Middle East News

Israeli Rabbi Advocates Killing Gentile Babies

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:52:09 GMT

Israeli Rabbi Advocates Killing Gentile Babies

QUOTE: in the Halakha that even babies of gentiles who do not violate the seven Noahide laws, there is cause to kill them because of the future threat that will be caused if they are raised to be wicked people like their parents."

COMMENT: what irritates the reporter is that this rabbi is getting money from the Israeli government, i.e. from the American taxpayer.

Guess who is funding the rabbi who endorses killing gentile babies?

By Akiva Eldar

Right-wing spokesmen, including some elected officials, rushed to place Yaakov "Jack" Teitel in the fringe group alongside Yigal Amir, Eden Natan Zada, Eliran Golan, Asher Weisgan, Danny Tikman and a few other "political/ideological" murderers.

True, they acknowledge, there are among us several lunatic rabbis who agitate to violence. Really, just a handful; even a toddler could count them.

The more stringent will note that unlike the Hamas government, our government does not pay the salaries of rabbis who advocate the killing of babies.

Is that so? Not really.

For example, government ministries regularly transfer support and funding to a yeshiva whose rabbi determined that it is permissible to kill gentile babies "because their presence assists murder, and there is reason to harm children if it is clear that they will grow up to harm us ... it is permissible to harm the children of a leader in order to stop him from acting evilly ... we have seen in the Halakha that even babies of gentiles who do not violate the seven Noahide laws, there is cause to kill them because of the future threat that will be caused if they are raised to be wicked people like their parents."

Lior Yavne, who oversees research at the Yesh Din human rights organization, checked and found that in 2006-2007, the Ministry of Education department of Torah institutions transferred over a million shekels to the Od Yosef Hai yeshiva in Yitzhar.

The Ministry of Social Affairs has allocated over 150,000 shekels to the yeshiva since 2007, scholarships for students with financial difficulties studying there. And what can they learn with the help of public funding from the head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira? According to selected items published last week in the media, the boys can learn that Teitel is not only innocent, but also a real saint.

Their spiritual leader stated in his book, "Torat Hamelekh" that "a national decision is not necessary in order to permit the shedding of blood of an evil kingdom. Even individuals from the afflicted kingdom can attack them."

A brochure distributed in Judean and Samarian communities stated that "needless to say that nowhere in the book does it state that these remarks are aimed only at gentiles in ancient times."

The commandments in the book do not suffice only with gentiles; you can also find in them approval to attack leftist professors: every citizen in the kingdom opposing us who encourages the fighters or expresses satisfaction with their actions is considered a pursuer and his killing is permissible," wrote the rabbi and adds, "and also considered a pursuer is someone whose remarks weaken our kingdom or have a similar effect."

Not long ago, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced that he would ask European Union countries to halt their support for the Breaking the Silence organization because he was displeased with their publications.

The minister surely has reservations about the rabbi's publications.

He is invited to approach his colleagues at the Ministry of Education and at the Ministry of Social Affairs.

Last update - 03:41 17/11/2009

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1128767.html

Israel Collaborating with Al Qaeda in Lebanon?

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:30:45 GMT

Israel Collaborating with Al Qaeda in Lebanon?

Israel has worked with nasty people in the past -- Idi Amin, Apartheid South Africa, the Shah of Iran for example. This could be total propaganda, but if true it might explain why the US and West have not made great complaints about the rockets in Lebanon. Furthermore, Israel would benefit greatly by having an excuse to attack Lebanon and damage Hezbollah.

Lebanon source: Israel working with Islamists to hurt Hezbollah

By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent

A senior Lebanese defense source said Friday that militants allied with Al-Qaida are working in collaboration with Israel against Hezbollah, A-Sharq al-Awsat reported on Friday.

According to the official, the Lebanon-based Fatah al-Islam fired a Katyusha rocket at northern Israel last month precisely so that the finger of responsibility could be pointed at Hezbollah.

This is not the first claim from within Lebanon regarding collaboration. Lebanese President Michel Suleiman last month suggested that Israel had arranged for collaborators in his country to fire Katyusha rockets at the Galilee earlier this week, in a bid to keep tensions high in the area.

