Monday, June 08, 2015
Rabbi Sacks: Anti-Semites Using Guise of 'Human Rights'
Former UK Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks spoke on Monday about anti-Semitism, and warned that not only is the volatile trend which is spreading out of control in Europe a threat for the continent's Jews, but it is also a destructive threat for all Europeans.Jerusalem mayor urges Obama to recognize Israel’s capital
Speaking at a discussion entitled "Islam and BDS in Europe: A Strategic Threat?," which was held on Monday at the 2015 Herzliya Conference, Rabbi Sacks spoke about the connection between BDS - the boycott movement targeting Israel economically - and classical anti-Semitism.
According to the rabbi, who is Chief Rabbi Emeritus of the United Hebrew Congregation of the Commonwealth, "anti-Zionism is the new anti-Semitism," and just as attacks on Jews must be stopped, Europe must likewise stop attacks on the Jewish state.
Tracing the evolution of Jew hatred, the rabbi noted that once anti-Semitism was based on religion, and then race, but "today they (Jews) are hated for the new nation state."
"The assault on Jews has had to justify itself in the highest cannon of authority," he said, explaining that in the Middle Ages religion was the highest authority, whereas in the 19th century CE it was replaced with science in Western culture. As a result, "the scientific study, that today we know is a pseudo-science of race and social Darwinism was used to justify hate against Jews."
"Now, human rights are the highest form of authority. For this reason it is used against Israel. The new anti-Semitism has to be spoken in the language of human rights," said Sachs, explaining modern anti-Semitism.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Monday urged US President Barack Obama to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, hours after the US Supreme Court struck down a law to permit Americans born in Jerusalem to list their birthplace as Israel in their US passports.BBC's 'Impartiality' Cut References to Jews From Concentration Camp Reports
The landmark ruling, which backed the president’s official stance on Jerusalem, was also fiercely criticized by MK Michael Oren — formerly the Israeli ambassador to the US — while the Foreign Ministry declined to comment.
“Just as Washington is the capital of the US, London is the capital of England, and Paris the capital of France — so too Jerusalem was and always will be the capital of Israel,” Barkat said in a statement.
Pointing to rising anti-Semitism and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, the mayor said, “I call on US President Barack Obama to publicly declare what we’ve known for generations — that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and Israel is the home of the Jewish people.”
Oren, of the Kulanu party and a former US citizen, also denounced the ruling, which he said was “damaging to Israel’s sovereignty and to the alliance of Israel and the United States.
“Today, to my regret, the court rejected the appeal on the claim that recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is in the unique purview of the president and behold — President [Barack] Obama uses this authority and chooses not to recognize Jerusalem as our capital,” he said.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) edited out all mention of Jewish people from a front-line report on the liberation of Belsen concentration camp in Germany at the end of World War II, it has emerged.
The corporation had not wanted to air the report at all, only conceding when veteran broadcaster Richard Dimbleby threatened to resign.
On April 15, 1945, the Nazi concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen was liberated. There, despite there being no gas chambers, at least 50,000 Jews, Poles, Soviets, Dutch, Czechs, Germans and Austrians had lost their lives. Allied forces entering the camp found 60,000 prisoners still alive in the camp, most of them emaciated. A further 13,000 dead bodies were scattered around the grounds, unburied.
Among the first to arrive at the camp to witness the scenes was the broadcaster Richard Dimbleby, one of the BBC’s small band of pioneering war correspondents. Millions of radio listeners back in Britain heard the horror in his voice as he described the scene:
“Here over an acre of ground lay dead and dying people. You could not see which was which… The living lay with their heads against the corpses and around them moved the awful, ghostly procession of emaciated, aimless people, with nothing to do and with no hope of life, unable to move out of your way, unable to look at the terrible sights around them …
“Babies had been born here, tiny wizened things that could not live … A mother, driven mad, screamed at a British sentry to give her milk for her child, and thrust the tiny mite into his arms, then ran off, crying terribly. He opened the bundle and found the baby had been dead for days.
“This day at Belsen was the most horrible of my life”.
But the report they were hearing had been edited, from an original length of eleven minutes down to just six, and all reference to Jews had been taken out.
