Elder of Ziyon 02/07 Links P2: Bethany Mandel: The Jewish Left is trying to hijack Israel; Warren agrees with supporter that AIPAC is an 'unholy alliance' of 'Islamophobes,' 'white nationalists'
Now the American Jewish Left is using this World Zionist Congress election to try to turn the financial support of the Jewish people against Israel, and they're not even trying to hide it.
Reporting on the election, the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz explained,
The list includes names like Peter Beinart, the liberal writer; Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of the liberal Middle East policy group J Street; and Sheila Katz, the CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women.
No, it's not an ad for a symposium on the Upper East Side, but a slate of first-time candidates seeking seats in the 38th World Zionist Congress, the legislative authority of a 120-year-old Zionist organization that helps determine the fate of $1 billion in spending on Jewish causes.
The candidates hope to steer funding away from Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank and toward causes like expanding rights for women and minorities. The second paragraph of the group's platform notes its opposition to "the current policy of permanent occupation and annexation," which it calls "unjust" and a threat to Israeli democracy.
Liberal Jewish groups already hold a majority of the American Jewish community's 145 seats in the congress, but they have mainly used them to advocate for more religious pluralism in Israel. The new candidates hope to nudge those groups toward addressing the Israeli occupation of the West Bank more directly and to registering the unhappiness of the American Jewish community with the status quo there.
"My view of the American Jewish establishment and the Zionist establishment is that it is morally corrupt by defending the indefensible, for defending an occupation that holds millions of people occupied," Beinart said in an interview.
Not content to allow politicized leftists take over the Congress and the money it could allocate, more right-leaning (religiously and politically) Jews are pushing back. In his endorsement of one of the slates, the Orthodox Israel Coalition, Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro explained, "anti-Israel and anti-Jewish groups like J Street have mobilized to direct funding toward causes that run directly counter to the interests of the organization, including support of BDS."
It remains to be seen how effective this effort will be to hijack a billion dollars in money meant to support Israel, not undermine it. This little-known election could have far-reaching and disastrous ramifications for Israeli security for years to come if liberals get their way.
We're extremely concerned about what will happen if the ZOA Coalition does not do well in this WZC election.
Our opponents used the power they obtained in previous WZC elections to stop Israel's national institutions from purchasing lands in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and even in the Negev. This anti-Jewish discrimination could become even worse.
Shockingly, at the most recent World Zionist Congress, our opponents tried to pass a resolution smearing Israel's tolerant, multi-faceted society as replete with "institutional racism." We were only able to defeat this resolution — which reminded us of the notorious 1975 United Nations "Zionism is racism" resolution — by one vote.
An opposition group now openly says that it is running in the WZC election to "divert" the $1 billion per year of Israel's national institution funding "away from the entrenchment of the occupation."
"Occupation" is a false propaganda term used to attack Jewish persons' rights to continue living on historic Jewish lands designated for the Jewish homeland under international law. Anti-Israel boycott groups use the term "occupation" to demonize Israel. It is frightening that groups running in the WZC election are using the same rallying cry.
The ZOA Coalition (slate #11) needs many more votes now, so that the next attempt to use the World Zionist Congress to smear Israel has no chance of passing. The full slate includes the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), Aish HaTorah, Students Supporting Israel, NORPAC, The Lawfare Project, American Friends of Likud, Dov Hikind's Americans Against Antisemitism, One Israel Fund, Young Jewish Conservatives, Z Street, American Friends of Ateret Cohanim, American Friends of Likud, Chovevei Zion, Eretz Israel Movement, National Conference on Jewish Affairs, major Russian-Jewish and Persian-Jewish and Ukrainian-Jewish groups, Beta Israel, and more.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., raised eyebrows on Thursday night for appearing to agree with a town hall attendee that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is an "unholy alliance" of "Islamophobes, anti-Semites, and white nationalists."
At a New Hampshire event, a woman who describes herself as an "American Jew" expressed her disdain for the pro-Israel group and asked whether or not Warren would vow not to attend the upcoming annual conference in March.
"I'm an American Jew and I'm terrified by the unholy alliance that AIPAC is forming with Islamophobes and anti-Semites and white nationalists," the attendee began. "And no Democrat should legitimize that kind of bigotry by attending their annual policy conference."
Warren nodded along as she took a swig from her water bottle.
The attendee continued. "I'm really grateful that you skipped the AIPAC conference last year and so my question is if you'll join me in committing to skip the AIPAC conference this year."
"Yeah," Warren simply replied and waved off the attendee.
She later said about her views on U.S.-Israel relations, "For America to be a good ally of Israel and the Palestinians we need to get both parties to the table. We're not getting that if we just stand with one party."
The Warren campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.
Warren, who previously attended other AIPAC events in recent years, was one of several prominent 2020 candidates who boycotted the annual conference last year. Meanwhile, top Democratic lawmakers like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. attended the conference last year.
It keeps getting worse. As the 2020 Dems get more & more anti-Israel, will any of them stand up and condemn comments like these? Directly? Or are they too scared of the angry anti-Semitic Left? https://t.co/bUTRA4STxz
Avraham Dar, who passed away recently at the age of 94, spoke five languages fluently and befriended everyone he came across. His son, Gidi Dar, said, "My father never resorted to violence during his operations. That wasn't his style. He'd always come up with a story and finagle his way through sticky situations. In that way, he succeeded in overthrowing Mustafa Hafez, the head of the Egyptian Fedayeen....Hafez would lead killing squads across the border into Israel [from Gaza] to kill Jews."
"My father...befriended a Bedouin double agent and he fabricated a story, claiming that the head of the Egyptian-controlled Gaza police was cooperating with the Israelis. He confided this to the agent, and gave him a copy of the message in code inside a book, making him promise to keep it secret. Of course, the agent ran straight to Hafez and excitedly told him about the amazing intel he'd uncovered."
"Hafez had to open the book himself, since it included information about some of his men. When Hafez opened the book, it exploded in his face and he and all his men in the Fedayeen headquarters were killed. A similar bomb eliminated his deputy in Jordan just a few hours later."
Born in 1915 to a traditional Jewish family recently arrived from Russia, Saul Bellow was raised in Chicago and soon became "part of a circle of brainy Jewish teenagers who read and debated weighty books and learned much more from each other than from their formal schooling." Early in life, Bellow decided to become a writer "and worked at it so hard and so successfully that by the time of his death in 2005 he had become America's most decorated novelist."
So writes Ruth Wisse in her October 2019 Mosaic essay, "What Saul Bellow Saw." The piece is far more than a biography of Bellow or a catalogue of his accomplishments. It is a thoughtful reflection on his profound insights about social order, the human condition, the Jew's place in America, and much more. Unlike a philosopher or social scientist, Bellow offers these reflections in the form of the novel. And in this podcast, Professor Wisse and Jonathan Silver discuss some of those novels and give us a brief but enlightening glimpse into the mind of Saul Bellow—the thinker.
The narrow road that leads to the Yu Aw synagogue in the ancient city of Herat in western Afghanistan is lined with traditional mud homes that, despite their rough exterior, are fine examples of centuries-old architectural dexterity.
Ghulam Sakhi, the caretaker of some of the heritage sites, leads the way, taking short quick steps and pausing every so often to share an anecdote from the area's history.
"This is why I wanted you to walk to the synagogue, so you can see the neighbourhood and how it has been changed since the war," he explained before starting the walk of a little over a kilometre between the old city centre - called Chahar Su, or Four Directions - and the synagogue, which was restored in 2009.
About 350 years old, the Jewish place of worship is located near what used to be known as the Iraq Gate, an area of the city from which travellers and merchants embarked on their journey to Iraq.
The shared Jewish history of the two countries goes further back, to more than 2,700 years ago when Jewish tribes from the present territory of Palestine-Israel exiled by Assyrian conquerors travelled through Iraq to Afghanistan, where they settled and built thriving communities in cities like Herat and the Afghan capital of Kabul.
"The history of Jews in this region goes back to way before the birth of the nation state of Afghanistan," said Afghan academic Omar Sadr, who has also authored the book Negotiating Cultural Diversity in Afghanistan.
"There are mentions in history of Jews living in this region, during the period of Cyrus the Great, the Persian emperor and his conquest of Babylon in 538. During the Islamic era, Tajik historian Jowzjani from the 7th also mentions of Jewish colonies under the Ghurid chief Amir Banji who had recruited Jews as advisers. In more recent history, in 1736, Persian King Nadir Afshar encouraged Jewish settlement in the region because the Jews had good connection in the merchant routes in the subcontinent- between central Asia, and Arabia," he explains. (h/t Zvi)
Leaders from around the world recently visited Israel to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Concurrently with that visit, another important historical visit took place: for the first time, a delegation of leading Arabs visited the Nazi extermination camp.
