Spain refused to allow Ariel University students to take part in a
competition to design "green" environmentally-friendly buildings, which
was meant to be open to students from all universities worldwide.
Ariel University students reached the finals of the competition with their design, according to Yedioth Aharonoth.
Their design, entitled "Abraham's Tent," garnered great international
interest, but the boycott movement began working overtime to have the
students banned from the competition for the simple fact that they study
in Samaria.
Eventually the anti-Israel activists succeeded, and even though the
Israeli students had arrived in Spain in order to take part in the
finals, they were informed by the Spanish construction ministry that
funded the competition that they were being banned.
The University responded by petitioning the decision via an attorney
in Spain, suing the Spanish government for compensation and demanding
that the students be allowed to return to the competition.
The Spanish construction ministry reportedly tried to fight the
petition, but after realizing they were going to lose embarrassingly,
they decided to admit that they had discriminated against the students
and the university and offered to pay 430,000 shekels in compensation.
That amount was recently transferred to the university.
Passengers on an Iberia flight from Madrid to Tel Aviv on Wednesday reported that the pilot welcomed them to 'Palestine' on landing.
During the flight from Madrid by Spain’s
national carrier, the pilot announced in Spanish that he was preparing
to land “in Tel Aviv, in Palestine.” In English, he subsequently said he
was preparing to land “in Tel Aviv,” and did not repeat the “Palestine”
comment; neither did he say “Israel.”
Lior, a passenger on the flight, told Channel 2 news that he was “a little bit shocked.”
“I don’t understand why he said this,” said
Lior. “We live in the State of Israel and he should have said ‘Israel.’
There was a reason he didn’t say it in English. It was deliberate.”
Another passenger said “everyone noticed” that the pilot didn’t mention Israel by name.
One of the passengers sent a letter to the
company complaining about the pilot’s conduct, saying he and his family
“were very offended,” and adding, “It is inappropriate and does serve
your company well,” Channel 2 reported.
The Spanish news website 20 Minutos reported
on Thursday morning that the Israeli ambassador in Madrid penned a
“tough letter” to the president of Iberia in which he asked him to take
disciplinary measures against the pilot.
Yedioth Ahronoth reported that an Iberia
spokeswoman in Israel apologized on behalf of the airline and said the
pilot who made the announcement would not be flying the route to Israel
until the matter was fully investigated by the airline.
Iberia is now denying that the pilot said 'Palestine.'
After speaking with “members of both cockpit and cabin crews and with
other passengers on board” to clarify the situation, Iberia has
determined “the word ‘Palestine’ was not used in the announcement,”
according to a statement posted on the airline’s website.
“The captain adhered to the standard format, in which only the
airports of origin and destination are named, and not countries,
regions, or territories,” Iberia said.
The announcement was first made in Spanish and then in English. The
airline claims the captain said, “Dear passengers, we’re now descending
to land at our destination, Tel Aviv.”
However, passengers may have been confused, according to Iberia.
“Both the airline and the crew regret the misunderstanding, which
could have been caused by the similar sound of the Spanish word
‘destino,’ meaning ‘destination’, with ‘Palestina.’ No such confusion
was caused by the message in English, passengers said.”
If he had said 'Israel' or 'Palestine,' it would have been a breach of protocol. I fly a lot, and I don't recall ever hearing an airline pilot announce the name of the country in whose airport we were landing.
“People were standing on each other’s
shoulders with flags giving me the middle finger,” Matisyahu tells The
Daily Beast in an interview. “It was intense. It was not peaceful. It
was like ‘Fuck you, Matisyahu.’ I’ve never had the experience of
anything like that, as a Jew or anything in my life.”
Matisyahu performed at the Rototom Sunsplash
festival after a public backlash prompted organizers to rescind their
initial insistence that he sign a statement in support of Palestinian
statehood as a prerequisite for his appearance.
Leading BDS'er writes post blasting ban on Matisyahu, post disappears down memory hole
Leading BDS'er Benjamin Norton wrote a post criticizing the ban placed (and subsequently removed) on Matisyahu by the Rototom festival in France last week. The post has disappeared down the memory hole.
Norton writes for the anti-Zionist Mondoweiss website, as well as a
slew of other places on the topic of how bad Israel is. While I don’t
agree with most of what Norton says, he certainly is prolific and an
upcoming opinion-leader in that sphere.
So when I saw Norton pen a column severely criticizing the ban
on American Jewish musician Matisyahu at the behest of a Spanish branch
of the BDS movement, I was, well, surprised. All the more so because
leading American BDS activists like Ali Abunimah and Max Blumenthal were
seeking to justify the ban because Matisyahu was too pro-Israel.
...
While I disagree with some of the characterizations — for example, in
reality BDS does boycott individuals, and it is not a peaceful movement
which seeks justice for all — the overall point was pretty much the
point that Zionist supporters of Matisyahu are making: Keep politics out
of music, and don’t single out Jews for extra political scrutiny.
#BDS_Fail Matisyahu gets an apology and an invitation
After a day that saw the Rototom festival condemned by its own government, American Jewish reggae singer Matisyahu has received an apology and a new invitation.
The Rototom Sunsplash reggae festival said it
rejects any form of discrimination and anti-Semitism, and said it was
sorry for canceling Matisyahu’s August 22 show.
...
The new invitation asks Matisyahu – the stage
name of the ex-ultra-Orthodox artist whose real name is Matthew Miller –
to perform in his originally planned slot on the festival’s Main Stage.
“We respect the Jewish community and sincerely
apologize for what happened,” the festival organizers said in a
statement, according to the Spanish news site El Mundo.
“Rototom publicly apologizes for canceling
Matisyahu’s concert and announces that he has been invited to perform on
Saturday, August 22 at the festival, as originally scheduled,” it says.
