09/14 Links: ISIS/Hamas? One Beheads, The Other Shoots People's Heads; Hollywood backs Israel

From Ian:

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A new anti-Semitism? Why thousands of Jewish citizens are leaving France


Brussels Jewish Museum reopens four months after shooting that killed four

Four months after a shooting that killed four people, the Brussels Jewish Museum opened its doors to the public again on Sunday in a solemn ceremony attended by Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo.
The museum in central Brussels had been closed since the May 24 attack by a gunman who opened fire in the museum with a Kalashnikov rifle, killing an Israeli couple, a French woman and a Belgian man.
French national Mehdi Nemmouche is suspected of having carried out the attack after spending most of 2013 fighting in Syria with Islamist rebels, French prosecutors have said.
"We are fighting and will continue in our fight against terrorism," Di Rupo said at the opening ceremony marked by tight security.
"Belgium has strengthened and will intensify further its European and international cooperation to combat more effectively the networks and individuals that threaten our democracies."

Think Hollywood Is Anti-Israel? Page A7 of Saturday’s New York Times Might Make You Reconsider

Hollywood may be a famously liberal place, and liberals may be turning against Israel, but a significant chunk of the entertainment industry is standing up for the Jewish state.
In a massive full-page ad in Saturday’s New York Times, the Creative Community for Peace (CCFP) reiterated their support of Israel — and, according to the organization, the group’s ranks of Hollywood backers have swelled from under 200 in late August to more than 300.

Creative Community for Peace in the New York Times

The text of the ad, and the signatories follow:
We, the undersigned, are saddened by the devastating loss of life endured by Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza. We are pained by the suffering on both sides of the conflict and hope for a solution that brings peace to the region.
While we stand firm in our commitment to peace and justice, we must also stand firm against ideologies of hatred and genocide which are reflected in Hamas' charter, Article 7 of which reads, “There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!” The son of a Hamas founder has also commented about the true nature of Hamas.
Hamas cannot be allowed to rain rockets on Israeli cities, nor can it be allowed to hold its own people hostage. Hospitals are for healing, not for hiding weapons. Schools are for learning, not for launching missiles. Children are our hope, not our human shields.
We join together in support of the democratic values we all cherish and in the hope that the healing and transformative power of the arts can be used to build bridges of peace.

Netanyahu: ISIS, Hamas, al-Qaida all branches of the same poison tree

Speaking during a meeting with a visiting Israel Bonds leadership delegation, Netanyahu said all of the groups in question share the same ideology.
"The main difference between ISIS [Islamic State] and Hamas is that these guys cut off heads, while the other guys shoot at heads."
Netanyahu sent his condolences to the British people for the loss of David Haines, the British aid worker who was purportedly beheaded by an Islamic State terrorist in Syria, as seen in a video released on Saturday.
"We understand the barbarism that they are dealing with," Netanyahu said.
He added that the threats spreading in the area were also posing a challenge to Israel's defense of its own borders.
"We need a very strong defense against them. We need a strong army and also a strong economy. Achieving a balance between them is one of the central goals before us and I intend to achieve both strong security and a strong economy," Netanyahu said.

US Senate majority leader: Hamas is just as bad as ISIS

Nevada Senator and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid condemned Hamas and affirmed the U.S.' s support for Israel on Thursday, calling the failure to condemn Hamas as one would condemn the Islamic State group "stunning hypocrisy."
"Hamas and ISIS are both vicious, corrupt, hateful, evil groups. And both are extreme. Yet, for some reason, Hamas' brutality doesn’t elicit the same horror from the international community as ISIS. How can that be?" Reid wondered as he addressed the Senate.
Reid's remarks came a day after President Barack Obama addressed the nation to outline his strategy in combating Islamic State, which has taken control of swaths of land in Syria and Iraq and has beheaded two American journalists. On Sunday, the group issued a video depicting the beheading of a British aid worker.
In his speech, Reid said that "much has been said about the terrorist group ISIS in recent days -- and rightfully so. ISIS is a vile mob of fanatics whose butchery knows no bounds. I’m confident that President Obama’s targeted action will degrade and destroy this menace."

