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1. Rockets Fired at Eilat, Land in Jordan
by Hillel Fendel
After two hours of conflicting reports, it has been ascertained that one or two rockets were fired at Eilat, but did not land there.
Shortly before 11:00 this morning, two or three explosions were heard in Eilat, and reports of rockets fired from Jordan or the Sinai at the southern port city began to surface. The reports took on various shames and forms, and nearly every permutation of Kassams and Katyushas fired from Jordan and Sinai towards Eilat was reported until around 1 PM, when the army finally announced that no findings of rocket blasts had been located in the city.
It then began to become clear that rockets had landed in the Jordanian city of Aqaba, adjacent to Eilat. Egypt denied that missiles had been over-shot from its territory, while a Jordanian security source soon announced that the rockets had been under-shot from within Jordanian territory, not reaching their target of Eilat.
An official Jordanian government spokesman said only that an explosion had occurred in a warehouse north of Aqaba, causing damage but no casualties.
Israel has been officially at peace with Jordan since 1994, though King Abdullah recently said that his country was better off economically before it signed the peace agreement with Israel. "Our relationship with Israel is at an all-bottom low," he added.
Previous Eilat Attacks
Though it has a quiet reputation, this is not the first time that Eilat has been targeted by terrorists, via rockets or otherwise. In February 1968, the city was shelled by Jordanian katyusha rockets, and again in December 2005; damage was caused to a car on a city street in the latter attack. In August 1969, Egyptians fired rockets at Eilat.
In November 1990, some 20 kilometers north of Eilat, an Egyptian soldier opened fire at a group of Israeli, murdering four. On May 30, 1992, two Arabs who swam to Israel from Aqaba killed a guard at the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in southern Eilat. On Jan. 29, 2007, a Palestinian suicide terrorist detonated himself inside a bakery in the city, killing three.
2. Groundswell of Support Growing for Anti-Obama Rally
by Hana Levi Julian
A groundswell of support is building in anticipation of the upcoming anti-Obama demonstration set for this coming Sunday, April 25, in New York City, outside the Israel Consulate. According to organizer Beth Gilinsky, head of the Jewish Action Alliance, groups are still calling to express their support and register for the event.
The protest is intended to convey to the Obama administration the intense dissatisfaction of American Jews and others with the increasingly hostile attitude of the White House towards the State of Israel. “The people are shocked by President [Barack] Obama's reckless and radical policies that they believe are endangering America, Israel and world freedom,” Gilinsky explained in an interview with Israel National News.
"Protesters will be calling on the president to stop disarming America, stop undermining America's best friend and ally in the Middle East – Israel – and to stand with Israel and America's friends, rather than appeasing Iran, dictators and Jihadists,” Gilinsky added.
More than 21 Jewish and other organizations have already signed on to the event.
Thousands are expected to attend the rally, which Gilinsky said will give voice to the increasing disillusionment with the president that Jews and others have expressed, including many who voted Obama into office.
That disappointment has gradually coalesced in response to the double standard displayed by the Obama administration in the wake of an ill-timed announcement during a visit to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden that ongoing housing project plans had been approved in Jerusalem. The numerous condemnations and recriminations showered upon Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on the heels of the announcement -- beginning with a twice-issued harsh condemnation by Biden himself while still in Israel -- and the subsequent manner in which he was treated during a visit to the White House several weeks later, said Gilinsky, confirmed fears that the Obama administration was hostile to the State of Israel, giving the Arab world license to renew and escalate attacks.
The White House did not condemn – nor did it even mention – an official Palestinian Authority ceremony held during Biden's visit, honoring one of the most brutal terrorists in Israel's history by naming a public square in her memory.
“Many Israelis, and we, feel that the treatment of Israel during the last several weeks by President Obama, [Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton, and spokemen for the administration has been an unprecedented attempt to humiliate the Jewish State and a willful isolation of it among the community of nations," Gilinsky said. "Those attending the protest believe Obama is encouraging other Western countries, as well as Arab countries, to treat Israel as a diplomatic pariah and even question Israel's legitimacy as a state itself."
“The large crowd expected to attend on Sunday is coming to speak Truth to Power,” she added. “We will not be silent.”
For more information about Sunday's rally, contact Ronn Torossian in New York at 212-995-5585.
3. Adm. Mullen Evades Answer on Shooting Down IAF Jet
by Gil Ronen
The Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, evaded a question Tuesday regarding the theoretical possibility that the US would shoot down IAF jets en route to attack Iran.
The Weekly Standard reported that in a town hall meeting on the campus of the University of West Virginia, a US Air Force ROTC cadet asked Mullen to respond to a hypothetical situation: if Israel decided to attack Iran, he said, its jets would need to fly through Iraqi airspace, which is considered a “no-fly” zone by the American military. Would US troops shoot down the Israeli jets, the airman asked, if they entered that zone?