Israel Could Easily Deal with BDS - So Why Isn't It?
Author of best-selling 'Catch the Jew' says that despite all the talk by politicians, Israel is neglecting the threat in its own backyard.Legal Insurrection: Israel’s Revenge Is That “We Are Still Here”
But what disturbs him far more is the failure by Israel and the wider Jewish community to fight back.
Despite the extent of the campaign, Tenenbom insists "it is definitely possible to fight back," but laments that "some of our worst enemies are Jews themselves."
"It's basically the sad story of the Jewish people. After 2000 years of anti-Semitism some of these Jews have bought into it and started to identify with their oppressors. It's like Stockholm Syndrome. They think that Europe is the shining star of humanity, and they don't want to be Jews - I saw them, I lived with them... there is this move to erase any Jewish thing in you, so you think 'lets join them!'
"They want to be the elitest of Israeli society, invited to panels, dinners, events - they want acceptance."
But aside from extremists on the fringe actively working against Israel, he blames the Israeli government for allowing such a vast conspiracy to unfold under its nose. Most gallingly, his book records how European diplomats are using their position "to be activists, not diplomats."
That issue rose to prominence in 2013, when a French diplomat was filmed slapping an IDF soldier during a protest - but Tenenbom says that was just the tip of the iceberg.
"Yes it's a democratic country, but if there was anything like this in the United States for example, the US government would have put a stop to it a long time ago. There should be a law against it, to end this involvement of European governments in Israel's politics and internal affairs.
"Do you think Norway or any of these other European governments would allow this?"
"Normally diplomats who come to a foreign country, their job is to represent that country - only in Israel do they work as activists against the Israeli government, against Israeli policies, going to demonstrations, funneling money to NGOs whose purpose is to make Israel look like the worst country in the world."
His message to grassroots activists both in Israel and the Diaspora is that they, too, can play a role, but first they need to "stop being afraid."
My wife and I are back, after an intense two weeks in Israel.A Sermon of Hate in the District of Columbia
From the Lebanese to Gaza borders, from the Mediterranean Sea to Judea and Samaria, from the cool evenings of Jerusalem to the heat of the Negev Desert, from an apartment in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem to Bedouin villages in the north and south, from university campuses to military bases, from faculty to students, from Jews to Muslims … I can’t say we saw it all, but we saw a lot.
I’ve documented most of our big events in daily posts, with the exception of our emotional meetings with the families of Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner, students killed in the 1969 Supersol supermarket bombing by Rasmea Odeh; that post is coming, but I still have new photos, documents and information I have to work through.
Here are my 5 Big Takeaways from the trip:
1. Our Revenge Is That “We Are Still Here”
Near the start of our trip, we visited Moshav Avivim on the Lebanese border, where we met Shimon Biton, a survivor of the 1970 bazooka attack on a school bus by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Biton, who was six and one-half years old, lost his father in the attack, and himself was shot point blank range by the terrorists when they realized he survived the bazooka attack. Ten days before we met Biton, he was reunited for the first time in 45 years with the nurse who helped save him.
When we asked whether he ever wanted revenge, Biton told us that the revenge was that “we are still here and building for another 70 families.”
Sabeel DC Metro is an affiliate group of Friends of Sabeel-North America (FOSNA), which is itself an arm of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center (Sabeel) in the U.S. and Canada. Sabeel was founded in the early 1990s by Rev. Dr. Naim Ateek, a Palestinian priest of the Anglican Church who introduced a Palestinian variation of radical “liberation theology.” The organization was the culmination of Ateek’s efforts to advance an alternative interpretation of the Christian Bible that is “nourished by the hopes, dreams and struggles of the Palestinian people.”An Orange-faced warning call for Israel
Ateek’s theology, which supposedly challenges a literal understanding of the Old Testament as a “Zionist text,” features violent imagery that depicts Jewish acts of deicide as well as forceful repudiations of Jewish national self-determination. During Christmas celebrations in 2000, Ateek spoke of destructive “modern-day ‘Herods’…in the Israeli government,” and in his 2001 Easter address, declared that “Palestine has become one huge Golgotha. The Israeli government crucifixion system is operating daily.” He later likened the occupation of the West Bank to “the stone placed on the entrance of Jesus’ tomb.” In one particularly memorable address, he compared Israel’s creation to Original Sin, and contested that Judaism does not teach its adherents to love non-Jews.
