Elder of Ziyon 06/23 Links Pt2: Two thirds of Americans think it's okay to question US-Israeli ties; 8 American monuments celebrating anti-Semites; What isn’t being said about the Reading attack victims?
Some two-thirds of Americans believe it is acceptable to question the US-Israel relationship, a new Washington Post poll has found. The poll was conducted online by Prof. Shibley Telhami of the University of Maryland, among 2,395 participants.
According to the poll, 43% of the participants believe that "it is acceptable for a member of the US Congress to question the US-Israel relationship," (42% of Republicans, 46% of Democrats, and 39% of independents). An additional 24% said that "it is the duty" of a member of the House to question the relationship between the two countries.
Notably, Republican and Democrat voters were split on whether it is the duty of Congress to defend the relationship between the US and Israel or to question it. A third (32%) of Republican participants said that a House member must defend the support for Israel. In comparison, only 9% of Democrat voters agreed.
On the contrary, 35% of those who identify as Democrats said it is a duty of Congress people to question the relationship between the countries, with only 11% of Republican voters agreeing with the statement.
Participants were asked how important of an issue the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is for the US interests. Almost half (47%), said it is among the top five issues, while more than a third (35%) said it is not among the top five. Only 17% thought that the conflict is at least among the top three, or is even the most significant issue for the US interests.
In the weeks since protests against racism began after the killing of George Floyd, activists around the world have been toppling statues, either by pressuring public officials or by tearing the monuments down themselves.
Activists have naturally focused on memorials to Confederate leaders or others who enacted racist policies, and associate monuments to anti-Semites with Europe, where they are common. The United States has its own such memorials.
Mary Elizabeth Lease Lease, born in 1850, was an 19th century Populist and a leader of the women's suffrage movement. She campaigned in favor of women's and farmers' rights, as well as the prohibition of alcohol. One scholar has claimed that Lease, who was based in Kansas for much of her fame, was the inspiration for the character of Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz," written by L. Frank Baum. But her crusade against bankers, who she felt were oppressing farmers, often veered into anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. People who were forced to take out bank loans were "paying tribute to the Rothschilds of England, who are but the agent of the Jews," she claimed.
A statue of Lease was erected in Wichita, Kansas in 2012 by the Hypatia Club, the state's oldest women's club, which Lease founded. "She was an incredible role model when she couldn't even vote," a club member told the Wichita Eagle.
Thomas E. Watson Watson was a Georgia [Democrat] congressman and newspaper publisher who served as a vice-presidential nominee for William Jennings Bryan's Populist Party in 1896. During the 1913 trial of Leo Frank, a Jewish man falsely accused of murdering a 13-year-old Christian girl, Watson's paper whipped up anti-Semitic sentiment. After Frank was convicted and his sentence was commuted, Watson advocated for Frank to be lynched, which he eventually was. Watson was elected to the Senate in 1922 but died in office a year later. In addition to his anti-Semitism, Watson was also a white supremacist and anti-Catholic.
The statue of Watson on the steps of the Georgia state capitol was long controversial. Then-Gov. Nathan Deal removed the statue in 2013, but claimed that his move was only for renovation purposes. The statue is now located in a park across the street from the building.
Imagine if on Saturday evening a white neo-Nazi had stabbed three men to death. Imagine, furthermore, if in the wake of the killings it had turned out that all three of the victims were gay. Or 'members of the LGBT community', to use the lexicon of the time. And then imagine if two days later nobody in the UK or anywhere else was very interested in any of this. So what if the victims were all gay? Why bother sifting around for motives. What are you trying to say? Bigot.
Well something that might well be analogous to that happened in Reading on Saturday evening and over the days since.
On Saturday evening, Khairi Saadallah went on a stabbing spree in Forbury Gardens, Reading. His victims were three gay men, James Furlong, David Wails and Joe Ritchie-Bennett. It has since emerged that the 25-year old suspect, who is now in police custody, came to the UK from Libya in 2012. He is reported to have come to the attention of MI5 last year as an individual who had the potential to travel overseas for terrorism purposes. The Security Service apparently decided that he was not an immediate risk.
The families of Furlong, Wails and Ritchie-Bennett might beg to differ on that last point. But who knows. So far there has been almost no interest expressed in the possible motives of the attacker. Quite possibly there is a mental health component. In which case I would expect that to be looked into. Quite possibly there will be some drugs-related component. In which case I would expect the usual voices to demand an investigation into that. But anything else to see here? Any other reason why a migrant from Libya who was given asylum in the UK might want to go around stabbing gay men? Well who would even ask such questions? What do you want to find? Bigot.
The government imposed a partial lockdown on several neighborhoods Tuesday evening in a bid to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, as Health Ministry figures showed the number of new virus cases surged upward, with 459 new infections recorded in the previous 24 hours.
The figure marked the highest 24-hour tally since numbers began climbing late last month, following a brief respite from the coornavirus. The last time the number of virus cases passed 450 in a single day was April 15.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared the ultra-Orthodox city of Elad and five predominantly ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in the northern city of Tiberias as "restricted zones," his office said in a statement Tuesday evening.
The Tiberias neighborhoods are Ramat Tiberias Bet, Ramat Tiberias Gimmel, Neighborhood 200, Tiberias Illit and the Ben Gurion neighborhood.
The decision will prevent anyone who doesn't live in the restricted zones from entering them, except to go to work or to go to a high school matriculation exam (Bagrut), the Health Ministry said. Residents of the areas declared restricted zones will not face any restrictions.
The decision goes into effect Wednesday at 8 a.m. for seven days.
The ministers were still debating whether to introduce similar restrictions in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv, amid a sharp rise of coronavirus infections there, according to Channel 12 news.
It closed with dancing and it reopened with dancing.
The main Chabad synagogue at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn reopened to a large crowd Monday, more than three months after it shut its doors amid mounting restrictions meant to stop the spread of the coronavirus in the United States.
The raucous service was documented in a video posted to Instagram by COLlive, a local Orthodox news site in Crown Heights. No one in the video, which shows dozens of men singing and dancing, appeared to be wearing a face mask and most did not appear to be maintaining social distancing.
The reopening is the latest evidence that some parts of New York City's Orthodox community have largely returned to normalcy after three months of lockdown, despite the fact that the city only began its second phase of reopening Monday and social distancing and mask wearing are still recommended.
The synagogue, located at the former home of the late leader of the Chabad movement, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, waited until much of the city had shut down before closing its doors, for the first time ever, late on March 17.
A report published Tuesday by a Tel Aviv research group found that the coronavirus pandemic has become a vehicle for an intense and exceptional wave of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionist propaganda that accuses Jews and Israel of either causing the virus or standing to benefit from it.
The pandemic has "unleashed a unique worldwide wave of antisemitism," researchers at the Kantor Center at Tel Aviv University said.
"The new wave of antisemitism includes a range of libels that have one common element: The Jews, the Zionists and/or the state of Israel are to blame for the pandemic and/or stand to gain from it," they wrote.
The researchers also pointed to anti-Semitic sentiments by those who see the virus as divine punishment of Jews and to Holocaust imagery used by those protesting lockdown restrictions.
The study is the latest to point to an increase in anti-Semitism as the virus has overshadowed nearly all aspects of life across the globe, with Jews blamed for creating the virus or for refusing to heed social distancing and hygiene guidelines. A recent Oxford University study found that 19.1 percent of the public in Britain believes to some degree that Jews caused the coronavirus pandemic.
