Thursday, July 10, 2014
An Open Letter to Israel’s Critics
To Israel’s critics:Schumer, in Senate floor speech: There is no moral equivalency between Hamas & Israel (h/t Alexi - happy now?)
Want to be taken seriously by Israel and its friends?
Here’s your moment to demonstrate your bona fides.
If you really mean what you say about criticizing Israeli policies but not questioning Israel’s inherent right to live in peace and security, then raise your voice right now.
Not tomorrow, not the day after, but today.
Speak up and say that the scores, if not hundreds, of rockets being fired from Gaza at Israel are an abomination. Say there can be no justification for such acts of terror.
Say that this assault is a brazen violation of fundamental human rights.
Mandela’s legacy and Israel
Mandela’s attitude to Israel has indeed been a subject of much confused discussion and it is frightening to realize how propaganda can lead to widespread belief in false allegations. This is nowhere better demonstrated than by the fake letter circulated on the internet that led many to believe erroneously that Mandela regarded Israel as an apartheid state even though he never made that accusation. Former president Jimmy Carter eagerly quoted from it during a speech at Brandeis University and the BDS movement has used it enthusiastically
The lie originates in a 2007 fake memo that is still circulating on the internet that was purportedly signed “Nelson Mandela” and addressed to New York Times journalist Thomas Friedman but actually written by Arjan El Fassed, co-founder of the virulently anti-Israel blog, The Electronic Intifada.
El Fassed has since claimed he had no intention of misleading as he was merely copying the style of Friedman’s mock letters. But the important difference is that in Friedman’s mock letters he made the true origin absolutely clear as in his 2001 NY Times piece “Foreign Affairs; Powell’s First Memo”.
CAIR Promotes Justification of Palestinian Terror
On Wednesday afternoon, the Council on American Islamic Relations Twitter account featured an article from the anti-Israel blog Electronic Intifada that justifies Palestinian terror towards Israel. Minutes later, the group deleted the tweet but it was first captured and retweeted:Hamas Uses More False Images against Israel on Social Media
The picture, a spoof of an ADL ad warning of Palestinian terror against Israel, reads:
"Imagine you've been stateless for 66 years, living under military occupation for the last 47 years, and under a devastating trade embargo for the last 8. Imagine that anyone around you could be arbitrarily executed without due process by the occupying army. Imagine you had absolutely no legal recourse for addressing your predicament. No people would tolerate such conditions forever, and neither will Palestinians.
THAT'S WHY PALESTINIANS FIGHT BACK"
The article also derides Israel and the counter-terrorism initiatives of the Israeli government as "the latest act in a storied history of shameful behavior."
Earlier this week, CAIR leader Nihad Awad promoted anti-Semitism in an Arabic tweet.
As Breitbart News has reported, the majority of the pictures on social media using the hashtags #GazaUnderAttack and #GazaUnderFire are from previous events. The pro-Palestine people have continued in this practice of attaching images of dead children and women, mostly from the Syrian civil war, and asserting that the pictures were taken in Gaza this week.Police release to house arrest 3 suspects in killing of Arab teen
Three of the six people arrested Sunday in connection with the murder of East Jerusalem teen Muhammed Abu Khdeir were released to house arrest Thursday after police determined they had not taken part in the killing, despite being linked to those suspected in the crime.Indictment likely for policeman who beat American-Arab teen in Jerusalem
The three remaining suspects, one adult from the West Bank settlement of Adam and two minors from Jerusalem, were certainly behind the deadly assault of the Arab teen, police asserted. The three prime suspects in the killing confessed to the crime and reenacted it after they were brought by police to the spot in the Jerusalem Forest where Khdeir’s beaten and burned body was found, officials said.
Investigators are convinced the murder was carried out in revenge for the killing of three Israeli teenagers last month.
The police officer, whose name is still not being publicized, has been suspended for a minimum of 15 days pending a hearing at which the ministry will make a final decision about whether to file an indictment.An Arab-American Brutalized — by Palestinian Police
The statement clearly leaned toward indicting the officer, noting that he had repeatedly beaten Khdeir even after the boy had been handcuffed and subdued.