According to the Lebanese newspaper A-Sapir, Israel's declarations that it would not cease its intelligence activities on Lebanese territories validate Suleiman's accusations.

A panel of inquiry established by the Lebanese Army found that the rockets, fired from Houla in southern Lebanon, were launched from the home of the village's mayor.

The mayor was not present in his home, according to the panel, and has no connection to the rocket.

Last update - 13:28 08/11/2009

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1126407.html

$$$ HOW ISRAEL CONTROLS THE US $$$

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:56:22 GMT

$$$ HOW ISRAEL CONTROLS THE US $$$

Ever wonder why Congress supports Israel so heavily? $$$$$

It was the same in 1947 and 1948: the State Dept. warned President Truman not to support the creation of Israel, but finance officials from the Dem. Party told him that unless he did, financial support would dry up, and that's how we got into the mess we have today.

QUOTE: Obama has failed to keep a single promise or solve one major problem during his time in office. In this situation he cannot afford to lose the support of the Jews, who are behind 40 percent of the contributions to the Democrats' elections.

Can Oslo take back Obama's Nobel?

By Yoel Marcus

David Ben-Gurion was not invited to the White House until the end of his term, and needed various excuses to meet with the presidents in hotels. In Benjamin Netanyahu's case, the fear of not meeting with Barack Obama made him sweat.

On the eve of his trip to the Jewish Federations' General Assembly in Washington, D.C., Netanyahu faced unflattering headlines saying it was not certain whether President Obama would meet him.

There are two likely reasons for the move. One is that Bibi was all-too-confident that the moment his feet hit American soil, the White House doors would open before him - as they did with Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. The second possibility is that Netanyahu's excessive confidence angered Obama, who thought he was taking the meeting with him for granted. And so his aides advised him to let Netanyahu sweat.

And sweat he did. The fact that he didn't take his wife Sara with him indicates that the president's advisers didn't want the meeting to look too intimate and informal. In his previous term as prime minister, Netanyahu brought not only his wife but two of his children to Clinton's office. To the embarrassment of those present, the kids started throwing cushions at each other in the Oval Office.

In reality, there is no major difference in the relations between the two states. The Americans have not stopped the aid or the modern weapons supply to Israel. The only thing that can be said is that Bibi and Obama have not developed a personal, intimate relationship.

The White House and whoever is stirring things up over there has reduced the familiarity level to that of humiliation. For example, they released a photograph of Obama speaking on the phone with Netanyahu with his feet on the desk. This was their way of hinting that Obama is not Bush and does not see the prime minister as the king of Israel.

Just when the polls in Israel are showing that most of the public supports Bibi - who aspires to reach an agreement with the Palestinians - it's unclear why Obama had to kick-start the peace in Cairo with a reconciliation call to Islam. The result has been one big disappointment. Obama has not received from the Muslim world as much as a gesture to advance the Israeli-Palestinian arrangement, while Netanyahu has announced that Israel supports negotiations on the principle of two states for two peoples without any preconditions.

Instead of seizing the bull by the horns and setting about to open the negotiations immediately, Obama hesitated. Then Mahmoud Abbas brought up all kinds of conditions - starting with the demand to stop all the construction in the territories immediately. Olmert and Tzipi Livni held talks with Abbas for two years; not once did he raise the demand that Israel must first stop the construction in the West Bank for natural growth.

It is not clear how one can set about to hold negotiations "without preconditions" when the Palestinians are demanding the cessation of construction in the territories. Israel will have to concede in this area anyway, while conducting a complicated struggle - perhaps even an internecine war - to achieve peace.

Netanyahu has still made it clear that he is willing to negotiate an agreement with no preconditions. He says the same about a possible agreement with Syria. Once he used those slogans to avoid the issue. Now, in his second term, Netanyahu wants to succeed and he has the parliamentary majority to do so.

But Obama is in trouble at home. Democrats were recently defeated in both Virginia and New Jersey, where Republicans were elected. The defeat does not bode well for the congressional elections due next November. Meanwhile, Obama's great promise, on the issue of health insurance, is moving along slowly.

