Thursday, July 12, 2018
Isi Leibler: Balancing dangers and opportunities
The speed of recent changes is breathtaking.JPost Editorial: The hypocrisy of the Socialist International
On the negative side, an escalation in anti-Semitism has reduced the quality of life for most Jews. Most European governments do not conceal their contempt for Israel, and their foreign policies and U.N. voting records display an absence of moral compass.
Nothing illustrates this better than their reaction to Israeli self-defense against incursions by Hamas terrorists and rocket attacks. To depict Israel's efforts to defend itself from violent mobs as a disproportionate response to "peaceful demonstrators" is obscene. No country would have shown as much restraint.
The behavior of the ailing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his acolytes has descended to levels of anti-Semitism that would have made the Nazis proud.
A rabid hatred for U.S. President Donald Trump has led many American Jews to distance themselves from Israel. Forty-two percent of them even opposed moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
On the broader Jewish political level, the Anti-Defamation League, the once respected apolitical body whose mandate was to combat anti-Semitism, today aggressively seeks to slander Trump and often criticizes Israel.
The Democratic Party has become radicalized with the emergence of anti-Israeli agitators. The primary election defeat of Rep. Joe Crowley, the Democratic caucus chairman and a firm supporter of Israel, was a significant blow. Jewish voters were not dissuaded from supporting his opponent, 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has made no secret of her hostility to Israel. She is affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America, which supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
The situation for Jews on college campuses has worsened. Many pro-BDS agitators are fringe Jews working with radical Arabs and far-left extremists.
But outside this gloom, there is also light.
How did we get here? For the better part of a century, Labor Zionism was a major ideology in the pre-state Zionist movement and in Israeli political life, and a major player in the Socialist International, where the Poalei Zion movement became a member in 1923. Shimon Peres was vice president and honorary president of the Socialist International, and Collette Avital, a former Labor MK, is currently a vice president.Ignoring Extradition Request, Russian President Putin Meets With Senior Iranian Envoy Wanted by Argentina for 1994 AMIA Bombing
But the progressive world has been hijacked by the idea of intersectionality, which creates a hierarchy of grievances in which Israel’s success is considered a demerit, and the Palestinians somehow are championed by all. The Socialist International reflects a trend seen in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party in the UK – with whom Israeli Labor has already cut ties – and a slow but steady rise in ultra-leftist candidates running with the Democrats in the US midterm elections this year.
Never mind that Labor and Meretz members advocate for progressive causes – whether for women, LGBT people or the Arab minority in Israel – while Fatah, the Palestinian party in the Socialist International, led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, is far from progressive on social issues, reeks with corruption and openly rewards terrorists who murder and maim Israeli civilians to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
It’s no wonder that Labor left an organization where it had no say and was doomed to lose, despite the party’s storied history in the Socialist International. This only begs the question of why Meretz chose to remain in this den of hypocrites.
Argentina’s government voiced its frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration on Thursday, after Moscow ignored a formal request from an Argentine judge to arrest a senior visiting Iranian official implicated in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires.
Putin met on Thursday with Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to the regime’s “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, greeting him warmly in front of reporters. Velayati was Iran’s foreign minister at the time of the AMIA atrocity on July 18, 1994, when 85 people died and hundreds more were wounded after a truck packed with explosives drove into the Jewish organization’s main building in the Argentine capital.
Velayati was also present at a meeting of top Iranian security officials in the city of Mashhad on August 14, 1993, where the decision to bomb the AMIA building is understood to have been made.
Velayati’s face-to-face with Putin on Thursday came just 36 hours after Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral requested his arrest by the Russian authorities. It was Judge Corral who issued international arrest warrants for Velayati and seven other Iranian and Lebanese operatives in 2006. Corral also tried unsuccessfully to secure Velayati’s arrest under the same warrant in 2016, when the Iranian visited Singapore and Malaysia.
Argentine news outlet Infobae.com reported that both Argentina’s foreign minister, Jorge Faurie, and its ambassador to Moscow, Ricardo Lagorio, had reached out personally to their Russian counterparts to enforce Corral’s arrest warrant.
