Sunday, March 12, 2017
Daily Mail: A sick new low for foreign aid: Palestinian boys and girls pretend to execute an Israeli soldier – as teachers at schools funded by YOU tell their pupils that terrorists are heroes
Britain is pumping huge sums of foreign aid into Palestinian schools named after mass murderers and Islamist militants, which openly promote terrorism and encourage pupils to see child killers as role models.
A Mail on Sunday investigation has found 24 schools named after Palestinian terrorists and evidence of widespread encouragement of violence against Israel by teachers, with terrorists routinely held up as heroes for schoolchildren.
Pictures of ‘martyrs’ are posted on school walls, revolutionary slogans and symbols are painted on premises used by youngsters, sports events are named after teenage terrorists and children are encouraged to act out shooting Israeli soldiers in plays.
Head teachers openly admit flouting attempts by British and European donors to control the curriculum at schools. They print overtly political study aids for pupils, some even denying the existence of Israel, and teachers boast of encouraging pupils to emulate teenage attackers killed in the most recent wave of terrorist attacks in the region.
One senior teacher from a prominent West Bank school, asked what he would say to a pupil threatening to attack Israelis, told this newspaper: ‘I would tell them go in the name of God.’
Watch: Murderer of 7 schoolgirls given hero's welcome in Jordan
A hero's welcome is planned for the Jordanian soldier released last night after serving 20 years in prison for murdering seven Israeli schoolgirls during a class trip in 1997.'Israelis are human waste. We must get rid of them'
Ahmed Daqamseh was a soldier in the Jordanian army when he opened fire on a group of students who were visiting the “Island of Peace” of Naharayim on March 13, 1997, as part of a class trip.
Daqamseh was sentenced to life in prison for the massacre, which in Jordan usually means 25 years in prison. However, he was released five years early following repeated calls for his release. In 2013, 110 out of 150 Jordanian MPs signed a petition calling for his release.
In 2011, then-Jordanian Justice Minister Hussein Mjali caused an uproar when he called for Daqamseh’s release, claiming that he is “a hero. He does not deserve prison. If a Jewish person killed Arabs, his country would have built a statue for him instead of imprisonment."
Ahmed Daqamseh, the Jordanian soldier who opened fire on a group of students who were visiting the “Island of Peace” of Naharayim on March 13, 1997, as part of a class trip, killing seven Israeli schoolgirls justified his murderous actions Sunday after being released from prison five years early.
"The Israelis are the human waste which the nations of the world vomited up before us," Daqamseh told Jordanian media less than a day after his release. "Unfortunately, they occupy the purest land after Mecca and Medina."
"We must eliminate this waste by incineration or by burial," Daqamseh added.
Daqamseh relayed a message of continouous war with Israel to the Jordanian people. "Do not believe the lie of normalization with the Zionist entity. Do not believe the lie of the two-state solution. Palestine is one, from the sea to the river, from Rosh Hanikra to Um Rash-Rash. They forged the names of the cities, and unfortunately, many Arabs say 'the State of Israel.' There cannot be a State of Israel.
Daqamseh's car was surrounded by supporters after his release Saturday night. The supporters chanted, cheered, and filmed the event as the vehicle made its way towards his village. His tribe planned to hold a large party in his village Sunday afternoon for Daqmeseh, who they call a "hero soldier."
Church of the Nativity "an anomaly" in Muslim-majority Bethlehem
Deus Vult: It’s Crusade O’clock in Bethlehem!
Trump to Abbas: Peace deal can only be reached by direct talks
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday invited Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to the White House, in the first phone call between the two leaders since Trump took office.Ever unpredictable, Trump throws Mahmoud Abbas a lifeline
The White House said in a statement that the two discussed ways to advance peace throughout the Middle East, including a comprehensive agreement that would end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"The president emphasized his personal belief that peace is possible and that the time has come to make a deal," the White House said. "The president noted that such a deal would not only give Israelis and Palestinians the peace and security they deserve, but that it would reverberate positively throughout the region and the world."
Trump underscored that such a peace agreement must be negotiated directly between the two parties, and that the United States would work closely with Palestinian and Israeli leadership to make progress toward that goal, the statement said.
