RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=7463

n his first year in office, U.S. president Barack Obama was asked about his belief in the concept of “American exceptionalism.” The president’s response was a sharp break from the concept as understood by his predecessor in the Oval Office, George W. Bush, and many Americans. The more generally accepted concept was summarized by writer James Kirchik as the notion “that our history as the world’s oldest democracy, our immigrant founding and our devotion to liberty endow the United States with a unique, providential role in world affairs.”

The concept, in other words, supports an outlook on America’s role in world affairs that includes our active involvement in these matters, and argues that America has had a positive involvement in world affairs.

Obama’s response as the leader of his country, a country that for decades was the self-proclaimed leader of the free world, was unusual to say the least: “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.”

Comparing the United States role in the world to Britain’s, a former great power, now one with one-fifth the population of the United States, or to that of Greece, a country with less than one-thirtieth the population of the United States, and a collapsing economy to boot, suggested that for the new president, neither America nor its history were all that special.

http://cofda.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/texas-police-officers-are-members-of-mahmoudberg-jihadist-compound/
On Aug. 6, 2007, Paul Williams reported for Atlas Shrugs that an Islamic terrorist organization had established over 45 jihadists compounds in rural areas throughout America.
The organization, Jamaat ul-Fuqra, is headquartered in Pakistan. Its U.S. compounds provide paramilitary training to new recruits for the great jihad against the USA. Most of the recruits are African-Americans who converted to Islam while doing hard time in federal prison.
More recently, on Feb. 18, 2014, PJ Media reported that Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) documents have detailed a 22-site network of terrorist training villages sprawled across the United States. The FBI has been concerned about these facilities for about 12 years, but cannot act against them because the U.S. State Department has not yet declared their umbrella group, MOA [Muslims of the Americas]/Jamaat ul-Fuqra, to be a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Now, Pamela Geller of Freedom Outpost writes that a jihadist compound in Texas has placed members on local police forces, thereby ensuring that nothing is done to stop or even monitor the jihadists’ activities.

A version of this column will be published at http://yeoldecrabb.com/ on Monday, Feb. 24, 2014.

A world ablaze – but different fuels

A bane of modern military studies [let’s eschew “science”] is the concept of counter-insurgency – the idea that indigenous revolts around the world can be analyzed with “the scientific method” and a set of general principles if implemented could cure the problem. Common sense tells us that the essence of any dissidence/armed insurrection is its particularity, its basis in specific local conditions. They differ not only in geography but in the characteristics of individual societies. So, yes, the army should not steal the peasants’ chickens is a good maxim – but such bromides do not go far to tell you how to prevent civil war.

At the moment, we have one bitter internecine war in Syria, and three incipient revolts between two or more elements in Ukraine, Venezuela and Thailand. Other conflicts, even messier to define, are growing in the Central African Republic and Nigeria.

The question, of course, is whether there anything that connects all these conflicts? And, if so, what if anything can be done to lessen tension and conflict?

Ukraine

The ambivalence between Ukraine and Russia is as old as the two peoples. In fact, it was from centers in what is now Ukraine that Christianity spread to the Great Russians and where they even got their name. More recently, Ukrainians have suffered disproportionately in the Soviet Union – a bitter irony, often at the hands of ethnic Ukrainian members of the Communist hierarchy. Stalin’s man-made famine of the 1930s followed on to the horrors of those of World War I when the engineer Herbert Hoover first emerged on the world scene. But a flame of Ukrainian identity survived, expressing itself at the height of Soviet repression in such small protests as citizens of Ukraine’s western metropolis, the old Hapsburg city of Lviv [Lvov, Lemberg] unofficially using “our time” [Central European] rather than Moscow’s time zone to express their identification with the West..

Did you know that in 1996 Osama bin Laden issued his first “international” fatwa…..” “Declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places” declaring that Muslims should fight those that either support Israel or support Western military forces in Islamic countries, , including civilians and military personnel. ?

In 1998, the fatwa was reissued by Bin Laden and published in the Arabic and Moslem media with additional calls for killing Jews and destroying Israel. That same year, at the Wye Palntation, then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright wielded her considerable charms by continuing the disaster of the Oslo agreements and forcing Netanyahu to yield rights to Hebron the first capital city of the Jewish people, the home of the Patriarchs, and cradle of the Jewish faith.

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