The statement blamed the local anti-Israel
group BDS País Valencià, which campaigned to cancel Matisyahu’s
invitation, for “pressures, threats and coercion” efforts that
threatened to “seriously disrupt the normal functioning of the festival”
and “prevented the management of the situation with clarity.”
In a hint that the festival may be facing
legal troubles for singling out the Jewish performer, the festival said
it “reaffirms its commitment” to each person’s freedom of belief as
recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Spanish
Constitution.
It will be interesting to see whether the anti-Semites try to disrupt his performance.
Jewish rap signer Matisyahu has been banned from playing in Spain because he refused to endorse a 'Palestinian state.'
The Rototom Sunsplash Reggae Festival called
off the formerly Hasidic rapper’s August 22 show, with organizers saying
Matisyahu had refused to comply with their demand to pen a statement or
a video message backing “the Palestinians’ right to a state.”
Festival organizers were driven by intense
pressure from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, the
reports said. Artists scheduled to perform at the event threatened to
cancel their appearances if Matisyahu were to perform because he was
“seen to represent Israel.”
The organizers gave Matisyahu an ultimatum,
telling him if he would “sign such a declaration [publicly affirming his
support for the Palestinians, he] can perform,” according to Spanish
daily, El Pais (Spanish Link).
Although not Israeli, Matisyahu has visited and performed in the Jewish state multiple times.
In a statement on Facebook, Rototom organizers said that the move was linked to “the festival’s sensitivity to Palestine, its people and the occupation of its territory by Israel.”
The front page of the Valencia-based festival’s website
features a two-and-a-half hour video on pro-Palestinian activists
holding Palestinian flags and decrying Israel’s bombing of the Gaza
Strip.
Local BDS activists welcomed the move after
accusing the Jewish rapper of being a “Zionist” and “defending a state
that practices apartheid and ethnic cleansing” on a link posted on his
Facebook page.
Matisyahu will be replaced by Jamaican reggae artist Etana.
No other performer was asked to sign such a statement.
Report: Lubitz tweeted "A Germany in which religious feelings have more rights than the meaning of freedom - is not my Germany"
Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of the Germanwings plane who deliberately crashed in the Alps on Tuesday killing 150 people, retweeted (actually looks more like shared on Facebook) the photo above, with the caption "A Germany in which religious feelings have more rights than the meaning of freedom - is not my Germany." (Hat Tip: Mike K).
And the New York Times reported on Friday that Lubitz "lived, at least part time, with his parents. Mr. Lubitz’s mother was an organist at a Protestant church near the town center.”
Mike K adds:
Here is the sad, but probably true story.
He is not a murderer or Muslim.
He took medications which overcame him as he flew. The
Pharmaceuticals do not tell the public all the
side-effects of their meds. They put people into murderous, zombie
like states. Most school shooters were on anti-depressants.
There is every reason to believe that this guy may have been overcome by
his medications. Medications
which are legal for pilots to take. The FAA allows pilots to fly on
SSRI anti-deressants (Click
Here)
SSRI medications are chemically similar to LSD-25. He could
have had a flash back without warning.
He did not say Allahu Aqbar. Those are the magic words required to
get 72 virgins. So he was probably
NOT Muslim.
His heart rate remained steady. Not something one would expect from a
man soon expecting death.
His medication probably did this to him, or a medical condition.
Morally, his culpability may be minor or non-existent.
German media: Germanwings co-pilot did it for Allah
German media is confirming that Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Gunter Lubitz had converted to Islam. Lubitz was the co-pilot of the Germanwings Airbus A-320 who deliberately flew the plane into a mountain in the French Alps on Tuesday killing all 150 people on board, after locking the pilot out of the cockpit cabin.
A German news website claims Andreas Lubitz was a Muslim convert. Speisa.com reported:
According to Michael Mannheimer, a writer for German
PI-News, Germany now has its own 9/11, thanks to the convert to Islam,
Andreas Lubitz.
Translation from German: All evidence indicates that the copilot of Airbus machine in
his six-months break during his training as a pilot in Germanwings,
converted to Islam and subsequently either by the order of
“radical”, ie. devout Muslims , or received the order from the book of
terror, the Quran, on his own accord decided to carry out this mass
murder. As a radical mosque in Bremen is in the center of the investigation, in which the convert was staying often,
it can be assumed that he – as Mohammed Atta, in the attack against New
York – received his instructions directly from the immediate vicinity
of the mosque. Converts are the most important weapon of Islam.
Because their resume do not suggests that they often are particularly
violent Muslims. Thus Germany now has its own 9/11, but in a reduced
form. And so it is clear that Islam is a terrorist organization that are
in accordance with §129a of the Criminal Code to prohibit it and to
investigate its followers. But nothing will happen. One can bet that the
apologists (media, politics, “Islamic Scholars”) will agree to assign
this an act of a “mentally unstable” man, and you can bet that now, once
again the mantra of how supposedly peaceful Islam is will continue. And
worse still, the attacks by the left against those who have always
warned against Islam, will be angrier and merciless.
For now the German Islam supporters like never before have their backs against the wall.
Michael Mannheimer, 26.3.2015
Apparently from the comments at German PI – Andreas Lubitz was Muslim convert from his Facebook page.
Of course, in much of the West it remains politically incorrect to mention these facts. And there is little hope that the airlines will screen their pilots for religious beliefs. Until they get hit with a huge lawsuit because they should have known something like this.
Airlines are changing procedures to ensure two crew are in the cockpit at all times following the Germanwings tragedy that killed 150 people.
...
Now budget carrier EasyJet has announced the move will come into force tomorrow - and aviation insiders say there are moves to make it 'mandatory' across airlines.
The move comes after the Civil Aviation Authority urged airlines to review their policies to avoid the pilot or co-pilot being alone at the controls.
An easyJet spokeswoman said: 'easyJet can confirm that, with effect from Friday 27 March, it will change its procedure which will mean that two crew members will be in the cockpit at all times.