Muslim World Society chairman Saudi Sheik Muhammad Issa visited Auschwitz on January 23 with a delegation of leading Muslim clerics. One of the most prominent was Lebanese Shiite leader Dr. Muhammad Ali Husseini, chairman of the Supreme Islamic Council, who made a statement condemning the murder of the Jews in the Holocaust. "The visit to Auschwitz is an expression of Islamic condemnation of Nazi crimes in the Holocaust," he said. "These are crimes against humanity. We refuse to accept any kind of religious suppression whether in the past or in the future."
Husseini could pay a heavy price for those statements. The day after uttering them, at the most recognizable scene of the Nazi attempt at mass extermination, a group of Lebanese journalists close to Hezbollah filed a complaint with the Lebanese courts against him. They accused him of, among other things, contact with the Zionist enemy, contempt for the Islamic religion, and inciting war between Muslims.
All because of his visit to Auschwitz.
Why did it take 75 years for some Arab leaders to acknowledge the Holocaust, even as most of the Arab world still denies the genocide of the Jewish People? Before delving into this phenomenon, it is instructive to examine the definition of Holocaust denial.
Holocaust denial is not necessarily denying that the Holocaust ever occurred. Rather, it is the spreading of lies or half-truths, and using them as a means of harming the Jewish People and the State of Israel. These lies include showing contempt for the Holocaust, minimizing the numbers of victims, or spreading false claims about the circumstances of their deaths, notably denial of the existence of gas chambers.
The numerical tattoo Al Pacino wore on his left arm during his portrayal of a Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter in the new Amazon Prime Video series "Hunters" helped the famed actor tap into his character and "become that person," he said on Tuesday.
At the show's premiere event in London, Pacino — who recently earned his ninth Oscar nomination — noted that the arm tattoo he had on while shooting the series to resemble those given to inmates in German concentration camps provided "a hand in helping portray a character, learning the accent and becoming that person."
The 79-year-old added, "It was a reminder, it contributed to all the aspects of the character you are playing and how you absorb a character."
In the new drama series, said to be inspired by true events, Pacino plays Meyer Offerman, who heads a team seeking to assassinate Nazis living in America in the 1970s.
Creator David Weil explained that the series was "a love letter to my grandmother" Sarah Weil, a Holocaust survivor.
"Growing up and getting older, I struggled with that notion of birth right, legacy and responsibility," he said. "With so many survivors no longer with us, we are the next generation to tell this story in certain ways. [This show] is an exploration of my birthright, this desire to wear that vigilante cape, to get justice, to shed light on hidden crimes and truths…I just really wanted to see a Jewish superhero, represented by so many others in this eccentric, eclectic kind of way. So that was the genesis of it."
"Hunters" will begin streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime Video on Feb. 21:
A British Jewish leader who played a central role in highlighting UK Labour's anti-Semitism crisis — a major factor in the landslide defeat of Jeremy Corbyn's party in December's elections — has warned that the future of world Jewry is threatened more than at any time since World War II, by a combination of "classic anti-Semitism" and anti-Zionism.
Jonathan Goldstein, London-based head of the Jewish Leadership Council, said Jewish leaders have ignored rising anti-Semitism for too long, and "lost the narrative" when it comes to Zionism.
In an interview with The Times of Israel, Goldstein charged that many of the innumerable major Jewish organizations worldwide are disseminating different narratives, when they urgently need to coordinate and work together.
"Clearly we're not maximizing our resources as a global people to ensure that we are fighting back against a disease which is threatening to be out of control," he said.
"Our major organizations are so at war with each other in a global sense; they are so disparate. There are so many. There are so many different narratives. Just last month, to have competing [Holocaust memorial] events in Jerusalem, with so many world leaders showing support, and in Krakow at the same time is, to me, a missed opportunity. We could and should have sent a more unified message," he insisted.
The Deputy Leader of the Green Party has apologised for tweeting an antisemitic cartoon depicting Israel and the United States as responsible for conflict and death around the world.
Amelia Womack shared an animated image of the Grim Reaper cloaked in an American flag and carrying a scythe emblazoned with the flag of Israel and dripping with blood going door to door – each door representing a country – bringing death.
Ms Womack accompanied the image with the caption: "When a picture paints a thousand words."
She later deleted the tweet some hours later, saying "That'll teach me for sharing things just as my battery dies on a train."
The next morning she apologised, saying: "Yesterday I tweeted a picture which, in my ignorance, I thought was satirising U.S. Imperialism. It wasn't, it was in fact antisemitic and I apologise wholeheartedly for tweeting it. I abhor antisemitism in all forms. There is no excuse for what I did and I'm truly sorry."
The Union of Jewish Students (UJS) in the United Kingdom has expressed concern over new figures showing a 60-percent rise in domestic antisemitic incidents affecting Jewish students and academics, calling on university leaders to "take decisive action on our concerns."
A new report released by the Community Security Trust (CST), which monitors antisemitism and provides protection for the Jewish community, recorded 1,805 antisemitic incidents in the UK last year, the highest total ever logged in a calendar year and a 7% increase on 2018.
The figures included "40 antisemitic incidents affecting Jewish students, academics, students' unions or other student bodies in 2019, a rise of 60 percent from the 25 such incidents reported in 2018."
Twenty-one of the incidents took place on campus, while 19 were off campus. They included two instances of physical assault, four incidents of damage and desecration of property, two threats and 32 examples of "abusive behavior." The latter category includes verbal and written antisemitic abuse, such as drawing swastikas or vocalizing antisemitic slurs. There were no reports of campus-related, mass-produced antisemitic literature.
UJS — which includes some 60 Jewish Societies on campuses in the UK and Ireland under its umbrella, representing 8,500 Jewish students — cautioned in a statement on Thursday that due to under-reporting of hate crimes, "the scale of the problem is not fully revealed. Research shows that only around 20% of hate crime is reported." (h/t Zvi)
Oberlin College initially defended Karega, issuing a short statement defending Karega's right to hold whatever views she wants: Oberlin College respects the rights of its faculty, students, staff, and alumni to express their personal views. Acknowledgement of this right does not signal institutional support for, or endorsement of, any specific position. The statements posted on social media by Dr. Joy Karega, assistant professor of rhetoric and composition, are hers alone and do not represent the views of Oberlin College.
After several months, Karega was removed from teaching while the college's academic investigation was launched, Oberlin's BDS-loving Jewish-conspiracy-spouting Prof. Joy Karega removed from teaching: After her rants were exposed in The Tower Magazine, Oberlin was on the defensive after a long-series of anti-Semitic problems on campus centered around an out-of-control vicious anti-Israel movement.
The administration condemned the comments to some extent, the Trustees issued a strong condemnation, and a majority of professors signed a statement against her, though she has a core of faculty and student support.
She was unmoved.
Now she's been placed on paid-leave for the fall semester.
Karega maintained strong support on campus from anti-Israel student groups, Oberlin Student Senate condemns Alumni group for complaining too much about campus anti-Semitism. Karega and her supporters said criticism of her was motivated by racism, as we covered in Oberlin Prof. who posted antisemitic memes says she's a victim of racism
Karega was fired, but not because of her conspiracy theories. She was fired, according to Oberlin College, because she failed to cooperate with the investigation into her conduct. We covered the firing in Oberlin College fires Prof. Joy Karega after antisemitic Facebook posts.
The extremist San Francisco based Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) is attempting to breathe life into the dead horse of the widely discredited California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum.
You may remember Lara Kiswani, head of the AROC, for her assault on Jewish elders. Witnesses reported her physically ripping signs from the hands of the elders, and doing a victory lap with the destroyed signs held high over her head.
Does Lara Kiswani seem like the type of person we want influencing curriculum for young people?
From the Progressive Zionists of California, a grassroots coalition of California Democrats:
Lara Kiswani and the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) have helped sponsor a petition called "Save CA Ethnic Studies" which states, "Will it [the California Department of Education] institute a Ethnic Studies curriculum that uplifts the stories of all communities of color or reject one that includes Arab Americans—bending to the desires of pro-Israel groups [emphasis added]…."
Progressive Zionists points out that it was not "pro-Israel" groups alone objecting to the "exclusionary and antisemitic Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum". It widely condemned by a consortium of groups, including Armenian Americans, Greek Americans, Hindu Indian Americans, Assyrian-Americans, Sikh Americans, Korean Americans, on the grounds that it was "not inclusive enough".
Unacceptable hatred at UC Berkeley
Unacceptable hatred at UC Berkeley this week. Incidents like this make clear that the university must do much more to fight antisemitism, ensure a safe environment on campus and protect free speech.
