“Anti-Semitism is continually morphing all the time, which is its strength,” he explained. “There’s no sign of diminution and it will probably get worse. We see it in every indicator possible showing a clear and steady rise in the number of attacks recorded on Jews.”

Why are things as bad as he believes they are? Wistrich says the last decade has seen a several strands of hatred towards Jews intertwine forming an unholy alliance between the extreme left and right together with fundamental Islam.

“What I think that really struck me about the last decade that I don’t think was new but has become more intense is that we’ve seen the coming together of classical anti-Semitism with a number of other strands like anti-Americanism, Islamic fundamentalism and international delegitimization of Israel. Their convergence has become much starker.”

But not everyone agrees with Wistrich’s opinion. As one reviewer of his tome pointed out, as prevalent and intolerable as anti-Semitism may be nowadays it couldn’t possibly be any worse than it was, say, back in 1910, could it?

However, according to Wistrich, it is.

“The year 1910 in comparison with what we’ve been living through in the past decade is a paradise,” he said unhesitatingly. “There was a nasty and ugly potential for anti-Semitism in 1910 but relatively speaking Jews lived in a stable environment and as one Jewish writer Stefan Zweig wrote it was an age of golden security.”

The one big exception to that rule is Czarist Russia, that great bastion of anti-Semitism where Jews were confined to live under institutional discrimination within the confines of the Pale of Settlement and were victims of periodic pogroms. Anti-Semitism in Russia in 1910 was worse than it is today, he admits – but not the West.

“Today, even in the most advanced and democratic societies, Jews are uncomfortable,” he claims. “The real difference between 1910 and today is not that anti-Semitism is less common but that Israel provides a powerful shield and deterrent. Not a perfect deterrent and also a cause of anti-Semitism in itself.”

Whether one agrees or disagrees with Wistrich no one can doubt the depth of his knowledge or his commitment to research.

Wistrich’s book includes 150 pages of footnotes. In conducting his research he read sources in 12 different languages: English and Hebrew, as you’d expect from an academic who was raised in Britain and teaches in Israel; his mother’s native Polish and its cousins Russian and Ukrainian; tongues of Germanic origin including German, Dutch and Yiddish; the Latin lingos of Western Europe, French, Italian and Spanish, and, finally, even Arabic.

In one important language of particular importance to the study of anti-Semitism in our time, however, he said he had to rely on translations: Farsi. Iran and the fundamental Islam it espouses are a key component in the surge of hatred towards Jews around the world.

“There’s a common resentment of Israel and American often linked with anti-Semitic thinking. Clearly, this has been round 70-80 years but it picked up steam with the Islamic Revolution. What we see is an assault on the West in which Israel and the Jews have become a surrogate for an attack.”

Wistrich’s prose has won praise by reviewers but his thick brick of a book isn’t light reading. In case you’ve ever wondered what kind of a person walks into a bookstore and picks up a 1,000 page history of anti-Semitism Wistrich’s answer might surprise you –it’s not just Jews, he says.

“By far the most insightful comments have been from non-Jews,” he says. “In the US I appear on nationwide radio shows.”

As one might expect those readers are mostly Mormons, Catholics and evangelicals, who tend to be supportive of Israel and Jews in general. But he said he has many secular non-Jewish readers in the US In any case, he commended his non-Jewish readership’s “genuine horror of reading and grasping the scale of the phenomenon.”

Nearing the end of the interview one might be tempted to label Wistrich a pessimist. But he denies that he is one.

Instead, he says he is a “guarded optimist.” Ironically, the elites are the great hope in the struggle against anti-Semitism. Once, they despised and feared uppity Jews. Now, they realize the error of their ways.

“This is a sign of belated awakening of some of the political elites to anti-Semitism,” he said. “There are some minority voices in the Arab world, they are inconsequential now but will not be forever. Doesn’t mean we’re going to turn things round. That would require a long and concerted effort. But it has to begin somewhere.”

To Wistrich’s mind the Jews in 2010 –as in 1910- have no one but themselves to rely on, and he ends the interview paraphrasing Rabbi Hillel’s famous saying.

“If Jews don’t mobilize,” he asks, “then why should we expect others?”

* Inside Look at Advanced Hamas Arsenal Gaza’s ruling Hamas terrorist organization has managed to amass an advanced arsenal as it prepares to wage war against Israel, despite the best efforts of the Jewish State to prevent the entry of materials that would allow the group to manufacture the advanced weapons.

* Giant Brazilian Temple Replica Panned as ‘Mockery’ Temple Institute in Jerusalem says plan by a controversial Brazilian Pentecostal church to build a mammoth $200 million Holy Temple replica is “self-aggrandizement.”

* Egyptian minister calls on Muslims to flood J’lem Arab pilgrims seen as more effective than the failed boycott.

