Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Honest Reporting: Al Jazeera Exposed: Blood Libels, Defamation and Lies
Jews and other Israel supporters around the world work for the IDF in the same manner as fighters in the Syrian civil war: committing war crimes, both as volunteers and paid mercenaries on behalf of the Jewish state.IsraellyCool: Another Reason to Boot Out Al Jazeera: They Love Their Blood Libels
Really?
That’s the underlying message of an Al Jazeera “documentary” (it’s actually closer to a work of fiction) that skews context, overtly mistranslates statements, and even repeats outright lies in order to create this illusion.
The documentary begins with Elena Zakusilo, a Ukrainian Jewish woman who claimed on a local television game show that she served in a combat role in the IDF, including being forced by the IDF to murder innocent children: a form of blood libel that has served as an excuse for violence against Jews throughout history.
The IDF and Ukranian security services investigated: It turns out the woman had blatantly lied. In fact, the show’s producers had scripted her entire speech in a ploy to increase ratings, even though they apparently knew that Zakusilo’s role in the IDF had been low ranking, administrative and non-combat.
Al Jazeera then misleads audiences with a segment on an unrelated group called “Caliber 3,” a private firm that mostly trains civilian security contractors who work with the Israeli police. Caliber 3 also offers basic self-defense classes for private individuals, a minority of their work.
Yet Al Jazeera portrayed Caliber-3 as a military unit, and its civilian self-defense classes as a military activity. It’s like saying a person who takes a CPR class at the hospital is a surgeon. It’s just simply untrue.
Hardly a day goes by without reading about Al Jizz making a mockery of the notion of journalistic integrity and going out of their way to demonize Israel.
You know, one of the countries in which they have an office so they can provide “objective” journalism.
Last week, they came out with a report entitled Israel’s Volunteer Soldiers.
Naturally, it is a hit job on Israel and the IDF.
Naturally, it contains outright lies, none more severe than the inclusion of a proven blood libel.
In November 2013, Elena Zakusilo, a Ukrainian Jewish woman, appeared on the Ukrainian TV show “Lie Detector”, revealing that she worked for the Israeli army and continued to do so.
“The first time I killed was difficult for me. I threw the weapon and said I wasn’t going anywhere. But I went,” she said and admitted to having killed civilians, including children.
Seriously, it is way beyond time Al Jizz was sent packing.
Al Jazeera English Corrects: Haifa Not in 'Northern Occupied Palestine'
CAMERA's Israel office today prompted correction of an Al Jazeera English article which falsely stated that the Israeli coastal city of Haifa is located in "northern occupied Palestine" ("UK: Palestine activists face prison over Elbit protest").PreOccupiedTerritory: Arab Media Vow Better Balance Of Vermin In Descriptions Of Jews (satire)
As noted earlier today in CAMERA's Snapshots blog, Al Jazeera's Shafit Mandhai had redrawn the map, writing:
Based in the city of Haifa in northern occupied Palestine, Elbit produces military and civilian-use equipment, including drones, aircraft, weapon control systems, and artillery.
This is a completely false characterization of Haifa, which the United Nations designated as part of the land intended for a Jewish state under the 1947 Partition Plan. According to the United Nations' present day map (as well as an "Oslo status quo" map published by Al Jazeera) the Israeli northern coastal city of Haifa is not in the "Occupied Palestinian Territories," which include the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and by some definitions eastern Jerusalem.
In response to communication today from CAMERA, Al Jazeera commendably corrected the article, removing the erroneous reference to "northern occupied Palestine." The corrected article now accurately states that Elbit is "[b]ased in the city of Haifa."
Responding to concerns of viewers and activists over discrimination, Al Jazeera and other media operations in the Arab and Muslim world have promised to achieve a more equitable distribution of entomological and zoological terms for use in referring to Jews, spokesmen for several such outlets announced today.
Audiences and critics have criticized the networks and publication in recent months for what they have called blatant bias in favor of certain classes of unpleasant creatures over others as derogatory metaphors for Jews, leading the organizations to examine their editing practices and style policies in an effort to achieve better representation of all types of vermin in their rhetoric.
