Thursday, July 26, 2018
3 wounded, 1 critically, in stabbing attack in settlement; terrorist killed
A Palestinian terrorist stabbed three Israeli men after entering the West Bank settlement of Adam, northeast of Jerusalem, on Thursday night, the IDF said.Guardian op-ed by Daniel Barenboim distorts nation-state law and Israel’s founding principles
Magen David Adom medics treated one man who was critically injured, another who was in serious condition, and a third male victim who was lightly injured.
The terrorist was shot dead at the scene, the IDF said. According to reports, he was shot by a resident of Adam.
The critically and seriously wounded men were evacuated to the Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital in Jerusalem. The lightly wounded victim was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center, also in the capital.
A spokesman for the Binyamin Regional Council said the terrorist jumped over the settlement’s security fence near the entrance to the community.
Residents were ordered by local authorities to stay in their homes, lock their doors and shut their windows following the attack.
In short, the declaration enshrines equality under the law for all its inhabitants, whilst stressing, as does the new Jewish nation-state law, that national self-determination is reserved for Jews.Michael Oren: Israel’s ultimate battle: Right to exist
Barenboim then argues that this part of the law represents “apartheid” as it “confirms the Arab population as second-class citizens”, a claim completely at odds with the truth, as the law doesn’t supersede the Basic Law on “Human Dignity and Liberty” which establishes “the fundamental rights granted to all Israeli citizens, Jewish or not.”
Interestingly, as Shany Mor pointed out in his letter in the Guardian, in response to Barenboim’s op-ed, the Palestinian constitution declares that Palestine is Arab, that Islam is its official religion, that Arabic is the official language and “recognises no other people as having a linguistic or cultural or political claim” to the state.
Would Barenboim, who also has Palestinian citizenship, characterise Palestine as a racist “apartheid” state?
Moreover, as International Law expert Eugene Kontorovich explained, the law’s declaration of Israel as a uniquely Jewish state, and declaring Hebrew the official language whilst protecting Arabic’s “special” status, is not inconsistent with liberal democratic constitutions of Europe.
The Latvian Constitution, Kontorovich explains, opens by declaring the “unwavering will of the Latvian nation to have its own State and its inalienable right of self-determination in order to guarantee the existence and development of the Latvian nation, its language and culture throughout the centuries.” Latvia’s population, Kontorovich adds, is about 25% ethnically and linguistically Russian. And, the Slovak Constitution, he notes, opens with the words, “We the Slovak nation,” possess “the natural right of nations to self-determination.”
The Spanish constitution states clearly that “national sovereignty belongs to the Spanish people”, not Catalans, Galicians or Basques.
Would Barenboim, or the Guardian, ever publish an op-ed suggesting that Spain, Slovakia or Latvia have “racist” constitutions?
Of course, employing such double standards against the Jewish state, by holding it to standards not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation, can arguably be characterised as antisemitic based on the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism – a pattern of inconsistency in the expression of moral opprobrium which represents the most egregious element of the Guardian’s institutionally biased coverage of Israel.
Asked why his forces killed thousands of innocent Arab civilians, the military spokesman replied, “When you have an enemy that uses noncombatants as collateral damage, it is difficult to completely avoid any casualties.”
Sound familiar? This could easily be the IDF Spokesman justifying our actions against Hamas in Gaza. But, in fact, the statement was recently issued by a US Army colonel fighting Islamic State in Syria. The explanations are identical, but while America’s is accepted by the world, Israel’s is almost universally rejected. Worse, it is condemned as a cover-up for war crimes.
The difference underscores one of the greatest dangers – and, to date, the most glaring failure – of our Gaza policy. The IDF is certainly prepared for any contingency, including reconquering the Strip. But Israel is not poised to win the ultimate battle – for our right to self-defense and even our right to exist.
That is Hamas’s goal. Beyond killing Israelis, its rockets are designed to get Israel condemned for killing Palestinians. For the same reason, Hamas sends children to break through the border fence and even pays them for every gunshot wound. Indeed, the demonstrator is the new rocket — cheaper, unlikely to trigger an Israeli military response, and immensely damaging to our legitimacy.
That damage is cumulative. Today, after three wars in Gaza, the vast majority of nations vote in favor of UN resolutions accusing Israeli soldiers of indiscriminately shooting peaceful Palestinian protesters. Hamas is not even mentioned. By contrast, Israel’s fundamental right to defend itself against jihadist terrorists who are hiding behind human shields is dismissed out of hand.
