Caroline Glick: Sarsour and the progressive zeitgeist
In US academic tradition, university administrators choose commencement speakers they believe embody the zeitgeist of their institutions and as such, will be able to inspire graduating students to take that zeitgeist with them into the world outside.Ben-Dror Yemini: Arab leaders did plan to eliminate Israel in Six-Day War
In this context, it makes perfect sense that Ayman El-Mohandes, dean of the Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy at City University of New York (CUNY), invited Linda Sarsour to serve as commencement speaker at his faculty’s graduation ceremony.
Sarsour embodies Mohandes’s values.
Mohandes’s Twitter feed makes his values clear. His Twitter feed is filled with attacks against Israel.
Mohandes indirectly accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of wishing to commit genocide. Netanyahu, he intimated, wishes to “throw the Arabs in the sea.”
He has repeatedly libeled Israel as a repressive, racist, corrupt state.
Mohandes has effectively justified and legitimized Islamic terrorism and the Hamas terrorist regime in Gaza. The Islamic terrorist assault against Israel, led by Hamas from Gaza, is simply an act of “desperation,” he insists.
By Mohandes’s lights, Hamas terrorists are desperate not because they uphold values and beliefs that reject freedom, oppress women and aspire to the genocide of Jewry and the destruction of the West. No, they are desperate because Israel is evil and oppressive.
During the 1967 war, Israel seized Egyptian and Jordanian operational documents with clear orders to annihilate the civil population. Nevertheless, different academics are distorting the facts in a bid to turn the Arabs into victims and Israel into an aggressor. Here’s the real story.Daniel Pipes: 6 days and 50 years
More than anything else, the Six-Day War has turned into a rewritten war. A sea of publications deal with what happened at the time. Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt, the revisionists assert, had no ability to fight Israel, and anyway, he had no intention to do so.
It’s true that he made threats. It’s true that he sent more and more divisions to Sinai. It’s true that he expelled the United Nations observers. It’s true that he incited the masses in Arab countries. It’s true that the Arab regimes rattled their sabers and prepared for war. It’s true that he closed the Straits of Tiran. It’s true that Israel was besieged from its southern side. It’s true that this was a serious violation of international law. It’s true that it was a “casus belli” (a case of war).
All that doesn’t matter, however, because there is a mega-narrative that obligates the forces of progress to exempt the Arabs from responsibility and point the accusing finger at Israel. And when there is a narrative, who needs facts? After all, according to the mega-narrative, Israel had expansionist plans, so it seized the opportunity. Different scholars are distorting the facts in a bid to turn the Arabs into victims and Israel into an aggressor. (h/t Elder of Lobby)
Israel's military triumph over three enemy states in June 1967 was among the most successful wars in recorded history. The Six-Day War was also deeply consequential for the Middle East, establishing the permanence of the Jewish state, dealing a death-blow to pan-Arab nationalism, and (ironically) worsening Israel's status in the world because of its occupation of the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Focusing on this last point: How did a grand battlefield victory translate into problems still tormenting Israel today?
First, because of rejectionism -- the refusal to accept anything Zionist dominates the Palestinian attitude toward Israel and renders Israeli concessions useless, even counterproductive. Rejectionism crystallized with Hajj Amin al-Husseini (1895-1974), a malign figure who dictated Palestinian politics from 1921 until his death. He so absolutely abhorred Zionism that he collaborated with Hitler and even had a key role in formulating the Final Solution. Husseini's legacy remains a powerful force in Palestinian life -- its latest manifestations include the "anti-normalization" and the boycott, divestment and sanctions movements. Assorted Israelis and do-gooders, however, ignore rejectionism and instead blame Israel's government for not making sufficient efforts.
Second, Israel faces a conundrum of geography and demography in the West Bank. Its strategists want to control the highlands, its nationalists want to build towns, and its religious want to possess Jewish holy sites; but Israel's continued ultimate rule over a West Bank population of 1.7 million mostly hostile Palestinians takes an immense toll both domestically and internationally. Various schemes to keep the land and defang an enemy people -- by integrating them, buying them off, dividing them, pushing them out or finding another ruler for them -- have all come to naught. Israelis are stuck in an unwanted role they cannot escape.
Third, the Israelis in 1967 took several unilateral steps vis-a-vis Jerusalem that created future time bombs: They vastly expanded its borders, annexed it, and offered optional Israeli citizenship to the city's Arab residents. This led to a long-term demographic and housing competition that the Palestinians are winning, jeopardizing the Jewish nature of the Jews' historic capital. Furthermore, 300,000 could at any time choose to apply for Israeli citizenship.
