Sunday, February 04, 2018
JPost Editorial: South African stupidity
In February 2016, BDS South Africa praised a decision to cancel a water crisis conference that was scheduled to take place in Johannesburg.
BDS South Africa said at the time it was pleased “the rug has been pulled from the Israeli ambassador, who will not be able to exploit our very serious water crises for his own cheap publicity and whitewashing of his regime. Israel water technology is not unique or special; such technology is widely available through other more friendly countries.”
Two years later, South Africa is experiencing a major water crisis. Unless a last-minute solution is found, Cape Town will soon have the dubious honor of becoming one of the few – if not the first – developed cities in the world to run out of water.
On April 12, known as “Day Zero,” water reservoirs across the city are expected to hit 13.5% of capacity – at which point, according to Mayor Patricia de Lille, taps will be turned off and severe rationing will begin.
Once “Day Zero” hits, Cape Town’s 3.7 million residents will have to travel to one of 200 water collection points to collect their daily water rations: 25 liters per person.
If, two years ago, or even earlier, South Africa had put aside its self-defeating boycott of Israel, could it have avoided “Day Zero”? Perhaps. What is undeniable is that South Africa is in no position to refuse help from Israel, a world leader in desalination, water recycling, water preservation and irrigation.
Phyllis Chesler: Obama’s anti-Semitism/anti-Zionism reigned at the IRS from 2010- 2017.
The Z Street application was at first delayed, then frozen, because the IRS claimed as a defense, that Israel was viewed as a “terrorist entity,” and a country “with terrorism.”The Dems’ Farrakhan Problem
Many of us suspected that Obama’s administration had politicized Homeland Security, the DOJ, the FBI, and the American relationship to the United Nations in ways that favored Islamism, Islamic terrorism, Palestine, Iran, and that demonized Zionism and Israel’s attempts at self-defense.
Z STREET”s successful lawsuit exposes how the Obama administration, through its power to grant or withhold tax-exempt status to groups, politicized and corrupted a policy of even-handedness, transparency, and accountability at the IRS.
Like the Western media, professoriate, international organizations, and very much like an Islamic world view, the American IRS viewed Israel, especially Israelis who lived “across the Green Line—the nonborder that delineates pre-1967 Israel from the territories it acquired in the Six Day War” as related to “terrorism” or as “terrorists.”
According to Marcus, "Our own investigation disclosed that between 2009 and 2016, while Z STREET’s application was stalled, the IRS needed no special scrutiny to grant numerous applications for tax-exempt status that explicitly proclaimed donations would be spent in Gaza—a territory formally under the jurisdiction of Hamas, which the U.S. State Department designates as a terror organization."
According to Marcus, in a personal interview, the following is merely a sampling of not-for-profits, which she obtained via Guidestar; the IRS had okayed these “charities” during the period that Z STREET’s application remained pending.
If Republican lawmakers held strategy sessions with David Duke, the party would be held to account.
Hillary Clinton tried to make Louis Farrakhan an issue when she ran against Barack Obama in 2008. The Nation of Islam leader—infamous for calling Judaism a “gutter religion”—had praised the future president as “the hope of the entire world.” In a February debate, Mrs. Clinton demanded that Mr. Obama reject Mr. Farrakhan’s support, insisting: “There’s a difference between denouncing and rejecting.” Mr. Obama obliged and added: “There’s no formal offer of help from Minister Farrakhan that would involve me rejecting it.”
Three years earlier, Mr. Obama posed for a photo with Mr. Farrakhan at a Congressional Black Caucus gathering. The photographer, journalist Askia Muhammad, told the liberal site Talking Points Memo that a CBC staffer contacted him “sort of in a panic” about the photo. “I promised and made arrangements to give the picture to Leonard Farrakhan, ” Louis Farrakhan’s son-in-law and chief of staff. But he kept a copy, which he released last week.
Mrs. Clinton might have become president had the photo come out a decade earlier. It isn’t clear from the photo to what degree Mr. Obama was associated with Mr. Farrakhan. But the Congressional Black Caucus’s association is scandalous. Its members have met with Mr. Farrakhan on at least one other occasion.
