Sunday, July 27, 2014
Hamas will restart tunneling as soon as we leave, IDF officer says
Israel will not find all of the cross-border tunnels in Gaza during this operation. And if Hamas is able to secure ceasefire terms that give it sufficient room to do so, it will commence digging anew after this conflict is over, a former senior commander in the IDF’s Combat Engineering Corps said Sunday.Progressive Jews, Wake Up
“We won’t find all of them,” said Col. (res) Atai Shelach, former commander of the elite Yahalom unit that tackles the tunnels, “and the moment we leave. they will start digging again.”
The Israeli army has found more than 30 tunnels that cross underground from Gaza to Israel. The channels are often wider than a man’s shoulders and close to six feet high; they are supported with hundreds of tons of concrete arches and frequently reach a maximum depth of 20 meters below ground level. Most of the tunnels are well lit and properly ventilated. Soldiers on the ground in Gaza have reported finding explosives and arms stashed within the tunnels and, on several occasions after thwarting underground infiltration attempts, have found Hamas operatives armed with zip ties and narcotic drugs meant to facilitate a kidnapping. (h/t Canadian Otter)
For those progressive Jews who have found solace in the myth that anti-Zionism has nothing to do with anti-Semitism, the events across the globe of the last few weeks have been a rude and discomforting awakening. And so they turned to their final recourse, the belief that America was different.Danny Ayalon: Operation "Protective Edge"
Sure, there was a pogrom at a synagogue in Paris, but, well, that’s Paris. Muslims and their neo-fascist and leftist allies might walk through the streets of Germany shouting anti-Jewish slogans reminiscent of the Hitler Youth, but, well, that’s Germany.
In San Francisco, if not for the police, some 30 pro-Israel protesters would have been brutalized by over 300 people demonstrating on behalf of the genocidal Hamas terrorists.
IDF: Mortar round landed in empty UNRWA yard, did not kill Gazans
The army admitted that an IDF-fired shell did hit the UN-run school’s yard, but at a time when there were no people in the area.
“A single errant mortar landed in the school courtyard, injuring no one,” Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said Sunday in a conference call.
Lerner described a scene of “intense fighting” in the vicinity of the school last Thursday afternoon, including volleys of anti-tank missiles fired at soldiers, who responded with live fire. The militant fire, Lerner said, came from the areas “adjacent to, and in the vicinity of, the school.”
Palestinian accounts said 16 people were killed in the school as a result of the fighting, with initial reports blaming Israel for the deaths.
Lerner suggested that the 16 dead and dozens of wounded could have been caught in the crossfire and brought into the courtyard, perhaps for treatment, or may have been hit by rockets or mortars fired by the militants themselves.
Hamas Fires Rockets from Civilian Areas in Gaza
Exclusive: Inside a Hamas Tunnel Leading to Israel
Israel, Stop Placating the World’s Opinion
The world doesn’t care if an Israeli tank holds its fire when facing a Hamas terrorist surrounded by children.The Batman Rules of Warfare
The world doesn’t care if Israeli pilots are justified in hitting a UN school.
The world doesn’t care if a Golani unit finds weapons in a Palestinian kindergarten.
For the world, Israel is the scapegoat. Jews are always unjust.
A few days ago, I wrote a long article for my newspaper in Italy explaining Hamas’ human shields: hospitals, schools, mosques, cemeteries, United Nations’ sites. The readers’ first comment was: “Damned Jews, cancer of the world”.
You cannot placate this madness. It is like a virus. But Israel can stop placating the world’s opinion: it costs human lives. Jewish lives.
Batman does not kill.Israel sends message through Hamas leader’s mouth as psychological battle deepens
No matter the provocation, no matter the number of victims the Joker kills, no matter the danger to his own life, Batman will never take a life.
Of course the police can kill in self-defense, but Batman takes on different rules that apply only to him. He is so skilled, so methodical, that he has no need to kill even when his life is threatened.
Batman is a fictional character from a comic-book world. He represents a physical and moral ideal that is impossible in the real world.
But the real world is demanding that Israel play by the rules of a comic book.
