Saturday, October 03, 2015
Two Israeli men killed, 2 injured, in Jerusalem stabbing attack
Two Israeli men in their 40s died of their wounds Saturday night after being stabbed in Jerusalem’s Old City in a terror attack.Elliott Abrams: The Obama Vendetta Against Netanyahu
One of the men’s wife is in serious condition and their two-year-old baby was lightly wounded. The mother and toddler were taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center for treatment.
The men were stabbed in the upper body and were unconscious when paramedics arrived at the scene.
When the attack began, the injured woman managed to run and alert a group of Border Police forces nearby who arrived on the scene and shot and killed the attacker.
The baby was shot in the leg, although it is not yet entirely clear how. Police said the attacker may have grabbed a firearm the father was carrying but it is not clear if he managed to fire it.
The incident occurred near Lion’s Gate in East Jerusalem. (h/t Bob Knot)
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the UN General Assembly this week, neither Secretary of State Kerry nor even our UN Ambassador, Samantha Power, was present.Bibi Calls Out the U.N. for Discriminating Against Israel
Why not? The State Department has said Kerry was involved in some kind of conference call or video conference with the White House. OK, let’s call that plausible. What about Power?
Rick Grenell, for years the spokesman at the US Mission to the UN and a very well-informed observer, tweeted yesterday that Power was instructed to stay away.
Think of how petty that instruction, which can only have come from the White House, really is. To sit in the seat and listen to Netanyahu isn’t endorsing his remarks, it is the politeness we owe an ally. Deliberate absence recalls the years in which dozens of delegations, Arab and “Third World,” would leave the chamber when any Israeli rose to speak. This administration is still griping about diplomatic errors Netanyahu has made, but a refusal to have the US ambassador listen to his speech is petty and damaging, hinting to anti-Israel delegations that the United States may be willing to let all sorts of anti-Israel measures go without opposition or criticism.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called out the United Nations on Friday for its repeated resolutions criticizing Israel, noting that it often gives terrorist sponsors like Iran a free pass.
“It’s not living up to its great universal role of being a force for promoting peace because it’s bashing Israel,” Netanyahu told Fox News host Greta Van Susteren.
“Sixty percent of the resolutions of the U.N. Human Rights Council are directed not against Iran, not against Syria, and not against all the other places where this horrible carnage is taking place and where millions are being displaced and murdered—where hundreds of thousands are being murdered—,but against the one true democracy in the Middle East, Israel.”
Despite its role in the creation of the Jewish state following World War II, the U.N. has historically been an antagonist of Israel, passing resolutions like the infamous “Zionism is Racism” resolution in 1975 that was opposed and ultimately repealed by the United States.
Netanyahu noted that the U.N. should be applauding Israel’s consistent opposition to terrorism.
“Israel is standing in the breach there, protecting civilization, fighting the forces that ravage people,” Netanyahu said.
“Who’s standing there? Israel first. And who gets bashed in the U.N.? Israel,” Netanyahu said.
Colonel Richard Kemp: 'Russia is bombing Syria to advance Moscow's interests not to fight ISIS'
This Russian intervention makes the Middle East much more dangerous for the long term.
Putin’s empowerment of Iran and its Syrian allies will terrify countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the gulf states and makes a large-scale war more likely.
There are also more immediate dangers.
British and American advisers and special forces as well as humanitarian aid workers are on the ground in the areas that Russian planes are now attacking.
Russia launches fresh wave of air strikes in Syria
For the first time since the Second World War American and Russian planes are bombing the same country at the same time.
Then they were on the same side.
Today they are not.
The consequences of one side shooting down the other sides’s planes - most likely by accident - are incalculable.
Wanted: a somewhat less murderous Palestinian Authority
The murderers of the Henkins belong to the private army that answers to Mahmoud Abbas. And Mahmoud Abbas’ PA receives about $400 million in aid from the US alone, as well as donations from the European Union and other countries. It gets money from the UN’s special Palestinian-only refugee agency, UNRWA, for ‘refugees’ living in Judea and Samaria. Many non-governmental agencies funnel cash into projects run by the PA. Israel collects customs duties for goods entering the country for use in the PA areas and transfers this money to the PA. The PA also has a massive debt to Israel for electricity.Making Sense of the Senseless
The overall total comes to more than a billion dollars a year, leaving out the large sums that go to UNRWA facilities in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas.
