Saturday, November 08, 2014
Riots, strike in Kafr Kanna after Arab youth shot dead by police
Riots erupted on Saturday in Kafr Kanna, an Israeli Arab town in the Galilee, a day after police shot a 20-year-old man from the village who later died of his wounds.Obama's legacy now depends on the Middle East
Demonstrators on Saturday set tires alight, threw stones and blocked roads in the village as they clashed with police to protest the killing. The village’s regional council also declared a strike in response and demanded a thorough investigation of the incident. Riot police were on the scene.
Police said Kheir a-Din Hamdan tried to stab an officer during an attempt to arrest him in the northern Arab town near Nazareth.
A short, edited surveillance video on the popular Israeli-Arab news website Panet claims to show the incident.
Hamdan is allegedly seen attacking a police van, banging on the windows. An officer gets out and, as Hamdan is seen retreating, is shot. He writhes on the ground, before police drag him into the van. He was taken to hospital where he died of his wounds.
On the Palestinian front Obama has already learned that he is no position to make history, having seen his administration’s brave effort to change local hearts yield little but the breaking of the heart of Secretary of State John Kerry.Romney hammers Obama as ‘dictatorial’ to friends like Israel, ‘naive’ on Iran
On the Iranian front, Obama is in for a collision with the new Congress – whose agreement he must secure to lift American sanctions.
An attempt to back a deal in which the goods would be delivered by other nations sanctioning Iran, from Europe to the UN, may yield an agreement, but not a place in history – because a deal with Iran against the will of the American people will not stand. Instead, it will be exposed as a capitulation, with its architects recalled as Chamberlains.
This leaves us with Islamic State.
Here, the die has already been cast. Obama is already in that war, and will likely be drawn deeper into it with full Republican support. Here, somewhere between Baghdad and Nineveh, Obama may find his place in history, providing he finally musters the vision, prudence, poise and resolve that most voters thought his first six years in office lacked.
On this front, the war effort Obama is in the process of launching may generate true victory over a true enemy representing a real problem for the entire world.
Should that happen, the man who took to the podium in Cairo eager to appease the Muslim world, will end up etched in millions of Muslim minds as Enemy No. 1 – a humbled statesman as bewildered as a Halloween pumpkin at October’s snow.
The Obama administration was in the hotseat at the inaugural Israeli American Council National Conference Friday, facing critiques from former Republican presidential candidate Gov. Mitt Romney and former Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman.
Friday marked the first-ever national gathering of Israelis living in America. Organizers said that the event sold out weeks in advance, noting that the entire Israeli-American community is currently estimated at over 600,000.
Speaking days after a strong Republican victory in Congressional elections, Romney described his former opponent’s approach to Iran as “naïve” while Lieberman emphasized his disapproval of recent criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by an unnamed administration official who used the term “chickenshit.”
Romney complained that Obama “continues to diminish himself and America and leads bad people to think America can be pushed around.” At the same time, in a criticism of the president’s policies on Israel, he slammed Obama for being “divisive and dictatorial to our friends.”
U.S.-Israel Tensions Drove 30,000 Americans in Israel to Vote in Midterms
Over 30,000 U.S. citizens living in Israel cast their vote in this week’s U.S. elections, according to iVoteIsrael, the leading organization facilitating the ability of Americans in Israel to vote in U.S. elections.Kerry says no link between Iran nuke talks, other Mideast issues
The group has successfully completed its 2014 campaign making voting from Israel more accessible to as many Americans as possible.
“iVoteIsrael is pleased to announce that 30,000 Americans from 36 different states have cast their ballots in the 2014 elections from Israel,” commented Matt Solomon, national director of iVoteIsrael. “This represents an unprecedented increase in voter participation from Israel in a non-presidential election.”
