06/29 Links Pt2: Celebs Who Remind The World 'Jews Aren’t So Easy To F–k With Anymore'

From Ian:

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Celebs Who Remind The World 'Jews Aren’t So Easy To F–k With Anymore'

In today’s era of hatred against the State of Israel becoming increasingly mainstream, there still remain those celebrities who speak truth to power.
This week, rock-star David Draiman noted he was removing his Twitter account after constant harassment from “unpleasant, anti-Semitic 'internet trolls.” Draiman went on to note that,
The mainstream media's biased, libelous, and often erroneous portrayal of Israel in the current conflict has fuelled a wave of anti-Semitism, the likes of which I have not witnessed in my lifetime. Well done [news networks], you've set the stage for a new holocaust.
Draiman – himself the son of Holocaust survivors – continued:
Maybe you'd be happy/satisfied when the extremist nutbags you defend so much, who eagerly martyr their own children. Who chant for the death of all Jews, not just the Israeli's, and who's ethics, morals, & values stand diametrically opposed to your own liberal views of freedom of religion, gay marriage, pro-choice, and even democracy itself, strip the region of the only bastion of true liberty that exists in the region. Well guess what? Never again. Jews aren't so easy to f–k with anymore."

 Type B Holocaust denial is the one to fear

In that case here is another Type A preacher who’ll never mark Holocaust Remembrance Day. Ali Khamenei, ultimate ruler of Iran, speaks with more finesse, but he and the cleric of Jeddah belong together. "Observe that no one in Europe dares to speak about the Holocaust even though it's not clear what the reality is about it, whether it even has a reality, or how it may have happened."
What is it about Type A deniers that turns one off? Surely they’re too blunt. “Over-the-top” some might say. They’re good for a titter – unless you’re a Noam Chomsky or a Norman Finkelstein, or even a Harold Pinter, who all flirt with crude deniers. We rank and file people, on the other hand, like being pitched in subtle and flattering terms: Eve’s serpent would have a good chance. We’d pay more attention to a feeling or a noble voice -- to a voice like that of David Ward, a British MP.
“I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians …on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza… The suffering by the Jews has not transformed their views on how others should be treated."
Ward is a Type B denier. For clarity sake he shall not go alone. What better companion for Mr. Ward MP than a fellow denier in a suit. Here is Andrew Wilkie of Nuffield College, Oxford. “I have a huge problem with the way that the Israelis take the moral high ground from their appalling treatment in the Holocaust, and then inflict gross human rights abuses on the Palestinians.”
Attend closely. Type B deniers are sly. Observe how Ward and Wilkie contrive to kill two birds in one foul shot. A) They demonize Israel – “atrocities and gross abuses on Palestinians”; B) they downplay the Holocaust – “persecution and treatment.” After all, lots of people in the world are persecuted and treated appallingly. Yet many live to tell the tale. Persecution and treatment are worlds away from genocide, the methodical mass extermination of six million Jews, not sparing the newborn. Notice further how victimhood is shifted. Jews don’t suffer atrocities, they commit them. We’re invited to think that Nazi Germany treated Jews like third-class citizens: denied them rights and opportunities; deprived them of the basics; imprisoned them without trial; worked them for long hours at low pay; subjected them to curfews and check points; left Jews to cope with cramped conditions and bad food; locked up or eliminated troublemakers. ‘Treatment’ and ‘persecution’ -- even when appalling or unbelievable -- convey no hint of Holocaust elements. Type B deniers don’t want us to think of Jews worked to death; exterminated by factory methods; mowed down village by village, town by town; slaughtered in fits of fury.

