Gaza Arms Smuggling Thrives After Mubarak’s Fall
July 25, 2011 | Geoffrey Levin
The fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in February led to a sharp increase in weapons smuggling to the Gaza Strip and continues today, according to a recent piece by Israeli security correspondent Ron Ben-Yishai. In the past six months alone, Bedouin smugglers have transferred three times the quantity of industrial explosives to Gaza as they did in all of 2010, as Gaza’s terrorist organisations roughly doubled their number of rockets to an estimate 10,000, an amount equivalent to Hezbollah’s arsenal at the start of the 2006 War.
Durban III – An Exodus Begins?
July 25, 2011 | Sharyn Mittelman
Over the weekend, the Czech Republic, Italy and Holland have all pulled out of the UN’s September 22 meeting to commemorate the 2001 Durban conference, a supposed anti-racism meeting that turned into a mass display of antisemitism and anti-Israel propaganda. Canada, Israel and the US have already stated that they will not be attending the “Durban III” summit.
As the explanations for the pullout given by the Czech Republic, Italy and Holland demonstrate, we can expect this years Durban III summit to be a repeat of the first Durban conference in 2001 – which essentially labeled Zionism as racism, and Israel as the world’s only racist state.
Israeli start-up offers ‘Energy from the Roads’
July 22, 2011 | Geoffrey Levin
As the world continues to search for ways to meet the growing global energy demand without further damaging the environment, a new technology that harvests energy from the pressure caused by cars driving on roads is currently being tested in Israel. Developed by the Israeli start-up Innowattech, the innovation could soon be powering streetlights and homes in Israel. As Sara Toth Stub writes in the Wall Street Journal:
Using piezoelectric technology-the same technology that enables cigarette lighters to produce a spark-the pressure of vehicles on metallic crystals embedded under the surface produces electrical energy, explains Haim Abramovich, professor of aerospace engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and founder of the start-up Innowattech.
The camera never lies?
July 22, 2011 | Allon Lee
It would appear that the photo used online to illustrate pro-Palestinian activist Randa Abdel-Fattah’s latest anti-Israel screed features a recycled picture from 2010 that has been discredited as a piece of confected theatre.
Can Hamas be coaxed into changing its tune?
July 22, 2011 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
Lawlessness in North Africa appears to have opened up a new route for weapons smuggling into Gaza. Reuters has reported Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon explaining that weapons are now being smuggled from Libya through Egypt and into the Palestinian enclave.
“Weapons are available in Libya as a result of the unstable situation there, and Hamas has exploited it to buy weapons from Libyan smugglers,” Yaalon told foreign journalists in a briefing, without elaborating on the kind of munitions involved.
The prospect of more weapons being funneled to Hamas is rather grim for Israel, suggesting that the conflict will never end…
Beware, the Jews and Zionists are everywhere!
July 22, 2011 | Allon Lee
What do Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Egypt have in common?
In the past week, all four countries have been abuzz with conspiratorial news stories suggesting that Israel has been maliciously meddling in their internal affairs.
New study: male circumcision is effective in preventing HIV in men
July 22, 2011 | Or Avi Guy
An international public debate about male circumcision has been reignited by a San Francisco referendum – see an Australian report on this issue here – with anti-circumcision activists demanding that the circumcision of a minor be made a criminal act and treated as an assault. However, inconveniently for those who insist that circumcision is “barbararic” or comparable to the the terrible practice of female genital mutiliation, this week additional scientific proof of the possible medical benefits of circumcision revealed in a UN Announcement.
The Goal of Eliminating Israel/Aid to the Palestinians
July 22, 2011
This Update features a couple of pieces on the apparent continued prevalence amongst Palestinians of the goal of eliminating the State of Israel, as well as an important comment on the problems created by the overwhelming importance of aid to the Palestinian economy.
New Zealand’s Mossad Paranoia
July 21, 2011 | Geoffrey Levin
After New Zealand media outrageously accused an Israeli victim of February’s Christchurch earthquake of being a Mossad spy, Prime Minister John Key yesterday publically announce that an investigation demonstrated that neither the victim, Ofer Mizrahi, nor any of his friends, had any involvement in espionage. In a statement on Wednesday, Key said, “Security agencies conducted the investigation and found no evidence that the people were anything other than backpackers.” It turns out Mizrahi held two passports, his Israeli and his EU one, rather than the five that a Southland Times article initially alleged. The story quickly spread throughout New Zealand newspapers, and was covered as one of the biggest stories of the week.
Only hours before Key’s announcement, Fred Tulett, the journalist behind the initial story, said he was “unshakable in his conviction his facts are accurate.”
AIJAC’s response to Israel’s new anti-Boycott law
July 21, 2011 | Colin Rubenstein
In response to the passage of a controversial new anti-boycott law by the Israeli Knesset last week, AIJAC has issued the following statement:
AIJAC believes that anti-Israel boycotts represent a serious and significant political and diplomatic challenge to Israel as part of a larger campaign of delegitimisation, and that the Israeli government is fully justified in taking serious legal and political action to counter these threats wherever they originate. However, in AIJAC’s view, overall, the anti-boycott law passed last week appears ill advised, will have opposite effects to those intended and may provide opportunities for Israel’s detractors to further misrepresent the reality of its vibrant democracy.
