Wednesday, October 05, 2016
A Look Inside the Latest Gaza Women’s Flotilla The activists on board are no peaceful bunch
Who’s on board these love boats? As you can imagine, those whose moral compasses guide them straight into the arms of murderers who execute gays, oppress women, and spend every penny they get on planning and executing terrorist attacks. Like Ola Abed: she’s one of the people behind Gaza Man, a video game that encourages kids to shoot as many Israelis as they can, with extra points given for headshots. Too callous for your taste? Head over to Abed’s Facebook page and enjoy her frequent expressions of support for murderous attacks on Israeli civilians, or sample her Twitter feed for a taste of more uplifting calls for peace and love, like the hashtag #GiveUsWeapons.Prince Charles visits grandmother's grave while in Jerusalem
The boats are sailing to Gaza from Barcelona, and these long nights at sea can get lonely, so Abed is lucky to have folks like Norsham Abu Bakr to keep her company. Abu Bakr, a Muslim Brotherhood supporter, has palled around with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and has waxed poetic on her Facebook page, sharing posts that accuse the Mossad of orchestrating the recent terrorist attacks in Munich and Nice. It’s a sentiment Wendy Goldsmith probably shares—the London, Ontario social worker, another of the boat’s passengers, was a chatty guest on Kevin Barrett’s Truth Jihad, a radio show dedicated in large part to promoting the idea that the Zionist entity is behind every major bloody attack in recent memory, starting with 9/11.
Don’t find any of this troubling? Unmoved by discrimination directed exclusively at Jews? No worries: the bigotry of the women on board contains multitudes. Just ask passenger Fauzia Hasan, a Malaysian doctor who has openly advocated banning Sisters in Islam, a Muslim women’s movement working for gender equality within the religion.
And so, if you seriously support a resolution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, pray that the Israeli navy swiftly takes over these boats before they reach Gaza’s terror-troubled shores, bringing this hateful journey to a peaceful end.
Charles, Prince of Wales, secretly visited his grandmother's grave while in Jerusalem for former president Shimon Peres' funeral.
Prince Charles' grandmother, Princess Alice of Battenburg, was buried at the Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem per her request.
Her remains were transferred to a crypt below the church in August of 1988.
The visit was made in secrecy and went unreported until a number of photos surfaced on social media accounts of people working with the church. The visit was reported first by Haaretz.
The Royal family has historically refrained from visiting the site due to its location in the eastern part of Jerusalem, to remain neutral in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
European anti-Semites increasingly playing victim in classic ‘perpetrator inversion,’ says expert
One of Europe’s most distinguished anti-Semitism researchers, Monika Schwarz-Friesel, has an alarming message: Scientific measures indicate a massive upsurge of Jew-hatred on the internet, as anti-Semitism reestablishes itself as an increasingly visible element in European mainstream discourse.Nazis, Jihadists, and Jew Hatred
A psychologist, linguist and professor of cognitive science at the Technical University of Berlin, Schwarz-Friesel is one of the most quoted experts on anti-Semitism in both international academic literature and the German media.
In her numerous publications she analyzes and exposes new manifestations of old anti-Semitic sentiments — disguised though they might be — employing much of the same Jew-hatred that has been shaping European discourse throughout the years, even when officially outlawed.
These analyses are evidence that recent anti-Israeli tropes demonizing the Jewish state are actually work-arounds of old anti-Semitic sentiments that have been with us for two millennia.
As the go-to scholar on anti-Semitism in Europe, in March 2016, Schwarz-Friesel delivered a keynote speech at the Berlin Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism in the Bundestag (the German federal parliament) which was attended by 100 lawmakers from 40 countries. In 2015 she wrote a much noted expertise that was part of the testimony against German journalist Jürgen Elsässer in a court case, in which the latter sued the publicist and former politician Jutta Ditfurth for calling him a “glowing anti-Semite.”