Anti-Semitism Is Older Than You Think
Christians in Rome would be targeted by the Empire for some of the same reasons. But when Christianity became Rome’s official religion, it absorbed the Roman state’s position against barbara superstitio as its own. During the latter years of the Empire, Rome would promote some of the very same religious conspiracy theories against Jews that were once used against Christians themselves. Ancient rhetorical devices against Jews that accused them of being untrustworthy, isolationist, corrupt foreigners merged with new accusations that designated Jews as scapegoats for the death of Jesus Christ. This would eventually form an even more pervasive, violent, and destructive anti-Semitism that spread throughout medieval Europe, pervaded the Renaissance Inquisition, and reached a horrifying peak in Nazi Germany.Permalink to Congress to Host Anti-Israel Forum, Sparking Outrage on Hill
Perhaps ironically, people who aware of the long lineage of anti-Jewish rhetoric today are not always allies in the battle against it. For example, Cicero and Tacitus are both popularly quoted in neo-Nazi forums. The Daily Stormer posts articles about “The Roman Empire’s Jewish Problem.” Neo-Nazis even use ancient Roman testimony to argue that anti-Semitism isn’t religious discrimination, it’s ethnic, which—in their warped view—makes it justifiable.
To this day, ancient writers have a sort of intellectual cachet; we tend to see them as unusually enlightened—often more than they deserve. We forget that, like many modern politicians and rhetoricians, Romans had selfish agendas. They were more than willing to sacrifice the safety of a resistant, rebellious group of people if it would earn them power, wealth, or the favor of fervent supporters.
Today, anti-Semitism is more often encoded as screeds against “global powers,” “globalist media,” or “international bankers” than blatantly trumpeted in outright Holocaust denial. But anti-Semitism remains a tool employed by the powerful to gain power and influence, and to rile up the angry masses for their own gain. This is one truth that, particularly in our “post-fact” environment, we must never, ever forget.
Congress is scheduled to host an anti-Israel forum that takes aim at the Jewish state's military, accusing it of "systematic discrimination" against those living in the "occupied Palestinian territory," according to an invitation for the event circulating on Capitol Hill that has sparked outrage among pro-Israel lawmakers.Corbyn Repeatedly Shared Platforms With Plane Hijacker
The event, which is sponsored by a member of Congress who has chosen to remain anonymous, will feature several anti-Israel organizations that back boycotts of the Jewish state and distribute propaganda accusing the Israeli military of human rights violations, according to an invitation to the June 8 briefing obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The event, "50 Years of Israeli Military Occupation & Life for Palestinian Children," has riled several pro-Israel offices on the Hill and sparked a search for the anonymous lawmaker who has provided the organization space in room 122 of Capitol Hill's Cannon House Office Building, according to conversations with multiple sources.
A number of anti-Israel groups have attempted to hold briefings on Capitol Hill in the past months, with one group of Israel-boycott backers being forced to cancel a briefing after news of the event spilled into public following a report by the Free Beacon.
That event was sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D., Texas), who only stepped forward publicly after House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) learned about the forum and demanded it be cancelled.
Jeremy Corbyn has shared multiple platforms with a PFLP terrorist who carried out the Black September plane hijackings. Guido can reveal Jezza has attended numerous anti-Israel events alongside Leila Khaled, a senior leader of the PFLP terror group which murdered children and civilians. Khaled blew up one aeroplane and threatened to detonate grenades on another.
In August 1969 Khaled was part of the team of PFLP terrorists which hijacked TWA Flight 840 from Rome to Tel Aviv. The terrorists blew up the nose section of the aircraft. During the hijacking Khaled was photographed brandishing an AK-47.
In 1970 Khaled attempted to hijack a plane flying from Amsterdam to New York. When her accomplice was shot by an air marshal, Khaled produced two hand grenades and threatened to blow up the plane. She was subdued and arrested.
Khaled served as a senior leader of the PFLP while the terror group murdered scores of civilians. Their crimes included stabbing children to death and killing rabbis with meat cleavers. Khaled’s PFLP praised their murderous terrorists as “heroes“. Khaled herself never renounced violence and continues to call for terror attacks on Israel.
