Thursday, August 03, 2017
Caroline Glick: The Israel angle on McMaster's purge of Trump loyalists from the National Security Council
The Israel angle on McMaster's purge of Trump loyalists from the National Security Council is that all of these people are pro-Israel and oppose the Iran nuclear deal, positions that Trump holds.David Collier: The myth of Balad al-Shaykh. A massacre that never happened
McMaster in contrast is deeply hostile to Israel and to Trump. According to senior officials aware of his behavior, he constantly refers to Israel as the occupying power and insists falsely and constantly that a country named Palestine existed where Israel is located until 1948 when it was destroyed by the Jews.
Many of you will remember that a few days before Trump's visit to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו and his advisers were blindsided when the Americans suddenly told them that no Israeli official was allowed to accompany Trump to the Western Wall.
What hasn't been reported is that it was McMaster who pressured Trump to agree not to let Netanyahu accompany him to the Western Wall. At the time, I and other reporters were led to believe that this was the decision of rogue anti-Israel officers at the US consulate in Jerusalem. But it wasn't. It was McMaster.
And even that, it works out wasn't sufficient for McMaster. He pressured Trump to cancel his visit to the Wall and only visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial -- ala the Islamists who insist that the only reason Israel exists is European guilt over the Holocaust.
In May, Adam Lovinger, a pro-Trump national security strategist on loan from the Pentagon's office of net assessment was summarily informed that his security clearance was revoked. He was fired and escorted from the White House like a spy and put on file duty at the Pentagon.
Lovinger is a seasoned strategic analyst who McMaster hated because he supported India over Pakistan, among other things.
Lovinger has not been told the grounds for his sudden loss of clearance but Mike Cernovich reported that the grounds were that he traveled to Israel for a family bar mitzvah. In other words, there were no grounds for dismissal. His boss at the Pentagon -- unbelievably named James Baker, is an Obama hire who hates Trump and supports Obama's agenda.
Using historical Haganah records and the research of Uri Milstein, Benny Morris put together an account that was unable to accurately specify casualty numbers from the attack. Needing to rely on separate accounts that didn’t agree with each other, Morris was left to conclude in Birth Revisited (see page 101 of book, page 124 in PDF) that anywhere between twenty-one and seventy died.DISGUSTING: Australian Council Bans Building Of Synagogue Because It Could Be Targeted By Islamic Terrorists
When anti-Zionists are given a choice between two conflicting numbers, they will always choose the higher number. Ilan Pappe, who quotes Morris & Milstein as the source, simply says ‘over 60 died’ (Pappe, Ethnic Cleansing, pp59. 2006. One World). As Pappe has no other source listed, his use of ’60+’ highlights perfectly, the sort of shoddy, agenda driven, propaganda, that he produces and calls ‘history’. Thus a massacre of 60-70 people, is etched in our history books. Propaganda sites such as ‘Palestineremembered’, call it “a new years eve Massacre”. It is now firmly part of the bubble called ‘Nakba’.
Although this is the way history has recorded the Balad al-Shaykh ‘massacre’. The idea of the Palmach units going from house to house and executing dozens of people is a complete fabrication. Here is what really occurred:
....
This means that probably, nine Arabs died at Balad al-Shaykh. Seven adult males (assuming Mohammed Hasal is an adult male) and two children.
There were thirty people injured. The vast majority (about 25) male. Five of the injured were children. The male majority providing an indication of what actually happened. A mix of the two accounts. With a casualty figure stripped of the exaggeration of both sides. The Jews attempted a revenge attack for the events of the refinery, they were met with stiffer than expected resistance, they were forced to withdraw. Final fatality count. Nine Arabs, Three Jews.
This is how the Nakba myth is developed and propagated by sloppy historian activists who do not seem to care about the truth at all. An overestimate of twenty-one, became a massacre of sixty plus. In reality the death toll was probably nine. And all the while a file containing the truth was waiting to be uncovered in Kew.
As usual, this website conducts intensive research and fights to expose the truth. It is time to put the lie about Balad al-Shaykh to bed.
A local council in Australia has banned the construction of a Jewish synagogue in Bondi out of fear that it could become a target of Islamic terrorism.
“The decision, which has rocked the longstanding Jewish community in the iconic suburb, was upheld in court this week as the nation reeled from the alleged airline terror threat and debate raged over increased security measures at airports and other public places,” reports news.com.au. “The Land and Environment Court backed the decision by Waverley Council to prohibit the construction of the synagogue in Wellington St, Bondi — just a few hundred metres from Australia’s most famous beach — because it was too much of a security risk for users and local residents.”