The day before his suicide Adolf Hitler issued a plea to humanity to continue to “resist mercilessly the poisoner of all nations, international Jewry.” Those who have most fervently heeded that call are not the neo-Nazis but the Islamic Jihadists. The association between National Socialism and Islamic Jihadism goes back to Hasan al-Banna’s founding of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928, the group that would spawn most of the major Jihadist movements of our time. Slogans extolling the Nazis were part of the Brotherhood’s propaganda campaign during the Palestinian Arab Revolt of 1936 – 1939, which was instigated by Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, with financial backing from the Nazis. In April and May 1938 the Brotherhood led violent demonstrations against Egyptian Jewish communities. In October 1938 they hosted the Parliamentary Conference for Arab and Muslim Countries in Cairo, where they distributed Arabic translations of Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.Anti-Semitism on Campus Is Not Just Uncivil, It's Intolerant
With onset of the war in Europe the Brotherhood became even more avid supporters of the Nazis. By 1945 they had become a hybrid of Nazism and Islam to form Islamic Jihadism, making the extermination of the Jews not just a political or territorial aim but a defining element of their worldview: one cannot be part of the Brotherhood or any other Islamic Jihadist group, just as one cannot be a Nazi, without espousing the extermination of the Jews. When on 20 June 1946 King Farouk granted asylum to al-Husseini, now wanted as a Nazi war criminal, al-Banna applauded the decision, declaring that “in Berlin he [al-Husseini] had been purely and simply carrying out jihad [just as the Nazis had done].” The Mufti thus became a source of inspiration to the Jihadists for his devotion to the Nazis’ extermination of the Jews. In al-Husseini, then, we have an important key to the connections that bind together Nazis, Jihadists, and Jew hatred.
Incivility is victimless; intolerance is not. Rude and unsociable behavior may have a negative impact on the campus climate, but it does not inherently target particular individuals or groups for harm. Intolerance, on the other hand, necessarily involves the singling out of those with differing views, beliefs or behavior.IsraellyCool: MissMuslim “Darling” Nihal Al Qawasmi A Fan Of Terrorists, Not So Much Jews
At many schools it is anti-Zionist activity, whose core goal is the suppression and delegitimization of Zionist expression and those presumed to support Israel, that is the primary source of intolerant behavior, making Jewish students one of the most victimized minorities on campus today.
For these reasons, when university administrators misidentify the harassment, intimidation, suppression of speech and ethnic discrimination of Jewish students as “incivility” rather than “intolerance,” they cannot help but fan the flames of anti-Jewish hostility on their campus.
The regents of the University of California clearly understood this when they unanimously approved a landmark statement entitled “Principles Against Intolerance,” which highlighted anti-semitism and anti-semitic anti-Zionism as forms of intolerance that “have no place at the University of California.” Using the term intolerance was no accident. It was a deliberate and important distinction.
It is high time for university leaders across the country to follow the UC regents’ lead. There must be zero tolerance for intolerance on our campuses.
And here’s the problem (because you knew I was getting to one): This new darling of the young, hip crowd and the face of a younger generation of Muslims feeling misunderstood, has shown herself to be an antisemite and Israel hater who supports terrorism.Irish councilor calls to throw out iPads in wake of Israel boycott motion
Canary Mission has compiled a whole dossier on her, but I’ll cut to the chase.
Translation: “we look like Jews..but we’re missing a yama[l]ka.”
Translation: “The country is ours and the Jews are our dogs.”
Perhaps realizing this kind of antisemitic rhetoric is not good for business, Nihal has more recently instructed others to differentiate between Jews and Israelis or Zionists.
There’s also the support for terrorism.
The Irish district council of Derry and Strabane approved a motion, by majority vote, to back a campaign to boycott Israeli goods in solidarity with Palestinians, Thursday.Syracuse U Pro-BDS Faculty Issue Call to ‘Resist’ Events Co-hosted with Israeli Institutions
Derry City and Strabane is a district in the northwest of Northern Ireland. In 2014 the council area had a population of roughly 150,000 people which totals approximately 8.1% of the population of Northern Ireland.
The motion was proposed by Councilor Christopher Jackson of the Sinn Féin political party and passed by a majority of 27 backing the motion to 9 opposed.
A small crowd gathered outside the council meeting carrying pro-BDS banners calling to "End Israeli Apartheid" and waving Palestinian flags.
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician Gary Middleton, a critic of the motion, lashed out saying that if they were serious about the boycott then the councilors should give up their iPads as Apple uses Israeli-manufactured flash memory components, the BBC reported.
"I think we all realize the huge role that the research and development sector within Israel plays."
"The iPhone I'm using, the iPads the council use, they all use components that come out of Israel," Mr. Middleton stated.
He added that the motion raises serious issues of discrimination and that he would put the question to the first minister of Ireland.