In July 2011 both Corbyn and Khaled were keynote speakers at a pro-Palestine conference organised by George Galloway in Lebanon. On 18 May 2002, Corbyn and Khaled spoke on the same stage at a pro-Palestine protest in London. At the event Corbyn called for a full trade boycott of Israel, insisting there should be “no trade” with the country at all. On the same stage where Corbyn spoke, Khaled is quoted calling for “victory” over Israel and claiming Zionism had “exceeded Nazism“. “Searching for peace” again, were you Jezza?
Jeremy Corbyn describes banned terror group Hamas as 'serious and hardworking' and calls for trade deal with Israel to be suspended
Jeremy Corbyn described the Palestinian terror group Hamas as 'serious and hardworking' and called for the EU trade with Israel to be suspended.UK's Corbyn denies honoring Palestinian attacker of 1972 Munich massacre
The Labour leader also said Hamas should not have to recognise the state of Israel before peace talks can begin, according to the newly-resurfaced 2010 radio interview.
The comments will alarm members of his party, and come just a day after it emerged that Mr Corbyn visited a wreath-laying ceremony at the grave of one of the terrorists behind the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre.
Mr Corbyn has previously described Hamas - a terror group banned in Britain which runs the Gaza strip in Palestine - as 'friends'.
During the recording, broadcast by LBC, he said: 'It is not a question of whether one agrees or disagrees with Hamas on its political strategies or indeed its social strategies.
'You have to recognise that the reality is they have a great deal of support, they have a great deal of respect from a lot of Palestinians who wouldn't necessarily politically agree with them but recognise they are serious, hard-working and they are not corrupt.
'But they want to be part of a process.'
Hamas, which has carried out a wave of deadly bombings against Israelis, has said it will never recognise the state of Israel.
But in the interview, Mr Corbyn criticises the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for not entering peace talks with them anyway.
Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom, denied reports that in 2014 he honored a Palestinian perpetrator of the 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.Corbyn condemned by his own party for attending wreath-laying ceremony for Palestinian terror chief
Corbyn, who became the head of Labour in 2015, is a hard-left politician whom the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews said “most people in the Jewish community can’t trust” because of his praise for Hezbollah and Hamas and perceived failures in addressing anti-Semitic rhetoric by some of his supporters.
An article published in the Sunday Times this week quotes an October 2014 column Corbyn wrote for the Morning Star in which he recounted attending a ceremony in Tunisia “where wreaths were laid … on the graves of [those] killed by Mossad agents in Paris in 1991.”
This prompted speculation that Corbyn, whose party will contend in the general election on June 8 against the ruling Conservative Party, had honored the memory of Atef Bseiso, who was head of intelligence for the PLO and was involved in the murder of the Israeli athletes as part of the 1972 Black September terrorist operation in Munich. Bseiso was killed in Paris in 1992.
Jeremy Corbyn has been condemned by his own party after admitting he attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the grave of a Palestinian terrorist involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.Labour support just 13 per cent among UK Jews
Less than a year before becoming Labour leader, Mr Corbyn visited the cemetery in Tunisia where members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation are buried, including Atef Bseiso, who was directly involved in the Munich attack, prompting outrage from Jewish groups.
Labour Friends of Israel – which represents 100 Labour peers and former MPs who are currently trying to be re-elected – condemned the news, saying it was part of a “a very disturbing pattern of behaviour."
Just 13 per cent of British Jews plan to vote for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party next week, an exclusive JC poll has revealed.British Jewish Journalist Trolled Online by Corbyn Supporters, Called ‘Zionist Shill’ After Flummoxing UK Labour Leader in Radio Interview
Theresa May’s Conservatives have the support of 77 per cent of Jewish voters.
Labour’s overall 13 per cent voting intention figure represents an increase of 4.5 per cent since the question was last asked, in May 2016, by Survation, the polling company which questions Jewish voters on behalf of the JC.
Asked the same question then, just 8.5 per cent of British Jews said they would vote for the party if an election took place. That result however immediately followed months of suspensions of party members for alleged antisemitism, and with no prospect of an imminent election.
A British Jewish journalist is being trolled online following a BBC radio interview on Tuesday in which Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn was stumped by her questions about childcare policy.
Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s “Women’s Hour” program, Corbyn — who is seeking to upset Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party in next week’s parliamentary elections — was unable to provide host Emma Barnett with figures on the price of Labour’s free childcare plan.
“It will cost… it will obviously cost a lot to do so, we accept that,” Corbyn stammered, according to the BBC.
