Displaying posts published in

October 2018

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Bolsonaro Takes Brazil The former army captain ran as an alternative to socialist corruption. By Mary Anastasia O’Grady

By on October 28th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bolsonaro-takes-brazil-1540768718

Sunday’s runoff presidential election in Brazil pitted Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain who has spent 27 years in Brazil’s Congress, against Fernando Haddad, a former one-term mayor of the city of São Paulo. On Sunday evening with 97% of the vote in, Mr. Bolsonaro was handily beating Mr. Haddad, 55.4% to 44.6%.

Much was made during the campaign of Mr. Bolsonaro’s history of rude comments about women and minorities and about his pledge to use an iron fist to fight crime in poor neighborhoods.

He was labeled a racist, a misogynist, a homophobe, a fascist, an advocate of torture and an aspiring dictator. His opponents gathered in the streets to denounce him and wrote withering diatribes against him in the press. The proudly “progressive” international media joined the fray, declaring him a threat to the environment and democracy.

It ought to have been enough to sink the Bolsonaro candidacy. Yet he prevailed, and it isn’t hard to see why: Brazilians are in the midst of a national awakening in which socialism—the alternative to a Bolsonaro presidency—has been put on trial. The resounding victory of Novo Party’s classical-liberal gubernatorial candidate Romeu Zema in the large state of Minas Gerais confirms that theory.

Mr. Haddad was the candidate of Brazil’s gigantic left-wing populist Workers’ Party, known as PT. He was also the handpicked successor to former two-term President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is in jail on a bribery conviction but remains popular with his supporters. Against Mr. Bolsonaro’s small Social Liberal Party, Mr. Haddad should have won walking away.

How Mr. Bolsonaro triumphed is worth examining because it suggests that something changed in this election. It can always change back, and it probably will. But for now the momentum is on the side of reform, and policy makers have a unique opportunity to advance liberty and prosperity in South America’s largest economy. CONTINUE AT SITE

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Oldest Hatred All good Americans stand in solidarity against anti-Semitism.

By on October 28th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-oldest-hatred-1540760984

The massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh is an awful reminder that there are human hatreds far more virulent and ancient than those that animate our current political divisions. The killer of 11 human beings on the Sabbath Saturday morning was an anti-Semite who was out to kill Jews.

“All Jews must die,” alleged killer Robert Bowers yelled as he burst into a religious service and opened fire. As our friends at the New York Sun note, anti-Semitism is not aimed at Jewish behavior, or support for Jewish immigration, or support for Israel. Robert Bowers simply hated Jews.

This irrational hatred is one of humanity’s oldest and manifests itself in murder almost daily in the Middle East. Jews are killed simply because they are Jews, as they have been throughout history. This is why millions have sought refuge in a Jewish state, Israel, and also in the religious protections embedded in the Constitution of the United States.

The outpouring of support and grief for the victims of the Pittsburgh massacre is a reminder of America’s unique role as a refuge for the world’s religious. Muslim states often persecute non-Muslims as well as Muslims who do not share their brand of Islam. China persecutes people of all faiths. America protects them.

The U.S. has seen an increase in anti-Semitic acts in recent years, according to the Anti-Defamation League. But there are still fewer in America than in most of the rest of world, and the sources of anti-Semitism range across the political spectrum, including some on the right like Robert Bowers but also from the pro-Palestinian left, especially on university campuses.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Rage Makes You Stupid By Kevin D. Williamson

By on October 28th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/rage-makes-you-stupid/

People have the strongest feelings about the things they know the least about.

What are we supposed to think about political rage?

Before and after the arrest of Cesar Sayoc, the suspect in the recent string of bombs sent to prominent Democrats and media figures, we were treated to any number of homilies about “rage” and its origins in “toxic” political rhetoric. Many of these homilies were pointed directly or indirectly at President Donald Trump and his immoderate Twitter habits. That political rage is necessarily linked to political violence was assumed, and sometimes asserted, but rarely argued.

Five minutes before that, rage was all the rage. Rebecca Traister, an editor for New York magazine, has just published a book celebrating the “revolutionary power” of anger, which was celebrated at The Atlantic on 4 October under a headline noting the “seismic power” of “rage.” On 21 September, the Washington Post affirmed that “rage is healthy, rational, and necessary for America.” On Friday, NBC news praised a television show for depicting “anger as righteous and necessary.” Before that, it ran a segment encouraging certain political partisans to “embrace their rage.”

