February 16, 2012

How Israeli Spies Pulled It Off

By Amotz Asa-El.  Mr. Asa-El, the former executive editor of the Jerusalem Post, is a staff columnist for Marketwatch.com and a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.

Tel Aviv

Famous for deceiving, concealing and thriving in the dark, spies are the perfect opposites of museums, which by definition crave audiences, truth and light. This alone is reason to visit the Mossad-sponsored “Operation Finale,” an exhibition that lists for its curator a presumably active spy cryptically presented as Avner A., surely a first in cloak-and-dagger annals.

From the Mossad Archive, courtesy of the Museum of the Jewish People. From the forensic files comparing photographs of Ricardo Klement of Buenos Aires with those of Adolf Eichmann during World War II. Photo: The Wall Street Journal.

Fortunately, there are even better reasons to visit this compact but sharp exhibition at Tel Aviv’s Museum of the Jewish People, which tells the story of Israel’s kidnapping, transfer and trial of senior Holocaust organizer Adolf Eichmann. Rich with newly declassified documents, photos and artifacts—from the identification, knife and comb Eichmann carried while kidnapped in 1960, to the bulletproof glass booth in which he was tried in 1961 and sentenced to death—the exhibition quickly orients even the uninformed, leading rhythmically along a path of several 90-degree turns that take visitors from stage to stage along this tale’s 14-year evolution. While learning what lengths Israel went through to bring to justice the man who oversaw European Jewry’s transport to the extermination camps, visitors also get a rare glimpse at secret agents and their work, and a surprising salute from the Mossad to world Jewry.

Spy-drama buffs will note this operation was much more George Smiley than James Bond. Eichmann’s 11 immediate handlers, whose names and photos are revealed for the first time, look like ordinary people with no common denominator. Some are bespectacled, some stern faced, some smiling, and one—Judith Nessiyahu, who played the safe house’s “mother”—has round glasses, straggly short hair and what seems like a giggling smile, all of which make her look like a librarian who just won the lottery.

There was also no pizzazz in their gadgetry. A simple Leica camera inside a document bag with a small hole facing the lens—both items are in a glass case at the beginning of the show—sufficed to photograph Eichmann, aka Ricardo Klement, outside his house in Buenos Aires as agents posing as developers engaged him in conversation. Neomi Izhar, the exhibition’s historian, explains that authorization for the kidnapping ultimately hinged on a draftsman’s meticulous analysis that proved the target’s ears matched Eichmann’s ears as they appeared in his SS file photo. These photos are also on display, just past the Leica and near the original ear sketches.

The identification’s challenges were dwarfed by the abduction’s. Lifting a man in Argentina and landing him unscathed halfway around the world was unlike anything the Mossad had ever done. Its previous coup, snatching Nikita Khrushchev’s secret 1956 anti-Stalin speech, involved three people. This operation deployed 67, all listed on the exhibition’s entrance wall, ranging from forgers and mechanics to pilots and the doctor who kept Eichmann sedated until his flight was in midair.

To reduce visibility, agents entered Argentina individually, at different times and from different places, all on false documents. A forger who joined them in Buenos Aires supplied false license plates, produced from a template in a special briefcase that can be viewed at the center of the exhibition, as well as passports and papers, including Eichmann’s departure documents. Other agents arranged several safe houses, cars and food.

And there was improvisation as well. El Al did not fly to Buenos Aires, but Argentina was celebrating its 150th birthday, so the Mossad decided to salute the event with a dignitaries’ delegation that landed in a special El Al flight, led by a clueless Abba Eban, then education minister. Two days later that plane took off for Tel Aviv via Dakar, Senegal, with a drowsy Eichmann aboard. He was dressed, like the agents carrying him, in an El Al steward’s uniform; the passport in his pocket presented him as one Zeev Zichroni.

For Israelis, the kidnapping and trial were transformational.

