Atlas Shrugs

"What is dignity?"

If only they would leave the Jews alone and let them live in peace and quiet ........ what could be accomplished with all that blood and treasure? Watch the video at the bottom of the page. hat tip Jane

Israel Helped in FARC Hostage Rescue Operation

As the world continues to beat the Jews into submission and reluctant suicide, the Jews continue to save the free world. It felt like Entebbe so I am not surprised Israel had a hand in the rescue mission that saved the lives of the 15 hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) (yes the same FARC that had Obama on their computers.) Yes, the same Obama and his friends (the ones he won't throw under the bus) that sympathizes with those leftist murderers.

"Senator Obama is wrong on America's Free Trade Agreement with Colombia, which is fighting Venezuela's dictator Hugo Chavez for the liberty of South American democracies - Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Brazil are all in danger from Chavez's ambitions for a Marxist Continent." (More here at With Both Hands).

Betancourt rescue in Colombia: Israeli connection Ynet News hat tip Atlas readers

(Video) Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt mentions Israel in shower of praise following her rescue; most likely not by chance. Israeli advising team, headed by former Sayeret Matkal officer Maj.-Gen. (Res.) Israel Ziv, may have been involved in operation Israel News

VIDEO - "I am unaware of a precedent to such a perfect mission. Maybe only the Israelis…their  wonderful commandos may be reminiscent of the mission that took place here." This is how kidnapped Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt described the daring rescue operation that brought her back to her family.

Betancourt was released on Wednesday in a complicated military campaign involving months of planning. It came into affect without one shot being fired.

[...]

The Israeli consultation was focused mainly on intelligence issues, special operations and integration and coordination between different security elements. This was in order to prepare them for a coordinated and productive campaign within a short period of time.

 

The group was headed by Major-General (Res.) Israel Ziv, who served as the head of operations in the elite Sayeret Matkal unit up until four years ago.

Ziv and at least some of his men have already returned but it is likely that the consultation he gave to the Colombian security forces assisted them in attaining the list of successes they have been enduring lately against the FARC rebel organization CONTD..

Captain Thurston wrote previously of Columbia's terrorists and their tied to the Democrats:

Based on the information found on the laptops, the Colombian National Ministry of Defense reported last month that authorities had seized 60 pounds of uranium that belonged to FARC.

The fact that the information has now been confirmed as authentic is horrible news for Colombia's FARC supporting neighbors and US Democrats.

Here is a partial list of what Colombian investigators found on the FARC terror leader's computer:

-- FARC connections with Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa
-- Records of $300 million offerings from Hugo Chavez
-- Thank you notes from Hugo Chavez dating back to 1992
-- Uranium purchasing records
-- Admit to killing the sister of former President Cesar Gaviria
-- Admit to planting a 2003 car bomb killing 36 at a Bogota upper crust club
-- Directions on how to make a Dirty Bomb
-- Information that led to the discovery of 60 pounds of uranium
-- Letter to Libya's Moammar Gadhafi asking for cash to buy surface-to-air missiles
-- Meetings with "gringos" about Barack Obama
-- Information on Russian illegal arms dealer Viktor Bout who was later captured
-- FARC funding Correa's campaign
-- Cuban links to FARC
-- Links to US Democrats
-- $480,000 of FARC cash in Costa Rican safe house
-- $100,000 to President Correa's campaign for election

You can draw your own conclusions about the danger of 60 pounds of uranium in the hands of marxist terrorists. And you can draw your own conclusions as to the importance of this passage that was allegedly found on the seized laptops, now confirmed authentic by Interpol:

The gringos will ask for an appointment with the minister to solicit him to communicate to us his interest in discussing these topics. They say that the new president of their country will be Obama and that they are interested in your compatriots. Obama will not support "Plan Colombia" nor will he sign the TLC (Colombian Free Trade agreement). Here we responded that we are interested in relations with all governments in equality of conditions and that in the case of the US it is required a public pronouncement expressing their interest in talking with the FARC given their eternal war against us.

You can draw your own conclusions. But in light of his Reverend Wright and William Ayers ties, his adherence to the Marxist black liberation religion, his stance on free trade agreements, and his despising of free-thinking, gun-toting small town America, I will draw my own conclusion too. Obama is a marxist. And while you may not see it, marxist rebels with uranium do.

UPDATE: Obama, most inartful. (lol)

UPDATE: Communist Party Backs Obama AIM

 

ATLAS OPED:INDOMITABLE ISRAEL AT 60

INDOMITABLE ISRAEL AT 60

by Pamela Geller and Eliza Saxon

“…and whether we like it or not, the coming into being of a Jewish State in Palestine is an event in world history to be viewed in the perspective, not of a generation or a century, but in the perspective of a thousand, two thousand or even three thousand years…This is an event in world history…” Sir Winston Churchill* (Martin Gilbert, Churchill and the Jews)

Israel in 2008 looks little like the tiny agricultural nation that declared its independence 60 years ago. Modern Israel is   high tech superpower, leading the world in of medicine,  biotech, computer science,  environment, culture and art.  After two thousand years of exile, fresh from the ovens of Europe, with virtually nothing, they came to rebuild their lives as free Jews in their homeland.

This week Israel celebrates her 60th Birthday and despite our enemies who wish to destroy her, as well as our very own self-hating Jewicidal tools, we as Jews are magnificent. We have much to  be proud of and to celebrate. In fact, let me dare to say, that the nations of the world should thank G-d for us. What we’ve given to the world over the past 60 years  in the  fields of science, medicine, technology, the arts, and academia is immeasurable, miraculous even. Sir Winston Churchill a great friend of the Jews and Zionism said, “Some people like Jews and some do not, but no thoughtful man can doubt the fact that they are beyond all question the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has ever appeared in the world.’ (Martin Gilbert, Churchill and the Jews)

In Israel's sixty years, the Jews thrived. Free to pursue their dreams, the Jews  flourished and their enemies seethed,  Jews prospered while their enemies plotted their annihilation. The end of the Third Reich was merely a hudna, a cessation of hostilities until the annihilationists could regroup, rearm, redeploy. But Israel  succeeded and Islamic jihad failed in all but one thing. The enemies of the people of Israel succeeded in infecting the world politic with their vile Jew hatred. Worse still, "enlightened",  guilty,  secular Jews sidled up to the enemy and worked their evil inside Israel, the US and other Western nations.

It galls me that the majority of the Jews I fight for are self destructive, suicidal even. Here in America (and the world over), Israel's real friends are on the right and yet over 80% of American Jews are Democrats. I don't get it.  The conventional wisdom on the left is  that Israel is an oppressor and her actions are worse than the world's most depraved and dangerous  regimes. Chomsky, Finkelstein, Soros .......... these men are killers.