Earlier in the year, Leslie Jamison wrote a very interesting and intelligent essay for The New York Times Magazine exploring anger as a “tool to be used, part of a well-stocked arsenal.” Right as the bombing suspect was being arrested in Florida, Rewire shared “All the Rage That’s Fit To Print,” its assessment of four books on “fury.”

I’ve omitted the word “women” in several instances above, on the theory that we’re all adults here, and that we would recognize the obvious hypocrisy and illogic of any “my rage good, your rage bad, bad, bad,” construct.

Except . . .

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Anti-Semitic Mass-Murder Attack in Pittsburgh By Andrew C. McCarthy

By on October 28th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-anti-semitic-mass-murder-attack-in-pittsburgh/

Eleven people were killed and six others wounded or otherwise injured when an anti-Semitic terrorist opened fire at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh Saturday morning.

As of this writing, the murder victims, all adults, have not yet been publicly identified. Four of the wounded have been described as police officers.

The shooter, who has been identified as Robert Bowers, 46, is in custody. He is said to have shouted, “All Jews must die!” during the shooting spree. The attack occurred a little before 10 a.m. on Saturday morning. The synagogue is in the Squirrel Hill section of eastern Pittsburgh, a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. Typically, the New York Times reports, there are about 75 people gathered for Saturday Shabbat (Sabbath) observance. There is usually no security, except for high holy days when the number of worshippers swells to well over a thousand.

Bowers surrendered after a shootout with police during which he was apparently wounded. He initially encountered police as he was fleeing the synagogue. He retreated back into the building during the gunfire, barricading himself in a third-floor office.

Several reports indicate that Bowers maintained a social-media account that was rife with anti-Semitic slurs and conspiracy theories about Jews. In the hours before the shooting spree, he apparently posted about a Jewish nonprofit organization called “HIAS”:

HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.

The term “invaders” apparently refers to refugees in the United States. A few weeks back, Bowers apparently authored a post objecting to a Shabbat ceremony HIAS was planning for refugees around the country: “Why hello there HIAS! You like to bring in hostile invaders to dwell among us?” Bowers’s social-media account, which has now been taken down, was on a network called “Gab,” which the Times says describes itself as a free-speech haven.

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HISTORY Comments turned off

The revolutionary conservatism of the Jews by David Goldman

By on October 28th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/spengler/the-revolutionary-conservatism-of-the-jews/

Nothing is more conservative as a practical matter than Jewish observance. Scripture, and commentaries, and commentaries on commentaries are preserved in a living colloquy among the generations. Communities that adopt specific customs are obligated to preserve them. The reading of the Pentateuch in an annual cycle recreates its revelation at Mt. Sinai: It must be heard and not merely read to evoke the experience of hearing it for the first time. Yet all of this arch-conservative practice with its punctilious attention to the slightest details of the past is there to bring to life a revolutionary event, the irruption of the Creator God into human history. Nothing is more revolutionary than Judaism. The revolutionary-conservative character of the United States of America cannot be understood except by reference to this phenomenon in Judaism.

What passes for Jewish conservativsm has been an abject failure. A group of conservative Jewish funders styling themselves “The Jewish Leadership Conference”today are holding a conference in New York City to promote “Jewish conservatism,” including a few of my friends. I won’t attend; the effort remains immired in the neo-conservative swamp against which I have inveighed these past twenty years. Its lead speaker is the former Russian refusenik and Israeli political leader Nathan Sharansky, whom I admire unreservedly a human being, but question as a political thinker. Ten years ago I excoriated Sharansky’s claim that democracy provided a universal antitode to the world’s ills, in a book review entitled, “Nathan Sharansky’s Mistaken Identity.” The other poster-boy for this conference is the late Charles Krauthammer, whose watchword was “democratic realism.”