'This decision has been taken in consultation with the Civil Aviation Authority. The safety and security and of its passengers and crew is the airline's highest priority.'
EasyJet said a cabin crew member will temporarily enter the cockpit if the pilot or co-pilot needs the toilet. The airline will not have a third trained pilot on board.
And a spokesman for Virgin Atlantic said: 'We always ensure we have the highest safety standards and, while it is our common practise to have two members of our crew in the flight deck at all times, in light of recent events we are now in the process of formalising this to be policy.'
So now commercial air travel will be safe so long as both pilots are not Muslims... and so long as a flight attendant is willing and able to overpower a suicidal pilot.
Questions about the religious background of Andreas Lubitz, the
Germanwings pilot who investigators said deliberately crashed a plane in
the French Alps this week, killing all on board, have sparked outrage
and debate about whether such information is relevant to the
investigation. When a reporter asked French Prosecutor Brice Robin of
Marseille, during a news conference Thursday, whether he knew Lubitz’s
religion, Robin said he did not know and added, “I don’t think that’s
where the answer to this lies.”
The question suggested that Lubitz’s religious background was
relevant to the investigation behind the pilot’s alleged deliberate
downing of Germanwings Flight 9525 on Tuesday. Robin said the crash did
not show any signs of terrorism. Some were appalled by the reporter’s
inquiry.
“This line of questioning makes no sense to me whatsoever,” said
Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, an associate professor of political science with
a courtesy appointment in religious studies at Northwestern University
in Illinois. “I find it disturbing and depressing that at a time like
this some people feel compelled to search desperately for explanations
that presume religious causation.”
Really, Professor Hurd? NO SENSE? It's all just a coincidence?
In 1999, the pilot of a Boeing 767 intentionally plunged the fully
loaded plane into the Atlantic Ocean 30 minutes after takeoff from New
York City on a nonstop flight to Cairo. An investigation found the
pilot, Gamal al-Batouti, had said several times in
Arabic, “I rely on God,” as the plane's autopilot function was
disconnected and Egypt Air 999 plunged. The phrase is often associated
with the moments before death.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board concluded that no
mechanical event could have caused the plane to dive. But Egyptian
officials never accepted the conclusion that al-Batouti had
intentionally crashed, and conspiracy theories spread.
Investigators are now telling the London Telegraph that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was taken on a suicide mission.
The team investigating the Boeing 777’s disappearance believe no malfunction
or fire was capable of causing the aircraft’s unusual flight or the
disabling of its communications system before it veered wildly off course on
a seven-hour silent flight into the sea. An analysis of the flight’s
routing, signalling and communications shows that it was flown “in a
rational way”.
An official source told The Telegraph that investigators believe “this has
been a deliberate act by someone on board who had to have had the detailed
knowledge to do what was done ... Nothing is emerging that points to
motive.”
Asked about the possibility of a plane malfunction or an on-board fire, the
source said: “It just does not hinge together... [The investigators] have
gone through processes you do to get the plane where it flew to for eight
hours. They point to it being flown in a rational way.”
...
The flight remains shrouded in mystery and misinformation. Malaysia Airlines
revealed for the first time yesterday that Fariq Abdul Hamid, the
27-year-old co-pilot, was on his first flight aboard a Boeing 777 as a
fully-approved pilot. Fariq joined the airline seven years ago and had flown
2,763 hours but was only on his sixth flight in the cockpit of a 777 – and
his first without a check pilot overseeing him.
But analysts said the co-pilot’s inexperience in a 777 cockpit would probably
not have posed a risk.
Somewhat surprisingly, Malaysia Airlines said last night its “prayers go out
to all the loved ones of the 226 passengers and of our 13 friends and
colleagues” – even though the passenger manifest shows 227 passengers and 12
crew. The airline has not yet explained the discrepancy.
Would not have posed a risk, but would have made it much more likely
that it took him a while to figure out what was going on. And most of
the passengers probably never knew what happened. Unless someone had a
transponder (unlikely), most passengers on a flight like that would just
go to sleep. The crew probably served dinner without realizing what
their captain had done. From the families' perspective, they might take
some solace in the fact that the passengers probably died peacefully -
many of them in their sleep.
The captain - distraught over a divorce and over his political idol
being jailed, and devout in his Muslim religion (that which must never
be mentioned) - took them all down with him.
It was said that Lubitz had a Muslim girlfriend. It is unclear if she
was still dating Lubitz at the time of the crash. It is unclear if he
met the woman through his Muslims friends.
One said that Lubitz had broken off the relationship after he pledged to commit Jihad for Allah.
We do know that Lubitz trained at the Lufthansa Flight Training School in Bremen, Germany.
Bremen is home to the Mosque Masjidu-l-Furqan Mosque:
This Mosque was raided by the police in December 2014
BERLIN, Dec 5 (KUNA) — German authorities have closed a mosque in the
northern city of Bremen, after it was accused of encouraging youth to
join the extremist Islamic State group (known as ISIL), which is
carrying out violent killings across Syria and Iraq.
In unprecedented circumstances, more than 100 German police personnel
carried out a search of Masjidu-l-Furqan and its accompanying cultural
office, which had both been under police radar since 2007.
The decision comes amid the fight against ISIL ideology, Bremen Interior
Secretary Ulrich Maurer said, accusing the mosque’s management of
promoting ISIL values and encouraging young Muslims in the city to
travel to Syria and Iraq, and join the ranks of the group, along with
Al-Nusra Front – another extremist group in Syria.
The centre have so far succeeded in inspiring a total eight men, seven
women and 11 juveniles to travel to Syria and join ISIL, according to
the official.
Lubitz did his time in Bremen when the Mosque was under surveillance.
...
Lubitz converted to Islam during his break.
Reason that pushed Lubitz over the edge? The raid on the Mosque in Breman this past December?