“I listened to the radio broadcasts with my brother daily after school,” recalls Dr. Roni Pate, an immunologist visiting the exhibition. “Our parents and neighbors would join and we’d all huddle around the radio; that’s how it was throughout the country.” As Dr. Pate speaks, a video screen behind him plays prosecutor Gideon Hausner’s famous accusation, “standing with me here today are six million prosecutors.” And between the video and the glass booth, three poster-size photos show the audience at the trial: pensive, silent, transfixed. “Until the trial, survivors didn’t talk,” says the operation’s commander, Rafi Eitan, now 86, seen on another screen.

The Jewish Diaspora was, of course, equally electrified by the trial, but it was also involved in Eichmann’s capture. Lothar Herman, a German-born Argentinean Jew, suspected that his daughter’s suitor was Eichmann’s son. He alerted Fritz Bauer, the Jewish Attorney General of Hessen, West Germany, who alerted the Mossad.

The exhibition’s statement that Bauer’s stubbornness made a skeptical Mossad probe Ricardo Klement’s identity is an admirable concession that Israeli espionage owes one of its major achievements to a Diaspora Jew, a gratitude expressed also through the display of the teleprinter and tickertape by which an agent was ordered to inform Bauer of Eichmann’s kidnapping.

The site of the exhibition—a museum tucked between Tel Aviv’s glitzy skyscrapers, where the descendants of Eichmann’s victims now thrive, and the Mediterranean, where Eichmann’s ashes were strewn after his hanging and cremation—is emblematic. Unlike Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem, which documents the Nazis’ mass-murder of the Jews, this institution hails prewar Jewish life and creation—the vision of the museum’s founder, ghetto fighter Abba Kovner, who delivered one of the most riveting of the trial’s 120 testimonies, some of which is viewable at the exhibition.

In hosting this exhibition, the Museum of the Jewish People says the Mossad, too, is a Jewish creation, like the state and military that Eichmann’s victims so tragically lacked when they needed them the most. The spy agency’s motivation in this initiative is unclear, but museum CEO Avinoam Armoni plans to shed more light on his improbable partners’ relevant deeds, from rescuing ancient Torah scrolls to airlifting oppressed Jews. “I hope,” he says, “it’s the beginning of a beautiful relationship.”

Kibbutz Sasa saves the lives of countless American troops with its advanced armor technologies.

United States Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro saw this first hand on January 30 when he visited the Plasan factory in northern Galilee.  The Ambassador saw the full range of products, from reactive armor, to purpose-built vehicles, to body armor.  Plasan has delivered more than 8,000 armor kits to U.S. units on active duty.

Israel is a world leader in armor technology and the Ambassador expressed his gratitude for the dedication to quality expressed at Plasan.

Read more about Kibbutz Sasa and the Plasan factory in our previous post.

Nestled in the forested hills of northern Israel, Kibbutz Sasa does more than just forge armor, they also forge connections.  Their unique theater program called Bereshit l’Shalom brings young people together from all sectors of Israeli society.  Jews, Arabs, Druze, or Circassian, all use the art of theater and dance to express the importance of working across society’s boundaries to interact with others based on similarities, not differences.  This successful program has been performed throughout Israel and Europe.

You thought of a full-sized plane, taking off from a runway, didn’t you?  That’s because you haven’t heard of the Skylark I-LE.  It’s small, it’s lightweight, it can be carried by one person and set up to be ready to fly in less than 8 minutes.  It has 3 hours of flight-time with a live video-feed, day and night, in any weather-condition.  The Skylark is quiet as a mouse with the eyes of a hawk.  It’s quickly deployed and quickly recovered.

The drone featured in the video is the Skylark I-LE, specially modified by the Israel Defense Forces and chosen for its lightness and extraordinary stealth.

Source:  Israel Defense Forces

Photo: American Friends of Tel Aviv University.

Prospecting — the search for valuable reserves such as gold, diamond and natural gas — isn’t just a matter of luck. It’s about knowing where to look. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University have modernized the hit-or-miss search with cutting-edge technology that scans the earth for signs of lucrative resources that could lurk beneath our feet.