Considering the role such libels have played in the oppression and destruction of Jewish communities for centuries, one would think that characterizing Israelis as modern day Christ-killers would be reasonable grounds for allegations of anti-Semitism. Sabeel, of course, strenuously denies this.
But this remained a minority viewpoint. French media in general did not seem convinced by Richard’s latest statement, including his interview to Yediot Aharonot.Orange chief plans Israel trip to address boycott row
On Saturday, Le Monde published a long article concerning Israel’s battle against BDS.
Other French media outlets analyzed the ramifications of an increased boycott movement on Israeli policy.
In other words, few French pundits bought into Orange’s explanation, claiming a decision to eventually pull out of Israel would be a strategic one, and not politically motivated.
The belated reaction of Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius demonstrated those same beliefs clearly, both in words and in timing. On Friday morning, almost two days after the original declarations of Richard in Cairo, Fabius released a first official statement, saying that “although it is for the president of the Orange Group to determine the commercial strategy of the company, France is firmly opposed to a boycott of Israel.” The statement referred to the French and European general position on settlement building, “that is known to all.”
As said previously, Fabius’s ministry took its time responding to the saga.
Orange boss Stephane Richard accepted an invitation by the Israeli government to visit the country after a boycott row, a spokesman for the French telecom firm said Sunday, adding that the trip would allow the CEO to “clarify the misunderstanding.”Guardian fails to update story falsely suggesting an Orange boycott of Israel
Richard will travel to the Jewish state “soon” to “provide all the necessary previsions to put an end to this controversy and reaffirm the group’s commitment,” the spokesman added.
Israel invited Richard to visit and explain his plan to review ties with local Israeli subsidiary, Partner Communications, a government official said Sunday.
The government’s invitation was the latest stage in the controversy that erupted Wednesday, when Richard said in Cairo that his firm sought to withdraw its brand from Israel. The next day, Orange announced it had decided to sever ties with its Israeli franchise holder, Partner.
A simple story of “another” BDS success?JCPA: “Breaking the Silence” in Zurich, Betraying Swiss Values
No, not at all.
The Guardian article was based on a developing story, one which changed dramatically since reports first surfaced.
Though the statement by Orange’s CEO Stephane Richard – likely tailored to appeal to his Arab audience – was seized upon by BDS activists as a victory, Richard began almost immediately backing down from his threat to leave Israel amidst an onslaught of fierce criticism from Israeli government officials, investors and anti-boycott activists.
First, Richard made it clear that his company’s decision whether or not to leave Israel would be based purely on business considerations.
Since that time, Orange’s CEO jumped down from his original statements even further, and noted that the company is NOT leaving Israel and that his original comments – interpreted by some as indicating support for boycotting Israel – were misunderstood. He further claimed that he “loves Israel” and “condemns” all boycotts.
The French government also released a statement making it clear that the country is firmly opposed to anti-Israel boycotts.
Members of the Swiss-Israel parliamentary group also issued a statement strongly condemning the public financing of the “propaganda, disinformation and ideology opposed to any peace.” By contributing to the funding, the EDA “is betraying human rights, democracy and the peaceful coexistence of people, as well as the values it is allegedly promoting.”Israel’s right to live in peace – BDS and the big lie
The distortion in BtS’ narrative is evident in its self-immunizing strategy. Public complaints by Israel and friends of Israel are deflected with charges of “silencing brave critics” of Israel. Some news outlets have already spun the story to that effect. The Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger (the second largest of the country and notoriously critical of Israel) published an article about how Israeli “right-wing nationalists” have seized the Israeli foreign ministry and have attempted to suppress criticism of Israel worldwide. The complaints against BtS revealed only “the growing isolation of Israel,” the newspaper asserted.
The aim of BtS’ sponsors is not an honest debate to correct perceived wrongs, but to defame Israel abroad and thus add to the increasing international pressure on the Jewish state. In that sense, BtS is in line with the international anti-Zionist movement spearhead by BDS.