The erosion of Israel’s narrative certainly reflects an anti-Israel bias and even antisemitism, but it also results from our unwillingness to mount a comprehensive diplomatic campaign to convey the facts of Gaza. The result is painfully apparent, and not only in the UN.
CUFI Summit Honors Haley, Slams Hamas and Palestinian Terror
In addition to showcasing a major pro-Israel constituency, Christians United for Israel (CUFI)’s 13th annual summit, which took place from July 23-24, emphasized the contrast between the current White House administration and previous ones, with Israel’s ambassador to the United States hailing the Trump administration as the best ally Israel has ever had.Mike Pence condemns anti-Jewish attacks in Europe
“Over the decades, Israel has been blessed with strong supporters in Congress on both sides of the aisle. We have been blessed with presidents, Democrat and Republican alike, who were steadfast friends of Israel,” Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer said in front of a packed, energetic, and flag-waving crowd in Washington on Monday. “We have been blessed with Cabinet secretaries and senior officials who were stalwart champions of the US-Israel alliance.”
“But there has never been a US administration more supportive of Israel than the Trump administration,” continued Dermer. “This is an administration that sees Israel as an ally and that treats Israel as an ally.”
The Iranian regional and nuclear threat, America’s transfer of its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and de-funding US assistance to the Palestinian Authority were the main issues addressed by Dermer and other speakers at the event, which was attended by approximately 5,000 people, according to CUFI co-executive director Shari Dollinger.
Other speakers on Monday included Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (live via satellite), retired British Col. Richard Kemp, and Nikki Haley.
US Vice President Mike Pence condemned on Thursday increasing anti-Semitic violence in Europe, lamenting the fact that French and German Jews have been advised not to publicly identify as Jewish.Chloe Valdary: My Whiteness Problem
Addressing a three-day conference on religious freedom at the State Department, Pence noted a string of vicious attacks against Jewish targets over the last several years, including the 2012 school shooting in Toulouse and the 2016 terrorist attack at a Paris kosher super market.
“The world has watched in horror as these attacks on Jewish people have taken place,” Pence said. “In France and Germany, things have gotten so bad that Jewish religious leaders have warned their followers not to wear kippahs in public for fear that they could be violently attacked, and in too many cases, that’s exactly what’s happened. ”
The Anti-Defamation League has tracked anti-Semitic incidents in the continent, and has said incidents are rising in several countries, including in the form of violent attacks, assaults and acts of vandalism.
France and Germany are the two European countries where these episodes have been most pervasive, according to the watchdog group.
Other countries that have seen an increase in anti-Semitic violence and rhetoric include Poland, Sweden, Hungary, and the United Kingdom.
Identity can be a fickle, fascinating thing. I learned that recently in two separate occasions while traversing the ins and outs of the Jewish community.One woman fighting anti-Semitism in Durham S.C.
The first occasion was when I found myself debating the appropriateness of BDS in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, at a place where many non-Jewish people of color, their self-proclaimed allies, and many people of Arab descent had decided to dedicate the day to what they called a teach-in for Palestine, complete with all the anti-Israel antics I’ve come to expect.
There was nothing particularly fascinating or new about the exchange. My debaters denied Jewish indigenousness, trivialized the long nightmare of persecution against Jews in European society, and then derided them for having white skin—as if paleness makes one unable to experience the horrors that all mankind are capable of enacting upon each other.
My arguments were simple: The folly of BDS lies not merely in the fact that many of its proponents are anti-Semites—even though they are—but in its proponents’ dismissal of and refusal to see the Israeli: his indigenousness and sacred ties to the land; his pain and trauma, a real product of the fact that in his people’ s sordid history, many have called for his murder; and his fear of not being able to stop those would-be murderers from doing so. BDS proponents lack the ability and bravery to confront that, wrestle with that, acknowledge the truth of that so that reconciliation between Palestinian and Israeli communities can come into fruition.
What was new about this experience however was that for some people in the room, only I, as a person of color, could make the argument that Jews with pale skin whose ancestors had been massacred in Europe should not be treated as unimportant, nor should their collective yearning to return to Eretz Yisrael be made light of. If, God forbid, you were an Ashkenazi Jew with a pro-Israel position and you wanted to speak for yourself, you would have been dismissed for “centering yourself” in the conversation or engaging in “whiteness,” a vague term meant to suggest that people with white skin are a pathology constantly committing the sins of dominating a space while oppressing others, and projecting a sinister and exploitative nebulous power everywhere on everyone. This contains a double irony: It was that suggestion that led to the death of millions of Jews in the Holocaust; then, the accusation wasn’t that whiteness was problematic but that Jewishness was and the people advancing the argument weren’t people of color but Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich.
