Sunday, November 29, 2015
PMW: Palestinian women are unique, make "cries of joy" upon son's death, says PA minister
The Palestinian Authority Minister of Women's Affairs, Haifa Al-Agha, who is herself a woman, recently praised Palestinian women pointing out their "uniqueness" compared to all the other women of the world because they rejoice upon the news of the death of their sons:The death knell for Women's Studies
"[PA] Minister of Women's Affairs Haifa Al-Agha... noted the Palestinian woman's uniqueness, which differentiates her from the women of the world, as [only] she receives the news of her son's Martyrdom with cries of joy." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 7, 2015]
This official PA promotion of Martyrdom (Shahada - Death for Allah) as an ideal and the praise of mothers who do not show sorrow but make "cries of joy" when their sons die, was voiced by the PA minister during the current wave of terror attacks. Many young Palestinians have been killed as they stabbed or attempted to stab Israelis. By praising mothers for their "cries of joy," Minister Al-Agha is sending a message to PA society to attack Israelis without fear of death because Martyrdom for Allah is said to be the highest value and highest achievable status.
The minister also added that Palestinian women are noteworthy not only because they celebrate death but because they fight as well:
The National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) has just voted to support a boycott of…ISIS.JCPA: Amb. Alan Baker: 10 Things to Know about the UN Partition Vote of November 29, 1947
No, just joking. The boycott is against Israel - only.
The recommendation was developed in 2014 by Feminists for Justice in Palestine and draws on a “transnational, intersectional feminist framework” which emphasizes an “indivisible sense of justice.”
Please don’t ask me to explain such self-important and obscure language.
The good news: Although NWSA claims that, in 2014, 2500 of their members “stood in unison in support of freedom and justice in Palestine,” in late November of 2015, only 35% of the voting membership (or 653 members) bothered to vote.
1. It was a historic resolution that expressed the then-prevailing view of most of the major states of the United Nations, which voted in favor of it.
2. It established the principle of two states for two peoples.
3. It recognized the uniqueness of Jerusalem and the Jewish people’s bond to the city.
4. Had the Arabs agreed to live with the resolution as the Israelis did, despite its drawbacks from the standpoint of both sides, we would be in a different situation today with far fewer bereaved families on both sides.
5. Because of the Arabs’ rejection of it and in light of their decision to fight its implementation, the resolution has not assumed any validity except for the historical symbolism of its basic content.
6. The significance of its nonimplementation is that all the previously existing historical and legal rights as recognized by the Balfour Declaration, the Palestine Mandate, and the San Remo Resolution have remained in force.
7. From that time to the present, negotiation mechanisms prescribed by Resolution 242 (1967), the Camp David accords (1979), and the Oslo agreements (1993-1999) have not been completed and no solution has been agreed upon.
8. Therefore, all the claims about Israel’s rights (and also, of course, about the Arabs’ rights) are still valid and remain unchanged until agreement on a permanent settlement is reached.
9. Therefore, any assertion by the United Nations and the Europeans about the territory belonging to the Palestinians in fact contravenes the symbolic basis of the partition resolution.
10. The time has come for the states to recognize this and stop contravening that symbolic basis.
Palestinians: The Real Goal of the Intifada
Abbas seems intentionally to ignore that he and his Palestinian Authority are responsible for the violence, as a result of their daily incitement against Israel.JCPA: The “Spontaneous” Intifada Is Orchestrated by the Palestinian Leadership
A recent poll found that 48% of Palestinians interviewed believe that the real goal of the "intifada" is to "liberate all of Palestine." In other words, approximately half of Palestinians believe that the "intifada" should lead to the destruction of Israel, which would be replaced with a Palestinian state -- one that now would be ruled by Hamas and jihadi organizations such as Islamic State and Al-Qaeda.
It is notable that only 11% of respondents said the goal of the "intifada" should be to "liberate" only those territories captured by Israel in 1967.
