Sunday, July 30, 2017
Melanie Phillips: Weakness and indifference over Temple Mount incitement
Join me here as I discuss with Avi Abelow of Israel Video Network why the Arab violence over Temple Mount is not the result of “clashes”, as the western media claim, but the incitement of emotionally overwrought and hysterical Arabs to murder and mayhem.
David Collier: The hard-core antisemitism of the Scottish PSC (SPSC)
Significant representation & Jews providing cover
The report sought to quantify antisemitic tendency and sheds light on concentration levels of antisemitic ideology in anti-Israel activism. One of the case studies looked at the Jackie Walker event in Glasgow. Using a sample of thirty-two activists, the study found that 44% of those present had shared numerous hard core antisemitic posts. This level of Jew hate found at an event set up to deny the problem of antisemitism.
Whether deliberate or not, people like Jackie Walker are currently expending large amounts of energy providing antisemites with a defence. You cannot deny such significant representation and pretend it is only a ‘fringe’. These people are the core activists at the SPSC. But it is not just Jackie Walker giving cover to Jew hate. Here is Max Blumenthal with two of the activists picked up in the report:
In February I published a report on antisemitism in the England & Wales PSC. Following the publication I was hounded, threatened and stalked. Yet those few Jews who sit in the camp criticising Israel, did not read the report and acknowledge the hate. They attacked me instead. Jonathan Ofir wrote a piece in Mondoweiss attacking someone who had uncovered antisemitism. That article was then gleefully headlined by the Jewish led group ‘Free Speech in Israel’ (my response). There is nothing in any of these reports that has anything to do with Israel. It focuses on classic antisemitic tropes. Why on earth are Jewish people, even if they are a small minority, giving cover to people who share posts about Holocaust denial? Is the ’cause’ so infected with Jew hate, that a level of 40-50% is tolerable because as activists, there is not enough power to start the engine if they actually clean the group of racism?
The results for the second case study are even more frightening. Last August, outside a peace festival set up to celebrate Israeli diversity and culture, the SPSC gathered to protest. About one-hundred and twenty demonstrators. Over sixty activists were identified. More than 50% of them had shared numerous hard core antisemitic posts.
Statistical breakdownIn the small crowd, there were at least ten who spread material denying the Holocaust.
Findings
The findings of the report were almost self-evident.
*The inevitable conclusion is that antisemitic tendency is a primary driver of anti-Israel activism*
Following on from this:
*There is a strong probability that those who are introduced to anti-Israel material by SPSC activists on the streets are being influenced by people who adhere to an antisemitic mindset*
And also:
*Much of this activity seeks to spread antisemitic thought*
Morton A. Klein, ZOA President: Secretary Tillerson should resign
When Rex Tillerson was nominated for Secretary of State, the pro-Israel community harbored concerns about Tillerson’s reported closeness to Jim Baker, ties to Arab states such as terrorism-financier Qatar, and minimal knowledge about the Arab war against Israel. Still, we hoped those nagging concerns would prove unfounded, and that Tillerson would implement President Trump’s anti-terrorism, pro-Israel policies, and drain the notoriously biased-against-Israel swamp at the State Department.Memo to Jewish community: Imams incite murder; American Muslim leaders silent
Unfortunately, the State Department’s new anti-Semitic, Israel-bashing, falsehood-filled “Country Reports on Terrorism 2016” (issued July 2017) – which blames Israel for Palestinian Arab terrorism against innocent Israelis – has caused us to lose confidence in Secretary Tillerson’s ability to promote President Trump’s Mideast agenda.
President Trump’s courageous speech in Riyadh appropriately blamed extreme barbaric Islamist ideologies for terrorism targeting innocent Jews, Christians and Muslims. The president sensibly insisted that we must “honestly confront the crisis of Islamist extremism and the Islamist terror groups it inspires” and “cut off the financial channels” that enable terrorism.
Stopping worldwide terrorism requires honestly confronting Islamist genocidal incitement to murder Jews. There cannot be a double standard when Jews are the victims. Because every method that Palestinian Arabs “pioneered” for murdering Jews – suicide bombing, truck ramming – is copied by terrorists in Boston, Nice and elsewhere.