The BtS narrative that portrays the IDF as a cruel war machine attempts to be influential, but it can be challenged by facts. At a time when even Amnesty International cannot remain silent any longer about the appalling practices of the Hamas regime in Gaza, it is clear that none of the BtS sponsors in Switzerland are really helping to reach a peaceful resolution of the conflict by relocating a domestic Israeli debate.
The EDA has commented that Switzerland remains committed to the peace process and to a two-state solution. However, the $158,000 donation to BtS from the EDA from 2012-2016 belies these claims.
It is best neither to underestimate nor overestimate BDS. It is another weapon in the hands of those that seek to undermine Israel and has fertile ground to explore amongst students, especially given the rise in the number of home grown and immigrant students from areas or cultures traditionally more hostile towards Jews or Israel. Having said that there is probably a ceiling to BDS, and Israel is a Western democratic nation, fully integrated in a global economy, and the alienation of, for example Israeli academics, is anathema to some of the very core targets of BDS (hence the recent clarification from the British universities following the disgraceful NUS vote). As with the Royal Institute of British Architects, BDS self-declared victories are often followed by defeats. The idea that large companies involved in any industry dependent on academia or technology or research would currently divest from a superpower of innovation is as absurd as the notion that Israel, as the only free nation with Western values in the entire region, should be treated as a pariah. This doesn’t mean that the BDS ceiling cannot hurt Israel, nor that it should be taken lightly, far from it, it simply suggests that as long as BDS is confronted effectively, the spread of the disease can be stopped.J Street U Slams Adelson/Saban Anti-BDS Summit, Laments ‘Israeli Occupation’
But the decision makers of today were the Kibbutz Volunteers of yesteryear and the decision makers of tomorrow are currently being fed BDS propaganda; for this reason it is important not to underestimate the long term effects of only fighting the battle at the business or political level whilst allowing the movement a free reign on the campus. There should be no room for the anti-Semitic lie that Israel is a pariah state to evolve and spread upon campus. The response to BDS has to be multi-faceted, and each battle is different; you do not turn up for a navy battle with tanks. On campus, in a left wing, secular environment, Israel’s case has to be heard and there is an important need to place an alternative on the agenda. BDS must not be the only game in town. Make no mistake, this is a war; the same war, the one Zionists have been fighting ever since the movement began. The war for Israel’s right to live in peace.
J Street U, the campus arm of the left-wing lobby advocating for a two-state solution, said it was “dismayed” by a summit against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement hosted by pro-Israel billionaire philanthropists Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban this weekend in Las Vegas.Bereaved Parent: Fighting Anti-Semitism Begins at Home
In an email addressed to “leaders of the American Jewish community” who planned to attend the summit, J Street U—which along with its parent organization was not invited to the gathering—wrote, “Like you, we are concerned about the growth of the BDS movement on college campuses. Far from an abstract question, this is a live issue for us: as college students, campuses are our home. That’s why we’re dismayed by reports that representatives from several of your organizations will attend a closed-door anti-BDS summit this weekend, hosted in Las Vegas by major donors including Sheldon Adelson.”
Often scrutinized for stating its opposition to BDS but simultaneously partnering on campus events with pro-BDS groups, J Street U wrote that students “aren’t drawn to support BDS because they reject the existence of Israel; they come to support BDS out of a genuine frustration with the ongoing tragedy of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the 48-year Israeli occupation.”
Bereaved father Dr. Aryeh Bachrach does not understand why Israel does not allow him to sue the Palestinian Authority (PA) for its role in the murder of his son ten years ago.A Liberal Democrat Just Called Two CAIR Officials ‘Insane’
"The Palestinian Authority was convicted in a US court of conspiracy to murder US citizens," he noted Sunday to Arutz Sheva. "Why here, in Israel, does the government not give the option to sue the PA for helping kill Jews? We have evidence that the PA assisted the murderers."
Bachrach's son Ohad, along with friend Ori Shahor, were killed in 1995 when they were hiking in Wadi Qelt east of Jerusalem. The PLO's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine faction claimed responsibility for the murders. Bachrach, of Beit El, was 18 when he was killed, and Shahor, of Ra'anana, was 20.
