Friday, August 07, 2015
'To Hamas, destroying Israel justifies sacrificing their people'
It is not the first time that Edelstein, now the commander of the main training base in Zeelim and possibly soon be promoted to the general staff, has given an interview to Israel Hayom. Last time was during the lull between 2012's Operation Pillar of Defense and 2014's Gaza operation. This week he wanted to revisit that conversation.MEMRI: Israeli Druze Intellectual: The Israel That The Arabs Call 'A False Entity' Is The Region's Most Stable, Advanced Country
At that time, there were attacks on Israel from Gaza almost every day. Between the two operations, there were nearly 300 attacks, dozens them in the first year. In the year after Protective Edge, he says, there have only been eight attacks. Last time it wasn't clear whether Hamas was instigating the attacks or only turning a blind eye while other groups did. This time it is very clear: Hamas is not interested in any terrorism coming out of Gaza.
But the picture is more complicated than that. Edelstein describes it as a "battle over narratives."
"Beyond the fact that we have to combat terrorism -- literally prevent terrorist attacks -- there is a war underway, and it is over legitimacy," he says. "At the highest level, the war is over their desire to destroy the State of Israel. To them, this objective justifies everything, mainly sacrificing their own population."
"Uttering the name 'Israel' has not been easy for Arabs, from their leaders to their mouthpieces to their intellectuals. Israel's name is sometimes written in scare quotes, as part of the attempt to ignore the reality that writers see on the ground. Dealing with this reality has become a kind of rhetorical contest in Arab discourse; some have not settled for using scare quotes but have gone so far as to ban mention of that name in Arab writing, replacing it with the term 'the state of gangs.' Later, the Arab rhetoric became even more impassioned, and to this series [of epithets] was added a new term – 'the false entity.' All this arrogant stubbornness in Arab discourse is not ended, and continues to this day, with the addition of such epithets as 'the deviant state' or 'the artificial state.'Douglas Murray: Here’s more evidence that the left might be screwed
"In this context, it should be mentioned that when the state of Israel was established, the number of Arab states could be counted on the fingers of two hands, but that now the region has hatched a substantial number of fledgling Arab countries that are also artificial, and counting them requires the digits of both hands and feet, perhaps even more. Does it not stand to reason that all the countries of this region, and, in fact, all countries of the modern world, are artificial?
"Thus, while the propagators of this Arab discourse kept their heads buried in the sand, Israel continued to deepen its roots in the region – while on the other side, the [Arab] discourse aimed at arousing emotions and at mobilizing [these emotions] to serve those who silence common sense in the minds of people continued. In fact, the discourse on Palestine... was obviously no more than a tool used by the Arab leaders to avoid [admitting] that these Arab entities are just as false... And so the years passed, and here we are some seven decades later, during which we were born, grew up, and got old on this plot of land, and what do we see around us? Undoubtedly, any Arab with a smidgen of understanding finds himself facing the same questions: 'Where are the states of the gangs – and where are the false entities?'
Friends of mine who still call themselves ‘liberals’ or ‘leftists’ occasionally confide in me that they think the left might be screwed. Depending on how I feel on that particular day I tend to reply either that (a) they must stay and fight their political corner and make the left decent again or (b) one day they will realise that this is because the left is wrong.In new project, pro-Israel voices opt for satire over polemic
Anyhow – evidence for the (b) answer seems to grow by the day. The Labour leadership race aside, consider the Guardian newspaper, which is a pretty good weathervane for what has gone wrong with the left. In the last fortnight the paper has interviewed two prominent British Muslims. One is the UK head of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a radical Islamist organisation which is banned in many countries. The other interview is with someone who used to be in Hizb ut-Tahrir but who now opposes the Islamist mindset and has spent recent years arguing against the extremists and for moderation and tolerance within the Islamic faith.
Now here is a test. Which of the two do you think got a fawning interview, relaying his thoughts with barely a whisper of dissent? And which do you think got the full-on Guardian hatchet-job treatment with endless ‘anonymous sources’ smearing the subject of the interview? If you have taken the most pessimistic route to the answer then you will have got it right. The head of the extremist group got the full open arms and legs treatment, while the reformer got the hatchet job.
Perhaps the left really is just screwed.
Presenting Israel’s case to the world is a difficult endeavor, especially now when the country finds itself increasingly isolated diplomatically and culturally.
