Eroding Support for Obama among Jewish Voters

by: Kristin Brown
The race for 2012 heats up, President Obama faces some difficult losses -- more Jewish adults disapprove of President Obama's overall performance than those who approve, according to the latest poll from the American Jewish Committee.

The annual survey found that only 45 percent of potential Jewish voters approve of Obama's job performance -- a dramatic drop from last year's 57 percent approval rating.

Forty-eight percent of respondents, by contrast, disapprove of the president's performance.

The major sticking point, according to the poll, is the economy. A stunning 60 percent of the Jewish community said they disapprove of the way the president has handled the economy, as opposed to 37 percent who do approve.

And Obama saw another steep drop in the number of Jews who approve of his handling of U.S.-Israel [1] relations -- only 40 percent approve, down 15 percentage points from last year.

The survey was conducted just as Israeli-Palestinian relations came into the global spotlight this past week at the United Nations [2], when Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas [3] controversially asked the UN to recognize Palestine [4] as an independent state.

President Obama appeared to side with Israel, however, in his own speech before the UN last week, where he stressed the need for Israeli security.

But the president has come under fire this past year from Israel supporters, most notably after he voiced support for a Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders -- an idea that Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu [5] called "indefensible."

The drop in Jewish support could spell trouble for Obama in 2012, as the Jewish community tends to vote along Democratic lines. Obama faces worries from other minority groups, as well; Rep. Maxine Waters [6] fired back at the president Monday morning after he spoke to the Congressional Black Caucus and asked the caucus to "stop complaining" and "press on."

"He would never say to the Jewish community, 'stop complaining about Israel,'" Waters told CBS. "I don't know who he was talking to, because we're certainly not complaining."

Bibles Rescued From Syria In Secret Op, James Bond Style

It was a James Bond-style, continent-wide operation with many participants. It began in Syria, continued in the United States and ended in Israel. And yet, not a single word has been published about it – until now.

Yedioth Ahronoth has revealed the amazing rescue of some of the world's most ancient Bibles from Damascus.

The 11 holy books, some dating back 1,000 years, were written by copyist of the Scriptures around the world and arrived in the Syrian capital in different periods. The Jewish community took pride in them and guarded them meticulously, helping them survive the political upheavals that took place in the city over the years.

The Damascus books are considered the world's most ancient Bibles after the Aleppo Codex, which compared to them is torn and shabby.

The Rabin government decided to bring the books to Israel in 1995. The defense establishment, governmental organizations and immigrants from Syria took part in the secret operation.

"It was one of the most important operations we participated in," says Eliyahu Hasson, chairman of the community of Damascus Jews in Israel, who served as director-general of the Transportation Ministry at the time.

Judy Feld Carr, a Canadian pensioner who turned helping Syria's Jewry into her life's work, lauds the operation as well. "Out of all the things I have done in my life, this operation was the most brilliant," she declares.

Mystery Remains

On their way from Israel to Syria, the ancient Bibles made a stop in New York. They arrived at a safe haven thee, inside a grey container, without anyone guessing its priceless content.

The mystery surrounding the books' journey from Damascus has not been fully cleared, and some parts of the story cannot be published.

"I'm sorry, I can’t tell you exactly how I got it out of there," says Feld Carr about the book she personally helped bring to Israel. "When I had a famous rabbi look at it, a Tunisian Jew, he burst into tears and said, 'Get this book out of my house. I feel like I have just seen God.'"

The people involved in the operation say that its execution was very costly. "It cost a lot of money, a lot," says Hasson. "Whoever did it acted wisely and knocked on the right doors. One weak link would have been enough to break the entire chain."

Hasson explains that in light of the sensitivity of the operation, it was supervised by high-ranking officials. "I have no doubt that Yitzhak Rabin was in on the secret," he says. "Unfortunately, the prime minister was murdered before they arrived in Israel and did not get to see the mission accomplished."

Since being brought to Israel, the books are being kept at the National Library in the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. They will be presented to the wide public on Wednesday evening in a festive event attended by guests from Israel and abroad.

Israeli Scientist Wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Technion scientist Dan Shechtman shares Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovery of quasicrystals, described as "fascinating mosaics of the Arabic world reproduced at the level of atoms."

Fresh off Wednesday's announcement that he will receive the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the Technion's Dan Shechtman was forthcoming in sharing the honor. "I think this is a great day for me, of course, but also a great day for the country," he said at a press conference.The prize does not belong to him alone, he continued. "There are thousands of scientists that research the subject I developed, and I'm sure they all see the prize as an achievement for themselves as well, and indeed they deserve it."

Accompanied by his wife and grandson, Shechtman said he was somewhat overwhelmed by the media attention. After the official announcement, "all hell broke loose," he said in English. A string of media and congratulatory phone calls prevented him from personally relaying the news to his daughters in the United States. "I don't envy any celebrity," he joked.

Shechtman won the prize for discovering quasicrystals, which have non-repeating patterns the committee described as "fascinating mosaics of the Arabic world reproduced at the level of atoms."