Ten years later, Bachrach sees the legislation being successfully waged, finally, against the PA and urges similar moves in Israel "not as punishment, but as compensation, an obligation exercise to wave in front of the faces of Palestinians in the world."
The National Union of Students, a confederation of 600 student unions representing more than 95 percent of all higher education unions in the United Kingdom, passed a motion Tuesday to align with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign as part of a worldwide effort to boycott Israel.PreOccupied Territory: Omar Barghouti Is Actually A Zionist Agent By Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (satire)
The same group rejected a motion in October condemning ISIS out of concerns it would “become a justification for war and blatant islamophobia.” The failed motion called for support to “Iraqis trying to bridge the Sunni-Shia divide to fight for equality and democracy, including defence of the rights of the Christian and Yazidi-Kurd minorities.” It also specifically condemned the Islamic State and expressed support for the Kurdish Peshmerga fighting it.
Seeing that fail, but a boycott of Israel pass, prompted Maajid Nawaz, a Liberal Democrat candidate in the 2015 parliamentary elections and prominent anti-extremism activist, to tweet his disapproval, saying it represents “Everything wrong with the Modern Left.” In a subsequent comment, Nawaz, a former recruiter for the radical Islamist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir who now combats the Islamist narrative, said that anyone who “entertains the idea” that Israel is as bad as ISIS “is frankly insane.”
Now is as good a time to let it be known as any: BDS movement leader Omar Barghouti is one of our boys.Why does MSN News spread anti-Semitic propaganda?
Usually the phrase “one of our boys” refers specifically to an actual member of the tribe, but in this case I refer to Mr. Barghouti not as a Jew, but as acting on behalf of them and their state. There, I said it: Omar Barghouti is actually a Zionist agent.
The reason I’m sharing that tidbit now is that it was only a matter of time before his laughable hypocrisy discredited him and his movement anyway. Mr. Barghouti is about to complete his PhD at Tel Aviv University, cementing his status as a hypocrite with no moral standing – a perfect fit for the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions activists he purports to lead, but of limited future utility in sandbagging that movement. Here you have a man who promotes severing economic, cultural, political, and professional ties with Israeli individuals and institutions, yet continues to avail himself of the exceptional scholarship, resources, and education that the Tel Aviv University offers. Once his career as a student at the a Zionist institution of higher learning ends, Mr. Barghouti’s duplicity will have a much more limited impact on BDS. It is time to end the charade.
As I recall him telling me in briefing last year, under his aegis large swathes of the BDS movement have followed his lead of railing against endorsement of Israeli individuals or products while relying extensively on Israeli technological innovation to conduct their lives. The number of BDS activists using mobile devices with patented Israeli technology has skyrocketed under his watch, a testimony to his influence. Where moral and intellectual consistency might demand an actual avoidance of Israeli products and services, the Barghouti Principle dictates that one must do so only if it would not be terribly inconvenient. I have to confess that one was partly my own idea.
My discovery of MSN News’s anti-Israel “jihad”Guardian whitewashes the extremism of Susan Abulhawa (The Facebook updates)
In August 2014, I bought a Windows Phone, and picked “Israel” as one of the topics that I wanted to include in my news feed. At any given time, eight items are displayed in this and other user-defined news feeds.
Upon first glance, these eight items seemed to consist of items curated from major journalism sources (eg Reuters, etc.). On closer look however, I began to notice that one or more of those eight items were not news, but were hysterical editorial screeds against Israel, and particularly, the Israel Defense Force. Some were curated from well-known (and well-funded) anti-Israel propaganda sites. Others, however, are personal blogs, residing at the Internet’s most fetid, feverish, swampy edges.
I was so shocked by what I observed that I began taking pictures of the phone’s display with a digital camera.
Three examples
The following are items that I captured from my Windows phone between March 28 and April 9, 2015:
(1) “Israel: A Force of Pure Evil”
Susan Abulhawa is an American anti-Israel activist and author of Mornings in Jenin, a book Bernard Henri Levy characterized as “a concentration of anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish clichés masquerading as fiction”.The pattern continues: no coverage of Gaza missile attacks in English but BBC Arabic reports Israeli response
Abulhawa, who contributes to Electronic Intifada, Mondoweiss and the pro-Hamas Middle East Monitor (MEMO), was recently featured in the Guardian in an article highlighting her work for a group called Playgrounds for Palestine (PfP).
