The New Shape of Anti-Semitism
Imagine you've just landed a big job with a very large budget: You are responsible for getting Americans to both hate Jews and act upon that hatred, by either getting Americans to accept criminal violence against Jews, or to get Americans to commit such criminal acts of violence themselves. What is the most effective way to do that? The best choice would be to enlist the techniques used by Madison Avenue: Techniques that work. These involve creating a "brand": Brand Jew, and brand Jew killer. It would also involve using the unconscious, because that is a very effective way of influencing beliefs and behavior (and because it is not so obvious, it is easier to hide the hateful message.)
These techniques involve creating an emotion and associating it with a symbol or brand. It is also very effective to place the symbol in a manner that is usually not consciously perceived unless pointed out by someone who has studied the technique. For example, in the case of promoting a message of Jew hatred within a film, insert the image of a Star of David somewhere in a scene  where something very horrible is being done
by a Jew. A symbol not perceived consciously is stored in the mind without the possibility of rejecting the message ( the Star of David was enhanced with Red for this article). The emotions that take place during the scene cause the mind to associate that emotion with the unconsciously perceived symbol. In the preceding example, Judaism is being associated with evil and cruelty.
Of course, the converse can be used as well: Place a Christian symbol inconspicuously in the frame where the Jew is murdering the Christian. 
The mind will now associate the Jew with something evil, and the Christian with something good/sympathetic. Or, have the Christian kill the Jew, but place subliminal halo's and other religious symbols associated with holiness in the frame. You now have brand Jew and brand Jew killer.
There is one more important tool in this Madison avenue arsenal of hate: You can place something in the frame that can unconsciously trigger some behavior and feelings: In this example the initials "JC" serve as a "prime" to remind
the viewer of who killed Jesus.
If you invoked numerous variations of all of the above, you would have duplicated the brilliant anti-Semitism in the motion picture Drive. The Iranian screenwriter, Hossein Amini, took a non anti-Semitic book, and transmogrified it so that the Jewish characters embody every Nazi anti-Semitic stereotype. The Danish director Refn, known for his famous highly subliminal commercials, and for "hyper stereotyping", has merely applied his craft to Jews in an effective way. Refn"s infatuation with "hyper stereotyping" is documented in the book by Mette Hjort:
Small Nation, Global Cinema: The New Danish Cinema(Public Worlds)
published in 2005. A Detroit Catholic Priest pointed out how the movie
Drive had the themes of the life of Jesus built into it. He felt the movie was evil and could influence people to commit acts of violence.
One of the more interesting images, internationally put into the movie is that of a schoheht's knife under the throat of a representation of a cow visible in the back window of a car. This precedes
the Jewish gangster killing one of the gentile characters using a representation of Jewish ritual slaughter. A Jewish star and a cross were in the preceding frames as seen in the first two pictures.
Our Jewish community's first line of defense for exposing anti-Semitism rests with the Simon Weisenthal Center and the Anti-Defamation League. Tragically, both national organizations are not willing to recognize this deadly new formula for injecting Jew hatred into the heartland of America. There is little doubt that the intended audience for the anti-Semitic messages in Drive is the all American NASCAR crowd.
Our second line of defense, the courts, have also failed our Jewish community. In a lawsuit challenging Drive's undisclosed subliminal hate content, Deming v CH Novi, an Oakland County circuit court judge ruled that the promotion of significant anti-Semitism, both subliminal and overt, cannot mislead or deceive a consumer even if the consumer is not expecting such content. This ruling was made despite the fact that every other court has upheld that subliminal content is not entitled to First Amendment protection and is deceptive by nature. Imagine if this same judge made that statement about the promotion of hatred and criminal violence against any other group. Currently, the above mentioned case is on appeal.
The enemies of the Jewish people are busy creating and implementing a new form of anti-Semitism that works. The Jewish community is seemingly oblivious to this new threat. If this situation does not change soon, we may find ourselves waking up to an America that is as unfriendly to Jews as Europe is today, or to the extent it was eighty years ago.
I urge you to educate yourself about these slick advertising techniques being used for spreading hate against Jews. You can make a difference by writing letters to the media to expose it and making phone calls to keypeople in the movie industry. Everyone can make a difference by recognizing this insidious problem and then 'drive' to set it right as Attorney Martin Leaf and his client Sarah Deming are in the process of doing in the judicial system. . More background can be gotten from the short overview video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctB-nLr_oF8 and at www.FightHiTechHate.com.