The Police say they found a significant discovery in his home - not a suicide note:
Police investigating the Germanwings crash said they had made a
'significant discovery' at the home of co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who
deliberately ploughed the Airbus A320 into the French Alps. Officers
refused to reveal details of the potential breakthrough but said it was
not a suicide note. Speaking outside the flat on the outskirts of
Dusseldorf, police said they had 'found something' that would now be
taken for tests, adding it may be a 'clue' as to what happened to the
doomed jet. Daily Mail Read More>>>
Is the significant discovery something Islamic? Something on his computer? A Koran? A Muslim prayer rug?
And for those of you who - like me - have the choice of flying Israeli, European or American airlines, here is a sobering thought:
The A320 is designed with safeguards to allow emergency entry if a
pilot inside is unresponsive, but the override code known to the crew
does not go into effect — and indeed goes into a lockdown — if the
person inside the cockpit specifically denies entry, according to an
Airbus training video and a pilot who has six years of experience with
the jets.
Airlines in Europe are not required to have two people
in the cockpit at all times, unlike the standard U.S. operating
procedure after the 9/11 attacks changed to require a flight attendant
to take the spot of a briefly departing pilot.
Sounds like the US procedure is a good idea. I don't know what the Israeli procedure is, but I would guess there is some kind of safeguard to keep a lone pilot from crashing a plane.
What a sad commentary on our times that these things are necessary.
The co-pilot of the doomed Germanwings jet locked his captain out of the cockpit before deliberately crashing into a mountain to 'destroy the plane', it was sensationally revealed today.
French prosecutor Brice Robin gave further chilling details of the final ten minutes in the cockpit before the Airbus A320 plunged into the French Alps killing 150 people.
Revealing data extracted from the black box voice recorder, he said the co-pilot - 28-year-old German Andreas Lubitz - locked his captain out after the senior officer left the cockpit.
At that point, Lubitz used the flight managing system to put the plane into a descent, something that can only be done manually - and deliberately.
He said: 'The intention was to destroy the plane. Death was instant. The plane hit the mountain at 700kmh (430mph).
'I don't think that the passengers realised what was happening until the last moments because on the recording you only hear the screams in the final seconds'.
Earlier in the flight, Mr Robin said Lubitz's responses were initially courteous, but became 'curt' when the captain began the mid-flight briefing on the planned landing of the plane.
The captain - named by local media as German father-of-two Patrick Sonderheimer - then left the cockpit but found himself locked out when he tried to re-enter.
Mr Robin said: 'We hear the pilot asking the co-pilot to take over and we hear the sound of a chair being pushed back and a door closing so we assume that the captain went to the toilet or something.
'So the co-pilot is on his own, and it is while he's on his own that the co-pilot is in charge of the plane and uses the flight management system to start the descent of the plane.
'At this altitude, this can only be done voluntarily. We hear several shouts from the captain asking to get in, speaking through the intercom system, but there's no answer from the cockpit.'
Audio from the recording captures Mr Sonderheimer furiously pounding on the door to no avail.
Russia Today has published a list of the nationalities of the passengers and crew of Germanwings 9525, which crashed on Wednesday in the French Alps. The list is not just Spaniards and Germans. It includes two Iranians, two Venezuelans, an Israeli and two Americans.
12:47 GMT:
AFP reports that these are the
nationalities of the A320 victims, which have been confirmed by either
Germanwings or the country’s governments:
72 Germans
35 Spaniards; Spain says there may be up to 39
3 British, confirmed by the government, which says there may be more.
3 Kazakhs
2 Americans
2 Argentines
2 Australians
2 Colombians
2 Iranians
2 Japanese
2 Venezuelans
1 Belgian
1 Dane
1 Dutch
1 Israeli
1 Mexican
1 Moroccan
1 Turk
Obviously, the nationalities could be totally innocent and I would not suspect that, for example, the Israeli and the Americans were involved in any foul play. Or the nationalities could be less than innocent.
Here's a report from the Guardian's website on the ongoing search and rescue operations for Germanwings flight 9525, which crashed on Tuesday in the French Alps.
In Washington, the White House said the crash did not appear to have
been caused by a terrorist attack. Lufthansa said it was working on the
assumption that the tragedy had been an accident, adding that any other
theory would be speculation. French president Francois Hollande will
visit the area on Wednesday along with German chancellor Angela Merkel
and Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy.
Germanwings said the plane started descending one minute after
reaching its cruising height and continued losing altitude for eight
minutes.
“The aircraft’s contact with French radar, French air traffic
controllers, ended at 10.53 am at an altitude of about 6,000 feet. The
plane then crashed,” Germanwings’ Managing Director Thomas Winkelmann
told a news conference.
Winkelmann later said some Germanwings crew members had declared
themselves unfit to fly, leading to some cancellations. “We understand
that on a day like today, they wouldn’t feel able to fly,” he told
German broadcaster ZDF.
Experts said that while the Airbus had descended rapidly, it did not seem to have simply fallen out of the sky.
A Lufthansa flight from Bilbao to Munich on Nov. 5 lost altitude
after sensors iced over and the onboard computer, fearing the plane was
about to stall, put the nose down. As a result, the European Aviation
Safety Agency ordered a change in procedure for all A320 jets.
Asked whether something similar could have occurred on Tuesday,
Winkelmann said, “At this time this evening, we are ruling out a
possible cause in this area.”
France’s interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, has told RTL radio all
options must be looked into to explain why the Airbus A320 ploughed into
an Alpine mountainside on Tuesday but a terrorist attack is not the
most likely scenario.
A journalist, speaking with a Spanish accent, asked during a press
conference: “Germanwings this morning explained something about this
flight, what do you think of that?”
It’s not clear to what she was referring but the Lufthansa representative seemed to understand.
Heike Birlenbach, Lufthansa vice-president for Europe initially
blocked the question with a fairly standard ‘No Comment’ but then turned
to her advisors and added in German.
“That was what he was not supposed to say.”
