Israel in the News Jan/Feb 2010

No ‘HaTikvah’
ARUTZ-7—Young female athletes from Israel’s fencing team swept top medals at a 28-nation European tournament in Austria in November, but when they received their medals, the organizers did not play the Israeli national anthem. The winners had to sing it on their own, a cappella. The Israeli team’s staff has no doubt the incident was intentional.

As they awaited the opening strains of “HaTikvah,” they heard only silence. The girls and their trainers quickly understood what was happening and proceeded to sing the entire anthem, with scattered support from spectators.

Muslims Get Security Posts
ARUTZ-7—U.S. President Barack Obama continues to “reach out to Muslims” by appointing them to key security posts. A recent appointee appeared on a British-based television show hosted by a member of a radical Muslim group.

In November Obama swore in a Muslim-rights advocate to the Homeland Security Advisory Council shortly after the Fort Hood massacre. Syrian-born Kareem Shora was the national executive director of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, which wants the United States to stop providing Israel with weapons because of alleged “atrocities” against Arabs. He was legal counsel and advocate for Muslim civil rights and has been a frequent guest on the pro-Hamas al-Jazeera satellite network.

Shora joins another devout Muslim, Arif Alikhan, who was appointed assistant secretary for policy development in the Department of Homeland Security. While deputy mayor of Los Angeles, California, he removed the plan that tracked Muslims in the city who were suspected of terrorist activities.

Cure for Cancer?
ARUTZ-7—The Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa has inaugurated an advanced laboratory for an innovative cancer treatment using laser beams and nanoparticles of gold. The treatment is noninvasive, has no side effects, and damages only the cancerous cell without damaging the healthy cells that surround it.

The laboratory itself is located at the Laurie I. Lokey Interdisciplinary Center for Life Sciences and Engineering, which was built in 2006 with major support ($30 million) from philanthropist Laurie Lokey.

“We illuminate the tumor via an endoscopic, laser-based miniature optical fiber,” explained Dr. Dvir Yelin, a researcher at the center. “The laser has two parameters: one, it consists of very short pulses at millions of billionths of a second that can break down the cell without heat; and two, the laser has a wavelength that precisely fits the resonant frequency of nanoparticles, which makes it possible to highly increase the efficiency of the laser.”

Under these conditions, the laser operates at a distance of nanometers (a millionth of a millimeter) from a nanoparticle and creates sufficiently intense laser illumination to dismantle, through ionization, the material within the cancer cell, which then dies without damage to the surrounding healthy cells, he explained.

U.S. Aid Funds PA Incitement
ARUTZ-7—The massive USAID program for the Palestinian Authority (PA) helps build schools where children learn incitement and that the State of Israel does not exist, investigative journalist David Bedein revealed to Arutz Sheva.

“This is a catastrophe,” he said. He said a USAID official told him the agency does not examine the PA curriculum and does not check to see if any of the assistance ends up in the hands of terrorists. Bedein asserted, “They teach children about ‘martyrdom,’ praise violent resistance, and teach that the entire State of Israel does not exist.”

The USAID program has pumped$2.4 billion into the PA since 1994 for what it says are programs that “reduce poverty, improve health and education, create jobs, and advance democracy.” USAID says it plans to invest another $153 million in 2010.

State Department Wants Jews Out
ARUTZ-7—A top U.S. State Department official has spelled out that the U.S. goal in its negotiations in the Middle East is to pressure Israel into expelling Jews from Judea and Samaria in order to “end the occupation that began in 1967.”

William J. Burns, under secretary for political affairs, said in November, “Our goal in the region is clear: two states living side by side in peace and security; a Jewish State of Israel, with which America retains unbreakable bonds, and with true security for all Israelis; and a viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967, that ends the daily humiliations of Palestinians under occupation, and that realizes the full and remarkable potential of the Palestinian people.”

Jewish Refugees a Peace Issue
ARUTZ-7—The Knesset has passed an initial reading of a proposal stipulating that any negotiations with the Palestinian Authority on the rights of Arabs who left Israel in 1948 must also involve demands for reparations to the Jews forced to flee Arab countries.

The American Sephardi Federation reports as follows: “Between the 1940s and 1980s, [850,000] Jews of Arab countries endured humiliation, discrimination, human rights abuses, organized persecution and expulsion….Jewish property was seized without compensation, Jewish quarters were sacked and looted, and cemeteries were desecrated.”

Israel’s Dore Gold vs. UN’s Goldstone
ARUTZ-7—Former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold faced off recently against South  African Judge Richard Goldstone in a debate at Brandeis University over the controversial UN Goldstone Report that condemns Israel for alleged human rights violations during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.

“The UN Gaza report is the most serious and vicious indictment of the State of Israel bearing the seal of the United Nations since the General Assembly adopted the ‘Zionism is racism’ resolution,” Gold stated. “The report simply distorts the very essence of what Israel stands for.”

Before addressing the Goldstone Report, Gold mentioned the Iranian weapons ship that was halted in the Mediterranean in November carrying thousands of rockets. “Those rockets were intended to kill Israeli civilians,” he stated.

As Gold began to describe the instructions Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers receive in avoiding civilian casualties, he was interrupted by hecklers. After they were silenced, Gold explained that Israeli soldiers are taught to respect civilian life even at the risk of their own.

The Goldstone Report went “beyond its own evidence” to impugn intentions and motives to Israeli leaders, Gold charged. In addition, it went “months beyond its own research,” condemning Israeli actions before and after the report. “How does the Gaza report of the UN reach these conclusions?” he asked.

In contrast, Hamas “is almost protected,” Gold charged, pointing out that Hamas officials themselves had interpreted the report as vindicating their position.

“What would you do if your population was facing repeated attacks for eight years?” Gold asked, after showing videos showing the damage wrought by terrorist rockets. He pointed out, with help from aerial maps, that Hamas positions were embedded within the Arab civilian population.