Eugene Kontorovich: Exposed: Orange telecom involved in war crimes in occupied territories, according to French official
First, let us review developments thus far. Last week the French telecom giant caused an international fracas by saying it was going to “drop” its business with Israel – apparently in response to Arab boycott calls.The Six Day War, and the Origin of the Left’s Hatred for Israel
After first suggesting that the divestment was designed to ingratiate Orange to to Arab countries, and before saying it was a routine business decision, the CEO said it was due to the local affiliate’s activities in “occupied territory.” The French ambassador to the US, Gerard Araud, backed this claim, declaring on Twitter that “Contributing to settlements in an occupied territory is illegal”.
To be sure major French companies, like Total, are quite active in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara, with the apparent approval of the French government. But it turns out that Orange itself directly and openly operates in occupied territory. Orange provides cell phone service in Nagorno-Karabakh, an area of Azerbaijan that has been occupied by Armenia since seizing it in a bloody 1992-94 war. The U.N., along with the E.U. and U.S., considers the area occupied territory. Nonetheless, Armenian settlers have moved into the occupied territory in in significant numbers, amid constant complaints from Baku and others.
Nor is this Karabakh some long-forgotten frozen conflict. Fighting broke out this year across the line of control, killing dozens, and a full scale war over the occupied territory is looming.
In other words, Orange, and the French government, is committing what a senior French official just described as a war crime. Indeed, by the theoretical international law standards applied to Israel, Orange’s behavior in Armenia is particularly egregious. Having cell phone towers in the West Bank (the purported crime of Orange’s Israeli licensee) does not involve any recognition of Israeli sovereignty or any judgement about the status of the territory.
June 10, 1967, marked the end of the Six Day War and the beginning of the radical left’s hate affair with the Jewish State.UN Watch: Beheadline goes viral
Although Israel neither welcomed nor wanted this conflict, the Left declared that Israel, not the invading Arabs, had been ‘militaristic,’ ‘colonialistic,’ and ‘fascistic.’
Was Israel really that bad, or was the Left biased, twisting or ignoring inconvenient facts to fit a prepackaged verdict – and has been biased ever since?
By 1967, Vietnam-war, civil-rights, and feminist protestors joined with hippies, yippies, flower-power pacifists, and not so pacifistic Hells Angels to form a vast anti-Establishment counterculture. The 1960s had become the Sixties. It was not the most rational of times.
Amorphous, anarchic, and contradictory, the movement nevertheless enjoyed basic principles and a single voice: America was Amerika. Revolution was imminent. Frantz Fanon’s Marxist anti-colonial Wretched of the Earth was the radicals’ book of the month.
Facts – such as who actually started the war, and why – were irrelevant. The left was Manichean, pitting the evil West against the good Third World. Israel – a western nation and ally of America – was on the wrong side. It was guilty on all counts.
Was the alleged typo in our viral headline “Saudi Lose Bid to Behead of UN Human Rights Council” intentional, or not?
Autocorrect will do just the darnedest things when the word “Saudi” is in context?
One thing is sure: the faux typo caught the attention of the world’s leading news agencies, whose reporters posted it all over Twitter — turning a global spotlight on Saudi Arabia’s shockingly cruel system of gross and systematic human rights abuses.
The buzz sparked a feature debate on Twitchy.com, which concluded: “Amazing UN Watch ‘typo’ regarding Saudi Arabia ‘has to be on purpose’.”
The Palestinian who opposes the boycott against Israel
Bassam Eid, a human rights activist, says boycotts only ends up harming the Palestinians, and says Israelis should demand PM for solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict: 'If the Israelis don't fight the occupation themselves, we will never be able to fight it'.Profs abuse their positions to promote BDS: experts
During a lecture tour of South Africa some three months ago, Bassam Eid, a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem and human rights activist, voiced harsh criticism of the BDS movement – and this in a country where the boycott campaign has particularly strong public support. "The leaders of the movement were stunned to hear a Palestinian who says that Israel is not an apartheid state," Eid says in an interview with Ynet's sister publication, Yedioth Ahronoth.
