Ahikam Amitai & David Rubin Murdered

The two latest victims of "peace"

Cpl. Ahikam Amihai, 20, and Sgt. David Rubin, 21 - May G-d Evenge Their Lives

Dec 28, 2007 - Cpl. Ahikam Amihai, 20, and Sgt. David Rubin, 21, both of Kiryat Arba near Hebron, were murdered by Palestinian terrorists while hiking in the Hebron mountains on Friday, 28 December.

The Islamic Jihad and the Fatah al-Quds Brigades both claimed responsibility for the murders.

Both off-duty soldiers, Cpl. Amihai and Sgt. Rubin were hiking in wadi Telem with a female companion when four Palestinian Arab terrorists opened fire on them from a jeep.

Amihai and Rubin, who both served in elite commando units, were carrying their firearms and were able to return fire, killing one of the terrorists and seriously wounding another before succumbing to their injuries. Their companion managed to hide and was uninjured, and phoned for help.

The families live in neighboring apartment buildings in Kiryat Arba. Both boys studied at the Mekor Haim high school yeshiva in Kfar Etzion and volunteered for elite IDF units.

Ahikam, whose draft was delayed, enlisted about a month ago to the Shaldag commando unit following a year of national service in the Hebrew University's Cave Research Unit in Ofra, in the hills of Benjamin. Benia Sarel, a friend, described Ahikam's love for hiking in Israel: "Ahikam knew every spring, every path."

Ahikam was the fifth child of Rabbi Yehuda Amihai and his wife Esther, and a grandson of Rabbi Tzvi Neria, "father of the knitted scullcap generation." Rabbi Yehuda Amihai is head of the Torah and Land Institute, formerly in Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip.

David served for 16 months in the naval commando unit. Before his induction he studied in the Benjemin region yeshiva of Eli and in a yeshiva in Mitzpe Ramon.

David was the eldest son of Rabbi Mishael Rubin, rabbi of Hebron's Shavei Hebron yeshiva.

Both young men were buried in the Mt. Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem.

David Rubin is survived by his parents Mishael and Yosefa, and by seven siblings.

Ahikam Amihai is survived by his parents, Yehuda and Esther, and nine siblings.

Terror Discovered in EU Relief Sugar Bags

DECEMBER 29, 2007: JERUSALEM, ISRAEL: The IDF has just released for publication that several weeks ago 6.5 tons of Potassium Nitrate, disguised in sugar bags marked as European Union humanitarian aid, were found in a truck during a routine inspection stop at one of the crossing points in Judea and Samaria.

After investigation, ISA sources can now confirm that the shipment was NOT initiated by the EU humanitarian assistance team and that it was intended for use by terrorists in the Gaza Strip to create rocket fuel for the unending barrage of Kassam attacks that have become part of our daily lives.

It is important to note that, though usefull in many civilian capacities, Potassium Nitrate is a banned substance in the Gaza Strip and the Judea and Samaria region due to its use by terrorists for the manufacturing of explosives and Qassam rocket fuel.

The IDF Spokesman pointed out in his news release that this is yet another example of how the Arab terror organizations exploit the good will of the West and the influx of humanitarian aid that is delivered to the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip with Israel's approval.

The venerable Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis - (http://www.imra.org.il/) adds that checkpoints, such as the one that was set up to catch this dangerous shipment, are constantly being referred to in Western media as "humiliating."

To learn how east it is to used Potassium Nitrate to make rocket propelant view this page

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Jewish Agency Welcomes Rabbi Eckstein/Evangelicals

The Jewish Agency for Israel announced last week that it has forged a "strategic partnership" with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which will give the agency $45 million.

Published: 12/27/2007 by Jacob Berkman - JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Thousands of evangelical Christian donors now have a powerful seat at the table of the Jewish Agency for Israel, the vanguard of the Zionist movement.

