Modern English translation of the full text of the Parshah.

Hayom Yom, an expression which translates as 'Day by Day,' is a collection of concise thoughts, often relevant to the season or portion of study when it appears, which gives the reader food to sustain the soul each day of the year.

Today's Psalms: Chapters 145 - 150

Today's Lesson: Melachim uMilchamot Chapter 4

Police open an investigation after 40-year-old man found critically injured from several stab wounds.

Idea originated on Facebook to celebrate one's birthday by inviting guests to join in donating a pint of blood to MDA.

The conversation has switched from external threats to internal divides, Hartman Institute’s Becker tells Conference of Presidents.

Health Ministry promises to bury within three months, over 80,000 pieces of tissue and organs that have been stored for years.

Some 4,900 single Jewish women in Israel gave birth in 2010, nearly double the 2,600 single women who gave birth in 2000.

Car entered by America Israel Racing to attempt to qualify during ‘Gatorade Duels.’

The mindset of this court, regardless of who presides over it, is still extra-activist.

An Israeli research team has discovered that plants may be listening in on the conversations around them.

Professor Ariel Novoplansky and his staff at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev found that garden pea plants were able to identify and respond to signals given by nearby plants.

The plants they studied were able to eavesdrop on their neighbours and send warning signals in moments of "stress".

The study involved five garden pea plants, some of which were placed under tough conditions. The plants were isolated so that there could be no physical contact.

"Unstressed plants are able to perceive and respond to stress cues emitted by the roots of their drought-stressed neighbors and, via 'relay cuing,' elicit stress responses in further unstressed plants," said Prof Novoplansky.

"The results demonstrate the existence of a…type of networking, whereby apparent coordination might hinge on information leakiness and neighbour eavesdropping."

The findings follow similar work that showed cabbages were able to communicate with each other.

Hosts aiming to make an impression on their afternoon guests could soon be serving tea on a tray that once belonged to Hitler.

The silver tray, given to the Nazi leader in honour of his 50th birthday in April 1939 – just a few months before the outbreak of war - goes up for auction next week.

It was presented to him by Albert Speer, the Nazis' chief architect and for the final two years of the war, the man responsible for armaments in Hitler's Germany.

The tray is engraved with Hitler's initials and the eagle logo associated with the Nazis appears in the centre. It was made by one of the Third Reich's top silver tableware manufacturers.

The Bristol-based auction house Dreweatts said it expected the tray, which is from one of six silverware sets used on Nazi bases or in Hitler's residences, could fetch more than £2,000.

Malcolm Claridge, militaria specialist for Dreweatts, said the set was owned by a private collector until now, and had probably been looted by American or British servicemen after the war. He said it was "purely a historical item", something that could be seen in most war or Holocaust museums.

Asked about the possibility that collectors associated with n eo-Nazi groups could buy it, he said: "I hope it won't go to that sort of group, but it's not our business to vet people. I hope it is bought by a responsible person or a museum."

Last month "ghoulish" surgical tools that were once owned by a Nazi war criminal were withdrawn from auction because of complaints.

Everything you need to know about today’s media coverage of Israel and the Mideast.

Was Khader Adnan’s hunger strike a victory for Palestinian non-violent resistance? Is the Syrian army’s use of the world’s largest mortar shells against Homs a war crime? And how significant are budding Golan Druze protests against Assad?

Israel and the Palestinians

• Everybody picked up on Khader Adnan ending his hunger strike. Take your pick of NY Times, BBC, or AP.

• In a NY Times op-ed, Mustafa Barghouti declares Khader Adnan’s hunger strike a victory for Palestinian non-violence.

Iranian Atomic Urgency

Bushehr nuclear power plant

• In a Times of London column (paywall), Anatole Kaletsky argues against an Israeli strike on Iran. After sifting through various issues, Kaletsky concludes on this surprising note:

Israel, with a population of only seven million, would proclaim by its actions that it considers the hundreds of millions of Muslims living around it as permanent and implacable military enemies. It is this attitude, far more than any nuclear programme, that poses the real “existential threat” to Israel’s long-term survival.

Uh, Ahmadinejad hasn’t made repeated calls to wipe out the hundreds of millions of Muslims living around Israel.

But if it’s any consolation to Kaletsky, he’s joined in fretting by Seumas Milne (The Guardian print edition) and by the tag team of Richard Silverstein and Muhammad Sahimi (Christian Science Monitor).

