Friday, April 19, 2013
Updates on the Boston Attack
Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com
After last night's events, we now know the identities and backgrounds of the two men identified in the videos. They are Tamarlan and Dzhokhar Tsarbaev, ethnic Chechens and yes, Muslims. While many of their associates are stunned, jihadi sentiments have, indeed, surfaced (Hat tip Investigative Project on Terrorism).
http://www.investigativeproject.org/3981/bombing-suspects-lauded-jihad
In the meantime, the below report, from JNS, has some troubling information on yesterday's interfaith service in Boston. I was wondering if the Islamic Cultural center of Greater Boston was participating. Now it appears they were scheduled to take part, but that the head imam, Suhaib Webb, was replaced at the last minute. Given the background of this center, that is appropriate.
http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2013/4/18/muslim-brotherhood-linked-mosques-imam-replaced-as-speaker-at-service-for-boston-marathon-attack-victims
I have posted about this center in the past, largely as a result of the work of Charles Jacobs of Americans for Peace and Tolerance-based in Boston- who has tried to warn the Jewish interfaith leaders about the troubling associations of the center.
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=59324506101124457#editor/target=post;postID=2630129825910581624;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=2;src=postname
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2011/03/yusuf-al-qaradawi-and-islamic-society.html
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2010/06/what-is-going-on-in-boston-jewish.html
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2010/09/another-school-indoctination-of-our.html
Let us hope the second suspect is brought to justice before he can kill again.
Muslim Persecution of Christians: February, 2013
Half of the Victims Were under the Age of Six
Reports of Christian persecution by Muslims around the world during the month of February include (but are not limited to) the following accounts. They are listed by form of persecution, and in country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity:
Church Attacks
Indonesia: Four churches were firebombed with Molotov cocktails in the world's most populous Muslim nation. Two were attacked on a Sunday morning in South Sulawesi. Another two churches were attacked a few days later. All the churches suffered various degrees of fire damage. According to Barnabas Fund, the same region was earlier "ravaged in a bloody anti-Christian campaign by Islamic extremists between 1997 and 2001. Hundreds of churches and thousands of homes were destroyed; according to some estimates 30,000 Christians were killed and about half a million driven out in what amounted to ethnic cleansing…. The beheading of three girls as they made their way [to] their Christian school in Central Sulawesi in 2005 was among the most egregious." Elsewhere, in the village of Mekargalih, some 50 members of the Islamic Defenders Front descended upon a Pentecostal church, scaling its gates, vandalizing the building, and assaulting the church's minister, including strangling him with his own necktie. The reason cited for this assault was that the church was operating without a permit. Two days later, the only person arrested and currently serving a three month prison sentence, was the minister, for continuing to hold services without a valid permit. The church, which has been running for 26 years, has made repeated attempts, at significant financial cost, to obtain the required permit but has been obstructed by local authorities. This was the third violent attack against the church by the Islamic party in the last two years. According to the minister's wife, who has also been threatened and harassed, this latest attack has "traumatized" the 400-strong congregation; many Christians are now too afraid to attend services.
Libya: A Coptic Christian church located in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked by armed Muslim militants. Initial reports indicate that at least one priest, Fr. Paul Isaac, was injured, as well as his assistant. This was the second church to be attacked in two months. Earlier, on Sunday, December 30, an explosion had rocked a Coptic Christian church near the western city of Misrata, where a group of U.S. backed rebels hold a major checkpoint. The explosion killed two people and wounded two others, all Egyptians.
Zanzibar: Arsonists set the Evangelical Church of Siloam aflame on the island, populated 99% by Muslims. The church was under construction following a previous attack in January 2012. The current attack follows a string of other attacks on church leaders and Christian property across the country. Two days earlier, a Catholic priest was shot dead on his way to church for Sunday worship. Two Muslim youths at the church entrance shot him in the head. A message signed by "Muslim Renewal" later appeared saying, "We thank our young men, trained in Somalia, for killing an infidel. Many more will die. We will burn homes and churches. We have not finished: at Easter, be prepared for disaster." A few days before the slaying of the Catholic priest, an Assemblies of God pastor was beheaded by Muslims on the Tanzanian mainland. And on Christmas Day, gunmen shot and seriously wounded another Catholic priest as he was returning home from church.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Finally Obama Has Lost One!
For the first time in his Presidency, Barack Hussein Obama has lost a political battle. And a big one to boot.
Never before had President Barack Obama put the moral force and political muscle of his presidency behind an issue quite this big — and lost quite this badly.It wasn't the NRA that defeated this bill but the average gun owning man and woman who contacted their Senator and told him or her in certain terms that they would not be donating or supporting them in any reelection bid. A great many calls, e-mails and letters have been sent.
The president, shaken to the core by the massacre of 26 innocents at Sandy Hook Elementary School, broke his own informal “Obama Rule” — of never leaning into an issue without a clear path to victory — first by pushing for a massive gun control package no one expected to pass, and then sticking through it even as he retrenched to a relatively modest bipartisan bill mandating national background checks on gun purchases.
It was a bitter defeat for a president accustomed to winning, a second-term downer that may — or may not — foreshadow the slow decline suffered by so many of his predecessors. Obama seems to have the public behind him, but it illustrated his less-than-Johnsonian powers of personal persuasion, the possible shortcomings of his decision to wait a month after the killings to present a plan and above all the limits of his go-to “outside” strategy of taking his case directly to the American people.
More than anything, it was an emotional blow to Obama, who was as irritated at the four members of his own party as he was at the 90 percent of Republicans who defeated the bill.
One administration official told POLITICO the White House was especially disappointed with Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D), the only dissenting Democrat not up for re-election next year, who refused to go along with the bill even after White House chief of staff Denis McDonough visited her office to make Obama’s case on Tuesday.
Still, officials believed Heitkamp would have flipped if they had gotten closer to the 60 votes they needed.
“The president was tremendously committed and emotionally engaged. I watched the president with these families. He was there for them and really felt it,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who worked closely with the White House in the aftermath of the worst school shooting in the history of his state.
“Background checks will happen,” he added, minutes after the vote. “This outcome is a delay, not a defeat.”
Added Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.): “I never saw a president fight so hard, a vice president, never on any issue… It shows us the cowardice of the Senate.”
In the end, however, moderates and conservatives in the upper chamber said they simply couldn’t deal with a flurry of progressive issues at once — from gay marriage to immigration to guns.
The other three Democratic “no” votes — Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mark Begich of Alaska — were never really in play, sources familiar with the situation told POLITICO.
Source
This is the first time that Obama has been utterly defeated in what he wanted. The next will be with that "Immigration Bill" that is thinly disguised Amnesty.
Obama's foreign policy is going to the dogs. He has insulted every friend we have had in the world. And now his domestic policies from Gun Control to Immigration to his Healthcare Law are dying. History will remember him as the First Black President, but one of the worst in history.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Boston Bombing
Yaakov Kirschen the creator of Dry Bones has said it all.
It never seems to stop. Yes, our societies, towns, and cities survive. Yes, we are strong. We bounce back. But for the victims,their bodies torn apart, limbs blown off, for the dead and their families and those who loved them. For all of these it will never be over.
Theirs is a life sentence.
It never seems to stop. Yes, our societies, towns, and cities survive. Yes, we are strong. We bounce back. But for the victims,their bodies torn apart, limbs blown off, for the dead and their families and those who loved them. For all of these it will never be over.
Theirs is a life sentence.
Wednesday's Hero: Senior Airman Austin Stoker
Senior Airman Austin Stoker
Senior Airman Austin Stoker replenishes a .50-caliber machine gun after a training mission in Afghanistan in March.
Photo courtesy U.S. Air Force taken by Tech. Sgt. Dennis J. Henry Jr.
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives just so others may get to enjoy freedom. For that I am proud to call them Hero.
Those Who Say That We're In A Time When There Are No Heroes, They Just Don't Know Where To Look
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
For The Victims Of The Boston Marathon Terror
Psalm of David Number 130
A Song of Ascents.
Out of the depths have I called Thee, O LORD.
Lord, hearken unto my voice;
let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
If Thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
For with Thee there is forgiveness, that Thou mayest be feared.
I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in His word do I hope.
My soul waiteth for the Lord, more than watchmen for the morning; yea, more than watchmen for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the LORD; for with the LORD there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption.
And He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
AMEN!
A Song of Ascents.
Out of the depths have I called Thee, O LORD.
Lord, hearken unto my voice;
let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
If Thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
For with Thee there is forgiveness, that Thou mayest be feared.
I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in His word do I hope.
My soul waiteth for the Lord, more than watchmen for the morning; yea, more than watchmen for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the LORD; for with the LORD there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption.
And He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
AMEN!
Monday, April 15, 2013
65!
Tonight starts the celebration! A small nation that never had the a
chance to survive its War of Independence. The "experts" gave it 10
days at best before the "Military" would be utterly destroyed and the people massacred. Their enemies were gleeful! They could not lose! So what went wrong?
The "experts", their enemies, the world forgot two important things. First, the Jews of Palestine (As the land was called back then.) loved the land and had no place to run to. No nation would take them in. So they fought like tigers. Second, G-d was on their side.
That was 65 years ago. The war started the minute that David Ben-Gurion spoke these immortal words:
Click here if the video doesn't load.
That was 65 years ago and Israel is not only alive as a nation, but thriving! A small list of the ways Israel is saving the planet is found here. David Ben-Gurion called Israel: A Light Upon the World, but today it is a Sea of Freedom in the Middle East.
Click here if the video refuses to load.
The last person is an Ethiopian immigrant Yityish Aynaw, who came to Israel with her parents at the age of 12. (And that is Apartheid?)
For 65 years Israel has been the center of abuse and attacks from the Muslim world. After losing the War of Independence every Muslim nation expelled their Jewish population between the years 1949 and 1960. And again no nation but one would take these people in. That nation was Israel. For it is the only nation in the world that a Jew knows it can run to.
Unlike the so-called Palestinian refugees, Israel not only took in but absorbed into their population 1 Million refugees. Men, women and children who became the backbone of Israeli society. Spicing up the flavor of the land. Working towards building a homeland. And yet the Arab nations refused to absorb their "Palestinian" brothers. And thus found another tool to blame Israel with.
Every wonder who rules the UN? I can assure you it is not the 5 permanent members of the Security Council, but the 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), formally known as the Organization of Islamic States. That is why they can rape, beat and kill their minority populations, kill their own people in droves, forgo basic human rights and never be sanctioned by the UN. Yet over 135 resolutions have been written against Israel. While Muammar Gaddafi ruled Libya and was murdering his people, the UN voted him a seat on the Human Rights Council. Syria too and as of date Assad has murdered over 70,000 of his own people. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Somalia are members on the sub-committee on Women's rights. I do believe the inmates have taken over the asylum.
As long as there is an Israel a Jew in this world is safe from another Holocaust. There is a place to flee to. A reminder to the world that their old hatred of Judaism and Jews is still alive within them. And in Europe still alive and kicking.
Click here if the video fails to load.
The "experts", their enemies, the world forgot two important things. First, the Jews of Palestine (As the land was called back then.) loved the land and had no place to run to. No nation would take them in. So they fought like tigers. Second, G-d was on their side.
That was 65 years ago. The war started the minute that David Ben-Gurion spoke these immortal words:
Click here if the video doesn't load.
The United States under President Harry S. Truman was the first nation in the world to recognize the little nation. And the miracle began.The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel
The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural
After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom.
Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned in their masses. Pioneers, defiant returnees, and defenders, they made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and created a thriving community controlling its own economy and culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself, bringing the blessings of progress to all the country's inhabitants, and aspiring towards independent nationhood.
In the year 5657 (1897), at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish State, Theodore Herzl, the First Zionist Congress convened and proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country.
This right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of the 2nd November, 1917, and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and Eretz-Israel and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home.
