Sunday, September 06, 2015
Howard Jacobson: Corbyn may say he's not anti-Semitic, but associating with the people he does is its own crime
Still I will not call it anti-Semitism. The truism that criticism of Israel does not equate to anti-Semitism is repeated ad nauseam. Nor, necessarily, does it. But those who leave out the “necessarily” ask for a universal immunity. Refuse it and they trammel you in the “How very dare you” trap. They are, they say, being blackmailed into silence. The opposite is the truth. It is they who are the blackmailers, intimidating anyone who dares criticise their criticism."Palestine" is "The Jewish People’s State” under International Law
Alone of prejudices, anti-Zionism is sacrosanct. How very dare we distinguish the motivation of one sort from another? Or question, in any instance, an anti-Zionist’s good faith? In fact, what determines whether anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic is the nature of it. Question Israel’s conduct of recent wars and you won’t find many Jews, in Israel or outside it, who disagree with you. Join Hamas in calling for the destruction of the Jewish state, as the prime instigator of all evil, and you’re on shakier ground.
In an apparent softening of party tone, Corbyn’s warm-up man, the journalist Owen Jones, recently reprimanded the Left for its ingrained anti-Semitism. Welcome words, but they will remain only words so long as the Corbynite Left – and indeed the not-so Corbynite Left – refuses to acknowledge the degree to which anti-Semitism is snarled up in the before and after of Israelophobia. The Stop The War Coalition is a sort of home to Jew-haters because its hate music about Israel is so catchy. It simplifies a complex and heartbreaking conflict, it elides causes and effects, it perpetuates a fable that flatters one side and demonises another, it ignores all instances of intransigence and cruelty but one, inflaming hatred and enabling the very racism it declares itself opposed to.
Let’s forget whether or not anti-Semitism is the root of this. It is sufficient that it is the consequence. Face that, Corbyn, or the offence you take at any imputation of prejudice is the hollow hypocrite’s offence, and your protestations of loving peace and justice, no matter who believes them, are as ash.
Arab irredentists have never accepted recognition of the Jewish state. The recognition of a state may be express or tacit. The latter results from any act that implies the intention of recognizing the new state. Approval of the League of Nations Mandate is such an act based on the the summaries shown in the Memo of the British Foreign Office of December 19, 1917 and that of the American summary circulated at the Paris Peace Talks and approved at San Remo.David Horovitz: Europe’s challenge: How to prevent Islamic extremism entering along with its victims
The Arabs have expressed their dissatisfaction by threats of violence, actual violence and by fraud. The usual fraud is carried out by publication of bogus legal opinions claiming to show the illegality under international law of Jewish settlements and occupation outside the Green Line and claiming the unilateral right to secede from the Jewish state.
Why arguments based on international law? How many people who pass you on the street know anything at all about international law. Repeated often enough to them it becomes a “poetic truth” that can’t be dented by facts, reason or logic. Judea, Samaria, and East Jerusalem may be occupied, but it is not a “belligerent occupation” as defined in the Regulations under the Hague Convention, nor does voluntary settlement of Jews in these areas, impose the obligations on Israel that it would if they had been deported or transferred.
These are areas that were liberated in 1967 to fulfill the status intended for them at San Remo in 1920 as a part of a Jewish People’s State.
As Europe grapples with a migrant crisis, its leaders might ask themselves if they could have done more to alleviate some of its causes
It’s hard to imagine the West condemning us now for choosing, over the past few years, to seal off the border with Egypt in order to prevent the tens of thousands of African asylum-seekers who made their way to the only land-accessible democracy in the area swelling into the millions. It’s harder now to dismiss those Israeli leaders who contended that migration across a porous border could remake Israel’s demographic balance.
Should we allow people of Palestinian origin to cross from Syria and Lebanon into the West Bank, as PA President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded? Plainly, that would be easier if we were at peace with the Palestinians, rather than deadlocked, and if Abbas had publicly renounced the demand for a “right of return” that wields demographics as a weapon against Israel.
