Saturday, October 29, 2016
Muslim Imperialism Reaches the United Nations
UNESCO has joined forces with Islamic State. The fundamentalists now have a new weapon: resolutions passed by servile international bodies.Papyrus Speaks Louder Than UNESCO
An earlier delay and the opposition of UNESCO's chief, Irina Bokova, had raised hopes that this act of jihadist, barbaric, unjust, and, frankly, arrogant supremacism might be voted down. It was not. Now a new lie was given the sanction of the world's largest and most unaccountable body whose reason for being is to preserve significant sites, not to bowdlerize them.
Lies by UNESCO to rewrite history, erasing all traces of Judaism and Christianity to favour a jihadist Islamic fancy, were already under way in 2015. UNESCO fraudulently renamed two ancient Biblical Jewish sites, Rachel's Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs, as Islamic sites. Historically, Islam did not even exist until the seventh century.
This is the history of Islam, how it takes over -- with both hard jihad (violence) and soft jihad (usurping history, migration [hijrah], political and cultural infiltration), and intimidation (soft jihad with the threat of hard jihad underneath it). What is even more saddening is that often, as with this vote, it is done with the West's cooperation and voluntary submission.
Before the United Nations, with its authoritarian, anti-democratic voting blocs, finishes eradicating Western, Judeo-Christian civilization, as it is clearly trying to do, it is high time for Western democracies to run, not walk, away, before further harm comes to them too, as it surely promises to do.
This week the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization—UNESCO—voted yet again to validate Palestinians claims that deny Jewish ties to the holiest places in Judaism. But an unexpected announcement that some of Israel’s critics consider suspiciously fortuitous made clear the ignorant and vicious nature of the Palestinian campaign. On the day of the latest UNESCO vote, the Israel Antiquities Authority unveiled the discovery of an ancient papyrus fragment that has been scientifically dated to the 7th century B.C.E. that mentions Jerusalem in Hebrew. The artifact, which predates the birth of Islam by 1,400 years, is the most effective response imaginable to a UNESCO stand that treats the Temple Mount and the Western Wall as exclusively Muslim shrines.British Jewish Leaders Outraged by London University Anti-Israel Protest Which Required Police Intervention
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu made a point of triumphantly mentioning the archeological find this week in his denunciation of the UNESCO vote. But while the timing of the two events ought to be particularly embarrassing for the Palestinians and their European and Third World enablers, it’s not likely that this will cause any of those nations that have stuck to their absurd position to change their votes.
After all, does anyone at the United Nations really doubt that Jerusalem was the capital of a Jewish nation many centuries before the Muslim conquest of the country? Or that Hebrew was the language of the ancient Jewish kingdoms? Do even many Palestinians think the site of the Temple Mount mosques isn’t where the Jews built both of their ancient shrines or that the Western Wall is not the last remnant of that structure? Not likely.
Nor is the point of the Palestinian push at the UN an effort to protect the status quo on the Temple Mount whereby the ancient site is administered solely by a Muslim religious authority (which has carried out construction projects that trashed ancient artifacts), and Jews are forbidden to pray there. Accusations by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas that the Israelis intend to harm the mosques is a brazen lie intended to stir up hatred and violence against Jews. The point of this agitation is that denial of Jewish history is required to justify a Palestinian political culture that continues to see the war on Zionism as intrinsic to their national identity.
Leaders of Britain’s Jewish community expressed outrage on Friday after a lecture on Thursday night by a former IDF soldier at a London university was stormed by protesters, resulting in the arrival of the police.Anti-Israel extremists on British university campuses
Marie van der Zyl, vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said in a statement, “We deplore the aggressive and intimidating protests which disrupted a student event in UCL (University College London)…It is disgraceful that in a society which values free speech, students at a top UK university cannot host an open event without being harassed.”
Van Der Zyl also referred to the anti-Israel protesters — who trapped students and visitors inside a lecture hall during the talk by Israeli peace activist Hen Mazzig — as a “hate-filled mob supporting the worst kind of extremism in the Middle East,” who “serve only to bully and threaten.”
The Board said it will be taking its concerns to the government and called on UCL “to initiate a strong disciplinary process against the perpetrators.”
That message was echoed by the Israeli Embassy in London, writing in a statement posted on Twitter: “We are concerned by the shameful violence recorded at last night’s event at UCL aimed at preventing an Israeli speaker from engaging students. We are confident the university will be investigating those responsible.”