In a video obtained by The Jerusalem Post, a speech by Mashaal is distorted to bring Gazans a message that the Hamas leader is a corrupt politician who lives a lavish life abroad, while benifitting from the suffering of Palestinian civilians.Europe’s rude awakening
"In the name of Allah, most gracious, most compassionate," says Mashaal in the mock video. "I want to start by thanking the excellent staff of the kitchen at my hotel."
Later, the leader speaks about hearing about what is happening in Gaza and adds: ”The hotel cost me the same as the price of a hospital and three tunnels in Gaza.”
Messages of this sort, according to reports on Palestinian social media, are an almost daily occurrence. Israel gains control of TV stations and broadcasts numerous videos mocking Hamas leaders.
Seventy years after emerging from World War II’s rubble, a shrinking Christian Europe is facing a steadily growing Muslim Europe that will not be melted into its multicultural pot.Exploiting Human Rights and Political Warfare: Lessons from Goldstone
At the same time, the EU’s Jews are feeling increasingly insecure and steadily trickling away. Still numbering 1.1 million, West European Jewry is not about to vanish, but it is shrinking even faster than Christian Europe. European leaders are obviously sincere when they say that Europe must retain its Jews. Sadly, from those leaders’ viewpoint, that does not seem to be history’s direction.
Surveying the sprawling map of Islamist trouble-spots in today’s world, from Nigeria and Somalia through Iraq and Iran to Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Philippines, powers like America and China see mainly a strategic problem. Europe, on the other hand, sees a social problem, as Islamism threatens not only its diplomatic ambitions, but its political structure and social fabric.
Hamas’s adventurism encapsulates all these European fears, and that is why Europe responded so sharply to the war it has waged on Israel.
On July 24, 2014, a special event was held at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem to discuss the central role of the NGO political network in the current campaign to repeat the 2009 “Goldstone process.”See the world - a special interview with the British officer Colonel Richard Kemp (h/t Yoel)
The conference, sponsored by NGO Monitor, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), and Menachem Begin Heritage Center, featured a keynote speech by Col. Richard Kemp CBE, and remarks by JCPA President and former UN Ambassador Dore Gold, Col. (res.) Miri Eisin.
Colonel Richard Kemp CBE - "IDF does more to protect civilians than any other army" (h/t Yoel)
Col. Richard Kemp on Israel, Gaza, Morality, and a Complicit Press (h/t Yoel)
Abbas Slaps US Again
Israel’s "peace partner" Mahmoud Abbas slapped America in the face again, just hours after Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in the Middle East to seek an Israel-Hamas cease-fire.Palestinian Mosques: Arsenals or Houses of God?
Successive U.S. administrations have propped up Abbas, presented him to the world as a peacemaker, and championed his demand for a Palestinian state. The U.S. has given more than $10-billion since 1994 to the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization, both of which Abbas chairs.
And here's what it received in return: Abbas's PLO announced on July 23 that it completely supports all of the extremist conditions that Hamas has set for a cease-fire: The release of hundreds of Hamas terrorists imprisoned in Israel; the lifting of the Israeli blockade of Gaza (so that Hamas can import more Iranian rockets, plus lots of cement to build more terror tunnels); and huge amounts of international aid, which of course will go straight into the pockets of corrupt Hamas and PA officials.
While salvaging Qurans from the rubble of the Al-Farouq Mosque in Gaza, junior imam Muhammad Hamad told the New York Times, "This is a house of God” – as though this proved the mosque is a peaceful place of worship. He said this after Al-Farouq had been targeted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on July 12.Israel-Palestine: Play it Like it Lies
According to IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, intelligence indicated the mosque was used as “a Hamas rocket cache and gathering point for militants.” According to Hamad, “That charge is baseless.”
This debate conjures striking visuals – the military against the mosque, the Qurans amidst the rubble, and the young imam invoking the term “house of God.” Media outlets eagerly perpetuate this narrative however incomplete or inaccurate. The problem, however, starts at the very root of the story, with the mosque. Let’s explore what a “house of God” might look like to an average person living in a Palestinian-controlled neighborhood.