In April, the Kantor Center raised the alarm over a rise of anti-Semitism tied to the virus as it released a report on anti-Jewish incidents over 2019.
A memorial dedicated to survivors of the Holocaust was reportedly toppled by vandals at a cemetery in California last week, an action that comes as rioters have destroyed numerous statues across the country in recent days.
The fountain, which was found on the ground in broken pieces, was "part of a memorial created for the late Lillian Judd and her husband Emil, beloved figures in the local Jewish community who survived Nazi concentration camps during World War II," The Press Democrat reported. "Jews visiting the northeast Santa Rosa cemetery used the fountain for ritual washing and cleansing."
Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Dave Linscomb told the local newspaper that all indicators suggest that the fountain was pushed off its foundation.
Linscomb said that anyone who is charged in the case will be charged with felonies due to the extent of the damage.
He also stated that hate crime charges could be filed should police discover an anti-Semitic motive.
"If there is something more to it, we'd go that direction," Linscomb said. "But that needs to be vetted out with the investigation when we get a hold of who did this."
Dennis Judd, who commissioned a mosaic that was constructed behind the fountain, responded to the incident. "That's what led up to the Holocaust and genocides — people hating and getting angry," said Judd. "Mom always spoke about forgiveness. It's sad to see somebody or a group of people would go and tear it down."
"The hope that mom had was to teach the kids and teach the adults about peace," he added. "That's the thing we need to push on. Maybe the community can come together and help us resurrect the fountain and make it a place of healing. That was always the message for (Lillian)."
This city's mayor does not wish to facilitate the movement of Jews in his jurisdiction to camps this month and next, local sources report, an attitude that remains at odds with his treatment of that minority, given the history of his rhetoric and policies toward them, and given the way that the way in which Jews have, historically, been sent to camps appears to dovetail with those policies and treatment.
Beating the Brooklyn heat during July and August has for generations involved children – and sometimes entire families – of Orthodox Jews taking up summer residence in the Catskill and Adirondack Mountains, where the fresher air, higher altitude, and open spaces provide relief unavailable to many in the city itself. The children attend camps, but Mayor Bill de Blasio has come out against the practice. His demonstrated special antipathy for Jews stands in stark relief to that opposition, given that personalities of the mayor's disposition toward Jews have welcomed, if not actively pursued, the transfer of Jews from their homes to camps in large numbers.
Months of grappling with the public health aspects of COVID-19 saw the mayor's administration single out Jews for criticism, even while other ethnic groups and the city's general population exhibited no better adherence to mandatory social distancing restrictions; the mayor himself flouted his office's guidelines to maintain an exercise routine. Police enforcement in neighborhoods with a large concentration of visibly Jewish people stood in contrast to lax or nonexistent action against violators in other parts of the city such as public parks in Manhattan and elsewhere in Brooklyn. This discriminatory display followed years of police inaction as visibly Jewish people suffered physical assault in broad daylight every week, sometimes every day.
Campaign Against Antisemitism can reveal that the conspiracy theorist David Miller is behind the "Resistance" movement founded and fronted by the disgraced former Labour MP Chris Williamson.
Mr Williamson, who was embroiled in scandals over antisemitism when he was in the Labour Party, introduced his Resistance movement several months ago by explaining that with the election of Sir Keir Starmer to the Labour leadership, many felt "politically homeless", and that his new movement would use "culture, alternative media and street protest" to achieve its aims, with a 'Resist Festival' originally planned for June but now postponed to October due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Resist Festival was due to feature controversial speakers including the rapper Lowkey, the outspoken academic Noam Chomsky, the activist Max Blumenthal and representatives from the 'yellow vest' protests in France.
Mr Williamson resigned from the Labour Party in late 2019 after learning that he would not be allowed to stand for the Party in the General Election. His extraordinary letter of resignation from the Party read like a manifesto against Jews. He has described his erstwhile Party's institutional antisemitism as "manufactured" and part of an "assault on our democracy" by a "hostile foreign government" to "normalise Zionism in the Labour Party". Recently, he approvingly cited the rescinded United Nations General Assembly resolution that equated Zionism with racism.
Campaign Against Antisemitism can now reveal that the notorious lecturer, Prof. David Miller, is behind the Resistance movement. Prof. Miller is the sole director of a limited company called Festival of Resistance Limited, and he was also the sole director of a limited company called Campaign for Chris Williamson Limited, which was incorporated in July 2019, a few months before Mr Williamson was dropped by the Labour Party and ran as an independent candidate in the 2019 General Election, when he received so few votes that he lost his deposit — a rarity for an incumbent MP.
Prof. Miller, a sociology lecturer at the University of Bristol, has a history of spouting conspiracy theories about various Jewish community organisations and figures that has reportedly discomfited his Jewish students. In a presentation titled "Harms of the Powerful", for example, Prof. Miller suggested that the "Zionist movement" is one of the "five pillars" of hatred of Muslims (redolent of the five pillars of Islam) and is bankrolled by "ultra Zionist funders".
The controversial Labour MP Claudia Webbe has made the extraordinary and demeaning claim that scrutiny of her past defence of Ken Livingstone is racist.
Twitter user @Never_Again2000 posted an article by Campaign Against Antisemitism recalling how Claudia Webbe MP had written a letter of support for Ken Livingstone after he compared a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard and detailing how she had more recently taken to Twitter to claim – while she was the Chair of the Labour Party's Disciplinary Panel overseeing antisemitism cases – that the "combined machinery of state, political and mainstream elite" are conspiring to smear Jeremy Corbyn with "false allegations."
Ms Webbe claimed that it is due to "ingrained racism" that Twitter users were commenting on the role that she – now a prominent political figure – played in that Livingstone episode rather than the judge who overturned Mr Livingstone's suspension, even though the judgment was a matter of law and her letter was a defence of his anti-racist credentials from her perspective as one of "full-time advisers" (in the Twitter feed she seemed to imply that she had opposed Mr Livingstone's suspension on the basis that it was anti-democratic, but the thrust of her letter in fact relied on his supposed anti-racist credentials). Nevertheless she complained that she is the target of "racist victimisation" and equated scrutiny of her past record with the racist killing of George Floyd, ordering other Twitter users to "get your knee off my neck".
On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.
Trial of prelim issues in libel case brought by Jewish blogger Richard Millett against Jeremy Corbyn in High Ct today. Corbyn alleged Millett lacked ''English irony'' and told Andrew Marr he was "incredibly disruptive, indeed the police wanted to throw them out of the building."
A Huddersfield Labour member has quit the party after being accused of making anti-Semitic comments on social media.
Paul Connolly was set to stand for the Labour Party in Almondbury ward in May's local elections before they were postponed.
He was suspended in March after tweets were highlighted by Never_Again2020, a twitter feed that exposes anti-Semitism.
It drew attention to tweets from 2018 and 2019 in which Mr Connolly referred to "Jewish hate mongers" and "the Israeli lobby."
Never Again, which was set up last year to direct attention to concerns around anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, branded Mr Connolly as anti-Semitic and said he was "reported to the party a year ago but he hasn't even been suspended."
Labour administratively suspended Mr Connolly within hours of the matter being raised by YorkshireLive. Mr Connolly is understood to have resigned a few days later and is no longer a member of the Labour Party.
Paul is apparently standing as a labour candidate in this years local elections. For Almondbury, Kirklees. Paul's being mapped #MappingLabAShttps://t.co/TsZZYjI2Sn
— LabourAntisemitismMappingProject (@LabASMap) March 4, 2020
The senior class president at a southern California college apologized on Monday after sharing antisemitic statements on social media last week.
