Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Calling Out the Tellers of Anti-Israel Lies
Media coverage of, and academic writings about, Israel routinely betray the intellectual integrity that should govern both. Israel has paid a steep price; the Palestinians perhaps even more so.Ben-Dror Yemini: When old and new anti-Semitism come together
It would be difficult to quantify precisely the damage inflicted by the omissions, distortions, and accusations that routinely disfigure portrayals of Israel. Still, the steady flow of malicious propaganda posing as news and scholarship poisons the debate about a complex and tragic clash between two peoples. The frequent characterizations of Israel as a moral and political monster — a state supposedly guilty of colonialism, apartheid, and all manner of war crimes and crimes against humanity including forced population transfer, ethnic cleansing, and genocide — reinforce Palestinian expectations that their demands be met immediately and in full while bolstering Israeli suspicions that they can’t get a fair hearing in the court of public opinion and can’t secure a just deal under the international community’s auspices. Gross untruths about Israel drive the parties further apart, not only defaming Israel but also setting back the legitimate interests of the Palestinians, whose cause they are contrived to advance.
Emphasizing your side’s merits and the other side’s defects is only human, and partisan reporting is an old story. The new story is that in service, for the most part, to progressive political goals, Western journalists and professors have flouted their professional obligations in order to erect an edifice of falsehoods about Israel.
To catalogue the falsehoods, expose their authors, and set the record straight requires prodigious research and painstaking documentation, a grasp of contemporary political realities, and a synoptic, historically informed understanding of the larger Israeli-Arab conflict. With the 2014 publication in Hebrew of “Tasiyat Hashkarim,” which became a bestseller in Israel, journalist Ben-Dror Yemini established that he was the man for the task. His “Industry of Lies: Media, Academia, and the Israeli-Arab Conflict,” just appearing in English translation from Hebrew, will prove indispensable to those politicians and policy makers, journalists and professors, and members of the general public who believe that getting the story right in the Middle East is inseparable from advancing the cause of peace.
The Jews in the United States, we are told again and again, are in a wonderful state. Indeed, in most Jewish communities, especially in New York, the number of anti-Semitic incidents is infinitesimal. The Jews are living a good life.Iraq bans Israeli flags after Kurds wave them at independence rallies
But something is simmering below the surface. During Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, and over the past year as well, the radical right wing has been the main star of incidents anti-Semitic in nature. This Right should not be discounted. It was dangerous in the past, and it could be dangerous again.
Something else is happening, however, and not just below the surface. Within several days, three things happened in the United States that were completely unrelated, apart from the fact they likely won’t be recorded as anti-Semitic incidents, although I doubt anyone thinks otherwise.
Let’s start with Alan Dershowitz, a well-known figure, who has been visiting campuses. It’s worth noting he isn’t right-wing. His worldview, in Israeli terms, would classify him somewhere around the Zionist Union. He is affiliated with the Democratic Party, and he is perhaps the finest speaker against the campaign to demonize Israel.
About two weeks ago, he gave a lecture at Berkeley. A week later, the local student-run newspaper, The Daily Californian, published a cartoon showing Dershowitz addressing an audience as a liberal presenting his case for Israel, but all the audience can only see is his face. In the hidden part, Dershowitz has an IDF soldier on his palm shooting a Palestinian boy, and another Palestinian boy is being crushed under his foot.
One can cry out “freedom of speech” of course, but it’s kind of difficult to hide the image of child-murdering Jews. Old anti-Semitism and new anti-Semitism in a joint performance. And it’s happening in the stronghold of progress, Berkeley.
The Iraqi parliament voted on Tuesday to criminalize the flying of Israeli flags after the banners were held aloft at a number of Kurdish independence rallies ahead of a referendum in September.
The vote to ban the flags from public spaces came at the request of Ammar al-Hakim, the Shiite leader of the Citizen Bloc, the Iraqi news agency AlSumaria reported.
Israel has been among the only countries to openly support an independent Kurdish state, and many Kurds have welcomed the support, drawing accusations from Arab leaders that the referendum was a Zionist plot.
Turkey fiercely opposed the referendum and has threatened sanctions against the region, reflecting its worries about its own sizable Kurdish minority.