Much of the funding goes to ‘security forces’ whose job is – please don’t laugh too hard – to ‘fight terrorism’. Many of the ‘security officers’ moonlight in the Al-Aqsa Brigades. It’s a protection racket, except that we aren’t protected. I must also mention that with all the ‘security forces’ it has, the PA has to depend on the IDF to protect it from Hamas.
In addition, the PA maintains Arafat’s incitement and anti-Jewish indoctrination machine. Arguably the murder of the Henkins was a direct result of incitement by Abbas himself.
Periodically there are calls to cut funding to the PA because so much of the aid is stolen by corrupt officials and because the PA continues to pay salaries of terrorists in Israeli prisons. But it never happens, because it is argued that if the PA collapses, then unless Israel takes over, Hamas or even ISIS will come in – and that would be much worse.
Israel really, really doesn’t want to be responsible for the welfare of the Arabs of Judea and Samaria, and that’s understandable. In a real sense, the PA areas aren’t presently ‘occupied’ by Israel, despite what the Arabs claim. And both sides like it that way.
I think we have to call the PLO’s bluff. Disband or destroy the private armies, remove the most corrupt officials (starting with Abbas), and cut aid by the amount that is being paid to prisoners. Force them to end the incitement. Will the PA dissolve itself and invite Hamas to take over – and incidentally, settle scores with the families that have supported the PLO/PA?
I don’t think so. I think self-preservation will prevent that. We won’t get a Zionist PA, but at least we can have a somewhat less murderous one.
Unthinkable heartbreak. Unthinkable barbarism.Parents, Friends Eulogize Young Couple Murdered by Palestinian Gunmen – ‘The 4-Month-Old Baby Will Not Remember His Mother’s Love’
By now, you have heard, or maybe you have not. Two beautiful, talented, loving parents were driving home last night with their four of six children. Driving home. In Israel. Jews. And that’s where their crimes begin and end. That’s all they did. They lived. They loved.
A savage barbaric waste of DNA decided a car with four beautiful innocent children was a worthy target for his murderous hatred and point blank, he executed those two beautiful parents. The kids? He left them to watch their parents brutal murder. Coincidence? Luck? Not sure. Something tells me this was part of his sick demented plan. Cause more suffering. Because that is what this waste of DNA was taught to do.
Except when we can call them names, when we let our emotions get the best of us and we dehumanize them, that is us missing the point. These Palestinian terrorists who murder children, who throw boulders into cars, who throw fire bombs at other human beings, these Palestinian terrorists are people. With blood and with a brain and with human judgement.
Contrary to what the world would have you believe, the Palestinians aren’t senseless victims of some fabricated occupation. They aren’t less capable of making rational decisions. They consciously made the decision to embrace terror. And they remake that decision every single day!
Following the horrifying terror attack that took the lives of a couple from the Neria community in the West Bank on Thursday night, thousands of people came to pay their respects to the murdered parents.Arab-Israeli activist stirs controversy after condemning Henkin murders
Naama, 30, and Eitam Henkin, 31, were buried on Friday morning in Jerusalem. Their 9-year-old son Matan, fighting back tears, struggled to recite the mourner’s Kaddish prayer for his parents.
Matan and his siblings – Nitzan, 7, Netta, 4, and 4-month-old baby Itamar – witnessed the gunning down of their parents as they were driving near the Palestinian village of Beit Furik on Thursday between the Itamar and Elon Moreh communities in the Samaria region. The gunshots were fired from a moving Palestinian vehicle and the terrorists remain at large as of Friday.
“You should be eulogizing me and not the opposite, mother to her son,” said Rabbanit Chana Henkin, Eitam’s mother who made aliyah with her husband, Rabbi Yehuda Henkin, from the United States during the 1970s.
The grieving mother spoke of the appreciation she had for her son’s character and accomplishments in the world of Torah study and values. Eitam, who was a rabbi, had recently completed his second book on Jewish law related to the Sabbath, and was a prolific writer on Jewish history and Jewish law.
An Arab-Israeli social and political activist from Nazareth stirred controversy on social media this week after she condemned the “horrendous” murder of an Israeli couple who were gunned down Thursday as they drove in the West Bank with their four young children.Palestinians Launch Fireworks, Wave Flags to Celebrate Brutal Murder of Israeli Couple
Thanaa Jawabreh on Thursday took to Facebook to apologize and denounce the attack, and urged Palestinian and Arab Israeli leaders to condemn it.
