RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://blogs.jpost.com/print/3721

We wish Israel’s 25-member team well as they begin contesting their events at the London 2012 Paralympics. Just by making it to London, these athletes [2] embody the Israeli characteristic that overcomes adversity in order to achieve success. On that theme, here are further recent news items that illustrate how Israel rises to every challenge.
All Israeli medical research starts with some form of health problem to solve. Whist investigating the cause of allergies, Tel Aviv University Professor Sagi-Eisenberg and PhD student Nurit Pereg-Azouz isolated two specific proteins involved in the trigger process for an allergic reaction [3]. These can now be targeted by medications that omit the debilitating side effects of steroid treatments. In another uniquely Israeli study, a team of microbiologists, including Professor Eshel Ben-Jacob of Tel Aviv University, has discovered that cancer cells and bacteria [4] behave in the same way as terrorists do in real life. They spy out the body, manipulate genes, enslave normal cells and become dormant to avoid danger. We now look forward eagerly to new “Mossad” treatments.

Many economic experts say that it was problems due to Israel’s shortage of natural resources that brought about the “can do” attitude of Israelis to overcome extreme difficulties. Israel’s breakthroughs in renewable energy technologies were a ‘natural’ result of its lack of oil and gas. Even now, despite Israel’s massive recent natural gas discoveries [5], initiatives continue such as the renewable energy program [6] for the Eilat-Eilot region. Laboratories will be set-up for bio-energy, bio-fuels, hydrogen, solar energy and more. Meanwhile, if you can’t afford one of Better Place’s new deals for its revolutionary electric cars, no problem [7]. Check out the electric scooters built by Israeli start-up Green Motors International.

Despite the lack of water, enterprising Kibbutz Neot Semadar has built an organic oasis in the desert [8]. The kibbutz grows several varieties of native date palms and organic grapes that it transforms into sulphur-free wines. It is also said, that “the harshest conditions produce the best wines”, but Israeli wine producers, such as the Golan Heights Winery, have made the most of this fact by harnessing Israeli technology [9] to eradicate viruses; match vines with the best subsoil and use satellite models to monitor the microclimate and ensure correct irrigation and harvesting.

A crisis always brings out the best in the Israeli spirit. When Italian budget airline Wind-jet collapsed [10], it ruined the holiday plans of 300,000 international customers. However, the Israeli government organised planes to fly the 200 stranded Israeli tourists home from Rome. Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said, “The fact that all of Israel is responsible for one other is something which makes us unique and of which we should be proud”. Staying in the skies, you may have heard that due to a mistake by an on-line travel agent, El Al were forced to sell 5000 return tickets from New York to Israel at a bargain price of $400 each instead of the normal $1600. However, one high flier at El Al then saw an opportunity [11] to recover some of the lost profit. The airline offered the lucky customers the chance to upgrade their tickets to non-stop for an extra $75 each way. This ensured that only El Al planes would be used, rather than its code-sharing partners. It also means that El Al’s low-season flights will be full.

CNN called in Jerusalem Venture Partner’s Erel Margalit to suggest a solution [12] to the problems of the ailing US economy. Margalit’s answer is for America to learn from the “Start-up Nation by bringing entrepreneurship back into the game. A typical example of this entrepreneurship is Israel’s Siano [13], which has overcome the problems of low quality Internet TV images and regions with poor or non-existent wireless connections. With its “Carmel” miniature digital TV accessory you can watch live, high quality TV broadcasts [14] on your iPhone or iPad in Israel, the UK and much of Europe. You get all the available free channels, without any network connection and don’t even need a TV license.

