Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Middle) stands with France
in the face of terrorism.
Israel Stands With
France Against IS Terrorism
"Shall I acquit someone with dishonest scales, with a bag of false
weights?" (Micah 6:11)
Israel extended sympathy to Paris in the wake of
attacks — the worst since WWII — and rallied behind Paris after the devastating
multiple-terror attack last Friday where Islamic State-linked assailants killed
130 people. Jerusalem was so sympathetic that it dressed its Old City in the
colors of the French flag and lowered its own national flag to half-staff. "On
behalf of the people and Government of Israel, I extend our deepest sympathies
to the people of France and to the families of those who were brutally murdered
in Paris last night. We also extend our wishes for a speedy recovery to
the wounded," Netanyahu stated last Saturday. "Israel
stands shoulder-to-shoulder with France in this common battle against militant
Islamic terrorism." "I've instructed
Israel's security and intelligence forces to assist their French counterparts
and their counterparts from other European countries in any way possible,"
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "Terrorism must always be
condemned. It must always be fought. Innocent people in Paris, like
those in London, Madrid, Mumbai, Buenos Aires and Jerusalem, are the victims of
militant Islamic terrorism, not its cause."
Parisians light candles and lay flowers near the Bataclan theater in
memory of those who were slain in terrorist attacks on Friday, November
13, 2015.
"The State of Israel stands shoulder to
shoulder with France in the fight against terror," Deputy Foreign Minister
Tzipi Hotovely said Tuesday. "The people of Israel in their
entirety mourn with the people of France following the terror attack that
transpired last Friday night. The entire world is awakening to the
reality of Islamic terrorism, which is motivated by an ideology that challenges
the very foundations of the free world." Indeed, just a week after the
attack in Paris, Islamic terrorists struck in Mali, raiding a hotel as people
gathered for breakfast. At least 22 people died. Among the dead is
a 60-year-old Israeli identified as Samuel Benalal. Of course, Israel itself continues
to experience a wave of terror. Between October 1, 2015 and November 19,
2015, Palestinian terrorists have perpetrated 70 stabbings, 10 shootings, and
10 car rammings. A Palestinian taxi driver tried to run down a group of Israeli
pedestrians at Kfar Adumim junction (east of Jerusalem). Upon failing to
hit them, he got out of the car and attacked them with a knife. One man
was wounded, and the attacker was shot and killed. In Kiryat Gat, four people
were wounded in a stabbing attack. One was a 13-year-old girl. The
stabber was captured several hours later. Thursday
was the bloodiest day with two people killed and one wounded in a stabbing
attack during afternoon prayers in a Judaica store in Tel Aviv. In Gush
Etzion, three people were killed when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire with
a submachine gun on cars in a traffic jam. One fatality was
18-year-old Ezra Schwartz, an American participating in a nine-month volunteer
program.
Hours before the Islamist attack in Paris, a
Palestinian gunmen shot a car full of family members near Hebron, killing
40-year-old Ya'akov Litman and his 18-year-old son, Netanel.
Also in the car and lightly wounded were Litman's wife, 16-year-old son,
and three daughters, 11, 9 and 5. "In Israel, as in France, terrorism
is terrorism and standing behind it is radical Islam and its desire to destroy
its victims," Netanyahu said on the Monday after the attacks. "The time has come for countries to condemn terrorism
against us to the same degree that they condemn terrorism everywhere else in
the world." Meanwhile, Israel is not only being blamed for acts
of terror against itself, it is being accused of Islamic-sourced terrorism,
such as that which has been committed by the Islamic State — in Paris and
elsewhere. "It's one thing that they blame us, rather than the terrorists,
for the terror against us, but the greater [absurdity] is that we are being
blamed for the terror against the French," Netanyahu said of Swedish
Foreign Minister Margot Wallström's recent comments linking Islamist
radicalization with Palestinian bitterness over claims that they have "no
future." "Whoever fatuously attempts to create a link between radical
Islamist attacks and the current problems between Israel and the Palestinians
is fooling himself, his people and international public opinion," said
Israel's foreign ministry following Wallström's statement.
Terrorists attacked the Radisson Blu Hotel in Mali, a popular hotel for
Westerners.