The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people - the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe - was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem of its homelessness by re-establishing in Eretz-Israel the Jewish State, which would open the gates of the homeland wide to every Jew and confer upon the Jewish people the status of a fully privileged member of the community of nations.
Survivors of the Nazi holocaust in Europe, as well as Jews from other parts of the world, continued to migrate to Eretz-Israel, undaunted by difficulties, restrictions and dangers, and never ceased to assert their right to a life of dignity, freedom and honest toil in their national homeland.
In the Second World War, the Jewish community of this country contributed its full share to the struggle of the freedom- and peace-loving nations against the forces of Nazi wickedness and, by the blood of its soldiers and its war effort, gained the right to be reckoned among the peoples who founded the United Nations.
On the 29th November, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel; the General Assembly required the inhabitants of Eretz-Israel to take such steps as were necessary on their part for the implementation of that resolution. This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their State is irrevocable.
This right is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign State.
Accordingly we, members of the People's Council, representatives of the Jewish Community of Eretz-Israel and of the Zionist Movement, are here assembled on the day of the termination of the British Mandate over Eretz-Israel and, by virtue of our natural and historic right and on the strength of the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly, hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel.
We declare that, with effect from the moment of the termination of the Mandate being tonight, the eve of Sabbath, the 6th Iyar, 5708 (15th May, 1948), until the establishment of the elected, regular authorities of the State in accordance with the Constitution which shall be adopted by the Elected Constituent Assembly not later than the 1st October 1948, the People's Council shall act as a Provisional Council of State, and its executive organ, the People's Administration, shall be the Provisional Government of the Jewish State, to be called "Israel."
The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the In gathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
The State of Israel is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and representatives of the United Nations in implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of the 29th November, 1947, and will take steps to bring about the economic union of the whole of Eretz-Israel.
We appeal to the United Nations to assist the Jewish people in the building-up of its State and to receive the State of Israel into the community of nations.
We appeal - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months - to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.
We extend our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.
We appeal to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel in the tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream - the redemption of Israel.
Placing our trust in the Almighty, we affix our signatures to this proclamation at this session of the provisional Council of State, on the soil of the Homeland, in the city of Tel-Aviv, on this Sabbath eve, the 5th day of Iyar, 5708 (14th May, 1948).
Signed,
David Ben-Gurion
Daniel Auster Mordekhai Bentov Yitzchak Ben Zvi Eliyahu Berligne Fritz Bernstein Rabbi Wolf Gold Meir Grabovsky Yitzchak Gruenbaum Dr. Abraham Granovsky Eliyahu Dobkin Meir Wilner-Kovner Zerach Wahrhaftig Herzl Vardi Rachel Cohen Rabbi Kalman Kahana Saadia Kobashi Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Levin Meir David Loewenstein Zvi Luria Golda Myerson Nachum Nir Zvi Segal Rabbi Yehuda Leib Hacohen Fishman David Zvi Pinkas Aharon Zisling Moshe Kolodny Eliezer Kaplan Abraham Katznelson Felix Rosenblueth David Remez Berl Repetur Mordekhai Shattner Ben Zion Sternberg Bekhor Shitreet Moshe Shapira Moshe Shertok
That was 65 years ago and Israel is not only alive as a nation, but thriving! A small list of the ways Israel is saving the planet is found here. David Ben-Gurion called Israel: A Light Upon the World, but today it is a Sea of Freedom in the Middle East.
Click here if the video refuses to load.
The last person is an Ethiopian immigrant Yityish Aynaw, who came to Israel with her parents at the age of 12. (And that is Apartheid?)
For 65 years Israel has been the center of abuse and attacks from the Muslim world. After losing the War of Independence every Muslim nation expelled their Jewish population between the years 1949 and 1960. And again no nation but one would take these people in. That nation was Israel. For it is the only nation in the world that a Jew knows it can run to.
Unlike the so-called Palestinian refugees, Israel not only took in but absorbed into their population 1 Million refugees. Men, women and children who became the backbone of Israeli society. Spicing up the flavor of the land. Working towards building a homeland. And yet the Arab nations refused to absorb their "Palestinian" brothers. And thus found another tool to blame Israel with.
Every wonder who rules the UN? I can assure you it is not the 5 permanent members of the Security Council, but the 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), formally known as the Organization of Islamic States. That is why they can rape, beat and kill their minority populations, kill their own people in droves, forgo basic human rights and never be sanctioned by the UN. Yet over 135 resolutions have been written against Israel. While Muammar Gaddafi ruled Libya and was murdering his people, the UN voted him a seat on the Human Rights Council. Syria too and as of date Assad has murdered over 70,000 of his own people. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Somalia are members on the sub-committee on Women's rights. I do believe the inmates have taken over the asylum.
As long as there is an Israel a Jew in this world is safe from another Holocaust. There is a place to flee to. A reminder to the world that their old hatred of Judaism and Jews is still alive within them. And in Europe still alive and kicking.
Click here if the video fails to load.
Israel 65 Years And Still Here!
Terrorism At the Boston Marathon! Update
Breaking News
Terror hits the Boston Marathon!
2 explosions, back to back went off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
This is Patriot's Day in New England.
New York is going on lock down mode.
The contributors of Monkey in the Middle extends our prayers and condolences to the victims of this attack.
Update:
The bombs had ball barrings in it. Multiple casualties reported and The explosions came from The Fairmount Copley Plaza Hotel.
The President and Security Agencies have been notified.
UPDATE:
SOURCE TELLS FOX NEWS AUTHORITIES ARE GUARDING A 'PERSON OF INTEREST' IN HOSPITAL WITH SEVERE BURNS
Investigators have a suspect — a Saudi Arabian national — in the horrific Boston Marathon bombings, The Post has learned.
Law enforcement sources said the 20-year-old suspect was under guard at an undisclosed Boston hospital.
Fox News reported that the suspect suffered severe burns.
It was not immediately clear why the man was hospitalized and whether he was injured in the attack or in his apprehension.
The man was caught less than two hours after the 2:50 p.m. bombing on the finish line of the race, in the heart of Boston. Source
Terror hits the Boston Marathon!
2 explosions, back to back went off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
The Boston Marathon headquarters has been locked down after two explosions were reported near the finish line, a spokesman told Reuters.Three dead have been reported. Bomb squad personal are being asked to report to the finish line and they are evacuating the area. The Marathon has been stopped and the runners are being sent to the Boston Commons. First explosion came from an upper floor of a building, the second came from a trash can a few minutes later. If these reports are true, this is a terror attack.
Witnesses reportedly heard two booms near the finish line inside the Fairmount Copley Plaza Hotel that sounded like two claps of thunder.
The Associated Press says there are reports of injuries.
Source
This is Patriot's Day in New England.
New York is going on lock down mode.
The contributors of Monkey in the Middle extends our prayers and condolences to the victims of this attack.
Update:
The bombs had ball barrings in it. Multiple casualties reported and The explosions came from The Fairmount Copley Plaza Hotel.
The President and Security Agencies have been notified.
UPDATE:
SOURCE TELLS FOX NEWS AUTHORITIES ARE GUARDING A 'PERSON OF INTEREST' IN HOSPITAL WITH SEVERE BURNS
Investigators have a suspect — a Saudi Arabian national — in the horrific Boston Marathon bombings, The Post has learned.
Law enforcement sources said the 20-year-old suspect was under guard at an undisclosed Boston hospital.
Fox News reported that the suspect suffered severe burns.
It was not immediately clear why the man was hospitalized and whether he was injured in the attack or in his apprehension.
The man was caught less than two hours after the 2:50 p.m. bombing on the finish line of the race, in the heart of Boston. Source
A Norwegian-American's Letter to the Norwegian Ambassador
Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com
My friend and colleague Jim Horn, who is of Norwegian descent, has written an open letter to the Norwegian ambassador to the US. He is protesting the return of anti-Jewish persecution in Norway. Since I have often written on the topic of Norway in this regard, I have chosen to post it here with Jim's permission.
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com
My friend and colleague Jim Horn, who is of Norwegian descent, has written an open letter to the Norwegian ambassador to the US. He is protesting the return of anti-Jewish persecution in Norway. Since I have often written on the topic of Norway in this regard, I have chosen to post it here with Jim's permission.
DATE: March 14, 2013
FROM: James E. Horn
TO: Ambassador Strommen
202-469-3990
SUBJECT: Activities in Norway
My mother’s father was a Norwegian, and as a youth, I took time to learn about the Vikings, and later his family’s partisan activities fighting the Germans in World War II. I was very proud of my Norwegian Lutheran heritage.
Over the years, I have gradually come to question my heritage, first with Nobel prizes being given out for questionable (at best) political reasons, I learned of Norwegian Lutheran anti-Semitism, have come to understand the reasons why Breivik went on his famous killing spree, and most recently the very disappointing news that the last Jews, fearful for their lives, are preparing to depart Norway.
Congratulations! Norway will soon be Juden fri!
Norway is welcoming Moslem, Islamic, Mohammedan barbarians to the country and tolerates their slothfulness, living off of Norwegian people, criminal activities including of unpunished murders of Jews, rapes on the front steps of your parliament building, and more.
Congratulations! Norway will soon be okkupert.
Norway is becoming a sharia compliant outpost of the evil empire.
I am no longer proud of my Norwegian heritage. I am ashamed to be associated with Norway in any way, shape, or form.
I am a proud American citizen, a veteran, a retired American Diplomat, a writer, a recipient of a rare civilian medal for Valor on the battlefield and more, but not proud of Norway
Sincerely,
James E. Horn
www.experiencingislam.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Yom Hazikaron
Israel's Memorial Day.
From Stand for Israel:
This is a day of sorrow to remember the sacrifices given by families to keep the State of Israel free.
May the day come when the sons and daughters of Israel never have to give their lives to ensure their freedoms.
Brothers In Arms
Click here if the video fails to load.
From Stand for Israel:
On Sunday night, the people of Israel will observe Yom HaZikaron – Israel Memorial Day. In the United States, where relatively few Americans are connected to anyone who has died in war, Memorial Day has become an excuse to barbecue and watch the Indy 500, though some people still turn out for parades and events honoring our lost heroes.Not just soldiers who died but the memorial is also for the victims of terror attacks.
In Israel, where everyone serves in the military, war is more frequent, some combat operations are continuous, and everyone knows someone who has fallen in battle, Memorial Day has a different meaning. The names of soldiers killed in the line of duty are listed on a TV channel all day. There are memorial events throughout the country. And, of course, there is the siren – one in the evening and again the next day. Memorial Day in Israel is a deeply personal exercise while still remaining a national opportunity to mourn.
And as the sorrow of Israel Memorial Day gives way to the celebration of Israel Independence Day, the little country, whose miraculous existence is owed to the soldiers her citizens just remembered, moves on to the successes and frustrations of another year.
This is a day of sorrow to remember the sacrifices given by families to keep the State of Israel free.
May the day come when the sons and daughters of Israel never have to give their lives to ensure their freedoms.
Brothers In Arms
Click here if the video fails to load.
Petition to UC Student Government Not to Support Divestiture From Israel
Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com
I have been requested by the UC berkeley Student Union to post this petition to the student government at the University of California not to support divestment from Israel. It is time to stand up and tell the various student governments at the University of California campuses that we do not support this obnoxious and asinine measure to deligitimize the Jewish state, which is under assault from its fanatical Arab neighbors.
http://www.change.org/petitions/senators-of-the-associated-students-university-of-california-asuc-vote-no-to-divest-from-israel-3
I have signed it and I urge like-minded readers to sign it as well and pass it on.
65 Ways Israel Is Saving Our Planet
From Aish.com
In honor of Israel's 65th Birthday on Tuesday, I submit to you my truth-seekers this small list. Pass it on to the BDSer of your choice and tell them to Boycott each and every thing.
When 22-year-old Emmannuel Buso was pulled barely-alive from the rubble of a three-story building, 10 days after an earthquake devastated the island of Haiti, the first faces he saw were those of the Israeli rescue workers who had flown across the world to save lives.
