Jerusalem News (22 December, 2014, 30 Kislev, 5775)
Contents:
1. Pollution plays a role in autism and dyslexia, say Israeli and foreign scientists
2. Many Messianic Jews are Non-Jewish!
3. ISIS Offences
(a) Blood money: How ISIS is selling human organs harvested from living hostages and its own dead soldiers to fund terror across the Middle East
(b) Iraq: ISIS murdered 150 women and underage girls for refusing sex acts
(c) Mass grave of 230 bodies uncovered in Syria after ISIS slaughtered members of tribe who tried to fight back
(d) Shiites are Just as bad! Iran-Backed Shia Militias Are Reportedly Slaughtering Sunnis In Iraq While Fighting ISIS
by VIVIAN SALAMA
4. Oil Prices Crash: The Trillion Dollar Question by Paul Rivlin
5. OBAMA SIGNS US-ISRAEL STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP ACT INTO LAW
by Cynthia Blank
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1. Pollution plays a role in autism and dyslexia, say Israeli and foreign scientists
Conclusions emerge from presentations by Israeli and foreign scientists at a conference on the relationship between pollution and children's health problems.
By Zafrir Rinat | Dec. 1, 2011
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/pollution-plays-a-role-in-autism-and-dyslexia-say-israeli-and-foreign-scientists-1.398829
Extracts:
Growing evidence suggests pollution plays a significant role in developmental problems among children, including autism, attention deficit disorder and even dyslexia, it was revealed at a conference on the subject in Israel Wednesday.
These conclusions emerged from presentations by Israeli and foreign scientists at a conference on the relationship between pollution and children's health problems. The conference, sponsored by the Environment and Health Fund, was part of the annual convention of the Israel Ambulatory Pediatric Association.
One of the principal speakers at the conference was Prof. Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, who noted that many countries worldwide have reported a sharp rise in recent years in the prevalence of development disorders such as autism and ADD. This rise cannot be attributed solely to genetic factors or to higher rates of diagnosis, he said, and today, even researchers who once thought environmental factors could explain only a small fraction of the increased incidence of autism, for instance, have been convinced that it accounts for at least 25 percent of the rise.
Exposure to substances such as lead, mercury and pesticides is particularly dangerous for children, because they are more sensitive to these materials - in part because their brains are still developing, Landrigan said. A child's body also breaks down poisonous materials less efficiently than the adult body does, and any given quantity of chemical has more of an impact on a child because it constitutes a larger proportion of his body mass. Additionally, most children will spend more years being exposed to poisonous substances than adults will, he said.
Today, blood tests find hundreds of types of chemicals in children's blood, Landrigan noted. But little is known about the effects of most of these substances because they have never been studied. And while hundreds of other substances have been identified as harmful to human health, their impact on children in particular has generally not been investigated. Nor has research been done on the cumulative effect of exposure to multiple poisonous substances - though modern humanity makes use of some 80,000 different chemicals, he said.
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2. Many Messianic Jews are Non-Jewish!
Hebrew-language magazine of Yad le-Achim, "Mechapsim", no.1
http://yadleachim.co.il/_Uploads/JQuery/search/index.html#/6/.zoomed
Quotes from Elazar Brandt, General Secretary of the Messianic Midrasha, Jerusalem
[Text has been translated from English into Hebrew and then back into English so it may not be exact, but the general gist is probably accurate enough.]
# About 39% of our members are not Jewish; 61% of the Jews amongst us are only Jewish according to the loose definitions of the Law of Return that requires only one Jewish grandparent...
# Are we conscious of the worst fears of our most serious critics arising from our cloaking ourselves with a few Jewish decorations in order to induct Jews from the fringes of society into a new form of Christianity? #
The article points out that ca. 25% of the Jewish Messianic leaders in Jerusalem are not Jewish and another 25% of the leaders are married to Christian non-Jewish women.
