Tuesday, November 15, 2016
The Secret War of Agence France Presse against Israel
Biased information about Israel in the French press is not an episodic occurrence. It is a systematic one. The main engine of this biased information industry is blatantly the Agence France Presse.
It is so thoroughly a "pro-Palestinian news agency" that this French institution does not see anything unethical about hiring Palestinian activists as reporters: "Nasser Abu Baker, the chairman of the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate, the leading force for the boycott of Israeli journalists and media, also writes for the influential French news agency."
The same bias appears in the media and news agencies all over the developed world, including Reuters, the BBC and the AP. Why, when it comes to Israel, is such a misinterpretation of reality so generalized in the press? The only answer is that a war is in progress: a war of delegitimization.
Stephen Bannon, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick as White House chief strategist, helped mold the Breitbart News Network website into a home of the racist, anti-Semitic alt-right movement, but never himself displayed any overt hatred of Jews, according to a former editor of the site.ZOA: ADL should apologize for Anti-Bannon accusations.
Ben Shapiro, who served as editor-at-large of Breitbart, said he never saw “any direct evidence that Bannon was an anti-Semite” when he worked with him, but witnessed his comfort with “pandering” to the publication’s fringe readership, which over the last year and a half galvanized Trump’s improbable ascension to the presidency.
Bannon’s pick as senior counselor and chief White House strategist, one of the top positions in the upcoming Trump administration, has drawn scorn from Democrats and Republicans alike, along with Jewish, Muslim and anti-hate groups.
“It’s a sad day when a man who presided over the premier website of the ‘alt-right’ — a loose-knit group of white nationalists and unabashed anti-Semites and racists — is slated to be a senior staff member in the ‘people’s house,” the racism watchdog Anti-Defamation League said in a statement late Sunday, right after the appointment was announced.
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has released a statement stating that it is "painful" to see the character assassination against President-elect Trump’s appointee Stephen Bannon.
ZOA President Morton A. Klein said that the Anti-Defamation League and its president Jonathan Greenblatt should apologize for essentially accusing Bannon and his media company of “anti-Semitism” and Israel hatred. Greenblatt/ADL tweeted that Bannon “presided over the premier website of the ‘alt right’ – a loose-knit group of white nationalists and anti-Semites."
"In fact," Klein continued, "as pro-Israel writer (and orthodox Jew) Joel B. Pollak wrote, Mr. Bannon is 'an American patriot who defends Israel and has deep empathy for the Jewish people.'” In addition, the ZOA asks rhetorically, "would pro-Israel stalwarts/Trump advisors Gingrich, Giuliani, Pence, Kushner, Friedman, Greenblatt, Adelson allow an anti-Semite on board?"
Trump's appointment of Bannon as his "chief strategist and senior counselor" has raised concern in some sectors due to controversial statements and positions taken by Bannon. However, the ZOA has researched and found many pro-Israel and pro-Jewish positions taken by Bannon and the Breitbart media site he headed.
Some ZOA examples of Bannon's "friendship and fair-mindedness towards Israel and the Jewish people" include his efforts against the anti-Semitic rallies at CUNY, as well as articles reporting that the Palestinian Authority defames Israel with blatant falsehoods.
Shmuley Boteach: After eight years of Obama pressure on Israel, relief at last
Of all the dumb things that were said about Donald Trump during the campaign, by far the nastiest and most defamatory was that he was an antisemite. This meanest of libels would have had us believe that Trump hates his own daughter, who is Jewish, and his three Jewish grandchildren.Prof. Phyllis Chesler: Jewish liberals, when will they ever learn?
Now that he is President-elect, supporters of Israel are looking optimistically toward a renewed American relationship with the Jewish state.
For those of us in the United States who care about Israel and have fought its battles in the public arena, it’s been a miserable few years. The Obama administration’s naked hostility to Israel’s policies left us bruised and always on the defensive. Yes, President Barack Obama did a lot of good for Israel that should not go unmentioned, including military and financial support. But he also cultivated an air of never-ending hostility to Israel’s leaders and singled Israel out for repeated criticism and pressure while allowing 400,000 innocent Arabs to die in neighboring Syria without lifting a finger.