It is now 3 hours since they posted that tweet. Enough time for their core support to get behind them. In fact - they have only had 12 retweets. So let us see what is behind the mask of PSC updates. Who is it they rely on to spread the message? These are the 12 accounts. pic.twitter.com/E2LnX0T5aH
For more than 20 years, the organization charged with representing world Jewry in dialogue with top tier Christian institutions such as the Vatican refused to speak with the World Council of Churches.
The organization, the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC), had been on hiatus from dialogue with the WCC because of its statements regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict, reported Rabbi David Sandmel, director of Interreligious Engagement for the Anti-Defamation League and one of the ADL's representatives to IJCIC.
In a statement issued last summer, Sandmel said the breakdown in relations with the WCC "was the result of strong disagreements, particularly on issues surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." Some of the statements from the WCC had from the IJCIC's perspective, been "problematic and the WCC has been accused of being both anti-Israel and anti-Semitic, charges which the WCC rejects," Sandmel wrote.
The impasse came to an end in late June 2019 at a meeting in Paris. Announcing that there had been a rapprochement between the two organizations, the WCC and the IJCIC issued a communiqué about the meeting. It declared that, "discussions in Paris were characterized by openness, honesty, and an attempt to fully empathize with how profoundly important these issues are to Jews and Christians alike."
The WCC had a lot riding on IJCIC's willingness to start talking again.
Over the years the WCC has demonstrated a profound ignorance of issues related to the Middle East. In particular, the organization's staffers in Geneva treated Arab Christian testimony about the Jewish state as if it were gospel, ignoring how Christians in the Middle East oftentimes attacked Israel to remain on good terms with Arab dictators and Muslim extremists in the region.
Three separate antisemitic incidences were recorded in London this week, as Jews had stones and fireworks thrown at them in London.
Youths threw eggs and fireworks at Jews attending a synagogue in Clapham Common on Tuesday, Shomrim Stamford Hill reported on Twitter. The group then returned the following day, climbed onto the roof of the synagogue and shouted abuse at worshipers attending.
Also on Wednesday, three males threw a stone at the car of a "visibly Jewish family" visiting a medical clinic on Marine Street in the early afternoon, Shomrim reported.
Shomrim also reported a case of graffiti being sprayed on a shop front in Haringey, although it is not clear whether the criminal damage was antisemitic in nature. The organization supports local policing work in general; on Wednesday a Shomrim patrol discovered a skimmer on a cash machine in Hackney, and reported it to the Metropolitan police, who removed the device.
A man with a history of browsing antisemitic websites who pleaded guilty in 2019 of possessing materials "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism" has had his appeal against his sentence dismissed.
David Dudgeon was sentenced to two years in prison by the Edinburgh Sheriff Court, which reduced the sentence by a year from a three-year starting point, due to his guilty plea.
Mr Dudgeon then appealed to the High Court of Justiciary Appeal Court for the sentence to be reduced on the basis that the three-year starting point was "excessive". That appeal has now failed.
Mr Dudgeon, who reportedly has a history of mental health issues, was referred to police in March 2019, following which his home was raided. Over the course of the investigation, it was discovered that Mr Dudgeon had an extensive browsing history of extreme far-right websites on topics such as antisemitism, Holocaust denial, racism, conspiracy theores and serial killers, desribed by the court as "violent, sinister and disturbing".
Campaign Against Antisemitism's analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of over three hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews almost four times more likely to be targets of hate crimes than any other faith group.
Australian Islamic Scholar: The Jews Exaggerate the Holocaust for Dirty Political Exploitation
On Friday, January 24, 2020, Ismail Al-Wahwah from the Australian chapter of Hizb ut-Tahrir delivered a sermon at an unknown location in Australia. He said that he would like to discuss the commemoration of the "so-called" Jewish Holocaust, which he called a global issue that was "imposed by force" on the "hypocritical world," but that he has no intention to discuss whether the Holocaust really happened or whether there were really as many victims as it is claimed there were. He said that the criminals who are occupying Palestine use the Holocaust for "dirty political exploitation" and in order justify and draw attention away from their own crimes. He further claimed that the Jews blow the Holocaust out of proportion and lie about it in order to milk the West and accomplish their goals. Furthermore, Al-Wahwah claimed that that the Holocaust and the accusation of antisemitism are used to silence anybody who talks about liberating Palestine or who exposes the crimes of Israel, which he referred to as an illegal and evil state. In addition, Al-Wahwah criticized world media and world leaders, including prominent Shiite and Sunni Muslim leaders, for "flocking" to Israel, Poland, and Germany to commemorate the Holocaust and its victims, and he said: "May Allah take [those Muslim leaders] to the Holocaust!" He bemoaned the fact that the Islamic nation is undergoing its own holocausts in Syria, Iraq, and China and that nobody is allowed to talk about the holocaust against Muslims without being accused of antisemitism for "underestimating" the Jewish holocaust. Al-Wahwah continued to say that it is certain that Islam will ultimately be victorious, that the Islamic nation will be united, that a Caliphate will be established, and that shari'a law will return. He said that Islam will conquer Rome just like the Prophet Muhammad had prophesied, that Palestine will be free, and that Moscow will also be conquered. The sermon was uploaded to HT-Media, a YouTube channel belonging to Hizb ut-Tahrir. For more about Ismail Al-Wahwah, including additional clips and information about his imprisonment in Jordan by Jordan's General Intelligence Directorate, see MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 7893.
A unique space launch will take place at the end of March this year, as part of a joint Israeli-Italian microgravity medical experimentation project.
The cooperation between the two countries in space mirrors the strengthening ties between Jerusalem and Rome down on earth. Less than two months ahead of the launch, Italian Space Agency Director Giorgio Saccoccia visited Israel last month as the guest of the 15th International Ilan Ramon Conference, which is part of the Israel Space Week organized by Israel's Science and Technology Ministry.
The Israeli company SpacePharma and scientists from both countries are taking part in the project. SpacePharma is seen as a leader in microgravity experimentation, and has developed a miniature lab that can be launched on a nanosatellite.
Two of the experiments to be conducted as part of the project will be handled by the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, another will be overseen by the Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, and yet another by Jerusalem's Hebrew University.
One of the experiments is based on the research of professor Giuseppe Falini of the University of Bologna and professor Boaz Pokroy from the Technion into the behavior in space of antibacterial materials and their influence on bacteria in zero-gravity conditions.
Outside one of this city's many brutalist apartment buildings, passersby stop to stare at and photograph a London-style taxi emblazoned with large Star of David symbols.
Some seem puzzled by the out-of-place sight. Others look delighted to encounter something they've seen or heard about in the news: One of Warsaw's four limousines that for the past year have been providing free transportation to dozens of senior citizens who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
The project, called the Silent Hero Taxi Service, has changed the lives of many of these aging rescuers. They're making daily use of an amenity that has become indispensable in a sprawling, congested city with relatively poor public transportation services.
Krystyna Kowalska, an 88-year-old widow who as a teenager helped her parents harbor and save a Jewish family of four, calls the cabs a "miracle."
Before the taxis entered her life, she would take several buses to get from her small apartment in the residential area of Stary Mokotów to the cemetery where her son, mother, father and brother are buried.
"It would take half the day to get there," said Kowalska, who was recognized in 1994 by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust museum as a Righteous Among the Nations, a title given to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from the Nazi genocide. As Kowalska's health deteriorated — she is going blind and uses a walker to get around — she stopped visiting the cemetery.
Kowalska, an introverted and private person, said she had to ask others with relatives at the cemetery on the other side of the city to weed the graves of her loved ones. (h/t Zvi)
JP Morgan Herzliya tech center head Dr. Yoav Intrator tells "Globes" about the tech center's work, which includes data analysis, AI, blockchain, and fintech strategy.
I traveled by bus from Tel Aviv to Herzliya on my way to the tech center of US banking corporation JP Morgan & Chase. On the way, I thought about an article written by Dr. Yoav Intrator, managing director of the center, in which he explains how the global economy, which is now becoming "smarter and smarter," will be conducted autonomously in the future. "What will we have in Israel," I asked myself, "an autonomous bus with no driver, or an autonomous bank without bankers?"
"I think that in the coming decade, we'll see a lot of changes in these two sectors, vehicles and banking," says Intrator, when I ask him this question in his first Israeli media interview. "The processes of change will make rapid progress in every country. In many cases, the changes depend on a political decision, not on whether the technological capability exists. Installing autonomous vehicle technology requires the trust of both the state and the end users. In the auto sector, there are a lot of regulatory issues that must be solved, and decisions with fateful consequences for human life are involved, so the problem is more acute than it is in banking.
"If the state wants to switch to using a digital currency, it depends to a large extent on whether it is willing to deal in this matter with the many concerns still using fiat currency (a sovereign currency like the shekel or dollar). In many markets, there's a lot of non-transparency, and the state loses a lot of money as a result. Every country with a black market or markets that use cash is facing such a problem."
