Sunday, July 31, 2016
PMW: Fatah cartoon: Long-nosed Jew explodes Muslim world
Fatah posted a cartoon showing a long-nosed Jew with an Israeli flag on his arm lighting a fuse to blow up a bomb. Inside the bomb, a Shi'ite Muslim and a Sunni Muslim are lighting fuses to blow up each other.
The cartoon, which was posted on Fatah's Information and Culture Commission website, expresses the libel that Jews/Israel seek to destroy the Muslim world, and are possibly taking advantage of the internal Muslim fighting to do so. The cartoon is also critical of the Muslim world, which is depicted as so focused on killing each other that they do not see the Jews taking advantage of it to kill them.
Palestinian Media Watch has documented the PA libels that Israel/Jews are behind all conflicts in the world and that Israel/Jews are to blame for all bad in the world.
Netanyahu accuses France of funding anti-Israel groups
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said he ordered an investigation into French-funded organizations that he labeled anti-Israel, as Paris moved to limit the foreign financing of mosques.
After a spate of deadly jihadist attacks, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Saturday announced Paris was considering banning foreign funding of mosques.
“This sounds familiar to us. We are also disturbed by such donations to organizations that deny the State of Israel’s right to exist,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.
A preliminary inquiry has revealed that several European countries, including France, directly support organizations that engage in anti-Israel incitement, call to boycott the country and do not recognize Israel’s right to exist, Netanyahu said.
“We will discuss this with them because terror is terror everywhere and incitement is incitement which, apparently, encompasses the world, [and] governments must be as united as possible in dealing with them,” the prime minister said.
Netanyahu said the findings of the completed investigation would be submitted to the French government.
Abbas and Kerry meet in Paris
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris Saturday afternoon.Erekat compares IS-claimed attacks in Europe to Israeli actions against Palestinians
Saeb Erakat, the chairman of the PLO Executive Committee, told reporters that Abbas expressed his full support for the French initiative in the meeting, according to Wafa, the official Palestinian Authority news site.
Erakat added that Abbas made clear that amending the Arab Peace Initiative is unacceptable.
He also revealed that the Palestinian president condemned the recent terror attacks in France and stated further that the Palestinian territories are part in parcel of the war on terror, saying there is no difference between a criminal killing a journalist and an extremist burning the Dawabsheh family.
Moreover, Erakat remarked that Abbas resolved that the region needs peace and stability, which can be achieved by establishing a Palestinian state.
Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat drew parallels Saturday between the recent spate of terror attacks claimed by the Islamic State in Europe and Israeli actions in the West Bank.Former British Foreign Secretary Ridicules Palestinian Plan to Sue UK Over Balfour Declaration as Publicity Stunt
“Those who murder children in Europe in the name of religion are no different than those who murder children on Palestinian land,” Erekat said at a press conference Saturday, according to Haaretz, after a meeting between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and US Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris.
The two held a “very constructive” meeting, according to Erekat.
Erekat said Abbas told Kerry that the Palestinians were demanding a timetable for relaunching talks and another for implementing agreements, as well as international supervision, according to AFP.
“We need a timetable for restarting negotiations, a timetable for implementing agreements and an international framework to oversee any future agreements,” Erekat said.
A former British foreign secretary ridiculed the recent Palestinian initiative to sue the United Kingdom over the Balfour Declaration as a publicity stunt, Jewish News reported on Thursday.UK media fail to challenge 42 extraordinarily deceitful words on Balfour
Sir Malcolm Rifkind was responding to the recent announcement of plans by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to sue the UK for the 1917 document stating that the British government would “view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” According to Abbas, the Balfour Declaration is the direct cause of the “Palestinian Nakba,” the “disaster” of Israel’s founding.
“We are working to open up an international criminal case for the crime which they committed against our nation — from the days of the British Mandate all the way to the massacre which was carried out against us from 1948 onwards,” said Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki on behalf of Abbas.
Rifkind said, “This is a purely political initiative. It will have no legal force but might generate some publicity. No more, no less.”
Malki also includes the completely ahistorical assertion that Palestinians “had lived for thousands of years on the soil of their homeland”.UNESCO not convinced that Adam Sandler is really Jewish (satire)
Nothing could be further from the truth.