Too many questions; too few answers. And the validation of a familiar assertion: The Middle East is the dinner guest who never goes home. Ignore it or seek to disengage from it at your peril.
Col Richard Kemp: Britain must put boots on the ground to fight ISIS and tackle the refugee crisis
Veteran officer and defence expert Colonel Richard Kemp says only direct military action in Syria and Iraq can halt the flow of human miseryWho Saves the Arab in Hebron After an Arab Rescues a Jew?
Two failures by the West are directly responsible for the refugee crisis Europe faces today.
The first was the decision by President Obama to withdraw all US troops from Iraq in 2012.
British forces had already left so we were no longer players.
The consequence of this stampede for the exits was that the successful US strategy that had put al-Qaeda on the backfoot was abandoned.
The door was open to the rise of al-Qaeda’s successors, the Islamic State.
The second failure was the 2013 vote rejecting military intervention.
The present US-led action is half-hearted.
Britain isn’t even bothering to strike at their Syrian heartland.
We must have boots on the ground both in Syria and Iraq.
It’s an uncomfortable question. But five Jewish souls were allowed to remain in this world thanks to one Palestinian Arab who put his own life on the line for them. Who will now protect that man when terrorists target him as a collaborator with Israel??What about the Iran lobby?
Five yeshiva students who came as tourists to Israel last week nearly lost their lives because they took a wrong turn while driving to the Cave of the Patriarchs (Machpela) in Hebron, courtesy of a innocent misdirection from the WAZE GPS software. When the group entered the ancient Biblical city, they became lost in the winding narrow streets and accidentally entered the Arab area. This nearly cost them their lives, as a mob of Palestinian Arabs instantly swarmed around their car and began to beat them. Two were already injured and one was bleeding from his face.
They were pulled to safety by 51-year-old Faiz Abu Hamadya, who saved them from being lynched. The video in this article (below) shows how Israeli security forces eventually extracted the tourists from Abu Hamadya’s home, and what it took to bring them to safety.
Not one thing they had with them remained intact – the car was incinerated, their tefillin (phylacteries) were snatched and burst apart, the sacred parchments inside torn and stomped on the ground. Holy books were ripped apart, their pages scattered to the wind or fed to the flames rising from their vehicle. All their belongings were completely destroyed.
But the five yeshiva students were safe – two were injured from the beatings and one was bleeding – but all were alive, thanks to Faiz Abu Hamadya.
Much of the political Left was critical of the First Gulf War, also known as Operation Desert Storm, against Iraq in January-February 1991 and of the Second Gulf War, also known as the Iraq War, in 2003. Many leftists viewed both of these wars as motivated by greed for oil. A particularly vicious strain of American public discourse surfaced when Jewish neoconservatives were blamed and vilified for supporting the war against Iraq in 2003, with all the accompanying conspiracy theories of a ubiquitous Israel lobby forcing the hand of the American president.Michael Oren: How would you vote if your children’s lives were at stake?
The world is funny that way. A little over a decade after the Iraq War, leftists have no problem accommodating the nuclear deal and the lifting of sanctions against Iran, despite the fact that this deal is precisely about the very things for which they criticized U.S. Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush: oil and money. Only now we are not talking about greedy warmongering for oil. This is greedy pretend peacemaking for oil. There is no difference. The Left has been very clever about framing it in all the right terms, and for that, they can thank the Iran lobby.
Much has been said in the U.S. about the supposedly all-powerful Israel lobby, but hardly anything has been uttered about the Iran lobby. That in itself should be a cause for concern, as its success has become the success of the White House itself.
