Saturday, October 11, 2014
Bernard-Henri Levy: Today's Anti-Semitism Is a Ticking Time Bomb
It was Christian during the centuries of the crusades, the Inquisition, the Medieval pogroms, and beyond—when the Jews were blamed for the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.Palestinian allegedly killed for selling Silwan homes to Jews
It was anti-Christian after people—following d’Holbach, Voltaire, the Enlightenment, and Voltaire’s slogan, “Let’s crush the infamous” (by which he meant the intolerance of organized religion)—began to reproach the Jews not for having killed the son of God but for having invented the One God, and thus, in a way, the son.
It was socialist, anticapitalist, and pro-worker at the time of the Dreyfus Affair in Paris and of the anti-bourgeois socialism of the founding fathers of French socialism. The deviation laid at the door of the Jews then became their supposed conspiracy, orchestrated from the heights of “Jewish finance,” to oppress those whom anti-Semitic propagandist Édouard Drumont described as the small and humble.
It became racist as soon as modern biology took its place in the circle of the sciences, bringing with it the fad of categorizing human beings by their physiological characteristics. “We couldn’t care less whether the Jewish people killed or created Christ,” went this new form of anti-Semitism. “We don’t give a damn about the alleged misdeeds of its anti-worker plutocracy. But that the Jews are a race—an inferior one!—that is injecting its venom into races superior and pure, that worries us; that is unforgivable.”
In short, it looks as if the world’s longest-running form of hate has never stopped searching for the right formula.
A resident of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan was stabbed to death Thursday evening, with local residents reportedly saying that he was killed in a dispute over selling property to Israeli Jews.Israeli sappers neutralize bomb planted at bus stop in northern West Bank
The unnamed man, said to be about 50 years old, was taken to Jerusalem’s al-Maqased Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
According to Silwan residents who spoke to Haaretz, the slain man and his killer were both members of one of the families into whose building seven Israelis recently moved. The argument that prompted the alleged murder had to do with an adjacent apartment block, where units were also sold to Israeli Jews, the report said.
Israeli sappers neutralized an explosive device at a bus stop in Samaria on Friday morning.
The incident occurred at Rahelim junction, which lies just south of the Palestinian village of Yasuf.
Police sappers were summoned to the scene after an explosive device which was wired to explode by remote-control detonation was found at a bus stop.
Authorities cordoned off the area and successfully neutralized the device. No injuries or damage resulted from the incident.
Khaled Abu Toameh: "Remove Israel from That Map!"
The uproar that erupted throughout the Arab world over the use of a map with Israel's name on it is yet another reminder that many Arabs still have not come to terms with Israel's existence -- and apparently are not interested in coming to terms with it.Caroline Glick: Bringing happiness to Iran
The protestors were not demanding a two-state solution and an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They were protesting against Israel's existence; that is what really bothers them.
How can anyone seriously expect that, if Israel pulled back to the pre-1967 lines, the Arab world will consider the "Israeli-Arab Conflict over?"
This conflict is not about a settlement or a checkpoint or a fence -- but about Israel's very existence. To make peace with Israel, the Arab world needs to prepare its people for such a move, and not incite violence against Israel and demand that it be removed from maps.
It is still unclear what happened on Sunday night at Iran’s illicit nuclear installation at Parchin. According to Iranian sources, there was a large explosion that rocked the area within a 15-km. radius of the facility. Two people were reportedly injured.Alan Dershowitz Should Turkey be thrown out of NATO?
According to the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency and Israel, the Parchin facility is a key component of Iran’s suspected military nuclear program. It is at Parchin that Iran is allegedly building a nuclear explosive device – that is, a nuclear warhead.
The timing of the blast is notable. On Monday night, a delegation from the IAEA landed in Tehran for a new round of talks scheduled for that Tuesday. The UN’s demand to inspect Parchin was set to be one of the top agenda items at the talks.
