IsraellyCool: 1948 Palestinian: “We Fled..They Didn’t Expel Us”
It is one of the claims of the Israel haters: Israel expelled the palestinians living here in 1948.Palestinian recalls 1948 "They didn't expel us"
As renowned Israeli historian Benny Morris has noted, while there were expulsions (as can happen during wartime with a hostile population), many of the 700,000 Arab refugees were ordered or advised by their fellow Arabs to abandon their homes. There were also those who fled in fear.
Now Israel Social TV, a group otherwise known for once utilizing the services of one DouchebloggerTM (I assume his contract was not extended, because, well, he sucked) have come out with an anti-Israel video about “palestinian refugees” planning their return.
They are young Palestinian men and women, citizens of Israel. They have been meeting for three years, imagining and planning their return to their destroyed villages. Project “Udna” or “Return” in English, aims to pass on to the younger generation awareness of the Nakba and create actual models of return. Descendants of the displaced from al-Lajjun made a film about the expulsion from the village in ’48.Do not bother watching it. Our own Zion Mike has isolated the only part you need to watch.
An admission by the elderly man that they fled in fear due to the “real war” going on, and his insistence about this despite the interviewer (his grandson) trying to get him to say they were expelled.
The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Intersectionality: Lies about Israel, lies about Jews
The trend for the BDS movement is to make demonization of Israel the center of the progressive universe through the theory of “intersectionality.”Michael Lumish: On Obama's Fondness for Feeding Jews Dog Biscuits
Israel is placed at the center of all evil in the world, the unifying focus regardless of the issue:
This anti-Semitic use of “intersectionality” theory flourishes because a generation of students — many of whom now are faculty — have been schooled based on lies about the creation of Israel and the Arab refugees created in the civil war and invasion by Arab armies. In that false narrative, the Jews are wholly evil and the Arabs are wholly innocent.
Historian Benny Morris, who rose to fame by debunking some of the pro-Israel myths about the War of Independence, has also noted that the Arab rejection of Israel primarily was a religious rejection.
In this 2008 letter to the Irish Times, which I just saw when someone tweeted the link, Morris succinctly addresses not just the Arab responsibility for the Arab failure, but also how the lies about Israel are connected to the lies about Jews that have been spread for Millennia.
Read it. It’s a good 600-word rebuttal to the haters:
Israel and the Palestinians
Madam, – Israel-haters are fond of citing – and more often, mis-citing – my work in support of their arguments. Let me offer some corrections.
The Palestinian Arabs were not responsible “in some bizarre way” (David Norris, January 31st) for what befell them in 1948. Their responsibility was very direct and simple.
In defiance of the will of the international community, as embodied in the UN General Assembly Resolution of November 29th, 1947 (No. 181), they launched hostilities against the Jewish community in Palestine in the hope of aborting the emergence of the Jewish state and perhaps destroying that community. But they lost; and one of the results was the displacement of 700,000 of them from their homes.
Veiling Muslim attacks on Jews as something other than Muslim attacks on Jews protects the larger Muslim community from embarrassment. It does so at the expense of the tiny Jewish minority, but that is clearly not Obama's concern.
I would argue, in fact, that president Barack Obama is now openly mocking the American Jewish community. I am sorry, but it is pathetic. Not on his part, of course, but on ours. Obama has proven beyond any doubt that American Jews are an abused lap-dog owned by this administration.
Every once in awhile he tosses us a Milk-Bone and I find it shameful.
Obama knows what he is doing. His Department of State remembers the kerfuffle over the above remarks from last year as, I am sure, does the genius in the White House, himself. This year the dishonorable refusal to mention the Hypercacher attack as anti-Semitic is one of those little ways that the Obama administration enjoys tweaking Jewish noses. It also reveals zero interest in fighting racism toward American Jews, despite the fact that the American Jewish community is the most violently attacked of any religious community in the United States.
