Sunday, August 14, 2016
DC Leaks Publishes George Soros’ Files Showing Millions Contributed to Anti-Israel Causes
Jewish Hungarian-American business magnate George Soros, whose company files were hacked by the same outfit that in June hacked the DNC computers, was a major contributor to anti-Israel and anti-Zionist causes, as appears from an archive of leaked documents of the DC Leaks website.Douglas Murray: Islamic Islamophobia: When Muslims Are Not Muslim Enough, What Does It Promise for the Rest of Us?
Soros, one of the 30 richest people in the world, is known as “The Man Who Broke the Bank of England” in 1992 with his short sale of $10 billion in British pounds, which made him a profit of $1 billion and brought Black Wednesday upon the UK currency, has a special spot for groups that fight Israel and Israelis on multiple levels.
The list of groups hostile to Zionism and to the Jewish State that received funds from Soros is very long:
Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, received a $400,000 grant in 2014-15 and 14 additional grants since 2001 totaling $2,688,561. The recently released document under the banner of the Movement for Black Lives, labeling Israel as an “apartheid state” and accusing Israel of committing “genocide” against Arabs, is the handiwork of Nadia Ben-Youssef, Adalah’s US representative, which the document lists as an “author and contributor.”
Incidentally, according to NGO Monitor, Adalah’s promotion of BDS directly contravenes the stated policies of its funder, the New Israel Fund (NIF). NIF’s position on BDS states that it “will not fund global BDS activities against Israel nor support organizations that have global BDS programs.” Nevertheless, from 2008-2015, NIF donated $1,975,826 to Adalah.
And, lo and behold, NIF is also listed as a recipient of Soros’ support, 9 grants totaling $837,500 since 2009. One of these grants, for $60,000, was given in 2015 to the Herman Schwartz Human Rights Law Fellowship, to “strengthen the capacities of young Palestinian legal professionals in legal advocacy by undertaking an LL.M. degree in human rights law in the US along with internships opportunities in Israel.”
Talk about Tikkun Olam…
Of course, if Mr Shah's murderer had been a non-Muslim, there would be a concerted effort by the entirety of the media and political class to find out what inspirations and associations the murderer had. Specifically, they would want to know if there was anybody -- especially any figure of authority -- who had ever, for instance, called for the murder of Muslim shopkeepers. Yet when a British Muslim kills another British Muslim for alleged "apostasy," and local religious authorities are found to have praised or mourned the killers of people accused of "apostasy," the same people cannot bother to stir themselves. There is talk of being "taken out of context" or there are warnings not to "generalise" or be "Islamophobic" or any number of other fatuous get-out clauses.Palestinian woman attempts to stab IDF soldiers in northern West Bank
What happened this week in court when Tanveer Ahmed was found guilty and sentenced for the murder of Asad Shah was even more revealing. After the judge read out the sentence, Tanveer Ahmed raised his fist and started shouting in Arabic "There is only one prophet." Supporters, who made up around half the people in the public gallery, joined in with his cries. All of which made it understandable that the family of Mr Shah had been too terrified to turn up in court during the trial of their relative's murderer, and are apparently planning to leave Scotland.
Then, outside the court, a news reporter from LBC Radio confronted some of the murderer's family members. The video is worth watching. "Did Asad Shah deserve to die?" he asks the killer's family as they head to their car. They refuse to comment.
When another supporter is asked whether he thinks it was "respectful" for the killer to do the chanting he did in the dock, he becomes threatening and says, "Yeah, he's respecting his prophet. He's saying 'I love my prophet'. What's wrong with that?" Asked if he thinks the sentence was fair, the man replies "No." Asked in what way, he replies, "No comment."
It is, of course, a good thing that the criminal justice system has done its job and done it swiftly. Asad Shah's murderer has been brought to justice and been given a suitably long sentence. But this case should have provided a learning moment for politicians, the media and wider society to finally understand the full threat to our society that this type of fanaticism poses, as well as a realistic awareness of how widespread that fanaticism actually is. Instead, on glimpsing for a moment how deeply this problem goes, it seems that the UK has decided once again to turn away and avert its gaze, for fear of what it might otherwise find out.