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has selected the Rafael Spike LR2 missile system as its new Long Range Direct Fire Support Weapon capability to target contemporary armored threats.
Chief of Army, Lt.-Gen. Rick Burr, said the missile "will enable our dismounted teams to engage armored targets faster, at increased range, and with improved accuracy."
Israel's Elbit Systems has been selected by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to conduct maritime demonstration flights in the UK using a number of its unmanned aerial surveillance systems.
Elbit says, "The Hermes 900 Maritime Patrol enables persistent monitoring of vast swathes of sea and long coastlines with effective advanced search capabilities to support with valuable search and rescue work as well as the identification of potential hazards."
"It features maritime radar, an Electro Optic payload, Satellite Communication, an Automatic Identification System receiver and an Emergency Position-indicating Radio Beacon receiver."
Israel-founded, San Jose-based ForeScout Technologies, Inc., a cybersecurity company, said Thursday that it had been acquired for $1.9 billion by U.S. private equity firm Advent International.
With R&D in Tel Aviv and other countries, ForeScout has become a world leader in network access control.
It also offers enterprises and government organizations the ability to view devices when they connect to the network.
The company was founded in June 2000 in Israel and counts 3,400 customers in 85 countries.
Musculoskeletal injuries in professional sports can cost a small fortune. For an NBA player who earns on average $5 million a year, his team loses $60,000 for every game the player misses.
Among amateur athletes, some 3.5 million kids in the United States alone are injured every year playing sports, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The most common kinds of musculoskeletal issues are overuse injuries. That's where an individual does the same action repetitively, whether it's shooting a basketball or sprinting toward the goal line.
"It creates a sort of micro-trauma on the body," explains Ram Shalev, CEO of Physimax.
Since 2013, this Israeli startup has been using video capture and artificial intelligence to assess athletes' physical abilities and endurance in real time. Israel's Start-Up Nation cycling team is considering testing the system ahead of its participation in this June's Tour de France.
Identify risk factors, improve abilities Here's how Physimax works: Standing in front of a smartphone or tablet camera connected to a laptop running Physimax's software, the player does a series of actions such as squats and jumps. The technology measures movement and musculoskeletal function to identify risk factors and improve athletic abilities.
Israeli researchers revealed Wednesday that they successfully grew extinct date plants from ancient seeds found at archaeological sites in the Judean Desert.
Dozens of seeds were gleaned from archaeology collections gathered at locations in the dry Dead Sea area, including the Masada hilltop fortress built by King Herod the Great in the first century BCE and the ancient site of Qumran, famous for the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1940s.
Six saplings grew from 32 seeds sown and the plants have been dubbed Adam, Jonah, Uriel, Boaz, Judith, and Hannah.
"Germination of 2000-year-old seeds of Phoenix dactylifera from Judean desert archaeological sites provides a unique opportunity to study the Judean date palm, described in antiquity for the quality, size, and medicinal properties of its fruit, but lost for centuries," the researchers wrote in a paper published in the peer-reviewed Science Advances journal.
"The Kingdom of Judah (Judea) that arose in the southern part of the historic Land of Israel in the 11th century BCE was particularly renowned for the quality and quantity of its dates," the researchers noted. "These so-called 'Judean dates' grown in plantations around Jericho and the Dead Sea were recognized by classical writers for their large size, sweet taste, extended storage, and medicinal properties."
Radiocarbon dating revealed the seeds used for the project came from a period spanning the fourth century BCE to the second century CE.
Further analysis found the seeds had a genetic makeup from various locations spreading eastward across the region stretching into modern day Iraq.
There are no Yiddish words in the original English edition of Harry Potter, although Rowling herself did absorb a number of Yiddishisms from Arthur Levine, her publisher and editor at Scholastic for the entire series. There is even an apocryphal story about how Levine once ribbed Rowling that one of the books was getting so long that he was going to drop in a Yiddish word just to see if she'd notice it. "I don't remember that," Levine laughed, when I inquired as to whether this actually happened. "That doesn't mean it's not true. She and I had lots of jokes like that. A totally credible story, I just can't honestly tell you that I remember doing that."
It was left entirely to Viswanath, then, to render Rowling's magical lexicon into Yiddish. In doing so, he confronted some challenges faced by past translators, and others that were unique to this particular language.
One common question: What to do about names? Throughout the novels, Rowling either gives her characters traditional British monikers like Cornelius or Hermione—which have no equivalent in many foreign languages—or she chooses names that connote something about the character in question. Thus, the wizard Sirius Black is later revealed to possess the ability to transform into a black dog, as foreshadowed by his name's reference to Sirius, the Dog Star.
As he examined prior foreign editions, Viswanath discovered that different translators had taken dramatically different approaches. "French went totally out there," he said. "They renamed [Severus] Snape to 'Rogue.' In Italian they renamed him 'Sinistro.' French even changed the name of Hogwarts" to Poudlard, which means "bacon lice." In his own work, Viswanath didn't find such radical revisions necessary for the most part, because "Yiddish is a Germanic language, so the English sounds are not that foreign." Thus, Harry's classmate Neville Longbottom remained Longbottom, rather than "longtuchus."
In some cases, however, it was necessary to rename characters to preserve Rowling's intent, which is how Quidditch captain Oliver Wood became Oliver Holtz. In the novel, Harry is introduced to Wood by professor Minerva McGonagall after he demonstrates remarkable skill chasing another student in midair on a broomstick. Thinking he is about to be disciplined for breaking the rules, he misinterprets her meaning when she asks another teacher if she can "borrow Wood for a moment," wondering "was wood a cane she was going to use on him?" Needless to say, this wordplay would not work unless Wood's name referred to wood—or holtz—in Yiddish, and so Viswanath rebranded the character, even though he'd found that many "other languages don't try to do it," leaving readers somewhat confused.
Perhaps the most notable naming conundrum for translators actually appears in the second book of the series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which Viswanath has just begun to translate. In a climactic scene, the ghostly apparition of a former Hogwarts student named Tom Riddle reveals that he is actually the young Lord Voldemort, the main villain of the books. By way of demonstration, he rearranges the letters of his name "Tom Marvolo Riddle" to spell out "I am Lord Voldemort." (h/t Yerushalimey)
In Poland, on the former site of the Great Synagogue of Warsaw—the largest house of worship for what was, until World War II, the largest Jewish population in the world—there now rises a tall azure skyscraper. Known simply as Blekitny Wiezowiec ("Blue Skyscraper"), the building with its all-glass facade has lately served as a kind of screen for a unique public art project. Twice in the last two years, most recently in April 2019, the artist Gabi von Seltmann has projected an image of the synagogue, long ago destroyed by the Nazis, onto the contemporary skyscraper: a grayish translucent ghost, hovering all night over the Warsaw streetscape.
Von Seltmann is one of a small number of artists and designers, both Jewish and not, who currently live in Poland and are actively engaged with the legacy of the Holocaust and the lost world of Polish Jewry. "It's a topic I always try to address," said von Seltmann, who has collaborated on similarly themed film projects with her German-born husband. Growing up outside Krakow, Poland, von Seltmann said there was a "silence" surrounding anything to do with her community's missing Jews. For her, and for other like-minded artists in Poland, uncovering the country's hidden Jewish heritage is a crucial act of remembrance, an effort to "bring back the past," as von Seltmann puts it.
That kind of artistic time-traveling seems especially relevant in today's Poland. 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps, the largest of which (Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, and Belzec, if reckoning by numbers killed) were all located on Polish soil. At the same time, under the leadership of the populist right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, the Polish national government has passed restrictive legislation that threatens serious penalties for anyone, artist or otherwise, who suggests Polish complicity in the slaughter. Roundly condemned by the international media, the 2018 Act on the Institute of National Remembrance continues to be zealously executed, albeit with mixed success. This past November, the government finally dropped a case against the esteemed U.S.-based academic Jan Tomasz Gross, who was threatened with jail time for purportedly "insulting the Polish nation" after documenting violence against Jews perpetrated by Poles.
"There is a space for Jewish art now," Czernek said; the country's politics, she added, "don't feel connected with our practice," at least not in a way that inhibits their creativity or their sales.
How to make art in such a repressive environment? Yael Wisnicki Levi is one artist whose multipronged practice confronts the problem of Jewish identity in modern-day Poland. "I'm in a privileged position," she said—born in New York, educated in Israel, she was able to claim Polish citizenship thanks to her family's roots in the country, from which her grandfather escaped just prior to the Holocaust. Since emigrating, Levi has staged assorted exhibitions and performance pieces with various international collaborators; one of them, a 2015 theatre work called Six Verbs Movement, was an abstract exploration of collective memory and civic action as part of a six-day festival in the heartland town of Lublin. As something of a novelty for Polish audiences, Levi said that she feels at times "like a kind of Jewish ornament"; yet while she is alarmed by what she calls PiS's "whitewashing" of Polish history, Levi described Poland as "a really comfortable place" for an artist of her stripe. "That the government is nationalist, right-wing—everyone knows this," she said. "But in fact it's much harder to be a woman than a Jew." (h/t Zvi)
Is it rude or is it just Israelis' way of challenging themselves and the world? Click here for an insider view of that famously untranslatable and essential Hebrew word, chutzpah.
