Tuesday Links Part 2

From Ian:

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New Research Sheds Light on Nazi Influence in Arab World

The Mufti was the most prominent Arab figure to support the Nazis, but he was not alone. “My research tracks the effort by the Germans, Italians, and Japanese to spread their propaganda and influence in Palestine and various Arab countries,” said Dr. Cohen, who was born and raised in Beirut and immigrated to Israel in 1995. “They worked hard at it and, to a significant extent, they succeeded.” Cohen has been combing through Arabic-language Nazi and Axis leaflets and radio broadcasts that were collected and analyzed by Haganah intelligence in the 1930s and 1940s.

Barry Rubin: The Region: The situation is looking better

What often seems to be the world’s most slandered and reviled country is doing quite well.
Face it: The obsession with the “peace process” is misplaced and misleading. The big issue in the region is the struggle for power in the Arabic-speaking world, Turkey, and Iran between Islamists and non-Islamists. And, no, the Arab- Israeli conflict has very little to do with these issues. Those who don’t understand these points cannot possibly comprehend the region.
Secretary of State John Kerry may run around the region and talk about big plans for summit conferences.
But nobody really expects anything to happen.

New Book Details Backlash Against "Zionism is Racism" Resolution

Daniel Patrick Moynihan blasted the United Nations resolution in a moment in history that made waves for more than just one moment.
A new book details the infamous "Zionism is Racism" resolution at the United Nations and the dramatic condemnation by United States ambassador to the UN Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
Gil Troy is the author of Moynihan’s Moment: America’s Fight Against Zionism As Racism. Troy spoke to Arutz Sheva - Israel National Radio on the Derech Eretz Hour with Rabbi Elan Adler.

Let the French Pay for UNESCO
There’s no reason to waive U.S. laws to bankroll a wasteful, anti-American U.N. agency.

If UNESCO’s officials, in their lavish Paris headquarters, need the money, why not tell them to go lobby the French? France was among the member states that voted in 2011 to admit the Palestinians. The Gauls’ dues cover a mere 6.1 percent of UNESCO’s core budget, or about $20 million, compared with the 22 percent the U.S. was paying. Surely, if France appreciates UNESCO’s contributions to world peace (and French jobs) so much, the Quai d’Orsay could scrounge up a few more euros?

Debunking the ‘Palestinians as Native Americans’ Myth

In one anti-Israel protest outside of Nablus, Palestinians even dressed up like Native Americans in order to make a political point.
Various anti-Israel groups argue that the Palestinians are like Israel’s “Native Americans. However, the truth of the matter is that the Jewish people are the closest thing to an indigenous people within the Holy Land, while the Palestinian Arabs ancestors sprung out from centers of empire.

BBC documentary ‘Israel: Facing The Future’ tries to break the mould

Whilst the programme does have its inaccuracies, all in all it is clear that – for once – a genuine effort was made to present an objective, well-rounded picture of a complex subject and that a good deal of background research must have gone into making the documentary. Although the cameraman is not named on the relevant page of the BBC website, the film includes some stunning shots, often peppered with good humour.

At last moment, BBC drops documentary on Jewish exile

The BBC’s last-minute decision to drop a documentary that questions the extent of the Jewish exile after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE was a mixture of “incompetence,” “political naivete” and “lack of courage,” the Israeli filmmaker behind the project has charged.
The film “Exile: A Myth Unearthed,” which theorizes that many modern-day Palestinians could be partially descended from Jews who never left the region, was due to be shown in modified form by the BBC last week, but was pulled from the schedule at the last moment.

Hungarian Jewish leader beaten at soccer match

The head of Hungary’s Raoul Wallenberg Association said he was beaten at a soccer match in Budapest.
Ferenc Orosz told the Hungarian news agency MTI during a conference Monday on hate speech that “first he was verbally assaulted and then his nose was broken after a match at Budapest’s Puskas Stadium which he attended with his family” the previous day.

Suspicion grows that Boston bombers were behind 2011 murders

The families of three Boston-area men gruesomely murdered in 2011 have steadfastly declined to speak to the press even as suspicion has taken root that the men, two of them Jewish, were murdered by alleged Boston bomber and Islamist radical Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Israel Hi-Tech Firm Helped Capture Boston Bombers

Surveillance cameras were not enough to catch the Boston Marathon terrorists. The Israeli-based BriefCam firm “collapsed” an hour of video and focused on suspicious objects – and people.
An Israeli hi-tech company with an office in metropolitan Boston was instrumental in helping to identify and lead to the arrest of the Boston Marathon terrorists
BriefCam company’s technology enabled investigators to summarize an hour of surveillance video footage into only one minute and also zoom in on people and objects whose movements changed during the filming. The system then can track those movements form the beginning of the video.

As queen abdicates, Israelis like the Dutch very much

Israelis consider the Netherlands the second-friendliest country in Europe, according to a new survey published ahead of the occasion of the investiture of a new Dutch king on Tuesday.
One-fifth of respondents ranked the Netherlands as being the friendliest European country toward Israel after Germany, according to the survey, which was commissioned by the Dutch Embassy in Israel. Asked why, 86 percent of those who took part in the survey mentioned the country’s “continuing support of Israel regarding political issues.” About three-quarters cited “the low level of anti-Semitism compared to other EU member states.”