Saturday, August 06, 2016
Political play in Rio: 'The Lebanese refused to board a bus with Israelis'
The Rio summer Olympics premiered Saturday night with an exceptionally large Israeli delegation - the largest in history - made up of 47 athletes. Excitement was at its peak when the delegation traversed across the Rio stadium, with rhythmic gymnast Neta Rivkin at its head. But prior to the ceremony, an awkward incident occurred between the Israeli and Lebanese delegations.Meet Lady Jenny Tonge, a leading UK anti-Semitic inciter
The Israelis, upon preparing to board a joint-bus, were turned down by the Lebanese who refused to share the ride. To avoid a diplomatic feud, event organizers decided to drive each delegation independently to the stadium.
Israeli sailing coach Udi Gal described the incident in a Facebook post. "2016 Olympics...shame on you," he wrote. "The Israeli delegation was preparing to board a bus to the opening ceremony, which was to be shared with the Lebanese delegation. The Lebanese, upon comprehending that they were to share a bus with the Israelis, addressed the driver in refusal and demanded that the door to the bus be shut. Event organizers then attempted to scatter us on different buses - something that is unacceptable for security and representative reasons."
"We insisted that we board the bus designated for us - and that the Lebanese should de-board if so they wish. So the bus driver opened the door. But this time, the head of the Lebanese delegation blocked the entrance to the bus with his own body. Event organizers - attempting to prevent a diplomatic incident - then organized a separate ride for us. But the diplomatic incident already occurred - shame!"
He added: "How can it be that something like this occurs on the eve of the Olympic opening ceremony? Does this not directly oppose what the Olympics represent and stand for...I cannot begin to express my feelings, I'm in shock from the incident."
Tonge said in 2004 that if she were Palestinian, she would consider becoming a suicide bomber. This fits an example of anti-Semitism from the definition – “calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.”The serious terror-funding allegations against the World Vision head in Gaza
The IHRA definition includes among other examples of anti-Semitism, “making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective.” Tonge did so when in 2006, while still a Liberal MP, she alleged that the “pro-Israeli Lobby has grips on the Western World, its financial grips. I think they’ve got a certain grip on our party.” – as well as other similar remarks in 2012 about the power of the pro-Israel lobby in the UK and US.
Another IHRA definition example of what is anti-Semitic is, “accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.” In a letter to the Independent in 2006 Tonge blamed Israel for suicide bombings in Iraq, writing, “Israel's security wall is forcing them to export themselves to another arena to fight in this ridiculous ‘war’ against terrorism being waged by the donkeys who lead us in the West.” She has also blamed the treatment of the Palestinians by Israel as “the root cause of terrorism worldwide.” This in addition to the aforementioned accusation of Israel’s responsibility for the rise of extreme Islamism and Isis”
In 2009, at an anti-Israel rally in London during the Gaza war Tonge said that “Jewish people should be totally ashamed of themselves that they are not doing more to stop Israel.” She added that it is “absolutely disgusting.” In 2015 she has called on Jewish leaders in Britain to condemn Israel. Her statements seem to imply “accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.” This is another example of anti-Semitism stated in the IHRA definition.
The IHRA definition mentions as a further example of anti-Semitism, “accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.” Tonge accuses Jews of “using the Holocaust” as she questions whether Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians is allowed to continue because of “Holocaust guilt.”
The IHRA definition mentions furthermore that it is anti-Semitic to deny “the right of Jewish people to self-determination.” Tonge attended an anti-Israel event at Middlesex University in 2012 where she stated that “Beware Israel. Israel is not going to be there forever in its current performance… Israel will lose its support and then they will reap what they have sown.”
However, Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs put out a detailed statement giving both particulars of the allegations and a description of the methods used to carry out the alleged fraud. Furthermore, it sets out a series of admissions El-Halabi is alleged to have made under cross-examination.
El-Halabi is alleged to have admitted to joining Hamas in his youth, and been planted with World Vision by the terrorist group, having worked his way up the ranks until he controlled the multi-million dollar budget, equipment and aid packages.