And by the time Ariel enters middle school and Romi celebrates her Bat Mitzvah, Iran will almost certainly be a nuclear power. By submitting false specimens from secret sites to the UN and repeatedly exploiting the minimum 24-day delay in international inspections, Iran can cheat its way to weapons-grade uranium. Or it can wait out the ten-year period, develop centrifuges capable of enriching uranium at twenty times the current rate, and emerge the following day with enough fissile material for two hundred bombs. Weaponizing — forging a warhead and the intercontinental missile to carry it — will be no obstacle for Iran, for all of its military activity is exempted from the deal.Not much funny as NY comedy club hosts Iran deal debate
Yet, in addition to facing an existential threat from Iran, Ariel and Romi will also find themselves living in a highly unstable nuclear neighborhood. Arab countries in the Gulf, along with Egypt and Turkey, will not wait and see if Iran complies with what they agree is a bad deal. Rather, they will develop military nuclear capabilities of their own. In a region of incessant turmoil, the question of whether these atomic arsenals might fall into jihadist hands will always haunt these young people’s lives.
Nor can they escape that horror by traveling abroad. Iran is the world’s foremost state-sponsor of terror, plotting attacks in thirty cities across five continents. Iran is responsible for the murder of hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq, the murder and maiming of thousands of Israelis. But Iran’s support for global terror is not even mentioned by the deal. It never considers how a massive influx of cash, combined with international legitimacy, might enhance Iran’s ability to strike at “soft” targets such Ariel and Romi.
Advocates of the Iran deal must ask themselves one question. Would they support it if the lives of their children and grandchildren depended on it? Mine do. Indeed, the deal will threaten all of our families — Israeli as well as American — for generations to come.
The debate grew heated, mostly between the more combative Dershowitz and Kaplan, seated at opposite ends of the table. Kaplan charged that Dershowitz and Kroenig actually wanted the United States to attack Iran, and Dershowitz took offense to his opponents’ use of the term “Israeli-American hardliners,” pointing out that he had voted for President Barack Obama twice and opposed previous wars, and that virtually all Israeli politicians oppose the deal.National Council of Churches Promotes Iran Deal With Letter and Conference Call Sponsored by J Street and Other Supporters
Dershowitz, who interrupted his opponents and got laughs from the audience throughout the debate, closed his argument saying the two sides disagreed fundamentally on Iran’s current nuclear activities.
“My position is based on the absolute certainty that Iran is actively seeking to develop nuclear bombs now. Their position is that it’s not. If they’re right, they should win this debate,” he said.
The crowd applauded both sides equally, and the debaters repeatedly encouraged the audience to do research and look up facts on their own.
The National Council of Churches (NCC), along with a number of other Christian institutions in the United States, is supporting the Iran nuclear deal. In addition to promoting a pro-deal letter to Congress prepared by the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the NCC co-sponsored a conference call on Aug 27, during which the organization’s General Secretary, Jim Winkler, encouraged 600-plus listeners to call lawmakers to vote in favor of the deal.Powell, Wasserman Schultz support Iran nuclear deal
Other conference-call sponsors included Jewish Voice for Peace, J Street and Pax Christi, a Catholic peace organization.
During the conference call, Marie Herf, senior adviser for strategic communications at the U.S. State Department, expressed gratitude to representatives of faith-based communities for their support of the deal with Iran.
“It is very heartening and nice to have friends like all of you,” she said. Earlier in the call, she accused opponents of the Iran deal of spreading misinformation about the deal itself.
Powell, secretary of state under President George W. Bush, called the agreement “a pretty good deal” that would reduce the threat of Iran gaining a nuclear weapon.Obama's theater of the absurd
Iran’s nuclear program “has been thrown into a detour” making it less likely it can produce a nuclear weapon to be used against Israel or other countries, Powell said. “So that’s pretty good,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Florida, said the decision to endorse the agreement was the most difficult one she has made in nearly 23 years in elected office.
The Jewish lawmaker wrote in The Miami Herald that while she has concerns about the agreement, the deal “provides the best chance to ensure” security for the US, Israel and other allies.
“Under the agreement Iran will not be able to produce a nuclear bomb for at least 10-15 years,” she said, while the US and its allies “will be able to more closely concentrate on stopping Iran’s terrorist activity.”