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I almost hate to mention this because the situation is always precarious, but unless I'm mistaken it has been nearly six months since any Israeli was killed in a terror attack.
The last victim was Rina Shnerb, 17, killed by an IED on August 23, 2019.
That attack was done by the PFLP - the same PFLP who is linked to anti-Israel NGO DCI-Palestine in news over the past couple of days. The PFLP is linked to a number of NGOs to use them as another avenue to attack Israel under the guise of human rights.
Needless to say, none of the PFLP-linked NGOs said a word against Rina's murder.
Still, a six month stretch without a terrorist murder in Israel is quite unusual; the last time I can see a stretch that long was seven months between October 29, 2011 (Moshe Ami, 56, rocket hitting Ashkelon) and June 1, 2012 (Staff-Sgt Netanel Moshiashvili, 21, shot on patrol near Gaza).
Let's hope the current streak continues for a long, long time.
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Palestinian leaders were handed a great and unexpected victory in late 2016 when President Obama facilitated the passage of U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334. It asserts that there is "no legal basis" for Israeli claims to the West Bank – for centuries known as Judea and Samaria – including even the 2,000-year-old Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, and the ancient Jewish holy sites of the Temple Mount.
If that were true, on what basis would Israelis have a right to anything – even a right to exist? And if that's the verdict not just of Israel's enemies but even of the "international community" including the US, why should Palestinian leaders compromise? Why accept less than Israel's surrender and a new Jewish exile – to be called, for public relations purposes, an "end to occupation"?
By putting forward a plan that licenses Israelis, should they face continued Palestinian rejectionism, to alter facts on the ground through annexations, President Trump has changed the dynamic – at least for now.
Perhaps the next Palestinian Authority leader will be pragmatic enough to recognize that in the contemporary Middle East, where Iran's Shia imperialists pose an existential threat to their neighbors, it's time to relinquish the dream of a Palestine that is Jew-free from the river to the sea.
That does not mean acquiescing to everything President Trump and Kushner packed into their 180-page plan. It does mean resuming negotiations with Israelis, perhaps putting a counteroffer on the table and, for the first time ever, transitioning from "resisting" the Jewish state to building a Palestinian state – a real state, with functioning institutions, not a failed state kept afloat by the "donor community."
To do that would give birth to something that for generations has existed only in our imaginations: a peace process.
On Wednesday morning, NeverTrump propagandist Bill Kristol told his MSNBC audience that Democratic chances of victory over US President Donald Trump will rise if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is defeated in Israel's elections on March 2.
Along the same lines, if Netanyahu fails to apply Israeli sovereignty to the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria before the election, not only will he almost certainly lose those elections, his defeat will bury Trump's peace plan and harm Trump's reelection chances.
To understand why this is the case it is first necessary to understand the nature of the Blue and White party and its relationship to Trump and his peace plan.
After Trump's peace plan was published, Israelis discovered significant problems with the map attached to the plan. Among other things, the map places large sections of Highway 60, which crosses Judea and Samaria from south to north outside Israeli jurisdiction. If left uncorrected, the designation will endanger the security of tens of thousands of Israelis whose communities will be rendered isolated enclaves. Since ensuring Israel's ability to defend itself and its citizens on a permanent basis is a major goal of the plan, this omission was obviously an oversight. Netanyahu announced this week that he has assembled a team to work on the map.
So long as the map is not adjusted, members of Likud and other parties in the right-religious bloc Netanyahu leads will be unable to vote in favor of the plan, despite their support for Trump and for the plan overall.
This then brings us to Benny Gantz and his party.
Just before Gantz traveled to Washington to meet with Trump at the White House last Monday, it came out that his top campaign strategists, Ronen Tzur and Joel Benenson had both separately published multiple posts on Twitter viciously attacking Trump. Both men compared him to Hitler, called him a Russian agent and a racist. In other words, both men parroted Democratic talking points against Trump. (After his posts were reported, Tzur claimed that he no longer believed the things he had written.)
Whereas Tzur – like every garden variety Israeli leftist politico – apparently follows the Democrats on everything related to American public affairs automatically, Benenson shapes Democratic positions. Benenson served as Barack Obama's senior political strategist in the 2008 and 2012 elections and as Hillary Clinton's senior political strategist in 2016.
In 2015, Wikileaks published Clinton's campaign manager John Podesta's emails. Several email chains included internal campaign discussions in which Benenson participated. In two discussions, Benenson advised Clinton not to mention Israel in public events.
Now Benenson is directing Blue and White's campaign, and there is little reason for surprise at the seamlessness of his move from Obama and Clinton to Gantz. The Israeli left has been intertwined with the Democratic Party.
Look instead at the reaction by the Palestinians. Not the reaction by the Palestinian Authority, which was merely the latest of their many rejections of a state of their own alongside Israel.
Look at the Palestinians themselves for whom that state is intended. What is their reaction to the offer of more than 80 percent of the land for such a state? They're furious.
This isn't because it's not 100 percent of the land. They're furious at the idea that they might find themselves living in such a state. So furious that they demonstrated in the thousands against the prospect.
Palestinian leaders and their Western supporters are shrieking that the plan would strip the Israeli Arabs in the Jordan Valley and the "Triangle" area of their Israeli citizenship, and transfer them into Palestine by the simply expedient of drawing its border around their villages.
This is untrue. The Trump plan states that they will be able to choose between remaining citizens of Israel and becoming citizens of Palestine. So they wouldn't be "stripped" of their citizenship at all. Changing it would be their choice.
And surely, they would all choose to become citizens of Palestine – the outcome we've been told is the absolute precondition for ending the Arab-Israel conflict?
For Israelis and Palestinians, the U.S. peace plan is the best offered in more than half a century, mainly because it directs the essential dismantling of underlying conceptions that block any peace possibility. The plan pushes the Palestinians to move off their present path of pursuing independence by undermining the State of Israel.
The Palestinians have been ill-served by their allies and previous American administrations who allowed them to live inside a bubble of victimhood. The world failed to openly repudiate Palestinians hopes to gain sovereignty while isolating and wearing down the Jewish state.
PA incitement to hate, support of terrorism, and refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state convinced the majority of Israelis (who supported the Oslo Accords and welcomed a path toward Palestinian sovereignty) that a settlement with the Palestinians will lead to a mortal threat to Israel's very existence.
For over a century the world community failed to tell the Arabs to stop their unyielding opposition to a Jewish state, which led to never-ending war and less positive outcomes for the Arabs in the Holy Land. That silence sustained the Arab and the Palestinian self-defeating policy.
Waiting for annexation, rather than having it be done immediately, is in the interest of settlers, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
Friedman sought to provide clarity regarding the timing of US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over 30% of Judea and Samaria under the Trump administration's peace plan, which they call a "vision."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in the immediate aftermath of the plan's presentation last month that he would annex West Bank settlements the following week. But he amended that to after the March 2 election in remarks this week. This came after Special Adviser to the US President Jared Kushner repeatedly said annexation could take a few months and would come after the election.
Though it appeared at first that Netanyahu's and Kushner's statements were at odds with one another, Friedman said: "There has never been a substantive disagreement on these issues."
He pointed out that US President Donald Trump referred in his address to a presenting of the plan "to a committee being formed to work through the process of converting the conceptual map into a detailed rendering such that Israel could apply its laws in a precise manner and the US could recognize such application."
That committee would be responsible for "going from a conceptual map drawn at a scale of more than a million to one to specific borders." The process of doing so "is not duly protracted, but [is] certainly one that is careful and deliberative" and requires "judgment calls," Friedman said.
"I would think the residents of Judea and Samaria would want Israel to get those right," he added.
In the week since this vision has been released, most of the world has declared that this is something serious to be considered and negotiated on its platform. There are notable groups included in those in support, throughout Europe and Middle East, and even more noticeable are those against Iran, Hamas, the PA.
Do you know why the Gulf countries expressed support for this vision? Do you know why the prime minister was welcomed regally to Uganda and met with the new leader of Sudan?
We are a cutting edge 21st-century regional power, that is true, but we have two secret weapons. One is G-d and the other one is our special and unique relationship with the US. Everyone around the world wants a piece of each. To hear people, regardless of rank and station, complain about the difference of opinion over timing for recognition is not only embarrassing, it is shameful.
This vision was presented as a vision, not a forced plan. If our country chooses in the future to enter into negotiation based on this basis of the vision, we should not interfere.