Mullen evaded the question. “We have an exceptionally strong relationship with Israel,” he said. “I’ve spent a lot of time with my counterpart in Israel. So we also have a very clear understanding of where we are. And beyond that, I just wouldn’t get into the speculation of what might happen and who might do what. I don’t think it serves a purpose, frankly,” he said. “I am hopeful that this will be resolved in a way where we never have to answer a question like that.”
The cadet insisted: “Would an airman like me ever be ordered to fire on an Israeli aircraft or personnel?”
Mullen still would not answer directly. “Again, I wouldn’t move out into the future very far from here,” he said. “They’re an extraordinarily close ally, have been for a long time, and will be in the future.”
Mullen, appearing in a forum at Columbia University on Sunday, equated the danger of a nuclear Iran with the danger of an attack on it. ""I worry . . . about striking Iran. I've been very public about that because of the unintended consequences.I think Iran having a nuclear weapon would be incredibly destabilizing. I think attacking them would also create the same kind of outcome," He did not mention the added danger to Israel of a nuclear Iran that has vowed publicly to destroy the Jewish State.
Brzezinski: 'confront them'
In September, former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, known for anti Israel views, urged the US to fire on Israeli jets if they try to reach Iran. “They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch? We have to be serious about denying them that right,” he said. “If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not.”
US President Barack Obama called Brzezinski "one of our most outstanding thinkers" in 2007, when Brzezinski endorsed his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.
4. New Israeli Drug for Alzheimer's Disease in Advanced Trials
by Hana Levi Julian
A novel medication designed to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease and improve its psychological symptoms is entering advanced clinical trials.
The drug, Ladostigil, has proven in Phase I and II-A trials to be safe and well-tolerated, enabling the company to proceed with an additional 52-week proof-of-efficacy trial in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
Israeli-based Avraham Pharmaceuticals received an infusion of $9 million that allowed the project to go forward. Investors include the Yissum Research Development Company -- the technology transfer arm of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem -- Clal Biotechnology Industries (CBI), Pontifax and Professor Marta Weinstock-Rosin.
If all goes well and the medication goes to market, Yissum and the Technion Research and Development Foundation (TRDF) – the technology transfer arm of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology – will exclusively license to Avraham the commercial licensing rights to the drug.
Ladostigil is a novel cholinesterase inhibitor, brain-selective monoamine oxidase inhibitor and neuroprotective agent designed to slow the progression of the clinical symptoms of the disease for a sustained period. It may also possibly modify its pathology, as well as that of other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's.
It is a multi-functional medication that may also improve the behavioral and psychological symptoms, such as anxiety and depression, that are associated with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.
Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia, affecting one in every 20 individuals worldwide age 65 and older, and nearly half of those over age 85. In 2009, 5.3 million people were affected by Alzheimer's disease in the United States, where some 360,000 people are diagnosed with it each year.
Professor Weinstock-Rosin, connected with Hebrew University's School of Pharmacy, has been involved in Alzheimer's research for years. She and Professor Moussa B.H. Youdim of the Eve Top and National Parkinson Foundation Centers of Excellence Rappaport School of Medicine at the Technion in Haifa collaborated on developing the concept for Ladostigil.
It was Weinstock-Rosin's research that led to the discovery and development of Exelon, a medication used to treat Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, licensed to Novartis Pharma AG. Youdim was responsible for the discovery and development of Azilect, a new treatment for Parkinson's, licensed to Israel-based Teva Pharmaceuticals.
5. Rare Meeting Between Mubarak, Assad, and Abdullah in Cairo
by Malkah Fleisher
Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, Syria's Bashar al-Assad, and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah may hold a rare three-way high-level meeting in Egypt this week, according to a report in London's al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper on Wednesday.
The meeting is significant considering the distance Saudi Arabia and Egypt have placed between them and Syria in the last few years. Saudi Arabia's suspicion that Syria was responsible for the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005 made the relationship between the two countries rocky. Tensions between Syria and Egypt were exacerbated after the Second Lebanon War, when Syria said any Arab leaders who did not support Hizbullah were "half men," and Egypt uncovered a Hizbullah cell that was targeting Egyptian sites.
President Mubarak, who is recovering from gall bladder surgery conducted in Germany, met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday. Assad's request to visit Mubarak as he is recuperating may signify a conciliatory stance on the part of Syria, and signal a warming of relations between the two countries.
According to the paper, the unique meeting between Mubarak, Assad, and Abdullah will revolve around an increasingly heated diplomatic exchange between Israel and Syria, in which Israel has accused Syria of supplying terror group Hizbullah with Scud missiles to fire on the Jewish State.
This accusation has been bolstered by a US summons to Syria's senior diplomat in Washington on Monday, in which the alleged weapons transfer was discussed.
Nuclear developments in Syria's ally, Iran, will also feature prominently, with political developments in Iraq and continuing disunity between Hamas and Fatah likely to make the agenda.