The response of an abundance of Israel’s Arab citizens to the fourth round of battles with terrorists in Gaza reveals that, often, Arab citizenship in the Jewish state involves an inbuilt lie. This problem, having citizens in Israel who hope to destroy it, traces back to 1948, when the honorable architects of modern Israel reasoned that those resident in the land at the nation’s launching should be citizens. Even as Palestinian Jews and Jewish immigrants present at Israel’s inception would be citizens, so too would residents of other faiths and ethnicities—Palestinian Muslims, Druzes, Assyrians, other Christians, Circassians, Baha’is and Samaritans. Descendants of those people, like children of the Jews, have had democratic privileges and first world economic, social and personal freedoms and opportunities that modern leaning people in other nations of the Middle East have been struggling to gain. But the advantages have had no effect on the lie.US intel official warns against toppling Hamas
Shunned in Muslim nations and welcomed in Israel, Christian residents are increasing in number, and some are choosing to serve in the IDF. Tortured and executed in Shiite Iran, the Baha’i have made Israel the geographic center of their faith Many Druses, who like Jews are drafted into the IDF, have risen to crucial positions in both the military and the government. But for numerous Arab Muslims the advantages of citizenship have not purged an adversarial loyalty. They consider the creation of Israel the Nakhba, the catastrophe. Take note: not “a” catastrophe, “the” catastrophe, the worst cataclysm in their history. They are citizens who want to see their state’s demise. Prescient as well as principled, Israel’s founders expected some Arab Muslim disloyalty, and those citizens were therefore declared free of serving in the military. Despite their conflicting loyalties, Arab Muslim citizens saw that exclusion as discrimination.
Speaking at a high-level security conference in Aspen, Colorado, outgoing US Defense Intelligence Agency head Michael Flynn warned against the dangers of toppling Hamas, saying what may replace the Islamist group could be even worse.Police close Norway Jewish museums for fear of attacks
“If Hamas were destroyed and gone, we would probably end up with something much worse. The region would end up with something much worse,” Flynn, a lieutenant general, told the conference Saturday, according to Reuters.
He warned that with Hamas out of the picture, the Islamic State, or something like the brutal Islamist group ruling over parts of Syria and Iraq, could take its place. (h/t cisjew)
Police in Norway recommended the temporary closure of two Jewish museums for fear of attacks, while Danish policed dispersed a pro-Israel rally out of concern for participants’ safety.Mr. President: Redirect Your Criticism Away From Israel
Following the police advice in Norway, the Jewish museum in Trondheim closed indefinitely on Friday while the larger Jewish museum of Oslo is to remain shuttered until Tuesday at least, the NRK broadcaster reported.
Police advised the museum to close down amid reports that jihadists with fighting experience from Syria were planning an imminent terrorist attack on Norwegian soil. Extra security was posted at other potential targets, including Oslo’s main airport.
Also on Friday, police in Copenhagen cut short a demonstration of support for Israel and peace in the Middle East that the Danish Zionist Organization had organized near parliament with a group of Iranian dissidents, according to an account of the event by Vilhjalmur Orn Vilhjalmsson, an Iceland-born academic who attended the rally.
This week, in keeping with the Administration’s track record of open hostility toward Israel and her government, President Obama and Secretary Kerry found time to censure Israel, while ignoring her pressing security concerns. By calling on Israel to “take even greater steps to ensure the protection of civilians,” they insinuated their belief that Israel is not doing all it can to avoid harm to the current residents of Gaza.Iranian delegation to set out for Gaza
Seemingly every day since Mr. Obama assumed office, the U.S. Administration has urged Israel, a sovereign, democratic nation, to show “restraint” as her citizens continue to be the victims of violent attacks and incitement by terrorists who are committed to her destruction. As she has in every operation, Israel continues to implement safety measures to avoid civilian casualties. In Operation Protective Edge, these measures have included:
An Iranian parliamentary delegation will attempt to visit the Gaza Strip on Monday, according to the Iranian state-owned PressTV.
The six-member delegation will be led by parliamentarian Hassan Kamran, and will meet with families of victims of the fighting in the coastal strip.
The team intends to cross into Gaza via the Rafah crossing from Egypt.
However, there is no guarantee that the lawmakers will get anywhere near Gaza. Egypt has yet to give them visas, and the government in Cairo sees Hamas as a hostile organization.