Eid's comments, which sparked widespread coverage in the local media, forced the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Pretoria to release a statement noting that Eid does not represent the Palestinians and that the Palestinian ambassador recognizes the importance of the BDS movement.
You're a strange bird, aren’t you?
"True," Eid says with a smile. "I'm a very strange bird. But it's the truth. Every word I say is based on facts."
The issue of faculty members who try to win over students to their anti-Israel views is a growing concern at Canadian and other North American universities, according to a panel of academics discussing the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign at an international conference held at Concordia University.British Students Get the Lecture of Their Lives
A working definition of “abuse of the podium” should be drawn up in order to confront professors and other teaching staff who promote BDS in their classes, said Noah Shack, director of Canadian Academics for Peace in the Middle East, during a session of the 31st annual meeting of the Association for Israel Studies (AIS) on June 1.
Cary Nelson, an English professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an anti-BDS activist, said there are faculty members who “cross the line” from stating their political positions to advocating and even trying to recruit students to the BDS cause.
But Nelson and fellow panelist Gabriel Brahm, an English professor at Northern Michigan University, differed dramatically on how best to counter the BDS movement in the academic world.
Brahm, who has publicly battled with such anti-Zionist academics as Judith Butler and Steven Salaita, maintained that the best way is “to go on the attack,” while Nelson argued “our weapon is truth and rationality.”
Brahm denounced anti-Zionism in strong terms, calling it “intellectual terrorism” and accusing its proponents of having an “Israel fetish, a lurid obsession.”
“Let’s face it, BDS is anti-Semitic to the core,” said Brahm, and its ultimate goal is the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state.
This text was sent to me by Paul Schnee. It is the text of what a gathering of British students was told by Denis MacEoin. It is well worth a read.Opinion: BDS Is What Preceded The Nuremburg Laws
Do you support people like the marchers in London, Amsterdam, and many other cities who have walked on our streets chanting ‘Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas?’ Is that something that left-wing students in the UK find endearing or proper? Why do none of you campaign against that? Why do you not expel members who subscribe to that philosophy? Are you happy to share your campuses with people who want to kill Jews? You rightly oppose Islamophobia, but act willingly to foster anti-Semitism, which is by far the larger prejudice. There are many more attacks on Jews in Europe (including the UK) than on Muslims, yet I only ever see left-wing students marching hand in hand with Muslims who call for the destruction of Israel and support some of the world’s most bloody terrorist groups. Should your conference not have addressed that degree of bigotry instead of battening on a democracy that can serve as a role model across the region in which it is located?
You support BDS, yet ignore the fact that many years of boycott campaigns have proved totally useless. Israel today has one of the most important economies in the world, it is a leader in medicine, science, technology, and business know-how. Other countries flock to it to benefit from its high level of expertise. Growing numbers of the world’s major companies from Apple to Google and, very soon, Alibaba are opening major R&D centres there, and investors from almost everywhere are ploughing money into the staggering list of Israeli start-ups. BDS has been a failure. Why should you think your resolution to boycott Israel will make the slightest impression on the country or its government. It is a mere irritant that sends out a false message.
Your prejudice appalls me, as does your refusal to act fairly and honestly. Criticize Israel if you must, but learn that it does great good for mankind and that the best hope for the Palestinian people, for whom you express solidarity, does not lie in further acts of terrorism and warfare, nor in defiance of international legal norms, but in making peace at last and in accepting Israel’s frequent offers to help them build their infrastructure and economies. BDS motions are not helping. May I hope that, before your next conference, you take on board the informed opinions of people who know their way around the Middle East. Many will condemn Israel, for it is popular to do so and no-one likes to be thought out of fashion; but others will tell a very different story, and it is your duty as college and university students to an equal hearing to their views. You will shame yourselves and the generation of students whom you represent if you do not do this. Please restore my faith in the ability of young people to be fair and reasonable in forming and acting on their opinions.