Though the piece deals primarily with her work for PfP, the Guardian does briefly touch on her broader political outlook.
Her wider political view is never hidden though. “Those children are living like this because of brutal military occupation. Our work is just a plaster. Part of our mission is to put eyes on what is happening to Palestinian children. Unfortunately, though, criticising Israel has been conflated with antisemitism.”
Whilst you can get a good view of Abulhawa’s extremist views in her posts at EI, Mondoweiss and MEMO, which includes support for terrorism, we found it particularly interesting to take a look at her Facebook updates.
These provide a quite interesting mirror into her “wider political view”:
Visitors to the BBC Arabic website found the same context-free headline in an article which once again leads with the effect rather than the cause.‘Explosion’ of anti-Semitic, anti-Israel crimes in Germany
As we see, a pattern has been established with regard to the reporting of missile fire from the Gaza Strip. Whilst audiences using the BBC’s English language website are not told of the attacks at all, readers of the BBC Arabic website get to hear first and foremost about the Israeli responses to such attacks.
However one wishes to describe this ongoing editorial policy, the appropriate title is certainly not accurate and impartial journalism.
An exponential rise in anti-Israel crimes in Germany committed by foreigners and immigrants in 2014 points to an urgent need for action, a German politician says.Documentary Exposes Russian Government Involvement in Neo-Nazi Movement
The government should support Arab and Muslim groups engaged in education against anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, Green Party parliamentarian Volker Beck said in a statement after the government release of statistics showing a marked increase in both anti-Semitic and anti-Israel crimes last year.
Responding to Beck’s official query, the government reported last week that crimes under the category of “Israel-Palestinian Conflict” increased from a total of 41 in 2013 to 575 in 2014. Of these, 331 were “politically motivated crimes committed by foreigners,” and 91 were violent crimes; the previous year, there were no violent crimes registered in this category.
In a statement, Beck noted that while most anti-Semitic crimes can be traced to right-wing extremists, last year’s “frightening explosion” of anti-Israel crimes and rise in anti-Semitic crimes after the summer 2014 Gaza conflict were in part traced to perpetrators of Muslim or Arab background.
An explosive documentary burst onto Israeli screens Wednesday evening, grabbing viewers from their armchairs and hurling them into the middle of a forest outside of Moscow.Disputed Holocaust memorial dedicated in Greece
In “Credit for Murder,” Vladi Antonevicz, a former IDF soldier, reveals the product of seven years of hard, often life-threatening work. The Jerusalem film school graduate plunged himself into the violent world of Russia’s neo-Nazi underground, and has emerged with a lot to say.
Not only does the intrepid Israeli’s documentary provide insight into some of the most extreme gangs in the country, but Antonevicz claims to have uncovered a deeply sinister aspect of how Russia’s neo-Nazi underworld is really organized.
Speaking to the Tazpit News Agency, Antonevicz begins his story in 2008. “I was caught up in a YouTube craze – watching people’s reactions to shocking, violent, banned videos,” he said.
It wasn’t long until Antonevicz, who has an energetic and probing nature, discovered that one video in particular was popular with YouTube uploaders: a double murder by supposed Russian neo-Nazis.
A disputed Holocaust memorial was dedicated in Greece weeks after the original event was called off by city authorities.Upcoming Documentary to Chronicle How Young Bronx Girl Got to Play Holocaust Survivor’s Violin (VIDEO)
The ceremony took place Sunday in Kavala, a port city in northern Greece, after the Greek Jewish community, the Greek government and international Jewish groups slammed the decision to cancel.
City officials reportedly had wanted the Star of David removed from the monument.
The black marble monument commemorates the 1,484 Jews from Kavala who were murdered by the Nazis.
Hundreds of people attended Sunday’s event, including Greek government officials, the leaders of the Greek Jewish communities and the Israeli ambassador to Greece.
Kavala Mayor Dimitra Tsanaka, who was behind the decision to cancel the earlier ceremony, denied that she objected to the Star of David, but said that city councilmen from her party objected to the size and placement of the Jewish emblem on the monument.