The specific allegations against him include:
• Promoting fictitious agricultural associations as cover for transfers to Hamas;
• Transferring money to Hamas members fraudulently registered as employees of charity-sponsored projects;
• Issuing inflated invoices and fictitious receipts with the excess being transferred to Hamas;
• Issuing fictitious tenders for work to be done for World Vision, with the "winning" tenderer to transfer 60% of funds received to Hamas;
• Transferring directly to Hamas equipment and aid packages provided by World Vision;
• Initiating a greenhouse project to use the greenhouses to hide the sites of terror tunnels;
• Disguising Hamas warehouses as World Vision warehouses so Hamas could take materials delivered to them;
• Diverting money for injured children to Hamas terrorists who fraudulently listed their own children as wounded; and
• Diverting unemployment benefits to Hamas terrorists.
Obviously, these are all only allegations until proven in court.
As mentioned, World Vision proclaimed its faith in its audit processes, but this would be far from the first time frauds of this sort have escaped the notice of internal, or even external, auditors. For example, in a recent example close to home, in February this year, the Victorian State Director of the Liberal Party, Damian Mantach, pled guilty to having embezzled approximately AU$1.5 million from the party. This was achieved by invoicing the party and MPs for work that was never done, or at inflated costs.
Prior to the discovery of the fraud, a financial comptroller from KPMG had been installed in the party to investigate over spending on campaigns, but had reported that no fraud had been discovered, following which, the embezzlement continued.
UN Deletes Article Calling Hamas Operative “Hero”
The United Nations has deleted a webpage calling charity worker Mohammed El-Halabi a “humanitarian hero” after he was arrested for funnelling millions of pounds of aid to Hamas’ military wing. An archived version of the page quotes El-Halabi claiming to have “fully dedicated my life to helping people and children”, he said the best part of his job was “managing to restore the smiles of children”. Instead he allegedly stole the money meant for those children and funnelled it to Hamas fighters, sending the terror group £5.5 million a year.Two Belgian police officers wounded by machete-wielding assailant shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’
Two Belgian police officers were wounded in a machete attack outside a police station on Saturday afternoon in the city of Charleroi, according to Belgian media.Singapore calls for vigilance after suspected ISIS 'rocket attack' plot foiled
The perpetrator reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar [God is great]” during the assault before being shot by a third police officer at the scene. He later died of his wounds, police confirmed.
One of the victims sustained serious wounds to the face and neck area, RTL reported. The second victim was moderately hurt in the attack.
“Two police have been injured with a machete in front of the police headquarters by a man shouting ‘Allah Akbar’,” a spokesperson for Charleroi police was quoted as saying to The Independent. “The individual was shot but is alive.”
Singapore called for heightened vigilance on Saturday, a day after Indonesian police arrested a group of men they believed were plotting a rocket attack on the wealthy city-state with the help of a Syrian-based Islamic State militant.Watchdog: Anti-Israel Groups, Black Lives Matter Share ‘Pro-Palestinian Agendas’ That Feed Antisemitism (INTERVIEW)
The six suspected militants were rounded up on Friday in dawn raids on Batam island, which is about 15 km south of Singapore, and local police chief Sam Budigusdian said they were still being held there while investigations continued.
Singapore's home affairs minister, K. Shanmugam, said the men had plans to hit Marina Bay, the state's glittering downtown waterfront, where night-time Formula One Grand Prix Races are held alongside a giant ferris wheel and a swanky casino resort.
"This shows how our enemies are thinking of different ways of attacking us," Shanmugam said in a Facebook posting.
"Terrorists ... will seek to come in through our checkpoints; they will also try to launch attacks from just outside. And this is in addition to lone wolf attacks from radicalized individuals/groups. We have to be extra vigilant."