But while the Palestinians cry hysterically, let it not be our camp that looks and sounds unhinged – let us set an example for the entire country. We the undersigned will work to get a government that will maximize the opportunities presented by this vision while safeguarding against those who will take this vision and use it as a platform to weaken us in every which way.
We pray every day for peace and know it will only come when we are strong on our own, and the world sees no daylight between Israel and the US. This vision accomplishes all of this and more. Thank you Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for forging such a strong and strategic relationship with President Trump, Jared Kushner and Ambassador Friedman – the best friends we have ever had.
News of the February 3, 2020 meeting between Sudanese Sovereignty Council Chairman 'Abd Al-Fattah Al-Burhan and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sparked criticism in the Palestinian and Arab media. Responding to this criticism, Saudi journalist 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed. formerly the editor of the London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat and the director of Al-Arabiya TV, expressed understanding for Al-Burhan's motives in forming ties with Israel. He noted that that the Sudanese leader is acting to remove his country from US and international terror lists, and that many other Arab states, including Qatar and even the Palestinian Authority, likewise hold ties with Israel because it suits their interests. The attack on Al-Burhan within Sudan is unjustified, he said, and stems from narrow political motives of the Muslim Brotherhood, which lost power in the country about a year ago.
The following is his article, as published in the English-language edition of Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.[1] "In our region things are not always what they seem, as in the case of the intense attack against Sudan and the chairman of its Sovereign Council, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, under the pretext of his meeting with the Israeli prime minister in Uganda.
"The main driver behind this attack is none other than the Muslim Brotherhood, which lost power in Sudan last year. Its members are disgruntled because the Sudanese authorities began to uproot thousands of them from the educational, security and economic institutions that the Brotherhood took over during the rule of the previous regime.
"Sudan, like other countries, faces serious challenges that cannot be taken lightly, and it cannot act against its supreme interests. We cannot lose sight of the fact that more than half of all Arab countries — including Tunisia, Qatar, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Oman and others — have dealt with Israel.
"We also cannot forget that some officials of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which was previously boycotted by some Arab states on the pretext that it had concluded a deal with Israel, are making the same mistake. Political bullying against Arab governments in the name of Palestine or Israel is unacceptable. Everyone is tired of this declining political rhetoric, which had the audacity to criticize states without taking into account their circumstances and necessities. States have their supreme interests, and sovereign decisions are not to be decided on Twitter. Nor should they be pressured by those who have personal whims or interests.
Why is it permissible for Egypt's Abdel Fattah Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah to have diplomatic relations with Israel, and not permissible for the leader of Sudan to sit with the Israeli prime minister?
Several key Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, seem to be fed up with the ongoing Palestinian rejection of every proposed Palestinian-Israeli peace plan. The Palestinians have never even proposed a counter-offer.
The Palestinians' threats and condemnations... seem primarily aimed at deterring Arabs from even considering the possibility of making peace with Israel. The former stand-off was working brilliantly for the Palestinians; why stop?
The Palestinian leadership would like to continue holding the entire Arab world hostage to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. What the Palestinian leaders clearly do not want is for Arab leaders to act in the interests of their own people.
Arab heads of state now have the opportunity to decide whether they will permit Palestinian leaders to continue their time-tested strategy of terrorizing everyone into submission, or -- unlike the Palestinian leaders -- to seek the best for their own people.
Many of the objections to the U.S. Mideast peace plan have focused on its nontraditional approach. Yet any new plan must recognize that the situation today has dramatically changed since the beginning of the peace process in the 1990s. The Middle East has devolved into instability, while the Iranian regime has significantly expanded its regional operations.
Buoyed by the windfall from the nuclear deal, Iran has spent $7 billion on its terror network, including $1 billion to Hizbullah on Israel's northern border. Tehran's support for the Assad regime has prolonged the Syrian civil war and allowed the Iranians to position their troops near the Israeli and Jordanian borders.
At the same time, Gaza is now home to numerous terrorist organizations, supported and funded by Iran to the tune of up to $100 million per year. Yet despite the dramatic changes in the region, the plan's critics still cling to a political solution codified in the 1993 Oslo Accords.
The U.S. plan provides the opportunity for the Palestinians to build the necessary institutions they currently lack. Multiple initiatives focus on ensuring effective governance, expanding the Palestinian educational and health-care systems and guaranteeing foreign investment of $50 billion over 10 years. Imagine what Palestinian society could achieve with this opportunity.
The ultimate source of Palestinian rejectionism comes from the deeply rooted belief that, according to Islamic law, any territory that ever comes under Muslim rule must remain Muslim forever. All of Israel and the West Bank were captured by the Muslims in 637-638 CE. That means that, from a Muslim perspective, it is Muslim territory forever.
According to this view, Spain, too, which Muslims ruled from 712-1492 CE, still belongs to the Muslims. Tel Aviv, therefore, is, from the Muslim perspective, as much a "settlement" as any of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. Jews cannot be legitimate sovereigns over either.
The Oslo process gave the Palestinians veto power. Any time they disagreed with something, the U.S. and some Israeli leaders then started to look for ways to improve the offer, not understanding that there would be no way they could ever placate Palestinian negotiators. The new U.S. plan removes that veto power. Palestinians no longer have the luxury of being able to reject an Israeli offer and expect that the previous offer would be the starting point in any future round of negotiations.
Senior Arab diplomatic sources on Thursday night said intensive talks were taking place between Washington, Jerusalem, Cairo and Riyadh to convene a summit in the Egyptian capital, which will include a meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman.
Senior Arab officials told Israel Hayom, meanwhile, that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his team have been mediating between Israel and Saudi Arabia on the matter for the past several months.
One senior Arab diplomatic source, who confirmed the details to Israel Hayom, said, "In recent days there have been very intensive discussions between Washington, Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia to arrange a summit meeting in Cairo as early as the coming weeks, even before the election in Israel, which aside from the host, Egypt, will be attended by the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia and also the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Bahrain and Oman."
Bahrain also proposed hosting the summit in the capital Manama, suggesting that Netanyahu meet the Saudi crown prince there.
According to other Arab sources, Jordan, too, received an invitation to the summit, if it indeed takes place, and that the Jordanians have engaged in talks with various Arab states to convey their position on the matter. According to a senior official, in Amman, Jordan's King Abdullah wants Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to receive a summit invitation. The Jordanians, for their part, have received messages from Washington that discussions with Ramallah on the matter were, in fact, taking place and that Israel has agreed in principle to the Palestinians' participation.
The Trump administration recently unveiled its blueprint for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, one that creates a Palestinian state and protects Israeli security requirements in the Jordan Valley. As expected, the Palestinian Authority rejected the proposal outright, refusing to make a counteroffer or enter negotiations.
Praise and criticism for any new peace initiative is a given. But a coalition of supposedly mainstream Islamist groups and radical Leftists made it clear on Friday why success is so unlikely: Significant players in the US debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will oppose any deal that leaves Israel in place.
The "Say No to the Steal of the Century" protest in Manhattan's City Hall Park featured chants and speeches calling repeatedly for the destruction of the Jewish state and for terrorist attacks, to which they euphemistically referred as the "resistance," against Israel. The Investigative Project on Terrorism covered the event and captured the hate speech on video (see the end of the post for a link).
Those chants included calls for an intifada and claimed that "Resistance is justified when people are occupied."
"From the river to the sea," they repeatedly shouted, "Palestine will be free."
A Palestinian state stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea would eliminate Israel. The Hamas charter, revised in 2017, demands "the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea."
The Palestinians reaction to the American Peace proposal shows an unwillingness to accept a Jewish state within ANY borders.
This, not the "occupation", and not the "settlements" is the main obstacle to peace in the region.
When they chant "From the River to the Sea", this is what they mean.
Hassan Fouda of Berkeley's comically named Jewish Voice for Peace also rejects any plan that doesn't create a Palestinian state from the "river to the sea"
The newly proposed peace plan should open the door and provide an opportunity for both sides to return to the negotiating table. Both Palestinians and Israelis should embrace it as a chance to move closer to peace and to resume negotiations after a long hiatus.
Comprehensive peace proposals were presented to Palestinian leadership three times in the past – once by the United Nations (1947) and twice by Israel (2000, 2008). All three times Palestinian leadership rejected broad peace deals, while Israel said yes.
Palestinian rejection – anchored in refusal to accept the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state remains the primary obstacle to peace.
US President Donald Trump's Mideast peace envoy Jared Kushner on Thursday derided an upcoming press conference with former prime minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas — in which they plan to condemn the Trump peace plan — as "almost pathetic" and coming from a place of envy that the two had failed to solidify a final accord.
"It is almost pathetic that they are criticizing other people's efforts to try and reach an agreement," Kushner said. "It comes from a lot of jealousy that they couldn't do it themselves."