The Saudis don't like the nuclear deal with Iran. They also don't like the rapprochement between Washington and Tehran. They can tell us until the cows come home that the Saudi king is satisfied with the deal. Of course, he's more satisfied with the guarantees he received from U.S. President Barack Obama during their meeting in Washington over the weekend.Iran eyes natural gas exports to Europe
Ever since the summit between Obama and Gulf State leaders at Camp David last May, little has changed on the Iranian front. Quite the opposite, the situation has only gotten worse. On July 14, the superpowers and Iran signed the Vienna deal; the Saudi king, at the time, boycotted the Camp David meeting. His reasons for avoiding that summit still apply today.
However ... the Middle East is disintegrating, and the Saudi monarchy needs stability. It also needs friends. It cannot allow itself to fight with everyone. In the past the Saudis had no reservations about funding terrorism and exporting Wahabism, while simultaneously taking part in the coalition against terrorism. Saudi Arabia was never exactly a role model in any regard.
Iran is said to be weighing exporting natural gas to European countries through Turkey, its gateway to the continent, following a nuclear deal signed with world powers two months ago that has helped renew economic ties with countries that had imposed international sanctions on Tehran for the better part of the past decade.Iran MPs to have say on nuclear deal in late September
Exporting gas to Europe is absolutely on Iran’s agenda, according to Abdolhossein Souri, a deputy head of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), whose comments were cited by the Tasnim news agency.
Souri added that although Iran’s immediate priority was to increase economic cooperation with regional countries — and that Tehran would soon start exporting gas to Iraq and Afghanistan — Europe was also seen as a potential market for natural gas.
Iran is said to have the world’s second-largest natural gas reserves but, following years of punishing sanctions, will require billions of dollars to revive its gas industry, including building pipelines to Europe, and undertake reforms to control domestic demand and rein in heavily subsidized energy prices, according to an August report in the Financial Times.
Iranian lawmakers will have the chance to give their opinions on the nuclear deal with major world powers at around the end of September, parliament speaker Ali Larijani said Saturday.Iran says it foiled sabotage at Fordo nuclear site
Larijani did not, however, say whether parliament would be given a vote on the agreement, which provides for lifting sanctions on Iran in exchange for rolling back Tehran’s nuclear program.
Last month, parliament announced the makeup of a 15-member panel largely composed of conservative lawmakers to review the deal.
“The review by committees will be completed in early Mehr (the Iranian month between September 23 to October 22) and the representatives of the people will give their opinion,” Larijani was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying.
A senior Iranian nuclear official said Saturday that the Islamic Republic had foiled an attempt by an unnamed “enemy” to sabotage the Fordo uranium enrichment facility.Putin Invites Khamenei, Rouhani to Moscow Opening of Grand Mosque
“Recently, a series of electronic boards were discovered that had been planted in certain equipment at [the] Fordo nuclear site to carry out sabotage acts in the enrichment processes,” Asqar Zarea’an, deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, reportedly told the daily Khorassan.
Zarea’an, said to be in charge of security for the country’s nuclear program, has warned against similar high-tech efforts to disrupt its operations in the past, according the official news agency Fars.
“Similar to the past, the enemy is seeking to prevent Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities using new instruments, and we should identify and defuse these moves with wisdom and prudence,” Zarea’an reportedly said at an August press conference.
Ali Khamenei, the theocratic dictator of Iran, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani have been invited to Russia to attend the opening of the Moscow Grand Mosque.Herzog Adopts PA Doomsday Weapon to Flood Israel with Syrian Refugees
The two were invited thanks to the head of Russia’s Muftis council, Rawil Gaynetdin, who extended the invite to Iran’s Minister of Culture while the two met in Moscow on Thursday, according to Iran’s state-run Tasnim News Agency.
“Given that the opening of the mosque will be a great event in the Muslim world, we are eager to host Ayatollah Khamenei, as a great Islamic leader, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. We insist on the invitation,” said Gaynetdin, according to the report, which proclaims that the Islamic place of worship will be the “most spacious” mosque in all of Russia.
The mosque will have its grand opening on September 23 to commemorate the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, the report stated.
