Israel dismisses accusations that it was behind Beirut bombing
(JNS.org) Current and former Israeli officials dismissed Lebanese accusations that the Jewish state was behind Thursday’s car bomb in a Hezbollah-controlled area in southern Beirut that killed 22 people.
Lebanese President Michael Suleiman said the Beirut bombing“bore the fingerprints of terrorism and Israel, intended to undermine the stability of the strong Lebanese people.” The country’s interior minister, Marwan Charbel, said the bombing “was carefully prepared,” and that “one of the theories is that it could have been an Israeli retaliation for the Labouneh operation,” referring to a Hezbollah attack that wounded four Israeli soldiers last week on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Israeli President Shimon Peres said he was surprised by the accusations.
“Why blame Israel?” Peres said. “It is Hezbollah that is amassing bombs and killing people in Syria without the permission of the Lebanese government.”
Former Mossad chief Danny Yatom told Army Radio on Friday that Israel has “gotten used to accusations of this kind.”
“They should be ignored,” Yatom said of the accusations. “There is almost no act in the Middle East that Israel’s opponents don’t attribute to it. But these are internal matters for these countries. We have enough problems of our own, so it wouldn’t be wise to get involved.”
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Moody’s affirms Israel’s A1 credit rating, citing ‘economic resiliency’
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Moody’s affirmed Israel’s A1 international credit rating on Thursday, commending the Israeli government for its budgetary discipline and reforms.
In 2008, the credit rating agency upgraded Israel’s rating to A1, and it has held steady since. The company said that Israel’s high standing was made possible by the overall fiscal health of the economy, the government’s move to rein in spending, and the austerity measures it had introduced.
“The first factor driving the affirmation of Israel’s A1 government bond ratings relates to its economic resiliency,” Moody’s Investors Service said on Thursday in its Ratings Action report for Israel, noting that despite suffering a drop in demand for its exports in Europe, the Israeli economy had successfully weathered the global financial crisis and would likely enjoy a boost from newly tapped gas fields.
“The second driver for affirming Israel’s rating is the continued reduction in the government’s debt-to-GDP ratio, which contrasts sharply against trends in many other advanced country peers,” the analysts wrote, noting the government’s passage of the 2013 and 2014 budget was a welcome development in light of the “upward revisions of the government deficit targets.”
Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid said the Moody’s rating “showed the company’s confidence in the economic agenda [of the Israeli government] and the new state budget.”
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‘Schindler’s List’ real-life documents sold at New Hampshire auction
(JNS.org) Documents belonging to Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist who saved more than 1,000 Jewish workers from being sent to concentration camps during the Holocaust, were sold at a New Hampshire auction for more than $122,000 on Thursday.
One of the documents is a letter signed by Schindler, the man whose story was immortalized on screen in Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List.” An anonymous buyer bought the letter for $59,135, said RR Auction of Amherst, New Hampshire.
“These documents are especially desirable as there are very few from this period in Schindler’s life, and their dates and locations ‘bookend’ the story surrounding the famous ‘Schindler’s List,'” RR Auction Vice President Bobby Livingston said, according to Reuters.
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IBM buys Israeli cybersecurity startup Trusteer, reportedly for $800 million to $1 billion
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Technology giant IBM announced Thursday that it plans to acquire Israeli security software vendor Trusteer for an undisclosed amount, believed to be between $800 million and $1 billion.
With offices in Boston and Tel Aviv, Trusteer helps firms protect Web applications, employee and customer computers, and mobile devices from cyber threats. Among Trusteer’s more prominent clients are financial services firms such as Bank of America, HSBC, PayPal and RBS. Trusteer is considered one of the fastest-growing cybersecurity companies in Israel, with an annual income of $100 million.
As part of its acquisition announcement, IBM said that it would set up a cybersecurity software lab in Israel that will bring together more than 200 Trusteer and IBM researchers and developers.
“Trusteer’s expertise and superior technology in enterprise endpoint defense and advanced malware prevention will help our clients across all industries address the constantly evolving threats they are facing,” Brendan Hannigan, general manager of the security systems division at IBM, said in a statement.
Hezbollah claims responsibility for Lebanon border attack that injured four Israeli soldiers
(JNS.org) Hezbollah’s leader has claimed responsibility for the attack that wounded four Israeli soldiers last week on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
In a live interview on Lebanese television station Al-Mayadeen, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said that two remote-controlled bombs were detonated when the Israeli forces crossed the border. Nasrallah said that his terror group had planted the devices and were waiting for the soldiers to come.
“The feet that will enter our land and we know about it will be cut. … This is our right,” Nasrallah said, the Associated Press reported. “We will not forgive any ground violation of our land.”
Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon had said the soldiers were on a routine mission and inadvertently activated a land mine.
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Hebrew University, ranked 59th in the world, tops list of leading Israeli universities
(JNS.org) The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is ranked first in Israel and 59th overall in the 2013 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), which was released this week.
Published since 2003 by the Center for World-Class Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, ARWU ranks the world’s top 500 universities. It is considered one of the top school rankings systems due to its transparent methodology and reliable data.
Hebrew University ranked among the top three universities in Asia and was 11th among universities where English is not the primary language of instruction.
“I’m proud to see the prominent positions of Israeli research universities in these important international rankings, and I’m pleased that once again Hebrew University has been recognized as Israel’s leading university,” Hebrew University President Prof. Menahem Ben-Sasson said in a statement.
Other Israeli universities ranked highly as well, including three in the top 100. The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa came in at 77th, and the Weizmann Institute of Science ranked 92nd. Meanwhile, a total of seven Israel universities made the top 500, including Tel Aviv University, Bar-Ilan University, Ben-Gurion University and the University of Haifa.
Harvard University took the top spot on the list.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org