THIS HELPS shed light on the sudden surge in the interest of American Jews to immigrate to Israel. Between the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent anti-white demonstrations across the country – both of which were accompanied by antisemitic undertones – Jews who had spent years, if not decades, toying with idea of relocating to the Holy Land, began to take concrete steps in that direction.
According to the aliyah-facilitating organization Nefesh B'Nefesh, this May saw a record number of applications from North America – the highest in a single month since its founding 18 years ago. In anticipation, the Jewish Agency told the Knesset to prepare for the wave of new immigrants.
Though good news for Israel, it is a bad sign of the times. Jews never before have felt the need to flee the US. If they made aliyah, it was by choice. That so many even are considering such a move during the global economic crisis, caused by coronavirus lockdowns, indicates uncharacteristic desperation.
Their malaise is understandable. So is their hope that Israel will provide a safe haven from progressive totalitarianism. The problem is that Israelis mimic Americans, which is why a vigil for Floyd, replete with Black Lives Matter signs and slogans, was held in Tel Aviv.
It is also the reason that Israeli pundits who appear regularly on one or another of Israel's main TV channels assert – with idiocy disguised as authority – that America suffers from "systemic racism," which "everyone knows" is the fault of US President Donald Trump.
Alas, if Israel weren't surrounded by Iranian proxies and other external enemies armed to the teeth, it easily could end up bathing in – not just drinking – the cancel-culture Kool-Aid.
Israel, like the rest of the West, needs a strong and healthy America, not one forced into submission by fanatics bent on altering its nature and fundamental principles. Black Lives Matter and its sycophants must not be mistaken for people who care about the likes of George Floyd. They should be seen and understood in the context of George Orwell.
For half a century the Left has been brainwashing us with a simple but devious message: "Peace with the Palestinians instead of war." Ignore the reality that the Arab and Muslim world, aided by the Soviet Union sought Israel's destruction, and still does. Peace now! It was a powerful drug that continues to numb our critical thinking.
Although enticing, however, peace campaigns were not about peace; they were about creating a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. The first stage was accomplished beginning in 1993 with the Oslo Accords, which established the Palestinian Authority run by the PLO, and the withdrawal of Israeli control from large sections of Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank") and eventually from the Gaza Strip. None of this brought peace, of course, but the opposite: waves of terrorism. Solemn commitments made by PLO leaders were meaningless, a subterfuge to advance their agenda to destroy Israel. Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups were clear and explicit. The guarantors, the European Union and UN, went along with the hoax.
The basic problem, however, remained: most of the international community considers any Israeli presence beyond the 1949 Armistice Lines to be "illegal" and a "violation of international law" – as they interpret it. Major organizations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, the designated authority of the Fourth Geneva Convention, an important basis for humanitarian law, declared Israel was "occupying Palestinian territory." The UN, the EU and of course the entire Arab and Muslim world agreed; the ICJ and ICC gave it their "judicial" support.
In order to "end the occupation," therefore, the only solution was for Israel to be removed from all of the areas conquered by the IDF in the 1967 Six Day War, withdrawing to the 1949 Armistice Lines. The issue of "peace," and Israel's security were irrelevant, and subject to the next phase.
Michael Doran: The War of Return What is the core of Palestinian-Israel conflict? Einat Wilf discusses.
We are hearing reports from Israeli officials and media that the PA is telling them it is against armed terror in response to Israel's expected application of Israeli law in parts of Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley. However, Palestinian Media Watch has been reporting that the PA messages to its people are openly promoting a terror campaign. Which of these two contradictory PA messages represents the current PA strategy?
The answer is that there is only one PA message and the problem is that Israeli leaders, the media and the international community have not mastered the Palestinian language – "Palestinese."
First, the signs and messages that the PA wants Palestinian terror to accompany the Israeli announcement are sent daily and in key places. The controlled official PA TV stations are broadcasting extreme terror promotion since the Israeli coalition agreement on April 20, promising annexation. The videos and language resemble the PA TV terror promotion during the PA terror campaign 2000 to 2005, in which over 1000 Israelis were murdered.
There have been calls for suicide bombings: "Strap on the explosive belt, Detonate the first in Haifa and the second in Atlit (both Israeli cities) ... Strap on the belt, O daughter of my land, and detonate it in front of the enemies. How sweet is the taste of Martyrdom, I have found none like it." This was broadcast on a PA TV station 4 times in the 2 weeks following the coalition agreement.
Other repeating messages on the PA TV stations make it clear that terror is exactly what the PA wants: "... This great people fights with daggers, knives and cannon shells... "
"Where is the Arab blood?... Allah is with us. He is stronger and greater than the Children of Zion… My red blood waters the greenery… We are the victors... My chest is a machine gun's magazine."
"By Allah, I will redeem Jerusalem with my children."
Latma 2020, Episode 12 Latma 2020, Episode 12, the last for this season: Mandelblit gets a new job perfectly suited to his talents, Story Time about a traffic signal that insisted on one direction only, and a Latino song to encourage those with doubts about the Deal of the Century. See you next season (God willing not before long).
Pessimisto- Latma sings to those who fear the sovreignty plan
Show me who you lie about and I'll tell you what you are. The big lie in this, our season of historical illiteracy and gratuitous destruction, is that the Jews are responsible for police killings of black Americans. How? The racist police of Amerikkka are trained by the Zionists.
That's right. America has no history of violence against blacks and no history of anti-black policing. In the new blood libel, America was one big interracial paradise before the Jews taught Derek Chauvin to put his knee on George Floyd's neck.
'Israel security forces are training American cops despite history of rights abuses,' tweeted Charlotte Greensit in 2017. Greensit, an editor at the left-conspiracist website the Intercept, was promoting a demi-literate promotion of this conspiracy theory by Alice Speri. Greensit is now the managing editor of the New York Times's opinion page. As she slithered up the greasy pole, Greensit deleted thousands of old tweets, this one included. But the snail-trail of slander is quite clear, and not at all new.
As soon as the Ferguson, Missouri protests began in August 2014, the slogan 'Ferguson is Palestine' appeared on the placards. When the Movement for Black Lives, a group affiliated with Black Lives Matter, promulgated a common platform in August 2016, its only foreign policy was that Israel must be shunned and destroyed as an 'apartheid state' that commits 'genocide' against the Palestinians. Another big lie.
In the same month, Amnesty USA claimed that 'hundreds' of American law enforcement officials from many states had received 'training on crowd control, use of force and surveillance' from Israel's 'national police, military and intelligence services'. That's not true.
Amnesty's claims are routinely cited as fact by the hard left and radical black identity groups. Its report and the libel it fosters have filtered into outlets as varied as the the British communist newspaper the Morning Star, the Washington Post and the website of the New York Review of Books.
Oh I don't know. I think lots people find it interesting that the New York Times should employ someone who pushes anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. But I can understand why you would pretend to find it yawn-some and want to move on. (@nytimes) https://t.co/XQ0a5BqUDL
The trouble with double-standards in the age of mass communication is that everybody can see them. Where once an individual, institution or movement might have hoped to conceal their hypocrisies, now they are there for everyone to witness. So it is with the case of Maxine Peake. This week, the actress made headlines because of an interview in which she alleged that the Israelis taught the US police how to kill George Floyd. The problem is that it is a lie. Even the far-Left, anti-Israel group Amnesty – widely alleged to be the source of the story – has denied that it is true. It is simple anti-Zionism reheated to suit the current moment.
So perhaps it isn't surprising that a Jeremy Corbyn protégée like Rebecca Long-Bailey should have retweeted the interview in which Peake made this claim. Apart from its racism, the interview included the standard actress stuff about the wonders of Corbynism and the importance of bringing down capitalism. They aren't fools, these actresses. They know that if there's one way that their profession will be reinvigorated, post-lockdown, it will be through the obliteration of the market economy. But Labour is now in new hands. And Keir Starmer swiftly sacked Long-Bailey. While his predecessor said there was no place for racism at the top of Labour, Starmer has done something to prove it.
But the question I want answered is: where is Equity, the actors' union? Earlier this year, after the actor Laurence Fox appeared on Question Time, the union (of which he is not even a member) denounced him. Fox's crime was to say that he didn't think Britain was a racist country. For this, Equity branded him a "disgrace". Actor after actor lined up to condemn him and lobby to make sure he never worked again. After Fox took legal action and forced an apology out of Equity, the entire "race equality committee" of the union resigned.
Perhaps this is why Equity have been so silent on Peake. Because there is no one left to do the full witch-dunking denunciation act. Or perhaps the silence is explained in another way. The same way that one might explain the silence of the actors and celebs who clambered over each other to denounce Fox. Could it be that most people in the acting and celebrity worlds are happy with someone who promotes conspiracy theories, so long as it is wrapped up in the fashionable idiot language of anti-capitalism and "equality"?
Labour's far-left Socialist Campaign Group of MPs met with Sir Keir Starmer today to express their opposition to the sacking of Rebecca Long-Bailey from the Shadow Cabinet after she shared an article containing an antisemitic trope baselessly linking Israel to the killing of George Floyd. Not only did they call for Ms Long-Bailey's punishment to be reversed, showing that they have learned nothing from this scandal, but they also revealed the extent of their obsession by then managing to spend the rest of the meeting discussing Israel.
Ms Long-Bailey was sacked for sharing an article in which the actress Maxine Peake claimed that Israel was to blame for the killing of Mr Floyd. Ms Peake is reported in The Independent to have said: "The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd's neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services." This is an antisemitic conspiracy theory, as it needlessly and baselessly injects the Jewish state into a matter that has nothing to do with it. Even Ms Peake was forced to admit it was untrue.
Numerous far-left outriders and MPs have tried to claim that casting the trope as antisemitic is to silence criticism of Israeli policy, despite there being no grounds at all for the conspiracy theory that kneeling on people's necks is an innovation of the Jewish state.
Jeremy Corbyn, the former Leader of the Labour Party, apparently urged Sir Keir in the meeting to take a tough line on Israeli policy and to meet the antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation, Jewish Voice for Labour, presumably in the hope that the group might persuade Sir Keir, contrary to the view of the mainstream Jewish community and elementary logic, that the conspiracy theory is not antisemitic.
It is extraordinary – but wholly unsurprising – that a meeting precipitated by the offensive injection of Israel into an unrelated matter is devoted to discussion of Israel.
Other far-left MPs have also weighed in on Ms Long-Bailey's behalf in the last two days.
Guido Talks #10 | Rebecca Gone Bailey, XR Goes Nuclear, and Tim Mart-win
The Israeli Health Ministry's latest data on Saturday evening showed 621 new recorded infections over the past 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 23,421 total, up from 22,800 on Friday evening. The number of active cases stood at 6,102, up from 5,614 on Friday, including 41 in serious condition, among them 23 on ventilators.
There were 55 people in moderate condition, with the rest experiencing only mild symptoms or none.
The death toll, meanwhile, climbed to 317 Saturday, up three from 314 Friday. This figured includes the 19-year-old young woman who died of COVID-19 at Hadassah-Ein Kerem Medical Center on Saturday, making her Israel's youngest victim of the disease.
The numbers appeared to continue the rising trend in infection rates, with recent days showing 400-500 new patients a day on average, numbers not seen since early April.
Figures from this week showed that 2,907 were infected over the past seven days, more than the number for all of May.
Also on Saturday, the Health Ministry reported a COVID-19 outbreak at a senior living home in the central city of Ramle that it attributes to health workers at the facility.
The governor of Bethlehem announced Saturday the temporary closure of the Palestinian city to contain the spread of coronavirus, after a sharp rise in infections in the West Bank.
The 48-hour closure will begin Monday from 6:00 a.m. (0300 GMT), governor Kamil Hmeid said in a statement.
The closure comes after the West Bank cities of Hebron and Nablus were closed last week for five days and 48 hours respectively. The two cities, alongside Bethlehem, have recorded a major spike in new coronavirus cases.
The Palestinian Authority health ministry announced 67 new cases of the COVID-19 respiratory illness on Saturday, of which 33 were in the Bethlehem district.
The total number of coronavirus cases in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem stands at 1,862. Of those, 1,237 are active cases with 11 people in serious condition, including two on ventilators, said PA Health Minister Mai al-Kaila, according to the official Wafa news agency.
Like the West Bank, Israel has also recorded a recent surge in coronavirus cases.
Bethlehem, where Christians believe Jesus Christ was born, was initially put into lockdown in March, after recording the first coronavirus case in the West Bank.
Schools were closed and non-essential travel and activities were banned that month, as part of the efforts to tackle the virus.
It was early March in Israel, and Rasool Saada was worried.
Saada, the Arab society lead at Maoz, an Israeli leadership network and incubator, was watching the number of COVID-19 cases in Israel creep up. And he was deeply concerned that the country's Arab population would be uniquely vulnerable to the spread of the disease.
It seemed the odds were stacked against the close to two million Arab citizens of Israel. In many ways, their situation mirrored that of the country's ultra-Orthodox: a mistrust of government orders — in particular from the military — tight, close-knit families in crowded neighborhoods and, for many, a disconnect from the regular stream of online updates.
But while Israel's haredi communities were hit hard by the coronavirus, Arab neighborhoods have emerged relatively unscathed from the pandemic — so far. That's due to a quick jump to action by community leaders, said Saada, 30, one of the key figures helping to fight the virus, who served as Maoz's Arab representative to Israel's National Coronavirus Command Center. There he worked alongside longtime bureaucrat Aiman Saif — a Maoz board member — who headed up the government's Arab COVID-19 response.
"Until the third week in March, the Israeli government, the Health Ministry, weren't speaking at all in Arabic," Saada, a longtime activist, told Jewish Insider in a recent interview. "And it's not just a language issue, it's also the content — they weren't speaking to the Arab society."
