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| Thursday, Aug 13 '09, Av 23, 5769 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1. Fatah’s Al-Aksa Brigades Responsible for Terror Attack by Zalman Nelson  The Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for Wednesday night’s terrorist shooting attack in Binyamin which left two Israelis lightly injured and riddled their car with bullets. The terrorist group is linked to the Fatah faction led by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. At its General Conference which ended this week, Fatah reaffirmed its endorsement of the Al Aksa Martyr's Brigade – responsible for numerous suicide bombings and terrorist attacks – as its armed wing.  The Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades are the jewel in Fatah's crown.  "It is not possible to rule out or to marginalize the military option. The Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades are the jewel in Fatah's crown. We must strengthen their status... [a maintain them in a state of alert,” Fatah spokesman Fahmi Al-Za'arir stated at the conference. The injured Israeli civilians told authorities they were driving near the community of Eli when a car with Israeli license plates signaled them to stop. The passengers in the other car then opened fire from their window. The Israeli civilians were evacuated to the Shaarei Tzedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. Both are reported to be suffering from light wounds. Soldiers are searching for the attackers, who fled the scene. Samarian Regional Council head Benny Katzover linked the recent dismantling of IDF checkpoints to attacks on Israeli civilians, and warned that “when it comes to security, we will be in a state of anarchy, due to American pressure [to remove IDF security roadblock.” As part of the government's overtures to the Barack Obama administration, Israel has implemented several measures to improve mobility for PA Arabs in the Binyamin and Samaria regions in recent months. Dozens of IDF checkpoints have been removed and soldiers no longer check Arab travelers for weapons at one of the largest Samaria checkpoints, Hawara, where would-be terrorists have often been stopped in the past. Comment on this story 2. Out of WAC: World Archaeological Congress Excludes Israel by Yechezkel Laing  The World Archaeological Congress (WAC), presently convening a conference of archaeologists from all over the world, has excluded Israel even though the conference is taking place in Ramallah. The congress, entitled "Overcoming Structural Violence", did not invite the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) despite the fact that some of the topics being discussed at the conference deal with regions in Jerusalem where an archaeological excavation is being conducted exclusively by the IAA. In a statement to the media the IAA said that "Instead of Archaeology, WAC is talking politics. In this way the organization is introducing the conflict into the professional side of archaeology. The IAA operates with complete transparency, according to the guidelines of Israeli law and meticulously maintains the highest professional standards in accordance with the most stringent rules and without bias. There can be no doubt that the organizers of the conference set out with the goal in mind of inserting political issues into the professional archaeological experience." Dr. Uzi Dahari, Deputy Director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, added, "An international archaeological congress does not act this way. The congress came to a region where there is a conflict and chooses to present one side of the story. It is forbidden that such a thing should happen." Dahari emphasized that it is professionally unethical for an international archaeological forum to tour sites without the knowledge of the archaeologists who are excavating them. "In addition, the congress uses the names of sites as they are referred to by one side only," he said. (The congress is referring to the Temple Mount in English as Haram al Sharif.) "It would be best if the World Archaeological Congress would focus on archaeology and not on politics," Dahari said. Comment on this story  3. Christian Russian TV Station to Broadcast in Israel by Hillel Fendel  A new Christian Russian-language TV network will be inaugurated next month, in the presence of Israel Our Home party leaders. The heads of the station say they hope to spread their message to over a million new-immigrant homes in Israel. The inaugural event will take place at the Davidson Center, near the Western Wall plaza. Some 3,000 Christian pilgrims will be on hand for the occasion. Rabbi Shalom Dov Lifshitz, of the Yad L’Achim anti-assimilation and anti-missionary organization, warns of the grave ramifications of the new TV station: “Not only is the very operation of such a TV station in Israel scandalous in and of itself, but it also contains many programs with Christian content aimed at children. Our legal arm is investigating whether this constitutes a violation of the law forbidding attempts to convert minors to a different religion.” The new station, Rodnoy, is owned mostly by TBN, one of the largest missionary networks in Russia. With Christian programming in the Russian language, the fear is that Russian Jews, with little or no knowledge of their Jewish heritage following decades of Soviet religious oppression, will easily be convinced to believe in Jesus and adopt a Christian lifestyle. To read the rest of the story, click here! Comment on this story 4. Ayalon: Israel Nixes Turkey-Mediated Talks with Syria by Gil Ronen  Israel will not resume Turkish-mediated peace talks with Syria, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said Wednesday. Any new negotiations with Syria must be direct ones, he said. "We have enormous respect and great appreciation for the Turkish efforts. But they have not succeeded -- not because of the Turks," Ayalon told the Reuters news agency in an interview. The decision stems from "Syrian intransigence," he said. Asked if the Israeli government was ruling out a return to the mediated talks, Ayalon replied: "Correct." "We have just benefited from the experience that shows that proximity talks did not work," he added. "If Asked if the Israeli government was ruling out a return to the mediated talks, Ayalon replied: "Correct." they (Syria) are really serious on peace, and not just a peace process which may serve them to extricate them from international isolation, if they are really serious, they will come and sit with us."Syria and Turkey have suggested a return to the mediated talks, which were started when Ehud Olmert was Prime Minister. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has offered Syria direct talks without preconditions. This is seen as a reference to Syria's demand that Israel commit in advance to ceding the Golan Heights. Netanyahu, like Olmert, insists that Syria distance itself from Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas. Before Netanyahu was elected, there was widespread concern among nationalist Israelis that he would continue talks started by Olmert and eventually cede the Golan Heights to Syria, despite Netanyahu’s promises to the contrary. Minister Dan Meridor called for accelerated talks with Syria as he rejoined the Likud Knesset list, fueling pre-election speculation that such a move was in the works. For the time being, however, it would appear that concern regarding a possible Golan pullout was unjustified. Comment on this story  5. 