Eugene Greenstein, PhD
President ZOA-MI Region
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GIVE THE JOY OF PURIM TO AN ISRAELI SOLDIER
With Purim coming up, let's do our part for the soldiers of the IDF
Donate online at:
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Sent your check payable to:
ZOA Brooklyn Region
or
IYIM
20 Ocean Court
Brooklyn, NY 11223
By David Lev
First Publish: 2/7/2013, 1:02 PM
Courtesy of Rubin Margules, PresidentZOA BROOKLYN REGION
With the festive holiday of Purim coming up,
ZOA BROOKLYN REGION is once again thinking of the soldiers of the IDF - and planning to distribute thousands of "mishloach manot," the special gifts of food that are traditionally given out on the holiday.
For Purim 2013, the Zionist Organization of America is teaming up with the World Mizrachi Organization, the International Young Israel Movement (IYIM), American Friends of Yisrael Hatzair and Gillies Goodies in order to maximize resources and ensure that they can bring Purim joy to the as many soldiers as possible.
"It gives me great satisfaction to once again be leading this project for the 13th year in a row", said Rubin Margules, president of ZOA Brooklyn Region and the moving force behind the effort. Solly Sacks, Director-General of World Mizrachi, said that "it is a great privilege and honor to be able to distribute these packages to Israeli soldiers, who defend us 24 hours a day, and to bring a smile to their faces."
This year, the Mishloach Manot will be packaged by overseas students who are learning in various yeshivot and seminaries in Israel for the year, enhancing their Israel experience, said Ceec Harrishburg, President of Young Israel in Israel. "The unique feature of our combined project is that we have many students, members and friends involved from around the world. Whether making kind financial contributions, packing or coming out to the bases to distribute - everyone lends a hand where they can," Harrishburg said.
The packing of the parcels will take place on Monday and Tuesday, 11th & 12th of February, at Heichal Shlomo in Jerusalem, and will include a pre-Purim Masquerade party for Singles to complement the packing. Distribution will take place the following week amongst the Ships and Vessels at the Haifa Naval Base; to the Lone Soldiers of the IDF; and to bases in the Shomron.
"For the past fifteen years we have been able to bring Purim joy, goodies and smiles to our brave Chayalim. I encourage everyone to get involved in this effort," said Meir Mishkoff, President, American Friends of Yisrael Hatza'ir.
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Obama CIA Nominee John Brennan Wrong for the Job
by Steven Emerson and John Rossomando
IPT News
February 5, 2013
http://www.investigativeproject.org/3902/obama-cia-nominee-john-brennan-wrong-for-the-job
 America's top spy needs to be a steely-eyed realist, sensitive to emergut our foes' intent to deceive us.
Unfortunately, President Obama's nominee to head the CIA, Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan, has shown a tendency to fall for the bait from radical Islamists. Globally, he repeatedly expressed a hope that "moderates" within Iran and its terror proxy Hizballah would steer their respective constituencies away from terrorism.
Domestically, he claims that radical Islam does not pose its own, unique threat to American security. He has helped strip language about "radical Islam," "jihad" and similar terms from government vernacular, choosing instead to refer to "violent extremism" in an attempt to deny terrorists religious credibility. When it comes to jihad, he stubbornly maintains the word does not belong in conversations about terror, no matter what terrorists themselves say.
Likewise, he also yielded to demands from American Islamists to purge law enforcement and intelligence training material of the terms "jihad" and "radical Islam."
Despite these positions, some American Islamists still oppose Brennan's nomination because he is considered the architect of the drone program which has killed scores of al-Qaida terrorists.
That should tell him something. But there is little in Brennan's record to indicate he'll learn from the experience.
Brennan Promotes Iran-Hizballah Outreach
Brennan's complacency regarding the jihad threat was made clear in May 2010, when he expressed a desire to encourage "moderate elements" of Hizballah, which is a State Department-designated terrorist organization.
"There is certainly the elements of Hizballah that are truly a concern to us what they're doing. And what we need to do is to find ways to diminish their influence within the organization and to try to build up the more moderate elements," a Reuters report quoted Brennan saying.