The Palestinians do not, according to the poll, have a problem with "settlements" or "poor living conditions." They have a problem with Israel's existence. Palestinians do not see a difference between a West Bank "settlement" and cities inside Israel -- or differentiate between Jews living there. They are all depicted as "settlers" and "colonialists."
This contradicts Abbas's claim that the Palestinians want a "peaceful and popular" uprising. The Palestinians are not, as their leaders claim, seeking a two-state solution.
The Palestinian leadership is attempting to portray the current intifada as a kind of popular, spontaneous struggle that expresses the population’s despair over the political situation. In reality, it is an intifada supported and directed by the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah (the Palestinian Authority-PLO-Fatah) and Gaza (Hamas).MFA: Wave of terror October-November 2015
It is a Palestinian strategy that has been seen before. The green light for violent agitation and terror attacks is given by the Palestinian leadership, and the message is translated into actions by field operatives of the Palestinian organizations or by Palestinian residents. The Palestinian leadership also guarantees a network of social and financial support to any Palestinian resident who is arrested, wounded or harmed in the course of anti-Israeli terror activity, including monthly stipends for the individual and his or her family.
The Palestinian intifada has clear goals. The Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), wants to use it as a tool to achieve its political objectives, which include compelling Israel to withdraw from Judea, Samaria, and east Jerusalem under international pressure.
The recent series of attacks against Israelis is the direct result of incitement by radical Islamist and terrorist elements, calling on Palestinian youth to murder Jews.Two stabbing attacks in Jerusalem within hours
Magen David Adom: Between September 13 - November 29, 2015, 22 people have been killed and 211 wounded - 21 of them seriously.
IDF: Terror attacks by numbers (as of November 29):
80 stabbings
29 shootings
10 car rammings
According to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), during the past month there has been a wave of terrorist attacks which began on the Temple Mount and in east Jerusalem. The attacks later spread to Judea and Samaria and even crossed the Green Line into Israel under the battle cry of "Al-Aqsa mosque is in danger."
The current wave of terrorist attacks is part of the PA's strategy of "popular resistance" (i.e., popular terrorism) adopted by the PA and Fatah at the Sixth Fatah conference in August 2009. Statements by Fatah, Hamas and PIJ spokespersons have described the attacks as "heroic actions" and "the natural response to Israel's crimes".
Jerusalem was hit with two stabbing attacks on Sunday morning.Onlookers applaud as terrorist stabber apprehended
A terror suspect was arrested for a stabbing attack near a bus station in Jerusalem on Shamgar street. Magen David Adom treated a woman in her thirties who sustained a moderate wound to her back. MDA evacuated her to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in the capital.
The suspect fled the scene and police arrested him after a manhunt in the area. The victim of the attack was not an Israeli citizen.
The suspect was a 17-year-old Palestinian resident of the West Bank who admitted he was connected to the incident, police said.
Earlier in the day, a Border Police officer was stabbed and was lightly to moderately wounded at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. The suspect was shot and killed.
Magen David Adom said it treated the victim of the attack at the scene and evacuated him to Hadassah University Medical Center, in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem.
Bystanders filmed the moment security forces nabbed the terrorist who stabbed a woman aboard a bus in Jerusalem Sunday morning.Nepalese Caretaker Wounded in Jerusalem Stabbing Attack Recounts Ordeal: ‘I Saw a Lot of Blood’
The 17-year-old Arab terrorist fled the scene after stabbing the 39-year-old tourist [actually a 31 year old Nepalese foreign worker] shortly after boarding the 148 bus from the capital to Beit Shemesh, as it stopped along Shamgar street, sparking a massive manhunt.
In the video, onlookers can be heard cheering as the attacker is led away by a phalanx of police officers.
The attack was the second stabbing to take place Sunday, after an incident just outside Jerusalem's Old City earlier this morning.
A Border Police officer was injured in that incident, and the attacker was shot dead.