"The president noted that the United States cannot impose a solution on the Israelis and Palestinians, nor can one side impose an agreement on the other," the White House said.
US President Donald Trump’s phone conversation Friday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, during which the PA chief was invited to visit to the White House in the near future, has produced considerable optimism in Ramallah.Abbas: Trump told me he wants two-state solution
The American president, whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu anticipated would be far more supportive of Israel than his predecessor Barak Obama, went out of his way in the call to leave Abbas feeling upbeat, PA officials said Saturday.
Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh reported soon after the call on Friday that Trump stressed his “commitment to a peace process that would lead to a real peace between Palestinians and Israelis,” and he hailed the new president as “a very honest man, very courageous man, looking for a deal, a just deal.”
The White House invite was not just extended as “a formal invitation,” one Palestinian official elaborated on Saturday. Rather, Trump made plain “that he wants to host the rais (chairman) as his personal guest.”
The call left the PA leadership with the clear sense that Trump wants to see an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, and intends to work for one.
Despite having declared at last month’s press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he was not insisting on a two-state solution, Trump told Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday that he was committed to two states and to advancing the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, Abbas said Sunday.Michael Oren: Why Trump Should Withdraw the U.S. From the U.N. Human Rights Council
Similarly, on his visit to Washington last week, Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman was also told by administration officials that the new US leadership was seeking a two-state deal, Israel’s Channel 2 reported Sunday.
Speaking in Ramallah, Abbas on Sunday said that his phone conversation with Trump, in which the US president invited him to the White House, was “constructive” and that Trump “confirmed his full commitment to the peace process and the two-state solution.”
He added: “We will continue to cooperate with [Trump], in order to arrive at a comprehensive and just peace that will bring security and stability to everyone.”
Other Palestinian sources said that Trump told Abbas he wanted to broker a deal, and that he referred to Abbas as a “partner.”
Abbas is on Tuesday set to host Jason Greenblatt, who is making his first visit to the region since being appointed as Trump’s special representative for international negotiations. Greenblatt will meet first with Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
Repelled by this bigotry, as well by the rights-violating regimes that often chaired its sessions, the Bush Administration refrained from appointing an ambassador to the council. That decision was reversed by President Obama, however, who believed that a U.S. presence on the body could redress some of its injustices, including that toward Israel. The decision disheartened Israelis who believed that America's involvement would only legitimize the council's prejudice. Unfortunately, our concern proved justified. Throughout the Obama years, UNHRC denouncements of Israel only multiplied.Iran admits canceling missile test following White House warning
Now the United States is once again rethinking its position. On March 1, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations Erin Barclay said the U.S. remained “deeply troubled by the council's unfair and unbalanced focus on one democratic country, Israel.” Such a position, if it resulted in a return to America's previous boycott of the council, would be warmly welcomed by Israel.
Israel is, of course, the Jewish State, and throughout history, there has been a name for the singling out and demonization of Jews. It's call anti-Semitism. By fixating on Israel and its alleged abuses, UNHRC fits the definition of anti-Semitism. The fact that the United States not only helps fund this racist body but is formally represented on it, should be reprehensible to all Americans.
As a nation aspiring to the highest standards of human rights, Israel of course supports any organization seeking to preserve them. That organization is emphatically not the UNHRC. At a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe as well as in the United States, withdrawal from the council would reaffirm America's determination to stand up to hatred against Jews and any ethnic, racial, or religious groups. Quitting the UNHRC would send a moral message to the world.
A high-ranking Iranian official admitted last week that Iran canceled a planned ballistic missile test over warnings from the United States.State Department: Israel’s anti-BDS law is ‘sovereign decision’
According to a report Thursday by Iranian news agency Tasnim, Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Revolutionary Guard's Aerospace Force, publicly acknowledged that a ballistic missile test scheduled to take place in February was nixed after the White House warned the Islamic republic not to repeat the provocative missile test it performed in late January.
According to the report, Hajizadeh said: "We prepared a ballistic missile for the purpose of launching a satellite for civilian purposes, but there were people who sent it back to the storage facility after a threat was received from the Americans."