A new online initiative takes a different approach to Israel advocacy, however, striving to explain Israel’s case through satirical caricatures rather than emphatic argumentation.
Using Israeli cartoonists who volunteered their creative talents to the cause, The Israeli Cartoon Project has already garnered over 7,000 fans since its Facebook launch in June.
Asaf Finkelstein, 38, said the initiative was born out of a deep sense of frustration over the British Student Union’s vote to boycott Israel, and a statement by the CEO of mobile giant Orange, Stephane Richard, that he would pull his company out of Israel “tomorrow” were he not bound by contracts.
Why Iran is obsessed with Jews (hint: same as Hitler)
A fortiori, Iran’s self-interest would dictate cordial relations with the State of Israel. Israel was Iran’s ally under the Shah, and the alliance continued covertly during the first years of the Iran-Iraq War. By some accounts, Iran obtained 80% of its weapons imports from Israel at the onset of the war, and bought a total of $500 million in weapons from Israel between 1981 and 1983. Israeli technicians kept Iran’s Phantom F-4’s flying after America cut off spare parts. It did so with American sanction, to be sure. The Reagan administration wanted to forestall a decisive victory by either Iraq or Iran.David Singer: Chickens Coming Home To Roost For Turkey
The last thing Iran should want is an alliance between Israel and its Sunni opponents—Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, but potentially Turkey and Pakistan as well. An open alliance between the House of Saud and the State of Israel is improbable in the extreme, but in the fluid and opaque fields of perpetual warfare that stretch from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf, there is ample room for covert collaboration. Shia communities from South Lebanon to central Iraq are vulnerable, and the last thing Iran should want is an Israeli role in the Sunni-Shia war.
But Iran’s leaders talk about the destruction of the State of Israel obsessively. The veteran Iran analyst Amir Taheri last week reviewed a new Persian-language book under the signature of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei that offers an intricate scenario for Israel, which he calls “a cancerous tumor” subject to “annihilation” and “effacement.” No land that once belonged to the Ummah may be left in infidel hands, Khamenei insists, much less a “hostile infidel” who has waged war on Muslims. He proposes a low-intensity war that will make life in Israel so unpleasant that most Israelis will leave. Taheri reports that “Khamenei boasts about the success of his plans to make life impossible for Israelis through terror attacks from Lebanon and Gaza. His latest scheme is to recruit ‘fighters’ in the West Bank to set-up Hezbollah-style units…Khamenei describes Israel as ‘a cancerous tumor’ whose elimination would mean that “the West’s hegemony and threats will be discredited” in the Middle East. In its place, he boasts, ‘the hegemony of Iran will be promoted.’
Turkey’s championing of the Palestinian Arabs in their quest for an independent State has come back to bite Turkey with a vengeance – as Kurdish Statehood is once again firmly placed on the political agenda.MEMRI: Fatah Member Calls For 'Two States In One Space,' Separated By A Virtual Border
Turkey became the first country in the world with an ambassador to “Palestine” – after its envoy in Ramallah, Şakir Özkan Torunlar, presented his Letter of Credence to “State of Palestine” President Mahmoud Abbas on 14 April 2013.
Incredibly this self-declared “State of Palestine” – admitted as a member State of UNESCO on 31 October 2011 and as a non-State observer to the United Nations on 29 November 2012 with Turkey’s active support – lacks the four following criteria required by the 1933 Montevideo Convention to qualify as a State:
1. a permanent population;
2. a defined territory;
3. a government; and
4. capacity to enter into relations with the other states.
Turkey’s swift recognition of this illegally constituted state for the “Palestinians” – a people only created for the first time in 1964 by the PLO Charter – starkly contrasts with Turkey’s consistent refusal to grant its 15 million ancient Kurdish community – part of the largest stateless minority group in the world -– the identical right to their own State in Northern Turkey for the last 90 years.
In a July 13, 2015 article titled "Two States In One Space – Why? and How?" on the website of the independent Palestinian agency Ma'an (maannews.com), Fatah member 'Awni Al-Mashni, from Bethlehem, presented his perceptions on a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This solution would, he said, be based on following principles: an independent sovereign Palestinian state will be established, in the June 4, 1967 borders with no border adjustments; the border between the two states will be open, allowing Palestinians and Israelis to move, reside, and work in either of the two countries; Jewish settlements will be brought under Palestinian control; Israeli citizens residing in Palestine and Palestinian citizens residing in Israel will have full civil rights in their countries of residence, but political rights only in their respective home countries.Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Israel, the Jewish State
As for Jerusalem, Al-Mashni proposes to unite East and West Jerusalem under a joint municipal council in which Palestinians and Israelis will have equal representation. The united city will have its own governmental and security apparatuses and will serve as the capital of both states.