Secret diaries of Arafat come to light, confirming PLO pact with Italians
The volumes confirm a long-rumored mutual non-aggression pact between authorities in Rome and the PLO, which led Italian authorities to allow terrorists behind the hijacking of the Italian liner Achille Lauro to escape in 1985.Erekat says US is pushing a Palestinian ‘coup,’ tells Nikki Haley to ‘shut up’
Suha Arafat, wife of PLO leader Yasser Arafat, greets Achille Lauro hijacking mastermind Abul Abbas, before the start of the first session of the Palestinian National Council in Gaza City, April 22, 1996. (AP/Adel Hana)
Following the hijacking, in which wheelchair-bound American Jewish passenger Leon Klinghoffer was killed, a standoff ensued between Italian and US authorities over attempts to have the attackers brought to justice.
According to the diaries, then foreign minister Giulio Andreotti allowed hijacking mastermind Muhammad Zaidan, who went by the nom de guerre Abul Abbas, to escape US extradition and flee from Rome to Yugoslavia.
Leon Klinghoffer, 1916-1985 (screen capture: Youtube)
This followed a deal between Palestinians and Italian authorities over a decade earlier by which Palestinians would not carry out on attacks in Italy and Palestinian terrorists from the PLO, PFLP and other factions could have free movement throughout the country.
“Italy is a Palestinian shore of the Mediterranean,” Arafat wrote.
Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat on Saturday accused the Trump administration of trying depose the Palestinian leadership in a “coup” and told the “impudent” US envoy to the United Nations Nikki Haley she should “shut up” with her criticism of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.Had the beating victim been Muslim and not Jewish...
Erekat, who has led the Palestinian peace negotiations and is secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, singled out Haley, who slammed Abbas for a recent speech that was full of anti-Semitic tropes.
Erekat said that Haley’s “impudence” has gone as far as calling for removing Abbas from power.
“She called for overthrowing the democratically elected Palestinian president,” Erekat complained in an interview with the Palestinian Al-Watan Voice news website.
“This is the president who led the peace process and promoted the principle of the two-state solution,” Erekat said, referring to Abbas. “Now this [US] ambassador is accusing him of lacking courage, and is calling for replacing him.”
Only the Palestinian people have that right, he said. “The Palestinian people are loyal to their martyrs, prisoners, wounded, struggles, steadfastness, and heroism. This is the reality. The Palestinians are the only ones who are entitled to hold their leaders accountable.”
What would have happened if a Muslim child had been beaten on a street?Palestinian-American brings #MeToo campaign to West Bank
What would have happened if a Muslim girl had been shot in the face with two schoolmates and her father, an imam?
What would have happened if a Muslim woman had been thrown out of the window?
What would have happened if a young Muslim who was selling mobile phones had been tortured and burned?
What would have happened if a mob had entered the homes of Muslims, had raped the women and stolen everything?
What would happen if 40,000 Muslims had escaped in fear?
What would have happened if four Muslims had been murdered in a halal shop?
What would happen if all the Muslim schools and mosques had to be protected by the army?
In France, radical Muslims killed a slew of people merely for publishing a cartoon about their Prophet. Can you imagine what would have happened if all the events listed above would have take place?
All this is happening in France right now, but the victims are all Jewish. Jewish boys beaten in the public square for wearing a kippah, Jewish schools protected as if they are bunkers, Jews murdered, one tenth of the French Jewish population who fled or moved, Jews burned to death....
A young Palestinian-American is the driving force behind a nascent #MeToo movement in this patriarchal corner of the world, selling T-shirts, hoodies and denim jackets with the slogan “Not Your Habibti (darling)” as a retort for catcalls and writing down women’s complaints from her perch in a West Bank square.Kerry's delusions
Yasmeen Mjalli wants to encourage Palestinian society to confront sexual harassment, a largely taboo subject.
“What I am doing is to start a conversation that people are really afraid to have,” said Mjalli as she put her merchandise on hangers in a clothing store.
The 21-year-old has faced backlash from conservatives and from some activists who say fighting Israel’s occupation is the priority for Palestinians.
Her parents, who grew up in a Palestinian farming town, immigrated to the United States and returned to the West Bank five years ago, weren’t pleased, either.
“To be able to have peace with them, I have to check my feminism at the door, which is very difficult because that’s really who I am,” said Mjalli, who moved to the West Bank last year, after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a degree in art history.