Opposition leader Yitzchak Herzog has called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to open the gates for Syrian refugees to enter Israel, while Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas wants them to have asylum in the “West Bank.”PreOccupiedTerritory: Haaretz To Boycott Israeli Advertisers (satire)
Abbas issued his statement before Herzog’s call for sympathy, complete with the Liberal wail that Jews must remember the Holocaust and somehow connect dots that lead to Israel being the perfect, profusely open-minded country, and so what if it contributes to reducing the Jewish minority?
That is exactly what the Saudi “peace” Initiative in 2002 proposed. It wants Israel not only to shrink its borders back to the Temporary Armistice Lines of 1949, AKA the Green Line or “Auschwitz Borders,” but also to make Jews a minority in Israel.
Next, Israel becomes an Arab country.
Benn said the opinions of longtime Haaretz writers Amira Hess and Gidon Levy carried significant weight in the board’s deliberations. “Justice often requires doing the unpopular thing, and that is the path that Haaretz chose long ago,” he explained. “It would be improper of this esteemed publication to profit from the enterprise of Occupation, however indirectly, whether one believes it began in 1967 or 1948 – and our journalistic ethics prevent us from prescribing which of those dates holds greater validity.”Security forces arrest ISIS-affiliated Palestinian attempting to enter Israel
The advertising ban will apply to both the print and online editions of Haaretz. Separate publications under Haaretz’s umbrella, such as the business news magazine The Marker, will continue to accept Israeli advertising for a further eight months. After that time, the board anticipates, there will be no Israeli economy anymore, since the combined pressure of the boycott and the shame Israelis will undoubtedly feel as a result of it will induce total collapse of the system, and little need for any such publication.
No decision has yet been made on how to treat Israeli subscribers or purchasers of the newspaper. “The complex ethical web of considerations around this matter requires further deliberations,” admitted Benn. “It might be easy to say we won’t accept Israeli money of any sort, but our subscribers and readers are by and large the right kind of Israeli – i.e. the ones who agree with us, and are therefore not Israeli in the same way as, for example, Bibi Netanyahu, or anyone who lives a given distance from Schocken Street in Tel Aviv. So there is room for debate here. I expect we’ll have a decision in the coming weeks.”
Benn offered no comment on the publication’s use of Israeli soil on which to run its operations.
Security forces announced on Sunday the arrest of a Gazan ISIS-affiliated operative as he tried to pass into Israel via the Erez land crossing.Jerusalem Arabs Attack Fireman and Force Police to Retreat
The Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency named the suspect as 27-year-old Ihab Abu Nahal, from Gaza City. It added that he was arrested in late July, and that his ultimate destination was Qatar, where he wished to take part in an employment program for Gazan teachers.
The terror suspect "took part in several attacks against the IDF during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza last year," the Shin Bet said, as well as other attacks.
Despite his membership in a separate Salafist armed group, Abu Nahal said Hamas recruited him for attacks against Israel during the 2014 summer conflict.
He allegedly embedded himself in Hamas's Nahba special forces in northern Gaza, where he planted and set off explosive devices against IDF units operating in the sector.
"To that end, they used the home of a surgeon who is a trusted Hamas confidant," the Shin Bet said.
"Abu Nahal's interrogation underlines, once again, Hamas's cynical use of Israeli sensitivity to humanitarian needs," the intelligence organization said, referring to the use of a medical official's home as an operational base to attack the IDF.
Parts of eastern Jerusalem appear to be under control of Arab anarchists.Police, IDF find army uniforms and guns in West Bank counter-terror raids
Jerusalem police were called to the Arab dominated Shuafat neighborhood in northern Jerusalem Saturday and immediately were violently attacked by local residents.
The fire crew called the police, who then found themselves overwhelmed by the rioters and were forced to retreat, along with the firemen.
The blaze smells like an ambush because when the fireman arrived at the scene, they discovered that the fire had been extinguished. When they stated to investigate why the fire stated, dozens of Arab rioter spat on them, cursed and attacked them violently.
Two police vehicles arrived to arrest the attackers, but the police officers were not prepared for such a large number of attackers. Both the police and firefighters fled the scene.
