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September 2012

DAVID SINGER: JORDAN- PART OF THE PROBLEM AND PART OF THE SOLUTION…SEE NOTE

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/
Due to time differences I am asleep while my e-pal David Singer, a prominent lawyer and international affairs expert writes and practices law in Sydney Australia, but David never sleeps.

His latest column:

“A new strategy to resolve the 130 years old Jewish-Arab conflict is urgently needed with the growing recognition that the “two-state solution” proposed by the Oslo Accords and the Bush Roadmap for the last 20 years is dead and buried .Dr. Carlo Strenger has recently expressed this view in an article entitled “Requiem for a two- state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”.
Dr Strenger is Chair of the Clinical Graduate Program of the Department of Psychology at Tel Aviv University. He serves on the Permanent Monitoring Panel on Terrorism of the World Federation of Scientists, the Seminar of Existential Psychoanalysis in Zurich, and the Scientific Board of the Sigmund Freud Foundation, Vienna in addition to maintaining a part-time practice in existential psychoanalysis.

He is – and has been – a constant critic of the policies of Israel’s Government and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Dr Strenger’s summation of the current position is succinctly stated:

“I came to the conclusion that the two-state solution was dead at the end of 2011, when Abbas’ bid for recognition of Palestine by the UN failed. Ever since I published this assessment, friends and readers have asked what I suggest as an alternative. Some thought that I had finally moved to the extreme left’s endorsement of the one-state solution; others thought that I had moved to the right.

Neither is the case. There are moments when reality flies into your face, and in which you realize that your political program is no longer viable, even though you do not endorse any of the alternatives. I do not derive much comfort from being in good company: The remainders of Israel’s left pay lip service to the two-state solution, knowing that there is no longer a way to implement it.

My conversations with European diplomats and politicians generate the impression that the same holds true for Western Europe. For lack of an alternative to the two-state solution, European governments have not endorsed any alternative conception, but they are beginning to realize that the two-state solution won’t happen.”

Dr Strenger further confesses that he too “does not have any coherent strategy to propose.”

There is however a coherent strategy or alternative conception that can be pursued outside the options mentioned in his article – which Dr Strenger and Western Europe have failed to consider – focusing on Jordan – 78% of former Palestine.

BRUCE KESLER REVIEWS FILM “MACHINE GUN PREACHER”

Click here: Machine Gun Preacher – Maggie’s Farm
http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/20501-Machine-Gun-Preacher.html
The 2011 film Machine Gun Preacher did not get wide play. It didn’t play into the memes that Hollywood pumps out and unashamedly awards itself for. This is a true story of as deep a violent, ex-con, drugged man as you never want to experience finding G-d and turning his life around, and making his family proud. Right there this film crosses (if you’ll pardon the expression) the effete critics who delight in films that disparage faith. However, the film further sins (again, if you’ll pardon the expression) as the man finds what turns into a higher purpose for his life, fighting, yes bloody real machine gun fighting, against the savage African army of Joseph Kony that slaughters, enslaves, performs ritual murders, forces young children to participate in northern Uganda and southern Sudan. In my belief, it is more important to G-d what we do for others and how we treat others than what pieties we mouth. That is what G-d desires of us. The man, Sam Childers, hocks almost everything he has built in the US, overruling his wife and daughter’s concerns for their own financial security, to build an orphanage in South Sudan, in the middle of the war zone, to shelter and protect hundreds of children and feed many hundreds more. In the process, Childers becomes disillusioned with the idea of relying on G-d to save the needy, and is adrift in figuring out how to be a man of principle and caring while having to be bloodthirsty in fighting Kony’s forces. Childers finds himself coming out of this flame (again, if you’ll pardon the expression) to being a decent person, at harmony with his family, and fighting as hard as ever against Kony’s thugs. To my faith, that is doing G-d’s will for us.

Stay watching the ending credits as Childers is totally unapologetic about what he does. For those who feel so safe that they feel they have the luxery of abhoring violence that is often necessary in the real world by real men (and women) this is the cardinal sin (yeah, again, if you’ll pardon the expression). No wonder, 77% of the 108 paid-to-be-professional critics who chirp together logged at Rotten Tomatoes disliked the film, but in the real world of the over 11,000 audience members who voted at Rotten Tomatoes 63% liked the film. You can now only get it on DVD or streaming, but it’ll be worth it. There is vulgarity at the start of the film, but stay tough for the tough truth in this film, people can only be safe when there are those who risk all.