According to iVoteIsrael, the ‘war of words’ between the Obama and Netanyahu administrations that went public during the final weeks of the campaign — including accusations by PM Netanyahu that Israel was being treated in an ‘un-American’ manner, and the labeling of the PM as ‘ChickenSh*t’ by a senior Obama administration official — became a major driver in getting U.S. ex-Pats to vote.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday that there was no link between talks on Iran's nuclear program and other issues in the Middle East.Top EU diplomat calls for Jerusalem to be shared capital
The United States has already rejected a proposal floated by Iranian officials in which Tehran would cooperate in the fight against Islamic State forces in exchange for flexibility on its nuclear program.
"No conversation, no agreement, no exchange, nothing, has created any kind of deal or agreement with respect to any of the events that are at stake in the Middle East," Kerry told reporters in Beijing.
"There is no linkage whatsoever of the nuclear discussions with any other issue, and I want to make that absolutely clear. The nuclear negotiations are on their own."
The appeal by the European Union’s Federica Mogherini followed the dawn killing of the man by police in northern Israel, with his family saying he was killed “in cold blood” and a video showing he was shot in the back.‘We need a Palestinian state,’ new EU foreign affairs chief says in Gaza
“I think Jerusalem can be and should be the capital of two states,” the new EU foreign policy chief told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
The status of Jerusalem is a sensitive issue that has blocked peace efforts for decades.
The European Union’s new foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini on Saturday called for the establishment of a Palestinian state, saying the world “cannot afford” another war in Gaza.A Bold New Voice? Or a ‘Lightweight?’ Concerns, Skepticism Accompany EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini to Israel
“We need a Palestinian state — that is the ultimate goal and this is the position of all the European Union,” Mogherini said during her first visit to Gaza.
Hamas and Israel fought a 50-day war in July and August which resulted in the deaths of 2,140 Palestinians, at least half of them combatants according to Israel, and more than 70 Israelis, most of them soldiers.
Mogherini’s visit came against a backdrop of surging Israeli-Palestinian tensions in East Jerusalem where there have been near-daily clashes in flashpoint neighborhoods, and two terror attacks that killed four Israelis in two weeks.
Israel has tentatively welcomed the dawn of Federica Mogherini’s tenure as the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, but the jury is out on whether she will be a more sympathetic interlocutor than her predecessor, Catherine Ashton.European states threaten to recognize Palestinian statehood
The 41 year-old Mogherini, who was Italy’s Foreign Minister in her previous job, is currently visiting Israel – her first official trip in her new role. This morning, she met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who baldly told her that “Jerusalem is Israel’s capital and it is not a settlement.”
Mogherini has been cautiously critical of the Swedish government’s recognition of a Palestinian state, saying that Stockholm’s decision did not represent the other nations in the EU. In an interview with French newspaper Le Monde, she stressed that the real issue was how to establish a Palestinian state in the first place. “I would be happy if, during my term, a Palestinian state were established,” she said.
Additional European nations have reportedly threatened to follow suit of Sweden and unilaterally recognize Palestinian statehood if peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are not relaunched.Tibi Urges Belgian Parliament to Sanction Israel
A Wall Street Journal report published late Friday cited senior US and European officials as reporting the potential move that some of Washington's main allies have considered.
"Other European countries are poised to follow Sweden," a senior European official told the WSJ.
"We're not going to wait forever," the official was quoted as saying in reference to the potential of his country to decide to recognize a Palestinian state.
After traveling to London to push for a non-binding vote recognizing the Palestinian Authority (PA) as the "state of Palestine" last month, radical Arab MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List) is now in the Belgian parliament demanding sanctions against the Jewish state on whose Knesset he serves.Majority of Palestinians still support 2-state solution, new poll says
"In Israel an extremist government rules that is backed by an even more extremist Knesset," Tibi claimed while speaking at the Belgian parliament on Thursday, reports Yediot Aharonoth.
The extremist Arab MK continued, calling some of Israel's politicians "pyromaniacs who need to be reined in," and claiming "they are capable of setting Jerusalem ablaze without thinking about the results."