“We as Palestinians must denounce the bloodthirsty killers among us; a family returning home with their four children should not have been subjected to this horrifying act — even if they do live on a settlement,” she wrote in Hebrew on her profile.
“This therefore requires a mass protest against these murders; murder only brings murder, and bloodshed on one side leads to more bloodshed on the other,” she wrote.
“I apologize and expect that representatives from the Arab public speak out against this horrendous murder. Enough already!!” she added.
Throngs of Palestinians took to the streets on Thursday night to celebrate the brutal slaying of an Israeli couple in a shooting attack in the West Bank.Netanyahu to Kerry: World must condemn Palestinian lionizing of terrorists
The festivities included the launching of fireworks and the waving of flags in the streets, Ofir Gendelman, a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Gendelman posted on Twitter a photo of the scene. Most of the flying banners were of the Palestinian Fatah faction, the armed wing of which claimed responsibility for the attack that killed Eitam and Naama Henkin. Revelers in Nablus, near the site of the shooting, set off fireworks, he said, adding that Palestinians on social media networks were “ecstatic” about the killings.
Netanyahu said that "the path forward requires one thing - you have to fight terror."Netanyahu Demands Abbas, PA Condemn West Bank Killing of Israeli Couple
"Fanaticism, zealotry is there," the premier said. "When we hear incitement and praise for terrorists from supposed peace partners, we say, 'Cut it out'."
Calling on the international community to condemn the shooting, Netanyahu said: "I want to make this clear: We’re going to fight these terrorists in ways they will understand so that terrorism won't be worthy."
The secretary said reiterated American condemnation for the shootings near Nablus on Thursday, saying that he looked forward to taking "constructive steps forward" in hopes of minimizing violence in the region.
Netanyahu's meeting with Kerry is the first such meeting between officials at the highest levels of government in both Israel and the US since the signing of the Iran nuclear accord, a deal which was assailed publicly by the Israeli leader.
The attack comes amidst increased Palestinian violent incitement against Jews and growing hostilities in Jerusalem.Back in Ramallah from UN, Abbas still silent on deadly attack
“The Al-Aqsa [Mosque] is ours… and they have no right to defile it with their filthy feet. We will not allow them to, and we will do everything in our power to protect Jerusalem… We bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem, which is clean and pure blood, blood spilled for Allah, Allah willing. Every martyr (Shahid) will reach Paradise, and everyone wounded will be rewarded by Allah,” Palestinian Authority (PA) President Abbas said in a speech, segments of which were aired on official PA TV and posted on his website.
Netanyahu contrasted the silence from Palestinian officials about the Henkins’ murder to the Israeli response to the firebombing by Israeli extremists in Duma that killed a Palestinian toddler. Israeli officials of all stripes condemned the attack.
“Compare this to the silence of the Palestinian leadership now,” Netanyahu said Friday. “I have not heard their condemnation.”
Returning to his base in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas again failed to condemn Thursday’s terror attack in which an Israeli couple were shot dead in front of their four small children.IDF raids Nablus in hunt for Henkin killers, arrests 8
Abbas repeated comments he made Wednesday in his adversarial speech at the UN General Assembly, during which he said the PA no longer regards itself as bound by agreements signed with Israel over the past 22 years, and chose to remain silent on the terror attack that killed Eitam and Naama Henkin as they drove in the West Bank.
“What we said in New York we will say here again,” Abbas said to supporters in Ramallah. “We are committed here too to what we said and will implement it.”
He also vowed that the Palestinian flag, raised at UN headquarters for the first time on Wednesday, would fly over the mosques, churches and “all the walls of Jerusalem.”
Israel security forces carried out searches and arrests across the Nablus area of the West Bank in a pre-dawn operation Saturday, as the hunt continued for the killers of an Israeli couple on Thursday.Edgar Davidson: Media ignores or dehumanizes murdered Israelis
Eitam and Naama Henkin, both in their 30s, were shot dead Thursday night as they were driving in the West Bank with their four young children. The children were unhurt in the deadly terror attack.
Palestinian police said the troops “arrested eight people and conducted searches, entering properties by force and causing damage.”
According to the Palestinian news agency Ma’an, “heavily armed” troops carried out the operation, which Palestinian security forces said involved Israeli intelligence and more than 40 IDF vehicles.