It is not even close:
Hillel Neuer: Jewish eyes on the United Nations
Montreal-born Hillel Neuer walks softly, but carries a big microphone. Words are his currency, and as executive director of Geneva-based UN Watch, he brings them to bear against the dictatorships that flout humanitarian law but who wrap themselves in the protective cloaks of the United Nation’s Human Rights Council. In 2013, he called those delegates, to their face, “the despots who run this council.” Possessing four degrees, including one in comparative constitutional law from Hebrew University, he is also a strong advocate for fair and equal treatment for the State of Israel.Leftists collecting cash for baby Adele's murderers
UN Watch revealed recently that 22 UNRWA teachers were inciting anti-Semitism. At first UNRWA denied it and later said there was some legitimacy to what you said, and they disciplined those teachers. Are you satisfied with their response?
We’re gratified there was some acknowledgment by UNRWA of the basic facts. Anybody who goes on the Internet sees individuals who openly identify as UNRWA teachers posting photos of themselves in the classroom, and at the same time posting things in those same accounts showing pictures of Israelis being stabbed and encouraging murderous attacks against Jews. Saying for example, “stab Zionist dogs.”
It’s not a question of slapping them on the wrist. The best we have from UNRWA is acknowledging that some teachers had been suspended.
What does that mean? Suspended for a day, a week, two weeks?
The response of UNRWA is unsatisfactory, to say the least. It’s far worse than that. UNRWA’s spokesman, Chris Gunness, has attacked UN Watch. He published a number of tweets urging journalists to ignore us, that we have no credibility
It’s insufficient, and generally their attitude is one of contempt toward those of us trying to hold them accountable, and it’s unacceptable.
Leftist activists, including some Jews and at least one Israeli, have launched a fundraising campaign to pay the fines that an Israeli court meted upon the five Arab youths who murdered a baby girl, Adele Biton.Elliott Abrams: “Every One Shall Sit in Safety Under His Own Vine and Fig Tree”
Biton was murdered by the terrorists who threw rocks at the car she was traveling in on April 2013, hitting her in the head. The youths are also serving 15 years in jail, following a plea bargain.
Adele, who was three at the time of the attack, was grievously injured in the resulting crash and was left with severe neurological damage. She passed away in February of 2015, after her condition deteriorated rapidly from a bout of pneumonia. She was not yet five.
Writing in Shvi'i magazine, Ishay Fridman revealed that leftist activists in Israel and abroad have been corresponding with each other in an effort to raise the money to pay the fines. The initiative, he wrote, came from Paula Abrams Hurani, a Jewish woman who lives in Europe and who co-founded "European Jews for a Just Peace/Women in Black." (h/t Yenta Press)
In August, 1790 George Washington visited Newport, Rhode Island. That visit occasioned a famous exchange of letters between Washington and the “Hebrew Congregations of Newport,” in which the Jews of Newport addressed their president–and he replied.Israel calls in Swedish envoy over ‘extrajudicial killings’ comments
Several sentences from Washington’s letter came to mind today:
The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy—a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.
It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support….
May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants—while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.
These sentences struck me today because they were true then for Jews in America and are true today–but were not true then for Jews in Europe and are not true today.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Foreign Ministry Wednesday evening to summon the Swedish ambassador for a dressing down, after the Swedish foreign minister said Israel should investigate the “extrajudicial killings” of Palestinians.Israel to bar Sweden from any role in future diplomatic process with Palestinians
Ambassador Carl Magnus Nesser was “urgently invited to the ministry and rebuked by Deputy Director Aviv Shir-on,” a Foreign Ministry statement read.
The censure was triggered by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom’s call for an investigation into alleged extrajudicial Israeli executions of Palestinian attackers. During a parliamentary debate in the Riksdag on Tuesday, Wallstrom said it was “vital” to investigate into Israel’s policies vis-a-vis Palestinian attackers in order to “bring about possible accountability.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry described her statements Tuesday as “irresponsible and delusional,” saying that they encouraged further attacks against Israelis.
Sweden will not have any role to play in the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process as a result of Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom’s hostility toward Israel, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.Top Israeli Official Calls Swedish Foreign Minister an Antisemite
The statement came as the ministry announced that its deputy director-general for Western Europe, Aviv Shir-On, called in Swedish ambassador Carl Magnus Nesser to protest Wallstrom’s comments.
The decision to summons Nesser was made by Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who directed Shir-On to protest not only the statements, but to register the government and the country’s anger at what they see as Sweden’s imbalance and hostile attitude toward Israel.