Adding insult to injury, the council is preventing the synagogue from submitting a plan with aggressive security measures. Their rationale? The measures would risk the “safety and security of future users of the Synagogue, nearby residents, motorists and pedestrians in Wellington Street and the physical measures proposed to deal with the identified threats will have an unacceptable impact on the streetscape and adjoining properties.”
Put another way, a strong security presence wouldn’t look all that great on the street corner.
The council’s campaign to shut down the synagogue has the already besieged Jewish community distraught. Community leaders are livid over what they see as a blatant infringement on freedom of religion. (h/t Yenta Press)
Ruthie Blum: Britain: A Summer of Anti-Semitism
The first "Palestine Expo" -- a two-day festival in London, self-described as the "biggest social, cultural and entertainment event on Palestine to ever take place in Europe" -- was held over the weekend of July 8, 2017 at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster. The gathering, attended by an estimated 15,000 people, included political panels, workshops and food courts -- ostensibly to highlight and honor "Palestine history and heritage."Supposed Friend Of Israel Corey Booker Votes AGAINST Cutting Off Funds To Palestinian Terrorists
Given the identity of its organizers, however, its true impetus -- to demonize the Jewish state -- was clear from the outset. Sponsored by the Leicester-based Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA), a group that openly supports the Islamist terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah, the event aroused the anger of pro-Israel activists and the British government alike.
About a month before the Expo was scheduled to take place, Communities and Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid sent a letter to the FOA -- which promotes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, and figures such as Holocaust denier Paul Eisen -- expressing his concerns and threatening to call off the event.
FOA founder Ismail Patel replied that Javid had "failed to provide any satisfactory reason as to why they have chosen to cancel an event which seeks to celebrate Palestinian culture and heritage." He also resorted to a classic anti-Semitic trope, accusing the government of being influenced by the Jewish lobby.
As Javid set the date of June 23 for his final decision on whether the Expo would be canceled, Patel began a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for legal representation to challenge the government in the event of a cancellation. Neither materialized, however, when the controversy was upstaged by the deadly Grenfell Tower fire, which erupted on June 14, the day of the exchange of letters between Javid and Patel.
A week later, Javid gave the green light for the event.
On Thursday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted on the Taylor Force Act, a bill that would effectively cut funds off to Palestinian terrorists. The bill passed 16-5 and will makes its way to the upper house for a floor-wide Senate vote. The bill had bipartisan support, with a handful of Democrats joining every single Republican on the committee.How Justin Trudeau Is Making Canada Less Safe For Jews
Democratic Senators Ben Cardin of Maryland, Chris Coons of Delaware, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Senator Menendez of New Jersey and Ed Markey of Massachusetts voted in favor of the bill, according to Haaretz.
Shockingly, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, a Democratic politician who is relatively well-respected in the pro-Israel community, voted against the bill, siding with hardline leftists.
The move is alarming given just how morally straightforward the Taylor Force Act appears to be.
The bill calls on "all donor countries" that send funds to the Palestinian authority to "cease direct budgetary support until the Palestinian Authority stops all payments incentivizing terror." In addition, it establishes certain preconditions for the PA to receive aid, including the the revocation of "any law, decree, regulation, or document authorizing or implementing a system of compensation" for terrorists and their families.
If anything, the bill isn’t as harsh as it could be, thanks to the last-minute maneuvering of Democratic lawmakers.
I’m Tolerant and Inclusive of People Who KillSPME BDS Monitor: Boycott Marches on, but Double Standards Become Painfully Clear
But this doesn’t bother Trudeau in the slightest. In fact, the progressive leader, whose disdain for walls and passion for inclusivity was lauded by Rolling Stone, saw absolutely no problem in visiting a sex-segregated mosque with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood last year.
Surely Trudeau could at least condemn this rise of Islamic anti-Semitism in Canada? That might be difficult, because his government is seeking to make any such criticism illegal. Despite being opposed by 42 percent of the Canadian population, the Trudeau government passed M-103, an awkwardly worded motion that broadly criminalizes any sort of criticism of Islam in Canada.
Trudeau’s generosity toward Islamic terrorists is seemingly limitless, such as when he defended the recent payout of $10.5 million CAD to convicted al-Qaeda terrorist Omar Khadr. While in Afghanistan, Khadr assembled improvised explosive devices, the kind that killed and maimed thousands of American and Canadian troops. Khadr also confessed to tossing a grenade that killed U.S Army Sgt. Christopher Speer.