Dr. Denis MacEoin
BDS is not about Israel. It is clearly not about the peace process or Palestinian nationalism. BDS is an opportunity for people to express their hatred of Jews. Jew hatred was denounced and even made illegal in the wake of the Holocaust, but the memory of the Holocaust is fading as the survivors pass away. It is still considered distasteful to express anti-Semitism openly. BDS presents a forum in which the most vile and venomous anti-Jewish feelings can be brought out without fear of anyone pointing an accusing finger and calling out, ‘Racist’. It has a thin veil of reason and justification. They can point a finger at any Jew, anywhere in the world, and blame him for the Palestinian blood spilled in Gaza. No amount of rockets fired into Israeli cities, no effort by the IDF to avoid hurting non-combatants, no video showing Hamas pushing women and children into the line of fire, will lessen the cry for the destruction of the Jews, because you should make no mistake, the Jews are their target and not Israel.Orange CEO in Israel to reconnect after boycott brouhaha
BDS is what preceded the Nuremburg laws that led up to the Holocaust. It creates a justification to hate Jews and a legal outcome. It defines who a Jew is, even if the person specified does not agree; you support Israel because you are a Jew, and vice versa, therefore it is perfectly reasonable for us to take legal action against you, to silence you, to label you, to exclude you. You have an allegiance to a foreign country. You are the stranger in a strange land, as the Jew has always been.
So when I hear Tzipi Livni and Isaac Herzog saying the cure for BDS is peace negotiations and land concessions, I get more than a little angry. I wonder if they really believe their own claims. I wonder if they really believe if creating more Palestinian autonomous areas will stop BDS, or are they just political opportunists. I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, but they are still woefully misled and given any influence, will lead not just Israel, but all of the Jews, directly towards the end the Jew haters have planned for us.
French telecom group Orange CEO Stephane Richard arrived in Israel Thursday for a two-day visit after his statement that his company wanted to leave Israel sparked a bitter fight over boycotts.It tried to court boycotters — but Orange got squashed
Richard accepted an invitation from Israel to “clarify the misunderstanding” after he said last week in Cairo that Orange was going to withdraw its brand from the Jewish state.
“It is obviously our political willingness to stay here in Israel,” Richard said upon arrival.
Richard was set to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
His original comments were seen as a reaction to a report accusing Orange of indirectly supporting settlement activity on occupied territory through its relationship with Israel‘s Partner Communications. Partner has contracted use of the Orange brand name through 2025.
Israel reacted furiously, accusing Richard of bowing to a Palestinian-led boycott campaign.
Mr Richard wasn't lying. Unlike in Egypt and many other countries where Orange is directly involved in operating mobile phone networks, the link with its Israeli counterpart is limited to branding. Partner Communications, the third cellular operator to set up shop in Israel, used the orange square logo to give off an air of international competence, but the company is as Israeli as its rivals.France Sinks to New Lows in Jew-Hatred
If the French company decides to cut its ties, it will have to negotiate a heavy exit-fee for breaking a 10-year contract, which was renewed only a few months ago. That would mean tens of millions of euros, enough to pay for a major rebranding campaign and more - a welcome boost to Partner's balance sheet.
Orange would probably remain heavily invested in Israel whatever the outcome. In 2008 it purchased an Israeli firm that develops digital multi-channel television platforms that it uses in its French network. Last year, it set up a start-up "accelerator" in Israel called Orange Fab, through which it offers mentoring and funding to budding high-tech firms.
For Mr Richard, a former chief of staff for IMF head Christine Lagarde when she was finance minister in Paris, and a protégé of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, there was also a political storm awaiting at home.