Several people were wounded during the raids when local residents clashed with IDF soldiers, Ma’an said. One man was in serious condition after he was shot in the chest by live fire, the agency reported. At least four other people were hospitalized for their injuries while many others suffered from the effects of tear gas.
The brutal murder yesterday of Rabbi Eitam and Naama Henkin in front of their four young children by Palestinian terrorists was almost universally ignored by the British media. Not a word on any of the 24-hours news channels or in any of the newspapers I saw today. This is despite the extremely important fact that the terrorist attack was carried out by the Fatah Group of the Palestinian Authority.BBC News conceals Fatah linked group’s role in terror attack
Where the murders were not completely ignored, the victims were dehumanised instead. For example (although I did not hear it myself) apparently the attack was mentioned on BBC Radio 4 this morning but only in the context of blaming the victims as 'settlers' who had no right to be living or driving in the 'West Bank'. I also found an online report in the Guardian which not only fails to mention the names of the victims (let alone provide a photo of them) but provides a photograph and headlines from which an uninformed reader might interpret that the victims were killed by Israeli soldiers. Also note the Guardian does not even state that the attack was carried out by Palestinians but says "...attack which Israeli military says was perpetrated by a Palestinian"; to its readers that will suggest the claim is false, since the Guardian routinely tells them that Israelis are racists who cannot be trusted.
BBC News website reporting on the attack was added to an existing article originally titled “Israel ‘prepared to resume peace talks’ with Palestinians” which dealt with the topic of the Israeli prime minister’s speech at the UN. Following the attack, the article’s headline was changed to read “Israeli couple shot dead in West Bank” and was amended a further three times.BBC’s Connolly refrains from using the word terror in report on terror attack
Only in the fifth version of the article, updated on the morning of October 2nd, were the couple identified and the BBC managed to get Eitam Henkin’s first name wrong.
The three later versions of the report noted Hamas’ response to the attack.
“The Palestinian militant organisation Hamas, which is dominant in Gaza, said “we bless the killing of settlers in the West Bank”.
Spokesman Husam Badran said: “We call on our people in the West Bank to carry out more quality operations like the [one] today.
“This is the only solution which is supported by the masses of our people everywhere.””
However, the BBC has not updated the report to inform audiences of the fact that responsibility for the terror attack was claimed by a group connected to the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party.
Notably, Connolly erased from his report both the celebrations on the Palestinian street which took place after the murders of Eitam and Na’ama Henkin and the statements praising the terror attack which were put out by leading officials from Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party.Merkel: Iran’s stance on Israel ‘unacceptable’
Those topics were also absent from the BBC News website article titled “Israel hunts West Bank for couple’s killers” which appeared on the site’s Middle East page on the afternoon of October 2nd. As was the case in the prior report which this article replaced, no mention was made of the fact that the attack was claimed by a group linked to the Fatah party’s armed wing. Instead, this article also promoted the amorphous notion of “tensions” – with no clarification concerning their roots.
Iran’s ongoing hostility toward Israel and its frequent calls for the destruction of the Jewish state are “unacceptable,” and Tehran must change its stance, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday.'We are not neutral': Angela Merkel on Israeli-German relations
In an interview published Saturday on the English website of Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth to mark 50 years of diplomatic relations, Merkel said Germany will keep repeating this message “loudly and clearly” until the Iranian regime understands.
“Iran must change its unacceptable stance towards Israel. I hope one day politicians who rule in Tehran will reach this conclusion. Until then, I see it as the German government’s duty to repeat this demand again and again,” she said.
Merkel admitted that the nuclear agreement signed with Iran in July to curtail its atomic program was not perfect, and said she understood Israel’s opposition to the deal. But, she said, mechanisms were in place to reimpose the tight sanctions on Iran should it violate the terms of the agreement.
Angela Merkel is going through some tough times. The enthusiasm that swept Germany after its Chancellor decided to open the country’s gates to hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria, Iraq, and other conflict zones has quickly dissipated, giving room to some heavy criticism.Toronto Star's "heroic" Palestinian women are actually Muslim Brotherhood activists
The most powerful woman in the world, who just last week was portrayed on the cover of famous magazine Der Spiegel as heir to Mother Teresa, now finds herself isolated in the European Union, attacked by members of her own party (the Christian Democratic Union of Germany), and with a long-unseen decline in her popularity among the public.