Despite the likely indictment, the statement said that Khdeir had been arrested while wielding a slingshot and wearing a makeshift face mask, and that he had been among a group of protesters who were throwing Molotov cocktails and stones at police.
No, we’re not talking about Tariq Abu Khdeir, the 15-year-old from Florida who threw firebombs at Israeli policemen last week and received, in return, a black eye and a fat lip. Tariq’s injuries have of course received enormous international attention, including a huge photo on the front page of The New York Times (top of the fold). The Obama administration has announced that it is “profoundly troubled” that Tariq was roughed up, and is angrily demanding a full investigation.Police find grounds to probe Zoabi for inciting against cop
Rather, we’re talking about another Arab-American — who was murdered by the police — but whose fate is of no interest to the powers that be, because the police who mistreated him were from the Palestinian Authority.
This sad but little-known story begins in 1995, when U.S. citizen Azzam Rahim, of Texas, decided to visit his native village, near the Palestinian Authority-controlled city of Ramallah. For unknown reasons, the PA police arrested him. Two days later, his dead body was returned to his family, complete with cigarette burns and broken bones. The Clinton Administration dragged its feet, but eventually confirmed that Rahim had been tortured to death by the PA police.
MK Haneen Zoabi (Balad) should be investigated for criminal incitement to violence, Asst.-Ch. Mani Yitzhaki, head of the Police Investigations and Intelligence Branch, recommended on Wednesday.Fears of Renewed Rioting as Arab Youths Stone Bus on Road 65
On Sunday, a police officer in Nazareth complained that after he testified in court in the city, angry protesters met him outside the courthouse.
One of the protesters was Zoabi, who “shouted offensive terms and called out to those present in a way that could be suspected as insulting a public worker and incitement to violence,” according to police. (h/t Bob Knot)
While the incessant rocket fire by Hamas terrorists from Gaza has taken the headlines in the past few days, Israeli security officials are still very wary of possible unrest in Israeli Arab towns and villages, and are maintaining an increased presence near communities in northern and central Israel where Arabs rioted last week and over the weekend.NY court orders Iran hand $1.75bn to U.S. victims
On Thursday, Arab youths threw rocks at an Israeli bus that was traveling along Road 65, a key artery that connects central and northern Israel. Unlike in Judea and Samaria, the buses traveling this route do not have special rock-resistant plastic windows, and when a large rock was thrown at the driver's window, the rock broke through the glass and hit a woman who was sitting in the front row of the bus. The woman was treated by Magen David Adom rescue workers. Police are searching for the culprits.
A U.S. appeals court in New York on Wednesday ordered $1.75 billion in Iranian funds to be handed to families of Americans killed in the 1983 attack on a barracks in Beirut.Egyptian Cleric Al-Zogbi Discusses the Annihilation of the Jews on Judgment Day
The decision from three judges upheld a ruling from U.S. federal judge Katherine Forrest in 2013 that the money, currently held in New York by Citibank, be handed over to the plaintiffs.
The money would be a partial payment of the $2.65 billion award a U.S. judge ordered Iran to pay to the families in 2007.
Elliott Abrams: BDS in West, integration in Middle East
Efforts continue in Europe and the United States to boycott Israel or at least Israeli goods "tainted" by their production in settlements in the West Bank, and to disinvest in Israeli companies or in U.S. firms doing business there. Most recently, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) joined in, voting that it would divest its shares in Caterpillar Inc., Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions because of their sales in Israel.Jimmy Carter Will Speak to Group Linked to Muslim Brotherhood
But in the Middle East, the trend seems to be exactly opposite. This week, Egypt's petroleum minister announced that Egypt would be buying Israeli natural gas. Why? Because Egypt needs energy supplies, and Israel is the logical supplier of gas. British Gas, the U.K. company, will extract the gas from Israeli sites in the Mediterranean and bring it by pipeline to Egypt. Here is part of the story in The Daily News, an Egyptian paper:
Former President Jimmy Carter will speak to a group linked by the Justice Department to the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, says a spokesman for the Clarion Project.ISIS Spreading Terror Wave into Lebanon
"This is not a moderate organization that is worthy of the prestige of a former president," Ryan Mauro said Tuesday on Fox News Channel's "The Kelly File."