The French government is opposed to BDS, and Mr Sarkozy, now planning his campaign to retake the Elysee, was just about to embark on a high-profile visit to Israel. The government controls 25 per cent of Orange and Mr Richard cannot afford to anger his patrons.
There is perhaps no country on the European continent that has done more to harm Israel’s political and legal standing than France. In fact, it is safe to say that France, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has caused more political harm to Israel than the entire Arab world collectively.The truth about the boycott
Both in private and public forums, French political leaders have consistently been dismissive of Israeli political concerns and insulting to its leaders. In private, French leaders have been caught on hot microphones bashing Israel or its leaders. In one such instance, President Nicolas Sarkozy, knowing that he had an approving audience, told President Obama, “I cannot stand [Netanyahu]. He is a liar.”
In another instance, the French ambassador to London disparagingly referred to Israel at a private dinner function as, “that shi*ty little country.” That characterization embodies the zenith of impudence considering that it was France that brought humanity such lovelies as the sordid Dreyfus Affair and collaborationist Vichy and whose post-WWI colonialist machinations planted the seeds of dysfunction in today’s Arab world.
In public too, France has been the nation most aggressively pushing for “Palestinian” statehood at Israel’s expense. Putting aside for the moment its nauseating displays of affection for arch terror chieftain Yasser Arafat and its generous funding of numerous anti-Israel NGOs, France was the first major Western power to publicly announce that it would vote in favor of Palestinian statehood at a 2012 UN General Assembly vote.
Furthermore, unless you are part of the 0.1 per cent of the world which is Jewish, Israeli or a BDS member, you may never have heard of BDS. So, what's the big deal? The answer is not immediately clear - but what is certain is that the Orange "pullout" and the NUS decision to support BDS, dominated news in Israel last week. At this week's Herzliya Security Conference, it was the focus of much debate.Knesset Member Introduces Bill Banning BDS Supporters From Entering Israel
The reason is that, here, most people understand clearly what many well meaning, if naive, BDS supporters in the UK do not: that BDS is not about economics, or the economic wellbeing of Palestinians. It is about the destruction of Israel. Sir Jonathan Sacks made the point well in Herzliya, saying that BDS was about "trying to make Israel friendless, so it will be defenceless".
The movement is led by people who understand that failing to achieve a boycott is not failure. The intention is to chip away at the legitimacy of Israel. They want the coming generations of opinion-formers and politicians to have been thoroughly indoctrinated by their dissembling arguments.
Occasionally, the mask slips. Omar Barghouti, a leading Palestinian BDS figure, is on record saying: "If the occupation ends, would that end our call for BDS? No it wouldn't."
A member of Israel’s Knesset has introduced a bill prohibiting foreign citizens who call for a boycott of Israel from entering the country.When Israeli Academia Is Rotten, Who Needs Enemies
The bill, proposed by MK Yinon Magal (Jewish Home), aims to prevent foreign activists from agitating against Israel from inside its own territory, and comes against the backdrop of an upsurge in international movements seeking to isolate the Jewish state.
“The past years have seen an increase in the frequency of calls to boycott Israel; the issue is on the public agenda” Magal’s spokesman, Yochai Nadiv, told Tazpit News Agency, alluding to recent incidents such as the statements made by Orange CEO Stephane Richard last week regarding his intention to sever ties with an Israeli mobile service provider.
According to Nadiv, the bill aims to serve as a means of defense against this phenomenon, which its text refers to as a “new front in a war against Israel.”
“Many foreign organizations not only call for a boycott, but come to the territories, agitate against Israel, then return home to spread their message abroad. It’s absurd: you let in people who wish to harm the country,” Nadiv explained, adding that similar laws already exist in several countries, including France, which prosecutes foreigners accused of anti-government agitation.