The 31-year-old woman who was lightly wounded in a Palestinian stabbing attack in Jerusalem on Sunday recounted her ordeal to Israeli news website Walla from her hospital bed at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center.Police uncover West Bank firearm trafficking ring
Hisorai Taplaya, a caretaker from Nepal who has resided as a foreign worker in Israel for the past seven years, described for Walla the moments of the attack.
“I was standing on the street and listening to music in earphones,” Taplaya said in broken Hebrew. “He stabbed me with a knife and ran away. I understood that it was a terrorist attack. I was afraid and looked for someone to help me. I saw a lot of blood. I walked to the other side of the street and a bus driver helped me. He called the police and an ambulance.”
The head of emergency medicine at Shaare Zedek told Walla that Taplaya arrived at the hospital with a stab wound to her lower back. He said that she is being treated and kept under observation until her release, which “should be soon.”
Police arrested an Israeli Arab on charges of illegally smuggling “large quantities” of firearms, it was revealed Sunday morning.Army closes third Hebron radio station for ‘incitement’
The man, identified as a 45-year-old resident of the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem, was under investigation for several months, police said.
The central investigative unit of the Judea and Samaria Police — the police division in the West Bank — employed undercover officers to collect evidence of the trafficking, which a police statement said involved “various types of weapons, and in large quantities.”
He was arrested on November 19 in a joint operation in Shuafat between Border Police forces and a police SWAT team.
Israel Defense Forces soldiers on Saturday night descended on the offices of a popular radio station in the West Bank city of Hebron, confiscated equipment, and shut it down due to accusations that it has been inciting violence, Palestinian reports said.Foreign Ministry to create App to find the words 'knife' and 'Jew' on social media
Images posted to social media by Palestinian users appeared to show soldiers standing in the street outside the offices of Radio Dream, as well as a damaged door and equipment strewn on the floor.
One picture showed what appeared to be a printed directive, signed by IDF Central Command chief Major General Roni Numa, ordering the station remain closed until May 26, 2015. The letter, which was dated November 26, 2015, was likely referring to May 26, 2016.
The IDF said that the station was closed due to ongoing “incitement,” according to Channel 2, which reported that the soldiers who raided the station were accompanied by Shin Bet security service agents and officials from the Israeli Civil Administration, which governs the West Bank.
The Foreign Ministry plans to create a new App to locate the words “knife” and “Jew” on social media as part of its new offensive against Palestinian incitement on the internet.Nasrallah consoles family of slain Palestinian teen stabber
Under the auspices of the Foreign Ministry’s communication’s department a new office of some eight to ten people, with backgrounds in Arabic and technology, will be set up to counter the wave of incitement against Israel and Jews on social media.
The new office will locate inflammatory video clips and contact the relevant social media networks such as YouTube, Google and Facebook.
It will also develop codes and create Apps to help recognize incitement on the web.
"This is a big step in the war on incitement,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely who is helping to lead the initiative.
Hassan Nasrallah, who heads the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, on Friday offered his condolences to the family of a Palestinian teenage girl who was killed during an alleged attempt to attack Israelis in the West Bank.Reuters: “Palestinian Dies in Ramming Attack”
Witnesses said Ashraqet Qatnani, 16, was chasing Israelis at a bus stop in the northern West Bank with a knife in her hand last Sunday when she was thwarted by an Israeli motorist who rammed her with his car.
She was subsequently shot dead by security forces patrolling the nearby Hawara checkpoint.
Nasrallah, according to a report by the Palestinian Wattan news site, called Qatnani’s father, Taha, and offered his condolences Friday evening.
On Friday, November 27, two IDF soldiers were injured in a vehicular-ramming terror attack in the West Bank. The Palestinian assailant was shot dead at the scene.Another Palestinian Attack, Another NY Times Whitewash
Here’s how Reuters headlined the story on its video report:
“Palestinian dies in ramming attack”?!!
One could assume that the Palestinian mentioned in the headline was the victim of a car ramming attack. That he was, in fact, the perpetrator is shameful on Reuters’ part.