Trudeau didn’t even have the decency to reach out to Tabitha Speer (Sgt. Speer’s widow) in the wake of the Khadr payout, instead offering sympathies from afar. An Angus Reid poll found 71 percent of Canadians believed Trudeau made the wrong choice in settling with Khadr and should have instead fought Khadr in court.
Far from turning Canada into a multicultural paradise, Trudeau’s tolerance for hatred and anti-Jewish bigotry has turned Canada into a less safe place for its Jewish community and anyone who values freedom of speech. As Canada celebrates its 150th anniversary, is Trudeau’s legacy really something to fawn over?
The BDS movement has been stymied in the political arena by legislative initiatives. But through deliberate obfuscation, new efforts to expand anti-boycott legislation have now run afoul of free speech concerns. In the cultural and social spheres, BDS has less intersectional cover for their antisemitism — as shown by protests against LGBTQ Jews and bands performing in Israel. In contrast, some churches have been using social justice, human rights and Christian theology as cover for anti-Israel and antisemitic actions. The ability of the BDS movement to utilize different concepts as cover for its antisemitism in varying contexts has been obvious. But with intense scrutiny, the mask occasionally slips, revealing BDS’ true nature, and permitting pushback.Co-op banned from four US states over BDS policy
During summertime, the focus of the BDS movement often shifts from academia and politics to culture and other areas. The most substantive development has been a proposed amendment to long-standing US anti-boycott laws.
The proposed “Israel Anti-Boycott Act” would modify the 1979 Export Administration Act to forbid US companies from engaging in boycotts requested by foreign countries or the United Nations. Yet the bipartisan legislation has produced a firestorm of objections, most notably from the America Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which declared that the legislation would unconstitutionally restrict free speech.
The language of the bill is designed to thwart stealthy commercial boycotts, where companies are warned privately by foreign entities to stop doing business in Israel (those this pressure is not made public). But the free speech argument has been sufficient to cause several members of Congress to express doubts about the bill, while putting others on the defensive.
A series of American states have barred companies from investing in Britain’s Co-operative Group over its boycott of Israeli firms which source produce from West Bank settlements.
Florida, Illinois, New York and Arizona have implemented the proscriptions against the Co-op, which has suffered a series of controversies since adopting its policy five years ago.
Co-op supermarkets in Britain have refused to stock products from Israeli West Bank settlements since 2009, and the policy was extended in 2012 to include barring any engagement with Israeli suppliers known to work with the settlements.
Arizona included the Co-op on a “prohibited investment list” in March, alongside a series of financial firms and banks.
New York State’s office of general services listed it as one of more than a dozen “institutions or companies determined to participate in boycott, divestment or sanctions activity targeting Israel” in May, as did Illinois’ investment policy board.
.@emmetmalone Fifa hasn't decided if Israel's in "clear contravention of Fifa regulations" yet you're 100% certain? https://t.co/tl0GUakD7K pic.twitter.com/X2z4ArGzKw— UK Media Watch (@UKMediaWatch) August 2, 2017
Muslim Activists Tell Silicon Valley: Stop Funding Hate
Silicon Valley may be wising up to the threat of Islamist terror, but it is simultaneously funding the ideology that spurs this violence – and won’t stop doing so.‘Scandal’ Star Responds to Criticism of His Support for Raising of Palestinian Flag at US Jewish Summer Camp
The Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) is the nation’s largest community foundation, with assets of over $8 billion. Its corporate partners comprise a list of some of the nation’s most recognizable companies. Its biggest donations include $1.5 billion from Mark Zuckerberg; $500 million from Nick Woodman, CEO of GoPro; and $556 million from Jan Koum, founder of WhatsApp.
This staggering amount of money helps do virtuous work – from millions of dollars for college scholarships to helping end the Ebola crisis in West Africa. But some of SVCF’s grants are problematic.
Two recipients of its largesse are the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Islamic Relief, both Islamist organizations with a long history of promoting anti-Semitism, homophobia, misogyny and anti-Western hatred. Extremist clerics given platforms by these organizations include Siraj Wahhaj, who advocates killing adulterers; Hussain Kamani, who justifies sex slavery; and Nouman Ali Khan, who calls for prostitutes and pornographic workers to be flogged.