MORE GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL: FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com
http://blogs.jpost.com/users/just-look-us-now

Russian doctors gave up, but Israelis saved him. Doctors at Beersheba’s Soroka hospital saved the life of a 50-year-old Russian with a ruptured aorta who was flown from Moscow for highly complex surgery. A day later he was disconnected from most of the devices except for his iPod on which he was watching films.
http://www.jpost.com/Health/Article.aspx?id=282256

Just skin and bone. After seven years’ research, Israeli scientists have discovered a defective protein responsible for the rare condition known as SOFT that causes abnormal growth in some people. The discovery aids pre-natal testing and knowledge of how skin and bone develop and interact during tissue development.
http://www.jpost.com/Sci-Tech/Article.aspx?id=281963

Tissue transplants may cure diabetes. Researchers at Israel’s Technion and Ben-Gurion University have engineered insulin-producing tissue, which lowers blood sugar levels when transplanted into animals.
http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=281857

Warm chemotherapy saves 10-year-old girl. This piece of news from May comes via a friend who just sent it to me. For the first time an Israeli child under 10 had a tumour successfully removed using “warm” chemotherapy infusion. The successful operation was performed at Schneider Children’s Medical Centre.
https://www.facebook.com/notes/mdischneider-childrens-medical-center-of-israel/young-cancer-survivor/10150820841271989

The paralysed may speak. Three Israeli professors have published the results of their work to record neurone patterns during speech attempts and converting these into computer-generated synthesised speech. It could help “locked in” syndrome sufferers such as Stephen Hawking.
http://www.jpost.com/Health/Article.aspx?id=282255

Israel’s biotech assets – women. Women outnumber men in biology and related sciences in higher education in Israel. While most high-tech employees are male, women comprise 60 percent to 70 percent of the biotechnology workforce. And Israeli biotech start-ups have an edge because women work harder than men.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-21/israeli-women-ahead-in-science-poised-to-lead-in-biotech-health.html

Israeli Mars instrument is really cool. (Thanks to IsraellyCool). Israel’s Ricor Cryogenic & Vacuum Systems manufactures the K508 Integral Stirling 1/2W Micro Cooler. This neat little device is currently optimising the temperature of NASA’s vital CheMin chemical analyser on the Red Planet.
http://www.israellycool.com/2012/08/19/bds-fail-of-the-sol/
http://www.ricor.com/Index.asp?CategoryID=59&ArticleID=44
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZavPVHqy84Y

Iron Dome designer now monitors crops. Daniel Gold was IDF’s director of research and development for the Iron Dome missile defence system. Now he is commercialising military technology for farming purposes by integrating ground sensors and airborne drones to monitor biology of the vegetation and regulate plant health.
https://www.stlbeacon.org/#!/content/26441/agricultural_technology_080912

A very “green” school. Tel Aviv’s new Porter School of Environmental Studies is due to open in 2013. The EcoBuilding is built to LEED Platinum standards – the first in Israel. It has a roof garden; solar vacuum tubes to power air conditioners; “passive” wind ventilation; recycled water plus electric car and disabled parking only.
http://www.jpost.com/Features/FrontLines/Article.aspx?id=279932&R=R44

Solar power for New Orleans. Israel’s Solaredge has installed its advanced solar panels in a New Orleans neighbourhood that was rebuilt after being devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Survivors in the “River Garden Apartments” now live in a new and modern neighbourhood, enjoying Israeli technology at its best.
http://www.israelnewtech.com/2012/08/solaredge-an-israeli-success-story-on-new-orleans-rooftops-2/

Full steam ahead. The Israel Electric Company has completed a new 375-megawatt steam and natural gas power station one month ahead of schedule. The Zafit power station, in the country’s south-central region, has been connected to the national grid and will reduce the risk of power cuts due the current heat wave.
http://www.jpost.com/Sci-Tech/Article.aspx?id=281965

New record for electric car. Israel’s Better Place car set a new record of 1172 miles driven on electric power over the course of 24 hours. It beat the 24-hour distance record of 994.14 miles set last month. The battery was changed every 75.8 miles, each taking just over a minute compared to a conventional 5-minute fuel refill.
http://israel21c.org/news/better-place-sets-electric-car-record/

Find a parking space at a touch of a button. Israeli start-up sPARK has finished raising the finance to launch its mobile parking application in October. At the touch of a button drivers will be able to use sPARK’s innovative technology to find spaces on the streets and in car parks.
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000775463