Further, these woefully clueless Jews give aid and  comfort to the enemy.

There are two disturbing pieces in the past week on why Israel shouldn’t exist. One a venomous piece of anti-Semitic invective from Johann Hari in last Monday’s London Independent under the title Israel is suppressing a secret it must face. He writes, “I would love to be able to crash the birthday party with words of reassurance. Israel has given us great novelists like Amos Oz and A.B. Yehoshua, great film-makers like Joseph Cedar, great scientific research into Alzheimer's, and great dissident journalists like Amira Hass, Tom Segev and Gideon Levy to expose her own crimes. She has provided the one lonely spot in the Middle East where gay people are not hounded and hanged, and where women can approach equality .But I can't do it. Whenever I try to mouth these words, a remembered smell fills my nostrils. It is the smell of shit. Across the occupied West Bank, raw untreated sewage is pumped every day out of the Jewish settlements, along large metal pipes, straight onto Palestinian land. From there, it can enter the groundwater and the reservoirs, and become a poison”. This is nothing less than a modern blood libel, instead of Jews murdering gentile children to make matzah, we are poisoning the wells of the poor, terrorist Palestinians. It’s 2008, but it might as well be an article in the notorious German anti-Semitic newspaper Der Strumer in 1938! Well, Mr.Hari we shan’t require your attendance, thank you very much. In fact, since you’re so distressed and upset by our existence, here’s a suggestion for you, stop using your mobile phone, your computer, many medications, and a long list of other daily inventions from the hard labour and works of the Jews of the filthy State of Israel…

The other deeply disturbing article was written by Karin Laub for AP under the title, Palestinian plight is flip side of Israel's independence joy. Her piece is one continued sob story over the plight of the Palestinians and their life in refugee camps, once again it’s the big bad nasty Jews with their security wall, nightly raids against terrorists and oil blockade of the Gaza Strip. She writes, “As Israel celebrates its achievements - robust economy, democracy and army - Palestinians look back on a history of failures. "We were the losers over the years ... and we will keep losing," said Luay Shabaneh, head of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

The refugees and their descendants number 4.5 million today, or nearly half the world's 9.3 million Palestinians. Few refugees can realistically expect to go home again, because Israelis fear being swamped by a mass repatriation.” There is no history of who started all the wars, why the Palestinians fled and their continued war against the Jewish democratic state since it’s inception and the continued, daily barrage of deadly rocket fire from the terrorist’s of Hamas in Gaza, (which Israel pulled out of in 2005 to her great detriment) upon the people of Sderot. This is a one sided piece of Arab propaganda, without an Israeli counterpoint or narrative. This isn’t journalism, it’s propaganda devoid of pros and cons or even the essential queries of basic journalism 101.

The fallacious term "Palestinian" was concocted by Yaser Arafat and while slow to take, it caught fire when the media worm turned ................ and there's been no going back. Israel bashing is Jew bashing,  the world's oldest profession Period. Anti-zionism, anti-Israel is antisemitism - a modern mask to an age old hate. Don't believe the Jew hater that tells you, I have no problem with Jews, it's Israel's policies that are abhorrent. David Mamet writes in The Wicked Son, 'The outright denunciation of Israel as "acquisitionist" bloodshirsty, colonial, et cetera" is to me simply a modern instance of the blood libel---that Jews delight in the blood of others.'  If anything, Israel has been too docile and too accommodating, to an enemy that vows to destroy her.

Dr. Martin Luther King did not suffer liars that declared that they don’t hate the Jews, just Zionism, Dr. King brilliantly dismantles such rhetoric.

". . . You declare, my friend, that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely 'anti-Zionist.' And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God's green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews--this is God's own truth.

"Antisemitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full agreement. So know also this: anti-Zionist is inherently antisemitic, and ever will be so." From M.L. King Jr., "Letter to an Anti-Zionist Friend," Saturday Review_XLVII (Aug. 1967), p. 76. Reprinted in M.L. King Jr., "This I Believe: Selections from the Writings of Dr. Martin Luther King J

So I say to Israel, stand loud and proud. Give up nothing. Turn over not a pebble. For every rocket fired, drop a MOAB. Take back Gaza. Secure Judea and Samaria. Stop buying Haaretz. Throw leftists bums out. Stand straight and walk on. Be worthy of your ancestors.

"Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." (Winston Churchill)

In the Hagaddah we read 'In every generation they rise up against us to destroy us, but the Holy One, Blessed is He, saves us from their hand.' We survived Pharaoh, Haman, the Inquisition, the pogroms, the Shoah and the continued attempt by our Arab enemies to annihilate us. So I say to our enemies, we shall be proudly standing, long after you have disappeared, footnotes of history...

Happy Birthday Big daddy

OH THE IRONY

The extraordinary gift of the  Jews....

Israel Treats Thousands of Sick Gazans - Raffi Berg
Ahmed was first taken to Gaza's Shifa Hospital, but his only hope for life-saving treatment lay in Israel. "We got our permit from the Israeli authorities within 24 hours," said Ahmed's father, Muhammad. In 2007, more than 7,000 Palestinians were allowed into Israel for medical treatment - a 50% increase on 2006. "We treat hundreds of Gazans here each year," says Dr. Ron Lobel, deputy director of Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. He says there are some five to 15 Gazan patients there at any given time. Many cases are treated by Israel for free.
    "The Israeli policy is to facilitate all the medical needs for Gaza," said Maj. Peter Lerner, spokesman for the Coordinator of Activities in the Territories. However, he says militants have repeatedly tried to exploit Israel's humanitarian policy to carry out attacks inside Israel. In June 2007, two Palestinian women who had received medical entry permits were arrested after it was discovered they planned to blow themselves up in an Israeli hospital. (BBC News)

MOST ETHICAL FOREIGN COMPANY THAT WORKS WITH US GOVT?

To all those thieving embezzlers at the UN and across the globe, kish meir en tuchus!

An Israeli firm was named as the most ethical foreign company that works with the U.S. government. JTA hat tip Carolyn

An Israeli firm was named as the most ethical foreign company that works with the U.S. government.

Elbit Systems was the choice of Ethisphere when the American journal, which tracks international business practices, issued its annual assessment of government contractors this week.

Elbit, which specializes in defense technologies, topped the list of the five best foreign companies with a grade of 74.59 percent satisfaction. The other four companies are British.