A Palestinian assailant was arrested Sunday evening after she stabbed and lightly injured a female soldier at a checkpoint in the northern West Bank, Israeli officials said.
The Palestinian woman emerged from a car at a checkpoint near the settlement of Shaked, west of Jenin, then pulled a knife out and lunged at the soldiers, the army said.
The troops at the scene subdued the attacker and placed her under arrest, without the use of force. The wounded soldier, who suffered a very mild injury to the shoulder, was treated at the scene.
The assailant was taken for questioning by security forces.
Lessons of Lebanon, 10 Years On
This Sunday marks the ten-year anniversary of the end of the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah War in Lebanon. The war began when Hezbollah crossed into Israeli territory from southern Lebanon, killed three soldiers, injured two others, and kidnapped two more. While Lebanon professed its innocence, it had made a conscience choice to allow Hezbollah to assert its primacy along its southern border following Israeli’s UN-certified withdrawal in May 2000. Israel’s war aims were to eradicate Hezbollah missile stockpiles and Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon. While the Israeli military succeeded in knocking out many Hezbollah stockpiles, the Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia managed to launch hundreds of missiles and rockets, striking as far south as Haifa and killing several dozen Israelis.'Nasrallah hides in a bunker while Israeli children play outside'
A chorus of international officials called for Israel to cease its attacks at once. French President Jacques Chirac condemned Israel’s actions as “completely disproportionate,” and Russian President Vladimir Putin called Israel’s “use of full-scale force” unacceptable. Even U.S. officials chimed in. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned, “It is extremely important that Israel exercize restraint in its acts of self-defense.” Hillary Clinton, then a New York senator, doubled down on the call for an immediate ceasefire and demanded the United States and Israel resolve the situation diplomatically. “We’ve had five and a half years of a failed experiment in tough talk absent diplomacy and engagement,” she said. “I think it’s time to go back to what works, and what has historically worked and what can work again.”
By diplomacy, European officials, Clinton, and eventually the Bush administration meant the problem should be punted back to the United Nations. There was some irony in this, especially since Hezbollah had armed and launched its attack under the watch of UNIFIL, the UN monitoring agency in southern Lebanon. Still, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan promised a bigger, better (and more expensive) UN monitoring force to keep the peace if only hostilities would stop. “It is urgent that the international community acts to make a difference on the ground,” he said, “The force will be larger, the way I see it, much larger than the 2000-man force we have there.” British Prime Minister also endorsed an international force. “The only way we are going to have a cessation of violence is if we have an international force deployed into that area,” he explained.
Ultimately, Israel caved to international pressure for a ceasefire short of fulfilling its goals to uproot completely Hezbollah. Speaking upon the conclusion of the war and the unanimous passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, President George W. Bush spoke about the achievement of the ceasefire and the work ahead:
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah made renewed threats to Israel on Saturday, but one Israeli politician, who was defense minister in 2006 during the Second Lebanon War, had some harsh words for the terror leader.UN says Gaza employee diverted rubble on PA instructions
"While Nasrallah has hid in a bunker for the past 10 years, children in Kiryat Shmona have been playing at playgrounds and going to school without fear," said Zionist Union MK Amir Peretz on Sunday. "From our point of view, that is victory enough."
Turning his attention toward the 2017-2018 budget, which the cabinet approved on Friday, Peretz said that "A larger budget is needed to stand up to the challenge" posed by Israel's enemies. "The IDF learned its lessons of war and put them into use...but there is still much to be done.
The United Nations on Saturday said a Gaza employee had diverted tons of rubble on instructions from the Palestinian Authority (PA) days after Israel charged him with aiding Islamist movement Hamas.Two years ago today: Jewish Chronicle helped fund Hamas (satire)
Engineer Waheed Abd Allah Bossh, 38, who worked for the UN Development Program (UNDP), was arrested on July 16 and accused by Israel of being recruited by a Hamas member to “redirect his work for UNDP to serve Hamas’s military interests.”