He did not explain where such elements could be found, how they could be identified, or what separated them from the Hizballah "extremists."
That was just the latest in a series of similar statements Brennan has made about Hizballah, the group which ranks second only to al-Qaida in killing Americans in terrorist attacks. The Iranian-founded and funded group "started out as purely a terrorist organization back in the early '80s and has evolved significantly over time," Brennan said in an Aug. 6, 2009 speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "And now it has members of parliament, in the cabinet; there are lawyers, doctors, others who are part of the Hezbollah organization.
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AIPAC'S SILENCE ON CHUCK HAGEL
Anyone who watched Chuck Hagel's lamentable performance before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week had to conclude that the man is inadequate at best and woeful at worst as the choice for the next Secretary of Defense.
Here was a nominee who did not even know the Obama Administration's position on Iranian nukes (he said it was containment but was quickly corrected and told it was prevention). At a time when the United States faces formidable national security threats from so many parts of the globe, it's pretty obvious that a muddled, befuddled, and at times incoherent candidate for Secretary of Defense is a calamity in the making.
Then there is Hagel's disastrous history of predictions, like in his 2008 book America: Our Next Chapter, where he wrote, "America's refusal to recognize Iran's status as a legitimate power does not decrease Iran's influence, but rather increases it." This was just one year before the government of Iran began to mow down its own citizens in the streets of Tehran in order to protect that "legitimacy."
Or Hagel's opposition to the Iraq surge, predicting in January 2007 that it would be "the most dangerous foreign policy blunder... since Vietnam," an utterly erroneous prognostication that he was correctly hammered on by John McCain at the hearings.
Or Hagel's 1998 meeting with the elder Assad in Syria, where he said, "Peace comes through dealing with people. Peace doesn't come at the end of a bayonet or the end of a gun." Tell that to the sixty thousand dead who have been slaughtered by the dictator's son.
Add to the fact that Hagel has expressed active opposition to homosexuals, voted against Iran sanctions, and believes America should be talking to terrorist organizations, and Obama's nomination becomes downright mystifying. REAd MORE
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Hagel Vote Postponed, Senators Say Financial Info Withheld
"Until the committee receives full and complete answers, it cannot in good faith determine whether you should be confirmed as secretary of defense."
 Published: February 7th, 2013
 Chuck Hagel, nominee to become U.S. Secretary of Defense
Photo Credit: Yori Yanover The vote to decide whether Former Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska will be the next Secretary of Defense was abruptly postponed late Wednesday, February 6. That vote had been scheduled to take place on Thursday, during a different hearing concerning Libya. The vote was put off, according to most sources, because Hagel has not provided adequate documentation concerning compensation for speeches and other activities over the past five years. More than a dozen Republicans sent a letter to Hagel, a copy of which the Associated Press obtained, pressing him to provide the requested information. "The committee, and the American people, have a right to know if a nominee for secretary of defense has received compensation, directly or indirectly, from foreign sources," Senate Republicans wrote. "Until the committee receives full and complete answers, it cannot in good faith determine whether you should be confirmed as secretary of defense." Hagel stated in a letter to Senate Republicans that he is not in possession of the information requested. "My role with respect to the entities you identify is as a current and former board or advisory board member. I was not involved in the day-to-day management of any of these firms, and have not been involved with some for the firms for years now," Hagel wrote. "Thus, as a matter of fact, I do not believe I have any of the information requested. More importantly, the information you seek is legally controlled by the individual entities and not mine to disclose." Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is already on record as supporting Hagel and had hoped to have the vote take place as scheduled. Instead, Levin's office issued a terse statement late Wednesday that there would be no vote on Thursday. "The committee's review of the nomination is not yet complete. I intend to schedule a vote on the nomination as soon as possible," Levin said. READ MORE
Contact Your Senator: Levin https://www.levin.senate.gov/contact/email/ Stabenow http://www.stabenow.senate.gov/?p=contact Capital Hill Switch Board: 202-224-3121
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The West's Shameful Demonization of Israel
February 4, 2013 By Bruce Thornton
 After watching Chuck Hagel's embarrassing performance in his confirmation hearings, I can't decide if he's a bigot, a paleocon isolationist, or just plain stupid. I suspect the latter, given his statement, "If confirmed, I intend to know a lot more than I do." More significant is the fact that he was nominated at all, given his record of gaffes, his use of anti-Semitic tropes like "Jewish lobby" (used only once "on the record," he assures us!), his indulgence of the genocidal Iranian regime and its nuclear arms ambitions, and his endorsement of American guilt and global retreat.