70% of Americans See Israel as Ally by Gil Ronen  Despite President Barack Obama’s overtures to the Arab world and his perceived coldness to the Jewish state, a full 70 percent of Americans say Israel is a U.S. ally in a new poll by Rasmussen Reports. Eight percent see it as an enemy and 16 percent see it as something in between. The survey’s authors say: “Of course, none of the Islamic countries comes close to the positive feelings most adults here have toward Israel.” Egypt, the most highly regarded Islamic country, still does much worse than Israel: thirty-nine percent see it as an ally, while nine percent say it is an enemy and 42 percent say it falls somewhere in between. This means that most Americans see Egypt as either an enemy or something between an enemy and a friend. Saudi Arabia is the second most favored Arab country, but 25 percent still see it as an enemy. Twenty-three percent see it as an ally, and 46 percent as somewhere in between. Eighty-one percent of American adults believe Palestinian leaders must recognize Israel’s right to exist as part of any Middle Eastern peace agreement. The report’s authors explain that America’s close ties to Israel are undoubtedly “explained in part by the sharp contrast between the views Americans have of the Islamic countries in the region and how they feel about the Jewish state.” A dampening of optimism Twenty-one percent say their country’s relationship with the Muslim world will be better a year from now. Twenty five percent believe that the relationship will get worse and 44 percent estimate that it will be roughly the same a year from now. At the beginning of June, just before Obama gave a speech to the “Muslim world” in Egypt, 28 percent of voters said the U.S.’s relationship with the Muslim world would be better a year hence. Twenty-one percent predicted the relationship would be worse, and 45 percent thought it would stay the same. In other words, the months that have passed have seen a dampening of American’s optimism regarding relations with the Muslim world. Seventy percent of Americans say Iran is an enemy of the United States. When they are asked which country poses the greatest security threat to the United States, the top position “routinely seesaws between Iran and North Korea,” the report’s summary says. Comment on this story 6. Israeli Pioneers Method to Detect Alzheimer’s, Track Memory by Baruch Gordon  When we absorb new information, the human brain reshapes itself to store this newfound knowledge. But where exactly is the new knowledge kept, and how does that capacity to adapt reflect our risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of senile dementia later in our lives? Dr. Yaniv Assaf of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Neurobiology is pioneering a new way to track the effect of memory on brain structure. “With a specific MRI methodology called ‘Diffusion Imaging MRI,’ we can investigate the microstructure of the tissue without actually cutting into it,” he explains. “We can measure how much capacity our brain has to change structurally, what our memory reserve is and where that happens.” His study, presented at the Annual Meeting of the Human Brain Mapping Organization in San Francisco, has been pivotal to the way scientists view the effect of memory on the brain. Scientists used to believe that the brain took days or weeks to change its microstructure. Dr. Assaf’s new observations demonstrate that the microstructure can change in mere hours. “It gives us a quantifiable measure of the plasticity of each individual brain,” he says. “It’s possible that before a person experiences any memory loss, the plasticity is affected –– that is, the ability of one’s brain to adapt to change. A lack of ability for change in the brain could mean susceptibility to dementia. Now, we have the means to monitor this ability.” An early warning system for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia According to Dr. Assaf, most of the research on Alzheimer’s disease and dementia focuses on its aftereffects. Diffusion Imaging MRI, he believes, could be used for early detection of the disorder. “We can study the memory capacity of an individual at high risk for these disorders, and compare it to the morphological plasticity of people who are not at risk,” Dr. Assaf says. “Such an approach may allow us to develop an intervention at an early stage, possibly in the form of drugs, one that may not be appropriate at a later stage.” One parallel study, now being pursued in collaboration with Tel Aviv University’s Prof. Daniel M. Michaelson, involves working with MRI and animals with mutations of Alzheimer’s. The need for speed In order to track changes in the brain, Dr. Assaf developed a study that focused on spatial learning and memory. “Usually, scientists distinguish between functional and structural plasticity,” he says. Functional plasticity refers to neuronal activity in the brain, while structural plasticity refers to the physical shape of the brain itself. “From animal studies we know that spatial memory tasks have consequences for both.” First, study volunteers were scanned by Diffusion Imaging MRI. Then, they were asked to play two hours of a race-track video game, going over the same virtual race track 16 times. “This measured a special form of memory ― spatial memory,” says Dr. Assaf. “Each time they circled the track, the time they took to complete it decreased. At the end of the two hours, we put them back into the MRI to see the difference.” Dr. Assaf and his team saw a marked change measured by Diffusion Imaging MRI in the characteristics of brain microstructure. The memorization of the virtual race track affected the hippocampus, motor and visual areas of the brain. “The most striking thing about this study is that it shows structural plasticity happening in only two hours,” he says. “This changes what we think structural plasticity is. It shows that memory is rapidly changing the structure of the cells, and that may lead to a lasting effect on the brain.” Dr. Assaf’s work was done in collaboration with his Ph.D. students Yaniv Sagi, Tamar Katzir, Efrat Sasson and Ido Tavor. Comment on this story 7. Temple Mount Show: Torah and Sacrifices by IsraelNationalTV Staff  Broadcasting live overlooking the Temple Mount, Rabbi Tovia Singer & Jeremy Gimpel answer your questions on Israel and Judaism. Today's question: Can we live by the Torah and not have a Temple and sacrifices? What is the spiritual significance of sacrifices and how do we survive today? [weJe Email readers, please click here to view the show! [weJe [weJe More from Singer & Gimpel Who is the Jewish Messiah - Part 2 Who is the Jewish Messiah - Part 1 Do we pay for the sins of our fathers? Bible - Can we rely on the translated version? Why don't Jews proselytize? Comment on this story  More Website News:
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