He was charged in an Israeli court with diverting 300 tons of rubble from a UNDP project in the coastal enclave to a Hamas operation to build a jetty for its naval force.
Hamas, the Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip since 2007, have denied any involvement.
Exactly two years ago today I wrote this article about the Jewish Chronicle's disgraceful decision to include a full page (unpaid for) advert for the DEC Gaza appeal.
We now know that almost all of the funding from that appeal (which was one of the most successful DEC appeals in history in the UK) went directly to Hamas. But anybody with half a brain knew that was going to happen then. Here is the graphic I produced for a follow-up article two days later:
Rio Games honoring Israel’s athletes massacred at 1972 Olympics
Israeli, Brazilian and Olympic officials were to attend a memorial ceremony Sunday evening for the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches slain by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics.After judo medals, Israel basks in success of new ‘national sport’
The commemoration at Rio De Janeiro city hall will be attended by family members of the Israeli victims and Olympic officials from Israel and Brazil.
Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev and Israel’s new consul general to San Paulo, Dori Goren, will represent the Israeli government at the event.
At the start of the month, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach led a mourning ceremony for the slain Israelis in tribute that a widow of one of the victims said brought “closure” for the families.
Forget the handshake that wasn’t — Israel is delighted with something much more unusual: international athletic success.Bronze medal judoka: Muslim athletes often snub Israelis
While an Egyptian judoka’s refusal to shake hands with his Israeli opponent at the Rio Olympics reverberated worldwide, in Israel the focus is on national Olympic medals — something far more novel than Middle East tensions.
The country entered the 2016 games with twice as many Nobel laureates as Olympic medalists.
After defeating Egyptian Islam El Shehaby in the contentious first round match in Rio, Israel’s Or Sasson went on to win a bronze medal in the heavyweight category. His triumph, and another bronze medal for Yarden Gerbi in the women’s 63-kilogram judo division, has set off a national celebration in which the nation’s leaders have hailed the pair as heroes.
“I still can’t digest it. I’m stunned,” the 25-year-old Sasson said. “We did something amazing. Israel is a judo empire.”
Israel’s Olympic judoka Or Sasson said Sunday that he did not expect his Egyptian opponent, whom he defeated en route to winning a bronze medal, to shake his hand, but still decided to extend his own hand to his opponent to show “respect.”BBC Sport reports snub to Israeli judoka – but gets his name wrong
Speaking from Rio de Janeiro two days after winning the medal in the over-100kg tournament, Sasson said that Muslim athletes are often cold toward Israeli competitors, but that while rival judokas may not be friends, they should show appreciation for each other.
“To honor your rival is something I was educated to do,” he told Army Radio. “The Olympics is built on respect.”
The Egyptian El Youm el Sabah news site on Sunday quoted Islam El Shehaby, Sasson’s rival, as saying he did not initially plan to ignore the outstretched hand of his Israeli opponent, but that it was rather a spur-of-the-moment decision.
Shehaby noted he didn’t break any rules by not shaking Sasson’s hand moments after the Israeli threw him to the mat, beating him.
“The Israeli athlete is not my friend who I must greet,” he said, adding, “I worked really hard to get into this Olympics, and in the end it turned into something political.”
On August 13th BBC Sport produced a report which was billed “Egyptian refuses to shake Israeli’s hand” on the BBC News website’s Middle East page.'Removing Israel's flag is surrendering to terror'
However, those following the link to the article titled “Rio Olympics 2016: ‘Not what the Olympics are about’ – judo player refuses to shake hands” were inaccurately informed that the latest Israeli sportsperson to encounter racist snubs from fellow Olympians is called “Os Sasson”. The judoka’s first name is of course Or.
Before Ori Sasson won Israel's second bronze medal at the Rio Olympics on Friday, an incident following his first fight created an international stir.