Representatives of major Arabic networks and organizations issued statements today in which they declared their intention to undertake a revamping of procedures aimed at comparing Jews to a more balanced variety of blood-sucking, unsanitary, scavenging, or disease-spreading creatures, and to correct the situation that has pertained heretofore, in which apes, pigs, rats, cockroaches, snakes, dogs, and mosquitoes have been comparatively over-represented, while gnats, maggots, flies, bats, jackals, and other animals rarely feature.
“We apologize to our viewers and readers for the insensitivity displayed to date in our reporting and analysis vis-à-vis the depiction of Jews as scum-sucking vermin,” read Al Jazeera’s statement. “Al Jazeera hereby commits to ensuring a variety of pests, predators, and parasites to which to compare Jews and their schemes, and henceforth not to shortchange the termite, the locust, the mouse, the vulture, and the fox, for example. That is a random list; please do not yell at us for not including your favorite disgusting creature in this apology.”
Neo-Nazis, anti-Semitism and the cycle of hatred in America
I fully expected the recent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., to turn into a hate-filled demonstration against African-Americans. What caught me by surprise, though, was the venomous attack on Jews. Please allow me to speak candidly about my embarrassing miscalculation of the depth of anti-Semitism that exists today.Jeremy Corbyn’s Love of Tyrants and Terrorists, and Tolerance for Anti-Semitism, Shouldn’t Get a Pass
As an African-American raised in the South, I am painfully aware of the symbolism behind a statute of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee erected in a public park. However, I did not immediately grasp the Nazi-inspired message behind the chants "blood and soil" and "Jews will not replace us."
Before Charlottesville, some of us assumed that hatred against Jews paled today in comparison to the contempt blacks, Hispanics, Muslims and other minorities face in America.
While there has been an increase in bomb threats against Jewish institutions across America recently, overall anti-Semitic incidents still remain historically low. The most notable rise has been on college campuses, according to the Anti-Defamation League. But these incidents garnered less attention than recent attacks on other groups.
You could argue that Jews assimilated into American society after the Holocaust more easily than blacks did after slavery. You could ignore their fears and say their white skin gave them an advantage that other persecuted groups could never have.
Some may have thought that was enough to safeguard Jews from overt displays of hatred. But Charlottesville proved that bigotry has no racial, ethnic or religious boundaries. When unleashed on Jews, is as vile and contemptible as the hatred of blacks and other minorities. (h/t Zvi)
The leader of the British Labor party has a long history of defending and even praising brutal dictators—from Hugo Chavez to Slobodan Milosevic to Bashar al-Assad—and expressing his admiration for terrorists, not to mention advocating his country’s unilateral nuclear disarmament. Yet, argues James Kirchick, too many on the British and American left are willing to dismiss Jeremy Corbyn’s unsavory views as unpleasant quirks, thus allowing these attitudes to be considered normal. He writes:UK Labour set to ditch call to recognise Palestinian state and criticism of "illegal" settlements
Perhaps the most disturbing phenomenon to have become “normalized” in Britain thanks to Corbyn is anti-Semitism. It should hardly come as a surprise that a man who called Hamas and Hizballah “friends,” attended pro-Palestinian events organized by a Holocaust-denier, invited a purveyor of the blood libel for tea at the House of Commons, and hosted programs on an Iranian propaganda network would embolden Jew-haters within Labor’s ranks.
That was indeed the finding of a 2016 cross-party parliamentary inquiry into anti-Semitism, which concluded that Corbyn had “created what some have referred to as a ‘safe space’ for those with vile attitudes toward Jewish people” in his party. The nature of this “safe space” was illustrated when Labor chose not to expel the former London mayor, Ken Livingstone, for repeatedly (and inaccurately) claiming, in a series of interviews and public statements, that Adolf Hitler “supported Zionism.” . . .
Corbyn supporters, [however], view the entire anti-Semitism controversy engulfing their party as a cynical, partisan campaign orchestrated by unscrupulous Jews “weaponizing” charges of anti-Semitism to defame his good character. . . .
The [UK] Labour party is set to ditch demands for the “immediate” recognition of a Palestinian state along with any criticism of “illegal” Israeli settlements in policies due to be debated at its annual conference next month.WA Labor votes to back Palestinian state
Draft text to be put before the party’s national policy forum in Brighton reiterates support for a two-state solution in the region and avoids any direct criticism of Israel.