Flaw In U.S. Policy: Even PLO Recognizes Israel’s Right To West Jerusalem

The U.S. position on Jerusalem also contradicts the Obama White House’s own controversial stance on the peace process. The White House has endorsed a Palestinian demand that the 1948-1967 cease-fire line that separated sovereign Israeli territory from the Jordanian-occupied West Bank and “East Jerusalem” should serve as the presumptive border of a new Palestinian state in all negotiations, with Palestine acquiring sovereignty over all the territory illegally occupied by Jordan, unless otherwise agreed to by the parties. But when it comes to Israel and Jerusalem, says the White House, the cease-fire line should be forgotten and presumptive Israeli sovereignty should be erased.
Historically, the anti-Israel position of the U.S. on Jerusalem developed without any connection to the Israel-PLO peace negotiations that began in 1993. The U.S. never recognized Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, even in 1948, when Israel’s War of Independence left parts of Jerusalem in Israeli hands. When Israel declared Jerusalem (“West Jerusalem”) its capital in 1949, the U.S. refused to recognize it, even though international law makes states the sole determinants of their own capital. Indeed, for decades the U.S. lobbied foreign countries to move their embassies out of Jerusalem. To this day, the U.S. embassy in Israel is in Tel Aviv, notwithstanding a law mandating the embassy’s move to Jerusalem.
As time has passed, U.S. hostility on Jerusalem has remained constant, while the excuses for the hostility have changed.
Defenders of the U.S. policy on Jerusalem like the fact that it gives the PLO a veto on Israeli rights pending a peace deal. But a more honest appraisal shows that the policy allows bureaucratic opponents of the Jewish state to harm U.S. credibility and foreign policy interests.

US Policy: Passports of Americans Born on Israeli Golan Heights List ‘Syria’

The U.S. passport of an Americans born on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights must state the birthplace as Syria, according to U.S. State Department. policy.
The JewishPress.com raised several questions with the U.S. Embassy following the recent Supreme Court ruling that ruled against Congress being able to overturn Executive Branch policy concerning the stated birthplace of an American born in Jerusalem.
The policy was and continues to be that the birthplace on the passport is “Jerusalem,” without a country, regardless of whether he was born in “West” Jerusalem or in the rest of the city that was reunited in the war.
But what would happen if there were a hospital on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights and an American birth were registered there?
It may not even be a theoretical question in the near future. The NRG website reported last week that Druze in the Israeli side of the Golan Heights want to establish and maintain a hospital to treat their brethren wounded on the Syrian side of the border.

22 senators petition Obama to support Israel

Nearly one-quarter of the US Senate signed on to a bipartisan letter urging President Barack Obama to support Israel around the world.
Twenty-two senators signed the letter, which was written “in response to your welcomed recent remarks at Congregation Adas Israel” on May 22 concerning his commitment to Israel’s security. The letter was sponsored by Sens. Mike Rounds, R-SD, and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY.
While welcoming Obama’s “unwavering commitment” to Israel’s security, the signers also want the Obama administration to remain committed to the United States’ “long-standing policy” of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians as the way to peace.
The letter specifically asked the administration to oppose Palestinian efforts for membership in the United Nations and other international bodies.

France urges new ‘Quartet-plus’ with Arab envoys

France wants a new international group made up of the United States, European powers and Arab countries to be set up to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Monday.
“It could be a sort of Quartet-plus,” Fabius told reporters, referring to the foursome led by former British prime minister Tony Blair that included the United States, Russia, the European Union.
Fabius said including Arab states “makes sense” because they have a role to play in the peace process and have put forward a plan in 2002 that the foreign minister described as “interesting.”
He warned that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could explode “at any moment” and the Islamic State extremist group could interfere at any time.

Palestinians in West Bank: It’s Impossible to Boycott Israel

Shop owners in the West Bank lament that it is impossible to boycott Israel, Jordan-based Albawaba news reported on Thursday.
According to the report, Palestinian political party Al-Mubadra Al-Watniya, or the Palestinian National Initiative, has launched a campaign throughout Ramallah urging consumers to boycott Israeli products, as part of the larger international boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel. Signs throughout Ramallah call on Palestinians to “boycott Israeli goods” and to refuse to “pay for the bullets that kill our children.”
But it appears locals are having difficulty accomplishing just that because of certain specialty goods that come from Israel. “Our gluten-free bread and lactose-free milk come from Israel,” one Palestinian businessman said, according to the report.
According to the report, most small grocers in Ramallah continue to sell Israeli goods, despite the active boycott movement.