The coronavirus outbreak kicked into high gear in Israel shortly after the country's third national election, in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was often accused of using anti-Arab rhetoric. "There's a deep mistrust between the Arab society and Prime Minister Netanyahu," Saada said. "People [in Arab communities] won't believe what they hear from him, and they don't trust that he is coming to serve them." (h/t Zvi)
Fed. judge enjoins New York Gov. Cuomo and NYC Mayor de Blasio's COVID-19 orders restricting indoor religious activities to a greater degree than non-religious business activities. https://t.co/HoxnjMTy2Apic.twitter.com/tY7jKTOcaX
The Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio announced this week that due to Coronavirus restriction infractions by the Jewish community, Jews will be required to wear an identifying mark. The measure was an effort to allow the police to easily identify and stop Jews from doing anything that the State felt was detrimental to society in general.
When asked by reporters what he meant by "identifying mark" the mayor said that had no choice but to enact the measure, and had done careful research on the best way to do so. The mark would resemble a six-pointed Star of David but was actually supposed to represent the structure of the virus and would be made of reflective yellow material. It would be required by all New York citizens with at least one Jewish grandparent to wear the mark on the outside of the clothing, with the mayor saying, "if it was good enough for Israel, it's good enough for New York".
The mayor's office said that other communities were not being targeted because they were less susceptible to the virus due to superior genes and immune systems. His office also said that if Jews are to continue flouting restrictions then further restrictions will be considered such as confining Jews to a single area where "they can be better concentrated" in some sort of enclosure "like a camp."
Example: French President Emmanuel Macron says France will cooperate with Madagascar to find a solution for the Glorioso Islands, a tiny, uninhabited archipelago in the Indian Ocean which is disputed by the two countries....A joint commission on the issue will hold its first meeting next month.
Macron visited the Glorioso Islands Wednesday — a first for a French president. Located between the French overseas island of Mayotte and Madagascar, the islands used to be part of the French colonies.
Mayotte, moreover, is an overseas department and region of France, an integral part of France.
The five overseas departments and regions of France are:
French Guiana in South America; Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Caribbean;
Mayotte and Réunion in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of East Africa.
All those are a very, very long way from France.
Not only is this a lie and he is tweeting a link to a propaganda site, but he supports the "right of return" which means flooding the land with Palestinians thus destroying the State of Israel.
Oh yeah, and he and HRW took money to cover up treatment of LGBT in Suadi Arabia. https://t.co/azrialKVs6
From my interview on @WIONews (India) today, explaining why #annexation is the wrong term to apply to #Israel's proposed actions in the West Bank, and the correct terminology is 'Applying Israeli Sovereignty.'
I don't buy these empty threats from the PA. Because they also know that Hamas would roll them over in 48 hours if that happened. https://t.co/GsLgZYxKVu
9. In 2000, the UNHRC appointed Jean Ziegler, one of the world's most industrious anti-Western ideologues & apologists for rogue regimes—including Libya's Qaddafi, Zimbabwe's Mugabe & Cuba's Fidel Castro—as its world monitor on "the right to food."
The United Nations on Friday said it was investigating a video that emerged online of what appeared to be a sexual act taking place in an official UN vehicle in Tel Aviv.
In the 18-second video, a woman in a red dress is seen straddling a man in the back seat of clearly marked white UN vehicle. Another man appears to be asleep in the passenger seat. The clip was shared widely on social media on Friday.
A UN spokesperson told The Times of Israel that the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services was "moving very quickly" on an investigation into the incident, and that it had nearly identified the individuals in the clip.
"We are shocked and deeply disturbed by what is seen on the video," said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. "The behavior seen in it is abhorrent and goes against everything that we stand for and having been working to achieve in terms of fighting misconduct by UN staff."
The Israeli Air Force struck Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip after two rockets were fired towards southern Israel on Friday night, just days after Hamas warned against Jerusalem's intentions to annex parts of the West Bank and Jordan Valley.
IAF jets struck a rocket manufacturing workshop and a weapons manufacturing facility belonging to Hamas in the coastal enclave, strikes which "will impede the Hamas terror organization's future capabilities," the IDF said in a statement.
Earlier in the evening, the Israeli military confirmed that the two rockets were fired towards Israeli territory and according to Adi Me'eri, the spokesperson of the Shaare HaNegev regional council, one rocket fell in open territory causing no damage or injuries.
The other one is believed to have fallen inside the Gaza Strip.
Incoming rocket sirens sounded in the Sha'ar Hanegev communities of Nir Am, Gavi'im and the area of Sapir College around 9 p.m.
"The IDF views any kind of terror activity aimed at Israel with great severity and will continue operating as necessary against attempts to harm Israeli civilians," the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said, adding that Hamas will "bear the consequences" for all attacks against Israel.
On Thursday Hamas warned that Israel's plans to extend sovereignty over parts of the West Bank would be akin to a declaration of war.
"This wretched decision and plan, we'll not talk at length, but say it shortly and clearly – the resistance considers the decision as a declaration of war on the Palestinian people," said the spokesman of the Izz al-Deen al-Qassam Brigade, the armed wing of Hamas. "The resistance is ready to protect its people and its holy places."
Israeli Air Force striking #Hamas terror targets in #Gaza in response to firing rockets at our civilians.
The Hamas terror group on Saturday said that a series of IDF strikes in response to the firing of two rockets at Israel a day earlier "increases our resolve to deal with the annexation plan."
"Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip tonight is an extension of the aggression against Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank. It will only increase our resolve to deal with the West Bank annexation plan," the organization which rules the Gaza Strip said in a statement.
Palestinians in Gaza fired two rockets at Israel on Friday evening, the military said. The rockets apparently fell in open areas and there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
One rocket landed in an open area in the Sha'ar Hanegev region, while the second apparently fell within the Strip.
The IDF said in a statement that it had carried out retaliatory airstrikes in response to the rocket fire.
"During the strike, a rocket manufacturing workshop and a weapons manufacturing facility belonging to the Hamas terror organization were struck. This strike will impede the Hamas terror organization's future abilities," the IDF statement said. "The IDF views any kind of terror activity aimed at Israel with great severity and will continue operating as necessary against attempts to harm Israeli civilians."
The IDF said it holds Hamas responsible for all events in the Strip and emanating from the territory, and that the terror group would "bear the consequences" for attacks against Israel.
The Hamburg-based magazine Der Spiegel last week was catapulted into a fresh anti-Israel scandal when it published an article allegedly blaming the Israeli police for shooting a Palestinian terrorist.
The title of the Spiegel article read: "Israeli soldiers shoot Palestinian at border crossing."
A video showed the alleged Palestinian terrorist Ahmad Mustafa Erekat ramming his car into Israeli soldiers. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Erekat "drove his vehicle quickly towards the direction of a female border police officer who was injured lightly."
When asked if the headline is anti-Israel, Anja zum Hingst, a Spiegel spokeswoman, told The Jerusalem Post that "no, in this case Spiegel took over a news story from AFP news agency, as clearly shown under the post which is recognizable. It is based on official Israeli information."
When pressed by the Post if Spiegel plans to correct the headline, zum Hingst said "the first sentence of the lead says that the Palestinian quickly approached an official." She added that "the report is based on official Israeli information. Of course we don't see anything anti-Israel or antisemitic in this."
Hmmm... ok, you post a video that contradicts your words. Let me see who you are. Oh, you are a Human Rights Monitor organization. Ok. You say your head is Dr. Ramy Abdul. Hmm, who is he? Let me check. Assistant professor of law and finance, a founder of two NGOs. Ok. https://t.co/4zO5BFYIzdpic.twitter.com/tVakfoKVKE
A large group of bipartisan lawmakers from both chambers of Congress sent a letter to the Delegation of the European Union to the United States on Friday, urging the EU to designate the entirety of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) led the letter in the Senate, and Representatives Lee Zeldin (R-NY) and Ted Deutch (D-FL) spearheaded the effort in the House. Twenty-six additional members of both chambers joined the letter, including senior senators such as Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Ben Cardin (D-MD).
"The United States remains dedicated to combating global terrorism and its enablers, and we encourage our allies and partners to join in this effort. To build on these efforts, we strongly urge the EU to designate the entirety of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization," the letter reads.
The lawmakers commended Germany's April 30 designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, and Austria's efforts with a similar proposed resolution.
"In addition to the United States, Canada, the Gulf Cooperation Council, and the Arab League, as well as several other individual countries, have taken this step," they wrote. "We also continue to welcome action by individual member states to enact a formal terror designation of Hezbollah in its entirety and ban its activities within their borders." they wrote.
There is decades-old bipartisan consensus in DC - across Hill, NSC/State/DOD, & think tanks - that it's in US's interest to pour 100s of millions of dollars into Lebanon. When you point out the country's a Hezbollah-controlled basketcase, folks say that's the point!
Nothing will stop Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, so Israel must work on a menacing deterrent capability to keep the Islamic Republic in check even beyond its eventual attainment of them, former Mossad director Shabtai Shavit has told The Jerusalem Post.
Speaking to the Post about the English version of his book Head of the Mossad (University of Notre Dame Press), which will be out in stores in September, Shavit covered a wide range of other issues, including annexation, cooperation with the CIA, US-China quantum technology competition and counterintelligence.
In the book, he describes how he knows the Iranian people up close from living in Iran in the mid-1960s for 30 months, and from how he cooperated with Iranian intelligence (pre-Islamic Republic) while in Kurdistan in 1973.
Regarding Iran, he said, "I speak as an intelligence man and not as a politician. My starting point – an intelligence officer cannot make assumptions – is to be ready for the worst-case scenario, that down the road they'll develop nuclear weapons."
"They are an empire, and they think of themselves as an empire. They believe they will bring light to the nations. They look down on Arabs. They never forgave the Arab conquest and that Arabic was forced on them" and all of the actions to erase their Persian heritage.
Shavit explained further that even as the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War had no victor, Iraq clearly did better, and then-Iranian supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini said ending the war was "like drinking poison."
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force leader Esmail Ghaani recently visited Syria where he threatened Israel and the US, according to Iranian reports.
He went to the border city Al-Bukamal, which is in Syria on the Euphrates river across from Iraq. This is a key area for Iranian weapons trafficking and home to the Imam Ali base. Iran moves precision guided munitions and other weapons through this area and has a network of pro-Iranian militias between Al-Bukamal and Deir Ezzor, a corridor of Iranian influence.
Ghaani said that Iran would continue to fight the "Zionist regime" and the US, and said the US and Israel were supporting ISIS.
Ghaani was appointed after the US killed IRGC Quds Force head Qasem Soleimani in January. He is known for his expertise on Afghanistan and has had a rocky relationship with pro-Iranian groups in Iraq and elsewhere. He doesn't have the clout that Soleimani has but he is trying to show he can make the same clandestine trips that Soleimani was known for.
In Al-Bukamal he visited a prayer room and posed for photos, two of which were circulated online. The report about his trip was initially published by Tasnim News in Iran, which is close to the IRGC. However, they then deleted the report. It was too late to hide it, though, because dozens of Farsi media had picked it up. The reports name was "US-Zionist conspiracies are not complete."
Alam TV noted that Ghaani had a "message for the US and Israel." Russia's Sputnik headlined their report "from inside Syria." Rasa News reported the same visit with photos.
An explosion that rattled Iran's capital came from an area in its eastern mountains that analysts believe hides an underground tunnel system and missile production sites, satellite photographs showed Saturday.
What exploded in the incident early Friday that sent a massive fireball into the sky near Tehran remains unclear, as does the cause of the blast. The Fars news agency, which is close to the country's ultra-conservatives, initially reported that the blast was caused by "an industrial gas tank explosion" near a facility belonging to the defense ministry. It cited an "informed source" and said the site of the incident was not related to the military.
The unusual response of the Iranian government in the aftermath of the explosion, however, underscores the sensitive nature of an area near where international inspectors believe the Islamic Republic conducted high-explosive tests two decades ago for nuclear weapon triggers.
The blast shook homes, rattled windows and lit up the horizon early Friday in the Alborz Mountains. State TV later aired a segment from what it described as the site of the blast.
One of its journalists stood in front of what appeared to be large, blackened gas cylinders, though the camera remained tightly focused and did not show anything else around the site. Defense Ministry spokesman Davood Abdi blamed the blast on a leaking gas he did not identify and said no one was killed in the explosion.
Satellite photos show an explosion that rattled Iran's capital came from an area in its eastern mountains that analysts believe hides an underground tunnel system and missile production sites. https://t.co/mp39IK2hht
France said on Friday it would download the black boxes from a Ukrainian airliner downed by an Iranian missile in January, easing a stand-off over where they should be read.
France's BEA crash investigation agency said it was acting at the request of Iran, which remains responsible under global rules for conducting a formal accident probe after acknowledging that the Boeing 737 was downed by its forces.
The Ukraine International Airlines flight was shot down on Jan. 8 by an Iranian ground-to-air missile, killing 176 people in what Tehran termed a "disastrous mistake" at a time of heightened tensions with the United States.
Work on repairing and downloading the cockpit voice and data recorders will begin on July 20, the BEA said.
Aviation authorities in Canada, 57 of whose citizens died on board, said they would send a team to Paris to participate.
Iran's envoy to the United Nations aviation agency told Reuters earlier this month that the country's Air Accident Investigation Board had asked the BEA to read the black boxes, though this was followed by conflicting ministerial statements.
A Danish court on Friday sentenced a Norwegian citizen to seven years in jail after finding him guilty of spying for an Iranian intelligence service and of complicity in a suspected plot to kill an Iranian Arab opposition figure in Denmark.
The 40-year-old Norwegian man, who has Iranian heritage, was arrested in October 2018 after a major police operation in which Denmark temporarily closed its international borders. The court did not give the man's name.
For several days in late September that year, the Norwegian had observed and taken photos of the home of an Iranian exile in Denmark, as well as the streets and roads surrounding the home, Roskilde District Court said in a statement.
"The court found that the information was collected and passed on to a person working for an Iranian intelligence service, for use by the intelligence service's plans to kill the exile," the court said.
The defendant was sentenced to seven years in prison and permanent expulsion from the country, public broadcaster DR reported. It was not immediately clear whether he would first have to serve all or part of the sentence before being expelled.