An Israeli minister called Sweden’s top diplomat an “antisemite,” after she once again attacked the Jewish state during a parliamentary session on Tuesday.David Singer: "Obama Got it Wrong from the Start & Nothing was Going to Save Him from Failure in the End"
In an interview with Israel Radio on Wednesday morning, National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources Minister Yuval Steinitz blasted Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström for demanding an investigation into Israeli “extrajudicial killings” of Palestinians during the current wave of violence.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces — many of them in the middle of carrying out terrorist attacks against Israeli soldiers, police and civilians — since October, when tensions flared in Jerusalem and across the West Bank.
Steinitz, from the ruling Likud Party, said Wallström was an antisemite – “whether consciously or unconsciously” – because she singled out Israel for killing terrorists without trial while other countries, such as the US, Russia and France, do so without her demanding an investigation.
Israel's current Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dore Gold, has now revealed how Israel's then leadership viewed Obama's above remarks in this frank exchange published in Frontline on 6 January:Netanyahu to Brazil: Settler leader only ambassador we’ll offer
"When the president goes to Cairo for the speech, and you heard him speak, what did you think?
Well, everybody that was in my entourage focused on the whole notion that the state of Israel rose as a response to the Holocaust. That was something that was unacceptable.
Why?
Because Israel has an eternity to it that goes far back before the 20th century, the 19th century, and even earlier. All we have to do is know that there was a Jewish majority in Jerusalem already at the time of the American Civil War. All we have to know is that we had a civilization here that was destroyed by the Romans. You can now find the catapult, the Ballista, used to fight the Jewish resistance at the time of the 1st century, 70 A.D. Our history is all over this city and all over the country. Therefore, an explanation that sees us as a bunch of Europeans who are looking for a refuge from the Nazis is a partial and not terribly accurate understanding of the soul of this country.
Does it surprise you that the president of the United States would make that error?'It surprised me that they have a speechwriter who would be allowed to write that kind of document, because I think Sen. Obama was presented with the four dimensions of Israel, but someone decided to take this partial approach in a presidential speech, and it didn’t earn him confidence with the people of Israel. …"
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said if Brazil won’t approve former settler leader Dani Dayan as its ambassador, Israel won’t offer another diplomat.In secular France, MPs wear kippot to National Assembly
Israel’s Channel 2 News reported Netanyahu’s comments Wednesday.
Israel not having an ambassador in Brazil would represent a de facto downgrade in relations between the two countries, the TV report said.
Netanyahu’s apparent decision to stand by Dayan comes a week after various reports that Israel would withdraw Dayan’s name and instead give him the Israeli consulate general position in Los Angeles or New York.
A call earlier this week from the leader of the Jewish community in Marseilles for Jews to stop wearing kippot in public caused a fierce uproar in France, with scores of Frenchman putting on the ritual head covering in a demonstration of solidarity with JewsFrench Twitter users show support for kippah protest
French parliamentarians Meir Habib and Claude Goasguen joined the demonstration on Wednesday, proudly adorning kippot at the National Assembly as a show of solidarity after a brutal anti-Semitic stabbing attack in Marseilles on Monday.
The move was very unusual given France's principle of "secularism" and its prohibition against wearing religious articles in official or state locations, such as schools.
The law is ambiguous about wearing such garments to the National Assembly, but Habib and Goasguen's move did raise eyebrows. "It's not so accepted," asserted sources in the French parliament.
The French demonstration of solidarity with Jews has received its unofficial hashtag title: #TousAvecUneKippa, meaning "all of us with a kippah."PreOccupiedTerritory: Scholars Yet To Find Act That Has Anything To Do With Islam (satire)
The movement, which calls on people of all religions to wear a kippah this Friday, came about after the president of the Jewish community in Marseilles suggested that Jews stop covering their heads in order to avoid being targeted for attacks.
People are now using the hashtag to post pictures of celebrities wearing kippot, whether real or edited.
Zvi Ammar, the community president, told Arutz Sheva that his comments had been taken out of context, but he is happy to hear that many people throughout France are showing their support for the Jewish minority.