For Haji Edum, from Zanzibar, his life-saving moment came twice, when he was flown at age 15, and then again at 23, to Israel for open-heart surgery. He is just one of thousands of youngsters to receive emergency heart care from volunteer doctors in Israel.
War veterans suffering post-traumatic stress in the US; farmers in Senegal, India and China; young women in South Sudan; the wheelchair-bound in Africa; cardiac patients in Gaza and Iraq – all have received life-changing help and expertise from Israeli specialists.
Today we all know the story of Israel the “startup nation.” News of its technological prowess and incredible innovation has spread far and wide. But what many people don’t know is that Israel is exporting far more than just technology. It is also sharing its experience and skills in a whole range of humanitarian and environmental fields to help people everywhere live better, fuller and healthier lives.
Since Israel was founded in 1948, the country has set itself the historical Jewish goal of becoming a light unto the nations. In the early years of the state, despite austerity rationing, the Israeli government founded MASHAV, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Center for International Cooperation, as a vehicle to share Israel’s creative solutions with the rest of the developing world.
Israel remains true to that vision and every year, with little fanfare, and sometimes very little press attention, Israelis work long hours to find solutions and offer relief to some of the most pressing problems of our times.
From environmental breakthroughs that will help reduce greenhouse emissions, to technologies that can increase food production and save vital crops, to humanitarian aid missions in the wake of catastrophic natural disasters, Israelis are providing significant assistance.
To celebrate Israel’s 65th birthday, we take a look at some of the many creative and varied ways Israel is helping to enrich and improve our planet.
The list comes in no particular order, and is by no means exhaustive. There are hundreds more, if not thousands, worthy projects going on every day. If you’ve got a project worth hearing about, we’d be delighted if you include it in our comments section at the end.
1. An Israeli company is developing a toilet that needs no water, and generates its own power to turn solid waste (including toilet roll) into sterile and odorless fertilizer in 30 seconds. Liquid waste is sterilized and then used to flush the toilet. Developer Paulee CleanTec has been awarded a grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which reports that about 80 percent of human waste goes into rivers and streams untreated, and 1.1 billion people don’t use a toilet.
2. Fifty years ago, Lake Victoria carp was a significant part of the diet of Ugandan villagers. But when Nile perch was introduced to the lake, it decimated the carp population. Villagers had neither the equipment nor the expertise to catch the huge perch, and symptoms of protein deficiency started becoming apparent in their children. Prof. Berta Sivan of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem came to the rescue with a multiyear project to help these African families. Using expertise developed in Israel, her project not only successfully spawned carp on Ugandan fish farms, but also provided training on how to dig and fill ponds and raise the small fish. Now local children have an abundant supply of protein.
3. About 50 percent of every grain and pulse harvest in the developing world is lost to pests and mold, but an Israeli scientist has developed a surprisingly simple and cheap way for African and Asian farmers to keep their grain market-fresh. International food technology consultant Prof. Shlomo Navarro invented huge bags, now marketed by US company GrainPro, which keep both water and air out. The bags are in use all over the developing world, including Africa and the Far East, and even in countries that don’t have diplomatic ties with Israel.
4. In January 2010, Israel won international praise for the speed and expertise with which it responded to a devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Haiti that killed 300,000 people, injured hundreds of thousands and laid waste to the poverty-stricken country. A team of 240 Israeli doctors, nurses, rescue and relief workers arrived in Haiti just days after the quake, bringing medicines, communications and medical equipment. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) volunteers set up the country’s most advanced and well-equipped field hospital in the capital of Port-Au-Prince. Israeli search-and-rescue missions pulled survivors from the rubble, saving many Haitians, including a man trapped for 10 days.
The delegation included volunteers from IsraAID, the IDF, ZAKA, Magen David Adom (MADA), Tevel B’Tzedek, the Negev Institute, and Alyn Hospital. It was the largest Israeli civilian relief mission ever assembled, and was one of the biggest and most skilled on the island. In the wake of the disaster, Israel continues to send aid and assistance, including educational projects, trauma programs, micro-financing, development and relief work, rebuilding of communities and schools, aid packages, empowerment for women, and medical assistance.
5. The invention of drip irrigation by Israeli Simcha Blass and its development by Netafim, and later Plastro and NaanDan Jain, has completely revolutionized agriculture across the world, enabling farmers to increase their yields with less water. Constantly upgraded Israeli drip-irrigation techniques are regularly shared with other countries through MASHAV, Israel’s Center for International Cooperation.
6. Tal-Ya Water Technologies has developed reusable plastic trays to collect dew from the air, reducing the water needed by crops or trees by up to 50 percent. The square serrated trays, made from non-PET recycled and recyclable plastic with UV filters and a limestone additive, surround each plant or tree. With overnight temperature change, dew forms on both surfaces of the Tal-Ya tray, which funnels the dew and condensation straight to the roots. If it rains, the trays heighten the effect of each millimeter of water 27 times over.
7. About 1.6 million children under the age of five die from untreated drinking water in developing nations every year. An Israeli company has developed a water purification system that delivers safe drinking water from almost any source, including contaminated water, seawater and even urine.
WaterSheer’s Sulis personal water purifier is a small 10-gram mouthpiece that attaches to the top of a water bottle. The company has also developed systems to treat large quantities of water. Sulis has been used in Taiwan, Myanmar and Haiti, and will be part of contingency plans in case of disaster at the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.
8. Israel is building a model agricultural village in South Sudan to teach local farmers about Israeli agricultural methods and technologies to help the fledgling African nation thrive.
9. In plants in China, Italy and the United States, Israeli company Seambiotic is using algae to turn carbon dioxide emitted by power plants into fuel and nutraceuticals. The company’s algae ponds, which are nourished by power plant effluent and sunlight, generate 30 times more feedstock for biofuel than do crop alternatives. The algae are a good source of valuable nutraceuticals, especially popular in China and the East.
Seambiotic is also working with the US National Aviation and Space Administration (NASA) to develop a commercially feasible biofuel variety from algae that has a higher freezing point than biofuels from corn or sugarcane.
10. The lives of thousands of endangered animals in West and Central Africa are being saved thanks to the tireless efforts of Israeli law enforcement activist Ofir Drori, who founded the Last Great Ape Organization (LAGA) in Cameroon, the first wildlife law-enforcement NGO in Africa. The organization helped propagate a zero-tolerance approach to illegal wildlife trafficking in Cameroon, which has resulted in hundreds of arrests and prosecutions. The model has been replicated throughout West and Central Africa in activities that go beyond nature conservation to the defense of human rights.
11. Israel is the only country that permanently opens its arms to children sick from radiation caused by the Ukrainian nuclear disaster in Chernobyl over 27 years ago. More than 2,755 affected children, ages eight to 15, have been brought to Israel for treatment and resettlement.
12. Israeli researchers and farmers have combined the best of Israel’s agri-tech and clean-tech innovation to create a new artificial desert oasis that could help feed millions of desert-dwellers. The oasis was developed by researchers from Ben-Gurion University and the Central and Northern Arava Research and Development center, and uses Israel’s expertise in growing salt-resistant crops in the Negev desert with little rain under a harsh sun. The oasis uses low-cost desalination technology that runs on solar power to turn brackish water into sweet water.
13. An Israeli company is developing a new contraceptive with the potential to provide a safer, long-acting, non-invasive solution for women in developing nations. Hervana recently won a $1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its accessible, cheap and socially acceptable LJ-102 suppository, which has to be applied only once or twice a month via a non-hormonal vaginal preparation.
According to the World Health Organization, there are at least 220 million women who don’t have access to effective contraception, and some 50 million abortions per year in the developing world.
14. In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, the White House and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) called on Israeli company Waze to use its real-time traffic navigation updates in an effort to bring fuel to New Jersey residents suffering from shortages at the gas pump.
15. An Israeli company has developed an alternative seed treatment that could revolutionize farming, protecting vegetable seeds from infestation, fungus, bacteria and even drought, without the side effects of genetic engineering (GMO). Morflora’s product, TraitUP, “inoculates” any seed from foreseeable challenges without altering its genetic makeup in new generations – just like a mumps or measles shot in humans. The product has won international awards and goes on the market this year.
16. Doctors from Israel are restoring the gift of sight to hundreds of people in developing countries thanks to Israeli non-profit Eye from Zion. The organization sends eye doctors from Israel to do free cataract removal operations in places such as Vietnam, China, Myanmar, the Maldives and even Muslim countries including Azerbaijan. The doctors are all volunteers, and most of the people arriving at their mobile clinics are blind in either one or both eyes. The organization also brings doctors from developing countries to Israel for training.
17. Overfishing and pollution are seriously depleting the number of fish in the sea and threatening some fish species with extinction, but now an Israeli company, Grow Fish Anywhere (GFA) has found a way to raise saltwater fish anywhere, even in the desert, without any of the usual problems of pollution. The company has facilities in Israel and New York.
18. An international charity is building a $6 million factory in Africa to build cardboard wheelchairs designed and developed in Israel. The wheelchairs are the brainchild of Israeli entrepreneur Nimrod Elmish of I.G. Cardboard Technologies, and are made entirely of cheap, recycled materials. The charity, which is dedicated to providing free wheelchairs for the disabled in developing nations, spends more than $6 million annually on buying metal wheelchairs from China and sending them to Africa.
19. With its plentiful year-round sunshine, it’s no surprise that Israeli companies are leading the way in creating viable and successful new solar energies that are already helping reduce the world’s dependence on pollution-causing oil. Israel has become a startup nation for the sun with dozens, if not hundreds, of companies operating in this field. Aside from BrightSource, mentioned in an item below, solar companies to watch include Aora, HelioFocus and Arava Power.
20. Israeli educational entrepreneur Shai Reshef founded University of the People, the world’s first tuition-free, online academic institution offering a recognized bachelor’s degree. More than 3,000 professors from major universities volunteer as lecturers and tutors for students from many countries, including China, Pakistan, Haiti, Rwanda, Mali, Peru, Nepal, Saudi Arabia and South Sudan. “I believe that if you educate one person, you can change a life; if you educate many, you can change the world,” Reshef says.
21. The Health Ministry in Kenya has adopted the model of Terem – a chain of independent emergency medical centers in Jerusalem that provides critical care within the community, dramatically reducing hospital visits. Kenya is setting up a chain of 50 such clinics in a move that will revolutionize the African country’s healthcare system. Some 35 million people live in Kenya, but hospitals are few and far between.
22. Norway is sending teachers to Israel to learn how to revitalize the Lapp language of Sámi. Of about 10 Sámi dialects once spoken in the country, only four are still known among the estimated 100,000 Sámi-speakers of Lapland and current teaching methods are not successful. Israel is considered an expert in reviving old languages because of its experience recreating Hebrew. Israeli language experts have worked with experts in Scotland and Wales, where long-suppressed minority languages are now making a comeback.
23. A professional dancer who lost his right leg in the 2010 earthquake in Haiti is dancing once more thanks to the help of Israeli father and son, Yisrael and Yehuda Pilosof, who specialize in manufacturing precision artificial limbs. After the quake, Yehuda Pilosof flew to Haiti to help at an Israeli rehab center. He made limbs for 15 people, including the dancer who was flown to Israel for treatment. Since then the Pilosofs have led a seminar on prosthetics in Peru, and have made artificial limbs for soldiers in Sri Lanka on an Israeli humanitarian mission.
24. IsraAID is an Israeli humanitarian organization that gathers Israeli professionals from 17 different relief and activist organizations to respond to emergencies. Founded in 2001, it offers targeted help including disaster relief, search and rescue, rebuilding communities and schools, aid packages, medical assistance, micro-financing and post-psychotrauma care.