The defendant, who has denied all charges, immediately appealed against the verdict, DR said.
Says guy who literally massacred like 1,500 people last year for protesting for their basic rights and dignity in Iran! https://t.co/o9CSOGBfmg
The Pomona College senior class president has received little condemnation for reposting a vulgar, anti-Semitic Instagram story claiming Jewish people "hate brown [people]" and "worship" World War II. She also compared the war in Yemen to the Holocaust.
Malak Afaneh, a rising Pomona senior and the class president, also compared the war in Yemen to the Holocaust. "Once again, zionist-israel-birth-right-vacation-stuck-on-comparing-holocaust-to-racism-WW2-worshipping bitches, this should be right up ur alley. oh wait u hate brown ppl," the post read. Afaneh reposted the anti-Semitic picture, saying the post "put into words all I've been thinking."
In a letter to Claremont Colleges community leaders, Afaneh apologized for the anti-Semitic comments and claims she meant to endorse another post.
"When I wrote that my friend 'put into words what I was thinking,' I was referring to the original tweet highlighting the lack of global responses to the atrocities in Yemen," Afaneh wrote. "In hindsight, I now realize that my friend didn't write the tweet, but rather the anti-semetic [sic] comments below. In my haste to repost her story, I truly didn't mean to amplify the hurtful comments." Afaneh did not respond to request for comment.
The campus has been generous in its response to Afaneh's post. The director of Pomona College Hillel, Rabbi Danny Shapiro, told the Washington Free Beacon that he was more concerned that Afaneh could be "harassed" than he was about the post itself. He said Afaneh's apology was meaningful and satisfactory.
"No student should be shamed and threatened for a lapse in judgment," Shapiro said. "Though we were deeply hurt by the recent anti-Semitic post … we have heard a meaningful apology from this individual."
Pomona College praised Afaneh's response to criticism in the wake of the episode.
Courts in Spain's third-largest city voided the resolutions of two municipalities that had declared their adherence to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.
The 2nd Administrative Appeals Court of Valencia last week nullified the 2016 resolution by Vinalesa, a nearby town of about 4,000 residents, following a lawsuit by the pro-Israel group ACOM. The resolution stated that Vinalesa was a zone "free of Israeli apartheid" and a partner of the local BDS movement.
The judge ruled that the resolution was "a form of incitement to hatred or discrimination according to ethnicity or nationality" and thus contradicts the Spanish Constitution.
The Vinalesa ruling follows a recent one by the 3rd Administrative Court of Valencia, which voided a 2018 resolution by the municipality of that large port city declaring it a part of the BDS movement. The Valencia ruling also cited discrimination.
ACOM lawsuits have resulted in more than 60 nullifications of BDS resolutions by Spanish municipalities either by injunction or by forcing the municipalities to scrap the resolutions in question.
This, highlighted, is @NYMag engaging in flagrant, ugly Holocaust inversion.
And it may be that the author Eric Levitz's grandmother was a Holocaust survivor, but confounding of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Nazi genocide of Jews amounts to Holocaust revisionism. pic.twitter.com/JlEeiF7Fvs
The Dutch national rail company said it would pay 5 million euros, or $5.6 million, to Holocaust commemoration institutions, including the museums at three former concentration camps, Westerbork, Vught and Amersfoort.
Dutch Jews said the offer is disappointingly low and urged the company, NS, to reconsider.
NS allocated more than $40 million last year toward compensating survivors. It has also spent millions of dollars on Holocaust commemoration projects.
But the World Jewish Restitution Organization, or WJRO, and the Central Jewish Board of Dutch Jewish organizations said in a joint statement Friday that NS should also offer compensation directly to the families of the Jews it transported to their deaths. It is estimated that NS sent 102,000 Jews to be murdered during the Holocaust.
"Instead of working together with the Jewish community to acknowledge the past and provide a 'collective expression of recognition,' NS has chosen once again to act with disregard to the Jewish community that was devastated by NS's actions during the Holocaust. We urge NS to reconsider," Eddo Verdoner, president of the Central Jewish Board, wrote in a statement about his organization's meeting with the chief executive officer of NS, Roger van Boxtel.
"It is a shame that NS has chosen not to take this opportunity" to address the subject, said Gideon Taylor, WJRO's chair of operations.
Israel's latest hit TV series takes the viewers straight into the heart of the country's archenemy Iran.
"Tehran" tells the story of Tamar Rabinyan, a young Mossad operative tasked with hacking into and disabling an Iranian nuclear reactor so the Israeli military can carry out an airstrike. But when the mission goes wrong, the agent goes rogue, falls in love with a local pro-democracy activist and rediscovers her Iranian roots in the city of her birth.
It's a story arc that touches on many of the region's most pressing fault lines. It's also the latest episode in the golden age of Israeli television.
After numerous Israeli shows inspired American spin-offs such as "Homeland," "Hostages" and "In Treatment," Netflix went a step further by running " Fauda," the groundbreaking action series on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in its original Hebrew-Arabic form with subtitles.
"Tehran" marks the next stage, with Apple TV+ purchasing the rights to the eight-part series and signing on to co-produce its international streaming. The espionage thriller, with dialogue in Hebrew, English and Farsi, premiered on June 22 in Israel. It's looking to take a page out of the "Fauda" success story, mixing fast-pace action scenes with topical political intrigue and personal backstories that touch on the chaotic nature of the region.
"Although it's a very entertaining show and it has a lot of action, there are a lot of layers," said Dana Eden, one of the show's creators. "We just thought it's very interesting to try to get into Tehran, into Iran, which is a place we really don't know and really want to know more about."
Israel considers Iran to be its most dangerous foe, citing its calls for Israel's destruction, its development of sophisticated missiles and support for anti-Israel militias in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Lebanese group Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy, and Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, all of whom receive funds, weapons, and other forms of support, are considered terror organizations.
A newborn son of Syrian refugees living in Cyprus recently underwent medical treatment in Israel for a severe heart defect.
Baby Usayed was taken to Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan to undergo an emergency operation, after receiving special permission from the authorities.
The diplomatic operation was the result of a cooperative effort between the Israeli embassy in Nicosia, the Cypriot Health Ministry and Cypriot and Israeli doctors.
The baby's father, Ahmad, said they were told that their son needed specialist treatment that could not be provided in Cyprus and so he and his child found themselves in a place he never imagined he would see.
"I don't care about the relations between Israel and Syria," he said. "My problem isn't political or religious, it's a health problem.
"My son's life is the most important thing in the world to me. I said right away I will go to Israel if needed, I will go anywhere."
The baby would not have survived more than a month without the surgery, said Prof. Alain Serraf, the head of Sheba's Congential Heart Center, who operated on the child.
Israel's envoy to Cyprus Sami Rabel prayed for Usayed's speedy recovery.
"Solidarity during the coronavirus epidemic and the special bond between Israel and Cyprus, granted the special permission for the baby to operated at Sheba Medical Center," he said.
Israeli medics have a long history of treating critically ill children from hostile countries.
The Save a Child's Heart non-profit organization, which is funded mostly by private donors with some contributions from governments, has performed surgery on nearly 5,000 children since it was started about two decades ago.
#MichelBacos, a true hero and righteous person, died last year in France, age 95. As per his request, Hatikvah, the Israeli anthem, was played at his funeral. May Michel's memory, courage and basic humanity, always be an inspiration!https://t.co/TEkWegr6o9https://t.co/29I9uIFBDk
Lieutenant John L. Withers Sr. knew he was breaking military rules but did so anyway.
He took in two young Jewish Polish Holocaust survivors just after the end of World War II in 1945. The pair had been in Dachau and other Nazi concentration camps. The two arrived in Dachau two or three days before the Americans got there to liberate it.
They came to live and work in an all-black US Army truck company that Withers Sr. commanded. He could have faced dishonorable discharge from the army had it learned of it. Hiding refugees was obviously against military orders.
This story is told in John L. Withers II's new book about his father, titled "Balm in Gilead: A Story from the War." The biblical reference from Jeremiah is used in a line from a slave song, about whether spiritually "there is a balm in Gilead, to make the wounded whole."
The publication of the book coincided with the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Dachau.
Withers Sr. did not resemble the action heroes one sees in movies, his son said.
"My father was 120 lbs and was 5'4" tall," Withers II told The Algemeiner. "He never lost his sense of compassion."
The pair of young Holocaust survivors were given nicknames "Peewee" (Mieczyslaw) and "Salomon" (Shlomo). Peewee and Salomon were skin and bones.
"They were emaciated, pale, and covered with sores. They grabbed my father around the knees weeping, asking for them to be taken in," Withers II said.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
The silence of the Jews of America in the face of rising anti-Semitism is stunning.
Over the Shavuot festival on May 30, members of Black Lives Matter, (BLM) carried out a pogrom in Fairfax, the oldest Jewish community in Los Angeles, largely populated today by ultra-Orthodox Jews. They vandalized five synagogues and three Jewish schools. Most of the Jewish businesses on Fairfax Avenue were looted.
As Daniel Greenfield reported at Frontpage, Allyson Rowen Taylor, a co-founder of StandWithUs shared an account of the riots in which they chanted, "F**k the police and kill the Jews."
Aryeh Rosenfeld, whose store was looted, told the Jerusalem Post that when he came to defend his store there were people driving through the streets screaming, "effing Jews," at the Jewish store owners.
Greenfield revealed that the Jews were not incidental victims in a larger night of "anti-racist" rioting by BLM. BLM in Los Angeles is led by outspoken anti-Semites with intimate ties to the virulently anti-Semitic Nation of Islam.
Over the past several years both the BLM-Los Angeles head Melina Abdullah and her daughter Thandiwe Abdullah, who is the co-founder of the BLM Youth Vanguard, have racked up long records of anti-Semitic rants and fawning praise for Nation of Islam leader Farrakhan. Farrakhan who has praised Hitler, recently called Jews "termites," and obsessively rails against Judaism and Jews.
As its charter makes clear, BLM itself is structurally anti-Semitic.
While accusing Israel of committing "genocide," BLM blames Israel for the US war against militant Islam. Its charter states, "The US justifies and advances the global war on terror via its alliance with Israel and is complicit in the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people."
According to the BLM charter, US military aid to Israel is the foundation of America's problems. Because of US military aid to Israel, BLM alleges, "Every year billions of dollars are funneled from US taxpayers to hundreds of arms corporations, who then wage lobbying campaigns pushing for even more foreign military aid. The results of this policy are twofold: it not only diverts much needed funding from domestic education and social programs, but it makes US citizens complicit in the abuses committed by the Israeli government."
In other words, Israel is the root of America's troubles at home and abroad.
The charter accuses Israel of being an "apartheid state," and supports the anti-Semitic boycott, sanctions and divestment campaign against Israel. It calls for local, state and federal action against Israel. Among other things, BLM demands that the US military budget be cut by 50%, "which will lead to the closure of over 800 US military bases in the US and around the world, and the elimination of the sale of weaponry to violators of human rights, reduces the use and stockpiling of nuclear weapons and return all troops back from the current theaters of war."
So for BLM, anti-Semitism isn't a bug. It is a feature. Hatred of Israel and the Jews is part of its DNA.
How about we depict him as a member of the most persecuted race that has ever walked the earth? That should satisfy everyone. https://t.co/umbr90ptZ4
The Labour Party leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has sacked the party's shadow education secretary, Rebecca Long-Bailey, for tweeting a link to an interview in which actress Maxine Peake gave vent to an antisemitic conspiracy theory.
Peake repeated the baseless claim that has been bouncing round the internet that the tactics used by American police on George Floyd, who died under the knee of a police officer pinning him down, were "learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services".
This is a malevolent falsehood. As the Israeli police have said: "There is no tactic or protocol that calls to put pressure on the neck or airway".
The original source of the claim, which has been repeated in recent weeks by Palestinian activists and supporters, was a 2016 article by the viciously anti-Israel Amnesty International which accused Israel of training US police forces in abuses of human rights.
Israel certainly trains foreign specialist officers in counter-terrorism, but that's very different from training ordinary police officers. Bryan Leib, former national director of the Americans Against Antisemitism watchdog, called these allegations "disgusting and completely false".
"It's true that special operations teams in local and state law enforcement like SWAT do train with Israel but the average police officer has never received training from Israel!"
Long-Bailey's sacking by Starmer marks a decisive and welcome change from the extreme reluctance by his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, to take condign action against the antisemitism that has engulfed his party.
Starmer's office said today he had made it his first priority to deal with this. Good for him. However, the scale of the challenge he faces has been demonstrated by the reaction from within his ranks.
The smears, lies, fear and intimidation of the hard-left. A Statement:
Those who read this blog or follow me on Twitter or Facebook are well aware that I am used to being harassed and abused online. To be honest, given what I do, there is a certain expectation of a response. But fighting these people is no war of words. My website has been hacked, I have been physically assaulted twice (1,2) and I have lost count of the number of times my social media accounts have been attacked or cloned. None of this has worked to silence me, nor will it, so this week they turned to doxing my children. The twisted desperate action of the weak minded and morally lost.
There were two blogs published independently. I won't link to them here. Both follow exactly the same formula. They are full of empty smears and are written by people who know that they are spinning lies. You can see by the desperate links they try to build. They are trying to get people to hate and fear me by painting me as a rabid, far-right extremist with ties to Britain's first, the EDL and neo-Nazis. To set me up as a legitimate target for attack.
Intimidation and images of minors It wasn't the words however that was different this time. It was the photographs they had included. In the first there was an image of my son. He is still a minor now but was just twelve when the photo was taken. Who puts an image of the target's child into an article of hate?
The second attempt at intimidation was even more insidious. A worthless, rambling, conspiratorial article which used my inactive membership of a Facebook group with 24,000 members to label me a hard-core extremist. The person who wrote this should seek urgent help.
Inside the piece was an image of my daughter. I think the photo is from 2017, so my daughter was 15 and also a minor at the time. On this occassion the author took a Facebook post I had published without an image (I don't upload images of my children for obvious reasons) and deliberately edited it. She photoshopped onto the post an image she had of me and my daughter at an event, to make it look as if she was just sharing a genuine Facebook post of mine.