After the interview, Corbyn supporters attacked Barnett on social media, the Daily Mail reported.
On Twitter, one commenter, Steven McNamara, called Barnett a “Zionist shill” and compared her looks to those of the Muppet character Miss Piggy.
Another Twitter commenter, Mary-Anne Penniman, questioned Barnett’s motives, writing, “You honestly think someone who routinely tows Israeli line this (sic) is an impartial and appropriate person to interview a left wing politician?”
Sanders campaign team members helping UK’s Corbyn
Members of former US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders campaign team are in Britain helping out Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn in his attempt to become the next UK prime minister, The Guardian reported on Tuesday.No, I’m serious. Just what must I do to get kicked out of Labour? By Jeremy Corbyn, MP (satire)
Momentum, described as a “left-wing pressure group,” is holding training sessions for Labour activists to teach them how to effectively campaign and some of the instructors are from Sanders’s 2016 team.
Although he didn’t win the Democratic nomination, losing to rival Hillary Clinton who had the support of her party’s state committees, Sanders the outsider did win the vote in key states such as Indiana, New Hampshire and Michigan during primaries. Corbyn is trailing in polls behind Prime Minister Theresa May of the Conservative party.
Uyterhoeven explained that she was drawn to Corbyn by his sincerity, a trait she said he shares with Sanders.
“One thing for Bernie, and I think this applies for Corbyn too, is there is a certain integrity behind it,” she said.
Then there is my bicycle, which continues to break at the most inopportune moments, like when I was on my way to the Marwan Barghouti Benefit Concert in Tower Hamlets last week. Of course, one would be remiss without mentioning my garden allotment. Ms. Bannister insists that it was my kale crop that introduced the weevils that seem poised to make quite a snack of her corn crop. Incidentally, a certain Mr. Goldstein continues to illegally occupy encroach upon my radishes with his rather arcane crop of chick peas and red peppers. So you can see, Mr. Corbyn’s (very vegan) plate is rather full. I am burning the (vegetable oil) candle at both ends. Jezz needs a break.UK Government to Hold Pro-Terrorism Expo in London?
With all of my responsibilities, I simply do not have time for all of the nonsense in Parliament. “Votes“. “NATO”. “Protecting the citizens of the United Kingdom“. Therefore, for the past several months I have done everything in my power to get myself removed from office so that I may return to focusing on the important things, like the problematic gear shift on my Schwinn. And the sorry state of my lettuce crop. And improving my attendance for the Yoga Classes at the Leisure Centre. But it appears to be all for naught. I have tried everything.
So visiting Syria as the guest of Bashar Assad was not enough? How about if my travel-mate was Jenny Tonge? How about that I attended a wreath laying ceremony for the lead architect of the 1972 Munich Olympics….misunderstanding? Then I refused to apologize for inviting the Irish Republican Army for tea at the height of their 1980’s bombing campaign. For goodness sake, I blamed the Manchester attack on British Foreign Policy
Now it appears that even if Labour loses next month’s election, I still won’t be allowed to step down. I am simply at my wit’s end. Once again…. Just what must I do to get kicked out of Labour?
"'Friends of Al-Aqsa' is one of the more extremist Islamist organizations at work in Britain today. It supports the Muslim Brotherhood-linked charity 'Interpal' (proscribed by the US Treasury) and advertises it on its website. It collaborates with the Khomenist Iranian-funded faux human rights organization known as the Islamic Human Rights Commission in organizing events such as Al Quds day at which public support is expressed for the Iranian proxy militia Hizbollah." — UK Media Watch.University of San Francisco to deify an Arab mass murderer
Under these definitions, Hamas is exposed as a terrorist organization both by its repeated use of indiscriminate killing and the contents of its two Charters from 1988 and 2017.
"There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except through jihad..." — Hamas Charters of 1988 and 2017, Articles 18 and 21.
Hamas is not the only extremist organization to which Friends of Al-Aqsa has lent its support.
University of San Francisco, a Jesuit school, no less, is presenting a lecture event on June 2, that will feature Aarab Barghouti as the guest speaker. Marwan, his father, is currently serving five life sentences in prison in Israel for specific murders, but bears responsibility for the murders of over 100 men, women and children in terrorist attacks in the Jewish state, some of them U.S. citizens.Michael Lumish: The Week on Nothing Left
“Only Israeli propaganda presents him as a terrorist," Aarab, the terrorist murderer's youngest son, is quoted as saying. "Nelson Mandela was also portrayed as a terrorist. He spent 27 years in prison. And then he became a hero and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. My father is a terrorist exactly like Nelson Mandela. To the Israelis I want to say: If you admire Mandela, you should know that my father is repeating Mandela’s story. And if you do not esteem Mandela, I don’t care what you think. I am certain that one day the Israelis will reach the conclusion that the only solution is peace, and you will never have another partner like him. One day, the Israelis will see who Marwan Barghouti is.”