Regarding the Palestinian refugees, Al-Mashni proposes what he calls a "creative solution": the refugees in the Palestinian diaspora will have the right to become Palestinian citizens and to return to the Palestinian state; their rights will be restored to them in accordance with the international law, and they will have their property restored to them and compensation paid. Like any other Palestinian citizen, they will have the right to live in Israel.
In Secret Talks with PA, Israel Denies it's Talking to Hamas
Israel has sent a message to the Palestinian Authority (PA) explaining that it has not conducted any negotiations with Hamas regarding a long-term cease-fire, according to a report published Wednesday.Movement in UN Security Council to End Israeli Presence in West Bank
Several reports have surfaced that Israel and Hamas have been working on a long-term arrangement through international mediators, specifically the United Nations (UN), since the end of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza last summer.
While Hamas has publicly denied those reports, Israeli officials have remained silent - until now.
PA representatives have expressed reservations about such a move and its implications on the status of the PA in the public eye.
To placate Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian sources told Walla! News, Israel has quietly made it clear that no such talks have ever taken place and that it has no intention on reaching a ceasefire at this time.
Palestinian Authority welcomed French efforts to lead an international group aiming remove Israelis from the West Bank and resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Al-Jazeera reported on Monday.Qatari Foreign Minister Blasts 'Israeli Occupation'
According to Al-Jazeera, France will submit its resolution to the Security Council next month, after making some amendments.
In a broadcast on Voice of Palestine radio, PA envoy to the U.N. Riyad Mansour said France was committed to restarting the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians by this September.
Mansour said the five permanent members of the Security Council were working with some Arab countries to move toward negotiations with Israel aiming to resolve the disputed territories in the West Bank and develop a framework agreement, “along the lines of the Iranian nuclear deal.”
The French government had reportedly been working on a draft U.N. resolution that would demand Israel withdraw from the West Bank and call for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within 18 months. Last month, Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki claimed France had backed off of the proposal under pressure from the U.S.
Qatar’s Foreign Minister on Monday blasted Israeli “occupation” when discussing the crises in the Middle East with Secretary of State John Kerry, The Associated Press (AP) reported.Jordan Demands UN 'End Israeli Occupation'
Speaking to Kerry during a meeting in Doha in which Kerry also received Gulf states’ backing of the Iran deal, the Qatari Foreign Minister, Khalid Al-Attiya spoke of the urgency of resolving the crises in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
At the same time, he also complained that “the Middle East is suffering from the failures of the peace process due to the Israeli occupation” of Palestinian land.
Al-Attiya accused Israel of “intransigence” in dealing with the Palestinians and said it must end its “illegal blockade of Gaza”, according to AP.
“We call on the United States of America to exert more efforts to go back to the peace process,” he told Kerry before journalists were ushered out of the room.
Jordan is joining forces with the Palestinian Authority (PA) to demand that the UN Security Council (UNSC) "end the Israeli occupation," in a call following the lethal arson that killed an Arab infant and wounded four others last Friday at the village of Duma in Samaria.Russia Foreign Minister Meets With Hamas Chief in Qatar
The IDF has indicated Jewish extremists may have been behind the arson, given the presence of Hebrew graffiti at the site, and that pronouncement has sparked a cavalcade of condemnation by Israeli and international politicians against "Jewish terror" - which was followed quickly by a wave of Arab terror attacks.
The Jordanian paper Al-Rad reported Monday that Jordan and the PA are preparing to issue a demand that the UNSC "provide international defense for the Palestinian nation and to put an end to the Israeli occupation."
Jordanian King Abdullah II is planning to meet with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the arson, according to the paper.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with Khaled Mashaal, a leader of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, on Monday in Qatar.'Why Isn't the Right-Wing Govt. Adopting the Levy Report?'
According to a statement released by Hamas, Lavrov was briefed on the situation in Gaza as well as “Zionist terrorism in the West Bank and its assaults on Muslim and Christian sites in Jerusalem.”