Stand With Us: How Hamas Abuses Their Own Civilians
Stand With Us: What caused the current operation in Gaza?
The Sun's relentless anti-Israel campaign. Now Jeremy Clarkson supports the MP who wants to kill Israelis
The Sun is now officially, it seems, Hamas's mouthpiece in the UK. Its campaign of hatred against Israel is having a big influence on many otherwise completely uninformed Brits. Following on from my earlier report, the last week has seen the pieces shown here.British Priest (and Guardian journalist) defends Palestinian terrorism
Also remember the Sun never reports on the thousands of people (including mainly Muslims) who are being massacred every week by Muslims in various parts of the world. Only Muslims 'killed by Jews' are of any interest to the Sun. And that attitude is now reflected across the whole of the UK (yet another mass anti-Israel demo was held in London today).
But if you think all of that is bad just look at what the Sun columnists have to say. In today's issue Jeremy Clarkson came out in strong support for antisemitic LibDem MP David Ward who said he would fire rockets at Israeli if he lived in Gaza. Clarkson says he would want to do the same thing.
A Church of England Priest named Giles Fraser penned a column at the Guardian defending the Palestinian right of armed resistance.Official Guardian editorial blames Gaza war on….Ariel Sharon!
The column, ‘If we can have a just war, why not just terrorism?‘ (which follows a similar pro-terrorism argument advanced by Guardian associate editor Seumas Milne in a column last week) begins by suggesting that the IDF intentionally targets civilians in Gaza, while benignly characterizing Palestinian acts of ‘retaliation’ against the ‘occupation’.
So, Ariel Sharon, and not Palestinians, was the party responsible for electing, in 2006, an antisemitic extremist terror group which rejected Israel’s right to exist within any borders, to run their affairs.BBC reports on Qalandiya rioting omit live fire by Fatah terror group, whitewash Fatah terrorist
And, evidently, Ariel Sharon, and not Hamas, was the party responsible for subsequently firing thousands of rockets at Israeli towns, abducting Israeli soldiers and engaging in other acts of terror.
Further, apparently it was Ariel Sharon’s fault that the leaders of Hamas diverted billions of dollars in aid money to construct a labyrinth of terror tunnels in the hopes of launching even more deadly cross border attacks on Israeli civilians.
Assad failed to inform viewers that Marwan Barghouti is a convicted Fatah terrorist and one of the leaders of both the first and second Intifadas. He was in fact sentenced to five terms of life imprisonment after having been found guilty of involvement in terror attacks in which five people were murdered and an additional 40 years imprisonment for attempted murder. Barghouti has on numerous occasions called for a third Intifada but Assad fails to mention that significant point.BBC News backgrounder downgrades Hamas’ terror designation
Neither does she – nor any other of the BBC journalists reporting on this topic – make any mention of the calls from the Hamas leadership for violence.
This is not the first time we have seen Hamas’ terror designation being misrepresented in BBC reports during the current round of conflict, although it has much more frequently simply been ignored altogether, meaning that audiences are not made aware of the basic fact that these hostilities are actually between a country and a terrorist organisation.What do BBC journalists think you should be reading?
Hamas is of course defined as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, the European Union, Canada and Japan – as the BBC’s own profile of Hamas clearly states. In addition, Jordan and Egypt have banned Hamas and Australia designates Hamas’ Izz al Din Al Qassam Brigades as a terrorist organization, as do New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
But no less bizarre is Robbins’ suggestion that Hamas should be seen as an “elected government” – not least because no PLC elections have taken place in over eight and a half years and the term of the PLC legislature elected in 2006 with a Hamas majority expired in 2010.
Among the recommended reading on the current hostilities in Israel and the Gaza Strip which BBC employees have recently promoted to their followers on social media is an article by Jeremy Bowen in the New Statesman.Europe’s Disgusting Display of Anti-Semitism
In that article Bowen makes no attempt whatsoever to adhere to those famous BBC values of accuracy and impartiality. Moreover, he further amplifies the line he already began promoting whilst on the ground in the Gaza Strip, claiming that he saw “no evidence” of Hamas’ use of the local population as human shields.