Israeli professor attacked by Palestinian in Germany
A US-based Israeli professor of philosophy was assaulted Wednesday in Germany by a man of Palestinian origin, who knocked his skullcap off and shouted at him that there should be no Jews in Germany.French Jewish woman’s killer found unfit to stand trial in 2nd evaluation
The Israeli defended himself but was then set upon and hit in the face by police, who thought he was the instigator of the altercation. The local chief of police later apologized for the incident.
The 50-year-old professor from the University of Baltimore, who was not identified in reports, was visiting the city of Bonn as a guest lecturer. Together with a companion he took a walk in a local park, when he was confronted by a 20-year-old German described in local media as having “Palestinian roots.”
Although initially arrested after the incident, his assailant has since been released and is waiting for criminal proceedings on suspicion of incitement and assault.
According to local German media reports the assailant knocked the Israeli’s kippa off his head several times, hit him on the shoulder, and shoved him.
He also shouted, “No Jew in Germany” at the Israeli, who defended himself against the assault.
The suspect in the alleged murder of a Jewish physician in Paris was not responsible for his actions, a second psychiatric evaluation has determined, contradicting an earlier assessment.President Carter Originally Opposed Sadat's Visit to Israel
The president of the CRIF umbrella of French Jewish communities protested the court’s decision to revisit the issue of suitability to stand trial of Kobili Traore, which the court pursued on its own initiative and not at the request of his defense.
In January, Traore was determined to be fit to stand trial. He was placed in a psychiatric hospital for weeks after his arrest in the April 2017 killing of Sarah Halimi despite having no history of mental illness.
But a judge requested a second series of tests, which determined that the Malian immigrant was not able to stand trial, 20 Minutes reported Wednesday.
“We do not understand the determination and procrastination that consistently seeks to turn this killer into a demented person, when he is a murderer whose presumed detention doesn’t even hide his hateful anti-Semitism,” CRIF’s Francis Kalifat wrote.
A third evaluation will follow before the court finally reaches a decision.
Eizenstat was Carter’s advisor on domestic affairs and the president did have a formal liaison with the Jewish community (another Atlanta lawyer, Bob Lipshutz), but his real channel to the Israeli government (through Ambassador Simcha Dinitz) was Stuart Eizenstat. As a byproduct of that role, Eizenstat has provided us with a lengthy, detailed and probably best account to date of the long, difficult road from Carter’s initial response to Sadat’s visit to the signing of the Camp David Accords in September 1978 and the full fledged peace treaty inWhat Progressives Should Learn From the Left-Wing Anti-Semite Challenging California’s State Assembly Speaker
March 1979. To Carter’s credit, once he comprehended that he could not stand in the way of an Egyptian president and an Israeli leader who wanted to end their dispute he abandoned his original scheme and dedicated an enormous effort to make the Israeli Egyptian negotiation work. His host of qualities — tenacity, toughness and manipulative skills — were indispensable for the ultimate success of the Camp David summit.
Eizenstat offers us vivid portraits of the three main protagonists and the interplay between their personalities and styles. Carter got along well with the extroverted Sadat, a man of grand decisions and gestures and little patience for details and never took to Begin, a tough negotiator, pedantic and given to long lectures on legal issues. He describes the post signing days when trust broke down completely between the two. The principal issue was settlement freeze. Begin thought he agreed to three months, Carter insisted that he heard and wrote down five years. Eizenstat and others tried in vain to move him. He felt and kept the feeling that Begin misled him. To Eizenstat’s credit he does not side with his boss.
The Israeli and Israel focused reader will find in the book numerous other details and issues of great interest, from Carter’s Iranian debacle to his bizarre fascination with Bashar al-Assad. We are indebted to Stuart Eizenstat for this important, fascinating book. Carter’s presidency emerges from it in a better light but for us Israelis, Carter’s great contribution to our history is still marred by his current hostility.
It’s been a good election cycle for anti-Semites. From Illinois’ Arthur Jones to Wisconsin’s Paul Nehlen, the rise of neo-Nazis on the fringes of Republican politics has been ably chronicled by reporters like Jane Coaston at Vox and watchdog groups like the Anti-Defamation League. As if that was not enough, this week, another anti-Semite emerged in a prominent political race, this time across the aisle.Gerald M. Steinberg: Ireland’s anti-Israel Obsession
Maria Estrada is running as a progressive challenger to California State Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon in the state’s 63rd district. Endorsed by multiple local chapters of the Bernie Sanders-founded Our Revolution, she came in second in the June primary with 28 percent of the vote, assuring her a showdown with Rendon in the general. There’s just one small problem: Estrada is also an anti-Semite, and not a particularly subtle one.