He criticized the move, calling it "humiliating behavior."
A new law that would ban entry to Israel of foreigners who publicly support boycotts of the Jewish state is Israel’s “sovereign decision,” a State Department spokesperson said.Britain looks to strengthen trade ties with Israel post-Brexit
In a briefing to reporters on Wednesday, Mark Toner said that while the United States opposes boycotts of Israel, it is up to Israel to make decisions regarding its borders.
“While we oppose boycotts and sanctions of the state of Israel, we also support firmly freedom of expression,” Toner said. “That said, it’s – this is a sovereign decision for Israel to make regarding its borders.”
The law, adopted Monday by the Knesset, bans entry to foreigners who publicly call for boycotting the Jewish state or its settlements.
Several Jewish American groups have condemned the new law, including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee.
According to the new law, the ban applies to any foreigner “who knowingly issues a public call for boycotting Israel that, given the content of the call and the circumstances in which it was issued, has a reasonable possibility of leading to the imposition of a boycott – if the issuer was aware of this possibility.” It includes those who urge limiting boycotts to areas under Israeli control, such as the West Bank settlements.
Britain will reportedly seek to bolster economic ties with Israel following the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union last year.German newspapers: Netanyahu is a mad dictator like Khamenei
Israel and Britain will set up a working group to negotiate trade deals between the two countries, the UK’s Guardian newspaper reported on Sunday.
According to the report, a team of two to four officials from each country will meet by the end of March, and the group is expected to continue meeting two or three times a year to hammer out economic agreements.
On his visit to Israel last week, UK’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson boasted of the existing close ties between the two countries and mentioned plans to negotiate a new free trade agreement.
In a joint press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Johnson hailed growing bilateral commercial ties: “We have the fastest growing Aston Martin dealership anywhere in the world here in Israel. We’ve done some fantastic export deals with you. But you’ve also greatly contributed to our economy.”
UK Prime Minister Theresa May hopes to trigger Article 50 of the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty, the formal procedure to start negotiations on leaving the bloc, by the end of March. That will begin two years of negotiations between Britain and the EU as to exactly what Brexit will entail.
Two German tabloids in Hamburg and Berlin wrote on Friday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is one of the world’s seven most insane dictators, prompting the Israeli Embassy to slam the report as antisemitic.Nails on the road, followed by shooting attacks on Israelis
In unsigned articles titled “The seven looniest leaders of the world,” the papers included Netanyahu on a list with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Syria’s Bashar Assad, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte, and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.
The headline used the word "Führer" to label Netanyahu; a term routinely reserved for Adolf Hitler.
The article listed the initials of the author as MKR.
The Hamburger Morgenpost and Berliner Kurier, part of the same publishing house, wrote under a picture of Netanyahu that he “long refuses to agree to a two-state solution. He continues to carry out construction of settlements and thereby provokes his Palestinian neighbors. In the long-running troubles with Iran, he tried without success to pressure Barack Obama to launch an air attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. With Trump that could turn out differently.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry and the embassy immediately responded to a Post query on Saturday.
The Security Services released for publication Sunday that several Hamas cells has been arrested in Judea and Samaria over the past several weeks while planning attacks on Israelis.Thousands of Arab Israelis protest mosque loudspeaker bills
Last month, a number of students from Bir Zeit University, near Ramallah, were detained for questioning. The students are members of the Hamas organization on campus. The investigation revealed the extent of Hamas' activities on the Bir Zeit campus and elsewhere.
The Hamas activities on campus include the holding of pro-Hamas rallies, fundraising for Hamas and the recruitment of new members for the terrorist organization. The names of organization members and committees were also revealed.
A Hamas cell which carried out extensive terrorist activity was also broken up and arrested recently. Residents of the village of Biddu in Binyamin were arrested for planting bombs, throwing firebombs at IDF soldiers, and for their involvement in a shooting attack in the town of Har Hadar in 2015. The investigation found that the terrorists were planning to carry out further shooting attacks against Jewish targets.
The arrests in Samaria were carried out as part of a joint operation between the Shin Bet, the IDF, the and the Security Services.