Apart from his rhetorical skills, Obama has failed to keep a single promise or solve one major problem during his time in office. In this situation he cannot afford to lose the support of the Jews, who are behind 40 percent of the contributions to the Democrats' elections. Meanwhile, the cold shoulder Obama is giving us and the hazing he's put Bibi through have achieved nothing but Abbas' announcement that he would not be running for the next Palestinian Authority elections. Perhaps he will and perhaps he won't.

While Israel is seriously talking about the peace process, Obama has problems at home. His list of disappointments now includes his failure to create a mechanism to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Obama received the Nobel Peace prize too early. I wonder if they have a mechanism in Oslo to take it back.

Tue., November 10, 2009 Cheshvan 23, 5770

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1127059.html

Zionists Bring Politics to Baseball

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:50:56 GMT

Zionists Bring Politics to Baseball

Organizations from US, Palestine & Israel call on baseball's NY Mets to cancel Hebron settlers` fundraiser

By: Adalah-NY

4 November 2009

Adalah-NY: The Coalition for Justice in the Middle East

Eleven Organizations Demand that Mets Cancel Citi Field Fundraiser for Israeli Settlers

New York, NY, November 4, 2009 - Eleven organizations from the US, Palestine and Israel have called on baseball's New York Mets to cancel a November 21st dinner at the Caesars Club at Citi Field for the Brooklyn-based Hebron Fund. The dinner is a fundraiser for Israeli settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank City of Hebron. In a letter sent to the Mets on November 3rd, the groups said, "The New York Mets will be facilitating activities that directly violate international law and the Obama administration's call for a freeze in settlement construction, and that actively promote racial discrimination, and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homes in Hebron." Seven hundred Israeli settlers, living amidst 150,000 Palestinians in Hebron, are expanding their hold on the historic old city by driving out the Palestinian residents.

The groups added that "It would be a tragic irony for an event funding Israeli settlers' violent actions and discriminatory policies against Palestinians to be held at Caesars Club which, according to the Mets, "sits directly on top of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda," which was named "in honor of Jackie Robinson, the... great American who broke baseball`s color barrier." The Mets and Major League Baseball promote Robinson's legacy, including Robinson's value of "Justice: Treating all people fairly, no matter who they are." Mets owner Fred Wilpon has explained in the past that, as a 16 year-old, meeting Jackie Robinson was an experience that never left him. "As a kid, a nothing, he treated me with all of that dignity that he treated everyone else in his life."

On the Hebron Fund webpage, clicking on the symbol which says "Give to Hebron" leads to a donations page on the website for the Jewish Community of Hebron which says, among other things, "keep Hebron Jewish for the Jewish people." In a report on Hebron, the Israeli human rights organizations B'Tselem and ACRI have labeled the demands of Hebron's settlers as "racist." Hebron settlement leader Moshe Levinger, praised in a Hebron Fund dinner video, has been quoted saying,"The Arabs know to behave like good boys around us." Hebron Fund Executive Director Yossi Baumol also made very derogatory comments about Arabs in a 2007 interview.

The signers of the letter include Adalah-NY, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Brooklyn For Peace, Coalition of Women for Peace (Israel), CODEPINK Women for Peace, Gush Shalom (Israel), Jews Against the Occupation-NYC, Jewish Voice for Peace, Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (Palestine), US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, and WESPAC Foundation. The letter was cced and sent to Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Middle East Envoy George Mitchell, who has a history of involvement with Major League Baseball, and Rachel Robinson, Jackie Robinson's wife.

The letter explains that reviewing last year's and this year's Hebron Fund dinner shows that some dinner honorees support violence and terrorizing Palestinians. In 1990, Noam Arnon, who is to be honored at the dinner, called three Israelis who were convicted of killing three Arabs and maiming two Palestinian mayors in car bombings "heroes." In a video on the Hebron Fund website, 2008 dinner honoree Myrna Zisman pays tribute to Hebron settler Yifat Alkoby. Alkoby became famous worldwide in 2006 when she was videotaped in Hebron terrorizing and calling a Palestinian woman and girl "whores" who were caged inside their own home as protection from settler attacks. In another video featuring 2008 dinner honorees, three children who appear to be the honorees' children are briefly shown holding guns and smiling.