“The [Russian] foreign minister extended an invitation to the leadership of (Hamas) to visit Moscow and the movement accepted the invitation and the date will be determined later,” Hamas said.
Hamas’s meeting with Russia comes amid reports of the terrorist organization’s shifting strategy. Last week, senior Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk said Iran has significantly decreased support for Hamas.
Moshe Zar, an activist and redeemer of land in Samaria, spoke to Arutz Sheva on Friday and expressed his disbelief that the right-wing coalition government is not passing the 2012 Levy Report, which proved the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria is legal according to international law.The Left's condemnation problem
Zar began by criticizing radical leftist organizations that have constantly worked against him, noting, "it used to be when I purchased lands I never dreamed that Jews would block me."
"I know some of them personally, and forgive me but they are traitors to the nation of Israel," he said. "They receive huge fundings from foreign money that comes from all sorts of places, and they do it for greed."
The solution to the lawsuits by radical leftist groups against Jewish construction according to Zar is the implementation of the Levy Report, which despite being commissioned by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has yet to be adopted by his governments.
"There's a professional opinion by three legal experts led by (former Supreme Court) Judge Edmond Levy, peace be upon him, and Binyamin Netanyahu selected him," noted the activist. "So why aren't they accepting this opinion and putting an end to all the ridiculous lawsuits against settlement in the land of Israel?"
"We have a right-wing coalition, a prime minister of the Herut movement (that merged with Likud - ed.), a right-wing defense minister, an excellent justice minister, and an excellent internal security minister, all of them right-wingers, so let them all vote for the Edmond Levy Report."
The Left has eagerly exploited the vicious attack on a Palestinian family in Duma last week. Even though the police have yet to name suspects, the Left spared no time in holding a shaming festival, constantly attacking the Right. Assigning collective guilt over and over again is just too much fun. The Left has always preached against making broad generalizations, but it has made several exceptions to that rule: the Right, the ultra-Orthodox and the national religious.Wounded Soldiers Out of Life-Threatening Danger
Articulate hypocrisy has always been the Left's weapon of choice. On Thursday, I kept waiting to see how long it would take for the Left to issue an unequivocal condemnation for the attack. After many long hours, the Left finally condemned the attack, if you call a drizzle of weak statements a condemnation. Whenever Jewish terrorists take action, the Left spares no time in condemning the attack as one cohesive body. But if Palestinian perpetrators carry out an attack, this chorus scatters and its members turn silent. Why they do that is beyond me. In fact, the Left has yet to apologize or express remorse over the 1993 Oslo Accords, some two decades after they were signed. And this, despite the thousands of Israeli victims they were responsible for.
Unlike the Left's politicians and mouthpieces, the public has shown it has much more common sense when it comes to terrorism. The results from a recent Israel Hayom poll show that an overwhelming majority of Israelis consider Jewish and Arab terrorism as one and the same. The respondents said both should be condemned unequivocally. Only a small minority made any distinction. The poll shows that Israeli are much smarter and have more integrity that the Left's leaders.
Truth to be told, the Left's double standard on terrorism is well entrenched in its ideology. Those who believe the Israel Defense Forces is an occupier while the Palestinian terrorists are freedom fighters will find it hard to condemn Arab terrorist attacks. At least one left-wing leader -- former Prime Minister Ehud Barak -- said he would have probably joined a terrorist group had he been a Palestinian youth. Those who claim Israel is an apartheid state will find it hard to see terrorist attacks as criminal acts.
Dr. Asher Salmon, Deputy Director of Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem, told Arutz Sheva on Thursday night that the two young combat soldiers who were seriously wounded earlier in the day in a vehicular terrorist attack are not currently in life-threatening danger.Israeli Soldier Recounts Neutralizing Terrorist After Suffering Injury in West Bank Car-Ramming Attack (VIDEO)
"In the afternoon we received the two wounded in serious condition with wounds to multiple bodily systems," said Salmon.
After their arrival, he noted, "we brought them into the trauma room, evaluated their situation and put the two of them into the surgery room."
"The families arrived, were given a briefing, and currently are with them," said Salmon. "In the coming hours they will leave the surgery room and we will be able to evaluate their situation better."
In an encouraging revelation, he added, "there is no immediate danger posed to their lives."