Sasson's defeated opponent, Egypt's Islam el-Shahabi, refused to shake the Israeli Judoka's outstretched hand or engage in the traditional mutual bow of respect. This came after el-Shahabi had threatened to refuse to compete altogether. The incident has raised the issue of Arab athletes' conduct toward Israelis in international sporting events, as part of the larger subject of the intersection between sports and politics when Israel is involved.
MK Yoel Razvozov (Yesh Atid), a former Olympic Judoka himself, spoke to Arutz Sheva about the matter. Razvozov has sent a letter, signed by representatives of all the Knesset factions, to Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), demanding that Israel's flag never be barred from international competitions, even when they're held in Arab nations.
"As far as I'm concerned, when one of our athletes competes and then stands on the podium without an Israel flag, but rather the flag of an international organization, this constitutes a surrender to terror," said MK Razvozov, who also serves as Chairman of the Knesset Sports Lobby. "What do the Arab countries want? They want to use the fact that they have a lot of money to hide our flag when they host competitions, to show that they don't recognize us. This is what happened when athletes from Iran refused to compete against me because they didn't want to show any recognition of Israel as a state."
When asked why the world ignores this shameful treatment of Israeli athletes, Razvozov said that "there's the issue of the money. A country wins the right to host a competition two years in advance, it then invests a lot of money, and and a week before the competition announces it won't grant visas to the Israeli delegation, or at any rate won't allow them to compete under the Israeli flag. Sometimes they simply don't have the flag without having announced anything in advance."
Michael Foster, a Jewish donor to the British Labour Party, on Saturday night condemned Jeremy Corbyn's close team as "Nazi stormtroopers,' further intensifying the competition for the future of the Labour Party.After MP’s murder, UK lawmakers turn to Israeli martial art
In an op-ed published by the British Daily Mail Sunday entitled 'Why I despise Jeremy Corbyn and his Nazi stormtroopers,' Foster berated the current leadership of the British Labour Party.
Specifically, Foster described the inner circle around Corbyn as his 'Sturmabteilung'- the name for the Nazi regime's stormtroopers.
The remarks came after Britain's Court of Appeal judges strengthened the leadership challenger, Owen Smith, by ruling that 130,000 new members to the opposition party could not vote. These members are thought to back Corbyn.
"This decision advantaged Corbyn and his Sturm Abteilung (stormtroopers), but on Friday afternoon the Appeal Court handed down a big decision for British democracy," Foster wrote.
After the murder of MP Jo Cox in the contentious run-up to June’s Brexit referendum on remaining in the European Union, British lawmakers are learning the Israeli martial art of Krav Maga in order to defend themselves from possible violent attacks.Will Israel-Hating UK MPs Boycott Their Free Israeli Jew-Jitsu Course?
Parliament members and their staffers are being offered free classes as a way of fighting off possible assailants armed with knives or guns, the Daily Mail reported.
The lessons are being provided by Parli-Training, a company that normally provides advice on lobbying and speech writing, the report said. Two MPs and 18 parliamentary aides attended the first training session, according to company founder Mendora Ogbogbo.
‘We are teaching them techniques where if someone comes at them with a knife or a gun, they can disarm the weapons and then run. They are not being taught how to fight,” Ogbogdo told the Daily Mail.
“Another technique we are teaching them is called the ‘rhino,’ where they know how to cover the vulnerable parts of their heads when someone is punching them. This will give them a vital three or four minutes before someone intervenes.”
AnotherHezbollah leader endorses Trump’s claim that US created ISmegamaga BDS fail.
MPs in Westminster are being offered free lessons in Krav Maga so that they can protect themselves against terrorists and political extremists. It comes after the killing of Labour MP Mrs Cox outside her West Yorkshire surgery in June.How ironic that it took the murder of Jo Cox – a proponent of BDS – to lead to this.
The training, available to MPs since last week, is being provided by Parli-Training, a company which normally provides advice on lobbying and speech writing.