The alliance between an anti-Israel group and the Black Lives Matter movement reveal a shared pro-Palestinian strategy that borders on antisemitism, the president of a major watchdog organization told The Algemeiner on Thursday.Hey Black Lives Matter, your anti-Semitism is showing
Professor Gerald Steinberg, president of Israel-based NGO Monitor, was responding to the recent publication of the Black Lives Matter platform, which declared Israel an “apartheid state” that “practices systematic discrimination” and “genocide” against Palestinians. A member of the notorious anti-Israel legal group Adalah — which Steinberg called “one of the most effective Israel-based NGOs promoting demonization and a clear contributor to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement” — was named as a co-author of the document.
“The relationship between Adalah and Black Lives Matter reflects the long-standing alliance between radical anti-democratic groups who often espouse antisemitic themes,” Steinberg told The Algemeiner. “Similar pro-Palestinian agendas were seen in the activities of the Black Panthers, Louis Farrakhan and, on the Jewish radical side, through the extremists at Jewish Voice for Peace.”
The presidential campaign of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders “also tapped into this extremism and ‘intersectionality’ in which hate for Israel was clear,” he said.
Perhaps the movement is unaware that Judea and Samaria, where Israel constructs so-called “illegal settlements,” represents the Jews’ Biblical homeland. It would be the height of apartheid thinking to argue that Israel cannot construct buildings on such land, nor is it illegal to do so.Jewish pro-BDS group endorses anti-Israel Black Lives Matter platform
Perhaps the movement is unaware of the fact that there are blacks who are enslaved by Arabs to this very day, while Arabs enjoy the full rights of citizenship in Israel, rights again far greater than enjoyed anywhere else in the Middle East.
The list could go on and on, but why continue?
The movement may very well understand and be aware of such things, but does not care because the truth does not advance its agenda – it conflicts with a narrative which says that Israel, like the U.S., is a racist, colonialist, imperialist enterprise conceived in sin. While the opposite may be true – that Israel is surrounded by just these sorts of bigoted, repressive, minority-hating regimes that seek its destruction – David has been turned into Goliath.
And let us not ignore the fact that many of those who support the BLM movement have shown their Jew-hatred in past words and deeds – a hatred of Jews that burns on in spite of or perhaps because of the achievements of Jews that have benefitted all peoples throughout the world.
Like the narrative of the BLM movement as a whole, the putatively anti-Zionist but actually anti-Semitic part of BLM betrays that the movement is really just another Leftist front, which starts with a conclusion and seeks to conjure up facts to justify its existence. It sees in those with whom it takes issue the very bigotries that the movement itself harbors.
BLM, which supposedly stands for justice, instead literally stands with those who wish to destroy Israel, and with it the first line of defense of Judeo-Christian Western civilization.
The burning of the Israeli flag outside of the Democratic National Convention was a truly profound, symbolic and representative act. America must understand its meaning.
Jewish Voice for Peace, which supports the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel, released a statement unconditionally supporting the newly released platform of the Black Lives Matter movement, which in part accuses Israel of committing genocide.Ex-cabinet minister says Israel-Saudi peace ‘in the cards’
The platform, published Monday by a coalition of more than 50 groups called the Movement for Black Lives, encompasses a broad set of economic and social policy goals aimed at eliminating racism, mass incarceration and police violence. It includes a section criticizing United States aid to Israel, accuses Israel of practicing apartheid and says Israel is committing “genocide” against the Palestinians.
Several Jewish organizations, such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Reform movement, have criticized the platform’s statements on Israel. But JVP’s statement, published Friday, “endorses the Movement for Black Lives platform in its entirety, without reservation.” Regarding the genocide accusation, JVP wrote in a statement sent to JTA that “it is not our role to police the language of the vision for Black lives.”
JVP said it was “deeply disappointed” in other Jewish organizations for condemning the platform, calling on them instead to support the Movement for Black Lives.
A former Israeli minister, part of an Israeli group that met with a Saudi delegation that visited Jerusalem and Ramallah last month, said Israelis could be able to visit the Gulf state “much sooner than you dream about.”US reiterates concern over ‘unequal treatment’ of Arab Americans at Ben-Gurion Airport
In a conference call Tuesday with British media hosted by the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre, Rabbi Michael Melchior said the day when Israelis can travel to Saudi Arabia is “in the cards and it will, as we say Inshallah, ‘with god’s help,’ happen very soon.”