Since 2008, the SVCF has made eight donations totaling $330,524 to these two groups. Consequently, five congressmen, led by Representative Gosar (R-AZ), have now written to SVCF, citing CAIR and Islamic Relief’s extremist links, noting their designation as terrorist organizations in the United Arab Emirates, and concluding:
A Jewish actor who stars in the hit ABC series “Scandal” responded to a critic on Tuesday who scrutinized him for supporting the raising of a Palestinian flag at a Jewish summer camp.IsraellyCool: Tommy Robinson Attacked By Pro-Palestinian Celtic FC Hooligans
Joshua Malina wrote an op-ed piece for the Jewish Journal about Camp Solomon Schechter in Olympia, Wash., and how it raised a Palestinian flag to welcome a visiting delegation of Palestinian youth led by the Israeli NGO Kids4Peace.
After the Jewish community complained about the flag, the camp issued an apology and removed the banner from its grounds. Malina said his reaction to the move was “deep disappointment.” He explained that he understood the camp’s efforts to welcome the Palestinian children with “a symbol familiar to them,” and said he was especially bothered by the fact that people were more interested in focusing on the flag rather than the actual visit.
“Everyone is so caught up in an emotional argument about a piece of cloth that the real story is utterly obscured” Malina wrote. “What did these Palestinian kids have to say? How did the campers respond to them? Were connections made? That’s the story; that should be our focus.”
Not long after Malina’s article was published on Tuesday — the same day as Tisha B’av, an annual day of Jewish mourning — one reader bashed the actor saying, “It figures that [Jewish Journal Editor-in-Chief Rob] Eshman would carry this piece of trash on Tisha B’av. That Molina has no problem with the camp flying a Palestinian flag makes him, like Eshman, a major part of the problem. They both have the blood of the Israeli victims of terror on their hands.” The critic added, “Joshua Malina, thanks for giving strength to Israel’s enemies.”
Last Sunday my friend and fellow counter Jihad campaigner and now two-time best-selling author, Tommy Robinson, went to a little newsagent shop in Sunderland to stand behind the counter for a few hours. He went to meet fans, sign some books and support a shop keeper who he’d directly helped when the bullying police and local authorities told him to take a sign off his shop which said “Don’t fund terrorism”. Apparently that sentiment was “controversial” for some.Misleading terms used in Middle East coverage
The main way that Tommy Robinson and Rebel Media (which was started by a Canadian Jew, Ezra Levant) managed to do for this shopkeeper was to hire and allow him to pay for a lawyer to fight an out of control State bureaucracy. I’m sure, without paying any attention to religious or ethnic background, the lawyer Tommy and Rebel found for Fletcher the shopkeeper happened to be Jewish. You can see this (((Jewish))) lawyer in the third video Tommy made about Fletcher’s store. It is 3m26 and re-caps the whole story.
The next part of the story is truly bizarre. A few weeks ago the Jewish Chronicle, the mouthpiece of the “official” Jews led by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, who claim to represent the UK’s Jewish community, launched a four-article attack on Tommy Robinson. In the space of three days, they published two op-eds and two “news” articles. I destroyed the main news article here. The main op-ed was entitled “Jews who ally with Tommy Robinson are our own worst enemy”. I didn’t address that at the time because it came out hours after I rebutted the “news” piece. It ended with this attack:
Those in our community who embrace Mr Robinson may indeed be fed up with what they consider to be the lack of a serious response to Muslim antisemitism. And they may indeed feel that they are simply upping the ante, making common cause with an ally.
But in allying with the likes of Mr Robinson, they are our own worst enemy.
However, the PLO found a new way to carry out the war with Israel on the battle front of the media, in a most subtle manner, by infusing their narrative into Middle East news coverage.Here’s what the Guardian’s ‘largely non-violent’ Palestinian ‘campaign of civil disobedience’ looks like
In that context, Jerome Verlin and Lee Bender, ZOA leaders from my home town of Philadelphia, who co-authored "Pressing Israel: Media Bias Exposed From A-Z" (Pavilion Press) and co-developed a website and mobile app, www.factsonIsrael.com, have recently issued a memo in which they ask reporters and media consumers who cover the Middle East to reconsider ten tendentious terms now used in Middle East News Coverage. Take a moment to examine them:
#1- “The West Bank” – No, it’s not. “Judea and Samaria” are not just “biblical names,” but actually the names the hill country of Israel was known by from ancient times, including in the U.N.’s 1947 Partition Resolution. After Transjordan invaded the area in 1948 (it was ousted by Israel in 1967) it renamed it 'West Bank" - of the Jordan - to disassociate it from its inherent Jewish connection.