It concentrates on how to defend against the ten most common attacks, which include a ‘swinging punch to the head’; ‘a bottle, glass or ashtray to the head’; and a ‘slash with knife, most commonly a 3-4in lock blade or kitchen utility knife’.
There are plenty of anti-Israel and pro-BDS MPs in Britain. They are more than welcome to boycott this.
Donald Trump has found at least one person who agrees with his allegation that the US administration founded the Islamic State group.Inconsistent on Israel? Prominent Jewish Republican calls for clarity from Trump
The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group quoted Trump at a rally in the country’s south Saturday, saying the presidential candidate’s statements were based on facts.
“This is an American presidential candidate who is saying this. What he says is based on facts and documents,” Hassan Nasrallah said.
Trump this week described President Barack Obama as the “founder” of IS. After at first defending the claim, Trump later said it was intended as sarcasm.
Nasrallah, who has sent thousands of his fighters to Syria to shore up President Bashar Assad’s forces, has long claimed that the US helped create and fuel the rise of Islamic extremists to destabilize the Middle East.
Donald Trump needs to show the same sort of consistency in his stated support for Israel as he does in his ferocious opposition to Islamic State, Eric Cantor, the former House majority leader, told The Jerusalem Post this weekend.Newly discovered papers refute Palestinians' Temple Mount lies
In an interview, Cantor– one of the highest-ranking Republicans in Congress and the only Jewish member of his caucus before losing his seat in a 2014 primary challenge– left nothing to the imagination: He is unhappy with the nation’s choices for president between Trump, the Republican nominee, and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
He called both Trump and Clinton “very imperfect.” But “this is a race between two candidates now,” he said, “and I will continue to support the Republican candidate.”
Whether Trump is a reliable ally for Israel is of concern to Cantor, who throughout his career in Congress maintained a steady track record on votes that deepened American commitments to the Jewish state. Asked whether he trusted a President Trump to maintain a newly minted, decade-long US defense package to Israel estimated to be worth $36-40 billion, Cantor equivocated, and said that Trump’s unpredictability– especially in dealing with America’s oldest allies– gave him real pause.
New historical documents revealed over the weekend further refute the Palestinians' attempts to rewrite history, especially pertaining to the Jewish claim to the Temple Mount.MKs denied entry to Temple Mount on Jewish day of mourning
The Palestinian Authority's propaganda over the past few years has spared no effort to debunk the inextricable Jewish link to the holy Jerusalem site, relentlessly underscoring only the Muslim link to Al-Aqsa mosque.
Recently, the Palestinians have begun claiming their right to the site stretches beyond the Al-Aqsa compound to include the entire site -- even the Western Wall.
Nevertheless, two historical documents -- "A brief Guide to Al-Haram Al-Sharif," issued in 1924 by Jerusalem Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini's Supreme Muslim Council, and an official Jordanian tourist map from 1956 -- clearly identify only the familiar Al-Aqsa mosque compound as a Muslim site.
The Supreme Muslim Council's document states that "the site's affiliation with Solomon's Temple is undisputed."
The Jordanian map, which is in the possession of map collector Haim Steinberger, clearly indicates that at the time, Jordan recognized only the southern part of the compound, where Al-Aqsa mosque is, as Muslim territory.
Knesset members that had requested to enter the Temple Mount premises today on Tisha B'Av, which mourns the destruction of the first and second Jewish Temples, were denied, in the wake of Prime Minister Netanyahu's policy of forbidding Knesset members from entering the Temple Mount.PreOccupiedTerritory: Jews Fasting Today To Mock Palestinian Hunger Strikers (satire)
Apparently, in spite of reports that the Mount would be open to Knesset members around the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan, the political echelon decided to maintain the restriction as it stands.
As a result, MK Yehuda Glick (Likud), who arrived at the gates of the Temple Mount this morning, was denied access, and said the traditional lamentations of Tisha B'Av near the Temple Mount entrance.