For the second time in one week, a New York Times headline casts Palestinian attackers as victims. On Friday, two Palestinians who rammed vehicles into groups of Israeli soldiers in two separate incidents, injuring eight, were killed by troops on the scene. The grossly distorted The New York Times headline for the Associated Press news brief on these attacks was: "West Bank: Palestinians Killed After Hit-and-Run Attacks."PreOccupiedTerritory: Palestinian Electrical Engineering Students Confused By ‘Resistance’ (satire)
Readers who glance only at headlines and don't bother with the accompanying item would reasonably conclude that Palestinians were the victims of the hit and-run attacks, as opposed to the perpetrators.
The original AP headline for an earlier version of the brief was much more accurate than The Times' headline. It at least referred to an attack on Israelis: "Palestinian killed after West Bank attack on Israeli troops." A later version of the AP story explicitly identified the Palestinians as the attackers: "2 Palestinians killed after attacking troops." (Source: Lexis-Nexis.)
In other words, Times editors discarded AP's relatively sound, if not 100 percent perfect, headlines, and actively replaced them with a headline which obfuscated Palestinian responsibility for violence.
Palestinian students encountering the notion of resistance in electrical circuits expressed bewilderment at the absence of knives, explosives, guns, and other weapons in their texts’ treatment of the subject, education professionals reported today.Palestinian terror may be bad, but ISIS in Sinai is a far more dangerous enemy
Resistance has long been a staple of Palestinian identity and culture, leading student representatives at seven Ramallah-area institutions to question their teachers as to why the scientific and technical texts they have been provided make no mention of the tools of resistance with which they have been brought up. Instead, say the students, they are given confusing formulas, discussion of current, voltage, and conductance, ideas that reflect nothing of the kind of resistance with which the Palestinian media, leadership, schools, and society have bombarded them since birth.
So frustrated are the students that some have gone so far as to accuse faculty, administration, publishers, and the Palestinian Ministry of Education itself of a subtle attempt to undermine the popular resistance to Israel by replacing technical discussion of it with scientific mumbo-jumbo.
“We do not throw around such accusations lightly,” said Ohm Sieman, 17, a junior at Yahya Ayyash Secondary School. “But it remains highly suspicious that at the same time the government is encouraging us to resist he Zionist by any means, and to give our lives in the process, it appears to be denying us any in-depth knowledge of what resistance is about, in the scientific sense.”
“It’s worse than that,” added fellow junior Wayir Ampir, 16. “It looks like they’ve somehow incorporated anti-Islamic content in the texts. Look,” he said, pointing to a paragraph in his book, “it says resistance is partly a function of something called ‘cross-section’ – tell me how that is not a Christian concept? Nothing like that should be in a text on the sacred Islamic duty of resistance.”
The IDF is looking at our southwestern border as the next frontier of battle. To this point, ISIS fighters in Sinai were mostly preoccupied with fighting the Egyptian army. But the media exposure that the Palestinians have received throughout the Arab world by attacking Israelis is likely to prompt jihadists in Sinai to do the same. In a relatively short time, we are liable to meet an enemy that is more determined and more dangerous – one equipped with deadlier weapons – on the Egyptian border.Russia: Grand mufti calls on Vladimir Putin to annex Israel and Mecca as it is 'the will of Allah'
This past week, I visited the residents of Nitzana. These are the Israelis who live closest to ISIS. One cannot help but be struck by the optimism of these tough-as-nails pioneers who on a daily basis fight the harsh desert lands in order to make it bloom. For anyone who wants to get a sense of genuine, real Zionism, I would recommend a visit to the vegetable fields and farms in places like Kadesh Barnea and Be'er Milka.
Some of these residents live as little as 50 meters from the border fence, but they are not afraid of ISIS. Their gravest threat is the State of Israel, which doesn't even give a second thought to their welfare, just as it doesn't give a second thought to most genuine Zionists. Not only is the government doing nothing to help them by encouraging settlement in the Negev, but it is also fighting the agrarians and farmers and those who make a living off the soil there.