Sharansky and Krauthammer, both men of high intelligence and good will, helped persuade President George W. Bush to undertake his crusade for world democracy, and thus bring the United States close to financial and strategic ruin. Their influence has been baleful despite their best intentions, and it is a measure of the political immaturity of American Jews that the best we can to by way of conservatism is to advertise the errors that nearly ruined us in our generation. Forcing majority rule on Iraq put a sectarian Shia government in power, allied to its co-sectarians in Iran, vastly expanding Iran’s power in the region, and putting Israel at risk. Of all the stupid and self-destructive things that Jews have done with the best of intentions, the Bush Freedom Agenda promoted by Krauthammer and Sharansky produced the clearest and most urgent threat to Jewish survival. With Sharansky and Krauthammer on the marquee, the “Jewish Conservatism” conference also features Hillary Clinton supporter Bill Kristol. Clearly we have a congnitive dissonance here.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

Victor Sharpe The Socialist conveyor belt in our schools

By on October 28th, 2018

https://www.renewamerica.com/columns/sharpe/181027

Increasingly we who love this United States of America and the Constitution are alarmed at thehate and violence prevailing in today’s Democrat party with its extreme leftism, globalism, identity politics and open borders that threaten our future. What we are witnessing now is what George Orwell foresaw in his dystopian world to come. But what he envisaged in his dread 1984 novel was in reality not new, but rather a return to what had prevailed in earlier centuries. It seems that history is repeating itself, but has reached a new low.

During the early to late medieval era the omnipotent Kings and Queens lived their lives surrounded by fawning sycophants and protected by mercenary armies. They ruled and owned vast lands, but the people who served them lived in a very different world indeed. For centuries royalty signed treaties, forged alliances, wrote laws, made war, and made peace. And this continued without the consent of untold millions of people, especially in Europe, whose lives were often adversely impacted by those unilateral decisions.

And then in 1776, a mere 242 years ago, came the Declaration of Independence signed by a new nation that arose with a divinely inspired document that challenged directly the assumed power of a king. It did so by abolishing the very status of royalty itself. The Constitution secured and protected the Natural Law Rights and sovereignty of each individual by limiting the authority and power of a centralized government.

For years that was our America. But what of it now?

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL: MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on October 28th, 2018

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Regenerating muscles. I reported previously (Feb 2015) on the recovery from muscle injury of hip-replacement patients treated with PLX-PAD stem cells from Israel’s Pluristem. Follow-up data has now confirmed the results and expanded Phase III trials are being supported by the European Horizon 2020 program.
http://www.pluristem.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Muscle_publication_final_isa.pdf

A map of good and bad proteins. Researchers at Ben-Gurion University have identified certain proteins in the human body that are key to progressing or preventing diseases such as cancer. They have mapped protein to protein interactions and are confident they can develop new treatments for those diseases.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-protein-map-method-offers-hope-for-target-specific-drugs-researchers/

Living to 200 and beyond. (TY WIN & I24 News) Israeli biotech Cellect is developing stem cell technology that may extend individual human life far beyond what currently can be conceived. And a new international study forecasts Israeli life-expectancy to rise to 84.4 by 2040, giving Israel a world ranking of 7 (currently 13).
https://www.youtube.com/embed/kG4Nmx_vVf0?rel=0
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/434231

New heart center doubles treatment capacity. A $10 million cutting-edge heart center has been dedicated at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem. The center more than doubles the department’s capacity to treat heart patients with 32 extra cardiac beds, 11 post-catherization beds and 11 intensive care private rooms.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/10-million-heart-center-dedicated-at-jerusalems-hadassah-hospital/

Successful 2nd heart op for Syrian baby. I wrote previously (31st Dec) about a seriously ill baby boy, born to Syrian refugees in Cyprus being flown to Israel for emergency heart surgery. He is now making a good and steady recovery in Israel’s Sheba Hospital after a second heart operation.
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/seriously-ill-syrian-baby-recovering-after-major-heart-surgery-in-israel/

Stay healthy, the Israeli way. This video highlights seven ways that Israelis exercise to stay fit and healthy.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/GohnTcfXisg?rel=0

Think positively to beat cancer. I reported previously (24th July) that Israel Technion researchers have proved that positive emotions have the ability to shrink tumors. Here is another couple of articles about their research.
https://www.israel21c.org/can-positive-emotions-shrink-cancer-tumors/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05283-5