...The policy, which is expected to be heavily criticised by anti-Zionist groups within the party, reads:
“In Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Labour is committed to a comprehensive peace based on a two-state solution: a secure Israel alongside a secure and viable state of Palestine.”
...Despite attempts by supporters of the hard-left Momentum group to establish explicit anti-Israel policies in Labour branches across the country, party leaders have largely devoted their attention to domestic issues.
Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, delivered a carefully worded speech during a Commons debate on Israel and the Palestinians last month, which seemed to suggest a new desire for the party to take a more balanced position.
West Australian Labor has become the fifth branch of the party to support recognition of a Palestinian state without conditions, caveats or qualifications.FIFA and International Olympic Committee Furthering Racism, Terror?
This all but ensures the next national conference will urge a Labor government to recognise such a state. The motion, adopted by the state conference on Sunday, “supported the recognition and right of Israel and Palestine to exist within secure and recognised borders” but added unequivocally that it “urges the next Labor government to recognise Palestine”.
The resolution, initially moved by senator Sue Lines but amended by state MP Stephen Price, mirrored that adopted by the NSW Labor conference last month.
It represents a different position to Labor leader Bill Shorten, and his Victorian Labor right faction, who are likely to have to accept a significant change in Labor’s position in support of a Palestinian state without stating that recognition should be part of a two-state peace process.
Federal Labor’s current position reiterates support for a “two-state solution” and states that a future government is required only to consult with “like-minded” nations before taking the step of formally recognising a Palestinian state. That position will be challenged at next year’s national conference.
Palestinian Media Watch stated that "FIFA has a clear double standard when responding to violations of its statutes. PMW has reviewed hundreds of decisions of the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) (the highest court for sport) and has learned that FIFA and the football community act forcefully to punish even minor violations when committed by other football clubs or even their fans. Yet the PFA's and Rajoub's racism and terror promotion, all serious violations, are being ignored by FIFA."There is No Position on Israel That Absolves or Excuses Your Anti-Semitism
Swift action must be taken to remove Jibril Rajoub from his posts, and the Palestinian Authority needs to be pressured to replace him with someone whose passion for sports and sportsmanship exceeds that of his lust for Jewish blood. If this is not undertaken, FIFA should oust the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) from its ranks.
The same applies to the International Olympic Committee, which has a duty to remain true to its mission -- "to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practiced without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play." It has to threaten the Palestinian Olympic Committee that it will be ousted unless it rids itself of dangerous radicals such as Rajoub.
This move predates Trump, of course. A California official, responding to claims that he used the antisemitic slur “Jew them down,” defended himself with the seeming non-sequitur “I am a lifetime supporter of Israel.” Years before he falsely accused Jews of tagging a church with a swastika to make Trump look bad, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee responded to yet another anti-Semitism controversy (he compared the national debt to the Holocaust, spurring condemnation from the ADL) by saying “Israel and the Jewish people have no stronger advocate than Mike Huckabee.” Huckabee, indeed, went a step further and leveled a veiled threat against the Jewish community if they had the temerity to object to further spurious Holocaust analogies: “Israel and Jewish people need to make friends, not insult the ones they have.”Isi Leibler: Europe wakes to Islamic terrorism
I cannot tell you how sick I am of hearing this. Of course, there’s the fact that “supporter of Israel,” in these statements, nearly always means “supporter of Netanyahu’s particular brand of noxious right-wing illiberalism”—something no more synonymous with “pro-Israel” than Trump’s American iteration of the same is with “pro-America.” But leave that aside. Being a supporter of Israel, defined appropriately so that it isn’t coterminous with whatever hallucination Naftali Bennett had this week, is a good thing and an important component of being an ally to Jews more broadly. But it is just that—a component—it is not the whole game. And there’s something gross about dismissing anti-Semitism concerns of Jews in the U.S. by explaining how much one likes Jews when they’re 6,000 miles away.