Iran Deal to Yield 'Unlimited Nuclear Arsenal Within a Decade'

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned the West yet again about the looming nuclear deal with Iran on Monday, lamenting the "potholes" in talks and their consequences.
"I am not impressed by the potholes in the nuclear talks," he began. "To my regret, what we are seeing are Iran's increasing demands, and the major powers' concessions which are also increasing, in keeping with the Iranian pressure."
"This agreement is going from a bad agreement to a worse agreement, and is becoming worse by the day," he continued. "In effect, it is paving Iran's way to being not only a major power with one or two nuclear bombs, but with an unlimited arsenal within a decade with the possibility of achieving several atomic bombs beforehand, by violating the monitoring which, in any case, is full of holes."
"Above all, in addition to this, the agreement also gives Iran many billions of dollars, apparently hundreds of billions of dollars, within a short time, which will allow it to finance its increasing aggression, first of all the murderous stranglehold it is using around the State of Israel, but also in other parts of the Middle East that are subject to its aggression, such as Yemen, Iraq and many other places," he added.

JPost Editorial: Last lap?

Many have wondered why the US and other Western nations are even talking to the Iranian regime about its nuclear weapons programs at a time when it is sponsoring terrorism abroad and suppressing dissidents at home.
The Iranians are not being asked, as part of the negotiations, to curtail their sponsorship of Hezbollah or terrorist groups operating in the Gaza Strip; to scale back their support for the Assad regime in Syria; to stop destabilizing Yemen through their support for the Houthis.
No demand has been made of them to release any of the American citizens in their country’s prisons, such as Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post correspondent; nor have they been asked to end the six years of house arrest imposed on the leaders of the 2009 Green Movement, such as Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
Some have likened the US’s approach to Iran to the Cold War era, when America pursued nuclear arms control with the Soviet Union at a time when it was imprisoning dissidents at home and undermining Western-backed governments abroad. No linkage was made between the nuclear arms talks and the bad things the Soviets were doing, because the nuclear issue was prioritized.
Similarly, nothing the mullah regime in Iran does – no matter how bad – is perceived to be as important as preventing it from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Any attempt to reach a broader deal with the Iranian regime – to change its policies at home or abroad – would almost certainly fail, not least because its supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has ruled out talking about anything else. The best strategy is to focus on the biggest threat – a nuclear- armed Iran.

US: System reached to let UN inspect Iran military sites

A system has been reached in talks between Iran and major powers towards a nuclear deal that will give the UN atomic watchdog access to all suspect sites, a senior US official said Monday.
“The entry point isn’t that we must be able to get into every military site — because the United States of America wouldn’t allow anybody to get into every military site — so that’s not appropriate,” the official said.
“But if, in the context of agreement… the IAEA believes it needs access, and has a reason for that, access then we have a process [whereby] that access is given,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
“We have worked out a process that we believe will ensure that the IAEA has the access it needs.”

Ya'alon: Israel Sees Iran as a Problem, US Sees it as a Solution'

Israel and the United States are divided on the Iran issue because Jerusalem sees the Islamic Republic as a threat to the region while Washington views it as a solution, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon asserted Monday.
"The US has a narrative on Iran that I don't buy," Ya'alon stated during a diplomatic press briefing, a day before a final deal is due between P5+1 world powers and Iran on the latter's nuclear program.
According to Ya'alon, Israel advocated exerting tougher pressure on Iran, while the US preferred to pursue an agreement.
"We claimed ramping up pressure would bring the [Iranian] regime to a dilemma: Either the bomb, or survival," Ya'alon said. "But the way negotiations were conducted allowed the Iranians to avoid that dilemma. Because it went that way, we still find ourselves divided."
Israel should still view increasing pressure on the Tehran regime as a top priority, Ya'alon claims, as opposed to a military attack.
"This pressure brought Iran into talks with America," he explained. "But today there is no military threat on Iran, no diplomatic isolation, and there's been more talk of easing economic pressures since the interim agreement was signed.
"For all those reasons, Iran also has no fear of an internal uprising. The issue was decided among the West against Israel's wishes."