Following a week in which our public servants revealed themselves to be admirers of female breasts and buttocks and mockers of the disabled, the phrase of a prophet rings true: "Thy children make haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth from thee." (Isaiah, 49:17)
The grand mufti of Russia has called on Vladimir Putin to annex Israel to resolve the Palestine conflict. Talgat Tadzhuddin told the World Culture of Bashirs conference in Ufa, Bashkortostan, that he had personally pushed for the move in a meeting with the Russian president.Gazan who killed Italian anti-Israel activist killed in Iraq
"When discussing the issue of Syria, I suggested to Vladimir Putin to deal with Israel as the Crimea, but Vladimir refused," Tajuddin said at the November 21 conference, reports Yod News.
In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimea province after Ukraine's pro-Moscow Viktor Yanukovich president was ousted from power.
Tadzhuddin said that in the 4 November meeting Putin laughed the suggestion off as a joke, but he went on to press the Russian president to also annex Syria, where Russia has sent forces and launched air raids in support of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
"Vladimir, perhaps with Syria and Israel we can proceed in the same way as with Crimea?" Tadzhuddin said he told the president, and even went on to say "suppose that Mecca will be Russian, it is the will of Allah to live together in peace, love and harmony".
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Tajuddin was making a joke.
A controversial figure, previously Tadzhuddin backed the Orthodox church's call for gay pride rallies in Moscow to be banned and declared a holy war against the US when it invaded Iraq in 2003.
A Palestinian terrorist who was jailed for the 2011 murder in Gaza of an Italian leftist activist has been killed fighting alongside the Islamic State group (ISIS) in Iraq, reports said Saturday.PM vows: 'Not one meter' will be transferred to PA
Jihadist websites and Gaza media said that Mahmud al-Salfiti had escaped prison and fled the Gaza Strip in June to join the jihadist group in Iraq where he "died a martyr" fighting with ISIS.
In April 2011, Vittorio Arrigoni, a 36-year-old member of the violently anti-Israel International Solidarity Movement, was found hanged in an abandoned house north of Gaza City.
A Salafist group had posted a video of him online and threatened to kill him unless the Hamas movement, which rules Gaza, released an unspecified number of their members.
His murder sparked outrage around the world and also among some Palestinians.
Salfiti was later arrested by Hamas, and in 2012 he was sentenced to life in prison by a military court.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu clarified Sunday at a meeting of Likud ministers that despite reports to the contrary, there are absolutely no plans to give land in Judea-Samaria to the Palestinian Authority (PA).UAE Insists Israel Opening Official Diplomatic Mission in Abu Dhabi Does Not Mean Recognition
"There will be no transfer of land to the Palestinian Authority - not 40 thousand dunams, not 10 thousand, not one meter," Netanyahu stressed to outraged ministers.
The Cabinet demanded answers Sunday after reports surfaced that the Civil Administration, under orders from Netanyahu, was preparing to deliver 10,000 dunams (2,471 acres) of land from Area C in Judea and Samaria to the PA as a confidence-building measure.
Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) threatened the implementation of such a move would spell the collapse of the government.
"Again, reports that a 'goodwill gesture' to transfer territory to the Palestinian Authority is being considered," he wrote on Twitter. "Therefore, I will be completely clear: If Netanyahu goes through with it - the current coalition will fall apart."
The UAE government says it does not plan to change its relationship with Israel any time soon, despite Israel’s announcement of opening its first official diplomatic mission in the UAE, associated with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), headquartered in Abu Dhabi, 7 Days reported.Israel gives Lebanese-Swede 18 months for Hezbollah spying
The UAE Foreign Ministry’s Director of Communications Maryam Al Falasi said on Friday: “The International Renewable Energy Agency is an international, independent agency that works according to the laws, regulations and norms that govern the work of such organizations. Any agreement between IRENA and Israel does not represent any change in the position of the UAE or its relations with Israel.”
The UAE does not recognize the state of Israel, and Al Falasi stated that missions accredited to IRENA are limited to dealings with agency business, nothing more.
