Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

UK bans Israeli tourism poster
Jul 16th, 2009
Daily NewsIsrael Today
Categories: Today's Headlines;Anti-Israel

Righteous Gentile Honored for Saving 3 Jews
Jul 16th, 2009
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Yahuda Lev Kay
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

 
Righteous gentile Dragoljub Trajkovic was posthumously honored Wednesday for saving the lives of three Jews during the Holocaust. The ceremony took place at the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.

Trajkovic’s daughter Nada accepted a medal and certificate of honor on behalf of her father, who passed away 20 years ago. Also present were descendants of the Unger family Trajkovic saved in Serbia during the Holocaust.



Nada Trajkovic accepts certificate of honor (photo: Yossi Ben David, Yad Vashem)

Trajkovic joins a list of over 22,700 individuals who have been recognized as Righteous Among the Nations and whose names are inscribed on a memorial wall in Yad Vashem. He saved Margita Unger and her two children, Olga and Timohar, from almost certain death in the Nazi concentration camps.

Margita and Marcel Unger and their children Olgag and Timohar lived in Banat, in the former Yugoslvaia, until August 1941 when they were deported to the nearby city of Belgrade. A short time later Marcel was taken to the Topovske Supe concentration camp and his family would never hear from him again.

10,000 out of Belgrade’s 12,000 Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

In October of the same year, Trajkovic, a railway employee whose wife was a relative of the Ungers, heard the remaining Jews in Belgrade were to be deported to the Sajmiste concentration camp. On the day of the deportation, he took the three remaining Ungers into his house.

Not long afterwards, Travkovic felt that the Ungers were in danger and decided to obtain forged identity papers for them. He moved the Ungers to a nearby farm and paid the farmers to hide the mother and daughters and provide for all their needs. They remained at the farm until the end of the war.



Nada Trajkovic by her father's name (Yossi Ben David, Yad Vashem)

Israel to Hit Iran 'as Part of Deal including Yesha Evictions'
Jul 16th, 2009
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Gil Ronan
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;War

 

As two Israeli missile-class warships joined a navy submarine in the Red Sea, an Israeli defense source made it clear that the moves are intended as a threatening message to Iran.

“This is preparation that should be taken seriously,” the unnamed source told the London Times. “Israel is investing time in preparing itself for the complexity of an attack on Iran.”

“These maneuvers are a message to Iran that Israel will follow up on its threats,” he emphasized.

The exercises “come at a time when Western diplomats are offering support for an Israeli strike on Iran in return for Israeli concessions on the formation of a Palestinian state,” the Times said. It quoted an nanonymous British official as saying that if the deal completed, it would make an Israeli strike on Iran realistic “within the year.”

Diplomats said that Israel had offered concessions “on settlement policy, Palestinian land claims and issues with neighboring Arab states, to facilitate a possible strike on Iran. “ A senior European diplomat, also unnamed, said that “Israel has chosen to place the Iranian threat over its settlements.”

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in a news conference Wednesday that the ships passed through the canal with Egypt’s permission, and that “ships may pass through the canal as long as they do not threaten the country which controls the canal.” He noted that the international agreements regulating which ships may pass through the Suez Canal date back to 1888.

The two Saar-class ships, INS Eilat and INS Chanit, sailed into the Red Sea Wednesday in what was the report described as “a clear signal that Israel was able to put its strike force within range of Iran at short notice.”

Ten days earlier, a Dolphin-class submarine with nuclear-missile strike capabilities passed through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea as well. Later reports said it, too, was accompanied by two Israeli missile boats – meaning that four missile boats have now crossed the canal. Israel has six Dolphin-class submarines, three of which are believed to carry nuclear missiles, the Times said.

Later this month, the Israel Air Force will hold long-range exercises in the U.S. and will test a missile defense shield at a U.S. missile range in the Pacific Ocean.

While local Israeli media have played up alleged tensions between Egypt and Israel over past statements by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the Times report says that Israel “has strengthened ties with Arab nations who also fear a nuclear-armed Iran” and quotes an Israeli diplomat who said that relations with Egypt, in particular, have grown increasingly strong this year over the “shared mutual distrust of Iran.”

The report estimates that Israel’s missile-equipped submarines and its fleet of advanced aircraft could simultaneously strike at more than a dozen nuclear-related targets in Iran.

The Arrow interceptor system that will be tested in the Pacific is designed to defend Israel from ballistic missile attacks by Iran and Syria. According to Lt.-Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, Director of the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency, this month’s test will be against a target with a range of more than 1,000km. This range is too long for testing in the eastern Mediterranean, where Israel held its previous tests of the Arrow.

The Israeli Air Force, meanwhile, will send F16C fighter jets to participate in exercises at Nellis Air Force base in Nevada later this month, and Israeli C130 Hercules transport aircraft will participate in the Rodeo 2009 competition at the McChord Air Force base in Washington.

“It is not by chance that Israel is drilling long-range maneuvers in a public way. This is not a secret operation. This is something that has been published and which will showcase Israel’s abilities,” an Israeli defense official said.