A cursory reminder of Obama’s repeated clashes with the Jewish state recalls Obama talking about Israel returning to the suicidal 1967 lines. There was Obama showing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu out through the back entrance of the White House, the same place he ushered out the Dalai Lama (let’s not offend the all-powerful Chinese). There was the president’s constant bullying of Netanyahu, including instructing Hillary Clinton to berate the prime minister by phone every time a new Jewish apartment was built in east Jerusalem or a settler planted an olive tree in Shiloh. Worst of all, there was the wretched Iran deal that legitimized a genocidal government and gave $150 billion to the world’s foremost sponsor of terrorism.
Obama’s Iran deal will forever remain a stain on his legacy and the morality of the United States.
And so, the American Jewish Committee has chosen the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) to launch a “Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council.” Many distinguished (liberal) Jewish names have signed on but the Muslim signatories are not exactly their counterparts.Anti-Israel Marchers Join Trump Protests in New York City; Call for ‘Intifada Revolution’
Only (liberal) Jews “reach out” to understand the Other. Only (liberal) Jews “reach out” to appease the Other.
Only (liberal) Jews in America—who have just lost their fabled access to the White House, are making common cause, not with Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists or with secular humanists in America, but with the very religion in whose name Jews and other infidels are being slaughtered right now in Israel and world-wide, including in America; the very religion whose record on human rights, women’s rights, and gay rights leaves everything to be desired; the very religion in whose name a Holy War is being waged against both Muslims and infidels—and against Western civilization.
To the best of my knowledge, these Muslim signatories have not disavowed Jihad or proudly and loudly supported Israel as other Muslim-Americans have done. These liberal Jews have not signed up our most prominent religious Muslim-American reformers such as Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, Ali Alyami or Asra Nomani. Further, I do not see the names of Muslim feminists or Muslim dissidents, who are apostates or secularists, such as Ibn Warraq or Ayaan HIrsi Ali.
Frankly, I am tired of writing this again and again but clearly, it still needs to be said.
Anti-Israel activists are seeking to co-opt the left-wing protests that have erupted across the US following Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in last Tuesday’s presidential election to further their cause, a prominent conservative US legal expert said on Monday.JCPA: Europe in Shock after Donald Trump’s Victory
“None of this is solidarity,” Cornell Law School Professor William A. Jacobson wrote on his Legal Insurrection blog. “It’s conquest of other peoples and movements to redirect them to and focus attention on the BDS anti-Israel agenda.”
As highlighted by Jacobson, the New York City branch of Students for Justice in Palestine (NYC-SJP) has been calling on its members to join the anti-Trump demonstrations.
In video uploaded to Facebook by NYC-SJP , protesters can be heard chanting, “There is only one solution…intifada revolution,” and “Trump, Obama, you will feel the intifada.”
“Intifada” is an Arabic word meaning “tremor” that is most commonly associated around the world with two violent Palestinian uprisings against Israel.
“How will this end?” Jacobson asked in his blog post. “The way it usually ends in these hijackings — anti-Israel activists damage the movement they supposedly support.”
Donald Trump’s election as the 45th president of the United States came like a bolt out of the blue and at the worst time for Europe, which still has not recovered from the previous shock of Brexit, Britain’s surprising withdrawal from the European Union.Potential Trump Secretary of State: Killing Iran Nuclear Deal ‘Courageous but Necessary’ Step Incoming Administration Must Take
In a repeat of Brexit, in the week before Trump’s victory, the politicians, journalists, academics, and especially all the pollsters did not believe such a thing would really happen. Trump was thoroughly inexperienced and did not stand a chance. He only appeared to them in nightmares.
In both cases, up to a few hours before the results were announced, an overwhelming majority was convinced that Britain would not leave and that Hillary Clinton would indeed become the first woman president in the White House.
Revoking the Iran nuclear deal is a “courageous but necessary” step President-elect Donald Trump must take after he enters the White House in January, a former US ambassador to the UN said on Sunday.Former Israeli General: Next Two Months are “Crucial” in Shaping of Trump’s Foreign Policy
“[T]he unambiguous signal it would send worldwide cannot be underestimated,” John Bolton — who has been touted as a potential secretary of state in the incoming Trump administration — wrote in a New York Post op-ed.
Bolton slammed outgoing President Barack Obama’s foreign affairs conduct during his two terms in office, saying, “[T]he world is more dangerous today than eight years ago.”
Obama’s foreign policy legacy, Bolton said, “includes reduced American global influence, dramatically underfunded military and intelligence capabilities, and rising concern among longtime allies about Washington’s understanding of international threats. A world of nuclear-weapons proliferation and growing radical Islamic terrorism are the consequences.”