This cannot stand. European government leaders need urgently to clamp down on any expression of anti-Semitism. The world needs to show by words and by actions where it stands: in solidarity with Israel, not with Hamas’ supporters who attack synagogues and shout “Death to the Jews.”German newspaper launches campaign against anti-Semitism
Such anti-Semitic agitation must be fought, not explained away and placated. If that requires more police to protect Jewish sites, the authorities must provide it. If it means banning violent rallies, they should be banned, or disbanded. We cannot accept that violence against Jews is being attempted again in Europe or anywhere else in the world. We will not accept that Jews anywhere are being terrorized because of their religion or because they support Israel.
In the free world, people have a right to express their opinions and feelings. They can disagree with what Israel is doing in Gaza to defend itself against the attacks coming from there, provided they get their facts right, just as people have the right to support and defend Israel in its quest to protect its population from terror and rocket fire. However, nobody has a right to insult, threaten, or hurt people in the streets of Paris or Berlin, or call for the death of Jews, just because he or she is unhappy about the Middle East conflict. Moreover, any head of state or government who fuels this debate by equating Israel’s defensive operation with genocide, or even the Holocaust, is acting disgracefully and putting the safety of Jews in his or her country at peril.
Europe’s leaders have a stark choice: Either they stop this agitation and protect their Jewish populations, or Jews will ultimately turn their backs on those countries. This is not a question of whether the leaders agree with Israel. It’s about whether they are willing and able to do what it takes to prevent the renaissance of anti-Jewish pogroms in their lands.
German newspaper Bild launched a campaign against anti-Semitism following calls made against Jews during protests against Operation Protective Edge in Germany.Elliott Abrams: The end of French Jewry?
The campaign, titled "Never Again Jew Hatred," was published Friday on the paper's front page and included pictures of German figures, such as Chancellor Angela Merkel, alongside their quotes against anti-Semitism.
Merkel was quoted saying, "These outbursts and utterances are an attack on freedom and tolerance. We cannot and will not tolerate this."
German President Joachim Gauck also condemned recent anti-Semitic incidents in Germany and encouraged citizens to report acts of anti-Semitism. (h/t Canadian Otter)
Violent anti-Jewish riots in Paris on Sunday [July 20], sparked by Israel's ongoing operation in Gaza to halt rocket attacks from the coastal enclave, left Jews in the French capital fearing for their lives. ... An anti-Israel demonstration at the city's Bastille Square quickly turned violent with protesters seeking out and attacking Jewish targets and screaming "death to the Jews" and "Hitler was right" according to community newspaper, JSS News. ... Hundreds of Parisian Jews were trapped in a synagogue while rioters threw stones and bricks. The group was initially thought to be held hostage and was freed to leave the center only after police intervention at 9 p.m.Paris: 70 Arrested at Banned Pro-Palestinian Arab Protest
The French writer Guy Milliere described the condition of French Jews in an article entitled "Paris's Kristallnacht:"
"The prevalent sentiment among French Jews is that a page has been turned. The French Jewish philosopher Shmuel Trigano wrote on July 16 that what is happening is a sign that Jews must leave France, fast. 'Recent events are likely to play the role that such events have played in the past for the Jews in many countries: a strong symbolic event gives the signal that the Jews have no future in the country that was theirs.'"
French police arrested 70 people at a banned pro-Palestinian Arab protest in central Paris on Saturday that degenerated into clashes between demonstrators and armor-clad riot squads, AFP reports.Thousands protest Gaza operation in Paris, some with Nazi-like 'quenelle' salute
The rally had drawn 4,000 people to the capital's Place de la Republique, the interior ministry said, while organizers put the turnout at 10,000.
Police who stepped in to disperse the rally responded with tear gas when they were targeted with rocks and other projectiles. About 12 police were slightly injured.
Several thousand gathered in Place de la République in Paris, France to protest the Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, defying a state ban on the demonstration.Sydney Jewish leader resigns government post over Gaza conflict
Protesters chanted "Israel is an assassin, Holland is an accomplice" and "we are all Palestinians," and some were seen gesturing the quenelle, a reverse Nazi-salute, AFP reported. Tension mounted as hundreds of protesters, some masked, began throwing stones and projectiles at police who responded with tear gas.