The payoff for Iran

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei stands as one of the most successful Persian imperialists in the history of modern Iran. In the 1970s, at the height of his power, the shah did not enjoy a commanding influence in Iraq. Lebanon’s factional politics continued to elude him, the Assad dynasty was no mere subsidiary of Iran and the Persian Gulf emirates resisted his pretensions. Today, Khamenei has essential control of much of the Iraqi state, he is the most important external actor in Syria, and Hezbollah provides him with not just a means of manipulating Lebanon’s politics but also shock troops who can be deployed on various war fronts. In the Gulf, the United States’ crumbling alliances offer Iran many tempting opportunities.
Proponents of the view that Iran will not become a more aggressive regional power in the aftermath of a deal ignore how the Middle East has evolved since the Arab awakenings of 2011. The post-colonial Arab state system that featured the dominant nations of Egypt and Iraq is no more. Egypt is too preoccupied with internal squabbles to offer regional leadership while Iraq is a fragmented nation ruled by a Shiite government ostracized from Sunni Arab councils. Iran has embarked on a dramatic new mission and is seeking to project its power into corners of the Middle East in ways that were never possible before. This is not traditional Iranian foreign policy with its sponsorship of terrorism and support for rejectionist groups targeting Israel; imperialism beckons the mullahs, but it is also economically burdensome. Without an arms control agreement and the financial rewards it will bring — from sanctions relief, the release of funds entrapped abroad and new investments — Iran would find it difficult to subsidize this imperial surge.

State Department Ejects Free Beacon Reporter from Briefing

Officials with the Department of State threatened to call security Monday on a Washington Free Beacon reporter who was attempting to report on a briefing held by senior Obama administration figures in Vienna on the eve of an expected nuclear agreement with Iran.
Two State Department officials booted the Free Beacon from a room where Wendy Sherman, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, was talking to reporters, despite the Free Beacon’s being credentialed by the Austrian government for the ongoing Iranian nuclear talks.
Western observers present in Vienna for the talks linked the State Department’s behavior to jitters over media coverage revealing a still growing list of concessions being made to Iran by the Obama administration.
Melissa Turley, a State Department official, approached a Free Beacon reporter and demanded that he leave the room. (h/t Herb Glatter)

Iran Blocks Websites Promoting Holocaust Education, State Department Report Says

The government of Iran has continued to block the website of an initiative aimed at fostering a warmer Jewish-Muslim relationship and educating about the Holocaust, the State Department report on human rights in Iran revealed.
“The government continued to block the Persian language website of the Aladdin Project, a foreign-based NGO launched by the foreign Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah that provided information about the Holocaust and Jewish-Muslim relations,” said the report, which was released last Thursday after protracted delays.
The Aladdin Project was founded with U.N. support and has since been supported by 1,000 intellectuals, academics and public figures from 50 countries in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and North America, “to counter the falsification of history in the shape of Holocaust denial and trivialization.”
According to the report, “officials continued to question the history and uniqueness of the Holocaust.” Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was rebuked last year when he called the Holocaust a “horrible tragedy” during an interview with a German television station. And Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made remarks questioning the reality of the Holocaust and wondering if it “actually did happen.”

