ISRAEL

.... Bank of Israel governor Stanley Fischer disqualified from IMF race... Haaretz, June 14 2011     

International Monetary Fund board shortlists France's Christine Lagarde and Mexico's Agustin Carstens for IMF's top job, disqualifies 67-year-old Fischer due to the age limit.

The International Monetary Fund on Monday shortlisted French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and Mexican central bank chief Agustin Carstens for the IMF's top job, disqualifying Bank of Israel's Stanley Fischer because of his age.

In a surprise move, the IMF board failed to support changing the IMF's rules that would have allowed 67-year-old Fischer to run, two board official told Reuters. IMF rules carry an age limit of 65 for a first-time managing director.

An official statement by the IMF board confirmed it would consider two candidates and made no mention of Fischer.

Navy to hold large-scale exercise ahead of new flotilla... Jerusalem Post, June 15 2011

Exercise will involve Navy commandos from Shayetet and other special forces in operation that will include lessons learned from 'Marmara' raid; Navy preparing for wide range of scenarios aboard ships.

Israeli industries noted a record on Wednesday in defense exports,reaching an unprecedented $7.2 billion in comparison to $6.9b. in 2009, the Defense Ministry announced ahead of the Paris Air Show, which opens next week.

Israel is believed to be one of the world’s top four exporters of arms with specializations in the development and production of unmanned aerial vehicles, mini satellites, command-and-control systems, armored vehicles and the refurbishment of various types of commercial and military aircraft.

Ban on China arms sales in place despite Barak visit... Jerusalem Post, June 15 2011

Brig.-Gen. (res.) Shmaya Avieli, head of SIBAT, the Defense Ministry’s Foreign Defense Assistance and Defense Export Department, expressed satisfaction with the financial results for 2010 but said Israel is still facing a number of challenges due to the continued global economic crisis and the expected coalition withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Brig.-Gen. (res.) Shmaya Avieli, head of SIBAT, the Defense Ministry’s Foreign Defense Assistance and Defense Export Department, expressed satisfaction with the financial results for 2010 but said Israel is still facing a number of challenges due to the continued global economic crisis and the expected coalition withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan.

In total, Israeli defense companies sold $9.6b. worth of military hardware in 2010, out of which $2.4b. went to the IDF. In recent years, defense industries have invested in establishing joint ventures and partnerships in South America, Asia and South Korea.

Fifteen Israeli companies will set up exhibits at the air show, including a number of small and medium-sized companies that will be in Paris for the first time. SIBAT recently established a new “small business” division aimed at assisting smaller Israeli companies to break into the international defense market.

The Iron Dome counter-rocket defense system will be one of the main attractions in the Israeli pavilion. The Iron Dome succeeded in intercepting nine Kassam and Katyusha rockets fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel in April.

Defense Ministry director-general Udi Shani said the Iron Dome’s success served as potential for new growth in future exports.

ANTI-SEMITISM

Canadian court rules a man accused of 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue can be extradited to France... European Jewish Press, June 7 2011

Ottawa: A Canadian court ruled Monday that a man accused of a 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue that killed four people can be extradited to France, but warned the French government's case was "weak."

If convicted of the bombing, Diab could face life in prison, but the lawyer for the Canadian-Lebanese national indicated he would appeal the ruling.

Diab was immediately taken into custody to await a final decision from Canada's justice minister. Diab, who gained Canadian citizenship in 2006, has 30 days to plead his case in writing to the minister.

Diab was arrested in a suburb of the Canadian capital at the request of French authorities in November 2008 for his alleged role in the bombing that killed three Frenchmen and a young Israeli woman, and injured dozens.

Growing Hate: Italy against the Jews

Special: Murky wave of anti-Israel zeal, demonization of Jews growing at alarming rate in Italy by Giulio Meotti

The first months of 2011 have confirmed Italy’s status as one of Iran’s biggest European trade partners, all while the ayatollahs pursue the means to perpetuate a second Holocaust.

Rome is doing business as usual with the greatest totalitarian threat to international peace and security since the defeats of Soviet communism and Nazi fascism, providing a lifeline to an Iranian regime that is cruel at home, sponsors terror abroad and preaches anti-Jewish revolt.