Judea and Samaria District Police together with army infantry units uncovered counterfeit IDF uniforms and firearms during overnight counter-terrorism raids in the West Bank between Saturday and Sunday.Police Nab PA Arabs with 4,000 Bullets Stolen from IDF
In one raid, held in the village Beit Omer near Hebron, police officers and IDF soldiers, together with the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency, found two handguns, one of which was homemade and the second industrially produced, as well as ammunition, two radio devices, and army uniforms that could have been used to carry out attacks.
The operation was joined by soldiers from the Shimshon Battalion, from the IDF's Kfir Brigade. "We arrested a Palestinian man and took him for questioning," a police spokesman said.
Security forces also launched an arms raid in the village of Al-Aroub, southwest of Bethlehem, seizing firearms.
In another raid, Judea and Samaria police and the IDF entered a home in the village of Yata near Hebron, and carried out weapons search following intelligence information that led security forces to suspect that guns being hidden at the address.
Israeli Border Police may have saved the lives of hundreds or even thousands of Israelis Friday night.IsraellyCool: AMZ Productions Attack Israellycool; ‘Like’ Antisemitic Comment
They stopped what appeared to them a suspicious Palestinian Authority taxicab in Highway 60 in Samaria, north of Jerusalem.
Their search of the vehicle uncovered a cache of approximately 4,000 bullets used in M-16 semi-automatic weapons.
Even worse, the ammunition had been stolen from the IDF.
Police arrested three Arabs, two of them from Jerusalem and one form the Palestinian Authority. It is not known if the Arabs were linked to crime or terror, but it can be assumed that 4,000 bullets in the hands of Palestinian Authority Arabs would not be used by Palestinian Authority security officers to do what the Oslo Accords commit them to do – root out terror.
Note their mischaracterization of my argument. Shirley Temper-related scenes are staged Pallywood in the sense that these kids are purposely placed on the front lines of these violent demonstrations – trying to provoke soldiers – in order to get images designed to tug at the heartstrings of the average person who does not know any better. You see it with Shirley’s father and others in the background, cameras in hand, egging on the children. No decent parent would ever place their child in potential harm’s way, yet the Tamimis and others constantly do so in order to score propaganda points. And people like those behind AMZ Productions – who are encouraging them and giving them a larger platform for their propaganda – serve as enablers to this child abuse.US Jews Wake Up: Muslim J-Street Head is 'Anti-Israel'
Meanwhile, far be it from me to suggest AMZ Productions are antisemitic. Because they would predictably claim that would be merely trying to silence critics of Israel, and nothing to do with their views.
So perhaps they can explain why they ‘liked’ this blatantly antisemitic comment on their Facebook page, under the above post.
Amna Farooqi, the new president of J Street U (J Street's student subsidiary), is a "radical Muslim who spews hatred for Israel and its leaders, supports violence against Israel, and supports anti-Israel boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS)." So writes the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), summing up increasingly prevalent Jewish sentiment.Luxembourg FM in Israel after Grocery Chain Bans Israeli Produce
Daniel Greenfield, writing for FrontPageMag.com, had a different take on the same concept: Behind Farooqi's agenda "is the traditional conspiratorial idea that Jews have a great deal of power," he says. J Street U and its media allies are trying to sell Amna Farooqi as a pro-Israel Muslim, Greenfield writes, "when really she's just infiltrating the Jewish community because she thinks it's a more effective tactic."
Greenfield quotes her as saying, "Because I was Muslim I had a sense of Muslim solidarity with Palestinians… I got involved in this because I want to make change, and I think the American Jewish community has more agency. If I thought moving the American Muslim community would move this – they just don’t have the role in it…"
In another article, Greenfield writes that Farooqi told one public gathering, "We are not here to talk about the pro-Israel conversation on campus. We are here to talk about the occupation." She further avowed that the coming year for J Street U is going to be all about "year-long anti-occupation work."
"J Street has lost its right to claim it is pro-Israel and pro-Peace," the ZOA summed up.