We must honestly confront Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’ Islamist incitement and unconscionable $355 million per year of “pay to slay” martyr payments incentivizing Palestinian Arabs to murder Jews.
Remember the 2015 ISIS video showing beheading of 21 Coptic Egyptians, identified as “people of the cross, followers of the hostile Egyptian Church.”ADL Accepts Genocidal Imam’s Feeble Apology For Saying Things “Hurtful To Jews”
Yet, the Obama administration balked at acknowledging the victims were targeted because they were Christians, referring to them only as Egyptian “workers”. For years, the US, fearful of sparking a holy war, turned a blind eye to the religious fanaticism that plays a key role in this struggle.
But that holy war is already here. The Davis Imam followed the same jihadist script that spawned terrorism and mayhem on every continent.
If he isn’t jailed for incitement to mass murder, his parishioners and the public should banish the bigot.
If his mosque stands behind Shahin’s murderous calls, then the IRS should reevaluate its charitable status.
Shahin’s screed came just as a group of 60 courageous imams from Belgium, France, the UK and Tunisia participated in a peace march. They prayed at the sites where Jihadists butchered innocents. Voices like theirs should be given prominence everywhere, starting with San Bernadino and Davis, California.
Shahin’s screed also challenges both President Trump’s and previous administrations’ policies. How many more people who carry the same hatred driving Shahin got through the old vetting process? Yet, Shahin is from Egypt, a country not on President Trump’s list. The Davis Imam proves that takes more than knowing the zip code of origin to keep such people out. We need to know about their schools, mosques and social media ties. Young people indoctrinated to a culture of death represent a threat to virtually anyone-including other Muslims– who doesn’t embrace their jihadist worldview.
The Davis Imam seeks to ignite a holy war between religions. Jews in Davis and Riverside California and around the US hoped that Muslim groups who have been getting vocal Jewish support to oppose any religious test for immigrants from Muslim countries, would take on the religious bigotry in their midst. For one week, there was wall-to-wall silence, except for those groups endorsing an intifada for Israel’s audacity at installing metal detectors after murderous gunfire from al Aqsa. This Friday MPAC released a statement stating it was “disturbed” by the sermon of Imam. But for the rest, could it be some silently cheer on the bigoted pulpit thumpers? Do they actually believe that the G-d of Abraham sanctions the murders of Jews and Christians?
After Davis no can say for sure.
Imam Ammar Shahin has apologized for offending Jews with one of his sermons.PMW: Following PMW reports, British MP demands immediate Palestinian cessation of “incitement surrounding Temple Mount”
“The last thing that I would do is intentionally hurt anyone, Muslim, Jewish or otherwise. It is not in my heart.” Really? Sounds to me like his heart is bursting with excitement at the prospect of Judgment Day when the Muslims are slaughtering us Jews – with the help of talking stones and trees (except for that one type of uncooperative, Jew-loving tree).
It is not like he inadvertently said all of these things in a moment of insensitivity. He really believes them. I’m guessing Shahin really does not like the idea of jail, so has made this feeble apology, while continuing to pray for our destruction – just without posting it on YouTube from now on.
Shame on the ADL for accepting this clearly not genuine apology, and not going after him for hate crimes.
I’d prefer he’d be making those high-pitched sounds from prison.
In letter to British Prime Minister Theresa May, MP Joan Ryan asks that Britain demand the PA "halt all incitement, particularly that surrounding the Temple Mount"Removing Temple Mount security hard but necessary choice, PM says
PA "failure" to comply "should be met with deep and meaningful cuts in British aid to the PA, with the money instead redirected to coexistence projects and health and education projects in Palestine run by trusted NGOs"
MP Ryan quotes PMW reports that document PA leaders' call for "escalation" and "rage," warnings of "explosion of the situation" and "religious war," and repetition of the PA libel that Israel is "targeting the Al-Aqsa Mosque," which needs "Allah [to] guard [it] from evil"
MP Ryan's letter include additional findings by PMW that illustrate the PA's policy of educating children and youth to see terrorist murderers as "role models": j
"... as research by Palestinian Media Watch has shown, children attending schools named after so-called martyrs are well-aware that they are being encouraged to view them as 'models' and, in the words of one, to 'follow [their] path'."