A majority or Palestinians still support a two-state solution with Israel while Hamas's popularity in Gaza is dropping, according to a new poll released on Thursday by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.Angry at Israel, king of Jordan cancels anniversary ceremony
According to the poll, 53 percent of Palestinians support a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict with Israel, while 46% oppose it. Moreover, there has been a drop in support for armed confrontation from 53% last month, which was taken directly after the 50-day summer war in Gaza, to 44% the new poll found.
However, while the survey found that the majority of Palestinians support a two-state solution, only 60% of those questioned believe the two-state solution is still practical due to "Israeli settlement expansion." Nevertheless, 71% are against abandoning the two-state solution altogether.
In a further signal of Jordanian anger with Israel over the friction at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, King Abdullah II reportedly cancelled Jordanian participation in a ceremony that had been scheduled for this week to mark 20 years of the Israel-Jordan peace treaty.Jordanians denounce peace with Israel, vow 'jihad to liberate Al-Aksa'
Jordan has already recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv, and officials have warned it may reassess the peace treaty, amid violence and tension surrounding the status of the mount, holy to Jews and Muslims.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abdullah spoke by telephone this week, and agreed on the imperative to calm tensions. Netanyahu also assured the king of Jordan, who is responsible for the Waqf Muslim trust that administers the site, that he has no intention of changing the status quo there to allow Jewish prayer, as some right-wing Jewish extremists are demanding.
Several thousand protesters took to the streets of Jordanian cities on Friday, calling on the government to scrap its peace deal with Israel following escalating violence at the Al-Aksa mosque in Jerusalem.Hamas announces 2,500 recruited to new Gaza ‘popular army’
"Death to Israel," crowds chanted in several cities, with activists demanding that Israel's embassy in Amman be closed.
"Why are you keeping the embassy of the Jews? It should be demolished with everyone in it," Sheikh Hamam, head of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood party, said in central Amman.
Jordan recalled its ambassador from Israel on Wednesday - the first time it has taken such action since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1994, denouncing what they called "violations" at the Al-Aksa mosque.
Hamas announced the creation of a “popular army” in the Gaza Strip on Friday, saying it was ready for any future conflict with Israel, particularly over the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque site at The Temple Mount.Richard Millett: Professor Joel Beinin: “Palestinians are the victims of the victims of the Holocaust.”
At a ceremony at the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north of the devastated Palestinian territory, a spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades — the military arm of the Islamist terror group — said 2,500 recruits would form “the first section of the popular army for the liberation of Al-Aqsa [mosque] and of Palestine”.
Mohammed Abu Askar, a Hamas official, said those older than 20 could sign up “to be prepared for any confrontation” with Israel.
It must be November because because Joel Beinin, Professor of Middle East History at Stanford University, was in town. Last November Beinin was telling a SOAS audience that “Israel is heading into the abyss” and that Israel is putting Bedouin “into what would effectively be concentration camps”.ARFA: Why Facebook Banned Satire Of Palestinian Propaganda
At LSE last Tuesday when asked during the Q&A after his talk “Why has the world stood by while Israel built the wall when we boycotted South Africa in the 80s?” Beinin replied, inter alia, that:
“The state of Israel is in some measure a response to western guilt for having sat on their hands during the murder of six million Jews. Now the Palestinians had nothing to do with that but, as Edward Said said, they are ‘the victims of the victims’.”
Beinin’s talk was called High Risk Activism and the Popular Struggle Against the Israeli Occupation in the West Bank and was chaired by well-known Israel boycotter Dr John Chalcraft under the auspices of LSE’s Middle East Centre.
Inspired by Hamas, I created “Gaza Girls,” a fictitious Palestinian girl band made up of three devout Muslim women fighting the evil Zionist occupation. The anthem of their debut single “Kill All the Jews” is sung to a Village People “Y-M-C-A” style dance with the “burka back-up” dancers as seen above.Jewish groups distribute security manuals to US campuses
As an experiment in fake Palestinian activism, I marketed the video on a “Gaza Girls” Facebook and Twitter account (@thegazagirls), lush with the #FreePalestine hashtag.