US State Dept Attacks Its Ally, Israel Over UNRWA Human Shields [photo]

State Department spokesperson Marie Harf told reporters at a briefing this past Thursday, “We were horrified by the strikes that hit UNWRA facilities.”
As a matter of fact, it is not at all clear that any Israeli shells actually hit UNRWA facilities while they were occupied. There is satellite imagery and video documentation that the buildings were empty at the time that a single Israeli shell struck an UNWRA building.
Other shells that struck around UNRWA buildings and in a courtyard and were aimed directly with surgical precision at the terrorists who were being targeted precisely because they were firing rockets at Israeli civilians, and at Israeli soldiers.
None of which apparently mattered to the United States, even though the use of human shields does not preclude the legal right to wage war against a legitimate military target in international law.

Unit 8200: IDF To Cancel Disobedience Training (satire)

A letter from a group of disgruntled intelligence corps reservists refusing further participation in duties that they claim treat Palestinians with unnecessary harshness has prompted a public outcry and caused the Israeli military to call off a highly touted training course in insubordination.
More than 40 reserve soldiers who serve in the critical intelligence Unit 8200 signed a public letter announcing their intention not to return to serve, in protest over assignments that, according to the letter, involved abusive treatment of Palestinian residents in those locations. The reaction of the defense establishment was swift, denouncing the attitude of the self-styled “refuseniks” in questioning the military necessity of assignments and in taking their complaint to the media instead of the military or political leadership, a move that plays into Israel’s enemies on the battlefield and in the public arena. As a result, the IDF has removed from its training curriculum a component that teaches soldiers how to disobey direct orders.
The course, called Officer Capacity and Honor Enhancement for Reservists in Israel (OCHER Yisrael), has been an essential element of training since the 1980′s. It was originally conceived as a vehicle for keeping the disciplinary arm of the forces at peak levels of performance by maximizing the number of soldiers undergoing court martial and imprisonment. The IDF is generally considered the world’s most combat-tested army as a result of its many wars over its relatively short existence, and then-Chief-of-Staff Raphael Eitan instructed the military to exploit that phenomenon throughout the service to ensure efficient and effective performance even in non-combat units.

Egyptian academic demands Jews give back gold stolen during the Exodus

Ammar Ali Hassan told Egypt's Channel 1 in a July interview translated by MEMRI, "We know for a fact that Moses was in this land. Most of the Jews who left Egypt to wander in the Sinai Desert were the Jews who defied Moses and rejected his preachings."
Hassan said that , "When they left they stole Egypt's gold and treasures. Many of the studies on Jewish financial conduct in the history of Egypt, as well as in the history of humanity as a whole...Take, for example the character of Shylock in the "Merchant of Venice," by Shakespeare. This character is replica of the Jew who lived in Egypt - a merchant and a loan shark, who deposits his profits abroad, instead of investing them in the country."
He claimed that Jews had "plundered this country all the time - beginning with the theft of Egypt's gold in the days of Moses, and culminating in what they did to our economy prior to the 1952 revolution."
"We demand that they return the treasures they stole from us, including the interest they denied the Egyptian economy for many decades," he said.

Israeli Arab leader: Shin Bet behind Islamic State

Muhammad Zidan, head of the High Follow-up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel — an umbrella organization representing Arab civil society and municipal politicians — said Friday that “the Israeli Shin Bet and the US are the ones who invented IS in order to create new divisions in the Arab world and the region which will serve them.”
“The question asked here is: Who provides IS with weapons? Who stands behind them financially? The answer is clear: The US supports IS in order to ease its takeover of the region,” he said.
Zidan was speaking at a gathering in Nazareth of the radical northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, attended by thousands of people. The leader of the branch, Sheikh Raed Salah, spoke against IS and its actions at the event, but said he opposed the US-lead coalition to defeat the group which “in my opinion represents a danger to the Arab world.”

Israel’s founding a ‘crime against humanity,’ says South Africa’s ANC

South Africa’s ruling party condemned Israel as a nation founded on the basis of apartheid, and branded the establishment of the state a crime against humanity.
The allegation was made in a statement issued over the weekend, as South Africa’s anti-Israel lobby planned to protest a conference Sunday held by South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) in Johannesburg.
The members of the Alliance — the ANC, the Communist Party, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African National Civics Organization — pledged “ongoing solidarity with the people of Palestine” and endorsed the movement calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. Finally, the group called on transport sector workers at South African docks and airports to refuse to handle products bound for Israel, and retail sector workers to reject any jobs involving goods manufactured in or originating from Israel.
On Sunday, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies was set to hold a conference under the motto “Celebrating 20 years of South Africa’s Freedom,” highlighting the Jewish community’s role in the struggle against apartheid. A senior ANC official, David Makhura, was scheduled to speak at the event, but reportedly canceled his appearance.