An Israeli soldier described how he managed to shoot and neutralize a terrorist after suffering an injury in a vehicular terror attack in the West Bank on Thursday, Israel’s NRG reported.Prosor Urges UN Chief to Condemn Car Terror Attack
Speaking to reporters from a central Israel hospital bed, 1st Lt. Daniel Elbaz explained that he had been assigned to the area as part of a troop surge apparently associated with the attack in a Palestinian village, allegedly by Jewish extremists, that killed an infant last week.
“I spotted a car approaching us very fast,” he said. “He made a sharp turn and slammed into me and two other soldiers. I understood this was a hostile terrorist attack. I could identify the terrorist trying to get out of his car, so I shot him and neutralized the situation.”
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, on Thursday urged UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to condemn the car terror attack in Samaria, in which three soldiers were injured.12-Year-Old Firebomb Victim Released from Hospital
“Once again, even after a Palestinian terrorist intentionally plowed his car into three IDF soldiers today, the UN hasn’t condemned the attack, nor the other recent attacks against Israelis,” Prosor said, noting it was the third time this week that he had called on Ban to condemn the terror attacks in Israel, and had “told him that his silence stands in stark contrast to the immediate and extensive condemnations issued in response to other horrific terror attacks.”
“Terror is terror, no matter where it takes place, or who is harmed. The people of Israel deserve the same level of concern and empathy as any other people in the world,” said the Israeli envoy.
Prosor earlier this week had called on the UN to condemn a firebomb attack in Jerusalem in which an Israeli woman was injured.
12-year-old Ayala Shapira, who was badly burned in a terrorist firebomb attack in Samaria in December, was released from the Tel Hashomer Hospital on Thursday.Israeli Military Police Video Shows Close-Up of Violence on Temple Mount
The attack occurred as Ayala and her father made their way home in the community of El-Matan. Two terrorists approached their vehicle and threw a firebomb at it. Ayala was able to leave the car on her own but suffered severe burns and required a lengthy hospitalization and recovery.
On Thursday, Ayala’s parents Avner and Ruth announced that their daughter had been released from the hospital and returned home.
"Starting today, she will be an outpatient at the hospital for just two days a week for further treatment and medical monitoring, and can return to school at the beginning of the school year,” they said.
Ayala celebrated her bat mitzvah this past June, signifying her taking her place in the Jewish people as a responsible adult at the age of 12.
A new video was released by Israel’s Yasam Military Police Unit showing a snippet of the violence that occurs every Friday on the Temple Mount, Israeli Channel 2’s military station reported on Wednesday.Court Bans Yehuda Glick from Temple Mount because He Has a Camera
The video shows what an average day of dealing with tensions atop the Temple Mount looks like.
It begins the moment riot officers organize themselves, donning their protective body armor over signature black jumpsuits. Wearing helmets, and carrying their weapons in case of emergency, they receive their briefing from their commanding officer.
One of the riot officers says, “we arrive very early in the morning, when [the Muslims are] praying — quiet hours when you pass the time and prepare for what comes afterward.”
Did you know that a camera is a tool of incitement?Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinian man arrested for naming his baby after Abbas rival Dahlan
The High Court on Thursday accepted a lower court ruling that Rabbi Yehuda Glick cannot visit the Temple Mount, and it refused to hold a hearing on his appeal.
It simply accepted the lower court’s decision that puts its stamp of approval on the argument by police:
The fact the Yehuda Glick ascends the Temple Mount with a camera proves he not just an innocent visitor.
Glick is the Number One enemy of the police on the Temple Mount. He never shouts, never incites and never raises a hand. That is just the type of peaceful Jew on the Temple Mount that the police and liberal establishment media cannot tolerate.
They prefer someone with a snarl on his face and words of hate on his lips.
Glick is a tough customer, but the police finally got the goods on him: He always takes a camera with him.
Dahlan, who is based in the United Arab Emirates, was expelled from Fatah several years ago after falling out with PA President Mahmoud Abbas and his two sons. Abbas has accused Dahlan of financial corruption and murder.Argentina’s ex-president goes on trial over AMIA probe
Abu Sloum’s family told the Palestinian Amad news agency that when he went to the Ministry of Interior earlier this week to register the name of his son as Mohamed Dahlan, the clerk told him to return the following day.
As the father was on his way home, he was intelligence officers stopped him and took him into custody after beating him and tearing his clothes, the family said.
