Dear Family & Friends,

A quick send before candle-lighting. I need to light on time – 10 minutes early. So no time for me to do my Index or spell-check

. Sorry.

Great snow night with rain, lightning, thunder, several bouts of hail, huge gusty winds – and finally SNOW. A great big blizzard most of the night, leading to a beautiful, crystal snow morning when the sun came out & I took pictures.

Lots of yummy food being cooked by my 2 grand-daughters & grandson. Someone asked me if I was a good cook. I replied: “I’m a great cook – except now I’ve turned my kitchen over to my kids & grand kids. They’re even better.” So more time to write to all of you.

Whoa! Another storm just started up. Rain, huge winds. Back at you on Motzei Shabbos with the answers.

Have a warm, dry lovely Shabbat night, beautiful Shabbat day.

All the very best, Gail/Geula/Savta/Savta Raba/Mom

Thousands of Israelis arrive in Yakir for Adele Biton’s funeral, two years after the attack • Adele’s father eulogizes his daughter: “What will I do now without you? I’ll go out of my mind. You are going up to heaven now, but I can’t let you go alone.”

Thousands of mourners arrived on Wednesday to pay their respects at the funeral of four-year-old Adele Biton, who died from complications of pneumonia on Tuesday, two years after she was critically wounded when Palestinians threw rocks at the car she was in on Route 5 in Samaria.

“I whispered in your ear the whole time that mommy would never leave you, and now my darling girl, I let you go, I left you, I felt that you had suffered enough,” said Biton’s mother, Adva, at the funeral.

Among those at the funeral were Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett, Likud MK Miri Regev and Kulanu party member Yoav Galant.

Adva and her husband Rafi embraced their daughter’s tiny body, wrapped in a burial shroud, before she was lowered into the ground.

Nearly five years old when she died, Biton had spent half her life in treatment and rehabilitation for the severe head injury she suffered in the stone-throwing attack. Her parents were determined to see her recover, even pursuing legal action after rehabilitation center staff told them there was nothing more that could be done for her there.

In her eulogy, Adva said, “My darling, beloved daughter, my life, my enormous soul — it is so hard for me to write and to speak about you in the past tense.

“When you were a baby, you didn’t like to sleep and we struggled with you. ‘No sleep, mommy,’ you would say, and you would wake up every hour-and-a-half…now I understand that you needed the time. There is no doubt that in your short life, you managed to accomplish so much. You managed to excite those around you, to lead, to honor God’s name many times over.

“The third of [the Jewish month of] Nisan is a date that is forever etched upon my heart. That was the day that your body was murdered by villains who were trying, and will continue to try for the rest of their lives, to destroy us. But your heart continued to beat. You went through a period of horrible physical anguish. I saw [on Tuesday] the suffering in your eyes, how much you fought for each and every breath.

“I felt in my heart that something bad was about to happen. God made a decision and took you to be with Him.”

Rafi had trouble speaking, but finally said, “What will I do now without you? I’ll go out of my mind. You are going up to heaven now, but I can’t let you go alone. All that is left to do is to flip over an hour glass and to think about when I can join you.” When he finished speaking, he carried his daughter’s body in his arms to her grave at the entrance to the family’s hometown of Yakir, where Edelstein promised to get government approval for her to be buried, despite the fact that there is no cemetery there.

At the funeral, Bennett said, “What can you say about the grave of a four-year-old girl? What can you say about a girl who spent half her life learning how to laugh and the other half fighting to stay alive?”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Biton’s grandmother, Rachel on Wednesday evening. “We are all crying with you and we are all embracing you,” he said. “May the love of this nation give you the strength to rebuild your life.”

Biton is survived by her parents, three sisters and a brother, who was born only a few months ago.

Äbbas? According to the Daily Beast:

Palestinian Dictator Mahmoud Abbas Gets a Free Pass
“The supposedly moderated president hugs a genocidal tyrant and bans elections while the world remains silent. Which “moderate” Arab president publicly hugged the genocidal leader of Sudan last week? Which Middle Eastern “reformer” just entered his 10th year of a four-year term? Which Western “ally” days ago ordered an investigation into a cartoonist for possibly drawing Mohammed? The answer is Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. These three stories barely made it into Western press. Why? Put simply, the bar has been set so low that they were not deemed newsworthy. An Arab leader who doesn’t allow elections? Yawn. A Middle Eastern president who embraces one of the worst mass murderers in recent history? Nothing to see here. There is a tragic disconnect between Western rhetoric and Arab reality. Abbas, if one listens to leaders of the free world, is a moderate, reformer and ally. He is better than Hamas, after all, isn’t he?”-more

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t’s a scary situation. And our media “experts” are scared!

 MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Hard to believe that the Postal service both here in Israel and abroad has gotten slower (and more expensive!) over the years. Why would you send a letter when you can send an email? or post something on facebook? Or tweet your latest thoughts? So the Post Offices in our countries just can’t stand up to the competition. Of course if you want to mail somebody a few Haggadahs this means it costs a lot and takes a long time for delivery. So if you want to get your Dry Bones Haggadahs for this coming Passover, you’ll have to order now! The LSW (Long Suffering Wife) mails them out from our local post office here in Israel. And then YOUR local snail mail service takes over! Yikes! So if you want to make sure you’ll get yours in time, you’ve got to order now! For details go to http://store.drybones.com

Multi Culturalism SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2015According to the huffington post

Shooting At Copenhagen Synagogue Leaves 1 Dead, 2 Officers Wounded
“Denmark was on high alert after a shooting near a synagogue in Copenhagen left a civilian dead and two police officers wounded early Sunday morning, hours after a gunman fatally shot a man and wounded three police officers at a free speech event in the same city. Combined, the shootings left two dead and five police officers wounded. The second attack, adjacent to a synagogue in the Krystalgade area of Copenhagen, left a male civilian dead, and two officers with wounds to the arms and legs, police said. The wounded officers were receiving treatment. Police spokesman Allan Wadsworth-Hansen said that is was unclear if the attack at the synagogue was related to the attack at the free speech event. The identity of the victim had not been released. Police scoured the city for suspects, and hours after the synagogue attack, Copenhagen police confirmed that they had shot and killed a man near the Nørrebro rail station. Police said that when they confronted the man, who was a person of interest, he opened fire and was then shot. No police officers were shot, a statement said. The man’s identity and condition were unknown. Police were investigating if he was connected to the attacks. Police had thus far not apprehended a suspect from either shootings, and were uncertain if it was the same perpetrator that had carried out both attacks. The synagogue shooter had fled on foot. Police described the suspect as a male wearing black pants and shoes, along with a gray jacket with a multi-colored portion.”

It is difficult to do cartoons when the reality is so beyond belief! THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2015

Has everyone become so cynical that they cannot see the simple truth? WED FEB 11 2015

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 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015According to FOX News:

Biden to Miss Netanyahu Address to Congress>p /> “Vice President Biden is expected to miss Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a joint meeting of Congress — apparently because of overseas travel — as several Democratic lawmakers plan to sit out the address in protest. A White House official confirmed to Fox News on Friday that the vice president will miss the address, as he will be traveling abroad. As president of the Senate, Biden would typically attend a joint meeting of Congress, putting the White House in a bind because of its irritation about Netanyahu’s visit.

The White House has accused Netanyahu and congressional Republicans of breaching diplomatic protocol by arranging the address without coordinating with the administration. Biden’s overseas trip allows the White House to avoid the awkwardness of having the vice president sit behind Netanyahu during the address. It’s unclear where the vice president plans to travel, though his office said the unspecified trip was in the works before the prime minister’s trip was announced. Netanyahu is scheduled to address Congress on March 3.

Meanwhile, at least three prominent Democratic lawmakers have vowed to boycott the speech, saying they disapprove of House Speaker John Boehner’s decision to invite the Israeli leader without consulting President Obama. Reps. John Lewis of Georgia, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina and Earl Blumenauer of Oregon announced their decisions earlier this week. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the president believes individual members of Congress should make their own decisions about whether or not to attend.

This week, officials began laying the groundwork for the prospect that Biden would skip the speech, noting that he also missed a joint meeting of Congress in 2011 because of foreign travel.“-more

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Due to popular demand, we’ve re-opened our indiegogo site. We reached (and went beyond) our fund-raising goal but so many people have asked if they can still contribute and receive our “perks” (Dry Bones Haggadahs, dvd’s, etc.) that we’ve been forced to comply. To check it out go to http://igg.me/at/drybones

The Real Threat to Europe by Bassam Tawil http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5228/islamist-threat-europe%202/1/9/15 5am

Commentators in Europe voicing opinions on the terrorist attacks atCharlie Hebdo and the kosher supermarket in Paris, reverentially discussed the motivation of the terrorists, but showed distressingly little understanding of the meaning of jihad.