Given the timing, it is certainly possible that the Iranians carried out the explosion themselves as a means of preventing the IAEA from demanding access.
But let us assume that the widely held automatic assumption – that Israel was behind the blast at Parchin – is accurate. The fact is that in order to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons program, or seriously setback its completion, dozens, if not hundreds of additional targets need to be hit and destroyed.
Once again Turkey has proved to be America’s, and NATO’s, least reliable “ally.”UN Watch calls out dilution of human rights by dictatorships Venezuela interrupts
When the United States and NATO asked Turkey to help prevent a humanitarian disaster in Kobani, near its border, Turkey once again sat on its hands. The reason is obvious. The leaders of Turkey would like to see as many Kurds as possible massacred.
The Kurds of Turkey, Syria and Iraq have been seeking an independent state far longer than the Palestinians, and with a much stronger basis in law, diplomacy, morality and ethnic identity. Historically, the Turks have always had an answer to those who seek independence – massacre.
The Turks massacred the Armenians, though they still deny complicity in this well-documented genocide. Indeed they have made it a crime to admit that Turkey committed genocide against the Armenians. Now the Turks are facilitating the massacre of another one of their enemies, the Kurds. As one Kurd aptly put it: “They don’t want to help what they say is their enemy. That is why it is in Turkey’s favor that Kobani falls to ISIS.”
OIC: We're Not Pro-Terrorism. Jews Are Fair Game.
The Terrorism Game for Islamic States @ UN
Mondoweiss Marches On To Its Own Beat
Mondoweiss has, time and again, tried to pretend that there is a groundswell of hostility against Israel in places high and low, that will result in a cataclysmic reorientation of Western, especially American, attitudes on the Israel/Palestine question. This is sheer fantasy, and, in the absence of real evidence, Mondoweiss highlights every piece of criticism of Israel from any American source, regardless of how obscure, trivial, or wholly predictable. Most of these critics have actually condemned Israel many times before, and would certainly condemn Israel regardless of what it did, apart from committing suicide.Negating the Propagandist Ruse of NPR
Virtually all are components of the extreme left, usually of what Paul Johnson has termed the "fascist left", for whom Israel occupies a central position in their demonology, generally to the exclusion of everything else, remarkably similar to the position of Jews in Hitler's worldview.
Most of Mondoweiss in fact consists of the highlighting of trivial examples of anti-Israel agitation or demonstrations by students, political activists, already-committed leftists, and the like.
Occasionally, though, Mondoweiss goes so far over the top that the story in question deserves wider publicity.
NPR’s political position is heard by many, and its audience is led to sympathize with the Islamic enemies of civilization. Our very future is in upheaval and I challenge NPR’s motives, ethics, and sense of responsibility.Now Liberal Democrat MP Menzies Campbell blames rise of Islamic State on Israel.
I have written NPR (Notorious for Palestinian Revisionism) in the past, regarding its position on the war of Islam against Israel, the Jews and Christians worldwide. Whether it is Hamas, ISIS, Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, Boko Haram, and even the most ludicrous appellation – “religion of peace,” their goal is the same: global conquest and the spread of Islam and Sharia law. The Hamas charter applies to all Muslims, including Palestinians, and how it obligates them to continue their 1400 years of bloodshed until the world is entirely Islamic, under Allah. Their history and plans are clearly delineated in the first paragraph of their Covenant – they obliterated cultures before and will continue doing so in the future. What is it about “obliterate” that NPR doesn’t understand? (h/t MtTB)
I didn’t name Menzies Campbell MP in my last post as one of those Liberal Democrat politicians who has made comments likely to help fuel anti-Semitism in the UK, but then right on cue he goes and makes such a statement.Adios, Viva Palestina
In a recent interview on the BBC with Andrew Neil, who is also a bit overly-obsessed with matters Jewish, Campbell said (see clip below):
“What are the causes of the rise of ISIS and Al Qaida? One of the principal causes is the fact of the continuing dispute between Israel and the Palestinians…If you’re trying to persuade 15-year old young women in Britain to go and offer themselves as brides to jihadists in Syria or Iraq one of the ways in which it’s done is to point to the oppression of the Arab people, in particular the oppression of the Palestinians…”
So while British Prime Minister David Cameron is doing his best, quite rightly, to shield British Muslims from a negative backlash in the UK by referring to Islamic State as not being Muslims Campbell is connecting British Jews, via their support for Israel, directly with Islamic State.