Alhadeff, a former Sydney editor of the Australian Jewish News, was backed with “full confidence” by NSW Premier Mike Baird.I Feel Like A Stranger In My Own Country
But some Arab groups boycotted an iftar celebration marking Ramadan at Parliament House in Sydney last Thursday night over the email controversy.
Titled “Israel under fire” and sent in his capacity as chief executive of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, Alhadeff’s email earlier this month said Israel was operating with “care to avoid civilian casualties” but made no reference to Palestinian fatalities.
“Israel has made it clear that it is not interested in further escalation, but will do whatever is needed to defend its citizens,” Alhadeff wrote to members of the Jewish community. “All options are on the table.”
In resigning on Sunday, Alhadeff conceded his email “inadvertently caused offense to some.
Following Operation Protective Edge, I have been sickened to the very core by the current state of discourse in this country surrounding Israel, Israelis and Jews more generally. These feelings have been building up for a long time now, but these past few weeks have made me realise a very unsettling fact; if we Jews wish to continue to live happy lives in Britain then it must come at the price of publicly dissociating ourselves from Israel, as Douglas Murray warned in the Spectator a while back. It has now become acceptable mainstream parlance to make some imaginary distinction between the ‘good’ Jews (who heroically oppose Zionism and the State of Israel) and the ‘bad’ Jews (who continue to defend both). As one of the ‘bad’ Jews who avidly follows the media and news reports, I have been shocked at the amount of biased, vitriolic reporting not just amongst the predictable outlets (the Guardian, the Independent, the New Statesman, the London Standard, the BBC, Channel 4) but even previously neutral or sympathetic voices (the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph, the Times, the Spectator, Sky News and most worryingly of all considering their immense press runs, the Sun and the Express).Racism and Naivety: Just another day out in London…
I think it is now safe to confirm that there is indeed a cross partisan consensus in this country that is deeply anti-Israel. As a British Jew at odds with this unthinking, hateful consensus, like Emma Barnett of the Telegraph I no longer feel comfortable talking about my identity or my political beliefs. Like her, I too risk being called a supporter of child murder even by other Jews such as the Communist (and once shockingly self described ‘Maoist’) Alexei Sayle. I am heart broken by the way this terrible conflict has not just turned others against Jews, but Jews against each other.
On the subject of ‘anti-imperialism,’ there is a perverse double standard concerning human freedom. When left-wing firebrand Jeremy Corbyn took the stage, the crowd cheered his sycophantic tribute to the government of Ecuador. ‘Let us applaud the nation of Ecuador, who sent the Israeli ambassador packing!’ When he subsequently mentioned the United States, the crowd erupted with fits of booing. These demonstrators would rather applaud a corrupt South American kleptocracy than the world’s foremost democratic nation. When they chant ‘free Palestine,’ they clearly don’t understand the meaning of freedom.‘We Are All Hamas!': Thousands Attend London's Gaza Protest Glorifying Terrorism
That episode was bizarre – but some encounters left me with a sense of disgust. Walking down Whitehall, I saw war memorials exploited for the protesters’ flawed message. These ‘anti-war’ zealots will even violate the memory of our dead for their petty political ends.
But what left me thinking was seeing a man carrying a placard encouraging others to read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion – with virtually no concern from the other demonstrators. ‘I want to spread awareness in the twenty first century,’ he told me.
I agree with this bigot on one point. It is indeed the twenty first century – and it’s about time we spread awareness of this sheer hatred.
It was billed as the biggest protest in London since the Stop the War Coalition marched against the invasion of Iraq. In the end the predictions of one million protesters proved to be fantasy, and some campaigners openly expressed their love for Gaza-based terrorist outfit Hamas.SHOCK: Jewish students shown ‘photos of ovens and told to get in’ by classmates in Chicago
The crowd assembled at an empty Israeli Embassy, as the diplomats do not work on Saturdays, and marched towards an empty Parliament, which is currently on recess. This was the perfect analogy for the hollowness of London's Gaza (or pro-Hamas) protest this weekend.