Iran and Iraq’s central government in Baghdad also expressed alarm over the referendum and have refused to recognize its validity.
Battle of Beersheba: Netanyahu thanks Anzacs as thousands of Australians gather to mark 100 years
Thousands of Australians, including Prime Minster Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, are attending a ceremony in the southern Israeli desert to mark 100 years since the Battle of Beersheba.WWI battle to be re-enacted in Israel on centennial of Anzac defeat of Turks
The legendary mounted charge of the 4th Light Horse Brigade in October 1917 to defeat Turkish forces and seize the strategic town of Beersheba is remembered, not just as a great military victory, but for the incredible bravery of 800 young Anzacs on horseback that changed the course of WWI.
Since first light, thousands of Australians gathered to commemorate what was one of the last great cavalry charges in history and a turning point in the Palestine campaign of WWI.
Veterans' Affairs Minister Dan Tehan spoke of the Sinai Palestine campaign as having taken place in a "land they had only heard of in scripture".
"Here at Beersheba, 100 years ago, Australians and New Zealanders fought to end a war that had begun for them at Anzac Cove," he said.
"For the people of Australia and New Zealand, the war here in the Middle East added an important and enduring chapter to the Anzac story.
"In a land that many had only heard of in scripture, The Light Horsemen, the New Zealand Mounted Rifles and the Cameliers fought through the Holy Land for our values and for our freedom. This was not an easy campaign.
"Throughout this campaign, long hours in the saddle, the scarcity of water, the lack of fresh fodder for horses in the desert, the dust and heat of the Middle Eastern summer, the hazards of battle and the absence of comforts behind the lines tested the Anzacs, sometimes to the limit of their endurance.
Australians gather to commemorate Battle of Beersheba.
Mr Turnbull said the "mad Australians" helped enable the creation of the state of Israel.
"There were more men on horses in this charge than there were in the Charge of the Light Brigade. It was a bigger charge and it was successful," Mr Turnbull said.
"Had the Ottoman rule in Palestine and Syria not been overthrown, the declaration would have been empty words. But this was a step for the creation of Israel.
The battle was a crucial, if largely forgotten, victory in the Mideast campaign that enabled the Allies to break the Turkish line and capture Jerusalem weeks later. The victorious campaign redrew the map of the Middle East.JPost Editorial: Century-old bonds
In the fall of 1917, Allied forces with General Sir Edmund Allenby’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force advanced on Gaza as part of a campaign to knock the Ottoman Empire, Germany’s ally, out of the war. To outflank the Turkish troops entrenched around Gaza, a parched detachment made a desperate maneuver through the Negev Desert to capture the strategic biblical town of Beersheba, known both in antiquity and in modern times for its wells.
On October 31, 1917, Allied troops launched their assault, but by late in the day, the critical water sources remained in Turkish hands. In a desperate gambit, mounted infantrymen with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps drew their bayonets, charged the Turkish trenches cavalry-style, and stormed into the town.
Had they been turned back, the entire campaign might have been lost.
For the Australians, the Battle of Beersheba is iconic of “the spirit of the Australian people,” said Kelvin Crombie, a historian and one of the organizers of the 100th anniversary commemorations, “Daring, bold and courageous.” It’s remembered as the young nation’s first real victory, after it had suffered crushing defeats at Gallipoli and on the Western Front.
The Light Horse charge also proved decisive for the Zionist dream of a future Jewish state. Two days later, after word of the victory reached London, Britain’s foreign minister Lord Arthur Balfour issued a declaration calling for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”
“More and more Australians are beginning to understand it wasn’t just a daring military charge, it really was something that had an effect on world history,” Crombie said.
The military investment of the Australians together with the British and New Zealand in defeating Ottoman forces in Palestine was instrumental in ensuring the creation of a British Mandate over Palestine at the end of the First World War.New Zealand's role in World War One Israel campaign remembered 100 years on
The reasoning was simple: The British and the Anzacs did all of the fighting and dying to liberate Palestine from the Turks. Why should Britain share it with the French and international forces, as the original version of the Sykes-Picot Agreement had originally stipulated? If the Battle of Beersheba was pivotal from a military standpoint, the Balfour Declaration provided the vision and diplomatic backing for the creation of a Jewish state in the historical homeland of the Jews.