Combining a number of surveying techniques for the first time, Prof. Lev Eppelbaum of TAU’s Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences at the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences and Dr. Youri Katz of TAU’s Department of Zoology at the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences have carried out a more accurate and in-depth land survey of Israel and the surrounding Mediterranean area than ever before. Their findings pinpoint the most likely places to find reservoirs of natural gas and oil.

Fifteen years in the making, their technique, which recently appeared in the journal Positioning, can be applied to any region in the world to more accurately identify possible riches below — before the costs of drilling or mining are incurred.

From buyers to producers

To create detailed structural-tectonic maps of Israel and the surrounding areas, Prof. Eppelbaum and Dr. Katz carried out an integrated survey using a variety of geophysical tools, including advanced analysis of magnetic, gravity, and temperature fields; utilization of seismic, magnetotelluric, and satellite imaging; and numerous well sections and outcropping studies. All of these results were integrated with plate tectonics reconstructions.

Perhaps the most valuable results of their study, the researchers say, are a series of prospective maps which identify specific areas where geological-geophysical teams are most likely to be successful in the search for natural gas and oil. Such information is not only of critical economic importance to Israel, but will also diversify oil and gas options for consumers worldwide.

Just off the shore of Haifa, a northern city along Israel’s coastline, there is believed to be a five hundred billion cubic meter area of gas reserve, Prof. Eppelbaum says. The survey indicates that a few tens of kilometers away, there may be another reserve that would significantly increase the current estimated amount of gas, he notes.

His predictions for additional oil reserves in deep water zones increase the estimated total of gas reserves by 200-300%. “Israel could have a future as a gas country — one that can produce oil and gas and sell it to the rest of the world,” Prof. Eppelbaum predicts.

A well-rounded approach

Prof. Eppelbaum says that the research was inspired by Prof. Zvi Ben-Avraham of the Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, who was the first to apply the theory of plate tectonics to Israel and the Eastern Mediterranean. His findings provide a deeper understanding of the geophysical conditions in the region.

Warning that many researchers specialize too narrowly in a specific field or method, Prof. Eppelbaum stresses that the interdisciplinary approach of the Tel Aviv University team had a direct impact on the success of the study. An integrated approach puts critical information firmly in the grasp of today’s scientists — and those “prospecting” for a brighter tomorrow.

January 5, 2012

For the third time in the last 12 months, a pro-Israel poster campaign will be launched in area BART stations and on AC Transit buses to counter anti-Israel ads. Sponsored by StandWithUs, the posters will go up Monday, Jan. 16, and will be posted for four weeks.

The ads feature a Palestinian and Israeli boy arm-in-arm, with the lines “Israel Needs a Partner for Peace” and “Urge Palestinian Leaders to Accept Israel as Their Neighbor.” The billboards also direct viewers to http://www.SayYestoPeace.org.

Source: http://www.sayyestopeace.org/

The posters are timed to appear immediately after an anti-Israel campaign ends, in many of the same locations.

StandWithUs will place 12 ads: nine at BART platforms, including the Civic Center, Embarcadero and Balboa Park stations in San Francisco, as well as downtown Berkeley, Oakland 12th Street, and MacArthur stops in the East Bay. The posters will also appear in three AC transit buses.

In the last few years StandWithUs has posted counter-ads in several U.S. metropolitan transit hubs, including Chicago and New York City.

Kraft Foods and SodaStream Enter Strategic Co-Branding Deal

Crystal Light™ and Country Time™ to be first Kraft Foods brands licensed to SodaStream

SodaStream System. Source: www.sodastream.com

NORTHFIELD, Ill and AIRPORT CITY, Israel – Kraft Foods, Inc. (NYSE: KFT) and SodaStream International, Ltd. (NASDAQ: SODA) today announced a strategic partnership for the manufacturing, marketing, distribution and sale of Kraft Foods branded flavors for use with the SodaStream soda making system. This will be the first time that Kraft Foods flavors will be available specifically for use in a carbonated beverage. The initial Kraft Foods brands to participate will be several varieties of Crystal Light, a leading women’s diet beverage, and Country Time, the number-one lemonade brand. One of the new carbonated choices will include an “All-Natural” lemonade.