Leftists, of course, have their own versions of this. The persistent refusal to examine anti-Semitism as even a potential component of their “criticisms” of Israel is something I’ve written on repeatedly and is at this point cliche. And sometimes they go further: defending extreme anti-Zionism not just as consistent with, but as an instantiation of, fighting against anti-Semitism. This was evident when Mondoweiss defended Helen Thomas’s demand that Jews in Israel “get the hell out of Palestine” and “go home” to Poland by saying this would have the “happy consequence” of leading to a “rebirth” of Jewish culture in Poland (quipped one Jewish writer in response: “I’m deeply touched by this gesture of philanthropic ethnic cleansing”). More often, such self-styled progressives, like their far-right counterparts, find their proof of Jewish allyship elsewhere—academic Steven Salaita, you may recall, was obviously no anti-Semite because he once courageously called out out Macklemore for his costume choices. What more could the Jewish people ask for?
Europe wakes to Islamic terrorismGlobal terror’s future: civilian death rate from suicide car bombs up 97%
Until recently, most European governments avoided confronting Islamic terrorism. The usual government response after each attack was to appease Muslim constituents by playing down its religious inspiration, repeating the mantra "Islam is a religion of peace."
All religions include peaceful and aggressive components, but portraying the dominant features of Islam today as peaceful is simply denial.
While most Muslims outside Islamic-controlled nations are lawful citizens, a significant proportion endorse terrorism and only a handful pay lip service to condemn the radicals. Genuinely moderate Muslims require great courage as they frequently face violent reprisals from their kinsmen.
For many years, Muslims in Europe have resided in self-imposed ghettoes where police fear to enter. Already prior to the current mass migration, all efforts to integrate them had failed. Indeed, a good proportion of Muslim terrorists were second-generation offspring, many of whom were educated and had decent jobs.
The problem escalated when Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, in what many considered symbolic atonement for the Holocaust, provided a haven to millions of Syrian and North African refugees. But most were even more radical, anti-democratic and anti-Semitic than the existing Muslim communities. In addition, those who were rejected asylum were rarely deported, which encouraged even more Islamists and economic migrants to come. Many with terrorist records operated freely. For example, Imam Abdelbaki Essati, who orchestrated the Barcelona attacks, had previously been convicted of terrorism and drug dealing, but an order for his expulsion was overturned by a judge in 2015.
Not only are Muslims pouring into Europe, but their birth rates are considerably higher than those of the host population, threatening to alter Europe's demography.
Now with ISIS virtually defeated, the situation may deteriorate further. The organization can be expected to intensify efforts to send its murderous disciples, initially as sleeper cells, to perpetrate terrorism in Western cities.
Aside from suffering terrorist incidents, many Western Europeans have been shocked at the extent to which their quality of life has been undermined by these refugees. Violent crime, rape and theft abound. Yet, the fact that this crime wave emanates overwhelmingly from the "refugees" is systematically understated and public discussion of the issue is discouraged.
Anyone criticizing practices in Islamic states or among local Muslims, whether the oppression of women, execution of homosexuals, stoning of adulterers, honor killings, child marriages, or female genital mutilation, stands accused of Islamophobia.
The far Left, which claims to champion human rights, often refuses to acknowledge and condemn such barbaric practices.
Suicide car bombs are causing a spike in civilian deaths, with a rise of 97%, according to a report published last week by the NGO Action on Armed Violence.IsraellyCool: Britain’s Channel 4 Chooses Islamic Racist & Antisemite As Female Muslim Role Model
The 97% statistic comes from a study comparing the number of civilian deaths in 2015 and 2016.
Since 2011, when the NGO started to keep worldwide statistics on the issue, the increase of civilian deaths from suicide car bombs rose 148%, with the total number of deaths over the five years at a staggering 211,000.
Overall, most of the increase has come from ISIS’s systematic use of suicide car bombs in Syria and Iraq, with them asserting they used 815 bombs in 2016 alone.
The report noted that the danger of an increase in the use of suicide car bombs as a tactic “is true not only for the conflict(s) in Syria and Iraq, but can be applied to any conflict where a non-state actor…gains territorial control.”
It specified Libya as just one example where terrorists outside of Syria and Iraq gained even some amount of territory and were then able to start using suicide car bombs on a large scale.
After the Channel 4 tweet was published, social media sleuths were able to uncover Nadia Chan’s own tweets, revealing her horrid racism (including antisemitism), terror support and general expressions of desire for violence against non-Muslims (including genocide against Israelis/Jews).Dutch worker who called IS a Zionist plot can sue over ‘harsh’ punishment
Her twitter account has also been deleted.
What I want to know is what was Channel 4 thinking? She describes herself as an “anti-colonialist Islamist”!