On social media, she has declared that, “I, for one, enjoy listening to Farrakhan’s sermons.” Louis Farrakhan, for those in need of a refresher, is the anti-Semitic and homophobic cult leader who has blamed Jews for everything from 9/11 to the slave trade. (In fact, while this article was being written, Estrada exhorted her Twitter followers to “listen to Louis Farrakhan.”) This past May, Estrada also attacked Eric Bauman, the chairman of the California Democratic Party, telling him to “try keeping your party, your religion and your people in check.” (Bauman is an openly gay Orthodox Jew.) She repeatedly accused Israel of committing Palestinian “genocide,” a blood libel on a national scale given that the Palestinian Bureau of Central Statistics records a four-fold increase in the Palestinian population since Israel’s founding.
Estrada’s particular brand of anti-Jewish invective highlights a challenge for progressives on anti-Semitism. To their credit, leftists find it easy to recognize and call out anti-Jewish bigotry when it appears on the right as undisguised Nazism, which is more than can be said of the president. But many progressives have trouble identifying and expunging such hate when it comes from one of their own and masquerades as “criticism of Israel.”
As mentioned, the Irish government opposes the legislation because, as the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Coveney noted, it is legally problematic and appears to contravene EU laws prohibiting “unilateral restrictions on trade.” It may also breach US anti-boycott laws, as detailed inlaw Professor Orde F. Kittrie’s analysis, “This Irish Bill Could Create Huge Problems for U.S. Companies Like Apple”, and would have consequences for the many American companies with Irish subsidiaries.
In this context, that fact that Trócaire is funded in part by the Irish government is highly significant. The government is paying the group to lobby against itself and in favor of a law that it sees as harmful to Ireland.
In February, Senator Black and members of the Sinn Féin party traveled to the Middle East where they met with a small group of political NGOs including fringe Israeli group Breaking the Silence and the Palestinian group Al-Haq, a leader in BDS. Following the trip, Senator Black invited Al-Haq’s head, Shawan Jabarin, to address the Irish parliament. It is unlikely that the parliamentarians were told that Jabarin has been convicted of membership in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an EU-designated terrorist organization involved in suicide bombings, hijackings, and assassinations.
In June, parliamentarians from the Irish Fianna Fáil party participated in their own “Fact Finding Mission” to the region, where they too met with Al-Haq and Breaking the Silence. Upon the trip’s conclusion, Fianna Fáil announced their support for Senator Black’s boycott bill. Being anti-Israel in Ireland is increasingly a matter or political correctness across the different parties.
The impact of this political correctness and the damage that will result from vote on the legislation initiated by Black and Norris is not that Ireland will adopt a discriminatory economic boycott of Israel. Rather, as also noted by their Irish critics, in an already poisoned relationship which includes significant antisemitism, this campaign will add to the hatred, and contribute nothing to peace.
That section makes clear that they're not talking about international law, as they're prepared to call WSahara, NCyprus, Crimea etc "not occupied" just to pass this law. The definition of settler, prior, goes beyond any int'l law definition. They're making it up. https://t.co/MJmd3X8Kyd
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) July 12, 2018
Liberman wants Dublin embassy shut over Ireland’s anti-settlement legislation
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said Thursday that Israel should close its embassy in Dublin with Ireland, after the country’s senate passed a bill criminalizing the import of goods from Jewish settlements in the West Bank.Labour leadership to face MP rebellion on Monday over refusal to accept International Definition of Antisemitism
“There is no point in summoning the Irish ambassador for a reprimand. With Israel haters there is nothing to debate. Israel should immediately close the embassy in Dublin. We will not turn the other cheek to those who boycott us,” Liberman, a former foreign minister, tweeted.
Such a move would constitute a dramatic downgrading of ties, but is not the same as breaking off diplomatic relations.
The government in Dublin — known to be one of the most pro-Palestinian governments in Europe — opposed the bill, arguing that it is not legally entitled to curtail trade with Israeli companies based in the settlements.
Hours after the bill was passed on Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry summoned Irish ambassador to Israel Alison Kelly to reprimand her over the vote.