All Israeli settlements violate international law, according to a broad international consensus. The Hebron Fund's dinner invitation says, "Join us in support of Hebron and in protest of today's building freeze in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank]." In a September, 2008 radio interview, the Hebron Fund's Yossi Baumol explained, "There are real facts on the ground that are created by people helping the Hebron Fund and coming to our dinners."

Washington Post columnist David Ignatius recently highlighted the Hebron Fund and noted that, "critics of Israeli settlements question why American taxpayers are supporting indirectly, through the exempt contributions, a process that the government condemns. A search of IRS records identified 28 U.S. charitable groups that made a total of $33.4 million in tax-exempt contributions to settlements and related organizations between 2004 and 2007." The Hebron Fund has been the subject of complaints to the I.R.S. regarding its tax-exempt status. The complaints request investigations of allegations that it raises funds for the development of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli organization Gush Shalom recently urged the National Lawyers Guild, an American organization, to encourage American tax authorities to strip US non-profits that support Israeli settlements of their tax-exempt status.

The letter to The Mets: http://adalahny.org/index.php/letters-a-statements/17-letters/327-mets-hebron-cancel

http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=36533

Lebanon 2006: Hezbollah Humbled the Mighty Israeli Army

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:34:59 GMT

Lebanon 2006: Hezbollah Humbled the Mighty Israeli Army

The Israelis are soooo good at fighting when they fire from their jet planes and helicopter gunships supplied by American taxpayers. On the ground it's quite a different story. What's amazing is that their Merkava tanks, the most heavily armored ones in the world, could not stand up to the poorly armed men of Hezbollah, who have only their faith and courage to armor their bodies.

QUOTE: According to Israeli military reports, after the first and last tanks were hit by rocket fire or mines, killing the company commander, the 24 tanks were essentially trapped inside a valley, surrounded on all sides and pinned down by mortars, rockets and mines. Eleven tanks were destroyed and the rest partially damaged and Israel lost at least 12 soldiers.

Hezbollah gears up for new war

Fighters rearm and reinforce positions in valleys amid fears that Israel is about to launch attack on Islamic group

Mitchell Prothero Peter Beamont, The Observer [London]

Hezbollah is rapidly rearming in preparation for a new conflict with Israel, fearing that Benjamin Netanyahu's government will attack Lebanon again prior to any assault on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Last week, Israeli commandos seized a ship in the Mediterranean loaded with almost 400 tonnes of rockets and small arms - which Israel claimed was being sent from Iran to its Hezbollah allies. In dramatic further evidence of growing tensions, the Observer has learned that Hezbollah fighters have been busy reinforcing fixed defence positions north of the Litani river.

Having lost many of its bunkers in the south, Hezbollah is preparing a new strategy to defend villages there.

Although the organisation denied last week that the weapons were intended for its use, senior commanders have done little to disguise the scale of rearmament. "Sure, we are rearming, we have even said that we have far more rockets and missiles than we did in 2006," said a Hezbollah commander, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel began after an ill-advised operation by to kidnap two Israeli soldiers, prompting a massive Israeli response that lasted 34 days and killed more than 1,000 people.

"We had to blow up or leave some of our bunkers and fighting positions, but we still have plenty of capabilities in the south. We expect the Israelis to come soon, if not this winter, then they will wait until spring, when the ground isn't too soft for their tanks."

It was expected that the ceasefire would neutralise Hezbollah military efforts along the Lebanon-Israel border, as a newly bolstered United Nations peacekeeping force and the Lebanese army took up positions. Instead, based on dozens of interviews and multiple trips into the country's south, it is clear that Hezbollah believes it would face different challenges.

It has been forced to abandon the line of deeply entrenched static positions on the border with Israel and withdraw most of its men and weaponry to clusters of Shia villages.