A new upcoming documentary, titled Joe’s Violin, will detail how an instrument bought by a Holocaust survivor in postwar Germany made its way to a young girl living in the Bronx, the New York Post reported on Sunday.Israeli-Azeri Economic Partnership: Shifting Balance of Power Away From Iran, ISIS, and Al Qaida
The violin’s owner, Joseph Feingold, 92, grew up in Poland in a Jewish family of music enthusiasts.
When the Nazis and Soviets invaded his home country in 1939, 16-year-old Feingold was sentenced to a Siberia war camp for six and a half years. After the war he was freed and fled to Germany with his father, where they reunited with Feingold’s middle brother who had survived the Auschwitz concentration camp. His younger brother and mother died in concentration camps during the war, according to the report.
At a flea market in Frankfurt, where Feingold lived in a displaced-persons camp in 1947 as he waited for passage to the United States, he exchanged a pack of cigarettes for a violin.
“At that time, the only thing that mattered more than dollars was American cigarettes,” he said.
With his violin in tow, he moved to New York the following year and settled on the Upper West Side, later graduating from Columbia University and then working as an architect. About six years ago, his fingers stopped being nimble enough to play the violin. When he heard about a radio charity drive last year, he donated his stowed away instrument, the New York Post reported.
As civil war in Syria, the onslaught of ISIS, and the deliberation of Iranian nuclear agreements ensue, very few are aware of the growing economic partnership between Israel and Azerbaijan. “Trade between Israel and Azerbaijan now totals $4 billion annually, the highest figure for Israel’s business with any of the now-independent countries that were part of the former Soviet Union…” (Albawaba, 2012). Israel has no better ally than Azerbaijan in terms of economic and military capability in the region. Israel is aware of the significance of Azerbaijan with respect to the collection of Iranian and Russian military and economic intelligence. Azerbaijan has an optimal ally in Israel with regard to the development of its weaponry and surveillance technology. In addition, Israel and Azerbaijan are quite familiar with conflict among neighboring countries, and dominant regional powers.Google CEO: Israelis Succeed because They Break Rules
Through the Azeri-Israeli economic partnership, Israel is gaining from Azeri expertise in exploration and development of fuels, while benefiting Azerbaijan in the establishment of its technology, education, agriculture, and military sectors. “In February, Azerbaijan agreed to pay state-run Israel Aerospace Industries $1.6 billion for …drones and anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems. That’s nearly a quarter of the money Azerbaijan’s government takes in each year, $7.8 billion. Azerbaijan also provides about 30 percent of Israel’s energy needs” (Albawaba, 2012).
Google chairman Eric Schmidt provided a vote of support toward Israel on Sunday, praising its "culture of entrepreneurship" amidst several high-profile attempts to lob global boycotts against the Jewish state.Israel is a Beacon for Gay Rights in the Middle East
"Israel is booming in terms of entrepreneurship because you have a culture to challenge authority and to question everything," Schmidt said, in a speech to hundreds of students and researchers at the Weizmann Institute. "You're not going by the rules."
"The impact of the Israelis on science and technology is immense, so that's why I'm here and why I'm investing here," he added.
In the modern world, he noted, as the economy grows, there is a need for innovation and the establishment of new companies.
"For this to happen, a country must invest in several areas: education, high-speed connection to the Internet, an open immigration policy that will enable leading minds to move between countries, as well as an environment that encourages entrepreneurship," Schmidt said.
Tel Aviv is on a roll when it comes to support for the LGBTQ community.Wearable device provides continuous fetal monitoring
Since the beginning of June, the Tel Aviv Municipality building was lit up with the LGBTQ community’s rainbow flag as Gay Pride Month kicked off.
Pride Week in Tel Aviv begins on June 7, with events throughout the week. The highlight for many, the Pride Parade, begins on June 12 at Me’ir Park in Tel Aviv.
This year’s celebration will be even larger than last year’s, with an expected 180,000 participants, making it the continent of Asia’s largest gay pride event.
On June 10, Tel Aviv will also host 40 Years of Pride, a large global conference for LGBTQ leaders. The conference will bring activists, mayors, academics, journalists, educators, lay leaders, and many prestigious speakers to build skills and networks, as well as celebrate LGBTQ progress in Israel.