It is unlikely to be a coincidence they were published within days of each other. Both these smear articles contain images of minors and both have been shared online by an ex-Corbynite MP with 50,000+ followers.
Both of these incidents are now with the CST and the Police.
Anti-Israel rhetoric is antisemitic. But intersectionality constructs an arena where antisemitism can thrive behind the veil of supposed social justice. Because the rhetorical flaws of intersectionality erase social and historical nuance it also feeds the tribalized discourse that America has fallen prey to. Particularly among liberal circles, the Jewish self-determination has been irresponsibly translated into a narrative of Jewish oppression, and colonialism — a gross misrepresentation. But I am not writing to address those inaccurate accusations against Israel.
I'm writing to discuss how I can negotiate the contradiction of supporting the BLM movement, while recognizing how it is often misused to disseminate false information about Israel. In tribalist fashion, do I abandon my support of BLM because its surrounding discourse has perpetuated anti-Zionism (and antisemitism)?
No, I don't, because I won't abandon my Black American brothers and sisters in their cause. Nevertheless, in the spirit of honesty and self-examination, that I hope becomes the zeitgeist of our time, I look at the parallels that are drawn between Black Americans and Palestinians, despite their inaccuracies, and try to learn something:
In Israel, is the Palestinian/Israeli dynamic one in which Palestinians experience racism? Do Israelis view the Palestinian individual as a threat? In the Palestinian territories, anti-Jewish/Israeli hatred is academically and systemically indoctrinated. Martyrdom is encouraged and glorified. Palestinians have consistently launched or attempted to launch terror attacks against Israelis, including via rocket fire, suicide/homicide bombings, car rammings and stabbings. As such, Israel must constantly identify and subdue legitimate and violent threats from Palestinians, while still not succumbing to stereotyping and racism. Does Israel always succeed with this balance? I hope so. But I don't know.
I do know, however, that Israeli/Palestinian conflict was not engendered from Israeli racism and colonialism, as BDS asserts. The situation, including Palestinian suffering, was borne from a complex historical reality too long to describe here. But in addition to Israel's involvement, the Palestinian leadership has greatly contributed to the challenges both groups face by exploiting its own people and rejecting multiple opportunities for peace and economic betterment.
Still, to eradicate racism, should Jews look inwardly and question if they view Palestinian bodies differently than they view Jewish and Israeli bodies? Yes, absolutely. That type of self-examination is a constructive result of paralleling Black Americans and Palestinians. But that is where the constructive nature of it ends.
Actress Maxine Peake gave an interview with the Independent in which she claimed: "The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd's neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services." Peake's bizarre claim originates in a Morning Star piece from June 1 headlined: "Minnesota cops 'trained by Israeli forces in restraint techniques.'" The newspaper was founded by the Communist Party of Great Britain.
The piece seems to be solely based on a short article on Minnesota Public Radio, which noted that 100 officers attended a conference hosted by the Israeli consulate eight years ago. The conference was not about policing or restraint techniques though, but was instead focused on counter-terrorism and mainly looked at techniques to prevent terrorist acts, such as suicide bombings. None of this appeared to trouble Shadow Education Minister Rebecca Long-Bailey though, who glowingly re-tweeted the interview.
Ami Horowitz: Does the Black Community Support Abolishing the Police?
We go to the Leftist East Village as well as Harlem and ask residents their opinions on abolishing the police.
A statue that is seen as commemorating the suffering of slaves was vandalized inside a Jewish cemetery near the Dutch capital.
Orange paint was splashed on the statue titled "Elieser" on Wednesday at the Beth Haim Portuguese cemetery in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, the oldest Jewish burial site in the Netherlands. The letters WLM, possibly an acronym for "white lives matter," were written in orange, the Dutch national color.
Police are looking for two white men in their 20s with short hair who were seen near the statue shortly before the incident.
The statue is of "the good slave Elieser," who is believed to have been brought over to the Netherlands in 1610 by his Jewish master, Paulo de Pina, who fled the Inquisition in Portugal.
Elieser was converted to Judaism at some point and buried in 1629 alongside some of the richest and most prominent members of the Portuguese Jewish community of the time. He became part and parcel of the de Pina family, according to Lydia Hagoort, a historian who researched his story.
The unusual case of Elieser, one of several slaves buried at the cemetery, made his grave an icon for Dutch people with origins in Suriname, a former colony in South America where many slaves from Africa had worked. Dozens visit his grave each year.
In 2015, a statue of Elieser was inaugurated at the Jewish cemetery with help from the Opo Kondreman organization, which commemorates the victims of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
The statue of Nancy Astor in Plymouth has apparently been spray-painted with the word "Nazi" and a circle with three arrows, an Antifa symbol.
Lady Astor was the first female to take a seat in the House of Commons, and a crowdfunded statue was unveiled last November outside Lady Astor's home by former Prime Minister Theresa May to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Lady Astor's election.
While Lady Astor was a trailblazer for women's rights and participation in politics, as well as other reforms, she also held deeply intolerant opinions, including antisemitic views, for example reportedly telling a Jewish MP that "only a Jew like you would dare to be rude to me." She was also a supporter of appeasement and is said to have indicated sympathy for the Nazis prior to the Second World War.
The vandalism comes at a time of scrutiny of historical monuments and statues, particularly of those believed to have held racist views or profited from racist practices or businesses.
At the time of the unveiling of the statue of Lady Astor, a spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: "Nancy Astor was a trailblazer for women in politics, and in that respect it is fitting that her statue was unveiled by our second woman Prime Minister. However, Lady Astor also held appalling views on Jews and Nazi Germany. Therefore it is vital that context should be provided for passersby about not only her achievements but also her virulent antisemitism. Hopefully that will serve as a lesson that in our time we must not sacrifice our solidarity with a minority community for other priorities, however worthwhile."
NEW: Alicia Garza, one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter national org, names cop-killer Assata Shakur as one of her heroes. And Thousand Currents — which handles the intake of BLM donations — has a convicted terrorist on its board.@DCExaminerhttps://t.co/lDb5ZaERuD
Rebecca Long-Bailey has lost her job as Shadow Education Secretary because she tweeted her support for an interview by the actor Maxine Peake, in which Peake said that "The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd's neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services" The implication was obvious: that Israel is somehow partly, if not fully, being held responsible for the death of George Floyd. The claim is as outrageous as it is dangerous, taking the issue of systemic anti-black racism in the United States and laying it at the door of Israel, and Labour Party leader Keir Starmer correctly identified it as an "antisemitic conspiracy theory".
It's a classic conspiracy theory, insofar as it takes two totally unrelated events, in this case the killing of George Floyd and the relationship between American and Israeli police, and tries to link them. This is how antisemitism works: at its heart antisemitism is a constant striving to place Jews and/or Israel at the centre of all that is wrong in the world, be it wars, economic downturns, terror attacks or in this case the murder of a black man at the hands of American police. Even something as enormous as racism in America, and as specific and long-standing as American policing of minorities, gets twisted to fit this conspiracy thinking.
This antisemitic conspiracism is not isolated to one particular ideology and can take root at both extremes of the political spectrum. Activists and ideas from the far right and the far left have often found themselves occupying the same spaces. This was evidenced in CST's report with Hope Note Hate that exposed The Keep Talking Group, an antisemitic conspiracy group that brought together neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers with former Labour Party members and trades unionists, united by a common belief that everything in the world can be explained through conspiracy theories, and that Jews, or Israel, are usually to blame somewhere in the mix.
The death of George Floyd has sparked a flurry of articles that have been quick to highlight the relationship between American and Israeli police. Many of these have come from pro-Palestinian as well as left wing media outlets. Below are just two examples from Middle East Eye and the Morning Star:
Rebecca Long-Bailey was sacked for sharing an article in which the actress Maxine Peake claimed that Israel was to blame for the racist killing of George Floyd. Ms Peake is reported in The Independent to have said: "The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd's neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services."
Some people are wondering why this claim is antisemitic.
The idea that American police officers learned the techniques that caused Mr Floyd's death from their Israeli counterparts is popular on the far-left. Sometimes reference has even been made to an Amnesty USA article that some, including the rapper Lowkey, the columnist Owen Jones, Novara Media's Aaron Bastani and the expelled Labour member and antisemite Jackie Walker, understood to be evidencing the theory. In its interview with Ms Peake, The Independent also referenced the article, but mistakenly attributed it to Amnesty International.
However, not only did the Amnesty USA article not say that American police forces had learned specific policing techniques from Israel — merely that American police train with Israeli police, as police forces across the world do — but Amnesty International released a statement explicitly denying any linkage between Israel the death of Mr Floyd, saying that "the precise nature of the training offered to US police forces by Israeli officials is not something we've documented. Allegations that US police were taught tactics of 'neck kneeling' by Israeli secret services is not something we've ever reported and the article in question has rightly been amended to acknowledge that."
The architect of the bilateral training programmes between American and Israeli police forces has also rejected the theory as "not only false, but dangerous," elaborating to say: "Despite suggestions to the contrary, there is no field training involved in either the conferences or trips, and no training on holds or arrest mechanics. The exchanges, which are hosted by the Israel National Police, focus on effective techniques in thwarting terrorism. Participants learn how Israeli law enforcement deters, disrupts, and responds to terrorist attacks. They explore the ideology of suicide bombers and other attackers, ways to de-escalate an ongoing incident, and the intelligence-gathering and -sharing process."
The theory is, therefore, without evidence, and accordingly a conspiracy.
FYI - The original 2016 anti-Israel @amnesty article about police training - was written by Edith Garwood.
Garwood is a long time member of Palestine live and hangs out with rabid antisemites.
I encourage you to read @schraubd's short post on the anti-Semitic myth that Israel somehow taught police to kill George Floyd, and how it works—by casting Israeli Jews as corrupting anyone they come in contact with like a virus. This is how racists talk. https://t.co/2iFIWpOmvw
— (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) June 26, 2020
Tahir Ali, a new Labour MP, has become the second last of all sitting MPs to sign up to the International Definition of Antisemitism, according to the All Party Group Against Antisemitism, which organised the campaign. But he reportedly only did so in the presence of the Opposition Chief Whip, which suggests the Labour Party may have placed him under significant pressure.
Mr Ali was recently discovered to have been a member of a Facebook group backing Rebecca Long-Bailey for the leadership of the Labour Party – a group replete with antisemitic material.
Mr Ali's signature means that of all the sitting MPs only Labour's Grahame Morris has declined to sign the Definition.
Sinn Fein's seven MPs have also not signed up, but they do not take their seats in Parliament.
Signing up to the Definition is an important first step in tackling antisemitism, however the Definition must now be used and appropriate policies adopted and implemented by all public bodies, local authorities and universities in order to combat anti-Jewish hatred.
The leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has retweeted a video referencing a 'New World Order' and the Rothschilds, two tropes commonly associated with antisemitism.
William Clouston, who became leader of the minor party in 2018, retweeted a video in which a British man reads a poem called "The Right to Hate". The caption in the tweet that Mr Clouston retweeted said: "This man is absolutely nailed on with this. Some really powerful points in this."
Although Mr Clauston's Twitter biography says "RTs [retweets] are not endorsements," in this case it is difficult to understand how it could be anything other than an endorsement as there are no other tweets providing any other explanation.
The poem is dedicated to "all those globalists out there" and criticises the "global New World Order". The poem's narrator also complains of being called an antisemite but insists that "the Rothschilds are the richest banking family in this world and that's got nothing to do with them being Jewish and everything to do with them being multi-billionaires who really do influence the dollar, pound and yen."
The video was also shared by the SDP's official North East account.
A libel case against former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn brought by the Jewish activist Richard Millett was adjourned on Tuesday so that the judge could consider new submissions from lawyers.
The libel case revolves around an appearance by Mr Corbyn on the BBC1's Andrew Marr Show in September 2018, when he was questioned about his remarks on "Zionists" who, he had previously claimed, "do not understand English irony".
Tuesday's hearing at the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court was held to enable Mr Justice Saini to determine whether the meaning of Mr Corbyn's remarks on the show justified a libel action.
On the programme, Mr Corbyn was asked about a speech he had made in 2013 at a meeting convened by the Palestinian Return Centre. There he had commented on an event in Parliament days earlier, where the guest speaker was the Palestinian ambassador to the UK, Manuel Hassassian.
At the PRC event Mr Corbyn complained some present at the meeting in Parliament were "thankfully silent Zionists" who had behaved in a "very, very abusive manner" towards Mr Hassassian.
He added that not only did they "not understand history", but that "they did not understand English irony, either", despite having lived in Britain for a long time.
Footage subsequently emerged of Mr Corbyn's speech in 2018 with newspapers, including The Times and the Guardian, reported the "English irony" remarks and identified Mr Millett as having been present at the meeting.
Mr Corbyn was a guest on the Andrew Marr Show one month later and said that the Zionists to whom he referred had been so "disruptive" that the police wanted to throw them out, but that he had said they should remain.
To all those whack jobs sharing an old @amnesty article in the hope that it provides proof that Israel teaches US police officers "neck kneeling," I have some very, very bad news for you.... https://t.co/AQbY0QjC3Q
— SussexFriendsofIsrael (@SussexFriends) June 25, 2020
The Socialist Campaign Group(@socialistcam) wishes you to know that it is totally obsessed with Jews and Israel - and isn't interested in discussing anything else - unless of course there is a way of blaming Jews or Israel for it. pic.twitter.com/CUS0mbFEkq
A study published by Tel Aviv University's Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry this week shows that a worrying wave of antisemitism inspired by the coronavirus is sweeping across the world.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed a unique worldwide wave of antisemitism," the report states. "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."
The study, based on hundreds of reports from researchers in 35 countries around the world, says that coronavirus-inspired antisemitism has gone viral on social media, with claims that Jews either created the disease or were profiting from it. Jews and Israel have even been depicted in countless cartoons and graffiti as viruses themselves.