And then the biggest irony is that Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has penned a statement for this week’s Jewish News in which he condemns the rise of anti-Semitism in the UK as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
This is the rise that his Liberal Democrat party continues to help fuel!
In the latest development in slow death of George Galloway’s mismanaged “charity” Viva Palestina (which ran convoys to deliver aid and cash directly to Hamas in Gaza):More BDS Sickness
"The Charity Commission has frozen the bank accounts of George Galloway’s charity Viva Palestina, and has replaced trustees with an interim manager, the regulator announced today.The Commission opened an inquiry into the charity in June 2013. The inquiry, which is still ongoing, is looking into “serious concerns relating to financial management, including a failure by the current and/or former trustees to account for charity funds since the inception of the charity”."
South Africa's largest trade union federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), has joined with health sector unions to demand the expulsion of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) from the World Medical Association (WMA).Israeli historian wants ‘to cease’ being a Jew
COSATU, along with NEHAWU (National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union), DENOSA (Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa), as well as the SA Medical Association (SAMA), issued the joint call earlier this week. Organisers will protest outside the WMA today, Friday 10 October, supported by campaign groups like BDS South Africa.
A controversial Israeli historian has declared his wish to cease considering himself a Jew, expressing disgust at the “ethnocentricity” which he feels is the prevailing worldview among many IsraelisThe Lancet’s Dr. Richard Horton’s Editorial Fails Credibility Test: He must apologize and retract Gaza letter
In an opinion piece published in the Guardian on Friday – which is an extract from his new book, How I Stopped Being a Jew — Prof. Shlomo Sand of Tel Aviv University says he has been “assimilated by law into a fictitious ethnos of persecutors and their supporters.”
“I wish to resign and cease considering myself a Jew,” he writes.
Sand asserts that Israel is “one of the most racist societies in the western world” due to its strict characterization as a Jewish state. “Racism is present to some degree everywhere, but in Israel it exists deep within the spirit of the laws,” he says.
Dr. Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet medical journal, today published the response he promised an assembly of hundreds of Israeli doctors at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, Israel last week. NGO Monitor released the following statement:“Neo-Nazi” talks at Max Blumenthal’s anti-Israel event in Parliament: Clip Update.
Horton’s editorial in this week’s Lancet marks another step towards ending the exploitation of this journal for demonizing Israel. The creation of a “new partnership to publish a Series on Israel’s health and medical research system” will be significant.
At the same time, however, Horton failed to retract or apologize for his own central responsibility for the mendacious “An Open Letter for the People of Gaza” in July 2014. What he refers to as the “Manduca et al letter” consisted of political slogans, blatantly false allegations against Israel and the Israeli medical community, as well as the whitewashing of 4560 rocket attacks from Gaza targeting Israeli civilians – every one a war crime. It is clear that this letter should never been published. While these issues were raised many times during his visit to Israel, Horton’s editorial makes no reference to them.
Last week I posted about David Thring, considered a “neo-Nazi”, who spoke at a Max Blumenthal event in the British Parliament about Israel. The event was sponsored by Jeremy Corbyn MP.The New York Time’s strange take on Israel
Thring’s past behaviour probably needed more of an explanation so here is a clip of some of his past activities. In the beginning is audio of one of the organisers of the event warmly inviting Thring up to the stage to speak.