"It's clear that Hezbollah no longer controls the border, due to the presence of Unifil [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon] troops," said Andrew Exum, a military expert on Hezbollah at the Centre for New American Security. "They appear to be hardening the villages for this next round of fighting, while pushing their fixed positions north away from Unifil to protect the approaches to Beirut and the Bekaa Valley."

Israel and the United States have long assumed that any military action against Iran's nuclear programme would draw a muscular response from its close allies in Hezbollah. According to Israeli military and intelligence analysts, any move against Iran would require a move first against Hezbollah's capability to disrupt life in northern Israel with its rockets.

Tel Aviv seems unlikely to commit the same mistakes it did in 2006, when the plan was for air strikes to disrupt and confuse Hezbollah's military command, while minimising the use of ground troops. Israeli military sources have said that they are preparing for a potential new conflict.

Cruising through the serene green wadis that connect south Lebanon to the Litani river to the north, the commander explains what happened at the end of the last war. "We knocked out three of their tanks on the first day, as they tried to enter," he explained at a turn-off by the village of al-Qantara. "But after they entered the wadi, we knew they were going for the river and had to be stopped. So we called out to all the special forces anti-tank teams in the area. And they all swarmed the wadi. Boys would set up and wait for the tanks, fire off their rounds and then pull back. Then they would pull back a kilometre or so down the wadi and wait for them again."

According to Israeli military reports, after the first and last tanks were hit by rocket fire or mines, killing the company commander, the 24 tanks were essentially trapped inside a valley, surrounded on all sides and pinned down by mortars, rockets and mines. Eleven tanks were destroyed and the rest partially damaged and Israel lost at least 12 soldiers.

As unlikely as the Israelis might be to repeat these mistakes, they must figure out how to get their heavy armour past the Hezbollah teams that still lurk in the hills and valleys in the next round of fighting, if and when it comes.

* The Observer, Sunday 8 November 2009

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/08/hezbollah-rearms-against-israel

Nature and Significance of NATO-US-Israeli War Crimes

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:07:26 GMT

Nature and Significance of NATO-US-Israeli War Crimes

Here is the speech by George Galloway MP at the War Crimes Conference & Exhibition that took place at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia on 28th October 2009. His criticism of Israel got him in big trouble with the British Labour Party, which is heavily financed by Zionists (Lord Levy was former Prime Minister Tony Blair's "special envoy" -or whatever- to the Middle East and was also the largest fund raiser for the Labour Party), They dredged up all sorts of dirt and innuendo to tar Galloway when his criticism of Israel hit home too well, but he ran as an independent and was re-elected.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15920

US Says Israel an Intolerant Society

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:28:23 GMT

US Says Israel an Intolerant Society

QUOTE: The report makes it clear that practices that have become routine in Israel are considered unacceptable in enlightened countries and should be corrected. Among other examples, the report notes that more than 300,000 immigrants who are not considered Jewish under rabbinical law are not allowed to marry and divorce in Israel or be buried in Jewish cemeteries.

U.S. State Department: Israel is not a tolerant society

By Akiva Eldar

Israel dismally fails the requirements of a tolerant pluralistic society, according to a new report from the U.S. State Department.

Despite boasting religious freedom and protection of all holy sites, Israel falls short in tolerance toward minorities, equal treatment of ethnic groups, openness toward various streams within society, and respect for holy and other sites.

The comprehensive report, written by the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, says Israel discriminates against groups including Muslims, Jehova's Witnesses, Reform Jews, Christians, women and Bedouin.

The report says that the 1967 law on the protection of holy places refers to all religious groups in the country, including in Jerusalem, but "the government implements regulations only for Jewish sites. Non-Jewish holy sites do not enjoy legal protection under it because the government does not recognize them as official holy sites."

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At the end of 2008, for example, all of the 137 officially recognized holy sites were Jewish. Moreover, Israel issued regulations for the identification, preservation and guarding of Jewish sites only. Many Christian and Muslim sites are said to be neglected, inaccessible or at risk of exploitation by real estate entrepreneurs and local authorities.