The worst kind of anti-Israel folk are the Israeli left-wing academia. Touting a Ph.D. or a Dr. as approbation of their merits, supposed higher social rank and morality.IsraellyCool: BDSHole Gets Ass Handed Back To Him On A Platter
So it’s no wonder that the truth is only a side note when bashing Israel. According to Aeyal Gross, Associate Professor and a lecturer on international and constitutional law at Tel Aviv University, who is already on CAMERA’a focus, no less than 50 Palestinians were killed in the last decade in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip by Israeli civilians, aka settlers.
Half of those supposedly innocent Palestinians about which Gross is lamenting, are ruthless terrorists who either killed, were planning on killing, or would kill if given the chance. Their deaths were caused in self defense, by the people who’s job it is to protect their communities from such murderous terrorists in the first place. Gross, either by dishonesty or malice, purposely omitted these facts when writing his op-ed in Haaretz.
When a chain of people and institutions are hellbent on delegitimizing Israel by twisting events and facts in such a way to fit their agenda, we better rethink who the enemy is.
This is gold.BDS activist Ronnie Barkan in an 'interview' on Israeli Ynet channel
Israeli BDSHole Ronnie Barkan recently appeared on on Yediot Achronot’s TV news channel, interviewed by Atilla Somfalvi. Atilla saw right through Barkan’s disingenous responses and let him know in no uncertain terms.
UK University Hosts Terror-Denying, Jihadi John-Loving, Jew-Hating, Left-Wing-Conspiracy Conference
The publicly-funded University of Bath has hosted what it calls a conference on “Understanding Conflict” – featuring a number of controversial speakers including Norman Finkelstein, who has publicly stated that “every victory by Hezbollah over Israel is also a victory for liberty and a victory for freedom,” and Moazzam Begg, the leader of the infamous “CAGE” group, which called ISIS murderer Jihadi John a “beautiful man”.Adelson raises $20 million to fight Israel boycotts
The three-day conference, which began on Monday was opened by David Miller, whose “NeoConEurope” website has previously hosted anti-Semitic articles. Miller is also the sometime editor of the “SpinWatch” website, which draws together a broad conspiracy theory about ‘NeoCons’ and ‘Zionists’ – coincidentally, two core themes of the Bath University conference this week.
Speakers at the conference which was hosted in the Chancellors’ Buildings in Bath travelled from all across the world. It is unclear whether public money has been spent on flights and accommodation for the speakers, though it is common practice for the hosting organisation to cover such costs.
This means the likes of Moazzam Begg, a former Guantanamo detainee, Normal[sic] Finkelstein, and even Anas Al-Tikriti, the president of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Cordoba Foundation, may be on the receiving end of taxpayer and student tuition fee-funded hospitality.
Another speaker, Victoria Brittan, has written for the Guardian newspaper, and in a piece entitled, “I know Abu Qatada – He’s No Terrorist”,
A summit to organize against anti-Israel boycotts and anti-Israel activity on campus hosted by US billionaire Sheldon Adelson raised at least $20 million.Local BDSM Supporter Unsure Why Netanyahu is So Mad at Him (satire)
The meeting last week in Las Vegas of pro-Israel Jewish philanthropists and organizations had a funding goal of $50 million, the daily Forward reported, citing a Jewish communal leader who did not attend the meeting but who spoke to the organizers.
It is not known how much was raised at the summit, since participants have declined to say what they or their fellow activists pledged. However, according to the Forward, participation in the event was limited to donors willing to pledge at least $1 million over the next two years to the initiative, dubbed the Campus Maccabees. At least 20 donors took part in the meeting, according to the Forward.
Local BDSM supporter Eric Franner was stunned yesterday after hearing Netanyahu vocally condemning his harmless hobby on international television. “My god” said the conservative-leaning middle-aged insurance agent, “ I mean I’m not really a fan of the settlements, but other than that I’m a pretty staunch supporter of Israel, and definitely support its right to exist. I don’t know what I did wrong.”Breaking the Silence exhibition thwarted in Germany
“I mean, sure things get a little out of hand in the bedroom once in a while, and I may have ignored the ‘safe word’ a few times but they’re pretty much putting me up there with Hamas. And it’s so ironic because I’m one of the few Americans who is actually happy that my tax dollars go to support Israel. Well Mr. Netanyahu, I don’t appreciate that kind of talk or judgment, and if Israel doesn’t like me, well I guess I don’t much like Israel anymore.”