Europe, hedonist and dishonest, is apparently willing to cut a deal with any violent dictator, including the most potentially violent: a nuclear-threshold Iran.

To understand the fate awaiting Europe, it is necessary to listen seriously to what the upper echelons of Islam say to each other about their intentions — in Arabic. These messages are quite different from those on Western television. What they say to each other is that the mission of Islam is to lead the whole world and eradicate all other religions, as they have been made irrelevant by the Qur’an.

Charlie Hebdo’s cover after the attacks illustrates the very weakness exploited by the Islamists. The cover shown Muhammad, with a tear, aligning himself with humanism. To every Muslim on the planet, it shouted France’s weakness, its increasing surrender to the Islamist threat, and the growing strength of Islam.

The real threat to Europe does not come from local Muslims who went to fight in the ranks of ISIS. The real threat comes from Muslims already in the enclaves in Europe. Their doctrine appears openly and without reservation, in books and on websites. It is spread in local languages in mosques by the imams in their communities. These communities command immigration; then the forming of enclaves in the host country, then the eventual violent takeover of the host.

The late Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, predicted that Islam would conquer Europe without even firing a shot. To understand and explain the fate awaiting Europe, it is necessary to listen seriously to what the upper echelons of Islam say to each about their own intentions –in Arabic. These messages are quite different from those on Western television. What they say to one another is that the mission of Islam is to lead the whole world and eradicate all other religions, as they have been made irrelevant by the Qur’an.

Their doctrine appears openly and without reservation in books and on websites. It is spread in local languages in mosques by the imams in their communities throughout Europe. These communities operate according to an ancient Islamic code: They command immigration; then the forming of enclaves in the host country, then the eventual violent takeover of the host.

Once this process is complete, all the Islamic communities will unite to form the Islamic Caliphate. It will have no borders and no other identity. Then there will be Peace. This, they say, was the state of affairs under Muhammad and this will be the state of affairs in the future.

It is markedly apparent to us, however, that the world refuses to listen to what the Islamists are saying. Anyone who dares to issue a warning is called, among other names, an alarmist or a racist.

On the rare occasion when an expert does warn of the coming danger, the global media turn him into an object of scorn and derision. There seems to be less than no wish even to look at Islamist ideology. Al Jazeera, run by the Emir of Qatar to promote radical Islam, has instructed its American division not to use the words “terrorist,” “militant,” “extremist,” “jihad” and “Islamist.” Does anyone seriously think they are doing that to promote transparency?

Throughout history, society has disregarded — and often even persecuted — any messenger who says things it does not like, such as Giordano Bruno, burned at the stake in 1600 for wounding the world’s narcissism by proposing that stars were other suns that could have other planets.

Recently, global terrorism expert Steven Emerson, who made the 1994 documentary “Terrorists Amongst Us: Jihad in America,” about the dangers the U.S. would face from radical Islam, has been vilified and ridiculed for an exaggerated comment about Birmingham. His apology may have reflected an error about the facts, but his central message was right. It did not negate his warning about the future danger these Muslim enclaves will present to Europe. Paris is not the only city with areas off-limits to police. Every tourist who goes to Marseilles, Köln, Berlin and Frankfurt is warned by local inhabitants about places to be bypassed.

The same is true of Stephen Coughlin, who was a Major in a Military Intelligence unit of the U.S. Army. Asked, as a lawyer, to prepare a report on Islamic Sharia law, he delivered, in July 2007, the most meticulous, painstaking, thoroughly-documented report: “To Our Great Detriment”: Ignoring What Extremists Say about Jihad.” He was promptly fired. He had apparently come up with the “wrong” answer. The U.S. Army, it seems, had expected to hear that Sharia law was not much different from the Magna Carta.