The report makes it clear that practices that have become routine in Israel are considered unacceptable in enlightened countries and should be corrected.

Among other examples, the report notes that more than 300,000 immigrants who are not considered Jewish under rabbinical law are not allowed to marry and divorce in Israel or be buried in Jewish cemeteries.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1126286.html

Be Glad this Nutcase Moved from Florida to Israel

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:29:05 GMT

Be Glad this Nutcase Moved from Florida to Israel

QUOTE: . . .in 2004 placed bottles of poison-laced juice in a Palestinian village . . . he placed a bomb bear the monastery at Beit Jimal near Beit Shemesh, which injured a Palestinian tractor driver because he "heard that the monks there were enticing Jewish children with candy." . . . Tytell allegedly put an explosive charge in Purim candy he placed near the home of the Ortiz family in Ariel. A 15-year-old boy was seriously injured in the attack.

U.S.-born Jewish terrorist suspected of series of attacks over past 12 years

By Amos Harel and Chaim Levinson

The authorities have arrested a resident of the West Bank settlement of Shvut Rachel for suspected murder and a role in a string of murder plots, according to details of an investigation revealed Sunday after a gag order was lifted.

Yaakov (Jack) Tytell, who was arrested last month, is suspected of involvement in the murder of two Palestinians and the rigging of a bomb that seriously injured a boy from a Messianic Jewish family in Ariel. He was allegedly involved in two other bombings, which lightly injured Prof. Zeev Sternhell and a Palestinian. The police say Teitel has confessed to these acts.

Some of his actions were allegedly motivated by hatred for gays and lesbians; Tytell was also questioned about possible involvement in the murder of two people at a gay youth club in Tel Aviv last August. He initially claimed responsibility for those murders, but investigators say he did not commit them.

Tytell, 36, moved to Israel from the United States nine years ago. He and his wife Rivka, who married in Israel, have four children. The police detained Mrs. Tytell for questioning, but she exercised her right to remain silent.

Her husband had been involved in the past with the extreme right wing, but he says he carried out his attacks alone and no one else knew about them, according to investigators. The Shin Bet security service and police are still examining this claim, but have so far not discovered accomplices.

Police found many weapons and explosives at his home and another concealed location.

Tytell was arrested on October 7 in the ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof after posting signs around town praising the attack on the Tel Aviv gay center. He was apprehended in possession of a loaded gun.

He was remanded and interrogated for about three weeks without being allowed to see a lawyer, a step that was approved by various courts, including the High Court of Justice.

A native of Florida

Tytell was born in Florida and lived in Israel for extended periods in the 1990s. He came to Israel in 1997, he said, to take revenge on Palestinians for suicide attacks that decade. He told investigators that in 1997 he murdered a Palestinian taxi driver in East Jerusalem.

A few months later, he allegedly murdered another Palestinian near the settlement of Carmel in the South Hebron Hills. He said that in both murders he used a gun he had taken apart and smuggled aboard his British Airways flight to Israel.

Tytell said he hid the gun at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. Police searched the area with Tytell but did not find the gun. Shortly after the second murder, Tytell returned to the United States, where he remained for three years.

During that time, he had several run-ins with the law. When he returned to Israel he was questioned based on an intelligence tip by the Shin Bet and police on the Carmel murder; he denied involvement.

Despite his arrest, he obtained a gun license in Israel; he also had six rifles and three pistols, which he allegedly smuggled into Israel from the United States in a shipping container.

Police found the weapons buried in his yard in Shvut Rachel in what they said was "excellent" condition. One pistol was buried at the nearby outpost of Adei-Ad. Tytell reportedly said his main stockpile had been discovered and he had to go into hiding.

Tytell allegedly maintained a room in his home where he experimented with explosive charges. The police said he became proficient at making bombs. Tytell, however, has never served in the Israel Defense Forces or the U.S. military, as some media outlets had reported.

According to the Shin Bet, Tytell placed four improvised anti-personnel mines near the Arab Israeli town of Abu Ghosh near Jerusalem. They say in March 2003 he placed a bomb near the home of a Palestinian in the village of Sajur near Ramallah, and in 2004 placed bottles of poison-laced juice in a Palestinian village near the settlement of Eli. No one was injured in those cases.