[Letter from MP Joan Ryan to Prime Minister Theresa May, July 25, 2017]
In comments made before the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said he had ordered the measures rolled back over concern for Israel’s overall security, after weeks of violent protests by Palestinians boycotting the site.Journalist Engages in Defining the Temple Mount Status Quo
Polls showed much of the public did not support the decision to remove the measures, which were put in place after a deadly terrorist attack carried out with guns smuggled onto the Temple Mount, and many saw it as a “capitulation” to Muslim authorities seeking to exert control over the flashpoint Jerusalem compound.
“I am attentive to public feeling,” Netanyahu said, referring to Israeli outrage over the removal of the detectors. “With that, as the prime minister of Israel, as the one who carries on his shoulders the responsibility for the security of Israel — I must make decisions coolly and judiciously. I do that out of a view of the big picture, a wide view of the challenges and threats that are facing us. Some of them are not known to the the public and as is the nature of things I can’t go into details.”
From Spokesperson Heather Nauert's State Department Press Briefing on July 25, 2017 we learn that the US Administration was pressured about its response and possible involvement with the Temple Mount security issues last week.Waqf again monitoring Jewish visitors to Temple Mount
Some excerpts of her replies to AP's Matt Lee's questioning:
QUESTION: Can you guys – we talked a little about this last week, although I was unable to pry an answer from you.
MS NAUERT: Oh, okay...
QUESTION: -- and that has to do with the metal detectors and their replacement.
QUESTION: So did you guys think that it was a – or do you think that it is a good idea for the Israelis to remove the metal detectors?
MS NAUERT: I think – and I’m going to repeat this again – anything that serves to de-escalate tensions and pave the road for the two sides to come together and have conversations not only about this, but also about the peace process moving forward, we would certainly support that. As you know, we support the maintenance of the status quo at that site and we welcome all sides and their commitment to the status quo.
QUESTION: Well, right. So the Israelis say that they’re going to take the metal detectors away but replace them with these --
QUESTION: Cameras.
QUESTION: -- high-tech, high-definition, high-resolution cameras. This is something that I spent hours with your predecessor, because the previous secretary of state got an agreement between the Jordanians and the Israelis for cameras similar to this that never were put in place because the Palestinians objected.
Did anyone discuss their refusal to permit the cameras? Was it criticized? And was it the Palestinian Authority or actually the Waqf? Why didn't Jordan, who funds the Waqf, force the issue?
This morning marked an end to the Jewish visits to the Temple Mount unaccompanied by members of the Jordanian Waqf, the Muslim trust which manages the Temple Mount, that had characterized the last two weeks.Jordan’s Abdullah Practically Declares A Holy War, No-one Gives A Damn
Nrg reported that the Waqf again began accompanying Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount this morning, Sunday, following Israel’s removal of security measures it had installed after the July 14 Temple Mount terror attack.
The Waqf had avoided the Temple Mount after the installation of the measures as a sign of protest, and had called on Muslims not to pray on the Temple Mount as long as the security measures were in place.
Following the removal of the measures last Thursday and the subsequent flooding of Muslims into the Temple Mount complex, a massive riot broke out. The rioters attacked police stationed at the site, and also threw rocks from the Temple Mount onto the Western Wall Plaza below.
Imagine for a second that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the followingPA leader: We are sovereign in the land
“We will continue our historical, political and legal role in preventing the Islamization of the holy places, despite difficult challenges.”
How do you think the Arab and Muslim world would react, given what we have seen with their reaction to mere metal detectors? And how about the international community and media? There would no doubt be swift condemnation from all and sundry.
Well, the statement has been made – only not by Bibi but by the Beave. And he of course referred to Judaization, because Islamization would be a good thing.
PA leader Rami Hamdallah praised Palestinian Arabs’ “struggle” leading to the removal of security measures on the Temple Mount.Watch: Little Jihadi girl with gun wants to marry Jew-killer
While touring Qalqilya on Saturday, Hamdallah said, “Our nation showed that through steadfastness, national unity, and peaceful struggle, Jerusalem will remain our eternal capital city, and the crown of the identity uniting us.”