Taken together, the Battle of Beersheba and the Balfour Declaration set in motion a chain of events that eventually led to the creation of the State of Israel.
The fact that Britain and Australia were so instrumental in bringing about the world’s only Jewish state, and to this day remain proud of their role, continues to shape Israel’s relations with these two countries.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has praised Israel as “a remarkable country” and “a beacon of tolerance.” Turnbull, meanwhile, referred to the Jewish state as a “miraculous nation” and has rejected UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which in December harshly criticized Israel’s settlements. Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has stated that Israel’s building of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria is not illegal according to international law.
In coming days, as leaders from Israel, Australia and Britain commemorate the Battle of Beersheba and the Balfour Declaration, they will not just be celebrating events that took place a century ago; they will also be reaffirming the bonds that tie these countries together to this day.
New Zealand mounted soldiers took part in the battle of Beersheba, now part of Israel, as the allies advanced on the Turkish-held fortress town of Gaza.Australia, Israel to Tighten Military and Intelligence Ties
Students at Sir Douglas Bader Intermediate School in Mangere have planted 246 trees, one for each New Zealand soldier killed in what was then called Palestine during World War One.
They included 23-year-old trooper Robert Miller from Mangere who rode his horse into battle at Beersheba.
"He was injured and his hand was injured. And he went to the military hospital and that was heeled obviously and then he went back out and died 100 years ago today," said Sarah Simpson, Robert's great grand-niece.
Eight Kiwis died that day.
The students at Sir Douglas Bader Intermediate are learning about Robert's story and wanted to plant a special magnolia tree for him.
"Robert mounted his horse and bravely fell into formation with his fellow Anzacs. As they courageously galloped towards the town of Beersheva they were met with enemy fire," said Sam Sau, one of the school students at the planting ceremony.
Australia is seeking closer defense and military intelligence ties to Israel on the back of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s visit to the Jewish State.European Diplomats Attend Knesset Meeting on Rising Antisemitism, Including on US Campuses
Mr. Turnbull arrives in Israel late Sunday night for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Beersheba and is expected to announce Australia and Israel will conduct annual defence talks and boost defence industry co-operation.
The first Australian prime minister to visit Israel since fellow conservative John Howard in 2000, Mr. Turnbull told the Australian newspaper the visit would focus mainly on military ties but also address the broader issues of trade, investment, and technology.
Israel’s defence industry exports are worth about $US7 billion a year, with the US, India, South Korea and Australia key destinations.
“Our defence ties have become a vital part of the relationship between Australia and Israel. As a result of this visit, we aim to upgrade the co-operation on defence, national security, and the protection of crowded places,” he said. “Our nations can learn a great deal from each other in order to strengthen security and keep our citizens safe.”
Australia and Israel will also forge closer links on cyber-security, with Veterans Affairs Minister and the Minister Assisting the PM on Cyber Security, Dan Tehan, also on the visit, according to the newspaper.
Mr. Turnbull will pay his respects at the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem before attending the centenary anniversary of the famous charge of the Light Horse Brigade at the Battle of Beersheba.
European diplomats attended a discussion at the Israeli parliament on Monday addressing concerns about rising antisemitism worldwide — including on American college campuses.Stand With Us: Michael Dickson gives testimony to Knesset Committee on Antisemitism
Envoys from Germany, Austria, France, Russia, United Kingdom and the European Union heard testimony from a diverse set of speakers, ranging from Israeli government representatives to former American college students, who urged them to protect Jews in their countries from bigoted attacks.
Becky Sebo, a 2015 graduate of Ohio University (OU) who served as president of Bobcats for Israel during her senior year, said she was profoundly affected by her own encounter with the “antisemitic” boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign on campus.
Sebo — who now works with StandWithUs, a pro-Israel US-based education organization that helped arrange Monday’s meeting — was arrested after speaking out against boycotts of Israel at a 2014 OU student senate meeting. The student senate president, Meghan Marzec, drew controversy earlier in the year after pouring a bucket of fake blood on herself and encouraging peers to support boycotts of Israel.
“After experiencing firsthand how BDS and anti-Israel movements can divide a campus, I can confidingly tell you it’s an issue that needs to be addressed,” Sebo told diplomats and Israeli parliamentarians, led by Likud MK Avraham Neguise, head of the Knesset’s Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee.