What was the question and why was it (apparently) not to be brought up at the press conference? Let's look at the press conference first.
Let's go to the videotape.
I watched the press conferences given by Germanwings' CEO and by the Deputy Interior Minister of France, and I didn't find anything suspicious. Hmmm.
Egypt Air 990, Malaysia Air 370 and... Germanwings 9525?
Am I the only one with the sickening feeling that the unexplained loss of Germanwings 9525 may be yet another pilot suicide? (I know I'm not because someone already emailed me with the same suspicion).
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve
said a black box had been found, but did not say whether it was a data
recorder or a cockpit voice recorder.
“A black box was found and will be delivered to investigators,” Cazeneuve told reporters.
The crew of the Germanwings flight did not send a distress signal, civil aviation authorities told AFP.
“The crew did not send a Mayday. It was air
traffic control that decided to declare the plane was in distress
because there was no contact with the crew of the plane,” the source
said.
France’s junior transport minister said there were no survivors from the crash.
Photos of crash site from the La Provence
newspaper showed scattered black flecks across a mountain and several
larger airplane body sections with windows, five in one chunk and four
in another. French officials said a helicopter crew that landed briefly
in the area saw no signs of life.
“Everything is pulverized. The largest pieces
of debris are the size of a small car. No one can access the site from
the ground,” Gilbert Sauvan, president of the general council,
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, told The Associated Press.
Germanwings said Flight 9525 carried 144
passengers, including two babies, and six crew members. Officials
believe 67 German nationals were on board, including 16 high school
students on an exchange program from the German town of Haltern. Dutch
officials said one citizen was killed.
And apparently one Israeli according to the article linked above. His name, like the pilot's, has not yet been released.
At 0147:55, the relief first officer stated, "Look, here's the new first officer's pen. Give it to him please. God spare you,"9
and, at 0147:58, someone responded, "yeah." At 0148:03, the command
captain stated, "Excuse me, [nickname for relief first officer], while I
take a quick trip to the toilet...before it gets crowded. While they
are eating, and I'll be back to you." While the command captain was
speaking, the relief first officer responded, "Go ahead please," and the
CVR recorded the sound of an electric seat motor as the captain
maneuvered to leave his seat and the cockpit. At 0148:18.55, the CVR
recorded a sound similar to the cockpit door operating. At 0148:30, about 11 seconds after the captain left the cockpit, the CVR recorded an unintelligible comment.10 Ten seconds later (about 0148:40), the relief first officer stated quietly, "I rely on God."11
There were no sounds or events recorded by the flight recorders that
would indicate that an airplane anomaly or other unusual circumstance
preceded the relief first officer's statement, "I rely on God."
At
0149:18, the CVR recorded the sound of an electric seat motor. FDR data
indicated that, at 0149:45 (27 seconds later), the autopilot was
disconnected.12
Aside from the very slight movement of both elevators (the left
elevator moved from about a 0.7° to about a 0.5° nose-up deflection, and
the right elevator moved from about a 0.35° nose-up to about a 0.3°
nose-down deflection)13
and the airplane's corresponding slight nose-down pitch change, which
were recorded within the first second after autopilot disconnect, and a
very slow (0.5° per second) left roll rate, the airplane remained
essentially in level flight about FL 330 for about 8 seconds after the
autopilot was disconnected. At 0149:48, the relief first officer again
stated quietly, "I rely on God." At 0149:53, the throttle levers were
moved from their cruise power setting to idle, and, at 0149:54, the FDR
recorded an abrupt nose-down elevator movement and a very slight
movement of the inboard ailerons. Subsequently, the airplane began to
rapidly pitch nose down and descend.
Between 0149:57 and 0150:05, the relief first officer quietly repeated, "I rely on God," seven additional times.14 During this time, as a result of the nose-down elevator movement, the airplane's load factor15 decreased from about 1 to about 0.2 G.16
Between 0150:04 and 0150:05 (about 10 to 11 seconds after the initial
nose-down movement of the elevators), the FDR recorded additional,
slightly larger inboard aileron movements, and the elevators started
moving further in the nose-down direction. Immediately after the FDR
recorded the increased nose-down elevator movement, the CVR recorded the
sounds of the captain asking loudly (beginning at 0150:06), "What's
happening? What's happening?," as he returned to the cockpit.
The
airplane's load factor decreased further as a result of the increased
nose-down elevator deflection, reaching negative G loads (about -0.2 G)
between 0150:06 and 0150:07. During this time (and while the captain was
still speaking [at 0150:07]), the relief first officer stated for the
tenth time, "I rely on God." Additionally, the CVR transcript indicated
that beginning at 0150:07, the CVR recorded the "sound of numerous
thumps and clinks," which continued for about 15 seconds.
According
to the CVR and FDR data, at 0150:08, as the airplane exceeded its
maximum operating airspeed (0.86 Mach), a master warning alarm began to
sound. (The warning continued until the FDR and CVR stopped recording at
0150:36.64 and 0150:38.47, respectively.)17
Also at 0150:08, the relief first officer stated quietly for the
eleventh and final time, "I rely on God," and the captain repeated his
question, "What's happening?" At 0150:15, the captain again asked,
"What's happening, [relief first officer's first name]? What's
happening?" At this time, as the airplane was descending through about
27,300 feet msl, the FDR recorded both elevator surfaces beginning to
move in the nose-up direction. Shortly thereafter, the airplane's rate
of descent began to decrease.18
At 0150:21, about 6 seconds after the airplane's rate of descent began
to decrease, the left and right elevator surfaces began to move in
opposite directions; the left surface continued to move in the nose-up
direction, and the right surface reversed its motion and moved in the
nose-down direction.
The FDR data
indicated that the engine start lever switches for both engines moved
from the run to the cutoff position between 0150:21 and 0150:23.19
Between 0150:24 and 0150:27, the throttle levers moved from their idle
position to full throttle, the speedbrake handle moved to its fully
deployed position, and the left elevator surface moved from a 3º nose-up
to a 1º nose-up position, then back to a 3º nose-up position.20
During this time, the CVR recorded the captain asking, "What is this?