The Book Review From Hell

Lara Marlowe, credited as the Irish Times’s Paris correspondent who also happens to be the ex-wife of anti-Israel journalist Robert Fisk, has written a series of anti-Israel articles since the beginning of September, including one accusing Israel of employing “secret weapons” against Gaza.
In her latest polemic, Marlowe “reviews” a selection of some of the most virulently anti-Israel books in publication today:

Israel still claims it has no choice but to continue the policies of ethnic cleansing, dispossession and extermination that started with its foundation, as becomes clear from books by Max Blumenthal, Jean-Pierre Filiu, Ilan Pappe, Rashid Khalidi, Alison Weir, Ari Shavit and Shlomo Sand

Let’s take a brief look at some of those authors and the demonizing language that Marlowe uses to demonstrate her obvious hostility towards Israel.

CUNY Pro-BDS Vote Shelved After Heated Friday Evening Debate

A last minute resolution to divest from Israel at the City University of New York (CUNY) was shelved Friday night following a strong presence by pro-Israel supporters despite the start of Shabbat.
The Doctoral Students’ Council (DSC) of CUNY, which represents more than 4,700 members of the graduate school from across the CUNY system, announced earlier in the week that the last minute divestment vote will take place Friday, September 12 at 6 p.m.
Many pro-Israel students raised concerns that the vote’s scheduled start time was set to just before Shabbat, as well as the fact that no materials where handed out ahead of time to help students prepare. According to Dominique Nisperos, the DSC’s co-chair for communications, that was done out of “environmental concerns,” the Washington Free Beacon reported.
The proposed resolution, titled “The Endorsement of Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions”, calls on the CUNY system to endorse a “boycott of Israeli academic institutions and the divestment from Israeli companies,” as well to end academic partnerships with Israeli institutions such as the one between Baruch College and Israel’s College of Management and Academic Studies.

Malaysia favors Palestinians but buys from Israel

In the winter of 2013, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak stepped across the Egyptian border at Rafah and made a rare visit by a head of government to Hamas-ruled Gaza. Razak, whose country does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, told reporters: “We believe in the struggle of the Palestinian people. They have been suppressed and oppressed for so long.”
It was crystal clear which side he was on. Yet all that time, his country was importing more and more Israeli products — but not talking about it much, certainly not in Gaza.
Official data published by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) tells of a booming, but very discreet, trade relationship that is blossoming between the two countries, despite a hawkish prime minister in Jerusalem and Razak’s Islamist and proudly pro-Palestinian government in Kuala Lumpur.
Total trade between the two countries in 2013 reached $1.529 billion, almost double that of 2012, according to the CBS. That figure consists mostly of Israeli exports, at $1.457 billion. Trade continues to accelerate: Between January and July this year, Israeli exports to Malaysia soared to $884.7 million, a 27% jump over the same period last year.
By contrast, Malaysia’s foreign trade figures don’t carry any mention of Israel at all. In its annual data for 2012, for instance, trade with Israel is included in an entry for “Other Countries.”

Defending Violent Hate Speech

This is not a case of free speech or academic freedom. There is plenty that can and is being said on university campuses that are critical of Israel. But the kind of language that Professor Salaita chose to use is not just criticism. It is pure hate speech and intimidation, not just directed against the State of Israel but also against those who support the nation, including students who might be enrolled in his classes.
If Hiltzik thinks that the University’s decision was wrong and writes about it, he has an obligation to show his readers what was actually said.
Free speech is a bedrock principle of academia and should be righteously defended. However, when that speech crosses the line and labels student as “awful human beings” and “brainwashed” it is intimidation, not debate. Rather than promoting the free exchange of divergent views, that kind of “speech” has the opposite effect and ends up silencing and intimidating those who have different viewpoints.
That is why the University made the correct decision and why columns like Hiltzik’s are wrong.