He added: “We will not allow any change in [Jerusalem] and will not agree to any step that takes away from our sovereignty over the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. [Palestinian Arab] leadership, headed by our brother President Mahmoud Abbas, will continue diplomatic talks with the countries of the world, to encourage them to take responsibility and prevent any attempt to change the status quo in Al-Quds, and to force Israel to stop attacking worshipers, hurting Muslim feelings and portraying the conflict as a religious one.”
“I congratulate the members of our people who stand with them and those who cling to Al-Quds, the sovereign masters and owners of the house in the land who rose up to defend their city, the sites holy to them and their identity, and forced the Israeli occupation to retract its decisions and remove its aggression from the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque," Hamdallah said.
Q: Why did you break off your wedding with (Hamas Spokesman) Abu Ubaida?
Girl: Because he stopped killing Jews and waging war.
Q: So, who are you going to marry now?
G: Somebody else from Jerusalem who will kill the Jews!
Islamic anti-Semitic training starts young
— Amy Mek (@AmyMek) July 28, 2017
Palestinian little Jihadi, armed with a gun, hopes to marry a man who kills Jews. #FridayFeeling pic.twitter.com/KNZz6qilhs
PreOccupiedTerritory: Arab Regimes Face Rising Mossad Prices For Generating Distractions From Oppression (satire)
Rulers of Arab and Muslim states in the Middle East and beyond voiced frustration today at the increasing costs of engaging Israel’s secret intelligence service to manufacture crises for purposes of diverting Arab populations’ attention from the oppression, abuse, and denial of rights their governments perpetrate against them.Jews from Libya are worried about the fate of the country’s Jewish artifacts
Sources in the Jordanian, Egyptian, Saudi, and Qatari governments, among others, told reporters this week that producing distraction in today’s sophisticated media environment requires greater and greater expertise, and while the Mossad can provide solutions, the schemes it must implement demand much greater expense than analogous operations in decades past. Flat oil prices have hampered the outlays the governments of those countries can afford, and challenge them to maintain the illusion of an Israel so sinister that it can be invoked to stoke emotions strong enough to divert focus from the lack of democracy, freedom of expression, and other indicators of liberty in the Arab-Muslim world.
“The Temple Mount crisis was relatively small potatoes, but still expensive to engineer,” confessed a Jordanian official. “Fomenting unrest, adding to it the complicating factor of killings at the Israeli embassy in Amman, and involving the king in visible efforts to defuse the situation cost so much more than it would have a mere ten years ago, even accounting for inflation. The Mossad is still the best at what it does, and no one else even comes close, so it’s worth it, but is becoming less so.”
Gina Waldman was forced to flee her native Libya in 1967 as anti-Jewish mobs took to the streets of Tripoli, burning down her father’s warehouse.Iran @ the UN. Global platform for inciting terror. 07/28/2017
Waldman, like thousands of other Libyan Jews who left the country amid public and state-sponsored anti-Semitism in the 20th century, was forced to leave behind both personal belongings — she was only allowed to bring a single suitcase with her — and a rich cultural heritage that testified to over 2,000 years of Jewish presence in the North African country. Today no Jews remain in Libya.
That heritage — including synagogues, cemeteries and ritual objects — has long been under threat. But now an additional obstacle is coming from an unlikely place, said Waldman, president and co-founder of the group Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, or JIMENA.
The threat stems from a memorandum of understanding request by the Libyan government — currently under consideration by the State Department — that would prohibit artifacts dated 1911 and earlier, including Jewish ritual objects, from being brought into the United States from Libya.
That would mean that anyone attempting to bring in antique Torah scrolls, tombstones, books and other ritual objects would be stopped at the US border, and the objects would be confiscated and sent back to Libya.
Internal UN Report Shows Peacekeepers’ Sexual Abuse Scandal Not Properly Responded To
An internal United Nations report revealed that the organization has been mishandling cases of sexual abuse by its peacekeepers.Australia thwarts 'Islamic-inspired' plane attack plot
The report, from the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services, indicated that the organization's bureaucracy has not properly handled, investigated, and documented crimes committed by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR), Fox News reports. MINUSCA, the leadership of the peacekeeping force, was particularly criticized.
For years, sexual abuse by peacekeepers has been a problem in the CAR, and commanders have been terminated due to the ongoing scandal. Addressing sexual abuse in the CAR has been a key focus of new U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
However, sexual abuse still occurs under the UN's leadership of 10,700 peacekeepers in the land-locked African country.