A Swedish national recruited by Hezbollah has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for spying for the Lebanese terror group, Israel’s Central District Court said Sunday.Thousands of Israeli Arabs rally against ban on Islamic group
Following a plea bargain reached with the state, Lebanon-born Hassan Khalil Hizran, 55, was found guilty of passing information to a foreign agent, but more serious charges of direct contact with a terrorist group and active involvement in terror activities were dropped.
Hizran’s indictment said he was recruited by the terror group in 2009 while on a trip to Lebanon with his family. He returned to Lebanon in 2011 and 2013 for meetings with Hezbollah leaders.
The Shin Bet security agency said he was tasked with recruiting Israelis to the terror group, “with an emphasis on those with ties to Jews, or access to army personnel, the defense establishment, or government officials.” The Shin Bet said he was also ordered to gather information about army bases and IDF targets and convey information to Hezbollah about Ben Gurion Airport security.
Hizran was paid $2,300 in 2009 and $800 in 2011 for his services to Hezbollah, according to the Shin Bet.
Thousands of Arab Israelis took to the streets of Umm al-Fahm in central Israel on Saturday afternoon to protest the recent security cabinet decision to outlaw the radical Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement. Channel 2 estimated the turnout at over 10,000.‘Blessings of Israel’: Settlers find new ways to label products after E.U. decision
The protests were organized by the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, an umbrella organization representing Arab Israelis at a national level.
Several Arab members of the Knesset were present at the protest. Jamal Zahalka (Joint List) claimed the Northern Branch “has never breached the law,” and vowed not to rest in the fight to overturn the ban. Opponents of the ban are considering a petition to the Supreme Court.
Northern Branch leader Sheikh Raed Salah, who has frequently been arrested and jailed for incitement and links to terrorism, and who opposes the existence of Israel, called the ban “blind hatred.” He told the crowd, “We’ll beat their racism and hatred.” Reasserting his claim that Israel was endangering Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque and compound — the Temple Mount — Salah vowed to “liberate” al-Aqsa “with blood and fire,” and to struggle “against the occupation… until the last of our refugees has been returned.”
A few days after the European Union announced its new labeling guidelines, Berg continued to expand his business: installing a new whiskey distillery in his boutique winery located a few miles from the outskirts of the Palestinian city of Ramallah.BDS activists in Germany inspect stores to force labeling of Israeli products
He is also preparing to launch an online shop to sell his wares, as well as goods from other nearby Jewish settlements, to Israel’s evangelical supporters in the United States. And he may also get a little help from one of Israel’s biggest fans: former Arkansas governor and evangelical pastor Mike Huckabee, who has led dozens of tours to Israel and never misses a chance to stop by Berg’s winery for a taste.
“I believe the best way to fight the decision is to show that we have people who love Israel, they read the Bible and they know this is our homeland,” said Berg of the e-commerce initiative, called “Blessings of Israel.”
“We are proud of where we are located and if you want us to label our products, we will and we will tell you the story of every product, every factory, where it is located and how it came about and what our connection is to the land of Israel,” he said.
If Berg is sanguine about the prospect of labeling goods from the settlements, the Israeli government is definitely not. The leadership sees the new development as a dangerous path toward a full boycott of Israeli products in Europe.
A group of anti-Israel activists in the northern German city of Bremen on Saturday visited stores to ensure they marked their products as originating from Israeli settlements.Daphne Anson: Aussie journalist compares Aussies in IDF to Aussies in ISIS
The Boycott, Sanctions, Divestment (BDS) group stated in a press release: “With an ‘inspection tour’ on November 28 we want to examine which businesses are selling ‘products from Israel’ and to call upon them to comply with the EU labeling obligation.”
German journalist Jan-Philipp Hein reported on the BDS group in stores on his twitter feed, posting photographs of the activists wearing signs on their backs, reading, “Inspection: Labeling obligation for products from the illegal Israeli settlements.”