* US to sell Saudis F-15 fighter jets Long-range weaponry reportedly not included in proposed $30b. deal.

* Russian textbook seen as anti-Semitic Russian Ministry of Education approved the book on country’s history.

* Germany closes jihad-linked mosque Sept. 11 attackers once frequented Taiba prayer house.

* Turkey names new military chiefs after row Turkey’s government has appointed generals to two top posts, ending a stand-off with the military.

* India Asks, Should Food Be a Right for the Poor? Inside the drab district hospital, where dogs patter down the corridors, sniffing for food, Ratan Bhuria’s children are curled together in the malnutrition ward, hovering at the edge of starvation. His daughter, Nani, is 4 and weighs 20 pounds.

* Gaza Arabs Get Second Chance on Greenhouses The U.S. will be giving Gaza Arabs a second chance, providing them with new greenhouses to replace the Gush Katif originals they demolished.

* Israeli PM: Turkey looked for a fight on ship Israel’s prime minister defended the deadly commando raid on an international flotilla protesting the Gaza blockade before an internal inquiry commission Monday, suggesting that Turkey had sought the violent confrontation on the high seas.

Space, the final frontier. The day that astronauts clad in blue-and-white space suits are launched beyond planet Earth to conduct research will be an occasion of great national pride. Make no mistake: The dream may be a distant one, but it is on the agenda.
Israel’s space program isn’t in orbit just yet. It’s sitting on the desk of Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz. Treasury officials are studying its targets and suggestions for achieving them.

The main thrust of the program is to encourage corporate Israel to join the space race before it’s too late to jump onto the orbiting bandwagon, and to do so in an organized fashion. The bottom line is that the treasury is mulling a proposal to invest NIS 300 million a year in the Israeli aerospace industry. The National Economic Council’s two cents on the matter is that the sum is insufficient, but more on that later.
Not a week goes by that Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser doesn’t call the treasury chieftains to inquire about their progress. It’s not a private obsession of Hauser’s. The program, catalyzed by President Shimon Peres, also sparked the imagination of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and both men would like to post some progress toward outer space in 2011.
Israelis involved in space warn, however, that the program is doomed to failure without the involvement of the corporate sector. Crumbs from the defense industry won’t send rockets into space or satellite parts to customers.
However it’s achieved, the space program will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of shekels a year, but the Finance Ministry expects to gain more than just national pride from the investment. If the areas of the local aerospace industry that show potential are developed the economic rewards could be huge, and along the way Israeli education, technology and society in general could receive a tremendous boost.
Israel won’t be drifting in space alone. In the next decade, thousands of companies around the globe will be vying for a slice of the growing outer-space economic market. To name just one example, robots will one day receive marching orders for their routine, Earth-based task via satellite. Satellites, meanwhile, are already being used to provide early warning of natural disasters from storms to locust swarms, as well as being employed for communications, defense and a host of other purposes.
Terrestrial war will be augmented by war in space. Countries will seek to blind each others’ military and civilian satellites, or to intercept and destroy them. In parallel, they will need to protect their own satellites from enemy intervention.
All these activities, from scanning the surface for trouble to neutralizing an enemy’s spy satellite to safeguarding one’s own, have strategic, social and economic implications. The upshot is that in the next 50 years outer space is expected to come closer than ever to all of our lives. Visionaries anticipate the discovery of new metals that will revolutionize industry and look forward to the day when a plane can fly from Tel Aviv to Los Angeles in three hours by leaving behind the Earth’s atmosphere, lessening friction and the pull of gravity. (A direct flight on that route today takes around 16 hours. )
Israelis are already experts on satellite technology, products for satellites and ground stations, all red-hot areas that are expected to stay that way in the years to come.
U.S. President Barack Obama demonstrated his commitment to the American space program by allocating $6 billion more for NASA over the next five years. The money is supposed to be used, in part, to outsource to the private sector work that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration had customarily done in-house in order to free the agency’s resources for more additional scientific research and experimentation. One option is for the near-earth region to pass from the space agency’s fief to that of private business concerns.
We’re No. 8
Back in our neck of the woods, Israel is considered the eighth biggest source of space-related sales, according to Futron, a research company, in a survey of the competitiveness of space companies around the world.
Israel’s goal is humble enough, ostensibly – it’s to propel itself into fifth place by honing its competitive edge. That’s the vision of Israel Space Agency Chairman Prof. Isaac Ben-Israel and Science and Technology Ministry Director General Menachem Greenblum.
The ISA isn’t exactly NASA. It’s been around for decades, is located at Tel Aviv University and is thinly staffed. Its main job is to advise the government on space-related issues.
It is, however, an office of experts, and it recently issued a report that concluded that Israel is gradually losing its competitive edge because investment is insufficient.
Spending on the Israeli space program is a function of Israel’s defense priorities, and is also fed by the defense budget. But the defense budget alone can’t support an advanced space program staffed by skilled, creative people, warns the agency.
“The way to save the Israeli space industry from its crisis is to develop a civilian space program,” the agency said in its report, “whose purpose would be to develop national infrastructures, with an emphasis on economic leverage. Without a strong civilian space program, soon enough there will be no military space program either.” Certainly in the United States, private enterprise is gaining a foothold in space-related endeavors, thanks to NASA’s outsourcing. Shimon Peres’ people, pushing the space agenda in government corridors, say that if Israel comes late to the table it will get only crumbs.
The upshot of the ambition to realize Israel’s potential is the national space program sitting on Steinitz’s desk. It sets goals and discusses government funding to achieve them. Appended to the report is a paper on the topic by the National Economic Council in the Prime Minister’s Office.
One might wonder why the government has any interest in boosting a civilian space industry. The report’s authors address that question: There are fundamental areas of research in which the government should intervene. Sometimes governments need to support applied research to enable it to achieve critical momentum. The financial risks inherent in aerospace endeavors are tremendous, while the private sector cannot grasp their “positive or external ramifications.” Government subsidy is crucial, they conclude.
Over the years Israeli companies engaged in space, in whatever capacity, have received about $2.5 billion in funding, estimate industry sources. (These companies are the likes of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries ). About a fifth of that amount derived from the Israeli government and the rest from foreign sources, notably governments that sought to collaborate with Israel. The report advises that Israel forge collaborations in space with Russia, India, Singapore, the European Union and Brazil. Some on this list have expressed interest in the past.
Google Israel in space? But for anything to happen, the report emphasizes, Israeli investment must ramp up. The developed nations invest between 0.05% to 0.1% of their GDP in space-related ventures. If Israel’s GDP is about $200 billion, then an investment of 0.1% would translate into $200 million. Yet all the report’s authors are asking for, at this stage, is NIS 300 million a year for five years, aside from any defense-related investments in the field. They project that sales of civilian space-related products could reach $5 billion to $10 billion a year.
The program lays out priorities for the money: 70% would be earmarked for the establishment and development of made-in-Israel space endeavors, and for the establishment of international collaborations. Ten percent would be earmarked for basic research, for instance developing new materials and technologies, and 20% would be reserved for applied research – again, in materials, technologies and methodologies.
The National Economic Council has rather different figures.
In its paper appended to the National Space Program sitting on Steinitz’s desk, the council estimates that initial investment to jumpstart an Israeli space industry would cost $500 million a year for seven years. It says the government should contribute one tenth ($50 million a year ), while the rest should come from the private sector.
Sales to commercial entities, not including the Amos satellite project, are estimated at $550 million over five years. Part of the funding for space endeavors would derive from dividends paid to the government by Rafael and IAI, suggests the council. It also proposes that $50 million over a period of seven years- half from the state and half from donations – be earmarked for academic space-related research.
The council also proposes the establishment of what boils down to a venture capital fund that would invest in space-related startups. It would be a joint venture between government and the business sector. It’s early days but feelers, have been sent out to the likes of Google, Siemens and Cisco Systems. It would be modest enough: The council suggests pledges of $75 million over seven years, of which the government would pony up $50 million.
What would Israel get out of all this? Proponents say it could jumpstart civilian industry and the country’s educational system and even lead to social change. Sound farfetched? Maybe the view from space will make it look less so.