"I have realized my previous instagram story regarding Zionism and Yemen was anti-Semitic," wrote Malak Afaneh in a letter to pro-Israel campus group Claremont Progressive Israel Alliance (CPIA).
Addressing Jewish students on campus, she added, "I want to deeply apologize for the pain I've caused."
According to the Claremont Independent, a student paper at Pomona College in Claremont, California, Afaneh had re-posted on Instagram an image of a tweet that said of the ongoing conflict in Yemen, "6 million people died in the Holocaust, we still commemorate it to this day. 18.4 MILLION people are dying in Yemen RIGHT NOW. That's 3 holocausts at once…SILENCE IS COMPLIANCE!!!"
Also on the image, in a message below the tweet, another social media user had ranted, "[O]nce again, zionist-Israel-birthright-vacation-stuck-on-comparing-holocaust-to-racism-WW2-worshipping bitches, this should be right up ur alley. Oh wait u hate brown ppl."
In her apology, Afaneh said she "didn't mean to amplify" these remarks, and that her approval of the post only applied to the criticism of Saudi Arabia.
i24: Roger Waters: Israelis Teach US Police to Kill Blacks
"[Pink Floyd co-f]ounder Roger Waters is a musical icon. Many say he's a rock and roll genius and a Hall of Fame artist. Yet he's also a rabid anti-Semite."
Today is an exciting day as we are able to show a preview of the University Antisemitism Map. Examples of what you will be able to see at top level and a more local level are shown below.#UniversityASpic.twitter.com/PMVNKFISGj
— University Antisemitism Map (@UniASMap) June 22, 2020
Contrary to your Magazine's assertion, there is no such thing as a state of Palestine.
On June 19, you featured an article by Chantal Braganza entitled: "This New Cookbook Is A Love Letter To Palestinian Food" about a new cookbook called "Falastin" co-written by Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley which sets out to show how Palestinians eat and live today.
8 times throughout the interview, a nation state called "Palestine" was referred to. Trouble is though, there is no modern country of Palestine, although there's a movement to establish one as part of a two-state peace agreement with Israel. Areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority are considered Palestinian territories with Fatah running the "West Bank" and the Hamas terror group running the Gaza Strip.
Citing the notorious Twitter Corbynista Rachel Cousins, who has has a history of peddling antisemitic conspiracies and in tweeting fake news about Israel, Forbes has removed the northern city of Haifa from Israel, reassigning it to "Palestine." Lisette Voytko's June 7 article, "British Protesters Throw Slave Trader Statue into River — And Other Stunning Global Protest Moments," states: Massive crowds assembled in cities throughout the world to march against racism and police brutality, including: London, England, Brisbane, Australia, Rome, Italy, Berlin, Germany, Tokyo, Japan, Palestinian territories, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, San Francisco, California, New York City, and Washington, D.C.
"Palestinian territories" is hyperlinked to a video of a demonstration tweeted by "Rachel_Swindon" which is also embedded in the article itself. The heading on the video, which is also reproduced on the Forbes site, is "Meanwhile in Palestine." In addition, the tweet carries the following text, which also appears in the Forbes article: "The people of Palestine know what oppression looks like. A wonderful act of solidarity for #BlackLivesMatter."
But that protest took place in Haifa, not in "Palestine." The famous Bahai gardens are visible in the background. An Israeli flag flutters on the left-hand side of the screen at the beginning of the clip. In the Palestinian territories, an Israeli flag is visible only when it is on the ground being trampled upon or being burned in a demonstration. In addition, a photograph of the exact same scene from the June 2 Haifa, Israel demonstration was published by Nur Photos, and is available here. Though CAMERA notified Forbes of the error yesterday, editors have yet to correct as of this writing.
This summer marks six years since Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul and Lt. Hadar Goldin were killed during Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip. Throughout those six years Hamas has refused to return their bodies to their families and continues to use the issue as a bargaining chip to try to secure the release of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel for terror offences.
In September it will be five years since it became publicly known that Hamas is also holding two mentally ill Israeli civilians who entered the Gaza Strip of their own accord – Avera Mengistu in September 2014 and Hisham al Sayed in April 2015. Hamas continues to hold both men hostage, likewise in order to advance its aim of getting terrorists released from prison.
So what have BBC audiences heard about those stories? While the BBC did mention Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin in reports it produced during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, since then the corporation has produced very little follow-up reporting.
The most recent brief reference to the fact that Hamas is holding two Israeli civilians and the remains of two Israeli soldiers was heard on a domestic BBC radio station in August 2018 when Jerusalem bureau correspondent Yolande Knell told listeners that: "…in the past month tensions between Israel and Hamas have flared up three times with Palestinian militants firing rockets and Israeli airstrikes. The intervention of Egypt and the UN calmed the situation. So what are the chances now for a longer term deal? Not good says Israeli defence analyst Alex Fishman. He points to the Palestinians' own deep political rift and Hamas' insistence that it won't return two Israelis jailed in Gaza or two soldiers' remains without a release of Palestinian prisoners by Israel."
A US Jewish man leaving a Nevada bar was stabbed last Friday in the head by a man on the sidewalk outside, who had asked him for money and then shouted anti-Semitic insults.
The alleged stabber reportedly raised his arm in a Nazi salute multiple times and said "Heil Hitler, you piece of shit" before stabbing the man and walking away from the Tap Shack in Carson City, Carson Now reported.
The victim was taken to the hospital while "conscious and alert," the report said.
Jeremy Jay Ortega was taken into custody shortly after the attack and a struggle with deputies, the Fox affiliate News 4 reported.
Ortega reportedly punched a deputy police officer in the face several times.
He was charged with attempted robbery, battery with a deadly weapon, battery on a peace officer and obstruction.
Campaign Against Antisemitism has welcomed reports that the Government plans to increase sentences for offenders who desecrate places of worship and burial plots.
The Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen reportedly raised the matter with the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, in a letter appealing for strict prison sentences for attacks on places of worship, including synagogues, as well as burial grounds.
It is understood that Ms Patel responded within a few hours saying: "It's going in the sentencing bill and will cover places of worship and cemeteries."
Campaign Against Antisemitism has reported on numerous attacks on synagogues and Jewish cemeteries, including in December 2019.
A spokesman for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: "Vandalism and attacks on British synagogues over the past several years underscore the urgency of increasing sentences for these hate crimes. The rise in hate crime cannot be deterred without harsh penalties for offenders."
The popular TikTok video-sharing service is being used for more than just awkward dances by users, according to a new study in Israel.
Anti-Semites, Holocaust deniers, and other far-right extremists are going on the social media platform to reach young people, researchers from the University of Haifa and Israel's Institute for Counter Terrorism found in a report titled "Spreading Hate on TikTok."
From February through May, it said, there were 196 postings related to far-right extremism, with one-fifth of them related to anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.
In the same time frame, the study also found 14 postings of Adolf Hitler's speeches; 11 postings of the Sieg Heil victory salute used by Nazis; 17 videos encouraging violence that featured Nazi or neo-Nazi symbols such as the swastika and sonnenrad, or black sun; and 26 accounts featuring the numbers "88" in their username, the white supremacist numerical code for "Heil Hitler."
The study first appeared in the Studies in Conflict & Terrorism journal.
TikTok, based in China, has gained popularity with its short videos of users dancing and lip syncing, among other talents.