#2 – “East” or “traditionally Arab East” Jerusalem: Jerusalem has been the capital of three homeland states, all Jewish, in the past 3,000 years, and has had a renewed Jewish majority since 1800’s Ottoman rule. Palestinian Arabs have never ruled any part of Jerusalem. There was no such place as “East” Jerusalem until invading Jordan seized the historical heart of the city in 1948 and expelled its Jews; until then it had never been a divided city. The eastern section of the city is where the Old City, Jewish Quarter, The Western Wall, The Temple Mount (Lately rechristened by major media as "al-Aqsa mosque compound") , The Mount of Olives cemetery, Christian Quarter and Church of the Holy Sepulcre are located.
Jerusalem is Judaism's holiest city; it is not holy to Muslims and is not mentioned once in the Qu’ran. Only since Israel reunified the city has there been equal rights and access to religious sites of all faiths. Say Jerusalem, period or, for newly built areas, exactly where they are: Gilo is southern Jerusalem, Ramot and Ramat Shlomo are northern Jerusalem, etc.
#3 – “The UN sought to create Jewish and Palestinian States:” It did not. Over and over in its 1947 Partition Resolution, the UN referenced “the Jewish State” and “the Arab” [not “Palestinian”] State. There are 22 independent Arab states.
Not only did the Guardian’s coverage of these incidents fail to mention the history of what is essentially an antisemitic conspiracy theory about al-Aqsa, and the violence it has incited, but it also created new myth: that Palestinian protests over al-Aqsa (putatively over new security measures on the Mount) can be characterised as a “largely non-violent…campaign of civil disobedience“.CAMERA Op-Ed: Hezbollah's Media Relations Department
The evolving crisis has seen Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority suspend security cooperation with Israel on the West Bank, as well as the nightly mass protests in Jerusalem that are beginning to take the shape of a campaign of civil disobedience. – The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont, July 26th
There have been signs that the prayer protest movement – which drew thousands each night to largely non-violent gatherings – had given an unusual sense of empowerment to Palestinians in East Jerusalem who have long lived without their own political institutions under Israeli occupation. – The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont, July 27th
However, as anyone not influenced by the Guardian’s continuous obfuscation of illiberal Palestinian tendencies would surely know, protests since July 16th have been defined by violent riots and incitement to violence.
Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed, Lebanese-based terror group, is preparing for another war against Israel. And one of its chief weapons will be the press.From Palestine to Gaza Area Settlements, Journey Into Times Coverage
Hezbollah (“Party of God”) is a Shi'ite Muslim, U.S.-designated terrorist group that receives its marching orders from Tehran. Ordered to disband by UN Resolutions 1559 and 1701, the organization has, instead, repeatedly attacked the Jewish state.
In 2006, the Shi'ite militias' decision to kidnap Israeli soldiers led to a brutal thirty-four day war. Throughout, the group proved adept at manipulating the media.
Hezbollah's tactics included indiscriminately launching missiles and artillery from civilian areas, purposefully using them as “human shields” for propaganda purposes. Many in the media failed to note this double war-crime or uncritically quoted claims of anti-Israel NGOs that—echoing Hezbollah propaganda—charged Israel with carelessly targeting civilians.
On certain occasions, the Western press did, in fact, note Hezbollah's propaganda methods. For example, the Australian newspaper The Herald Sun published images showing members of the terror group dressed in civilian garb and operating anti-aircraft weaponry in a residential Lebanese neighborhood. In another instance, CNN producer Charlie Moore noted a “well-coordinated and not-so-subtle” effort by Hezbollah to manage the press via “guided tours” complete with photo opportunities of prearranged ambulances, driving around in circles with sirens blaring.
Hezbollah is nothing if not image conscious. As one operative, Sheik Nabil Qaouk, told The New York Times in July 2000, “The use of the media as a weapon” has “an effect parallel to a battle.” In this respect, Hezbollah is well armed.
In an illuminating and ironic gem, The New York Times markets its "Journeys" tour to Israel and the West Bank as follows:PLO recommended terminology continues to appear in BBC content
On this nine-day itinerary, travel with experts from The New York Times, a leader in its evenhanded coverage of Israel, Palestine and the Middle East.
Referring to the West Bank as "Palestine" contravenes standard New York Times style. References to a modern "Palestine" in the West Bank and Gaza are inaccurate, and those areas should be referred to the West Bank and Gaza or, where appropriate "Palestinian Authority territories." National Geographic, The Los Angeles Times, and Voice of America have commendably corrected this very same point in recent weeks.
By inaccurately referring to the West Bank as "Palestine," The New York Times unintentionally tips off perceptive and informed readers that far from being "a leader in its evenhanded coverage," the Gray Lady has a longstanding tilt against Israel. As Margaret Sullivan, then public editor exhorted in 2014:
Strengthen the coverage of Palestinians. They are more than just victims, and their beliefs and governance deserve coverage and scrutiny. Realistic examinations of what’s being taught in schools, and the way Hamas operates should be a part of this. What is the ideology of Hamas; what are its core beliefs and its operating principles? What is Palestinian daily life like? I haven’t seen much of this in The Times.