Potential problems have been identified in over half of 37 UN bases in the CAR. Criticism also included a lack of trained personnel and a lack of safe spaces for victims to go.
Critics of the UN's personnel in the CAR say that the soldiers stationed there operate with a "culture of impunity," and are generally unaccountable for their crimes.
Security has been tightened at Australian airports after police foiled "Islamic-inspired" plans for a bomb attack on an aircraft during counter-terrorism raids in which four men were arrested, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said on Sunday. The increased security presence caused minor delays for some air transport operators on Sunday and authorities warned travelers to prepare for potentially more significant disruptions as traffic picked up during the week.Netanyahu, Liberman urge pardon for Hebron shooter after sentence upheld
"In recent days, law enforcement has become aware of information that suggested some people in Sydney were planning to commit a terrorist act using an improvised device," AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin said during a press conference with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday.
"We do believe it is Islamic-inspired terrorism. Exactly what is behind this is something that we will need to investigate fully.
"At this time we don’t have a great deal of information on the specific attack, the location, date or time. However, we are investigating information indicating that the aviation industry was potentially a target."
Five properties were searched on Saturday across the Sydney suburbs of Surry Hills, Lakemba, Punchbowl and Wiley Park. The commissioner said four of those searches may continue for days.
An AFP spokesman told Reuters the four men, who were arrested on Saturday, had not been charged as of Sunday afternoon.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Sunday called for a pardon for former IDF soldier Elor Azaria after his 18-month manslaughter sentence was upheld by a military appellate court earlier in the day.Slain Palestinian assailant’s family surprised Azaria not exonerated
“My opinion has not changed on the question of granting a pardon to Elor Azaria, as I expressed it after the [January] conviction. When the subject comes up [in the context of pardon deliberations], I will offer my recommendation for a pardon to the relevant authorities,” Netanyahu tweeted shortly after the ruling was handed down.
As a former soldier, Azaria would only be able to receive a pardon from President Reuven Rivlin or IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot. However, it is unlikely that Rivlin would grant his release against Eisenkot’s recommendation. The IDF chief of staff has expressed criticism of Azaria’s conduct.
Since a pardon request can only be made once Azaria is in prison, his attorneys would have to forgo an appeal in order to seek clemency.
But Azaria’s attorneys on Sunday indicated they would proceed with an appeal to the Supreme Court.
The family of a disarmed Palestinian assailant shot dead by former IDF soldier Elor Azaria in March 2016 after he stabbed Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday said they had expected the military appellate court to let Azaria walk.Abbas' health taking a turn for the worse?
The court on Sunday upheld the manslaughter conviction and 18-month prison sentence for Azaria. Handing down the ruling, the panel of five judges ruled that Azaria had treated “the scene of a terror attack” like a shooting range, discounted his testimony, and rejected the defense’s argument that soldiers in similar situations had been let off.
The family of the Palestinian assailant Abdel Fattah al-Sharif said in a statement, “We were certain Elor Azaria would be exonerated” by the appellate court, Channel 2 news reported.
The family said it “opposes all forms of violence, by Palestinians and Israelis alike.”
Azaria fatally shot Sharif after the assailant was disarmed and seriously injured after having attacked two other IDF soldiers with a knife minutes earlier.
The security establishment is monitoring with concern the health condition of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Haaretz reported.Five post-Abbas possibilities
On Saturday morning, Abbas was hospitalized for several hours in Ramallah before being released.
PA leadership claimed that Abbas was hospitalized due to exhaustion as a result of the severe tension between the Palestinian Arabs and Israel over the past two weeks within the context of the Temple Mount crisis.
The crisis' management required the PA chairman to monitor the events constantly, to hold frequent meetings with his advisers and with Fatah and PA leadership, and to maintain contact with Arab leaders and Western diplomats.
According to the report, Israeli and Palestinian Arab sources believe that Abbas’ health has deteriorated somewhat in recent months, and that a continued deterioration could hasten a change in leadership in the PA.