Commentators in Europe all had opinions about the terrorist attacks at the Charlie Hebdo office and the kosher supermarket in Paris. They reverentially discussed the motivation of the terrorists, the anti-Muslim atmosphere in Europe and concern over additional global jihad attacks, but showed distressingly little understanding of the meaning of jihad. If jihad is an inner struggle, and the people who practice it are mujahideen, there are a dizzying number of bloodthirsty, cut-throat, knife-wielding men out there waging inner struggle.

Charlie Hebdo’s cover after the attack illustrates the very weakness of Europe that is exploited by the Islamists. The cover shows Muhammad, with a tear, aligning himself with European humanism. To every Muslim on the planet, it shouted France’s weakness, its increasing surrender to the Islamist threat, and the growing strength of Islam.

The real threat to Europe does not come from local Muslims who went to fight in the ranks of ISIS and have already been returning. The real threat comes from the Muslims already in their enclaves in Europe, who are about to attack their host countries. They have seen that their riots, arson, vandalism and robberies result in frightening away the Westerners, the fire department and the police. Last New Year’s Eve alone in France, “only” 940 cars were torched– down, the French Interior Ministry proudly announced, from 1,067 the year before.

This tendency — either to kill the messenger or scorn him — also often results in blaming the victim. The Jews must have “done something,” the notion goes, for the Nazis to want to exterminate all of them; they “should have fought back,” and “it must have been their own fault.”

Radical Islamists assure the world that the attacks in Paris on Charlie Hebdo and the kosher supermarket were just a Zionist plot. They claim that the motive for the attack on the kosher supermarket was to convince Jews to immigrate to Israel, to help Benjamin Netanyahu win the upcoming Israeli election.

Iran’s accomplice, Argentina’s President Cristina Fernández Kirchner, tried the same tactic, hinting that the Jews were behind the recent murder of Alberto Nisman, the federal prosecutor who was about to testify how Argentina’s leaders covered-up Iran’s responsibility for the 1994 bombing of the Jewish community center (AMIA) in Buenos Aires.

There has also been collaboration between European governments and terrorist organizations in cynical deals, supposedly to prevent attacks on European soil. This collusion is most likely the reason France has refused to designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization for so long. It is also most likely the reason Hassan Nasrallah was so ridiculously quick to condemn the terrorist attacks in Paris, despite his relentless support for killing “infidels” and those who “disrespect” Islam. This list includes such international “criminals” as Salman Rushdie for his book, Satanic Verses; Anwar Sadat, who made peace with Israel, and Yasser Arafat for signing the Oslo Accords.

Another suspicious example of “cozy” international relations is the “temporary” EU removal of Hamas from its list of designated terrorist groups, despite it being crystal-clear that Hamas is devastating its own people as well as the Palestinian Authority and Israel, and that it never misses a chance to sabotage any attempt to reach a peace agreement.

What is not clear so far is what France and the rest of Europe will receive in return for their stupidity, apart — as we keep seeing — from the perpetually broken promise of “no further attacks.”

Europe, hedonist and dishonest, is apparently willing to cut a deal with any violent dictator, including the most potentially violent: a nuclear-threshold Iran.

Today’s apologists for terrorist organizations are tomorrow’s victims.

Bassam Tawil is a scholar based in the Middle East.

Is This the Way to Run a War? by Shoshana Bryen http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5233/aumf-combat-islamic-state February 19, 2015 at 4:00 am

How does a government “get beyond the crisis” without a plan to resolve the crisis?

The Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) is an odd document, not yet debated Congress. Among other points, it prohibits “enduring offensive ground operations,” but without defining them.

President Obama seems to want it both ways — to oppose American participation in large-scale battles in Iraq, but to have the “flexibility” to order them; to prohibit ground operations but to have American troops in place to carry them out.

The administration thus appears to remain without an articulated strategy to prosecute the war IS launched against us, our allies and a broad range of civilian non-combatants.

A Jordanian, 21 Egyptians and 4 Americans – sounds like the start of a bad joke, but it is not.

They, along with thousands of others, have been murdered by the Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh) in the Middle East, and by Boko Haram in Nigeria. The victims are Muslim, Christian (Nigerian Christians, Egyptian Copts beheaded in Libya, plus Yazidis, Chaldeans and 45 members of smaller sects in Iraq burned alive), and others (Japanese hostages and some who professed no religion). They are killed in places where governments have lost control of their territory to bands of increasingly well-armed Islamic radical forces.