Although the platform's Terms of Service prohibits users under age 13, many who appear in videos are clearly younger.
Austria broke ground Monday on a new memorial to the country's 65,000 Jews killed during the Nazi era.
"The Memorial to the Jewish Children, Women and Men of Austria who were Murdered in the Shoah" being erected in Vienna's central Ostarrichi Park will consist of large slabs set in the ground in a circle, engraved with the names of the 64,000 victims who have been identified. Another 1,000 are known to have been killed by the Nazis, but their names have been lost.
Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was born in Austria, and many in the country enthusiastically welcomed Germany's annexation of it in 1938, the year before World War II.
At that time, around 210,000 Jews lived in the country. Many fled, but later found themselves in Nazi hands again as the German armies swept westward to the English Channel and deep into the Soviet Union in the east.
The memorial, to be completed by next spring, is envisioned as a place of reflection, and both a tribute to those who lost their lives and a reminder of the perils of anti-Semitism.
There is only one entrance into the center of the circle formed by the slabs, which will create a "place of reverence" for visitors, according to the plans.
"Descendants of those who were murdered should, without being disturbed, be able to search for the names of their relatives, to touch the letters with their hand, to say a prayer, to light a memorial candle," organizers said on their website.
"For all Austrians, the memorial should offer a quiet place, in which they can remember the fate of their Jewish fellow citizens and honor their lives, today and in future generations."
A team of neuroscientists from Bar-Ilan University is one of four winners of The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF) and Sage Bionetworks BEAT-PD (Biomarker and Endpoint Assessment to Track Parkinson's Disease) DREAM Challenge, a data competition designed to benchmark new methods to predict Parkinson's disease severity in patients in their homes.
The challenge focused on predicting the subjective patient assessment of key symptom's of Parkinson's disease such as tremor, dyskinesia and the on-off phenomenon based solely on passive kinematic data collected from smartwatches and smartphones of the patients during free everyday behavior.
The Bar-Ilan team, termed "HaProzdor", consisted of Ayala Matzner, Yuval El-Hanany and Prof. Izhar Bar-Gad from the Neural Interfaces Lab at Bar-Ilan's Gonda (Goldschmied) Multidiciplinary Brain Research Center. The Bar-Ilan team is the only winning team from outside of the United States. The additional winners were groups from Harvard Medical School, the University of Rochester Medical Center, and the University of Michigan.
"We congratulate all the winners. The Foundation has supported research into sensors and other digital tools for Parkinson's for many years," says Mark Frasier, PhD, Senior Vice President, Research Programs at MJFF. "The BEAT-PD projects are unlocking the potential of data collected by digital devices to help people with Parkinson's, their physicians, and researchers. Now more than ever, we understand the critical importance of remote monitoring for the safe and effective delivery of healthcare and the progress of clinical research."
In a previous data challenge, teams proved that disease status and symptom severity could be predicted using data collected during the completion of specific tasks while monitored by a physician. The BEAT-PD Challenge built on this to determine whether disease severity could be assessed from passive sensor data from consumer electronics, collected during daily life, not pre-set tasks, which will bring us closer to the promise of at-home monitoring of disease progression.
Three of the teams, including HaProzdor, approached the problem by applying signal processing methods to the smartwatch and smartphone sensor data, the results of which were then used in machine learning models which allowed for patient-specific characteristics.
A Israeli study has found that multiple sclerosis patients taking a nano-engineered nutritional supplement made out of pomegranate oil showed "significant cognitive improvement" after just three months.
The small-scale study of 30 patients was conducted at the Multiple Sclerosis Center at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem by Prof. Dimitrios Karussis, director of the center and a senior neurologist. Results showed that patients taking the supplement witnessed an average 12 percent improvement in learning ability and text comprehension, word recall and categorization, in the three months of treatment.
The researchers are now writing up the findings to submit them to neurological journals for peer review, Karussis said in a phone interview.
The pomegranate oil supplement the patients were given was developed by Prof. Ruth Gabizon, a researcher of degenerative brain diseases at the Neurology Department of Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem, together with Prof. Shlomo Magdassi, an expert in the field of nanotechnology from the Casali Institute for Applied Chemistry at the Hebrew University.
Pomegranate seed oil (PSO) contains high concentrations of punicic acid, or omega 5, which is believed to be one of the most powerful antioxidants in nature.
US tech giant Microsoft said it is acquiring Herzliya-Israel based cybersecurity startup CyberX to give it an edge in helping customers secure devices that are connected to the internet.
The amount of the transaction was undisclosed but in May, the Globes financial website said that Microsoft was in talks to buy CyberX for $165 million.
CyberX, founded in 2012 by Nir Geller and Omer Schneider, has raised to date $47 million from investors including US VC fund Norwest Venture Partners, Israeli VC OurCrowd, Flint Capital and Qualcomm Ventures, according to data compiled by Start-Up Nation Central, which tracks Israel's tech industry.
The Israeli firm has developed an industrial cyber-security platform to detect, stop and predict breaches of security on internet of things networks, reducing the risk of attacks and preventing production outages, safety failure and environmental incidents.
IoT provides real-time insights into assets, enabling businesses to reduce operational expenses, unplanned downtime and unnecessary servicing, Microsoft's VPs Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk and Sam George wrote in a blogpost. But there is a huge challenge in securing devices connected to the internet, and that is where CyberX plays a role, they wrote. Braverman-Blumenstyk is also general manager of Israel R&D.
The tech developed by the Israeli firm will give customers information of what devices are already connected to the internet, and manage and improve the security of those devices.
With CyberX, customers can see a digital map of thousands of devices across a factory floor or within a building and gather information about their asset profile and vulnerabilities, Braverman-Blumenstyk and George wrote.
What an awesome picture! That's the Mediterranean sunset in the background, while the @TelAviv Municipality Building is lit up with 🏳️🌈 flag, in honor of #PrideMonth
This Soldier Serves On The Same Plane That Rescued Her Family
In 1991, Ethiopia was on the verge of chaos. As part of the IDF's efforts to bring Ethiopian Jews to Israel, the IDF carried out three top-secret operations where they brought thousands of Ethiopians to Israel in secret. The biggest operation, Operation Solomon, brought 14,325 Ethiopian Jews home to Israel on 34 planes in just 36 hours. This operation brought Staff Sergeant Ortal Ayaso's family to Israel.
Although initially placed in a different unit, Ortal was determined to serve on the same fleet of planes that once brought her family home. After requesting to move several times, today, Ortal is a technician in the Israeli Air Force and works on the exact same plane that rescued her family.
Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Portuguese diplomat who saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust, will be recognized with a monument at a site in Lisbon that recognizes the country's greatest figures.
The parliament decreed the honor unanimously earlier this month at the National Assembly in Portugal's capital. The monument will go in the National Pantheon, a former church.
"Aristides Sousa Mendes, as a heroic historical figure, is part of Portugal's national patrimony," the resolution reads. "A moral legacy for all, his heritage is for the whole of civil society and above all a virtuous example for future generations."
In 1940, Mendes served as consul in Bordeaux, France, where he gave visas to refugees fleeing the Nazi advance. He is estimated to have saved 30,000 people, including 10,000 Jews.
After his actions in Bordeaux, a city located just 120 miles north of France's border with Spain and the Iberian Peninsula, Mendes was suspended and fired from the diplomatic service of Portugal, then a dictatorship under Antonio de Oliveira Salazar.