Experts in religion are still looking for an act that with confidence can be said to be characteristic of, or attributable to, Islam, academic sources said today.Jesus, the Palestinian Arab
Theologians and researchers at the Royal Academy of Sweden issued an update on their multi-year scholarly effort, a collaborative project with spiritual leaders, scholars of religion, and other knowledgeable persons throughout the world, to find evidence that even a single mode of behavior has some inherent connection to the Islamic faith. A spokesman for the group announced that while several potential leads had emerged early on, the group’s optimism had begun to fade as repeated efforts to find such an act came to naught.
“Continually, we have encountered behaviors among Muslims that clearly have nothing to do with Islam,” said Jürgen Regretdat, a theology professor with the Royal Academy. “That list of course includes misogyny, rape, terrorism, murder, genital cutting, stoning of adulterers, homophobia, and antisemitism, but we were intrigued by the notion that some phenomena, at least, should have something to do with Islam, and set about trying to identify such phenomena. Unfortunately, despite nearly three years of research, we have nothing to show for our efforts.”
It doesn’t matter that Jesus was Jew, born to a Jewish mother in a Jewish city of Judea, 135 years before the name “Palestine” was even coined by the Romans to erase the Jewish kingdom and 650 years before the Arabs started their conquest of the Middle East.Analysis: US Methodist Church Sides with Enemies of Christians, Blacklists Israeli Banks, Companies
When the big lie takes root, it soon becomes an oak.
The US Methodist Church just voted to divest from five Israeli banks: BDS, the boycott movement, has scored a great victory. A victory more important than an academic appeal to eliminate the Israeli professors from European universities or a pension fund’s decision to blacklist an Israeli firm. The Methodist decision means that Jesus has become a Palestinian Arab.
The World Council of Churches, founded in 1948, based in Geneva and representing 5 million Christians, mostly mainline Protestants, is very hostile to Israel and the Jews. The US Presbyterian Church adopted a similar decision to that of the Methodists when it divested from some Israeli companies.
Tuesday the UM Kairos Response (UMKR) folks celebrated a victory for their side, which, after six years of intense propaganda vilifying—from a supposed Christian point of view—the return of Jews to Judea and Samaria, managed to convince the $20-billion Pension and Health Benefits Fund of the United Methodist Church to blacklist the five largest Israeli banks and to divest from two of those banks which it had actually held in its portfolios.From BDS to Ferguson: Columbia U. Panel Takes Aim at Israel
The Kairos document declares that the “Occupation” is a “sin against God” and that any theology that tolerates it cannot be Christian “because true Christian theology is a theology of love and solidarity with the oppressed, a call to justice and equality among peoples.” It calls on all peoples to put pressure on Israel to put an end to its “oppression and disregard for international law.” It also describes non-violent resistance as a “duty” for all Palestinians, including Christians, and charges Israel with having launched a “cruel war” against Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009; with ravaging Palestinian land “in the name of God and in the name of force”; with separating family members, thus “making family life impossible for thousands of Palestinians, especially where one of the spouses does not have an Israeli identity card”; with restricting religious liberty for Christians and Muslims; with lack of consideration for refugees and prisoners; with turning “Jerusalem, city of reconciliation,” into “a city of discrimination and exclusion, a source of struggle rather than peace”; and with holding “international law and international resolutions in contempt.”
Throughout al-Shaikh’s lecture, he attempted to disenfranchise Jews from their historical homeland by falsely equating Palestinians with “aboriginals” and alleging that, “Zionists constructed a fabricated history and a culture to replace that of the natives.”JDL protesters disrupt U of T ‘Palestinian resistance’ event
Towards the end, he offered an apologia for Palestinian terrorism by asking, “What is more cruel? The occupation or the fight to end the occupation?” He then concluded ominously:
The slogan of all war crimes committed by Israel throughout the history was: Israel’s existence is more valuable than Israel’s image. It’s about the time for the Palestinians to reverse this slogan.
This precisely describes the ongoing project of the BDS movement: to destroy Israel’s image by any means, including conflating the Palestinian cause with that of various minority struggles, however dissimilar, in order to attract sympathizers. Once utterly delegitimized, its adherents expect Israel’s destruction to follow forthwith.