Minister of Agriculture Uri Ariel's (Jewish Home) request to enter the Temple Mount was likewise answered in the negative, as was his request to consider the matter a second time.
Ariel's office replied as a result, "There's nothing more natural than going to the Temple on Tisha B'Av[...] The time has come to stop the national subservience on the Temple Mount and to raise our heads, both in times of celebration and times of destruction."
After violent riots by Muslims on the Temple Mount this morning, police closed the Mount to Jewish visitors altogether.
Advocates for the welfare of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel are calling today’s Jewish observance of a fast day an offensive mockery of the prisoners’ suffering.PreOccupiedTerritory: Waqf To Build Baseball Diamond On Temple Mount ‘For Glory Of Allah’ (satire)
A group of activists took to social media this morning to denounce the practice of Tisha B’Av, or the ninth of the month of Av, as a tasteless, hateful institution aimed at dehumanizing Palestinians who refuse to eat in protest over their treatment.
“It’s disgusting,” charged Aideena Nabbettine, whose brother is serving a six-year sentence for stabbing and wounding a Jewish teenager last year. “They must know about the hunger strike of the prisoners – it’s been all over social media and the Arabic press.” Her remarks appeared on the Facebook page of the advocacy group Yesh Din.
International activists have also taken an interest in the case. “This is just another example of poisonous Israeli attitudes toward oppressed Palestinians,” said Jacob Burns of Amnesty International. “But in fact it’s even worse than most people imagine. It’s not only the hunger-striking prisoners in Israelis jails that the people who fast are mocking, but also the ones in Palestinian prisons.”
The Islamic religious authority that administers the affairs of a contested sacred compound unveiled plans today for the construction of a baseball stadium on the plateau’s northern end to augment the holiness of the site and bring more honor to God.Council chief sued for saying Arabs shouldn’t enter Jewish pools
The Waqf, the religious council governing the Temple Mount – known in Arabic as the Haram al-Sharif – released a plan Tuesday afternoon to build a diamond with artificial turf and extensive seating so that the throngs of Muslim youths visiting the compound will have recreational options available to them beyond the existing parkour and soccer events that occur there daily. With such a facility a stone’s throw from the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, worshipers will be able to engage in an additional ritual that celebrates the site’s Islamic heritage.
When completed, the field and stands will occupy most of the area of the Temple Mount between the Dome of the Rock and the Mount’s northern edge. The stadium will seat an estimated 25,000, and a specially-designed Jumbotron display will feature prominently over the center field seats. The Dome of the Rock will be visible beyond right field. Waqf officials said they expected preliminary work on the site to begin within three months and be competed by the spring of 2018, in time for the baseball season, an ambitious schedule unheard of in Jerusalem, a city with restrictive regulations on the size, design, and placement of buildings.
Two weeks after causing an uproar for saying he didn’t want Arabs in his community pools, Lower Galilee Regional Council leader Moti Dotan has been hit by a NIS 10 million class action lawsuit.Report: Abbas calls on Israeli Arabs to help mend Hamas-Fatah rift
The Coalition Against Racism filed papers against Dotan at Nazareth’s District Court on Sunday, Channel 2 reported.
The plaintiffs claimed Israel’s entire Arab population was eligible to demand compensation for potential discrimination at the council’s pools.
Interviewed on the Kol Chai radio station on July 28, Dotan, whose council represents several kibbutzim and Jewish towns in the Galilee, said, “I don’t hate Arabs, but I don’t want them at my pools. I don’t go to their pools, either.”
Saying his views were reflective of “cultural differences” and not racism, he cited different dress norms and “hygiene culture.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on Israeli Arab leaders to mediate between Hamas and Fatah, saying he would accept any understandings that they would draw up, Israel Radio reported on Sunday.Hows that Siege going? New Hospital completed in Gaza
According to the report, Abbas made the suggestion at a meeting Saturday night in Ramallah with members of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, Arab Mks, former Hadash MK Mohammed Barakeh, municipal heads, academics and businessmen.