The second irony is that if whiteness suggests domination while shutting others down, then it was many of the people who were the least white in the room exercising whiteness. They repeatedly sneered and hissed at Ashkenazim who had different opinions. But this idea of course is silly, since anyone can behave in an exploitative fashion toward his or her neighbor regardless of skin color. To do so is not “whiteness” but human.
Sloan Rachmuth is a petite mother of two young children and runs a Pilates Studio in Raleigh-Durham North Carolina. Sloan is also Jewish and has been growing more and more aware of attacks on Jews and Israel in her backyard that are being tied to other radical political causes.PMW: The Amazing Story of PMW’s Egyptian Translator
She was recently embroiled in litigation - defending her family against her children’s Jewish Day School that was teaching anti-Israel propaganda after the school was infiltrated by radicals seeking to promote the Boycott Israel movement (BDS).
Most notably, she sees an anti-Israel front group, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) - a group the Anti-Defamation League considers one of the most anti-Semitic groups in the US - teaming up with radicals from Black Lives Matter to control the political discourse in Durham. She watched as JVP took over the Durham City Council to promote boycotting Israel through city government policies - this after North Carolina passed a state-wide anti-boycott law.
Black Lives Matter has teamed up with the pro-Palestinian BDS movement in the U.S. to try to subvert and attack American police departments as ”human rights abusers.” Their goal is to generate attacks from the black community on police and to undermine homeland security in the U.S. - all the while attacking the Jewish state by suggesting it should be shunned.
Durham, North Carolina is now a rallying point for this latest putsch, and the election for sheriff is dominated by radicals seeking control of local policing after they managed to infiltrate operatives into local government through the city council. This is also being done into Jewish Federations and synagogues. Attacking ICE and immigration enforcement is also part of this plan that relies on a built-in audience of “victims” allegedly discriminated against due to their “race,” a tactic Black Lives Matter and radical anti-U.S. groups frequently use. Race baiting to promote their control is the method of choice.
PMW's Egyptian Translator Meira grew up in Alexandria not knowing she was a Jew. Only when extremist Muslims tore her family's house apart, screaming "Jews out," did her parents disclose the family secret.Melanie Phillips: The new antisemitism eats its own
Attending a Muslim Brotherhood school, Meira grew up believing that "Jews are the descendants of apes and pigs, and that they have horns, a tail, and a large nose." When she arrived in Israel as a teenager she looked to find where the Jews were hiding the horns and tails.
When Meira realized she herself was a Jew and had to flee to Israel, she was plunged into a severe identity crisis, and felt her whole life had been a lie.
"Until recently I was crying over terrorists"
"Maisa was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1989. A happy and contented girl who lived with her parents in a large and spacious estate in the city's Al-Maamoura neighborhood. She spent most of her days at the sea. Every evening she would walk with her friends on the 'C orniche' across from her home, the famous promenade of the ancient coastal city"
Throughout this whole uproar, you hear over and over again the perplexity of those who just don’t get it. Media interviewers are scratching their heads over the fact that an apparently trivial difference over a few words, a few missing examples of antisemitism in the Labour party code, has caused such uproar. But it’s not just a few missing words or a few missing examples. It’s the fact that the code makes the definition of antisemitism conditional in a way that confines it to bigotry only against Jewish people or institutions and does not include bigotry against Israel – and moreover subjects the suspected prejudice to a further test of unproveable “antisemitic intent”.Next Time Bernie Sanders Is Asked About Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, He Should Raise Its Anti-Semitism Problem
So under Labour’s code, it would seem that someone can defame Israel as a Nazi apartheid state whose soldiers are savage and wanton child-killers and yet not be guilty of antisemitism unless a) that person was proved to have antisemitic intent or b) used language defamatory of Jews as people.
Under the code, it seems, it would be antisemitic to blame all Jews for supporting the Nazi apartheid child-killing State of Israel, but not for the demonisation of Israel itself through such vile and deranged falsehoods.
It is this evil against Israel that forms the deep moral sickness in the Labour party and beyond; it is this evil sickness that the party just cannot understand; it is this evil sickness that now threatens to destroy it as a moral force altogether.