Many of the protesters managed to walk past the heavily guarded Israeli Embassy without even noticing where they were. Perhaps their failure to notice the Embassy could be attributed to the presence of a stage which was used by a variety of hard left speakers including the bandwagon class warrior Owen Jones.
A school principal has been reassigned after a series of shocking bullying incidents that targeted Jewish students.Jonathan Hoenig covers Chicago anti-Israel demonstration [photos, Vine]
DNAinfo Chicago reports Ogden International School of Chicago principal Joshua VanderJagt asked to be reassigned because “challenges” arose after two students – one 14 years old and one 8 years old – suffered repeated threats by classmates.
The challenges surrounded allegations from Ogden parent Lisa Wolf Clemente that her 14-year-old and 8-year-old sons were bullied at both campuses by classmates for their Jewish heritage.
The Gold Coast resident said her teen son was shown photos of ovens and told to get in during lunch periods, intended as a reference to the Holocaust.
At the Streeterville campus, Wolf Clemente said her 8-year-old was invited to join a team called “Jew Incinerator” on the popular game app Clash of Clans. The team was allegedly created by Ogden eighth-graders.
In a screenshot provided by parents, the team description reads: “We are a friendly group of racists with one goal — put all Jews into an army camp until disposed of. Sieg! Heil!”
Fox News’ “Cashin’ In” panelist Jonathan Hoenig stepped into the middle of an anti-Israel protest in Chicago Saturday afternoon and got up close and personal with some of the protesters and their signs.Anti-semitic Turkish academic tweets in support of Treblinka death camp
That’s from the Twitter feed of Ali Ihsan Goker. His Twitter profile identifies him as a faculty member in Turkey. A Google search for “Ali Ihsan Goker” turned up this guy, who is listed as a Physics faculty member at Bilecik University in Bilecik, Turkey. Probably the same person.JetBlue rant victim admits she is Jewish, not Palestinian
Treblinka, for those who don’t know, was a killing center constructed by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It is estimated that Germans murdered between 870,000 and 925,000 Jews there.
Louis Fishman, the left-leaning academic to whom Goker was responding, was shocked by the vile, anti-Semitic comment.
The victim of a verbal attack by a Jewish doctor on a JetBlue flight from Palm Beach admitted that she is not a Palestinian, but is Jewish.ISIS Destroys Tombs of Biblical Prophets Jonah, Daniel
The woman, who did not divulge her name, made the admission in a phone call to Queens gynecologist Dr. Lisa Rosenberg, who recorded the conversation, and in an interview with the New York Post, the newspaper reported Sunday.
The Brooklyn woman, who said she is a third cousin of late Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, told Rosenberg that she identified herself as Palestinian in order to stop Rosenberg from continuing what the woman called a “hate-filled diatribe” against Palestinians.
Rosenberg was kicked off her July 7 flight from Palm Beach International Airport to New York’s Kennedy Airport.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has destroyed the tomb of Biblical Jonah, according to Arabic media outlets, in a show of disdain for non-Islamic cultures.Air Algerie AH5017: 'Hezbollah Leader and French Troops were On Board Flight'
“ISIS militants have destroyed the Prophet Younis (Jonah) shrine east of Mosul city after they seized control of the mosque completely,” a security source, who kept his identity anonymous, told the Iraq-based al-Sumaria News Thursday. “The militants closed all of the mosque doors and prevented worshipers from entering to pray."
A witness who did not wish to give his name said that ISIS militants “first stopped people from praying in it, they fixed explosive charges around and inside it and then blew it up in front of a large gathering of people,” according to AFP
Of the 116 or 118 people on board the Air Algerie flight AH5017 which crashed in the restive northern Mali, at least 33 French military personnel including three senior intelligence officials and a Lebanese Hezbollah leader were present, it has emerged.An open letter to my left leaning friends
Even as the Algerian authorities have asserted that the real cause of the crash could be established only after a thorough investigation, they have not ruled out a terror attack either.
The exact number of people present in the aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas-83, is still unclear - whether it was 116 or 118. But the local daily Echorouk, citing sources, said there were French troops on board.
There were at least 19 Lebanese passengers and some of them were dual citizens, including an alleged senior Hezbollah figure, who was disguised as a businessman.