In 2004, IsraAID sent search-and-rescue teams and doctors to tsunami victims in Sri Lanka. In 2007, it sent medical staff to Peru after a major earthquake, and provided assistance at a refugee camp in Somalia. In 2008, members flew to Myanmar after a major cyclone, and the following year IsraAID sent medical assistance to the Philippines after two devastating typhoons. IsraAID helped in the wake of the Haiti earthquake, and has provided aid in South Sudan.
25. Traumatized US war veterans are now being healed thanks to a novel treatment developed by Israeli-American psychologist Edna Foa. In the United States, an estimated half million war veterans from Vietnam, and another 300,000 from Afghanistan and Iraq, suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Foa, honored by TIME magazine as one of the most influential people in 2010, developed a treatment called PE (Prolonged Exposure), designed to help patients focus on the thoughts and feelings that elicit the highest levels of fear, and then works with them to enable them to confront those fears, moving gradually from the minor to the major terrors.
26. MASHAV, the Center for International Cooperation, runs a variety of programs, but is best known for its training seminars in Israel and wherever needed – Africa, the Middle East, South America, Central America, India, China – on techniques ranging from greenhouse management and irrigation to fish farming and dairy farming. MASHAV has trained some 200,000 people from about 140 countries and has set up dozens of demonstration projects in fields of Israeli expertise. MASHAV also sends medical aid around the world.
27. Israeli public health activist Dr. Zvi Bentwich, director of the Center for Emerging Tropical Diseases and AIDS at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), has been laboring for years to eradicate common parasitic infestations that contribute to Africa’s AIDS and tuberculosis epidemics. In 2011 he won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Israeli government for his groundbreaking medical contributions in Israel and among Africans.
28. A three-year-old British charity, Tag International Development, runs more than 20 health, agriculture, disaster preparedness and community development projects in developing nations. All of the knowledge and experience for these projects comes from Israel. Israeli volunteers and professionals with Tag have launched beekeeping and road safety projects in Myanmar; empowerment seminars for Bedouin women in Israel and Jordan; emotional resilience, healthcare and weaving projects in Azerbaijan; model farm and agricultural training center in Sri Lanka; rain harvesting in Kenya; a safe drinking-water project in Pakistan, and a homecare project for the elderly in Indonesia.
29. When Japan was rocked by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, which killed nearly 16,000 people, the IDF sent doctors and other volunteers to set up a field hospital in one of the areas worst hit by the island nation’s worst-ever natural disaster. The facility had wards for pediatrics, surgery, maternity, gynecology, ophthalmology and intensive care, as well as a lab and a pharmacy. Israel also sent over tons of aid to Japanese communities.
Since then, Israel has continued to send regular delegations of specialists on post-trauma missions to help the victims of the disaster, training local teachers and mental health workers, and setting up youth leadership training programs for students from Japan’s Tohoku earthquake-affected region.
30. The Israeli company Pythagoras Solar has developed a new solar window that can generate power, reduce energy consumption and let in daylight, promising a green revolution in the construction industry. The world’s first transparent photovoltaic glass unit, which won the prestigious GE Ecomagination Challenge, can easily be integrated into conventional building design. Existing office blocks can be retrofitted with the new material to take the place of energy-seeping glass windows.
31. With pollution growing to dangerous levels in the Mediterranean Sea, Israel’s EcoOcean research and educational organization trains local youngsters on land and sea, and provides local and international marine researchers with an at-cost vessel for advanced marine science studies in the Mediterranean, Red and Black seas. Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society sought out educational collaboration possibilities with EcoOcean to make global progress in saving the seas, badly in distress from global warming and other manmade causes.
32. The Israeli organization Save a Child’s Heart has brought more than 3,000 children from all over the developing world, including about 1,500 from Gaza and the West Bank, to Israel for vital heart operations at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon. All 70 to 80 doctors and nurses working with the non-profit organization give their time as volunteers.
Aside from their work in Israel, medical staff fly on missions abroad to carry out heart operations, and to teach local doctors the latest surgical techniques. The organization also trains physicians from abroad in Israel.
33. US veterans suffering PTSD after being wounded in combat are experiencing emotional and spiritual healing thanks to a new program that brings the wounded vets to Israel to meet Israeli peers.
34. The Israeli organization ZAKA (Disaster Victim Identification) provides expert search-and-rescue assistance after natural and manmade disasters around the world. In late 2004 and early 2005, members of ZAKA provided help in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean earthquake.
Forensic teams dubbed the group “the team that sleeps with the dead” because they toiled nearly 24 hours a day at Buddhist pagodas transformed into morgues in Thailand. ZAKA volunteers flew to Mumbai, India, after terror attacks there in November 2008; assisted with search and recovery after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, rescuing eight students trapped in rubble; and also aided search-and-rescue efforts in Japan in March 2011.
35. Students in several countries are scoring higher marks in math and algebra tests thanks to the help of Israeli professor Michal Yerushalmy. Yerushalmy developed VisualMath and Math4Mobile, which help students score better on standardized tests, out-perform peers in solving algebra word problems and complex new problems, and devisedsuperior strategies for identifying and correcting mistakes.
36. A new Israeli-developed tooth varnish is saving the lives of kangaroos in captivity, who often fall victim to a contagious, and sometimes fatal, gum condition called lumpy jaw disease. Veterinarians at Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo and the northern Gan Garoo Park – which lost 40 percent of its marsupials to this disease – teamed up with dentists and pharmacists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to create a tooth varnish that successfully prevents the condition. After receiving requests worldwide, the veterinarians published the recipe for the treatment online.
37. An Israeli research team has found a way to mate male prawns and increase yields and profitability for farmers. The revolutionary advanced gene-silencing biotechnology for aquaculture was developed at BGU and can reverse the sex of the crustacean, helping local farmers increase their income. The technology is already being put to use in Vietnam.
38. The 27-year-old Jerusalem AIDS Project (JAIP) is helping to educate millions of people across the globe about AIDS with its training program that teaches people in developing countries how to protect themselves from the deadly HIV virus. The unique JAIP program is being used in about 30 countries, including Latin America, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe, in coordination with groups such as the World Health Organization and UNAIDS. JAIP was commended by the United Nations in 2006 for its approach.
39. Israeli doctors are flying to Africa to help train local medical personnel in male medical circumcision with the organization Operation Abraham, in an effort to halt the AIDS epidemic there. Currently some 22 million people in Africa are living with HIV and AIDS – two-thirds of the entire world’s population of HIV sufferers. Studies suggest that more than half of all HIV infections could be stopped if men were circumcised. Operation Abraham is a consortium of Israeli institutions, including Hadassah Medical Organization and JAIP, teaching local doctors how to carry out the procedure.
40. Israeli aid organizations Israel Flying Aid, IsraAID and Israeli Humanitarian Aid-Latet put Israeli know-how to work getting food, fuel, generators and other critical supplies to emergency workers and victims after Hurricane Sandy devastated the US east coast in 2012. Israeli volunteers delivered fuel to hospitals in the stricken area, prepared emergency food convoys and helped clear debris. An Israeli delegation of trained rescue volunteers also flew to the disaster area. The effort was financed by young Israelis and Israeli companies with partner US companies.
41. A simple mobile-phone imaging system was invented in Israel to diagnose and monitor malaria, a mosquito-borne disease that is the second leading cause of death in Africa, killing an estimated 1,900 children under the age of five every day. The system uses an ordinary mobile phone camera with a $15 specialized lens that can detect malaria by imaging the eye or skin to look for hemozoin, a pigment generated by the malaria parasite. The imaging system, whose developer won a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, can also determine the stage of the disease. Images can be sent immediately to labs in Africa and overseas for diagnosis by experts.
42. Israel is the world-recognized leader in raising therapeutic clowning to the level of a standardized, research-backed healthcare discipline. Its internationally renowned Dream Doctors Project has trained and placed nearly 100 practitioners at 22 hospitals in Israel. Dream Doctors worked with the University of Haifa to establish the world’s only academic degree program in clown therapy as a paramedical profession. Much of the groundbreaking research on the measurable effects of medical clowning is being done in Israel and shared in international forums.
43. Water-purification technologies developed in Israel to recycle the country’s limited water resources are now being used to help save India’s sacred Noyyal River. The 160-kilometer Noyyal River once provided water for around 20,000 acres of rich agricultural land, but toxic waste from textile factories has choked the river, destroying local agriculture and wildlife, and polluting groundwater in more than 95 villages in the region. The Indians are using Israeli-developed nano-filtration to remove dissolved pollutants. Israeli desalination expert, BGU Prof. Yoram Oren, is spearheading the effort.
44. In 2013, Israel set up a field hospital along its border with Syria to treat Syrians wounded in the country’s bloody civil war. Though Syria is an enemy nation, Israeli army medics have been treating dozens of wounded Syrian civilians at the makeshift hospital and in past months Israeli hospitals have treated refugee Syrians as well. According to the UN, about 1.2 million Syrians have been internally displaced, and hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled to neighboring countries.
45. Rambam Healthcare Campus in Haifa runs a yearly trauma-care training course for participants from Africa, South America and the Far East in cooperation with Israel’s Foreign Ministry. The medical center also offers fellowships to African doctors specializing in areas including plastic surgery, pediatrics and AIDS, funded by partners such as MASHAV, the Foreign Ministry, international NGOs and the host countries.
46. Israeli engineers and medical specialists have erected a state-of-the-art emergency room in Kisumu, Kenya, servicing a population of 6 million. The facility, at the Kisumu East District Hospital, was built in less than a month and is the hospital’s first fully-equipped ER. It will be a center for both regional emergency treatment and professional training. The effort was led by MASHAV, which has been working in Kenya since the 1950s, when it set up ophthalmology field clinics. Since then, the organization is also involved in projects on food security, health, education and empowerment of women.
47. Israel’s Galten Global Alternative Energy has developed a method of obtaining biofuel from the seeds of the jatropha, a plant that doesn’t compete with food crops. Plantings have already begun in Ghana. Currently only one ton of biofuel can be extracted from 2.5 acres of edible crops such as corn or soybeans, whereas three tons of biofuel can be produced from the same amount of soil growing jatropha plants.
48. The Hadassah Medical Organization works in coordination with the Israel Foreign Ministry and other Israeli agencies on a range of humanitarian projects around the world including a volunteer HIV/AIDS education and treatment program in Ethiopia and Kazakhstan; eye surgery for needy African patients; adult male circumcision for HIV prevention in Africa; and public health education in Kathmandu. Hadassah medical personnel have also participated in Israeli rescue operations around the world since 1960. Among the disaster scenes where they’ve brought critical care expertise are Armenia, Turkey, Greece, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Nairobi and Tanzania. Recently, the government of Panama hired Hadassah as a consultant to build a state-of-the-art trauma unit there.
49. In November 2012, the IDF and MADA sent rescue and medical personnel to help when a shopping mall collapsed in the Ghanaian capital of Accra. The IDF group consisted of 18 healthcare workers, engineers and communication experts to assist in the rescue operation. MADA sent another delegation of doctors, paramedics and emergency medical personnel to set up a field hospital.
50. Water is such a precious resource in Israel that engineers and innovators have developed a slew of technologies to make sure every drop counts. Israel is a world leader in reusing its waste water, with some 70 percent recycled and funneled into agriculture projects. That technology is being sought out abroad as countries elsewhere try to reduce water consumption.
Large companies such as the Tahal Group offer low-tech and high-tech software solutions to make waste water treatment processes more efficient and relevant. Aqwise makes small plastic beads to aerate wastewater so bacteria can work better, a solution now being used at the Taj Mahal in India. Another Israeli company sparking interest worldwide is Applied Clean Tech, whose product removes solids from waste water.
51. BrightSource might look all-American, but one of the world’s largest solar thermal power plants, about to fire up its 370-megawatt Ivanpah facility in the Mojave Desert in California this summer, is built on Israeli expertise started in the 1980s by a company called Luz. The technology, which sprawls over 35,000 acres, uses thousands of software-controlled mirrors to direct sun to three collection towers that power a turbine.