But the most important dimension of Hagel's foreign policy beliefs is his obvious distaste for Israel, evident in a catalogue of public statements over the past decade. He has consistently indulged the specious moral equivalence that refuses to acknowledge Arab hatred of Israel and Palestinian terrorist violence as the root causes of the conflict, refused to support condemnations of Palestinian terrorism and terrorist organizations, blamed Israel for lack of progress in the so-called "peace process," and decried the malign influence of the "Jewish lobby" on American foreign policy. Yet all these positions are ones with which Obama is comfortable. That's why he nominated such an unprepared, inexperienced blowhard to run the Pentagon.
Obama's hostile attitude towards Israel, though, is part of a much larger phenomenon: the decades-long demonization of Israel by Western democracies far in excess of any condemnations of the slaughter, ethnic cleansing, torture, invasions, and occupations that have marred the 65 years Israel has fought to survive against a surrounding fanatic enemy whose collective population outnumbers hers 30 to 1. READ MORE
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Barack Obama hopes landmark visit to Israel can restart stalled peace process
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Iran's president offering 'big credit line' for Egypt's ailing economy, sign of improving ties
(Amr Nabil/ Associated Press ) - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, attends a press conference with Egyptian Sunni clerics at Al-Azhar headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013. Egypt's most prominent Muslim cleric, the sheik of al-Azhar, has warned Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against interfering in Arab Gulf countries or trying to spread Shiite influence. Ahmadinejad, on a landmark visit to Egypt on Tuesday, received an uneasy reception from Ahmed el-Tayeb at al-Azhar, the Sunni Muslim world's foremost Islamic institution.
By Associated Press, Published: February 5 | Updated: Wednesday, February 6, 8:58 AM
CAIRO - Iran's president on Wednesday offered to help rescue Egypt's failing economy with a "big credit line," another sign of improving relations between two regional powers after a freeze of more than three decades.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the proposal during the first trip to Egypt by an Iranian leader since 1979. It came at a time when his own economy is staggering from the effects of Western sanctions over Iran's suspect nuclear development program, and it was unclear how he could spare funds or credit for his new ally.
The latest bad news for Egypt's economy came Tuesday with an announcement that the country's foreign currency reserves dropped 10 percent in the past month. Even before that, the treasury warned that the reserves were at a "critical" low point.
Egypt's government had no immediate reaction to Ahmadinejad's offer, made in an interview with the state-run Al-Ahram daily. READMORE
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ISRAEL UNDER GROWING EXISTENTIAL THREAT
Professor Jonathan Adelman
Josef Korbel School of international Studies
University of Denver
After the election, Israel is facing a panoply of real and potential threats that rival and possibly even exceed those it faced in 1948 during the War of Independence and in 1967 during the Six Day War.
The greatest threat by far is that posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has repeatedly proclaimed Israel as a "cancer" that must be wiped off the face of the earth. Iran is now within a matter of months of having enough enriched uranium to explode an atomic bomb and within a couple of years of being able to miniaturize the bomb and place it on a missile that could hit nearby Israel only 700 miles away. The small size of Israel (8,000 square miles) and lack of strategic depth (only three major cities) make this threat unfortunately very real and credible.
The second significant threat is the rapid spreading of a powerful anti-Israel Islamist fundamentalism in the region (including Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen and the Islamic Maghreb region). Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, echoing common themes of his Muslim Brotherhood, has called Israelis "vampires," "bloodsuckers" and "descendants of apes and pigs." The potential loss of the Camp David treaty with Egypt and turning the southern front peaceful for 30 years into an active military front would be devastating for Israel. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, calling Israelis "war criminals" and Israel a "terrorist state," has threatened to station Turkish warships in the Eastern Mediterranean near Israel.