Last night police were called to rescue Jewish students from anti-Israel thugs at University College London, at the same time SOAS PalSoc had invited notorious Hamas apologist, Tareq Radi, to speak at the campus.
Universities must do more to keep extremists off British campuses.
Marc Goldberg: Forgetting Palestine
On Thursday a scheduled talk at the prestigious University College London by an IDF officer deteriorated into a near riot as pro Palestinian students forced their way into the meeting room and then barricaded students in an alternative venue. The Jewish students who attended the talk were escorted away from the venue by police and campus security for their own safety.UN Watch: Suspend UN rights envoy for undisclosed ties to Palestinians, NGO says
By ruining this event, students in Palestine societies didn’t just deprive their fellow Jewish students the opportunity to hear about the occupation first hand but deprived themselves the opportunity to challenge an Israeli officer and gain an insight into the “other”. He could give them an insight into what it is Israeli soldiers are thinking and what motivates them to do what they do. It was an opportunity to get past the two dimensional leaflets distributed by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and come face to face with the real thing. An opportunity rejected out of hand.
Just as with Ami Ayalon last year, an officer in the IDF could not be allowed to speak on campus regardless of what he had to say. The fact that Lieutenant Hen Mazzig (reserve) served in the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit meant that he had been a non combat officer was irrelevant. The fact that as an officer in COGAT, Mazzig was likely the man Palestinians called when they needed help was neither here nor there. Hen Mazzig had served in the IDF therefore Han Mazzig couldn’t be allowed to speak.
Because the reality of life in Palestine doesn’t really matter. What matters is that a “baby killer” came to campus and 100 students gave him and everyone who came to hear him a tough time. No Palestinians were helped. Israel didn’t suffer some kind of humiliation. Nothing that has anything to do with the Middle East happened on the UCL campus. What happened was that kids living a world away from Palestine were deprived the opportunity to learn about it from someone who really knows. That this opportunity for learning was so violently disrupted on a university campus adds more than a touch of irony to an all too familiar situation.
In a statement issued to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Thursday, Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch demanded that the United Nations special investigator into Israeli violations against the Palestinians should be suspended from his position, claiming his failure to disclose "his leadership role in three pro-Palestinian organizations" is grounds for dismissal.UN rapporteur: I’ll probe treatment of human rights groups in Israel
The demand was issued hours before Michael Lynk, a Canadian international law expert, presented to the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee a 26-page report on Israeli actions against Palestinians which he submitted last week.
UN Watch claims that Lynk was handed an "illegal appointment — made on the basis of Mr. Lynk’s false and misleading application in which he failed to disclose his prejudicial commitments, statements, and actions — as requested by Canadian Foreign Minister Stéphane Dion on 25 March 2016."
UN Watch points to allegedly false statements Lynk provided on his application before his appointment to his current position, under the Ethics and Integrity provision section.
The form inquires: "To your knowledge, does the candidate have any official, professional, personal or financial relationships that might cause him/her to limit the extent of their inquiries, to limit disclosure, or to weaken or slant findings in any way?"
Lynk, in his own words, replies: "No. I have no official professional, personal or financial relationships that would limit the extent of my inquiries, or weaken or slant my findings."
The form also asks if "there are any factors that could either directly or indirectly influence, pressure, threaten, or otherwise affect the candidate's ability to act independently in discharging his/her mandate?"
To which Lynk answers: " No, there are not."
The UN’s special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories has said he will examine the treatment of human rights defenders in the region in light of “the severe reaction by the Israeli government” to the appearance of watchdog B’Tselem before the UN Security Council earlier this month.The changing anti-Israel UN voting patterns
Michael Lynk, who submitted his first report to the UN General Assembly on Friday, said “human rights defenders and humanitarian workers perform an indispensable role in bringing to our attention violations of human rights, and there is no way that they should be threatened in any manner or intimidated in any manner.”
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, responded by slamming the UN Human Rights Council to which Lynk reports as a biased organization whose authority Israel does not recognize.
B’Tselem was denounced by many in the Israeli government, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after its executive director Hagai El-Ad gave a speech to the UN Security Council calling on the UN to take action against Israel over its settlement policies in the West Bank.