Well let me remind you. Hamas is doing everything it can to get its citizens killed while Israel is doing everything in her power to keep her citizens safe. It is your hesitations and reactions that Hamas is looking for—to gain international sympathy and unnecessary support. They have the rest of the world for that; they don’t need you as well.Opera on Holocaust victim debuts in Austria
I appreciate your desire to make Israel the best possible version of herself she can be—and in doing so you need to question Israel. But I ask you, how effective do you think this questioning really is right now? So, before you post another article explaining why Palestinians support Hamas, or share another status on Israel taking the high road, I urge you to think how much does this actually support Israel in her time of need.
Rather I suggest you put pressure on the true enemy in this—Hamas. I push you to share their inhumane actions of using women and children as human shields. I encourage you to circulate articles highlighting the fact that instead of providing relief to its citizens, Hamas uses international aid and money to build extensive tunnel networks meant to kidnap Israeli civilians.
Just as this operation has brought Israelis from the right, left, religious and secular closer together, let us too unite behind one message—our unwavering support for Israel.
The prestigious Salzburg Festival is known for its classical performances of Mozart and Bach, but this year the spotlight is on a new modern opera telling the story of German artist and Holocaust victim Charlotte Salomon.New wound-closure tech helping to heal soldiers
Salomon’s short life is depicted in hundreds of paintings she did while in exile in the south of France before she was deported and killed by the Nazis in Auschwitz in 1943, aged just 26.
Now her paintings — with subjects ranging from Berlin society dinners to the Nazis’ power grab and the resulting Jewish exodus — have been given new life on the stage.
Some of the soldiers wounded in Operation Protective Edge are benefiting from a brand-new Israeli technology to close open wounds quickly and temporarily prior to further evaluation and treatment.Gal Gadot hardcore as Wonder Woman
Just on the cusp of the market, the TopClosure 3S Trauma Management System is approved by regulatory agencies in Israel, the United States and Europe for mass-casualty situations such as combat and natural disasters. Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheva is using TopClosure for incoming injuries from the Gaza conflict, according to the technology’s inventor, Dr. Moris Topaz.
“We’ve been using it clinically already for a few years, collecting a lot of data to show the scope of applications,” says Topaz, chief of plastic surgery at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera. “It’s changing the way we’ve been handling the closure of wounds to avoid further damage and contamination to the injured tissues.”
Gadot, an actress and model who found fame first as an Israeli print and runway model and then in the “Fast and the Furious” films, will star as the lasso-wielding ingenue in the much-anticipated Zack Snyder film, which is currently in production in Detroit but isn’t expected to hit theaters for another two years.Man Unsure Whether Missile Siren Interrupted Lather, Rinse, Or Repeat (satire)
Fans of the superhero franchise have been breathlessly awaiting photographs of the cast, which includes Henry Cavill as Superman and Ben Affleck as Batman, in costume. On Saturday, at the mega-comic conference Comic-Con in San Diego, Snyder gave them a taste with a mini-teaser of the film and three pics, one of which shows Gadot decked out in full breastplate and armor.
“I know I had the shampoo in my hand, but I honestly have no idea whether it ever made it to my hair,” said Teitelbaum, a securities analyst by profession. “It’s all such a blur. I might even have gotten around to doing it a second time – I just don’t remember.”
Adding to his confusion is the lack of shampoo lather on his hands, which, according to Teitelbaum, most likely reflects his tendency to rinse his hands off before rinsing the lather from his dark hair. However, he concedes the possibility that the shampoo never made it to his scalp at all, and was simply washed away as he fumbled to turn off the water before he rushed out. “It might even have just rubbed off on my robe,” he allowed. “Heck, it’s not beyond the realm of the reasonable to think that I was basically done, and I had just one more lather and rinse left to so,” as per the recommended instructions on the side of the shampoo bottle.
When reminded by a reporter that the situation occurred as a result of rockets meant to terrorize him, Teitelbaum expressed genuine surprise. “Oh, right! Hamas! I remember them! Yeah, this whole thing is causing me to use a little too much shampoo as a hygiene precaution. That must mean they think they’re winning.”