The Foreign Ministry on Thursday afternoon confirmed that the reprimand had taken place, but declined to say who in the ministry spoke to her or any other details.
The Labour Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) is due to face a rebellion from Labour MPs on Monday over its refusal to accept the International Definition of Antisemitism. Having previously indicated that the Party did accept the definition, the NEC changed its mind by adopting its own rewritten version of the definition with key provisions missing.UK Labour Jewish Affiliate Ready to Sue over Weak Anti-Semitism Definition
Now, Labour backbenchers led by Jewish Labour MPs Alex Sobel and Luciana Berger, will propose a motion demanding that the NEC adopts the International Definition of Antisemitism in full. It appears that they have the backing of a large number of backbench Labour MPs as well as key Labour figures, including Deputy Leader Tom Watson, Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer and former Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna.
The motion states that the Parliamentary Labour Party, consisting of all of Labour’s MPs adopts the International Definition in full “and believes this should be used to define, understand and act against antisemitism in the Labour Party.”
The NEC is understood to be meeting on Tuesday to discuss formally adopting its own definition of antisemitism instead of the International Definition of Antisemitism.
The UK Labour Party’s inability to engage with its own Jewish membership has again been thrown into the open as a party affiliate threatens to sue it over a new, softer definition of anti-Semitism.Is this the end of the line for Adnan Oktar and his friendships in Israel?
In an act of open rebellion, Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) chairs Ivor Caplin and Luciana Berger, MP Liverpool Wavertree, have written to members of Labour’s ruling national executive committee, accusing the general secretary, Jennie Formby, of misleading committee members.
The Guardian reports JLM members are outraged that the NEC apparently believed the Jewish activists had approved the Labour version of the anti-Semitism definition.
The new code was rejected as “toothless” by angry campaigners and community groups when it was first released last week and now more groups are saying the code is just not good enough.
They say the code claims it’s not anti-Semitic to compare Israel to Nazis, or smear the Jewish state as racist.
Istanbul police arrested Adnan Oktar on Wednesday morning in an operation that also targeted 235 people across Turkey. Oktar, who runs a TV channel called A9, is often referred to as a “controversial televangelist” in Turkey and “sex-cult leader” abroad.IsraellyCool: An Open Letter to BDS Movement From a Former Dancer
But A9’s reach and the influence of Oktar’s organization, including the hundreds of books and op-eds he has written over the years, stretch much further.
These include op-eds for numerous Israeli newspapers as well as meetings with Israeli religious figures and politicians over the years.
The current investigation in Turkey is being led partly by the Financial Crimes Department of the provincial police, but the allegations appear far larger. His arrest comes on the heels of the inauguration of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to a new term. Anadolu, a state news agency, says: “The gang has been accused of several crimes including establishing an organization with felony intent, child sexual abuse, sexual intercourse with a minor, kidnapping, retaining a minor, violating tax procedure and violating anti-terror law.”
The mention of the anti-terror law implies a much larger context to this operation. Anti-terror laws in Turkey have been used against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and more recently against members of the Gulen religious movement. Fethullah Gulen and his movement’s network of religious schools were once an important feature of Turkey’s growing religious movement and had influence in political circles.
Spend one day in a ballet studio. Just one day. If you survive, I swear, I’ll let you continue your boycott. But until then, you have no idea what it means to be an artist. I reject your attempt to boycott anyone who has trained since early childhood, gives up friendships, parties, summer breaks, who works hour-after-hour, even in sickness and pain!To pressure colleges into combating anti-Semitism, alumni become activists
I am a former ballet dancer who sweated throughout her childhood, teenage years and young adulthood. I am a former ballet dancer who understands the stress before each performance.
I know that you don’t care. Why would you? You have a political agenda to follow, and you pretend to do so in the name of justice and human rights while you overlook the injustice and violation of human rights caused to each of the dancers you are boycotting.
It was the second time I met you on the streets of New York City while you were calling for the boycott of one of my favorite groups, the Batsheva Dance Company. And I tell you something; I loved Batsheva even when I was a blind-sided Eastern European who only knew the stereotypes about Jews. I was dreaming of dancing with them regardless of my feelings about Jews or Israel. Why? Because art is something that comes from your soul, while what you are doing is oppressing your souls.
The last time we met, in Brooklyn, in 2017, you were more violent, and you rejected the idea to even talk with anyone who was not ready to chant with you.