• Jerusalem’s conundrum: By being too vocal with the US about stepping up pressure on Iran, Israel risks “owning”  the problem. Former diplomat Itamar Rabinovich‘s advice?

Israel would therefore be wise to reinforce its pressure on the US administration with a broader diplomatic campaign. Like it or not, Israel must urge the world to remember that Iran is everyone’s problem.

Arab Spring Winter

• New details on Syrian war crimes emerge as rights groups say Assad is using the world’s largest shells against Homs. The Christian Science Monitor writes:

From Peter Bouckaert, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, comes an indication why the death toll has been steadily climbing in Homs. He says a video from Homs that shows the fragments of a mortar the struck a building there is proof that Assad has deployed the Russian-made “Tulip” weapons system against the town, which fires the largest mortar round in any military’s arsenal. The tank-like vehicle that serves as the firing platform can lob 240mm mortar rounds up to 20 kilometers away, and they carry over 70 pounds of explosives. The largest mortar used by the US, in contrast, is 160mm . . . .

The Tulip was designed for use against dug in positions from a standoff distance. But its lethality has been used in the past to bring devastation to civilian neighborhoods, most famously by the Russians during the siege of the Chechen capital of Grozny over a decade ago, where thousands of civilians were killed and hundreds of buildings reduced to rubble. The use of such weapons in dense urban environments is a war crime.

From Russia with love: the 240 mm Tulip mortar

• Reuters reports two Western journos killed in the shelling of Homs today. Marie Colvin, a US national, was a correspondent for the Sunday Times of London. In the 80s and 90s, she was the Times’s Jerusalem correspondent. The shelling also killed French photographer Remi Ochlik and injured two other journalists. According to AFP, 31 civilians were killed on Tuesday.

• A Syrian blogger who posted on YouTube graphic images from Homs was killed in an arm shelling. The Lede has lots of links and video about Rami al-Sayed.

• A Times of London staff-ed wants Bashar Assad prosecuted for crimes against humanity in Homs.

• Elliott Abrams: It’s time to make Assad’s ouster a US policy goal and “encourage the arming and funding of the opposition.”

The problem is that our speeches and even our sanctions have not helped defend the people of Syria against Assad’s bullets . . .

Because the real questions in Syria now are who will win and how long will this take. We ought to find an Assad victory (or perhaps one should say an Assad, Russian, Chinese, Iranian, and Hezbollah victory) unacceptable. Moreover, we should avoid the false moral equivalence that leads people to say, “Oh, don’t arm anyone, just call for a ceasefire.” As in Darfur or Kosovo, such calls are in reality an abandonment of people fighting against oppression.

Druze elders in Majdal Shams

• These protests may be small in comparison to other places, but AP finds Golan’s Druze community starting to openly demonstrate against Assad:

But the very act of stepping into the square is a major departure for the Golan’s 20,000-member Druse community, which historically has been extremely reluctant to openly criticize the autocratic Assad family that has ruled Syria for the past four decades.

Some, particularly older residents who remember the days of Syrian rule, maintain a strong affinity for Syria. Others feared they might be harmed if the territory is ever returned to Syria, or had concerns that the Syrian regime would retaliate against relatives across the frontier.

But faced with the mounting scope of carnage in Syria, where thousands of people, mostly civilians, are believed to have been killed in an 11-month uprising against Assad, small numbers of Golan Druse are bringing their criticism out in the open.

• Hmmmm. According to the WSJ, Iraqi tribes are in a bind over helping kinsmen on the Syrian side of the border fight Assad.

But their leaders worry that an expanding cross-border arms trade here is re-energizing a radical group they say they have only just brought under relative control—al Qaeda in Iraq.

• Lenny Ben-David: Syria’s arsenal of unconventional weapons must be destroyed.

Rest O’ the Roundup

• Voice of America tours the Israel-Egypt border fence under construction.

(Image of Tulip via YouTube/Gromoslawski; Druze via YouTube/TheVJMovement)

Original article can be viewed at Israel Daily News Stream 02/22/2012 on HonestReporting.

Veteran journalist Marie Colvin is believed to have been killed in the Syrian city of Homs.

According to Reuters, the American-born Ms Colvin and a French photographer were trapped in a house that was being shelled, but were hit in a rocket attack as they attempted to flee.