When Jews began to immigrate to Palestine in large numbers in the 1880s, fewer than 250,000 Arabs lived there, and the majority of them had arrived in recent decades. While Jews had maintained physical, spiritual and emotional ties to their historic homeland for several thousand years, the great majority of the Palestinian Arabs living in what became Israel (the reborn Jewish state) in 1948 were not indigenous to ‘Palestine’. They were, Middle East Historian David Bukay has written, relative newcomers to the area from surrounding Arab lands and were “either late immigrants or descendents of persons who had immigrated into Palestine in the previous 70 years”.
In testimony before the Anglo-American Committee in 1946, Palestinian-Arab leaders only claimed a connection to the land – of any sort – dating back no further than the 7th century – the period of conquest by Muhammad’s followers.
Such rewriting of history by the PA is of course nothing new. As Palestinian Media Watch continually documents, the Palestinian denial of Jewish history and the invention of Palestinian history represents the foundation of their political ideology.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is holding an emergency meeting tomorrow to get down to the bare facts on a question that has confused them for some time: whether famous actor Adam Sandler is really Jewish. While Mr. Sandler has made a name for himself with works to include the Chanukah Song, 8 Crazy Nights, and Don’t Mess with the Zohan, this level of proof simply leaves more questions than answers for the fun folks over at UNESCO. The Daily Freier spoke with UNESCO spokesperson Francesca S. about this fascinating development.Member of Saudi delegation: Israeli society wants peace
“We just really don’t know whether or not ‘Mr. Sandler’ is actually ‘Jewish’ [when saying these words, she really did make quote-marks in the air with her fingers] so as an organization we are required to do the proper research. Just last week, we learned from President Abbas that Jesus was actually Palestinian.”
When the Daily Freier asked UNESCO if there were any other fairly big problems in the world right now that didn’t involve Israelis or J-E-W-S, she paused, looked at us the same way our teacher did when we used to eat paste, and continued her monologue.
“We’ve been so busy deciding that the Western Wall [she did the air quotes thing again] is actually part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, that we haven’t really had time to catch up with all of our other tasks.”
For its part, Israel reacted with scorn to UNESCO’s move, but in the spirit of compromise, offered to declare Max Blumenthal and Tel Aviv’s Atarim Square as Palestinian.
Abd al-Mujid al-Hakim, a member of the Saudi Arabian delegation that recently visited Israel and the Palestinian territories, told BBC Arabic on Friday that he believes Israeli society wants peace.Does Nasrallah have a reason to fear strengthening Israeli-Saudi ties?
“In Arab societies, the picture of Israeli society is that it embraces a culture of death, wants to spill blood, and does not believe in peace. That [picture] is not correct.” He continued, “The Israeli society that I encountered embraces a culture of peace, has accomplishments it wants to (protect), wants coexistence, and wants peace.”
Hakim, who also serves as director of the Middle East Center for Strategic and Legal Policy in Jedda, added that he thinks that the current stalemate in the peace process does not relate to differences in policy between the Israelis and Palestinians.
“The problem between the Israeli and Palestinian sides is not that they have different positions. When we dialogued with Mr. Dore Gold, members of Knesset, and members of organizations fighting for peace, the disagreements did not relate to the Arab Peace Initiative. They accept the Arab Peace Initiative.” Instead he suggested, “The problem is the lack of mutual trust between the two sides.”
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah does indeed have reason to worry about signs of strengthening ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia. He expressed his fears on Thursday in a speech in which he condemned the Kingdom for normalizing relations with Israel, and doing so "for free." And indeed, there is more than a hunch in the Middle East that Jerusalem and Riyadh have begun to grow closer.Hamas asks Saudis to prevent ‘normalization’ visits to Israel
The warming of relations is interesting on the surface, but it is even more important beneath the surface. Prince Turki bin Faisal, who served as Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief from 1979 to 2001, has appeared publicly on a number of occasions with Israeli military officials and with other Israeli figures at international forums.
Anwar Eshki, a retired general and the chairman of a Saudi think tank, the Middle East Center for Strategic and Legal Studies, met with Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold and with several MKs. He also granted interviews to several Israel media outlets. Senior Israeli officials, such as Gold and Maj.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, have been covered in Arab media outlets that are either owned by the Saudis or influenced by the Kingdom.
However, on a covert level, according to foreign reports, the ties being cultivated are even more fascinating. Intelligence Online reported that Israel is selling intelligence equipment, as well as control and command centers, to the Saudi security forces. Previously, it had been reported in the foreign media that the heads of the Mossad, the organization responsible for Israel's covert ties, met with their Saudi counterparts. Media outlets affiliated with Hezbollah even reported that officers from the two countries' armies had met.