However, Mendes was posthumously vindicated and recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations — a title conferred on behalf of the State of Israel by the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
Mendes, who died in 1954, was the first diplomat to receive the title, posthumously in 1966.
— Zionist Organization of America (@ZOA_National) June 21, 2020
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It didn't make major headlines, but Israel quietly swore in its sixth openly gay Knesset member on Monday, Yorai Lahav Hertzanu of Blue and White.
Five percent of Israeli lawmakers are now openly gay, the fourth-highest figure in the world, according to political scientist Andrew Reynolds.
It comes "after Britain, 8.1 percent, Liechtenstein, 8 percent, and the Scottish parliament, 7.7 percent," said Reynolds, who directs an LGBT representative programme at the University of North Carolina in the United States.
The country has the most progressive attitude towards LGBTQ people in the Middle East, despite opposition from some conservative sections of society.
They are protected by anti-discrimination laws, have adoption and same-sex inheritance rights, and have been allowed to serve in the military since 1993.
Last year, Amir Ohana, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, became Israel's first openly gay member of cabinet when he was appointed acting justice minister. He is currently minister of public security.
In a normal world, people on the Left who push for LGBTQ rights would be celebrating. Instead, we have Israel haters who say that everything Israel does for gay rights is simply a smokescreen to hide how evil it is.
The accusation is a crazed example of bigotry. But I think if everyone in the world would do good things to hide bad things, the world would be a better place.
Israelis condemn violence by their own against Palestinians, but the Palestinian Authority does not do the same, US Ambassador David Friedman wrote in a letter to Democratic members of Congress on Monday.
"In the three years that I have served in this position," Friedman wrote, "I have observed far too many murders of Israeli civilians by Palestinian terrorists where the Palestinian leadership has failed to condemn these acts."
Friedman pointed out that Hamas openly celebrates terrorism, while "the so-called moderate" Palestinian Authority pays terrorists a regular stipend.
The Palestinian Authority paid NIS 517.4 million ($150.5m.) in salaries to terrorists in prison and released prisoners in 2019. "In contrast, in the less frequent circumstance of a violent crime by an Israeli against a Palestinian, the act is condemned by the Israeli government and virtually the entire population of the State of Israel," Friedman wrote.
The ambassador's remarks came in response to a letter from over 50 members of Congress from the Democratic Party sent to him earlier this month, calling on him to denounce violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians. The J Street-supported letter was initiated by Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM), and among its signatories are major Israel critics in Congress, such as Betty McCollum (D-MN), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN)
Friedman noted in his response that the letter did not call on him to denounce Palestinian terror against Israelis.
A delegation of congressional Republicans wrote to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday to express its support for the Israeli leader's decision to annex portions of Palestinian territory in the West Bank, saying Israel has the right to execute any policy it sees as integral to its security.
One-hundred-sixteen Republicans led by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) and other senior lawmakers told Netanyahu that they fully support Israel's move, which would see the country take over several contested territories long-controlled by the Palestinians. Netanyahu is reportedly seeking to take this step early next month.
"We are aware of and deeply concerned by threats being expressed by some to retaliate against Israel as it makes decisions to ensure defensible borders," the lawmakers wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. "It is shortsighted to threaten relations with Israel, a long-time friend and critical ally that shares our democratic values."
Democratic lawmakers are frustrated by the decision to send the letter. They recently warned Israel that such a move would fray the historically close ties between the United States and Israel. Congressional Republicans, however, flatly reject this view.
The letter highlights a growing partisan schism in Washington over the Israeli government's policies under Netanyahu. While the Trump administration and its Republican allies in Congress have been a reliable partner for the conservative Israeli prime minister, Democrats have become increasingly frustrated over moves they see as damaging to the peace process and U.S. relations with the Jewish state.
The GOP lawmakers expressed in their letter support for the Trump administration's recently unveiled Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, which has inflamed tensions in the region and has been rejected by the Palestinian leadership.
"We assure you that we will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel and oppose any effort to apply pressure," the lawmakers wrote.
The White House has not publicly commented on the annexation plan yet and is likely waiting to see how Netanyahu proceeds in the coming days.
A group of IDF generals has written a letter to US President Donald Trump urging him to support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's annexation plan to apply sovereignty over parts of the West Bank.
The group, known as habit'honistim – Protectors of Israel – holds that the plan offers Israel an unparalleled security opportunity to place 30% of the West Bank within Israel's permanent borders.
"Your farsighted vision for peace, which includes a recognition of Israel's sovereign rights in Judea and Samaria – the cradle of Jewish civilization – has put wind in the wings of thousands of Israel Defense Force officers and warriors and buffeted the sails of the Israeli nation as a whole," the group wrote.
"Mr. President, thanks to your friendship and visionary leadership, we stand now at an historic crossroad in the 4,000-year history of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel," it continued.
"We trust that you will continue to work to secure the future peace of the people of Israel and of the Middle East as a whole by standing with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he applies our sovereignty to our eastern frontier, the Jordan Valley and to our cities, villages and farms in Judea and Samaria in accordance with your visionary peace plan," the group said.
"As God Almighty said to Joshua as he stood before the Jordan River, poised to lead the Nation of Israel to the Promised Land, so we say to you today: "Be strong and of good courage," they wrote.
The idea of Israeli sovereignty over 30% of the West Bank, including all of the settlements, is already incorporated into Trump's peace plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Jerusalem was built by King David as a common political symbol unifying twelve tribes into one nation. The Sistine Chapel in the Vatican attempted to copy the Solomonic first Temple of Jerusalem for this very reason (to unify Christendom around that structure as part of the Basilica of Paul). The creation of Washington, DC as the capital of the new-born United States consciously tapped the precedent of David's Jerusalem. King David chose neutral territory between the 12 tribes, and then employed the physical founding of Jerusalem to unify those tribes politically. Similarly, the United States' founders determined to use the neutral territory of Washington DC to unify the 13 quarreling colonies into one nation.
The willingness by many since the interwar period to write off the original Jerusalem as lost to Islam– something the framers of the League of Nations Mandate could not have imagined or countenanced since they were still men of faith — was itself a reflection of the beginning of the erosion of Western civilization. Erasing old Jerusalem of all meaning and surrendering it to the non-Western world while trying to build the new Jerusalem modeled upon it ultimately was untenable. The non-Western world understood this, which is precisely why the city was always strategically understood by our enemies as too dangerous a symbol to allow its being restored to the West through the agency of Israel. For many in the Middle East who seek the West ill, the continued Islamic domination of Jerusalem was a necessary sign of Christendom's and Judaism's fallen favor with the divine. Ironically, even Muslim nations who understand their fate is tied to the power of the West now tolerate, but not necessarily relish, the formal return of Jerusalem to Western hands.
In recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, President Trump started restoring the American story. He struck a deep chord with communities of faith who firmly believed Jerusalem was never just another city for early American colonialists and post-revolutionary war Americans. For communities of faith, the President tapped into a tradition running from the early settlers to President Reagan that America itself was "the new Jerusalem" — a deeply cherished vision of a city on the hill living in our imaginations as a beacon for our own soul.
In this context, the coming recognition of Israeli sovereignty in additional parts of the Judean and Samarian heartland, would reaffirm and deepen the catalytic nature of what recognizing Jerusalem was. It would place the recognition of Jerusalem in context as a turning point in a broader strategy to reassert and firm up the foundations of Western idea rather than as an aberration.