In this report, I provide some balance and missing details for an article that recently appeared in the Toronto Star entitled, "Palestinian women ‘show solidarity’ defending access to al-Aqsa mosque, clash with Jewish activists"Toronto Star's "heroic" Palestinian women are actually Muslim Brotherhood activists
The article is about the "mourabitat", which in Arabic means "the steadfast". These are Palestinian women who we are told "defend the holy site from Jewish settlers who would like to rebuild their ancient temple in place of the mosques."
The Star article paints these women as heroes but as this footage shows, there's reason to believe this is just more well choreographed propaganda designed to reinforce the victim narrative of the Palestinians.
Hanin Zoabi: Temple Mount should be Jew-free
Joint (Arab) List MK Hanin Zoabi said there is no reason for Jews to be on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, telling an Israeli newspaper in an interview published Friday that there is no proof of a Jewish connection to the site.Your Tax Money at Work: In the Wrong Hands
“The name is al-Aqsa, not the Temple Mount, and there is nothing there for Jews,” Zoabi told the Hebrew-language Makor Rishon. “It’s a place for Muslims only, according to all the agreements signed after the occupation of Jerusalem, and the agreements between Jordan and Israel. The Israelis understood that they occupied Jerusalem but are not allowed to occupy al-Aqsa; now they are trying to occupy al-Aqsa too.”
Asked if she accepts that the biblical temples once stood on the Temple Mount, Zoabi said that “the temple is not part of the political reality in which we live. This is what was in the past. In the past they also used to call the entire homeland Palestine. Today there is occupation and there is al-Aqsa, and it’s a place of prayer for Muslims only. Additionally, the existence of the temple is not verified scientifically.”
Where did all this money go?Israeli girl injured by stray gunfire in West Bank
Abbas and his friends hold the answer to that question. Only recently it was reported that Abbas himself was building a multi-million dollar palace in Ramallah. Is this coming from his savings, after years of working as a civil servant? I doubt it. Not to mention the millions of dollars in aid money that simply vanished off the face of the earth into obscure bank accounts far away from the Palestinian homeland, with no explanation whatsoever. In Gaza, Hamas is doing the same: channeling funds away from the daily needs of ordinary Palestinians and into their war machine which will bring nothing but death and destruction on both sides.
The late Israeli Foreign Minister, Abba Eban, is famously quoted saying that "The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity". Unfortunately, this has become a modus operandi for the Palestinians, whose leadership squandered the Oslo opportunity to build bridges with the people of Israel, and to create a better future for themselves and their children.
It is time Abbas and the Palestinians are told loudly and clearly: with the desire for sovereignty comes responsibility and accountability! What is true for our children, as we try to educate them to lead a responsible life, is 10 times more so to Palestinian political leadership or any political leadership of any people. No exemptions, no concessions.
Palestinians, Israelis as well as the good citizens of the free world - whose tax money is used to support Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank - all deserve a transparent and honest handling of their investments. Hospitals instead of palaces, roads instead of tunnels, and apartment buildings instead of weapons of war - is the only way hope will reside again in that part of the world, and its all in the hands of Palestinian leadership.
No excuses this time. It is not too late to hold them accountable, for their own sake and ours.
A 16-year-old Israeli girl was lightly wounded by gunfire Friday night in the settlement of Kochav Yaakov, north of Jerusalem.IDF rebuffs Palestinian claims that Jewish settlers shot 6-year-old boy
Walla news reported the girl was sleeping in a sukka (small hut) as is traditional on the Sukkot holiday, when she was apparently hit by a stray bullet, whose origin was unknown.
The girl was evacuated to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital with a wounded leg.
Security forces scoured the area and determined that the cause was likely stray gunfire from a nearby Palestinian village.
The Israeli military is denying Palestinian media reports that a Jewish settler shot a six-year-old boy in the West Bank town of Kalkilya on Saturday.Syria claims Israel propping up rebel forces
Palestinian eyewitnesses told the local press that the boy was shot by Jewish settlers who drove by the town and opened fire with a gun, wounding him in the stomach. The boy was rushed to a local hospital, where he is being listed in light condition.
After conducting a preliminary investigation, the IDF concluded that the boy was shot accidentally while playing with firearms with another friend.
The incident comes against the backdrop of simmering tensions in the West Bank in the wake of Thursday's fatal shooting of a Jewish couple near the settlement of Itamar, a crime that Israeli authorities believe was committed by Palestinian terrorists.