Defected Iranian Diplomat Discloses How Tehran Rigged the 2009 Election

Remembering the rigged elections that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power in 2009, Alizadeh explained that “Iran doesn’t have free and fair elections.” He described how he witnessed the fixing of the results and the negation of the democratic process in real time, and how that experience led to his disillusionment with the regime and eventual defection to the West.
State-run TV showed throngs of people voting, and the Islamic Republic had invited foreign journalists to report on an election that was supposed to reaffirm the regime’s legitimacy. Then, at noon Helsinki time, a classified telex arrived from Tehran. “To all diplomatic representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” it read. “Refrain from giving any interviews to the press.”
“That was the first hammer blow that came down on my head,” Mr. Alizadeh says. He hid the telex, which he keeps to this day. A little later, another telex: “Under no circumstances should you disclose voter-participation numbers at your polling station.”
The theft had begun. “I was furious,” Mr. Alizadeh says. “Because in the minds of those people I was the agent of the fraud.” The regime soon announced that Mr. Ahmadinejad was leading all other candidates by far. It was a little after midnight, when it should have been impossible to know the results in a country that still counts votes by hand. “The world came crashing down on my head,” Mr. Alizadeh says.

'Christian Tidal Wave About to Crash on BDS'

The Christian Zionist NPO Proclaiming Justice to the Nations (PJTN) on Monday welcomed the adoption of anti-BDS resolutions it has pushed for at the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and New York State Assembly.
In the New York vote adopting the resolution that aims to fight the economic boycott movement against the Jewish state, PJTN President Laurie Cardoza-Moore traveled to the State Assembly to personally present Assemblyman Todd Kaminsky with a draft resolution.
PJTN activists in Pennsylvania were also instrumental in having the draft resolution passed there as well, after Tennessee in April passed anti-BDS legislature followed by a similar move in Indiana.
But PJTN announced that this is just the beginning, as supporters of the group in 34 states throughout America have already started working to prepare anti-BDS motions in a wave of support for Israel.
"The Jew-hating BDS movement is about to be hit by a tidal wave of support for Israel and the Jewish People," Cardoza-Moore said. "As proud Christian Zionists that represent millions of believers worldwide, we will stand as a firewall around the Jewish People and will ensure that no form of genocidal anti-Semitism be tolerated."
"We call upon all Christians worldwide to join our movement and let the people of Israel know that they are not alone in their struggle. Mark my words: By the end of this year, what began as a pro-Israel resolution in Tennessee will be a national movement across the USA and around the world. We have already recruited 34 states, with the recent addition of New York and Pennsylvania and this is only the beginning."

Jerusalem think tank to Netanyahu: We must go on the offensive against BDS

Israel’s counter-boycott strategy needs a comprehensive overhaul, providing efforts to combat the delegitimization of the Jewish state with high-level support and funding in order to move beyond mere rhetoric, a Jerusalem think tank told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday.
The Jewish People Policy Institute briefed the premier during Sunday morning’s cabinet meeting, presenting the government with its annual assessment of the state of the Jewish people and calling for Israel to switch over to the offensive in waging public relations battles.
The report recommended that “the government promptly adopt an appropriately budgeted comprehensive strategy [to combat Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaigns], and task a senior government official, who reports directly to the prime minister, with coordinating its operational implementation.”
“There has been strong rhetoric about opposing BDS, but there hasn’t been a concentrated strategy,” JPPI co-chairman and former American ambassador to the EU Stuart Eizenstat told The Jerusalem Post.
Describing the global BDS campaign as a subtle but genuine war against Israel, Eizenstat called for equally sophisticated responses that are not merely reactive but offensive.

Israeli advocacy group teaches foreign lawyers how to fight BDS

Some 70 attorneys from around the world arrived in Israel over the weekend to attend a special seminar hosted by Shurat Hadin, the Israel Law Center organization, on how best to fight the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement and lawfare efforts against Israel worldwide.
The seminar, scheduled to take place between June 29 and July 5, will feature lectures on combating BDS and other anti-Semitic movements, fighting terrorism sponsoring, litigation on behalf of terror victims, and defending Israeli soldiers against allegations of war crimes.
Attorneys from the United States, Singapore, the Netherlands, South Africa, Germany, Canada and Belgium, among other countries, volunteered to attend the seminar, and pledged to represent Israeli interests for free if called upon.
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, founder and director of Shurat Hadin, said the training offered in the seminar will enable participants to "mount legal battles against those trying to slander and undermine Israel."