In response to El-Ad’s speech, coalition chairman and Likud MK David Bitan called for stripping El-Ad of his citizenship and said he would advance legislation that would forbid Israeli citizens from urging action against Israel at international bodies. Bitan was widely criticized for his proposal by lawmakers across the political spectrum, who called it undemocratic, ignorant, and short-sighted.
“The fact that some cabinet ministers in the Israeli government threatened to revoke the citizenship of the executive director of B’Tselem is a particularly worrying path for Israel to wind up taking,” he said.
When diplomatic officials in Jerusalem recently surveyed the list of 21 countries that make up UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee (WHC) in an effort to see who might soften the blow of yet another anti-Israel resolution, there was little there to give much hope.Leading Columnist: Clinton Supporters Must Call on Her to Ensure Obama Refrains From Any Diplomatic Moves Against Israel Before January
The list did not include any of those countries that Israel traditionally can count on for diplomatic assistance and cover in international forums.
The US only has observer status on the body. Australia was not on the committee, nor was Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, nor any of those small pro-Israel Pacific Island states such as the Marshall Islands, Palau and Micronesia.
Instead, of the 21 countries on the WHC, there were three Arab countries (Kuwait, Lebanon and Tunisia), five states with no diplomatic ties with Israel (the three Arab countries plus Cuba and Indonesia), and fully eight majority-Muslim nations.
No country on the list jumped out as one that would buck the group-think and take a stand for Israel.
And then Croatia and Tanzania stepped forward.
Hillary Clinton supporters must call on the Democratic presidential nominee to ensure President Barack Obama refrains from making any diplomatic moves against Israel during the remainder of his time in office, a prominent conservative columnist said on Thursday.Leaked Diplomatic Transcripts Reveal Possible Solution to Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (satire)
The publication of Charles Krauthammer’s Washington Post op-ed came against a backdrop of growing concerns that Obama might not protect Israel at the United Nations during the lame-duck period between the presidential election on Nov. 8 and the inauguration of Obama’s successor on Jan. 20.
“Soon Obama will be free to deliver a devastating parting shot to Israel and to the prime minister he detests,” Krauthammer warned. According to Krauthammer, only Clinton could thwart Obama from taking such action.
Earlier this week, internationally-renowned legal expert Alan Dershowitz — who has said he will vote for Clinton — wrote in the Boston Globe that Obama “should resist any temptation to change longstanding American policy — that only direct negotiations between the parties will achieve a lasting peace — during his final weeks in office.”
Furthermore, Dershowitz said, Clinton and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump should announce their positions on “whether the United States should support or veto a Security Council Resolution that would tie their hands were they to be elected president.”
JERUSALEM, RAMALLAH — 29 October 2016, Office of the Prime Minister (Israel); Office of the President of the Palestinian Authority2006 Audio Emerges of Hillary Clinton Proposing Rigging Palestine Election
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End of transcript
The tape is 45 minutes and contains much that is no longer relevant, such as analysis of the re-election battle that Sen. Joe Lieberman was then facing in Connecticut. But a seemingly throwaway remark about elections in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority has taken on new relevance amid persistent accusations in the presidential campaign by Clinton’s Republican opponent Donald Trump that the current election is “rigged.”Global Court Is In A Total Freefall, And No One Is Surprised
Speaking to the Jewish Press about the January 25, 2006, election for the second Palestinian Legislative Council (the legislature of the Palestinian National Authority), Clinton weighed in about the result, which was a resounding victory for Hamas (74 seats) over the U.S.-preferred Fatah (45 seats).
“I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake,” said Sen. Clinton. “And if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win.”
Chomsky recalls being taken aback that “anyone could support the idea—offered by a national political leader, no less—that the U.S. should be in the business of fixing foreign elections.”
Some eyebrows were also raised when then-Senator Clinton appeared to make a questionable moral equivalency.
Eli Chomsky participated in an interview with Hillary Clinton at the Jewish Press in 2006.Eli Chomsky participated in an interview with Hillary Clinton at the Jewish Press in 2006.
Regarding capturing combatants in war—the June capture of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit by Hamas militants who came across the Gaza border via an underground tunnel was very much front of mind—Clinton can be heard on the tape saying, “And then, when, you know, Hamas, you know, sent the terrorists, you know, through the tunnel into Israel that killed and captured, you know, kidnapped the young Israeli soldier, you know, there’s a sense of like, one-upsmanship, and in these cultures of, you know, well, if they captured a soldier, we’ve got to capture a soldier.”