BBC refuses to address complaint that it failed to cover the killing of Israeli child

On 22 August I made a formal complaint to the BBC (and also Sky News) about their failure to report on the main TV News the Hamas killing of 4-year-old Israeli child Daniel Tragerman (as covered in my story here). Here is the exact text of my complaint to the BBC:

BBC News tonight has failed to cover the very important story of an Israeli child (4-year-old Daniel Tragerman) who was killed in Israel by a Hamas rocket fired from a UN School in Gaza. BBC News has had something of an obsession with (often inaccurate) stories of children "killed from Israeli strikes on UN Schools". Yet now you are no longer interested in dead children and UN Schools associated with Gaza, even on a relatively quiet UK news day - not even in the tickertape headlines.

I have now had a response from the BBC (see below). As you can see they have completely ignored my specific complaint and have instead sent a boilerplate response that presumably they send to all people who they classify as 'complaining of anti-Israel bias'. Isn't nice to know that the hundreds of millions of pounds that the BBC receives annually from tax payers is not able to stretch to responding to a serious complaint such as this

PA fears Islamic State threat taking world's attention away from Palestinian issue

The leadership in Ramallah is concerned that the world has pushed the Palestinian issue to the back burner as the international community's attention has centered on efforts to combat the Islamic State terror threat.
US Secretary of State John Kerry won backing on Thursday for a "coordinated military campaign" against Islamic State from 10 Arab countries - Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and six Gulf states including rich rivals Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The terrorist organization grabbed headlines once again on Sunday morning, releasing a video which appears to show the beheading of British aid worker David Haines.
Israel Radio quoted Palestinian Authority chief negotiator Saeb Erekat as saying Sunday that the reason behind the extremism in the region is the continuation of the "Israeli occupation," the suffering of the Palestinian people and the "terror" carried out by Israel and the settlers.
Rather than forming a coalition to battle Islamic State, PA security official Adnan Damiri called on the US and Europe to form a coalition to combat "the terror of the Israeli occupation."

Obama’s Hand-Picked Successor to Abbas Could Re-Ignite ‘Peace Process’

The head of Palestinian Authority intelligence, Majid Faraj, is the Obama administration’s hand-picked favorite to succeed an ageing and ailing Mahmoud Abbas, according to several Middle East experts.
Abbas, now 80 and suffering from several medical ailments, chose Faraj in 2009 to head the General Intelligence Services, and he has since proved so much a favorite in the United States that he was secretly honored by the CIA last year for providing information that led to the arrest of terrorist Abu Anas Al-Libi, involved in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassy in Libya.
The CIA ostensibly honored him for “his efforts to open channels with Washington and with Hamas,” according to an article written for the Globes business news site by Dr. Moshe Elad, an IDF Reserve Colonel and college lecturer.
In truth, the reward was for Faraj’s helping arrest al-Libi, who had gathered information on American targets and carried a $5 million price tag on his head.

Palestinians Hire Advisors In U.S.

The Palestinian mission to the United Nations has recruited an advising group to represent it in the United States, new records filed with the Department of Justice this week show.
The Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations has signed a three-month contract with Independent Diplomat, a diplomatic advisory firm helmed by Carne Ross, a former high-level British diplomat who resigned from the Foreign Office in protest of the Iraq War.
Independent Diplomat has signed on to “provide advice to the Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations on its diplomatic strategy. The advice will include analysis of the diplomatic situation, for example at the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, and obtaining views of the US Government,” the filing in the Foreign Agents Registration Act reads.

Abbas to Meet French Leader as PA Pushes 3-Year Statehood Plan

Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas will meet French premier Francois Hollande in Paris on Friday, ahead of a key address to the United Nations, his spokesman said.
Abbas will spend two days in Paris before heading to New York, where he will attend the UN General Assembly, which opens on September 24, his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP on Sunday.
The PA leader will use his speech to the UN to try to rally support for a new diplomatic initiative to set a date for forcing Israel out of Judea and Samaria.
He recently obtained backing from the Arab League for his plan, which aims to secure an end to the Jewish presence in Judea-Samaria within three years and the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state in the region, which is historically and strategically important to Israel.