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3. ISIS Offences
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(a) Blood money: How ISIS is selling human organs harvested from living hostages and its own dead soldiers to fund terror across the Middle East
IS is hiring foreign doctors to harvest organs in hospitals in Iraq and Syria
Doctor in Mosul says new doctors secretly flooding into his hospital
They extract organs from dead IS militants as well as living captives
Organs then fed into global organ trade through Turkey and Saudi Arabia
IS is turning to various sources to fill its $2million-a-year war chest
They include drug smuggling, people trafficking and oil production
Comes after claims IS are now supplying HALF of Europe's heroin market
human organ trafficking
Published: 16:12 GMT, 19 December 2014 | Updated: 19:19 GMT, 19 December 2014
Islamic State has turned its hand to human organ trafficking to fund terror across the Middle East, it has been claimed.
The jihadist group has until now filled its $2million-a-year war chest from a variety of shadowy sources including oil production, human trafficking and drug smuggling.
But it was revealed today that it has been recruiting foreign doctors for months to harvest the internal organs not only from the bodies of their own dead fighters but also from living hostages - including children - snatched from minority communities in Iraq and Syria.
View Pictures and Read More At:Â Â http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2880815/Blood-money-ISIS-selling-human-organs-harvested-living-hostages-dead-soldiers-fund-terror-Middle-East.html?printingPage=true
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(b) Iraq: ISIS murdered 150 women and underage girls for refusing sex acts
By YASSER OKBI/ MAARIV HASHAVUA
12/17/2014Â Â
Â
According to the report,the women were buried in large mass graves after they were killed.
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A number of regional Iraqi governments reported Wednesday that Islamic State members in the city of Falluja killed 150 women and underage girls that refused to perform sexual acts for fighters.
They reported that after the Islamic State members murdered the women and girls, among them pregnant women, they then proceeded to bury the victims in large mass graves in the city.
View Pictures and Read More At: http://www.jpost.com/landedpages/printarticle.aspx?id=384969
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(c) Mass grave of 230 bodies uncovered in Syria after ISIS slaughtered members of tribe who tried to fight back
Published: 17:53 GMT, 17 December 2014 | Updated: 19:07 GMT, 17 December 2014
Relatives of the dead, from the Shaitaat tribe, discovered the bodies
Families had been displaced after rising up against ISIS and losing
They were allowed to return to their villages and found the mass grave
Burial site was discovered in Deir el-Zour, in eastern Syria
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights say death toll for tribe now tops 900
Hundreds more tribal members still missing, says monitoring group
A mass grave of 230 bodies has been uncovered in Syria after Islamic State militants are believed to have slaughtered members of a tribe who tried to fight back.
Relatives of the dead, who were from the Shaitaat tribe, discovered the burial site in the country's eastern Deir el-Zour province, a monitoring group said today.
The grim discovery brings the number of tribe members killed during the jihadists' summer advance in the province, which is close to the border with Iraq to more than 900, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
View Pictures and Read More At: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2877940/Mass-grave-230-killed-jihadists-Syria-monitor.html?printingPage=true
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(d) Shiites are Just as bad!
Iran-Backed Shia Militias Are Reportedly Slaughtering Sunnis In Iraq While Fighting ISIS
VIVIAN SALAMA, Associated Press
http://www.businessinsider.com/iran-backed-shia-militias-are-reportedly-slaughtering-sunnis-in-iraq-while-fighting-isis-2014-10
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4. Oil Prices Crash: The Trillion Dollar Question
 by Paul Rivlin
From: Dayan Center <dayancen@POST.TAU.AC.IL>
Subject: IQTISADI: "Oil Prices Crash: The Trillion Dollar Question" - December
 21, 2014
Extracts:
Between June and December 2014, the OPEC basket price of crude oil and other indices of oil prices fell by more than 40 percent. .. If prices remain at their current levels or slide further, the impact on the world economy will be huge. There are two main effects of a fall in the price of oil. The first is the shift in income from producers to consumers.
The second effect is the stimulus that lower oil prices provide by reducing the cost of everything made with oil and the cost of transportation fueled by oil. The international distribution of income will change significantly, making consumers better off and producers worse off. ...