Ain't That a Kick in the Head

Once again, the Jews go about repairing the world.

An Unlikely Refuge: Muslims Fleeing Darfur Rebuilding Lives in Israel - Seth Freedman
"Even though we're Muslim, the Islamic world has done nothing to protect us," said Yassin, one of the first Darfurians to make it into Israel across the border from Egypt and now director of Bnei Darfur [Sons of Darfur], which assists Sudanese refugees to integrate into Israeli society. "All of the Arab countries support the government of Sudan - our problem is with the Arab League," he said. As far as Yassin is concerned, Israel has provided for his people in a way that no Arab country would - and for that he's eternally grateful. (Guardian-UK)

Jews Rally for Tibetans

I love the Jewish people

Jews rally for Tibetan cause

And of course as wolf points out, as Jews we should.

By By Simon Rocker and Simon Griver, Tel Aviv

Jewish campaigners in both the UK and Israel have been showing support for the Tibetan struggle for independence from China.

Some 100 people are reported to have been killed in renewed unrest.

The Tibetan Jewish Youth Exchange has been fundraising to help buy computers for Longsho, the Tibetan youth movement. Marc Bergen, a trustee of the exchange, said: “The fact that we have had Israel since 1948 is a great inspiration to the Tibetan people —as the Dalai Lama himself has pointed out — who are also dreaming and hoping to one day get their own homeland back and are seeking to retain their identity, language and culture in the meantime.”

Demonstrations against the escalating violence have also taken place in Israel. A planned event outside the Tel Aviv Cinematheque last Saturday turned into an impromptu protest against the increasing death toll in Lhasa. Hundreds of demonstrators again turned out on Wednesday outside the Chinese embassy in Tel Aviv.

Ran Natanzon, spokesman for the 1,000-strong Israeli Friends of the Tibetan People, told the JC that the Israeli government must make its voice heard. “The Israeli government must at least express its condemnation of what is happening,” he said. “At the very least, the Chinese ambassador should be called up to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem and reprimanded.”

Among the protesters were 50 Tibetan students studying agriculture in Israel. But the seven Tibetan exiles in the country who are married to Israelis stayed away for fear of reprisals on their relatives in Tibet, with the exception of Lobsang Yeshi, who lives in Tel Aviv and has called on Israel to boycott this summer’s Olympics in China.

Read it all and be proud.

THE GIFT OF THE JEWS

One more in a long line .... blah blah blah

Israeli immigrant mathematician solves mathematics riddle that baffled scientists for 38 years By ARON HELLER, AP hat tip eye sea

JERUSALEM - A mathematical puzzle that baffled the top minds in the esoteric field of symbolic dynamics for nearly four decades has been cracked — by a 63-year-old immigrant who once had to work as a security guard.

Avraham Trahtman, a mathematician who also toiled as a laborer after moving to Israel from Russia, succeeded where dozens failed, solving the elusive "Road Coloring Problem."

The conjecture essentially assumed it's possible to create a "universal map" that can direct people to arrive at a certain destination, at the same time, regardless of starting point. Experts say the proposition could have real-life applications in mapping and computer science.

The "Road Coloring Problem" was first posed in 1970 by Benjamin Weiss, an Israeli-American mathematician, and a colleague, Roy Adler, who worked at IBM at the time.

For eight years, Weiss tried to prove his theory. Over the next 30 years, some 100 other scientists attempted as well. All failed, until Trahtman came along and, in eight short pages, jotted the solution down in pencil last year.

"The solution is not that complicated. It's hard, but it is not that complicated," Trahtman said in heavily accented Hebrew. "Some people think they need to be complicated. I think they need to be nice and simple."

Well said, my great man.

Israeli Airforce flies over Auschwitz

Difficult to watch but what a moment. Never again. As Purim approaches one cannot help but draw parallels between the near annihilation of the Jews between the time of the destruction of the First Temple and the building of the Second Temple and the trouble we're in now.

Only in Israel

This was sent to me from a reader. Please read it.

Every morning I take the 35 bus line to work. It's a quickride and usually takes no more than 12 minutes. The thirdstop after I get on by the shuk is directly in front of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav. This morning I found myself a bit anxious, unsure of what I was going to see as we passed by. As I looked around, I saw death notices pasted all over the street and flowers that had been brought lined the entrance to the Yeshiva. When the bus pulled up to the stop, the driver shut off the engine and stood. With tears in his eyes he  told everyone sitting on the bus that one of the boys killed on Thursday night was his nephew. He asked if everyone on the bus would mind if he spoke for a few minutes in memory of his nephew and the other boys that were killed. After seeing head nods all over the bus he began to speak. With a clear and proud voice, he spoke beautifully about his nephew and said that he was a person who was constantly on the lookout for how to help out anyone in need. He was always searching for a way to make things better. He loved learning, and had a passion for working out the intricacies of the Gemara. He was excited to join the army in a few years, and wanted to eventually work in informal education. As he continued to speak, I noticed that the elderly woman sitting next to me was crying. I looked into my bag, reached for a tissue and passed it to her. She looked at me and told me that she too had lost someone she knew in the attack. Her neighbors child was another one of the boys killed. As she held my hand tightly, she stood up and asked if she too could say a few words in memory of her neighbor. She spoke of a young man filled with a zest for life. Every friday he would visit her with a few flowers for shabbat and a short dvar torah that he had learned that week in Yeshiva. This past shabbat, she had no flowers. When I got to work, one of my colleagues who lives in Efrat told me that her son was friends with 2 of the boys who had been killed. One of those boys was the stepson of a man who used to teach in Brovenders and comes to my shul in Riverdale every Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur to be a chazan for one of the minyanim.

We are all affected by what goes on in Israel . Whether you know someone who was killed or know someone who knows someone or even if you don't know anyone at all, you are affected. The 8 boys who were killed will continue to impact us all individually and as a nation. Each one of us has the ability to make a profound impact on our world. This coming wednesday morning, I will be at Ben Gurion airport at 7 am with Nefesh B'Nefesh welcoming 40 new olim to Israel . We will not deter. We can not give up. We will continue to live our lives and hope and work for change, understanding and peace.

Sharon Millendorf

Student and Young Professionals Program Coordinator

The Unimaginable Sacrifice of Surrender

There are no words.

The first eulogy was delivered by Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, who succeeded his late father, Rabbi Avraham Elkanah Kahana Shapira, at the helm of the yeshiva when the latter passed away just a few months ago. Rabbi Shapira spoke sobbingly of the "eight sons that we have lost in one day," and called for a "better and more believing leadership... This slaughter is a continuation of the slaughterous pogrom of 1929 in Hevron [when Arabs murdered with axes 67 Jews in their homes and synagogues]... The Land of Israel, which these eight loved so much and were so devoted for - we have to stop playing with it!  We have to stop dividing it!..  Please pray for us, and for the yeshiva, that it should continue to grow and have influence..."