Pertinent questions that the clip asks is why was a “neo-Nazi” invited by the organisers to speak at an anti-Israel event in Parliament and when will opposition to the Jewish state be seen for what it really is.
So what [Margaret] Sullivan’s argument boils down to is that any connection to Israel taints a columnist morally because Sullivan evidently believes that Israel itself is a morally stained country. With a little bit of imagination and research she might have found out that this is exactly how many anti-American Europeans and others view the US.Britain, Sweden - and a State of Palestine?
Every now and then you’ll find media outlets who try to smear politicians and publicists by pointing out e.g. their membership in transatlantic institutions or fellowships they enjoyed in American think tanks to depict them as being part of an American propaganda effort. This smear by association in case of the US is just as morally appalling as the argument Sullivan makes about Israel and her colleague David Brooks. (h/t MtTB)
Many politicians and members of the public have come to see the Palestinians as the world's underdogs, who, however ugly their behaviour, can do no wrong; and to portray Israel as a Nazi state that persecutes the Palestinians and "steals" the land -- mystifyingly -- of a people, the Jews, who have lived on that land for roughly 4,000 years.British opposition to help secure Palestinian vote in UK parliament
A country that freely and rightly gives asylum to people persecuted under oppressive regimes (such as the thousands of Iranians who fled there after the 1979 revolution) can fall too easily for the distorted and manufactured Palestinian narrative. Why else would an MP from the ruling Social Democrat party entertain even for a moment the conspiracy theory that Israel's Mossad has been training Islamic State fighters? Adrian Kaba made this very accusation this month. He has since apologized and recognized that he was wrong -- but a member of parliament who suffers from such delusions presumably does so because the political culture within which he operates encourages bizarre beliefs about Israel, and probably also Jews, to begin with.
Offering recognition to a "Palestinian State" only serves to give the Palestinians false hopes of achieving their ambition of wiping Israel off the map, literally -- it already started this process long ago by erasing Israel from all its maps -- and permanently upending the consensus of how international affairs are run.
Britain’s Labor Party, the official opposition, privately signaled on Thursday their support for a backbench parliamentary motion calling for the recognition of a Palestinian state making it increasingly likely that a vote on the issue will succeed next Monday night.Christian Clerics to Europe: Recognize 'Palestine'
The move effectively scuppers an attempt by pro-Israel MPs who tabled an amendment on an all party basis, which states that before UK ‘recognition’ is granted, there has to be an agreed solution following negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
Labor’s last minute intervention will likely help secure a majority for the simple ‘recognition’ bid in the House of Commons.
Because the vote is supposed to be by backbenchers only though, it is considered non binding, and will not be viewed as an embarrassing defeat for the government. If passed, it will be viewed as a tremendous moral victory for the pro-Palestinian lobby.
Three leading Christian clerics in Israel on Friday called on more European governments to recognize "Palestine" as a state with eastern Jerusalem as its capital.Israelis, Jordanians, Palestinians advancing on trilateral water swapping arrangements
The call from the Arab Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Lutheran prelates came after EU member Sweden last week announced its intention to recognize Palestinian statehood late last Friday during Yom Kippur. The UK is likewise set to vote on recognition on Monday.
The three clergymen wrote in their open letter "from Jerusalem, our occupied capital, we send our urgent message to the whole world and particularly to Europe - we are yearning for justice and peace. Recognizing Palestine and defining Israel's borders is a first step towards that goal."
Former Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, the Greek Orthodox archbishop of Sebastia, Atallah (Theodosios) Hanna, and Lutheran World Federation president Bishop Munib Younan were signatories on the letter. The current Latin patriarch, Fouad Twal, was not among those signing.
A major trilateral water understanding signed by Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian parties in December is moving forward slowly but surely – as tender preparations for an Aqaba desalination facility begin to materialize, high level Israeli sources told The Jerusalem Post last week.Israeli Arab killed fighting for IS in Iraq
The project in question involves a memorandum of understanding signed on December 9, 2013, in which senior officials from the three governments met at the World Bank headquarters in Washington to advance cross-border water swaps and an eventual funneling of Red Sea brines to a shrinking Dead Sea.