Just yesterday, the longtime treasurer of Corbyn’s own Labour constituency in Islington resigned, saying: “I am happy to support a party which is a force for good even if I have some differences, but I am no longer sure that the Labour Party is a force for good. … The Labour Party has become somewhere anti-Semites feel comfortable and where many Jews feel uncomfortable—I hope I can join again when it is the other way around.”Voice Of The Jewish News: United We Stand
What does any of this have to do with Bernie Sanders? Nothing and everything. Sanders is under no obligation, of course, to address the issue. It’s entirely possible that he might not even be aware of Labour’s anti-Semitism woes, given that they’ve been transpiring overseas. But as Sanders is one of the most prominent progressive and Jewish voices in global politics, his intervention could truly make a difference. A condemnation of the Labour leadership’s cavalier attitude toward anti-Semitism would be impossible to ignore in Britain, and it would also draw a line in American progressive circles as to what constitutes acceptable treatment of Jews.
It’s a message Sanders is uniquely qualified to give. After all, the senator is no stranger to anti-Semitism. He repeatedly encountered it himself on the campaign trail, whether from bigoted questioners at his events or mainstream radio hosts. In fact, Sanders was subjected to exactly the sort of anti-Semitic attack that Labour’s new rules claim is not, in fact, anti-Semitic. In June 2015, Sanders was interrogated by NPR’s Diane Rehm about his nonexistent Israeli citizenship. Rehm cited an internet list of American Jewish lawmakers who allegedly were secretly Israeli. (None of them are.) She later apologized. Such anti-Semitic dossiers have long circulated online in the far-right and far-left fever swamps, used to attack the loyalties of Jews by extremists on both sides. Most recently, they were deployed by leftist opponents of U.S. Rep. Jared Polis in his ultimately successful campaign for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Colorado.
Such slurs on Jewish loyalties date back to the Middle Ages and are deemed explicitly anti-Semitic under the IHRA definition. Under Labour’s neutered definition, however, they are not.
Today, Britain’s three leading Jewish newspapers – Jewish News, Jewish Chronicle and Jewish Telegraph – take the unprecedented step of speaking as one by publishing the same front page.
We do so because of the existential threat to Jewish life in this country that would be posed by a Jeremy Corbyn-led government. We do so because the party that was, until recently, the natural home for our community has seen its values and integrity eroded by Corbynite contempt for Jews and Israel.
The stain and shame of anti-Semitism has coursed through Her Majesty’s Opposition since Jeremy Corbyn became leader in 2015.
From Chakrabarti to Livingstone, there have been many alarming lows. Last week’s stubborn refusal to adopt the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism, provoking Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge to call her leader an anti-Semite to his face, was the most sinister yet.
Labour has diluted the IHRA definition, accepted in full by the government and more than 130 local councils, deleting and amending four key examples of anti-Semitism relating to Israel.
Under its adapted guidelines, a Labour Party member is free to claim Israel’s existence is a racist endeavour and compare Israeli policies to those of Nazi Germany, unless “intent” – whatever that means –
can be proved. “Dirty Jew” is wrong, “Zionist bitch” fair game? (h/t steelraptor from Saturn)
Corbyn Meets Qatari Emir Who Paid Millions to Hamas and Hezbollah
On Monday, the day he missed the PLP meeting on anti-Semitism, Jeremy Corbyn met the Emir of Qatar whose government has reportedly paid millions of dollars to Hamas and Hezbollah. The state-run Qatar News Agency reported that Jezza met Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at the Emir’s residence in London, posing for the photo above. There have been no reports of the meeting in the British media and it was not publicly disclosed anywhere by the Labour Party or the Leader’s Office.Billy Bragg Jews 'Have Work to Do' to Rebuild Trust With Labour
Theresa May met the Emir on Tuesday and offered her own fawning support for the Hamas-loving, Iran-backing, gay-persecuting, human rights-abusing despot, though at least Downing Street press released their meeting. You can see why Labour would not want to talk about it. Last week, the BBC published evidence which purported to verify claims that Qatar’s ruling family paid a billion dollar ransom to Hezbollah terrorists. Qatar has been closely aligned to Hamas in recent years. Earlier this year, the Emir telephoned Hamas leader Ismail Hanieyh and promised him $9 million in financial support. In 2014, he pledged a billion dollars in aid to Gaza. He has stoked controversy in the Gulf over his reportedly soft stance on Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah. Didn’t see Jezza on a Trump-style protest against the Emir’s visit…
Top Corbynista Billy Bragg has said British Jews “have work to do” to rebuild trust with the Labour Party, accusing Jews of “pouring petrol on the fire”, claiming “they make things difficult” and insisting “it takes two to tango”. The lefty relic sent a series of tweets late last night lambasting the joint front page from three Jewish newspapers, and British Jews generally. Bragg began by arguing Corbyn’s Labour isn’t as bad as Austria and accusing the Jewish newspapers of creating a “febrile atmosphere”.BBC News gives free rein to anti-Israel campaigner’s falsehoods
When challenged, Bragg accused the Jewish community of “pouring petrol on the fire” and claiming that Jews “keep upping the ante”.