Last month, Syracuse University (SU) made headlines when a faculty member in the Religious Studies Department dis-invited an award-winning Israeli NYU Professor and filmmaker from a campus event out of fear of offending the political sensibilities of her BDS-supporting colleagues (see our prior posts covering the story).BBC WS breaches impartiality guidelines with Ben White interview on Peres
At the time, pro-BDS faculty signed a petition (subsequently posted onto Facebook) denying that any pressure to disinvite the filmmaker had existed and expressing their commitment to free speech and academic freedom.
But now many of these same professors, keen on moving the campus in a BDS direction, are making demands that call into question this articulated devotion to a campus community open to free expression.
Last Friday (September 23), a group of BDS-supporting faculty—primarily Humanities professors, but including some who work in the ‘soft’ Social Sciences—joined with some of their students to publish a letter in the Daily Orange, the campus student-run newspaper, calling for the boycott of SU events jointly run with Israeli academic institutions.
The 35 signatories also condemned an international conference which was being held on campus that day on account of its being co-hosted by SU’s program on conflict resolution and a Tel Aviv University peace studies center. The reason for the condemnation was that the conference failed to comply with BDS guidelines about boycott, non-interaction, and anti-normalization with Israeli institutions and scholars.
Anyone familiar with Ben White’s record – and the sole raison d’être behind his ‘journalism’ – would not be surprised in the least by his promotion of propaganda tropes such as “war criminal”, “illegal settlements” and “colonisation” or his false claims concerning a supposed “pre-election move” which erase from audience view both the Hizballah missile attacks against Israeli civilians which preceded Operation Grapes of Wrath or the post-Oslo surge in Palestinian terror attacks which were the real cause of Peres’ failure to win the 1996 election.Philippines’ Duterte apologizes at synagogue for Hitler remark
However, the vast majority of listeners to this programme around the world would of course have no idea of who Ben White is, no familiarity with his monochrome political agenda and no appreciation of the motives behind his appearance on this programme. And the trouble is that – in clear breach of BBC editorial guidelines – no effort was made by the ‘Newsday’ presenters to provide listeners with the relevant information concerning White’s “particular viewpoint” which would enable them to put his quoted Tweets or his long and cosy chat with Pollard into their appropriate context.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte visited a synagogue in the Manila metropolis Tuesday to personally apologize to the Jewish community for making a “terribly wrong” comparison between his anti-drug campaign and Hitler and the Holocaust in a recent speech.Maryland sheriff won't resign after using anti-Semitic slur
Duterte had apologized to the Jewish world in a speech Sunday but he visited the Beit Yaacov synagogue in Makati city to press his expression of regret and assure that he was not racist, adding that his wife, now separated from him, has Jewish ties.
“I would like to apologize and it comes from the heart,” Duterte told members of the Jewish Association of the Philippines.
Deriding critics who had compared him to Hitler, Duterte acknowledged he erred in referencing what happened to Jewish people under the Nazi leader.
“I mentioned the word Jewish and that was what was terribly wrong and for that I apologize,” Duterte said, drawing an applause. “But I’m not one of the racist members of this republic.”
A county sheriff in Maryland accused of making racist and anti-Semitic comments is refusing to resign.FIFA fines Italian soccer 27,000 euro for fans' Nazi salute
James Fitzgerald, a Democrat who is the elected sheriff in Howard County, a mixed rural-suburban county straddling Baltimore and the Maryland suburbs of Washington D.C., said at a news conference on Sept. 29 that he would not step down.
The county’s Office of Human Rights had compiled a report which alleged that Fitzgerald had frequently used the N word to disparage blacks, referred derisively to women’s bodies and had called a former county executive, Ken Ulman, “little Kenny Jew-boy,” the Washington Post reported. The county executive is equivalent to a mayor.
In the press conference, Fitzgerald referred to the report as “humbling, hurtful and disappointing to all involved,” but did not confirm that he had used the offensive language.
A bipartisan slate of officials has called on Fitzgerald to step down, and current County Executive Allan Kittleman is investigating whether Fitzgerald can be impeached.
The international soccer federation FIFA announced that it would fine the Italian soccer federation FIGC 27,000 euro, following an incident last month during which Italian fans made a Nazi salute during the playing of “Hatikva,” Israel’s national anthem, at a World Cup qualifying match in Haifa.Israel, China to Begin Negotiating Free Trade Agreement as Tech Ties Strengthen
FIFA cited “discrimination and improper conduct” in justification of its decision.
