Meet 2007's Israeli high-tech mavens - today (Exclusive Video)

Sorry, I've been away - been working/reporting nearly nonstop from the Telecom 2006 conference in Tel Aviv for Israel21c.org, and Israelhightech.tv.

We're getting edited video interviews with the "next big high-tech thing coming out of Israel" up on site as fast as possible.


I spoke with the heads of "TV 'n' Go," and "Concealogram." Scroll down the images on the right-hand side of this page, near the bottom to view the Flash interviews.

And here's a special, behind-the-scenes slide show I prepared about the talented and professional crew:

Blue & White cooldom at 'Level Ground'

Blogging and random rants will be light in coming days, with scattered showers expected for the Tel Aviv area, which is where I'll be covering Telecom 2006 for both Israel21c, and Israelhightech.tv - and here, 'natch. Excerpts from the article:

(...) "We have a lot of innovation," says organizer Yair Ofek, deputy director-general of the Israel Export Institute.

"We have a lot of solutions, we have a lot of technologies that can help big, as well as medium-sized companies to be better, to give more services to their customers, and to be more efficient," Ofek told ISRAEL21C.

(...) MusicGenome say they want to revolutionize the paradigm of how listeners are exposed to, listen and purchase music online. After you've chosen the songs, and pulled out your credit card for the payment transaction, CallingID, promises "improved e-commerce and online banking protection." Then, so you'll be able to tell your friends all about it face-to-face, as ipoint-media, plans to add "interactive video telephony (video calling) services to mobile 3G subscribers or IP broadband users."

The guys liked your taste in music? Spread the groove with Nareos, who say says their mobile file-sharing technology will provide a "complete solution for distribution of digital content through mobile networks." After that, you can all share the joy with a SendM email sent seamlessly via an SMS mobile text message.

Read the rest here.

I'll be posting an audio podcast in the Odeo player near the upper, left-side of this page soon, with coverage, exclusive interviews with vendors, VIP's and lots of insider first-looks at Blue & White hi-tech cooldom - so check back here throughout the week for the latest updates.

'Multiculti' BBC hires Jews for Israel office, adopts Sharia Law

Go figure, huh?

From (or, perhaps in this case, "frum") Totally Jewish:

As the debate rages on over BBC bias in its Israel coverage, two Jewish journalists were this week appointed to join the corporation’s reporting team in Jerusalem.

Tim Franks will take up the role of a Middle East correspondent while Katya Adler will leave her current posting in Madrid to become a Middle East reporter.

Meanwhile, in the other corner of the round room:

The BBC's 'diversity tsar' Mary Fitzpatrick proposes to atone for these sins of the British Broadcasting Corporation's staff by implementing a new Sharia policy, based on suggestions from the greater Islamic community. "Effective immediately, the Sharia policy will become mandatory for all of our gay and liberal employees, including our gay and liberal elites," Ms. Fitzpatrick announced at the summit.

JerusalemOnline news update: Nov. 4th (Video - Channel 2 TV)

Today's Headlines:

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• Palestinian militants give Israel 48-hour ultimatum
• IDF soldier wounded in Gaza operations
• Thousands gather to commemorate Yitzhak Rabin
• Check out this week's poll results - click here
  
  
  
  Click here or on image for latest Israel
  Channnel 2 TV news update

Tel Aviv: River of Light in a waning sky (Photo)

Tel Aviv: River of Light
(Photo: Dave Bender)

Shot this image of north Tel Aviv skyline, traffic and water during a sudden cloudburst last week in the quickly ebbing day, as dusk closed in on drivers headed home; others still lighting the office towers into the night.

More images are here.

Cross-posted at Israelity)

The Rabin assassination: Another look

Carl, over at IsraelMatzav pours scalding water on the annual memorial over the Yitzhak Rabin assassination, laying out his take, throwing serious, sincere doubts on Yigal Amir's guilt in the murder:

YNet wonders why Yigal Amir stays in the public light. They went to 'experts.' The 'experts,' all leftist professors, wring their hands and complain about "the groups that stand behind Amir," "that the political system is leaning increasingly more to the right," "the educational system escaped all interest," and one professor who claims that Amir is not in the public light, and describes him with an obscenity I will not repeat.