Luxembourg’s Foreign and European Affairs Minister Jean Asselborn arrived in Israel today for an official two-day working visit to Israel.Missing Turkish soldier said to be in Islamic State hands
Just last week, Cactus, the largest supermarket chain in Luxembourg, decided to stop the sale of all Israeli fruits and vegetables in its stores, until it can be proven that they do not originate in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
The discordant juxtaposition of the two developments seems to have jarred no one. The minister arrived in Israel at the invitation of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and he will also meet with President Reuven Rivlin, Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom, Opposition leader MK Yitzhak Herzog, and Arab-Israeli MK Ahmed Tibi.
Last week, Luxembourg’s largest chain of supermarkets Cactus announced, after many weeks of pro-Palestinian protests outside the stores, that it was giving in. No longer will Israeli produce be sold there until suppliers prove its origin. "Guilty of growing produce in Biblical Israel until proven innocent" is the new Cactus policy, as demanded by the pro-Palestinian organization ‘’Committee for a Just Peace in the Middle East.’’
Israel's honorary consul in Luxembourg, Daniel Schneider, is trying to convince Cactus management to cancel its decision. Israeli's embassy in Belgium, which also covers Luxembourg, has been reported to be "monitoring the situation."
A Turkish soldier who went missing following cross-border fire from Syria has been treated at a hospital in an area of Syria controlled by Islamic State (IS) jihadists, a report said Saturday.ISIS Judge Issues 'Death Warrant' for Turkey's Erdogan
One Turkish soldier died of his wounds and another was wounded following the incident in the border region of Kilis on Tuesday when shots were fired from an IS-held area in northern Syria.
The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) said in a statement on its website that contact had been lost with a third soldier following the clashes.
Citing intelligence reports, security sources told Hurriyet newspaper that the soldier, identified as Sefer T, had been wounded in his right foot and taken to a hospital in an IS-held area near the Syrian city of Aleppo.
Turkish spy agency, the National Intelligence Organisation (MIT), was working to secure his release, sources said, while ruling out any negotiations with the group.
Islamic State social media accounts have uploaded a fatwa to the Internet calling for the death of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, himself politically an Islamist, for collaborating with the United States on airstrikes against the jihadist terror group.Turkey Raids Opposition Paper Following Report of ISIS Arms Trade
The “death warrant” is allegedly signed by a judge of the Islamic State’s makeshift court system, Shaykh Abu Khabab al-Iraqi, and calls Erdogan an “apostate” who must be killed for working with American military units and NATO and participating in the “shedding of Muslim blood.” He is also accused of “acting in unison with Arab Alawites and Jews,” the former likely a reference to the most prominent Alawite leader in the region, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Erdogan has referred to Assad as a “terrorist” and repeatedly called for his removal from power.
The author of the fatwa appears most incensed with Erdogan’s agreement to work with NATO and the United States, calling him a “cheap doll in their hands” with little discretion as to how the Turkish military is actually being used. Erdogan is given a chance to “repent,” upon which time the fatwa will be revoked. “Anyone who has joined or supported this coalition, even if by a single word or action, is considered an apostate and should be killed. He [Erdogan] has no intercessor but to repent,” it reads. It is unclear what actions Erdogan must take as head of state for the Islamic State court to accept his “repentance.”
Turkish police raided the offices of opposition paper Bugün after the publication ran a story that claimed Turkey sent weapons to the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Syria. The paper included pictures that allegedly show the weapon exchange.EU Administrator Says He Launched Anti-Semitic Assault after 5-Hour Drinking Binge
Authorities said the raid is connected to a tax fraud investigation, but others believe it has to do with the article.
They targeted the building that houses the Koza İpek Holding, which owns numerous publications that are often critical of the government. Police also searched owner Akın İpek’s house. They issued a warrant for his arrest, but he is in exile in Pennsylvania. Today’s Zaman revealed the authorities left the premises with “an envelope with a verse from the Quran and several hadiths along with a cevşen, a book of supplications, and a table that has the first chapter of the Quran carved into its top in Arabic calligraphy as evidence of a crime.”