A key component of the agreement is the development of an 80 million cubic meter desalination plant in Aqaba, from which Israel would be able to buy 50 to 60 percent of the water. In return, Jordan would be able to buy an additional 50 million cu.m. of water from Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) annually, roughly double the current allocation, and Israel would allow the direct sale of an additional 20-30 million cu.m. of water from the Mekorot national water company to the Palestinian Authority.
The understanding also calls for a 200-kilometer pipeline to carry residual salt brines from the desalination process to the Dead Sea, in order to boost the water levels in a depleted reservoir.
An Israeli Arab from a Galilean village was killed in recent days while fighting for the Islamic State jihadist group in Iraq.Israel TV: UN had Qatar pay $25m ransom to free Golan peacekeepers
According to a report in Arabic weekly Al Arab, Ahmed Habashi, 24, from the village of Iksal near Nazareth, traveled to Turkey in January 2014 with four other Israeli Arabs, crossed into Syria and joined IS. He was killed near the Iraqi city of Ramadi, a battleground between the radical Islamist group and Iraqi government forces.
The circumstances of his death remain unclear, the report said.
The United Nations last month secured the release of 45 Fijian peacekeeping soldiers, kidnapped on the Syrian side of Golan Heights by the Nusra Front, through the payment of a $25 million ransom by Qatar, an Israeli TV report claimed.Widow of soldier killed in Gaza war gives birth to boy
The Fijian soldiers, members of UNDOF, were captured on August 28 by the Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate, along the DMZ separating Israel and Syria. Their September 11 release, Israel’s Channel 2 said Friday, was obtained after Doha made the ransom payment.
The TV report (Hebrew) said the deal made a mockery of UN and Western leaders’ rhetoric against doing deals with terrorists and paying ransoms for the release of hostages.
Sivan Baror was eight months pregnant when her husband, Major Tzafrir Baror, 32, was killed in a firefight in Gaza on July 20, two weeks after Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip to stop rocket fire and destroy Hamas’s tunnel infrastructure began. Tzafrir had previously served in conflicts in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank.Hamas indicates deal for soldiers’ bodies in the works
Baror’s widow delivered the baby, weighing in at 3.2 kg (around 7 pounds), at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv surrounded by pictures of her late husband and of the two together.
A high-ranking Hamas official stated that Israel and the Islamist group were poised to kick-start negotiations over the returning of the remains of two Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed during the war this summer in Gaza, amid indications a deal on the issue may be in the works.Samir Kuntar Organizing Hezbollah Terror Cell on the Golan
Mohammed Nazzal, a senior figure in Hamas’s political wing, said talks on the retrieval of the bodies of Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul would probably begin later this month in Cairo, Israel Radio reported. In an interview with a Hamas-affiliated website, he stressed that his group would demand that Israel “pay a price” for every bit of information regarding the whereabouts of the soldiers’ remains.
Nazzal did not indicate what the group would demand in exchange for such information.
The Druze community warned that once the Rebels control the Syrian side of the Golan, Kuntar is planning to infiltrate his Hezbollah terrorists into Israel.Syrian rebels overrun intelligence base on Golan Heights used to spy on Israel
The Druze community told this to HaBayit HaYehudi representatives, including Ayelet Shaked, who met with them at the beginning of the week, according to a BaSheva report.
In 1979, Kuntar, at age 16 participated in a brutal PLF terror attack murdering a family in Nahariya, leaving 4 dead, including a 4 year old girl whose head he crushed with his rifle after killing her father in front of her.
In 2008, Kuntar was released into Lebanon in exchange for the bodies of IDF soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who were kidnapped by Hezbollah.
