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Friday, February 06, 2015

02/06 Links Pt2: PA pays terrorist prisoners salary based on carnage caused; LATMA returns!

From Ian:

Edwin Black: PA studies details of each terrorist act before issuing salaries
Congressional legislators were astonished last year to learn that the Palestinian Authority was issuing monthly payouts totaling $3-7 million as salaries and other financial rewards to specific terrorists and their families. The money was channeled, in part, through the Ministry of Prisoners pursuant to the Law of the Prisoner. The law set forth a graduated scale, pegging monthly salaries to the length of Israeli jail sentences, which generally reflects the severity of the crime and the number of people killed and/or injured.
Thousands of documents, newly obtained by this reporter through a lawsuit to unseal court-protected files, demonstrate that these payouts are not blind automated payments. Rather, senior Palestinian Authority officials as high as President Mahmoud Abbas scrutinize the details of each case, the specific carnage caused, and the personal details of each terrorist act before approving salaries and awarding honorary ranks in either the PA government or the military.
Ministry of Prisoners spokesman Amr Nasser has explained, “We are very proud of this program and we have nothing to hide.” Nonetheless, in response to the international furor over the payments, the Palestinian Authority announced last year it would replace the Ministry of Prisoners with an outside PLO commission known as the Higher National Commission for Prisoners and Detainees Affairs.
The PA is dependent upon foreign donor countries to supply much of its budget, which now exceeds $4.2 billion annually. About ten percent of the PA budget, more than $400 million, is contributed annually by United States foreign aid. The US and many other countries have enacted laws forbidding any payments when the monies directly or indirectly support or encourage terrorism.
Douglas Murray: More On "No-Go Zones": Displacing What Is Disagreeable
Amid all the giggling and the Twitter hashtags, something dark is going on in France and Britain. None of these areas is a place where non-Muslims are "forbidden" to go. But they do exist. They are places where behavior that is commonplace in wider society would certainly be discouraged, sometimes intimidatingly so.
Last year in the UK, we discovered that a portion of Birmingham's secular state schools had been taken over by Islamic fundamentalists. The results of these discoveries -- which included teachings that Muslims were to distance themselves from non-Muslims, look down on then and not take them as friends -- shocked the nation. It still seems shaken. Yet most Muslim leaders in the UK simply denied the findings of successive government-led inquiries. Instead of tackling the outrages, they dismissed them as some "Islamophobic" plot.
It seemed we were witnessing an example of "displacement:" it is so much easier to laugh at a foreign news station than to deal with the jolting nugget of truth that may have been exaggerated. So much easier to choke on your porridge at the "idiocy" of an American than to stop your schools from being lost to extremist ideologies. And so much easier to talk of "suing" a news channel than to prevent atrocities of the kind we saw last month from happening again in your city.
Right-Wing Satire Latma Finally Breaks Leftist TV Hold
Fans of the right-wing satire show Latma finally got their long-awaited wish on Thursday night, as the show that went off the internet back in August 2013 due to a budget crisis caused by a reneged-upon contract made history by airing on TV, and in doing so breaking the leftist monopoly on Israeli satire.
After Israel Broadcasting Authority's (IBA) Channel 1 initially gave the show something of a run-around, promising to air the show and leading it to raise production values that eventually bankrupted it after a full four years of donation-based glory on YouTube, the satire series has finally found a home on the TV channel.
Latma, the brainchild of veteran journalist Caroline Glick, appeared with a slick new look and graphics on TV under the new name Hakol Shafit, loosely meaning "everything can be judged."
The star of the show Noam Jacobson reprised his central position on the show in numerous roles, playing Binyamin Netanyahu, Avigdor Liberman and an elitist Supreme Court judge.



Richard Millett: Labour Party candidate Rupa Huq claims Israel cut off Palestinian water supply
Huq[Labour], Ball[Lib Dem] and Sharman[Green] were all anti-Israel automatons. Their party leaders would have been proud. All three were ready to confine Israelis to hell just as long as they won themselves some votes last night.
Sharman wanted Britain to stop supplying weapons to Israel and to stop buying weapons from Israel. He said “Israeli weapons are road tested on the Palestinians and so they are attractive to the British government”.
Ball started off by saying he wasn’t an expert on the Israeli-Palestinian issue but then went on to call for a boycott of “settlement” goods and for “ending the arms trade with Israel”.