Equating Hamas, which to this day remains on the State Department’s official list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, with the armed forces of a close American ally was not what many expected to hear in the Jewish Press editorial offices, which were then at Third Avenue and Third Street in Brooklyn. (The paper’s office has since moved to the Boro Park section of Brooklyn.) The use of the phrase “these cultures” is also a bit of a head-scratcher.
News that Gambia is leaving the International Criminal Court (ICC) is causing the international community to question the long-term viability of the global court.Palestinian attempts to run over, stab soldiers in West Bank, army says
The Court, established in 2002 to prosecute the “most serious crimes of concern to the international community” like genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, is now in a total free-fall after the departure of three African states.
Gambia’s announcement on Tuesday follows the departure of two other key African countries: South Africa and Burundi. In their announcement of intention to leave the court, Gambia took a big swing at the ICC calling it the “International Caucasian Court”.
This resonates with much of the major criticism launched at the Court since its inception: that the Court is only concerned with prosecuting Africans.
Nine out of the 10 investigations accepted by the ICC since 2002 have come from Africa. Not a single indictment is lodged against a Western leader, despite cries for investigation of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s involvement in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and vocal demands to prosecute former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott for the government’s treatment of asylum seekers.
Whilst the departure of Gambia and Burundi, two small African countries, won’t impact the ability of the Court to function to a huge extent, the decision by South Africa to leave could significantly impact the fiscal operation of the Court. Member states make contributions to the Court based on size and income, making South Africa quite integral.
A Palestinian man attempted late Friday night to run over IDF troops with his vehicle at a checkpoint near the settlement of Ofra in the central West Bank, north of Jerusalem, the army said.PreOccupiedTerritory: If You’d Just Let Us Kill You, Maybe We’d Stop Killing You By Bassem Tamimi, Palestinian activist (satire)
Soldiers fired at the vehicle, and after it halted, the suspect, a man in his thirties, get out with a knife in his hand and charged at the soldiers. The soldiers opened fire and seriously injured him, Channel 2 reported.
No IDF soldiers or Israeli civilians were wounded in the apparent attack, according to the report.
The assailant was taken to the Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus in Jerusalem for treatment.
Earlier Friday, a 23-year-old Palestinian was arrested in Hebron near the Tomb of the Patriarchs after being caught with a knife, and told security officials he had intended to carry out a stabbing attack.
The man was taken in for questioning after security forces at a checkpoint, who suspected his behavior, searched him and found the knife on his person. He told border police officers he had wanted to execute an attack.
Perhaps the most persistent argument in defense of the wall that keeps us Palestinians imprisoned is that it prevents attacks on Israelis. But that contention could not be more ridiculous, because if the Zionists would simply dismantle the barrier and let us kill them, maybe we might stop killing them.German mayor rejects BDS activity of ‘antisemitic’ teacher
It follows a simple line of reasoning: Palestinian violence aimed at Israelis prompted the construction of a barrier more or less along the 1949 Israel-Jordan armistice line to keep out suicide bombers and other Palestinian heroes, which of course prompted an outcry from us and our supporters around the world about a “land grab” and further justification for Palestinian violence. It only makes sense that when someone tries to stop you from killing them, the sole adjustment you can make is to try harder, because they have no right to stop you. That is, if you’re Palestinian. So once the barrier is gone, our pretext for deadly violence is gone, which means we will be free to kill Jews.
The Zionist-controlled media will never present it that way, of course. They’re too busy trying to inject nuance into a story that is nothing less than Good vs. Evil. We Palestinians, on the side of Good, are allowed to engage in whatever behavior advances our cause, because Good. Sometimes you have to massacre a few million Jews to serve your cause. It’s that stupid wall that prevents us from exercising that God-given right. Once it is gone, of course, we will demonstrate our peace-loving nature, and answer the gesture with an appropriate display of carnage. In the interest of peace.
The mayor of the German city of Oldenburg announced his opposition on Wednesday to the anti-Israel BDS activity of a public school teacher, Christoph Glantz, in the town of nearly 164,000 people in the state of Lower Saxony.Mae Cannon Brings Her Mischief to CMEP
“With his [Glanz’s] statements to a comprehensive boycott of Israel, he clearly went too far, in my view,“ said Jürgen Krogmann, the social democratic mayor, in an email to The Jerusalem Post.