A Dutch Justice Ministry employee who was suspended and threatened with termination for saying that Zionists invented the Islamic State terrorist group can sue for damages, a judge ruled.ADL taps Arab-American ex-official to head up security outreach
Yasmina Haifi, a former senior cybersecurity specialist, was “too harshly punished” for making a statement that is protected by freedom of speech, according to a ruling last week by a magistrate in The Hague.
The decision came three years after Haifi was suspended from her National Cyber Security Center post for writing on Twitter that “ISIS has nothing to do with Islam. It’s part of a plan by Zionists who are deliberately trying to blacken Islam’s name.”
She was then readmitted as a ministry employee in a different position and warned she would be fired if she continued to express herself in a manner deemed extremist.
In a lawsuit against the ministry for abusing her rights as an employee, Haifi said the probation made her feel “muzzled” and that she had no prospects for advancement at the ministry, NRC Handelsblad reported.
Selim, who served under Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, resigned last month from his role as director of the Office of Community Partnerships at Homeland Security. Born of Egyptian and Lebanese descent, Selim worked primarily with Muslim communities in the United States to combat extremism.Michael Lumish: This Week on Nothing Left
He also headed the Countering Violent Extremism Task Force, which coordinated those efforts among government agencies. Selim had worked as an adviser on civil liberties at Homeland Security, as well as at the National Security Council.
Selim will head the ADL’s programs on law enforcement, education and community security, according to a news release Monday.
ADL National Director Jonathan Greenblatt praised Selim’s “unparalleled expertise in engaging communities to stop the destructive extremism that comes from all sides of the ideological spectrum.”
ADL is one of a few national Jewish organizations collaborating with Muslims and other religious groups on security issues. It provides security consulting to religious institutions and publishes a handbook on best practices.
Selim resigned in July after more than a decade of working for the government, citing budget cuts and partisanship in an interview with NPR.
At the time of his resignation, he told the liberal essayist Peter Beinart at the Atlantic, “There were clearly political appointees in this administration who didn’t see the value of community partnerships with American Muslims.”
This week Michael Burd and Alan Freedman speak with Yoni Yagadovsky from Magen David Adom who is in Australia with Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, and then we hear what is happening in Sweden from Ilya Meyer, a blogger and former deputy chair of the West Sweden branch of the Sweden-Israel Friendship Association.New York Times Praises Profane Anti-Israel Poet
The fellahs have an interview with Canadian Diane Bederman who is a book author and blogger for Times of Israel, the Canada Free Press and the excellent Jews Down Under website.
They then speak with David Bedein who has analysed and documented the horrifying comments about Israel in Palestinian textbooks.
4 min Editorial: alt-Right or alt-Left who are the Real threat to Jews today?
9 min Yoni Yagadovsky, Magen David Adom
29 min Ilya Meyer, Sweden
47 min Diane Bederman, Canadian writer
1 hr 14 David Bedein, on the translated Palestinian textbooks
The Aug. 23, 2017 Times arts section of the newspaper featured a reverential description (“The Words of Opera's Nixon”) of opera librettist Alice Goodman, who had turned her back on her American Jewish ancestral roots by converting (during her writing of a 1991 anti-Israel opera) to Anglican Church Christianity, the mother church of which is known for its hostility toward Israel. Goodman is now a parish priest in England.Berlin mayor may be included on top-10 list of antisemitic/anti-Israel cases
The Times article's author, Thomas May writes,
Now 59, she [Goodman] serves around 6,000 people in a group of parishes in Cambridgeshire, driving a battered car festooned with flinty, expletive-strewn bumper stickers with mottos like “Doing my part to piss off the religious right.”
Goodman's proclivity for profanity had been demonstrated by use of the F-word in her “Nixon in China” (first performed in October 1987) opera libretto.
The article mentions in glowing terms the partnership of Goodman with opera composer John Adams in "The Death of Klinghoffer" and the Nixon opera. Mention is also made of Peter Sellars' collaboration as librettist with Adams in “Doctor Atomic.”