Mjalli and other activists say that starting a conversation about sexual harassment doesn’t mean copying the #MeToo movement in the United States, where victims are speaking out in growing numbers.
Cultural differences require a different approach. (h/t Saigon N)
To fight ISIS, the Egyptians needed the long and apparently covert arm of the Israeli Air Force which, incidentally, has not been active only in the south. Just last year, former Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel revealed that the air force had carried out over 100 missions in Syria as well, the majority of which were also kept out of the public eye.Russian delegation ‘sought to stop Israeli strikes in Syria, Lebanon’
Still, a word of caution is in order. If the reports about Israeli-Egyptian cooperation are accurate, the development would certainly be conducive toward bolstering the Egyptian security establishment's commitment to peace, and even its partnership with Israel. However, these reports have little hope of swaying public opinion in Egypt. It certainly doesn't have the power to advance the cold peace, currently characterized purely by shared interests and military cooperation, beyond the boundaries of the military institutions involved in it today.
For this reason, in particular, it is important to take note of another New York Times exposé, revealing that former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry proposed that within the framework of efforts to finalize an Israel-Palestinian peace deal, Cairo and Amman would assume security responsibility for Israel. This idea is impractical, even delusional. It demonstrates yet again a detachment from reality and a blind pursuit of wishful thinking. After all, Israeli-Egyptian cooperation, as it is portrayed in the New York Times article, rests on Israel's operational and intelligence gathering capabilities and on Egypt's desire, not to mention its need, to utilize them. The distance between this utilitarian relationship and Egypt and Jordan ever coming to Israel's defense, therefore, is still significant.
A delegation of senior Russian security officials visiting Israel this week reportedly sought to dissuade Jerusalem from striking Iranian and Hezbollah weapons facilities in Syria and Lebanon.Netanyahu blames Soros for Israel anti-deportation campaign
According to the London-based Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat, quoted by Israel’s Channel 10 news, the purpose of Wednesday’s visit, headed by Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, was Moscow’s desire to discourage Israeli intervention across the border, Channel 10 news reported.
The Russian delegation, which also included deputy ministers, army generals and intelligence officers, held talks with Israel’s National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat as well as heads of Israel’s National Security Council and top military, defense and intelligence officials.
Patrushev himself met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel has been negotiating with the United States and Russia, the main brokers in Syria, to keep Iran-backed Shiite militias and the Hezbollah terrorist group away from the border.
Netanyahu, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and others have all said that Israel’s policy is to target shipments of advanced weaponry, including accurate long-range missiles, that are heading to or in the possession of Hezbollah. Foreign media reports have attributed dozens of airstrikes on Iranian-linked targets in Syria to Israel.
Last week’s visit by the Russian officials came on the heels of Netanyahu’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss Iranian military entrenchment in the region.
Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros is behind the public campaign against the government's plan to deport Sudanese and Eritrean migrants to a third country in Africa, widely believed to be Rwanda, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.IsreallyCool: Fake News: This Was Not The Palestinian UN Delegation’s Response to Nikki Haley After All
Channel 10 reported that Netanyahu made the comments at the weekly meeting of the Likud ministers. According to the report, Netanyahu said former US president Barack Obama “deported two million infiltrators, and no one said anything.”
The comments came in reply to Science Minister Ofir Akunis, who claimed that foreign governments were behind the campaign to prevent the deportations.
Soros, who is Jewish, is a strident critic of Israel and has supported a number of NGOs with radical left-wing agendas, such as Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem, Yesh Din and al-Haq.
A few days ago, I posted what we were told was the response of the Palestinian representative to Nikki Haley announcing that US will be cutting aid to the palestinians. My souce? This viral tweet:Israeli court rules pregnant settler's murder was political, not personal
It turns out this was fake. The video is actually from 2013, and shows past Arab idol winner Mohammed Assaf at the UN for International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
The guy who tweeted the original has since blamed it on his brand of humor.
sraeli judges ruled on Sunday that a Jewish settler killed by a Palestinian with whom she was in a relationship was the victim of a political attack rather than a personal one.Cabinet votes to advance legalization of slain rabbi’s West Bank outpost
Michal Halimi, 29, who was two months pregnant at the time of her death, went missing last May. Her body was discovered outside Tel Aviv in August, and Israeli police arrested Mohammed Harouf, a Palestinian.