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3320/us-security-interests-egypt This week, without a murmur of dissent, the Egyptian Government restored the right to declare war to the President with the concurrence of Parliament. Morsi is continuing an evolution that promises to hasten the decline of American influence. How much recent events have eroded U.S. security interests in Egypt depends on how deeply rooted […]

http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2012/08/migron-and-the-threat-to-israe.php?utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Migron+and+the+threat+to+Israeli+democracy&utm_campaign=20120831_m113403902_Migron+and+the+threat+to+Israeli+democracy&utm_term=Continue+Reading___ By Tuesday, 50 Israeli families will have been tossed out of their homes in their village of Migron, which is set for destruction. They will not be dispossessed because they unlawfully squatted on someone else’s property. The residents of Migron will be tossed from their homes – on the order of the Supreme Court […]

http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/6638 Just when we thought we could be proud of the Republican establishment, what with the inclusion of TEA Party favorite US Rep. Paul Ryan to the GOP ticket, reality rears its ugly head and mocks the hard work of the grassroots. In a stunning move that conjures images of Mayor Richard J. Daley and […]

No news here. The media is so craven in the tank for the Democrats that even Joe Biden sounds smart and sane. They just happen to miss some of the really good speeches at the convention.

Read this: http://www.register-herald.com/local/x143113247/Liberal-media-bias-directed-against-GOP-delegate-says by Mannix Porterfield….It sums it up

Liberal bias by the national media is being orchestrated to paint Republicans as white racists and proof has comes in the networks repeatedly ignoring speeches by blacks and Hispanics at the national convention in Tampa, a West Virginia delegate charged Wednesday.“Every time there was a Hispanic or African-American speaker, they’d break away,” John McCutcheon said of the Tuesday night coverage by the national television networks.
“What that does is continue their narrative and Chris Matthews is a perfect example of someone who says everything but, ‘Hey, all Republicans are white racists.’ To facilitate that narrative, they cut away.”
McCutcheon said this was plainly evident by two black speakers who prompted robust cheers — Mayor Mia Love of Saratoga Springs, Utah, and Arthur Davis, a former Democratic congressman in Alabama.
Davis had delivered a nominating speech for President Obama at the 2008 convention and told Republican delegates that was “a mistake” and he wanted to repair the damage to the nation that he helped foster. Unless they were tuned into C-Span’s unfiltered coverage, McCutcheon said, many viewers missed his remarks.“We need to stand up and say, ‘Hey, you people (network news reporters) are the racists,” McCutcheon said.
“You’re deliberately manipulating your viewers and making them think the only people who speak at the Republican National Convention are white males or white females. It’s infuriating, absolutely infuriating.”

But how about the GOP’s shamelessness…..They feature, (Sob) Boehner (Snore)Mitch McConnell (Bore) John McCain….you would have had to waterboard me to keep me awake during those snoozers.

And Condoleeza Rice, now a baseball star who “hit it out of the park”????? Hit what out of the park, her silly take on and coooing on “the Arab Spring”….without mentioning the Obama even once?…oh puleez, spare me.

Why did they not invite two former presidents named Bush? One is a World War 11 hero who presided in the White House during the fall of the Soviet Union….a seminal event in world history.

The other shepherded this nation through the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor.

I have serious disagreements with both Bushes…but the Dems host Jihadists, harridans (Debbie Wasserman Schultz), an impeached and dishonorable serial woman abuser,(you know who) and the GOP cravenly disses two former Presidents out of cowardice and fear of the mainstream attacks on George Bush. Shame on them!!!

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/110449/judaism-central-sacrifice?print=1
Judaism’s Central Sacrifice

Yoram Hazony’s new book bases Judaism on a naturalistic reading of the Bible, but it’s a stretch

As co-founder and now a senior fellow of the Shalem Center, a leading Zionist think tank in Jerusalem, Yoram Hazony has sought a bridge between secular nationalism and Jewish religion. His latest book [1], The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture, claims to find it, in a naturalistic reading of the Hebrew Scriptures that allows the sacred texts of the Jewish people to do double duty: They can be read as revelation by the religious, Hazony argues, or by the secular as a guide to personal virtue and national prowess. The question is whether this shidduch between God’s word and natural law is a union of two besherts or a shotgun wedding that leaves both parties miserable.

Hazony seems to think of Mosaic law as an afterthought to natural law—the former “is indeed held to be the key to a just and prosperous life” in the biblical narrative, but that is only because “it is so much in conformity with the natural law that even from the perspective of the shepherd, who examines its strictures from the outside, it can be accepted and obeyed.” Like the late political philosopher Leo Strauss, Hazony draws a bright line between faith and reason. But Hazony abhors Strauss because he is competing for the same side of the street. Faith, he argues, is for the Christians. His book, on the other hand, “is the first direct and sustained argument in favor of approaching the Hebrew Scriptures as works of reason.”