A separate BDS protest on Saturday occurred in Berlin in front of the GALERIA Kaufhof department store on Alexander square.
A photo can be seen of the activists holding a large BDS poster. GALERIA Kaufhof rejects product labels.
Phillip Adams is a very prominent Aussie journalist and radio broadcaster who's been around for decades.The BBC and the 1947 Partition Plan
In yesterday's copy of The Australian newspaper he wrote this, inter alia:
"... It’s not new for Australian security agencies to keep an eye on radicalised teenagers...For shame.
Serious point here. The young have always been susceptible to the clarion call. Australian boys understated their age to fight in World War I. And young lefties from all over the world joined the International Brigades to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War. More recently, countless young Australian Jews have headed to Israel and joined the IDF to fight Palestinians. Seems our increasingly worried, watchful spooks [he's talking about ASIO] have no probs with this.
The process of “radicalisation”, of signing up for distant conflicts, may involve religious and/or ideological fervour for Zionists and ISIS recruits...."
Back in December 2013 we noted on these pages that an online BBC backgrounder on the topic of the 1947 Partition Plan (UNGA Resolution 181) had inaccurately informed all those reading it since its publication in November 2001 that David Ben Gurion had “opposed the plan”.Florida university ramps up search for anti-Semitic vandals
Of course all those who received the inaccurate information throughout the twelve years and five months it took to correct it are unlikely to be aware that the backgrounder has been amended because (as pointed out in our submission to the DCMS charter review consultation) the BBC News website does not have a dedicated corrections page.
That backgrounder is far from the only one which would be found by a student or member of the public conducting a search on the BBC News website for information on the subject of the 1947 Partition Plan and perusal of the material available reveals a lack of both consistency and accuracy in the corporation’s presentation of the topic.
Another backgrounder dating from 1997 fails to inform readers that the recommendation for partition was rejected outright by the Arab States and hence became a dead issue.
Campus police for the University of Central Florida (UCF) have released surveillance footage of two suspects distributing anti-Semitic stickers and fliers around dorms.Swastikas Mean Peace, Private School Tells Students
The stickers contained images of Nazi swastikas, while the fliers featured offensive, anti-Semitic hate speech, police said.
Along with the stickers was a note calling to boycott all Israelis products, as well as a flier stating: Florida, let’s kick it off! Join your local Nazis, the Atomwaffen division!”
The anti-Semitic paraphernalia were found in four different locations on campus, including on bulletin boards and newspaper stands at the campus' Tower Two and Tower Four buildings.
Amid outrage from Jewish students, the UCF administration has vowed to find the perpetrators, stressing the school "has a zero tolerance policy regarding incidents or bias or discrimination in any form."
After swastikas began turning up three weeks ago at an elite private middle school in the Bronx, administrators decided to inform their sixth-graders about the symbol. Unfortunately, they focused mainly on it as a symbol of peace in some cultures and completely neglected to mention the Holocaust, according to the New York Post.Leading Rabbi: 'UK Is Known As A Country Hostile To Israel'
One parent said that Jewish students have felt unsafe since the images began popping up at Ethical Culture Fieldston School (tuition $45,100 a year). And not just the swastikas - a notebook reportedly was found with the words “Hitler Rocks!” scrawled on the front. Sounds like the students there need to be educated about Hitler too.
Administrators decided to address the apparent anti-Semitism by holding a grade-wide meeting. So far, so good. But parents say that the teachers spent nearly 12 of the 15 minutes on a PowerPoint presentation on how the swastika was still considered a sacred symbol in other cultures, while only briefly mentioning its centrality to Nazism from the 1920s onward. School officials never once mentioned the Holocaust, a parent reported.
“It’s a failure of an institution to educate,” one parent said:
An American rabbi has accused British academics of undermining the nation’s traditions of free speech by allowing students to refuse Jewish speakers a platform at their establishments.Israel’s Leviathan Developers Ink Gas Deal With Egypt
He said that the UK was becoming well known for its hostility towards Israel, and that it was getting worse.