Among the most significant losers is Russia, because almost 60 percent of its exports consist of oil and natural gas and its economy has already been weakened by Western sanctions, resulting from its involvement in the Ukraine crisis. Other losers include Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members, particularly Iran. Insofar as it is a producer, the United States will lose, but as a consumer it will gain much more. Lower gas prices are already reinforcing a rise in U.S. consumer spending, which is the backbone of the largest economy in the world.
Why did prices fall? The simple reason is that demand has weakened because the world economy is growing slowly; also, the use of energy has become more efficient and there has been an ongoing move away from oil to other fuels. Supply is strong despite the turmoil in Iraq and Libya. .. Meanwhile, the U.S. has become the world's largest oil producer ... Although it does not export crude oil, it now imports much less, creating a lot of spare supply on international markets. Finally, economic growth in China has slowed and so have its oil imports.
... The largest increase in non-OPEC production was in the United States where it rose by almost 44 percent as a result of the fracking revolution. Fracking is the process of drilling for natural gas and oil beneath the ground. Water mixed with other components is pumped into rock to create cracks thus releasing the gas or oil into wells that have been built for collection.
OPEC's reaction to falling prices was to do nothing because the Saudis and their Gulf allies decided not to sacrifice their own market share to restore oil prices. ...
OPEC expressed its concern about the rapid decline in oil prices in recent months, and concluded that stable oil prices  .. that which did not affect global economic growth but which, at the same time, allowed producers to receive a decent income and to invest to meet future demand, were vital for world economic well-being. It therefore decided to maintain the production level of 30.0 mb/d, set in December 2011.
OPEC could have curbed production to stop the slide in prices, but the main benefits would have gone to Iran and Russia. Saudi Arabia can tolerate lower oil prices quite easily because it has huge financial reserves; Kuwait and the UAE are in a similar position. Saudi oil costs very little (around $5-6 per barrel) to get out of the ground and so the current low price still yields large income. History suggests most of the gains from any cut in Saudi output would go to other producers, who would sell their oil for more while increasing their market share. Saudi Arabia tried this tactic in the early 1980s, when it cut production by three-quarters from 10 mb/d in 1980 to less than 2.5 mb/d in 1985-6. The result was higher prices, but also a boom in investment, and then production, in places such as the North Sea. It also resulted in technological changes that increased the energy efficiency of production. The combined effect of these factors was to eventually undermine prices. Fracking in the U.S. has replaced the North Sea as the new source of oil. Its development has been encouraged by the high oil prices of recent years and so lower prices will reduce investments, slow production, and thus ultimately strengthen prices. It will not, however, end fracking, and the U.S. is likely to remain a leading producer.
Saudi Arabia dominates OPEC and it was Saudi policies that were implemented at the November 27 conference. In recent years, Saudi Arabia's aim has been to maximize pressure on Iran, its traditional rival in the Gulf and an increasing threat because of its nuclear program. Originally Saudi Arabia tried to put pressure on Iran through political means, encouraging the United States to challenge the latter. Fear of an agreement on between the U.S. and Iran on the nuclear program, led Saudi Arabia to intensify the downward pressure on oil prices and thus strengthen the hawks in Iran. President Rohani has made improving economic conditions in Iran a key part of his policy and hopes that a deal with the U.S. will encourage this. Thus far only a partial lifting of sanctions has occurred and Rohani has little to show Iranians in terms of economic gain. The Saudis hope that the hawks will prevent an agreement and the U.S. will therefore be forced to act militarily against Iran.
The results of lower oil prices have not taken long to be felt. In Iran, oil income has collapsed. ...
The combined impact of Western sanctions and lower oil prices could reduce Russian oil export revenues from $283 billion in 2013 to $170 billion in 2015. Sanctions and lower oil prices have contributed to a collapse of the ruble and a severe squeeze on the economy that was on a path of decelerating growth before the price of oil declined.Â
The two powers supporting Assad's regime in Syria, Â Iran and Russia, Â have therefore been simultaneously hard hit by developments in the oil markets. Although this will not necessarily force them to change their policies, the burden of supporting Assad will be felt more sharply in both countries.