The question of succession has both a sense of urgency and also dread, with one official describing it in 2014 as a like “Samson in the temple,” ready to bring it all down. Abbas was re-elected President of Fatah in 2016, but analysts also see his reign as stifling democracy, and becoming more authoritarian. They worry he has not named a successor, that elections have been postponed too long and freedom of the press has been eroded in the PA. All of that, combined with lack of realization of a Palestinian state, leads to a combustible situation should the leader leave office. Here are a few scenarios of what might come next.IDF seizes cars bought with payouts to Hamas killer’s family
The next generation?
Palestinians in their 50s, born after the 1948 war whose formative years were post-1967 contain some options for post-Abbas leadership. Fatah insiders such as Majid Faraj, head of PA intelligence has had his name tossed around. Grant Rumley, Research Fellow at Foundation for Defense of Democracies and co-author of a biography on Abbas, told Reuters in 2014 that “the Americans love him and the Israelis love him.” Marwan Barghouti, serving five life sentences in prison, is another name that always comes up. He and others have pointed to Jibril Rajoub, currently sports czar and a former security chief; Mohammed Shtayyah, a politician and economic expert and Mahmoud al Aloul, a new Fatah vice-president.
Chaos or Hamas
In 2015 Nathan Thrall, a senior analyst with the International Crises Group, wrote in the London Review of Books that a new round of Israeli-Palestinian violence would be the “end of the Abbas era.” He claimed that Palestinians were taking “matters into their own hands. They did so gradually at first, in areas outside PA control: Jerusalem, Gaza, Israeli prisons, and villages and refugee camps.” The street protesters were “crushed and divided” but even in weakness they pursued national goals.
The Old Guard
When the British Israel Communications and Research Center (BICOM) presented the question of what happened after Abbas in 2016, Paul Scham, an academic, responded that “of the half dozen likely candidates and a similar number of dark horses, there is none currently more likely to be chosen than the others.”
What about Dahlan?
In the last years Mohammed Dahlan, the one-time Gaza strongman, has made an interesting comeback among commentators and Palestinians, to be considered for a leadership role. He was the former head of the Palestinian security services in Gaza, but was unceremoniously expelled by Hamas in 2011 (conveniently, while he was abroad). In what seemed like a terrible defeat one cannot return from, his forces were crushed by the Islamists. However, years make memory grow different, and in 2017 there is talk of the return of Dahlan. He is supported abroad by governments in the region such as the UAE and Israelis know him from the 1990s and 2000s.
Annexation
In May, Israel Minister for Jerusalem Affairs and Environment Protection Zeev Elkin said that Israel must prepare for the post-Abbas era. “The Palestinian Authority will not survive Abbas’s departure, because he oppressed any political culture in the PA,” he was quoted as saying.
During an overnight raid, Israeli security forces seized from the family of a Palestinian terrorist who carried out a deadly 2015 shooting attack vehicles paid for with Hamas compensation, the army said Sunday.Sunday Times pulls anti-Semitic article targeting female BBC hosts
The West Bank raid was part of a continuing crackdown by Israeli authorities against funding for Palestinian terrorists and their families.
The vehicles, estimated to be worth tens of thousands of shekels, were financed using cash Hamas gave the families of the terror cell that killed Eitam and Naama Henkin in a drive-by shooting in October 2015, the IDF said in a statement.
The statement did not identify which family of the four-member terror cell that carried out the attack was raided or where it took place. At least four of the terrorists came from families living in Nablus. It did not say how many cars were impounded.
The Henkins were driving with their four young children — the oldest was nine years old at the time — on the road between the northern West Bank settlements of Elon Moreh and Itamar when they were ambushed as their car slowed down at an intersection.
After an outcry, the Sunday Times newspaper apologized and removed an article that singled out Jewish BBC television hosts as knowing how to negotiate high salaries because of their heritage.
The piece, which focused on inequalities of salary between top-grossing male and female stars, was taken off the British newspaper’s website following an online backlash.
In the offending article, entitled “Sorry ladies — equal pay has to be earned,” writer Kevin Myers noted “that two of the best-paid women presenters in the BBC — Claudia Winkelman and Vanessa Feltz, with whose, no doubt, sterling work I am tragically unacquainted — are Jewish. Good for them.
“Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price, which is the most useful measure there is of inveterate, lost-with-all-hands stupidity. I wonder, who are their agents? If they’re the same ones that negotiated the pay for the women on the lower scales, then maybe the latter have found their true value in the marketplace.”
