Thursday, June 26, 2008

Organic Chemistry


I found this strange graffiti at the Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem. It reads: A molecule for Anna Frank who was murdered while still a teenager. I wonder what Primo Levi would have made of it.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

More Reasons to Boycott Israel

In case you still wish to boycott us, please make sure you stay away from all of these.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

IF YOU'RE GOING TO BOYCOTT ISRAEL - DO IT PROPERLY!

OK. So I understand that you are ticked off at Israel, and in love with the Palestinians. That's fine with me, as long as you have truly weighed all the facts.

So, you want to boycott Israel ????? I'll be sorry to miss you, but if you are doing it - do it properly. Let me help you.

Check all your medications. Make sure that you do not have tablets, drops lotions, etc., made by Abic or Teva. It may mean that you will suffer from colds and flu this winter but, hey, that's a small price for you to pay in your campaign against Israel, isn't it?

While we are on the subject of your Israeli boycott, and the medical contributions to the world made by Israeli doctors and scientists, how about telling your pals to boycott the following...

An Israeli company has developed a simple blood test that distinguishes between mild and more severe cases of Multiple Sclerosis. So, if you know anyone suffering from MS, tell them to ignore the Israeli patent that may, more accurately, diagnose their symptoms.

An Israeli-made device helps restore the use of paralyzed hands. This device electrically stimulates the hand muscles, providing hope to millions of stroke sufferers and victims of spinal injuries. If you wish to remove this hope of a better quality of life to these people, go ahead and boycott Israel.

Young children with breathing problems will soon be sleeping more soundly, thanks to a new Israeli device called the Child Hood. This innovation replaces the inhalation mask with an improved drug delivery system that provides relief for child and parent. Please tell anxious mothers that they shouldn't use this device because of your passionate cause.

These are just a few examples of how people have benefited medically from the Israeli know-how you wish to block. Boycotts often affect research. A new research center in Israel hopes to throw light on brain disorders such as depression and Alzheimer's disease.

The Joseph Sangol Neuroscience Center in the Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer Hospital, aims to bring thousands of scientists and doctors to focus on brain research.

A researcher at Israel's Ben Gurion University has succeeded in creating human monoclonal antibodies which can neutralize the highly contagious smallpox virus without inducing the dangerous side effects of the existing vaccine.

Two Israelis received the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Doctors Ciechanover and Hershko's research and discovery of one of the human cells most important cyclical processes will lead the way to DNA repair, control of newly produced proteins, and immune defense systems.

The Movement Disorder Surgery program at Israel's Hadassah Medical Center has successfully eliminated the physical manifestations of Parkinson's disease in a select group of patients with a deep brain stimulation technique.

For women who undergo hysterectomies each year for the treatment of uterine fibroids, the development in Israel of the Ex Ablate 2000 System is a welcome breakthrough, offering a noninvasive alternative to surgery.

Israel is developing a nose drop that will provide a five year flu vaccine.

These are just a few of the projects that you can help stop with your Israeli boycott. But let's not get too obsessed with medical research, there are other ways you can make a personal sacrifice with your anti-Israel boycott.

Most of Windows operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel. So, set a personal example. Throw away your computer! Computers should have a sign attached saying Israel Inside. The Pentium NMX Chip technology was designed at Intel in Israel . Both the Pentium 4 microprocessor for desktop computers and the Centrino processor for laptop computers were entirely designed, developed, and produced in Israel.

Disk on Key - a portable, virtual hard disk - was developed by the Israeli company M-Systems.

Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.

The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996 in Israel by four young Israeli whiz kids.

Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R. & D. facilities outside the US in Israel.

So, due to your complete boycott of anything Israeli, you can now have poor health and no computer.

But your bad news does not end there. Get rid of your cellular phone. Cell phone technology was also developed in Israel by MOTOROLA which has its biggest development center in Israel. Most of the latest technology in your mobile phone was developed by Israeli scientists.

Feeling unsettled? You should be. Part of your personal security rests with Israeli inventiveness, borne out of our urgent necessity to protect and defend our lives from the terrorists you support.

A phone can remotely activate a bomb, or be used for tactical communications by terrorists, bank robbers, or hostage-takers. It is vital that official security and law enforcement authorities have access to cellular jamming and detection solutions. Enter Israel's Net line Communications Technologies with their security expertise to help the fight against terror.

I also want you to know that Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.

Israel produces more scientific papers per capita - 109 per 10,000 - than any other nation.

Israel has the highest number of startup companies per capita. In absolute terms, the highest number, except the US. Israel has a ratio of patents filed.

Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies outside of Silicon Valley. Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds, behind the USA.

Israel has more museums per capita than any other country.

Israel has the second highest publication of new books per capita.

Relative to population, Israel is the largest immigrant absorbing nation on earth. These immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom or expression, economic opportunity, and quality of life.

Believe it or not, Israel is the only country in the world which had a net gain in the number of trees last year.

Even Warren Buffet of Berkshire-Hathaway fame has just invested millions with Israeli Companies.

So, you can vilify and demonize the State of Israel. You can continue your silly boycott, if you wish. But I wish you would consider the consequences, and the truth.

Think of the massive contribution that Israel is giving to the world, including the Palestinians - and to you - in science, medicine, communications, security. Pro rata for population, Israel is making a greater contribution than any other nation on earth.

PASS THIS ON WHETHER PRO-ISRAEL OR NOT.................. that little country needs us to remember all the wonderful things the Israeli's bring to our world. Thanks. (From The Daily Sport, (c) 2007, United Kingdom)

UPDATES:
The first innovative drug to be developed in Israel (Weizmann Institute) and to receive FDA approval, Copaxone® is a unique immunomodulator therapy for the treatment of Relapsing- Remitting Multiple Sclerosis. Copaxone® is the only non-interferon agent available for MS.

Modern technology for drip irrigation was invented in Israel by Simcha Blass and his son Yeshayahu, in 1959. This method was very successful and subsequently spread to Australia, North America, and South America by the late 1960s.

Professor Rafael Beyar, former dean of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine of the Technion in Haifa, developed novel cardiac devices, including coronary and vascular stents, as well as a robotic catheterization system.

The Bio-computer, which is able to operate a billion programs, was developed at the Technion - Israeli Institute of Technology in Haifa. Current computers, which consist of metal, plastic, wires and transistors, process information one computation at a time. It has made the Guiness Book of Records in 2004.

Epilady, an electric hair removal system, was developed by Yair Dar and Shimon Yahav from the Goshrim Kibbutz.

Israel's Given Imaging developed the PillCam - the first ingestible video camera, which is so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside, the camera helps doctors diagnose cancer and digestive disorders.

Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.

An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment. Every year in U. S. hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment mistakes.

Researchers in Israel developed a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood. The new device is synchronized with the heart's mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.

A new brain implant has been developed in Israel that can lower the risk of stroke by diverting blood clots away from sensitive areas of the brain.

Cherry tomatoes were originally supposed to be a snack when they were designed by a group of scientists led by professor Nahum Keidar from the agriculture faculty at the Weizmann Institute of Science, with the cooperation of the Israeli company Zera.

The Quicktionary, a pen size scanner that scans a word or a sentence and translates it to a different language, was developed by the Wizcom Company, based in Jerusalem.

Researchers at the Technion have developed an antibiotic that destroys anthrax bacteria as well as the toxins it secretes into the bloodstream of the infected body.

The NESS L300 developed by Ra'anana-based NESS (Neuromuscular Electric Stimulation Systems) was designed to restore/improve gait in people suffering from drop foot. The wireless, computer-controlled device is non-invasive and is worn around the ankle and below the knee.

Last but not least, the drone or UAV as we know it, was developed after the Yom Kippur war by a couple of Israeli soldiers with a passion for toy remote control planes. Drones became operational in the first Lebanon War.

We are the world's 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population. A little over 60 years ago we were earmarked for extermination and lost millions in the Holocaust. The State of Israel is barely 60 years old.

Out of Our Minds

During my daily rounds of the blogosphere, I found this story that really got my pulse going:

New Book May Further the Rift Between Israeli Arabs And Jews
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - An Israeli Arab organization distributed at Arab schools throughout northern Israel on Wednesday 20,000 copies of a booklet aimed at promoting Arab unity around the popular idea that the establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948 was a catastrophe, or what is widely referred to in Arabic as the "nakba."

The booklet contains stories written by 150 Arab children in Israel, the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories, Syria and Lebanon that are harshly critical of and even hostile toward Israel.

It was produced by the Ibn Khaldun Association in northern Israel, whose director Asad Ghanem told Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper that he hoped the booklet would "reaffirm Palestinian consciousness, and maintain and reinforce it among future generations" of Israeli Arabs. Ghanem is also head of the political science department at Israel's Haifa University.

In remarks to Cybercast News Service, Israeli Arab affairs expert Dr. Mordechai Kedar, a research associate with the Begin-Sadat Center, stressed his view that Ghanem and other Israeli Arabs like him do not view the booklet as a threat to Israel.