Iron Dome Hits the Target
Jul 16th, 2009
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Avraham Zuroff
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

 

Israel's new anti-ballistic defense system, designed to protect civilians against terrorist rocket fire from Gaza, passed series of live tests on Wednesday.

A defense official explained that the test of the Iron Dome defense system marked the first time that the system tested a mid-air deception of a target rocket, which was completely destroyed.

Iron Dome works by intercepting medium-range Katyusha rockets as well as the shorter, homemade Kassam rockets and mortar shells fired by Gaza terrorists. It uses a small kinetic missile interceptor called the “Tamir.” The anti-ballistic sytem is expected to intercept rockets between the ranges of 2-45 miles (3-72 km).

Defense Minister Ehud Barak is pleased with the continued successful testing of Iron Dome. Barak said that the multi-tiered defense system is a national strategic goal for the State of Israel.

Barak said the Iron Dome’s successful implementation will allow the IDF to fulfill its obligations to protect Israeli citizens in the best way possible. The Ministry’s director general, Pinchas Buchris, hailed the successful testing of Iron Dome performed this week as a milestone in the development of the system against ballistic threats. Defense Ministry officials said that the trials complete a series of preparations for the Israel Air Force, and are being run according to schedule.

Developed under contract by Israel Military Industry’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the $300 million system which was tested at the Ramon Air Force Base in southern Israel will reportedly be ready for operation by 2010.

It is meant to become part of a multi-layered defense system aimed at protecting Gaza Belt residents from shelling by Gaza terrorists, and residents in northern Israel from rocket attacks fired by Hizbullah terrorists in southern Lebanon.

The system might also be used to protect the rest of Israel from longer range attacks launched against the Jewish state from Syria or Iran.  Israel has asked the United States to foot the bill for approximately 65 percent of the development costs for the project.

Palestinian Authority terrorists have launched more than 4,000 Kassam rockets at southern Israel since the Disengagement from Gaza in August 2005.

Residents in the north suffered a similar number of rocket attacks, with more than 4,000 Katyusha missiles fired by Hizbullah terrorists at Israeli communities as far south as Afula during the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

IDF: Hizbullah hiding rockets in homes
Jul 16th, 2009
Daily NewsJpost
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

A day after an explosion uncovered a hidden Hizbullah arms cache in southern Lebanon, the IDF's Northern Command estimated that the group had turned hundreds of homes in the area into warehouses to store short- and medium-range Katyusha rockets.

The IDF released video footage taken from an Israeli aircraft, showing a home that had exploded on Tuesday in the village of Hirbet Selm - located some 20 kilometers north of the Lebanese border. The roof is seen in the footage with dozens of holes, which IDF ballistic experts said were the size of 122-mm. Katyusha rockets.

UNIFIL said that storing the ammunition was a "serious violation" of the UN-brokered ceasefire that ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

The peace keeping force said that it considered the incident a "serious violation" of the UN resolution that ended the conflict, which specifies that there should be no presence of unauthorized assets or weapons in the area of operations.

Israeli defense officials had also accused Lebanon of violating United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701.

"This is a major violation of resolution 1701," one Israeli official said. "The weaponry was stored inside a village and is proof of our longstanding claim that Hizbullah uses civilian infrastructure to hide its weaponry."

Contrary to Lebanese media reports which claimed that the cache was hidden in the village before the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Israeli defense officials said that the weaponry was recently placed inside the storehouse.

According to the officials, the cache was hidden in a storehouse inside the village and contained dozens of 122mm Katyusha rockets as well as high-powered machine guns. Some of the rockets reportedly flew into the sky.

The blast took place at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, and for the first few hours, Hizbullah sealed off the area and refused to grant UNIFIL or the Lebanese army access. IDF sources said that the clearing of the home and the unexploded ordinance had taken over 24 hours.

The sources said the IDF had been aware prior to the explosion that the home was being used as a storehouse for weapons. Several months before the explosion, an IDF aircraft captured footage of several senior Hizbullah operatives entering an underground tunnel near the house and reappearing from an exit 700 m. away.

"This house was connected to an entire underground network that was built right under the noses of UNIFIL and the Lebanese army," one IDF officer said. "This is a major violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701."

The Katyusha rockets that went off in Hirbet Selm were being stored in a two-story home. It was unclear on which floor they were being stored, but the home was shown on Lebanese television in close proximity to other village buildings.

In addition to the 122-mm. rockets, IDF ballistic experts said it was likely that the home also contained mortar shells and additional types of ammunition.

Chips In Official IDs Raise Privacy Fears
Jul 16th, 2009
Daily NewsAP
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

As Government Tags Passports, Licenses, Critics Fear Privacy Is 'chipped' Away

Climbing into his Volvo, outfitted with a Matrics antenna and a Motorola reader he'd bought on eBay for $190, Chris Paget cruised the streets of San Francisco with this objective: To read the identity cards of strangers, wirelessly, without ever leaving his car.

It took him 20 minutes to strike hacker's gold.

Zipping past Fisherman's Wharf, his scanner detected, then downloaded to his laptop, the unique serial numbers of two pedestrians' electronic U.S. passport cards embedded with radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags. Within an hour, he'd "skimmed" the identifiers of four more of the new, microchipped PASS cards from a distance of 20 feet.