Marwan, Aarab’s father organized a hunger strike of Palestinian terrorist prisoners that just ended. Barghouti was filmed on a hidden camera eating food after he urged his fellow killers to continue to starve themselves. The strikers were demanding "necessities" like more cable TV channels, unlimited access to cell phones and increased visitation, plus free enrollment and courses for Master’s Degrees and PhD’s that Israeli taxpayers would cover. Ending the strike after he was caught on hidden camera surreptitiously eating in the bathroom, Barghouti - who was not allowed to attend the meeting with prison officials - and his acolytes were given only a renewal of the one extra visit per month by family that had been paid for by the Red Cross and will now be paid for by the Palestinian Authority.
No demands of Israel or the Israeli prison system were met.
Barghouti’s son would have University of San Francisco bands of youthful useful idiots believe that his father is another Nelson Mandela who is being politically persecuted. USF might just as easily stage a tribute to Charles Manson. Manson, however, didn’t murder as many people though he also murdered a pregnant American woman.
This week Michael and Alan speak live from the San Francisco Bay Area with blogger Mike Lumish, and then speak with Egyptian-born Australian Coptic Christian Nadia Ghaly on the plight of Christians in the Middle East.Northeastern Spanish City Council Rejects Motion to Boycott Israel
They have an extended interview with French politician Phillipe Karsenty who, in his former life as a journalist, was instrumental in exposing the Muhammad al-Durrah hoax at the time of the second intifada.
And Isi Leibler joins them as usual from Jerusalem to discuss the ramifications of the Trump visit.
3 min Editorial: Islamic terrorism
11 min Mike Lumish, blogger, live in USA
33 min Nadia Ghaly, Egyptian Coptic Christian
51 min Phillipe Karsenty, French politician and journalist
1 hr 25 Isi Leibler in Jerusalem
The City Council of Lérida, Spain, rejected last Fridau a motion to boycott Israelis and companies doing business with the Jewish state.Filmmakers pull out of Tel Aviv LGBT film festival citing BDS
The Lawfare Project, a think tank describing itself as the “legal arm of the pro-Israel community,” said it “provided court decisions and legal reasoning, which were discussed during the council’s debate, demonstrating that the boycott motion was unconstitutional and in breach of anti-discrimination laws.” Angeles Ribes, a member of the City Council, affirmed that “boycotts by public offices are simply illegal.”
Last November, the Lawfare Project took legal action that successfully reversed a decision to boycott Israel by a different Spanish city council, in Sant Adrià de Besòs.
Several filmmakers scheduled to participate in an LGBT film festival in Tel Aviv have pulled out, citing pressure from the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel.Jewish Conspiracy Behind US-Saudi Arms Deal?
The Tel Aviv International LGBT Film Festival is scheduled to open on Thursday and run through June 10.
Among those who have pulled out in support of the cultural boycott of Israel are: South African director John Trengrove, whose film “The Wound” is the festival’s opening-night production; Canadian-Pakistani screenwriter and actor Fawzia Mirza, whose film “Signature Move” will be shown at the festival; Nadia Ibrahim, a Palestinian living in Denmark who was to serve as a member of the festival jury and appear on a panel; and Swiss actor Jasna Fritzi Bauer, Haaretz reported.
Trengrove reportedly decided to cancel his participation after his arrival in Israel, which was paid for by the cash-strapped festival, according to Haaretz.
It’s hard to see exactly what Frederikse believes links Dermer, Friedman and Kushner to an arms deal except their American Jewish backgrounds. Is Frederikse insinuating the classical anti-Semitic trope of dual loyalty whereby Jews prioritize the interests of each other (and Israel) ahead of the interests of the states in which they live?Washington Post's Jerusalem Bureau Chief Peddles Anti-Israel Fake News
Or is it the case that Jews are the driving force behind the “US military-industrial complex?” Given the widespread concern within Israeli political and security circles at the US-Saudi arms deal, it’s clearly a stretch to suggest that it had the blessing of Benjamin Netanyahu.