Israeli medical experts have developed a wearable mobile monitor to keep a close watch on pregnant women and their fetuses as they go about their everyday lives.Art Garfunkel muses on timeless melodies and his ‘gift from God,’ ahead of TA gig
The PregSense monitor has sensors woven into an elastic harness to provide data around the clock on the status of the fetus and the mother's health in the later stages of pregnancy.
A bluetooth-enabled device attached to the monitor collects and transmits data such as the mother and baby's heart rates to a smartphone and stores it on a secure cloud-based database accessible only to expectant mothers and their physicians.
The device is the work of the Nuvo Group, led by Oren Oz. He says a smartphone app will eventually provide a visual representation of the data gathered by the wearable monitor.
The familiar halo of graying curls is still partly visible at the back of Art Garfunkel’s balding pate, and the voice — that clear, lilting tenor — sounds the same, simultaneously solid and sweet.On Gaza border, memorializing war victims with Quran, Mozart and Psalms
And that was just at the press conference.
After arriving in Israel on Sunday, Garfunkel spoke Monday morning prior to his Wednesday, June 10, concert at Tel Aviv’s Bloomfield Stadium.
It’s his first time performing solo in Israel, and Garfunkel, dressed in a crisp white shirt and gray sports jacket, said he “came to say hello and tell you I’m very thrilled and full of jetlag.”
He held up a small piece of white note paper, and pointing to the scrawled list, commented that this was the set list for Wednesday night.
“There will be some Simon and Garfunkel, some Art Garfunkel, and a surprise, my son, and there’s the surprise, no more surprises,” he said.
When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his monumental requiem in 1791, he could hardly have imagined that it would one day feature in a memorial concert for Palestinian and Israeli victims of a minor Middle Eastern war.Nepalese Ambassador Thanks Magen David Adom for Earthquake Aid
But hundreds of Israelis flocked last Thursday to a concert titled “From Mourning to Hope,” where the Catholic funerary Mass was performed on a grassy soccer field outside Kibbutz Kfar Azza, a secular community of 650 founded by immigrants from Egypt and Morocco in 1951, just three miles from the eastern neighborhoods of Gaza.
As night fell, the largely middle-aged crowd, sipping wine in plastic cups and nibbling on mini-sized focaccias, moved toward the large black stage overlooking Shejaiya. Folding up paper notes instructing them how to act in case of a siren warning of incoming missiles, the audience took their seats to hear maestro Avner Itai lead the National Kibbutz and Ihud choirs accompanied by musicians from the Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble. The second half of the concert featured Jewish and Arab Israeli recording artists performing in both languages, including Yair Dalal, Lubna Salameh, Rakefet Amsalem and Yaffa Abu Shamis.
The Requiem was stopped twice to allow for two heart-wrenching interludes: a Jewish song based on the Book of Lamentations and a musical rendition of the Muslim Call to Prayer, accompanied by a wooden pan flute. One of the guests, seated in plainclothes at the front row, was none other than former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz, who led the Israeli forces into Gaza last summer.
The Nepalese Ambassador to Israel, Prahlad Kumar Prasai, awarded a certificate of appreciation to the members of the Israeli aid delegation in Nepal, who for the past month have been aiding earthquake victims in the devastated country.
“In the name of the Nepalese people, I thank the members of the delegation for the life-saving medical assistance they offered to the victims,” Prasai said in a statement published by the Israel Rescue Organization. “The Israelis were among the first to aid us and sent the largest number of volunteers – all in our most difficult hour. We greatly appreciate this,” he added.
The Israeli delegation – at 260-strong, the second-largest to be sent to Nepal – included 122 doctors, nurses, and Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics operating at a medical facility set up in Kathmandu to provide medical care for the victims.
In a separate show of gratitude, Prasai thanked the MDA – the Israeli Red Cross – during a special meeting with the organization’s director Eli Bein last week.
“I know MDA, its history, and its work,” Prasai said during the meeting. “Thank you for what you did in Nepal – for the aid, the donations, and means of protection for the population, and for your willingness to help and care for the Nepalese people during this difficult time.”