Abu Sloum was recently released from a PA prison after spending five months in detention without trial or charges. He previously worked in the Ramallah-based office of Fatah legislators from the Gaza Strip. Some of these legislators are known as supporters of Dahlan.
Argentina’s former president Carlos Menem went on trial Thursday with 12 co-accused for allegedly obstructing the investigation into the 1994 suicide bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center that killed 85 people.'Argentine officials knew attack was coming, but did nothing'
The unsolved bombing outside the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association (AMIA), the deadliest terror attack in Argentine history, still haunts the country two decades later.
It recaptured the headlines this year when the prosecutor leading the investigation, Alberto Nisman, died under suspicious circumstances.
Menem, who ruled from 1989 to 1999 and is now an 85-year-old senator, was absent from the federal criminal court in Buenos Aires as the trial got under way.
Active Memory, a group that represents relatives and friends of victims, called a news conference in Buenos Aires on the eve of the controversial trial. The group's lawyer, Alejandro Rúa, accused authorities of paying lip service to an Argentine public calling for justice.IsraellyCool: Fail Of The Day: “Palestine’s” Henna
Regarding AMIA, Menem stands accused of pushing investigators during his presidency to ignore the so-called "Syrian clue" linking Alberto Kanoore Edul to the attacks. Both Edul and Menem are of Syrian origin and their families have long been reported to have ties.
Diana Malamud lost her husband in the blast. She told media that authorities knew the attack was coming and did not act.
"Evidently it was known that the attack was coming. Many people knew that this would happen, and it happened anyway -- nobody tried to stop it. Since no one tried to stop it, probably afterward they had to cover up that there had been prior knowledge or that something went wrong, which is one of the hypotheses we're working with. It's a horrible pain to think someone knew this and did not try to avoid it," she said.
Menem has denied the charges against him. Some 140 witnesses are expected to provide testimony, according to local media.
Al Arabiya has an article entitled From henna to honeymoon: Wedding traditions in the Middle East, which includes this section on “Palestine’s henna.”Edwin Black: Inside Canary Mission, the Ultra-Secretive New Group Exposing Anti-Israel Activists
But there is no such thing as “Palestine’s henna” (leaving side the fact there is no “Palestine” for a second). Henna is something practiced in India and the Arab world. In fact, Jews from Arab lands also practice this ritual.
Why Al Arabiya decided to attribute it to “Palestine” is curious.
But what turns this into a fabulous fail is the photo they use. Via TinEye reverse image search:
The source of the photo is De Nueva Photography, based in New York. Again, not “Palestine.”
But look at the filename.
AlexandEitan.Details10.jpg
Eitan is a Hebrew name!
Which makes sense. If you turn the image upside down:
That’s a Hebrew Chai.
On February 17, 2015, a number of America’s most vituperative anti-Israel activists woke up to discover that they had been named and spotlighted by a mysterious new website called Canary Mission, visible at www.canarymission.org.Jewish Group Singles Out Panasonic Over Air France Maps Excluding Israel
The site boldly aggregates the public statements, videos, and photographs of leading members of the organized movement against Israel in their most telling and often most demonstrative moments. The profiled individuals span a gamut of track records ranging from those with leadership roles with such intensely anti-Israel groups as Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Student Association to unaffiliated campus agitators who regularly advocate for the destruction of Israel and even the murder of Jews. All its profiles are compiled from public Internet sources such as social media, You Tube, Twitter, press releases, news clips, and interviews.
In essence, Canary Mission took a card from the New Israel Fund, which some years ago helped finance the Coalition of Women for Peace that created the Who-Profits database that acted as a global compass of Israeli commercial activity for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions strategies. Canary Mission flipped the card and blacklisted the blacklisters.
Pro-Israel activist group StandWithUs first brought attention to the issue through a post on its Facebook page. Amid the outcry that ensued, the airline blamed the omission on a “technical blip.”Mounting a defense against economic warfare
In a subsequent letter to Panasonic France’s Managing Executive Officer, Laurent Abadie, the Wiesenthal Center’s Director for International Relations Dr. Shimon Samuels asked for confirmation that “this ‘blip technology'” was indeed manufactured by Panasonic and distributed through Panasonic France. He also inquired about what action the company is taking over the issue.
“Moreover, why is the airline, apparently, claiming that the system will only be repaired in September?” Samuels asked. “We are certain that Panasonic would wish to join our constituency in seeing that this offence is resolved forthwith.”