In his final sentence, Frederikse arrives at the point of his opinion piece:
Iran is being used here as a convenient bogeyman by the US to justify the Saudi arms deal.
So if this is his conclusion, how and why did he reach it by way of highlighting the Jewish backgrounds of three political players (out of many) linked to or with access to the Trump administration?
He also adopts Palestinian propaganda talking points, referring to Israel’s security fence as either a “barrier wall” or “separation barrier.” In fact, most of the so-called “barrier wall” consists of fencing. The pejorative term “separation barrier” is meant to imply the imposition of two separate systems, one for Israelis and the other for Palestinians – a subtle attempt to peddle the anti-Semitic apartheid narrative. Of course, the security fence did not exist prior to the Oslo War and concomitant deterioration of the security situation; again, cause and effect.South African student apologizes for anti-Semitic taunts at Holocaust play
Booth pays scant attention to the 1967 Six-Day War and events preceding it. The history of the Six-Day War is well known and the aggressors, well established. It was not Israel who threatened to destroy the Arabs but rather vice versa. Arab anti-Semitic invective and blood-curdling shrill in the weeks preceding the war would have put the most ardent Nazi to shame.
Booth refers to Kiryat Arba, a Jewish community in Judea, as a “Jewish settlement infamous as the home to the American-born physician Baruch Goldstein, who massacred 29 Muslim worshipers with a machine gun at the Cave of the Patriarchs in 1994.” But he fails to note that the city of Hebron which abuts Kiryat Araba is the place where Arabs, inspired by ancient hatred, massacred 67 Jewish residents, including women and children. In fact, the 1929 Hebron massacre was so transformative and so etched in the collective psyche of Jews that at least one scholar has referred to it as “Year Zero” of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Why Booth notes one massacre without addressing the arguably more impactful other is anyone’s guess.
Booth also notes that the Tomb of Rachel, which is located near Checkpoint 300, is “a shrine sacred to Muslims and Christians and considered one of the holiest for Jews.” In fact, until very recently, Rachel’s Tomb held no significance for Muslims. It has always been recognized, even by Muslims, as a revered Jewish site, where Jews have prayed for 3,000 years. Nadav Shragai of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs notes that the sixteenth century Arab historian, Mujir Al-Din, wrote that Rachel’s Tomb was a Jewish holy place. During their occupation, the Muslim Ottoman authorities also recognized Rachel’s Tomb as a Jewish holy site. Indeed, the outrageous claim that the site operated as a mosque first surfaced barely 20 years ago.
The high school student who interrupted a South African Jewish school’s performance of a play about the Holocaust with chants of “Heil Hitler!” and other anti-Semitic taunts has expressed remorse.Kent Police Under Fire for ‘Appalling’ Non-Response to Scene of Antisemitic Rock-Throwing Assault on Jewish Family at Beach
The principal of the Edenvale High School, Larry Harmer, also apologized for the incident during a meeting Monday with the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, though he reportedly told parents in a memo sent home the same day that he believes that “there has been much that has been incorrectly reported in the media‚ which has blown the incident out of all proportion.”
Harmer also told parents that the teen heckler “apologized several times‚ pleading it had not been meant in a malicious or hurtful way. The ‘Heil Hitler’ was merely in recognition of the Nazi uniform worn by the King David learner.”
He also said in the letter to parents that the school strongly condemned anti-Semitic or racist behavior, and will expand its teaching program to include sensitivity behavior.
A British NGO is calling for an investigation following a reported incident at a Kent beach on Sunday in which a Jewish family was pelted with stones by a group of teenagers and police failed to respond.Austrian Jewish Student Organization Seeking Legal Action Against National Student Leaders Who Participated in Chat Group Mocking Holocaust
According to reports, the assault took place at Minster Beach on the Isle of Sheppey. Members of a London Jewish family — including two parents and their five daughters, between the ages of eight and 15 — were targeted by five teens who ran toward them throwing rocks and shouting, “Jews.”
The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said in a statement, “As the attack continued and the parents tried to shelter their children, the family called Kent Police, but the emergency operator advised them that no officers would be dispatched, despite the assailants remaining at the scene. Instead, they were told that an officer would contact them the following week to ‘investigate.'”
The CAA continued, “The failure of Kent Police to attend the scene of an active antisemitic attack is appalling and must be investigated thoroughly. Normally, police officers should be deployed to an ongoing incident or an incident where suspects remain on the scene.”