There are winners and losers in the Middle East. Those countries that import oil such as Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Morocco and Tunisia will all gain as their import bill declines. Others will lose, most notably Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq and the other producers in the Gulf. The producers are divided between those that have the financial reserves to tide them over during a period of low oil prices and revenues, and those that do not. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait are in the first group; Iran and Iraq are in the second. The UAE has over a trillion dollars in sovereign wealth funds, Saudi Arabia has between $800 and $900 billion, and Kuwait about $550 billion. Iraq has $80 billion, but Iran's sovereign wealth fund has been partly depleted to fund current needs and was reported to have $62 billion in June 2014.Â
The United States will, on balance, benefit. According to the White House, the energy revolution has made the United States more energy secure. The decline in net imports has reduced the economy's vulnerability to international oil supply disruptions. Declining gasoline consumption, increasing domestic crude oil production, increasing fuel economy, and increasing use of biofuels enhances the resilience of the economy to these oil price shocks. Although international oil supply shocks and oil price volatility remain risks, reductions in net oil imports will reduce them. Long-term reductions of net oil imports can only come from reduced demand for oil and increased use of biofuels, electric vehicles, natural gas, and other substitutes for petroleum in transportation. In addition, the diversification of energy sources through the growth of natural gas and renewables has weakened the link between world oil prices and domestic energy prices. These changes are strategic as well as economic in that they strengthen the U.S. economy absolutely and relatively. The U.S. is less at the mercy of international oil markets than it was; Russia has become weaker as a result of the declining oil price and increases in U.S. production. Finally, the U.S. has become stronger vis-a-vis China, which remains extremely dependent on imports.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has summarized recent developments as follows. Supply risks remain extraordinarily strong, and may be exacerbated by falling prices. Iraq and Libya, the two countries responsible for a recent recovery in OPEC supply growth, are both suffering through internal conflicts. Declining oil prices raise new doubts about Iraq's ability to fund an increase in its capacity to produce oil, compounding the impact of security risks. Venezuela is suffering from the effects of falling production and prices. Russia suffers from the declining oil price, a currency collapse, as well as pressures resulting from sanctions. Many producer countries 'fiscal break even price' is well above current oil prices. While that may not make pumping oil at current or even lower prices unprofitable, it may force public spending cuts thus affecting social stability, and, indirectly, production prospects.Â
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5. OBAMA SIGNS US-ISRAEL STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP ACT INTO LAW
by Cynthia Blank
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/188920#.VJfiZ8PsA
Extracts:
United States President Barack Obama has signed into law the 2014 United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act.
The bill, meant to strengthen the US-Israel alliance, passed unanimously in the House of Representatives earlier this month, after passing unanimously in the Senate in September.
The law declares Israel's status as a "major strategic partner" of the United States as well as Washington's "unwavering support" for Israel as a Jewish state.
The legislation orders the expansion of US weapons stockpile in Israel by some $200 million in value, to a total of $1.8 billion, so that the Pentagon can be better prepared to conduct military operations in the volatile Middle East.
It also crucially allows Israel to use the weapons in the event of an emergency, as it did this summer during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.
The new law will also require the Obama administration to move toward allowing Israel to be included in the top-tier category for license-free exports of certain US technologies and products.
President Obama signed the bill into law on Friday in Washington, along with a law that bars suspected Nazi war criminals from receiving Social Security benefits.
Increased cooperation between the two countries in the fields of energy, water, homeland security, agriculture, and alternative fuel technologies is also included in the legislation.
Jewish organization across the US have praised and thanks Congress for its support.
One of the bill's authors also lauded Obama's support of the legislation.
"I applaud the President for signing this bill to strengthen our historic relationship with Israel," said Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who introduced the bi-partisan legislation with Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO).
"This law will enhance cooperation between Israel and the United States on a wide range of issues - from defense to energy to cyber security - so we can work together to address the many challenges facing both countries."