Israeli hackers strike back

Sunday, April 07, 2013 |  Israel Today Staff

Last week international computer hackers operating under the umbrella group Anonymous threatened to “erase Israel from the Internet” in a massive coordinated attack scheduled for today. By mid-morning Sunday, that attack had largely failed, and Israeli hackers had scored some blows of their own against the foreign assailants.

There was an increase in cyber attacks against Israeli government computer systems and the websites of local banks, as well as numerous smaller websites and networks. But nearly all of those attacks were repelled by Israel’s growing network of cyber defenses.

“There is hardly any real damage,” Yitzhak Ben Yisrael of Israel’s National Cyber Bureau told the Associated Press. “Anonymous doesn’t have the skills to damage the country’s vital infrastructure.”

A number of smaller Israeli websites were defaced temporarily, and in retaliation Israeli hackers defaced the websites of Islamist groups across the region.

More impressively, Israeli hackers penetrated the website associated with the Anonymous campaign against Israel – opisrael.com. Instead of reading about Anonymous’ anti-Israel views, those visiting opisrael.com on Sunday morning were instead presented with a pro-Israel banner and a long list of facts regarding the legitimacy of Israel and the history of the Jewish people.

The Israelis were operating under the newly formed banner of the Israeli Elite

 

 

Palestinians: No comparison between Holocaust an ‘occupation’

Propagandists like to compare the so-called “Israeli occupation” with the Holocaust to draw moral equivalency, but Palestinians brave enough to visit Yad Vashem say there is no comparison

Friday, April 05, 2013 |  Israel Today Staff

Palestinian Arabs visiting Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust museum as part of a program called “Combatants for Peace” said it was a gross error to compare the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict with what the Nazis did to the Jews.

Many Palestinian propagandists and their apologists abroad like to claim that Israel’s so-called “occupation” of Judea and Samaria is a new holocaust, and that the Jews, of all people, should refrain from such behavior.

One of the Arabs visiting Yad Vashem said such comparisons are made out of angry ignorance. He and other Arab participants said they can now more clearly understand why Israel bears scars and is so focused on the security of its people.

“When you look at the background of the Jewish nation, we can try to understand your anxiety and fears. A nation that went through something like this cannot live without scars,” Ahmed al-Jaafari told Israel’s Ynet news portal. “I don’t agree with the comparison between the Holocaust and the situation in the territories, and people who make this comparison make it out of pain and anger.”

Another Arab who lost a daughter in the current conflict said it was a grave mistake and a disservice to the “Palestinian cause” to make comparisons with the Holocaust, which was a tragedy on an entirely different level.

Such statements will no doubt anger many Palestinians and be ignored by media outlets and organizations biased against the Jewish state. But most Israelis would agree that until these historical backgrounds are acknowledged and understood, there is no basis for genuine dialogue, reconciliation and coexistence.

 

Israel braces for massive cyber-offensive | The Times of Israel

 

Israel braces for massive cyber-offensive | The Times of Israel.

 

Where is Israel?

In what is hardly an isolated incident, a major British educational publisher completely removes Israel from the Middle East map

Find Israel

A popular textbook used by institutions and teachers to teach English as a second language to students in the UK has been found to have a serious anti-Israel bias.

“I teach English as a foreign language in a further education college in Nottingham, England. I came across the attached map and couldn’t believe my eyes!” Liz Wiseman told Israel Today.

The textbook in question is “Skills in English Writing Level 1”, which includes a map of the Middle East on which Israel is nowhere to be found.

While Wiseman acknowledges she was not obligated to use this particular textbook, it is one of the more popular and mainstream English Language Teaching (ELT) textbooks published by one of the more popular and mainstream ELT publishers, Garnet Education.

Garnet Education bills itself thus:

“Garnet Education is an independent English Language Teaching (ELT) publisher, specialising in English for Academic Purposes. We produce award-winning ELT books, multimedia resources and tests for students of all ages, from kindergarten to university.”

This is far from an isolated incident, which is motivation for drawing attention to this particular case. It is not only in the Middle East where students, both adults and children, are being taught that Israel has no right to exist. The more students around the world are fed this brand of propaganda, the more remote prospects for true peace become.

 

Jews told to hide identifying symbols in Denmark, Jordan

Even as world leaders spout hollow promises of “Never Again,” Jews are forced to hide all identifying symbols in supposedly tolerant societies

Friday, December 14, 2012 |  Israel Today Staff – israeltoday.co.il

“Never Again,” they say, and yet even in 2012 Jews must be warned not to openly identify themselves as Jews in certain places for fear of a violent response to their ethnicity.

Such was the case in Denmark this week, where Israeli Ambassador Arthur Avnon warned visiting Israelis not to wear their skullcaps (kippot) in public, to hide any Star of David jewelry and to refrain from conversing loudly in Hebrew.

Avnon said this warning applies “irrespective of whether the areas [Israelis] are visiting are seen as being safe.”

Israel Radio noted that Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, had experienced no fewer than 39 reported anti-Semitic attacks this year.

Local Jewish leaders confirmed that it has become increasingly dangerous to be seen as a Jew, and hinted that the problem stems from growing Muslim influence in the city.

A little less surprising was a report that Jordan’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities had sent out a letter to all local tour guides instructing them to advice Israeli visitors against wearing Jewish symbols or publicly worshipping in a Jewish way.

Present-day Jordan makes up part of the biblical Land of Israel, so many Israeli visitors consider points of interest in Jordan to be holy sites, and consequently like to pray there.

But the Jordanian government said it has received numerous complaints over these outward displays of “Jewishness” and felt compelled to bring the situation under control, both for the safety of visiting Israelis and to appease the sensibilities of local Jordanians.