He did, however, reject economic sanctions against the whole of Israel but not on the ground that such action was wrong but on the ground that it would only “fuel the collective paranoia of the Israeli government and its supporters overseas” and make them more hardline and right-wing.
Huq, meanwhile, was obsessed with Ed Miliband being Jewish. It was something she repeatedly mentioned without explaining the relevance.
Her second main obsession was that Israel is, apparently, starving the Palestinians of water (see clip below). She said “they’re basically shutting off the water supply to the Palestinians”. Lies and utter nonsense from a woman who attended Cambridge University.
Rupa Huq's lie "israel cutting of water supply to Palestinians"


Stephen Sizer’s Empty Apologies
This January, Stephen Sizer posted a link to an article from a website called Wikispooks. The article with the headline “9/11, Israel did it” outlined a conspiracy theory laying the responsibility for the September 11 terrorist attacks on Jews. Dr. Sizer included the comment, “Is this anti-Semitic? It raises so many questions.” When contacted by Jewish News Online, Sizer removed the link, but said that he would welcome evidence refuting the allegations. The Church of England put out a statement that Dr. Sizer’s conduct was unacceptable and promised an investigation into the matter. Only then did Dr. Sizer apologize for this his most egregious Facebook link yet, writing on his website:
I very much regret and apologise for the distress caused by the reposting on Facebook of a link to an article about 9/11 from Wikispooks. It was particularly insensitive in that last week coincided with Holocaust Memorial Day. I removed the link as soon as I received adverse feedback, and realised that offence had been caused. I have never believed Israel or any other country was complicit in the terrorist atrocity of 9/11, and my sharing of this material was ill-considered and misguided. At the request of the Diocese, I will be suspending my use of all social media and blogs with immediate effect and until further notice.
What can be learned from all these episodes? While Stephen Sizer has shown himself ready to apologize, he has been unwilling to alter his behavior. It is past time for his church to stop allowing him to plead carelessness as his excuse. His continual posting of anti-Semitic content, as well as his disingenuous apologies, brings dishonor to the name of Jesus and the body of Christ.
UNESCO dismisses reports that Palestinian poster collection nixed due to anti-Semitism
A collection of Palestinian posters remains under consideration for inscription in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Program, a representative for the organization said in dismissal of media reports that the nomination had been dropped for fear that it fueled anti-Semitism.
“The nomination has not been rejected. The nominator is requested to revise it,” a representative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization said.
“It is absolutely normal for the committee to ask for revisions and improvements of the nominations to make them meet the program’s selection criteria,” the representative added.
The collection of 1,600 posters, many of which focus on Palestinian armed struggle against Israel, were submitted to UNESCO by American art curator Dan Walsh, and is now part of over 80 nominations of cultural documentary collections under consideration for inscription in the Memory of the World Program in 2015.
NGO Monitor: Resignation of Gaza investigator is big blow to Palestinian lawfare campaign
The sudden resignation of William Schabas, the anti-Israel professor of law who headed the UN investigation into alleged Israeli "war crimes" in the recent Gaza war, has further highlighted the farcical attempts to indict Israel taking place under the façade of international law.
Mr Schabas was forced to quit after Israel informed the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that he had omitted to mention a consulting contract he had with the PLO - a blatant ethical violation that led a number of governmental delegates to request an investigation.
The UNHRC, Mr Schabas and their allies, such as Amnesty International, tried to spin this embarrassment into Israeli wrongdoing, and claimed that resignation would make no difference, as the report was already largely written. But, like the belated retraction by Judge Richard Goldstone of the 2009 UNHRC report attacking Israel that bore his name, the naming and shaming of Mr Schabas is a major blow to the Palestinian "lawfare" campaign which exploits false allegations and twisted versions of international law for political warfare.
Furthermore, if, as claimed, the Schabas investigation is almost complete, the professor would havestarted compiling his report long before the January 31 deadline for the submission of evidence.
This suggests that he could have prepared the report without considering much of the evidence submitted to the committee.
Watchdog Orgs Say Schabas Resignation Only Tip of the Iceberg
UN Watch, for its part, welcomed Schabas' resignation, but said this is only the first of the necessary steps to be taken. While UN Human Rights Council president Joachim Ruecker insisted that the resignation "preserves the integrity of the process," UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said that the opposite is true.