Harouf, 30, said in a televised statement to the court in August that he had targeted Halimi “to free prisoners”. His lawyer, Elad Rath, said that Harouf's plan had been to abduct Halimi and swap her for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, but that when she resisted he strangled and bludgeoned her to death.
Halimi was married and lived in the settlement of Adam in the occupied West Bank. Harouf, from Nablus, was working as a gardener in Holon, south of Tel Aviv, on the day of the murder.
Israeli prosecutors initially treated the case as non-political. Israeli media reprinted a photograph that had circulated on Facebook of Halimi and Harouf embracing and smiling.
But on Sunday, prosecutors agreed to a plea bargain under which Harouf will serve a life sentence for murder.
The cabinet on Sunday voted unanimously to begin the process of legalizing the Havat Gilad outpost less than a month after the murder of resident Raziel Shevach.Terrorist who murdered rabbi hailed as hero for evading Israel
The approved proposal declares the government’s intention to establish the hilltop community southeast of Nablus as a full-fledged settlement “on lands that are privately owned by Israelis or state lands.”
The proposal authorized Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman to instruct relevant government bodies to examine the legal aspects of recognizing Havat Gilad as an official settlement. It also tasked the Finance Ministry with auditing the financial costs of establishing a new settlement.
On January 9, Shevach was gunned down by Palestinian terrorists while on his way home to the northern West Bank outpost. Even before the burial of the 35-year-old rabbi and father of six, settler leaders and right-wing lawmakers began to call for the outpost to be legalized in response to the attack.
Addressing the cabinet at the start of its weekly meeting on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had just gotten off the phone with Shevach’s widow, Yael, whom he briefed on the government’s two-pronged response to her husband’s murder.
IDF troops and Shin Bet security agency officers on Saturday raided the Palestinian town of Burqin, west of Jenin, in a search for Ahmed Jarrar, the leader of the terrorist cell that murdered Rabbi Raziel Shevach near the Samaria outpost of Havat Gilad last month. One Palestinian suspected as an accomplice was arrested in the raid.Israel foils smuggling of explosive materials to Gaza in medical crates
Jarrar, a member of Hamas' Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, is the son of Hamas commander Nasser Jarrar, killed by Israeli forces in 2002, at the height of the Second Intifada.
The younger Jarrar was believed to have been killed in a Jan. 18 raid in Jenin, where two members of the cell were arrested and a third killed, but the defense establishment soon learned he managed to escape, becoming the subject of a massive IDF manhunt.
"Since the Jan. 9 shooting attack near Havat Gilad, IDF and Shin Bet forces have been investigating the incident and working to arrest the terrorists and their accomplices," the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said in a statement.
"Over the past month, several Palestinians have been arrested on suspicion of collaborating with the terrorists who carried out the attack. Yesterday [Saturday] IDF, Shin Bet and Border Police forces arrested several additional suspects. A riot erupted during the operation and the troops used crowd control measures to restore order. The investigation is ongoing."
Palestinian media reported that Israeli troops used live fire during the riot, during which dozens of Palestinians clashed with IDF and Border Police forces.
Israeli authorities at the Kerem Shalom Crossing foiled an attempt to smuggle into the Gaza Strip explosive components for long-range projectiles hidden inside packages of medical supplies, the Defense Ministry said in a statement Sunday morning.Sheikh on Temple Mount: Arab countries should fund UNRWA
The explosive material was intercepted by security authorities this past week after crates with containers of medical equipment destined for the Strip were removed and packages inside the containers were taken to a laboratory for additional testing.
The laboratory test was carried out using advanced equipment that checks a wide range of materials such as gases, liquids, powders, solids, metals and other materials.
The materials seized by authorities were then identified as a central component in the preparation of explosive charges and in the high-trajectory projectiles fired toward Israel from the Gaza Strip.
The laboratory that identified the materials removed in the medical shipment was set up several months ago at the Kerem Shalom crossing in order to locate contraband whose entry into the Strip is forbidden for fear of reaching terrorist groups like Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
The laboratory is a joint project of the Crossings Authority, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and the Israel Police’s crossing department, whose operational purpose is to identify the type of material within a short period of time.