One example cited is a French caricature of the former minister of health Agnès Buzyn (portrayed with a large nose signifying she is Jewish) smiling as she pours poison into a well, echoing the well-poisoning libel during the Black Plague.
"These common motifs perpetuate antisemitic accusations from previous generations and other global catastrophes, once again presenting the well-known image of the Jew," says Prof. Dina Porat, head of the Kantor Center. "However, the antisemitism generated by the coronavirus is fiercer and more intensive."
This antisemitism, according to Porat, has continued unremittingly for several months, and reflects "a high level of anxiety and fear" in many populations. The report found that coronavirus-related antisemitism is strongest in the US and the Middle East – particularly in Iran, Turkey and the Palestinian Authority – but is also prevalent throughout Europe and South America. "While in the US, accusations come mainly from white supremacists and ultraconservative Christians, pointing the finger at Jews in general and haredi [ultra-Orthodox] Jews in particular, accusers in the Middle East mostly blame Israel, Zionism and the Mossad for creating and spreading the virus and intending to make a vast fortune from medications and the vaccine they are already developing," it says.
Private companies from Israel and the United Arab Emirates will join forces to research and develop technology to fight the coronavirus pandemic, the two countries, which have no official diplomatic ties, said Thursday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broke the news of an impending collaboration between the Jewish state and the Arab Gulf country, saying an announcement from the two governments' health ministries was imminent.
The UAE then confirmed a joint project between private companies, but notably did not mention the government collaboration announced by Netanyahu.
"In a few moments, the health ministers of the United Arab Emirates and the State of Israel will announce cooperation in the fight against the coronavirus," Netanyahu said at a graduation ceremony for the Israel Air Force's pilot course.
"This cooperation will be in research and development, and technology, fields which could improve the health security of the entire region. This is the result of continuous and intensive contacts over the past few months. It will be a blessing for many in our region," Netanyahu said.
Former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters issued an apology for his June 20 remarks on the Hamas-affiliated Shehab New Agency in which he called Jewish philanthropist and GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson the "puppet master" of the Trump administration.
Waters had said, "Sheldon Adelson, who is the puppet master pulling the strings of Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo and what's his name … the ambassador [to Israel], Greenberg [sic] I think his name is. Sheldon Adelson is the puppet master pulling all of the strings."
He went on to call Zionism "an ugly stain and it needs to be gently removed by us." Waters also accused Israel of teaching the knee-to-neck technique that was used on African American man George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis police custody on May 25.
In a statement posted to his website on June 25, Waters apologized for his comments.
"During the Interview, in expressing my total solidarity with and support for the Palestinian people, when referring to Sheldon Adelson's support for the racist policies of both Trump and Netanyahu, I used words that evoked metaphorical imagery which, my friends said, were 'harmful to Jewish people and to the movement for Palestinian rights' — and for this, I'm very sorry," Water said. "At the time, I had no idea that I was evoking an anti-Semitic trope. I regret any harm or hurt my use of words caused Jewish people, and also any ways it may have reinforced damaging lies about Jews. Nothing could have been further from my intentions. I have only respect and compassion for my Jewish brothers and sisters in our collective struggle for a more just and peaceful world."
He also admitted he was wrong in accusing Israel of teaching the knee-to-neck technique to United States police officers.
"A friend I called for guidance on this, who is an acknowledged expert on the police exchange programs and connections between American and Israeli state violence, agreed that Israel's militarizing influence on the U.S. and around the world is a grave and concerning fact," Waters said. "He also confirmed that law enforcement exchange programs with Israel facilitate the sharing of racist practices and repressive technologies that enhance and normalize mass surveillance, criminalization, racial profiling, and the violent repression of communities. But, he told me that Israel does not train US police in tactics, like those used to kill George Floyd. They don't have to."
The African National Congress (ANC), South Africa's governing political party, has called on the speaker of the parliament to censure Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng over his expression of support for Israel in a webinar hosted this week by The Jerusalem Post.
During the live webinar on Tuesday, Mogoeng lamented his country's adoption of a lopsided attitude toward the Israel-Palestinian conflict and said that it would have greater influence if it displayed a more balanced approach.
Mogoeng said that his nation's history of forgiveness and understanding should have informed its approach to peace making, adding that as a practicing Christian he believed that those who curse Israel will themselves be cursed.
Mogoeng took pains to emphasize that the policy of the South African government was binding upon himself and that he was not seeking to reject it.
But, he said, as a citizen he was entitled to criticize laws and policies and suggest changes. South Africa Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein also participated in the Post's webinar.
"As a citizen of our great country, we are denying ourselves a wonderful opportunity of being a game-changer in the Israeli-Palestinian situation," said Mogoeng.
This golden era, in which students from all over the Middle East and beyond flocked to Beirut for an American education, did not last long, as I have previously noted. Soon, the university became the intellectual hub of a pan-Arab nationalist movement that was pro-Soviet and hostile to the United States. At the height of the Lebanese Civil War in the 1980s, the campus fell prey to anti-American terrorist activity. In the span of two years, one president was kidnapped and taken to Iran while another was murdered on school grounds. The AUB is still painted by supporters in the Middle East and the United States as an embodiment of the American, liberal values it was founded on. But it has changed, as institutions do.
Today, there are no Jews at the college. Indeed, any contact with Israelis, who make up roughly 45 percent of the world's Jews, is forbidden by law in Lebanon. A lawsuit was filed against the American University of Beirut last year when a prospective online student found that the university did not list "Israel" as a nationality on its enrollment page. The AUB's charter and accreditation are filed in the State of New York, which could make this a violation of U.S. state and federal anti-discrimination laws.
What about the AUB's teachers and teachings? The university has an American Studies department with a chair endowed in the memory of the Arab–American scholar Edward Said. Venerating Said is not itself unusual, given that many professors in the United States still teach Orientalism, his critique of the Western academy's treatment of the global East, as a foundational text. But those whom the university has selected to hold the chair that bears his name should give us pause. From 2015 to 2017, Steven Salaita occupied the Said Chair. Salaita had previously made headlines when the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign withdrew his tenure-faculty appointment after he was found to have issued a series of incendiary tweets relating to Israel and the Palestinians, including one that read, "Zionists: transforming 'anti-Semitism' from something horrible to something honorable since 1948." Before Salaita, the chair had been held by Lisa Hajjar, a sociology professor with a long history of harshly criticizing Israel and American counter-terrorism policy who had expressed support for the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Though private institutions can teach what they want and hire whom they want, the U.S. should not pursue the worthy goal of liberalizing the Middle East by underwriting illiberal universities. Foreign-affairs expert Robert Kaplan has argued that American Arabists — the military attachés, diplomats, scholars, and intelligence agents whose work brings them to the region — are concerned less with political power than with "good deeds." But good deeds do not always make for good policy. If the American University of Beirut has become American in name only, it no longer deserves America's support.
CC: Stef Blok, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands
We are writing in connection with NGO Monitor's recent conference on "human rights and antisemitism," held on December 18, where you were scheduled to appear but had to cancel, as we were told by your Embassy, due to illness.
Your planned participation in this important event became the subject of parliamentary questions in the Netherlands, to which Foreign Minister Blok provided a written response.
The Foreign Minister's responses contain a number of incorrect allegations and characterizations regarding NGO Monitor. (https://www.tweedekamer.nl/kamerstukken/kamervragen/detail?id=2020D00609&did=2020D00609) Some are attributed to and copied directly from pseudo-research by an organization calling itself the Policy Working Group. An independent effort to verify the claims would demonstrate that these are defamatory and inaccurate.
NGO Monitor publishes fact-based research about a variety of civil society organizations in accordance with the principles of accountability, transparency, and universal human rights. Neither the Foreign Minister nor his predecessor has provided examples of "selective quoting, half facts and insinuations" or "vague accusations."
If such examples are claimed, we would respond substantively and factually. However, as seen in recent examples of our research, including information on multiple NGO employees arrested for membership in an active terror cell, the burden is on those who dismiss our research.
Parents might want to think twice about letting their kids attend UMASS Amherst in September. Maybe a gap year is a good idea, especially if their child has political beliefs that run counter to those that dominate the campus at UMASS Amherst.
Why? Linda Sarsour speaks in favor of BDS at a session that took place during the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on Novmber 19, 2017. Sarsour, who has said ugly things about women with whom she disagrees, has appeared twice at UMASS Amherst in recent years. (Dexter Van Zile)
Judging from a $27 million lawsuit being prepared against UMASS Amherst, the school may not be a safe place for learning, free inquiry, and ideological nonconformism. For all the lip service the school's faculty gives to free speech and the right to dissent, there's evidence the school is not such a good place for students who disagree with the anti-Israel, anti-American, and anti-Western narrative that has taken root in higher education in the United States.
Outside agitators like Palestinian-American Linda Sarsour are allowed to promote their radical politics at UMASS Amherst while students who pay tuition and attend classes at the school must either toe the party line or keep their mouths shut. If they actively protest the agenda, they might be driven out of school by a coalition of students, faculty, and administrators.
According to attorneys Karen D. Hurvitz and Ilya Feoktistov, that's what happened to former UMASS student Louis Shenker. According to Hurvitz and Feoktistov, Shenker was driven from the school by a network of students, faculty members, and administrators who disagreed with his politics and smeared him as a white supremacist. One commentator has called the events recounted in legal documents sent to UMASS by Shenker's attorneys a "witch trial." The story has also made The American Spectator and Legal Insurrection.
Shenker's problems at UMASS Amherst began on Dec. 6, 2018 when the Graduate Employee Organization (GEO), which represents graduate students at the school, held a rally. The rally was ostensibly organized to protest an uptick of racist and antisemitic graffiti being painted in the school's dormitories.
A court in the southern Germany city of Munich affirmed on Wednesday the right of a travel portal to deny service to an Israeli passenger because of a stopover in Kuwait--a regime that boycotts the Jewish state.
The Israeli Shmuel M, who lives in Germany, wanted to travel in 2018 from Munich to Sri Lanka, with a layover in Kuwait in. His ticket was cancelled because the Kuwaiti monarchy boycotts Israelis. Shmuel, whose last name was listed in the DPA wire service report, filed a lawsuit against the travel portal.
The court concluded that the travel portal can deny Israelis service based on Israeli nationality and "because of the actual impossibility" of the trip.
The Jerusalem Post learned that the online travel portal, which was not identified in the German media, is the German branch of the US-based Expedia. Expedia Group's headquarters is located in Seattle, Washington.
Kuwait Airways has barred other Israelis from service in Germany.
Nathan Gelbart, a Berlin-based attorney who represents Shmuel, told the Jerusalem Post on Thursday that "the Bavaria Supreme Court unfortunately has adopted the plaintiffs view that boycotting Israelis is no discrimination against Jews. With other words, discriminating Jews on German soil is fine as long as they are Israelis.
It was bound to happen: the Israeli far left, through its mouthpiece at +972 magazine, is making accusations of 'Mizrahi-washing'.
An article by Lihi Yona, who is a student at Columbia university in New York, comes as 'push-back' against the writings of Hen Mazzig and Nave Dromi. Yona claims they are 'hasbara-niks' in the service of Israel, working to make the Jewish state look better than it deserves. According to Yona, Israel indulges in 'Mizrahi-washing'. That is to say it exploits Mizrahim as it does gays through 'pinkwashing':Israel allegedly promotes its tolerance and protection of lesbians and gays only in order to obscure its 'oppressive' treatment of Palestinians.
Yona admits that it is good to recognise the existence of Mizrahi Jews, but only if they can be portrayed as victims of 'white' European Jews. Thus she lumps together examples of Israeli police or army brutality against Mizrahim, Ethiopians and Palestinians, without spelling out the particular circumstances leading to each death. And why not add instances of historic discrimination into the mix - when Israel 'dumped' Mizrahim into tent camps and 'kidnapped' Yemenite children?
Lisa "I'm so happy I don't resemble you" Goldman who also couldn't tell two Mizrahi athletes apart.
In March 2020 the process was delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, "more than seven countries and more than 120 international organizations and independent scholars of international law submitted so-called amicus curiae (friend of the court) documents, offering their views on whether "Palestine" is a state that can transfer criminal jurisdiction over its territory to The Hague". Those countries include Germany, Australia, Austria, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Uganda.
At the end of April Bensouda announced that "the Prosecution has carefully considered the observations of the participants and remains of the view that the Court has jurisdiction over the Occupied Palestinian Territory".
The issue now lies with the pre-trial chamber, which in late May "asked the Palestinian Authority to clarify PA President Mahmoud Abbas's statement about terminating all agreements with Israel, and whether it applies to the Oslo Accords as well".
In other words, Stephen Sackur's claim that the ICC's chief prosecutor "decided to open a formal investigation" in "December 2019" is only partly accurate because she conditioned the opening of that investigation on the ruling of the pre-trial chamber. The ICC president's claim that no investigation has been launched is currently accurate, as are his statements concerning a "pre-preliminary procedure" in order to determine whether or not the court has the jurisdiction to handle the case.
On June 18th, we tweeted the New Statesman's international correspondent, Ido Vock, to alert him of an error in the first sentence of his article on the possible application of Israeli law to parts of the West Bank ("Four consequences of Israel's plan to annex West Bank territories", June 17).
However, July 1st is merely the earliest Israel's parliament can begin the process of 'annexation'.
It's a significant error because it amplifies misleading media reports suggesting it's certain that Israel will, on that date, apply sovereignty ('annex') to all the territories in question – representing 30% of the West Bank. However, it's not clear which territories, if any, Israel will annex, as both the US and Israeli governments are still intensely debating the issue, and the Israeli public is mixed on the wisdom of the plan.
To his credit, the journalist promptly replied and agreed with our assessment, thanked us for flagging it and corrected the sentence, which now correctly notes that July 1st is merely the earliest the legislative process can begin.