During the question and answer period, Robin D.G. Kelley explicitly stated this goal. “There’s no future for a Jewish state in that region,” he announced, adding that, “he might get in trouble for saying this,” an assumption belied by the aggressive presence of BDS activism throughout his own California state university system.
Indeed, it was the audience of BDS supporters who demonstrated its intolerance by hissing loudly following a question that challenged the panel to address Israel’s history of concessions in the face of mounting Palestinian aggression, including the recent “stabbing intifada.” Al-Shaikh’s equivocating response, “Israelis have the right to live, but they do not have the right to colonize,” was met with loud, sustained applause.
Thus, the panel “discussion” consisted of little more than BDS advocacy via the ahistorical equation of Palestinians with African-Americans. Willing to exploit any grievance in the cause of Israel’s delegitimization and to wreak havoc in a region already suffering from bloodshed, such academics offer no solutions, only further violence.
Roughly a dozen protesters associated with the Jewish Defence League of Canada loudly disrupted – and temporarily halted – a panel discussion Jan. 12 at the University of Toronto titled “Palestinian Popular Resistance: Building the Student Movement.”Manfred Mann’s mistake
The protesters, a few of them wearing clothing marked with the JDL logo, sat scattered throughout the audience in the auditorium in U of T’s George Ignatieff Theatre building and, part way through the first speaker’s talk, several of them, including JDL Canada director Meir Weinstein, began shouting things like, “How many Jews do you want to kill?” “Terrorism” and “Anti-Semitism.”
The event moderator said she would apply a “three strike” system – meaning that after three outbursts, anyone interrupting the talk would be asked to leave – but none of the protesters complied with numerous requests to vacate the room, and the organizers eventually called a recess and cleared out the auditorium.
The musicians of Manfred Mann, the rock band that brought us the classic image of freedom to walk and enjoy the public sphere, have concerns about walkin’ down the street in Tel Aviv.BDSHole Admits Defacing Property In CVS Pharmacies (UPDATED)
The band sent a letter to the promoters of their Tel Aviv concert scheduled for next week and cancelled the performance because of “ongoing problems in Israel.” They defined these problems as “people being shot and beaten to death in the streets.”
Sounds pretty scary — they are afraid to come to Tel Aviv because, in their opinion, people are being shot. People are being beaten to death in the streets.
I was surprised to read about these concerns because I walk the streets of Tel Aviv and don’t see people being shot or being beaten to death. I was even more surprised because I assume that Manfred Mann has no problem performing in London, despite the fact that knife crimes were up by at least 18% in London in 2015. Indeed, at least 10 youngsters were stabbed to death in London in 2015, and many of those stabbings were committed by people 18 and under!
Today’s anti-Israel boycott is the runt-child of the state-level Arab boycott of the late 60’s and 70s. As this crumbled or became irrelevant, it was replaced by a rag tag bunch of street theatre artists who happened to have well-financed political and media backing. That’s something to always remember when this kind of low level, unimportant garbage goes on.CNN lists Palestinian Museum opening on 'Nakba Day' among hottest new attractions of 2016
The BDSholes have been busy in New York. These BDS stickers have appeared on Israeli Sabra Hummus and other delicious and healthy products in CVS Pharmacies in New York City. People like Becky, below, reported this to CVS Pharmacies:
CNN on Wednesday listed the Palestinian Museum, set to open in the West Bank in May, as one its "9 best attractions opening in 2016."French mayor pledges to prevent gathering of Ukrainian ‘neo-Nazi’ militia
The museum's opening is scheduled to coincide with Nakba Day, in which Palestinians mark the "catastrophe" of Israel gaining independence in 1948.
The Palestinian museum is included on CNN's list alongside Shanghai Disneyland, a film-themed park in Dubai, the new FIFA soccer museum in Zurich, San Francisco's new Museum of Mod'ern Art, a Noah's Ark-inspired theme park in Kentucky, a mega-mall in Qatar, the refurbished Darling Harbour in Sydney and the UAE's version of Paris' most famous art museum, the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
The museum is touted as a harbinger of humanitarian projects and as a vehicle for, "the empowerment of the Palestinian people," according to the museum's site.
The original idea came from the 50th anniversary of what Palestinians call “Nakba” -- the Disaster -- the phrase that refers to the birth of the modern state of Israel in 1948, and the displacement of some 700,000 Palestinians.