"The truth is that Schabas made clear in his resignation letter that he 'devoted several months of work' to the commission," said Neuer, "in which, as the inquiry Chair, and as the top expert, Schabas would have played a leading role in conceiving of the entire project, including the scope, framework, and methodology of the inquiry, selection of specific incidents of the war to examine, choice of witnesses, and legal standards to apply."
Neuer said that Schabas certainly had a say in the influential choice of staffers and also "chaired all of the hearings where testimony was delivered and witnesses examined. ...The bottom line is that Schabas masterminded and oversaw this effort for six out of its seven months, and he substantially impacted the entire process."
Schabas' "undeclared conflict of interest has now irretrievably tainted the entire probe and its report," said Neuer.
Ex-spy chief tied to Nisman case nowhere to be found
Antonio Stiusso, a powerful former spy chief of Argentina who is wanted for questioning in the death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman, eluded authorities that sought to question him on Thursday.
Reuters quoted prosecutors who said Stiusso, who was dismissed in December, wasn’t found at any of the three addresses registered to his name, and may have fled the country.
However, his lawyer, Santiago Blanco Bermudez, told Radio Vorterix on Thursday that Stiuso had yet to receive a summons, but would appear when he is formally called.
Argentine Prosecutor's Ex-Wife Received Image of Him with Hole in Head Two Days Before His Death
Nisman’s ex-wife, Judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado, was in Europe at the time, according to reports in Argentina’s La Nación. Nisman, she says, sent her an advance photo of a copy of the magazine Noticias, in which a profile of Nisman was the cover story. Their daughter also reports having received the photo from Nisman.
Upon seeing the photo Nisman sent her via Whatsapp, she used the application to speak to her current partner and ask him to send her a photo of the copy of Noticias she thought would be at their home. Her partner, La Nación reports, bought the magazine at a newsstand, not having found it in their mail. He sent her a photo of Nisman in the magazine–one that appears on the inside of the publication. In the image Arroyo Salgado received, Nisman had a hole in his head.
Infobae has not only confirmed the existence of the photo, but published it on its pages:
Superficial BBC reporting on Iranian involvement in AMIA attack
In other words, even those readers who bothered to click on the links to the ‘related stories’ are not provided with any insight into what caused those involved in investigating the AMIA bombings for more than 20 years – including Alberto Nisman – to reach the conclusion that Iran was involved.
That information can be found in the backgrounder prepared by our CAMERA colleagues Ricki Hollander and Marcelo Wio: “The AMIA Attack: Terrorism, Cover-Up and the Implications for Iran“. Additional information – including a link to a translation of Alberto Nisman’s report – is available in testimony submitted to the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs by Dr Matthew Levitt in 2013.
French Jews Unite for Shabbat Marking 30 Since Market Massacre
Four Jews were murdered in a hostage crisis at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris last month, and even as the French Jewish community has reeled from the brutal Islamist terror attack, it has also united, with thousands of unaffiliated Jews reportedly joining communal meals nationwide.
In honor of shloshim, the traditional period marking thirty days since death, the Jewish community in France is poised to come together to observe this Shabbat together.
Joel Mergui, a leader of the French Jewish community and president of the Israelite Central Consistory of France that was established by Napoleon, called for the Shabbat gathering on Friday and Saturday in honor of the murdered Jews, who he points out were killed simply for being Jews.
Mergui remarked that following the Charlie Hebdo massacre which happened two days before the Hyper Cacher attack, and in which 12 people were murdered at the satirical magazine over its cartoons of the founder of Islam, Mohammed, there has been a chain of solidarity forming in the greater French public.
Netanyahu Helps Complete Torah Scroll in Memory of Paris Terror Victims
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was the second most important member to participate in a ceremony to honor the memory of the victims of terror who died in Paris last month.
The most important member was the beautiful new Torah scroll upon whose parchment the scribe and honored guest penned the final Hebrew letters.
The scroll was the first of four, two of which will be in placed in synagogues in Paris, and two to be kept at the Western Wall.
After inscribing the last letters in the Torah written in memory of those who were murdered last month by an ISIS terrorist at the Hyper Cacher kosher grocery in Paris, the prime minister said, “I express the feelings of the Jewish People regarding these victims, who are part of our people and who were murdered just because they were Jews, in terrible anti-Semitism that is sweeping across Europe. Many European governments are still not ready to point to the source of the new anti-Semitism – extremist Islam. To my regret, we saw an expression of this spirit yesterday at the UN, when they refused to condemn Hezbollah, which claimed responsibility for the murderous attack against our forces.
