in the developed world. At the Jewish New Year 2014, Israel’s population has risen to 8,252,500. Israel’s birth rate of 3 children per woman is the highest in the developed world. (The international average is 1.7) 42% of the world’s 14.2 million Jews now reside in Israel.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/newpop.html

Returning lost property. Yarden Ben-Ezra was driving behind a Brink’s security truck in the Israeli city of Kiryat Ata when a sack containing 400,000 shekels fell out of the truck. Ben-Ezra retrieved the bag and chased the truck until it finally stopped. The guards, who hadn’t noticed the loss, thanked Ben-Ezra and drove off.
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=20709

“They will all come to Jerusalem”. Zechariah’s prophecy is coming to fruition. Thousands of Christian supporters of Israel packed Jerusalem’s streets and the new Pais Arena to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
Thousands of Christians voice support for Israel in Jerusalem

The entire issue of Palestinian statehood, and the Palestinian narrative on which it is based, are nothing but a giant hoax so transparent it is inconceivable that anyone even feigns credence to it.

‘With the two-state solution… Israel will collapse, because if they get out of Jerusalem, what will become of all the talk about the Promised Land and the chosen people? What will become of all the sacrifices they made – just to be told to leave? They consider Jerusalem to have a spiritual status. The Jews consider Judea and Samaria to be their historic dream. If the Jews leave those places, the Zionist idea will begin to collapse…. Then we will move forward.”

– Abbas Zaki, senior PLO official. (ANB TV, Lebanon, May 7, 2009)

Two recent events have once again propelled Palestinian statehood into the forefront of media spotlight, after several months of it being overshadowed by other events like developments in Ukraine, the war in Gaza and the televised barbarity of Islamic State.

One was the statement by Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven (subsequently somewhat equivocally revised) that his country would recognize a Palestinian state. The other was the British Parliament’s (nonbinding, but in the eyes of some, historic) vote on recognition of statehood for the Palestinians.

In light of these incidents, I was invited to appear on i24news news and participate in a discussion with a Palestinian interlocutor on the prospects for, and the prudence of, establishing a Palestinian state.

Much of what follows reflects the things I said during that 20-minute debate – and the things I didn’t, but would have, had time permitted.

Surprised by Great Britain? Why? Their Pashas (the word for General in the Arab Legion created by Great Britain) routinely enabled terrorist raids against the Jewish residents of Palestine until days before independence. Britain’s notorious White Paper of 1939 which cut off Jewish immigration to Palestine on the eve of the Holocaust was a death sentence for millions of European Jews trapped in Europe. After World War 11, British perfidy persisted and the 1939 White Paper remained the basis of British policy. Its cruel provisions kept wretched survivors of the Holocaust trapped and homeless in displaced persons’ camps in hostile European nations or behind barbed wire in detention camps in Cyprus.

Ancient and ramshackle ships were piloted by valiant volunteer crews that transported the wretched survivors of the Holocaust to Palestine in defiance of the perverse British blockade between 1946 and 1948. There were more than 140 voyages by about 70 ships bringing European survivors to Palestine. More than half were stopped by British navy patrols and sent to internment camps is Cyprus, or Atlit detention camp and some to Mauritius.

All but two of the ships were almost decrepit…four from pro World War 1, but among them they carried 60,000 refugees who had been at the brink of hell seeking succor in Palestine. When these ships reached the Palestine coast they were apprehended, boarded, and often rammed by the Royal Navy Pashas.They used tear gas, clubs and firearms against refugees who occasionally fought back with sticks and eating cutlery.The 4,530 passengers of the Exodus were threatened with return to Germany. An American volunteer William Bernstein was clubbed to death on the Exodus in 1947 . The ship was brought into Haifa port under British escort; there the Holocaust survivors were forcibly transferred to another ship and returned back to Germany via France.

Historian Martin Gilbert includes Abba Eban’s account of what happened there in Israel: A History (p. 145):

“[In Haifa] the four members watched a ‘gruesome operation.’ The Jewish refugees had decided ‘not to accept banishment with docility. If anyone had wanted to know what Churchill meant by a “squalid war,” he would have found out by watching British soldier using rifle butts, hose pipes and tear gas against the survivors of the death camps. Men, women and children were forcibly taken off to prison ships, locked in cages below decks and set out of Palestine waters.’