The Jewish Agency announced last week it has forged a "strategic partnership" with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, an organization that depends primarily on conservative Christian donors to raise tens of millions of dollars per year to help Israel and impoverished Jews in the Diaspora.
Under the new deal, the fellowship will supply the Jewish Agency with $15 million annually for the next three years to help cover its core budget, with most of the money going for immigration and absorption programs.

In exchange, the fellowship's founder and president, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, will be given a seat on the Jewish Agency's highest governing committee, its executive, which until now has been restricted to leaders of the World Zionist Organization, the United Jewish Communities of North America and its affiliated network of local Jewish charitable federations, and Keren Hayesod, the organization that raises money for the Jewish Agency from Jewish communities outside the United States. As part of the arrangement, he will also be able to appoint a member to the agency's budget and finance committee and its committee charged with coordinating relations with the Israeli government.

The fellowship has been sending money to the Jewish Agency for about a decade, and Eckstein served on the agency's board of governors for seven years and has had observer status on the executive for the past two. But, now, as a full-fledged voting member of the executive, he holds a top leadership position.
Eckstein's new position can be seen as part of a major ongoing historical shift for the Jewish Agency, an organization historically owned and run by Jews throughout the world. Starting in the early 1920s, it served as the internationally recognized representative of the Jewish people and the de facto Jewish government in Palestine, and then after 1948 it became the jointly owned arm of Israel and Diaspora Jews in promoting immigration to the Jewish state.

With the new arrangement, control and ownership of the organization -- and by extension the Zionist enterprise -- is being shared to an unprecedented degree with representatives of non-Jews.
“This elevates" the fellowship and "thereby Christians around the world to strategic partner with the worldwide agency of the UJC and Keren Hayesod,” Eckstein told JTA. “The Jewish Agency is essentially saying that pro-Israel Christians are joining with the Jewish community worldwide in helping aliyah and in strengthening the security and welfare of the State of Israel. That has never happened before.”

The move comes at a time when the two top overseas recipients of funds from the North American Jewish federation system -- the Jewish Agency and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee -- are running budget deficits. The UJC requires that each federation give a predetermined percentage of its annual campaign to cover the basic operating and programming expenses of these two organizations. In addition, individual federations and the UJC raise money earmarked for specific projects.

With UJC officials telling both organizations to expect cuts in what it will be able to raise from federations for basic operations -- the Jewish Agency is expecting a $2 million reduction next year -- both the Jewish Agency and JDC are looking to other sources to help close the financial gap. As part of its effort to diversify its base of support, the Jewish Agency is in the final stages of implementing a strategic plan aimed in part at shedding its earlier image as inefficient.

The $15 million per year pledged by Eckstein’s group amounts to more than 10 percent of the $140 million that UJC raised from federations for the Jewish Agency's core budget in 2007.

In total, the fellowship, which Eckstein started in 1983, has raised more than $250 million for Jewish causes in Israel. These days, it annually distributes more than $45 million to support Zionist causes and help needy Jews in the former Soviet Union, Israel and other countries.

In 2007, the fellowship gave $8 million to the Jewish Agency and $7 million to the JDC; the rest of the money went to other organizations, including Chabad, and to Israel advocacy and education programming aimed at Christians, including television programs. Eckstein anticipates the fellowship will bring in around $80 million in 2007, 18 percent of which will go to administration and fund raising.

The Jewish community has been split over whether it should embrace financial support, especially for Israel, from evangelical Christians -- the fear being that some might be motivated at least in part by the belief that the Apocalypse and the return of Jesus can take place only once Jews move back to the Holy Land.

A spokesman for the fellowship, Michael Stoltz, described its relationship with UJC and the federations as "cordial." But Eckstein told JTA that at times he has felt somewhat ostracized by the Jewish community, particularly by the federation system and the UJC.

During its early days, the fellowship gave money to the JUF-Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, but, Eckstein said, he was met with staunch skepticism from the wider federation system because his money came from evangelical Christians. So instead of going through federations and UJC, the fellowship has been giving directly to JDC and sending money to the Jewish Agency through Keren Hayesod. Eckstein said he was not sure if the new funding would go through Keren Hayesod or straight to the agency.