YouTube quickly expelled the video as “hate speech.” So I uploaded it to the “Gaza Girls” Facebook page, where I boosted it to Palestine. Anti-Israel activists like @bea4palestine and Elettra Palastina gave the Gaza Girls an encouraging shout out.
But the anti-Israel crowd soon understood that no Palestinian would be so openly Hitler-like in the English language – or that no Muslim woman would perform so Britney-like. They quickly exposed me as a “Zionist settler” and defended “Palestine” in the comments section, with Kim Akdi summing it up (screen shots have been preserved):
Glad that’s settled. Those “Free Palestiners” have nothing wrong with “peaceful Jews,” only, it appears, with Jewish babies sitting in their strollers in Jerusalem and unarmed rabbis leading a calls to freedom of worship on the Temple Mount. Hamas is the one that criminalizes the Palestinians. Why won’t she protest the Hamas charter?
Jewish student organizations are distributing a manual for college students on how to identify and prevent security threats.‘Palestine’ pulled from French firm’s websites that omitted Israel
Hillel International this week sent copies of the student safety manual to campuses around the country and AEPi, the Jewish fraternity.
The 10-page manual packs in commonsense safety tips like traveling in pairs after dark and approaching a door with keys ready. It also offers hate-crime specific advice, including an instruction to leave offensive graffiti in place until authorities have had a chance to examine it and to be alert when tensions flare in the Middle East.
It also includes advice on reporting suspicious activity and packages to campus police.
The French kitchenware maker Tefal removed references to “Palestine” from three of its websites following earlier complaints over Israel’s omission from the firm’s online publications.TruthRevolt Students Protest SJP, Supposedly Pro-Israel Groups Undercut
The removal of “Palestine” from the Middle East versions of the firm’s website seems to have occurred sometime this week, following a publication by the news site lemondejuif.info, which reported that Tefal had omitted its Israeli resellers from the online lists of its Middle East service providers while it kept references to “Palestine.”
A Tefal representative told JTA on Friday that Israel’s omission from the firm’s Middle East websites in English, French and Persian was the result of a “technical problem that will be fixed.”
Last night, TruthRevolt student activists at UCLA stood up against the anti-Semitic hate group Students for Justice in Palestine, despite a series of underhanded attacks as well as public condemnation and harassment by supposedly pro-Israel members of the community who militantly worked to avoid confrontation with SJP.Intolerance for dissenting boycott views at American Studies annual meeting
This week is SJP’s incredibly demeaning and openly anti-Semitic Palestinian Apartheid Week, which attacks the state of Israel and falsely advertises that it supports human rights. As soon as TruthRevolt activists planned the event, a wave of overwhelming support came to them from the pro-Israel student body at UCLA. Students expressed their excitement to take action against SJP’s resolution to boycott, divest, and sanction (BDS) Israeli companies and collaborators.
This was, of course, to the dismay of supposedly pro-Israel organizational leaders on campus, who spent long hours making phone calls, texts, and web messages pressuring students to not take action against SJP. These pro-Israel leaders had spent the day harassing me and other students to cancel the event, because it had not been organized with their approval. The parochial need to control all pro-Israel response by those too tepid to do anything drove this pathetic campaign. The result: many pro-Israel students backed out from attending the event, despite RSVPing.
The American Studies Association annual meeting, which started yesterday, had a panel of faculty opposed to the ASA’s anti-Israel academic boycott.In London, a noxious anti-Israel rally, & a child rabble-rouser on the "Zionist plan of world domination" (videos)
That panel came against the backdrop of ASA being forced to abandon its previous written policy of excluding representatives of Israeli academic institutions under threat of legal action against the hosting hotel.