Thousands of Arabs staged a protest march Saturday in northern Israel against legislation aimed at silencing mosque loudspeakers.Israel thwarts Hamas moves to spread influence in West Bank
Some 3,000 men and women marched through the town of Kabul, holding Palestinian flags and signs saying: “The muezzin law won’t pass” or “Don’t silence the muezzin,” chanting against the legislation and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The call to prayer existed long before the right-wing politicians who have no connection to this land,” the town imam told Channel 2. “We will continue to sound our calls to prayer, we’ll even increase the volume of our muezzins.”
“If this right-wing government is looking to provoke Muslims, then that’s what they’ll get,” he added.
Echoing the outrage of the protesters was Joint (Arab) List MK Youssef Jabareen, who vowed his constituents would not accept the legislation quietly.
“The demonstration today is just the first in a series of mass protests and other measures against this racist and draconian law,” he said.
Several Hamas networks run by university students in the West Bank have been uncovered by Israel’s security agencies, the Shin Bet security service announced on Sunday.PreOccupiedTerritory: Palestinians Discover ‘Boys Clubs’ Unrelated To Beating People With Sticks (satire)
According to the Shin Bet, 20 year-old Muhammad Aazi, a resident of the village of Jamma'in and Hamas operative was arrested along with 22 year-old Noor Aldin Ghaith, a resident of Hebron, for planning to carry out shooting attacks against Israeli targets.
During the investigation it was discovered that they had planned to carry out a shooting attack against both civilian and IDF vehicles traveling on main roads in the area. Aazi and Ghaith had carried out reconnaissance on the road and had planned to deliberately scatter metal nails on the road in order to cause vehicles to stop so they could carry out the shootings.
The weapons bought to carry out the attack were seized during the investigation.
A local youth organization with American sponsorship has been forced to close its doors due to lack of responsiveness from area teens and preteens, after the target audience discovered that the term “boys clubs” refers not to instruments of violence, but a group of people gathered informally for a common set of pursuits.A Letter To Richard Gere
A USAID program aimed at providing Palestinian boys with after-school programs to keep them from being drawn into violent movements such as Hamas failed to appeal to its intended demographic cohort by selecting misleading terminology. The Boys Clubs of Jenin, conceived as an alternative to militant groups and as a way of informally steering Palestinian youth away from violent pursuits, failed to attract more than two interested families and was unable to justify continuing operations, a spokesman for USAID announced today. She disclosed that the main failing of the Boys Club initiative stemmed from the lack of connection between Palestinian expectations of the word “club” and the program’s actual content.
Shuda Fnone, USAID Director of Palestinian Programs, told reporters that the organization attempted to recruit at least three dozen Jenin boys between the ages of ten and eighteen over the course of six months, with little success. “We met with quite a bit of initial curiosity, but then as we described the nature of our programs and their purpose, we could tell our interlocutors were losing interest,” she recalled. “Boys Clubs coordinators reported that as they went into further detail about the clubs, Palestinian youths and parents who until that point had greeted them with enthusiasm began to realize that our use of the word ‘club’ differed from their expectations. Whereas we were providing a safe environment for basketball, volleyball, chess, and other extracurricular activities, it appears that the population of Jenin had seized upon the word ‘club’ as an invitation to practice using Jews an piñatas – or, in a pinch, anyone who dishonored the family, or could be accused of collaborating with Israel.”
Dear Richard,Jewish Student Umbrella Lauds New Anti-BDS Report Recommending How to Combat ‘One of the Greatest Threats to Academic Freedom’ on Campus
You have come to Israel, ostensibly to promote your new film, but instead we are hearing you spread the most pernicious propaganda about this country that has so graciously hosted you.
You speak out about the “occupation” of our own indigenous lands. Yet you played King David once. Surely, you did not just read the script and your lines without internalizing the rich history of the Jewish people in their homeland – including in Jerusalem, where David reigned as king, and where his son built the First of the two temples that stood there well before the Muslims conquered the area and placed the gold dome there?