Smartphone urine tests. (TY Hazel) I reported previously (22 April) on Israeli start-up Healthy.io that allows patients to test their urine at home, using a smartphone camera. Patients with kidney disease (for example) can closely monitor their condition. Siemens Healthineers is now partnering Healthy.io to provide testing kits.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-siemens-healthineers-healthy-io/siemens-healthineers-partners-with-healthy-io-for-smartphone-based-urine-testing-idUSKCN1MX1SE https://healthy.io/

ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL

Support for families of a cancer patient. Israel Cancer Support Network (ICSN) offers cancer patients and their families the support they need to meet the challenges of suffering through painful cancer treatments. ICSN and its 2,000 volunteers have helped over 11,000 families from giving lifts to helping to access top doctors.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/spotlight/giving-cancer-patients-hope-is-as-valuable-as-giving-them-medicine/

Bedouin woman joins Israeli police rescue unit. I’ve included articles previously (see here) about Bedouin Muslim women integrating into Israeli society. Now Rana Jaboua, a resident of the Bedouin Negev village of al-Fara’a has become the first female Bedouin in Israel to join the Israel Police Rescue team.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/first-israeli-bedouin-woman-joins-police-rescue-unit/2018/10/23/

Israeli Arab woman goes to Stanford. Israeli Arab Mira Shalah gained her BSc at the University of Haifa and her PhD in Computer Science at Israel’s Technion Institute. She is now doing post-doctorate research into Computational Geometry at Stanford University, California. http://web.stanford.edu/~mshalah/home
https://www.graduate.technion.ac.il/Theses/Abstracts.asp?Id=29921

IDF helps Jordanian flood rescue. The Israel Defense Forces sent its elite 699 search-and-rescue unit to Jordan to assist the rescue operation after a tour bus was hit by flash flood near the Dead Sea. They deployed rescue equipment, established a ground command team and illuminated the area from the air.
http://www.bicom.org.uk/news/israeli-team-joins-jordanian-forces-flash-flood-rescue-operation/
https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Israel-sends-elite-rescue-unit-to-Jordan-after-flood-kills-at-least-14-570347

Israeli embassy in Rwanda. Israel is to open an embassy in the central African state of Rwanda in its capital, Kigali. Although the two countries have maintained diplomatic relations for years, previous contacts have been held via the Israeli Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/10/15/deepening-diplomatic-partnership-with-africa-israel-to-open-rwanda-embassy/

Chinese VP visits Israel. China’s Vice-President Wang Qishan made an important visit to Israel. After meetings with Israel’s President and Prime Minister, he addressed the fourth meeting of the Israel-China Joint Committee on Innovation Cooperation. He also signed eight joint science and technology agreements.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/global/china/netanyahu-welcomes-chinese-vice-president-wang-qishan-at-foreign-ministry-avriel-hall/2018/10/24/ http://www.jewishpress.com/news/global/china/prime-minister-chinese-vp-chair-fourth-meeting-of-israel-china-joint-committe-on-innovation-cooperation/2018/10/24/

Thank you for helping save Thai boys. (TY Hazel) Thailand’s Ambassador to Israel Penprapa Vongkovit, thanked Israel’s Maxtech for its communication technology used in the rescue of the Thai boys earlier this year. She also thanked Israel for “its special navy team and specialized diving helmets to assist the operation.”
https://www.jpost.com/International/Thai-Ambassador-thanks-Israeli-company-for-aid-in-rescue-of-Thai-boys-570129

Guatemala’s new Ambassador. The Friends of Zion Museum hosted newly-confirmed Guatemalan Ambassador to Israel Mario Bucaro following his official presentation to President Reuven Rivlin. Guatemala has been a strong supporter of Israel in the United Nations in recent years and moved its embassy to Jerusalem.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Friends-of-Zion-hosts-event-to-honor-Guatemalas-new-ambassador-to-Israel-570356

Israeli PM visits Oman. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, made a “not so secret” visit to the Gulf nation of Oman – the first by an Israeli leader in 22 years. He discussed the peace process with Sultan Qaboos bin Said. See the extra-ordinary video of the event on the official Oman TV channel.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-dramatic-sign-of-warming-ties-netanyahu-makes-secret-visit-to-oman/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEY3pISouJg