Human Rights Watch Official Urges US Holocaust Museum to Display Gaza War Pictures, While Praising Qatar Migrant Labor ‘Reforms’
The brazen double standards underlying the approach of Human Rights Watch (HRW) – arguably the world’s leading human rights NGO – towards the Middle East were again laid bare today, as the organization’s Middle East and North Africa director urged the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to display images of “death and destruction” in Gaza, while separately praising the Qatari regime for taking a “welcome step” in reforming its slave labor system.
Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW’s top staff member dealing with region, took to Twitter in response to a posting from BBC correspondent Kim Ghattas, who pointed out that the Washington, DC-based Holocaust museum was now showing an exhibition about the brutal abuse of human rights in Syria. “@BBCKimGhattas @DRovera @HolocaustMuseum @BBCNewsUS should also show pics of death and destruction in #Gaza,” Whitson declared.
While there was little surprise at Whitson’s insinuation that Israel is a genocidal regime similar to that in Syria, her comments generated an angry reaction nonetheless.
“Is it Human Rights Watch’s position that what is happening in Gaza is genocide?” columnist Jeffrey Goldberg asked Whitson.
“It certainly would be appropriate for the Holocaust Museum to feature an exhibit on genocidal Hamas theology,” Goldberg added.
Campus Incitement Proves Anti-Zionism Still Equals Anti-Semitism
The point here is not to silence those critical of Israel or to outlaw BDS. Those who seek to wage rhetorical war on Israel in the United States have the same rights of free speech as its defenders. But when, as invariably happens, their actions cross over from criticism of Israeli policies to overt acts of anti-Semitism, the pretense that their anti-Zionist agitation is not an act of prejudice against Jews cannot be sustained.
Those who would deny to the Jews the same rights of sovereignty and self-defense that are never questioned anywhere else on earth are not merely engaged in politics. Treating Israel in a way that no other country is treated and ignoring real human-rights abuses elsewhere shows they are engaged in an act of bias. Bias against Jews is called anti-Semitism and it is long past time for all decent persons, whether Jewish or non-Jewish, to call BDS by its right name: hate speech.
The line that supposedly exists between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is an imaginary one. As events at UC Davis proved, this debate has ceased to be theoretical. Those who claim to oppose anti-Semitism must no longer treat BDS as merely an issue on which reasonable persons can agree to disagree. Those who are neutral about BDS or who treat it as a merely a difference of opinion are not promoting a fair debate about a topical issue. They are aiding and abetting hate.
JVP tries to change the conversation at Davis
Jewish voice for Peace picks up its marketing strategy from Don Draper and Mad Men:
"If you don't like what is being said, then change the conversation."
Via Gabi Kirk, the paid JVP shill who is a regular at California Campus divestment proceedings.
Gabi Kirk doesn't seem genuinely concerned with the feelings of the Jewish students targeted in their homes- she cares only about the media, and how to spin the news.
She writes:
As you already know UC Davis passed a divestment resolution this week. Earlier today, it was discovered that the Jewish fraternity house AEPi was spray painted with two swastikas.
Almost all media coverage has tied together this hate crime with divestment and quoted AEPi students claiming it was because of divestment that this happened. We are hoping to lift up the statement below from SJP and their allies, saying how we are proud to work in a coalition with SJP and all the others signed on, in support of human rights, and how we also condemn both hate crimes and efforts to group non-violent efforts like divestment in with these hate crimes.
Anti-Israel Radicalism's Genocidal Nature at UC Davis
Obviously, last week’s successful resolution vote signaled to many pro-Palestinian students that not only did they no longer have to apologize for Islamic terror, they could proudly, and publicly, swear allegiance to Hamas while screaming “Allah Akbar” at Jewish students during the divestment vote (a phrase which, among others, the 9/11 hijackers screamed moments before their jets crashed into the twin towers).
There is no explanation for why educated and well-intentioned individuals, experiencing paroxysms of moral self-righteousness in which they are compelled to speak out for the perennial victim, can loudly and publicly advocate for the murder of Jews—who already have created and live in a viable sovereign state—on behalf a group of genocidal enemies of Israel whose tragic condition may well be their own doing, and, at any rate, is the not the sole fault of Israel’s.
That these activists are willing, and ready, to sacrifice the Jewish state, and Jewish lives, in the name of social justice and a specious campaign of self-determination by Palestinian Arabs, shows how morally corrupt and deadly the conversation about human rights has become—both on campuses and outside the ivy walls.