Many
Palestinians celebrate acts of terror against Israelis, hailing them as
heroes. While the Palestinian Authority has named streets, sports matches
and stadiums after terrorists that have been killed as a result of their
crimes, Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (of the Fatah party) claims "intolerable
conditions" and blames Jewish settlers for "escalating
violence." "We are not to blame, any more than the people of Paris
are to blame," Netanyahu said at the Jerusalem Post Diplomatic
Conference on Wednesday, where he also said Palestinian rejection of Israel as
a Jewish homeland "has become confused with militant Islam." Abbas
offered France a sympathy card: "We condemn the terrorist #ParisAttacks
and we extend our sympathy and solidarity with the French people and
government," yet he has refused to condemn the Litmans' murders that
happened the same day. Meanwhile, the official Facebook page of Abbas' party
displays a cartoon showing Netanyahu helping a Muslim terrorist in Paris aim
his gun. An opinion article in the PA daily newspaper Al-Hayat
Al-Jadida (The New Life) similarly claimed Israeli involvement in Paris as
a result of European labeling of products in the disputed territories. "That is an absurdity that is comical if it were not
so tragic," Netanyahu said of Israel receiving blame for
Islamic attacks on internationals. Yet, to militant Islam, "we are not the cause, we are the obstacle,"
he added.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas
Abbas Admits He
Rejected a Palestinian State
"David went out to meet them and said to them, 'If you have come to
me in peace to help me, I am ready for you to join me. But if you have
come to betray me to my enemies when my hands are free from violence.'"
(1 Chronicles 12:17)
For the first time, Palestinian Authority Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas has admitted that he rejected an offer by then-Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert for a Palestinian state. Olmert's 2008 offer would have
created an independent Palestinian state out of the Gaza Strip and much of
Judea-Samaria with a land bridge between them, incorporating land swaps of
Jewish-majority neighborhoods with Arab-majority neighborhoods. Reporter Raviv
Drucker said to Abbas in an interview for Israel's Channel 10: "In
the map that Olmert presented you, Israel would annex 6.3 percent [of
Judea-Samaria] and compensate the Palestinians with 5.8 percent [from pre-1967
Israel]. What did you propose in return?” Abbas
replied to Drucker: "I did not agree. I rejected it out of
hand." "Why, really, did you not accept Olmert's
offer?" Drucker asked a couple minutes later. "He showed me a map.
He didn’t give me a map," Abbas said. "He told me, 'This
is the map' and took it away. I respected his point of view, but how can
I sign on something that I didn’t receive?"
From left, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President George W. Bush,
and Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas shake hands following
President Bush' address to more than 50 countries and international
organizations at the Annapolis Conference in the Naval Academy's
Memorial Hall in Annapolis, MD, Nov. 27, 2007.
Olmert had brought only one copy of the map to the
September 16, 2008 meeting with Abbas, and Abbas reportedly told Olmert that
he would need to talk with his senior advisers before returning "the next
day" to complete the talks. He never returned. Nevertheless,
Olmert's offer to Abbas included complete relinquishment of Jerusalem's Old
City as well as the near-withdrawal from Judea-Samaria. In 2013, according to
Avi Issacharoff, the Times of Israel Middle East Analyst, "Israel would
retain: The Ariel bloc, the Jerusalem-Maaleh Adumim bloc (including E1), and
Gush Etzion" — the latter a target by Palestinian terrorists on Thursday
who killed three. Israel offered the Palestinians "the area of
Afula-Tirat Zvi, in the Lachish area, the area close to Har Adar, and in the
Judean desert and the Gaza envelope." Israel would also have left the
Jordan Valley and absorb 5,000 Palestinian refugees across a period of five
years. The territory Palestinians would have received would have been
only 0.7% less than the 1949 Armistice Lines. The Palestinians made no
attempt to negotiate for better terms. In an interview that aired on Channel
10 Tuesday, the former prime minister said of his meeting with Abbas:
"I told him, 'Remember my words, it will be
50 years before there will be another Israeli prime minister that will offer
you what I am offering you now. Don’t miss this opportunity.'"
In 2009, the chief Palestinian negotiator and an endorser of anti-Israel
terrorism, Saeb Erekat, revealed Abbas' true motives for rejecting the offer. He
said that Abbas "answered [Olmert] with defiance, saying: 'I am not
in a marketplace or a bazaar. I came to demarcate the borders of
Palestine — the June 4, 1967, borders — without detracting a single inch, and
without detracting a single stone from Jerusalem, or from the holy Christian
and Muslim places.' This is why the Palestinian negotiators did not
sign."
Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator
Israeli Company
Creates Pain-Free Glucose Monitor
"For the life of a creature is in the blood …" (Leviticus
17:11)
With over 1,200 active life sciences companies, and
about 40 new ones formed each year, Israel continues to make enormous
contributions to health care. Many such groundbreaking devices were on
display from November 16–19 at Medica 2015 in Dusseldorf, Germany, including a
non-invasive blood glucose monitor for diabetics. This particular glucose
monitor is set apart from others in that it does not require a blood sample. Israel’s
Cnoga Medical Ltd. headquartered in Haifa has developed a monitor that uses
optical sensors to check blood-sugar content by assessing a diabetic's skin
color. It can be used privately at home with results stored in the monitor,
sent via Bluetooth to a mobile device or computer, or even through the cloud to
a secure portal for access by monitoring physicians. For diabetics who dread the regular pinpricks and pain of traditional
blood-sugar monitors, Cnoga Medical's non-invasive monitor will be a welcome
change.
The TensorTip MATRIX (MTX) is a compact, finger-mount, non-invasive
device capable of measuring Hemodynamic & Bio parameters, Blood
Gases and Blood Chemistry for professional community use (doctors,
nurses, paramedics, etc.) as well as for home / remote medical
monitoring for private patients.
The idea behind the innovation drew from CEO Dr.
Yosef Segman's knowledge of television processors. Segman's first
start-up company, OPlus Technologies, developed TV processors worthy of an
Intel Corporation buyout in 2005. "In my free time, I took pictures
of people with all kinds of skin colors. I asked myself, ‘What,
nonetheless, is the similarity between them?' I tried to find all kinds
of common denominators for all people's skin," Segman told Globes. Through
this research, Segman found that human skin color follows the same recipe as
television screen color, which uses the primary pigments red first, then blue
and green. To ensure accurate readings of each person’s unique skin
color, the Cnoga Tensortip Combo Glucometer tissue photography analysis is
calibrated to each patient during a two-week monitor training process. Segman
built his first working prototype from a wedding-ring box, which he presented
to Texas Instruments (TI). At his initial meeting with TI, the device
"produced results that were similar to all the sophisticated
monitors," Segman told Globes. The prototype not only
monitored blood-sugar levels, but heartbeat, skin-collagen quality, and skin
resistance. TI is now producing the processors that drive the monitor.
Segman also raised $8 million from the technology giant and other
investors to further develop the sensor’s capabilities. Where Europeans have
bought the Cnoga product, Segman said, "no one has asked for their money
back. We're the first company in the world
to sell non-invasive blood sugar monitors."
Jonathan Pollard
Released After 30 Years in US Prison
"I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives
from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness."
(Isaiah 42:6–7)
During the 30 years Navy intelligence analyst
Jonathan Pollard served in a United States federal prison for conspiracy to
commit espionage, there have been many attempts to secure his release.
They all failed; however, on November 20, 61-year-old Pollard completed
his life sentence and was released on parole. "It’s a happy day that he’s
getting out of jail and I hope he gets to live a normal life, but I’d be
happier if he was released a decade ago," said Lawrence Korb, senior
adviser to the Washington-based Center for Defense Information and the
1981–1985 United States Assistant Secretary of Defense. Pollard was charged
with only "one count of passing classified information to an ally
[Israel], without intent to harm the United States." He was not
charged with treason nor indicted for harming the US or for compromising codes,
agents or war plans. Before his arrest in 1985, Pollard learned as a civilian
American Naval intelligence analyst "that information vital to Israel's
security was being deliberately withheld," which "Israel was legally
entitled to … according to a 1983 Memorandum of Understanding" writes the
Jonathan Pollard website. "The information being withheld from Israel
included Syrian, Iraqi, Libyan and Iranian nuclear, chemical, and biological
warfare capabilities — being developed for use against Israel. It also
included information on ballistic missile development by these countries and
information on planned terrorist attacks against Israeli civilian targets,"
Pollard's website further reports. When his superiors told Pollard, "Jews get nervous talking about poison gas; they
don't need to know," Pollard began giving information to Israel
directly. Pollard was arrested by the FBI and took a plea bargain rather
than having a public trial.