The president's son-in-law and special adviser was speaking to reporters at the United Nations after briefing the UN Security Council briefing on the Trump proposal, which was unveiled last week.
Olmert and Abbas, he insisted, shouldn't criticize the White House's attempt to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"If you really want to make peace, then you need to encourage the efforts of other people to try and make peace instead of trying to make headlines when you are not relevant and intervening in the situation to get attention," Kushner said.
The two, he added, are "publicly opposing the plan when they had the chance and failed, I see that as disrespectful."
Israel is incensed at Belgium for a number of anti-Israel actions taken at the UN Security Council, a diplomatic source said on Thursday, shortly after the Foreign Ministry summoned Belgium's deputy ambassador for a reprimand.
Belgian Deputy Ambassador to Israel Pascal Buffin was summoned for Israel to express its outrage about a series of moves the country has made as a member of the UN Security Council. The most recent is that Belgium, which is presiding over the UNSC for the month of February, invited Brad Parker, Senior Adviser for Policy and Advocacy for Defense for Children – Palestine (DCI-P) to brief the council's members.
DCI-P calls itself an organization defending the human rights of Palestinian children. It alleges Israel is committing war crimes and supports the boycott, divest and sanctions movement. It has numerous ties with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist group in the US, EU, Canada and Israel, to the extent that Citibank and Arab Bank stopped providing banking services to the NGO.
Parker is the driving force behind pro-BDS legislation introduced in the US by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), think tank NGO Monitor reported. Last January, in his capacity as an adjunct professor at the CUNY Law School's Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic, he filed an anti-Israel submission to the UN, replete with false statements and whitewashing of terrorist groups like Hamas. CUNY subsequently launched an investigation into the law school's partnership with DCI-P.
Israel told Buffin, summoned because the ambassador was out of the country, that it urges Belgium to cancel Parker's invitation. In that vein, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres calling DCI-P "an arm of the PFLP in order to enact diplomatic terror against Israel…A place that promotes peace and security in the world has no room for people like Parker."
Belgium expressed "surprise and dismay" to Israel's ambassador in Brussels on Friday, after Israel protested anti-Israel actions the country has taken in the UN Security Council.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned Belgium's deputy ambassador to Jerusalem on Thursday. Diplomatic sources told The Jerusalem Post that Jerusalem is "furious at the Belgians" for inviting Brad Parker, Senior Adviser for Policy and Advocacy for Defense for Children – Palestine (DCI-P), a NGO with ties to the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) to brief the council's members. Belgium responded by reprimanding Israeli Ambassador Emmanuel Nahshon, focusing on the tenor of Israeli media reports on the dispute.
Brussels released a message that they have "taken good note" of Israel's protest and said they are "open to dialogue," but noted that other UN institutions such as UNICEF and UNESCO have given DCI-P consultive status. The Belgian Foreign Ministry also pointed out that the country chairs the working group on children and armed conflict, and the subject is a priority for them.
"We are, however, surprised and dismayed by the reflection of this in the media," the statement reads. "We have called in the Israeli Ambassador this morning to express our dismay at certain tweets which he has retweeted in his official capacity as Ambassador to Belgium. We have expressed our clear disagreement on both substance and form."
Among those tweets are one from a Post reporter stating: "Belgium invited a representative of an NGO with ties to the terrorist organization PFLP to brief the UN Security Council."
Cathy Berx, the governor of Antwerp Province in Belgium, was in Israel for the World Holocaust Forum in January. Berx told JNS that the Palestinian Authority must give up all forms of terror including the "pay-to-slay" policy that provides stipends to terrorists and the families of so-called "martyrs" killed in the act of attempted murder.
She added that it's improper to continue funding the PA unless the terror-financing practice has been discontinued, and that "an independent audit" of the program is required to ensure that European funding is not going into the hands of terrorists or their sponsors. "You do not give money to an organization that has as an aim to fund terrorists, to fund those who have as an aim to destroy a nation."
The latest upsurge in violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank is the direct result of US President Donald Trump's plan for Mideast peace, the Palestinian Authority said Thursday.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas and several Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, had called for mass protests against the plan, which was announced last week, dubbing it a "conspiracy to liquidate the Palestinian cause."
While Abbas and his Fatah faction have called for stepping up "popular resistance" activities in protest against the plan, Iranian-backed Hamas and PIJ have openly urged Palestinians to launch violent attacks against IDF soldiers and settlers.
The harsh criticism of the Trump plan by Abbas, Hamas and PIJ undoubtedly has contributed to the latest cycle of violence. They are telling their people the Trump plan is a "declaration of war," an "American-Zionist aggression" and a "dangerous plot" against Palestinians.
It's precisely this kind of rhetoric that prompts Palestinians to take to the streets to protest against the US and Israel, burning photos of Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as US and Israeli flags. But this is also the type of rhetoric that leads to "lone wolf" terrorist attacks by individuals against Israeli policemen, soldiers and settlers.
US President Donald Trump said Thursday that the US at his direction has conducted a counter-terrorism operation in Yemen that killed Qassim al-Rimi, an al-Qaida leader who claimed responsibility for last year's deadly shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola, where a Saudi aviation trainee killed three American sailors.
Al-Rimi is a founder of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The affiliate has long been considered the global network's most dangerous branch for its attempts to carry out attacks on the US mainland. Trump said the US and its allies are safer as a result of his death.
"We will continue to protect the American people by tracking down and eliminating terrorists who seek to do us harm," Trump said.
While Trump confirmed reports that al-Rimi had been killed, he did not say when the US operation was conducted or offer any details about how it was carried out.
Al-Rimi had said in an 18-minute video that his group was responsible for the Dec. 6 shooting at the base. He called the shooter, Saudi Air Force officer Mohammed Alshamrani, a "courageous knight" and a "hero." The shooter opened fire inside a classroom at the base, killing three people and wounding two sheriff's deputies before one of the deputies killed him. Eight others were also hurt.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Friday launched what appeared to be the warhead from a rocket-propelled grenade attached to balloons into southern Israel on Friday.
The suspected explosive was discovered in a field by Kibbutz Ruhama, northwest of Gaza and police sappers were called to inspect the RPG warhead, according to Hebrew media.
It was the sixth suspected airborne explosive device apparently launched from Gaza to be found in the south on Friday.
In one of the instances, Route 3 in the south of the country was temporarily closed while sappers dealt with a suspicious object that appeared to have become detached from balloons.
There were no reports of injuries or damage. Police called on the public to alert authorities to any suspicious-looking objects and refrain from approaching them.
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The IDF Home Front Command (specifically, Lt. Col. Tali Versano Eisman) made up a song to teach Israeli children to keep away from balloons because they could have bombs attached to them. pic.twitter.com/igNejN6cnN
Israeli security forces on Thursday evening arrested the suspected terrorist believed to have carried out a car-ramming attack that injured a dozen soldiers in Jerusalem earlier in the day, security officials said.
The arrest came as Golani Brigade soldiers run over in the attack went ahead with their swearing-in ceremony, some of them on crutches after being released from the hospital.
The suspect was arrested at the Gush Etzion Junction in the central West Bank, police said. The Shin Bet said the suspect was a 25-year-old resident of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of A-Tur who had no history of terrorist activity. He was identified as Sanad al-Turman, who according to Channel 13 news has a flower shop in a Jerusalem shopping mall.
He was handed over to the Shin Bet security service for questioning, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
In recent days Tourman had made several Facebook posts possible signaling his intentions, writing in one update: "I've found my answers," and in another: "Whoever seeks peace with the enemy is living under an illusion. Never surrender."
In the predawn hours of Thursday morning, the assailant rammed his car into a group of Golani soldiers standing on Jerusalem's David Remez Street outside the First Station, a popular entertainment hub in the capital, injuring 12 of them, one of them seriously.
The Israel Police said Thursday that the terrorist who opened fire at a group of police officers outside the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City was an Israeli citizen from northern Israel.
The shooting lightly injured one Border Police officer, while the fleeing assailant was shot dead by pursuing officers.
Hebrew-language media named the shooter as Shadi Bana, 45, from Haifa. He reportedly converted from Christianity to Islam recently.
The wounded officer, identified by police only as Master Sergeant G., was one of the officers who charged at Bana.
"The terrorist suddenly pulled a gun and started shooting toward us a few rounds," G. said in a police video released after the attack. "Even though I was hit in the shoulder I charged at him together with another officer who was with me at the post, and we neutralized him," he said.
Police reportedly detained two of the shooter's brothers for questioning and collected security camera footage from a flower shop in Haifa owned by one of the brothers. Both brothers deny knowing of the shooter's plans.