Israel Air Force deployments in various European states are always classified. The host country never knows what hides behind the training sessions held in its territory. Such sessions may take place in Hungary, Romania, Greece, Italy, Germany, Canada, and certainly in the US. In most cases, these training sessions do not include joint drills between Israel’s Air Force and the hosting Air Force; rather, the host country provides our Air Force with a training platform for two weeks or longer.

While the host country always deploys observers and participates in joint briefings, no details hinting to an operational Israeli plan are ever revealed the exercise model or the flight profile. Israel also does not use classified weapons and special electronic warfare means that could hint to our intentions or capabilities.

The recent helicopter crash in Romania drew attention to the Air Force’s activity in the country, yet beyond that, it exposed the fact that heavy transport choppers are an inseparable part of the Air Force’s strategic, long-range doctrine. Until now, foreign reports focused on training sessions held by fighter jets that were reportedly meant to prepare us for a possible Iran strike. The helicopters somehow remained in the shadows, yet the Romania disaster brought them to light.

The Israeli helicopters were not dismantled and sent to Romania to be reassembled. They flew there, navigating through thousands of kilometers and unfamiliar routes while refueling in midair. The equipment needed for the Romania deployment apparently arrived on board Hercules planes, which can also transport gunships. If you connect the dots, you get a potential deployment aimed at special commando operations deep in enemy territory.

If you also take note of the ground crews deployed in the field and Israeli controllers cooperating with local control tower officials, you get a force that can theoretically embark on a significant military operation from a foreign airport, or carry out a rescue operation of Israeli forces or pilots far away from Israel.