“When it didn’t work out through UJC, we started to work with and through Keren Hayesod,” Eckstein said. “They were very welcoming to me and to us and gave us a seat not only on the Kerent Hayesod board, but they gave me a seat on its board of governors.”

Still, Eckstein said, there has been a thaw in the relationship between the fellowship and the general Jewish community since the start of the second intifada in Israel. Getting onto the Jewish Agency executive, he said, is a final sign of validation.

Though some federations may have been wary of Eckstein and the fellowship at its outset, the UJC has had an amicable relationship with him, said Yitzchak Shavit, the UJC's senior vice president of communal advancement, who oversees fund raising for foreign projects.

Eckstein "is part of the family, and we are kissing and hugging," he said.

Ultimately, Eckstein just preferred to work on his own and not through UJC, Shavit said, adding that he's happy Eckstein has been able to forge a successful relationship with the Jewish Agency.

Eckstein and agency officials denied reports that the deal quickly would lead to Christians filling some of the agency's key lay positions, though Eckstein said he might choose to tap some of his members for Jewish Agency positions in three years, when the fellowship re-evaluates its relationship with the agency.

Agency officials rejected the notion that evangelicals would try to influence policy in an inappropriate way.

"This is a long relationship and has been a very positive one," Carole Solomon, the chairwoman of the Jewish Agency in North America, told JTA. "We have never for one moment felt pressured to do anything that would run counter to our values or any of the Jewish people. The fact that the word Christian is in there is not a barrier to us."

Eckstein also has been a voting member of the board of JDC since 2001, and has been a productive member of the organization’s lay leadership, JDC’s chief executive officer, Steve Schwager, said.

“On our board," Schwager said, "he has been a passionate advocate on the needs of the people he gives money to: poor elderly Jews."

Israel highly rated by American VCs

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Sharon Wrobel , THE JERUSALEM POST Dec. 6, 2007
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Israel has been ranked among the four most preferred global target markets for US venture capital funds and earmarked for high-quality deal flow, according to a global survey by accounting and consultancy firm Deloitte Brightman Almagor and the Israel Venture Association.

"It is clear that the interest US venture funds are showing in Israel will continue and even intensify further in the future," said Igal Brightman, Global Managing Partner of Deloitee's Technology, Media & Telecommunications Industry Group. "It is worth noting that European funds still do not consider Israel an attractive investment location, even though Israel is close to Europe, and is suited to European funds' policy of investing in neighboring countries."

"Israel, India, China and Canada were by far the most 'seductive' target markets for investment by US firms," stated the 2007 Global Venture Capital survey conducted among 500 venture capitalists world wide.

Furthermore the survey revealed that 70 percent of the venture capitalists questioned rated Israel as the top for high-quality deal flow compared with 21% who chose Canada, 18% for China, 17% for the UK and Ireland and 10% for India.

In the category of top-rate entrepreneurs, Israel came in second in the ranking as 20% of venture capital managers said the country was a prime source of high quality entrepreneurs, against 21% who named Canada. In the list of preferred locations for offshore R&D activity, VC managers rated Israel in third place as 7% named Israel as their preferred location, against 29% who named India and 8% who named China.

About 6% of US venture capital managers considered Israel as their primary location for expanding their investments overseas, compared with 2% who chose Europe and less than 1% who chose the Asia-Pacific region.

However, among the challenges Israel faces in attracting US investing was the perceived lack of talented portfolio management teams in addition to the difficulties in achieving successful exits, personal safety and security concerns, and an unstable political environment. At the same time, VCs were focusing on their local entrepreneurs, and as a result foreign investors had fewer opportunities to invest.

Overall, the survey showed that VC investment was increasing but growth was slow and cautious. US venture capital funds, it found, were not flocking broadly to global investment opportunities but instead were investing cautiously in countries such as China, India, Israel and Canada. The VCs said they preferred to play globally by investing in domestic companies with significant operations offshore versus directly investing in foreign entities.

Click here to view full survey