What is this? Did you shut the engine(s)?" Also, at 0150:26.55, the
captain stated, "Get away in the engines,"21 and, at 0150:28.85, the captain stated, "shut the engines." At 0150:29.66, the relief first officer stated, "It's shut." Between
0150:31 and 0150:37, the captain repeatedly stated, "Pull with me."
However, the FDR data indicated that the elevator surfaces remained in a
split condition (with the left surface commanding nose up and the right
surface commanding nose down) until the FDR and CVR stopped recording
at 0150:36.64 and 0150:38.47, respectively. (The last transponder
[secondary radar] return from the accident airplane was received at the
radar site at Nantucket, Massachusetts, at 0150:34.)22[Footnote links may not work. CiJ]
As
some of you may recall, after the NTSB investigation, the Egyptians
continued to deny that the co-pilot had committed suicide and would not
accept the NTSB report.
As the video reports, the pilots apparently turned the jet at the
perfect spot - at the point where the jet was handed off from Malaysian
to Vietnamese controllers. But if the Malaysian authorities found
anything in their homes, they're not saying.
The Malaysian government
had been looking for a reason to search the home of the pilot and the
co-pilot for several days. But it was only in the last 24 to 36 hours,
when radar and satellite data came to light, that authorities believed
they had sufficient reason to go through the residences, according to
the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"The Malaysians don't do
this lightly," the official said. It's not clear whether the Malaysian
government believes one or both the men could be responsible for what
happened when the Boeing 777-200 ER disappeared March 8 en route from
Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The officials emphasize that they don't know yet what really happened to
the plane. But here's the best theory. To those of you who have been
following it should sound familiar. It's the southern corridor theory.
Flight 370 took off from
Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 a.m. on March 8. The last satellite communication
from the plane occurred at 8:11 a.m., Najib said, well past the
scheduled arrival time in Beijing.
That last communication,
Najib said, was in one of two possible traffic corridors shown on a map
released to the press. A northern arc stretches from the border of
Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, and a southern arc
spans from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
"Due to the type of
satellite data, we are unable to confirm the precise location of the
plane when it last made contact with the satellite," Najib said.
Because the northern
parts of the traffic corridor include some tightly guarded airspace over
India, Pakistan, and even some U.S. installations in Afghanistan, U.S.
authorities believe it more likely the aircraft crashed into waters
outside of the reach of radar south of India, a U.S. official told CNN.
If it had flown farther north, it's likely it would have been detected
by radar.
Nonetheless for the last
36 hours, the U.S. military and intelligence community has been
reviewing all satellite imagery and electronic data it collects from the
region for any sign of an explosion or crash, according to another U.S.
official directly familiar with that effort.
Najib said authorities were ending search operations in the South China Sea and reassessing the deployment of assets.
"This new satellite information has a significant impact on the nature and scope of the search operation," he said.
Investigators, he said,
have confirmed by looking at the raw satellite data that the plane in
question was the Malaysia Airlines jet.
The same conclusion was
reached by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. National
Transportation Safety Board, the British Air Accidents Investigation
Branch and the Malaysian authorities, all of whom were working
separately with the same data, he said.
Well, if it didn't crash it landed on some abandoned island somewhere in
the middle of the Indian Ocean and we'll hear a ransom demand sometime
soon. That appears unlikely. Given the level of satellite information
available today, it seems really unlikely that there would be an
airstrip in the middle of nowhere that could land a 777 that hasn't
shown up on the satellite data.
If you're wondering how they flew out of the corridor undetected, this might have had something to do with it.
Hours before Najib's
announcement, U.S. officials told CNN the flight had made drastic
changes in altitude and direction after disappearing from civilian
radar.
Malaysian military radar
showed the plane climbing to 45,000 feet -- which is above its approved
altitude limit -- soon after disappearing from civilian radar screens
and then dropping to 23,000 feet before climbing again, a U.S. official
familiar with the investigation said.
The jetliner was flying "a strange path," the official said on condition of anonymity. The details of the radar readings were first reported by The New York Times on Friday.
What's unsaid in all this is that Malaysia is - you guessed it - a Muslimcountry. As is Egypt.
Here's betting that the pilot is not Amish, Baptist, Catholic, Jewish.... Hmmm.
PS My travel agent talked me out of that flight a few months ago. She hates double connections.
Those of you who recall the story from 10 days or so ago when it was disclosed that the United States had denied Israel Hellfire missiles for use in Gaza, and who are aware that Britain and Spain have placed an embargo on weapons sales to us, might be wondering whether Israel has sources for weapons other than the United States and Western Europe. Unfortunately, while we have such sales they are negligible.
According to Defense Ministry figures, around one-quarter of the
output of the Israeli defense industry is intended for IDF use. The rest
is exported.
Despite official Israel’s reluctance to get specific
about its arms trade, reports submitted by various states to the UN’s
Register of Conventional Arms shed some light on the matter. For
example, Ukraine’s official reports state that two years ago, Ukraine
sold Israel 193 missiles and 32 launchers. According to reports made as
part of the voluntary disclosure mechanism, in 2010 Ukraine sold Israel
four Strella (SA-7) missiles and two launchers, about 75 Igla missiles
of various models and 10 launchers for them. It is not clear why Israel
purchased so many Russian-made shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles.
The assumption is that they are being acquired as part of Israel’s
development of systems to counter them, such as the aircraft-defense
system. As recently as February, Defense Ministry officials and Elbit
Systems announced the successful completion of tests of the Sky Shield
system, which is intended to protects civilian aircraft from
shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. Arms experts have said it likely
that Russian-made missiles were used in the test. Still, the number of
missiles Ukraine reported selling to Israel is relatively large even for
that purpose. Defense Ministry officials declined to comment for this
report.