You call our Prime Minister one of the “bad guys” and blame rising antisemitism on Donald Trump. Yet you are buddies with Hanan Ashrawi, who runs the antisemitic MIFTAH organization. And you were more than willing to meet and receive a gift from Holocaust denier Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah party disseminates antisemitism to this day.
Richard, you may have played an officer and a gentleman once, but you truly are neither.
The world’s largest Jewish campus organization welcomed a US higher education-reform group’s new recommendations for countering boycott and divestment efforts at universities, The Algemeiner has learned.For Third Time in Two Years, Ohio State Students Reject Anti-Israel Divestment Motion
Hillel International president and CEO Eric Fingerhut expressed gratitude to the American Council for Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) for its “Campus Free Speech, Academic Freedom and the Problem of the BDS Movement” report, which details how the global push “to end economic and cultural exchange with Israel is undermining” freedom of expression.
“This report highlights the struggle Jewish students and other supporters of Israel are facing on campus each day just to have their voices heard,” Fingerhut said in a statement. “We have seen too many instances of speakers shouted down and intimidated, programs interrupted and Jewish and pro-Israel students’ safety threatened by those who refuse to respect the campus culture of civility and academic freedom.”
ACTA’s report, released Thursday, describes BDS as “one of the greatest threats to academic freedom in the United States today,” and called out anti-Israel activists who engage in outright antisemitic behavior and rhetoric, and even, at times, advocate or use violence.
For the third time in two years, students at Ohio State University (OSU) rejected a motion to divest from companies that engage in business with Israel.‘Honored to Have Made My Mark on Kent State,’ Says Jewish Student Behind Antisemitism Resolution
The result of the vote on the resolution, placed on the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) ballot last week and announced Thursday evening, was 4,084: 3,841.
Sponsored by the campus coalition OSU Divest: Buckeyes for Human Rights, it called on the USG to “cease and/or prohibit any investments in G4S, Caterpillar, CoreCivic, The GEO Group and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise until they are no longer engaged in the violation of human rights [of Palestinians] and other practices deemed unethical by the Buckeye community.”
The BDS motion was defeated despite what its opponents claimed was a corruption of the voting process in favor of OSU Divest. According to coalition group Protect OSU, the USG had “unfairly cheated only the opponents of divestment.”
“All [the BDS] campaign does is harm students on campus, while deepening divisions between Israelis and Palestinians,” said Ron Krudo, Executive Director of Campus Affairs at Israel-advocacy group StandWithUs. “It’s encouraging that students ultimately saw through the disingenuous rhetoric of OSU Divest, and voted no.”
“I am so honored to have made my mark on Kent State University,” the Jewish campus leader behind a resolution condemning antisemitism told The Algemeiner.Israel calls on banks in Spain, South Africa, US to shut BDS accounts
After the Ohio school’s student government passed a motion Tuesday to adopt a definition of antisemitism, Sophia Witt — president of Kent State’s chapter of Students Supporting Israel (SSI) — said, “I was nervous as to what the outcome [of the vote] would be, but the university upheld its values of inclusivity and diversity on campus.”
Witt said she thought something needed to be done, after the tiny Kent State Jewish community (only 3.5% of the campus population is “of Jewish heritage or practice,” according to the resolution) and the wider Kent neighborhood “experienced several personal hits of antisemitism.” She decided a conversation about bigotry toward Jews needed to start with defining the problem, which the resolution describes as “hostility toward, or discrimination against, Jewish persons as a religious, ethnic, or racial group.”
“This resolution means everything — not only for our particular community, but for all minorities at Kent State. I wanted it to be known that discrimination is something our student body doesn’t stand for, and this resolution does that,” Witt said, called the student government “amazing”for its vote.
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan is ratcheting up pressure on banks to close the accounts of groups that boycott Israel, including one organization that has links to an internationally recognized Palestinian terrorist organization.Arab-Israeli StandWithUs Educator Yahya speaks out at WITS University in South Africa
“Facilitating the bank accounts of BDS organizations constitutes support for BDS. Banks maintaining such accounts should carefully consider the danger of running afoul of strict anti-BDS legislation in the US and other countries,” Erdan told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive statement on Thursday.