Since utilities companies in California need to deliver one-third of their power from renewables by 2020, BrightSource has placed its bets to be part of an even larger solar energy installation to go live by 2016. Based in Oakland with R&D in Israel, BrightSource is partnering with the Spanish company Abengoa Solar to build and operate a new solar 500-megawatt installation in Riverside County, California. The company is in the final stages of securing a contract in Israel, and is also seeking opportunities in South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and China.
52. Israeli volunteer organization Yad Sarah, which lends medical equipment to people throughout Israel, is serving as a model for countries like Turkey, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Angola, Cameroon, China, El Salvador and Hungary. The NGO has become the world’s largest lender of medical devices such as respirators, crutches, oxygen tanks, wheelchairs and hospital beds, and is a recognized UNESCO advisory body. With more than 100 branches across Israel, Yad Sarah offers free rehabilitation centers, meals on wheels, free home repairs, legal aid for the elderly and other services.
53. The Mediterranean’s two remaining species of sea turtles are in danger of extinction, but an Israeli organization is hoping to reverse the trend. Part hospital and part stud farm, the Israeli Sea Turtle Rescue Center at Michmoret treats injured turtles, incubates eggs and increases awareness of the turtles’ plight. A century ago, some 2,000 to 3,000 green and loggerhead turtles used to nest along Israel’s shores. Now the numbers are estimated at 180 loggerheads and fewer than 30 green turtles. Thanks to the work of the rescue center, the number of loggerhead turtles is now rising.
54. Hebrew University’s Prof. David Levy has developed new strains of potatoes that thrive in hot, dry climates, and can be irrigated by saltwater. Potatoes are one of the top sources of nutrition in the world, but they never before grew well in hot, desert regions like the Middle East. Now farmers in these regions can grow potatoes as a cash crop.
55. Israeli neonatologists have established two new neonatal units in Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana. The city has a population of 1.5 million people, but only one hospital. Of the 28,000 babies born in the city every year, some 4,800 died. Israeli specialists are now training local doctors and nurses to help save infants’ lives.
56. In October 2011, despite a severe diplomatic crisis in the wake of the deadly Gaza flotilla raid over a year earlier, Israel sent a package of aid to Turkey after a massive 7.2 magnitude quake hit the country’s eastern region. Israel was the first country in the world to offer Ankara assistance in the aftermath of the disaster. It sent portable buildings to help homeless survivors in the quake-ravaged area.
Israel has sent rescue teams to Turkey before. In 1999, Israeli rescue teams pulled 12 people out of earthquake rubble and recovered 140 bodies. Israel also set up a field hospital and treated more than 1,000 victims.
57. The United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) awarded Israel’s non-profit disabilities organization Beit Issie Shapiro special consultative status in 2012, allowing it to share research and solutions more widely, and to assist ECOSOC in formulating recommendations to the UN and member states concerning policy for people with disabilities. Hydrotherapy, ground-breaking multisensory rooms and inclusive playgrounds are among the special-needs services implemented by the 32-year-old organization.
58. Asian countries have turned to Israel for help as they look to increase domestic milk production and consumption. Israel set up a demonstration dairy farm near Beijing to show Israeli dairy farming technology. The site became a training center for thousands of dairy farmers in China and from neighboring countries.
China and Vietnam have awarded huge contracts to kibbutz-based company SAE Afikim, whose AfiMilk and AfiFarm computerized systems for modern dairy farm and herd management are globally recognized for their technology and efficiency. Afikim sends personnel to build dairy farms and teaches local workers how to run them, and in cooperation with the Israeli government hosts Asian workers for intensive training in Israel.
59. Israeli start up GlobeLight & Water System is helping keep roads safer in Africa and South America with solar-powered light fixtures. The theft-proof product highlights blue-and-white ingenuity with its built-in microprocessor that monitors and regulates bulb temperature and battery charge. The environmentally friendly light fixtures do not rely on electricity infrastructures, need maintenance once every three years, and can be used in any climate.
60. The United Nations turned to an Israeli company to help purify water for Syrians suffering water contamination during the country’s current violent conflict. Medentech, Israel Chemicals’ Ireland-based subsidiary, produces AquaTabs, the world’s best-selling effervescent tablets, which are considered a better alternative to boiling water to remove contaminants. The Israeli government blessed the deal despite a law nixing trade with an enemy state.
61. IsraAid has launched a social-worker training program in the new African state of South Sudan, considered one of the most undeveloped in the world, in cooperation with Israeli NGOs FIRST and Operation Blessing-Israel. Three Israeli experts on sexual violence flew to Juba to train 30 South Sudanese social workers with the tools to identify and address gender-based violence, such as rape and forced marriage. Violence against women is considered one of the biggest challenges in the region.
62. Faced with chronic water shortages, Israel pioneered new membrane technology and solar desalination plants to make salty and polluted water safe for human consumption and crops. IDE Technologies mega-installations can now be found in countries all over the world, from the United States to the Caribbean. In China, IDE has built the country’s largest and greenest desalination plant to meet the country’s expanding energy needs.
63. Airports around the world are a great deal safer now, thanks to a technology developed by Israel’s XSight Systems, which detects foreign object debris (FOD) on the runway – that’s birds, small animals and fragments that break off planes. The system, which is effective in all weather and visibility conditions, is already in use at international airports in Boston, Paris, Bangkok and Tel Aviv, with more to follow.
Think FOD isn’t that significant? In 2000, the supersonic jetliner Concorde crashed killing 113 people when it hit debris dropped onto the runway by a DC-10 just before it took off. FOD is estimated to cost about $14 billion in direct and indirect damage every year.
64. Strawberries, sweet peppers, cucumbers and eggplants are just some of the crops that are much healthier today because of some tiny little insects and mites bred in Israel. Kibbutz-based Bio-Bee breeds beneficial insects for biological pest control, which enable farmers to reduce the use of chemical pesticides by 75 percent. The company exports eight different species of biological control agents, plus pollinating bumblebees, to 32 nations from Japan and the US to Chile. The company’s subsidiary, Bio-Fly, also sells sterile Mediterranean fruit flies to control this major pest in fruit trees, and collaborates with Jordanian and West Bank Palestinian Authority agricultural experts.
65. An Israeli scientist has developed the world’s first vaccine against canine monocytic ehrlichiosis (CME), a sometimes fatal tick-borne disease in dogs. CME is one of the most common infectious diseases in canines, affecting not only pets but also foxes, wolves, jackals and other wild dogs. It is prevalent worldwide, and currently cannot be prevented aside from tick control. If dogs are infected they need a lengthy course of antiobiotics. This is the first vaccine to be proven effective against the disease.
All this is done by one nation, Israel. Can anyone produce the same list from any one Muslim nation? How about all 57 Muslim nations combined?
If you produce such a list, I'll publish it.
In honor of Israel's 65th Birthday on Tuesday, I submit to you my truth-seekers this small list. Pass it on to the BDSer of your choice and tell them to Boycott each and every thing.
When 22-year-old Emmannuel Buso was pulled barely-alive from the rubble of a three-story building, 10 days after an earthquake devastated the island of Haiti, the first faces he saw were those of the Israeli rescue workers who had flown across the world to save lives.
For Haji Edum, from Zanzibar, his life-saving moment came twice, when he was flown at age 15, and then again at 23, to Israel for open-heart surgery. He is just one of thousands of youngsters to receive emergency heart care from volunteer doctors in Israel.
War veterans suffering post-traumatic stress in the US; farmers in Senegal, India and China; young women in South Sudan; the wheelchair-bound in Africa; cardiac patients in Gaza and Iraq – all have received life-changing help and expertise from Israeli specialists.
Today we all know the story of Israel the “startup nation.” News of its technological prowess and incredible innovation has spread far and wide. But what many people don’t know is that Israel is exporting far more than just technology. It is also sharing its experience and skills in a whole range of humanitarian and environmental fields to help people everywhere live better, fuller and healthier lives.
Since Israel was founded in 1948, the country has set itself the historical Jewish goal of becoming a light unto the nations. In the early years of the state, despite austerity rationing, the Israeli government founded MASHAV, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Center for International Cooperation, as a vehicle to share Israel’s creative solutions with the rest of the developing world.
Israel remains true to that vision and every year, with little fanfare, and sometimes very little press attention, Israelis work long hours to find solutions and offer relief to some of the most pressing problems of our times.
From environmental breakthroughs that will help reduce greenhouse emissions, to technologies that can increase food production and save vital crops, to humanitarian aid missions in the wake of catastrophic natural disasters, Israelis are providing significant assistance.
To celebrate Israel’s 65th birthday, we take a look at some of the many creative and varied ways Israel is helping to enrich and improve our planet.
The list comes in no particular order, and is by no means exhaustive. There are hundreds more, if not thousands, worthy projects going on every day. If you’ve got a project worth hearing about, we’d be delighted if you include it in our comments section at the end.
1. An Israeli company is developing a toilet that needs no water, and generates its own power to turn solid waste (including toilet roll) into sterile and odorless fertilizer in 30 seconds. Liquid waste is sterilized and then used to flush the toilet. Developer Paulee CleanTec has been awarded a grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which reports that about 80 percent of human waste goes into rivers and streams untreated, and 1.1 billion people don’t use a toilet.
2. Fifty years ago, Lake Victoria carp was a significant part of the diet of Ugandan villagers. But when Nile perch was introduced to the lake, it decimated the carp population. Villagers had neither the equipment nor the expertise to catch the huge perch, and symptoms of protein deficiency started becoming apparent in their children. Prof. Berta Sivan of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem came to the rescue with a multiyear project to help these African families. Using expertise developed in Israel, her project not only successfully spawned carp on Ugandan fish farms, but also provided training on how to dig and fill ponds and raise the small fish. Now local children have an abundant supply of protein.
3. About 50 percent of every grain and pulse harvest in the developing world is lost to pests and mold, but an Israeli scientist has developed a surprisingly simple and cheap way for African and Asian farmers to keep their grain market-fresh. International food technology consultant Prof. Shlomo Navarro invented huge bags, now marketed by US company GrainPro, which keep both water and air out. The bags are in use all over the developing world, including Africa and the Far East, and even in countries that don’t have diplomatic ties with Israel.
4. In January 2010, Israel won international praise for the speed and expertise with which it responded to a devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Haiti that killed 300,000 people, injured hundreds of thousands and laid waste to the poverty-stricken country. A team of 240 Israeli doctors, nurses, rescue and relief workers arrived in Haiti just days after the quake, bringing medicines, communications and medical equipment. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) volunteers set up the country’s most advanced and well-equipped field hospital in the capital of Port-Au-Prince. Israeli search-and-rescue missions pulled survivors from the rubble, saving many Haitians, including a man trapped for 10 days.
The delegation included volunteers from IsraAID, the IDF, ZAKA, Magen David Adom (MADA), Tevel B’Tzedek, the Negev Institute, and Alyn Hospital. It was the largest Israeli civilian relief mission ever assembled, and was one of the biggest and most skilled on the island. In the wake of the disaster, Israel continues to send aid and assistance, including educational projects, trauma programs, micro-financing, development and relief work, rebuilding of communities and schools, aid packages, empowerment for women, and medical assistance.
5. The invention of drip irrigation by Israeli Simcha Blass and its development by Netafim, and later Plastro and NaanDan Jain, has completely revolutionized agriculture across the world, enabling farmers to increase their yields with less water. Constantly upgraded Israeli drip-irrigation techniques are regularly shared with other countries through MASHAV, Israel’s Center for International Cooperation.
6. Tal-Ya Water Technologies has developed reusable plastic trays to collect dew from the air, reducing the water needed by crops or trees by up to 50 percent. The square serrated trays, made from non-PET recycled and recyclable plastic with UV filters and a limestone additive, surround each plant or tree. With overnight temperature change, dew forms on both surfaces of the Tal-Ya tray, which funnels the dew and condensation straight to the roots. If it rains, the trays heighten the effect of each millimeter of water 27 times over.