Shmuley Boteach served as rabbi at Oxford University for eleven years before returning to his native US, where he has a high profile, the Independent has reported.
“British academics are arguably the most virulently anti-Israel group in Europe today. It’s quite widespread throughout British academia,” he said.
“They come out constantly with these boycotts,” he added, questioning why similar boycotts were not waged against the Chinese over their human rights violations.
Developers of the mammoth Leviathan natural gas field beneath Israel’s Mediterranean coastal waters have inked a deal with Egypt. It’s a deal that has had Israel’s government — and that of Cairo — holding their collective breath for months.Egyptian Coptic pope makes rare Jerusalem visit
Leviathan will start pumping the natural gas to Egypt beginning in 2019 or 2020, for up to 15 years, according to the agreement. The price of the gas includes a floor price and is to be linked to the cost of Brent oil, Reuters reported.
The Leviathan developers and Egypt’s Dolphinus Holdings agreed in last week’s letter of intent to negotiate the terms on the final deal.
Natural gas will be pumped from Leviathan to the Dolphinus Holdings via an existing underwater pipeline, Dolphinus and the Leviathan developers said in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE).
The pipeline was built nearly 10 years ago by East Mediterranean Gas (EMG) when gas was being piped from Egypt to Israel. At the time, EMG had been managing an Egyptian-Israeli gas agreement. But that deal collapsed in 2012 after unending terrorist attacks ended the flow in the gas pipeline that ran through the Sinai Peninsula.
The Egyptian head of the Coptic Church, Pope Tawadros II, made a rare visit to Jerusalem to preside over the funeral on Saturday of a Coptic bishop.In unprecedented move Greek PM calls Jerusalem Israel's 'historical capital'
The previous Coptic pope, Shenouda III, banned worshippers from traveling to Jerusalem more than three decades ago, despite a 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. Since his death in 2012, Egyptian Copts have increasingly been seen on pilgrimages to Jerusalem.
Speaking outside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, revered as the burial place of Jesus, Tawadros said his trip was personal, and church officials said it was not political.
Israel, Greece plan to hold trilateral energy summit with neighbor Cyprus early next year'We defeated terrorism': Israeli hurt in 2012 attack becomes a dad
When Alexis Tzipras was elected prime minister of Greece in January 2015, Israel watched the political shift closely. The victory of the radical, left wing pro-Palestinian Syriza party was considered bad news.
On his first visit to the region, Tzipras came to change that impression and show that Greece is still a friendly neighbor.
Meeting with the Israeli leadership, opening a two day tour in Jerusalem and Ramallah, Tzipras praised the importance of the relations between Israel and Greece and showed that the partnership has survived the political change.
While in Jerusalem for a meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, Tsipras took an opportunity to sign the President's guestbook, writing, " With great honor to be in your historic capital and to meet your excellencies."
Because of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict and dispute over Jerusalem, many countries refuse to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, much to Israel's displeasure.
A new life delivers a knockout blow to terrorism: Daniel Fahima, 28, who was very seriously wounded in the Burgas bus bombing in 2012, and his wife, Dana, 24, had their first son on Friday.
The Burgas bus bombing was a terrorist attack carried out by a suicide bomber on a passenger bus transporting Israeli tourists at the airport in Burgas, Bulgaria on July 18, 2012. The bus was carrying 42 Israelis from the airport to their hotels after arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv. The explosion killed the Bulgarian bus driver and five Israelis and left 32 Israelis injured to varying degrees.
"This is the moment when I can say, unequivocally, that we beat terrorism," the excited Fahima said this week.
"This was what I aspired to after what happened. After everything I went though, to bring a clean, new life into the world -- an heir -- is actually an act of victory," he said.
Two of the people killed in the bombing, Maor Harush and Elior Preiss, were childhood friends of Fahima's. The three had planned to enjoy themselves in the resort city. Fahima sustained burns to 60% of his body and spent several days in an induced coma, hooked up to a respirator in the Sheba Medical Center burn unit.