Grech admitted he had “tapped” the woman on the head with the steel plate, according to the Times of Malta, which may be socially accepted on his home island, but is frowned on in Belgium—an element of etiquette he might have picked up over his ten-year stay there. Grech insisted the tapping was used only to punctuate his heated argument with the woman, and entirely free from any anti-Semitic sentiments.Elderly Jewish Couple Brutally Attacked in Holland
“I am not a racist. I have Jewish and black friends and have nothing against them,” Grech said, who did tell the press that he held “firm views on the situation in Palestine.”
In 2002, Grech was found guilty of owning and distributing child pornography and was sentenced to six-months in prison, suspended for two years.
Joel Rubinfeld, president of the Belgian League Against Anti-Semitism (LBCA), told The Jerusalem Post that the fight started after the Italian woman had expressed surprise at the metal plate that was engraved with Mussolini’s name. She told Grech that, despite his positive sentiments about the man, “Mussolini was still a dictator,” which is when the anti-Semitic insults came flying out. The victim, by the way, is not Jewish, but when he asked, she told him, “I could be a Jew.”
Samuel (87) and Diana (86) Blug, two elderly Holocaust survivors, fell victim to a vicious and violent anti-Semitic attack at their home in Holland a month ago.Amsterdam to repay families of Jews forced to pay rent arrears after Holocaust
According to a Yedioth Ahronoth report on Sunday, the couple were only able to come forward now and recount what happened to them.
The Blugs say two men, who looked to be of Moroccan descent, knocked on the door to their apartment, claiming to be the police and demanding entrance.
As soon as Samuel opened the door, the nightmare began. Two men dressed in black barged into the apartment and started severely beating the couple.
The assailants threw the couple on the floor, kicked them repeatedly and shouted: "Dirty Jews - from now on your property is ours."
Amsterdam will repay families of Jewish Holocaust survivors who were forced to pay back-rent on their homes when they returned to the city at the end of the war, The Guardian reported on Friday.WATCH: Palestinian unit reaches France in World War II
The Dutch Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide found that 240 camp survivors had been forced to pay such fines on their arrears when they returned to Amsterdam, according to the report. The survivors were billed for arrears on homes owned by the city of Amsterdam.
The average sum to be reimbursed is around €1,800.
“The descendants of the families can ask to be reimbursed for the fines imposed for late rental payments during World War II, which were unfairly collected,” said a statement on Friday.
Amsterdam even imposed fines for late rents on houses that had been confiscated by the Nazis and occupied by Germans or members of the Dutch National Socialist Movement, according to The Guardian.
This newsreel shows a Palestinian expeditionary force, comprising both Jews and Arabs, arriving in France to join the Allies during World War II in 1940.
“Affairs in that country have improved to the point where Jews and Arabs are willing to serve together,” the announcer narrates, as soldiers file down the gangplank.
The camera shows members of the contingent smiling and waving while standing arm-in-arm.
“Jointly, they volunteered to help the Allied cause,” the narrator concludes, “and prove once again that man will bury his local quarrels when the great principles of freedom are at stake.”
El Al pilot who fought terrorists in 1970 Munich attack dies at 90
Former El Al pilot Uriel Cohen, who fought three terrorists who targeted Israelis in a terrorist attack at the Munich Airport in 1970, has died at age of 90. Cohen is survived by his widow, five children, and 14 grandchildren, and his funeral was scheduled to take place on Sunday in Savyon.
On February 10, 1970, an airport bus carrying 15 Israeli tourists from Gate Five to the plane on which they were scheduled to fly to London came under attack by an Arab terrorist, who raised his arm to throw a grenade at the vehicle. According to a contemporaneous JTA report, Cohen "leaped" on him, taking him down. The grenade the attacker had in his hand exploded while he was still holding it. The blast killed one passenger and wounded several others.
One of the wounded was stage and screen star Hannah Meron, whose leg doctors were forced to amputate due to the severity of her injuries. She was escorted to the hospital by fellow actor Assi Dayan, who was unscathed.
The two other terrorists in the gang opened fire on the bus, which ensued in a firefight with Munich police. Both shooters were wounded and apprehended.
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