Syrian rebel forces fighting the government of President Bashar Assad overran a military intelligence base on the Golan Heights that served as a joint Russian-Syrian forward post for information-gathering on Israel.ISIS Issues Rules for Journalists; Punishment for Violation is Crucifixion
In a four-minute video clip which was posted on the Internet by the rebels, Free Syrian Army fighters are seen in a building in Quneitra, just near the boundary between Syria and the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
The footage shows pictures of Russian officers visiting the base as well as Russian-language maps of Israel. There are also photographs of the Russian defense minister’s top intelligence advisor as well as various other senior Russian defense and military officials having once visited the base.
The news website Syria Deeply, which first uncovered the rules, noted that independent journalists and other activists were threatened with crucifixion if they failed to abide by the rules. Even reporting on the existence of the rules themselves may be grounds for a death sentence. Two journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, have already been beheaded by ISIS.Latest Arab Conspiracy Theory: ISIS Selling Syrian, Iraqi Kids to Childless Israeli Settlers
This is not the first case in which a terrorist organization has attempted to control how the media reports on it. This summer, during Operation Protective Edge, Hamas released “guidelines” for how Palestinians should use social media, demanding that they not post photos of rockets being fired. The Foreign Press Association condemned Hamas for “blatant, incessant, forceful and unorthodox methods employed by the Hamas authorities and their representatives against visiting international journalists in Gaza,” adding:
The latest unhinged hot rumor in the Arab world alleges that Israel is benefiting from ISIS-backed child-trafficking rings, which are smuggling Syrian and Iraqi children into the Jewish state, for adoption by childless Israeli couples, NRG News noted Friday.IAEA-Iran Talks End with No Progress on Nuclear Bomb, Military Activities Probe
Tunisia’s al-Shorouk broadsheet recently published a report claiming that gangs working with the terrorist organization are abducting infant Yezidis, Christians and Kurds, and sell them to Israeli middlemen.
According to the newspaper, ISIS smugglers bring the toddlers to Israel via Turkey, and that an Israeli lawyer helps place them with Jewish families living in Judea and Samaria in order to boost settlement population.
Reuters reported Thursday that negotiations between the UN’s nuclear watchdog (IAEA) and Iran – aimed at securing inspector access to sites where the Iranians are suspected of having conducted military-related atomic work – “appear not to have substantively advanced,” with the agency tersely announcing that “Iran did not propose any new measures during the meetings in Tehran” and that no date had been set for renewing negotiations.Mystery Blast at Suspected Iran Nuke Site “simply eliminated” entire section of base
Diplomats had flown into Tehran for two days of talks aimed at making progress on Iranian transparency measures, just over a month after the IAEA issued a blistering report blasting the Islamic republic for failing to meet four out of five transparency obligations by an agreed August 25 deadline. The same report noted that the Iranians had instead spent the time destroying evidence in a way that “likely… further undermined the Agency’s ability to conduct effective verification.”
The area where the explosion occurred was “simply eliminated” by the blast. The images will raise as many questions as they settle. They do seemingly confirm reports – originally sourced to not always reliable Iranian dissident groups – that the explosion took place in the Parchin facility itself, rather than more generally in a military facility to the east of Tehran, which is all that Iran had acknowledged. They also give a hint as to the magnitude of the disaster, which Iranian officials had said killed two people, and which descriptions from inside the country described as blowing out windows 15 km away.Was the Parchin explosion an Israeli air strike?
That anything at Parchin was still capable of generating such a blast – even after literally years of the Iranians actively destroying evidence of suspected nuclear work at the base – is almost certain to deepen intrigue around atomic talks aimed at forcing the Iranians to disclose their atomic activities.
Here you can see before/after satellite photos of the Iranian Parchin nuclear development facility which recently was the location of a huge explosion in which at least two workers were killed.Hezbollah attack on Har Dov ordered by Iran following explosion at nuclear facility
Parchin is the place where the Iranians are suspected of working on detonators for nuclear devices. International inspectors have asked to be admitted to the facility several times and have been turned down.