This time one of you had the guts to talk to me.
She said I was naïve to think that art is not pure politics. She was somewhat correct. But now when even Disney movies are said to be exposing kids to sexual perversion (sic), you can find politics in every art form, even when there is none.
Vassar alum Mark Banschick was deeply troubled. It was 2014 and the American Studies Association had voted to boycott Israeli academics and academic institutions.Michael Lumish: This Week on Nothing Left
While Vassar’s president opposed the idea, 39 of the college’s professors openly supported the boycott. Wondering what had become of his alma mater, Banschick started digging. He didn’t like what he found.
There was the college-sponsored trip to Israel that toured the Jordan Valley and falsely claimed Israel was misappropriating the water, as well as the time students plastered posters in dorms and bathroom stalls depicting Palestinian victims of alleged IDF violence.
Recognizing that alumni could contribute more than dollars to former schools, Banschick and two fellow graduates founded what would become the non-profit Alums for Campus Fairness (ACF).
“We are all about mobilizing alumni who care about their schools,” Banschick said. “When they see their schools going off the rails they want to do something.”
“While we care about Israel, at its core ACF is about holding a mirror to college campuses and asking that they return to their essential mission: civility, a marketplace of ideas, and a rejection of anti-Semitism along with other forms of hate speech,” he said.
I am happy to see that Dr. Andrew Pessin is talking with Michael Burd and Alan Freedman over at Nothing Left.What is HonestReporting?
Some of you may recall that Pessin was the Connecticut College professor that found himself in trouble for the crime of comparing Hamas to "rabid dogs," or something quite along those lines, on social media.
I compared and contrasted his story to that of Rabab Abdulhadi at San Francisco State University, who openly despises "Zionists" and who gets paid good money from the people of California to do so, in a piece entitled, A Tale of Two Professors in the Age of Obama.
Here is this week's episode of Nothing Left ...
3 min Editorial: Communal orgs lack of recognition for AJA
9 min Bernie Finn, state Liberal MP for Western metropolitan region
39 min Dr David Adler, Aust Jewish Association
51 min Senator Fraser Anning, on his senate questions on PA funding
1 hr 34 min Prof Andrew Pessin, anti-Zionism on university campuses
1 hr 42 min Prager U clip on deliberately deceptive media in USA
Guardian revives debunked smear that Ethiopian Israelis were given contraception against their will
In a Guardian op-ed published today (“Labour’s antisemitism code is the gold standard for political parties”, July 12) British Labour Party official John Lansman defended his party against criticism by nearly every major UK Jewish group over their new policy on antisemitism, which departs significantly from the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism.TVNZ admits inaccuracy in reporting on Gaza riots
(You can see a short rebuttal of his risible claim that Labour’s policy is actually stronger than the IHRA Working Definition here.)
In an attempt to justify his party’s decision not to label it antisemitic to charge that the state of Israel is a racist endeavor, Landsman alleged that the state is in fact deeply racist, citing as evidence the following:
And ethnic minorities within Israel have been treated appallingly, such as the Sudanese and Eritrean refugees who have been detained and deported, and questions over the treatment of Ethiopian women, including allegations they were given birth control without their consent.
As we tweeted earlier, the report in early 2013 that Ethiopian women were, for racist reasons, given birth control by Israeli authorities without their consent (which was picked up by the Guardian and Independent) that he’s referring to was disproven years ago. In fact, a mere few months after the story broke, CAMERA prompted a correction to a key element of the original deeply flawed Haaretz story on the allegations.
That same year, UK Media Watch prompted a correction at the Independent to an op-ed by Matt Hill which took the charge even further in claiming that Israel engaged in the “forced sterilization” of Ethiopian women”.
New Zealand’s state-owned television network, TVNZ, reported on the Gaza riots in no fewer than three bulletins during their One News show in June. Following a complaint, TVNZ has admitted that they were inaccurate when reporting the number of casualties as “hundreds of people have been killed”, saying:BBC’s ‘Life in the Gaza Strip’ backgrounder not fit for purpose
“The Committee therefore finds that standard 9 [of inaccurate reporting] was breached in regard to the 8 and 9 June bulletins. 1 News apologises to you for this breach of standards and would like you to know that a note was sent to newsroom staff saying that the errors were unacceptable; and that special care was needed in reports such as these.” TVNZ
In fact, out of the tens of thousands of Gazans who were bussed to the border with Israel, the UN has reported 131 Palestinian deaths. And approximately 80% of the casualties have been identified as terrorists – consistent throughout the weeks of riots. On the bloodiest day, when 62 Palestinians were killed, Hamas admitted that at least 50 of those were terror operatives.