Hamas on Sunday asked the Saudi government to prevent “normalization” visits to Israel, following a recent visit by a Saudi delegation which held talks with Israeli officials and MKs in Jerusalem.Israeli security forces arrest Abbas guard
Retired Saudi general Anwar Eshki led the delegation of academics and businessmen on an extremely rare visit last week, in a bid to encourage discussion of the Saudi-led peace plan, which would see 57 Arab and Muslim nations normalize ties with Israel after the completion of an agreement with the Palestinians.
In a statement on its website, Hamas, an Islamist terror group that rules the Gaza Strip, called on Saudi Arabia to “take measures to prevent these normalizing visits that [Israel] uses to undermine the rights of Palestinians and penetrate into the [Muslim] nation in thought and culture.”
The statement also expressed appreciation for what Hamas described as growing anger in Saudi Arabia over the former general’s visit to Jerusalem.
Border Police last week arrested a guard who had been protecting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, security sources in Israel confirmed on Saturday.Israeli forces thwart attempted stabbing at West Bank checkpoint
The raid overnight Wednesday in the Palestinian village of Beit Anoun, near Hebron, was launched after the guard became suspected of taking part in terrorist activities. The sources refused to disclose any additional details on the suspicions against the guard.
Separately, security forces arrested two wanted suspects overnight Thursday in the West Bank. One suspect allegedly took part in attacks against civilians and security personnel, while the other is a Hamas member, according to the IDF.
Earlier last week, security forces nabbed 16 suspects in West Bank raids, including seven members of the Kuhla organization, which is affiliated with Hamas, and three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist group.
Security forces thwarted an attempted stabbing on Sunday afternoon at the Huwara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus.Palestinians arrested after warning cops they possess knives
During the incident, a Palestinian arrived at the checkpoint in a vehicle and exited it before approaching the IDF soldiers stationed at the post with a knife.
Israeli troops shot the Palestinian, who was later declared dead by a military medic. There were no Israeli casualties in the incident.
Following the attempted stabbing, security forces seal-off entrance to Nablus in order to allow emergency crews to arrive to the scene.
Two West Bank Palestinian men who told police they possessed knives were arrested and indicted, police said in a statement Sunday.Palestinian held after axes, knives, bullets found in his car
Last week, a 36-year-old Palestinian man in Israel without a permit called police to tell them he had a knife and was planning to carry out an attack against Israelis.
Officers arrested the West Bank resident after tracing the phone call and determining his location. A body search of the man uncovered a knife in his possession.
He was remanded into custody at a Beersheba court, where he repeated his intentions to attack Israelis.
The Palestinian man, who was not named, was indicted on charges of illegally entering Israel, possession of a knife and making threats.
In a separate incident last week, a 19-year-old Palestinian man called the Israel Police hotline and told officers: “I have a knife.” He was arrested outside the Negev Bedouin town of Hura and taken in for questioning.
A Palestinian man was arrested at a checkpoint on Route 5 in the northern West Bank late Saturday after guards found knives, axes and bullets in his vehicle.PreOccupiedTerritory: Mideast Christians Already Feeling No Impact From Pope’s Auschwitz Visit (satire)
The man was driving an Israeli-registered vehicle with Israeli plates.
Guards at the Trans-Samaria Crossing on Route 5, just east of Rosh Ha’ayin, said the man aroused suspicion. A search of the car uncovered two large knives, two axes and a cache of 25 nine-millimeter bullets.
The Defense Ministry, which runs most of the checkpoints between the West Bank and Israel, said the matter is under investigation.
Christian communities facing genocide at the hands of the Islamic State and other forms of persecution under Arab-Muslim regimes in the Levant have already noticed that in the wake of Pope Francis’s historic visit to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland, nothing has changed in the world’s reaction to the way they are being treated.
The pope walked silently through the iconic “Arbeit Macht Frei” gate at the entrance to the Auschwitz complex late last week, after which he pleaded to governments to act to help Christians who numbers have been shrinking in countries they have inhabited for nearly two thousand years and where Islamic militants have been systematically killing them or driving them out. Immediately following Francis’s remarks, the Armenian, Coptic, Eastern Orthodox, and other Christian groups in the Middle East and North Africa felt no sudden change in their circumstances, or in the attitudes of the nations or organizations in a position to help them.