The international human-rights organization the Simon Wiesenthal Center is considering the inclusion of Berlin’s Mayor Michael Mueller on its list of the top-10 worst cases of anti-Israel and antisemitic activity in 2017 because of an epidemic of hate and BDS in the German capital.Neo-Nazi site Stormfront goes offline
The associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that Mayor Mueller is “mainstreaming the BDS movement that never contributes to the daily life of Palestinians. BDS is widely recognized as antisemitic.”
Cooper said Mueller’s mayoral colleagues in Frankfurt and Munich recognize the antisemitism of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) campaign targeting Israel and are legally banning city support for BDS activities.
“There are two reasons why he [Mueller] could theoretically make the list,” he said. “He is the mayor of, arguably, the most important European city. And his colleagues get it that BDS is not just mean-spirited but downright dangerous.”
Berlin has been a hotbed of pro-BDS and lethal antisemitic activities, including nearly 600 Hezbollah supporters and members – and pro-Iranian regime activists – who marched in the main shopping district at the al-Quds Day rally calling for the destruction of the Jewish state in June.
Stormfront was no longer available online after its host put a hold on the neo-Nazi and white supremacist website.New app orients visually impaired in malls, schools, hospitals
The hold issued Friday by Network Solutions is “uncommon” and “usually enacted during legal disputes, non-payment, or when your domain is subject to deletion,” said the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, according to Salon.
Earlier this month, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law urged web.com, which owns Network Solutions, to take down Stormfront, saying it violated the company’s policy against racist and discriminatory content.
On Saturday, the Lawyers Committee said on Twitter that it was “pleased to see web.com appears to be enforcing its Acceptable Use Policy.”
Earlier this month, Google and GoDaddy booted the Daily Stormer, another neo-Nazi and white supremacist site.
The actions come amid public outrage at a white supremacist rally held in Charlottesville on Aug. 12. Protesters shouted antisemitic and racist slogans and a woman protesting the rally, Heather Heyer, was killed when a car rammed into a crowd of counterprotesters.
Idan Meir thought he was building a technology to help stores sell more goods. He wound up with a product that allows blind and visually impaired people to navigate malls, universities and hospitals.Israeli doctors are first to implant device for congestive heart failure
“It happened almost by accident,” Meir says, explaining the genesis for RightHear, the pioneering accessibility app he built with cofounder and CTO Gil Elgrably.
The two had created a technology to offer virtual on-the-spot coupons to shoppers based on Apple’s iBeacon technology. iBeacons are small self-powered Bluetooth transmitters that can be placed on walls and roofs in a retail location. But the business model wasn’t making sense.
“We needed to build a very large user base for this to work,” Meir tells ISRAEL21c, and that was turning into a very large challenge.
Millions of people around the world suffer from congestive heart failure, which occurs when the heart is unable to pump sufficiently to maintain blood flow and meet the body’s needs. Signs and symptoms commonly include shortness of breath, excessive tiredness and leg swelling. The disease, which can be fatal, has no medical solution.Emmanuel Macron to visit Israel next year
However a new Israeli patent, implemented for the first time in the world at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center, can change this situation and become a “therapeutic breakthrough,” said Dr. Yair Peled, the cardiologist who invented it.
Robert McClaken, 72, of Canada recently made history by becoming the first person in the world to undergo the surgery for cardiac insufficiency.
McClaken, who has suffered from severe heart failure in recent years, came to Rambam to undergo the procedure. The operation, is arousing great interest in the medical world.
McClaken reported a significant improvement in his condition and in a few days he will be discharged and return home to Canada.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday that he will visit Israel next spring in an effort to push the Middle East peace process.Israel sends aid to flood-battered Texas
Macron said that he will also travel to Lebanon, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority as part of a longer visit in the region.
Speaking to some 200 French ambassadors at a gathering in Paris, Marcon said the fight against “Islamist terrorism,” especially in Syria and Iraq, is the first priority of his foreign policy.
The French leader proposed creating a new “contact group” including the other permanent members of the UN Security Council to help handle negotiations with Syria. He didn’t give more detail about the exact role and composition of the group.
Macron said the Islamic State group is “our enemy” and “we must end the war” in Syria, and called for a political transition in Iraq.
He also said he wants to organize an international summit in Paris “against the financing of terrorism” at the beginning of next year.