There has been speculation that the explosion may have been a ‘work accident’, sabotage, or even an air strike.
According to unnamed sources in Washington, Iran ordered its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah to carry out Tuesday's attack on Israeli forces patrolling the Israel-Lebanon border following an alleged attack on the Parchin nuclear facility in Iran "by a foreign state," the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Rai reported on Friday.Defense/SecurityIran Admits Testing Nuclear 'Bridge Wires' at Exploded Parchin
Hezbollah planted and detonated two bombs in the Har Dov region along the Lebanese-Israeli border on Tuesday, with one device injuring two IDF soldiers. A second blast tore through the same area about 30 minutes later, but failed to cause injuries or damages.
In specific, the IAEA November 2011 Annex stated that "among the alleged studies documentation are a number of documents relating to the development by Iran, during the period 2002–2003, of fast functioning detonators, known as 'exploding bridgewire detonators' or 'EBWs.'"Iran refuses entry to UN nuclear watchdog envoy
It added that in 2008, Iran told the IAEA that "before the period 2002–2004, it had already achieved EBW technology. Iran also provided the Agency with a short undated document in Farsi, understood to be the specifications for a detonator development program, and a document from a foreign source showing an example of a civilian application in which detonators are fired simultaneously. However, Iran has not explained to the Agency its own need or application for such detonators."
The semi-official Fars news agency quoted Reza Najafi, Iran’s envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog, as saying that Iran had a sovereign right to deny a visa to a delegation member.Rev. Stephen Sizer speaks at antisemitic conference in Iran
Najafi did not identify the person, but said he was not an IAEA inspector and had a “particular nationality.”
Iran in the past has refused to let in agency inspectors who have Western nationalities.
Sizer’s presence at an antisemitic conference in Iran this week brings into question whether he is honouring the spirit of this Conciliation Agreement in good faith.Pro-Palestinian protestor assaults Jewish leader after Nets-Maccabi Tel Aviv game
The conference is the Second New Horizon Conference in Tehran. According to Iranian state-run Press TV, the conference intended to “unveil the secrets behind the dominance of the Zionist lobby over US and EU politics.” Those attending include a host of Holocaust Deniers and conspiracy theorists.
For an example of why this is an antisemitic conference, one of the conference sessions is on “Mossad’s Role in the 9/11 Coup d’Etat”. This includes discussion of “9/11 and the Holocaust as pro-Zionist “Public Myths””:
Leonard Petlakh, the executive director of the Kings Bay Y in Brooklyn, was attacked by a pro-Palestinian protester following the exhibition basketball game between the NBA’s Nets and Maccabi Tel Aviv.Jewish youth soccer club quits game after anti-Semitic taunts
Petlakh said he required eight stitches and his nose was broken after being punched on Wednesday while exiting the Barclays Center arena following the Nets’ 111-94 victory.
Fans verbally sparred inside the arena as the game was ending when pro-Palestinian protesters began shouting slogans and a pro-Israel fan grabbed a Palestinian flag from one of the protesters, according to Petlakh.
As the crowds spilled out of the arena and onto the street, one of the protesters took a swing at Petlakh, who was with his 14- and 10-year-old sons. The assailant ran away and Petlakh sought medical care. He reported the incident to the police, who are investigating the attack as a hate crime.
The coach of a Jewish youth soccer team in England took his players off the field after claiming they had been bombarded with “anti-Semitic abuse.”NBA player apologizes for Holocaust selfie
Members of the Manchester Maccabi team said they had endured anti-Jewish taunts and jibes about Palestine in a game with the Curzon Ashton team on Sunday, the UK’s Mirror reported.
With 10 minutes left in the game and his team losing 9-2, coach Anthony Dennison led the players off the field after an argument between two players drew in other players, coaches and spectators.