Hazony contends that an ethical philosophy founded in natural law is embedded in the Tanakh’s historical narrative, requiring no recourse to supernatural revelation. This stems from what he calls “shepherd’s ethics”—that is, “the vantage point of an outsider” who “owes nothing and has committed to nothing that cannot be reconsidered in light of one’s own independent judgment as to what is really right.” Inherent in the life the shepherd, he avers, is a virtue that distinguishes nomads from farmers and city-dwellers: Abel from Cain, the Abram of Ur from the nomad Abraham of Canaan, Joseph the shepherd from Joseph the minister of Pharaoh, and so on.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443409904577619043372332290.html

Tuesday brought the news that “No Easy Day,” a firsthand account of the 2011 raid on the Osama bin Laden compound written by a former Navy SEAL and due to be published on Sept. 11, had been discovered already on sale in a bookshop. Its contents are being widely discussed, the publisher has moved up publication to Sept. 4—and the brouhaha over the appropriateness of Matt Bissonnette’s writing the book is only going to increase.

Please, spare us the outrage, or at least most of it. The U.S. Special Operations Command has expressed indignation about “No Easy Day,” which will be published under the nom de plume Mark Owen, even though Mr. Bissonnette’s bid for anonymity has been foiled. If the author violated his classified nondisclosure agreement, he must accept the consequences. Submitting the book for pre-approval would have avoided investigation by the Pentagon, which is currently checking the manuscript.

But to label this book as an unprecedented breach of security reflects a confused understanding of an equally confused policy. Mr. Bissonnette has joined a tradition of SEAL best sellers. While the U.S. Army Delta force remains the silent service, over a decade of war the SEALs have garnered extraordinary publicity.

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A scene from ‘Act of Valor’ (2012), an action-drama starring active-duty Navy SEALs.

During World War II, President Truman complained that the Marines had a public relations man in every squad. But even we Marines had to rely on John Wayne for our Hollywood fame. Earlier this year saw the release of the action movie “Act of Valor,” a box-office success ($80 million so far) starring active-duty SEALs and developed with the organization’s thorough input.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/08/30/Mexican-police-attacked-CIA-officers–ambush-likely–sources

Reuters) – Mexican federal police shot and wounded two CIA operatives last week, security sources said, in an apparently deliberate attack that could hurt U.S.-Mexico cooperation in their war against drug cartels.

The two experienced officers were just south of the capital on their way to a Mexican Marine base on Friday, working with local authorities on a training mission, when federal police riddled their armored van bearing diplomatic plates with bullets.

The men, traveling with a Mexican Marine captain, were wounded and taken to a hospital for treatment, though their injuries were not life-threatening. Their vehicle’s tires and rear windshield were shot out.

A dozen federal police officers detained and questioned over the attack have been ordered held in custody for 40 days. In initial statements to federal prosecutors, they claimed they confused the Americans for criminals.

However, witnesses who saw the shooting at a bend in the road outside the small town of Tres Marias told Reuters the gunmen were dressed in plain clothes and pursued the Americans firing from unmarked cars and on foot — a classic style of gangland hits in Mexico.

“We had no idea at all they were police. They looked like criminals,” said one woman who witnessed the incident but asked not to be named for fear of repercussions.

A Mexican government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the evidence suggested gang members and corrupt police had carried out the attack before other police arrived at the scene and prevented the men being killed.

“This was not an accident,” the official said.

Witnesses said the CIA driver made impressive evasive maneuvers which likely saved the lives of those inside the car, and they believe they heard hundreds of bullets fired, estimating the incident lasted around six minutes.

The Mexican official said the vehicle was chased for about 4 km (2.5 miles) before it was halted, and that shell casings from AK-47s, which are not used by Mexican police and are a weapon of choice for drug cartel members, were found at the scene.

A total of four vehicles were involved in the incident, though only the shot-up van was found at the scene, the official added. One of the vehicles identified by eyewitnesses has been linked to other crimes, the official said.