Students at Fordham University are suing the university saying it’s violating its own laws and procedures by not allowing them to register a Students for Justice in Palestine club at the school’s Lincoln Center campus. The student government body initially approved the club, a decision which was subsequently overturned by Dean of Students Keith Eldredge in a move that critics say is “unprecedented.”SlutWalk Chicago backtracks, will allow Zionist symbols at event
The students, represented by Palestine Legal, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and cooperating counsel Alan Levine, filed the lawsuit on April 26. The university responded to the suit last month with a motion to dismiss, to which the plaintiff issued a response. The case is expected to proceed to a hearing before the New York State Supreme Court.
“Fordham’s decision to deny SJP official recognition is a flagrant violation of its own policies promising to uphold free expression,” said Ruhan Nagra, a Bertha Legal Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights who is working on the case. “The evidence suggests that it’s unprecedented for the dean of students to veto a decision that the student government has made to approve a club.”
The chapter in question would only serve the Lincoln Center campus; there has been no attempt to start an SJP chapter at Fordham’s main campus, in the Bronx. (h/t Jewess )
The organizers of Chicago’s annual SlutWalk announced that Zionist symbols would be allowed at the August 12 event, overturning an earlier decision which barred participants from carrying any such religious signs.BBC framing excludes important aspects of Amman embassy story
Speaking to Haaretz, one of the event’s organizers, Red, said the event would be open to anyone wishing to protest rape culture, including those who would choose to display Zionist or Jewish symbols. The organizer added that he believed SlutWalk Chicago should apologize to Jews for the previous ruling.
“We are not banning any symbols or any kind of ethnic or heritage flags,” Red told Haaretz. “Those are welcome, everyone is welcome to express themselves as they see fit at SlutWalk. And we encourage people to bring signs and symbols that represent fighting sexism, patriarchy, rape culture, and that takes a lot of different forms for different people, and we support them in how they decide to show up for SlutWalk.”
SlutWalk Chicago had originally banned Zionist symbols in a statement July 16, less than a month after the organizers of a separate parade in the city celebrating the lesbian community banned three Jewish women carrying Jewish Pride flags.
After a security officer at Israel’s embassy in Amman was attacked and stabbed by a Jordanian on July 23rd – and subsequently shot the attacker, accidentally fatally wounding another man at the scene – the BBC News website produced three consecutive reports on the incident.New Jersey ‘partners in hate’ get 35 years for anti-Semitic firebombings
1) “Israeli ‘kills attacker’ at Jordan embassy” originally published 23/7/17
2) “Israel and Jordan in diplomatic standoff after embassy deaths” 24/7/17
3) “Israeli embassy staff home after Amman standoff” 24/7/17
All three of those reports included highly rare references to the Jordanian occupation of parts of Jerusalem, although that occupation actually began the year before the BBC claims.
“Jordan, which occupied East Jerusalem from 1949 to 1967, is the custodian of the site, which is known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and Jews as the Temple Mount.”
“Jordan, which occupied East Jerusalem from 1949 to 1967, funds the upkeep of the site, which is known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and Jews as the Temple Mount, and runs the Waqf, the religious trust which administers the compound.”
Additionally, all three articles included an inadequate ‘explanation’ of the reason for the introduction of security measures at Temple Mount – failing to clarify that the two Israeli policemen were murdered in a terror attack carried out by terrorists using weapons that had earlier been smuggled into the al Aqsa mosque.
Two New Jersey men convicted in the firebombing of North Jersey synagogues in 2011 and 2012 were each sentenced to 35 years in prison.America’s Strategic Future Lies with India and Israel
Anthony Graziano and Aakash Dalal were charged on a 30-count indictment in 2013 with arson and bias-related incidents that occurred from December 2011 to January 2012 in the Bergen County towns of Paramus, Rutherford, Maywood and Hackensack, according to NorthJersey.com, which reported their sentencing Friday.
Aakash Dalal of Lodi was convicted last November for vandalizing and firebombing synagogues and a rabbi’s home in 2012. He was convicted by a Bergen County court on 16 other counts, including conspiracy to commit arson, attempted arson, bias intimidation, possession of a weapon and possession of a destructive device.