6. Anti-Israel Academics, Beware!
by Hillel Fendel
Dana Barnett of Israel Academia Monitor (IAM) says the number of Israeli university professors who write or speak against Israel has dropped to about 70 - partially thanks to her organization.
IAM was founded in 2004, Barnett told Arutz-7’s Benny Tucker, to fight the phenomenon of Israeli professors and academics who “receive their salaries from the Israeli taxpayer, yet who speak against Israel freely and call on other countries to boycott it. This is unacceptable.”
In 2001-2, Barnett said, “there were about 360 academics who signed anti-Israel petitions and the like. We started in 2004, and now there are about 70 people engaged in that type of activity. It’s of course hard to say exactly, because some people stop writing and then resume after a year or two…”
One of the reasons for the decline, she is convinced, is because of the work her group does: “Many of them don’t want people to know that they have taken these positions, and so our publicity deters them. But some, of course, want the opposite, such as those who make money from their writings.”
Barnett, currently working on her Kings College doctorate on the topic of post-Zionism, says her organization makes sure “to inform the universities’ boards of directors of their professors’ anti-Israel articles and activities." She said that the two universities with the most anti-Israel professors are Tel Aviv University and Ben Gurion University in Be'er Sheva.
“Most of the articles are written in English,” Barnett said, “as they are directed to audiences abroad. The professors turn to European pro-Arab organizations who seek out Israelis who will say that Israel is an apartheid, conqueror country that must be boycotted.”
She said that many even make a living from speaking against their country: “Some of them have left Israel, they write books with all sorts of anti-Israel accusations, and they sell like hotcakes… Many people are thirsty for any dirt about Israel; even the most bizarre ideas can become big hits.”
From IAM's Website:
“IAM supports the universal tradition of academic freedom that is an indispensable characteristic of higher education in Israel. At the same time, it is concerned by the activities of a small group of academics - sometimes described as revisionist historians or post-Zionists, among other labels - -who go beyond the ‘free search for truth and its free exposition’ (to quote the American Association of University Professors) that is the hallmark of academic freedom. Exploiting the prestige (and security) of their positions, such individuals often propound unsubstantiated and, frequently, demonstrably false arguments that defame Israel and call into question its right to existence.”
7. Palestinian Zionist Organization is Founded
by Hillel Fendel
For the first time since pre-State days when Zion and Palestine were synonymous terms, a “Palestinian Zionist Organization” has been established – by Arabs.
The latest Arab to show his public support for Israel is Elias Issa, who describes himself as a “European West-Bank Palestinian.” He writes that he chose a unique approach by which to celebrate Israel’s 62nd birthday – namely, by launching the Palestinian Zionist Organization. He says his goal is “to show the world why it must support the Jewish people and to [distance itself] from the terrorist Palestinian government.”
Statements on the new website include warnings that a new PA state, if it were to arise, would “become the most terrorist state in the world… The Palestinians don't believe in a two-state solution; they only believe in a one-state solution - a land called Palestine [which] does not involve any Jewishness."
Issa, who now lives in the United States, explains that the international community is blind “to what's truly going on in this Middle East conflict. [I hope] to make a difference by shining a different kind of light on the Palestinian-Israeli situation.”
The website notes that “more and more Palestinians” are going public in their support for Israel. Just last month, Mosab Hassan Yousef – the son of a Hamas founder and leader – published his autobiography, detailing how he spied for Israel for a decade, preventing dozens of suicide attacks and exposing numerous terrorist groups. He later converted to Christianity and moved to the U.S.
There is also Walid Shoebat, one of the more famous figures on this list. Shoebat was born in Bethlehem, the grandson of the Mukhtar of Beit Sahour. Shoebat joined the PLO in his youth, and was involved in attacks against Israel, and later moved to the U.S. After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, Shoebat became an active advocate against Islamism and a fervent supporter of the State of Israel, arguing that parallels exist between radical Islam and Nazism.
Speaking to Israel National Radio's Tovia Singer some years ago, Shoebat said, “I deeply wish to be granted forgiveness from the [IDF] soldier whom I almost killed… I would beg [him] to please understand that I underwent an educational occupation of hatred which brainwashed my mind to hate Jews. We were taught it since we were children and I did not know any better.”
Dr. Tawfik Hamid, once a member of an Islamic terror organization, took part in last year’s “Facing Tomorrow” conference in Jerusalem. He believes that the Jews have done their best, and that it’s now the Muslim world’s turn to make some changes and concessions… You [the Jewish People] are a great nation, and in the most difficult times, such as when the Nazis were putting you in ovens, you were able to get out of it and build a great country of human rights – and so, don’t let your country surrender to barbarism; fight for it and use every tactic you can use to stand against it… Never make concessions to radicals; the more concessions you make, the more they attack you.”
Another former terrorist, ex-Arafat aide and terrorist Taysir Saada, converted to Christianity and now heads Hope for Ishmael, an organization dedicated to reconciling Arabs and Jews.