7. About 1.6 million children under the age of five die from untreated drinking water in developing nations every year. An Israeli company has developed a water purification system that delivers safe drinking water from almost any source, including contaminated water, seawater and even urine.
WaterSheer’s Sulis personal water purifier is a small 10-gram mouthpiece that attaches to the top of a water bottle. The company has also developed systems to treat large quantities of water. Sulis has been used in Taiwan, Myanmar and Haiti, and will be part of contingency plans in case of disaster at the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.
8. Israel is building a model agricultural village in South Sudan to teach local farmers about Israeli agricultural methods and technologies to help the fledgling African nation thrive.
9. In plants in China, Italy and the United States, Israeli company Seambiotic is using algae to turn carbon dioxide emitted by power plants into fuel and nutraceuticals. The company’s algae ponds, which are nourished by power plant effluent and sunlight, generate 30 times more feedstock for biofuel than do crop alternatives. The algae are a good source of valuable nutraceuticals, especially popular in China and the East.
Seambiotic is also working with the US National Aviation and Space Administration (NASA) to develop a commercially feasible biofuel variety from algae that has a higher freezing point than biofuels from corn or sugarcane.
10. The lives of thousands of endangered animals in West and Central Africa are being saved thanks to the tireless efforts of Israeli law enforcement activist Ofir Drori, who founded the Last Great Ape Organization (LAGA) in Cameroon, the first wildlife law-enforcement NGO in Africa. The organization helped propagate a zero-tolerance approach to illegal wildlife trafficking in Cameroon, which has resulted in hundreds of arrests and prosecutions. The model has been replicated throughout West and Central Africa in activities that go beyond nature conservation to the defense of human rights.
11. Israel is the only country that permanently opens its arms to children sick from radiation caused by the Ukrainian nuclear disaster in Chernobyl over 27 years ago. More than 2,755 affected children, ages eight to 15, have been brought to Israel for treatment and resettlement.
12. Israeli researchers and farmers have combined the best of Israel’s agri-tech and clean-tech innovation to create a new artificial desert oasis that could help feed millions of desert-dwellers. The oasis was developed by researchers from Ben-Gurion University and the Central and Northern Arava Research and Development center, and uses Israel’s expertise in growing salt-resistant crops in the Negev desert with little rain under a harsh sun. The oasis uses low-cost desalination technology that runs on solar power to turn brackish water into sweet water.
13. An Israeli company is developing a new contraceptive with the potential to provide a safer, long-acting, non-invasive solution for women in developing nations. Hervana recently won a $1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its accessible, cheap and socially acceptable LJ-102 suppository, which has to be applied only once or twice a month via a non-hormonal vaginal preparation.
According to the World Health Organization, there are at least 220 million women who don’t have access to effective contraception, and some 50 million abortions per year in the developing world.
14. In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, the White House and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) called on Israeli company Waze to use its real-time traffic navigation updates in an effort to bring fuel to New Jersey residents suffering from shortages at the gas pump.
15. An Israeli company has developed an alternative seed treatment that could revolutionize farming, protecting vegetable seeds from infestation, fungus, bacteria and even drought, without the side effects of genetic engineering (GMO). Morflora’s product, TraitUP, “inoculates” any seed from foreseeable challenges without altering its genetic makeup in new generations – just like a mumps or measles shot in humans. The product has won international awards and goes on the market this year.
16. Doctors from Israel are restoring the gift of sight to hundreds of people in developing countries thanks to Israeli non-profit Eye from Zion. The organization sends eye doctors from Israel to do free cataract removal operations in places such as Vietnam, China, Myanmar, the Maldives and even Muslim countries including Azerbaijan. The doctors are all volunteers, and most of the people arriving at their mobile clinics are blind in either one or both eyes. The organization also brings doctors from developing countries to Israel for training.
17. Overfishing and pollution are seriously depleting the number of fish in the sea and threatening some fish species with extinction, but now an Israeli company, Grow Fish Anywhere (GFA) has found a way to raise saltwater fish anywhere, even in the desert, without any of the usual problems of pollution. The company has facilities in Israel and New York.
18. An international charity is building a $6 million factory in Africa to build cardboard wheelchairs designed and developed in Israel. The wheelchairs are the brainchild of Israeli entrepreneur Nimrod Elmish of I.G. Cardboard Technologies, and are made entirely of cheap, recycled materials. The charity, which is dedicated to providing free wheelchairs for the disabled in developing nations, spends more than $6 million annually on buying metal wheelchairs from China and sending them to Africa.
19. With its plentiful year-round sunshine, it’s no surprise that Israeli companies are leading the way in creating viable and successful new solar energies that are already helping reduce the world’s dependence on pollution-causing oil. Israel has become a startup nation for the sun with dozens, if not hundreds, of companies operating in this field. Aside from BrightSource, mentioned in an item below, solar companies to watch include Aora, HelioFocus and Arava Power.
20. Israeli educational entrepreneur Shai Reshef founded University of the People, the world’s first tuition-free, online academic institution offering a recognized bachelor’s degree. More than 3,000 professors from major universities volunteer as lecturers and tutors for students from many countries, including China, Pakistan, Haiti, Rwanda, Mali, Peru, Nepal, Saudi Arabia and South Sudan. “I believe that if you educate one person, you can change a life; if you educate many, you can change the world,” Reshef says.
21. The Health Ministry in Kenya has adopted the model of Terem – a chain of independent emergency medical centers in Jerusalem that provides critical care within the community, dramatically reducing hospital visits. Kenya is setting up a chain of 50 such clinics in a move that will revolutionize the African country’s healthcare system. Some 35 million people live in Kenya, but hospitals are few and far between.
22. Norway is sending teachers to Israel to learn how to revitalize the Lapp language of Sámi. Of about 10 Sámi dialects once spoken in the country, only four are still known among the estimated 100,000 Sámi-speakers of Lapland and current teaching methods are not successful. Israel is considered an expert in reviving old languages because of its experience recreating Hebrew. Israeli language experts have worked with experts in Scotland and Wales, where long-suppressed minority languages are now making a comeback.
23. A professional dancer who lost his right leg in the 2010 earthquake in Haiti is dancing once more thanks to the help of Israeli father and son, Yisrael and Yehuda Pilosof, who specialize in manufacturing precision artificial limbs. After the quake, Yehuda Pilosof flew to Haiti to help at an Israeli rehab center. He made limbs for 15 people, including the dancer who was flown to Israel for treatment. Since then the Pilosofs have led a seminar on prosthetics in Peru, and have made artificial limbs for soldiers in Sri Lanka on an Israeli humanitarian mission.
24. IsraAID is an Israeli humanitarian organization that gathers Israeli professionals from 17 different relief and activist organizations to respond to emergencies. Founded in 2001, it offers targeted help including disaster relief, search and rescue, rebuilding communities and schools, aid packages, medical assistance, micro-financing and post-psychotrauma care.
In 2004, IsraAID sent search-and-rescue teams and doctors to tsunami victims in Sri Lanka. In 2007, it sent medical staff to Peru after a major earthquake, and provided assistance at a refugee camp in Somalia. In 2008, members flew to Myanmar after a major cyclone, and the following year IsraAID sent medical assistance to the Philippines after two devastating typhoons. IsraAID helped in the wake of the Haiti earthquake, and has provided aid in South Sudan.
25. Traumatized US war veterans are now being healed thanks to a novel treatment developed by Israeli-American psychologist Edna Foa. In the United States, an estimated half million war veterans from Vietnam, and another 300,000 from Afghanistan and Iraq, suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Foa, honored by TIME magazine as one of the most influential people in 2010, developed a treatment called PE (Prolonged Exposure), designed to help patients focus on the thoughts and feelings that elicit the highest levels of fear, and then works with them to enable them to confront those fears, moving gradually from the minor to the major terrors.
26. MASHAV, the Center for International Cooperation, runs a variety of programs, but is best known for its training seminars in Israel and wherever needed – Africa, the Middle East, South America, Central America, India, China – on techniques ranging from greenhouse management and irrigation to fish farming and dairy farming. MASHAV has trained some 200,000 people from about 140 countries and has set up dozens of demonstration projects in fields of Israeli expertise. MASHAV also sends medical aid around the world.
27. Israeli public health activist Dr. Zvi Bentwich, director of the Center for Emerging Tropical Diseases and AIDS at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), has been laboring for years to eradicate common parasitic infestations that contribute to Africa’s AIDS and tuberculosis epidemics. In 2011 he won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Israeli government for his groundbreaking medical contributions in Israel and among Africans.
28. A three-year-old British charity, Tag International Development, runs more than 20 health, agriculture, disaster preparedness and community development projects in developing nations. All of the knowledge and experience for these projects comes from Israel. Israeli volunteers and professionals with Tag have launched beekeeping and road safety projects in Myanmar; empowerment seminars for Bedouin women in Israel and Jordan; emotional resilience, healthcare and weaving projects in Azerbaijan; model farm and agricultural training center in Sri Lanka; rain harvesting in Kenya; a safe drinking-water project in Pakistan, and a homecare project for the elderly in Indonesia.
29. When Japan was rocked by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, which killed nearly 16,000 people, the IDF sent doctors and other volunteers to set up a field hospital in one of the areas worst hit by the island nation’s worst-ever natural disaster. The facility had wards for pediatrics, surgery, maternity, gynecology, ophthalmology and intensive care, as well as a lab and a pharmacy. Israel also sent over tons of aid to Japanese communities.
Since then, Israel has continued to send regular delegations of specialists on post-trauma missions to help the victims of the disaster, training local teachers and mental health workers, and setting up youth leadership training programs for students from Japan’s Tohoku earthquake-affected region.
30. The Israeli company Pythagoras Solar has developed a new solar window that can generate power, reduce energy consumption and let in daylight, promising a green revolution in the construction industry. The world’s first transparent photovoltaic glass unit, which won the prestigious GE Ecomagination Challenge, can easily be integrated into conventional building design. Existing office blocks can be retrofitted with the new material to take the place of energy-seeping glass windows.
31. With pollution growing to dangerous levels in the Mediterranean Sea, Israel’s EcoOcean research and educational organization trains local youngsters on land and sea, and provides local and international marine researchers with an at-cost vessel for advanced marine science studies in the Mediterranean, Red and Black seas. Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society sought out educational collaboration possibilities with EcoOcean to make global progress in saving the seas, badly in distress from global warming and other manmade causes.
32. The Israeli organization Save a Child’s Heart has brought more than 3,000 children from all over the developing world, including about 1,500 from Gaza and the West Bank, to Israel for vital heart operations at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon. All 70 to 80 doctors and nurses working with the non-profit organization give their time as volunteers.
Aside from their work in Israel, medical staff fly on missions abroad to carry out heart operations, and to teach local doctors the latest surgical techniques. The organization also trains physicians from abroad in Israel.
33. US veterans suffering PTSD after being wounded in combat are experiencing emotional and spiritual healing thanks to a new program that brings the wounded vets to Israel to meet Israeli peers.
34. The Israeli organization ZAKA (Disaster Victim Identification) provides expert search-and-rescue assistance after natural and manmade disasters around the world. In late 2004 and early 2005, members of ZAKA provided help in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean earthquake.
Forensic teams dubbed the group “the team that sleeps with the dead” because they toiled nearly 24 hours a day at Buddhist pagodas transformed into morgues in Thailand. ZAKA volunteers flew to Mumbai, India, after terror attacks there in November 2008; assisted with search and recovery after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, rescuing eight students trapped in rubble; and also aided search-and-rescue efforts in Japan in March 2011.
35. Students in several countries are scoring higher marks in math and algebra tests thanks to the help of Israeli professor Michal Yerushalmy. Yerushalmy developed VisualMath and Math4Mobile, which help students score better on standardized tests, out-perform peers in solving algebra word problems and complex new problems, and devisedsuperior strategies for identifying and correcting mistakes.