“The whole problem with the world,” observed philosopher Bertrand Russell, “is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” On the UC Davis campus, fools and fanatics may have prevailed in the current vote, but, in doing so, seem to have revealed the true nature of their genocidal, anti-Semitic hatred.
And its lethal nature and intent should frighten us all.
Buzzfeed: How The Media Gets It Totally Wrong About Israel
Sometimes they can’t tell the victims from the terrorists.
1. On November 18, 2014, two Palestinians rampaged through a Jerusalem synagogue, killing 4 civilians and a police officer before being killed by security forces. But to CNN, victims and terrorists are all the same:
2. On October 22, 2014, Palestinian terrorist intentionally rammed his car into a group of Israeli civilians waiting for a train. What did the AP focus on in first headline?
Newsweak
Newsweek has published a piece, “West Bank Gun Battle Exposes Growing Resentment Towards Palestinian Authority.” Jack Moore writes:
Unidentified Palestinian gunmen and Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces today became embroiled in one of their biggest gun battles in recent years in the northern West Bank city of Nablus…
Security sources told Palestinian outlet Maan News that three officers were injured in the shootout, which went on for several hours. Local police warned residents of the city to remain inside for safety reasons…
Security forces entering West Bank refugee camps is not an unusual occurrence, although residents often resist them by throwing stones or setting tires on fire. In November 2013 security forces exchanged fire with gunmen at Balata camp.

According to this article it was Palestinian Authority security forces shooting and injuring their own people.
So Newsweek, why is the only photo at the top of the article of Israeli soldiers?
Who reads down to see it was the PA forces who were shooting?
Al-Jazeera's New Competition Pulled After 18 Hours on Air
A television news channel founded this week by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and which aimed at challenging Al-Jazeera lasted all of 18 hours before being pulled by Bahrain.
According to the Khaleej Times newspaper, Bahraini authorities suspended the Alarab television channel 18 hours after its launch, following an interview it broadcast with an aide to a Bahraini opposition leader.
The channel blamed technical and administrative reasons for its being taken off the air, without giving details, but a Bahraini newspaper and a source familiar with the matter said the channel had been suspended for violating media neutrality.
According to the Khaleej Times, the suspension was “related to the failure of those in charge to abide by the prevailing norms in the Gulf, including the neutrality of media positions and staying away from anything that could negatively impact the spirit of Gulf unity”.
Edgar Davidson: Board of Deputies spends three times as much on pandering to radical Islam as it does on combatting anti-Semitism
Government figures revealed this week that the number of anti-semitic attacks in the UK doubled in 2014 compared to the previous year.
Yet in 2014 the Board of Deputies - who "represent the UK Jewish community" spent just 2% of its income 'combatting anti-Semitism' (see graphic above from a report on their own website). It spent three times as much on "Interfaith relations" which, as far as I can tell, is almost entirely dedicated to pandering to Islamic extremists. In addition to its notorious 'deal' with the Muslim Council of Britain (which is the UK branch of the Muslim Brotherhood) it has spent a lot of time and money sucking up to Islamic supremacists and Israel haters like Baroness Warsi and the discredited and disgraceful Fiyaz Mughal. (Update 6/2/15: to see how the BoD spends real cash on its pandering to Muslims I see their website is boasting today about how it just took a group of Britsh Imams to Paris).
I was prompted to write this post having just seen today's Jewish News which contains a half-page opinion piece by Rabbi Natan Levy "Interfaith Consultant, Board of Deputies". It is a naive and ignorant piece suggesting that Jews are as much to blame as Muslims for the distrust between the communities.
No Charges Against Teens who Called to Kill Jews on Twitter
The daughter of a New Jersey State Police sergeant who posted photos of herself on Twitter dressed up like genocidal Nazi leader Adolf Hitler at a popular Orthodox Jewish hangout with the caption "perfect bombing time" will not be prosecuted, state officials said Thursday.
The Ocean County Prosecutor's Office told USA Today that the posts, from the teen and several of her friends, "didn't rise to anything criminal," and did not constitute enough of a credible threat to the Orthodox Jewish community to warrant charges.
Spokesman Al Della Fave emphasized that the teen's connection law enforcement did not grant her special treatment, and that ultimately, "we have been assured by the families and the school that this is something that will be handled."