Israel Radio quoted a participant at the meeting as saying that Abbas authorized members of the delegation to mediate between the heads of Fatah and Hamas.
Abbas was also quoted as telling the delegation that “we need to get to every Israeli and show that we very much want peace.”
The newly constructed Palestine-Turkey Friendship Hospital will be Gaza's largest when it becomes fully operational in 2017. Funded by the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA), this is the second hospital to open in Gaza since the 2014 war with IsraelCanadian university accused of ‘banning’ Jewish students
According to Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) which funded the project, the $40 million dollar facility will include cancer and heart research and treatment departments as well as a prayer room and library.
A Qatar funded hospital is also expected to open later this year.
For the first time, a Jewish or pro-Israel organization is taking legal action against the faculty and student associations of a Canadian university.Jewish activists lead global protest in Palestinian village of Sussiya
On August 3, Hasbara Fellowships Canada filed a formal complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, where it accused the student and faculty associations of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) and Durham College of discriminating against Jewish students and Israel, following the banning of Hasbara Fellowships Canada from participating in a student association-sponsored “Social Justice Week” five months ago.
For activists affiliated with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the university-funded Social Justice Week meant an opportunity to advance Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activities against the Jewish state. When it came to the request of pro-Israel students to participate, however, Hasbara Fellowships Canada was banned.
In an email sent by UOIT’s faculty association to Robert Walker, national director of Hasbara Fellowships Canada, the reason for banning a Jewish student group at the publicly funded university was explained:
“The Student Association passed a motion endorsing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement [in January],” read the faculty association’s email to Walker. “Your organization seems closely tied to the state of Israel and as such, it would be against the motion to provide any type of resources to your organization,” said the email.
As around 30 mostly American and Israeli-American Jews brought in the Shabbat with Hebrew prayers, a strong wind carried the muezzin’s evening call for prayer from the nearby Palestinian city of Yatta, interweaving the Jewish and Islamic melodies.Obama told Engel he supports Iran Sanctions Act renewal
This group of Jewish activists was spending Shabbat evening in the Palestinian village of Sussiya as part of a “global Shabbat against demolitions,” which gathered around 300 Jews from some five countries to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian villages of Sussiya, Umm el-Kheir, al-Araqib and Umm el-Hiran. These villages are illegal under Israeli law as they were built without permits, and Sussiya is slated for demolition by the government.
Over the weekend, activists from Israel, the UK and the US hosted Shabbat dinners in more than 10 cities and five countries, including: New York, London, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Belgium, and Australia; and protested in front of the Israeli Embassy in London and consulate in New York.
The global protest is coordinated by All That’s Left, an anti-occupation collective of Diaspora Jews in partnership with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence and T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.
US President Barack Obama supports renewal of the Iran Sanctions Act before the law expires at the end of this year, despite his public silence on the matter, House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Eliot Engel told The Jerusalem Post this week.Wasserman Schultz Can’t Guarantee Iran Nuclear Deal Money Won’t Go to Attacking Israel
In a wide-ranging phone interview, Engel was asked whether he expects the White House to support an extension of the act, which served as the basis for a strict sanctions regime against the Islamic Republic before world powers agreed to a nuclear deal with Iran last year.
"Yes, I do expect it," Engel (D-New York) replied. "I've already talked to the president about it, and he's given me every indication that he supports it."
The act is expected to become a political lightning rod in Congress and an issue in the presidential campaign this fall. Advocates for its renewal believe the law provides what remains of US leverage over Iran, while skeptics fear its extension risks undermining the spirit of the landmark nuclear accord.
The Obama administration has not yet gone on record in support of ISA renewal, however. A senior administration official responded to Engel's remark by declining to comment on the president's private discussions.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.) couldn’t guarantee money Iran got through President Obama’s landmark nuclear deal wouldn’t go to financing terror attacks against Israel during her debate Sunday against primary challenger Tim Canova.Matisyahu performs with viral video singer at LA concert
Iran funds fanatical anti-Israel groups like Hamas and Hezbollah and is the largest state sponsor of terror in the world.