Tytell reportedly told the police that in 1997 he stabbed an Arab in Jerusalem's Independence Park after he suspected that the man was offering him sex.

On November 2, 2006, Tytell allegedly embarked on a series of attacks to deter police from providing security for the Gay Pride Parade that was to be held in Jerusalem. He allegedly placed an improvised but potentially lethal explosive charge at the police station in Eli, which was found by a police sapper.

Tytell told the police that on April 20, 2007, he placed a bomb bear the monastery at Beit Jimal near Beit Shemesh, which injured a Palestinian tractor driver because he "heard that the monks there were enticing Jewish children with candy."

On May 15 that year he allegedly placed a bomb that exploded near a police car in Jerusalem, and a month later he set off another explosive charge near a patrol car in the capital. There were no injuries in those cases.

On March 20, 2008, Tytell allegedly put an explosive charge in Purim candy he placed near the home of the Ortiz family in Ariel. A 15-year-old boy was seriously injured in the attack. Tytell reportedly said the family were "missionaries who intended to entrap weak Jews."

On September 25, 2008, Tytell allegedly struck for the last time, with the bomb outside the front door of Sternhell's house.

The last two attacks brought the police closer to Tytell. They said the breakthrough came in March 2008 when a security camera outside the Ortiz home caught Tytell climbing the staircase and putting the explosive device down. Tytell apparently knew of the camera and covered his face, but the police were still able to identify him.

After the attack on Sternhell, the commander of the police's West Bank Central Unit, Chief Superintendent Eli Makmal, suspected links with other cases. The Shin Bet profiled the suspect as an American who hated various groups. DNA was also found at the scene of the attack on Sternhell. By the end of August this year the police suspected Tytell and began 24-hour surveillance.

A senior Shin Bet official said Sunday that although Tytell had been under surveillance, he was very careful about his activities, which made it hard to collect evidence against him. He did not commit any other attacks during the surveillance, the police say.

Yesha Council condemns attacks

"Acts of the kind allegedly committed by Yaakov Tytell are grave, prohibited and unacceptable. The security forces should be congratulated for discovering him," Danny Dayan, chairman of the Yesha Council of settlements, said Sunday.

"Any person of conscience in Israel must rise up in indignation against such acts, as well as against any despicable attempt to use them to gain political capital by blaming an entire community that is not connected - and is in fact vehemently opposed - to such actions," Dayan added.

Ne'emanei Torah Va'Avodah, a liberal religious-Zionist movement, said that it "condemns any kind of violence. There is no justification for these heinous acts in the Torah, which espouses kindness and peace. However, we ask that people avoid pointing fingers and casting blame on an entire community because of the acts of one person."

Said radical right-wing activist Itamar Ben Gvir: "I don't support violence, certainly not against Jews, but people like [Prof. Zeev] Sternhell need to take a good look at themselves. His statements and recommendations to Arabs to attack 'only' settlers constitute a provocation that has led to violence."

Last update - 09:42 02/11/2009

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1125254.html

Not so Smart After All?

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:01:18 GMT

Not so Smart After All?

Other stories have bemoaned Israel's "brain drain" and lack of achievement in academics (except Nobel prizes, where they have done very well), as well as other education problems. Maybe it they spent more money on education and less trying to take land away from the Palestinians they could perform better.

Chinese ranking puts Hebrew University in 64th slot in world

Shanghai Jiao Tong University lists Jerusalem institution among top 100 schools worldwide, fourth overall for Asia-Pacific. Other Israeli universities included in top 500 list

Yaheli Moran Zelikovich

The Hebrew University in Jerusalemhas been included in China's Shanghai Jiao Tong University's top 100 academic institutions worldwide.

The Israeli university ranked 64th in Jiao Tong's annual review of the top 500 universities in the world. The ranking is considered one of the most objective ones in the world of academics.

The parameters used to determine ranking include the number of scientific publications, which account for 40% of the ranking, the number of Nobel Prize laureates (30%), the number of scientists quoted in 21 difference [sic] disciplines (20%) and the number of academic achievement in ratio to the university's size (10%).