Inshallah is Arabic for “God willing.”
Melchior, a former Knesset member with the defunct One Israel party (Labor-Meimad) and former minister for Diaspora Affairs, said his meeting with the Saudis focused on religious issues related to diplomacy between the two countries.
Melchior, a Jerusalemite who is also the chief rabbi of Norway, said: “Religious peace is a way of using another language other than the secular language of the Arab peace plan… religious peace is a way of including those Mullahs who are not yet part of this thinking.”
A US official accused Israel of treating some Arab Americans unequally after the Jewish state detained five pro-Palestinian American activists and denied them entry into the country.PreOccupiedTerritory: Zoabi In Critical Condition After Being Left In Hot Car (satire)
State Department spokesman Mark Toner on Tuesday reiterated the United States’ “concern” about “unequal treatment” following reports of the July 17 incident at Ben Gurion Airport.
Upon their arrival on July 17, a US staffer for the organization US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and four other members of the group — all carrying US passports — were “interrogated by Israeli border police about their backgrounds and political involvement,” according to a statement issued by the organization Tuesday.
Four of the five were “people of color and Muslim,” and the fifth had a long beard, the group added. Americans do not need visas to enter Israel. The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is a supporter and promoter of BDS, the campaign to boycott Israel and all Israeli products.
American officials were aware of reports on the incident but could not get into details because of “privacy considerations,” Toner told journalists Tuesday, according to NBC News.
“The US government remains concerned about unequal treatment that some Arab Americans receive at Israel’s borders and checkpoints,” he added. “And we regularly raise with Israeli authorities our concerns about the issue of equal treatment for all U.S. citizens in ports of entry.”
Joint List MK Hannen Zoabi was listed in critical condition today after other lawmakers accidentally left her in a car that sat out in the sun, Knesset sources reported today.NGO Monitor: Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI)
The firebrand Balad legislator was found unconscious in the vehicle more than an hour after she was closed inside this morning, but was revived by paramedics and taken to the emergency room, where she has been stabilized and remains under treatment for severe dehydration. Hadassah medical representatives has no immediate comment on her prognosis.
MK Ahmad Tibi rushed out to the outdoor parking lot from a committee meeting immediately upon remembering he had given a lift to Zoabi, and found her sprawled across the front seat of the car. He and a security guard opened the car and removed her, then alerted the Knesset paramedics standing by of the situation.
“I completely forgot she was in the passenger seat next to me,” said a flustered Tibi. “How could I be so absent-minded? We were talking just a few moments before I pulled into the parking lot, but then I must have gone into autopilot mode and just did what I usually do, completely missing the fact that Haneen was there next to me. I’m… I’m still in shock. I hope she’s OK.”
When asked why Zoabi apparently did not attempt to let herself out of the car, Tibi became incensed. “Why are you blaming the victim?” he shouted. “Who are you to tell her what to do? What a racist thing to say!”
BackgroundSix Ways to Stop BDS
EAPPI was founded in 2002 by the Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC) and is considered to be the WCC’s flagship project on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
EAPPI is not a registered organization in Israel or abroad.
This program brings international activists to the West Bank through the ruse of tourist visas. The stated mission is to “witness life under occupation, engage with local Palestinians and Israelis pursuing a just peace, to change the international community’s involvement in the conflict, urging them to act against injustice in the region.”
Since 2002, EAPPI has brought 1,500 “Ecumenical Accompanier” volunteers/activists to Israel for periods of three months at a time. These activists receive training prior to their arrival, which includes an overview of the program itself, methods for coping with the army and police, and different ways of surpassing Israeli airport security and customs officials in order to successfully enter the country.
EAPPI’s advocacy goal is to “make a change,” and specifically to “work for concrete change, both here and on the ground and back in our home countries.” The organization furthers that, “We share our eyewitness testimonies with faith leaders, decision makers, media, civil society, and business officials, so that they change public policy toward ending the Israeli occupation and achieving peace in Israel and Palestine.”
