Dispatch from Jerusalem

Why I’m Moving to Israel

When I tell people I spent the last year of my life studying abroad in Israel, they usually look at me funny and respond politely. When I tell them I'm planning to move there permanently, the flabbergasted look on their faces demands an explanation.

Hamas Gives Women Equal Jihad Obligations

“A woman must go out and fight the enemy even without her husband's authorization.”

News sources and opinion writers have been surprised by the increased number of women suicide bombers, successful and unsuccessful.

Israel’s Military Strength Revealed

The Middle East Strategic Balance 2003-2004, recently released by the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, gave the public a glimpse into the usually murky order of battle of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). According to the report, the IDF has 186,500 full-time soldiers. This includes 141,000 in the ground forces, 36,000 in the air force, and 9,500 in the navy. If it calls up all of its reservists, the IDF can field 631,000 troops.

Barghouti- The Intifada Must Go On

The Palestinian people should carry on with the intifada, and the death of Yasser Arafat should not signal the end of the “resistance” against Israel, Marwan Barghouti, the jailed Fatah leader, said in November, after Arafat's death.

UN Council Adopts Anti-Terror Resolution

{image_1} The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously in October for a Russian-initiated resolution that seeks to expand the prosecution and extradition of terrorist groups and individuals, including Chechen separatists. But after challenges from Islamic nations Algeria and Pakistan, Moscow's UN ambassador, Andrei Denisov, considerably softened the original text in an effort to get the 15-0 vote.

Another Possible Parkinson’s Gene Identified

{image_1} Israeli researchers have added another gene to the list of those possibly linked to Parkinson's disease, saying their finding could one day affect the treatment options available to patients.

The gene is one that, in a mutated form, causes Gaucher's disease, a genetic condition in which lipids-blood fats-can't be metabolized properly. There is a high incidence of the disease among Ashkenazic Jews, from Eastern Europe.

Intifada Cost to Israel- US $12 Billion

The Israeli economy has lost some US $12 billion over the past four years as a result of clashes between Israelis and Palestinians, credit-risk group Business Data Israel (BDI) said in November.

Molecules Form Nano Containers

{image_1} Researchers from the University of Minnesota and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have found a way to coax the self-assembly of minuscule, multi-compartment structures made from molecules, the smallest structures made by man.

Man-Made Spider Webs Stronger than Steel

{image_1} For the first time ever, self-assembled spider web fibers, which are much stronger than silk spun by silkworms, have been created under laboratory conditions outside of the bodies of the arthropods.

Oldest Iron Workshop in Israel Discovered

The Bible relates that the Philistines zealously guarded technologies for producing superior weapons, so that the Israelites could not get their hands on them. But that didn't last forever. A recent dig at tel (mound) Beit Shemesh has found an iron workshop dating back to the ninth century BC, the earliest known in the eastern Mediterranean.