He's posted a series of Israeli news video clips, supporting his contentions. Worth a viewing.

(This isn't Barry Chamishland, either, 11 years later, there are enough responsible, respectable voices wondering about the whole affair, not the least of which being Rabin's late wife, Leah).

Meanwhile, in a jarring counterpoint, the ceremony itself is taking place as we go to press at the square where it all happened.

Here is the Knesset's Rabin memorial page.

Saul Singer at The Jerusalem Post has a moving requiem about Rabin, the assassination, and a changed Israel.

Gaza: Human shields & the 'cycle of violence'

(AFP/Saif Dahlah)

Omri over at Mererhetoric has a good take, IMHO, on ongoing events in the Gaza Strip between the IDF and Palestinians, especially a blow-by-blow account covering the cynical use of female human shields to allow gunman holing up in a mosque to escape capture.

Thoroughly Fisking Reuters, he eviscerates their coverage of the incident. Long, but worth a close reading, to get a clearer picture.

JerusalemOnline news update: Nov. 2th (Video - Channel 2 TV)

Today's Headlines:

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• Iran threatens the West in war games
• Rabin assassination: 11 years on
• Share your thoughts - click here to Talk Back!
  

Click here or on image for latest Israel
Channnel 2 TV news update

Iran: The Prophet Motive (UPDATED)

Cut through all the media yammer and chatter; make sure to keep your eyes on the ball on this one - Iran:

• President Bush: Would 'understand' preemptive Israeli strike against Iran nuke sites
• Report: Iran fires missiles in war games
• Iranian maneuvers follow U.S.-led, 25-nation naval exercises in Persian Gulf
  

Cox & Forkum

From Amnon Rubinstein:

There is one advantage to President Ahmadinejad's latest outburst at the University of Tehran: It removes the fog of misinformation and misunderstanding surrounding the major issue of the Middle East — the survival of the Jewish state. That issue, or rather the Arab and Muslim opposition to Israel's existence, has not really disappeared since 1948, when the Arabs sought to annihilate the fledgling state.

Mr. Ahmadinejad does not joke. He has the means to carry out his threat: Iran already has substantial missile capabilities and will soon have, unless forcibly stopped, nuclear arms. Israel is not only tiny — a speck on the map of the Middle East — but it is totally unprepared for such a destructive blow. It has no shelters suitable to withstand a nuclear bombardment, it has no alternative sites to which people can retreat while awaiting cleanup of contaminated areas, and it has no operative anti-missile defense system. Retaliation and the balance of terror that saved the world from nuclear Armageddon during the Cold War may not be sufficient to deter a fanatical regime that regards "wiping Israel off the map" as a divine duty necessary for ushering in a new, blissful Islamic era.

Daniel Pipes adds:

This key decision – war or acquiescence – will take place in Washington, not in New York, Vienna, or Tehran. (Or Tel Aviv.) The critical moment will arrive when the president of the United States confronts the choice whether or not to permit the Islamic Republic of Iran to acquire the Bomb. The timetable of the Iranian nuclear program being murky, that might be either George W. Bush or his successor.

It will be a remarkable moment. The United States glories in the full flower of public opinion with regard to taxes, schools, and property zoning. Activists organize voluntary associations, citizens turn up at town hall meetings, associations lobby elected representatives.

But when it comes to the fateful decision of going to war, the American apparatus of participation fades away, leaving the president on his own to make this difficult call, driven by his temperament, inspired by his vision, surrounded only by a close circle of advisors, insulated from the vicissitudes of politics. His decision will be so intensely personal, which way he will go depends mostly on his character and psychology.

Read them both. What they have to say is important, and well spoken; the choices grow starker by the day.

IDF chief: Israel cannot ignore threat of a nuclear Iran
Massive bomb shelter built in J'lem

Iranian minister lauds Holocaust cartoon contest

JerusalemOnline news update: Nov. 2nd (Video - Channel 2 TV)

Today's Headlines:

Gaza: IDF kills seven Palestinian gunmen in raid Few MKs at presidential Rabin memorial Katsav: Heart checkup was routine Click here or on image for latest Israel Channnel 2 TV news update