Painful American lesson
In order to understand why Israeli choppers fly all the way to Romania for training, we would do well to take a glimpse into the past – April 25, 1980 was one of the low points in the US military’s history. Special Forces transported by air embarked on an operation meant to secure the release of American hostages in Iran. Months of planning and training matured into a highly complex operation – the main problem was crossing large distances under unfamiliar conditions, while using improvised landing sites.

Yet the lengthy training sessions proved futile when pilots discovered that what was happening in real-time was nothing like what they prepared for. This prompted a withdrawal, improvisation, and disaster. The Americans ended up leaving behind whole planes (both intact and burned out) in the Iranian desert; eight airmen were killed in the operation, which failed before it even started.

Now, the Air Force is flying to Romania so this won’t happen to us too.

Crafting operational plans and practicing future flights is insufficient. The skills required for such operations are acquired through hundreds and thousands of long-range training flights under real-life conditions, while facing diverse weather conditions that may not be familiar in the Middle East.

Our new generation of pilots is being trained differently and thinks differently. We are no longer talking about domestic flights or south Lebanon sorties. It’s a whole new ballgame. A flight plan for a range of thousands of kilometers is wholly different than the preparations needed for flying in the “old wars”: Communication procedures, fuel and logistics, routes, altitudes, and flight speed. The contingencies are wholly different as well: There’s a huge difference between rescuing a pilot from the shores of Beirut and from a site located thousands of kilometers away.

In the mid-1990s, the Air Force embarked on organizational and mental changes in order to shift from being a tactical force to becoming a strategic one that operates in broad theaters. Yet this cannot be done alone. In September 2007, according to foreign reports, Israeli jets struck a nuclear reactor in the Syrian desert. Needless to say, the jets that carried out the operation would not pass through the skies of a political and military power like Turkey secretly and with no interference in the absence of close ties with Ankara.

As opposed to common perception, Israel’s Air Force deployments in Turkey were not terminated in the past two or three years because of deteriorating ties between the two states. The Air Force itself concluded that it exhausted all benefits inherent in the Turkish training sessions. Turkey was attractive for the Air Force as long as it developed no ties with other states that allowed us to engage in training sessions at longer ranges more commensurate with Air Force combat scenarios.

At this time, Italy, Romania, Germany, Greece, and the US allow our Air Force to engage in more realistic training sessions ahead of future threats; the reports about the termination of training flights in Turkey in the wake of Operation Cast Lead or the flotilla incident are yet another Mideastern myth.

Opening up to the world
Until the 1990s, our Air Force was reclusive. After the Six-Day War and during the War of Attrition, the Americans were wooing us; they sold us military equipment, but we were very secretive and shied away from sharing information with them, even though they were eager for it because of the war in Vietnam. For example, the Americans wanted to learn how we contend with Soviet equipment and doctrine. At one point, when they received films of Israeli Air Force battles, they viewed it as a priceless achievement.

Meanwhile, Israeli pilots who headed to the US to train on flying new aircraft felt the Americans were trying to get information out of them. Israeli pilots were invited to teach advanced courses in the hopes the US can learn something from them. Yet our brave heroes did not fall into the trap: The Air Force, just like the whole IDF, believed that secrets shared with foreign states will end up being leaked to our enemies. Besides, Israel required the help of no foreign country in order to defend itself. The strike on Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981 was a one-time event that did not reflect a change in the Air Force’s doctrine.

However, in the 1990s a broader, more regional mode of thinking emerged: How do we cross hostile states? It was clear to everyone that the rules of the game had changed and that we must cooperate with friendly Air Forces in the region. Israel started to shift closer to the US and aimed to break the ice. In the early 1990s, the US Air force was invited to take apart in joint tactical exercises here.

In 1993 we also experienced a diplomatic revolution that opened Israel to the world: The Oslo Accords. The commanders of Air Forces in Europe, in the Middle East, and in the Far East (for example, in India) started to tighten their ties with Israel. When the Air Force held its jubilee celebrations in 1998, the commanders of 20 foreign Air Forces arrived here to take part in the festivities. Ties with Turkey hit a zenith, while Israel learned to let go of its paranoia and realized that it’s possible to fly through the airspace of foreigners without exposing secrets.

We also learned that by sharing professional information with a friendly state we get something in return: In the process, we learned to use the same language while talking to NATO armies and other militaries. This helped in forming coordination mechanisms, sharing knowledge, and resolving problems. By now, the Americans and Canadians allow Air Force aircraft to fly directly to the US in order to hold joint drills at their most sophisticated, classified facilities.

All Air Force commanders in the past two decades have taken the path of greater openness to friendly Air Forces. Israel has drawn priceless benefits from this in terms of training sessions vital for future wars. The accident in Romania must not curb this trend.