Asked if he thinks British Jews “have work to do here”, Bragg replied: “I do yeah. Instead they make things difficult.”
He concluded by apportioning blame to British Jews for Labour’s anti-Semitism scandal, telling his followers “it takes two to tango”.
If Bragg is a Labour member surely he’s gotta go?
Wimborne Idrissi was also allowed to falsely claim without challenge from her BBC interviewer that: “Kenneth Stern, an American academic…who drafted the original document which has morphed into this IHRA thing” is a critic of it “because it represses freedom of speech”. She later added:Antisemitic incidents in UK at historic high, watchdog group warns
“Is it antisemitic to say Israel is a racist state? Maybe it is sometimes, but often it is not, and we have to be free to say that when it is not antisemitic.”
As Dave Rich points out, the IHRA definition does not “repress” freedom of speech at all.
“The IHRA definition does no such thing, stating plainly that “criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as anti-Semitic.” This leaves room for the full range of rational, evidence-based opposition to Israeli laws, policies and actions. It doesn’t allow for the kind of obsessive, irrational hatred that depicts Israel as a Nazi state of unparalleled cruelty that needs to be wiped off the map, or that sees “Zionist” conspiracies behind everything from 9/11 to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, and for good reason: because, as the IHRA definition recognises, antisemitism sometimes includes “the targeting of the State of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity.””
Predictably – at least to those familiar with her record – Wimborne Idrissi claimed that those campaigning against antisemitism in the Labour Party are ‘manipulating’ the issue of antisemitism and in fact have an ulterior motive.
“…the reason for the row is not genuine concern for real antisemitism.[…] But all Jeremy Corbyn can do to satisfy his critics, to be absolutely honest, Norman, would be to resign. And then it would all stop.”
“The trouble is nobody out there believes them. Your viewers are going to be thinking “what is all this about?” – are Jews really concerned to shut us up about Palestine and nothing else matters? It’s dangerous for us.”
British Jewry’s main watchdog on antisemitism recorded 727 hate incidents through June of 2018, the second-highest total on record its record for a six-moth period..Thousands Rally in South Africa’s Capital to Demand Full Resumption of Ties With Israel
The report by the Community Security Trust, or CST, for this year’s first six months constitutes an 8-percent drop from the corresponding period last year, CST said in the document published Thursday.
In the first half of 2017, CST recorded 786 incidents, constituting the highest total CST has ever recorded during any six months since the organization began monitoring incidents in 2984. During that entire year, a total of 1,414 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded — the highest tally so far.
British media have devoted unprecedented attention to antisemitism since 2015, following the election of Jeremy Corbyn to lead the Labour party. A hard left-wing politician, he has called Hezbollah and Hamas his friends and has defended an anti-Semitic mural in 2013, among other scandals involving his party’s policies on antisemitism.
The previous leader of the Board of Deputies of British Jews accused Corbyn of having “views that are anti-Semitic” and the current leader has said Corbyn’s party is trying to whitewash its antisemitism problem, for which the board holds Corbyn partly responsible. Corbyn has vowed to kick out any Labour member caught making anti-Semitic statements.
Thousands of South African supporters of Israel marched through the streets of Pretoria, the capital, on Wednesday, demanding the reinstatement of South Africa’s envoy to Israel, along with an end to the efforts of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to further downgrade diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.Jewish National Fund slated to end business with German bank enabling BDS
Rallying on Wednesday outside Union Buildings — the seat of the South African government — the predominantly Christian marchers, totaling around 5,000 in number, carried placards reading “SA Bless Israel” and “No Cutting Ties With Israel.” South Africa’s ambassador in Tel Aviv, Sisa Ngombane, was recalled to Pretoria on May 14 as a gesture of solidarity with the violent Palestinian demonstrations on the Israel-Gaza border.