Prior to his discovery, crystals were thought to only have repeating patterns. The controversy of his finding was so great that Shechtman was asked, at one point, to leave his research group. His research, ultimately, prevailed, using Arabic mosaic patterns, which rely on mathematical non-repeating patterns, as a model."

The main lesson I learned over time is that a good scientist is a humble scientist, not one who is 100 percent sure," Shechtman said.

Assad threatens to attack Tel Aviv in case of NATO strike

Syrian President Bashar Assad on Tuesday threatened to set fire to the Middle East, and especially to Israel, if NATO attacks Syria, the Iranian Fars news agency reported.

In a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Assad said: "If a crazy measure is taken against Damascus, I will need not more than six hours to transfer hundreds of rockets and missiles to the Golan Heights to fire them at Tel Aviv."

Davutoglu reportedly conveyed a message of warning from the US to Assad. The Iranian report has not been verified by other sources.

According to the Fars news agency, the Syrian president stressed that Damascus will also call on Hezbollah in Lebanon to launch a fierce rocket and missile attack on Israel, one that Israeli intelligence could never imagine.

"All these events will happen in three hours, but in the second three hours, Iran will attack US warships in the Persian Gulf as American and European interests will be targeted simultaneously," Assad reportedly said.

The Israelis Develop Sight for the Bling using Nano Technology

The Israeli company expects clinical trials to position its tiny implant as the most advanced solution for people with damaged retinas.

A two-year-old Israeli company is pairing electrodes with living neurons in the eye to create bionic sight for the vision impaired, in a nanotech development that sounds more like science fiction, than real life.

Nano Retina, operating since 2009 in Herzliya, is now manufacturing an R&D prototype of the development. While it is not the first in the field to develop such a technology, its advance offers a tenfold improvement in vision compared to the two technology solution providers on the market today, according to the company's managing director, Ra'anan Gefen.

Inserted into the retina in a 30-minute procedure, Nano Retina's implant device, about the size of a grain of rice, turns into an artificial retina that melds to the neurons in the eye. It is activated by the wearer using special eyeglasses, transforming natural light into an electrical impulse that stimulates the neurons to send images to the brain.



With investment money from its founding partners, and a grant from BIRD, the US-Israel Bilateral Research and Development Fund, Nano Retina plans to start clinical trials in 2013. If successful, these trials could lead to restoring the vision of millions of people with degenerative retinal disease, including those suffering from age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.

According to the National Federation of the Blind, some 50,000 people in the United States go blind every year, and there are currently some 3.6 million Americans aged 40 and up who are legally blind.

Easy procedure for instant results

A joint venture of Rainbow Medical and Zyvex Labs, Nano Retina's Bio-Retina is a man-made electronic retina activated by glasses fitted with a laser energy source.

The implantation requires only local anesthesia and a small incision. Vision is restored almost immediately, with a recovery time of one week.


Nano Retina managing director Ra’anan Gefen (below)
"We are talking about a 10 times better resolution [than existing solutions] and in the gray scale, instead of black and white," Gefen says. "It will enable people to have vision similar to somebody who wears glasses, so they can read, watch TV and function in society."

The best that can be hoped for with existing procedures is a 50 percent chance that the patient would be able to recognize the door in the room, says Gefen, referring to the industry benchmark of how to measure restored sight. "We hope [Bio-Retina] can do much better than that," Gefen says confidently.

"We are working extremely fast to facilitate it. I am sure we can deliver, and can show [how this device will] function by the end of this year."

"At the edge of technology, we are working at helping disabled people." This is, he says, "a good reason to wake up in the morning and do our best to bring it to life."

The people behind a life-changing technology

Nano Retina was founded by a team of entrepreneurs and businessmen, including veteran inventor Yossi Gross, Jim R. Von Ehr and Efi Cohen-Arazi. The company also works with consultants and researchers including Prof. Yael Hanein from Tel Aviv University.

At the helm is Gefen, a graduate of the prestigious Talpiot, an elite Israel Defense Forces training program that allows young people gifted in science and mathematics to pursue higher education and then bring their expertise to further IDF research and development. Given his experience in the defense market, and the last 10 years in biotech, Gefen is certain that Nano Retina is offering a life-changing technology.

And he is not alone: In advance of the BioMed Conference held last month in Tel Aviv, Nano Retina was named one of Israel's top 10 promising biotech companies.

Panetta Warns Israel Is Getting More Isolated, Says Negotiations With Palestinians Must Restart

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Sunday that Israel is becoming increasingly isolated in the Middle East, and said Israeli leaders must restart negotiations with the Palestinians and work to restore relations with Egypt and Turkey.

In a blunt assessment made as he was traveling to Israel, Panetta said the ongoing upheaval in the Middle East makes it critical for the Israelis to find ways to communicate with other nations in the region in order to have stability.

"There's not much question in my mind that they maintain that (military) edge," Panetta told reporters traveling with him. "But the question you have to ask: Is it enough to maintain a military edge if you're isolating yourself in the diplomatic arena? Real security can only be achieved by both a strong diplomatic effort as well as a strong effort to project your military strength."