“Countries have already shut BDS accounts for legal reasons and we urge others to do the same,” he added.
The Post’s ongoing investigative series on financial institutions enabling boycott groups to target Israel revealed that BDS South Africa’s bank account is maintained at that country’s First National Bank.
WATCH how Arab-Israeli StandWithUs Educator Yahya, spoke out at WITS University in South Africa... despite the haters of the BDS movement trying to shout him down.
Their only tactic is to try and divide people, intimidate and attempt to silence the truth. But as brave Yahya showed them, when it comes to the free-est, most diverse and equal country in the Middle East, and the only Jewish country in the world, the truth will out!
PreOccupiedTerritory: BDS Says Vashti Boycott Of Ahashverosh Feast Their Idea (satire)
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement aimed at isolating Israel politically, economically, and diplomatically claimed credit for Queen Vashti’s refusal to answer King Ahashverosh’s summons, saying that the queen had been swayed by their arguments that because Jews were in attendance, declining to appear there would send a message of solidarity with Palestinians.Toronto imam says Muslims will eventually kill all Jews
Parshandata Eno, a prominent BDS activist in the entertainment industry, told Variety magazine that the queen’s decision not to follow her husband’s orders came after the group had prevailed upon her to support the Palestinian cause. There were Jews, including Zionists, at Ahashverosh’s feast, and pointedly not attending such an event served to demonstrate that Vashti was a woman of conscience who refused to let treatment of indigenous Palestinians pass without protest. Vashti remained unavailable to confirm the BDS account.
“We are proud to announce yet another success in our ongoing mission,” Eno told his interviewer. “Queen Vashti is the most prominent figure so far to answer our call to come to the aid of the beleaguered Palestinian people suffering under the racist policies of the Jew- I mean the Zionists. It was a mistake for Cyrus to enable such brutality on the part of the Je Zionists.”
Motion 103 “Systemic racism and religious discrimination”, which also known as the anti-Islamophobia motion, demands that “the government should recognize the need to quell the increasing public climate of hate and fear… condemn Islamophobia and all forms of systemic racism and religious discrimination and take note of House of Commons’ petition e-411 and the issues raised by it” and “develop a whole-of-government approach to reducing or eliminating systemic racism and religious discrimination including Islamophobia, in Canada.”France’s Fillon slams own party for ‘anti-Semitic’ election cartoon
Petition e-411, which was unanimously endorsed by the Parliament, suggests that attributing terrorism to Islam is Islamophobia.
Sheikh Abdulqani Mursal, imam at Masjid Al Hikma mosque in Toronto (36 Colville Rd, North York – Lawrence and Keele), explains that the fate of the Jews is destined to be killed by the Muslims.
France’s center-right presidential candidate Francois Fillon denounced on Saturday an “anti-Semitic” caricature of rival Emmanuel Macron put out by his own Les Républicains party.Paying tribute to Toulouse victims, France vows ‘tireless’ fight against terror
The cartoon, quickly taken down after it was posted on the party’s Twitter account on Friday, depicted the centrist Macron, a former banker, with a hooked nose and top hat, carrying a red sickle with which he was cutting a cigar. Associates and supporters from the French left and center were shown around him.
Fillon, a former prime minister, has lagged in polls amid allegations that he had secured fictitious public service jobs for his wife and children.
He was scathing Saturday in his criticism of the cartoon.
“The fight is tough but it must remain dignified,” he said in a statement, vowing not to “tolerate that his own party is broadcasting caricatures containing the codes of anti-Semitic propaganda.”
He urged disciplinary measured be taken against any party officials responsible for the post.
French President Francois Hollande on Saturday vowed Paris would “tirelessly” combat terrorism, as tributes poured in across France for the victims of Toulouse massacres on the fifth anniversary of the attacks.Meet the Israeli crab that crawled out from under a rock to global stardom
Hollande addressed the families of the victims killed by Mohamed Merah, telling them that “France is always at their side” and that “it will continue tirelessly its fight against terrorism.”