Those foundations of American society are wobbling dangerously. Ideas animating three millennia of Western thought are under siege internally as well as externally. Our young believe socialism is as valid a system as capitalism. They are taught in our educational structures to reject Western history – Athens, Rome and Jerusalem alike — and obsessively focus on the flaws and growing pains of the early republic to the exclusion of recording the vast brilliance of what was launched. Now, our youth seem to be at ease supporting anarchy, nihilism and lawlessness. When the President holds up the Bible to stand down the protestors, to recognize Jerusalem, and to bring parts of the Judean heartland back into Judeo-Christian culture, he is concretely shoring up American greatness by re-asserting the foundations its western civilization. He is putting the Judea back into Judeo-Christian culture. The communities of faith and several historians understand this, and thus their support of President Trump is deeper and more determined than other past Republican presidents since Reagan.
There are just a few problems with this account. The Arab (or more accurately, Arabian) identity does not go back 5,000 years; even 3,000 stretches the record. The Canaanites were not Arabians. The ancient Jews did a little bit more than "attack, kill and destroy everyone and everything they could"; does one really have to point out that the Bible they wrote serves as the basis of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, whose adherents make up over half the world's population?
And while DNA evidence shows that descendants of the Canaanites in Palestine survive throughout the Middle East, the great majority of its Muslims and Christians descend from immigrants. Writing in 1911, before the many twentieth-century immigrations, Irish archeologist Robert Macalister already listed 19 foreign ethnicities in addition to native farmers and Jews in Palestine: Algerian, Arabian, Armenian, Assyrian, Bosnian, Circassian, Crusader, German, Greek, Italian, Kurd, Motawila, Nawar, Persian, Roman, Samaritan, Sudanese, Turkic, and Turkoman.
How disappointing that the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which wishes to be seen as responsible and moderate, publishes such twaddle in a purported scholarly study. It is the more dismaying when one recalls that King Abdullah II, Jordan's ruler since 1999, has taken a brave and forthright stand against Islamists, denouncing them as "religious totalitarians … who seek power by intimidation, violence and thuggery." He has also called for "a dynamic, moderate Islam – an Islam that upholds the sanctity of human life, reaches out to the oppressed, respects men and women alike, and insists on the fellowship of all humankind." An Islamist-style white paper applauded by a Palestinian anti-Zionist substantially undercuts these bold words.
The white paper promotes a familiar Islamic imperialism. Other recent examples include Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government insisting that the Hagia Sophia Cathedral was originally a mosque; Muslims pressing to use the Cordoba Cathedral as a mosque; and the so-called Ground-Zero Mosque near the obliterated World Trade Center in New York City.
Ironically, the English-language Hashemite Custodianship meant for international consumption distorts history more than Arabic materials intended for locals. For example, Jordan's Royal Committee for Jerusalem Affairs only asserts Arabs founded Jerusalem 5,000 years ago without the nasty corollary that Jews "attacked, killed and destroyed everyone and everything they could."
The Jordanian government can and should do better. If falsifying ancient history seems like a small matter, it is not; such errors form opinions, shape governments, and potentially lead to renewed hostilities.
Where are the historians and theologians to denounce these falsehoods? Where are the friends of Jordan to urge a responsible course? Where are the Israelis, inhibited by an ever-present mistress syndrome, to protest this calumny?
Although it still wasn't clear whether Israel will declare sovereignty in parts of Judea and Samaria on July 1, talks between Israel and moderate Sunni countries were continuing in earnest behind the scenes.
Senior Arab diplomatic officials, along with senior defense and intelligence officials in Egypt and Jordan, confirmed to Israel Hayom on Monday that over the past several weeks – ahead of the planned implementation of Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and Jordan Valley – intensive diplomatic activity was taking place between Israel and moderate Arab countries. The purpose of these diplomatic efforts was to reach an agreement on the nature and scope of the response from Sunni Arab countries, chief among them Egypt and Jordan, which have peace treaties with Israel – if and when Israel applies sovereignty.
According to those Arab officials, senior intelligence and defense officials were engaging in the talks under a heavy veil of secrecy.
One senior Arab diplomat said Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and the head of Egypt's General Intelligence Service Abbas Kamal were spearheading the talks, and that in recent meetings agreed that Israel would implement its sovereignty plan while Arab countries would voice their formal objections to the initiative – without significantly damaging diplomatic relations between the countries.
A senior Egyptian official told Israel Hayom this week that Palestinian concerns about the nature of Cairo's response to Israel's sovereignty bid were justified because Cohen and Kamal have already agreed in principle over the scope and tone of Egypt's response. Egyptian defense officials have even been able to persuade their Jordanian counterparts to recommend to Jordanian King Abdullah II to suffice with declarative condemnation of the Israeli initiative and eschew operative steps that would harm the peace accord with Israel.
Another senior Egyptian official told Israel Hayom: "Egyptian involvement in Libya, amid the security developments there, is a much greater priority than the Palestinian issue and the interests of [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas], who hastily turned to Turkey, which is scheming against us in Libya, and asked it to spearhead a comprehensive Arab struggle against the Israeli sovereignty plan. Abbas' request to [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan sparked anger not only in Egypt but in Jordan as well."
This statement reflects the depth of Egyptian-Jordanian cooperation and coordination, not just in Libya but also on the Palestinian issue.
With a week to go until the earliest date Israel can apply its sovereignty to portions of the West Bank, Defense Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz warned on Tuesday that there will be security consequences whether or not Israel makes the move.
According to Gantz, US President Donald Trump's peace plan is "the first to look at what's happening on the ground in a realistic way," but "what we will do will have consequences, and what we will not do will also have consequences."
A source familiar with Gantz's thinking on the matter said moves towards annexation could be what breaks the long-term political stagnation between Israel and the Palestinians, which is also one of the core ideas behind the Trump peace plan.
If the Palestinians choose not to take part in the talks with Israel about the annexation, "then we will have to move forward without them," he said.
"We won't get into Palestinian deep sh*t," Gantz said. "The Palestinians continue to reject dialogue and to remain in their 'deep sh*t.'"
"We need to not only manage the conflict but also shape it," the defense minister said, adding that "we will work to reduce as much as possible the danger of turning the State of Israel into a bi-national state while making sure that Israel remains in control of its security."
Concerned about the collateral damage that could follow from allowing Israel to move ahead with its planned annexation of areas of the West Bank, Washington is reportedly considering backing the annexation of only of a handful of settlements close to Jerusalem.
Officials in the Trump administration are set to hold a decisive meeting this week on whether to approve Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's declared plan to start annexing the 132 West Bank settlements and the Jordan Valley — the 30 percent of the territory allocated to Israel under the administration's Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.
Netanyahu has vowed to begin the process as early as July 1. However, US enthusiasm for such a move appeared to cool amid vociferous opposition from American allies in the Middle East.
"Ultimately, as the team approaches this thought of annexation, the main thing going through our heads is, 'Does this in fact help advance the cause of peace?' And therefore that is what will help drive a lot of the discussion," a senior Trump administration official told Reuters in a report Monday evening.
Rather than back Netanyahu's broad annexation plan, the administration is looking at other options, including a staged process in which Israel would start by declaring sovereignty only over several settlements in the Jerusalem area, the report said, citing an unnamed source.
The official noted that Washington has not ruled out Netanyahu's larger annexation vision but is concerned that a large-scale, rapid, unilateral move by Israel could seal off any chance that the Palestinians may agree to discuss Trump's peace plan, unveiled in January.