36. A new Israeli-developed tooth varnish is saving the lives of kangaroos in captivity, who often fall victim to a contagious, and sometimes fatal, gum condition called lumpy jaw disease. Veterinarians at Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo and the northern Gan Garoo Park – which lost 40 percent of its marsupials to this disease – teamed up with dentists and pharmacists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to create a tooth varnish that successfully prevents the condition. After receiving requests worldwide, the veterinarians published the recipe for the treatment online.
37. An Israeli research team has found a way to mate male prawns and increase yields and profitability for farmers. The revolutionary advanced gene-silencing biotechnology for aquaculture was developed at BGU and can reverse the sex of the crustacean, helping local farmers increase their income. The technology is already being put to use in Vietnam.
38. The 27-year-old Jerusalem AIDS Project (JAIP) is helping to educate millions of people across the globe about AIDS with its training program that teaches people in developing countries how to protect themselves from the deadly HIV virus. The unique JAIP program is being used in about 30 countries, including Latin America, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe, in coordination with groups such as the World Health Organization and UNAIDS. JAIP was commended by the United Nations in 2006 for its approach.
39. Israeli doctors are flying to Africa to help train local medical personnel in male medical circumcision with the organization Operation Abraham, in an effort to halt the AIDS epidemic there. Currently some 22 million people in Africa are living with HIV and AIDS – two-thirds of the entire world’s population of HIV sufferers. Studies suggest that more than half of all HIV infections could be stopped if men were circumcised. Operation Abraham is a consortium of Israeli institutions, including Hadassah Medical Organization and JAIP, teaching local doctors how to carry out the procedure.
40. Israeli aid organizations Israel Flying Aid, IsraAID and Israeli Humanitarian Aid-Latet put Israeli know-how to work getting food, fuel, generators and other critical supplies to emergency workers and victims after Hurricane Sandy devastated the US east coast in 2012. Israeli volunteers delivered fuel to hospitals in the stricken area, prepared emergency food convoys and helped clear debris. An Israeli delegation of trained rescue volunteers also flew to the disaster area. The effort was financed by young Israelis and Israeli companies with partner US companies.
41. A simple mobile-phone imaging system was invented in Israel to diagnose and monitor malaria, a mosquito-borne disease that is the second leading cause of death in Africa, killing an estimated 1,900 children under the age of five every day. The system uses an ordinary mobile phone camera with a $15 specialized lens that can detect malaria by imaging the eye or skin to look for hemozoin, a pigment generated by the malaria parasite. The imaging system, whose developer won a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, can also determine the stage of the disease. Images can be sent immediately to labs in Africa and overseas for diagnosis by experts.
42. Israel is the world-recognized leader in raising therapeutic clowning to the level of a standardized, research-backed healthcare discipline. Its internationally renowned Dream Doctors Project has trained and placed nearly 100 practitioners at 22 hospitals in Israel. Dream Doctors worked with the University of Haifa to establish the world’s only academic degree program in clown therapy as a paramedical profession. Much of the groundbreaking research on the measurable effects of medical clowning is being done in Israel and shared in international forums.
43. Water-purification technologies developed in Israel to recycle the country’s limited water resources are now being used to help save India’s sacred Noyyal River. The 160-kilometer Noyyal River once provided water for around 20,000 acres of rich agricultural land, but toxic waste from textile factories has choked the river, destroying local agriculture and wildlife, and polluting groundwater in more than 95 villages in the region. The Indians are using Israeli-developed nano-filtration to remove dissolved pollutants. Israeli desalination expert, BGU Prof. Yoram Oren, is spearheading the effort.
44. In 2013, Israel set up a field hospital along its border with Syria to treat Syrians wounded in the country’s bloody civil war. Though Syria is an enemy nation, Israeli army medics have been treating dozens of wounded Syrian civilians at the makeshift hospital and in past months Israeli hospitals have treated refugee Syrians as well. According to the UN, about 1.2 million Syrians have been internally displaced, and hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled to neighboring countries.
45. Rambam Healthcare Campus in Haifa runs a yearly trauma-care training course for participants from Africa, South America and the Far East in cooperation with Israel’s Foreign Ministry. The medical center also offers fellowships to African doctors specializing in areas including plastic surgery, pediatrics and AIDS, funded by partners such as MASHAV, the Foreign Ministry, international NGOs and the host countries.
46. Israeli engineers and medical specialists have erected a state-of-the-art emergency room in Kisumu, Kenya, servicing a population of 6 million. The facility, at the Kisumu East District Hospital, was built in less than a month and is the hospital’s first fully-equipped ER. It will be a center for both regional emergency treatment and professional training. The effort was led by MASHAV, which has been working in Kenya since the 1950s, when it set up ophthalmology field clinics. Since then, the organization is also involved in projects on food security, health, education and empowerment of women.
47. Israel’s Galten Global Alternative Energy has developed a method of obtaining biofuel from the seeds of the jatropha, a plant that doesn’t compete with food crops. Plantings have already begun in Ghana. Currently only one ton of biofuel can be extracted from 2.5 acres of edible crops such as corn or soybeans, whereas three tons of biofuel can be produced from the same amount of soil growing jatropha plants.
48. The Hadassah Medical Organization works in coordination with the Israel Foreign Ministry and other Israeli agencies on a range of humanitarian projects around the world including a volunteer HIV/AIDS education and treatment program in Ethiopia and Kazakhstan; eye surgery for needy African patients; adult male circumcision for HIV prevention in Africa; and public health education in Kathmandu. Hadassah medical personnel have also participated in Israeli rescue operations around the world since 1960. Among the disaster scenes where they’ve brought critical care expertise are Armenia, Turkey, Greece, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Nairobi and Tanzania. Recently, the government of Panama hired Hadassah as a consultant to build a state-of-the-art trauma unit there.
49. In November 2012, the IDF and MADA sent rescue and medical personnel to help when a shopping mall collapsed in the Ghanaian capital of Accra. The IDF group consisted of 18 healthcare workers, engineers and communication experts to assist in the rescue operation. MADA sent another delegation of doctors, paramedics and emergency medical personnel to set up a field hospital.
50. Water is such a precious resource in Israel that engineers and innovators have developed a slew of technologies to make sure every drop counts. Israel is a world leader in reusing its waste water, with some 70 percent recycled and funneled into agriculture projects. That technology is being sought out abroad as countries elsewhere try to reduce water consumption.
Large companies such as the Tahal Group offer low-tech and high-tech software solutions to make waste water treatment processes more efficient and relevant. Aqwise makes small plastic beads to aerate wastewater so bacteria can work better, a solution now being used at the Taj Mahal in India. Another Israeli company sparking interest worldwide is Applied Clean Tech, whose product removes solids from waste water.
51. BrightSource might look all-American, but one of the world’s largest solar thermal power plants, about to fire up its 370-megawatt Ivanpah facility in the Mojave Desert in California this summer, is built on Israeli expertise started in the 1980s by a company called Luz. The technology, which sprawls over 35,000 acres, uses thousands of software-controlled mirrors to direct sun to three collection towers that power a turbine.
Since utilities companies in California need to deliver one-third of their power from renewables by 2020, BrightSource has placed its bets to be part of an even larger solar energy installation to go live by 2016. Based in Oakland with R&D in Israel, BrightSource is partnering with the Spanish company Abengoa Solar to build and operate a new solar 500-megawatt installation in Riverside County, California. The company is in the final stages of securing a contract in Israel, and is also seeking opportunities in South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and China.
52. Israeli volunteer organization Yad Sarah, which lends medical equipment to people throughout Israel, is serving as a model for countries like Turkey, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Angola, Cameroon, China, El Salvador and Hungary. The NGO has become the world’s largest lender of medical devices such as respirators, crutches, oxygen tanks, wheelchairs and hospital beds, and is a recognized UNESCO advisory body. With more than 100 branches across Israel, Yad Sarah offers free rehabilitation centers, meals on wheels, free home repairs, legal aid for the elderly and other services.
53. The Mediterranean’s two remaining species of sea turtles are in danger of extinction, but an Israeli organization is hoping to reverse the trend. Part hospital and part stud farm, the Israeli Sea Turtle Rescue Center at Michmoret treats injured turtles, incubates eggs and increases awareness of the turtles’ plight. A century ago, some 2,000 to 3,000 green and loggerhead turtles used to nest along Israel’s shores. Now the numbers are estimated at 180 loggerheads and fewer than 30 green turtles. Thanks to the work of the rescue center, the number of loggerhead turtles is now rising.
54. Hebrew University’s Prof. David Levy has developed new strains of potatoes that thrive in hot, dry climates, and can be irrigated by saltwater. Potatoes are one of the top sources of nutrition in the world, but they never before grew well in hot, desert regions like the Middle East. Now farmers in these regions can grow potatoes as a cash crop.
55. Israeli neonatologists have established two new neonatal units in Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana. The city has a population of 1.5 million people, but only one hospital. Of the 28,000 babies born in the city every year, some 4,800 died. Israeli specialists are now training local doctors and nurses to help save infants’ lives.
56. In October 2011, despite a severe diplomatic crisis in the wake of the deadly Gaza flotilla raid over a year earlier, Israel sent a package of aid to Turkey after a massive 7.2 magnitude quake hit the country’s eastern region. Israel was the first country in the world to offer Ankara assistance in the aftermath of the disaster. It sent portable buildings to help homeless survivors in the quake-ravaged area.
Israel has sent rescue teams to Turkey before. In 1999, Israeli rescue teams pulled 12 people out of earthquake rubble and recovered 140 bodies. Israel also set up a field hospital and treated more than 1,000 victims.
57. The United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) awarded Israel’s non-profit disabilities organization Beit Issie Shapiro special consultative status in 2012, allowing it to share research and solutions more widely, and to assist ECOSOC in formulating recommendations to the UN and member states concerning policy for people with disabilities. Hydrotherapy, ground-breaking multisensory rooms and inclusive playgrounds are among the special-needs services implemented by the 32-year-old organization.
58. Asian countries have turned to Israel for help as they look to increase domestic milk production and consumption. Israel set up a demonstration dairy farm near Beijing to show Israeli dairy farming technology. The site became a training center for thousands of dairy farmers in China and from neighboring countries.
China and Vietnam have awarded huge contracts to kibbutz-based company SAE Afikim, whose AfiMilk and AfiFarm computerized systems for modern dairy farm and herd management are globally recognized for their technology and efficiency. Afikim sends personnel to build dairy farms and teaches local workers how to run them, and in cooperation with the Israeli government hosts Asian workers for intensive training in Israel.
59. Israeli start up GlobeLight & Water System is helping keep roads safer in Africa and South America with solar-powered light fixtures. The theft-proof product highlights blue-and-white ingenuity with its built-in microprocessor that monitors and regulates bulb temperature and battery charge. The environmentally friendly light fixtures do not rely on electricity infrastructures, need maintenance once every three years, and can be used in any climate.
60. The United Nations turned to an Israeli company to help purify water for Syrians suffering water contamination during the country’s current violent conflict. Medentech, Israel Chemicals’ Ireland-based subsidiary, produces AquaTabs, the world’s best-selling effervescent tablets, which are considered a better alternative to boiling water to remove contaminants. The Israeli government blessed the deal despite a law nixing trade with an enemy state.
61. IsraAid has launched a social-worker training program in the new African state of South Sudan, considered one of the most undeveloped in the world, in cooperation with Israeli NGOs FIRST and Operation Blessing-Israel. Three Israeli experts on sexual violence flew to Juba to train 30 South Sudanese social workers with the tools to identify and address gender-based violence, such as rape and forced marriage. Violence against women is considered one of the biggest challenges in the region.
62. Faced with chronic water shortages, Israel pioneered new membrane technology and solar desalination plants to make salty and polluted water safe for human consumption and crops. IDE Technologies mega-installations can now be found in countries all over the world, from the United States to the Caribbean. In China, IDE has built the country’s largest and greenest desalination plant to meet the country’s expanding energy needs.