Syria’s foreign minister on Friday accused Israel of assisting rebel forces fighting against the regime, Israel Radio reported, saying its intermittent strikes in Syrian territory were intended to prop up the weakened opposition.Government acts to stop local councils boycotting Israel
Israel has carried out strikes in Syria from time to time, usually in response to shelling from across the border, or to prevent weapons from reaching Hezbollah forces.
It has admitted to providing medical aid to Syrian rebels, in exchange for promises to stay away from the border and avoid harming Syrian Druze. It has not admitted to military aid of any kind.
Addressing the summit of world leaders at the UN General Assembly, Walid Moallem said the so-called “Arab Spring” was such only for Israel, its allies and agents in the region.
The [UK] government has announced plans to amend legislation in order to stop local councils launching politically-motivated boycotts of Israel.Vassar College Says Ban on Israeli Foods ‘A Mistake’
Communities and Local Government Secretary Greg Clark said the move would be a challenge to “the politics of division”.
It will aim to stop councils running divesting campaigns against UK defence companies and Israeli interests.
The Conservatives said ministers had taken note of concerns about the actions of some Labour-led authorities which were threatening to “poison community relations and harm Britain’s economic and international interests”.
Details of the new measures were announced today, ahead of the Tories’ annual conference in Manchester which opens on Sunday.
The party said it was acting after listening to faith leaders who were worried about policies which fuel antisemitism.
It cited the case of kosher food being removed from supermarket shelves during last year’s Gaza conflict and the controversy over the Tricycle Theatre’s call for the UK Jewish Film Festival to return funding from the Israeli embassy.
A Conservative spokesman said: “Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, alongside Labour-affiliated trade unions, are urging councils to use their procurement and pension policies to punish both Israel and the UK defence industry.
Following what advocates of the movement to boycott Israel hailed as a major victory, officials at Vassar College reversed a ban on Israeli food products late Friday, calling it a “mistake” after questions from the Washington Free Beacon.Two British teens jailed in beating of Manchester Jew
Advocates of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to wage economic warfare on the Jewish state, celebrated what they claimed was a major victory in their battle against Israel when Vassar College’s dining department banned the Israeli hummus brand Sabra.
However, the ban was lifted Friday afternoon following inquiries from the Free Beacon as to why the school had decided to back the BDS movement.
The reversal of this decision is a blow to BDS advocates who have seen their efforts thwarted on many college campuses across the nation.
Vassar’s branch of Students For Justice in Palestine (SJP), a group known to promulgate anti-Semitic propaganda, praised the school’s dining services on Thursday for banning the Israeli food product from campus facilities.
The teens were arrested a few days after the September 5 attack, which took place in a Jewish neighborhood of north Manchester.In French history book, Promised Land is ‘present-day Palestine’
According to the Mirror, Chief Superintendent Wasim Chaudhry of North Manchester division said: “This was a vicious and unprovoked attack which has left a young man with a serious head injury and with on-going psychological issues.
“He is scared to leave his home and is understandably anxious about going into public as a result of this attack.”
Fuerst was one of four young Orthodox Jews assaulted at night on September 5 by three men at a train station near Heaton Park, located in the heart of north Manchester’s Jewish community.
Fuerst’s father Michael said the attack was carried out by a gang of “non-Jewish boys who were drunk” and who took “great joy, I’m sure, from the fact that they were beating up a Jewish kid.”
A French Jewish lobby group urged the publisher of the French language’s definitive dictionary to change its characterization of the Promised Land as “present-day Palestine.”‘Labyrinth of Lies’ explores Holocaust denial in post-war Germany
The National Bureau for Vigilance against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, on Thursday called on Editions Larousse, the publisher of the Larousse line of dictionaries and encyclopedias, to amend its “My First Larousse of History” book for children following a report on it published Tuesday on the news site jssnews.com.
Under the entry “The Promised Land,” the Larousse book in question, which is intended for children, reads: “Led by Moses, the Hebrews reached the Promised Land, present-day Palestine.” The entry on “The Bible” in the same Larousse book states that it dates back to “4,000 years ago and the Hebrews, a people that lived in Palestine.”
A variation of the name Palestine, which the Romans gave the Land of Israel in the 2nd century CE, was first documented in Greek literature in the 5th century CE. It is believed to be named after the Philistines, an extinct, non-Semitic people.