Rabbi Yerachmiel Weiss, head of the Merkaz high school, spoke next, in a voice breaking with emotion and tears: "G-d is just, and His ways are just... We have questions; but the questions are so difficult, so difficult...  How is it possible to eulogize one Torah scholar on Rosh Chodesh Adar?  But two? and three, and four, and five...??  Your ways are so hidden, Master of the Universe!  ... In Adar, we increase joy - look how much joy You gathered to Heaven!  They were in the midst of studying Torah, such joy, such purity... We have been left with such a hole... I just want to tell You, Master of the Universe, what great people You took: Yehonadav - he gave [nadav, in Hebrew] so much; what purity and simplicity... You took Yochai from us - he lives [chai] in G-d, what Torah study he did; even while they were setting up for the Purim party, he came to learn Torah... You took Segev Pniel of the Avichayil family - what a family, and what valour [chayil] in Torah! ... You took Yehonatan [meaning "G-d gave"] - what prayer, what Torah, what beauty...  You took our dear Avraham David - just two days ago I had a long talk with him in his room - what knowledge he had, what integrity, what music he gave us with his Torah reading... and the youngest, Neriah - the candle of G-d, his light will be missing from us..."

Contrast this with Islamo-Mysogyny

Now this is a Rabbi you could love! What is the Imam's position on this?

Rabbi Aviner: Women permitted to kill rapists YNET hat tip Geof

In fiery newsletter, rabbi encourages women to resist any form of sexual harassment

Fight off your attacker: Women attacked by rapists are permitted to kill them to ward off the attack, Beit El Chief Rabbi Shlomo Aviner ruled in a newsletter published Saturday.

Atta boy.
 

“In either word or deed, fight him off. Yell out loud so that everyone can hear you. If he touches you, slap him. If he attempts to do worse, and there is no other choice, you can kill him…yes, kill him,” Rabbi Aviner wrote.

The rabbi also noted in his article that his advice falls well within the guidelines of Israeli law, which is also on his side. ”A young man broke into a woman’s apartment and wanted to have his way with her. She killed him and the court ruled that in this instance she had the right to use reasonable force in order to defend herself, and that her actions were justified.”

In an article entitled “Don’t Let Men Harass You” the Rabbi urges women to resist all forms of sexual harassment, either in word or deed, and advises women “to not allow men to treat them like an object for their own use and pleasure.”

[...]

In the latter part of his article Rabbi Aviner cites statistics that indicate that there are over 50,000 cases of sexual abuse in Israel among women between the ages of 25-40. Moreover, 25% of religious women report that they have been sexually harassed. “Most were harassed by someone they knew, most chose to remain silent…” stated the Rabbi.

What is the rabbi’s solution for this widespread problem? “We should put 50,000 men in jail, so that others see, learn and realize that when a woman says ‘no’ it means just that.”

GOOD JEW BAD JEW!

Good Jew

Bad Jew

For every single Jew in the world there are 100 Muslims

An interesting editorial from a Paki muslim. And while I don't agree that the Jews are so powerful (would we have such problems here, abroad, in Israel and particularly at the UN?) he makes some salient points.

Why are Jews so Powerful? By Dr Farrukh Saleem  hat tip Surak

There are only 14 million Jews in the world; seven million in the Americas, five million in Asia, two million in Europe and 100,000 in Africa. For every single Jew in the world there are 100 Muslims. Yet, Jews are more than a hundred times more powerful than all the Muslims put together. Ever wondered why?

Jesus of Nazareth was Jewish. Albert Einstein, the most influential scientist of all time and TIME magazine's 'Person of the Century', was a Jew. Sigmund Freud -- id, ego, superego -- the father of psychoanalysis was a Jew. So were Karl Marx, Paul Samuelson and Milton Friedman.

Here are a few other Jews whose intellectual output has enriched the whole humanity: Benjamin Rubin gave humanity the vaccinating needle. Jonas Salk developed the first polio vaccine. Alert Sabin developed the improved live polio vaccine. Gertrude Elion gave us a leukaemia fighting drug. Baruch Blumberg developed the vaccination for Hepatitis B. Paul Ehrlich discovered a treatment for syphilis (a sexually transmitted disease). Elie Metchnikoff won a Nobel Prize in infectious diseases.

Bernard Katz won a Nobel Prize in neuromuscular transmission. Andrew Schally won a Nobel in endocrinology (disorders of the endocrine system; diabetes, hyperthyroidism). Aaron Beck founded Cognitive Therapy (psychotherapy to treat mental disorders, depression and phobias). Gregory Pincus developed the first oral contraceptive pill. George Wald won a Nobel for furthering our understanding of the human eye. Stanley Cohen won a Nobel in embryology (study of embryos and their development). Willem Kolff came up with the kidney dialysis machine.

Over the past 105 years, 14 million Jews have won 15-dozen Nobel Prizes while only three Nobel Prizes have been won by 1.4 billion Muslims (other than Peace Prizes).

Why are Jews so powerful? Stanley Mezor invented the first micro-processing chip. Leo Szilard developed the first nuclear chain reactor. Peter Schultz, optical fibre cable; Charles Adler, traffic lights; Benno Strauss, Stainless steel; Isador Kisee, sound movies; Emile Berliner, telephone microphone and Charles Ginsburg, videotape recorder.

Famous financiers in the business world who belong to Jewish faith include Ralph Lauren (Polo), Levis Strauss (Levi's Jeans), Howard Schultz (Starbuck's), Sergey Brin (Google), Michael Dell (Dell Computers), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Donna Karan (DKNY), Irv Robbins (Baskins & Robbins) and Bill Rosenberg (Dunkin Donuts).

Richard Levin, President of Yale University, is a Jew. So are Henry Kissinger (American secretary of state), Alan Greenspan (fed chairman under Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush), Joseph Lieberman, Madeleine Albright (American secretary of state), Casper Weinberger (American secretary of defence), Maxim Litvinov (USSR foreign Minister), David Marshal (Singapore's first chief minister), Issac Isaacs (governor-general of Australia), Benjamin Disraeli (British statesman and author), Yevgeny Primakov (Russian PM), Barry Goldwater, Jorge Sampaio (president of Portugal), John Deutsch (CIA director), Herb Gray (Canadian deputy PM), Pierre Mendes (French PM), Michael Howard (British home secretary), Bruno Kreisky (chancellor of Austria) and Robert Rubin (American secretary of treasury).