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says Israel has a responsibility to try and ease tensions in the region and find a way to resume negotiations with the Palestinians.

Standing next to Barak, Panetta said now is the time for bold action by both the Israelis and Palestinians to move toward a negotiated two-state solution. He says there's no alternative to negotiations.

Panetta met Monday with Barak in Tel Aviv on the first leg of a Middle East trip that also includes meetings with Palestinian leaders, and a stop in Egypt to meet with top officials there.

Panetta is scheduled to meet this week with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, and then travel to a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. His visit comes as Mideast negotiators push for a peace deal by the end of next year, amping up pressure for the resumption of long-stalled talks.

The Pentagon chief said Israel risks eroding its own security if it does not reach out to its neighbors.

"It's pretty clear that at this dramatic time in the Middle East, when there have been so many changes, that it is not a good situation for Israel to become increasingly isolated. And that's what's happening," he said.

Panetta said the most important thing now is for Israel and its neighbors "to try to develop better relationships so in the very least they can communicate with each other rather than taking these issues to the streets."

His visit comes at a particularly critical and fragile time.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has asked the U.N. Security Council to recognize an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. The United States opposed the U.N. bid, saying there is no substitute for direct peace negotiations. But with Israel continuing to build settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, Abbas says there is no point in talking.

Some 500,000 Jewish settlers now live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

The United States, Britain, France and other council members are likely to try to hold up consideration of the application while they press for a resumption of long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, diplomats said.

Negotiators, known as the Quartet, are asking both the Israelis and the Palestinians to produce comprehensive proposals on territory and security within three months.

Israeli officials have welcomed parts of the proposal, but have also expressed concerns about the timetable for some discussions. They also have refused to endorse the 1967 prewar borders as a basis for the future Palestinian state -- something President Barack Obama has endorsed.

The Palestinians, meanwhile, have said they won't return to talks unless Israel freezes settlement building and accepts the pre-1967 war frontier as a baseline for talks.

The Quartet -- the U.S., European Union, United Nations and Russia -- is urging both sides to avoid "provocative actions." Just last week, Israel approved the construction of 1,100 new housing units in an area of Jerusalem built on land captured in 1967, a move that drew widespread international condemnation.

Panetta said he wants to stress to both sides that instead of setting conditions or pursuing other approaches, "the most important thing they can do is go to the negotiating table. That would be a tremendous signal to the world that both the Israelis and the Palestinians want to try to find a solution to these problems. I don't think they really lose anything by getting into negotiations."

Panetta is scheduled to meet with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

His visit to Israel comes six months after his predecessor, Robert Gates, traveled to the region to meet with Israeli leaders and make the first journey to the West Bank to talk with Fayyad.

The U.S. has said it would veto the Palestinians' U.N. request, despite the high political cost in the Arab world. However, Washington would not need to use its veto if the Palestinians fail to get the support of at least nine of 15 council members. Palestinian officials have said they believe they have eight yes votes, and are lobbying for more support.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/10/02/panetta-warns-israel-getting-more-isolated/#ixzz1ZlUrYlIX

Remarks by PM Netanyahu and US Secretary of Defense Panetta

PM Netanyahu: I'm very happy to welcome you to Jerusalem. You're coming to the Middle East at a time when it's undergoing a tremendous convulsion. Probably nothing on this scale happened since the end of World War I, and during this time it's particularly important to strengthen the security alliance between Israel and the United States.

I have to commend you and of course, President Obama, for strengthening that alliance and our cooperation. I look forward to discussing with you in this meeting ways to do that. I think that's important for our security and that's important for peace.

Peace has to be achieved, as both President Obama and I have said, through direct negotiations between the parties. Yesterday, Israel welcomed the Quartet statement that called for direct negotiation without preconditions. You're going to see President Abbas later today.

Well, maybe you can tell him, encourage him to enter direct negotiations without preconditions. That's our hope and I think it should be our common goal. I believe that security will take an important part. Security and recognition are the two foundations of that discussion. In any case I welcome you to Jerusalem. I know you have no problems elsewhere in the world. I wish success there and I wish us success in the pursuit of peace.

Secretary of Defense Panetta:
Thank you very much. It's an honor for me to have the opportunity to come here now as Secretary of Defense. I've had the good fortune to know the Prime Minister throughout different chapters of our lives, going back to my role as Chief of Staff to President Clinton and a number of other capacities as well. So I look forward to the ability to discuss some of the difficult challenges that face not only Israel but the United States as well.

The most important thing I bring with me is the continuing commitment to the security of Israel. We have been strong allies, we have been strong partners. We have always made a commitment to do everything we can to support the security of Israel and as the Secretary of Defense, I intend to continue that commitment. I think it's important for us to say to this region that when it comes to the difficult issues we face we stand together to try to confront our difficult and common challenges.

I look forward to our discussions and I look forward to continuing to work with you and others to ensure.