French police have banned a Ukrainian militia accused of neo-Nazism from holding a recruitment meeting in the city of Nantes this week, after vigorous protests by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.Alan Rickman was beloved but lost pro-Israel fans over Rachel Corrie play
Last week the Jewish human rights organization’s international relations director Dr. Shimon Samuels called upon the mayor of Nantes to prevent the gathering by the Ukraine Azov Regiment, which was organized by French far-right activists.
The group, which uses Nazi symbols for its subunits, is one of several independent militias organized to combat pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine, later being integrated into the country’s official security services.
While Canada and the United States have provided training for Ukrainian troops, both countries have refused to work with the unit, which they have described as neo-Nazi.
Following Samuels’s letter and several radio appearances in which he railed against the city, calling it an “outrage that the city that hosts the world forum for human rights every year would now host a neo-Nazi rally,” Johanna Roland announced the decision to ban the event.
His work as director of the 2005 play “My Name is Rachel Corrie,” about an American student killed by an Israeli army bulldozer while protesting the military’s presence in the Gaza Strip, gained Rickman notoriety in parts of the Jewish world.Better Late? Palermo Commemorates Expulsion of Sicily’s Jews in 1493
He and Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner wrote the play based on Corrie’s emails, first staging it in London to positive reviews. When the play was scheduled to begin rehearsals at the New York Theatre Workshop, the theater decided to postpone it after several Jewish groups reacted negatively to the idea of staging the show.
Rickman told the Guardian at the time, “Rachel Corrie lived in nobody’s pocket but her own. Whether one is sympathetic with her or not, her voice is like a clarion in the fog and should be heard.”
The play ended up being staged in dozens of other cities throughout the US, as well as in a commercial theater in New York.
For the first time since the expulsion of the Jews from Sicily 523 years ago, on Jan. 12, 1493, the Palermo community gathered Tuesday to hold a daylong series of public events to commemorate the anniversary of this dark chapter in the island’s history. The events were organized by the Jerusalem-based nonprofit Shavei Israel–which has been working with the Bnei Anousim in Italy and elsewhere, in partnership with Istituto Siciliano di Studi Ebraici (ISSE, or Sicilian Institute of Jewish Studies).Anti-Semitism drives record high Western European immigration to Israel
The Bnei Anousim are descendants of Iberian Jews who were compelled to convert to Catholicism in the 14th and 15th centuries, but many continued to preserve aspects of their Jewish identity in secret despite the oppression and persecution of the Inquisition.
More than 1,000 Palermo natives from all walks of life participated in various activities coordinated by Rabbi Pinhas Punturello, Shavei Israel’s emissary to the Bnei Anousim of southern Italy and Sicily.
Jewish immigration to Israel from Western Europe has reached an all-time high as a result of a rise in anti-Semitic attacks, a leading nonprofit group said Thursday.'You have a home in Israel, and this is your birthright,' Netanyahu tells young Jews
The Jewish Agency, which works closely with the Israeli government and acts as a link for Jews around the world, reported that 9,880 Western European Jews immigrated to Israel in 2015 — the highest annual number ever.
The vast majority, close to 8,000, came from France where a rise in anti-Semitic attacks has shattered the sense of security of the world’s third-largest Jewish population.
Just this week, a machete-wielding teen attacked a Jewish teacher in the French town of Marseille, prompting a local Jewish authority to ask fellow Jews to refrain from wearing their traditional skull caps to stay safe.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a crowd of young Jews during Birthright Israel’s mega event at the Jerusalem International Convention Center on Tuesday.El Chapo wears Jewish fashion designers, and you can too
“We all share a common past, and as the next generation, remember that you are responsible for the future of the Jewish people and its connection to the State of Israel,” the premier said.
“I want you to keep what you have learned here in Israel deep in your hearts, but I want you to share it with your friends and your communities.
I want you to enjoy your stay and come back soon, I want all of you to know that you have a home in Israel, this is your birthright.”
A schmatta, it’s not.Matisyahu in his own words, on music, Judaism, shaving
Infamous Mexican cartel boss Joaquín Guzmán — better known as El Chapo — is in the news after a widely publicized interview with Sean Penn in Rolling Stone magazine led to his capture (again). In the days that followed, photos of the actor and the drug kingpin circulated around the world.
