Dispatch from Jerusalem

Laser Destroys Roadside Bombs

Rafael, Israel’s leading developer of arms-related technology, and American defense contractor General Dynamics have produced and deployed the system called Thor. It uses the concentrated energy of a high-powered laser to clear unexploded bombs and improvised explosive devices.

Moroccan Jewry: Moroccan Chicken Tagine

By Charleeda Sprinkle

Jewish people have been living in Morocco, on the northwestern corner of Africa, since before the Roman Empire. Before 1948, there were over 265,000 Jews in Morocco; now there are only 5,000 to 7,000. However, approximately 600,000 Moroccan Jews live in Israel today!

More from Ahmadinejad:

“I tell my friends most of the time, don’t worry about the nuclear issue, [because] they [Westerners] are just bluffing. I tell them that the West is disarmed toward us and doesn’t know how to handle this issue. Believe me, we have been successful in terms of legal and public opinion. I am speaking from my own knowledge. Somebody asked me, ‘People say you are connected,’ I said, ‘Yes, I am.’ ‘Do you really have a connection? With whom?’ and I said I have a connection to god [Allah]. If we stay faithful, god [Allah] will show us his miracle.”
—Reported by Omid Memarian, Asia Times Online, October 28, 2006

It’s 1938, and Iran is Germany

The Iranian bomb can be stopped, and in 1,000 days or so, claimed opposition leader and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu in a meeting with some 60 foreign envoys in Tel Aviv in December. Netanyahu urged the diplomats to take action against the Iranian threat and not sit on the sidelines on the issue, saying that the longer the stick used to bar Iran from developing the bomb, the better the world’s chances are of not seeing such a bomb used.

Cleaning Up the Kinneret

Before the winter rains began, while the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) was still low, police divers began an underwater clean-up campaign. Over the years, junk—dangerous to both swimmers and the environment—has piled up. Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency service, reported that dozens of Kinneret swimmers have been injured by cans, broken bottles, metal pieces, and other items. Plastic bags, boxes, and other environmental hazards were also removed from the underwater beach.

A Lost Tribe Returns

In late 2006, 218 Bnei Menashe immigrants arrived at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on El Al flights from Bombay, the largest group of Bnei Menashe ever to come to Israel at once. The newcomers moved into absorption centers in the northern Israeli towns of Karmiel and Upper Nazareth. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews donated US $1.5 million for their flights.

Balancing the Scale—On a more positive note, some quotes of encouragement

“History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.”
—Abba Eban, Israeli Foreign Minister of Israel, 1915

The War on Terror—A Religious Mission

In 2006, Nabil Ahmad Issa Al-Jaaoura, 38, was charged with the murder of Briton Christopher Stokes, 30, at a Roman amphitheater in Amman, Jordan. Five visitors from the Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand were wounded in the shooting. Eyewitnesses said Al-Jaaoura shouted, “Allahu akhbar!” (Allah is great!) as he was overpowered. He obviously had no concern which part of the West his victims represented; all the West was his enemy.

The Jordan River—A Political Bargaining Chip

Naaman the leper was told by Elisha to dip seven times in the Jordan River and be healed. Today Gidon Bromberg, the Israel director of Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), says the Jordan River is a health hazard because of sewage dumped into the Jordan. “Almost no fresh water is flowing down the Jordan River anymore. It’s true there are springs along the way which replenish [it] a little bit, but unfortunately it has become the dumping yard of countries,” said Mira Edelstein, an expert on the Jordan Valley and a spokeswoman for FoEME.

A Cancer-Sniffing Electronic Nose

The European Union awarded US $2.2 million—their largest grant ever given—to Israeli Christian Arab Dr. Hossam Haick of Haifa. Haick aims to develop a tiny nanometric sensor that can diagnose different cancers from the breath, even before a tumor forms.