My native land Bolivia recognized Israel one day after Independence. England abstained.

Paralysis afflicts western powers, allowing the Islamic Republic of Iran and its venomous proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, to grow ever stronger and usher in new horrors.

In the past I have written several published articles, both regarding the ancient ties between the Kurds and the Jews, as well as the more recent examples of Israeli support for the Kurdish people in their fight against Arab aggression.

The present and immediate moral crisis that surrounds the Kurdish resistance against ISIS in the city of Kobane cries out for Israeli and Jewish assistance to perhaps the only true friend Israel has in the Middle East apart from many in the Druze community.

Let me quote from what has just appeared in Britain’s Daily Mail. It is an account of what horrors Kurdish fighters discovered after liberating parts of Kobane from the ISIS Islamo-Nazis:

“I have seen tens, maybe hundreds, of bodies with their heads cut off. Others with just their hands or legs missing. I have seen faces with their eyes or tongues cut out – I can never forget it for as long as I live,” Amin Fajar, a 38-year-old father of four, told the Daily Mail about the incredible scene in Kobane. “They put the heads on display to scare us all.”

Another resident, 13-year-old Dillyar, watched as his cousin Mohammed, 20, was captured and beheaded by the black-clad jihadis as the pair tried to flee the battle-scarred town.

“They pushed him to the ground and sawed his head off, shouting, ‘Allahu Akbar,’ (Allah is Greater) the boy said. “I see it in my dreams every night and every morning I wake up and remember everything.”

Farmer Ahmed Bakki said his cousin, a father of seven, stayed behind when his terrified family fled.

“We phoned my cousin and [ISIS] answered his phone. They said, ‘We’ve got his head, and we’re taking it,” Mr Bakki said, adding that the most brutal ISIS barbarians were European Muslims.

“They are Chechen, they are English, they are from all over Europe. We know because we can hear their accent,” he told the paper after escaping to a refugee camp in Turkey.”

Let me also quote the words of Jerome Roos, writer, filmmaker and PhD Researcher at the European University Institute in Florence, who wrote the following on October 4, 2014 in TeleSUR English.

Americans are shaken by government’s inability to function.

Ebola is causing such anxiety that even alarm over an outbreak of enterovirus D-68 — far more prevalent and linked to the deaths of at least four children — has been crowded out. Ditto news of the Islamic State’s rampage, a stock-price rollercoaster, and the impending midterm elections. Understandably, two concerns dominate the public discussion.

One is incompetence. Lulled into ever more dependence on government by the metastasis of regulation in what used to be the realm of private action, Americans are shaken by Washington’s inability to function. It is bungling elementary tasks. There is a sense of unraveling, a sense that officials are not merely out of their depth in addressing problems but incapable of spotting the problems in the first place — or, even worse, responsible for creating the very problems that then explode into crises.

Intimately related is the other concern: dishonesty. People expect politicians to spin and, at times, to out-and-out lie. I’ve been contending for a while now that our politics are no longer rational but tribal. Being right is secondary to being on the “right” side, as that side is perceived by the popular culture. That culture has largely tuned out the news and is swayed more by character assassination than by linear, fact-based argument. Official dishonesty is the natural result. When it is more important that “our side” wins than that the sensible thing be done, it is to be expected that the partisans, especially those in power, will say whatever they need to say to get through the news cycle. After all, fewer people than ever care about the news part of the news cycle; they care about the drama and their sympathies will be with their heroes — the fibs told to escape the latest jam are more admired for craftiness than condemned as breaches of trust.

Still, as we’ve previously observed, there is a breaking point. You can only abide politics as soap opera for so long because politics is actually about real life and real stakes. Reality cannot be scripted. Therefore, politics cannot forever be stage-managed as a “narrative” with “optics,” a daily show focused on how the lead character is affected by the latest crisis.