According to the Guardian, this was an incredible stroke of luck for two Iranian-Jewish brothers in Los Angeles. In one photo with Penn, Guzmán is wearing an ornate gray-and-blue striped button-down shirt that’s overlaid with a black paisley-ish pattern designed by the brothers’ company, Barabas.
“We’re excited because he could buy anything, he could buy Versace, any other brand, but to choose our brand, our designs!” owner Shawn Esteghbal told the paper.
The phrase “Most Wanted Shirt” touts Barabas’ homepage, which depicts the famous photo — of a mustachioed Guzman, wearing Barabas’ “Fantasy” button-down shirt shaking hands with a scruffy Penn — accompanied by a photo of an equally scruffy model sporting the shirt same shirt as Guzman, in what can safely be assumed a smaller size.
Matisyahu’s personal and religious journey — from non-religious stoner teen to Hasidic reggae rocker to non-Orthodox Jewish symbol — has been tracked closely in the media.Jack Jacob, Indian Jewish war hero, dies at 92
On Friday night, the Jewish reggae star sat down to tell his story in his own words, no holds barred. He spoke with Brooklyn Rabbi Dan Ain and Relix magazine editor Mike Greenhaus at Le Poisson Rouge in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village for the second installment of their Friday Night Jam series — which features Jewish musicians willing to talk about their art and their spirituality.
The first speaker last month was Ryan Miller, the lead singer of Guster; the next musician lined up is Lenny Kaye, the longtime guitarist of Patti Smith’s band.
Jack Jacob, a renowned Indian general, statesman and long-time prominent member of the country’s small Jewish community, died Wednesday in New Delhi. He was 92.‘Son of Saul’ nominated for best foreign language Oscar
Jacob, who died of pneumonia at New Delhi’s Army Research & Referral Hospital, was the highest ranking military officer in the history of the Indian Jewish community and considered a national hero for his daring military campaigns.
The former chief of staff is best known for commanding India’s Eastern Army during the liberation of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971 and negotiating the historic surrender of Pakistani troops after the war. His 1997 book “Surrender at Dacca: Birth of a Nation,” is considered the definitive account of the Bangladesh campaign.
Born in 1923 in Calcutta, British India, Jacob’s family hailed from a long line of Baghdadi Jews who moved to India from Iraq in the middle of the 18th century. Enlisting in the British Indian Army in 1942, Jacob continued to serve in the Indian Army after the country gained independence in 1947, rising in the ranks to the lieutenant general.
The Hungarian Holocaust film “Son of Saul” was nominated for the best foreign film Academy Award.AirMule drone ambulance makes maiden flight
The announcement was made early Thursday morning in a ceremony in Los Angeles.
“Son of Saul,” which tells the story of a Jewish concentration camp inmate forced to help cremate his fellow prisoners, won the Golden Globe for best foreign language film earlier this week.
Other Jewish Oscar nominees include Steven Spielberg, producer and director of “Bridge of Spies,” which made the shortlist for best picture. The film, which tells the story of a Cold War prisoner exchange, is based on a screenplay by filmmaker brothers Joel and Ethan Coen.
Also in the running is Israel-born super producer Arnon Milchan, whose Leonardo di Caprio thriller “The Revenant” is in contention for best picture.
A drone ambulance designed to airlift two people has taken autonomously to the air for the first time.
The AirMule, which can take off and land vertically, is designed for conditions where landing a helicopter is unfeasible – such as on a battlefield. The drone, made by Israeli company Tactical Robotics, has seen recent setbacks in development but is designed to carry up to 450kg up to 31 miles.
The single-engined, internal rotor drone took to the air from a temporary testing facility set up at the Megiddo airfield after gaining clearance from the Israeli Civil Aviation Authority for untethered flight.
The company plans to demonstrate the AirMule’s cargo-carrying capability within the year, with beyond-line-of-sight testing also scheduled.
While battlefield evacuation is an obvious implementation for the compact drone system, the ability to fly in close proximity to buildings and other obstructions because of its internal rotor system, gives it a significant edge over traditional air ambulances.