It took time for the foreign press to catch up with the day's Israeli media reports . When the Associated Press eventually published an article, it began with the words: Israeli forces killed two Palestinians…
Reuters began with the phrase: At least two Palestinians were killed and 16 Israelis hurt…
They did not clarify that the Palestinians who had been killed were reportedly carrying out acts of violence when they were shot: at least one was in the act of throwing a Molotov cocktail at Israeli troops.
An AFP article was constructed similarly to the AP and Reuters stories.
As these are wire services, we expect to see their coverage echoed by many news outlets throughout the world in the coming hours.
Is this normal? Is it appropriate? Is it too soon to expect meaningful and properly researched coverage?
No.
Just in recent weeks alone, stories of attacks from Streatham, London to Burkina Faso saw almost immediate international coverage that emphasized the horrific impact of terrorism on innocent civilians.
Yet even though the attacks against Israelis are being widely covered in Israeli and Jewish press, and even though all of the relevant information has been widely available throughout the day, the international press has said very little, and what it has said has been horribly misleading. This stands stands in stark contrast to coverage of other terror attacks around the world.
Why does this matter? Because without proper context, it is impossible for news readers, international leaders, or even journalists themselves to understand events as they unfold.
Analysis of the on-the-spot video of naval base today, shows how deep, wide, & reinforced the tunnel was. #Hamas screwed up by not shutting the site to scavengers & photogs. Ship near the coast suggests frogmen bring weapons in via the tunnels.https://t.co/dzcFMNpHH9pic.twitter.com/2yZAclZJh8
TikTok, the video-sharing social networking app popular with children, said Friday it had removed an animated video portraying several real-life Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis and banned the account.
"Our Community Guidelines make it clear that we do not allow content that promotes terrorism, crime, or other behaviors that could cause harm," TikTok said in a statement sent to The Times of Israel. "We take our commitment to keeping TikTok safe incredibly seriously."
The move comes after the Palestinian Media Watch NGO said Wednesday it had identified the video, which appeared to glorify the murder of Jews, that highlighted four separate attacks in CGI (computer-generated imagery) vignettes set to heroic music.
The Israeli watchdog which monitors Palestinian media said that it had previously "exposed similar animations urging Palestinians to murder Israelis."
"After this video was reported by a member of our community, our moderation team reviewed the content, removed it from our platform, and banned an associated account," TikTok said, urging users "to continue to use our reporting functions to flag any accounts, videos, or comments they are concerned about so we can investigate."
71% of Egyptians voice a negative opinion of Hamas, up from 63% a year ago, according to a new Egyptian poll.
84% agree that: "Right now internal political and economic reform is more important for our country than any foreign policy issue, so we should stay out of any wars outside our borders."
54% say good ties with Washington are important to Egypt, while 87% say it is not important for Egypt to have good relations with Iran.
90% have a negative opinion of Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei and the same percentage express an unfavorable view of Hizbullah.
A month after Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps fired numerous ballistic missiles at U.S. troops in Iraq, Germany's government is slated to celebrate the founding of the Islamic Republic, prompting a public rebuke from America's highest-profile ambassador in continental Europe.
Iran marks "Islamic Revolution's Victory Day" on Feb. 11 as a national holiday when the mullahs order state-sponsored demonstrations in every Iranian city.
"Germany has a moral responsibility to say to Iran very firmly and clearly that it is unacceptable to deny basic human rights to your people, or kill protesters in the streets or push gay people off buildings. Celebrating the regime's ongoing existence sends the opposite message," the U.S. ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, told Fox News on Thursday.
Grenell, a former Fox News contributor, has been urging German Chancellor Angela Merkel's administration for years to end its support for the Iranian regime.
The German Foreign Ministry told Fox News in a statement Wednesday that the country's "usual practice in diplomatic relations also includes the celebration of national holidays in the other country."
"As the Federal Republic of Germany continues to maintain diplomatic relations with Iran, this also applies to the upcoming national holiday," the statement continued.
The United States, Israel and the UAE met in a secret trilateral meeting at the White House in December surrounding coordination against Iran, reported Axios on Tuesday, citing US and Israeli officials.
The Dec. 17 meeting was part of the Trump administration's efforts to strengthen ties between Arab countries and the Jewish state. This included discussing a UAE-Israel nonaggression pact.
The meeting included US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien; Victoria Coates, deputy national security adviser for Middle East and North Africa; US special representative for Iran Brian Hook; Israeli national security adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat; and Emirati Ambassador to the United States Yousef Al Otaiba.
At the beginning of his weekly Cabinet meeting on Dec. 22, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "The UAE Foreign Minister, Abdullah bin Zayed, spoke about a new alliance in the Middle East: An Israeli-Arab alliance. … I can only say that this remark is the result of the ripening of many contacts and efforts, which at the moment, and I emphasize at the moment, would be best served by silence."
A senior White House official told Axios, "While the United States would certainly welcome expanding relationships between our critical allies and partners in the Middle East, we're not going to detail private diplomatic conversations, nor do we have anything to announce."
Emirati officials declined to comment to the outlet.
In a January 31, 2020 column titled "The World's Jewish Problem"[1] in the Turkish daily Yeni Şafak, which is a mouthpiece of Turkey's ruling AKP, columnist Yusuf Kaplan described two powers in America: "The first is WASP, the Whites who founded the U.S., which stands for white-Anglo Saxon-protestant. These are the European invaders, robbers, rogue white colonialists."
Kaplan wrote that the second power in America is the Jews, of whom he said: "U.S. finance, economy, banking system, universities, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Pentagon, the CIA, arms industry, soft-arms industry and media are under the monopoly of Jews!... Jewish power will force a doomsday on the world!... The world now has a Jewish problem: a Zionist threat that does not hesitate to light the fuse that will make the world a living hell by declaring/making Jerusalem the capital of Israel!"[2] Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Yusuf Kaplan in the hospital in June 2017 after the latter had a stroke.[3]
The following is Yeni Şafak's translation of Kaplan's article:
"The Whites Who Founded The U.S... These Are The European Invaders, Robbers, Rogue White Colonialists"
"Jews played a decisive role in the establishment of the modern world: Capitalism is as much the work of the Jews as it is the British. The whole world is also shaped by the Brits and Jews.
"This is a big generalization; But this has been the landscape for two centuries when capitalism built a visible world hegemony!
"TWO USA's: WASP and Jewish power
"The two-century world system, in which modernity reached its peak and evolved into post-modernity, has two founding and protective actors: the British and the Jews.
"The Industrial Revolution is, of course, the work of the British. The first two of Industry 4.0 (factory, iron and steel and electronic revolution) are basically British. The economic-political revolution and its output, which laid the foundations of capitalism, and therefore the model of its carrier "economic man," were developed by the British.
"The last two legs of Industry 4.0, the computer and digital revolutions, are the work of American Jews.
The U.S. backs energy-based partnerships in the eastern Mediterranean that bolster political cooperation and prosperity and is urging against "provocative actions" that undermine stability, a government official said Wednesday.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Francis Fannon said his government supports Cyprus' right to develop its energy resources and for proceeds to be divided between Greek and Turkish Cypriots as part of a deal reunifying the ethnically divided island nation.
The remarks come amid tensions over Turkey's more aggressive push to search for natural gas search in waters were Cyprus has exclusive economic rights.
"We urge all parties to not take any provocative actions that could create further any instability. And we're steadfast on that," Fannon said ahead of a gathering of Israeli, Greek and Cypriot experts discussing ways to boost safety and security in offshore gas drilling.
Fannon said Cyprus has an "incredibly important role" to play in developing energy supplies in the eastern Mediterranean that officials say could help lessen Europe's dependence on Russian gas.
Greece, Cyprus and Israel signed last month an agreement to move ahead with construction of an undersea pipeline to deliver gas to European markets.
"Energy really is that catalyst for cooperation, so the United States is committed to it at the highest levels," said Fannon.
The U.S. decision to indefinitely suspend the program, which has not been previously reported, was made in response to Turkey's cross-border military incursion into Syria in October, the U.S. officials said, revealing the extent of the damage to ties between the NATO allies from the incident.
The U.S. officials, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the United States late last year stopped flying the intelligence collection missions that targeted the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which both the United States and Turkey classify as terrorists.
The U.S. military had carried out the missions using unarmed drone aircraft, which one official said were flown out of Turkey's Incirlik air base, where the U.S. military has a significant presence. The base is also a key hub for U.S. spy agencies operating in the region.
The U.S. drone flights that took place within the program, in place since 2007, often zeroed in on mountainous territory in northern Iraq near the Turkish border, another official said.
A Pentagon spokeswoman did not directly comment on any specific programs but noted that the United States has designated the PKK a terrorist organization since 1997.
"We have supported Turkey in their fight against the PKK in many ways for decades. As a matter of policy, we do not provide details on operational matters," the spokeswoman said, when asked about a halt in assistance.
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