Krogmann added that he “in no way adopts the BDS demands and does not support a partial boycott of Israel.”
The fulfillment of Glanz’s demands, and those of a renegade group of teachers from the leadership of the labor union GEW Oldenburg, would, for example, mean the end of Oldenburg’s partnership with the regional council Mateh Asher in the western Galilee. Krogmann visited Mateh Asher in September to strengthen educational ties between the governments.
A growing coalition of civil society organizations, German political parties and teachers unions in both Israel and the federal republic began efforts to blunt the antisemitism and BDS activity of Glanz and his fellow teachers at the GEW in Oldenburg.
Churches for Middle East Peace, a pro-Palestinian advocacy organization supported by churches and religious institutions in the United States, has a new executive director, Rev. Dr. Mae Cannon. She replaces Warren Clark, a former Ambassador with the U.S. State Department who led CMEP for eight years prior to retiring on Aug. 1, 2016.The BBC wins a landmark victory in the fight against Islamic extremism
“I am honored to lead CMEP and build upon the work of Ambassador Clark,” Cannon said in a press release announcing Clark's retirement and her appointment. “The need for peace with security and justice for Israel and Palestine is more important than ever.”
CMEP – Some Background
In her new post, Cannon will have substantial influence over one of the more visible Christian “peacemaking” organizations in the United States. Founded in 1984, CMEP is acoalition of 22 Christian churches and para-church organizations whose stated goal (as printed on its tax documents) is “to inform and educate the general public and national policy makers about Middle East peace and justice issues and maintaining just and stable relationships throughout the Middle East.”
A perusal of the organization's website reveals, however, that the organization is not really interested in dealing with peace and justice issues in the Middle East as a region, but is solely focused on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Its testimony about the conflict has not been truthful or helpful. Under the leadership of its founder, Corinne Whitlach, CMEP issued irresponsible statements about the conflict that affirmed the anti-Israel narrative offered by Israel's adversaries. For example, the group repeated claims by Muslim extremists in the Middle East that Israel was undermining the Al Aqsa Mosque with its archeological digs near the Temple Mount, when Israel was repairing a walkway up to the Mount.
Such polemics have been used to incite violence toward Jews on a number of occasions over the past 100 years. Haj Amin Al-Husseini did it in the 1920s and 30s and Palestinian leaders do it today.
Shakeel Begg is an influential extremist who is also chief Imam of the Lewisham Islamic Centre. His radical views are readily available and well-known. But despite these downsides a chap like him also possesses certain considerable advantages. Not least is the fact that he lives in a society which is only very slowly waking up to the threat that people like him pose.Europe Betrays Human Rights Again
If Begg were a Protestant preacher from Northern Ireland then he would not have been able to make any public appearance for years without being forced to bake the biggest, gayest cake possible right there and then. If he refused, the whole of civilised society would round on him to explain what a great big ‘phobe’ he was. But Shakeel Begg is not a Protestant preacher and nor would he draw the line in his perfect society at merely not baking the cake for one’s gay nuptials.
As such, he is also lucky enough to live in a country where many people who should be in the business of investigation and inquiry fail in their obligations. Many of them do so because they are understandably put off by being called names such as ‘racist’. In these cases, such names are insincerely but deliberately used as a smokescreen to allow extremist behaviour to continue.
Another advantage for the Beggs of this world is living in a country where useful idiots from the other monotheisms are always on hand to play ‘interfaith’ games and in the process either wittingly or unwittingly provide further cover for some seriously bad people.
Since European diplomatic outreach toward Iran began under German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel in 1992, European authorities have promised that they would tie human rights advocacy to trade. Simply put, Kinkel and his colleagues and successors argued, diplomatic ties would work better than coercion to bring Iran back into the circle of normal, responsible states.Attorney General Loretta Lynch Pleads the Fifth on Iran 'Ransom' Payments
Other diplomats—Secretary of State John Kerry and Jake Sullivan, Hillary Clinton’s presumptive national security advisor—have argued to senators and congressmen while attempting to sell the deal that they sought to take advantage of a moderate moment in Iran and might strengthen Iranian President Hassan Rouhani against his more hardline opponents. (That they appear blind to the fact that Rouhani is a Khamenei loyalist but masterful at the good cop-bad cop game is a subject for another day).