"They see this book as designed to strengthen national awareness and to promote a connection between Palestinians who are Israeli and those living in other Arab countries in order to consolidate the Palestinian spirit," said Kedar.

That national awareness and struggle is more commonly known as the "Palestinian cause," which today is largely taken to mean the effort to establish a sovereign Palestinian Arab state in the Gaza Strip and the areas known collectively around the world as the "West Bank," but which many Israelis refer to by their biblical names of Judea and Samaria.

The problem for most Israelis is that the Palestinian cause as formulated by late PLO founder Yasser Arafat does not stop with Judea and Samaria. Even after signing the so-called "Oslo Accords" with Israel, Arafat repeatedly told Arab media that the PLO's "phased plan" remained in effect, and that the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria would be only the first step toward the destruction of Israel.

Despite the threat inherent in the Palestinian cause and the "nakba" narrative that fuels it, Kedar said he remains convinced most Israeli Arabs and Jews want to "live together instead of fight each other." Unfortunately, Ghanem's booklet is poised to widen the rift between the two communities by further antagonizing the more hardened elements in Israeli society, whose reaction will be used by Islamists to further radicalize Israeli Arab youth.

This book "will definitely pour more oil on the fire against the Arabs within certain Israeli circles, which will in turn pour even more oil on the fire created by extremist elements on the Arab side," said Kedar.The publication of Ghanem's booklet comes at a time of already markedly increased tension between Israeli Arabs and Jews, a phenomenon that was highlighted last month as Israeli Jews and a slew of visiting foreign dignitaries celebrated Israel's 60th Independence Day while most of the nation's Arabs spoke out against the state or were cowed into silence by extremists.

Israeli media commentators have asserted that national ethnic divisions can be at least partially blamed on an Israeli government establishment that has beholden itself to the principles of political correctness and now refuses to be seen as interfering with its Arab minority by countering negative trends in that community.

Jerusalem Post columnist Carolyn Glick wrote earlier this year that "the natural pull of Israeli Arabs is toward the Palestinians," and that Israel has to make a concerted effort to win the hearts and minds of its Arab citizens, or risk facing an internal explosion in addition to numerous regional threats.

So the Israeli establishment wants to stick to politically correctness and allow free circulation of this piece of inflammatory propaganda (150 stories) rather than interfere (provoke riots) with our ever so hostile and treacherous Arab minority. But the same Israeli establishment does allow the Arab minority to interfere with the Israeli majority in a blatant attempt to shut us up. Said Israeli establishment has just given in to the extortion of a Yaffo-based terrorist sympathiser going by the name of Ibrahim Abu-Shindi, who regularly appears on Israeli TV in order to bash the State of Israel while pretending to work for peace. The man is even the director of an Arab-Jewish Community Center. Well, if it's peace he wants, I'll accept nothing less than the publication of the "bone of contention" poem written by one ten-year-old Israeli boy from Ness Ziona. Please also note that the State of Israel can only afford to publish 500 copies of the poetry contest booklet, while an Israeli Arab organization has the funds to come up with 20,000 copies of their revised "Arabian Nights". Good grief! Fortunately, I am not bound by any multi-crappy-culti PC nonsense. So here's the offending poem:

Ahmed's bunker has surprises galore: Grenades, rifles
are hung on the wall. Ahmed is planning another bomb!
What a bunker Ahmed has, who causes daily harm.
Ahmed knows how to make a bomb. Ahmed is Ahmed, that's

who he is, so don't forget to be careful of him.
We get blasted while they have a blast!
Ahmed and his friends could be wealthy and sunny, if only

they wouldn't buy rockets with all their money.


Anyway, in an extraordinary instance of poetic justice, a mishap seems to have befallen one of Ahmed's bunkers and it is no longer operational. Nor are the houses around it habitable.

I am pleased to see that the saga of Ahmad's bunker, the innocent little poem, has made it to several blogs:
B'nai Elim
Double Tapper
Esser Agaroth
Freerepublic
Infidel Blogger's Alliance
Muqata

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Enrico had us dancing in our seats in Jerusalem!

Just like wine (and Sean Connery), Enrico gets better with age!

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Boycott Us Already!

I apologize to those members of the British academia who oppose the boycott, but the rhetoric of your trade union is becoming ever so vicious, virulent and vexing. Unfortunately, it is not the UCU, I think it is the general trend in your country. Anyway, this boycott thingy is looking more and more like the proverbial stone thrown into a well by a fool: a hundred wise men cannot pull it out.