A third serious potential threat is posed by the unraveling of Bashar Asaad's Syria, which possesses massive chemical weapons facilities (at 36 bases) and significant, but undetermined quantities, of enriched uranium. The chaos ensuring after the likely fall of Asaad may prompt a civil war among secular, religious and ethnic factions that could provide an opportunity for virulently anti-Israel jihadists to gain access to these deadly weapons.
A fourth threat would be that posed by Hizbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, which already have fought three mini-wars with Israel in the last seven years. Hizbollah's 50,000 rockets are capable of reaching every Israeli city including Eilat and Hamas' 10,000 rockets increasingly can reach Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. If Iran either attains nuclear weapons or is attacked by the United States or Israel, these weapons may again fly against Israel which yet cannot stop the longer range Hizbollah rockets.
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Arab Spring and the Israeli enemy
Abdulateef Al-mulhim - Arab News, February 5th, 2013
Thirty-nine years ago, on Oct. 6, 1973, the third major war between the Arabs and Israel broke out. The war lasted only 20 days. The two sides were engaged in two other major wars, in 1948 and 1967.
The 1967 War lasted only six days. But, these three wars were not the only Arab-Israel confrontations. From the period of 1948 and to this day many confrontations have taken place. Some of them were small clashes and many of them were full-scale battles, but there were no major wars apart from the ones mentioned above. The Arab-Israeli conflict is the most complicated conflict the world ever experienced. On the anniversary of the 1973 War between the Arab and the Israelis, many people in the Arab world are beginning to ask many questions about the past, present and the future with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The questions now are: What was the real cost of these wars to the Arab world and its people. And the harder question that no Arab national wants to ask is: What was the real cost for not recognizing Israel in 1948 and why didn't the Arab states spend their assets on education, health care and the infrastructures instead of wars? But, the hardest question that no Arab national wants to hear is whether Israel is the real enemy of the Arab world and the Arab people.
I decided to write this article after I saw photos and reports about a starving child in Yemen, a burned ancient Aleppo souk in Syria, the under developed Sinai in Egypt, car bombs in Iraq and the destroyed buildings in Libya. The photos and the reports were shown on the Al-Arabiya network, which is the most watched and respected news outlet in the Middle East
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OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
Don't Let Iran Stall for Time
By MICHAEL SINGH
Published: February 5, 2012
FEW of President Obama's original foreign policy goals have eluded him so much as engagement with Iran. Over the weekend, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced during a speech in Munich that the United States was ready for direct talks with Iran. With the risk of war over Iran's nuclear program looming, the offer is prudent, but it is also beside the point. As Iran continues to evade negotiations - literally in this case, since the Iranian foreign minister was in the same building as Mr. Biden - the real question is not whether America should talk to Iran, but how to get the Iranians to talk to us in earnest.
Diplomatic engagement with Iran isn't a new idea. Every American president from Jimmy Carter on has reached out to Iran. But such approaches have never led to improved relations. That was true of the secret visit by President Ronald Reagan's national security adviser, Robert C. McFarlane, to Tehran in 1986 in what became the Iran-contra affair; it was also true of quiet talks over Afghanistan and Iraq in the 2000s, when the former achieved only fleeting tactical progress and the latter none at all.
The reasons for failure in all the approaches share a common thread: Iran shrank from any broad bilateral thaw because it feared engagement with the United States more than it feared confrontation.
"Resistance" to the West - and especially to the United States - was a founding principle of Iran's Islamic regime. And while Iran has gradually normalized relations with many European and Asian allies of Washington, it has not done so with the United States itself, just as it has not with America's ally Israel. To lose those two nations as enemies would be to undermine one of the regime's ideological raisons d'être. READ MORE
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The Post's View
European Union must respond to Hezbollah's attack in Bulgaria
ON TUESDAY the Bulgarian government confirmed what most of the world has known for months: The bombing of a bus carrying Israeli tourists in the Black Sea resort of Burgas last July 18 was carried out by members of Lebanon's Hezbollah organization. The results of an official investigation present leaders of the European Union with a reality that will be difficult to ignore. They must decide whether to allow a terrorist attack on E.U. territory to go unpunished or to sanction a movement that is both an Iranian proxy and the dominant party in the Lebanese government.