There is a war going on in a far part of the world, and increasingly IS finds fellow travelers — thus far in France, Britain and Denmark — willing to attack in the West. The U.S. has had citizens killed at home — kudos to Congress for finally making it possible for the Army to award Purple Hearts to the casualties of the jihadi attack at Ft. Hood — but a connection to IS is not established.

On the other hand, at the same time, 300 graves in a Jewish cemetery in France were desecrated, and more than 30 homes in Madison, WI were spray-painted with anti-Semitic graffiti.

The Obama administration, which has said it would “degrade and destroy” IS, has put forward two documents to help explain America’s strategic posture toward organizations wedded to “violence against unbelievers” and the insufficiently enthusiastic.

First came the “Authorization for the Use of Military Force” (AUMF), then a new “National Security Strategy” (NSS).

But there is more.

The AUMF is an odd document, not yet debated in Congress. Among other points, it prohibits “enduring offensive ground operations,” but without defining them. The language suggests the U.S. would remain committed only to air strikes, training and Special Operations. Ground troops, however, are often essential in warfare across wide-open spaces such as the western Iraqi desert.

Kurdish Peshmerga were on the ground in the battle for Kobane, but Kurdish forces are limited and remain in their own areas, and have not been equipped. Beyond them, there are no trained and ready troops except, perhaps, Iranian or Hezbollah, both of which have acknowledged having forces in Iraq. Neither should make Iraqis, or Americans, comfortable, especially in light of Iran’s desire to spread extremist Shi’ite, Persian control over the Middle East to restore the Persian Empire.

To complicate matters, the AUMF has broad exceptions to its prohibition on “enduring ground offensive operations.” The current 3,000 ground troops in Iraq are explicitly excluded from any new restrictions. In addition, according to at least one report, Special Operations forces; Joint Terminal Attack Controllers, the experts who pinpoint targets for air strikes; and search and rescue personnel can be deployed by the President without returning to Congress for an amended authorization. Together, they could amount to thousands more troops.

Those who believe that an American-led ground war in the Middle East is necessary call the AUMF too rigid and limited; others fear it has the potential for an expanded war, to which they object.

Appearing to weigh in on the side of those who do not want the U.S. committed to large-scale military operations against IS, the NSS counsels “strategic patience.”

National Security Council Advisor Susan Rice explained, “We are committed to seizing the future that lies beyond the crisis of the day [emphasis added], and pursuing a vision of the world as it can and should be.” She added that the U.S. will “look at the world with a long-term perspective, influencing the trajectory of major shifts in the security landscape today in order to secure our national interests in the future.”

There is no way to take such pronouncements as “the future that lies beyond the crisis of the day” or “visions” seriously as policy-making tools. How does a government get “beyond the crisis” without a plan to resolve the crisis? Regardless of the “long term perspective,” which the administration has committed to paper, the “crisis of the day” appears to be what she is, in fact, talking about. And the “crisis of the day” appears to require ground troops.

While the administration was saying it had not identified “moderates” to receive American arms, the CIA, it turns out, had trained more than 5,000 Syrian rebels. Maybe they were not really “moderate.” That would account for why thousands of them appear to have defected to IS at the end of last year. While others continue to arm and train Syrians, one quarter of the U.S.-approved brigades have since been dropped from the list of “acceptable” militias, and money for others has been cut.

You can trust American troops, though, right? Now, some 4,000 members of the American 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division from Ft. Carson are being dispatched to Kuwait where they will be the first heavy brigade to fight in Iraq if that becomes the Commander in Chief’s decision.

Wait…what?

Yes, 3,000 already in Iraq and another 4,000 in Kuwait would amount to 7,000 pairs of “boots on the ground.” The 3rd Brigade Combat Team, which was deployed to Iraq four times, is equipped with tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles. For more than a year, its soldiers have trained primarily in armored combat skills, applied in ground battles against an opposing army. From a military perspective, this is appropriate as certain combat skills have been degraded or lost in the past decade of mostly small-unit urban warfare or anti-terrorist operations.

But the AUMF specifically prohibited “enduring offensive ground operations.”

Keep this in mind because the letter sent by President Obama to lawmakers with the AUMF said, “Local forces, rather than U.S. military forces” should be used for large-scale operations.