Saeb Erekat isn’t telling the truth: Guardian edition

Israel in fact declared independence in 1948 only over the land allotted to it by the United Nations – “about 10 percent of historic [British Mandate] Palestine, or 55 percent of Palestine without TransJordan”.
Moreover, the 78% figure Erekat is citing refers to the 1949 armistice lines – the percentage of historic [British Mandate] Palestine (without TransJordan) which Israel controlled after the 1948-49 war.
But, of course Erekat’s biggest deception is his suggestion that there was an independent state of Palestine.
In fact, there never was such a state at any time in history.
Though the Jews accepted the UN partition plan, the Arabs (and Palestinian Arab leaders) rejected it, and launched a war of annihilation against the nascent Jewish state. If the Arabs had accepted the partition plan, the state of Palestine would – like Israel – be 67 years old.
For Erekat to claim that accepting a two-state solution roughly along pre-1967 lines represents a concession of Palestinian land is a deception of the highest order.

Sabeel – The anti-Israel Christian activists you never heard of

Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, a Palestinian Christian organization headquartered in Jerusalem, is a group you probably never heard of. But Sabeel plays a critical role in seeking to reverse Christian support for Israel around the world.
In the U.S., Friends of Sabeel – North America (FOSNA) is behind or involved in virtually every divestment resolution pending before various Christian denominations, often teaming up with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
You need to know about Sabeel, and how Sabeel and JVP team up against Israel.
Sabeel provides the Christian liberation theology, JVP provides the Jewish cover.

Telegraph bizarrely suggests Entebbe raid set back peace with Palestinians

Yet, Telegraph contributor Saul David, noting the 40th anniversary of the mission, in a June 27th article promoting a book he wrote about famous episode, reaches the following conclusion.
Moreover, it could be argued that the success of the raid has actually made it harder for Israeli politicians – particularly Bibi Netanyahu – to embrace the compromises required for a lasting peace with the Palestinians. Why? Because it convinced Israelis that their intelligence services and soldiers could deal with any security threat. “It was double-edged,” one hostage told me. “We were saved but it was bad for Israel. It made peace less likely.”
The reasoning is truly astonishing. Are we to take away from this paragraph that either an unsuccessful raid (where most of the hostages were killed) or giving in to the terrorists’ demands both would have been more preferable outcomes? However, even leaving that aside, let’s briefly examine David’s claim that the success of the raid made Israeli leaders less likely to make compromises for peace.
First, Yitzhak Rabin, who, as prime minister, ordered the Entebbe raid, later (during his next stint as prime minister) signed the Oslo Peace Accords.
Binyamin Netanyahu, whose brother was killed in the raid, signed (in 1998 during his first term as prime minister) the Wye River Memorandum which reinstated implementation of the Oslo II Agreement.
Further, the success of the raid didn’t prevent Israel from withdrawing from Gaza in 2005, or from entering into final status negotiations and offering Palestinians an independent state twice, in 2000 and 2008.
In short, even if we suspend judgement on his bizarre take on the operation, David’s working hypothesis – that thwarting terrorists’ plans to murder Jews was somehow detrimental to peace – simply doesn’t hold up to critical scrutiny.

Jews in Paris: If you're pro-Israel in France, you're finished!