In 2011, historian Daniel Lee met "Veronika," a young woman who had spent the past several decades sitting on what would become the subject of his new book, "The SS Officer's Armchair: Uncovering the Hidden Life of a Nazi."
Shortly after arriving in Florence, Italy, to pursue a research project, Lee was asked by Veronika to help her solve a mystery. Lee, a senior lecturer in modern history at Queen Mary, University of London, and a specialist in the history of Jews in France and North Africa during World War II, readily accepted.
She told Lee that an upholsterer in Amsterdam had discovered a cache of swastika-stamped papers inside a chair she had regularly sat upon as she did her homework while growing up. Her mother, "Jana," who brought the chair for repair, had purchased it in Prague in 1968.
The family had no idea the Third Reich documents were inside its seat cushion — nor who would have stashed them there.
All Lee, 36, could initially determine was that the papers — passports, diplomas, stock certificates, and other personal documents — belonged to someone named Robert Griesinger who appeared to be a German living in Prague toward the end of the war. But Lee spent years following Griesinger's trail, eventually discerning that he was a member of the Nazi party and an SS officer.
Lee's determined and thorough research proved that Griesinger was a Nazi lawyer posted to the so-called Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Even Griesinger's own children knew extremely little about him, including the details of how he died at age 38 in the chaotic aftermath of the Prague Uprising in 1945.
They date back to the late Middle Ages and irritate to this day: The Judensau (literally "Jewish sow") is a Christian folk image that depicts Jews sucking on the teats or peering into the anus of a pig.
Mostly found in the form of reliefs or gargoyles on the exterior of German churches, some of them major historical landmarks, the images have been the subject of increasing public debate in recent years. And now Germany's highest court will weigh in on the matter when it hears the case of a Jewish man who says one such sculpture insults him personally.
Michael Duellmann has already lost his bids against St. Marien Church in Wittenberg in district court and on appeal.
"This is the first case regarding a Judensau that is going to the Federal Supreme Court," Duellmann's attorney, Christian Rohnke, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
In fact it may be the first Judensau case to go to court at all, but it's certainly not the first time a German church has tried to lance this abscess. Last week, a landmarks commission in the town of Calbe ruled against a local church that was seeking to retire its Judensau, which had been removed temporarily for restoration. The commission insisted the sculpture be put back on the church facade. The church has not decided whether to appeal.
There are assumed to be about 40 Judensaus in Germany, the oldest dating to the 13th century. Intended to teach lessons about sin and virtue, they were usually placed inside where Jews would not see them.
But beginning in the 14th century, churches also placed them outside, according to the late Israeli historian Isaiah Shachar. In a 2017 interview with the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, Shachar said there are Judensaus in Portugal, France, Poland and Sweden, but most are in German-speaking countries.
An 84-year-old Jewish woman is suffering from severe trauma after a concrete slab was hurled through a ground-floor window of her home in a suburb of Paris.
The National Office for Vigilance Against Antisemitism (BVNCA) — an independent Jewish communal agency that works with victims of antisemitism — reported that the outrage occurred on Monday.
The woman, who has not been named, was watching television in her living room when the object smashed through a glass window.
The woman was not physically hurt, but she was "deeply shocked and remains traumatized," the BVNCA said.
The BVNCA identified the attack as antisemitic because the woman kept a visible mezuzah on the front door of her residence.
The agency added that the woman had now filed a complaint with the police.
Without divulging details, the BVNCA said it had heard from a witness to the attack that the perpetrators were "European types … probably affiliated with the leftist movement and the anti-Israeli BDS." The Algemeiner was not able to verify this claim independently.
Two teenage brothers have been found guilty of an antisemitic attack on a rabbi.
The boys, aged 15 and 16, shouted "F*** Jews", "Dirty Jew" and "Kill the Jews" as the man walked through Amhurst Park in Clapton, north London, on 29 November.
Prosecutors said the pair ran off laughing after repeatedly kicking the victim, named in court papers as Joshua Lazenga, 54, to the ground.
Lazenga, who had travelled to the UK from Israel to attend a wedding, had his glasses knocked off and suffered an injured back and bleeding finger.
The teenagers, who are from Hackney, east London, but cannot be named because of their age, handed themselves in to police after Scotland Yard released CCTV images.
They were found guilty of racially or religiously aggravated assault by beating on Thursday following a two-day trial at Stratford Magistrates' Court, and will be sentenced on 21 July, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
Prosecutor Peter Alexandrou said: "This was an unprovoked and despicable act against a Jewish man who was holidaying in the UK.
Actress Mayim Bialik will channel the DC Comics character the Flash to turn kids on to science.
DC Comics announced Thursday that "Flash Facts," a collection of stories featuring DC characters such as the Flash, Batman and Superman, will be published in February.
The anthology curated by Bialik, working with science writers and DC illustrators, will answer burning questions such as what's at the bottom of the sea and which tools do forensic scientists use to solve a crime?
The book "provides a helpful bridge between the lessons taught inside the classroom and our everyday lives," DC said in a statement.
Bialik, who has a doctorate in neuroscience, is best known for portraying the neuroscientist Dr. Amy Farrah Fawler in the hit television show "The Big Bang Theory."
She currently serves as host for a 10-episode TBS series, "Celebrity Show-off," which features celebrities as they create original video content from their homes.
Bialik also is working on the screenplay for a comedy-drama feature film titled "As Sick As They Made Us," which will deal with mental illness. It will be her screenwriting and directing debut.
Last week, thousands of Jews in Israel and beyond responded to a plea for help in identifying a couple pictured in a yellowing photograph from 1955.
"Everyone, I need help. I found this picture on a Tel Aviv street," Ariel Plavnik, a 43-year-old tourism salesperson from Kfar Saba, Israel, wrote in Hebrew and Spanish in a Facebook post with the photograph. "I want to return this old, beautiful photograph. If you share it, maybe we can find the owners! Thanks to all."
More than 7,000 people shared the photograph, a portrait whose many blemishes do little to dim the radiant smile and beauty of the young woman in it. She leans against a man with confident eyes, his cheek pressed to hers.
Perhaps demonstrating world Jewry's preoccupation with genealogy, several Jewish Facebook groups devoted to the subject posted the picture on their pages. So did my aunt, a 64-year-old teacher from Israel who takes high school students on tours of former death camps in Poland.
It was a good thing she did because I was able to identify almost immediately the mystery photo subjects. I doubt they'll care much, though — the couple are the actors who portrayed the parents of Marty McFly, a character from the 1980s sci-fi comedy trilogy "Back to the Future."
Using documents in the National Archive, including German documents photographed and sent to Whitehall by an American spy, Yaakov Lappin looks at why Britain reversed policy and abandoned partition, or what we now call the two state solution, and imposed strict limits on Jewish immigration to Palestine in 1939. 'The engine powering policy reversal against partition' he concludes, was 'the German, and to a lesser extent Italian, threat to British interests in Europe and in the Middle East, and the subsequent potential for the Arab bloc to abandon the British camp' on the eve of war.
In the late 1930s, in the space of a few short years, the British government conducted a dramatic policy shift, first abandoning its 1937 acceptance of a proposal to partition Mandatory Palestine between Jews and Arabs, then rejecting the proposal altogether in 1938, before releasing a 1939 White Paper that called for establishing a joint Arab-Jewish-governed state, opposed the establishment of a sovereign Jewish state in Mandatory Palestine, and called for limiting Jewish immigration to a further 75,000 arrivals over the next five years, with any further immigration dependent on Arab consent.
In the National Archives in Kew, London, I studied official British government documents from meetings in the cabinet, the Foreign Office, the Colonial Office, and others. They shed a fascinating light into some of the main considerations behind the change in policy, illustrating how the British government, caught between the demands of two competing national movements, became alarmed by the prospect of Nazi Germany recruiting the Arab Middle East to its side. This fear, more than anything else, drove the British decision to publish its 1939 White Paper. Peel's View
The Arab revolt of 1936 had been the first step in internationalising the Arab-Jewish conflict in Mandatory Palestine. Arab Palestinian nationalists were able to capture the attention of, and support for their cause from the wider Arab Middle East, and to turn their campaign against Jewish immigration into a pan-Arab affair.
Britain's Colonial Office and War Office led the initial policy response, which was to establish the Royal Peel Commission to examine the causes of the disturbances and draw up recommendations. The Foreign Office launched a campaign to push the Peel Commission to meet Arab demands in Palestine, and took a dim view of partition.
Thousands of posters of Golda Meir appeared in the windows of Jewish homes; money poured in to fundraising appeals; and synagogues set up blood banks to provide Israel with urgently needed supplies. The Zionist Labour leader of the Opposition was Israel's most loyal and ardent friend while a Europhile Conservative Prime Minister was seen as betraying the Jewish State in pursuit of European unity and Arab oil. The year was 1973 and the Yom Kippur War, launched by the Arab states against Israel, was dividing Britain's two main parties, galvanising the Jewish community, and the following year would even influence the outcome of the general election. The story is told by Robert Philpot, author of Margaret Thatcher, Honorary Jew: How Britain's Jews Helped Shape the Iron Lady and Her Beliefs, (Biteback, 2017).
On 28 February 1974, Britain went to the polls in an election triggered by Edward Heath's determination to win a mandate to defeat the industrial unrest sweeping the country. In her north London seat of Finchley, one of the Prime Minister's Cabinet was feeling distinctly nervous. Her initial optimism about the election, Margaret Thatcher later wrote in her memoirs, had been 'replaced by unease'.
If the Education Secretary was uneasy, her young Liberal opponent, Laurence Brass, was beginning to feel that he might be on the verge of pulling off a famous victory. That feeling only grew when ITV called to ask him to appear on its results programme the next day. The broadcaster was, a producer explained, expecting him to be one of the night's shock victors.
But Mrs Thatcher's difficulties in Finchley were not just the result of the unpropitious backdrop against which Heath had chosen to call an election – the country was suffering soaring inflation and, thanks to the miners' strike, industry had been forced on to a three-day week – but were also rooted in events in the Middle East some five months earlier.
Finchley had the highest proportion of Jewish voters in the country, and – both there and throughout the country – they were preparing to render a harsh verdict on the Heath government's handling of the Yom Kippur war.
Mrs Thatcher herself had established a strong relationship with local Jewish voters. She had rooted out antisemitism in the local Conservative association, become a familiar figure at local community events, and had always been staunchly supportive of Israel. The future Prime Minister had first visited the Jewish state in 1965 and returned full of admiration for it. Two years later, she had been full-throated in her support of Israel in the Six Day War, declaring at a rally shortly after its victory that it should 'not withdraw from her new territories until she has her borders guaranteed. You cannot ask a nation to withdraw from the only bargaining point she has'.
Reflections on the Six-Day War
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Last night's EoZTV was with Josh Block of JINSA to discuss a new report by that thinktank on the importance of the Jordan Valley to Israel's security, and the expected political fallout from any extension of sovereignty that Israel may do there.
International pressure on Israel not to extend its sovereignty over parts of the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria is increasing. More than 1,000 European parliamentarians have signed a letter asserting that this proposal, which they term "annexation," would "encourage other states with territorial claims to disregard basic principles of international law."
Following the brutal death in police custody of George Floyd, racial anarchy in America is increasing. In Seattle and Washington, D.C., there have been attempts to set up "autonomous zones" that exclude the police. Statues and other artworks that have been targeted for toppling as representing "white privilege" include those of Abraham Lincoln, the 19th-century anti-slavery activist Hans Christian Heg and now even Jesus.
These events are connected. In this period of civilizational turmoil, supposed progressives campaigning against the sovereignty proposal falsely project onto Israel crimes of which not only is it innocent, but of which the progressive class itself is guilty.
Take the claim that Israel's "annexation" is unlawful. Under international law, annexation has a precise meaning: the forcible incorporation by one state of the territory of another state. This does not apply to the disputed territories, which never belonged in law to any other state.
Israel has the only legally grounded claim to this land, including the never-abrogated duty given to the British in the 1920s to settle the Jews throughout what is now Israel, the disputed territories and the Gaza Strip.
Far from being an illegal annexation, extending Israeli law to these areas actually implements international law after some nine decades during which it was flouted and then ignored by Britain and the world community. It is those who oppose the sovereignty proposal who show contempt for the law.
The Israeli government is considering applying Israeli civil law jurisdiction and administration to parts of the Jordan Valley and/or certain settlement blocs. This possibility was proposed under the U.S. peace plan and agreed in the broad national coalition agreement between most of Israel's political parties.
Israel has pursued a pragmatic approach to the area that was Jordan's "West Bank," one that would ultimately enable Palestinian Arab self-determination over most areas populated by them, while ensuring Israeli security, thus hopefully enabling a sustainable peaceful solution between them.
The Palestinians have rejected repeated Israeli offers since 1967 - for example, in 2000, 2001 and 2008 - of full self-determination in the majority of this land. There is no comparable international legal situation in the world today where a country that acquired territory in self-defense and offered to surrender it in exchange for peace was refused.
The International Law Commission Draft Code of Offences against the Peace and Security of Mankind (1954) has endorsed the legality of acquisition of territory, unless by aggression or in violation of the UN Charter. International practice demonstrates that aggression, such as Jordan's in 1967, consistently leads to forfeiture of territory.
Unilateral Israeli action this year is likely to break the negotiations deadlock, pressuring a Palestinian side that has simply been refusing to negotiate since 2014.
JINSA's new paper explains how U.S. national security interests would be well served if Israel enshrined its permanent control of the Jordan Valley by acting now to extend its sovereignty there. This will boost the security of Israel, as well as Jordan, two pivotal American allies in the region.
As the United States seeks to reduce its presence in an increasingly chaotic Middle East, Israel has stepped up its efforts to hold back the growing disorder, in the process protecting not just itself but regional partners like Jordan and Gulf Arab states.
To play this role effectively, however, Israel must remain secure. The Jordan Valley serves as a defensive buffer protecting Israel against attacks from the east, including from Iran and its proxies. The Valley also protects the West Bank from terrorist infiltration, and Jordan from potential instability or hostility originating from the West Bank or elsewhere.
