(Graphic courtesy: rotter.net)
Happy Chanukah!
To all of our friends in the United States: Happy Thanksgiving!
UPDATES 10 am Israel time, Thursday, November 28 2013:
*The scope of the counter-terrorist incident that took place 36 hours ago at Yatta near Hebron is only now coming into focus. Not only were three Palestinian terrorists killed in firefights with Israeli special forces, but another six were captured. The IDF is still hunting for other terrorists in the cell this morning.
Israeli forces blocking the road outside of Yatta (picture: AFP).
All of the killed and captured belong(ed) to the Islamist Salafi-Jihad movement–a movement which is beginning to spread from neighboring Arab countries into Judea and Samaria. Incidentally, this particular cell had planned to attack Israeli institutions, kidnap Israeli soldiers, and to carry out “actions” against the PLO–which it views at as being anti-Islamic.
*Israel has reached a complicated agreement with the European Union over the $95 billion dollar (70 billion Euro) Horizons 2020 scientific research program which award grants to researchers in the EU and in Israel.
The grants come from monies that are deposited in the EU by participating countries (Israel is the only non-European country participating). Specifically, Israel will turn over 600 million Euros to the EU over the next seven years, in return for which Israeli universities and researchers will receive 900 million Euros.
The thorn in the side of the agreement was European Union insistence that no money awarded to universities or scientists be spent in Judea, Samaria, and the eastern neighborhoods of Jerusalem.
According to the agreement:
1. Israeli institutions located in Judea, Samaria, and the eastern neighborhoods of Jerusalem can apply for funding. It will be incumbent upon each Israeli applicant to make sure that no funds awarded will be used in the areas specified.
For example, if a scientist at Ariel University in Samaria receives a grant, that scientist must show that the actual money awarded will not be spent in Samaria. Presumably, the materials necessary to carry out the research could be purchased elsewhere.
2. Israel will compensate with Israeli funds any institution or individual denied funding because of where money will be spent.
3. A clause will be included in the agreement appendix that specifies Israeli objections to the territorial exclusions.
All in all, this is a win-win solution. Israeli scientists will continue to receive funding and will be able to collaborate with their colleagues in Europe, and Europe will be able to benefit from the cutting-edge scientific research going on in this country.
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TODAY’S BLOG:
The theater of the absurd played on yesterday in New York. The United Nations General Assembly–which has become a laughingstock to all those except its assembled members– passed six more resolutions condemning Israel.
One resolution called for Israel to “return” the Golan Heights to Syria.
One resolution called for Israel to give up sovereignty over Jerusalem.
One resolution praised the “United Nations Secretariat Division of Palestinian Rights” for “raising international awareness of the question of Palestine.”
One resolution demanded that Israel as the “Occupying Power” strictly comply with its “obligations under international law”.
One resolution called for the “dissemination of information on all the activities of the United Nations system related to the question of Palestine and the peace process.”
One resolution declared 2014 to be the “International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian people.”
If there is any silver lining in resolutions like the above, it is that the world has come to see them for what they are–worthless, biased, jokes that do little except further undermine the credibility of the U.N. As the now-famous U.N. interpreter accidentally spoke into an open microphone two weeks ago in regard to yet another series of anti-Israel resolutions: “other really bad sh*t is happening, but no one says anything about the other stuff.”
Of course, the timing of all of these resolutions was not accidental. It was on November 29, 1947 that the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab countries–a vote that led to the rebirth of Israel in our eternal homeland.
By the way, here’s a news flash for the United Nations: there is no longer a “question of Palestine”; Israel is here to stay.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.