“We’re used to anti-Semitism, we play with the Star of David on our shirts, we wear the kippah, but in the past we’ve had managers apologize profusely and have a word with their players,” Dennison told the Manchester Evening News.
“On this occasion everyone was clapping and laughing at these racist insults and it was only one or two of their boys who seemed quite embarrassed and apologized to my players.”
An American basketball player apologized Wednesday for posting a photo of himself at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial with an “insensitive” caption.Patrick Modiano wins literature Nobel for work on Nazi occupation of France
San Antonio Spurs forward Danny Green posted the “selfie” at the memorial site on social media photo sharing website Instagram Wednesday with the caption, “You know I had to do it one time lol #Holocaust.”
Green and the Spurs were in Berlin for a game Wednesday against German basketball club Alba Berlin, which won the contest 94-93 in an upset.
Patrick Modiano of France, who has made a lifelong study of the Nazi occupation and its effects on his country, won the 2014 Nobel Prize in literature Thursday for what one academic called “crystal clear and resonant” prose.Christian MPs from 16 countries to show support for Israel in Jerusalem conference
Modiano, a 69-year-old resident of Paris, is an acclaimed writer in France but not well known in the English-speaking world. The Swedish Academy said it gave the 8 million-kronor ($1.1 million) prize to him for evoking “the most ungraspable human destinies” and uncovering the world of life behind the Nazi occupation.
Jewishness, the Nazi occupation and loss of identity are recurrent themes in his novels, which include 1968’s “La Place de l’Etoile” — later hailed in Germany as a key post-Holocaust work.
Modiano reacted to news of his selection by calling it “weird,” according to Antoine Gallimard of the French publishing house Gallimard.
Christian parliamentarians from around the world will show their support for Israel this week in a Christian Allies Caucus conference in Jerusalem.Israel Six Day War Victory Gets Film Deal
The MPs have a packed schedule for the three-day event, including a briefing by Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, participating in the Feast of Tabernacles with 5,000 Israel-supporters from 90 countries, and visiting a factory in Ma'ale Adumim with 200 Palestinian workers.
The CAC members will also sign a petition to increase supervision of funds their countries send to UNRWA, the UN agency dealing only with Palestinian refugees and their descendants, which was widely discredited during Operation Protective Edge after Hamas rockets were found stored in and fired from its buildings and their vicinity. They will present the document to Communications Minister Gilad Erdan.
The participating parliamentarians hail from the UK, Italy, Sweden, South Africa, Canada, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Guatemala and Suriname.
Basil Iwanyk’s Thunder Road has acquired screen rights to the Steven Pressfield hybrid history The Lion’s Gate: On The Front Lines Of The Six Day War. The producer will use the book as a template to tell the story of how Israel, faced with extinction as Jordan, Syria and Egypt prepared to attack, routed the enemy in less than a week in 1967 with a brilliant battle plan. By the time the smoke cleared, Israel had gained hold of three times as much land as it started with, taking over the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula, and Judaism’s holiest site, the Western Wall that was part of the ruins of Solomon’s Temple, real estate that hadn’t been in Jewish hands for 1900 years.
Though a period tale, it certainly is a topical one, because the repercussions are still felt today in the constant tension between Israel and its neighbors. Considering the preoccupation in Hollywood with the clashes in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinians and the vociferous support for the former in Hollywood, I’m surprised that this story hasn’t been told in a major feature. Pressfield tells the story from the vantage point of the soldiers who fought in the air and on the ground, as friendly political rivals Moshe Dayan and Ariel Sharon led the country to victory at a time when Israel was isolated after France had cut off arms shipments and other allies did little to slow the Arab forces pressing Israel from all sides. Considering all this, the results were considered something of a miracle. While Pressfield has written about the battlefield strategies of Alexander the Great in The Virtues Of War, and the Spartans defending Thermopylae in Gates Of Fire, and there he had to rely on recorded history and his imagination, this is more like his WWII book Killing Rommel. He had a lot of input and fresh research.