When the German film “Labyrinth of Lies” opens, Hitler’s Third Reich was defeated only 13 years earlier. Germany is rising from the ruins, but in 1958 its people are largely in a state of forgetfulness and denial about the recent past.
Ask the man in the street about millions of Jews exterminated in SS concentration camps and he’ll tell you that’s “Greuelpropaganda,” horror propaganda, invented by the enemy.
Auschwitz? What’s that?
What about the Nuremberg Trials of war criminals? Well, that’s just the winners judging the losers, as after every war.
Today — when the German government and people have accepted full responsibility for the murder of 6 million Jews — it’s hard to fathom the German mindset in the immediate post-war years.
The first chink in the wall of denial was the so-called Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials, from 1963 to 1965, in which the German government prosecuted 22 people who helped run the death camp. “Labyrinth of Lies,” though fictionalized, explores how the trial — which triggered a gradual transformation of the German mindset — came to be.
Canadian Doctors to Undergo Crash Course in Israel Preparing for Future Disasters
A group of Canadian doctors will undergo training in emergency medicine in Israel this fall, The Canadian Jewish News reported on Friday. The four-day crash course, part of a pilot project organized by Canadian Magen David Adom for Israel (CMDA), will take place November 8-12.US approves revolutionary drug to fight lung cancer
Fashioned after a similar program launched in France last year, the endeavor aims to assist Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA, equivalent to the Red Cross) create a unit of foreign medical-professional volunteers prepared to come to Israel on short notice to provide emergency services, when needed.
Daniel Amzallag, co-coordinator of the program for the 20 Canadian doctors — who will be covering their own expenses for the trip – told CJN that though most people associate Israel with war and terrorism, the main purpose of the current project is to prepare doctors to assist their Israeli counterparts in the event of an earthquake.
Federal health officials on Friday expanded approval of an innovative Merck drug to treat patients with an advanced form of the most common lung cancer.The Top 10 Places to Visit in Israel
The Food and Drug Administration approved Keytruda for advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients who have seen their tumors spread after taking other therapies. The disease accounts for roughly seven out of eight cases of lung cancer in the US. Regulators previously approved Keytruda in 2014 to treat melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.
Keytruda is part of a promising new class of drugs called immunotherapies, which harness the body’s immune system to help fight cancer. Merck’s injectable biotech drug works by blocking a protein found in certain tumors called PD-1, which inhibits the body’s natural response to cancer cells.
Israel is a holiday destination on many travelers’ bucket lists. No matter the style of holiday you are after, Israel has the answer. Whether you prefer to relax by the beach, hike up mountains in the desert, visit religious and historical sites, eat your way through the country or just enjoy some retail therapy, your journey through Israel will be one to remember. While there are obviously so many things to see and do, here is a list of 10 of the places you really must visit while in Israel.Bill Clinton honors Anne Frank at his presidential library
1. Take a dip in the Red Sea. Located in Eilat, the Red Sea offers snorkel and scuba diving that will allow you to see exotic fish and beautiful coral reef. The crystal clear waters are most inviting and the weather here is almost always perfect. If you are not feeling quite so energetic, you can see many of the same sites at the Underwater Observatory in Eilat. Of course, the Red Sea beaches are most inviting, along with some awesome boat cruises. You will never have a dull moment while in Eilat.
2. Climb (or take the cable car) to the top of the mountain fortress of Masada. Next to Jerusalem, it is the most popular place visited by Jews. Masada was the last stronghold of the Jews’ rebellion against the Romans, and more than 900 Jews committed suicide here. Overlooking the Dead Sea, there are two paths to the top, or you can take a cable car. Either way, it’s best not to visit during the mid-afternoon, due to the heat.
Former President Bill Clinton said Friday he hoped a new exhibit outside his presidential library honoring Anne Frank will teach visitors to focus on their similarities, not the divisions that have led to tragedies.
Clinton celebrated the grand opening of the Anne Frank Tree, an outdoor exhibit that will feature a sapling from the tree outside the building where Frank and her family hid from the Nazis during World War II. Clinton said Frank, who gained international fame through the publication of her diary after dying in a concentration camp, is a reminder of how even children can be demonized because of racial, ethnic or religious divisions.
“We shouldn’t have to have a killing to be reminded of our common humanity,” Clinton said.
The exhibit consists of five framed, etched panels, two of which feature quotes from Frank and Clinton. The other three focus on the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and the Little Rock Central High School Desegregation Crisis.