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Rent an Israeli space lab. For a tiny fraction of the development budget for a new treatment, you can now rent one of the orbiting “minilabs” of Israel’s SpacePharma for up to six months. Clients run experiments in zero gravity by remote control from Earth. SpacePharma has two tiny milk-carton size minilabs already in operation.
https://www.israel21c.org/rocket-launched-minilabs-enable-pharma-rd-in-zero-gravity/

Using AI to find a job. Israeli-founded startup Stellares helps tech companies find talented workers using Artificial Intelligence (AI). The Tel Aviv R&D center has developed a questionnaire plus an algorithm that crawls the web and matches a candidate’s digital footprint with the job specification and company’s ethos.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/tech-job-matching-startup-raises-3-5-million/

1-hour delivery with AI and robots. Israel’s CommonSense Robotics has launched a service that enables even small retailers to offer one-hour, on-demand grocery deliveries to consumers. Robots at CSR warehouses in urban areas use Artificial Intelligence to retrieve produce for humans to pack. Robots then dispatch orders.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/253718
https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/15/commonsense-robotics/
https://www.cs-robotics.com/ https://www.youtube.com/embed/d34INdmwyIo?rel=0

Tel Aviv & Chicago pair up to innovate. Tel Aviv University is partnering with the University of Chicago, University of Illinois and Northwestern University to establish the Discovery Partners Institute (DPI) in central Chicago. The DPI will focus on research and innovation into cyber security, AI, big data and food security.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Tel-Aviv-and-Chicago-pairing-up-to-advance-research-and-innovation-570182 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j0Xfm8M4Yw&t=157

Punjab seeks Israeli help to recycle water. (TY Hazel) Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh held extensive talks in Jerusalem with Israel’s Minister of Energy and Water Resources, Yuval Steinitz, on the issue of water management to boost water conservation in Punjab. Four Memorandum of Understanding were signed.
http://www.punjabnewsline.com/news/-punjab-cm-seeks-israels-cooperation-in-recycling-of-sewerage-water-in-major-cities-6044 http://nocamels.com/2018/10/india-punjab-israel-agriculture-water-tech/

SodaStream’s “holy turtle” cleans sea of plastic waste. Israel’s SodaStream (now part of PepsiCo) has launched “Holy Turtle” – a 300m contraption that recovers plastic waste from open waters. During the 4-day pilot, the device captured tons of waste floating in the Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Roatán, Honduras.
http://nocamels.com/2018/10/sodastream-holy-turtle-environment-honduras/

Israeli tech used in Florida rescue missions. I reported previously (10 Mar)on Israel’s Edgybees whose First Response app saved lives after Hurricane Irma and the California wildfires. Edgybees’ Augmented Reality (AR) system was used recently during Hurricane Michael, by response teams in Florida and Missouri.
http://nocamels.com/2018/10/israel-startup-florida-hurricane-michael/

Alexa – vacuum seal my strawberries. Israel’s Silo Kitchen is developing an Alexa-controlled food vacuum container system that extends food-life up to 5-times. Silo aimed to raise $80,000 on Kickstarter but after just 10 days it had pledges worth over half a million dollars. Very informative video.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3748070,00.html
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/simplifyfreshness/your-remarkably-simple-one-touch-connected-vacuum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF6TnyBl5QU

ECONOMY & BUSINESS

New Jersey Governor’s first Israel mission. New Jersey Governor Philip Dunton Murphy visited Israel on his first commercial mission to strengthen economic and technological ties between his state and the State of Israel. A new agreement was signed that aims to triple the current $1 billion annual trade between the two states.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-jersey-israel-sign-accord-to-boost-tech-economic-cooperation/
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/us-news/ny/new-jersey-governor-welcomed-on-first-mission-to-israel-plants-tree-in-jerusalem/2018/10/23/

OBE for Israeli businessman. Israel’s Haim Shani, who chairs the UK Israel Tech Hub, is to be appointed an Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). British Ambassador to Israel, David Quarrey said, “Haim has helped transform the tech partnership between the two countries.”
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/israeli-businessman-to-be-given-obe-by-the-queen-for-his-economic-diplomacy/

Top multinationals invest in Israeli fund. Israel’s Team8 (formed from ex-IDF security unit 8200) has setup a second $85 million fund for technologies and startups focused on big data and artificial intelligence. It has attracted 14 multinationals including Walmart, Softbank, Airbus, Microsoft, Moody’s, Cisco and Barclays.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3748243,00.html