According to Bolton, Trump will face “his most immediate international challenges” in the Middle East.
Much remains unclear about President-elect Donald Trump’s foreign policy, and so the two months before his inauguration will be “crucial” as Israel determines how its relationship with the United States will evolve over the next four years, a former Israeli national security advisor told reporters Monday.Liberal Female Muslim Immigrant Voted Trump for One Reason: Combat Islamic Extremism
Gen. (ret.) Yaacov Amidror praised the wisdom of American electoral system, which will give Trump “two months in which he has to shape his policy. We have the opportunity to see what his policy will be and to influence this policy by meeting people that are part of his system.” Trump’s lack of foreign policy experience did not present a special challenge to the Israeli military establishment, Amidror said. Israeli leaders will continue to communicate with presidential advisers so that the members of the new administration will understand Jerusalem’s needs.
Amidror specified that Israel wants to see a continuation of the Memorandum of Understanding governing military aid, as well as the “very good” cooperation between the two countries’ intelligence communities. Amidror was emphatic that Israel should not ask for changes in the memorandum, but that if the new administration wishes to make favorable changes to the deal, Israel would certainly be receptive.
Writer and Muslim activist Asra Nomani teaches journalism at Georgetown University and is a former correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. By her own admission, she is a lifelong liberal who voted twice for Barack Obama. This year, however, Nomani broke from expectations and voted for Donald Trump.ISIS Recruiting Website Crashes Following Trump’s Win (satire)
In a special for The Washington Post, Nomani explained why she selected the Republican candidate over Hillary Clinton based on one issue that rose above all others in importance for her: stopping the threat of Islamic extremism:
This is my confession -- and explanation: I -- a 51-year-old, a Muslim, an immigrant woman "of color" -- am one of those silent voters for Donald Trump. And I'm not a "bigot," "racist," "chauvinist" or "white supremacist," as Trump voters are being called, nor part of some "whitelash."
Nomani said she was lumped into the “trifecta of ‘hatred/division/ignorance’” by her friends on Twitter who blasted their shame over the millions of Americans who voted for Trump. “That,” she said, “is where the dismissal of voter concerns about Clinton led to her defeat.”
As a recent guest on Fox & Friends, Nomani told of the “tolerance” she was experiencing from fellow liberals, “As you can tell I don’t have horns on my head, right, but nonetheless I am now being [characterized] as a traitor, to my own liberals as an idiot, names that I can’t even repeat on air.” Her Muslim friends want her sent “to the gates of hell,” she added.
ISIS’s IT team has been working non-stop to get their recruiting pages back on the net, after a massive uptick of new recruits caused them to crash early Friday. Data shows that the increase in recruitment did not happen the day after the election, but rather closer to the weekend. Experts link the delay with recruits’ initial assumption that the candidate who received the most votes won. This changed when Trump supporter’s explanation of the electoral system began to infiltrate urban ‘filter bubbles’.IPolitics Commentator Michael Harris Whitewashes UN Rapporteur Michael Lynk
However, the election of Trump was bad news to some members of ISIS. Reports indicate that the organization’s communications team will have massive layoffs. A source familiar with the organization told TMB “they used to spend heavily on video production in order to recruit, but with Trump becoming president, it’s utterly unnecessary.”
Trump responded to the events on Twitter at 4:17AM this morning writing, “I still cannot tell you how, but we’re beating ISIS, beating them bigly”, later adding “they don’t even make beheading videos anymore.”
Writing in IPolitics on November 6, commentator Michael Harris wrote a screed about Governor General David Johnston’s recent trip to Israel, the west bank and Jordan. In Harris’ words, “Canada’s ‘Grandpa Book’ helps us regain our reputation as an honest broker in the Middle East”.Why is Breaking the Silence spreading International Solidarity Movement propaganda?
In his commentary, Harris lauded Michael Lynk (the newly-appointed UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights int he Occupied Palestinian Territories) as “a brilliant legal mind, is an independent expert appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council.”
What Michael Harris conveniently overlooked is that according to the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA): ”Lynk has been significantly involved in anti-Israel advocacy in Canada. This has included signing anti-Israel petitions, calling for Israel to be prosecuted for “war crimes”, accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing”, addressing “one-state” conferences (which call for the end of Israel), and serving as a leader in CEPAL – a group that promotes Israeli Apartheid Week.”