The activists wear brown vests with the organization’s logo, and are deployed at checkpoints, points of friction between Israelis and Palestinians, and between Palestinians and the IDF – including in the Old City of Jerusalem. The activists additionally attend events and activities commemorating the Palestinian “Nakba” (catastrophe).
The semester is over and our results are in. They are neither surprising nor sexy. But they will guide our future investments.New Jewish Apostates
Among the highlights:
1. No Silver Bullet
Everyone you talk to has “the answer.” And the answer is always different. Teach the fundamentals of the conflict. Never mention the conflict. Attack SJP. Ignore SJP. Bring lecturers to campus. Bring singers. All of the above is true at times. None alone is a game-changer.
2. Local Partners Are Key
Our most effective partners were those who actually live on campus: both campus-based student activists and the campus-based professionals of Hillel, Chabad and the wonderful Israel Fellows. Every successful event we funded was planned and implemented in close coordination with these local stakeholders.
3. Take Back the Quad
BDS supporters hold week-long, public events like “Israel Apartheid Week” to publicize their positions. Why don’t we? Together with our partners, we hosted public, week-long Israel celebrations on each of our six campuses. If part of this fight is about the environment on campus, then we must be part of that environment.
4. Build Our Coalition/Break Theirs
Everyone knows that team BDS is good at building coalitions with other student groups. We need to do better. And we’ve found no more effective way to do so than bringing the leaders of these student groups to Israel together with key pro-Israel activists from their campus. The more students see of Israel – including Israeli Arab and Palestinian perspectives – the more they reject the simplistic BDS narrative.
5. Ju-Jitsu Their Hate
Our polling demonstrates that there’s nothing millennials hate more than hate itself. This means that every time the anti-Israel crowd shows their true colors by crossing the line into incivility, they’re handing us a powerful talking point. We need to capture and publicize these ugly moments.
6. Local Training
We were surprised by how little most pro-Israel students know about Israel and its story. But while these students are interested in learning, they’re often unwilling to leave campus to do so. So we funded campus-based, multi-session training seminars for our top students. In the process, we were able to improve both the quantity and the quality of our activist base.
On August 1, Professor Hasia Diner of NYU and Professor Marjorie Feld of Babson College in Massachusetts took to the pages of Ha’aretz to denounce the world’s only Jewish state for being racist, colonialist, reactionary, aggressive, and – this above all – Jewish. Vilification of Israel has long been de rigueur in that newspaper. “When it comes to defaming Jews,” says a character in Philip Roth’s Operation Shylock, “the Palestinians are pisherkes [small fry] next to Ha’aretz.”Expert: Hezbollah’s Storage of Missiles in Civilian Areas Will Make Next War “Catastrophic”
On August 2, the same publication (perhaps as a result of some internal dissent) printed a powerful rebuttal by historian Jonathan Sarna of Brandeis. Jeffrey Goldberg of Atlantic Monthly declared that he was “getting ready to leave Ha’aretz behind.” Later he added: “when neo-Nazis are e-mailing me links to Ha’aretz op-eds declaring Israel to be evil, I’m going to take a break.”
Both Feld and Diner tell what might be called unconversion tales, from Zionism to Israelophobia, raw hatred of Israel, of its people, and, still more, of Diaspora Jews who recognize that securing Israel is the moral duty of this generation. Feld hints that she was awakened from her Zionist “delusions” by the outpourings of Noam Chomsky, a writer who would be rendered virtually speechless on the subject of Israel if he stopped equating the Jewish nation with Nazi Germany. His loathing of American Jewry was expressed as follows in 1988: “The Jewish community here is deeply totalitarian. They do not want democracy, they do not want freedom.” Beautiful and touching words! Are they also music to the ears of disillusioned history professors?