“Anti-Israel activists hide behind human rights while spreading lies and propaganda about Israel,” she added. “They ignore serious humanitarian issues around the world, but make time to single out Jewish students over and over again.”
Stand With Us: Israeli MK to pro-Israel student who defied antisemitic haters: "You are our hero!"
A powerful testimony of the antisemitism and extremism Jewish students are facing on many college campuses before the Israeli Knesset (parliament) from Becky Sebo. When Becky, now a StandWithUs employee, shared her testimony of standing up to hate even in the face of legal persecution, MK Avraham Neguise responded, "You are our hero."
Israel’s judo warriors take the ‘gentle way’ in pursuit of athletic glory
Israel’s national judo team put on a tutorial in sportsmanship last week in Abu Dhabi.Pro-boycott Arab-American activist denied entry into Israel
Despite being snubbed by opponents and officials alike, the athletes won five medals and treated the tournament and their opponents with respect. Moshe Ponte, the president of the Israel Judo Association, said the team was guided by the Japanese meaning of the word “judo” itself — the “gentle way,” or using the strength of one’s opponents against them.
But if you don’t think that sounds like the Israeli way, you’re not alone.
“The medals are a finger in Abu Dhabi’s eye,” Israel’s Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev said Thursday, picking a decidedly un-judo-like metaphor after the first day of the three-day Abu Dhabi Grand Slam. Israel won, she said, even though their opponents tried to hide the Israelis “in the dark.”
Regev was referring to Abu Dhabi’s ban of Israeli symbols at the tournament. The Israeli flag did not appear during medal ceremonies, and the national anthem was not played for Israel’s gold medalist. Israel and the United Arab Emirates do not have diplomatic relations.
The news of Israelis racking up medals at the tournament — and videos either of their opponents scurrying away during the handshakes or of one Israeli winner plaintively singing the words of Israeli national anthem despite the ban — set off torrents of Israeli pride and indignation.
And in Israel, it set off a debate — should its athletes stay away from tournaments in regions where they are sure to be snubbed, or take part and try to shame (or even charm) their hosts into recognizing them?
Arab-American activist Raed Jarrar was denied entry into Israel on Monday under guidelines issued by Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan, meant to prevent the entry of foreign activists seeking to harm Israel.Duke University Press Under Fire Over Book Claiming Israel Has Policy of Maiming Palestinians to Dominate Them
Jarrar arrived in Israel along with a delegation from Interfaith Peace Builders, an organization known to promote boycotts against Israel. According to the organization, one of the aims of the trip was to "explore how Palestinian access to land and water is limited through illegal Israeli settlement infrastructure and Israeli military policy."
Jarrar currently serves as the Middle East and North Africa advocacy director at Amnesty International USA. He recently worked as a policy coordinator at the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group that works to delegitimize the State of Israel.
Erdan said that "whoever acts against the State of Israel must understand that the reality has changed. No sane country would allow entry to boycott activists who wish to harm and isolate it."
The review process at Duke University Press has come under question after the announcement of the forthcoming publication of a book that claims Israel has a policy of shooting Palestinians to maim them, as part of a program to dominate them.Brooklyn College SJP President Lists "Jews", "White People" as Top 10 Hates
In an interview with the Washington Free Beacon, Asaf Romirowsky—a Middle East historian, and executive director of the anti-academic boycott organization, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East—asked how a respected academic press came to publish Jasbir Puar's The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability.
Puar, a Rutgers University professor of women's and gender studies, argues in the book that the Israel Defense Force has "shown a demonstrable pattern over decades of sparing life, of shooting to maim rather than to kill," an "ostensibly humanitarian" policy that is actually part of Israel's project of "creating injury and maintaining Palestinian populations as perpetually debilitated, and yet alive, in order to control them."
"This is pseudo-scholarship, with no data to back up the fallacious theories," said Romirowsky. "On the other side, there is so much data to counter Puar's claims about Israeli policies. It's a compliment to call the book academic garbage—and now it gets the imprimatur of a university press, making it a legitimate secondary source that will be taught and cited."