Fast forward nearly a quarter century, and the deal is done. There has been an indecorous glee among European and other Western officials as they lift sanctions on Iran and as they rush to visit Tehran to strike deals and attend commercial conferences. They sing the praises of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action but seldom utter a word about Iran’s worsening human rights situation. European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop both conformed to an Islamic dress code while visiting Tehran, never mind that Iranian officials never seem to reciprocate with sensitivity toward local culture when they travel abroad. European officials pay very little lip service to the record public execution rate under Rouhani.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch is declining to comply with an investigation by leading members of Congress about the Obama administration’s secret efforts to send Iran $1.7 billion in cash earlier this year, prompting accusations that Lynch has “pleaded the Fifth” Amendment to avoid incriminating herself over these payments, according to lawmakers and communications exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.Baha’i Accuse Iran of Campaign to “Destroy” Their Religion
Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) initially presented Lynch in October with a series of questions about how the cash payment to Iran was approved and delivered.
In an Oct. 24 response, Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik responded on Lynch’s behalf, refusing to answer the questions and informing the lawmakers that they are barred from publicly disclosing any details about the cash payment, which was bound up in a ransom deal aimed at freeing several American hostages from Iran.
The response from the attorney general’s office is “unacceptable” and provides evidence that Lynch has chosen to “essentially plead the fifth and refuse to respond to inquiries regarding [her] role in providing cash to the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism,” Rubio and Pompeo wrote on Friday in a follow-up letter to Lynch, according to a copy obtained by the Free Beacon.
The inquiry launched by the lawmakers is just one of several concurrent ongoing congressional probes aimed at unearthing a full accounting of the administration’s secret negotiations with Iran.
Representatives of the Baha’i religion accused the government of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday of “ongoing efforts to destroy the Baha’i community,” the Associated Press reported.Kuwaiti student convicted of hate crime over anti-Semitic Facebook post
In a 122-page document, the Baha’i International Community outlined the Rouhani administration’s efforts to intensify its “campaign to incite hatred against Baha’is,” including by spreading over 20,000 propaganda pieces in the media.
Since Rouhani took power in 2013, more than 151 Baha’i have been arrested and 388 acts of economic discrimination — including threats, intimidation and the closing of Baha’i-owned businesses — have been documented against members of the faith, according to the report. Thousands of Baha’i have also been denied entry into universities, while 28 have been expelled on the basis of their religion, which has been outlawed by the Islamic Republic.
A report released by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last month explained that “in the Islamic Republic of Iran, access to education at technical and vocational universities and non-governmental educational institutions is restricted according to one’s religion.” While Ban’s report highlighted Iran’s persecution of various minority groups, it described the Baha’i community as “the most severely persecuted religious minority” in the country.
A French court convicted a university student from Kuwait of incitement to hatred following her anti-Semitic rants in social media.Dutch Jews ‘outraged’ by anti-gay fliers citing the Torah
The High Court of Paris convicted Amira Jumaa, 21, on Wednesday, Le Monde Juif reported. The report did not say whether she was sentenced.
Last year, Junaa lost her internship at the French Consulate in New York and was suspended from the Sciences Po University in Paris for writing a racist Facebook post about Jews. She has since been readmitted pending an internal probe.
“You don’t belong anywhere in this world — that’s why you guys are scums and rats and discriminated against wherever you are. Do not blame it on the poor Palestinians,” she wrote.
In response to being accused of racism, Jumaa wrote: “First of all you dispersed rat, I am not an immigrant from France. I am from Kuwait so my country can buy you and your parents and put you in ovens.”
Separately, Jean Fréderic Poisson, a right-wing politician who said Hillary Clinton is a danger to France and Europe because of her “submission to Zionist lobbies,” as he put it, apologized for those offended by his statements. But he also reaffirmed that his statement reflects his view.
Still, he said during a radio interview for FranceInfo, “my remarks caused concern for many in the Jewish community. I’m sorry. I ask for their forgiveness because this was not my intention.”
But he insisted that Clinton carries “bias” because of an influence he said that AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby in Washington, has on her.