Five years ago, Korb said Pollard's punishment was
too severe for his crime, where the median sentence for giving classified
information to an ally has been two to four years in prison.
Korb pointed out that then Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger's
accusation of Pollard's guilt in the deaths of 11 American agents in the former
USSR had been debunked. Israel gave the American-born Pollard Israeli
citizenship in November 1995. Both Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented on Pollard's release. "We all
welcome the release of Jonathan Pollard from prison after so many long and hard
years," Rivlin said. "Throughout the years, our pain was
Pollard's pain... we felt the responsibility and obligation to secure his
release," Rivlin added, speaking of repeated,
failed attempts by Israel and non-profit groups to secure Pollard's release.
"The people of Israel welcome the release of Jonathan Pollard,"
Netanyahu said in a public statement. "As someone who raised his
case before successive US presidents many times, I longed for this day.
And now after three long and difficult decades, Jonathan is being
released." Netanyahu added, "I wish him on this first Sabbath that
he's going to spend with his family a lot of joy, a lot of happiness, a lot of
peace. May these be the hallmarks for the rest of his life."
Pollard is required to remain in the US for another five years and to
wear a GPS bracelet at all times, usually worn by dangerous felons, pedophiles
and stalkers. Pollard's pro-bono lawyers, Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman
have filed against the parole conditions, stating, "There is no basis
whatsoever to treat Mr. Pollard in that manner, and doing so is vindictive and
cruel."
This Hebrew protest placard says, "Rotsim et Pollard babayit. (We
want Pollard at home.)"
Hungary Scorns
European Product Labeling for Disputed Territories
"He said to me, 'You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display
my splendor.' But I said, 'I have labored in vain; I have spent my
strength for nothing at all. Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand,
and my reward is with my God." (Isaiah 49:3–4)
Hungary has rejected the European Union's (EU)
decision to label products made in the disputed territories, with the Hungarian
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó describing the labeling
as "irrational." "We do not support that decision," said
Szijjártó at a meeting of the Israel Council of Foreign Relations on Monday.
"It is an inefficient instrument. It is irrational and does
not contribute to a solution [to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict], but causes
damage." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Hungary's
support against the EU's decision, which calls for labeling products made in
Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights and eastern Jerusalem as “Product from the
Golan Heights (Israeli settlement)” or “Product from West Bank (Israeli
settlement).” If a product were made in the Golan Heights but not in a
settlement, which is mostly residential, the label could simply read, “Product
from the Golan Heights.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Hungarian Foreign Affairs
and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto at the Knesset.
"Thanks for the strong statement you made
against labeling," Netanyahu said. "It’s the right position and
the moral position, and we appreciate it." “We have
to tell things as they are, especially in a time of crisis, otherwise we can’t
come up with a solution,” Szijjártó said at the meeting. A November 11 Fact
Sheet issued by the European External Action Service (EEAS) said it is
"incorrect" and "misleading" to label products as “Made in
Israel” when they originate in "the Golan Heights or the West Bank
(including East Jerusalem)." The EU insists that it “does not support any
form of boycott or sanctions against Israel,” nor does it “intend to impose any
boycott on Israeli exports from the settlements." Its stated purpose
for the labeling is merely to "give consumers the possibility to make an
informed choice.”
Although this United Nation's map suggests in
the fine print that it makes no judgment about
the disputed territories, the title "occupied
territories" suggests otherwise.
The irony is that while Europeans are trying to
support the Palestinians by choosing not to buy products made in the disputed
territories, they are actually limiting the ability of employers to hire and
pay decent wages to thousands of Palestinian workers at Israeli companies.
As of 2013, the permit to work quota in these territories reached 23,000.
As well, products from the territories do not receive preferential tariff
treatment upon entry into the EU as products made in Israel do, further
disabling employers and employees. Another hypocrisy is that the EU has allowed
"Made in Morocco" labels on products developed in territory seized in
the Western Sahara by Morocco. But for Israel, "the EU legislation
on indication of origin is very clear: 'Made in Israel' used for the products
coming from Israeli [residential] settlements or [industrial zones in] the
territories would mislead the consumer and therefore is inconsistent with
existing EU legislation." Please stand together in these last days as
we bring the Good News of Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah) to the Jewish
People and Arabs here in Israel and around the world.