“Five years ago, between March 11 and 22, 2012, seven of our compatriots died in Toulouse and Montauban, victims of the murderous attack of a hate-filled terrorist,” said Hollande in a statement.
In March 2012, Merah, a self-described al-Qaeda sympathizer who had traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan, shot dead a teacher, Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, and three Jewish schoolchildren — Sandler’s two young sons, Arieh and Gavriel, as well as 8-year-old Miriam Monsonego — at the Otzar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse before fleeing on a motorcycle.
Merah also killed three soldiers in Toulouse and nearby Montauban in the nine-day killing spree. He was shot dead by police at his hiding place two days after the school massacre.
When young Israeli marine biologist Yisrael Schnytzer tells people he researches Lybia crabs for a living, many people, especially Israelis, say, “That’s interesting, but what’s the practical benefit?”Amsterdam Purim celebration in 1946
“Nothing,” he always replies, “they’re just really amazing.”
Apparently, Schnytzer is not the only one who thinks so. When Schnytzer, together with his fellow PhD student Yaniv Giman, as well as their professors Yair Achituv of Bar-Ilan University and Ilan Karplus at the Volcani Center, published a press release describing their latest research into Lybia crabs last January, they were inundated with media inquiries. Reports of their research have been featured in Science, National Geographic, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Der Spiegel, The New Scientist, The Daily Mail, National Public Radio and dozens more publications. Next month, the BBC will arrive in Israel to film a show about the Lybia crab, the very first television show devoted to this particular crustacean, as part of a program about “animals behaving badly.”
Lybia crabs, also known as boxer crabs or pom pom crabs, are always found in nature holding another animal, a sea anemone, in each of their claws. In a series of experiments the four Israeli scientists showed that if the crabs’ sea anemones are taken away from them, they will fight another crab to get a sea anemone, then split it into two. Each of the two pieces of sea anemone will then regenerate itself, and the sea anemones in each claw will be identical clones. Sea anemones are sea-dwelling, predatory animals related to coral and jellyfish.
Footage of Post-War Purim celebration in Children's Home of Yehoshua and Hennie Birnbaum in Amsterdam, Holland.
PreOccupiedTerritory: I Don’t Need Purim As An Excuse To Get Drunk And Make Poor Decisions By Al Koholik(satire)
Happy Drinking Day! Or for those of you who insist on pretending it’s not about the drinking, Happy Purim. You’re welcome to get involved in explaining how and why the festival encourages imbibing wine and other intoxicants. Me, I don’t need Purim as an excuse to get drunk and make poor decisions.Israel Continues World Baseball Classic Winning Streak, Beating Cuba 4-1
Getting smashed and living with impaired cognitive processes is not something I need Purim to enable. I’m quite capable of downing a couple of six-packs and then deciding to hang-glide off my second-story rooftop using bed sheets and a metal bed frame on any day of the year – cursed be Haman or not. Just last week I ended up in the ER after trying to open a second bottle of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey with a hedge trimmer, because it sounded like a good idea at that point. No, I didn’t mangle myself too badly – just got cut by flying glass. To get seriously messed up, like losing a limb, it would take three or four more swigs of the good stuff.
Besides, the way it’s technically supposed to be done on Purim, the drinking is part of a festive meal, which negates some of the effect of the alcohol. Me, I prefer getting into the spirit – by which I mean getting the spirits into my bloodstream – on an empty stomach, to maximize the effect. Also, there’s less food to throw up as a result. Priorities.
Israel continued its surprising run at the World Baseball Classic on Sunday, beating Cuba 4-1 in its first game of the second round to improve to 4-0 in the tournament.
Alfredo Despaigne put Cuba up 1-0 with a solo home run in the second inning but Israel tied the game in the fourth on a double by Ryan Lavarnway that scored Ike Davis from first.
Team Israel took a 2-1 lead in the sixth when Zach Borenstein singled to right scoring Ty Kelly from second base. Blake Gailen made it 3-1 with a two-out double to right that scored Nate Freiman.
Israel tacked on another run in the eighth on a sacrifice bunt by Gailen that scored Borenstein from third.
Josh Zeid pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth when he got Willian Saavedra to ground out to third with two out.