"These are lies built on anti-Semitic tropes. The peer review process is set up so that a work with this many problems is not published," said Romirowsky, who has not published with Duke. "How does Duke University Press endorse this? I can't figure out what their end goal is here."
The Duke University Press review process is "single-blind," according to the online guidelines, meaning the readers know the identity of the author, but the author does not know the identity of the chosen peer reviewers.
Students for Justice in Palestine has often been accused of being a racist hate group. Its usual defense is that it's not anti-Semitic, it's just anti-Zionist. Except that its leaders have a history of spouting hate.IsraellyCool: Gaza Boat Convoy Twitter Account Makes Weinstein-Gate About The Jews
Brooklyn College has had major issues with anti-Semitism due to the activity of hate groups such as SJP. The David Horowitz Freedom Center listed Brooklyn College at the top of its list of pro-terror schools. In response, Brooklyn College claimed to stand against hate.
But as Canary Mission points out, hate heads the SJP.
Ayah Aly is the 2017 president of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). And she has top 10 things she hates.
“#top10thingsIhate school, socializing, white people, homework, ratchet bitches, history, liars, being fat, compliments, Jews.”
Also there are a lot of rants about white people. But Aly also mentions "ratchet b___s". Ratchet pretty much means 'ghetto'. Good odds are that she's referring to black women.
On July 24, 2014, Aly tweeted “Anyone supporting Israel is living in a constant state of delusion. Exterminate yourselves.”
Aly claimed, fraudulently, that the United States was behind al Qaeda’s deadly 9/11 suicide attack on Manhattan’s Twin Towers (9/11), tweeting: “hun, it was your beloved American government that was behind 9/11…”
A few months ago, I posted about Gaza Boat Convoy, a Twitter account whose name suggests anti-Zionists, but who tweet out some of the most vile antisemitism imaginable. At the time, they were calling for my arrest – because I expose vile antisemites like them.
You won’t be surprised to hear that I have not been arrested, nor have they stopped with the antisemitism. But now, in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, they have more material.
Less about solidarity with Gazans and more about disseminating hatred against Jews.
Incidentally, they have also retweeted someone we are familiar with, but who really does make it about the “Zionists” and not the “Jews”
Artists call on Nick Cave to cancel Tel Aviv concerts
A slew of artists have signed a letter protesting an upcoming concert in Tel Aviv by Australian singer songwriter Nick Cave.Gilad Atzmon reportedly blamed Grenfell Tower tragedy on “Jerusalemites” following “mitzvot” at event hosted by Lottery-funded charity
Cave is slated to appear on November 19 and 20 at Heichal Hamenora with his band The Bad Seeds.
On Monday, a list of artists, activists and academics, including Roger Waters, Thurston Moore and Ken Loach, signed a letter urging Cave to cancel the show because of Israel's "apartheid regime."
"Please don't go," they wrote in a letter posted on the Artists for Palestine website. "When international artists of your stature, despite the appeals of Palestinians, continue to turn up on Israeli stages, the government which promotes these crimes takes heart: whatever it does, it seems there will be no penalty."
Representatives for Cave declined to respond to a request for comment.
Cave has received online comments and tweets for months calling on him to cancel the show. But Monday's letter is the first such public declaration.
Waters, the former Pink Floyd frontman, has long been one of the most prominent voices calling for a cultural boycott of Israel. He and Loach, a British director, were those making the loudest calls for Radiohead to cancel its July concert in Tel Aviv. Needless to say, Radiohead did not cancel, and close to 50,000 people showed up to Hayarkon Park.
Notorious antisemite Gilad Atzmon, has reportedly claimed that the Grenfell Tower tragedy was the responsibility of “Jerusalemites” who were “following mitzvot” and blamed the Jews for the collapse of traditional left-wing politics. Mitzvot means commandments, and is a word normally used to describe the biblical rules that Jews obey.CAA demands that Nigel Farage apologise for his deplorable claim that a “Jewish lobby” in hock to Israel is subverting American politics
The alleged comments were made at a launch for his new book, Being in Time — A Post-Political Manifesto. Organised by Reading Friends of Palestine, the event was part of the Reading International Festival and took place on 22nd October at the Reading International Solidarity Centre.
Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote to the Reading International Solidarity Centre before the event to alert them that Gilad Atzmon is a notorious antisemite. We also lodged a formal complaint with the Charity Commission following the event.
According to a report in the JC, during the 90-minute speech, Mr Atzmon attempted to blame the Grenfell Tower tragedy “on people who could be characterised as those who followed ‘commandments’”. He reportedly discussed what he described as a difference between critical thinkers whom he labelled “Athenites” and the “Jerusalemites” who followed “mitzvot.”
He explained how it was related to the Grenfell Tower tragedy: “Very simple. People who think things through, who understand about responsibility and morality and ethics don’t clad buildings all over the country with flammable materials. But when it happens, it is ‘We were following regulations, we were following mitzvot.’” He reportedly continued: “Athens and Jerusalem is not Jews versus goyim [non-Jews] or Jews versus gentiles. Athens and Jerusalem is thinking things through as opposed to following regulations, mitzvot, commandments, laws. The Ten Commandments is Jerusalem. I don’t need you to tell me I should not kill. Athens is ethics, Jerusalem is anti-ethics.”
Nigel Farage has told LBC listeners that he believes that American Jews exert disproportionate political power and even appeared to agree with a claim that they have financial control over American politics.BBC News report on Gaza tunnel equivocal about its purpose
During his regular primetime slot on popular talk radio station LBC, Mr Farage, who is the former leader of the UK Independence Party, discussed with callers whether Russian influence had really aided the election of President Donald Trump. When a caller named only as Ahmed told Mr Farage that he thought that the pro-Israeli lobby in the United States was no less dangerous than alleged Russian hacking, Mr Farage appeared to agree, and started talking about Jews: “Well the Israeli lobby, you know, that’s a reasonable point Ahmed, because there are about six million Jewish people living in America, so as a percentage it’s quite small, but in terms of influence it’s quite big.”
When Ahmed said that Israel has both the Republicans and Democrats “in their pockets”, Mr Farage responded: “Well in terms of money and influence, yep, they are a very powerful lobby”.
Summarising the call, Mr Farage once again made clear that he believes that a “Jewish lobby” is at work on behalf of a foreign Government, repeating Ahmed’s claim: “Ahmed, new caller from Leyton, I thank you. He makes the point that there are other very powerful foreign lobbies in the United States of America, and the Jewish lobby, with its links with the Israeli Government is one of those strong voices.”
Does the BBC really believe that there is room for doubt about the purpose of a tunnel infiltrating Israeli territory constructed by an Iranian backed terrorist organisation? Apparently it does because the article went on to unquestioningly amplify that terror group’s propaganda.Teen indicted for anti-Semitic vandalism of NY Jewish cemetery
“An Islamic Jihad statement said the tunnels were “part of the policy of deterrence to defend the Palestinian people” and accused Israel of a “dangerous escalation”, according to AFP news agency.”
In addition, this report included a recycled paragraph on the topic of casualty figures during the summer 2014 conflict which the BBC attributes to “the UN”.
“The conflict left at least 2,251 Palestinians dead – including more than 1,462 civilians, according to the UN – and 11,231 injured. On the Israeli side, 67 soldiers and six civilians were killed, and up to 1,600 injured.”
In fact – as has been shown here before – the casualty figures and debatable civilian/combatant casualty ratios that the BBC elects to repeatedly amplify were supplied by Hamas and NGOs involved in ‘lawfare’ campaigning against Israel, funnelled through a partisan UN agency and subsequently promoted in a controversial and biased UNHRC report.
Since the end of the 2014 conflict the BBC has consistently under-reported the story of cross-border attack tunnels constructed by Gaza based terror groups. Audiences have heard very little about the diversion of construction materials and funds for that purpose and nothing at all about the Israeli civilians living adjacent to the border with the Gaza Strip who are under threat from such tunnels. This latest report obviously contributes little to rectifying that.
A teen was indicted for the anti-Semitic vandalism of a Jewish cemetery in New York state’s Orange County.German soccer fans create photo of Anne Frank in rival team’s jersey
The wall of the Beth Shalom Cemetery in the Town of Warwick, was spray-painted with anti-Semitic graffiti including swastikas, “Heil Hitler,” and Nazi SS symbols more than a year ago on October 9, 2016. Warwick is located about 90 minutes north of Manhattan.