Citing Islamic law, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, head of the Supreme Muslim Council in Jerusalem, rejected any possibility of Palestinian Arab concession on the so-called "right of return" of fourth generation Palestinian Arab "refugees."
In a sermon delivered at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on February 2, Sabri said that the “Palestinian refugees” had the right to return to their homes in “the 1948 territories,” according to the Palestinian Arab newspaper Felesteen.
"The refugee is the one who was expelled from his home and his land and the term refugee applies to the children and grandchildren, and that is the religious Islamic meaning [of the word refugee], because the rights of the refugee and his property exist and hold in future generations via inheritance according to Islamic law," Sabri said.
Sabri added that "there will be no relinquishing of the religious right" and that the “refugee problem” will exist until the the descendants return to the homes and lands from which their parents and grandparents were “expelled.”
UNRWA must exist until the “Palestinian refugees” and their descendants return to their homes, Sabri said, adding that the US decision to cut aid to the organization was expected in light of the existing “plot to eliminate the Palestinian problem.” As such, he said that Arab and Islamic countries should transfer financial aid to UNRWA.
Egyptian MP Nashwa Al-Dib: Abolish the "Shameful" Peace Accords; Zionists Have Been "Sucking the Blood of the Children" pic.twitter.com/foWjQ4So26
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 4, 2018
Syrian Rebels Down Russian Plane, Kill Pilot
Syrian rebels shot down a Russian warplane on Saturday and killed its pilot on the ground after he ejected from the plane, Russia’s defense ministry and Syrian rebels said.Turkey’s Jews are scared – but afraid to talk about it
The SU-25 came down in an area of northern Idlib province that has seen heavy air strikes and fighting on the ground between Syria’s government forces backed by Russia and Iran, and rebel groups opposed to President Bashar al-Assad.
Syrians opposed to Assad see Russia as an invading force they blame for the deaths of thousands of civilians since Moscow joined the war on the side of the government in 2015.
The US State Department said it had seen reports about the incident and allegations that the United States provided missiles to groups in Syria.
“The United States has never provided MANPAD missiles to any group in Syria, and we are deeply concerned that such weapons are being used,” said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert. “The solution to the violence is a return to the Geneva process as soon as possible and we call on Russia to live up to its commitments in that regards.”
The Russian plane was shot down over the town of Khan al-Subl near the city of Saraqeb, close to a major highway where the Syrian army and Iranian-backed militias are trying to advance, a rebel source said.
Although the Russian pilot escaped the crash, he was killed by rebels who had tried to capture him, the source said.
Movie producer Jozef Ercevik Amado sits at a bar in central Istanbul stressing how, as a Jewish Turk, he can live his daily life without any fear.New Jersey pension fund to divest from Danish bank over Israel
But the backlash to the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has made some in the Jewish community feel unsettled.
“There are all these Israeli consulate protests and that’s not something that I enjoy… it’s scary,” Amado says.
He says that some of his fellow citizens who talk to him believe he isn’t fully Turkish.
“I think the essence of the problem is with otherness or foreignness… There’s this hospitality in Turkey, incredible hospitality, but then when you hit the wall, for some reason, that you don’t belong in that conversation or there, then it’s something different.”
The Jewish minority – believed to number around 15,000 – has been under threat for decades, including deadly terrorist attacks targeting synagogues in Istanbul. But the Turkish government’s shift toward greater Muslim conservatism has put the minority under the spotlight. That shift has only strengthened since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took a strong stance against the US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
New Jersey's government worker pension fund will divest from a Danish bank that officials say is boycotting Israeli businesses.Union Baron Blames ‘Right Wing Media’ for Claims of Anti-Semitism, Misogyny in UK Labour Party
The State Legislature in 2016 passed and then-Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, signed a law requiring that the pension fund divest from any companies intentionally boycotting Israeli goods and services. NJ.com reports the State Association of Jewish Federations had argued last year that Danske Bank was refusing to do business with two Israeli defense companies.
Investment Division Director Chris McDonough said in December that Danske was intentionally working to limit commercial relations with Israel.
Danske spokesman Kenni Leth said the bank was not boycotting Israel or Israeli companies but had a list of companies it said "do not meet the requirements of responsible investment principles."