In the media, famous Jews include Wolf Blitzer (CNN), Barbara Walters (ABC News), Eugene Meyer (Washington Post), Henry Grunwald (editor-in-chief Time), Katherine Graham (publisher of The Washington Post), Joseph Lelyyeld (Executive editor, The New York Times), and Max Frankel (New York Times).

Can you name the most beneficent philanthropist in the history of the world? The name is George Soros, a Jew, who has so far donated a colossal $4 billion most of which has gone as aid to scientists and universities around the world. Second to George Soros is Walter Annenberg, another Jew, who has built a hundred libraries by donating an estimated $2 billion.

At the Olympics, Mark Spitz set a record of sorts by wining seven gold medals. Lenny Krayzelburg is a three-time Olympic gold medalist. Spitz, Krayzelburg and Boris Becker are all Jewish.

Did you know that Harrison Ford, George Burns, Tony Curtis, Charles Bronson, Sandra Bullock, Billy Crystal, Woody Allen, Paul Newman, Peter Sellers, Dustin Hoffman, Michael Douglas, Ben Kingsley, Kirk Douglas, Goldie Hawn, Cary Grant, William Shatner, Jerry Lewis and Peter Falk are all Jewish? As a matter of fact, Hollywood itself was founded by a Jew. Among directors and producers, Steven Spielberg, Mel Brooks, Oliver Stone, Aaron Spelling (Beverly Hills 90210), Neil Simon (The Odd Couple), Andrew Vaina (Rambo 1/2/3), Michael Man (Starsky and Hutch), Milos Forman (One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest), Douglas Fairbanks (The thief of Baghdad) and Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters) are all Jewish.

To be certain, Washington is the capital that matters and in Washington the lobby that matters is The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. Washington knows that if PM Ehud Olmert were to discover that the earth is flat, AIPAC will make the 109th Congress pass a resolution congratulating Olmert on his discovery.

William James Sidis, with an IQ of 250-300, is the brightest human who ever existed. Guess what faith did he belong to?

So, why are Jews so powerful? Answer: Education.

Those Crafty Jews

While Islamic jihad creates nothing, builds nothing, yields nothing except the black crude their deserts belch out, Israel works for the betterment of all mankind. Literally. Culture of life vs a culture of death and bloodshed.

Video hat tip Janet
 

UN follows Israel's lead in agricultural development

Cool' Israeli technology freezes lumps and tumors

                   

	Israeli researchers decipher Huntington's encoded mechanisms - 11/26/07
	Israeli 'guided missiles' induce cancer cells to commit suicide - 11/21/07
	Breakthrough diagnostic kits for viral pandemics developed by Israeli scientist - 11/11/07
	Blood cancer patient undergoes first stem cell transplant using Israeli-developed StemEx cord blood technique - 11/08/07
	Israel's SteadyMed pumps it up more - for less - 11/01/07
	Israeli research could lead to new class of antibiotics - 10/31/07
	Israeli researchers shed light on prostate cancer treatment - 10/29/07
	Psoriasis sufferers to get relief - without steroids - from Israeli ointment - 10/28/07
	Israeli scientist targets the building blocks of Alzheimer's - 10/21/07
	Israeli brain scientists spark hopes for more efficient bionic limbs - 10/19/07
	Israeli 'smart' system prevents blood and drug transfusion errors - 10/14/07

                 

	Israeli collaboration with Exxon fuels hopes for a greener future - 12/03/07
	Israeli startup develops ambitious plant to rid the world of waste - 12/02/07
	IAF pilot brings the world of 3D gaming to car navigation - 11/29/07
	Israeli encryption guru warns computer networks are vulnerable - 11/20/07
	Intel develops the eco-chip, with Israeli help - 11/14/07
	America Online turns to Israeli technology to take it into the future - 11/13/07
	Going with the flow at Israel's WATEC - 11/04/07
	Israeli technology guards your mobile phone identity - 11/04/07
	Israeli technology honored by Deloitte - 10/30/07
	Israeli research giving HIV patients a fighting chance - 10/25/07

Chanukah in Iraq!

It's 2006, but it's tov. Yeah Miami.

Here's Chanukah 2007 in Iraq from Stars and Stripes

Hanukkah in Iraq calls for a little creativity hat tip Carolyn

   It’s not just the cultural and religious sensitivities that make celebrating Hanukkah “downrange” in a predominantly Muslim land a bit of a challenge.

    It’s the little things, too — like finding out that the base dining facility does not have kosher sour cream, seemingly a must for any potato latkes worth the name.

    “Hanukkah is really about respect for each other’s religious beliefs,” Goldstrom said. “While the historical events the menorah commemorates is related to a military victory and the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem, when you look at the history and the political and cultural context, it was about people fighting against oppression, persecution and for the opportunity to practice their religion.

    “And that’s a great message for what we are doing here in Iraq. Helping a culturally diverse country while remaining true to the high value we place on religious tolerance and pluralism.”

    Asked about the sensitivity of celebrating a Jewish holiday in a Muslim country, Goldstrom said, “American soldiers are both culturally sensitive and committed to religious pluralism, so we both respect the host nation’s cultural and religious sensitivities while providing an opportunity for our servicemembers to observe their faith traditions.”

    Shulman saw historical parallels to the first Hanukkah.

    Then, he said, “a small band of citizens defeated the mighty and fierce Greek army. This week, 2,200 years later, we light a menorah to commemorate the events and acknowledge God’s continuous interaction in our lives, all while on a U.S. Army base in the middle of the Iraqi desert.

    “Moral of the story: Where there’s a will to make something happen, there’s a way. Nothing is too difficult.”

La Chaim!

Happy Hanukkah Israel!

More here

The caption reads: “The Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi lit the third candle of Chanukah today with soldiers and officers who recently came on Aliyah (literally, ascent – used to describe Jewish immigration to Israel) from various countries across the globe, most by themselves, without their families. The Chief of Staff related his memories as a young officer taking part in secret operations assisting the Aliyah of the Jews of Ethiopia and told them how he felt then as a Jewish and Israeli officer. He also told them that the heroism of today’s IDF fighters is no less than that of the Macabbees."

Chappy Chanukah!

Happy Hanukkah! Dancing, Eating, Gelt! Latkes! My gift to Atlas readers? A Chanukah post a day! Spin that fookin dreidel for me. Warmest regards from your favorite neocon, Zionist, Jewess conspirator. Yeah baby.