A longtime foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times, Ms Colvin covered the Middle East for much of her career including as Jerusalem correspondent. She spoke at a London panel on media coverage hosted by the Masorti movement in 2002, when she argued that journalists did not go to the Middle East "with an agenda".

She said during the discussion: "If senior journalists from major news organisations from across the world… all see one thing, maybe you should think further than shouting 'that can't be true' at us."

In 1990 Ms Colvin presented a documentary on then-Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat. "Behind the Myth" looked at his family life, his rise to become leader of the PLO and his years of international terrorism.

Known for wearing an eye patch after she lost an eye to a shrapnel wound in Sri Lanka in 2001 , Ms Colvin was considered one of the most important journalists writing about conflict zones today.

Should a simple vote be enough to do away with a longstanding tradition of keeping Shabbat in the public sphere?

Everything you need to know about today’s media coverage of Israel and the Mideast.

US pressures Israel not attack Iran. Khader Adnan’s hunger strike continues. And foreign support for rebels “pours into Syria” — from Iraq.

Israel and the Palestinians

• Worth reading: Arab, Like Me

•  Maan News reports that Gaza’s electrical crisis was alleviated with the arrival of 300,000 liters of fuel — via the smuggling tunnels.

• Mark Regev explains to CNN‘s impatient Hala Gorani why Khader Adnan’s in administrative detention.

Meanwhile, AP reports that Israel’s Supreme Court moved up a hearing on Adnan’s appeal. The Islamic Jihad member is being treated for his hunger strike in a civilian hospital, where his health and living conditions are closely scrutinized by doctors, lawyers, journalists and NGOs. Gilad Shalit should’ve had it so good.

Iranian Atomic Urgency

• A widely quoted AFP report says the US is putting big time pressure on Israel not to attack Iran.

‘Israel is under pressure from all sides. The Americans don’t want to be surprised and faced with a fait accompli of an Israeli attack,’ a senior Israeli official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

‘They are telling us to be patient and see if the international sanctions against Teheran will eventually work,’ he said.

See also JPost coverage of Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s meeting with the visiting US National Security Advisor, Tom Donilon.

• German military expert Hans Ruhle argues in Die Welt (German) that an Israeli strike could set the Iranian atomic agenda back 10 years. The ever-prescient Spengler quotes and expands on Ruhle’s essay. It’s polar opposite more pessimistic assessments at the NY Times and CNN.

F-15 takeoff, Hatzerim Base

• Iranian soccer team cancels match with Serbian club — because Partizan Belgrade head coach Avram Grant is Israeli.

• More commentary at the WSJ (staff-ed, click via Google News)  Jennifer Rubin, Niles Gardner, Uri Dromi, John Yemma, and (gulp) MP John Baron. Last but not least, Gideon Rachman (click via Google News) points out that Western leaders have more confidence in Netanyahu’s arguments than they’re publicly letting on.

Arab Spring Winter

• IDF foils terror attack on Egypt border

• If Egypt unilaterally alters the Camp David treaty, Israel may refuse to sign peace agreements with other neighbors.

. . . why sign agreements with other neighbors if these accords are not kept, Intelligence Agencies Minister Dan Meridor said Monday.

• Unrest spreads to Damascus, where soldiers fire on protesters. Reuters writes:

Demonstrations and clashes with security forces have rocked Damascus in the past week, undermining President Bashar al-Assad’s claims that the 11-month uprising has been the work of saboteurs and limited mainly to the provinces.

• Worth reading: Homs, City of Torture.

• As a result of  global paralysis, Syria’s sectarian war goes international as foreign fighters and arms pour into country.

For years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, weapons and fighters slipped in across the border from Syria. Now the roles are being reversed with the flow coming the other way, although the numbers involved remain unclear.

Asma Assad

• An exiled Iranian writes a poignant open letter to Asma Assad:

You are not the same woman who once spoke to me about the plight of children in Palestine and elsewhere. A river of blood, including that of children, runs through your country. It’s hard for me imagine your hands blood-soaked, but your family is behind this ongoing massacre.

Asma, you are a mother, so how can you stand by a man who gives the orders to execute entire families in their homes? How can you sing lullabies to your daughter and son when so many Syrian mothers, especially in Homs, now have no one to sing to? How can you sleep in a bed with a man who has mastered the dark arts of torture and murder?

(Image of F15 via Flickr/Israel Defense Forces)

Original article can be viewed at Israel Daily News Stream 02/21/2012 on HonestReporting.