The Islamic Society of North America's annual convention will be held in Detroit Aug. 29-Sept. 1, Mauro wrote in an article on the Clarion Project's website.
"The U.S. Justice Department labeled ISNA an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism-financing trial in American history and listed the group as a Muslim Brotherhood entity," Mauro wrote.
Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces (ISF) believes a couple of extremist Islamist groups are preparing for multiple attacks within Lebanon, with the main threat coming from ISIS. A military court charged 28 people with membership of ISIS on July 7. Seven others are already in custody. The charges leveled against the group include “planning to carry out suicide bombings by using explosive belts and preparing explosive-rigged vehicles.”ISIS to FIFA: Cancel the World Cup or We’ll Bomb It
Before the winner of the Brazil World Cup has even been decided, the 2022 event is facing fresh threats. And this time, it’s not down to construction delays or street protests, it’s ambitious terrorists. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the terrorist organisation currently wreaking havoc in the Middle East, issued a bizarrely polite threat to FIFA earlier this week, warning them not to hold the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.Iraq tells U.N. that 'terrorist groups' seized nuclear materials
The group claims that by that stage, Qatar will be a part of its newly-declared Islamic Caliphate, “under the rule of the Caliph Ibrahim Bin Awad Alqarshi” (the full name of ISIS leader Al Baghdady). Under that caliphate, football games will be considered “a diversion from Islam”.
Nearly 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of uranium compounds were kept at Mosul University, Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the July 8 letter obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.Islamists take control of Iraqi chemical weapons site
"Terrorist groups have seized control of nuclear material at the sites that came out of the control of the state," Alhakim wrote, adding that such materials "can be used in manufacturing weapons of mass destruction."
"These nuclear materials, despite the limited amounts mentioned, can enable terrorist groups, with the availability of the required expertise, to use it separate or in combination with other materials in its terrorist acts," said Alhakim. (h/t Canadian Otter)
Iraq said the Islamic State extremist group has taken control of a vast former chemical weapons facility northwest of Baghdad, where 2,500 chemical rockets filled with the deadly nerve agent sarin or their remnants were stored along with other chemical warfare agents.ISIS Orders 'Jihad by Sex' for Unmarried Women
Iraq’s UN Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim said in a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a letter circulated Tuesday that “armed terrorist groups” entered the Muthanna site on June 11, detained officers and soldiers from the protection force guarding the facilities and seized their weapons. The following morning the project manager spotted the looting of some equipment through the camera surveillance system before the “terrorists” disabled it, he said.
Two days after conquering Mosul, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)--now simply the Islamic State (IS)--ordered people to send their unmarried women to perform their "jihad by sex" obligation.ISIS: Fighting 'Infidels' Takes Precedence Over Fighting Israel
According to Israel’s Channel 2 News, an ISIS spokesman said Monday on Twitter, in response to questions about the organization’s intentions with regards to Israel, that ISIS first has to deal with “Muslims who have become infidels”.Islamist plot to blow up Eiffel Tower, Louvre and nuclear power plant foiled, say French police
"The greatest answer to this question is in the Qur'an, where Allah speaks about the nearby enemy - those Muslims who have become infidels - as they are more dangerous than those which were already infidels,” the spokesman tweeted, according to Channel 2 News.
"There is another answer that gives priority to fighting those who have become disbelievers over conquest of Jerusalem," continued the spokesman.
"Jerusalem will not be freed until we get rid of the idolaters, such as the wealthy families and the players appointed by the colonial government and who control the fate of the Islamic world," he was quoted as having said.
France foiled an Islamist terrorist plot to target the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and even a nuclear power plant, it emerged on Wednesday, as the country unveiled new, tougher anti-terror rules.Putin praises Goebbels at meeting with Jewish leaders
French police stumbled on the plans after decrypting coded messages between a 29-year-old Algerian butcher living in the Vaucluse, southern France, known only as Ali M, and one of the highest-ranking members in al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM.(h/t Canadian Otter)
While the Russian leader reportedly denounced Nazism and spoke out against those who would deny the Holocaust, he also said that the senior Nazi was a “talented man.” Putin’s statement was published on the website of the ITAR-TASS and subsequently deleted from the article on the news agency’s website, according to Pravda.Cemetery Excavations Reveal Complicated Jamaican Jewish Past
Putin also praised all who “continue to wage an uncompromising struggle against all manifestations and any attempts to Nazi ideology.”