As noted in earlier posts (see here, here and here), listeners to BBC World Service radio recently saw the return of a practice that was documented on these pages just over a year ago. The reappearance of that practice has not however been limited to that particular BBC platform: it has also been seen in reporting on the BBC News website.Hapoel Petah Tikva attacked by skin heads after a game in Poland
The background to the story is as follows:
The BBC Academy’s style guide includes instruction for the corporation’s producers and journalists on the correct terminology to be used when reporting on Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem.
“Temple Mount – both words capped. Note that the area in Jerusalem that translates from Hebrew as the Temple Mount should also be described, though not necessarily in the first four pars, as known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif (ie lower case ‘al’, followed by a hyphen – and never ‘the al-Haram al-Sharif’, which is tautological). The Arabic translates as the Noble Sanctuary.”
That guideline was generally followed in the past but in late 2014, audiences began to see the employment of different terminology by some BBC journalists. The term ‘al Aqsa Mosque compound’ – or even just ‘al Aqsa Mosque’ – was employed to describe what the BBC previously called Haram al Sharif with increasing frequency from November 2014 onward.
Two staff members of soccer club Hapoel Petah Tikva were slightly injured in Poland after being attacked by masked hooligans in what the Israeli Embassy said Thursday was an "antisemitic incident." The attack occurred on Wednesday evening in Suchocin, a town near Warsaw, following a friendly match between Petah Tikva and a local Polish club, MKS Ciechanow.
"After the match we went to the lobby of the hotel while a couple of our staff members were collecting the equipment. Around 15-20 skinheads came out of the woods and raced onto the field and began punching and kicking them," said Petah Tikva coach Oren Krispin. "One of the players in the lobby noticed this and we all ran out to help.
Once the skinheads saw us they ran away." The Israeli Embassy in Warsaw said it was "shocked and saddened by the news of another anti-Semitic incident." The Polish government was quick to condemn the incident and the government spokesman Rafal Bochenek said in a statement that "We strongly condemn aggression and violence against any person," he also said the police will detain those responsible.
MKS Ciechanów condemned the incident and stressed that it and its fans have nothing to do with it.
"First and foremost, we emphasize that our Club regrets the whole situation and strongly condemns the behavior of the perpetrators of this perilous incident, but at the same time we stress that none of the members of our Club-related community had anything to do with the whole situation," read a statement issued by the club.
The club said the attackers were fans of the Legia Warsaw team.
The Israelis emphasize that the action was planned because attackers waited until police had left the area.
Orthodox Rabbis Join Call for Homeland Security Investigation Into Antisemitic California Imam Ammar Shahin
An influential group of Orthodox rabbis has joined the call for a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) investigation into the California imam who delivered a violently antisemitic sermon at the Islamic Center of Davis on July 21.Editor who saved Anne Frank's diary dies at 93
The rabbis — representatives of the Baltimore-based Coalition for Jewish Values — said that the subsequent apology from the imam, Ammar Shahin, was not enough and that he should be fired from his post at the Islamic Center. The rabbis also lauded Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) for “demanding Mr. Shahin’s employment be terminated, and that the University of California, Davis, bar Mr. Shahin and any representative of the Islamic Center of Davis from its campus.”
Shahin’s sermon in Arabic — translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) — was delivered at the height of the violent Palestinian campaign against Israeli control of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem earlier this month.
“Oh Allah, liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews,” Shahin declared, before offering prayers for the mass murder of Israelis. “Oh Allah, destroy those who closed the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Oh Allah, show us the black day that You inflict upon them, and the wonders of Your ability. Oh Allah, count them one by one and annihilate them down to the very last one. Do not spare any of them.”
In the wake of the sermon, the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), a prominent Jewish human rights group, demanded that the DHS investigate Shahin.
Judith Jones, the legendary editor who rescued Anne Frank's diary from a US publisher's rejection pile, died on Wednesday. She was 93.525 Years to the Day After Kicking Out Its Jews, Spain Honors Their Language, Ladino
Jones, a luminary of the publishing world, who also introduced the world to American culinary writer Julia Child, was close to literary giants such as John Updike, Anne Tyler, William Maxwell, John Hersey, Peter Taylor and Sharon Olds.
She passed away at her home in Vermont, the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group said in a statement. She worked for Knopf for more than 50 years, joining the company in 1957 and officially retiring only in 2011.