Dalal, a former student at Rutgers University, was arrested in March 2012. Dalal has been called the mastermind behind the attacks and did not actually participate in them.
Graziano, his former high school classmate, also was found guilty of terrorism and 19 other counts in May 2016 for the attacks.
As the geopolitical balance shifts throughout Asia, and the Trump administration is formulating its foreign policy, India and Israel have moved closer together—as exemplified by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Jerusalem earlier this month. The U.S., argues James Jay Carafano, should encourage this realignment and support these two democratic, pro-Western countries:Indian Animal Health Company Reaches $150 Million Deal With Israeli Vaccine Maker
Prime Minister Modi has unmoored his country from its stagnant, “non-aligned” [i.e. anti-American] foreign policies. Moreover, India is an emerging economic power. Combined, these developments leave India poised to become a net-exporter of regional security, particularly in the Indian Ocean.
Additionally, the prime minister’s historic trip to Israel this month augurs an important shift of the Modi government on Middle East policy. For decades, India has had warm relations with Iran, if for no other reason than the country was a major importer of oil. . . . New Delhi has not walked away from Tehran. Still, once the 2015 Iran deal lifted many sanctions against the regime, New Delhi noticeably did not race to ramp up ties. Modi’s visit to Iran last spring was restrained and very carefully orchestrated. . . .
India’s shift dovetails well with the view from Washington toward both South Asia and the Middle East. The Trump administration shows every sign of continuing the momentum toward a closer relationship with India. The recent meeting between Modi and Trump could not have gone better, and there is plenty of room to grow that relationship. . . .
Phibro Animal Health and Zydus Cadila recently announced their intention to enter into a long-term deal that would see the Indian company license Israeli Phibro’s innovative poultry vaccine technologies.Israel Providing First Aid Training to Volunteer Indian Responders
A Globes report said the five-year deal was worth $150 million.
“We are proud of the more than 20-year partnership with Zydus Cadila serving the Indian animal health market and we view this as an exciting next step in our relationship,” said Jack Bendheim, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Phibro.
Phibro is a developer, manufacturer and marketer of animal health and mineral nutrition products for use in the production of poultry, swine, dairy, beef cattle and aquaculture.
Israel’s national emergency service, Magen David Adom, is helping train volunteer first responders in India, the Hindustan Times reported this week.Israel's health system ranks as one of the best globally
The project — being run in cooperation with the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) — is focused on teaching participants how to carry out tasks such as “bandaging wounds, stopping bleeding [and] cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR),” the report said.
“This mission between India and Israel is an initiative to train the community in providing first aid during emergencies, natural disasters and accidents and to teach life-saving skills that will save precious lives,” Dr. Vanshree Singh — director of the IRCS blood bank — was quoted as saying.
Israel and India are currently celebrating the 25th anniversary of the official establishment of diplomatic relations. Ties between the two countries have flourished in recent years and, earlier this month, Narendra Modi became the first-ever sitting Indian prime minister to visit the Jewish state.
A recent study ranked Israel's health care system as the ninth-best in the world, the UK's Business Insider reported.The Story of a Syrian Treated in Israel
The research, conducted by the London-based Legatum Institute, compared 104 variables and listed nine subindexes. The study examined three basic components of health: availability of preventive care, health infrastructure, and citizens' physical and mental health.
149 countries were included in the comparison, with Israel included in the top ten. These ten were, in order:
9. Israel
Israel received the highest health rating in the Middle East, and its citizens have a life expectancy of 82.5 years - eighth highest in the world. The country's single-payer, multiple-provider system ensures that every citizen receives health coverage, yet insurance providers must compete in order to draw clients and receive funding.
In January 2016, Israel ranked as the world's eighth most powerful country, and in May of that year, the country's average life expectancy was declared fifth highest in the world. In June 2016, two of Israel's universities ranked in Asia's top 20, and six made the top 200.
Earlier this year, Israel ranked fourth in the list of best countries for expats and families.
Not all is rosy, though: Despite Israel's high ranking in health, it came in 133 - out of 149 - in the quality of the natural environment, environmental pressures, and preservation efforts.
This is the touching story of F, one of the thousands of Syrians who has received treatment in Israel.