The case for sanctions is a strong one. The Burgas attack, which killed five Israelis and wounded more than 100, was not an isolated incident but part of a campaign of terrorism against Israeli, U.S. and gulf state targets by Hezbollah and the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. According to a new report by Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the two groups decided in January 2010 to launch a campaign of violence aimed at punishing Israel for the assassination of Iranian scientists and deterring an attack on Iran's nuclear program.
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January 28th, 2013 - 10:03 am
During his confirmation hearings, Secretary of State-designate John Kerry was only given a tough time by one questioner, Senator Rand Paul. The exchange between them is interesting not just because of the specific topic, but also because of what it shows about basic foreign policy philosophy - and ignorance - on Kerry's part.
It is a genuine problem. The leader of a "friendly" nation has been exposed for making anti-Semitic remarks. The United States wants to continue aid to avoid instability in that country that would contribute to even further radicalization, and to use U.S. leverage to produce the best possible outcome.
Unfortunately, Kerry subscribes - as is so fashionable today in the Obama administration and academia - to what I'll call the "abusive relationship approach" to foreign policy.
If another country supports you and is good for your interests, you take that country's good will for granted and mistreat it. If another regime - say, Turkey, Pakistan, Venezuela, Egypt, and, at times in the recent past, Syria and Iran - walks all over you, then you chase after it all the more passionately and shower it with presents.
(For my background critique of the administration's response to the Morsi statements, see here.)
In the hands of a good realpolitik statesman, this balance would be managed well. For example: former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger would have kept the Egyptian government off-balance and made it understand that Washington was doing it a favor by providing aid. In other words, leverage would be used.
But in Kerry's hands, leverage is tossed away. He is so afraid of using power or being tough that he throws away leverage, believing there can be no risk of problems. The recipient must not be intimidated or pressed to change, but instead shown that America is its friend - not the imperialist bully that people like Kerry and President Barack Obama see when they look back at U.S. history.
Precisely the same problem was displayed notably in two other recent cases (though readers can probably add more):
- When the Palestinian Authority approached the UN seeking membership and recognition as a state, the Bush administration made it clear to the UN and allies that there would be a strong price to pay in U.S. support and donations. The PA backed down.
With Obama opposing the same thing but not playing any trump cards, America's "friends" almost unanimously voted against Washington's position, and it suffered a serious loss whose costs (including the permanent destruction of the "peace process") have not yet been counted.
- When it was suggested to Kerry that U.S. aid to Pakistan be held up until it released a political prisoner, a doctor who helped America locate Osama bin Laden and who is now in prison and reportedly has been tortured, Kerry refused. READ MORE
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Scent of 'Germ' Warfare Raises Fear in the Mideast
by CLARE M. LOPEZ, JILL BELLAMY VAN AALST, REZA KAHLILI February 4, 2013
The sectarian war in Syria reportedly has claimed more than 60,000 lives and spawned concerns in the Middle East and the West about access to chemical weapons by non-state actors such as al Qaeda, Hezbollah and Hamas. Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles are of immediate concern to Israel, Jordan and the United States, whether in Syrian President Bashar Assad's hands or those of terrorist organizations. Yet the locations of chemical weapons munitions and Scud missiles equipped with chemical warheads in Syria have been identified and are continually monitored. That is not the case with the arguably more dangerous biological weapons being developed by the nexus of Iran, Syria and North Korea.
More than 167 nations have signed the United Nations Biological Weapons Convention. Syria is a signatory but has not ratified the treaty. Iran, also a signatory, has ratified it, but is pursuing development of microbial agents with the aid of Russian and North Korean scientists who may be graduates of the Soviet-era Biopreparat program that created some of these dangerous biological agents.
Among the more than 16 biological agents that Iran reportedly is developing are anthrax, Ebola, encephalitis, biological toxins, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), cholera, smallpox and plague.
Worse yet, Iran, with North Korea's help, has genetically altered the smallpox virus in ways that may make current vaccinations ineffective.
The Islamists ruling Iran may think their planned microbial attacks cannot be traced to them. Biological weapons pose a risk that other weapon classes (nuclear, radiological and chemical) do not. They are living organisms, some of which are highly infectious and transmissible, depending on the strain. Some have lengthy incubation periods that make early detection exceptionally difficult.
Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/scent-of-germ-warfare-raises-fear-in-the-mideast#ixzz2KFsJtcFu
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution |
January 2013 Headlines from the Gaza Strip
by Samara Greenberg
GazaWATCH
January 2013 / Issue 10
http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/3894/january-2013-headlines-from-the-gaza-strip
Palestinian Unity?
Fatah held its first mass rally in Gaza since 2007, when it was violently thrown out of the Strip by Hamas. High-level Fatah members attended the event and, along with Hamas officials, called it a step towards unity. In a video message played on huge screens, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas told the crowd, "Soon we will achieve unity and end the occupation, raising the Palestinian flag over Al-Aqsa mosque and Jerusalem." The Fatah rally ended prematurely due to overcrowding and fighting between Fatah factions. Between 300,000 and 1.2 million supporters attended, a sizable showing considering Gaza's 1.7 million inhabitants. In December, Hamas was allowed to hold its first rallies in the West Bank since 2007.
Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal met in Cairo on January 9 to discuss the ongoing dispute between their parties. The two agreed to "implement the reconciliation agreement" signed in May 2011, which called for a unity government of independent officials to prepare for elections but stalled soon after being signed. Hamas officials in Gaza largely opposed appointing Abbas as interim prime minister, which Mashaal agreed to at a February 2012 meeting. In late January 2013, however, a Hamas official said the party is not opposed to Abbas heading a unified Palestinian government.
 The Fatah rally in Gaza showed improving ties between Hamas and Fatah (Photo: Mohammed Salem/Reuters) |
According to the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi, in the January 9 Abbas-Mashaal meeting Fatah demanded that Hamas dissolve its military wing and recognize the National Security Forces as the Palestinians' sole armed security unit -- a demand Hamas rejected. Hamas denied that the meeting included a discussion of its armed wing.
At a mid-January follow-up reconciliation meeting in Cairo, Fatah and Hamas agreed to allow the Palestinian Central Elections Commission (CEC) to register voters in Gaza in preparation for elections. Voter registration is scheduled to begin February 11. Hamas halted voter registration work in July 2012 after accusing the CEC of favoring Fatah. The next meeting between Hamas and Fatah officials is scheduled for February 11.
A Hamas military court in Gaza sentenced a leader of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Brigades, Zaki al-Sakani, to 15 years in jail for terrorism and possession of explosives and weapons, according to al-Sakani's brother. Fatah called the verdict "unjust," stating "it can only be interpreted as confirmation that a trend within Hamas still endorses rivalry."
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Missiles, RPGs found stashed at Arab village school
Ben Hartman - The Jerusalem Post, February 5th, 2013
 Weapons found stashed at Arab school in Galilee Photo: Israel Police
Police found anti-tank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades [RPGs] stashed in a school and a kindergarten for special needs children in Abu Sinan, near Acre, during a raid on Tuesday morning.
Also on Tuesday, police announced that in a search at an elementary school in Taiba, east of Kfar Saba, officers found an assault rifle and a pistol stashed underneath the floorboard of a classroom. They also reported finding what appeared to be explosives.
Pictures put out by police from the Abu Sinan raid show three LAW (light anti-tank weapon) missiles and four RPGs, all of which were recently stolen from IDF depots. The arms were found in a drainage canal and a small pond on the ground of the school and kindergarten, along with raw explosives, grenades and hundreds of assault rifle bullets. READ MORE
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POLICYWATCH 2029
As Syria Crumbles, Israel Prepares for Instability
Michael Herzog
January 31, 2013
Although Assad's ouster would bring welcome disruption to the Iran-Hizballah axis, Israel's leaders are focusing on the potential security risks of Syria's deterioration, including chemical and missile proliferation and jihadist border violence.
This PolicyWatch is part of "Syrian Spillover: Perspectives from Neighboring States," a series of articles on how the conflict is affecting Turkey, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon.
Compared to Syria's other neighbors, Israel has been the least affected by the storm raging to its north. The fighting between regime and opposition forces can be seen from the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, but the border itself is quiet, and the few incidents of firing toward Israel in late 2012 were likely unintended. Yet Israel is far from complacent -- its airstrike near Damascus, reported yesterday, highlights its concerns about the explosiveness of the Syrian scene, particularly the proliferation of strategic weapons. More broadly, Israel expects the nearly forty years of calm along the Syrian border to end once Bashar al-Assad falls, or even before then.