Tres Marias is close to the city of Cuernavaca, a popular weekend retreat for Mexico City residents that has been badly hit by drug violence in recent years. In 2009, Mexican Marines shot dead leading cartel boss Arturo Beltran Leyva, alias “The Beard,” in Cuernavaca in an operation based on information from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

His brother and fellow drug boss, Hector Beltran Leyva, is thought by some security experts to be at large nearby.

The Mexican official said the rise in criminal activity in the area was very likely being abetted by corrupt police.

“The police here have been heavily infiltrated by organized crime,” said a local man, who declined to be identified.

American and Mexican officials are still investigating the incident and Mexican Attorney General Marisela Morales said on Wednesday that an ambush was one possible explanation.

U.S. officials in diplomatic vehicles went over the scene of the shooting on Wednesday, taking fresh evidence under the protection of Mexican Marines.

A separate Mexican official close to the investigation who asked not to be identified said the CIA officers were within a few miles of the Marine base when they were shot at.

The CIA declined to comment on the incident.

One U.S. official familiar with inquiries into the incident said there are a “whole lot of unanswered questions” and that dealings between the United States and Mexico could be seriously affected if Washington concludes a major cover-up is going on.

DELIBERATE AMBUSH?

Mexico’s police have been plagued by corruption and officers working for hire for cartels in recent years, amid a surge in violence that poses a major challenge for incoming President Enrique Pena Nieto, who is due to take office in December.

Roadside shootings have been a feature of the violence that has overshadowed President Felipe Calderon’s six years in office. Gangs have been known to set up fake military checkpoints to ambush rivals.

Last year, two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were shot by hitmen on a major Mexican highway. One of the agents died.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/29/inside-the-ring-iraq-backing-iran/

Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government, led by President Nouri al-Maliki, continues to align itself more closely with neighboring Iran.

According to U.S. defense officials, including one who recently returned from Iraq, Mr. Maliki recently shifted a large number of Sunni-dominated Iraqi troop units near Syria away from the border and replaced them with Shiite troops.

The reason: Iraq’s government is preparing for the exit of Iranian paramilitary units from Syria that have been seeking to prop up President Bashar Assad’s regime. Beset by a growing number of high-level defections, the Assad regime is said to be on its last legs.

The Iraqi units near Syria are expected to form a secure corridor into the southern part of Iraq and into Iran for the retreating Iranian troops.

Intelligence reports from the region indicate that members of the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s regime also are fleeing Syria and returning to Iraq, raising new fears of anti-government terrorist attacks in Iraq.

Mr. Maliki in July announced that Iraqis in Syria could return to Iraq, including Baathists but excluded those involved in crimes.

According to reports from the region, Iraqi intelligence has been checking the passports of those arriving from Syria at Baghdad International Airport against a list of 300 people wanted by the government.

Additionally, in Kirkuk, police on July 24 arrested an al Qaeda terrorist who had entered Iraq from Syria. And five former Saddam regime leaders entered Iraq from Syria around the same time and were planning to finance suicide bombings in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, according to Iraqi press reports.

The increasing terrorist threat comes against the backdrop of a little-noticed campaign of targeted assassinations of middle-level government officials in Iraq.

A U.S. official said the Obama administration and the Pentagon have ignored the increasing threats in Iraq since the pullout of U.S. forces from the country in December. “I don’t think the Pentagon wants anything to do with Iraq anymore,” the official said.

An Iraqi Embassy official had no immediate comment.

N. Korea’s deceptive flood figures

North Korea’s communist regime recently issued inflated figures for rainfall and casualties from rains and flooding in order to obtain foreign aid, according to a Western diplomatic official.

An analysis of weather events since June in North Korea revealed that rainfall and flooding were less severe than that which occurred during floods in 2011 and 1995.

The North Koreans claimed severe damage. According to official state media: A total of 169 people died, 400 others went missing and more than 200,000 were left homeless in recent flooding.

However, an analysis of weather patterns in the region contradicts Pyongyang’s rain and flood claims. It found that severe drought in May and June was eased by the rain, rather than it causing massive damage.