Apparently, the anti-BDS panel’s mere existence was upsetting to some boycott supporters, including Micki McGee of Fordham, who was in the spotlight when she filed a university religious discrimination complaint against a fellow professor who objected to the boycott. Fordham rejected the charge.
Inside Higher Ed reports:
It was just the first day of the American Studies Association’s annual meeting here Thursday, but tensions surrounding the organization’s year-old academic boycott of Israel were already flaring.
The flashpoint was an anti-boycott panel that sought to explore such questions as the role of political ideology in academic debate, whether the Israel-Palestine conflict is within the purview of the ASA, and whether academic boycotts are a legitimate means to political ends. But while some attendees said they appreciated the panelists’ thoughts, others accused them of perpetuating a “for” or “against” line of thinking they said has done irreparable damage to the discipline.
Here's a spectacle horrible to behold. It took place in London on 6 November in protest at the British Film Institute's hosting of the Israeli Film Festival.More eBay Sellers Hawking Items Promoting Terrorism
It's reminiscent of hyenas crazed with hunger tearing at a carcase.
A Jewish soprano warbles her party piece, anti-Israel lyrics set to Beethoven's "Ode to Joy".
A black women, who should know better, leads the chanting "Israel is an apartheid state! Israel is a racist state!"
A male voice shouts out claims of "genocide" and "genocidal maniacs' ...
As I have pointed out in the past, there are eBay sellers being allowed to hawk their wares in contravention of the terms and conditions which prohibit any offensive material from being listed, including “Any item that glorifies or promotes violence toward animals or humans,” “Items related to terrorist organizations” and “Items promoting racial or ethnic intolerance”BBC report on second death in Jerusalem attack: 469 words but not one of them is terror
Sellers like al-ghurabah, who is still allowed to do so, despite being reported at the beginning of this year.
He’s only the tip of the iceberg. Reader Craig has identified some additional terror supporters on eBay.
As readers probably also know, the BBC’s rationale for avoidance of the use of the words ‘terror’ and ‘terrorist’ is supposedly rooted in the corporation’s aspiration to avoid “value judgements” – bizarrely even when a vehicle is deliberately ploughed into a pram carrying a three month-old baby or a bicycle ridden by a seventeen year-old youth.How did BBC News cover this summer’s anti-Israel demonstrations in the UK?
That rationale might – debatably – be less problematic were it at least applied uniformly by the BBC. However, as we have noted here on numerous occasions in the past – it is not. Moreover, we have learned in the past couple of weeks that whilst Israelis murdered in premeditated terror attacks on a public transport system are not described by the BBC as being victims of terrorism, even a potential threat to British travellers is reported using the word terrorists.
By failing to provide audiences with a comprehensive picture of the records and political agendas of the fringe groups which organized these demonstrations – along with the highly relevant topic of their links to repressive regimes in the Middle East – the BBC created the false impression that those demonstrations galvanized around a consensus issue for ordinary members of the British public. By refraining from reporting on the antisemitic imagery and slogans used on numerous occasions by some participants in the demonstrations, the BBC denied audiences a view of the real motivations underpinning their organization and messaging.Four Islamic extremists arrested for plotting to kill the Queen
That, of course, is not journalism; it is self-conscription to giving a leg-up to a political cause. Whether that self-conscription came about as a perceived need to compensate for the well publicised criticism of the BBC’s coverage of the conflict organised by those same organisations from its very beginning is unclear but what is obvious is that the BBC failed to give its audiences an accurate and impartial picture of those demonstrations or to provide the relevant background information necessary for them to be put into their correct context as part of the PR war waged by Hamas support groups in the UK.
The Queen has vowed to attend the Remembrance Day centenary ceremony at The Cenotaph despite police arresting four Islamist terror suspects plotting to kill her on the day.IAEA Report Slams Iran For Not Cooperating on “Key Issue” of Past Nuclear Research
The 88-year-old monarch insisted she will carry on with tradition - laying the first wreath following the two-minute silence at 11am on November 11.