While armed soldiers are sent to secure synagogues in the French capital, members of the country's Jewish community say it is not enough; 'There are areas in Paris where you can't show that you're a Jew. If you enter the Metro with a kippah, you'll have a problem.'
If locating synagogues in the alleyways of Paris used to be a complicated navigational task, lately it has become easy to spot them by the soldiers stationed outside.
After the terrorist attack near Grenoble on Friday, armed soldiers were deployed to secure synagogues.
Outside La Tournelle Synagogue in Paris there were no less than seven armed soldiers, who were questioning passersby and asking them to take pictures only from a distance. At the Place des Vosges Synagogue, seven armed soldiers were providing security to a bar mitzvah celebration taking place there.
The young Jews we met outside the synagogue told us that at the beginning of prayer services there were no less than 20 armed soldiers outside. This is also the situation at Jewish schools.
There is a big question mark hanging over the future of France's large Jewish community, numbering about half a million, with the rise of radical Islam in the country and the recently added threat of terror attacks.

France: The Early Diagnosis of the New Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism in Europe has increased to a level where many committed Jews ask themselves if they should emigrate. The same is true for a significant number of more assimilated Jews. Even more widespread across the Jewish community is the question of whether their children should remain in their native country.
In an environment where the Jewish community has great doubts regarding its future, it helps to get a greater perspective by looking back to the European anti-Semitism that reached unprecedented post-war levels after the Second Intifada in 2000.
Of all the European countries, France is a good one to use as an example, for a number of reasons. Since 2000, the level and nature of anti-Semitic incidents occurring in France– which included several murders of Jews by Muslims – have been more severe than in other European countries. France not only has the largest Jewish community in Europe, with half a million Jews, but also has the largest Muslim community, with an estimated five million. In addition, the first high-level analysts who came forward to assess the new anti-Semitism which differs, to a large extent, from the classic religious and ethnic anti-Semitism, did so in France.

'Tinkering Jew': Wealth adviser launches angry anti-Semitic Twitter tirade against MP Josh Frydenberg over proposed changes to commissions for financial advisers

A financial adviser has launched an angry anti-Semitic tirade against a Liberal MP on Twitter describing him as a 'tinkering Jew'.
The subject of the abuse, Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was targeted by Brisbane-based wealth adviser James Howarth over proposed changes to cut upfront commissions for financial advisers.
In a series of tweets Mr Howarth called Mr Frydenberg a 'Central planning Jew', a c**k sucker, and suggested the minister's career would be over in the coming days.
'Get your Josh Frydenberg 'Central Planning Jew' punching bag AB. I ordered 5000 in on the next Cargo flight out of ShenZhen,' Mr Howarth said in a tweet on Sunday, which has since been removed.
'Josh Frydenberg - Central planning Jew or free market thinker? His tendencies towards communism will need to be watched,' Mr Howarth also wrote on Sunday.
His tirade continued on Monday when Mr Frydenberg was again called a 'Jew' and subject to a series of other insults.

Egyptian TV stages mock Israeli ‘execution’ in sick Ramadan prank

In a vile prank conducted by an Egyptian television station, a well-known Syrian singer was taken out on a pleasure cruise off the Egyptian coast, and then arrested by purported Israeli naval forces, interrogated at gunpoint at an elaborately constructed faux Israeli army base, and led out for execution, with a gun put to his head.
The hoax, screened by Egypt’s Al-Hayat TV, is one of a rash of such tasteless pranks filmed and screened by various TV stations in the Arab world to coincide with the current Ramadan festivities.
The victim was the Syrian actor Bassem Yakhour, who was taken out for a pleasure cruise in a yacht at Egypt’s Sharm e-Sheikh Red Sea resort along with a small group of other passengers, all of whom were in on the hoax.