Best Israeli workplaces. Google is still the best company to work for in Israel, with Facebook second as per last year. But Microsoft jumped ten places to 3rd, displacing Intel which dropped to 7th. The Dun & Bradstreet list analyzes wages, benefits, career development, support provided, employment stability, and wellness.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3748431,00.html

Tech salaries keep rising. High demand for Israeli tech talent continues to push up local wages. The average pay for software professionals in Israel in the third quarter of 2018 increased by 6% year-to-year. Algorithm developers are the highest paid, but data scientists had the biggest pay rise (15%).
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3748076,00.html

CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT

Open houses and busy streets. (TY Sharon) Jerusalem’s annual Batim MaBefnim, (Houses from Within) are free open houses, with over 100 options in all parts of the city. This article highlights the Art Museum in Heichal Shlomo, Beit Kadima, the Miffal, Hansen House and especially Villa Mamilla.
http://rjstreets.com/2018/10/24/jerusalem-open-houses-and-busy-streets/

Come aboard for Eurovision. Tens of thousands are set to visit Tel Aviv in May for the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. To address the increased demand for accommodation, the Tel Aviv Municipality has hired a cruise ship with 500 cabins, which will dock near Tel Aviv and provide low-cost beds for many of the visitors.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Tel-Aviv-organizing-cruise-ship-hotel-for-Eurovision-570103

Israel’s 95-year-old skydiver. Walter Bingham, broadcaster on Arutz Sheva (Israel National Radio) waited until the grand age of 95 before he took to the air for his first skydiving experience. From 13,000 feet, he witnessed some amazing views of the Holy Land.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-meet-israels-95-year-old-skydiver/
https://www.youtube.com/embed/dVMnUSoLJw4?rel=0

Youth Olympics Israeli medal winners. At the Youth Olympic games in Buenos Aires, swimmer Anastasya Gorbenko won gold in the women’s 200m individual medley while Denis Loktev won bronze in the men’s 200m freestyle. Yonatan Fridman and Noa Kazdo Yakar won the acrobatic gymnastics mixed pair silver medal.
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/israels-youth-olympic-team-brings-home-three-medals/
https://www.buenosaires2018.com/results/en/swimming/results-women-s-200m-individual-medley-fnl-000100-.htm?lng=en

Israel’s Alon Day wins NASCAR Euro again. Israel’s Alon Day had an impressive start to finish win at Belgium’s Circuit Zolder on the last day of the season to win the Euro NASCAR championship for the second consecutive year. Day’s seventh victory this year matches the record for the most wins in a season.
https://autoweek.com/article/nascar/alon-day-captures-second-whelen-nascar-euro-championship-circuit-zolder

THE JEWISH STATE

Look what they’ve done to the synagogue. (TY Erez) The ancient synagogue at Ein Keshatot in the Golan is now open to the public, nearly 1200 years after it was destroyed by an earthquake. 15 years of reconstruction involved 3D laser scanning technology and the numbering and positioning of each displaced brick.
https://hike-israel.com/2018/09/29/ein-kshatot/

US-Israeli stamps for Hanukah. (TY Sharon) US Ambassador David Friedman and Israel Cultural Minister Ayoub Kara, unveiled new Hanukah stamps at the American Center in Jerusalem. A parallel ceremony held in the Touro Synagogue in Rhode Island was live-streamed to the Jerusalem location.
https://baltimorejewishlife.com/news/news-detail.php?SECTION_ID=37&ARTICLE_ID=109180
https://www.youtube.com/embed/5ARTAlmi7TY?rel=0

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POLITICS Comments turned off

Today’s female Democrat ‘leaders’ make for a sorry spectacle By Thomas R. Ascik

By on October 28th, 2018

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/10/todays_female_democrat_leaders_make_for_a_sorry_spectacle.html

In the Kavanaugh controversy, the acts of three women, all high-visibility national figures, and all of whom have now become the leaders of the Democratic party and the MeToo movement, were central. In July 2016, Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg injected herself into the presidential elections by the unprecedented declaration of a Supreme Court justice that she could not “imagine” what the country would be like “with Donald Trump as our president.” She then called Trump a “faker.” Trump quite correctly responded that she should resign, but no one else at the time seemed to care about the compromise of her “judicial restraint and demeanor” – and her judicial impartiality.