Heavy rains in July also were shorter in duration and produced lower rainfall totals than heavy rains in 2011 and 1995. Yet Pyongyang reported three times the casualties, which the diplomatic official said was “drastically” overstated.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears not to have visited the flood-damaged regions. Instead, he was reported to have visited a North Korean amusement park during the floods.

Also, his order to repair flood damage came 10 days after the flooding, a indication the rainfalls did not produce a major natural disaster.

Reports from North Koreans living outside the country also stated that Mr. Kim issued special orders to officials in late July to exaggerate casualties from the floods as a way to extract more aid from the international community.

International inspectors who traveled to North Korea could not confirm the high casualty totals claimed by the government.

Said one diplomat: “North Korea is squandering enormous amounts of money on pointless projects,” including weapons of mass destruction and construction of a palace for the embalmed bodies of past leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, along with a large amusement park.

Foreign aid sent to help flood-damaged regions in North Korea has had “negatives effects,” such as allowing the communist regime to avoid having to build costly flood-prevention measures, the diplomat said. As a result, North Koreans continue to fall victim to recurring floods.

“The international community must be discreet in providing support to the North Korean regime,” giving aid only when the regime’s efforts to cope with floodwaters have failed and it is left with no other option but to seek emergency assistance, the diplomat said. “That way the international community will help North Korea to enhance its ability to manage natural disasters.”

Poland moving away from U.S.

The Obama administration’s conciliatory policies toward Russia on missile defense are prompting one NATO ally to rethink its reliance on the United States.

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski announced Aug. 15 that Poland must replace its aging Soviet air and missile defenses with a “Polish shield” that will be part of NATO missile defenses.

Reports from Poland said Mr. Komorowski’s announcement represents a strategic shift from the U.S. in the aftermath of the Obama administration’s 2009 decision to cancel a long-range interceptor base in Poland as part of its “reset” policy of seeking closer ties to Moscow.

Polish military analyst Artur Bilski wrote recently that Poland’s plan for its own missile defense was prompted by President Obama’s overheard conversation in April with then-Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. Mr. Obama promised the Russian leader that he would have “more flexibility” to negotiate a missile defense agreement after he is re-elected.

The comment was widely interpreted by congressional Republicans as plans for further concessions to the Russians, who are demanding legally binding restrictions on U.S. missile defenses in Europe, a position so far rejected by the United States.

A U.S. defense official said another problem for the Poles on missile defense has been the head of the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency, Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, whose leadership style has alienated allies in Europe and Asia who are seeking to cooperate with the U.S. in building missile defenses.

GOP defense platform

The Republican Party platform made public this week highlights a return to Reagan administration defense policies that called for “peace through strength.”

Passing the torch: Ryan connects with Gen X
CNN
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
News
Passing the torch: Ryan connects with Gen X
With Paul Ryan, 42, holding down the No. 2 spot, the ticket hopes to strengthen his Generation X demographic ahead and broaden the campaign’s appeal to a wealth of younger voters. During his speech, Ryan spoke directly to young voters’ economic concerns. Read more…

Read more: http://times247.com/#ixzz251jj4i8i
Dem’s ‘war-on-women’ attack based on myths
U.S. News
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Commentary
Dem’s ‘war-on-women’ attack based on myths
In 2010, Republicans won the women’s vote over Democrats by 49 percent to 48 percent, exit polls showed. Ever since, the Democratic political strategy has been to make female voters, who comprise more than half the electorate, their No. 1 target. Read more…

Read more: http://times247.com/#ixzz251jqRBK2
Martinez talks about political conversion
Weekly Standard
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Blogs
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez grew up, like most New Mexicans of Hispanic descent, a Democrat. Her telling of her conversion to the Republican party was aimed less at the GOP delegates seated before and more to those Hispanic Democrats and independents watching at home. Read more…

Read more: http://times247.com/#ixzz251k01kcX
Ryan’s speech unites GOP faithful and Tea Party
Fox News
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Commentary
If any political speech at the GOP convention can bring together Tea Partiers, independents and the Republican faithful, Rep. Paul Ryan’s was it. Ryan drew a clear connection between fiscal responsibility in government and economic opportunity for the nation. Read more…

Read more: http://times247.com/#ixzz251kG4nhL