Two teams of Israeli aid experts are on their way to Texas to provide vital relief and psychosocial support to the thousands of people who have lost everything in the catastrophic Tropical Storm Harvey.Indian Navy receives first missile jointly developed with Israel
The storm, which first hit Texas on Sunday and continues to plague the beleaguered state with pounding rain, has left nine dead, and tens of thousands of people homeless as flood waters have poured through city streets in Houston, the fourth-largest city in the United States. The storm is thought to have affected 6.8 million people in 18 countries, a quarter of the Texas population.
Humanitarian aid organization IsraAID aims to provide a two-stage response to the disaster, focusing on helping remove debris and clean homes in the wake of the catastrophic flooding, and offering psychosocial trauma support to shocked residents.
“In crises with large-scale destruction, national and international aid efforts typically focus on practical, physical support, with limited resources allocated to the mental and emotional rehabilitation of affected populations,” said Yotam Polizer, co-CEO of IsraAID.
The first long-range surface to air missile (LRSAM) jointly developed by Israel and India was handed over to the Indian Navy on Tuesday at a ceremony in the city of Hyderabad.Hosting Conan, new hotel aims to make Sea of Galilee luxury destination
The LRSAM, or Barak-8 naval air defense system, is jointly developed by India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) in close collaboration with Israel's Israel Aircraft Industry (IAI).
The LRSAM is an advanced air and missile defense system, a unique joint development by IAI and India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) in collaboration with IAI subsidiary ELTA, RAFAEL and various Indian companies.
LRSAM delivery ceremony (Israel Aerospace Industries)LRSAM delivery ceremony (Israel Aerospace Industries)
The system comprises of advanced phased-array radar, command and control systems, as well as launchers and missiles with advanced RF seekers. With state-of-the-art technology, the system provides missile defense against a variety of aerial, naval and air-borne threats.
The system is operational with the IDF, Indian Air Force, Indian Navy and according to a statement released by IAI, will be operational in the near future with the Indian Army as well.
India’s Minister of Defense Arun Jaitley called the delivery of the system “a historical day for India” in which the Indian Navy has become “the proud owners of one the most sophisticated systems in the world.”
Conan O’Brien is checking in this week. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already been a guest. So have celebrity TV show hosts Assi Azar and Rotem Sela.Conan O’Brien, Israeli teenagers storm Tower of David in hackathon
“There’s nothing else close to this hotel on the Kinneret,” said Roger Attias, the Setai Sea of Galilee’s project manager, using the Hebrew name for the lake. “It’s going to be No. 1 in Israel.”
Since its “soft opening” in June, the $250-million Setai has put a new sheen on the low-key Sea of Galilee. Both the hotel’s supporters and detractors expect the hotel to help transform the area by bringing in wealthy tourists like O’Brien, who is staying while filming a special Israel episode of his TBS talk show.
The Setai, which means “south beach” in Thai, stretches along 15 acres of remote lakeside like a modern hut village. Its dozens of white wood and glass buildings are connected by winding walkways lined with grass and palm trees. At the center of the complex, sunbathers lounge around an edgeless pool with a sweeping view of the lake. Other guests feast on fine cuts of meat in the dining room, sip top shelf cocktails in the lounge or indulge in hot stone massages in the spa.
Back in their rooms, some slide into personal edgeless pools, each with a slightly different view of the lake.
US talk show host and comedian Conan O’Brien became an honorary hacker at an event in Jerusalem on Monday that brought together teenagers and mentors working to find ways to make museums and other venues fun and attractive to a younger audience.PM Netanyahu meets with Conan O'Brien
O’Brien, who is visiting Israel to film an episode for his “Conan Without Borders” series, told the young attendees about his 11-year old son and how much he would have enjoyed being there too. He also got to delve into 3,000 years of Jerusalem’s history from the top of King Herod’s Phasael Tower overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, together with museum director Eilat Lieber, before heading out to his other activities in the city.
Making sure there are cellphone charging stations at museums, and setting up an app to create a museum tour according to users’ personal interests, are just some of the suggestions teenagers from all over Israel made during the 24-hour hackathon held at the Tower of David Museum in the Old City.
The museum partnered with TOMORROW JLM to produce and host the Youth Creating for Youth Hackathon on Sunday and Monday. The hackathon had teenagers brainstorming and developing solutions for how to improve the experience of young visitors in the city, including at museums, restaurants and city sites, as well as on public transportation.