The incident was one of a string of anti-Semitic incidents plaguing the soccer world.
In late August, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flags were seen during a soccer match in France between Israeli Beitar Jerusalem and Saint-Étienne.
An Israeli official announced last week that China and Israel will soon begin negotiations on establishing a free trade zone, The Times of Israel reported Thursday.Azerbaijan said set to buy Iron Dome batteries from Israel
Amit Lang, the director-general of Israel’s Ministry of Economy and Industry, announced at the second annual China-Israel Investment Conference that negotiations will begin in the coming days to remove trade barriers between the two nations.
Lang characterized China as a “strategic partner” for trade, noting that Israel established six trade missions in the country, more than in any other.
“Israel is a powerhouse of innovation and hosts more than 270 international companies, including some Chinese corporations which appreciate the opportunities in Israel,” Lang said. “We would be happy to see even more Chinese companies and investors become active in Israel. We invite you to familiarize yourselves with our innovation and originality, attractive incentives, tailored support and our ability to do business.”
The push to bolster trade between Jerusalem and Beijing comes amid growing interest in Israeli tech startups by Chinese investors.
Israel will sell batteries of its Iron Dome missile defense system to regional ally Azerbaijan, unconfirmed reports in that country’s media claimed on Tuesday.Elbit lands deal with US army Israeli firm lands major deal with US army
An Azeri lawmaker told local outlets that the short-range missile defense batteries were ready for delivery. There was no indication of when they were to arrive, however.
The announcement in the Azeri press came weeks after Armenia showcased its newly acquired Russian-made Iskander short-range missile batteries in its Independence Day parade on September 21.
Tuesday’s reports could not be independently confirmed. Earlier this year a former Azeri military commander claimed the country had already purchased four of the missile defense batteries from Israel.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have warred for years over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but ruled by Armenian separatists.
Elbit Systems Ltd. announced today that its subsidiary in the United States, Elbit Systems of America, LLC, received an order worth $7.3 million dollars to supply the Bradley Fighting Vehicle Gunner’s Hand Station to the US Army.The Florida-Israel Business Accelerator Announces Agreement with the United States Special Operations Command to Collaborate on New Technologies for US Special Forces
The sole-source contract awarded by the Defense Logistics Agency of the US Army, as a sole supplier, will be carried out over the course of two years in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Gunner's Hand Station will allow gunners in Bradley Fighting Vehicles to quickly acquire their targets and accurately target them. It will be used in the US military's Bradley M2A3 and M3A3 vehicles.
Elbit Systems of America also provides the Commander’s Hand Station and the Turret Processing Unit for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle in addition to the Gunner’s Hand Station.
The Florida-Israel Business Accelerator (FIBA) proudly announces that they have entered into an agreement with the United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) to collaborate on the production of innovative technologies. The Cooperative Research & Development Agreement (CRADA) establishes a partnership between the two organizations in which FIBA cohorts will produce products or services that will fill technology capability shortfalls for SOCOM.Israeli diplomats and doctors join hands for Vietnam
“We are excited to establish a partnership with such a dynamic organization,” said Dr. Vicki Rabenou, President and CEO of the Florida-Israel Business Accelerator. “Many Israeli startups have been founded by entrepreneurs with military backgrounds. To be able to work with SOCOM will be a tremendous draw for them and to create innovations with such a profound impact is even more appealing.”
SOCOM spends over $3 billion a year on procurement, including an R&D budget of $538 million in 2016. SOCOM’s small size and independent budgetary authority (headquartered in Tampa, Florida) gives the agency both flexibility and an advantage over the rest of the US armed service branches in technology acquisition.
As part of the CRADA, members of FIBA cohorts will have the opportunity to develop innovative technologies, materials, components, material combinations, software, modeling, simulations, and systems for the Science and Technology Directorate at the Special Operations Forces Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Center (SOF AT&L-ST). This group within SOCOM is charged with the task of conducting research, development, testing and evaluation activities through the execution of applied research and advanced technology development efforts. The innovations that FIBA cohorts will present to SOCOM will be in the areas of medical technologies, biometrics, mobility, cyber-security, remote sensor power and energy among other areas. FIBA cohorts will also have the potential to receive information, feedback, data sets, the use of government-furnished equipment, including software, when agreed to enable their ability to support SOCOM technology needs through research and development.