Kuwaiti foreign minister makes landmark Ramallah visit

Kuwait’s foreign minister arrived Sunday for a visit to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian officials.
The visit of Sheikh Sabah al-Khaled al-Sabah, who also serves as deputy prime minister, is the first by a high-ranking Kuwaiti official to the West Bank since 1967 and “signals the long-standing commitment of Kuwait’s leadership and people towards supporting the Palestinian people in their legitimate struggle for restoring their rights on the Arab and international levels,” according to the official Kuwait News Agency.
Palestinian Authority officials hailed the visit, with PA spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh saying it comes at a critical juncture for the Palestinian cause, and noting that “Kuwaiti-Palestinian relations have a long history as Kuwait has been supporting the Palestinian Authority and its people at all levels.”

Experts Say Jordan in Danger - and Israel's Next in Line

In a new article, Professor Arnon Sofer, head of the Chaikin Chair of Geo-Strategy at the University of Haifa, and Anton Berkovsky discuss the danger of immigration from the turmoil-filled Arab states to Israel.
"Countries in the Middle East are currently in states of internal and external war, pressing the State of Israel to prepare for waves of immigrants from Arab countries to Israeli territory, which may endanger her existence," they wrote.
According to Sofer and Berkovsky, the waves of immigrants already constitute a real danger to the future of Jordan. The worst case scenario being the movement of ISIS into Jordan, and subsequently creating a pure "Islamic State" within the country.

Minister confirms Israel would aid Jordan against IS

Intelligence and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz downplayed on Sunday the prospect of Israel confronting the Islamic State if it were to move on Jordan, but confirmed that if the monarchy requested help, it would be in Israel’s interest to answer the call.
“Jordan is a strong state, but still if Jordan was truly in danger from these jihadist extremists and asked for our assistance — Israel has a very clear interest in the existence of Jordan,” Steinitz told Israel Radio.

IS says it has beheaded British aid worker David Haines

The Islamist group released a video, available late Saturday on the website of private terrorism monitoring group SITE, purportedly showing a masked militant beheading Haines.
Britain’s Foreign Office said it was seeking to verify the authenticity of the video. If true, the killing would mark “another disgusting murder,” it said.
The video was entitled “A Message to the Allies of America.” Haines’ purported killer, who appeared to be the same man speaking with a British accent as in the previous videos, tells the British government that its alliance with the US will only “accelerate your destruction” and will drag the British people into “another bloody and unwinnable war.”
Haines was abducted in Syria in 2013 while working for an international aid agency.

Islamic State called richest terror group of all time

The Islamic State organization, which once relied on wealthy Persian Gulf donors for money, has become a self-sustaining financial juggernaut, earning more than $3 million a day from oil smuggling, human trafficking, theft and extortion, according to US intelligence officials and private experts.
The extremist group’s resources exceed that “of any other terrorist group in history,” said a US intelligence official who, like others interviewed, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss classified assessments. Such riches are one reason that American officials are so concerned about the group even while acknowledging they have no evidence it is plotting attacks against the United States.
The Islamic State group has taken over large sections of Syria and Iraq, and controls as many as 11 oilfields in both countries, analysts say. It is selling oil and other goods through generations-old smuggling networks under the noses of some of the same governments it is fighting: Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, Turkey and Jordan.

Turkey fails to cut Islamic State oil revenue despite US pressure

The Obama administration is struggling to cut off the millions of dollars in oil revenue that has made the Islamic State one of the wealthiest terror groups in history, but, so far, has been unable to persuade Turkey, the NATO ally where much of the oil is traded on the black market, to crack down on an extensive sales network.
Western intelligence officials say they can track the Islamic State oil shipments as they move across Iraq and into Turkey's southern border regions.
Despite extensive discussions inside the Pentagon, US forces have, so far, not attacked the tanker trucks.
However, a senior administration official said on Friday "that remains an option".
Difficulties over a wider US-led effort against the Islamic State were evident in US Secretary of State John Kerry's talks in Cairo where Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged the military coalition to target groups other than the Islamic State.
Turkey's failure to help choke off the oil trade symbolises the magnitude of the challenges facing the White House both in assembling a coalition to counter the Sunni militant group and in starving its lifeblood.