This morning, Breaking the Silence shared a fascinating video from Ha’aretz which was recorded by International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activists in Hebron. The video purports to document settler harassment. Inadvertently, it shows something else entirely.IsraellyCool: WATCH: Israel Hater Norman Finkelstein Goes Bananas
First, a little background on the ISM: ISM volunteers come from abroad to routinely attempt to obstruct Israeli soldiers, act as human shields for terrorists and criminals, and generally make a nuisance of themselves in areas where terror attacks have occurred and tensions run high. Rather than facilitating peace, volunteers antangonise soldiers and stoke antipathy.
Over the years, the ISM has been caught up in a number of scandals, notably in 2008 when an activist was convicted in a American court of illegally funding Hamas while working for the organisation. And in Israel, during the court case into the death of Rachel Corrie, an ISM activist who defiantly stood in front of an IDF tractor without realising that the driver could not see her, judge Oded Gershon ruled that “In fact, the organization abuses human rights and morals discourse to blur the severity of its actions which manifested de facto as violence.” He also ruled that ISM activists provided financial, logistic and moral aid to terrorists.
Israel-hater Norman Finkelstein recently appeared on a show called J-TV, to debate pro-Israel historian Ken Spiro on whether Israel is held to double standards.Bill to bar BDS activists from Israel passes first reading
Seemingly not familiar with how civil debates operate, Rat Fink has an epic meltdown, before storming off.
Bonus: After accusing the moderator of speaking nonsense and not having a clue what he’s talking about, Rat Fink goes on to get Colonel Richard Kemp‘s name wrong – which he continues to do while calling him an imbecile.
A bill to bar activists from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement from entering Israel was approved by the Knesset Monday in its first reading.Will BDS activists reject the new Israeli cure for the AIDS/HIV virus?
The bill would deny entry to individuals calling for a boycott of Israel or representing an NGO that does, but would allow the interior minister to make exceptions.
The law passed its first reading: 42 to 15, with seven abstentions. The law still needs to pass a second and third reading before it becomes law.
Under the current law, the interior minister already has the right to bar individuals from entering Israel. The proposed bill would entail creating a list of individuals and organizations deemed anti-Israeli and would give the minister the ability to make exemptions.
For several decades now, the world has been plagued by the AIDS/HIV virus with very little hope for a real cure. Millions have died while scientists worldwide, scramble for a vaccine. While they might have not all worked closely together, scientists from various countries continue their intensive research. This might not even come as a surprise to some, but Israel is among the leaders in the AIDS/HIV cure research.Swastikas drawn on dorm room doors in New York City
Israeli scientists have now identified a protein that would reduce the virus in infected patients by more than 95% in about a week. Needless to say, this a breakthrough for the medical community that brings our global community very close to a real cure as opposed to the current various medications that simply postpone and/or slow down the HIV virus.
The drug is currently being heavily tested before it can hit the market, but the big difference that gives hope to the researchers, is the fact that the protein that they have discovered actually kills the infected cells giving the virus no chance to return in the previously infected patient. This is huge!
Swastikas were drawn on the doors of at least four dorm rooms at a New York university.Elliott Abrams: Just How Much Should We Boycott Israel?
One of the dorm suites vandalized Saturday at The New School in Manhattan was home to four Jewish students.
One of the students, Sam Lichtenstein, told the New York Daily News that she broke down in tears after she saw the swastika on her door.
She later tweeted a photo of her door.
The New School President David Van Zandt denounced the graffiti in a tweet and later in a statement.
While your attention was diverted to America's elections, a fierce debate was underway among Israel-bashers. The debate is over the precise parameters of the obviously essential boycott of Israel. And it took place, quite properly, in the pages of The New York Review of Books, where just how much to bash and boycott Israel is the only debate worth having.IsraellyCool: Peter Beinart Criticizes Israel For Its Lack of Interest in Peter Beinart (Satire)
First came a group of about 300 intellectuals, professors, and others that includes people who want to be known as Israel lovers, such as Peter Beinart, Daniel Ellsberg, Todd Gitlin, and Michael Kazin. Their full text follows:
We, the undersigned, oppose an economic, political, or cultural boycott of Israel itself as defined by its June 4, 1967, borders. We believe that this so-called Green Line, as defined by the 1949 armistice, should be the starting point for negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinian parties on future boundaries between two states. To promote such negotiations, we call for a targeted boycott of all goods and services from all Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories, and any investments that promote the Occupation, until such time as a peace settlement is negotiated between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority.