UPDATE: How bout a teddy for Chanukah?

UPDATE: How about an HDTV? hat tip Mara

UPDATE: taken at Balducci's in NYC

UPDATES: When leftards strike nothing is sacred.

UPDATE: December 6th: Balducci's apologizes for signing error.

To our valued customers:

We apologize for this unfortunate error and oversight. It was never our intention to offend anyone, especially during this holiday. We will be reviewing our employee training policy. We understand why this is offensive and please know we are attempting to determine the source of the error.

The Gifts of the Jews

Attacked on all sides, besieged by mediocre looters and moochers in the UN and world community. Theyn seek to destroy that which is good in the world.

The Jewish gift to Humanity

FIRST, THERE are the values that the Jewish people gave the world, that have since been co-opted by other faiths and for which we have lost a copyright. Since these values have been adopted by other nations who do not credit the Jews with their origin, this makes many believe that the only Jewish legacy is one of suffering and death.

In thinking of golden civilizations the average secular Jew will conjure up images of pontificating Greek philosophers, Roman legions shimmering in the golden sun, and the artistic wonders of the Renaissance masters. Tell him that in terms of world history the Jews have outshone all these civilizations, and he will break into giggles. The Jews, he thinks to himself, are the ones who were defeated by the Romans, slaughtered by the Crusaders, expelled by the Spaniards, disemboweled by the Cossacks, and cremated by the Nazis. Every Jewish child studies in school about how each nation lived, and how the Jews died.

This is, sadly, due to the fact that the many gifts of the Jews now go by unrecognizable names.

We gave the world the one, true God. Today the name is Jesus and Allah. The Hebrew Bible's idea that all men are created as equals today goes by the name democracy. The idea of a brotherhood of nations, rooted in the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah, today goes by the name United Nations.

Consider also that the teaching of Leviticus 19:18, that one must love one's fellow man as oneself, is today called the Golden Rule and attributed to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

British historian Paul Johnson puts it this way: "To [the Jews] we owe the idea of equality before the law, both divine and human; of the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person; of the individual conscience and so of personal redemption; of the collective conscience and so of social responsibility; of peace as an abstract ideal and love as the foundation of justice, and many other items which constitute the basic furniture of the human mind. Without the Jews it might have been a much emptier place.

BUT THERE is a second tier of values, values which remain wholly Jewish, which have not been embraced by the world, and which can bring great healing if they were to be disseminated.

In America, the age of Judaism has arrived. Why? Because Christianity and Islam mostly focus on the big questions of how one gets into heaven and where one goes after death. But Judaism, instead, focuses on the small questions of everyday existence, at which most people today fail: how do I stay married, how do I inspire my children, and how do I live a life of spiritual purpose that is not dominated by corrosive materialism?

There are six central values that are uniquely Jewish and which the world desperately needs in order to heal. Their perpetuation among Jews only will be to the earth's detriment. And it should be our objective to mainstream these values everywhere. They are, in acrostic form,

DREAMS:

1. Destiny: Unlike the Greeks, who believed in the "awesome power of fate," the Jews are messianists. For Christians messianism is a spiritual concept which speaks of mankind's redemption from the original sin. But for Jews messianism is a physical concept which connotes mankind's capacity to make the world a nearly perfect place. Jews believe in humankind's promised destiny of an era in which peace will reign over the earth and "the wolf shall lie with the lamb" and the predatory streak in man and in nations will be purged.

In short, we believe in the perfectibility of mankind. We are even willing to wrestle with God Himself, battling whatever divine plans He may have for afflictions, and instead bring healing to the world. Abraham argued with God to save the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. Moses debated with the Creator to rescue the Jews after the sin of the Golden Calf. And they did so in the knowledge that it was the will of the Creator that they seek to rescind the devastating divine decree.

Whereas Christians believe in a leap of faith, and Islam translates, literally, as submitting to God in faith, the word Israel means "he who wrestles with God." This explains why Jews always struggle to improve the society into which they are immersed.

This also explains why so many Jews have founded utopian movements aimed at social justice and the equal distribution of wealth.

SOME ACADEMICS attribute universal Jewish achievement to social Darwinism; that less intelligent, less able Jews, may have been killed off by anti-Semites, leaving only the best to survive. Others believe that Jews have higher IQs than most. But such endeavors at eugenics would leave us as lost as James Watson - who in 1953 along with Francis Crick identified the structure of DNA - who recently suggested that Africans are not as smart as whites.

Watson's ideas, for which he apologized, are repugnant to us in the extreme. We do not believe that we are in any way racially better or smarter than other nations. But we do believe that we have superior values, and our belief in the destiny of mankind is one of those superior values that the entire world ought to embrace.

Amid the most tragic history, the Jews remain eternal optimists. Most of all, this explains Zionism and the establishment of modern Israel. Just three years after the Holocaust the Jews returned to their homeland, and this when so many other nations succumbed to calamities much less serious. Because, as Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik said, the burning fire to return to the land of their fathers could not be snuffed out even by the raging crematoria of Auschwitz

2. Redemption: Christians and Muslims believe in salvation. The need for man to become spiritual, refine his character and earn a place in heaven. But Jews believe that world redemption precedes personal salvation.

The betterment of the community must always outweigh the perfection of the individual. Repairing the world is more important than repairing oneself. Communal needs precede personal needs.

Judaism has never had a monastic tradition. Less so do we pray on our own, but in a quorum of at least 10. There is no strong meditative tradition in Judaism. Everything is geared toward outward, communal involvement. Jews are raised with a collective rather than a personal conscience.

3. Action: What you do is more important than what you believe. Good deeds always supersede good dogma, which is why a great man like Michael Steinhardt can be an atheist and still be infinitely committed to his people, saving thousands of lives and educating tens of thousands more through his philanthropy.

Jews believe that what we become in our lifetime is dependent entirely on the choices we make rather than the ideas by which we live. Man possesses freedom of choice at all times. Therefore, we must choose righteousness.

Christianity put faith above acts. Many strains of Christianity believe in predetermination. Even modern day science believes in genetic predisposition. Not Judaism. We believe in the power of a single good deed to vastly change a person's life and the world at-large, which is why the concept of mitzva is the most central Jewish value of all.

We believe that giving money to the poor is tzedaka - justice, rather than charity, an affair of the heart, motivated by strong feelings for the underprivileged. We do not care whether one feels anything for the poor. They must still give.