Reports in the UN Register that were examined in recent
years point to some more interesting acquisitions, mainly for
Soviet-made arms that are not considered at the forefront of technology.
For example, in 2008 Ukraine reported that it sold Israel a launcher
for BM-21 rockets — a launcher that the Israeli army used in the past
after it was captured as booty in the Yom Kippur War and used during the
first Lebanon War. Hezbollah uses it to fire Grad rockets. In 2006, the
Czech Republic sold Tochka tactical missile systems to Israel. Two
years previously, Bulgaria sold Israel six 130 mm artillery systems
about which no further details were provided.
Against the backdrop of reports about Britain and Spain examining their
arms sales to Israel, an expert characterized the amount of arms that
Israel purchases from countries other than the United States as
“negligible.”
...
Israel has signed several significant defense contracts with other
countries in recent years. Germany provides Israel with submarines from
its HDW shipyards in Kiel. Israel has purchased six submarines so far,
three of which are in use by the Israel navy. The IDF has taken delivery
of two submarines, with additional deliveries scheduled through the end
of 2019.
Italy last year arranged to sell 30 M-346 training
aircraft to Israel. The first of these are already making their first
flights. As part of the deal, Israel sold Italy several defense
products, an Israeli-made satellite and a deterrent aircraft produced by
Israel Aerospace Industries in a deal estimated at $2 billion dollars.
Last
month, the Defense Ministry issued an international tender for the
purchase of “defense ships,” which will be used to protect the offshore
natural-gas drilling rigs in the Mediterranean Sea. According to an
Israeli Navy plan for the protection of the rigs that the defense
minister and the chief of staff approved about two years ago, four more
large vessels will be required to secure the area properly, at a cost of
roughly 100 million dollars per ship. The names of several foreign
shipyards — in Germany, Italy, the United States and South Korea — were
mentioned in the past as possible makers of the ships that would protect
the natural-gas fields.
There are two answers. In the short term, export less and use our own arms. That will help only when the arms in question are arms that we produce domestically. Obviously, there are things (like submarines) that we do not produce domestically, and for which we will still be dependent on other countries.
But in the long run we should be developing our own military industry more than we have been. If we have learned nothing else in the last six years, we should have learned that there are even situations where we cannot count on the United States. We should not be dependent on anyone. Not even the United States. What if Hillary Clinton - or possibly worse Elizabeth Warren is the next President? We would have 4-8 more years of pressure and unreliability. It's time that we learn to cope on our own. We're a big enough economy to pull it off.
Jewish housing starts in Judea and Samaria go 'poof' UPDATED
Haaretz is reporting that most of the 1,800 housing starts in Judea and Samaria that were announced last week have gone 'poof.'
Following pressure by Western European diplomats, the Civil
Administration decided on Wednesday to delay the recently announced
plans to move forward on construction of 1,800 settlement homes.
The
only plans approved by the Civil Administration's High Planning Council
concerned 381 housing units in Givat Ze'ev. Those involving
construction in Ariel, Har Bracha, Alfei Menashe, Oranit and other
settlements were put off, along with plans in the settlement outpost
Al-Matan.
Planning
council chairman Daniel Halimi said he received instructions for the
delays shortly before the meeting, and a source who attended the session
said, "Apparently the decision came from high up."
On
Tuesday, British Ambassador to Israel Matthew Gould and French
Ambassador to Israel Patrick Maisonnave told National Security Adviser
Yossi Cohen that their countries wanted Israel to hold off on advancing
plans for the 1,800 settlement homes, which had been frozen for many
months.
Gould
and Maisonnave told Cohen that Germany, Italy and Spain would be
conveying the same message, which the Italian and Spanish ambassadors
did to the Foreign Ministry later that day, while German Ambassador
Andreas Michaelis weighed in with Cohen early on Wednesday.
Israeli officials admit the delay but deny that it was the result of European pressure.
"Most of the deliberations set for today's original agenda were
discussed, except for a plan that was removed at the request of the
council and an additional plan that was postponed because of a
publishing process that was not implemented as asked," said the
officials.
Envision a pretzel soaked in warm water overnight floating around in a cup. Envision Prime Minister Netanyahu's backbone. Pretty similar, aren't they?
UPDATE 1:31 PM
I just found the retweet below in Barak Ravid's (the author of the report above) Twitter feed. Translation follows:
גורמי תכנון מודים: יש הנחייה לא להעלות שום תוכנית מחוץ לגושים לדיון בוועדת התכנון של המנהל. גורמים פוליטים אומרים זה בגלל ווטו של לפיד
— ilil shahar (@ilils1) June 12, 2014
Translation: Planning sources admit that there is an overall instruction not to bring up any plan for consideration in the [Israel Land] Authority's Planning Committee that includes houses outside the 'settlement blocs.' Political sources say that this is due to [Yair] Lapid's veto.
Thank you Naftali Bennett for giving Lapid so much power by refusing to go into the government without him a year an a half ago.
Muslims demand Spanish citizenship just like the Jews
Spain and Portugal both recently offered to grant citizenship to descendants of Jews who were expelled during the Inquisition in the 15th and 16th centuries. Now, Muslims are demanding 'equal treatment.' Portugal has already rejected the demand, and Spain seems likely to as well, if only because Muslims regard the Andalusia region as being Dar al-Islam (Islamic land) and dream of retaking it.
Submitted by Spain’s Justice Minister, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, the
bill is expected to go up to a vote in Spanish congress this year.
Portugal already passed a law
granting citizenship to descendants last year and its interior ministry
is currently drafting regulations ahead of the law’s application,
according to Portuguese lawmakers who submitted the bill.
The Jews
were persecuted in Spain and Portugal during the Inquisition which the
Catholic Church and royal houses of both countries led against
non-Christians in the 15th and 16th centuries.