We further call upon the US government to exclude settlements from trade benefits accorded to Israeli enterprises, and to strip all such Israeli entities in the West Bank from the tax exemptions that the Internal Revenue Service currently grants to American nonprofit tax-exempt organizations. The objects of our call are all commercial and residential Israeli-sponsored entities located outside the 1949 Green Line. It is our hope that targeted boycotts and changes in American policy, limited to the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories, will encourage all parties to negotiate a two-state solution to this long-standing conflict.
Peter Beinart, the conscience of modern Progressive Judaism and all around Liberal Zionist Bad Boy, is not too thrilled with the choices that Israel has been making lately. And he’s not afraid to tell us. In fact, Pete is currently quite cross with us for ignoring his amazingly prescient advice about the Peace Process, to the extent that he now takes press junkets to Judea and Samaria with J-Street in order to pester goats. His powerful voice has hit Israel like a bombshell, compelling everyday Israelis to stop what they’re doing and ask themselves “Just who does Peter Beinart think he is? No, Really. We’re kinda drawing a blank right now. Who is he again?” The Daily Freier walked the streets of Tel Aviv to gauge the feelings of real Israelis on just how they have been affected by Mr. Beinart’s harsh words about people in Ma’ale Adumim putting in a swimming pool and a patio.FBI: Hate crimes against Jews rose by 9% last year
As the Daily Freier made its way down Dizengoff Street, it bumped into Alert Local Ronit S. and proceeded to ask her how she felt about Peter Beinart’s criticism of Israel.
“Who?” she asked
“Peter Beinart. The beating heart of Liberal Zionism. Writes for Haaretz sometimes. Ringing a bell now?”
A rise in hate crimes against Muslims and Jews contributed to a 6.8 percent overall increase in 2015 incidents from the previous year, according to the FBI.American Nazi Party fliers in Montana accuse Jews of controlling media to ‘poison’ US
Anti-Muslim hate crimes reported to police rose by some 67 percent, to 215 incidents, from the 154 in 2014, the official FBI data released Monday showed. It marks the second highest number of crimes against Muslims since the national statistics began being reported in 1992. The highest number occurred in 2001, the year of the 9/11 attacks, with 481 incidents.
The number of religiously motivated hate crimes was 1,244, some 21.3 percent of the total. Some 53.3 percent of the religiously motivated hate crimes, or 664 incidents, were directed at Jews, who make up less than 2 percent of the population. Crimes against Jews increased by about 9 percent from 2014.
Over half of all hate crime, 3,310 incidents, or 56.6 percent, was committed on the basis of race, with 52.7 percent being anti-black.
A synagogue in Missoula, Montana, requested a police patrol after American Nazi Party fliers accusing Jews of controlling the media were dropped in residential areas of the city.Trove of 3,600-year-old artifacts found near Judean foothills
Har Shalom synagogue asked the Missoula Police Department for the extra patrol on Friday afternoon, the daily Billings Gazette reported. It said it was requesting the patrol as a precaution.
Fliers began appearing around town within 24 hours of the election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States, the Montana Human Rights Network told the newspaper.
One of the fliers was titled “The Jewish Run Media,” which said that Jews brainwash the public through the media, inducing them to vote for corrupt politicians. The flier requests a $5 donation for an American Nazi Party information kit.
“The Jews’ purpose is to destroy us and our families from the inside out, slowly and gradually perverting us with their own special kind of poison,” according to the flier.
A second flier calls for demands “Free healthcare for the white working class” and directs readers to the American Nazi Party website.
A treasure trove of ancient gold and silver artifacts dating back some 3,600 years was recently discovered in Tel Gezer, an archaeological site on the Judean foothills, the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority announced Monday.Israeli-German Surgical Team Repairs Hearts of 14 Tanzanian Children
The Canaanite period artifacts were found by a joint excavation mission of the IAA, Parks Authority and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Lead archaeologists Dr. Eli Yanai of the Antiquities Authority, Dr. Zvika Zuk of the Parks Authority, and Drs. Jim Parker and Dan Warner -- both of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary -- agreed that the trove was most likely part of a ceremonial offering that was laid in the center of the multilevel structure being excavated.
The artifacts were found in a pot wrapped in fabric that was still somewhat intact. An analysis of the fibers and the method of weaving indicated the fabric was a type of linen
The fabric find is highly important in and of itself, as there have only been two fabric finds in Israel dating back to the Canaanite period.