Within just one week, more than 8,300 needy Vietnamese citizens received humanitarian and medical aid in remote Kon Tum province from the Joining Hands Mission sponsored by the Embassy of Israel in Hanoi and the Family Medical Practice (FMP), a chain of clinics in Vietnam founded and headed by an Israeli physician, Dr. Rafi Kot.In search for perfect etrog, Italian farmers cultivate an ancient Jewish tradition
“It’s a drop in the bucket of what these people need, but it’s something,” says Israeli Ambassador to Vietnam Meirav Eilon Shahar, speaking to ISRAEL21c from Hanoi after the September 11-17 mission.
“In our daily routine here, we do training and diplomatic, political and economic work to promote Israel and Israeli companies, but this was about giving back to the community,” she explains.
“We’ve done it every year but on a smaller scale. Last year I took a team to renovate a school damaged by floods. Health, education and water are so essential, and it’s important for us — the embassy and Family Medical Practice — to take care of the less advantaged people in the society where we’re working. Many companies won’t come to these areas; they are a very weak part of society.”
There’s less than a month to go until the Jewish festival of Sukkot, and New Yorker Hershel Mann is feeling the heat under the broiling sun of southern Italy.Amazing archaeological find from First Temple period
Beads of sweat trickle down cheeks framed by graying sidelocks as Mann, a Hassidic Jew, turns a lime-green citron fruit over and over.
Finally, he delivers his verdict. “It’s a nice shape, it’s clean, it’s a good size: it’s kosher!”
Orchard owner Angelo Cava smiles as he looks on in vest and shorts. Citrons that pass muster for Sukkot sell for around 10 euros ($11) apiece, more than 10 times the rejects destined for processing into candied fruit, jams, soft drinks and anti-ageing cosmetics.
The next “etrog,” as the fruit is called in Hebrew, does not make the grade.
“No buono,” says Mann, pointing to a handful of tiny black spots that indicate that this citron has been nibbled by an insect and is therefore deemed unclean.
“The Bible tells us that the Sukkot fruit has to come from a beautiful tree,” Mann explains.
“We have learned that this means the citron and, for us, the best come from Calabria.”
A gate-shrine from the First Temple period (eighth century BCE) uncovered in the Tel Lachish National Park is hailed by the Israel Antiquities Authority as “an important and unusual discovery” providing compelling evidence for the biblical account of King Hezekiah’s efforts to abolish worship there.World’s oldest man marks bar mitzvah, 100 years late
The northern part of the 24.5-by-24.5-meter (80×80-foot) gate — the largest ever found in Israel from that era — already was uncovered decades ago by archeologists from Great Britain and from Tel Aviv University.
The IAA conducted the current full excavation from January to March this year at the initiative of the Ministry of Jerusalem and Heritage and in cooperation with the Nature and Parks Authority, to further develop Tel Lachish National Park, about 45 kilometers southeast of Jerusalem.
“The size of the gate is consistent with the historical and archaeological knowledge we possess, whereby Lachish was a major city and the most important one after Jerusalem,” said IAA excavation director Sa’ar Ganor.
“According to the biblical narrative, city gates were the place where everything took place: the city elders, judges, governors, kings and officials would sit on benches in the city gate. These benches were found in our excavation.”
Kristal was born to an Orthodox Jewish family near the town of Zarnow in Poland. He was orphaned shortly after World War I and moved to Lodz to work in the family confectionary business in 1920. During the Nazi occupation of Poland he was confined to the ghetto there and later sent to Auschwitz and other concentration camps. His first wife and two children were killed in the Holocaust.
Kristal survived World War II weighing only 37 kilograms (about 81 pounds) — the only survivor of his large family. He married another Holocaust survivor and moved with her to Israel in 1950 where he built a new family and a successful confectionary business.
A devout Jew, he has wrapped phylacteries daily for the past century. Kuperstoch said her father still has a curious spirit and keeps a regular schedule, but she asked that reporters not burden him with questions.
She said he was still in good health and could regale in stories from the early 20th century about, for example, how he saw his first car at the age of nine and wondered why it wasn’t attached to horses.
Kuperstoch also said that her father had no explanation for his incredible longevity.
“It’s a gift from above,” she added. “He doesn’t feel like he had any part in it.”
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