"Judith was a legend in book publishing," said Sonny Mehta, chairman and editor-in-chief, paying tribute to the once young assistant who rescued Frank's "Diary of a Young Girl" from a rejection pile in Paris.
The diary, which the young Jewish girl had written while hiding from the Nazis between June 1942 and August 1944, is one of the most famous testimonies of life in World War II and one of the most famous diaries of all time.
Frank, who was born in Germany and lived with her family in the Netherlands, died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp aged 15, just months before the war ended.
On more than one occasion in elementary school, my friends made fun of me for saying “my grandfather.” I guess it seemed oddly formal for a child. It was a purposeful choice, though, because the real name I called my grandfather was in Ladino, the dialect of Sephardic Jews. And the Ladino word for grandfather, which struck me as catnip for cruel schoolyard bullies, was Papoo.Barack Obama, Barbra Streisand to Appear In Shimon Peres Documentary ‘Never Stop Dreaming’
I thought of my Papoo today when the Spanish Royal Academy, a Madrid-based organization dedicated to the preservation of Spanish languages, announced that it was creating a Judeo-Spanish branch in Israel that will guarantee the continuation of the language of my ancestors, and will hopefully strengthen its usage. That the news broken on Tisha B’Av, precisely 525 years after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, seemed particularly fitting.
Darío Villanueva, the director of the Academy, told The Guardian that Ladino was “an extraordinarily important cultural and historical phenomenon” that deserved its own branch of the organization long ago. So far, nine specialists have been hired to run the institution.
The new branch is just the latest of several efforts that Spain has made to resolve its historical injustices towards Jews, most of which have fallen short. In 2015, for example, Spain passed a law allowing descendants of exiled Jews to reclaim Spanish citizenship. That is, if they can prove their lineage, which, of course, is easier said than done. The decision to honor Ladino, on the other hand, is much more streamlined, and likely to have a greater impact.
Thrilled to hear that my ancestral language was thus honored, I called my Papoo. What phrases, I asked him, should the new branch of the Academy make sure to preserve? Did any salty ones come to mind?
“The phrase ‘chamor es chamor,’” he said “mixes Spanish and Hebrew, and it means donkey or ass,” he said. Someone who was not very bright would be called a “calevassa de calabaza,” meaning that they have a “head full of squash.”
Actress and singer Barbra Streisand will appear alongside former President Barack Obama in Never Stop Dreaming: The Life and Legacy of Shimon Peres, a forthcoming documentary about the late president and prime minister of Israel.Hebrew U Scientist Develops Technology That Could Reduce Need for Animal Testing
Oscar-winning documentary film director Richard Trank (The Long Way Home) will helm the project, which is being produced by Moriah Films, the documentary film production division of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
“We’re in the final stages now and the plan is to now have it done in the middle to latter part of the fall,” Trank told the Hollywood Reporter.
Before Peres’ unexpected death last September, some 60 hours of interviews were recorded. Obama was reportedly interviewed in Washington, D.C., last July.
“The president said he was so honored to do this and we were so honored to be sitting there with him. It was a great experience,” says Rabbi Marvin Hier of Obama, who spoke at Peres’ memorial service in Jerusalem. Hier added that Obama and Peres “had a shared love of history and literature.”
Filmmakers hope to have a finished product by this fall, shop it around the festival circuit, and premiere the film for a benefit for the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
After spending an average of $2.5 billion to develop a single new drug, sometimes pharma companies have to pull it from the market due to a bad outcome that was not detected in clinical studies.Israel Launches World’s Smallest Environmental Satellite in Cooperation With France
That’s what happened in 2000, when a promising Type 2 diabetes drug called troglitazone led to unexplained liver damage in one of every 60,000 users.
The troglitazone mystery wasn’t solved until March 2016, when a novel “liver-on-a-chip” platform developed by Hebrew University of Jerusalem Prof. Yaakov Nahmias revealed what no animal or human tests could: even low concentrations of this drug caused liver stress before any damage could be seen.
“It was the first time an organ-on-chip device could predict information to help pharmaceutical companies define risk for [unexplained] toxicity,” Nahmias tells ISRAEL21c.
Shortly before that study, Nahmias’ liver-on-a-chip had revealed a new mechanism for Tylenol poisoning.
Given that about 16 percent of all FDA-approved drugs eventually show unexpected toxicity, Nahmias recognized the potential of his smart human-on-a-chip platform.
He licensed the technology from the university and spun off Tissue Dynamics to provide toxicology analysis of drugs and cosmetics.