Yet, previously Israel has faced pressure to relinquish control over the Jordan Valley. Thus, the Trump Administration's support for Israeli sovereignty in the Jordan Valley could be a rare chance for Israel to assure its security and that of its tacit Arab allies, too.
There will certainly be costs associated with incorporating the Jordan Valley into Israel proper. But when it comes to the specific issue of the Jordan Valley, we believe that, given the benefits to enshrining permanent Israeli control, these regrettable costs are likely to prove manageable and short-term.
In this unique moment, the United States should support Israel's extension of sovereignty to the Jordan Valley, which Israel must permanently and physically control to defend itself while advancing U.S. security interests.
Last week The Jerusalem Post reported that a recent study of Palestinian Authority textbooks found that the ones used in Palestinian schools are preparing students "for a continuous and long-range confrontation against the State of Israel in order to achieve the final goal, which is the establishment of the State of Palestine that will stretch on the entire territory of the Land of Israel."
The study, conducted by Dr. Arnon Gross of the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, who was assisted by David Bedein of the Center for Near East Policy Research, surveyed nearly 400 textbooks that were in use by Palestinian schools between 2013 and 2020, as well as over 100 teacher guides from 2018.
They found three main strands of indoctrination running though the texts: delegitimization of the State of Israel's existence, including the denial of Jewish holy sites within Israel; demonization of Israel and the Jews, who are regularly referred to as "the Zionist enemy"; and incitement to violent struggle to reclaim the whole of Israel as Palestine, with no education for peace and co-existence.
"Schoolbooks are specifically important in societies in conflict, because they indicate the narrative the leadership and society strive to instill in the minds of the younger generation," the report notes. "The schoolbooks issued by the Palestinian Authority indicate, then, the essence of the narrative as far as the conflict with Israel is concerned. It is learned from the PA schoolbooks and teachers' guides that the education of the younger Palestinian generation prepares it consciously for a continuous and long-range confrontation against the State of Israel in order to achieve the final goal, which is the establishment of the State of Palestine that will stretch on the entire territory of the Land of Israel. There is no trace in the schoolbooks of the argumentation disseminated by the Palestinian Authority in the international arena that the Palestinian Authority is committed to "a just peace" based on the two-state solution."
The schoolbooks vehemently deny the Jewish past of the Land of Israel and call it "legends". This is a new argument, as the former schoolbooks included pieces that dealt with Jewish history in the Land of Israel in antiquity. The non-recognition of Jerusalem as a holy city to Jews, however, has been there all along.
Aside from the general problems – denial of Israel's legitimacy, promoting violence – the Palestinian textbooks also glorify terrorists. The Post reported that a fifth-grade history text described the notorious terrorist, Dalal Mughrabi, as a "'female martyr' who 'painted with her struggle a picture of challenging and heroism which have made her memory eternal in our hearts and minds.'" Mughrabi was the leader of the terror cell that carried out the 1978 Coastal Road massacre leaving 38 Israelis, among them 13 children, dead.
I hope this final appeal will awaken you to the reality you can no longer ignore. Time has just about run out, and your immediate decision to agree or refuse to enter into new peace negotiations with Israel will determine the future of your people for generations to come. They will either live in peace and harmony with Israel, growing and prospering, or remain a shattered nation despairing for a ray of hope that has eluded them for seven decades – with you sealing their fate.
Now that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is poised to annex a significant part of the West Bank, you are faced with a historic juncture: either you wake up to reality and preempt Netanyahu's plan by calling for new peace negotiations, or squander the last vestiges of a fading opportunity. You must rise to the occasion, as a leader should, and grasp the moment, because you have reached the precipice of no return.
As you look around, please ask yourself the question: have your people come any closer today to realizing their cherished dream of establishing an independent state than 10, 15, or 20 years ago? You know better than anyone else that the answer is categorically no. You have missed many opportunities and failed to realize time was not on your side.
Special Envoy Avi Berkowitz landed in Israel on Friday ahead of the planned Israeli annexation of 30% of West Bank and the Jordan Valley, which can start as early as July 1.
According to several reports, the US is eager to obtain an agreement between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz on what sort of annexation will eventually take place.
The annexation is meant to be the first step leading to the formation of a Palestinian state.
Berkowitz wrote in his twitter account, in Hebrew, that he is happy to be in Israel and wished his followers Shabbat Shalom.
Israel has conveyed a message to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that its annexation plans have been greatly reduced, will no longer apply to the Jordan Valley and will be limited to only two or three settlements blocs, Channel 12 reported Friday, citing a senior official in Ramallah.
The official told the network the message was delivered via Jordan, following Mossad chief Yossi Cohen's reported meeting on the matter with King Abdullah this week.
The official said no specific details were given on the settlements to be annexed, but said the implication was it would be a small number of blocs. There are three main settlement blocs — Ma'ale Adumim (to the east of Jerusalem), the Etzion Bloc (to the capital's south) and Ariel (in the heart of the West Bank, southwest of Nablus) — all of which Israel has long indicated it would seek to retain under any negotiated accord with the Palestinians.
The Channel 12 story echoed a radio report earlier this week, according to which Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi has said that Israel is unlikely to annex the Jordan Valley under the Trump administration's peace plan.
"I assume the annexation will not include the Jordan Valley. Everyone understands this," Ashkenazi told officials in closed-door talks in recent days, according to the Kan public broadcaster.
It also was in line with comments earlier this month by top Israeli officials to Zman Yisrael, the Hebrew sister site of The Times of Israel, that Israel will at this stage only annex three West Bank blocs, but not the Jordan Valley or other settlement areas.
Ever since 1995, the notoriously corrupt Palestinian Authority has resisted any further agreements as required by the Oslo Accords. So, the partition Rabin and Arafat agreed to in 1995 remains legal and in effect. Condemning this partition as "illegal" while at the same time supporting Palestinian Autonomy as agreed upon in the same treaty is patently absurd.
The Palestinian leadership around the terrorist Mahmoud Abbas, the financier of the Munich Attacks 1972, has no interest in a peaceful solution, which would rob them of their authority and their access to generous international funding courtesy of the European taxpayer, endangering their status, their fancy mansions and their BMW limousines. However, the normal Arab population and working people in Judea and Samaria have recognized that Israel offers them a better life than their corrupt leaders do. Every day, over 600.000 Arabs cross the Green Line to go work in Israel, peacefully voting with their feet, even as Abbas refuses to hold elections since 2009.
Area C remains in a bizarre legal limbo, however, administered by the IDF. Israeli courts bend over backwards to apply Ottoman law dating back to the year 1919. Funded by the EU and European NGOs, the Palestinian Authority uses this Ottoman law to occupy Israeli land and build illegal settlements like Khan al Ahmar – and German Chancellor Angela Merkel threatens to cancel her visit to Israel if Khan al Ahmar is evacuated. An absurd state of affairs.
After 25 years of Palestinian obstruction and refusal to negotiate, the new Israeli coalition has decided to put an end to this bizarre charade and extend civilian authority over large parts of Area C. The Arab inhabitants will receive hotly sought-after Israeli rights, welfare and citizenship, and protection under Israeli law, which has proved very popular among Arabs in East Jerusalem.
The European Union pays €300 Million every year to the Palestinian Authority, which uses this largesse to print school books lionizing terrorists and subsidize the families of terrorists. The EU pays €160 million a year to the corrupt anti-Israel UNRWA, and the German government more than doubled their UNRWA funding 2018 to €173 million.
No one knows exactly how much taxpayer money the German government and EU pay to shady, unaccountable anti-Israel NGOs, which fund the legal defense of murderers, as Im Tirtzu pointed out on the visit of German FM Heiko Maas recently. When my party asked the German government to reveal how much they were paying NGOs active in Israel, we were informed that this information was top secret – information that was so sensitive it outweighed the taxpayers' right to know what is being done with their money! One can only imagine why.
It is time for European Governments to abandon their obstruction and sabotage of a realistic peace, to end their generous and secret support for the Palestinian Authority, UNRWA and anti-Israel NGOs, and to support Israel in its quest for a peaceful future for all. It is time for Germany and the EU to join Arab governments like Egypt, Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia in welcoming the Trump Peace Plan, and to support Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.
We must recognize the fact that Israel is our friend, and Israel is here to stay.
Former U.S. Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt defended Israel against the Director of the North Africa and Middle East Department of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Christophe Farnaud, during an online discussion this week organized by the European Leadership Network (ELNET) to mark the 100th anniversary of the San Remo Conference, which granted international recognition to future Jewish statehood and Zionism.
Farnaud said that the Israeli move to extend its sovereignty to Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria under the U.S. peace plan was a violation of international law.
Greenblatt responded: "Are you suggesting that the United States Congress in 1995, when it passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act and when President Trump recognized Jerusalem and moved the embassy based on our law from 1995, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo when he said that the settlements were not illegal per se, that the U.S. is violating international law? Or do you accept the fact there is a difference of opinion between certain countries around the world, in this case the U.S. and some others."
"If you don't agree that there is a difference of opinion, then you are accusing the U.S. of violating international law, the same way you are accusing Israel of violating international law."
Jordan should "unleash" violent resistance against Israel if the Jewish state moves ahead with plans to annex parts of the West Bank, a Jordanian MP has said during an interview on Jordan's Roya TV.
Every Jordanian citizen would join in, Yahya al-Saud, the Head of the Jordanian Parliament's Palestine Committee opined during the June 16 interview, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute who translated the interview from Arabic to English.
"If it is declared that we are ready to fight this enemy [Israel], I swear that no Jordanian citizen will refrain from joining. I swear by Allah because I see the reactions of the public," al-Saud said.
Jordanian officials have repeatedly warned Israel against unilateral annexation, insisting that peace will only be achieved when the Palestinians are given their own state. In mid-May, Jordan's King Abdullah II told Der Spiegel "If Israel really annexed the West Bank in July, it would lead to a massive conflict with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan."
Foreign minister Ayman Safadi has also warned of conflict between Jordan and Israel if the annexation, slated for July 1 at the earliest, goes ahead. Addressing a June 2 Liaison Committee meeting, he said: "The message should be clear. Annexation will not go unanswered. For if it does, there will only be fiercer conflict. Annexation will make the two-state solution an impossibility."
The Belgian parliament on Friday morning passed with an overwhelming majority a resolution urging the government to act to prevent Israel from unilaterally annexing parts of the West Bank and to actively advocate for European-wide punitive measures against Jerusalem if it proceeds with its controversial plan.
The Chamber of Representatives in Brussels was originally also scheduled to discuss and vote on a motion calling for the recognition of a Palestinian state, but this was postponed due to last-minutes amendments.
The resolution "concerning Israel's annexation of occupied territories in Palestine," proposed by three politicians from the Greens, passed with 101 'yes' votes and 39 abstentions. No one voted against.
The motion urges the government of Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès "to take the initiative with third countries, at European and multilateral levels, to prevent the annexation [by] Israel of the Palestinian territories, or parts of them."
The resolution further calls on Brussels to play a leading role in formulating a "list of efficient counter-measures geared at responding in a proportional manner to any Israeli annexation of occupied Palestinian territory."
The European Union and many of its member states vehemently oppose Israel's declared goal to annex up to 30 percent of the West Bank as early as July 1, but have not yet formulated any punitive measures against Jerusalem if it were to implement its plan. The EU requires consensus among all 27 member states to apply significant sanctions on Israel, but some countries such as Hungary and Austria are widely expected to veto any harsh measures against the Jewish state.
Thank you @thejpc for having me on last evening to discuss #Israel's application of sovereignty, what does it all mean and where do we go from here.
75 years ago today, the UN Charter was born, promising fundamental human rights for all.
Now: 🇻🇪 Venezuela sits on the UN Human Rights Council. 🇨🇳 China sits on the UN committee for human rights NGOs. 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia sits on the UN Women's Rights Commission.
Journalist Benny Avni: "After Russia annexed Crimea, the UN issued a mild statement—so why your sharp rebuke of Israel, even before it annexed any land?"
UN chief Guterres: "In Israel's case, it would undermine regional stability and peace prospects."
A suspect shot by police during an incident Friday at a Glasgow hotel that appeared to be largely housing asylum-seekers and refugees has died and six other people, including a police officer, were in a hospital being treated for injuries, Scottish police said, with reports that three people were killed.
An officer, who appeared to have been stabbed during the incident at the Park Inn Hotel on West George Street around 1 p.m., was in "a critical but stable condition," Police Scotland Assistant Chief Constable Steve Johnson said. He called on people to avoid the area.
Police in Scotland said the stabbings in Glasgow aren't being treated as terrorism.
Speaking on the BBC, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she spoke with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who expressed his concern and sympathies.
She said "It's been a dreadful afternoon for the city of Glasgow."
"Clearly there is already much speculation around this incident, which remains under investigation.
"I would urge everyone to avoid such speculation, to not share potentially harmful or upsetting material on social media and to follow police advice while investigations are underway," Sturgeon said.
Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel (Derech Eretz) and Culture and Sports Minister Yehiel Tropper (Blue and White) were informed recently that they are prohibited from serving in their reserve unit in the IDF. The highly classified unit, which comprises soldiers from some of the IDF's most elite units, crosses enemy lines, representing too great a risk that an Israeli minister could fall into enemy hands.
Hendel, a lieutenant colonel, commands the unit. He began his army service in the naval commandos, Shayetet 13, and later served in additional security agencies following his military service.
Tropper served as an officer in the counter-terrorist unit Duvdevan.
"Reserve duty is a great privilege," said Hendel. "In my view, it is the essence of being Israeli. In uniform, there's no difference between right and left, religious or secular, rich or poor. I hope my request to continue serving in the reserves will be approved by the IDF."
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said in a statement: "The head of the IDF Personnel Directorate [Maj. Gen. Moti Almoz] spoke with Minister Yoaz Hendel last week and informed him that … in light of his position as a government minister, he will not be summoned at this time to reserve duty. The minister expressed a desire to continue serving in any format that would allow him to continue to do so – and his request is being examined."