Claims of anti-Semitism and misogyny in the Labour party are “only a problem because the right wing media try to make it a problem,” according to the UK’s top trade union leader.IsraellyCool: Another BDS Group Gets Sloppy With the Jew Hatred
Len McCluskey of Unite was recorded delivering a speech at a Resolution Foundation event saying allegations of misogyny and anti-Semitism were simply intended to portray Labour as “a toxic party.”
The Daily Telegraph reports the key ally of Jeremy Corbyn said:
Let’s not kind of highlight too much division as though it’s a problem. It’s a problem because the right wing media try to make it a problem.
That’s why we’ve had all the stuff flowing around about misogyny and anti-Semitism in the Labour party to try and create an image that the Labour party is somehow a toxic party.
Following the event, Mr McCluskey later tweeted: “The media try to create more of a division than there is in our movement. @UKLabour the biggest party in Europe. Of course, there will be a range of views. But we deal with each other in a respectful manner and accept the majority view #newpolitics @resfoundation”
A Unite spokesman said Mr. McCluskey comments were a result of him responding to a question about division.
“He then went on to stress the need for people to treat one another in a respectful manner,” he said. “Len McCluskey and Unite have always been clear that anti-semitism is an evil which must be combatted wherever it emerges, including within the Labour Party.”
Accusations of anti-Semism against the Labour party are nothing new and go back to the most recent Labour party conference and before that.
Once upon a time there was a group called BDS Amsterdam, who used the image of Anne Frank as their Twitter profile image.Newsweek Makes Up News: Again
The group still seems to be around, but there is now also a group from the same area called BDS Nederland, who seem to want to outdo their predecessors when it comes to antisemitism and offensiveness.
I mean, sure, they can minimize the Holocaust with the best of them
and make Holocaust comparisons
but they’ll see BDS Amsterdam and raise them an antisemitic blood libel
But that’s not all. Like other antisemites before them, they like to cast aspersions on our geneology
There are few journalistic lapses more obvious and unprofessional than simply making up a statement by a public figure. Yet Newsweek’s serial offender Tom O’Connor has done exactly that: again.Economist falsely quotes Israeli historian using Nazi analogy over treatment of African migrants
In his Newsweek article entitled, “Middle East’s Next Oil War? Israel Threatens Lebanon Over Hezbollah and Natural Gas,” O’Connor fantasizes that at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) conference on January 29:
Israel has threatened to invade Lebanon amid a recent spat over natural resources and militant groups that, once again, raised tensions between the longtime foes.
He then claims that at the same conference Israel’s Minister of Defense, Avigdor Liberman:
…threatened to wage a full-scale war against Lebanon if Hezbollah launched any attacks against Israel.
This is about to be the simplest news critique I’ve ever written:
Liberman never said that. Period.
Bauer is a prolific Holocaust scholar, and his evocation of this Holocaust term in the context of Israeli policy towards migrants has an enormous impact – one which reinforces the desired Nazi analogy.Roshan Salih – Champion of Holocaust Deniers
However, it appears to be a false quote.
The origins are most likely a Haaretz op-ed about the migrant crisis penned by Bauer on Jan. 27. However, the words “modern concentration camps” do not appear in either the English or Hebrew version of the op-ed. At one point in the Hebrew op-ed, Bauer uses the word Ma’abarot, which refers to the Israeli absorption camps for Jewish refugees in the 1950s, in a context suggesting that such camps would be preferable to the detentions centers where migrants are currently being held. (In the English op-ed, editors translated Ma’abarot to “transit camp”.)
There is no Nazi analogy anywhere in Bauer’s op-ed.
We also contacted Mr. Bauer by email, to ask him if he’s ever used the term “modern concentration camps”, at any time, to characterize the detention of African migrants. Bauer promptly replied to our email and flatly denied ever using any version of the term.
We’ve contacted Economist editors asking for a correction.
The self-styled “journalist” Roshan Salih is troubled by Holocaust denial. Very troubled. You see, some people really don’t like it and speak up about it. Ashitha Nagesh, for example, writing in Metro.Dutch Jew-hunters who massively helped the Nazis
This is infuriating. Salih knows what is really going on:
Please take a read of this Israeli govt press release, oh sorry I mean article https://t.co/EAxbQbmZzY
— Roshan M Salih (@RmSalih) January 31, 2018
So now you know. Holocaust denial is not a horror. Those whose who loathe it are the real problem. They are “Zionist” agents.