TVNZ One News exaggerated the number of casualties on the Palestinian side and they did not report the proportion of casualties known to be terrorists. Further, there was other context about the riots that was missing from news reports. However, TVNZ did not find a breach of the standards of balance or fairness.
When the BBC News website published its July 10th report concerning Israeli actions in light of three months of arson attacks from the Gaza Strip, it also offered readers some background reading.Kosher restaurant attacker in Amsterdam convicted, avoids more jail time
Titled “Israel-Palestinian conflict: Life in the Gaza Strip“, that backgrounder first appeared in November 2012, was revamped in July 2014 and has been amended on numerous occasions since then, most recently in May 2018.
In its second paragraph the backgrounder tells BBC audiences that:
“It [the Gaza Strip] is under the control of the Palestinian Authority, and between 2007 and 2014 was ruled by the militant Islamist group Hamas. They won Palestinian legislative elections in 2006 but then had a violent rift with the rival Fatah faction.”
Obviously those claims are not accurate: the PA does not exercise control over the territory and Hamas rule did not end in 2014.
Readers are then told that:
“When Hamas took over in Gaza, Israel swiftly imposed a blockade on the territory, restricting the movement of goods and people in and out. Egypt meanwhile blockaded Gaza’s southern border.”
No mention is made of the fact that the counter-terrorism measures imposed by Israel after Hamas’ violent coup in Gaza were a response to increased terror attacks against Israeli civilians.
A Syrian asylum seeker who smashed the widows of a kosher restaurant in Amsterdam was convicted Wednesday of vandalism but will not have to spend more time in jail.Holocaust-denying candidate says anti-Semitic robocalls not his
A criminal court in the Dutch capital gave Saleh Ali, who attacked the HaCarmel restaurant in December while waving a Palestinian flag, a four-month suspended sentence and said he must pay approximately $1,000 in damages — money Ali told the court he did not have. The court ruled that the 52 days he spent in jail following the incident was enough.
Ali, who attacked the restaurant a day after US President Donald Trump announced that the United States would move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, will get back the Palestinian flag that police took from him.
The offense for which Ali was convicted does not include the aggravated element of a hate crime, but the judge did reference it, saying the restaurant owners “had nothing to do with Trump’s decision.”
“Your action made a lot of people scared, including other Jewish business owners,” the judge said.
During an interview published earlier this week with Telegraaf, Ali said he did not regret his actions.
A congressional candidate from California whose campaign website features anti-Semitic posts said he did not authorize a robocall on behalf of his campaign about the 'Jewish takeover of America'.Israel’s Elbit unveils civilian UAV that can fly alongside commercial jets
John Fitzgerald, a Republican who is running in a Bay Area district without the support of his party, has posted pieces on his website in recent weeks including “Why Are Powerful Jews Pushing Mass-Immigration And Forced-Multiculturalism Throughout The U.S. And Europe?” as well as others that support Holocaust denial and claim that Jews played a prominent role in the slave trade.
The call, paid for by TheRoadtoPower.com, a White Nationalist organization, asked listeners to “End the Jewish takeover of America and restore our Democracy by voting for John Fitzgerald for U.S. Congress.”
The call, which was made on Tuesday, also talked about the “2 percent of Jews who have dominance over America” and blames the Jews for the 9/11 terrorist attack.
“’Road to Power’ is a despicable hate-filled person, dresses like a Nazi soldier, calls blacks ‘negroid ape creatures’ and openly hates Jews. I do not,” Fitzgerald wrote on his campaign website. “And even if I had the money to produce and send out thousands of robocalls, why would I have them sent out at 6.30am? These seem designed to deliberately alienate the public against me and associate me with actual hate. Personally I question his true motives and funding.”
The Israeli Elbit defense contractor on Thursday unveiled a new civilian version of its Hermes 900 drone that can be flown alongside manned airplanes, the company said.
The StarLiner, as the unmanned aerial vehicle is known, is meant to allow governments and security agencies to collect intelligence domestically, in areas where drones currently cannot fly.