4. Enlightenment: Jews believe in the illumination that comes from the pursuit of knowledge. We are the people of the book because of our deep reverence for study. Unlike other civilizations that believe that knowledge's purpose is its application to everyday problems, the Jews believe in knowledge for knowledge's sake. To live in ignorance is, for the Jew, to live in the dark pit of hell. Being raised Jewish is being raised to always want to know. We are an infinitely curious people and believe that the great bane of existence, boredom, can only be cured by knowledge.

5. Marriage: By marriage, I do not only mean the institution, but rather that we Jews believe in the softening of the masculine by exposure to the feminine, the amelioration of the aggressive by synthesizing it with the passive. No nation has been so passionate about the need to curb masculine aggression with feminine nurturing.

Judaism insists on curbing the desire for conquest with the desire for peace. Judaism is an inherently feminine faith, and Jews an inherently feminine people. We glorify the Sabbath, a passive day of peace and rest, as our holiest day. We have strict prohibitions on eating blood, and we are prohibited from eating animals or birds of prey.

The ancient world glorified warriors like Odysseus, Agamemnon, Hannibal, and Caesar. But the Jews glorify Abraham, who is praised in the Bible for being a caterer, Jacob who pardons the angel with whom he struggles, and Joseph, who forgives his brothers their attempt at fratricide.

Even King David, our greatest warrior, is celebrated not for his military triumphs but for playing harp and lyre and authoring the moving Psalms. Even so, David could not build the Temple because he was a man of war.

Jewish families are strong because Jewish men have been domesticated for thousands of years. They have been taught not to be womanizers but to commit to one woman and to commit at a young age.

6. Struggle: It is wrestling with our nature, rather than perfection, which constitutes true righteousness. The Christian model of righteousness is Jesus, who is perfect. The same is true of Muhammad for Muslims. Criticizing the prophet is blasphemy. But Jews look up to Abraham, who made mistakes in his parenting of Ishmael. Jacob is criticized for favoring Joseph. Moses was so imperfect that he was not allowed to enter the promised land. What, then, made these men great? It was their capacity to wrestle with their nature and do the right thing amid a predilection to do otherwise. Jews believe in struggle. The angelic model of he for whom goodness is intuitive is not compelling to Jews. Rather, we admire those who act altruistically amid the pull to behave with selfishness.

Despite the Annihilationists and Exterminationists

The Jews come bearing gifts;

Israeli team develops GPS accuracy for keyhole neurosurgery using mini-robot

VIDEO OF THE WEEK!

JAPANESE JEWS!

I wonder what happned to these poor bastards during WW2?

hat tip Jan Shabbat Shalom Sayonara

An annual Japanese Pilgrimage to Israel. Here, they can be seen marching up Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem.

And here Japan honors Jews all over the world.

UPDATE:  Stephen over Rants and Raves gets us up to speed;

As it happens, I saw what happened to Jews in Japan during WW2. The history channel had a program about the efforts of that heroic Japanese diplomat in Lithuania who saved about four times as many Jews as Schindler.

He enabled them to move to Shanghai and thence to Japan. In Japan, the German embassy demanded their expulsion. The Japanese told the Jewish community to appoint a spokesman to argue their case, and they chose a rabbi. (Sorry about lack of names, probably available from HC.)

The Japanese began by asking why the Germans hated them. The rabbi replied, "Because we're Asians. You are the easternmost Asians, we are the westernmost." He developed the argument further, hinting at the day when the Germans would turn on them.

Upshot was, the Japanese said, "OK, you can stay."

 

Those EEEEvil Jews are at it Again

What won't those Zionist aggressors think of next? Killing 'em with kindness. hat tip Josef

Subject: Israel to provide eye treatment for Sudanese refugees in Kenya - June 27, 2007

Jerusalem, 27 June 2007

Israel to provide eye treatment for Sudanese refugees in Kenya

(Communicated by the MFA Spokesman)

MASHAV, the department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in charge of carrying out Israel's foreign aid policy, will set up a special eye clinic similar to those it has run for many years in various parts of Africa.

Two Israeli eye doctors will be sent by MASHAV on July 2 to the Kakuma camp in Kenya, where dozens of patients will be operated on over a two-week period. The patients will stay at the camp for a short while before and after the operations. The doctors will also provide consultation services and assistance to local doctors. The required equipment was purchased by MASHAV and has already been sent to Kenya.

The Kakuma camp, near the town of Kakuma, is located in Kenya on the road to Sudan, west of Lake Turkana and about 50 kilometers from the Sudanese border. The camp, which has been in existence for 15 years, holds about 75,000 people, mostly Sudanese refugees.

Dr. Yosef Baratz, MASHAV project coordinator in Africa residing in Nairobi, will coordinate the project vis-a-vis the UNHCR and MASHAV headquarters in Israel

Blood Vessel Robot from Israel

A world first: the Technion has developed a miniature robot capable of moving about in blood veins. Japanese researchers had developed a similar tool of 1cm in diameter, the Technion is only a millimeter! "The robot will be easily able to move in the opposite direction of the blood flow which has never been done before" one of the researchers explained.

Jan writes: "This should be forbidden to the divesters and boycotters."

Along with every other gift from the Jewish brain.

The Rebbe

REMEMBERING ONE OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST JEWS

(IsraelNN.com) Jews around the world are commemorating the 13th anniversary of the death of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

Rabbi Schneerson, generally known simply as the Rebbe, is widely considered to have been one of the most outstanding Jewish personalities of modern times. The seventh leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch dynasty, he is described on one Chabad website - with little argument from non-Chabad Jews - as "the one individual more than any other singularly responsible for stirring the conscience and spiritual awakening of world Jewry."

 

Please, take a moment. Read it all here.

Why the Arabs Hate Israel

And this is just the last three months. Imagine what wonders could be accomplished if they weren't we were not so busy fighting the enemy from outside our borders, and the enemy from within.