Diner, more than Feld, has ideas all her own, some of which may surpass Chomsky’s ravings. For example, she contends that “the death of vast numbers of Jewish communities as a result of Zionist activity has impoverished the Jewish people.” Was it “Zionist activity” and not the Third Reich and its collaborators that annihilated European Jewry? Was it “Zionist activity” and not Arab dictatorships that expelled one Jewish population after another from countries they had inhabited for over a thousand years? And was it “Zionist activity” and not the devastation left by communism that prompted more than a million Jews to leave Russia?
The next war between Israel and Hezbollah “will be catastrophic” because the Iran-backed terror organization has stationed its military assets inside “built-up population centers in cities, towns and villages” in Lebanon, Stéphane Cohen, head of diplomatic outreach and security analysis for The Israel Project (which publishes The Tower), wrote in The Times of Israel on Thursday.Egypt: Head of ISIS-Sinai Province Killed in Airstrike Along With Dozens of Jihadists
Cohen, who served as an IDF liaison officer to the UN during the last Lebanon war ten years ago, observed that at that time Hezbollah only had around 12,000 rockets and missiles at its disposal. It is now believed to have more than 110,000. Some analysts estimate that Hezbollah’s rocket and missile arsenal is greater than that of all 27 non-U.S. NATO nations combined.
The growth in Hezbollah’s arsenal is significant, Cohen wrote, because “Hezbollah has no regard for international law” and its rockets “are intended to kill as many civilians as possible.”
In addition to the threat to Israel, Cohen pointed out, a future war would be catastrophic to Lebanon as well. Lebanon is already home to over 1.5 million refugees from Syria, and Hezbollah’s actions have left the government barely functional. A war could “topple” the country entirely.
The leader of the Islamic State’s affiliate in the Sinai Peninsula was killed in an airstrike along with dozens of the group’s fighters, the Egyptian army said Thursday.Syria’s warlords were nobodies. Now they are rich men with sex slaves
Military forces “were able to kill the leader [of] Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, the terrorist called Abu Doaa al-Ansari, and a number of his top aides in addition to more than 45 terrorist elements,” the Egyptian military’s chief spokesman, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Samir, said in an Arabic statement posted to his Facebook page and translated by Agence France-Presse.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis pledged its allegiance to ISIS in 2014, and now calls itself Wilayat Sayna or ISIS-Sinai Province.
A military source who spoke with AFP said Ansari was the group’s “number one” commander. He and his fighters were “targeted with precise hits” against strongholds near the northern Sinai town of al-Arish, according to the army spokesman. Stores of weapons, ammunition, and explosives were also destroyed during the operation.
ISIS-Sinai Province has carried out multiple attacks against Egyptian security forces in recent years, and is the primary suspect in the downing of a Russian airliner that killed 224 people in the Sinai in October.
In a video published on Monday, the group — which has close ties to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, and in the past fired rockets at Israel’s southern region — threatened to turn Israel into “a graveyard for Jews.”
Some say all this is America’s fault. Firstly, at the start of the conflict, President Obama declared that Assad should go, encouraging many in the uprising to think they had a superpower ally and so victory was inevitable. Secondly, the US then failed to intervene decisively — letting Saudi and Kuwaiti donors put their imprint on the emerging armed groups. People in rebel-held areas did turn to the jihadis in 2013 when the Americans failed to bomb the regime, as President Obama had threatened after the chemical attacks outside Damascus. But the character of the armed uprising was always Islamist, or at least Islamic. The battle cry of every single armed group I met in about a dozen trips inside Syria was not ‘Democracy’ but ‘God is great’. This is one reason why a US training scheme produced ‘only four or five’ rebel fighters despite spending half a billion dollars, as an embarrassed general admitted to Congress last year. (Yes, those figures are correct.)Obama: Israel Loves My Iran Deal! Israel: Your Iran Deal Is Worse Than Cancer.
The US could not have changed the nature of the uprising, though it could perhaps have nudged it in a more moderate direction. This is clearly not going to happen while Obama sees out the last months of his presidency —but even a more engaged US president would struggle with the forces driving the conflict. All sides in the war have been corrupted and degraded by fighting it. Last month there was a report that the US-backed Noureddine Zinki Brigade in Aleppo had beheaded a 12-year-old boy in front of cheering bystanders. The child was said to have been captured while fighting for a pro-regime militia.