On Monday, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office indicted Eric Carbonaro, 18, of Warwick, on charges of fifth-degree conspiracy as a hate crime and two counts of tampering with physical evidence, both felonies.
A conspiracy count in the indictment charges that Carbonaro conspired with others to commit third-degree criminal mischief as a hate crime, and also includes the evidence tampering charge.
The indictment states that Carbonaro deleted photos and other information about the vandal attack from the phones of two other people, according to the Times Herald-Record. This includes a meme that read “secretly spray paints Jewish cemetery and gets away with it,” according to the report, citing the indictment.
Stickers showing a doctored photo of Anne Frank wearing a German soccer team’s jersey appeared in Dusseldorf, Germany, a week after a similar incident in Rome.German Railway Company Names Train After Anne Frank
The stickers show the teenage Holocaust diarist in a Schalke team jersey.
It is believed that the stickers were created by fans of the Borussia Dortmund soccer team, which reportedly has a number of neo-Nazis as part of their hardcore fan base.
Photos of the stickers were first posted on the German blog Ruhr Barone.de.
German police are investigating the incident, according to reports. Anti-Semitism is a crime in German, as is Holocaust denial.
Last week a passage from “The Diary of Anne Frank” was read out prior to all soccer games – youth games, amateur and professional – throughout Italy after fans of the Lazio club posted the stickers around Rome’s Olympic Stadium showing Anne Frank wearing the shirt of the Roma team. The teams share the stadium. Roma is often associated with being left wing and Jewish.
Earlier this year, the German railway giant Deutsche Bahn announced a contest to name its new trains after famous people worthy of commemoration. Proposals streamed in, and a jury of experts selected 25 names. These include Ludwig van Beethoven, Marlene Dietrich, and Thomas Mann. They also include Anne Frank.New Zealand to receive Iron Dome software
The state-owned company is a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn, which transported millions of Jews to their deaths, so naming a train after a victim of the Nazis struck some as a very bad idea.
“Now DB is naming trains after victims of deportation by train,” tweeted Bild journalist Julian Reichelt, “starting with Anne Frank.”
Conservative lawmaker Iris Eberl called the decision “tasteless,” and many other on German social media channels agreed.
But the company defended its decision. Anne Frank, said a spokesperson, Antje Neubauer, was a symbol of “peaceful co-existence of different cultures, which is more important than ever in times such as this.”
Instead of shooting down Hamas rockets from Gaza, the Israeli software developer behind the Iron Dome missile defense system, mPrest, is teaming up with New Zealand’s largest power utility to prevent summertime blackouts and cut down on carbon emissions.The new folding car that shrinks to fit motorbike parking
By connecting multiple smart devices in an “Internet of Energy” platform, mPrest’s partnership with New Zealand’s Vector LTD indicates how many Israeli hi-tech firms are branching out and adapting defense-contracted technology to civilian use.
“It’s the most significant collaboration between Israel and New Zealand in years,” mPrest CEO Natan Barak said.
“The Iron Dome defense system has saved many lives. And now the renewable energy and smart energy management led by Vector will be life-saving.”
New Zealand’s Vector Ltd is also investing some $10 million in the Israeli start-up, in return for a minority stake in the firm, the two companies announced at a news conference at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in Jerusalem on Monday.
Founded in 2000, the Israeli start-up is increasingly applying the Iron Dome’s software, such as its command-control system, to international settings. The company touts the system’s flexibility and ability – it is vendor agnostic – to incorporate new inputs and commands and the software is already used across platforms in Israel, India, Brazil and the United States.
A new vision for urban transportation will be unveiled at the fifth annual International Fuel Choices and Smart Mobility Summit, October 31 to November 1 in Tel Aviv.Volkswagen, Hyundai to set up hubs in Israel to tap into smart car tech
The made-in-Israel City Transformer is an electric smart car whose wheelbase folds in at the push of a button to fit into a motorcycle parking space. City Transformer is touted as the world’s first vehicle of its kind.
CEO Asaf Formoza and Chief Innovation Officer Udi Meridor spoke to ISRAEL21c as the City Transformer concept car was being assembled in Petah Tikva earlier this month.
