October 29, 2012
"Time Grows Short"
Until US election day, that is.
I know some of my readers may be awaiting the megastorm Sandy and others may be into it already. I wish all of you an easy time, without personal injury or damage to property and with uninterrupted electrical service. You'll catch this when you can.
In the meantime, I want to begin by sharing a piece of mine that just went up on Frontpage Magazine. It is election-oriented. Former head of Mossad, Ephraim Halevy wrote a strange piece in the NYTimes, attempting to show that Obama is good for Israel by demonstrating that Republicans are not. This line of thinking fails abysmally. In my article, I comment on his approach, and offer facts demonstrating that, in fact, Obama is the worst of presidents for Israel.
Please, read it and share it: Who Threw Israel Under the Bus?
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I think my closing paragraph is particularly noteworthy, as it has garnered little attention:
"Who would have imagined, four years ago, that President Obama would establish the Global Counterterrorism Forum in 2011, and then, in June of this year, actively block participation by Israel – the world’s greatest expert on terrorism – when the Forum had its first meeting in Istanbul?"This fact alone serves well in making the case that the president is not a friend of Israel.
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My Frontpage piece is a response to a NYTimes op-ed, and here I want to mention something else that came out of the Times recently.
During the recent barrage of rockets launched at southern Israel (and I'll get to that momentarily), an Israeli international lawyer and journalist, Arsen Ostrovsky, wrote a piece in the Huffington Post entitled, "My Country is Under Attack. Do You Care?" in which he expressed his outrage at the response of the world to what was happening.
It's an excellent piece and I recommend it:
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Ostrovsky wrote that he was infuriated, among other things, by the fact that:
"newspapers like the New York Times, lead their stories about the rocket attacks with such headlines as "Four Palestinian Militants Killed in Israeli Airstrikes," and not "Palestinian Terrorists Rain Down Over 80 Rockets against one million Israelis."Well, that set me back. I checked -- Ostrovsky's piece provided a link -- and sure enough, the Times article on terrorists launching rockets at innocent Israelis had been provided with the headline precisely as he described. And there's more. The accompanying photo, right under the article, showed Palestinian Arabs mourning because of relatives (who most assuredly were not innocents) killed by Israel, rather than Israelis dealing with the rocket attacks.
The bias here is breathtaking. Nothing, but nothing reported by the Times with regard to Israel should be accepted at face value. While the editors of this vaunted newspaper ought hang their heads in shame.
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As to those rockets. Yesterday, three Grad katyusha rockets landed on the outskirts of Beersheva, prompting the mayor to close schools. Today at least 18 rockets have been launched from Gaza. The military wing of Hamas continues to claim credit, saying this is in response to the "continuous Zionist bombing and terrorizing of peaceful citizens."
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I do not intend to offer details of the political goings-on here pre-election. It would spin the heads of too many readers. Hey! It spins my head, but I stick with it. There are battles over the formations of party lists, questions of mergers, people leaving one party to join another, and more.
But I do report that the merger of Likud and Yisrael Beitenu is now official, having been approved by the Likud Central Committee.
This merger, Netanyahu has noted, is not a merger of the parties, but of their lists. There will still be two separate factions in the Knesset.
There were Likud Knesset members who were discontented with the prospect of a shared list, at least in part because it may threaten their places on that list -- which now has to be shared with members of Yisrael Beitenu. (Names on the list will be in proportion to the current strength of each party -- roughly two members of Likud for every member of Yisrael Beitenu.) But they were overruled by the Central Committee, voting in large proportion in favor of this move.
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When asked if this was a move to establish an "inheritance," that is, to ensure that Lieberman would follow him in governing the nation, Netanyahu replied in the negative. He intends to lead the country for many years to come, he declared.
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Today, less than a week after a Sudanese munitions factory -- which is suspected to have had Iranian ties -- was bombed, two Iranian ships have docked in a Sudanese port, obviously in a show of strength and to provide support to Sudan. Ostensibly, they are there to "convey a message of peace and friendship to the region's countries and to provide safety at sea in light of maritime terrorism." This is via the official Iranian news agency, IRNA.
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And some good news from Israel:
University of Haifa researcher Yifat Segev has discovered a link between Alzheimer's and the activity level of a protein called eIF2alpha. Prof. Kobi Rosenblum has said that altering the protein's activity level via medication could provide treatment for this terrible, progressive disease.
Read: University study may lead to Alzheimer’s treatments
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In the 1990s the marbled duck was in danger of extinction because of pollution in the Kishon River. Only four were believed to be alive at one point (although this seems to have been a modest underestimate). Now, with the river cleaned up, 72 of these ducks were found living in one reservoir alone.
Read: Rare marbled ducks return to rehabilitated Kishon River
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"Israel is planning to build a model agricultural village in the new nation of South Sudan, aimed at teaching local farmers how Israel’s breakthrough agricultural methods and technologies can help the fledgling African nation survive and thrive.
"The idea took shape when Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon got to talking with South Sudan’s Minister of Agriculture, Betty Ogwaro, at the Agritech 2012 expo in Tel Aviv last May."
Read: Israel To Build Model Farm in South Sudan
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"Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, have discovered a new physics trick. While it’s not exactly Superman vision –– yet — the camera developed by Ori Katz, Eran Small and Prof. Yaron Silberberg sees through objects using a simple light bulb, a standard digital camera and the basic technology found in everyday digital projectors.
"Their camera can see through nearly opaque surfaces such as skin or frosted glass — even around a corner into another room if the door is open.
"Other scientists around the world have produced similar results, but only when using laser technology and not in real time.
"While the applications are far down the road, the new discovery points the way to non-invasive cancer diagnostics."
Read: Camera "Sees" Through Skin, Around Corners
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© Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by Arlene Kushner, functioning as an independent journalist. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.
See my website at www.arlenefromisrael.info Contact Arlene at akushner18@gmail.com
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