The Israeli Embassy in Germany succeeded in thwarting an exhibition by a left-wing NGO that was supposed to take place in Cologne as part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of relations between Israel and Germany.Former Israeli National Security Adviser Calls on Breaking the Silence Soldiers to Reveal Identities (INTERVIEW)
Breaking the Silence is an organization that has been collecting testimony from IDF soldiers serving in Palestinian territories since the Second Intifada. In line with the organization's highly publicized actions, they tried, among other things, to stage an exhibition of photographs taken by soldiers during their service in Palestinian territories, which do not always paint Israel in a positive light.
The Israeli Embassy in Berlin was surprised to find out that a Breaking the Silence exhibition was scheduled among the events marking the anniversary, as well as other events unrelated to the anniversary, such as "a discussion on peace movements in Israel and Palestine," a lecture on "Palestinian Christians," a lecture on Israel and Palestine, among others.
The Embassy decided to intervene, and asked the German Foreign Ministry to remove these lectures from the schedule. The Embassy also sent a harsh letter to the city of Cologne, stating that "as long as there is no clear distinction made between legitimate projects about Israeli-German relations and this issue, we do not want to take part in all the events."
A recent Breaking the Silence report is a “worthless propaganda” piece unless the soldiers behind its testimonies of alleged Israeli abuse reveal their identities, said Former Israeli national security adviser Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror on Tuesday.Radio host quizzes Jewish candidate Sanders on Israeli citizenship
The report, which collected supposed testimonies from Israeli soldiers who engaged in combat during last summer’s 50-day war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, is “one of the biggest [pieces of] propaganda … that you might find,” Amidror said, in an interview with the Algemeiner.
The former security adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also headed the Israel Defense Forces military intelligence research department, called the report “evil,” and said the intention of Breaking the Silence “is to destroy Israel, for sure.”
Because the report does not feature the names of the soldiers providing testimonies, Amidror said its veracity is impossible to corroborate, though he added that if the soldiers who provided testimonies came forth, Israel should investigate their accounts of alleged abuse.
At one point, Amidror questioned whether soldiers even provided the testimonies.
The exchange was part of a longer interview by Diane Rehm of Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Socialist who is running in the Democratic primaries for the presidential nomination in 2016.Polish museum removes controversial gas chamber installation
At about the 24-minute mark, Rehm asks Sanders about having dual citizenship, which he says he does not have, maintaining that he’s only visited the country a couple times.
She then tells him that his name was on a list of lawmakers with dual citizenship.
Sanders tells Rehm he is “offended” by the accusation and confirms again that he does not have Israeli citizenship.
According to Jewish Journal reporter Jared Sichel, the only source available accusing Sanders of dual citizenship is from an anti-Semitic thread on the Facebook page of pro-Palestinian activist Vittorio Arrigoni.
Other news outlets picked up on the interview, with Vox.com calling the exchange “bizarre.”
Online newsmagazine Salon stated that Rehm, who is often critical of Israel, had fallen for an anti-Semitic hoax.
Krakow’s modern art museum have removed a controversial art installation that some believe mocked the Holocaust following Jewish protests, The Jerusalem Post has learned.Athens memorial to Jewish children killed in Holocaust vandalized
Artur Żmijewski’s video piece, which consisted of footage of naked people playing tag, which many found “controversial and offending is no longer displayed at the exhibition,” said museum spokeswoman Justyna Kuska on Thursday.
“Instead we are presenting information about the artwork including our curatorial commentary.”