Putin’s words came during a meeting with European Jewish leaders attended that was by Israeli Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef and former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, a Holocaust survivor. The meeting was arranged by Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar.
The Jamaican Jewish cemetery project started in 2007, a few years after Jamaican Jewish genealogist Ainsley Henriques approached Frankel, who had been documenting Jewish cemeteries in Suriname, about coming to Jamaica to carry out a similar project. Little had been done to protect Jamaica’s Jewish history. A series of natural disasters, coupled with rampant crime and political turmoil, had left its Jewish cemeteries in ill-repair.China seeking Israeli counter-terror experts
The project has become a combination of data mining for human stories and literal mining for lost stones. The team has unearthed more than 1,000 gravestones and markers, an outdoor archive of the different cultures that tumble together to make up Jamaican Jewry.
In Jamaica’s oldest Jewish cemetery—located in Hunt’s Bay, across the harbor from Port Royal—tombs dating back to the mid-1600s have been discovered. The inscriptions there often have a combination of Hebrew, Spanish and/or Portuguese, and English writings. For markers that date later, the Portuguese is forgotten in favor of English.
The People’s Public Security University of China will offer visiting professorships to top specialists in the field from countries including the United States, Israel, Pakistan and Australia, the government-run China Daily said.Israeli software, soap and sweets hailed in Japan
“The US and Israel have accumulated rich practical experience in fighting terrorism,” Mei Jianming, director of the university’s Research Center for Counter-terrorism, told the paper.
“The US is advanced in overall strategic research, and Israel is very proficient at tactical action in fighting terrorism.”
The first splashy news on this front happened in February, when the Japanese company Rakuten acquired Israeli messaging app Viber for some $900 million. The latest big news is the July 7 signing of a collaboration agreement for joint industrial R&D projects between Israeli and Japanese companies and organizations, the first agreement of its kind that Japan has ever signed.IBM kicks off first-ever accelerator program
Though import-export activity has been steady ever since diplomatic relations were established between Israel and Japan in 1952, the Viber deal piqued the interest of many Japanese companies interested in Israeli technology, says Japan-Israel Chamber of Commerce Chairman Roni Bornstein.
“Israel has developed in areas such as high-tech, medical devices and pharmaceuticals. Now you even have some Israeli companies such as Iscar and Teva Pharmaceuticals taking over Japanese companies,” Bornstein tells ISRAEL21c.
The escalating conflict between Gaza militants and Israel hasn’t deterred tech giant IBM from moving ahead with pioneer programs in Israel. On Tuesday, the international company inaugurated its first-ever technology accelerator in the world at its headquarters in Petah Tikva, next to Tel Aviv.Vanessa Williams In Israel
Called Alpha Zone, the program teams IBM’s vast resources with start-ups, helping the newcomers develop their products and market them. IBM gets nothing material in return. Its program managers say their gain is contact with innovative minds and companies.
Kol hakavod to singer, actress, producer and former Miss America and fashion model Vanessa Williams, who is visiting Israel right now of all times.‘Brave Miss World’ snags Emmy nod
And apparently loving it.
“Brave Miss World,” a documentary about former Miss World Linor Abargil, picked up an Emmy nomination for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking on Thursday.Play about Nazi hunter Wiesenthal to come to NYC
Abargil, an Israeli beauty queen and former model, was crowned Miss World in 1998, just a handful of weeks after being brutally raped by a travel agent.
Rather than keep mum about the experience, she began a worldwide campaign to encourage other victims of sexual abuse and violence to speak about their experiences, an endeavor that is chronicled in the film.
A one-man play about famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal will make its New York premiere this winter.
Tom Dugan, who wrote and stars in “Wiesenthal,” will present the play from Oct. 24- Feb. 1, at the Acorn Theatre at Theatre Row. Jenny Sullivan will direct.
Wiesenthal was a Holocaust survivor who helped track down numerous Nazi war criminals following World War II and then spent the later decades of his life fighting anti-Semitism and prejudice against all people.