US: Turkey’s ties to Hamas no obstacle in war on Islamic State

At the daily press briefing in Washington, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf acknowledged that Ankara had “a relationship with Hamas” but added that this “played a productive role in terms of ceasefire negotiations” between the terrorist group and Israel in the recent Gaza conflict.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon last week accused Ankara of openly supporting terrorism, along with another US ally — Qatar. “The command center of Hamas’s overseas operations sits in Istanbul. Saleh al-Arouri is the man sitting there,” he said, referring to the senior Hamas official, alleged by Israel to have played a key role in orchestrating the abduction and killing of three Israeli teens in June, who is based in the Turkish city and enjoys the support of local officials.
Ya’alon also expressed outrage that the international community would allow Turkey to back terrorism while remaining a member of NATO.
But asked whether the US should, in its war against one terror organization, be allying itself with a nation which is ostensibly a supporter of another terror group and provides a haven for its leaders, Harf was evasive.
“The word ‘supporter’ though, I would not use that word when it comes to Turkey and Hamas,” she said, stressing that “Turkey is a NATO ally.”

Sisi: International Coalition Should Not Only Fight IS

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told visiting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday that any global coalition against terrorism should battle not just “Islamic State” (IS, formerly ISIS) but other groups as well, Reuters reports.
Egyptian security officials have said Islamic State has established contacts with Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, the Sinai-based terrorist group which has killed hundreds of security forces since the army toppled Islamist President Mohammed Morsi last year.
The group has also claimed responsibility for several rocket attacks that targeted the Israeli resort city of Eilat.
Sisi reportedly told Kerry said any international coalition to combat terrorism "should be comprehensive and not exclusively target a specific organization or eradicate a certain terrorist hotspot", the presidency said in a statement.
"Rather, the coalition should extend to encompass combating terrorism wherever it exists in the Middle East and African regions," the statement said, according to Reuters.

Indonesia arrests four Turks over links to Islamic State

Indonesia’s anti-terrorism police have arrested four Turks suspected of being linked to the Islamic State jihadist group, a spokesman said on Sunday.
The elite Detachment 88 police squad arrested the men, along with three Indonesians, after tailing their car on Saturday in central Sulawesi district of Poso, a known hotbed for militant activity, Boy Rafli Amar told AFP.
“They are Turkish,” Amar said, confirming the arrest and adding that the men were being investigated for their connection to the dreaded Islamist group.
“We suspect they are linked and are investigating further,” he said.

To Keep Citizens From Joining ISIS, Nations To Hold Pillages At Home (satire)

To blunt the visceral appeal to young men of a militia that encourages its fighters to engage in brutality, abuse, rape, and theft, countries around the word have developed a plan to keep the potential Islamic State recruits at home by establishing local outlets for the barbaric behavior targeting religious opponents.
The military achievements and massive human rights violations of the Islamic State’s fighters have prompted dozens of countries to examine how many of their citizens have gone to Syria and Iraq to join the movement, and challenged those countries to find ways to prevent their men and women from continuing to do so. Estimates of the number of non-Syrian and non-Iraqi fighters in ISIS ranks go as high as 12,000, primarily from the Muslim world but in worrisome numbers from Western countries as well. To stem the trend, Britain announced today that it would be instituting a weekly event at Wembley Stadium at which Muslim fighters with British citizenship could participate in various displays of brutality against non-Muslims. Three other nations quickly announced similar plans, hoping to keep the potential ISIS recruits from channeling their bloodthirstiness toward the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate.

MEMRI: Satan and a Jewish Woman Give Birth to ISIS in an Iraqi TV Satire

Al-Iraqiyya TV recently aired a promo announcing a soon-to-come anti-ISIS satirical series. The series, called "The Superstitious State" - a play on the words "khilafa" ("caliphate") and "khirafa" ("superstition") – features an assortment of colorful characters, including a red-clad devil with a pitchfork, whose union with a Jewess - wearing a large Star of David - begets an "ISIS-ling" in the form of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, hatched from an egg. Other characters in the cast include Sheikha Mozah, wife of the former Emir of Qatar, a gun-toting, grog-swigging American cowboy, the Joker from Batman, Dracula, and a character presumably representing Stalin. The promo was broadcast on the Iraqi TV channel on September 9, and is being shown several times a day since.