The administration is also worried about increasing opposition to annexation coming from Jordan and US-allied Gulf States that have been unobtrusively building ties with Israel, the source explained.
Hundreds of Palestinians attended a rally in Jericho on Monday to protest Israel's intention to extend its sovereignty to parts of the West Bank.
The rally marked the beginning of a series of protests planned by the ruling Fatah faction in the coming days to voice their opposition to Israel's annexation plan.
This was the first major protest in the West Bank after weeks of apathy among the Palestinian public towards the Israeli plan. On Sunday, Fatah called on Palestinians to converge on Jericho to take part in the anti-annexation protest.
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov, head of the EU Representative Office to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Sven Kuehn von Burgsdorff, and diplomats from several countries, including Britain, China, Russia, Japan, and Jordan also attended the rally.
PA, PLO and Fatah officials also attended the rally.
Addressing the rally, Mladenov and Burgsdorff said that the planned annexation of parts of the West Bank was in violation of international law.
Burgsdorff said that the EU does not recognize Israeli sovereignty on any part of the pre-1967 lines, including the West Bank and east Jerusalem. He warned that the annexation, if implemented, would undermine the chances of reaching a two-state solution.
UN peace envoy Mladenov participates in Fatah protest against US and Israeli policy—not against Fatah payments to jailed terrorists, textbooks teaching Palestinian kids to kill Jews, or Palestinian rejection of every peace offer since 1937. Outrageous.
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov was not the source for the Army Radio story claiming that Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi was working behind the scenes to thwart Israel's annexation plan, a UN official told The Jerusalem Post.
According to Army Radio, a senior UN source said that Ashkenazi was working together with the Foreign Ministry behind the scenes to halt any annexation efforts. Mladenov is the most senior UN official stationed in Israel and the Palestinian territories. He is also the lead official in this region when it comes to issues regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
An official in his office clarified that "those comments were not made by the special coordinator [Mladenov]."
The Army Radio report comes amid a split between Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with regard to the plan.
Netanyahu wants to move forward with the full 30% allowed him under US President Donald Trump's peace plan. Gantz wants to annex only a small area, preferably something in the blocs, with an eye toward quelling moderate Arab opposition. He also wants to execute any plan in coordination with the US and in dialogue with Israel's neighbors.
Gantz and Ashkenazi also appear to lack clear consensus between them, with Ashkenazi putting forward more objections than Gantz.
Both Gantz and Ashkenazi have spoken of the importance of good relations with Jordan and Egypt. Jordan has warned that any annexation efforts would harm ties with Israel, including destroying the 1994 peace agreement between them.
A historic move where #UAE Foreign minister advocates for closer ties with #Israel.
After months of speculation about the nature of Israel's looming annexation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shocked the world. Instead of annexing the West Bank, Israel will formally take control of an area in Seattle known as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ).
Israel's Ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, told The Mideast Beast that the decision to annex the neighborhood was influenced by a few factors, "We had to annex something after all those promises, and it had to be by July 1st, but we found out that absolutely no one in Israel, even the settlers, supported the annexation of the West Bank."
Dermer said that CHAZ has a lot in common with the Palestinian Territories, and that the protesters in Capitol Hill Zone are similar to the Palestinians. "CHAZ, like Palestine, is a recently made-up artificial entity. After one person was killed there over the weekend, we feel that we have a security argument for taking it over and doing whatever the hell we want with it," he said.
The Trump administration welcomed the announcement. President Trump celebrated the news by tweeting a picture of Sheldon Adelson throwing George Soros out of a wrestling match with the caption: "The very strong, very Jewish people — not the nerdy ones that vote loser Democrat! — with the help of my good friends Bibi and Sheldon, are going to take over the Soros-funded CHAZ!! When the shooting starts, the annexing starts!"
📢 Statement from @ZC_NSW applauding #Australia for its moral leadership in standing with #Israel at @UN_HRC, by being the *only* country to vote against each of the 5 grossly biased, one-sided, counterproductive resolutions against the Jewish state at #HRC43. 🇦🇺 🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/ypSL2BIfzF
Journalist: "Why is the U.N. only focusing on the U.S. & Britain for racism when China is detaining 1 million Uighur Muslims?"@UN_Spokesperson: "I think you are reflecting your own personal biases on this topic."
European Parliamentarians have called for a thorough investigation into how European taxpayers' money is ending up in the hands of Palestinian terrorists, insisting during a meeting on Tuesday that any loopholes in the law through which the money is slipping must be closed.
"It should absolutely not happen that European taxpayers' money lead to attacks on Israel," Dutch MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen said at a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday morning. He was joined by Swedish MEP Charlie Weimers, who said, "If and where loopholes exist in EU counter-terrorism financing legislation, they must be closed immediately."
Both MEPs are members of parties who sit within the Conservative and Reformists Group in the European Parliament.
Their comments were delivered during a meeting in Brussels hosted by Ruissen in his capacity as chair of the EU Parliamentary Israel Allies Caucus. Attendees heard from Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), who presented the findings of his organization's recent research paper titled, "Two loopholes in EU anti-terror laws and regulations."
The Saudis and the Jordanians are united in their battle against the Turks, Qataris and the Muslim Brotherhood, which are all trying to take over the Temple Mount.
'It would not serve a good purpose for Israel'
Asked what Israel's policy should be on this issue, Rhode suggested that "Israel stay out of this Muslim battle and not publicly take sides, meaning, do what Israel did in Syria: Take no side in the Syrian civil war, but only intervene when Israeli interests are at stake."
Because if Israel says anything in favor of the Saudis and Jordanians, the Turks, Qataris and other Muslim Brotherhood activists "would accuse the Saudis and Jordanians of being Zionist stooges."
Wurmser asserted that letting the Saudis, Jordanians, Turks and Qataris battle it out is not a bad idea in principle, though it depends on how it would be played out in reality. "If the battle is perceived by the Saudis and Turks as a battle over the ruins of Israel, and that it would accelerate its marginalization and eventual surrender, then it would not serve a good purpose for Israel," he said.
However, added Wurmser, "if Israel would take a strong role as judge in the dispute by being the power broker, then this would put Israel in a position of power."
The former US official said this is also how the United States needs to approach its role in the Middle East so as not to be marginalized and lose its influence.
Therefore, he noted, Israel needs to take a strong position and not surrender Jerusalem to the Muslims. He suggested that when Israel is invested in a side publicly, "then that side can hold it hostage such as what Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas does."
Abbas frequently threatens to cut ties with Israel and stop security cooperation even though he never follows through, said Wurmser, yet "it makes Israel appear weak and without leverage in the situation."
A Palestinian man was shot and killed while attempting to run over Border Police officers with his car in the West Bank Tuesday afternoon, Israeli police said.
Police said in a statement that the incident, which took place in the West Bank town of Abu Dis east of Jerusalem, appeared to be a deliberate attack.
One Border Police officer was lightly injured while leaping out of the way and taken to a Jerusalem hospital for treatment.
The driver, identified in reports as a Palestinian man, was initially listed in serious condition but authorities later said he died of his injuries.
Palestinian media identified the driver as Ahmad Mustafa Erekat, 27, and claimed that he was traveling to Bethlehem on his sister's wedding day to help his mother and sisters prepare for the wedding.
The man "drove his vehicle quickly towards the direction of a female border police officer who was injured lightly," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
The incident took place days before a possible Israeli annexation of some as-yet unspecified portion of the West Bank, as the Israel Defense Forces prepared for a wide range of scenarios for potential regional fallout — up to and including a large-scale wave of terror attacks.