The list also ranks the Hebrew University's computer science programs in 25th place and further ranks it among the top 75 schools for business and economics.

The university ranked fourth overall for the Asia-Pacific region. The Australian National University ranked third, Japan's Kyoto University ranked second and topping the list for Asia-Pacific was the University of Tokyo.

Topping the top 100 list were the American Harvard, Stanford and Berkley universities.

Other Israeli universities were included in Jiao Tong's extended list, ranking 101 to 500: Tel Aviv University and the Israel Institute of Technology were ranked among the top 151 schools in the world, the Weizmann Institute of Science was ranked among the top 200, and the Bar Ilan and Ben-Gurion universities ranked among to top 400 universities worldwide.

Published: 11.02.09, 13:35 / Israel News

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3799017,00.html

Another American Traitor for Israel

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:47:04 GMT

Another American Traitor for Israel

'Nozette passed information to Israel'

[Comment: this is another step in the process of bringing him to trial. What is perhaps new is the charge that he actually bragged to the sting operators that he believed he was giving secrets to Israel before the sting.]

By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER AND AP

WASHINGTON

US prosecutors accused an alleged American spy of having passed on secrets to Israel during a hearing Thursday which saw the defendant held without bond over concerns he would flee.

The former US scientist, 52-year-old Stewart Nozette, was arraigned last week in a sting operation in which Nozette allegedly sold classified information to an undercover FBI agent posing as a Mossad contact.

In the hearing in US District Court Thursday, the prosecution went further in alleging that before the FBI set-up, Nozette had claimed to have already actually transmitted information to Israel.

"He told the agent that he had indeed communicated classified information," prosecutor Anthony Asuncion said. "He had admitted to the agent actual espionage."

During the hearing, Asuncion played video excerpts of an undercover sting operation against Nozette in which the scientist lounges on a hotel room couch, discussing the possibility of having to flee the country if he came under scrutiny from US officials.

Nozette looked starkly different as he sat in court Thursday. Wearing baggy, black-and-white striped jail clothes, he stared passively as the screen showed him eating and laughing with the undercover agent.

Nozette's lawyer, John Kiyonaga, said there was no basis for that accusation, and noted the government's charges don't contain any such allegations.

He also argued the video recordings shown in court were misleading because they left out significant parts of a longer conversation.

Israeli officials have repeatedly pointed out that the case involves no accusations of Israeli wrongdoing, and at the time of Nozette's arrest 10 days ago several stressed they had found out about the situation through the media.

At Thursday's hearing, the prosecution succeeded in convincing Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson that Nozette was a sufficient flight risk, and had enough important information, to be held without bond.

Nozette, a Maryland resident, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted espionage, following his arrest last week. He is accused of seeking $2 million for selling secrets to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer. The Justice Department could seek the death penalty.

Nozette had high-level security clearances during decades of government work on science and space projects. He was known primarily as a defense technologist who had worked on the Reagan-era Star Wars missile shield effort formally named the Strategic Defense Initiative.

Because he knows so many secrets, including about the nation's nuclear missile program, Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered special communications restrictions placed on him while he is in jail, authorities said.

"The defendant is himself a walking safe deposit box of classified information," said prosecutor Anthony Asuncion. "He is now a treasure trove of some of our most sensitive matters."

According to prosecutors, Nozette was paid more than $225,000 by a company that was wholly owned by the Israeli government and spoke to them regularly. In court Thursday, Kiyonaga identified the company as Israel Aircraft Industries. IAI officials in Israel had already acknowledged they were the company connected to Nozette.

During one of his secretly recorded conversations with the undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer, Nozette said: "I thought I was working for you already. I mean, that's what I always thought, [the foreign company] was just a front."

Prosecutors also say Nozette kept a stash of gold Krugerrand coins worth tens of thousands of dollars in a safe deposit box in California - more evidence, they say, of his risk of flight.

Oct 31, 2009 21:55 | Updated Nov 1, 2009 7:50

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