From Ian:
Border Police guard killed in Jerusalem attack named as Hadas Malka, 23
Border Police guard killed in Jerusalem attack named as Hadas Malka, 23
The Border Police officer killed in a coordinated stabbing and shooting attack in two areas in Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday was identified as Hadas Malka, 23.Another Stunning Loss for Anti-Israel Academics
She was a resident of Moshav Givat Ezer in central Israel, having joined the Border Police 15 months ago. She leaves behind parents and five siblings, three sisters and two brothers.
Malka was critically injured in a stabbing attack on Sultan Suleiman Street near Damascus Gate on Friday evening. She was transferred to Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus in Jerusalem where she underwent emergency surgery and later succumbed to her injuries.
She fought her attacker for several seconds while attempting to draw her weapon, according to a Border Police statement. Nearby troops shot and killed the assailant.
In a nearby location, at Zedekiah’s Cave, two attackers, one of them with a knife and another with a homemade Carl Gustav sub-machine gun, attacked a group of Border Police officers. The troops opened fire and killed them.
That this resolution passed the Delegate Assembly 101 to 93 was stunning. While a number of academic organizations have voted down BDS resolutions, I know of no professional academic organization that has voted up a resolution rejecting BDS.Eric Pickles: How did Corbyn’s comments on Hamas not put off voters?
Yet the resolution to reject BDS had another high hurdle to clear, a full membership vote. The MLA, in order to prevent tiny minorities from speaking for the whole organization has a rule that resolutions require an affirmative vote of at least 10 percent of the entire membership to pass. Since only a small percentage of members typically bother to vote, it is very hard to muster that 10 percent, particularly when facing determined opposition. Moreover, insofar as humanities scholars lean even further left than the rest of the academy, one might expect them to be susceptible to the argument boycott advocates were making. To vote to reject BDS would be positively . . . Trumpian! As one prominent pro-BDS academic subtly puts it, “in a climate of rabid right-wing suppression of minority rights, of Trumpian chants to ‘build walls’ and ban Muslims, of egregious bigotry and hatred, any gesture curtailing political expression is a political disaster and a gift to reactionary zealots.”
But it turns out that even in the present political atmosphere and among left-liberals, the ritual invocation of Trump cannot disguise how contrary an academic boycott is to the spirit of scholarship and teaching the MLA claims to stand for. It cannot disguise how distasteful the BDS movement, which has flirted with anti-Semitism even in the course of otherwise staid MLA discussions, is. And it cannot disguise how harmful an endorsement of the anti-Israel boycott would be to the MLA’s reputation. The resolution to “refrain from endorsing the boycott” passed overwhelmingly, 1954 to 885.
Naturally, the boycotters plan to continue the struggle. They are not deterred that their attempt to pass a pro-BDS resolution has resulted instead in an anti-BDS resolution. Evidently the only thing worse than suffering a humiliating defeat is the idea of going back to teaching language and literature.
Much has been made of the Conservative resurgence in Scotland, spearheaded by Ruth Davidson. Important though this is, commentators ought also to be looking at north London.
Were it not for the Jewish community’s strong support for Conservative candidates in north London, then Comrade Corbyn could well be in No 10 right now. The support prevented a near whitewash of the Conservatives in London. Steadfast friends of Israel and the Jewish community – Bob Blackman, Mike Freer, Matthew Offord and Theresa Villiers – held on narrowly thanks to support from Jewish constituents. Sadly, CFI officer David Burrowes lost in Enfield Southgate.
A Jewish Chronicle pre-election poll showed 77 percent of British Jews would vote Conservative. It’s only with hindsight that one can appreciate the significance of this. The UK’s Jewish community has a proud history of engaging in politics and this election offered a timely reminder of the importance of its voice.
Worryingly, it seems Jeremy Corbyn’s relationships with hardline and extremist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, simply didn’t concern British voters in a way one would have foreseen. It seldom came up on doorsteps. That this would fail to resonate at a time when Britain has suffered from three appalling Islamist terror attacks is acutely concerning.





