Political party leaders at the rally included Mosiuoa Lekota of the Congress of the People (COPE) and Rev. Kenneth Meshoe of the African Democratic Christian Party (ADCP), South African news outlet IOL reported. A petition with 41,000 signatures urging the restoration of ties with Israel was presented to the South African presidency’s office.
Rev. Meshoe told the crowd that the ANC’s forthcoming bid in 2019 for the votes of South Africa’s professed Christians — more than 80 percent of the country’s population of 56 million — might be rebuffed if its political and diplomatic campaign against Israel continues.
At its special conference in December 2017 where members of Hamas were honored, the ANC voted to downgrade South Africa’s embassy in Israel to a “Liaison Office.” Over the last six months, the ruling party has stepped up its anti-Israel rhetoric amid the unrest on the Gaza border, further raising the profile of the country’s vocal boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.
The German branch of the Jewish National Fund told The Jerusalem Post that it will close its account with the Bank for Social Economy if the financial institution refuses to end its business with BDS-affiliated organizations.Muslim RA Says He Will ‘Physically Fight Zionists On Campus’
The latest damaging blow to the reputation of the Cologne-based bank comes on the heels of the pro-Israel fundraising organization Keren Hayesod-UIA ‘s (United Israel Appeal) announcement last month that it is winding down its business with the bank because it enables the allegedly antisemitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign targeting the Jewish state.
“We have called on the Bank für Sozialwirtschaft [Bank for Social Economy] to end its business relations with BDS-affiliated organizations. If the BfS does not act, we look forward to changing to another financial institution,” said Heike Hausweiler, a spokeswoman for Jaffa Flohr, the president of the Jewish National Fund in Germany, emailed the Post recently.
Other German NGOs have ended their business ties with the Bank for Social Economy because of its energetic support of BDS groups such as the extremist German-based BDS group Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East.
The LGBT organization Magnus Hirschfeld Foundation announced in April that it will sever business ties with the Bank for Social Economy due to the bank’s pro-BDS activity. Additional NGOs that conduct business with the bank told the Post they are monitoring the bank’s behavior in order to decide about continued business relations. Uwe Becker, the deputy mayor and city treasurer of Frankfurt, told the Post that the bank will be excluded from municipal business because it enables boycotts against the Jewish state.
The pro-BDS Jewish Voice in Germany praised its US-based sister organization Jewish Voice, which embraced the convicted Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist Rasmea Odeh at its spring 2017 conference in Chicago. The head of Jewish Voice said at the time that JVP was “honored to hear from her.”
Stanford University student Hamzeh Daoud, who’s going to be an RA in fall 2018, said he was going to “physically fight Zionists,” reported The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“I’m gonna physically fight Zionists on campus next year if someone comes at me with their ‘Israel is democracy bullshit’ :)” Hazmeh wrote Friday. “And after I abolish your ass i’ll go ahead and work every day for the rest of my life to abolish your petty ass ethnosupremacist settler-colonial state.”
Well, I’m not sure how saying “Israel is a democracy” is bullshit — I mean, what other country in the Middle East operates by the rule of law and an “innocent until proven guilty” principle? Just because a nation doesn’t roll over and let itself be sabotaged by terrorists doesn’t make it any less of a democracy.
Anyways, Hazmeh, who’s a member of Stanford’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, might’ve realized that his language could constitute a threat because, 4 hours later, he changed the term “physically fight Zionists” to “intellectually fight Zionists” in his post.
I’m really trying to understand: why do these statements come so often from one side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and members of this side who don’t even, themselves, live in the Middle East? Let me know below.
IsraellyCool: Pallywood Blood Libel: The Case of the Man With Down Syndrome
I have been all over it: the case of the palestinian man with Down Syndrome, who the palestinians and Israel haters claims we seriously assaulted. Much to my chagrin, hardly anyone else has dealt with it, certainly not the Israeli media.
I thought I would collect everything I know and create the following video to counter the pernicious lies being disseminated.
IsraellyCool: Doucheblogger?? Richard Silverstein Claims He Was Hoaxed By Sacha Baron Cohen
Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest series Who Is America has been making the news, given the consequences of his hoaxing a bunch of politicians.The New Yorker Puts Its Anti-Israel Bias on Display
But believe it or not, he also hoaxed the DouchebloggerTM himself!