WHO WILL FILL THE VOID?
Israeli officials are skeptical about whether Assad will be able to maintain his grip on power past this year. Yet they also realize that the civil war may continue consuming the country beyond his ouster. Although the turmoil diminishes the traditional risk of war with the Syrian army, it highlights the risk of confrontation with hostile nonstate actors.
Contrary to conventional wisdom in the region, Israel would not mourn Assad's departure. He is a linchpin of the radical Iran-Hizballah axis and a staunch rival of Israel. His fall would therefore deal a major blow to Tehran, significantly weaken Hizballah, and dismantle the trilateral axis -- the forces that may dominate Syria in the future are unlikely to seek an alliance with actors that helped Assad butcher his people.
At the same time, Israel is concerned about who might fill the post-Assad void. It is particularly troubled by the increasing weight of Islamists in the opposition, the growing number of foreign jihadists (who have become the most potent fighting force on the ground), and the West's continued passivity about supporting non-Islamist opposition forces. Ultimately, Israel could find itself confronted by hostile Islamists in its two most important Arab neighbors, Egypt and Syria -- a reality that could have a dangerous regional ripple effect.
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Why don't Jewish groups oppose Hagel, arms to Egypt?
By MORTON KLEIN, IRWIN HOCHBERG
02/04/2013 22:21
Hagel's nomination should have galvanized Jewish organizations, regardless of political orientation.
 Chuck Hagel speaks in Islamabad, April 13, 2006 Photo: REUTERS/Mian Kursheed Israel is facing serious challenges on two new fronts. President Barack Obama has nominated Israel-basher Chuck Hagel for secretary of defense and sent fighter jets to Mohamed Morsi's Israel-hating Egyptian regime. Where are America's major Jewish organizations? Silent, voicing no opposition. Hagel's nomination should have galvanized Jewish organizations, regardless of political orientation. Here, after all, was a former senator with a virtually unrivaled record of hostility to Israel, bigotry towards Jews and gays, disbelief in the importance of a strong US military, willingness to indulge Middle Eastern terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, and antipathy toward any conceivable measure - economic or military - aimed at preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power if negotiations fail. Until his nomination, no major pro-Israel group could be found which would have disagreed with what we have just said. Quite the contrary. READ MORE
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EU and Israel research crime-stopping drones
07.02.13 @ 09:51
- BY NIKOLAJ NIELSEN
BRUSSELS - The EU and a large Israeli military contractor are co-funding research to build drones that can stop moving boats and cars.
Launched in January, the three-year-long Aeroceptor project, according to its own literature, aims to help law enforcement authorities to stop "non-cooperative vehicles in both land and sea scenarios by means of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles."
Israel's ministry of public security, global weapons manufacturer Israel Aerospace Industries and Israeli-based Rotem Technological Solutions are among the list of 12 participants, most of which are based in the EU.
German Green MEP Ska Keller told this website that the Aeroceptor projector is a first in the EU because previously EU drones were developed only for surveillance and not for interception.
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 | | It Is No Dream: The Life of Theodor Herzl |
About this Film
It Is No Dream examines the life and times of Theodor Herzl, the journalist and playwright who was responsible for creating the political movement that led in 1948 to the creation of the Jewish state, Israel. It is the latest feature of Moriah Films, the two time Academy Award winning documentary film division of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international human rights organization and NGO with over 400,000 member families.
Narrated by Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley and starring Academy Award Winner Christoph Waltz as the voice of Theodor Herzl, It Is No Dream examines how Theodor Herzl, an assimilated Jew, born into a traditional but mostly non-religious family in Budapest in 1860, was changed by the trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus in Paris, which he covered as a journalist in 1895. Previously, he had advocated the mass conversion of Jews to Christianity as a solution to the growing anti-Semitism of Europe. However, after witnessing the court proceedings where Dreyfus was falsely convicted of treason and the anti-Jewish demonstrations of the French public, Herzl became convinced that the only answer to the anti-Semitism that was spreading across Europe was the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, the Biblical homeland of the Jewish people. He wrote a political treatise entitled "Der Judenstaat" or "The Jewish State" that became an international bestseller, laying out his ideas for creating a new Jewish state.
READ MORE
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