Meanwhile, a murky wave of anti-Israel zeal is also growing at an alarming rate in Italy. “The old anti-Jewish libels are now aimed at the State of Israel”, says Stefano Gatti, one of the top researchers at the Center for Documentation in Milan

Lists of boycotted Israeli products
Anti-Semitism is becoming fashionable also among the “chattering classes”, intellectuals and academicians. Actress Sabina Guzzanti attacked the “Jewish race” in a primetime television program.

Literary guru Alberto Asor Rosa wrote in a book on the transformation of the Jews from “a persecuted race” to “a warrior persecutor race.” Renowned leftist philosopher Gianni Vattimo declared that he had “re-evaluated” “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and now felt they largely reflect the truth about the Jews.

The slandering of Israel is also growing among the most important Catholic journalists. Vittorio Messori, who conducted the first book-length interview with Pope John Paul II, recently wrote an editorial for the Italian daily “Il Corriere della sera” where he stated: “All governments of all Muslim nations are under the tsunami of the violent intrusion of Zionism that has come to put its capital in Jerusalem.”

The growing anti-Semitism is also evident by the security around the largest synagogue in Rome, one of the oldest in the world. The Jewish temple looks like a military outpost: Private guards everywhere, metal detectors and policemen at every corner.

he Jewish school looks like a “sterilized area” protected by policemen, bodyguards and cameras. All school windows are plumbed with iron grates. I saw the same in the Jewish homes of Hebron and in the schools of Sderot.

Pro-Palestinian groups just recently marched into the ghetto, shouting “Fascist” and “Assassins” to the Jews, some of them Holocaust survivors. It was here, on 16 October 1943, that 1,200 Jews were deported to Auschwitz; none of the 200 Jewish children came back home.

It was here, on 9 October 1982, that an Arab terrorist opened fire on Jews; a two-year old baby, Stefano Taché, became the first Italian victim of anti-Jewish violence since the war.

Not far from the ghetto, in the lower part of the Titus Gate, named after the Roman emperor who destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem, someone wrote in Hebrew: “Am Yisrael Chai.” The people of Israel not only had not been destroyed, but defiantly remained alive. It's comforting to know that there is still someone with the courage to write it.

Giulio Meotti, a journalist with Il Foglio, is the author of the book A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel's Victims of Terrorism

JEWISH WORLD

Philip Roth wins Man Booker International Prize... European Jewish Press, May 31 2011

Sydney: Philip Roth, America's most decorated living novelist, has won the fourth Man Booker International Prize, beating off competition from 12 other authors for the 60,000 pound ($97,500) award.

Roth is one of the world's most prolific writers, and his acerbically humorous studies of Jewish-American identity have won adulation from critics and readers alike.

He is best known for his 1969 novel "Portnoy's Complaint", and for his trilogy comprising the Pulitzer Prize-winning "American Pastoral" (1997), "I Married a Communist" (1998) and "The Human Stain" (2000).

Jorge Semprun died in Paris.... AFP. June 8 2011

Spanish writer, left-wing activist and former Culture Minister Jorge Semprun died in Paris on Tuesday aged 87, his grandson Thomas Landman said.

Semprun, who went into exile in France with his family after the Spanish Civil War, died "very peacefully" at home, Landman said.

Civil war, concentration camp, exile, communism, ministerial office and literary honours: Jorge Semprun experienced all of them.

Unseen Chagall sketchbook to auction in New York... European Jewish Press. June 11 2011

New York: A notebook containing 85 pages of sketches by Marc Chagall, until now never seen in public, will be auctioned June 17 in New York.

The work is being sold by a European collector and is expected to bring in anywhere from $600,000 to $900,000. It has never been on display before, auction house
Sotheby's said.

The burgundy leather-bound book originally belonged to Chagall's wife Bella, who filled the first eight pages with Yiddish translations of French poetry.

After Bella Chagall died in the United States in 1944, the painter continued to work in the notebook, filling it with ink, pencil or watercolor sketches. The notebook reflects a "virtual catalogue" of the artist, according to Sotheby's.

Many pictures depict Chagall with his late wife. Others reflect his lifelong interest in drawing Jewish and Christian imagery and scenes of peasant life from his native Belarus.

Several striking self-portraits appear, one of them showing Chagall as a satyr and another as a drinker staring at a bottle inscribed with his own initials, "MC."