After President Trump’s July nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, the 85-year-old Ginsburg reassured Democrats about the future of the Court by announcing her intention to serve “at least five more years.” Then, one day before Kavanaugh’s Senate testimony, she inserted herself into the proceedings of the Senate by effectively testifying for Kavanaugh-accuser Christine Blasey Ford. In declaring her support for the #MeToo movement, Ginsburg said “women nowadays are not silent about bad behavior.” She then emphasized her views by the if-looks-could-kill expression on her face at Kavanaugh’s swearing in.

Topping off all these acts and statements from Ginsburg in the last three months, perhaps, will be the release in November of the movie On the Basis of Sex, a full-length feature film about the early life and litigating career of the justice. Trailers show that the movie will be worshipful.

Hawaii Democrat senator Mazie Hirono, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who questioned Kavanaugh at his hearing, expressed her own self-restraint in her calm and rational consideration of Kavanaugh’s nomination by telling all men “in this country” to “shut up and step up.” Senate Democrats comprehensively denied due process to Kavanaugh; Hirono’s remark extended that to the rejection of the protection of political speech, which was the original purpose of the First Amendment.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Report: Iran Was ‘Closer to Nuclear Weapons than We Thought’ By Rick Moran

By on October 28th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/report-iran-was-closer-to-nuclear-weapons-than-we-thought/

A document published by the Institute for Science and International Security says Iran was much closer to constructing a working nuclear weapon than was previously realized.

The paper, authored by Institute director David Albright and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) former deputy director General Olli Heinonen, concluded that “the information highlights dual-use, controlled equipment used at the site, such as a flash x-ray system utilizing a Marx generator and a variety of neutron measurement equipment, with electronics, designed to monitor high speed, explosively driven tests of a neutron source commonly used in a nuclear weapon.”

“The site” is Parchin military base, where the vital neutron measurement tests were being conducted. These tests were necessary to determine if Iran had a workable bomb or not. Too many neutrons bombarding the nuclear mass would cause a fizzle. Too few, a dud.

If Iran was at this stage of nuclear bomb development, the game was over.

Express:

The report, written by watchdog director David Albright, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) former Deputy Director General Olli Heinonen and other top experts, concluded the findings “shows that the Parchin site did house high explosive chambers capable for use in nuclear weapons research and development.”

The news follows a chilling warning by Iranian General Hossein Salami, second-in-command of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards force, who vowed to destroy Israel in a furious attack that raised fears of a major outbreak of conflict in the volatile Middle East. CONTINUE AT SITE

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A Republican Tries to Beat the Odds in New York A Keith Wofford victory in the attorney general’s race would be an upset—and a blow to the ‘resistance.’ By Gerard Gayou

By on October 28th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-republican-tries-to-beat-the-odds-in-new-york-1540594559

Not since 2002 has a Republican won statewide office in New York. Keith Wofford, a 49-year-old African-American Harvard Law grad who is running for attorney general, just may be up to the task. His candidacy is a long shot in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2 to 1, and an Oct. 1 Siena College poll had him 14 points behind Democrat Letitia James. But then Mr. Wofford’s entire life has been a long shot.

Mr. Wofford grew up on Buffalo’s gritty East Side, where his father held a union job at the local Chevrolet plant and his mother worked odd jobs. Leaving high school as a junior to attend Harvard on a scholarship, Mr. Wofford ended up working as a bankruptcy lawyer in Manhattan. Earlier this year he took a leave of absence from law firm Ropes & Gray, where he is a partner, to make his first foray into politics. Despite his underdog status, Mr. Wofford has attracted a stream of donations. He has more cash on hand than Ms. James and is blasting TV ads across the state in an 11th-hour bid to shock the political world.

A Wofford victory would be more than a storybook ending; it would also be a gut-punch to the legal strategy of the Trump “resistance.” Since President Trump took office, Albany has been the nucleus of a litigation campaign against the White House. Former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman—who resigned in May after the New Yorker reported he had physically abused women—had appointed himself the administration’s chief legal antagonist. In 2017 alone, Mr. Schneiderman took more than 100 legal or administrative actions against the administration and congressional Republicans.

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