Satan and a Jewish Woman Give Birth to ISIS in an Iraqi TV Satire


Merkel to headline rally against anti-Semitism

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Jewish leaders will speak Sunday at a Berlin rally against anti-Semitism after the latest Gaza conflict sparked an upsurge in hate speech against Jews.
Under the banner “Stand Up: Jew Hatred – Never Again!” political and religious leaders and thousands of people are expected at the rally from 3 p.m. (1 p.m. GMT) at the iconic Brandenburg Gate.
The event, to be attended by German President Joachim Gauck, coincides with a meeting in the capital of the World Jewish Congress, whose president Ronald S. Lauder is among the speakers.
It comes 75 years after the outbreak of World War II, during which Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews, a crime that remains a source of enduring shame in the country.

Turkish Government’s Supreme Council for radio and television fines Kurdish TV Channel for airing Holocaust film ‘The Pianist’…….

Turkish Government’s Radio and Television Supreme Council(RTÜK) considers Pianist as brutal. The Supreme Council fined Gün TV(a Kurdish TV Channel) for showing the drama film that is telling the story of a Jewish pianist who survived concentration camps. CHP Deputy (from Main Opposition Party) condemned the decision and said this is ridiculous.

70 years after death in battle, Jewish soldier buried at Arlington

Private First Class Daniel Gavrin, declared missing in 1944, was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in a Jewish ceremony.
Gavrin was given full military honors on Friday, and a flag was handed to his nephew, David Rogers.
Gavrin was part of an invasion force in Saipan, then occupied by Japan, in June 1944. Japanese forces subjected the forces to banzai, or suicide, attacks, and killed and injured over 900 US soldiers.
Gavrin, 29, was reported missing on July 7 and declared presumed dead a year later.
A Japanese NGO last year uncovered remains in Saipan, now a US territory, in an unmarked burial site.

Lady Gaga's manic sci-fi artRAVE wakes Tel Aviv from its war-induced slumber

If Lady Gaga lives for "Applause," as she sings, then she got one hell of a life force coming from the crowd in Tel Aviv Saturday night – and the pop star certainly reciprocated.
An adrenaline shot laced with Gaga's brand of insanity and sex appeal was exactly what Israel's "non-stop city" needed, in the first major concert by an international act after a summer in which rockets from Gaza forced it to take a couple of naps and cancel performances by acts like Neil Young, the Backstreet Boys, and Lana del Rey.
The crowd of more than 25,000 seemed desperate to lap up some of the indefatigable pop star's vitality and Gaga obliged, giving more and more to the audience for nearly two hours until she broke down crying, with black mascara-stained tears streaming down her face at the end of her encore song, "Gypsy."

Israel takes 2-1 lead vs Argentina in Davis Cup

Israel’s Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram defeated Argentina’s Federico Delbonis and Horacio Zeballos 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 in doubles Saturday for a 2-1 lead in the Davis Cup World Group playoff.
The match will be decided Sunday in reverse singles when Argentina’s top player Leonardo Mayer faces Israel’s Dudi Sela. If necessary in the best-of-five series, Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq will play Bar Botzer.
The event was originally a home match for Israel in Tel Aviv. But because of safety concerns, the International Tennis Federation moved it to Florida.

Israeli Hospital Battles to Save Injured Syrian Child's Sight

Israeli medics were checking last week a 12-year-old Syrian boy who was brought to Ziv Medical Centre in Tzfat (Safed), northern Israel.
The hospital said that the boy was severely wounded, losing the sight in both eyes and suffering injuries to his arm and leg, when a shell exploded near his home in the outskirts of Damascus. After undergoing basic medical treatment in Lebanon, his brother took him by donkey across the border to an Israeli military post, where soldiers took him to hospital in Safed.
The spokesperson said the boy was one of ten Syrians currently being treated at the hospital, and one of several hundred since February 2013.

Twenty photos of Jerusalem as you’ve never seen before

The city of Jerusalem is undoubtedly one of the most important places in the world.
A center for the world’s three main religions, Jerusalem has numerous sites of worship, rich with history thousands of years old. While archeologists keep unveiling its many secrets, the city evolves into one of the most modern and vibrant ones in the Middle East.
Living so close to this magnificent city, I have had the privilege to experience Jerusalem year-round and this experience is beyond words.
So here are 20 photos that will show you a different perspective of Jerusalem, like you have never seen before.