Alan Dershowitz: Iran deal could be ‘cataclysmic error of gigantic proportions’
(JNS.org) Harvard Law School professor and vocal Israel supporter Alan Dershowitz said the deal reached in Geneva under which Iran promised to stop uranium enrichment beyond 5 percent in exchange for $7 billion in sanctions relief “could turn out to be a cataclysmic error of gigantic proportions.”
“It could also turn out to be successful, to be the beginning of a negotiated resolution,” Dershowitz told Newsmax. “But I think the likelihood of it being the former is considerably greater.”
Dershowitz believes the Obama Administration has a 10-percent chance of changing the Iranian leadership’s attitude on its nuclear program.
“But when you weigh that against the 30 or 40 percent chance that they’re dead wrong—nuclear bomb wrong—then it’s a very bad assessment of risk and benefits,” he said.
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Israel hosts four-nation warplane drill over Negev Desert
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israel this week is hosting Blue Flag, a joint air force drill with pilots from the U.S., Italy, and Greece over the skies of the Negev Desert.
Seven Israeli flight squadrons are participating in the exercise, including one “red” squadron, which acts as a mock enemy force. Each nation’s air force came with its own aircraft: Israeli squadrons are flying F-15s and F-16s, the U.S. pilots are flying F-16Es, the Italians the Tornado AMX, and the Hellenic Airforce is operating its own F-16s. In all, more than 60 aircrafts participated.
“The exercise is not intended to simulate a geostrategic scenario, but generic threats, like aerial defense and attacking targets,” a senior Israel Air Force official said Monday.
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Israel mulls EU pre-1967 lines directive’s impact on scientific cooperation
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held two emergency consultations with senior ministers on Monday regarding the European Union’s directive on construction beyond Israel’s pre-1967 lines and its immediate implications for a major scientific cooperation program between Israel and the EU, Israel Hayom reported.
The meetings were held ahead of the EU’s deadline at the end of this week for Israel to sign new funding guidelines as a condition for joining the prestigious Horizon 2020 program, stating that only Israeli institutions within pre-1967 lines can join.
“If Israel accepts these terms we will face a problem later on,” Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said of the EU guidelines passed in July, which instruct EU member nations to limit or suspend economic, social, and academic cooperation with Israeli institutions operating beyond the pre-1967 lines. The guidelines go into effect Jan. 1, 2014.
Horizon 2020, the EU’s 108 billion scientific research and innovation program, is set to take place between 2014 and 2020.
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Bard maintains Al-Quds University ties, York ‘investigating’ after Nazi-style rally
(JNS.org) Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, said it will continue its partnership with Al-Quds University despite the recent Nazi-style rally at the Palestinian school in Jerusalem. York University in Toronto, meanwhile, is “investigating” the matter of the rally and its Al-Quds partnership, spokesperson Joanne Rider told JNS.org.
Brandeis University and Syracuse University suspended their ties with Al-Quds after the rally, but Bard President Leon Botstein wrote in a statement to The Jerusalem Post that Al-Quds contacted Bard “immediately” after the rally and “provided an unequivocal denunciation of that protest.” Botstein’s statement comes despite the fact that Brandeis considered an Al-Quds statement about the rally “unacceptable and inflammatory.” Al-Quds President Sari Nusseibeh highlighted “vilification campaigns by Jewish extremists” against the university, rather than exclusively addressing the Nazi-style rally.
But Botstein wrote to The Jerusalem Post that the Nazi-style rally and its “ensuing controversy” demonstrate “that it is more important than ever to maintain our educational partnership with Al-Quds.” The notion that the Al-Quds administration condoned the student rally is simply inaccurate,” he wrote. Bard has active joint-degree programs with Al-Quds.
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Scientists find gene that predisposes Ashkenazi Jews for schizophrenia
(JNS.org) Scientists have discovered a gene prevalent among Ashkenazi Jews that increases the chance of getting schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and manic depression. The gene raises the likelihood of these mental health disorders among Ashkenazi Jews by 40 percent and among the general population by 15 percent.
The study was published in Nature Communications and conducted by Professor Ariel Darvasi, assistant dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Dr. Todd Lencz from The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in New York. Twenty-five thousand Ashkenazi Jews contributed DNA samples for the study, Haaretz reported.
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Apple acquires Israeli motion-sensing technology startup PrimeSense
(JNS.org) Apple has acquired the Israeli startup company PrimeSense, a Tel-Aviv-based company most famous for its motion-sensing technology that was used in Microsoft’s Kinect device for the Xbox 360 game console, for $350 million.
“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” an Apple spokeswoman said when confirming the deal, the Wall Street Journal reported.
PrimeSense’s technology gives digital devices such as cameras and sensors the ability to detect movements and objects, translating them into depth and color. Analysts speculate that the technology can be integrated into Apple’s existing lineup of personal computers, iPhones and iPads.
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Australia shifts to pro-Israel stance in the U.N.
(JNS.org) Australia’s new Liberal Party government under Prime Minister Tony Abbott has shifted to a pro-Israel position in the U.N., saying that it will not support resolutions that are “one-sided.”
Earlier this month, Australia abstained from two votes in the U.N.’s General Assembly that condemned Jewish construction in the West Bank, and another one forcing Israel to comply with the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
“The government will not support resolutions which are one-sided,” a spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop told the Sydney Morning Herald. “The government considers each Middle East-related resolution on a case-by-case basis, and on its merits,” the spokeswoman added.
The center-right Abbott government also indicated that it no longer considers Israel to be an “occupying power” in the West Bank.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org