The never resting anti-Semitic anti-Zionist British cacademic agency, aka the UCU - before you hit the link, let me assure you that this is not the Uganda Christian University or the University Credit Union. No, sir, it "is the largest trade union and professional association, for academics, lecturers, trainers, researchers and academic-related staff working in further and higher education throughout the UK." My jaw nearly dropped to the floor and my pulse hit the ceiling with awe and admiration: the largest professional association ... further and higher education. What can I say, once you've met the Palestinians there's nowhere further and higher that you can reach. That's it. Y'all's on the top of the world, baby. End of the line. Welcome and enjoy your stay. And what are they working on, these academics, trainers, researchers and assorted academic-related staff? Drum roll, please ... A boycott, that's what, including the singling out of Ariel college for investigation under the formal Greylisting procedure. I have no idea what that means, but coming from the Isles of baked beans, bacon and eggs for breakfast it don't sound too good. Not to mention the olfactory results of it! The distinguished stiff upper-lip trade union (I wonder what trade stands for, perhaps "we have traded off the best of our judgement for the worst kind of racism in the book"?) has come up with this brilliant idea, redolent of Soviet-type Workers Committees complete with colleagues spying on and denouncing one another to boot:

7. colleagues be asked to consider the moral and political implications of educational links with Israeli institutions, and to discuss the occupation with individuals and institutions concerned, including Israeli colleagues with whom they are collaborating; (good, the way I see it, the UCU can also renew the mandatory yellow Star of David: Schweinehund or Dreckjude for Jewish only; dirty Zionist pig for those still inclined to stand or simply colalborate with Israel. I also suggest close monitoring of their phones, electronic and printed mail, socializing patterns, leisure activities, in order to be prepared to proceed to article 8 of the motion)
8. UCU widely disseminate the personal testimonies of UCU and PFUUPE delegations to Palestine and the UK, respectively; (see what I mean? Provide PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, the Al-Aqsa martyr brigades, Islamic Jihad and all their associates with full names, addresses, phone numbers, home, office and electronic addresses of academics you suspect of links with Israel (alright, you can throw in a rival or enemy as well) et cetera, in case your Palestinian pets might wish to eliminate the offenders. Oh, and while you are at it, please remind them that you gave them a state in 1921 and ratified it in 1946, Jordan that is!). Be thorough about it! Good grief, you are British academics!
9. the testimonies will be used to promote a wide discussion by colleagues of the appropriateness of continued educational links with Israeli academic institutions; (Once article 8 is promptly and thoroughly implemented, article 9 will be rendered irrelevant. Save yourselves the trouble!).

Also, you can fully achieve point 8, after you're done spying on your peers, by widely disseminating the info concerning collaborators with Israel to those whom you should keep an eye on, but wouldn't:

Lecturers have voted unanimously to oppose government plans urging them to fight against extremism on campuses.
They had been asked to monitor and report suspicious behaviour amongst Muslim students.
But at the University and Colleges Union annual conference in Bournemouth, delegates rejected the demands, saying they amounted to spying on students.


Great! Are the lunatics already running the asylum?

The way I see it, any Israeli academic with a shred of self respect and dignity wouldn't wish to be seen collaborating with any of your institutions. Those who would have anything to do with you are those you probably deserve, such as Ilan - We try to convince as many people as we can that our interpretation of the facts is the correct one, and we do it because of ideological reasons, not because we are truthseekers," interview with the French newspaper Le Soir, Nov. 29, 1999 - Pappe. I mean if those are your academic standards, so be it. Take, e.g., a British researcher working with an Israeli one to find a cure for breast cancer. Just as they are about to break through, your British scientist with a conscience stops to ask his Israeli colleague about the occupation. Dissatisfied with the reply, he spews: "Sorry, Moishe, but I can spot your apparent complicity with the occupation, so we'll have to forget about the cure for breast cancer for a while, until you can remedy the situation in occupied Palestine. The cure for breast cancer can wait until you work out a solution for those you ethnically cleansed. Sorry, mate, not only is our joint project cancelled, but I'll have to disseminate widely your opinion and personal info concerning you and your family. Sorry, old chap, this is not personal. It's UCU business. Cheerio!"