Syria’s agony will go on, not just because of big power politics but, more importantly, because so many rebel leaders had nothing — were nothing — before the war and now have everything. One brigade commander made bricks in the sun for a living and now drives a BMW. Two Yazidi sisters told me that the ‘emir’ who bought them as sex slaves had been the village odd job man, who used to beg their father for work. The emir who captured the Kurdish journalist may have ended up in jail, but there are many more like him, for whom war is a business. And business is good.
On Friday, the day after Barack Obama openly lied about Israeli support for his Iran nuclear deal -- which grants the Iranians hundreds of billions of dollars with no limitations on terror funding or ballistic missile testing, and a clear path to a nuclear weapon after a decade – the Israeli Defense Ministry sounded off:Opposition MKs slam Defense Ministry’s harsh rebuttal of Obama over Iran deal
The Munich Agreement didn’t prevent the Second World War and the Holocaust precisely because its basis, according to which Nazi Germany could be a partner for some sort of agreement, was flawed, and because the leaders of the world then ignored the explicit statements of Hitler and the rest of Nazi German’s leaders. These things are also true about Iran, which also clearly states openly that its aim is to destroy the state of Israel.
The Defense Ministry continued by stating that the Iran deal “only damages the uncompromising struggle we must make against terrorist states like Iran.”
Thursday, Obama fibbed that “Israeli military and security community…acknowledges this has been a game-changer, the country that was most opposed to the deal.”
Obama has been lying about the Iran deal all along, of course. His White House now brags that they crafted a fictionalized account of the deal wherein the “election” of “moderate” Hassan Rouhani ushered in an opening for diplomacy – even though in truth, Obama had been pursuing a deal long before Rouhani’s election. The White House lied throughout the Iran deal process on the elements of the deal and its secret side-sections. They lied that it wasn’t a treaty. They lied that it would contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions. They lied that Iran hadn’t captured American sailors to humiliate the United States. This week, they’re lying that they didn’t pay a $400 million ransom to free American hostages.
Israel’s already been screwed by the deal, of course. Iran is using American-freed money to pay off Hezbollah and Hamas, terrorist groups who will use that cash to kill Israeli children. And Obama’s bragging about it. No wonder Israel’s ticked.
On Saturday, Meretz leader Zehava Galon criticized the Defense Ministry statement and said recently installed Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman was trying to sabotage Israeli-US relations “just a moment before the military aid act is going to pass in the US Senate.”Iran: $400 Million in Cash Was Part of ‘Expensive Price’ to Free U.S. Hostages
Galon was quoted by Israel Radio as saying that Liberman “was intent on destroying [Israel’s] relations with the US.”
On Twitter, Galon said Liberman’s “rhetoric of threats, victimization and fear serves his own political needs, and not Israel’s security.”
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid called the Defense Ministry statement “a combination of diplomatic irresponsibility and an additional and redundant damage to US-Israel relations. An Israeli official cannot simply compare an American president to those who succumbed to the Nazis. The Americans tend to remember such insults and it again destabilizes the core of the relationship.”
Iranian television has broadcast what some say is purported footage of the $400 million pallets of cash that officials claim was part of the “expensive price” paid by the Obama administration to free several U.S. hostages.Iran executes nuclear scientist who had ‘defected’ to US
The footage, which could not be independently verified, shows images of large stacks of hard currency and features claims that the Obama administration sent this money over as part of an effort to free several U.S. hostages. The White House vehemently denied these claims this week following new reports about the cash exchange.
BBC Persian reporter Hadi Nili posted the footage on Twitter, describing it as showing the “pallets of cash” and quoting officials as saying “this was just part of the ‘expensive price’ to release Americans.”
The footage, which is from an Iranian documentary published a few months ago, contradicts claims by Obama administration officials maintaining that the payment was completely unrelated to the release of these U.S. hostages, despite the payment having been supplied on the same day these individuals were freed by Iran.