The find includes five artifacts, three of which were made of silver that has become considerably corroded, preventing researchers from studying them properly. The other two items include a silver medallion and a gold-framed seal.
Fourteen Tanzanian children underwent successful heart surgery during a joint Israeli-German medical mission to Dar es Salaam this month.Artificial Habitat Created to Prevent Extinction of Fish Found Only in Israel
The five-day medical mission — supported by Save a Child’s Heart Canada and Ein Herz für Kinder — included a German team led by Prof. Felix Berger of the Deutsches Herzzentrum in Berlin and an Israeli team led by Dr. Akiva Tamir, head of the pediatric cardiology unit at Wolfson Medical Center.
The Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute hosted the Israeli and German doctors and nurses. The Tanzanian team was led by Dr. Godwin Godfrey, who received training from SACH in Israel before becoming Tanzania’s first pediatric cardiac surgeon, and Dr. Naiz Majani, pediatric cardiologist also trained by SACH in Israel.
In addition to the lifesaving operations, the Israeli and German doctors held an open clinic for heart disease patients. Among the children waiting in line to be screened was six-year-old Dismas, who underwent lifesaving heart surgery in Israel two years ago thanks to SACH. His mother reported that since returning from Israel, he has started to attend school and loves to run and play.
SACH medical teams often do checkups or follow-up procedures on patients they treated months or years previously.
The Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) inaugurated an artificial habitat to save a species of fish found only in Israel from extinction, the Hebrew news site Walla reported on Monday.U.S. National Guard Chief in Israel to Learn about Emergency Readiness
According to the report, the habitat — to preserve the rare fish, known as Nemacheilus Dori — was built in the Tel Saharon Nature Reserve in northern Israel, in an attempt to provide the optimal conditions for it to survive, thrive and multiply.
The unique fish was discovered in the 1960s by Prof. Menachem Goren of Tel Aviv University. Over the decades, the INPA has been observing its sharp decline, until five years ago, when there were only about 200 left. To counteract the phenomenon, the INPA, under the guidance of Dr. Yaron Krotman, developed a breeding nucleus to keep if from dying out.
The Nemacheilus Dori is a mere five centimeters (two inches) in length, but it possesses ecological significance. It lives at the bottom of streams; feeds on worms and small crabs; and is eaten by birds.
A delegation led by US Air Force Gen. Joseph Lengyel, chief of the National Guard Bureau, is in Israel through Wednesday evening to witness latest local developments in emergency responsiveness.Robert Kraft donates $6 million for sports campus in Jerusalem
The guest of Maj. Gen. Yoel Strik, commander of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Homefront Command, Lengyel’s trip here is his first since assuming the National Guard’s top job in August.
On Tuesday, the US four-star observed a large-scale exercise in Israel’s northern theater of operations, where emergency responders trained in alerting and assisting civilians threatened by Hizbollah’s arsenal of nearly 100,000 rockets and missiles beyond the border with Lebanon.
“As part of the very strong institutional and personal ties between the National Guard and Homefront Command, we are sharing information during routine times and, of course, during emergencies,” Col. Ariel Blitz, Homefront Command’s commander of Civilian Defense, told Defense News.
According to Blitz, Lengyel’s delegation was briefed on latest technologies and procedures, including the locally-developed Personal Alert, a service which provides individual warning straight to one’s smart phones, and a brand new National Alert, a central command and control system that activates and sends alerts across the full spectrum of Homefront Command warning channels.
Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots and a noted Jewish philanthropist, has donated $6 million to create the Kraft Family Sports Campus in Jerusalem.
The contribution is to “advance Jerusalem as an International sports hub,” the office of Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said in a statement issued Tuesday announcing the gift.
The contribution is part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem and the 20th Maccabiah Games, which will be hosted in Jerusalem in July 2017.
The campus will be located in Emek Ha’Arazim in northwest Jerusalem.
The Kraft Family Field in Sacher Park in Jerusalem already plays host to American football played in Israel.
“The Kraft Family Sports Campus is a central part of my vision for Jerusalem as an international capital of sport and athleticism,” Barkat said. “My dear friend, Robert Kraft, has been an unwavering partner in the growth and development of Jerusalem. This gift, which helps celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jerusalem’s reunification, furthers Robert and his family’s commitment to the capital of Israel, and to enhancing sport and particularly football in Jerusalem.”
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