The hatred of the good for being good (paraphrasing Rand)

ISRAEL AT 59

DEVICE MAKES WALKING EASIER FOR MS PATIENTS—(Haifa)

A Technion Institute computer science researcher has devised an auditory feedback system which enables patients with multiple sclerosis to improve their gait. Professor Yoram Baram said that the apparatus, which is an updated version of a virtual reality visual feedback device he developed a decade ago, can also help Parkinson’s disease patients walk better. The visual feedback apparatus developed ten years ago influences more stride length while the auditory apparatus influences walking speed. Now that both devices have been integrated, the patient wears the visual feedback apparatus on his eyes and the earphones are connected to it. The results of Baram’s work were recently published in the Journal of Neurological Sciences. (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Apr.10)

ISRAELI BREAKTHROUGH PROMISES TO SAVE LIVES—(Haifa)

Cardiologists from Rambam Medical Center have proven for the first time that a prototype hybrid device combining a computerized tomography coronary angiography with an advanced nuclear camera can be much safer and more accurate in determining whether patients with chest pains need invasive treatment to prevent a heart attack. The innovative technology provides an accurate diagnosis of clogged coronary arteries—the same level as that in invasive catheterization but much more accurate than that from ordinary CT imaging of the heart alone. This will make many diagnostic catheterizations—which pose risks to the patient—unnecessary. Articles on the research were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. (Jerusalem Post, March 1)

ISRAEL DEVELOPS BIOLOGICAL CLEANING PROCESS—(Tel Aviv)

Professor Eugene Rosenberg, an Israeli professor from Tel Aviv University, has discovered “good” variety of bacteria called arthrobactor which is present at sites of crude oil contamination. The single-celled microorganisms enjoy feasting on oil and therefore play a major role in cleaning up oil spills. Based on Rosenberg’s research, the newly formed Israeli company BioPetroClean is helping oil companies clean up accidental and purposeful oil contamination. The company has reared Rosenberg’s strains of bacteria on a large scale and is building custom-made reactors to provide a green, clean, and cost-effective solution to many forms of oil contamination. (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, April 8)

FIRST ISRAELI SAVED FROM ACUTE LEUKEMIA—(Tel Hashomer, Israel)

For the first time in Israel, the life of a woman suffering from secondary acute leukemia was saved by umbilical cord blood donated by two mothers after they gave birth. Stem cells from cord blood do not have to be the exact tissue type of the recipient, unlike bone marrow from adults. Sheba Hospital said the graft took in two weeks rather than the month it usually takes for bone marrow. The hospital’s cord blood bank recently became the first in Israel to be accredited by the American Association of Blood Banks, which is the biggest regulatory body for the accreditation of blood banks, including that of the American Red Cross. (Jerusalem Post, February 2)

COMPUTERIZED LEGS HELP IDF AMPUTEES—(Tel Aviv)

In March 2006 Dr. Ido Katz was one of 25 Israel Defense Forces veteran amputees whose mechanical, prosthetic legs were replaced with computerized models. Katz, deputy director of Assaf Harofeh Hospital, had one of his legs amputated above the knee after he was wounded in the first war with Lebanon. He explains that the main advantage of a microprocessor knee prosthesis is the confidence that it instills in its users. The mechanical prosthesis currently used by most amputees may collapse when it hits an obstacle—causing the user to fall—while the computerized prosthesis allows users to descend stairs and hills smoothly, Katz said. About 15,000 amputees around the world use mircroprocessor knees, which were developed in Canada and produced by the German Otto Bock company, an expert in prosthesis manufacturing. (Ha’aretz, May 31, 2006)

ENZYME COMPUTER COULD LIVE INSIDE BODY—(Jerusalem)

A molecular computer that uses enzymes to perform calculations has been built by researchers in Israel. Itamar Willner, who constructed the molecular calculator with colleagues at the Hebrew University, believes enzyme-powered computers could eventually be implanted into the human body and used for various purposes. One use could be tailoring the release of drugs to a specific person’s metabolism. Martyn Amos from University of Exeter in the UK, also sees great potential for such devices. “If such counters could be engineered inside living cells, then we can imagine them playing a role in applications such as intelligent drug delivery, where a therapeutic agent is generated at the site of a problem.” (New Scientist, February 23, 2006)

7,150,000 RESIDENTS IN ISRAEL—(Tel Aviv)

As Israel’s 59th Independence Day approaches, the country’s population stands at 7,150,000 residents, almost nine times its population of 806,000 at the time of the state’s creation in 1948. According to the Central Statistics Bureau, 76 per cent are Jewish, 20 per cent are Arab and 4 per cent are other. In 1948, Tel Aviv—with 248,500 residents—was the only city in Israel with over 100,000 residents. Today, 44 per cent of Israelis live in a city with a population greater than 100,000. (Ynet News, April 22)

And make sure to check Israel21C here every so often.

One Jerusalem Exclusive :: Israel at 59, by Dore Gold

The Gifts of the Jews

I think this article in the current issue of Commentary is timely considering the holiday and the raging fires of global Jew hatred.  The Jews don't have to justify their existence ......... but what an extraordinary contribution they make to humanity.

JEWISH GENIUS Commentary hat tip Ted

Since its first issue in 1945, COMMENTARY has published hundreds of articles about Jews and Judaism. As one would expect, they cover just about every important aspect of the topic. But there is a lacuna, and not one involving some obscure bit of Judaica. COMMENTARY has never published a systematic discussion of one of the most obvious topics of all: the extravagant overrepresentation of Jews, relative to their numbers, in the top ranks of the arts, sciences, law, medicine, finance, entrepreneurship, and the media.

I have personal experience with the reluctance of Jews to talk about Jewish accomplishment—my co-author, the late Richard Herrnstein, gently resisted the paragraphs on Jewish IQ that I insisted on putting in The Bell Curve (1994). Both history and the contemporary revival of anti-Semitism in Europe make it easy to understand the reasons for that reluctance. But Jewish accomplishment constitutes a fascinating and important story. Recent scholarship is expanding our understanding of its origins.

And so this Scots-Irish Gentile from Iowa hereby undertakes to tell the story. I cover three topics: the timing and nature of Jewish accomplishment, focusing on the arts and sciences; elevated Jewish IQ as an explanation for that accomplishment; and current theories about how the Jews acquired their elevated IQ.

It's quite  something, read it all.

Erev Yom Kippur

In holiday greetings, President Bush said Jewish observance of Yom Kippur makes the world a more peaceful place.

"Yom Kippur is a solemn time to express thanksgiving that the Almighty remembers the names of all His children," said a White House statement issued in the name of the president and First Lady.

"During this blessed Day of Atonement, Jewish people gather in synagogues, consider their deeds and actions and celebrate as the sound of the Shofar proclaims the forgiveness and mercy shown by the Creator of life.

"As the High Holy Days come to an end, the Jewish people in America and around the world remind us of the gift of religious freedom and the blessings of God's steadfast love. On Yom Kippur and throughout the year, your deep commitment to faith helps make the world a more hopeful and peaceful place.

Gd Bless President Bush. Not sure I have ever seen a similar statement from a US President. Wishing all my Jewish readers an easy fast this Yom Kippur. Next year in Jerusalem.

 

Glick's Prayer for 5767

Caroline Glick, a personal hero of mine, wrote a compelling prayer in her JPost column;