Over the past 24 hours, anti-Israel propagandists led by @4noura have been circulating the lie that #AhmedErakat was an "innocent" man who was "executed" by Israel.
Unfortunately for them, there was a camera at the scene that captured the attack.
Ahmed Erakat wanted to earn the respect of his family the same way all Palestinian children are taught from birth to earn respect. To go out and try to kill some Jews just like Dalal Mughrabi.
Earlier this week, Human Right Watch's "Israel and Palestine Director," Omar Shakir, gave his Twitter followers a shocking account of arbitrary and unprovoked Israeli violence. He wrote of Israeli forces having "gunned down" a young Palestinian for no apparent reason, declaring it an "outrage" that could be explained only by international indifference to Israeli "abuses."
Already before his comments, media reports noted that the incident was alleged to be part of a car-ramming attack by the Palestinian, which injured a female Israeli border guard. Yet Shakir, the Human Rights Watch official responsible for the organization's accounting of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, chose to leave this information out of his Twitter post.
When an Israeli police official on Twitter again described the incident as an attack, Shakir didn't backtrack. Instead, having done no research, no fieldwork, no investigation, he endorsed the claim that the Israeli official was a liar, and that the Palestinian man, Ahmed Erakat, was killed while merely "on his way to pick up his sister from the salon for her wedding."
It wasn't long after Shakir sent out his inflammatory allegations that video of the incident emerged. It shows the Palestinian attacker maneuvering his car before sharply accelerating and swerving into Israeli troops manning a checkpoint. The female soldier is hurled through the air. The attacker leaps from his car and is immediately shot.
On Wednesday, a Palestinian Arab driver drove into soldiers at an Israeli checkpoint tower near Jerusalem. In response, Israeli Border Police on the scene opened fire and killed the driver.
Palestinian officials charged Israel with cold-blooded murder. According to them, the suspect, a nephew of senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat, was simply rushing to pick up his sister and mother ahead of a family wedding later Tuesday evening.
However, security footage released by the Border Police, showing the vehicle turning sharply and speeding up abruptly when close to the soldiers, leaves little doubt as to the nature of the incident.
From the headline, you wouldn't have known that Israeli soldiers were the target of a terrorist attack. Instead, Sky News buries that lead. Readers are told only that the border guards opened fire on and killed a relative of a top PLO official, with no justification mentioned.
In the much less noticeable sub-headline, lip service is paid to the Border Police's version of events. "Police say" the suspect drove at officers. This is followed up with the family's take on the events. Presented this way, both versions are equally likely. Also, note that while words like 'relative', 'family', and 'accident' humanize the deceased, words such as 'car ramming', 'attack', and 'terrorist' are nowhere to be seen.
This is much more than a mere matter of semantics. People tend to scan headlines first and only read the articles that catch their eye. But if all that people know about this incident comes from this headline what conclusions will they draw?
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) retweeted a Rutgers University assistant professor who alleged that Israeli Border Police unjustifiably killed a Palestinian driver in what appeared to be a car-ramming attack.
On June 23, a car rammed into a tower at the Abu Dis checkpoint in the West Bank. Israeli soldiers then shot the driver, identified as Ahmad Erekat, 28, after he exited the car. A female Israeli soldier, identified as Shani Orr Hami Kadosh, was injured in the attack, but her injuries weren't considered serious.
Rutgers University assistant professor Noura Erakat tweeted that Erekat was her younger cousin, and that the driver was simply in a rush to pick up his sister for her wedding later that day. She also alleged that after her cousin was shot, Israeli soldiers let him bleed to death rather than give him medical attention.
Tlaib retweeted the aforementioned tweets from Noura Erakat, as well as a tweet from Jewish Voice for Peace stating, "We send our love to the Erakat family for the tragic murder of their son at the hands of the Israeli police. We hope that justice is served for him and all Palestinians."
The driver was also a cousin of Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian Liberation Organization executive committee secretary-general. Saeb Erekat told the Israeli Kan public broadcasting station, "My cousin, the nephew of my wife, was executed, murdered in cold blood and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu bears responsibility."
The Israeli Border Police disputed the Erekat family's depiction of the incident.
"[Erekat] waited for a good moment, turned from the middle of the lane to the side to get a better angle to hurt the officer and then accelerated, turning his car 90 degrees, and lunged wildly at the officers," the police said in a statement.
If only there had been signs that Rashida Tlaib etc etc this is getting tiring pic.twitter.com/so5fmgDvIw
Against the backdrop of possible annexation of certain areas of the West Bank and President Trump's Deal of the Century, Tawhid al Jihad released a publication promoting jihadist operations to prevent the implementation of those plans by Israel and the United States.
The video, titled "Rouse the Believers," is the first major publication by the jihadist group this year. The group emphasized a conspiracy by "Jews and Christians" against the Palestinian cause.
The publication began by the group denouncing Trump's Middle East peace plan and the United States' 2017 decision that recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
"We have all heard the lying and falsehood of the Jews and American usurpers of our lands and our Aqsa by announcing Trump's peace plan. Their talking is falsehood, and our doing is the truth," the narrator stated.
Furthermore, behind the imagery of Tawhid al Jihad fighters training at a military camp in Gaza, the narrator urged followers to unite against Jews and Christians for the cause of jihad.
"Our nation! Our youth! Be careful! Obey your Lord! Unite your work! Sincerely intend to obey Allah! Be a strong barrier against aspirations of Jews and Christians and their followers. Be defenders of Islam! The Islamic Jihad is lasting forever in our nation," the group stated.
Additionally, the group implied it would launch jihadist operations by showing recordings of various terrorist attacks against Israelis throughout the publication.
"May the matter of the Islamic nation rise by raising the matter of its Holy Quran, and by taking Jihad for the sake of Allah as a way to restore its stolen rights, as our predecessors were doing. We hate death, but we are ready to set fires for the sake of Allah," the narrator stated as video of attacks were played.
Thread: With a picture of Gaza and the West Bank united as one Palestinian entity, Abu Obeida, the spokesperson of al Qassam Brigades, warned Israel about Palestinian prisoners and the possible annexation of areas in the West Bank. pic.twitter.com/ZvGW467BFv
On the anniversary of the Gilad Shalit abduction, the salafist-jihadi organization in #Gaza, Jaysh al Islam, published the last will and testament of one of their fighters, Muhammad Farwana, who was killed in the operation. An excerpt of the publication is below. pic.twitter.com/3dbhAU0NQy
A virtual meeting was held this week with Sheikh Ali al-Obeidi, the head of the Bedouin tribes in Iraq and Syria, and the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Al-Obeidi had written to Jerusalem Center President Dore Gold, saying, "We want to join our hands with yours in order to create for our people and upcoming generations a future where we will live in peace and love as allies." He said that he wants to reach a strategic alliance with Israel and hopes to reach a peace agreement between Iraq, Syria, and Israel and establish full political and economic relations.
The sheikh stated that his goal, together with Israel, is to expel Iranians from Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. He added, "We are ready to go to Jerusalem to visit you and make a new history for the Middle East."
Amb. Gold said this is an important step to another and different dialogue in the Middle East, a dialogue that can bring about a change in the world and Israel, and it is important to foster it. Gold said it was important to note that neither the current debate over Israeli application of sovereignty nor the Palestinian issue arose during the conversation.
The Syrian regime and its military know full well who carried out the airstrikes on their territory on Sunday and Tuesday nights. The Syrians say that Israeli planes attacked four different locations, and cellphone footage shows large explosions, typical of a weapons storage facility being hit.
The Iranians are bringing technology for missile development to Syria in order to assemble precision missiles there. Their inventory is scattered across many storage facilities to hide it from Israeli intelligence. These sites were often guarded by Shi'ite soldiers, directed and funded by Iran.
The alleged Israeli attacks this week were also conducted to convey a message to the Syrian regime: As long as you protect the Iranians, you will continue to pay a high price even though Israel has no interest to directly confront the Syrian regime at the moment. Israel's message to the Iranian regime is: We will not allow you to entrench in Syria, you will pay with money and blood, and we will disrupt your precision missile project as much as we can.
Airstrikes in Syria Tuesday that were attributed to Israel struck an onion-processing plant and a cattle feed factory converted by Iranian forces into ammunition warehouses, a Syrian watchdog group said Friday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one strike targeted the onion factory in Salamiyah, near Hama in western Syria.
It said though the plant is operational, part of it had been taken over by Iranian forces and converted into a weapons warehouse. The report further said the strike caused numerous secondary explosions that lasted for several hours, and that fragments from these explosions went on to wound local residents.
The Observatory said a second strike targeted the feed plant in Aqrab, also in the Hama region, which was being used by Iranian forces to conceal weapon storage facilities.
The strikes allegedly carried out by Israel targeted several regions in Syria and killed at least seven people, including two Syrian soldiers and five pro-Iranian militia members, state news agency SANA and the Britain-based Observatory said.
Just two days after alleged Israeli airstrikes targeted a number of sites around Syria, 10 pro-Iranian militants were killed in airstrikes by unidentified aircraft in central Syria on Thursday night, according to the local Ayn Al-Furat news source.
The airstrikes targeted two sites between Palmyra and As-Sukhna in the Homs Governorate in central Syria. The first site had been used as a fuel station for the Assad regime and is currently used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Heavy weaponry and about 40 militants are stationed at the site. The second site is used as an operations room for the IRGC and weapons are stored there as well.
One of those killed in the strikes was an Iraqi leader named Abu Al-Hassan, according to the report. Afghan militants were also among those killed in the strikes.
Also on Thursday night, two members of the Iraqi Hezbollah militia were killed and a number of others were wounded after unidentified aircraft targeted a site belonging to the militia near Sabikhan in the Deir Ezzor region of eastern Syria, according to the Shahed news agency.
The dead and wounded were transferred back to Iraq and the site was evacuated, according to the report.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the graduates of the Israel Air Force pilots' course on Thursday: "Three main challenges are before us, and we are taking action without respite against them: First, we are taking constant action against the efforts of Iran and its proxies to entrench militarily in Syria. The Iranian military must leave Syria."
"Second, we are taking action against the efforts of our enemies to develop precision missiles in Syria, Lebanon and other areas. Third, and most importantly, we will not allow Iran to attain nuclear weapons. I must tell you that Iran is continuing to lie to the international community in its effort to achieve a bomb."
"We regard with utmost seriousness the threats of destruction against Israel by Iranian and pro-Iranian elements....Our struggle against Iranian aggression in the region is designed - first and foremost - to defend ourselves, to defend the State of Israel. However, this struggle, this effort, serves the interest of stability in the entire region."
"The stronger and more powerful we are, the more we deter our enemies and draw our friends closer. This mission, to translate Israel's strength into deterrence of our enemies and action against them if need be, is - from this moment - placed on your shoulders as well."
President Obama had faith that Iran's rulers, once in receipt of his respect and US taxpayer cash, would decide they'd rather lead a nation than champion a cause (to borrow one of Henry Kissinger's concepts). That would mean they'd focus on alleviating poverty at home, while ending the pursuit of regional hegemony (in the near-term) and "Death to America!" (in the long-term).
Similarly, both Bill Clinton and Donald Trump bet that visions of détente and economic benefits would mellow the dynastic Kim dictatorship in North Korea. In truth, the despots in Pyongyang have always taken whatever goodies were offered, while never contemplating serious concessions in return.
And, of course, for nearly half a century we've labored under the delusion that China's Communist rulers were evolving into responsible stakeholders in the "liberal, rules-based, international order." To that end, we provided them a seat on the UN Security Council, brought them into the World Trade Organization, and elaborately intertwined their economy with ours.
To demonstrate their gratitude, they've been stealing our intellectual property, accelerating military buildups, aggressing against their neighbors, and brutally oppressing their subject peoples – China's ethnic and religious minorities especially.
The hard reality that should now be apparent is that America's adversaries are fanatical ideologues, not material girls (to borrow one of Madonna's concepts).
In an election year, and at a time when Americans are deeply divided on a range of issues, fresh strategic thinking is unlikely to be formulated, much less implemented. The best we can expect – and this will be challenging enough – are policies that limit the resources available to those most hostile to us, frustrate their ambitions, and perhaps persuade them that, should they do us harm, they will pay a steep price.
An explosion at an Iranian gas storage facility close to a sensitive military site near the capital Tehran was caused by a tank leak, a Defense Ministry spokesman told state TV on Friday.
The explosion took place in the "public area" of Parchin, said the spokesman, Davoud Abdi, as opposed to the military site, where Western security services believe Tehran carried out tests relevant to nuclear bomb detonations more than a decade ago.
Abdi said the fire was brought under control and there were no casualties because the incident happened in a hilly non-residential area.
Videos and pictures posted on social media that were picked up by local news outlets showed an explosion with a bright orange flash, followed by a large plume of smoke.
The Islamic Republic has announced its intention to execute three young activists for partaking in civil protests. Human rights violations are rampant in #Iran but rarely so blatant and callous. International bodies must immediately intervene to save these lives. @antonioguterrespic.twitter.com/cbEl2fpgkg
Actress who starred in Oscar-winning film has been given a 5 month prison sentence for 'propaganda activities against the state' for re-posting a video of Iranian authorities attacking a woman for not wearing a hijab.
TV Host Hala Samir on Muslim Brotherhood TV: Homosexuals Should Be Killed – Burned Alive
Egyptian TV host Hala Samir said in a June 16, 2020 monologue on her show on Watan TV (Turkey-Based Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood) that the Prophet Muhammad had said that if two men are found carrying out a homosexual act, both the "active" partner and the "passive" partner should be killed. She explained that Muhammad's companions had disagreed only with regard to the method of killing the homosexuals and she elaborated that some of these methods include burning them alive, throwing them off a high place, and stoning them. In addition, Samir said that lesbianism is also prohibited by Islamic law. She added: "Some of them say: 'I am not homosexual, I'm gay' [because] they want it to sound nice. No! You are a homosexual, a sodomite, and a lesbian."
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