“We have collaborations and partnerships with huge companies, including Yamaha Motor Ventures; Altair, which makes simulation software for Ferrari, Fiat and other manufacturers to assure stable handling; and Rassini, a tier-one suspension company in Mexico that works with Mercedes, Maserati and other luxury brands,” said Formoza, who has a PhD in mechanical engineering from Ben-Gurion University.
After the wheelbase is folded in, the basic two-seat City Transformer shrinks from about 1.48 meters (under 5 feet) to just one meter (3.2 feet) in width. Its 2.35-meter (7.7-foot) length matches the size of a motorcycle parking spot.
Automotive giants Volkswagen (VW) and Hyundai Motor Company are planning to set up hubs in Israel to tap into the wealth of mobility and smart-car technologies the so-called Startup Nation is churning out.10 disruptive Israeli companies that can wean the world off fossil fuels
“We are very serious about creating a campus in Tel Aviv,” said Peter Harris, chief customer officer of Volkswagen Group, at a conference in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. “There is no doubt we need to be here.”
The VW center will be similar to the Future Centers the German car manufacturer has already set up in Berlin, California and Beijing to help the firm grow from a hardware company into a software and services firm, he said.
The Volkswagen Group has 39 Centers of Competence and IT labs located in Europe, North America and Asia.
Similarly, Youngcho Chi, chief innovation officer of Strategy and Technology at Hyundai Motors Group, said that the South Korean car manufacturer, among the five largest globally, is in the process of “setting up an innovation hub that is expected to be launched in the early part of next year.”
Everyone knows that fossil fuels are an unsustainable source of energy, dirtied by pollution and politics. But global attempts to find alternatives on a mass scale have had limited success.‘I’m Okay!’…Roger Waters reassures fans after Gaza Tunnel collapse (satire)
Could Israel be the country that finally puts fossil fuels to rest with the dinosaurs?
“When we talk about killing fossil fuels, Israel is not yet seen as tops in the world, as we are in water or cyber technologies. But in each related niche — solar energy, battery technologies and electric car components – there is tremendous respect for Israeli companies,” says clean-energy activist Yosef Abramowitz, aka “Kaptain Sunshine,” whose Energiya Global social development company is bringing solar power to Africa.
Two early solar-energy pioneers founded in Israel, BrightSource Energy and Ormat Technologies, are now headquartered in the United States with myriad international projects to their credit.
BrightSource built the world’s largest solar electricity generation installation, in California, using nanoparticle coatings developed at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Ormat built one of the world’s first solar-power fields, near the Dead Sea, and is a leading geothermal and recovered-energy generation producer.
Khan Yunis: Fans of (Rula Jebreal’s ex-boyfriend/the creepy weirdo stalking Bar Refaeli/that guy who used to play with Syd Barrett) famed singer-songwriter Roger Waters breathed a sigh of relief today after he released a tweet confirming that he is safe and sound following yesterday’s tragic tunnel collapse in Gaza. While the IDF’s destruction of the attack tunnel facilitated a speed-dating-event-with-72-virgins for several unfortunate terrorists, Mr. Waters wanted to let all of his fans know that he was OK, and “hadn’t been in that tunnel for weeks“. Mr. Waters, who has previously utilized the tunnels for their unique acoustics, spoke out forcefully in order to clear the air.
“I think it’s typical of the media, which is actually controlled by you-know-who, that they would put out unfounded rumors.” Mr. Waters explained. “The fact is, I am currently on tour and have not been in Gaza since I finished recording my latest album of oud, drums, and spoken word in late September.”
While Roger was safe and sound, yesterday’s events hit very close to home for him, as counted among the wounded was his friend and colleague The Hamas Bumblebee. Nachool the Bumblebee is a favorite on Gaza’s children’s shows, as he playfully sings songs and says some not-so-nice things about the Zionist Entity. With Nachool’s hospitalization for smoke inhalation and shock, Mr. Waters sadly announced a delay to their planned collaboration on a Hamas TV Television Special entitled “Hey Kids! Let’s brush our teeth every day, respect our teachers, and tell the Balfour Declaration that it can Go to Hell!“.
While Mr. Waters is now present and accounted for, the Daily Freier has still not received word from former President Jimmy Carter as to his current whereabouts.
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