The man who can save the world from wasting water
Like most of its neighbours, Israel is a desert nation, and during the past seven years it’s struggled through a drought with record-low rainfall. In response, Peleg and others have come up with an array of innovations, from microscopic sewage scrubbers to supersize desalination plants to smart water networks. Israel now has higher agricultural yields than it’s had in non-drought years. It even has a water surplus, a portion of which (about 150  million cubic metres per year) it pumps to Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
“I don’t think it’s overkill to say that Israeli entrepreneurs are disrupting and reinventing how the world creates and conserves water,” says Peleg, 48. He’s become one of the leaders of a water-tech movement that began in the 1950s, when Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, implored scientists and engineers to “make the desert bloom”.
In 2008, Peleg’s startup, TaKaDu, began designing software that uses mathematical algorithms to detect and prevent leaks in water pipelines. Peleg has silver, buzz-cut hair, arching black eyebrows, and a jaw like an anvil—George Clooney’s indomitable Danny Ocean meets the affable Schneider from One Day at a Time. He’s part swaggering CEO and part scrappy superintendent.
Israeli Navy Installs Advanced Underwater AquaShield Detection System
During Operation Protective Edge last summer, a small force of Hamas naval commandos managed to approach the Israeli coast from the sea, undetected by military surveillance until the group reached the shore. That event, which was thwarted due to the alertness of an Israeli Navy spotter, is not expected to repeat itself because the Israeli Navy has installed the AquaShield Diver Detection Sonar system, which makes it possible to identify individual divers underwater from a far greater distance off the coast.
The navy has already installed the system—manufactured by DSIT Solutions—along the sea border with the Gaza Strip, and is in the process of installing it along Israel’s northern sea border, Israel Hayom reported. A senior navy officer said, “The chances of a diver infiltrating the system are zero. The system is proven and constitutes a sea barrier for Israel.”
AquaShield is built to detect divers and provide protection for vital infrastructure located at sea and on the coast, such as gas rigs and ports. During the Gaza war, the Israel Defense Forces was forced, for the first time, to contend with the threat posed by Hamas’s unit of underwater divers. One group managed to infiltrate Israel near Kibbutz Zikim, and was spotted and killed. Had the AquaShield system been deployed prior to Operation Protective Edge, the terrorists would likely have never reached the beach.
A salute to John Baird
John Baird, the Canadian foreign minister who announced his retirement from politics this week, was more than a very good friend to the State of Israel.
Baird is proof positive that it is possible to engage in moral diplomacy in a cynical world. He demonstrated that it is possible to be solidly pro-Israel and simultaneously gain a respected role on the international stage and maintain excellent ties with the Arab world.
No country has been as trailblazing in its support of Israel in recent years as Canada. Baird and his boss, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, have spoken out and acted to defend Israel, without apologies or hesitations. They have never felt the need to be politically correct and to "balance" their statements with (im)moral ambiguities about the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Canada was the first country in the world to cut ties with and aid to the Gaza government when Hamas seized power in 2006; the first country to withdraw its support from the infamous anti-Israel U.N. conferences known as Durban II and III; the first country to robustly defend Israel in the four wars it has been forced to fight in recent years against Hezbollah and Hamas; and a leading voice in defense of Israel at the G-8, G-20, U.N. Human Rights Council, and International Atomic Energy Agency.
The Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life, 2014 (INTRODUCTION)
In honor of The Algemeiner Journal’s 2nd Annual Gala, we are delighted to unveil the second Algemeiner Jewish 100 list of the top one hundred individuals who have positively influenced Jewish life this past year.
Before you work your way through this exciting list, we wanted to first share some of the thoughts that we discussed as we developed this endeavor.
If we could group these ideas together, the first would be about creating lists, in general; then, what’s unique about lists and Judaism; some finer points differentiating our honorees from the organizations they lead; and some important reflections on all those every day and anonymous-to-us heroes we also want to celebrate without ever knowing their names. And, of course, to thank everyone involved with the creating of the list and who worked hard to put together our Jewish 100 Gala.
Algemeiner Jewish 100, 2014: The Full List
VOICES
David Brooks
Julie Burchill
Irwin Cotler
Alan Dershowitz
Bassam Eid
Matti Friedman
Anthony Julius
William Kristol
Bernard Henri Lévy
Alberto Nisman
Dennis Prager
Jonathan-Simon Sellem
Leah Soibel
Adin Steinsaltz
Joseph Telushkin
Khaled Abu Toameh
Elie Wiesel