Berlin’s new Jewish conductor met by anti-Semitism in German press

Petrenko won the Berlin job despite only having worked with its musicians on three previous occasions. The orchestra made the announcement June 22 at a news conference at its concert hall in Berlin.
Berlin Philharmonic members select their own conductor. They held several rounds of voting in May but failed to agree. They finally reached a decision in a vote June 21.
Petrenko didn’t appear at the news conference and orchestra spokeswoman Elisabeth Hilsdorf said he does not give interviews.
Violinist Stanley Dodds read a brief statement from him in which he said that “I am aware of the responsibility and high expectations placed in me and I will do everything in my power to be a worthy conductor of this outstanding orchestra.”
Petrenko stopped talking to the media following commentaries by Northern German Radio, or NDR, and Welt Online which used anti-Semitic tropes, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported. The offending material has been removed.
NDR’s Sabine Lange, writing about Petrenko and a German-born contender for the position, described the latter — Christian Thielemann — as a world-renowned expert in the German sound and Petrenko as a mythical, dwarflike figure from Wagner’s operas, “the tiny gnome, the Jewish caricature.”

Pacemakers could be passé with new genetic therapy

Pacemakers have undoubtedly saved many lives, but they are not without risks. Some 3 million people are walking around with the devices, and chances are most would be dead if they didn’t have one. Using electrical signals delivered by electrodes attacked to the heart, the device monitors the heart’s natural beat, and if it does not detect one within a specific time, it delivers a short low voltage pulse to “wake up” the heart. More advanced devices go beyond simple beat monitoring and keep track of body temperature, adrenaline levels, etc., pacing the heart to match physical exertion.
But pacemakers aren’t a perfect solution. Problems associated with pacemakers include infections, mechanical failure, dislodging, and other issues. The new method allows users to skip the pacemaker altogether – and avoid the surgery required to insert one.
“Our work is the first to suggest a non-electrical approach to cardiac resynchronization therapy,” Gepstein said. “Before this, there have been a number of elegant gene therapy and cell therapy approaches for generating biological pacemakers that can pace the heart from a single spot. However it was impossible to use such approaches to activate the heart simultaneously from a number of sites for resynchronization therapy.”

Apple to Open Sales Booths in Every Major Israeli City

Technology giant Apple will open 20 sales points in Israel over the coming months, with almost every major Israeli city covered in the initiative. The full plan was revealed last Wednesday, with the opening of the first sales booth in Ashdod.
Apple will be working with Israeli communications company Partner, setting up small Apple stands within the larger Partner stores.
The Apple stands will also be manned by Partner employees. The employees will be trained by the Apple “Masters” program, a staff training platform the company operates globally in other countries where there are no official Apple outlets.
Although there is an official Apple store in Israel, at Ben Gurion Airport, for now this one will remain the only independent store.

Mariah Carey, boyfriend dine with Netanyahus during 'spiritual' Israel visit

American R&B singer Mariah Carey was the honored guest on Sunday at an event often reserved for senior diplomats and world leaders, a private family dinner with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Escorted by her partner, Australian entrepreneur James Packer, Carey's other traveling companions, her two twins, were absent from the stately evening due to the late hour, though Carey did share photos of the two four-year olds with the prime minister and his wife, Sarah.
The Netanyahus, not to be outdone, shared photographs of their two boys taken during the prime minister's first term, between 1996 and 1999.
Carey and Packer, in Israel to meet a “spiritual leader” prior to their nuptials, are not Jewish, but the singer clearly feels a deep connection to the Holy Land.
Carey reportedly told Mrs. Netanyahu of her visit to the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, where the singer had reminded her daughter to "remember the day you visited this very important place."
Packer and Carey have been dating for several months and just completed a Mediterranean cruise on Packer’s yacht. They reportedly plan to visit Jerusalem, the Dead Sea and Tel Aviv.
Packer was in Israel earlier this month with a group of Australian businesspeople.
He reportedly bought a house recently in Israel.

IsraellyCool: “Moved” Mariah Carey “Loves” “Amazing” Israel

As I was one of the first to report, Mariah Carey planned a private trip to Israel, ostensibly to visit a “spiritual leader” here with her Aussie boyfriend James Packer.
What I did not know was how soon she would be coming. In fact, if the Daily Mail is to be believed, she was already here by the time I posted about the rumored reason for the trip.
And according to Army Radio, she is very “moved” to be here. Which could also mean something else given her fashion choice.