In another letter, to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Samuels argued that “wiping a state off the map sets a precedent for all flag airlines.” He urged the ICAO to pressure Air France to repair these “offensive ‘technological blips’ with all speed.”
Air France on Monday apologized for failing to include Israel on its flight-map but the SWC rejected the apology. The airline also tweeted a photo of a repaired in-flight map that includes Israel.
On average, each Palestinian SodaStream worker supported 10 family members. Many of those breadwinners are now becoming destitute and desperate — in some cases, no doubt, so desperate that they will volunteer to sacrifice themselves or their children as suicide-bombers for Hamas or other terrorist organizations opposed to any solution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that is not a “final solution” for Israelis.Phyllis Chesler: Jewish Athletes Under Siege in Germany
Some BDS advocates may be too naive or dense to grasp this. You can be sure, however, that the campaign’s leaders understand quite well how economic warfare can facilitate kinetic warfare. Brand Israel as a pariah state (even as Iran, the world’s leading terrorism sponsor, is given renewed legitimacy and the prospect of significant foreign investment) and, over time, Israel will be rendered more vulnerable to its openly exterminationist enemies (Iran emphatically included).
It’s a clever strategy. On the optimistic side, last week’s hearing demonstrates that there are members of Congress on both sides of the aisle smart enough to comprehend what BDS represents and principled enough to want to do something about it, building on the successful legislative responses to the Arab boycotts of the past and other economic wars from which we still have much to learn.
Jewish athletes, from all over the world, who have assembled in Germany for the Maccabi Games, are being taunted and attacked by Muslims, neo-Nazis, and leftists.Indonesia denies visa to Israeli badminton player for tourney
Two "youths" cursed and threw an object at six Jewish men. They have not yet been found. An Arab Muslim was arrested for shouting anti-Semitic slurs at two security guards at the hotel which is housing the 2,000 Jewish athletes, their fans, and their guests. The hotel is 900 meters away from the Al Nur Mosque, "a hotbed of radical Islam."
Alon Meyer, the head of the German umbrella organization for the Maccabi, has advised the athletes to hide their kippot and Jewish stars, to take taxis rather than walk--and to avoid walking in Neukolln, a Muslim "no go" zone.
Yidden: Where are we? Have we time-traveled back to Berlin in 1936 when Jews were excluded from the Olympic competition or have we been teleported to Munich in 1972 when Black September Palestinian terrorists murdered eleven Israeli athletes in cold blood and the German police utterly bumbled both the rescue of the athletes and the apprehension of their killers?
Perhaps we are merely in contemporary Europe where Israeli athletes are routinely "dissed" on the playing field and crowds scream "Jew to the Gas” in the U.K., the Netherlands, Italy, and Poland.
The Jewish Maccabi athletes are being treated like pro-Israel academics, students, and dissidents in the West. In order to work, both groups are being subjected to a surreal gauntlet of hostility.
Indonesian authorities have yet to grant a visa to an Israeli Badminton player despite repeated requests on his part, in a move that would effectively bar him from competing in the World Badminton Championships set to be held in Jakarta on Monday.Christians at UN: We Didn't Replace the Jewish Covenant
Misha Zilberman, who represented Israel at the London 2012 Olympics and spent the past several weeks practicing in Singapore, first filed a visa application six months ago, only to have his request turned down by the Indonesian government. Further attempts by Zilberman, 26, were met with similar responses.
The Israeli player expressed frustration over the continued denial in a Facebook post earlier this week.
“They are not giving me a visa to participate in the World Championships,” Zilberman wrote.
“After six months of exchanging letters, and after sending all the documents they requested, and after we arrived in Singapore, they are saying no. The World Badminton Federation knew about this and didn’t help. They preferred to ignore it and just waited for it to pass. After two weeks in Singapore waiting for a visa they are probably sending me home instead of to the World Championships.”
Pro-Israel Christian groups are preparing to plan out the fight against Christian anti-Semitism at a special forum at the UN Headquarters in New York on the issue next Tuesday.Israel’s Heart for Peace
At the forum, which is sponsored by the Permanent Missions of Israel, Palau and Cyprus, both Proclaiming Justice to the Nations (PJTN) and the World Council of Independent Christian Churches (WCICC) - which represents over 40 million Christians worldwide - will speak out against anti-Semitism.