Copts in Egypt, who face deadly violence almost daily, told reporters that now that the pope has issued his emotional appeal, they expect the world to pay the same lack of attention to their plight. “We’re looking forward to a shift into more of the same,” said Gabriel Jafri, whose family was beaten by a Muslim mob last week amid rumors that the community intended to build a new church. “Pope Francis sounded a call for the Western powers and international organizations to step in and put a stop to the crimes taking place all the time against our persecuted communities across the region. He even compared our treatment to the extermination of Jews at Auschwitz-Birkenau, which means the Catholic Church views this situation as a moral issue of the highest urgency and intensity. As such, we anticipate no change at all in our circumstances, given the way things have gone until now.”
Red Cross to cut visits to Palestinian prisoners
In late May, the International Committee for the Red Cross, which has run a Family Visit Program since 1968, announced that it would be cutting back its program from two visits a month to only one, a decision which has led to uproar in the Palestinian community.Its pockets lined with Qatari-paid wages, Hamas is on the rise
Although ICRC emphasized this would not affect prisoners who are minors or women, as well as those held in Gaza, the decision still affects thousands of prisoners and their families.
Bashar Bana, a young man recently released after 26 months in administrative detention, told The Jerusalem Post that “family visits are the only oxygen that we [prisoners] breathe of the outside world, and they are cutting if off.”
Across every governorate of the West Bank and in every major Palestinian city and in east Jerusalem, protesters gathered on Thursday to voice their frustration with the ICRC’s announcement, and to show support for prisoners.
Meanwhile, Palestinian detainees in at least two prisons staged a symbolic hunger strike.
Officially, Israel refuses to comment on the measure or publicize any information about it, even though the government should be fully transparent, especially in light of the dramatic change of direction in its policy.Rest and recreation in Gaza City
The government vigorously opposed paying Hamas officials’ salaries in the summer of 2014, on the eve of the 50-day war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Avigdor Liberman, the foreign minister at the time, threatened to expel Robert Serry, the UN’s envoy to the Middle East, for trying to arrange the salary payments, and Israel rejected a proposal for a ceasefire because it would have provided for the payment of the officials. How is it possible that Israel now agrees to the very same measures?
Is it conceivable that Liberman, who promised two months ago to kill Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s top official in Gaza, if the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin were not returned to Israel, is agreeing that 40,000 Hamas officials, among them Haniyeh, will receive their July salaries thanks to the Israeli government, even as Hamas continues to hold on to the bodies?
One thing needs to be said here: If the Qatari-Israeli measure really does go into effect and persists into the future, it could prevent the next war in Gaza. There is an enormous gap between a Hamas that can pay full salaries to its employees, and a group that tries every month to scrape by on almost nothing in a bid to keep the frustration and ferment at bay in Gaza. And there is quite a bit of ferment there, even after Turkey’s “dramatic” gesture that saw the entry of several trucks carrying humanitarian aid.
The Hamas administration’s employees have difficulty making a living, and the pressure on Hamas’s leadership to change the status quo hasn’t let up for a moment.
Sparkling Mediterranean beaches, expensive restaurants and state-of-the-art health clubs do not readily spring to mind when it comes to the Gaza Strip.Turkish officers surround Incirlik air base
But with their borders tightly restricted by Israel and Egypt, Palestinians in an enclave known for economic hardship and war have no choice but to find some respite close to home.
Some leisure spots may be out of the financial reach of many of Gaza's 1.9 million inhabitants, especially with unemployment at 42 percent. But the sea is free and thousands pack sandy beaches daily to escape the withering summer heat, erecting tents and preparing barbecues.
"We are fed up and this is the only place to entertain ourselves. Other places require money," Ibrahim Shweideh, 26, who is unemployed.
In the evening, cafes are filled with men, many of them jobless, playing cards and drinking coffee and tea.
Some 7,000 police officers in heavy vehicles overnight Saturday surrounded the Incirlik air base in Turkey, which is used by NATO forces in Adana, in what a Turkish minister called a “security check”, Russia Today reports.Why the two presidential nominees left Israel in the backseat at their party conventions
While there was no official explanation for the move, the Turkish daily Hurriyet reported earlier that Adana police had been tipped off about a new coup attempt, and forces were immediately alerted.
The entrance to the base was closed off, noted Russia Today.
Security forces armed with rifles and armored TOMA vehicles used by Turkish riot police could be seen at the site in photos taken by witnesses.
Turkey’s minister for EU affairs downplayed the situation , saying a “security inspection” was carried out.