A Lebanese political activist who was detained last week was charged on Monday with collaborating with Israel and referred to a military prosecutor, Lebanon's state-run news agency reported.
The National News Agency said Government Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Fadi Akiki charged Kinda El-Khatib with visiting Israel and "dealing with spies of the Israeli enemy." The report added that the judge referred El-Khatib to a military investigative judge for questioning. The military judge is expected to issue a formal arrest warrant.
Lebanon and Israel are in a state of war and each bans its citizens from visiting the other country.
El-Khatib was detained last week with her brother, who was later released. According to local media reports, she had visited Israel by crossing from Jordan.
She has been active on social media, where she harshly criticized Lebanon's terrorist Hezbollah group and its strong ally, Lebanese President Michel Aoun. Hezbollah and Israel fought a monthlong war in 2006.
Shortly before the charges were filed Monday, dozens rallied in Beirut demanding El-Khatib's release and saying that she was innocent.
So then why for 10 weeks have you refused to campaign for the release of Gaza peace hero Rami Aman?
He was arrested & locked up for speaking with Israeli peace activists over Zoom video.
In recent years, Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank/East Jerusalem have generally become both more pessimistic and less reconciled to the prospect of peace with Israel. In recent years, popular backing for a two-state solution has become a minority view, while in earlier years the division was 60-40 in favor. Messaging from both Fatah and Hamas emphasizes their claim to "all of historic Palestine" - meaning the end of Israel as a separate state.
At the same time, majorities increasingly say that a two-state solution should not mean the end of conflict with Israel. Rather, 60% would opt to continue the struggle to "liberate all of historic Palestine." The same proportion also says that any compromise with Israel should be only temporary. Moreover, large majorities deny that Jews have any connection or rights to any land in historic Palestine.
Majorities support specific forms of economic cooperation with Israel even now. Majorities even support resuming negotiations with Israel without preconditions. And they opposed their own governments' diplomatic boycott of Washington and preemptive rejection of the U.S. peace plan. The public is split over continuing bonus payments to prisoners, rather than united behind this policy, as Palestinian officials claim.
One day after the Palestinian ruling Fatah faction held a rally in Jericho to protest Israel's intention to extend its sovereignty to parts of the West Bank, Hamas on Monday called on Palestinians to "activate all the tools of the resistance" to thwart the annexation plan. Hamas's appeal is seen by some Palestinians as a call for carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel.
While Fatah and the Palestinian Authority have called for "peaceful resistance" against the planned annexation, Hamas and other extremist groups insist that the Palestinians must resort to all forms of "resistance," including terrorist attacks.
Addressing the Palestinians, Hamas said: "Let's rise, let's launch a popular revolution everywhere so that the enemy would know that there are men in Palestine and heroes in our nation who will protect the land, the people and the holy shrines and repel this enemy."
Hamas said in a statement issued in the Gaza Strip that a "massive popular revolution and activating all the tools of the resistance are sufficient to end the Zionist aggression and stop the international conspiracy" against the Palestinians.
Hamas warned that the Israeli plan was a "conspiracy woven by the Zionist occupation, the American administration and some Arab conspirators against the Palestinian people."
Hamas called for "active and powerful participation in all activities and events against the annexation decision," adding that it was a "religious, moral and patriotic duty" to protest the plan.
The Finance Committee, chaired by MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism), on Monday approved regulations extending the exemption from the 17% Value Added Tax given to "international aid organizations which have been recognized by the Director General of the Finance Ministry and the Defense Ministry," provided that the types of fuel and the amounts were approved by said directors general prior to their purchase.
A change the Committee made in the regulations determines that the exemption for such organizations will require the approval of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), so that the eligible organizations will be supervised.
The ordinances are meant to regulate the activity of international aid organizations operating in Gaza, so that they will be exempt from VAT on the purchase of fuel.
Last week, Chairman Gafni postponed the vote on the exemption, over claims made by MKs that at least some of the organizations that would receive the tax exemption are hostile to the State of Israel. Gafni said he would hold the vote only after a debate of the consequences of approving or rejecting the tax exemption proposal.
During Monday's discussion, the Finance Committee resolved the issue by determining that giving the exemption to any organization would require COGAT's approval. A number of MKs objected to this arrangement, and demanded that a VAT exemption for any organization require the authorization of the Finance Committee.
2/ Umm Jaber's main claim to fame is being the adoptive mother of the late monster terrorist Samir Kuntar, while he was serving time in an Israeli prison for, among other things, killing an Israeli man in front of his 4 yr old daughter, then smashing her skull against a rock. pic.twitter.com/4wAFcqSmLd
British authorities have issued a warning to a charity organization after it held a vigil for an assassinated Iranian general.
Qassem Soleimani was the head of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which runs the Islamic Republic's global terror network.
He was killed in January in a US drone strike in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
The Jewish Chronicle reported that, following Soleimani's death, the Islamic Centre of England (ICE) held a vigil in his memory, during which one of the speakers called him "a great martyr."
The group's director Seyed Hashem Moosavi then praised Soleimani on ICE's website.
In a press release issued on June 19, the UK government's Charity Commission announced it had sent an official warning to ICE as it "found the trustees failed to discharge their legal duties towards the charity" because of the vigil.
"The event risked associating the charity with a speaker who may have committed an offense under the Terrorism Acts, as the speaker was filmed during the event appearing to praise and call for support for Soleimani," the Commission said. "The trustees failed to intervene or provide a counter narrative."
The Islamic Republic of Iran has ignited a new round of violent persecution toward the Baha'i minority religious group over the last month.
Bahá'í World News Service (BWNS) reported on June 11 that "Baha'is in the provinces of Fars, South Khorasan, Mazandaran, Isfahan, Alborz, Kerman, Kermanshah, and Yazd have been arrested, summoned to court, tried, sentenced to jail or imprisoned, all under baseless accusations."
BWNS said the violence targeting Baha'is is taking place "for no reason other than a deep-seated antagonism to the Baha'i faith and its teachings, which emphasize truthfulness, equality of men and women, safeguarding the rights of all people, and the harmony of science and religion."
"The recent incidents have placed great pressures on so many families," said Bani Dugal, the Principal Representative of the Baha'i International Community, told the BWNS. "Subjecting them to the constant threat of imprisonment under these circumstances and emotional anguish associated with it is yet another attempt to place greater strain on the community. And to do all this during a health crisis, at an alarmingly escalated rate without any justification whatsoever, is extremely cruel and outrageous."
According to the BWNS article, "the Iranian authorities have escalated their persecution of the Baha'is, targeting at least 77 individuals across the country in recent weeks despite the present health crisis afflicting the country."
Iran's regime has engaged in widespread persecution of the Baha'i community before, including the murder of members of the Baha'i religion, since the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979. Tehran enforces state-sponsored discrimination against the Baha'i community in all walks of life.
Mashhad Friday Sermon by Ayatollah Alamolhoda: Women on Bikes Ignite Men's Sexual Urges, Make Universities "Centers of Corruption"; Designated Parks for Women's Bike Riding Should Be Set Up pic.twitter.com/oywCMN9WIU
New Jersey Imam Raouf Zaman: Disregarding COVID-19 Guidelines Is Imitating the Infidels; Allah Never Said He Would Keep Muslims Safe from Disasters He Causes Because of Infidels' Corruption pic.twitter.com/JE9DwCdJyT
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