(Note how Silverstein cannot even spell “Sacha” properly)
Thank goodness he did not show his bum – I am not sure any of us could recover from seeing that.
While I am impressed with Cohen’s ability to hoax, Silverstein is low hanging fruit. He has been hoaxed so many times, he’d be in the Guiness Book of Records if that was a category. Yours truly even hoaxed him big time.
For instance, the piece, along with a prominent photo caption and a widely shared tweet, falsely charged that in 2018 Israel rejected or failed to respond to more than half of the medical permit applications from Gaza. This misinformation, supplied by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI), is contradicted by monthly data from the World Health Organization and Israel, which demonstrates that Israel granted entry to 52.8% of applicants this year. (This figure takes into account permits approved in the same month in which they were submitted. The year’s total figure is higher.)A context-free ‘Today’ report from the BBC’s Paul Adams in Gaza
Furthermore, Margalit reported that Israel had turned down the permit application of a cancer patient named Amani Abu Taema four times since her visit to Israel in January. Yet an Israeli military spokesman told CAMERA that Abu Taema has not applied for another permit since January, and reported that the Palestinian Civil Affairs Committee likewise did not receive any additional requests from Abu Taema.
Margalit and her fact-checking colleagues also failed to verify the personal account of patient Dena Mekhael, the source of the false claim that there are no MRI machines in Gaza. Mekhael said that she applied for a permit in December, and that her case is still “under review,” an incomplete story that ostensibly gives weight to the false claim that Israel has rejected or failed to respond to “more than half” of all applicants.
Had Margalit bothered to cross-check the case with Israeli authorities, she would have learned that Israel said it granted Mekhael security clearance, and that the process is stalled on the Palestinian, not the Israeli side.
In addition, the article cites Efrat Mor, Margalit’s PHRI source, regarding the tragic story of a third unnamed patient. This account could not be checked, because Margalit did not include any identifying details. Given the disputed (at best) and false (at worst) circumstances regarding the other two cases, The New Yorker has an obligation to check this story as well.
It’s inexplicable that a publication that purports to take fact-checking so seriously — and subjects even whimsical cartoons to a rigorous verification process — failed to apply the most basic verification measures to a far weightier subject.
Firstly, the Kerem Shalom crossing was not “closed” – and therefore also not “reopened”. As the BBC News website reported on July 17th, restrictions were placed on the types of goods allowed through:International Legal Group Works to Remove Holocaust-Denial Content on Facebook
“No fuel will enter through Kerem Shalom until Sunday, but food and medicine deliveries will still be permitted.”
The restriction on fuel and gas imports was lifted at noon on July 24th after having been in force since July 17th: in other words for seven and a half days. Husain’s claim that fuel had entered the territory “for the first time in two weeks” is hence inaccurate. Listeners were not told that the restrictions were introduced not only after “incendiary kites were flown across the border” by parties Husain refrains from identifying but also after terror factions in the Gaza Strip had launched over 200 rockets and mortars at Israeli civilians two days beforehand.
Husain continued with an equally context-free portrayal of the violent rioting – pre-planned, financed and facilitated by Gaza terror factions – that has been taking place since the end of March:
Husain: “The UN says the lack of fuel has affected Gaza’s only power plant and hospitals, where hundreds of Palestinians are still being treated after being shot by Israeli soldiers during the protests of recent weeks.
Mishal Husain of course did not bother to inform listeners of the fact that Hamas has been exploiting diesel fuel imported via Egypt and intended for “Gaza’s only power plant” to boost its own coffers and for terror purposes.
The Lawfare Project filed take-down notices this week against Facebook posts that deny the Holocaust and contain antisemitic material, successfully leading to several posts being removed or blocked by Facebook in a number of countries.Romania minister apologizes for comparing burning of diseased pigs to Auschwitz
The actions by the international legal firm came following controversial comments last week by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who said he does not believe that Holocaust denial content should be removed.
“I don’t believe that our platform should take that down because I think there are things that different people get wrong. I don’t think that they’re intentionally getting it wrong,” he said.
Zuckerberg later clarified his statement, saying that he finds Holocaust denial “deeply offensive.”
Facebook had drawn criticism over the fact that it would allow Infowars—a site that traffics in conspiracy theories—to remain on the social media platform. Nevertheless, Facebook did say that it would begin to remove content that is flagged, escalated and confirmed by local partners as false and possibly contributing to violence.