At both the Republican and Democratic parties’ nominating conventions last week, each candidate rolled out their general election campaign with high-profile addresses to their respective party’s confab.Israeli-American mogul Haim Saban: Trump win would be ‘disastrous’ for Israel
While presenting vastly different visions for America and its role in the world, Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic choice Hillary Clinton each devoted just one sentence to Israel. Both indicated they strongly believe in the importance of the US-Israel alliance, but said little else — each for their own reasons.
In his speech, Trump called Israel America’s “greatest ally in the region” and described the relationship as one that would be instrumental in achieving his goal of making the US safer and repairing its standing in the international arena.
“We must have the best intelligence gathering operation in the world,” he said. “We must abandon the failed policy of nation building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria. Instead, we must work with all of our allies who share our goal of destroying ISIS and stamping out Islamic terror.”
Israeli-American mogul Haim Saban said Friday that a US presidential win by Republican nominee Donald Trump would be “disastrous, disastrous for Israel.”IsraellyCool: Green Party Candidate Supports “Ethnic Cleansing” Libel
Speaking to Channel 10 news just minutes before Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday, Saban said Trump was “not a Republican, he’s not a Democrat, he’s not an independent. Trump is Trump. Trump, as former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg defined him, is a conman,” Saban said.
Turning to the camera, Saban said his message to the public in Israel, for those who are not sure which candidate would make a president more likely to hold Israel’s best interest at heart, was this: “Don’t believe a single word this man says. He is a conman, a liar, a cheat, a thief and he’s cynical. Everyone he does is to serve Trump alone.”
The interview, conducted in Hebrew, was aired on the Friday evening news edition.
Asked if Clinton as president would get along with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saban said that since Netanyahu said he was committed to the two-state solution the two would get along.
Since Bernie Sanders’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton, Green Party candidate Jill Stein has been getting a lot of attention from Bernie’s former supporters, including anti-Israel Cornel West. Her campaign illustrates just how completely off the deep end the far-left has gone when it comes to Israel.
Stein’s website states
The Stein campaign supports actions of nonviolent resistance to the policies of the occupation and of the Israeli apartheid regime, including those of the global boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign….Today, in a move that shows that she truly is unable to distinguish fact from fantasy, she retweeted a tweet from infamous antisemite Steven Salaita, in which he claimed that “Hillary Clinton vigorously supports Israeli ethnic cleansing.”
Actress Rosario Dawson: WikiLeaks Exposed Democratic Committee’s ‘Willingness to Be Antisemitic’
According to the report, Dawson, the star of “Dardevil” and an avid Bernie Sanders supporter, was responding to a the release by Wikileaks of nearly 20,000 documents showing the DNC’s active efforts to undermine Sanders — as a result of which Debbie Wasserman Schultz was forced to step down as DNC chairman.Jewish High School Student Says DNC Attendee Called Him A ‘Terrorist Sympathizer’ Over Israeli Flag
Among the exposed documents was an email by DNC Chief Financial Officer Brad Marshall that called into question Sanders’ religion. Marshall wrote about the senator, “Does he believe in a God? He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist…My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist.”
During an interview with the video news show “Young Turks” on Wednesday, Dawson said, “When Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigns because of the DNC leaks and is immediately hired and there’s nothing in the statement from Hillary Clinton that even acknowledges the reason why she’s now available to run her campaign, there’s already a trust gap, there’s already a feeling that there isn’t integrity there.”
About the Democratic National Convention she said, “There’s a lot of talk about unity, but we’re not feeling it, we’re not seeing it, it’s not being reflected to individual delegates I’ve spoken with.”
The DNC released a statement on Monday offering a “deep and sincere apology” to Sanders for the “inexcusable remarks made over email.”
A Jewish high school student and Bernie Sanders supporter claims he was called a “terrorist sympathizer” by a fellow attendee at the Democratic National Convention, where he also witnessed the burning of the Israeli flag by left-wing protesters outside.Alon Day poised to make NASCAR history as first Israeli driver
Shabbos Kestenbaum, a 17-year old from the Bronx who attends high school in Riverdale, New York says he saw Palestinian flags being flown “high and proudly” on the floor of the Democratic National Convention, yet when he brought an Israeli flag into the convention hall, he says many attendees shunned him.