Bless the Academic Boycott
by dr. Gabi Avital
(lecturer at the Israeli Air Force Academy)
Today, Ma'ariv supplement 2008 (lost the date)

At long last, a bit of a respite from the gentiles. We were taught to look at the image in the mirror as it is, without trying to alter it when it doesn't suit us. We thought (or to be more precise others thought for us) that if only we behaved, lowered our heads and got down on our knees, we'd be able to stand tall and be like the rest of the nations, well-loved and appreciated. Obviously, the exact opposite is true. Despite our lovely image, we were scolded for being warmongers, the embodiment of evil, et cetera. Whatever we do, the truth remains that Esau and Ishmael will always hate Israel.
The academic boycott advocates are placing a distorted mirror before us and what we should do is smash it to pieces and regain our composure. Before enjoying foreign pastures, we should take hold of ourselves and our Jewish spirit, which is more precious than gold.
A short time before the Six Day War, when there was no "occupation" no "ruling over another people", France imposed an arms embargo. Our entire air force and parts of the ground forces were "made in France". Luckily, the reserves held out for eight days. The blessed result of the embargo, or what is known today as military and economic boycott, was that Israel evolved from a defensive consumer into a position where we had to develop a smart, heavy system, one that would put to the best possible use the Jew power it could muster. The secrets of the "Mirage 5" planes had been passed on to Israel. The "Nesher", "Kfir" and later on the "Lavie", the air-to-air missiles are only a small part of Israel's arms industry, which emerged as a winner in the wake of the French embargo.
Britain, in its best tradition, could not lag far behind. Due to Arab pressure, Britain halted the development and improvement of the Chieftain tank for the IDF, without even extending us the courtesy of an explanation. Germany and the US also refused to sell Israel tanks. The result was that we designed and built our own "Merkava" tank. Five missile warships out of the 12 ordered and paid for in full by Israel had to be smuggled into Israel in an operation worthy of an action movie script (The Cherbourg Boats). Better and more advanced missile ships were designed and built in Israel. And this is just part of it. Almost every kind of weapon or ammunition that we were denied was designed and built in Israel, and even sold throughout the world.
Therefore, let us be thankful to those who wish to initiate and implement any kind of boycott against us - be it economic, military, and now academic. It is high time our darling researchers employed by the limping Israeli academia reconsider. Our academia isn't producing a modest one percent of its potential and does not justify whatever is being invested in it. That is why our scientists should go back to their drawing boards and start digging into their creativity.
The decline of the different departments is not the result of budget cuts, quite the contrary. The political and social sciences department have not produced a single publication of international standard. Israeli researchers are rarely quoted in international publications or books. The discourse of Israeli academics is barren and stripped of any kind of Judaism. Even foreign literary criticism of Israeli literature is several notches above the domestic one.
What kind of Jews are we when institutions where Jewish brain, not brawn, abounds, are yielding such a meagre crop? Why are we pursuing futile projects instead of trying to spread learning from Zion? Well, maybe now that the mirror has been placed in front of the Israeli academics (who refuse to call themselves Jewish), they will succeed in removing their false colors and return to their Jewish sources. Because there is no third way.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

More Busy Little Bees

Barely three months ago I was writing about the activity of a little busy bee in East Jerusalem. Now there's more of them and their activity is of a much sinister nature. I couldn't believe my ears when I heard the news on the radio a few days ago, and finding this bit of printed news doesn't add much happiness or peace of mind. But there we go, nonetheless.

Fiery Youths
by Yossi Elli
Kol Hazman, May 30, 2008
(All the Time, Jerusalem weekend supplement)

The District Police Department working closely with special units of the Border Police have been investigating 25 youths residing in East Jerusalem neighborhoods aged 11-18, all suspected of throwing incendiary bottles in Abu-Tor (a mixed Jerusalem neighborhood) and on the Ma'aleh Addoumim highway. Among them (and according to Israel Radio the leader of the gang) a 12 year-old boy who admitted to the offence and told the investigators that he had learned how to prepare Molotov cocktails from his uncles while visiting his family in Jordan.

The police reveals that the bottles contained acid, mercury and pieces of metal. The gang experimented with the bottles in the Peace Forest (!!!), then they placed one bottle in a house in the Abu-Tor neighborhood and then they threw a bottle at another house in the neighborhood. Three gang members will soon be indicted, while the rest are too young to be tried (how about their parents, do they bear no responsibility? Will they be free to try and arson more Jewish homes?)

Following and intelligence tip, investigators aided by Border Police officers detained a 33-year-old Issawiye resident. The police searched his car and found a handgun complete with two bullet magazines, silencer, two fake identity cards and posters calling for the killing of collaborators and Zionists. During the enquiry the man claimed to be a contractor and that he planned to "plant" the incriminating objects in the home of a disgruntled and to report him later to the police. He also told the investigators that he had purchased the gun and the silencer from a Palestinian residing in the territories. He admitted to having written the posters himself.