“Recognition of the
Sephardic community is symbolic, necessary and just. The same applies
to those who have kept their Andalus-Moorish identity in exile,” Manuel
Antonio Rodríguez, a professor of law at the University of Cordoba, told
the El Confidencial daily on Sunday.
In 2006, the United Left
party in the parliament of the autonomous Spanish region of Andalusia
submitted a bill which proposed recognizing the rights of descendants of
Muslims who were expelled but the bill never made it to a vote.
Portuguese
lawmakers who drafted the country’s law on Sephardic Jews rejected
calls to naturalize the descendants of Muslims who were expelled, citing
the fact that the expulsion of the Muslims was part of a war to end the
occupation of Spain by North African invaders.
“Persecution of
Jews was just that, while what happened with the Arabs was part of a
conflict,” Jose Ribeiro e Castro, a Spanish lawmaker who drafted
Portugal’s law of return, said. ”There’s no basis for comparison.”
There's no reason for Spain to grant it either. The picture at the top is the Alhambra Castle in Grenada, Spain. Yes, Mrs. Carl and I were there 13 years ago.
Breaking the silence to lie, funded by UNICEF, OXFAM, Norway, Spain and the European Union
Jake Wallis Simons has some disturbing news about 'Breaking the Silence,' the European and United Nations-funded NGO that exaggerates the activities of IDF soldiers in Judea and Samaria. Simons concludes that the Europeans ought not to be funding this organization.
For now, my point is this: I couldn’t shake the feeling that Breaking the Silence was milking it.
It was only a hunch at first. But later, the bias of the organisation
became clearer. During a break between interviews, I asked Yehuda
Shaul, one of the founders of the organisation, how the group is funded.
It was with some surprise that I learned that 45 per cent of it is
donated by European countries, including Norway and Spain, and the
European Union. Other donors include UNICEF, Christian Aid and Oxfam GB.
To me this seemed potentially problematic.
As is the case in all democracies, the IDF is an organ of the state,
not a political decision-maker. If the goal of Breaking the Silence was
simply to clean up the Israeli military, it wouldn’t be such a problem.
Instead, the aim is to “end the occupation”, and on this basis it
secured its funding.
It appeared, therefore, that these former soldiers, some of whom draw
salaries from Breaking the Silence, were motivated by financial and
political concerns to further a pro-Palestinian agenda. They weren’t
merely telling the truth about their experiences. They were under
pressure to perform.
Indeed, I later discovered that there have been many allegations in
the past that members of the organisation either fabricated or
exaggerated their testimonies.
The matter became more unsettling when one of Breaking the Silence’s
former soldiers accompanied me to Hebron, a thriving Palestinian city in
the southern West Bank. This is the only Palestinian city to have a
Jewish settlement embedded in its centre, and as such is the most
acrimonious and violent place in the region.
...
We set up our video camera outside an army base in the Israeli sector
of Hebron, and I began to interview the former soldier from Breaking
the Silence. He was talking about his army service, and came out with
the line, “the first time I ever met a Palestinian was when I entered
his house in the middle of the night”.
While he was speaking a car drove by behind him, drowning out his
words. I said: “Just give me it one more time about how… the first time
you ever met a Palestinian was when you kicked down his door in the
middle of the night”. This was my mistake; he hadn’t said that he kicked
down anything.
He duly repeated it. This time, however, he took my lead and changed
his account from “entered his house in the middle of the night” to
“kicked down his door in the middle of the night”. On the surface it may
seem like a small detail. But when we played back the tape I found the
ease with which he exaggerated his story very troubling. We didn’t use
the interview.
The next time you're flying on an international flight and you hear that sob story about donating your 'spare change' for UNICEF to 'help kids around the world,' keep your change in your pocket and tell the cabin crew why. Maybe they'll choose another charity.
With Britain sending a warship to enforce its claim to Gibraltar, thousands of miles away, Bret Stephens implants his tongue firmly in cheek, and without even mentioning Israel mentions some of the other occupied territories in the world, and wonders why no one worries about them. In fact, in none of those cases, is the territory in question necessary for the occupier's security, a thought that appears lost on those who criticize Israel as an 'occupier' in Judea and Samaria, which I can literally see from my front door. (Those without access to the Journal's web site can find the full article here.
Rather than waste time and money on a fruitless diplomatic brawl,
Prime Minister David Cameron should say he’s prepared to relinquish
Gibraltar to Spain—on just one condition.
That would be a declaration by the Spanish government that it will
renounce its own claims to the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, which lie
opposite Gibraltar on the northern coast of Africa. Morocco has long
claimed these Spanish enclaves for itself, and in July 2002 it even sent
troops to seize an uninhabited Spanish islet near Ceuta. Madrid
responded a week later by deploying its navy, air force and special
forces to bloodlessly retake the island, but tensions still simmer.
Spaniards might object to returning the two cities on the grounds that
local inhabitants overwhelmingly consider themselves Spanish and wish to
remain a part of Spain. Then again, the last time Gibraltarians took a
vote on their sovereignty, 99% of them wished to remain British.
Of course, Madrid couldn’t just turn over Ceuta and Melilla without
asking Morocco to readjust its own territorial claims. Since 1975, Rabat
has occupied the Western Sahara—a territory larger than the U.K.—though
no other country recognizes Moroccan sovereignty. The Moroccan position
is contested by an Algerian-backed group called the Polisario Front,
which administers a “country” called the Sahrawi Arab Democratic
Republic.
But the leadership in Rabat could hardly be asked to deliver such a
political prize to its arch-rivals in Algiers without expecting some
commensurate sacrifice.
It’s been more than 50 years since Algerian independence led to the exodus of nearly one million pieds-noirs
and the seizure of their properties by Ben Bella’s government. And
though the French government did pay some small indemnities to their
displaced kinsmen, the Algerian government has never recognized, much
less atoned for, the injustice it did to an indigenous community that
had considered itself Algerian for generations.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