I was contacted by a rabbi to get into the convention for the sole purpose of flying the Israeli flag; both as a Jew and a fervent democrat. However, from when I first entered the arena with the flag tied to my back, I was given strange looks by many. Many people stared in shock and one even called me “terrorist sympathizer.”
Again, to be perfectly clear: I 100% believe the Democratic Party is one that strongly supports the Jewish state of Israel, but there seems to be a undeniably small and negligible but increasing faction that is reluctant to show support for the only democracy in the region. Having said that, the vast majority of comments I received were supportive and grateful, but there were outliers that made me uncomfortable, especially as I was able to finally get into the arena. Immediately, those in their seats turned their attention to me and it was clear the flag was a problem.
USA TODAY Sports' Jeff Gluck looks ahead to the Pennsylvania 400 and the story lines that fans should keep an eye on leading up to this weekend.China consortium buys Israel’s Playtika for $4.4 billion
One of the stars of Duck Dynasty may have been the catalyst for NASCAR’s first Israeli driver.
On April 9, NASCAR fan David Levin was sitting at home in Florida when he saw Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame give the invocation before a race at Texas Motor Speedway.
NASCAR invocations are televised, and Robertson used the platform to “pray that we put a Jesus man in the White House.”
It didn’t sit well with Levin, who is Jewish.
“That was pretty insulting,” Levin told USA TODAY Sports. “It reinforced the impression that NASCAR is a white, Christian sport. But NASCAR is for everyone. There’s no reason it can’t also include Jews, blacks and Mexicans.”
Levin, an environmental/waterfront property lawyer in Sarasota, decided to act. He reached out to MBM Motorsports owner Carl Long and found an opportunity for Israeli driver Alon Day, who is Jewish.
A Chinese consortium has bought Playtika, an Israeli online games company, for $4.4 billion in cash, the consortium and US-based Caesars Interactive Entertainment said in a joint statement on Sunday.Santana wows Israel with masterful guitar and message of peace
Caesars acquired the Herzliya-based Playtika in 2011.
The Chinese group includes Giant Investment (HK) Limited, China Oceanwide Holdings Group Co. Ltd., China Minsheng Trust Co. Ltd., CDH China HF Holdings Company Limited, the Hony Capital Fund, and Yunfeng Capital — a private equity firm co-founded by Alibaba’s Jack Ma.
According to the statement, Playtika will continue to run independently with its headquarters remaining in Herzliya, and its existing management team will continue to run its day-to-day operations.
“We are incredibly excited by the commercial opportunities the consortium will make available to us, particularly in its ability to provide us access to a large and rapidly growing emerging market,” said Robert Antokol, co-founder and CEO of Playtika.
Playtika also has offices in Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Canada, Japan, Romania, Ukraine and the United States.
In a mix of English, Spanish, and masterful guitar riffs, the Latin rock legend Carlos Santana shared his soulful music with a crowd of nearly 50,000 Saturday night at HaYarkon Park in Tel-Aviv. The stage was packed with multifaceted musicians and lead singers who doubled as trumpet or tambourine players. Among the two drummers was Santana's wife, Cindy Blackman, who beamed on stage during multiple solos featuring fast-paced, energized beats that made onlookers cheer with excitement. A second guitar player, keyboardist, bass player, and conga player were also part of the ensemble, and the entire band's multi-talented vibe was accompanied by footage of Santana's original shining moment at Woodstock in 1969.
"Love Makes the World Go Round," featured on his latest album, "Santana IV," opened the concert with a gradual build-up, first showcasing Santana's unmistakable sound on the guitar, and then tossing the focus to the two primary singers. The interplay between each of the band's members was effortless as their leader guided them in a clear, yet periodically spontaneous manner. Santana even allowed a young boy to strum his guitar mid-song, evoking loud whistles from the crowd.
"It's an honor to be in your light, in your love, with so much beauty and grace," he said to the audience, right before adding, "let's make the women happy," and commencing the intro to all-time-favorite, "Maria, Maria."
Other songs hailing from the time of Santana's reemergence in the 90s such as "Smooth" and "Corazon Espinado" were met with much enthusiasm, and the crowd didn't let language differences get in the way as they loudly sang along in Spanish. Santana himself began to communicate with the crowd in both English and Spanish, demonstrating his central message of the power of connection through peace and love, no matter what barriers may stand in the way.
"In any language, somos una familia, we're one family," he said. "We can conquer fear in this planet. You and I, we are the architects of tomorrow. Everything that's happening in the world, in Europe and America, it's happening because we need to change."
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