The manufacturer, Elbit Systems Ltd., said the model was created in light of requests by countries around the world for drones that can help thwart domestic terror attacks, like those caused by the Islamic State terrorist group in recent years, and not just for missions abroad.
“This change led to an increase in demand for advanced, matured UAV systems with the ability to be integrated safely into civilian airspace, which can operate in that area with manned civilian airplanes, and can provide the necessary intelligence capabilities to carry out complicated internal security and border security missions,” the company said in a statement.
Most currently available UAVs lack the necessary sensors to operate in these areas without interfering with other aircraft. As a result, many countries have laws forbidding such drones from flying in civilian airspaces.
When the Hermes 900 was used to provide additional security during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, for instance, the rest of the airspace where it was operating had to be cleared of traffic.
Joint Statement of @NASA & @ILSpaceAgency, signed by agency directors @JimBridenstine & Avi Blasberger, reaffirming the strong mutual interest in strengthening cooperation between the US🇺🇸 and Israel🇮🇱 in #space exploration, research and space sciencehttps://t.co/zqczBuSpaF
— Israel Space Agency (ISA) (@ILSpaceAgency) July 12, 2018
Muslim superhero from Wahba Street
When Hussein Mansour opens his mouth about growing up in Egypt, Jew hatred, and Israel, I wish my father was still alive.Israeli prof's book to be adapted for screen
I met Hussein a decade after my dad died. My father would have loved Hussein as much as I do. I imagine the two of them laughing over silly Egyptian jokes in Arabic. And my dad, Moussa Wahba, would feel as validated as I do.
Both Hussein and my father were forced out of their native land for being what they were. My father a Jew had to go, Hussein a Zionist, had to go. There is no demarcation between Jew and Zionist in Islam.
Born and raised two generations after Nasser began expelling Egypt’s Jews in 1956, Hussein was told that the Jews “just left” somehow. My family was among the 80,000 Egyptian Jews expelled as “foreigners” with just one suitcase of clothing and a kick.
When Hussein speaks about how he came to be a Zionist, the validation restores something in me. For too long now, I have had to explain, over and over again, what it was like to grow up stateless, with parents, family on both sides who had to flee Arab lands because they were Jews.
Most Egyptians today have no idea that we Jews were once a vital part of Egypt.
Sapiens, a nonfiction work by Israeli Prof. Yuval Noah Harari, will be getting the Hollywood treatment.Getty Museum acquires 700-year-old illustrated Pentateuch
The book, subtitled "A Brief History of Humankind," was published in Hebrew in 2011 and then in English in 2014. On Wednesday, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that UK director Ridley Scott (Blade Runner, Gladiator) and the Oscar-winning British filmmaker Asif Kapadia (Senna, Amy) will be teaming up to adapt the book for the screen.
The format for the adaptation has yet to be determined, especially give the wide-ranging scope of the book, which traces human history from the Stone Age through the 21st century.
"We hope to mix science, fiction, history, drama and genius in order to bring to life the incredible journey of our species, that began as an insignificant animal and is now on the verge of becoming a god," wrote Harari, a professor of history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in a statement.
The professor, who lectures on world history and other topics at the university, shared the news on his Facebook page Thursday morning: "Excited to announce that Sapiens will be adapted for the screen by some of the best storytellers in the film industry!"
A seven-century-old illuminated Hebrew manuscript known as the Rothschild Pentateuch has been acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
Created by an unknown artist and dated 1296, the pages of the manuscript are filled with decorative motifs, hybrid animals, humanoid figures and micrography – virtuosic displays of tiny calligraphy in elaborate patterns and designs.
The colors and gold that adorn this work distinguish it from most medieval Hebrew book production, which followed a largely textual tradition.
The text contains features that indicate it may have been written in France for Jewish emigres who had been expelled from England in 1290. The illumination was likely completed in France or Germany.
The manuscript was eventually acquired by Baron Edmond de Rothschild at some point before 1920, and then given after World War II to a German Jewish family, who later settled in Israel.
One of the illuminations, added at a later date, features full human figures. In the second half of the fifteenth century one page was replaced with a new insertion, carefully replicating the text and commentaries. The added folio can be identified as the work of Joel ben Simeon, one of the most celebrated Jewish artists known from the period.
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