Embedding identity documents _ passports, drivers licenses, and the like _ with RFID chips is a no-brainer to government officials. Increasingly, they are promoting it as a 21st century application of technology that will help speed border crossings, safeguard credentials against counterfeiters, and keep terrorists from sneaking into the country.

But Paget's February experiment demonstrated something privacy advocates had feared for years: That RFID, coupled with other technologies, could make people trackable without their knowledge or consent.

He filmed his drive-by heist, and soon his video went viral on the Web, intensifying a debate over a push by government, federal and state, to put tracking technologies in identity documents and over their potential to erode privacy.

Putting a traceable RFID in every pocket has the potential to make everybody a blip on someone's radar screen, critics say, and to redefine Orwellian government snooping for the digital age.

"Little Brother," some are already calling it _ even though elements of the global surveillance web they warn against exist only on drawing boards, neither available nor approved for use.

But with advances in tracking technologies coming at an ever-faster rate, critics say, it won't be long before governments could be able to identify and track anyone in real time, 24-7, from a cafe in Paris to the shores of California.

The key to getting such a system to work, these opponents say, is making sure everyone carries an RFID tag linked to a biometric data file.

On June 1, it became mandatory for Americans entering the United States by land or sea from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean to present identity documents embedded with RFID tags, though conventional passports remain valid until they expire.

Among new options are the chipped "e-passport," and the new, electronic PASS card _ credit-card sized, with the bearer's digital photograph and a chip that can be scanned through a pocket, backpack or purse from 30 feet.

Alternatively, travelers can use "enhanced" driver's licenses embedded with RFID tags now being issued in some border states: Washington, Vermont, Michigan and New York. Texas and Arizona have entered into agreements with the federal government to offer chipped licenses, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has recommended expansion to non-border states. Kansas and Florida officials have received DHS briefings on the licenses, agency records show.

The purpose of using RFID is not to identify people, says Mary Ellen Callahan, the chief privacy officer at Homeland Security, but rather "to verify that the identification document holds valid information about you."

Likewise, U.S. border agents are "pinging" databases only to confirm that licenses aren't counterfeited. "They're not pulling up your speeding tickets," she says, or looking at personal information beyond what is on a passport.

The change is largely about speed and convenience, she says. An RFID document that doubles as a U.S. travel credential "only makes it easier to pull the right record fast enough, to make sure that the border flows, and is operational" _ even though a 2005 Government Accountability Office report found that governmentRFID readers often failed to detect travelers' tags.

Such assurances don't persuade those who liken RFID-embedded documents to barcodes with antennas and contend they create risks to privacy that far outweigh the technology's heralded benefits. They warn it will actually enable identity thieves, stalkers and other criminals to commit "contactless" crimes against victims who won't immediately know they've been violated.

Neville Pattinson, vice president for government affairs at Gemalto, Inc., a major supplier of microchipped cards, is no RFID basher. He's a board member of the Smart Card Alliance, an RFID industry group, and is serving on the Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee.

Still, Pattinson has sharply criticized the RFIDs in U.S. driver's licenses and passport cards. In a 2007 article for the Privacy Advisor, a newsletter for privacy professionals, he called them vulnerable "to attacks from hackers, identity thieves and possibly even terrorists."

RFID, he wrote, has a fundamental flaw: Each chip is built to faithfully transmit its unique identifier "in the clear, exposing the tag number to interception during the wireless communication."

Once a tag number is intercepted, "it is relatively easy to directly associate it with an individual," he says. "If this is done, then it is possible to make an entire set of movements posing as somebody else without that person's knowledge."

150 New Immigrants Arrive Straight from Sao Paulo
Jul 16th, 2009
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Hana Levi Julian
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

 
For the first time, a special direct El Al flight from São Paulo, Brazil brought 150 new immigrants to the Jewish State on Wednesday.

The flight was made possible as a result of the opening of direct El Al flights from Brazil to Israel last month. Most other airlines fly the route with a stopover on the way, for a trip that can last up to 15 hours or more.

Bringing the new "Latin American-Israelis" home was Javier Ruben, who himself had served as a Jewish Agency emissary to Latin America from 1999 to 2002. Little did Ruben realize, as he encouraged Jews on the South American continent to make Aliyah, that in less than a decade he would personally be flying them home.

The number of Latin American immigrants to Israel is growing, according to the Jewish Agency, which said in a statement that it expects the numbers to rise by some 15 percent -- compared to the 2008 statistics -- by summer's end.

The group includes a particularly distinguished personality: among the new immigrants is the former Chief Rabbi of Uruguay, Rabbi Moti Ma'aravi.

Also on the flight were dozens of young people headed for Ulpan Etzion in Jerusalem, a special program for college graduates, and a group of young immigrants planning to attend the Jewish Agency's kibbutz ulpan program at Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael. Others will be absorbed in various locations around the country.

The flight, organized by the Jewish Agency for Israel, arrived just three days before the anniversary of the July 18,1994 terrorist attack on the Jewish community headquarters in Argentina.

All of the new immigrants will be welcomed by the Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Places, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, at a special ceremony on Thursday afternoon.