Dutch police are considering whether to indict for incitement to hatred three men who passed out fliers in Amsterdam condemning homosexuality, citing it “being forbidden by Judaism, Christianity and Islam.”Israeli Pilot Program Will Provide Free HIV-Prevention Medication to At-Risk Groups
The men, aged 29 to 39, surrendered themselves to police after officers questioned a man whose car the suspects said they borrowed to distribute the fliers, the NOS broadcaster reported last week. The officers reached the car owner after reviewing footage from security cameras of cars parked in the area near the time that the fliers began showing up in mailboxes.
NOS said police did not release any details about the suspects, except that they do not appear to belong to any radical Muslim groups. The men said during investigation that they wanted to “start a discussion” on homosexuality.
The Central Jewish Board of the Netherlands, the umbrella group of the country’s Jewish organizations, said in a statement several days after the discovery of the fliers that it disagrees with their anti-gay message and regrets the citing of Judaism by the people responsible for distributing them.
The Israeli Health Ministry will begin a pilot program next month that will provide free HIV-prevention medication to at-risk population groups.Israeli Pharma Giant and IBM Team Up to Improve Chronic Disease Care
In February, the Health Ministry approved the drug Truvada, which reduces the chance of HIV infection. Currently, Israelis can purchase the drug privately for around 3,000 shekels per month after receiving a prescription. The pilot program will start offering it for free to groups with an elevated risk of contracting HIV: gay men having unprotected sex with multiple partners, couples where one of the partners is HIV positive, drug addicts, and prostitutes.
“The Health Ministry will monitor the progress of the pilot,” Ynet reported, “and based on its prevention of infection rate, will decide whether to provide it to at-risk individuals at large by adding it to the national health basket”—the list of drugs whose costs are covered by the government and subsidized HMOs.
“It has been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that those who persisted in preventative HIV medication were protected from the illness,” Prof. Ze’ev Steger, the head of the Kaplan Hospital AIDS Treatment and Research Center, told Ynet. “The treatment is expensive and can reach thousands of shekels a month, but treating HIV could reach millions of shekels over the course of a carrier and patient’s lifetime. So in terms of cost, the preventative measures are undoubtedly preferable.”
Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the world’s largest generic medicines producer, and the American computing giant IBM announced on Wednesday that they will expand their global e-Health alliance to “[discover] new treatment options and [improve] chronic disease management,” The Times of Israel reported.China, Israel, and a return to the cloverleaf world
Both initiatives will be hosted on IBM’s Watson Health Cloud in order “to help healthcare organizations derive individualized insights and obtain a more complete picture of the many factors that can affect people’s health” through machine learning, the companies explained in a statement.
Among the goals of the expanded collaboration is to “better target medication for patients, increase effectiveness and lower costs,” utilizing “the increased convergence of drugs discovery and treatments with cognitive computing,” the Times reported.
The two companies specifically plan to engage in a three-year study to systematically repurpose drugs and develop an approach to discover new uses for existing medicines. This will help “streamline the time- and cost-intensive process of bringing new therapies to market,” which can take up to 20 years and cost over $2.5 billion. Nearly a third of the FDA’s approvals in recent years were given to existing drugs to treat new ailments.
Counter-terror expert and senior editor of GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily, Yossef Bodansky, wrote an insightful article in their September issue regarding the convergence of China’s Afro-Eurasian integration project and Bunting’s map of the world as a clover leaf.
Heinrich Bunting was a German Protestant pastor, theologist and cartographer, and in his masterpiece Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae (Travel Through Holy Scripture) in 1581, he portrayed the world that mattered was comprised of the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, with each depicted as a cloverleaf. They converged in Jerusalem, and the rest of the world was irrelevant.
In his article entitled “The History of What’s Next,” Bodansky argued that the Bunting map is likely the best depiction of the unfolding global geopolitical architecture of the 21st century. With the post-Arab spring weakening of the Arab modern state such as Libya, Iraq and Syria, with Lebanon, Jordan and Yemen at risk of also becoming failing states, what is arising is the merging of the greater Middle East and the greater framework of the reawakened Mackinderian world order.
And, the clover leaf world centered on Jerusalem is converging with China’s silk road integration project.
Silk road meets clover leaf in Jerusalem
With the rise of Salafi-jihadism in the Middle East increasingly threatening China’s overseas citizens and assets, especially to their maritime trade via the Suez Canal, Israel is emerging as a strategic node on China’s southern corridor on the New Silk Road.
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