63. Airports around the world are a great deal safer now, thanks to a technology developed by Israel’s XSight Systems, which detects foreign object debris (FOD) on the runway – that’s birds, small animals and fragments that break off planes. The system, which is effective in all weather and visibility conditions, is already in use at international airports in Boston, Paris, Bangkok and Tel Aviv, with more to follow.
Think FOD isn’t that significant? In 2000, the supersonic jetliner Concorde crashed killing 113 people when it hit debris dropped onto the runway by a DC-10 just before it took off. FOD is estimated to cost about $14 billion in direct and indirect damage every year.
64. Strawberries, sweet peppers, cucumbers and eggplants are just some of the crops that are much healthier today because of some tiny little insects and mites bred in Israel. Kibbutz-based Bio-Bee breeds beneficial insects for biological pest control, which enable farmers to reduce the use of chemical pesticides by 75 percent. The company exports eight different species of biological control agents, plus pollinating bumblebees, to 32 nations from Japan and the US to Chile. The company’s subsidiary, Bio-Fly, also sells sterile Mediterranean fruit flies to control this major pest in fruit trees, and collaborates with Jordanian and West Bank Palestinian Authority agricultural experts.
65. An Israeli scientist has developed the world’s first vaccine against canine monocytic ehrlichiosis (CME), a sometimes fatal tick-borne disease in dogs. CME is one of the most common infectious diseases in canines, affecting not only pets but also foxes, wolves, jackals and other wild dogs. It is prevalent worldwide, and currently cannot be prevented aside from tick control. If dogs are infected they need a lengthy course of antiobiotics. This is the first vaccine to be proven effective against the disease.
All this is done by one nation, Israel. Can anyone produce the same list from any one Muslim nation? How about all 57 Muslim nations combined?
If you produce such a list, I'll publish it.
Israel: A Light Unto The Nations!
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Christians and Jews Ignoring the Reality of Their Own Persecution
Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com
"In addition, we must reach out to our allies outside of Christianity. Jews, Hindus, Buddhist and so many others are very much victims today of Islamic terror and persecution. An alliance must be formed."
-Michael Finch
Front Page Magazine
There are two poignant articles running today that paint a depressing picture of anti-Semitism and anti-Christian persecution and how they are being ignored by the leaders of their faiths. The first is by Caroline Glick, a Jewish American writer for the Jerusalem Post. The second is by Front Page Magazine writer Michael Finch
http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=309549
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/michael-finch/christian-indifference-to-christian-suffering/
Beyond ignoring Islamic persecution of Jews and Christians, we have numerous examples of Jewish and Christian groups in the West aligning themselves with the persecutors or simply denying the problem. In the case of US Jews, we have Jewish Voice for Peace, a virulently anti-Israel mob of anarchists. As for the ADL under Abe Foxman, they are loathe to call out any Muslims who engage in anti-Semitic rhetoric. Foxman himself has denied the problem on the UC Irvine campus. I won't even bother repeating my complaints about the pathetic Jewish Federation of Orange County, which has been a big part of the problem at UCI. They are so embedded with the university and wrapped up in soliciting funds, they don't want the bad news about UCI to get out to the community and prospective Jewish students.
Meanwhile in the face of all the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, what does the US leadership of the Presbyterian Church do? They join hands with the pro-Palestinian lobby against Israel. Where is their outrage against what is happening in Egypt and elsewhere? If I ever figure out which branch of Protestantism I wish to identify with, it sure won't be the Presbyterians.
In the final analysis, writer Michael Finch has it right in the selected quote above.
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com
"In addition, we must reach out to our allies outside of Christianity. Jews, Hindus, Buddhist and so many others are very much victims today of Islamic terror and persecution. An alliance must be formed."
-Michael Finch
Front Page Magazine
There are two poignant articles running today that paint a depressing picture of anti-Semitism and anti-Christian persecution and how they are being ignored by the leaders of their faiths. The first is by Caroline Glick, a Jewish American writer for the Jerusalem Post. The second is by Front Page Magazine writer Michael Finch
http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=309549
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/michael-finch/christian-indifference-to-christian-suffering/
Beyond ignoring Islamic persecution of Jews and Christians, we have numerous examples of Jewish and Christian groups in the West aligning themselves with the persecutors or simply denying the problem. In the case of US Jews, we have Jewish Voice for Peace, a virulently anti-Israel mob of anarchists. As for the ADL under Abe Foxman, they are loathe to call out any Muslims who engage in anti-Semitic rhetoric. Foxman himself has denied the problem on the UC Irvine campus. I won't even bother repeating my complaints about the pathetic Jewish Federation of Orange County, which has been a big part of the problem at UCI. They are so embedded with the university and wrapped up in soliciting funds, they don't want the bad news about UCI to get out to the community and prospective Jewish students.
Meanwhile in the face of all the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, what does the US leadership of the Presbyterian Church do? They join hands with the pro-Palestinian lobby against Israel. Where is their outrage against what is happening in Egypt and elsewhere? If I ever figure out which branch of Protestantism I wish to identify with, it sure won't be the Presbyterians.
In the final analysis, writer Michael Finch has it right in the selected quote above.
Little shop of horrors-Kermit Gosnell
Stolen From Patriot's Corner
This story and crime is finally getting national exposure as it should have been all along. The LSM can longer ignore what occurred at 3801 Lancaster in Philadelphia. The media in our country is and has been controlled by the far left, just like our education system. If a story, crime, event does not FIT your agenda, suppress it, bury that story until it fades into the rear view mirror. That did not happen in this case because bloggers, conservative bloggers and websites took this story and ran with it. Even some liberal columnists have taken up this story because it disgusted them. But not NPR, PMSNBC, ABC, NBC, or CBS.
The LSM refused to report this story because it makes the abortion industry look bad and reveals it for what it is, murder. This story does not fit the progressive, regressive agenda from the White House on down the food chain. Abortion is often called a civil rights issue and rightly so. But abortion is more of a HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE. Abortion is a black, white, brown, yellow issue. Abortion stains every skin color for what it is, MURDER. Sadly it is blacks who are victimized the most and you thank Margaret Sanger and friends for this outcome. This was not a local crime or one that should have stayed hidden. This crime should have splashed across every nightly news program and more. Has your local news media outlets covered this story? I bet they have not.
Below the video you find several links that are directly related to this story.
Kermit Gosnell has pleaded not guilty. Just like the liberals who always try to blame someone else, cover up anything that shows them for what they and their agenda really is about.
Thanks to Steve from Cry and Howl for the shared links.
Click here if the video doesn't load.
Roe v. Wade state abortion to viability. Viability is 24 weeks. After the 24th week it should be premature birth not abortion if the Mother's life is at stake. In the Third Trimester it is no longer a fetus but a child. If released from the womb it will survive. To kill it would be and is MURDER.
This story and crime is finally getting national exposure as it should have been all along. The LSM can longer ignore what occurred at 3801 Lancaster in Philadelphia. The media in our country is and has been controlled by the far left, just like our education system. If a story, crime, event does not FIT your agenda, suppress it, bury that story until it fades into the rear view mirror. That did not happen in this case because bloggers, conservative bloggers and websites took this story and ran with it. Even some liberal columnists have taken up this story because it disgusted them. But not NPR, PMSNBC, ABC, NBC, or CBS.
The LSM refused to report this story because it makes the abortion industry look bad and reveals it for what it is, murder. This story does not fit the progressive, regressive agenda from the White House on down the food chain. Abortion is often called a civil rights issue and rightly so. But abortion is more of a HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE. Abortion is a black, white, brown, yellow issue. Abortion stains every skin color for what it is, MURDER. Sadly it is blacks who are victimized the most and you thank Margaret Sanger and friends for this outcome. This was not a local crime or one that should have stayed hidden. This crime should have splashed across every nightly news program and more. Has your local news media outlets covered this story? I bet they have not.
Below the video you find several links that are directly related to this story.
Kermit Gosnell has pleaded not guilty. Just like the liberals who always try to blame someone else, cover up anything that shows them for what they and their agenda really is about.
Thanks to Steve from Cry and Howl for the shared links.
Click here if the video doesn't load.
Roe v. Wade state abortion to viability. Viability is 24 weeks. After the 24th week it should be premature birth not abortion if the Mother's life is at stake. In the Third Trimester it is no longer a fetus but a child. If released from the womb it will survive. To kill it would be and is MURDER.
It really is a human life!
Friday, April 12, 2013
NY Times Helping Rehabilitate Anthony Weiner? Unanswered Questions
Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com
Hat tip World Net Daily
Diana West, writing in World Net Daily, takes the New York Times to task for seemingly trying to help rehabilitate Anthony Weiner as he tries to make a political comeback. Currently, Weiner is contemplating running for mayor of New York City. West brings back the NYT's lack of mention of Huma Abedin's family connections to the Muslim Brotherhood since she was an aide-a close aide-to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
http://www.wnd.com/2013/04/weiners-media-rehab-ignores-larger-scandal/print/
In addition to Abedin's connections to the Brotherhood, West herself fails to delve into another very curious issue. How is it that Abedin, a Muslim, from a Saudi family, in fact, is married to a Jew? Not that I have any objections. I think it is great to see Muslim women marry outside their faith. It is a freedom of choice that we cherish in America. The problem is that it is forbidden under Islam. In fact, the penalty is death. And no nationality follows a stricter form of Islam than Saudis. A marriage to a Jew would be considered especially egregious.
Is something out of whack here, and is it wrong to question what the deal is-especially when we are talking about political and diplomatic leaders?
It could very well be that Weiner converted to Islam in order to pursue his relationship and marriage to Huma. If so, that is his right. However, if that is the case than the people who would vote for him either as a congressman or mayor have a right to know given what is going on in the world today and weigh it accordingly. Perhaps, Huma has quietly converted to Judaism, and her family has gone along with it as long as she keeps quiet about it. Many Muslims insist that apostates can take this route though I still have my doubts.
Weiner and his wife are in a difficult situation (several actually), and it may be hard or even dangerous for them to discuss this issue publicly. Hopefully, Weiner will realize that there are just too many questions surrounding him and he would be better off finding another vocation.
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com
New York Times Helping Rehabilitate Anthony Weiner? Unanswered Questions
Hat tip World Net Daily
Diana West, writing in World Net Daily, takes the New York Times to task for seemingly trying to help rehabilitate Anthony Weiner as he tries to make a political comeback. Currently, Weiner is contemplating running for mayor of New York City. West brings back the NYT's lack of mention of Huma Abedin's family connections to the Muslim Brotherhood since she was an aide-a close aide-to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
http://www.wnd.com/2013/04/weiners-media-rehab-ignores-larger-scandal/print/
In addition to Abedin's connections to the Brotherhood, West herself fails to delve into another very curious issue. How is it that Abedin, a Muslim, from a Saudi family, in fact, is married to a Jew? Not that I have any objections. I think it is great to see Muslim women marry outside their faith. It is a freedom of choice that we cherish in America. The problem is that it is forbidden under Islam. In fact, the penalty is death. And no nationality follows a stricter form of Islam than Saudis. A marriage to a Jew would be considered especially egregious.
Is something out of whack here, and is it wrong to question what the deal is-especially when we are talking about political and diplomatic leaders?
It could very well be that Weiner converted to Islam in order to pursue his relationship and marriage to Huma. If so, that is his right. However, if that is the case than the people who would vote for him either as a congressman or mayor have a right to know given what is going on in the world today and weigh it accordingly. Perhaps, Huma has quietly converted to Judaism, and her family has gone along with it as long as she keeps quiet about it. Many Muslims insist that apostates can take this route though I still have my doubts.
Weiner and his wife are in a difficult situation (several actually), and it may be hard or even dangerous for them to discuss this issue publicly. Hopefully, Weiner will realize that there are just too many questions surrounding him and he would be better off finding another vocation.
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