A source told the Sun: 'Whatever the security assessment, Her Majesty would not shirk from her responsibility and duty - and this Remembrance Sunday is no different.'
The Queen's tribute will be followed as normal by salutes from Prime Minister David Cameron, Cabinet members and Opposition leaders.
Yesterday armed officers seized the four men, aged 19 to 27, following months of surveillance.
Last night police were said to be interrogating the suspects - who are thought to have hatched a plot assassinate the Queen with a knife.
Iran is failing to address suspicions it may have worked on designing an atomic bomb, according to the latest report by a U.N. watchdog, potentially complicating efforts by world powers to reach a deal with Tehran on its nuclear program.Iran sped up enrichment, ‘may have violated interim nuclear deal’
The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tehran had still not provided information it was due to produce more than two months ago to help advance a long-running IAEA inquiry into suspected nuclear weapons research.
The confidential document was issued to IAEA member states less than three weeks before the Nov. 24 deadline by which Iran and six global powers are seeking to end a decade-old standoff over the Islamic Republic’s atomic activities.
Iran has stepped up efforts to develop a process that could enrich uranium at a much quicker pace, thereby violating the interim nuclear agreement reached with world powers last year, according to the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, or ISIS.Defense News Editorial: “Don’t Back Down” In Nuclear Negotiations with Iran
“Iran may have violated [the interim deal] by starting to feed [natural uranium gas] into one of its advanced centrifuges, namely the IR-5 centrifuge,” ISIS wrote in an analysis of the confidential IAEA report issued Friday to member states, according to Reuters. “Under the interim deal, this centrifuge should not have been fed with [gas] as reported in this safeguards report.”
“Because enrichment in these centrifuges is intermittent and not continuous, questions arise whether any of the advanced centrifuges work well,” ISIS said.
Iran has also reportedly sped up its low-grade uranium enrichment over the past two months, growing its stockpile by 8% to 8.4 tons.
The editorial concludes:Senators Kirk and Rubio: Iran’s “Horrific” Human Rights Record Warrants Greater Scrutiny
Iran’s nuclear program is only one element of the vast proxy arsenal Tehran is deploying across the region, from Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Assad in Syria as well as factions in Iraq, Bahrain and in the gulf.
For its own sake, the international community must not make a nuclear deal only for the sake of making a deal.
It must continue to use both carrots and sticks to either convince or compel Iran to abandon and dismantle its military nuclear program, not merely put it in storage.
In the Daily Beast today, Senators Mark Kirk (R-Ill) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla) call attention to Iran’s “horrific” human rights record , which “deserves equal attention” as its nuclear ambitions and support of international terrorism.Seoul Mates: Are Jewish Stereotypes Among Koreans a Source of Hate, or Love?
Using the recent execution of Reyhaneh Jabbari as a starting point, Kirk and Rubio focus on the growing rates of executions in Iran. Citing the report of Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran, the senators write:
The Shaheed report blasts Iran’s growing use of executions, with 687 in 2013 and already 411 in the first half of 2014. Under Iranian law, citizens can face executions for a shockingly broad range of non-violent crimes, including “adultery, recidivist alcohol use, drug possession and trafficking” and corruption, in addition to moharebeh (sometimes translated as “enmity against God”). Indeed, the report observes that the regime in Tehran, in practical terms, is disproportionately executing individuals from religious and ethnic minority groups “for exercising their protected rights, including freedom of expression and association.”
This May, a survey by the Anti-Defamation League found that South Korea was the third most anti-Semitic country in Asia, behind only Malaysia and Armenia.‘X Factor’ Host Confronts Soccer Fans Chanting ‘Yiddo’ and Making Gas Chamber Sounds
As a secular half-Jew living in Korea, I was shocked by the report. In the 12 years I have spent here, I have experienced plenty of cultural misunderstandings, but little anti-Semitism. Other Jews I spoke to in Korea felt the same way; the majority told me that they had never experienced anti-Semitism of any sort. In fact, the opposite was true: Most assume that Koreans love Jews.