Last week the Simon Wiesenthal Center harshly censured the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs for its sponsorship of the exhibition in which the video was being displayed. While Israel did not pull its support for the entire exhibit, it did protest the inclusion of ‘Game of Tag.”
Speaking to the Post, a ministry spokesman expressed “satisfaction at the removal of the offensive exhibit.”
A Greek memorial to the 13,000 Greek Jewish children murdered in the Holocaust was desecrated with Nazi images.Ukrainian rights group blasts Russia for faking anti-Semitic news
The memorial, which sits next to a playground erected in the children’s memory in central Athens, was defaced earlier this month with a Nazi swastika and Nazi SS signs, according to the Jewish Community of Athens.
“All that [the vandals] manage to do is unite us together against fascism, racism and intolerance,” the community said in a statement issued Sunday.
There have been several instances of vandalism over the last year in Jewish cemeteries and Holocaust memorials in Greece.
A recent Anti-Defamation League survey showed that Greece has Europe’s highest rate of anti-Semitic attitudes, with 69 percent of Greeks espousing anti-Semitic views. That is nearly twice the rate of the next highest country, France, with 37 percent.
Russia has engaged in a protracted propaganda effort to make Ukraine look like a hotbed of anti-Semitic activity, a human rights group in the country’s east alleged recently.Torah Installed at Western Wall in Memory of WWII Heroes
In a report on its website, the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group accused the Kremlin of what it called “cynical attempts to use or arouse anti-Semitism for political gain” in Ukraine, citing a string of incidents since last year’s Maidan revolution.
The latest such incident, which occurred in May, involved the distribution of a counterfeit letter attributed to Rabbi Menachem Margolin, the founder of the Brussels- based European Jewish Association, in which he supposedly implored European Commission President Jean- Claude Juncker to respond to the “outrageous revival of Nazi Germany traditions” in Ukraine.
The letter, which Margolin vehemently denied writing, claimed that the EJA had sent an investigatory commission to investigate claims of anti-Semitism and had uncovered “cases of compulsory closures of Jewish organizations and schools, and revocation of licenses from newspapers published in Hebrew and Yiddish.”
Notable rabbis and groups of children gathered at the Western Wall (Kotel) on Wednesday to continue installation celebrations of several new Torah scrolls gifted to the Jewish state.Amazon Seeking to Significantly Expand its Cloud, R&D Operations in Israel
The Sefer Torah was sponsored by the Conference of European Rabbis, in memory of the thousands of Jewish soldiers and partisans who fell fighting the Nazis and their allies during the Second World War.
Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, Chief Rabbi of Moscow, spoke to Arutz Sheva of the significance of the event.
"We are here at a ceremony of giving a Torah as a present to the Kotel given by...one of the leaders of the Russian Jewish community in memory of the 250,000 Jewish soldiers who fell in battle against the Nazis during World War II."
Continuing, Goldschmidt stressed the importance of remembering that Jews were not only victims, but also fought against the tyranny and anti-Semitism of the Nazi regime.
French telecommunications company Orange might be pulling out, but web giant Amazon is planning a significant expansion of its research and development operations in Israel, including opening new offices in Herzliya in which 150 individuals will be employed, Israeli business newspaper The Marker reported on Wednesday.Engie cuts car repair costs, and car repair arguments
Amazon selected local company JLL, a real-estate consulting firm, to locate a 3,000 square meter office, and the Hadas Makov architectural firm to design the space. If they are unable to find a suitable facility in Herzliya, the company will consider other options such as Tel Aviv or its environs, according to the report.
The new headquarters will allow Amazon to significantly grow and focus its Israel operations, particularly in the cloud computing and R&D fields, which are currently spread out over several offices in Israel’s central region.
As it stands today, Amazon has thirty employees in Israel in its approximately 600 square meter Ramat Gan premises.