Following the exposure of a secret chat group in which top Austrian student leaders engaged in Holocaust denial, the president of the country’s leading Jewish student organization told The Algemeiner on Monday his group has decided to pursue criminal charges.Germany detains teen allegedly planning Berlin attack
Benjamin Hess — of the Union of Jewish Austrian University Students (JÖH) — said those behind the pro-Nazi content posted over four years in the Facebook group “FVJUS Men’s Collective” and the WhatsApp group “Badass warlords” should be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
The content of the chats included a picture of a pile of ashes, with the caption: “Leaked Anne Frank nudes!”
In another post, a picture of Adolf Hitler was uploaded alongside the words: “Hey. I just met you and this is crazy, but here’s your number… So Auschwitz, maybe?”
The chats were also filled with degrading comments about women and Muslims.
Hess said many of the chat groups’ 32 participants were members of the student chapter of the Conservative Austrian People’s Party at the University of Vienna’s Faculty of Law (where Hess is a student himself), a school and student group from which many of the country’s premier politicians and lawyers have ascended to prominence.
German state police were questioning a 17-year-old asylum-seeker Tuesday after a tactical unit took him into custody outside Berlin on suspicion that he was planning a suicide attack in the capital.Holocaust-era Torah scroll fragments returned decades later
Police in the state of Brandenburg said the teenager was detained Tuesday in the village of Gerswalde, 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Berlin, after they learned he had sent a farewell message to family members and told them that “he had joined the jihad,” or holy war.
The WhatsApp message talking about jihad to the suspect’s family was sent within the last week and Brandenburg authorities were told of it late Monday night by two other German states, Brandenburg police spokesman Torsten Herbst told The Associated Press.
He said police were investigating but so far “evidence of the planning of a concrete act has not yet been identified.”
Sheets of a Torah scroll used around the time of the Holocaust in a Polish city were returned to Jewish hands this week thanks to an Israel Hayom report.Twice as many religious women volunteering for IDF
The decision to return the sheets, which include passages from the book of Genesis, was made after Israel Hayom reported on a 1925 medallion found in Poland. The medallion, issued to mark the inauguration of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, features a Star of David and Hebrew writing.
A Polish woman saw the translated article and told Mimaamakim (From the Depths) -- an organization dedicated to Holocaust remembrance and education -- that her grandmother in Miedzyrzec Podlaski, Poland had an item that could be of Jewish significance. The head of the organization, Jonny Daniels, told Israel Hayom that he arrived at her grandmother's home in Poland and she told him that her late husband, who was a historian, had collected historical artifacts.
The number of women from national-religious backgrounds joining the IDF has doubled in recent years, according to a new Knesset-commissioned study released Monday.These US soldiers liberated Dachau while their own families were locked up back home
According to figures released by the Knesset Information and Research Center, the annual number of women from the national-religious education system who have voluntarily enlisted to serve in the IDF has increased from 930 in 2010 to just over 2,000 in 2015.
That figure constitutes 26 percent of the entire female graduating cohort from national-religious schools in 2015.
The findings come despite several high-profile and controversial calls from religious leaders in the community against religious women joining the military. In the past, most chose to do a national service instead.
Sioma Lubetzky and his teenage sons Larry and Roman huddled near the Dachau concentration camp in late April of 1945. The three Lithuanian Jewish inmates had been led on a death march into the mountains, where Nazi guards planned to push them off the edge. They were saved by a freak blizzard. In the morning, the guards had disappeared — but when the abandoned survivors made their way to a nearby village, soldiers approached on tanks.
The soldiers were from a unique American unit — the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. It was the only unit in the US armed forces during World War II whose enlisted men were all of Japanese ancestry.
“They had never seen what a Japanese-American person looked like,” said Larry Lubetzky’s son, Daniel Lubetzky, whose late father had shared memories of the rescue. “They showed a kindness, love, tenderness that had not been seen in 1945.”
Events across the US are honoring the Japanese-Americans of the 522nd who rescued Jewish survivors of a Dachau subcamp and death marches. The brave soldiers’ recognition is tied to another observance of sorts: This year marks 75 years since Executive Order 9066, under which a suspicious US government at war with Japan relocated Japanese-Americans — citizens and non-citizens alike — to sites now called “internment camps.” In an ironic twist, Japanese-Americans who rescued Jews from Dachau often had family members in US “concentration camps,” as they were called back then.