Debate moderator Jim DeFede brought up the $1.7 billion Iran got in January as part of a failed arms deal settlement, which included a $400 million cash payment on an unmarked cargo plane that critics charged was effectively a ransom and tied to the nuclear agreement. Iran freed four hostages on the same day it got the cash.
DeFede misspoke about the amounts of money allocated to Iran through the nuclear deal, which is more than $100 billion in sanctions relief, but the crux of his question was whether Wasserman Schultz could guarantee that none of it would be used by Iran to finance terrorist attacks against the Jewish state.
“Can you guarantee that that money, that $1.8 billion that’s part of the Iran deal, won’t be used to finance terror against Israel?” DeFede asked. “Can you guarantee it?”
“You can never guarantee anything, Jim,” she said.
Canova asked if he could interject, and Wasserman Schultz said, “No, you may not.”
A Hawaiian musician performed with Jewish American singer Matisyahu in California on Friday night, after scoring an invitation when the star caught him singing one of his songs in a Maui coffee shop last month.Ancient synagogue discovered in Galilee
Singer and ukulele player Kekoa Alama joined Matisyahu onstage at the at the Hollywood Palladium, thanks to his stirring rendition of the song “One Day.”
A clip of the performance was posted on Facebook by Matisyahu’s manager Stu Brooks.
On Friday night, the artists began with a duet of “One Day” before seguing into Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry.”
A synagogue dating back to the end of the Second Temple Era was discovered on the Tel Recheš Peak in the Galilee last week in a rare and unique archaeological find.Archeological finds, City of David bolster Jewish claim to J’lem
Last Tuesday, an excavation team discovered, just ten centimeters below the peak’s surface, a synagogue from the first century AD. The find contained a huge and impressive room nine meters high and eight meters wide with walls lined with benches made of limestone blocks. Diggers also discovered one of the two foundational pillars supporting the synagogue's roof.
The discovery is important not only because it coincides with the three-week mourning period preceding the fast of Tisha B’Av marking the destruction of the First and Second Temples, but because of its significance for the Christian population. The finding also reveals insights into customs of the ancient Jewish community and sheds light on watershed moments in Jewish history.
For six years Dr. Motti Aviam, an expert in archaeology of the Roman period and a senior researcher in the Kinneret Institute for Galilean Archaeology has been conducting digs at the upper areas of Tel Recheš, where an estate once stood during the Roman era.
“This is the first synagogue of its kind in the Galilee villages,” Dr. Aviam explained. “In Migdal, for example, there is a synagogue but that is a big city. Here we are talking about a magnificent agricultural area about four Dunam in size where buildings are decorated with frescoes and stucco articles. Jewish families lived in the estate but due to the fact that the nearest synagogue was four kilometers away (a distance deemed too far from a community according to Jewish law) the owner of the estate built the synagogue for himself and for the dozens of workers in his employment.”
Tisha Be’av is a day deeply rooted in Jewish history and memory, with its primary association being with the destruction of the Second Temple at the hands of the Roman Empire in 70 CE.Ben Shapiro Says The Left Hate Israel Because They Are Winning On The Adam Carolla Show
In the midst of controversy with international bodies such as UNESCO, remembering the religious and cultural heritage that the temple represents can take form in looking back at the biblical archeological record, something that City of David International Affairs Director Ze’ev Orenstein believes strongly bolsters the connection between Judaism and Jerusalem.
“If all that stuff is built on the notion that none of this ever happened, and then you pull a seal out of the ground with the names of the ministers straight out of the Bible one after the next in the same verse... that causes problems.”
Seals in reference to King Hezekiah, lower-level royal officials and even of a woman named Elihana bat Gael serve as proof of a 3,000-year connection between ancient Israel and the country we know today, adds Orenstein.
According to him, these discoveries present problems, however, for people who are committed to an opposing agenda.
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