Up there with paying taxes on the list of “Things we hate to do but have to do” for most people is “taking the car in.” When a vehicle announces that it has a problem – usually in the form of loud, grinding noises or the like – drivers gird themselves to do battle with their mechanics, bargaining to get the best repair deal they can and wondering all the while whether will get ripped off.Christopher Lee, movie villain, briefly WWII Nazi-hunter, dies at 93
This is because the vast majority of people know little about how their cars work beyond inserting their key into the ignition and starting the engine, and as a result, feel helpless when faced with a need for repairs.
But now there’s an app and a device that promises to give drivers all the data they need about what is wrong (and right) with their vehicles.
“Our system, called Engie, provides vehicle diagnosis similar to what customers can get at their mechanics,” said Gal Aharon, Engie CMO and co-founder. “We believe that most mechanics are honest, but with Engie, customers no longer have to wonder if they are or aren’t, because they come into a repair situation with information about what a repair will entail and how much it will cost.”
Engie won “Best Start-up App” at this week’s Israel Mobile Summit in Tel Aviv, beating out over 100 other mobile start-ups.
Christopher Lee, an actor who brought dramatic gravitas and aristocratic bearing to screen villains from Dracula to James Bond enemy Scaramanga, has died at age 93.Pharrell due to make Israelis happy
Lee appeared in more than 250 movies, including memorable roles as the wicked wizard Saruman in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and the evil Count Dooku in two of George Lucas’ “Star Wars” prequels. But for many he will forever be known as the vampire Count Dracula in a slew of “Hammer Horror” movies — the gory, gothic thrillers churned out by the British studio in the 1950s and 1960s that became hugely popular. He railed against the typecasting, however, and ultimately the sheer number and range of his roles — from Sherlock Holmes to the founder of Pakistan — secured his place in film history.
“I didn’t have dreams of being a romantic leading man,” Lee told The Associated Press in 2002. “But I dreamed of being a character actor, which I am.”
Lee’s acting career followed his World War II service as an intelligence officer and, briefly, a Nazi-hunter. A fluent French- and German-speaker, he spent the final months of WWII with the UN’s Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects, which assisted the UN’s War Crimes Commission and Allied governments in tracing Nazi war crimes suspects, a post which also involved him visiting concentration camps.
Singer, rapper and producer Pharrell Williams, otherwise known as the guy who wears the Smokey Bear park ranger hat, is reportedly planning a concert in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park on September 9.Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former lieutenant-governor of Maryland, delivers moving tribute at Herzliya Conference.
The singer who is probably best known for last year’s hit, the infectiously compelling “Happy,” is in talks with several Israeli concert promoters, but nothing has been finalized, according to Ynet.
The concert would take place just before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which starts on September 13.
The 42-year-old singer is also a record producer and fashion designer, but it was the single, “Happy,” that made him into a household name. His 2014 album, “G I R L,” featured the single, which had originally been produced for the soundtrack of the movie “Despicable Me.”
As a war correspondent for The Boston Post during Israel’s War of Independence, Robert F. Kennedy saw the country as a beacon of hope in a world turned asunder after World War II.
It was his firm commitment to Israel’s right to exist and America’s obligation to support its greatest friend in the Middle East that led Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan to assassinate Kennedy in the midst of his run for the White House 47 years ago.
To mark the anniversary of his assassination on June 6, 1968, his daughter, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, came to Israel to pay tribute to his legacy and everlasting commitment to peace at the annual Herzliya Conference at the IDC.
“My father was killed for his support of Israel, so I’m speaking as someone who loves Israel and I want it to thrive and prosper and do well,” Townsend told The Jerusalem Post in an interview Sunday after she delivered the first of her two addresses to the conference.
Quoting her father’s dispatches from the war, she said during her speech, “‘They will fight with unparalleled courage. This is their greatest and last chance. The eyes of the world are upon them and there could be no turning back.’ “He saw a people’s determination, not only to survive, but to repair a world which he knew perhaps more intimately than anyone...