Iran experts who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon said that it is impossible to verify if the images show the same pallets of cash transferred by the Obama administration.
The footage also claims that the Obama administration insisted the negotiations over the matter take place in secret and threatened Iranian officials who may have leaked information to the media.
An Iranian nuclear scientist who had defected to the US was executed in Iran, according to reports in the local press on Saturday.BioCatch tracks memory use to catch cybercrooks
Shahram Amiri was a nuclear researcher at Malek Ashtar University of Technology and worked for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization. He is said to have had in-depth knowledge of Iran’s controversial nuclear program.
His family said he was executed on August 3 and that they had been allowed to visit him the day before.
Amiri disappeared briefly while on pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in 2009 and resurfaced in Washington some time later.
While in the US, he recorded and posted a series of bizarre videos, first claiming he had been kidnapped by US and Saudi agents and forced to reveal sensitive information while “under intense psychological pressure,” and in a second video, saying he was living in Arizona and wanted to study there. In a later post, he said he wanted to go home.
According to some reports, his family was harassed and tortured in a bid to force him to return to Iran, which he did in 2010 to a hero’s welcome, before disappearing again.
Did you know that everyone has a distinctive way of moving a mouse, tapping a phone or typing on a keyboard? Moreover, when you identify yourself to your bank or an online store by inserting information about yourself, like your home address or date of birth, you are using long-term memory rather than short-term, and this can be seen from the way you interact with your computer or smartphone.Teva buys Anda for $500 million
In fact, that’s what Israeli start-up BioCatch uses to distinguish the bad guys from the good guys.
The company’s latest product, which is already deployed in a set of tier-one banks and eCommerce customers, “differentiates between good users and criminal users, for situations where there is no historic data about these first time visitors,” said Avi Turgeman, the founder of Tel Aviv based BioCatch, a financial security tech firm.
The company has already been selling software that checks over 500 bio-behavioral, cognitive and physiological parameters to create unique user profiles — and an individual web presence — for visitors to banking and eCommerce sites.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the world’s largest generic medicines producer, has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Anda, the fourth largest distributor of generic pharmaceuticals in the US, for $500 million.Chief Rabbi of Poland: Memory of World’s Inaction During Holocaust Should Spur Jews to Help Today’s Persecuted Christians
The mega acquisition comes one day after Teva completed its acquisition of Allergan’s generics business, Actavis Generics. Allergan received $33.43 billion in cash and $5.4 billion in Teva stock, according to a Teva statement.
“Teva now has some of the best assets, people and capabilities in the industry. We have a clear responsibility to turn those strengths into meaningful results for patients, customers and the communities we serve, as well as for our shareholders,” said Siggi Olafsson, President and CEO, Global Generic Medicines, Teva.
Headquartered in Jerusalem, Teva is a leading global pharmaceutical company with a portfolio of more than 1,800 medicines and 16,000 products for nearly every therapeutic area.
Teva CEO Erez Vigodman told AFP that “one in six prescriptions in the US [will be] Teva, one in six in the UK, one in eight in Germany,” in the wake of these acquisitions.
Poland’s chief rabbi said the world’s inaction during the Holocaust should serve as a reminder to Jews to help Christians suffering persecution at the hands of jihadists, the Catholic publication Crux reported on Wednesday.
Rabbi Michael Schudrich — who said this in the wake of Pope Francis’s visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau last week — added, “There are many more attacks on Christians — just because they are Christians — than on Jews,” who have a 2,000-year history of persecution.
“What it means to me is that the pain that we Jews still feel because of the overwhelming silence of the world — not everyone but the majority were silent — during the Shoah [Holocaust], means that we have to be the first ones to step up to the place,” he said. “We have to be the first ones to yell and scream and say, ‘No.’”
On Wednesday, recounting his visit to Auschwitz, Pope Francis told pilgrims at the Vatican that while touring the Nazi death camp he reflected on today’s world, which he described as being “sick with cruelty, violence and suffering,” the UK’s Daily Mail reported.
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