Making their presence all the more powerful is that a special emphasis is to be placed on Christian anti-Semitism, given the approaching 50th anniversary of the Catholic Church’s Nostra Aetate decision that canceled claims that Jews killed Jesus, and called on the Church to fight anti-Semitism.
"The Catholic Church denounced anti-Semitism and deicide five decades ago, yet millions of Christians still believe the heresy of Replacement Theology, believing that the Jewish people are no longer the inheritors of the Covenant and that the Land does not belong to all Israel," said Laurie Cardoza-Moore, President of PJTN and a Special UN Envoy for WCICC.
"This is unacceptable and must be condemned in the strongest terms possible," she added. "PJTN will continue to act as a firewall around our Jewish brethren, as it is, and always was, our Biblical duty to stand with the State of Israel and the Jewish People. ‘Never again’ isn’t just an empty statement- it is something that needs to be worked on daily."
Since its founding in 2005, A Heart for Peace’s mixed team of Israeli and Palestinian doctors has cared for 607 Palestinian children, 20 percent of them from Gaza and 80% from Palestinian-administered areas of the West Bank.Rambam Medical Team Saves Life of Arab Teen in Hebron
An apolitical organization, A Heart for Peace has trained five Palestinian doctors to perform echocardiograms and/or catheterizations, 197 general practitioners to do early screenings, one technician each in echocardiography and stress-test and Holter electrocardiography, and one genetic counselor.
The need for genetic counseling is an essential preventative measure because one out of every two Arab marriages is consanguineous, causing a rate of congenital heart malformations three times higher than in the general population.
Half the cost of every hospitalization is borne by the medical center and half by the organization, which is incorporated in France. On average, each child’s bill comes to about $15,000.
Nobody to take care of them
Rein explains the need for the program ironically resulted from the Oslo Accords signed by the government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993. Until the accord put many Arab areas of the West Bank under Palestinian control with military checkpoints at the borders, Hadassah took care of West Bank Arab children with funding from humanitarian organizations and sometimes even from the Israel Defense Forces.
In a dramatic race to treat a critically injured Palestinian Authority Arab youth, an emergency medical team from Rambam rushed to a hospital in eastern Jerusalem with the equipment that would save his life.Spotlight on Lincoln’s Jewish Ties Part of 16th President’s Renaissance
When 18 year-old Muhammad Jabri from the Judean city of Hebron went out to celebrate the end of high school, the evening ended with a near-fatal motor accident that left him critically injured.
The teen was treated intially at a local hospital in Hebron and then he was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit at the Augusta Victoria Hospital in eastern Jerusalem.
But when Jabri’s condition suddenly began to deteriorate, the doctors realized that his lungs were damaged beyond their capacity to resuscitate him. At this point Dr. Abed El-Rauf Bey, Head of the ICU, urgently contacted Dr. Tzvi Adler, a senior Cardiac Surgeon in the Cardiac Surgery Department at Rambam hospital in Haifa.
At a time when America’s heroes are dwindling, filmmakers and historians are among those turning to Abraham Lincoln for inspiration.IsraelDailyPicture: WW100: The Soldiers of Australia Meet the Jews of Jerusalem, 1918
Our 16th president inspired Lincoln, Steven Spielberg’s 2012 film examining how his political acumen helped him get Congress to pass the 13th Amendment. “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” imagines “The Great Emancipator” as a slayer of slaveholding Southern vampires.
But Lincoln’s relationship with Jews, a lesser-known story, is the inspiration for a groundbreaking exhibit, “With Firmness in the Right: Lincoln and the Jews,” that opens Monday at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill. Based on the book Lincoln and the Jews: A History, by Jonathan D. Sarna and Benjamin Shapell, the exhibit opened at the New York Historical Society earlier this year.
“This is not the stories you’ve heard about Lincoln from textbooks. It opens up a whole new world of another aspect of Lincoln’s life,” said Carla Knorowski, CEO of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation.
As the British-commanded ANZAC troops moved north after the battle of Be'er Sheva they were greeted as liberators by the Jews of Palestine. New Zealanders were hosted by the Jews of Rishon LeZion, and Australians entered Jerusalem with General Allenby at the end of December 1917.
The picture below was taken by Bugler J. F. Smith of the 7th Light Horse. "Enlisted 11 October, 1914. Home on ANZAC Furlough in October, 1918."
Australian soldiers at the Western Wall