There are occasional murmurings that Jews are cheap, or they think they’re better than everyone else, but these are rare—and more often than not they come from other foreigners, not Koreans. In the end, according to the people I interviewed, the survey’s problems with methodology, assumptions about cultural values, and simple translation overstated the problem. Mostly the Jews here described an exuberant Korean philo-Semitism, even a belief that Jews stand as an example to Koreans, many of whom believe they need to emulate Jews if they want to punch above their weight in the world arena.
The X Factor: UK host Dermot O’Leary confronted fans of the British Arsenal soccer club in a bar after hearing them make anti-Semitic remarks about London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, the UK’s Jewish News reported on Thursday.Belgian king visits Jewish museum months after attack
O’Leary was in Belgium with journalist Boyd Hilton watching Arsenal’s Champions League match against Anderlecht when he heard the fans chanting in the bar after the game.
Hilton said in his football podcast that “Arsenal fans started singing words like ‘Yiddo,’” The Sun reported. Some soccer fans then hissed, imitating gas chamber sounds.
“Dermot was ready to physically have a go at them,” Hilton said. “He was furious.”
The king’s hour-long visit to the museum is a “clear signal to the Jewish Museum, to the victims of the May 24 attack and their relatives, and to the Belgian Jewish community as a whole,” a palace spokesman told AFP.US teaches European officials how to fight anti-Semitism
King Philippe released a statement the night of the shootings in which he expressed his dismay and anger over the attack against the Jewish community.
The museum’s director Philippe Blondin said the “royal visit shows to what degree the king was marked by the event and encourages us to move on,” according to the Belga news agency.
European Jewish institutions increasingly find themselves potential terror targets.Film Offers Grunt’s-Eye View of IDF Life
But attempts to ramp up security at synagogues, day schools, museums and community centers from Paris to Copenhagen have been stymied both by a lingering distrust of the police among some communities and by law enforcement’s reluctance to single out any ethnic minority for special treatment.
Those challenges, among others, brought top European security officials to Rutgers University’s Newark Campus on Oct. 31, where they met with their American counterparts and learned about a new initiative — backed jointly by Rutgers and Jewish Federations of North America — to help European Jewish communities work with police to prevent attacks.
About 40 people attended — representatives of Jewish umbrella groups in the United States and Europe as well as police officials from both continents. Sessions addressed the current threat in Europe and how to share “best practices” from US law enforcement with European police.
Early in Beneath the Helmet, an Israeli documentary that follows a group of new IDF enlistees, a pack of soldiers sit underneath a palm tree, relaxing in the shade. Their sergeant asks how things are going. “Well, the food sucks,” one says, “so I really miss my mom.”Beneath the Helmet trailer
Beneath the Helmet is steeped in such moments of youthful emotion. The soldiers featured in it jump around to the tunes of Macklemore. They roughhouse. They miss their moms. They are startlingly, strikingly young. For those who live outside of Israel, it can be easy to forget that the arduous task of defending the country rests on the shoulders of teenagers.
At the film’s center are four soldiers in an elite paratrooper unit. Three of them are new to the army, straight out of high school. There is Eilon, an effervescent young man with a penchant for practical jokes; Oren, who left Switzerland to serve in the Israeli army; and Makonen, an Ethiopian immigrant who struggles terribly with basic training because it forces him to leave behind the family that depends on him for financial support. We are also introduced to Coral, a sergeant who once considered evading Israel’s mandatory army service.
The Bay Area Loves Israel
To Israel, with Love.Bay Area Flashmob For ISRAEL
From the Golden State.
You may have seen the original. Its hard not to smile watching Mattisyahu’s song reimagined as a love poem to Israel. The images capture the diversity of Israel’s landscape and Israel’s people.
Now San Francisco is getting in on the act.
Sure seems that the Bay area is anxious to shed its reputation as an international hub for the de-legitimization of Israel.