Antisemites are disgusting. Roshan, though, is in a class of his own, the antisemites’ antisemite.
For his next trick, perhaps he could interview former KKK leader and racists’ racist David Duke, long a favourite of his employers, the poisonous Iranian propaganda channel RePress TV.
“When I stopped working in 2010, the National Archive proposed that I study the Central Archive of the Post-war Special Court. These contain the investigation and punishment files of the Dutch citizens who most strongly collaborated with German occupiers.Arizona ex-sheriff forced to clarify interview with anti-Semitic newspaper
“In 2000 this not very orderly archive became publicly accessible and thus available for research. My earlier research there led to my 2002 book, 'Kopgeld, Nederlandse premiejagers op zoek naar Joden. (Money per head, Dutch premium hunters searching for Jews)'. After reading the first individual files I had to go outside for some fresh air. These documents contain such horrible things that I asked myself ‘How is it possible that this is not generally known?’
Ad van Liempt, journalist and historian, was born in 1949 in Utrecht. He has written 21 books. Several of these concern the Second World War.
“Hanns Albin Rauter, an Austrian, was the highest SS officer in the Netherlands. He proposed offering premiums for arresting Jews in a cable to Heinrich Himmler, the SS’ highest commander. Giving such premiums to specific Jew-hunters, -- policemen and volunteering citizens -- has, as far as I know, not taken place in any other country. This partly explains the relatively high number of Jews arrested in the Netherlands.
Senate hopeful Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff pardoned by US President Donald Trump after his conviction in a racial-profiling case, said he did not realize he had given an interview to a publication that peddles anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.8 ways augmented and virtual reality are changing medicine
Arpaio’s statement posted on Twitter on Thursday was a virtual repeat of the statement he issued to the press in 2014, after speaking with the same publication.
The Washington Post uncovered five instances when Arpaio spoke to the publication, the American Free Press.
“It was brought to my attention I gave interview to publication that supports antisemitism; I was unaware and don’t support that view point,” Arpaio said Thursday.
Spine and heart surgeons will use augmented reality (AR) to simplify complex procedures. Autistic children will get relief from sensory overload with a calming virtual reality (VR) system.S&P affirms Israel A+ credit rating, gives economy positive outlook
These and other scenarios are made possible by Israeli innovations tapping into the tremendous potential of AR and VR for healing and wellbeing.
The methods are similar: AR superimposes static and moving images to enhance an actual environment, while VR immerses the viewer in a simulated three-dimensional environment.
“Israel is on the frontlines in some areas of this technology,” says Orit Elion, a professor of physical therapy at Israel’s Ariel University, which hosted a conference last year to strengthen cooperation between AR and VR developers and researchers for health applications.
Elion helped develop a VR-based tele-rehab service at the Gertner Institute of Chaim Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, now used across Israel to enable monitored home physical or occupational therapy sessions for patients living far from healthcare centers.
International financial services and credit rating agency Standard & Poor's reaffirmed on Friday Israel's global credit ratings and economic outlook, giving it an A+ score.
The agency further said that the continued reduction of the debt-to-gross domestic product ratio and decreased geopolitical risks may support a higher credit rating for Israel in the future. According to S&P economists, Israel's credit rating could have been higher, potentially reaching the AA level.
The highest credit rating S&P awards is AAA.
The Bank of Israel predicted the economy would grow by 3.4% this year and by 3.5% in 2019. S&P offered a more conservative assessment, saying the Israeli economy is likely to grow by 3.1% a year between 2018 and 2021 as a result of an increase in private consumption, corporate investments and the strong performance of the services sector, which enjoys monetary flexibility.
S&P's report noted that the growth forecast defeats Israel's own remarkable economic performance since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008.
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon welcomed the decision, saying, "Israel ended 2017 as one of the strongest and leading economies in the world with excellent macro data. Unemployment is at its lowest rate in 40 years, the debt-to-GDP ratio has dropped to an all-time low and the deficit is much lower than planned."