Read more here.

December 29, 2011

The Rev. Thomas B. Curran, O.S.F.S., began his tenure as the 14th president of Rockhurst University June 1, 2006. Source: Rockhurst University.

Excerpt:

I was left wondering how Israel, this 63-year-old nation, can boast such growth in its economy and show such inventiveness while experiencing two major wars, several skirmishes and two intifadas. Then I discovered the Hebrew word davka. It means “despite.” Despite centuries of persecution, a holocaust, criticism from all over the world and continuous upheaval, the nation of Israel has not only survived, it has prospered and has bred inventiveness. Maybe davka should be expanded in its meaning to include a positive word — hope.

Fr. Thomas Curran, an Oblate of St. Francis de Sales and president of Rockhurst University, a Jesuit school in Kansas City, Mo

In June 2011, Orli Gil, Consul General of Israel to the Midwest, extended an invitation to 11 college presidents of U.S. Midwestern universities to spend a week in Israel. Gil, who is based in Chicago, described the Oct. 22-29 trip as an unparalleled opportunity for the university officials to meet high-level Israeli politicians and leaders of Israeli universities. The itinerary included opportunities to learn of some of the newest Israeli innovations in science, technology, research and development in medicine, alternative energy, agriculture and the environment. The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs sponsored and underwrote the costs of the trip, except for each person’s airfare to New York City.

Fr. Thomas Curran accepted the invitation. Upon his return, Curran spoke with NCR about the trip.

Read full interview here. 

Herta and Paul Amir building at night. Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Photo: Israel Ministry of Tourism.

The Tel Aviv Museum of Art is home to a comprehensive collection of Israeli artworks representing all major trends and artists.

The museum’s new Herta and Paul Amir Building opened to the public in November 2011 after a series of special events, including concerts, an architecture symposium and a gala ceremony led by Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Herta and Paul Amir Gallery. Photo: Israel Ministry of Tourism.

Designed by Preston Scott Cohen, the 195,000-square-foot concrete-and-glass building combines Mendelsohn and Bauhaus architecture styles, and doubles the size of Israel’s largest contemporary art museum. The museum is centered around a spiraling 87-foot-high atrium known as the “Lightfall” and features five levels with rectangular galleries using natural light.

A selection of some 250 works by Israeli artists dating from 1906 to the present will be on view at the Amir Building, creating the country’s largest permanent installation of Israeli art. The Amir Building is also currently hosting an array of art, photography and design exhibitions, including:

• Utopias of Expressionism and Cure by Expression: A pair of exhibitions featuring a selection of print and photographic works from the museum’s German Expressionism collection
• Library by Chanan DeLange and Circle by Yaakov Kaufman: Exhibitions focusing on Israeli design
• Five Moments: Trajectories in the Architecture of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art: Organized by guest curators Jascha Grobman and Ariel Blonder. This display explores the historical context of the design of the major structures of the museum ranging from the original Dizengoff House (1932) to the new Herta and Paul Amir Building

“The opening of the Herta and Paul Amir Building was a monumental event that has further established Tel Aviv as one of the world’s leading art and travel destinations,” said Haim Gutin, Israel Commissioner of Tourim, North and South America, “and exemplifies the city’s commitment to the arts and its prominence as Israel’s capital of culture.”

The museum will also host a site-specific exhibition entitled Shevirat Ha-Kelim: The Breaking of the Vessels, featuring new works by Anselm Kiefer, including large-scale paintings, sculptures, woodcuts and installations based on the themes of Jewish history and mysticism.

Visit the museum’s website here.

Source: Israel Ministry of Tourism.