“The authorization I propose would provide the flexibility to conduct ground combat operations in other, more limited circumstances, such as rescue operations involving U.S. or coalition personnel or the use of special operations forces to take military action against (Islamic State) leadership.”

Rescue operations rarely require tanks, and Special Operations never do.

President Obama seems to want it both ways — to oppose American participation in large-scale battles in Iraq but to have the “flexibility” to order them; to prohibit ground operations but to have American troops in place to carry them out.

The administration thus appears to remain without an articulated strategy to prosecute the war IS has launched against us, our allies and a broad range of civilian non-combatants. It remains to be seen whether the President is posing as the sleeping giant of American military might, or whether he is truly on a quest for the “future that lies beyond the crisis of the day” and his “vision of the world as it can and should be.”

Bulletin Feb. 19, 2015

Highlighting concerns over Iran’s failure to cooperate over its nuclear program, a confidential International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, obtained by journalists on Thursday, said that Iran is still not in “full cooperation” with the IAEA’s two year investigation meant to resolve outstanding questions surrounding the weaponization aspects of Iran’s nuclear program.The IAEA is focused on the possible military dimensions (PMDs) of Iran’s nuclear program and seeks to determine whether Iran has conducted explosives testing or “other activity that could be used to develop nuclear bombs.” Reuters reported that a diplomat, speaking on the current negotiations, said, “With respect to PMD, progress is very slow, if there is any progress at all at this point in time.”

Iran continues to prohibit the IAEA from visiting sites connected to PMDs, including Parchin, a military complex “dedicated to research, development, and production of ammunition, rockets, and high explosives.” New imagery from Parchin suggests Iran has been re-asphalting the site to cover up work related to past weaponization activities.

Iran has a history of concealing its nuclear activities, eluding inspections and violating its commitments. In 2002, it was revealed that Iran was working on two secret nuclear facilities: Natanz and Arak. The IAEA reported that Iran was in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Additionally, the agency declared that for the previous 18 years Iran had “secretly developed technologies to produce highly enriched uranium.” Then, in October 2003, Iran signed the Tehran Declaration with Britain, Germany, and France and agreed to suspend enrichment during the period of negotiations and comply with the IAEA. Two years later, the negotiations stalled, and the IAEA referred Iran to the U.N. Security Council for non-compliance of the NPT due its continued enrichment and failure to cooperate with the IAEA. Current Iranian President Hassan Rouhani boasted in May 2013 that “he and the regime utterly flouted a 2003 agreement with the IAEA in which it promised to suspend all uranium enrichment and certain other nuclear activities.”

Last month, Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that any final agreement requires “robust monitoring and transparency measures to maximize the international community’s ability to detect quickly any attempt by Iran to break out overtly or covertly.” Iran’s failure to comply with the IAEA underscores concerns about relying on an inspections regime to prevent any future Iranian nuclear breakout.

Smarlation: a legal, medical, technical, business or personal document translated into one of the world’s 80 or so written languages

No matter where you live or what language you speak, at some point you will likely need a legal, medical, technical, business or personal document translated into one of the world’s 80 or so written languages. Or maybe you’ll want to develop a website, app or book for people in several different countries. That’s why Israeli translator Gil Tamir decided to parlay 30 years of experience (and his own money) into Smartlation, an innovative search engine using a patent-pending algorithm that analyzes data from thousands of registered translators in order to match users with those who best meet their exact requirements and budget. “Our goal is to create a comprehensive solution for both the business community and individuals who have very specific needs in a translator,” says Tamir, who launched the site in October with cofounder Dan Gat following a year of development. In today’s global village, the need to translate myriad materials has pushed the worldwide market for outsourced language services and technology to an estimated $37.19 billion in 2014, according to the market-research firm Common Sense Advisory. The language-services market is expected to reach $47 billion by 2018. “Searching through hundreds of websites and blogs to find someone with the right language skills, and who fits the budget, can be very time-consuming,” says Tamir. “We’ve come up with a platform that can reduce the entire course of action to just a few minutes. Our platform also manages the whole process to make it as simple as possible.” Billed as a global online marketplace for independent translators and customers seeking translations, Smartlation currently has about 4,000 registered translators providing categorized services in more than 70 languages to a growing pool of users. “We are receiving new registrations every day, from translators as well as clients,” says Tamir, speaking to ISRAEL21c from his office in Haifa. (via Israel21c)