Israel launched its first environmental satellite into space in the early hours of Wednesday from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
The satellite is named Venus, an acronym for Vegetation and Environment monitoring on a New Micro Satellite. It was built by Israel Aerospace Industries as part of a joint earth observation and exploratory mission between the Israel Space Agency (ISA) – a government body sponsored by the country’s Ministry of Science & Technology – and the French Space Agency (CNES).
Israel’s Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis said: “Israel is known throughout the world for its daring and innovation, which has resulted in the technological development of Venus, and we are extremely proud to see the incredible results of the hard work carried out by Israel’s leading engineers and researchers, led by the Israeli Space Agency and the French Space Agency.”
The satellite’s cameras and other equipment will take dozens of photographs to monitor aspects of environmental change in soil, vegetation, forests, agriculture, water, and air quality in Israel and around the world. It is ISA’s first civilian satellite and at just under 265kg is considered the smallest of its kind in the world.
The satellite will capture images of sites every two days, each one covering approximately 760 square kilometres, using a special camera that records light on 12 different wave lengths. By imaging the exact same sites repeatedly, the satellite will help researchers to monitor precise changes over time with the goal of gaining more detailed knowledge of the links between carbon and climate change.
Gay flag in Jerusalem before gay parade.— UN Watch (@UNWatch) August 2, 2017
Israel is #1 condemned country @UN_HRC.
When is @UN_HRC member Saudi Arabia's gay parade in Mecca? pic.twitter.com/prog67yTTc
New York congregation owns oldest US synagogue, court rules
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that a New York Jewish congregation is the rightful owner of the nation's oldest synagogue, in Rhode Island, along with a set of bells worth millions.Israel National Library launches digital manuscript archive
The decision by the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston marks the latest turn in a long-running legal battle that began when members of the Touro Synagogue in Newport tried to sell a set of ritual bells, called rimonim, worth some $7.4 million.
New York's Congregation Shearith Israel attempted to block the deal, citing an 18th century agreement that named it a trustee.
A lower court last year placed ownership of the synagogue with the Rhode Island congregation that worships there, Newport's Congregation Jeshuat Israel. The appeals court reversed that decision citing previous agreements.
"We hold that the only reasonable conclusions to be drawn from them are that CSI (Congregation Shearith Israel) owns both the rimonim and the real property," the ruling said.
Gary Naftalis, a lawyer for the Rhode Island congregation, said he was disappointed by the ruling and was exploring legal options.
An attorney for the New York congregation could not be reached.
The historic building was consecrated in 1763, when the town had one of the largest Jewish populations in the American colonies, including many who had fled the Spanish Inquisition. It was vacated in 1776 when most of the city's Jewish population fled at the start of the Revolutionary War.
Israel's National Library launched an online database on Wednesday aggregating tens of thousands of digitized Jewish manuscripts belonging to collections from across the globe.2015: Dennis Prager Brilliantly Schools Liberal Academics at Oxford on Foreign Policy (h/t Max Mendelbaum)
Scholars and laypersons can access almost half of the known handwritten Jewish texts from Spain to Afghanistan, which have been digitized and catalogued online. In some cases, parts of a manuscript that have been long divided between collections will be reunited -- digitally -- for the first time in centuries.
The archive contains nearly 4.5 million images from 45,000 manuscripts -- slightly more than half of all known volumes. They include prayer books, biblical texts and commentary, philosophy, literature and scientific writings in Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Arabic and more.
The database, called Ktiv, Hebrew for "written word," is the culmination of a project conceived by Israel's founding Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. In 1950, Ben-Gurion launched the initiative of ingathering Jewish texts scattered in libraries and collections around the world and bringing them to the fledgling state in the form of microfilms.
The new database, a joint venture with the Friedberg Jewish Manuscript Society, takes that endeavor into the 21st century, with multispectral and high-definition images and an internet search engine.
Dennis Prager, founder of the on-line Prager University, columnist, author, and public speaker, addresses the Oxford Union Society, a debating society which draws the majority of its members from Oxford University. Prager, dumbfounded at the subject of the debate- Are Arab non-secular theocratic extremist militants more of an obstacle to peace than a secular Jewish state that respects the Human Rights of it's citizens. Prager tries to explain to the Oxford intellects and himself why they felt that such a subject is legitimate to debate. Unable to understand the premise, Prager asks if they debated whether Germany or Great Britain was a greater threat to peace during the period of World War II.
Prager valiantly explains a mistake in perspective made by so many in the world of academia.
This is a crucial video to see in order to understand the distorted viewpoints many academics have on issues concerning the Middle East.