A Romanian minister apologized Thursday for having compared the incineration of dead pigs infected with African swine fever to the Auschwitz concentration camp.Germany: Record numbers of Islamists, neo-Nazis
“I respect all the members of the Jewish community and clarify that I only wished to describe the difficult situation facing Romanian breeders due to the African swine fever,” Agriculture Minister Petre Daea said in a statement.
Daea said in a television interview Tuesday that in breeding grounds affected by the disease, “pigs are incinerated, it’s extraordinary work, it’s like Auschwitz.”
“I have never offended anyone. I just expressed my pain,” said the minister, whose statements often cause confusion.
The center-right opposition has called for Daea’s resignation, with former prime minister Dacian Ciolos saying it was “unacceptable to compare the incineration of pigs to a world tragedy.”
The National Council for Combating Discrimination said it would open an inquiry and demand explanations from Daea.
In a joint press conference with the president of Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maassen, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said that the number of Islamists considered dangerous to German society and liable to carry out acts of terror against civilians is at an all-time high.'Let Iraq have digitised copy of archive'
"Today there are 774 dangerous Islamists in Germany, more than ever," Seehofer told reporters. He added that "work must be done in an increased manner in order to return these people to the countries from which they came."
Apart from the dangerous Islamists, the number of neo-Nazis living in Germany is also significantly higher than in previous years. According to the data presented by Seehofer and Maassen, there are 6,000 people in Germany who openly identify themselves as neo-Nazis, while radical left-wing figures also rose by 4 percent to 29,500.
According to the report compiled by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the number of people living in Germany and recognized as believers in radical Muslim Salafism stands at 10,800, while the number of right-wing extremists considered dangerous is 24,000.
There is a good case for not sending the Iraqi-Jewish archive back to Iraq, writes Sheldon Kirchner in the Times of Israel. Now that the archive has been digitised, there is no reason why Iraq should not have a copy.Archaeologists find holiest part of Vilnius synagogue razed by Nazis, Soviets
A compelling argument for maintaining the status quo with respect to the present locale of the archive was made last year by Gina Waldman, the founder and president of Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa. As she put it, “There is no justification in sending (it) back to Iraq, a country that has virtually no Jews and no accessibility to Jewish scholars or the descendants of Iraqi Jews. The U.S. government must ensure that (it) is returned to its rightful owners, the exiled Iraqi Jewish community.”
That doesn’t mean that Iraq should be totally deprived of its cultural patrimony. Since the archive has been fully digitized, there is no reason why a copy of it should not be made available to Iraq. The Iraqi authorities could then display the most important pieces in a permanent exhibition, thereby enabling Iraqi Muslims and Christians to learn a valuable lesson in history.
With the flight of most of Iraq’s 120,000 Jews following the declaration of Israel’s statehood, a succession of governments demonized, marginalized and persecuted Jews, obliterating their stellar contributions to Iraqi society. This policy hardened after the 1963 Baathist coup, the 1967 Six Day War and the 1979 accession to power of Saddam Hussein.
For decades, little did the principal of a kindergarten in Lithuania’s capital realize that his office stood on top of a sacred part of Vilnius’ 17th century Jewish temple, once famous across Europe.IsraelDailyPicture: The Gates of Jerusalem Then and Now, Part II The Damascus Gate
An international team of archaeologists on Thursday announced the discovery of the most revered part of the Great Synagogue of Vilnius, Lithuania’s major Jewish shrine before it was destroyed by Nazi and Soviet regimes.
“We’ve found the bimah, the central prayer platform which was in Tuscan Baroque style. It was one of the central features of the synagogue,” Jon Seligman from Israel’s Antiquities Authority told AFP.
“It is really a very exciting development. When we talk about the presentation of the site to the public in the future, this will be one of the central features of the display,” he added.
The green and brown, brick and mortar bimah — a raised platform from which the Jewish holy book, the Torah, is read — was unearthed just beneath the principal’s office of a former school built in the 1950s by the Soviet regime.
The synagogue, dating from the 1630s, was the most important shrine for Lithuania’s once vibrant Jewish community.
The Jerusalem Old City's Damascus Gate, also known as the Nablus Gate (Sha'ar Schem), faces north toward those two cities. It is part of the wall of the Old City built in 1540 during the reign of the Ottoman ruler, Suleiman the Magnificent.
Archeologists found a Roman gate built by Hadrian in the second century, probably on the foundations of an even earlier gate. Heaps of ashes, believed to be remains of Jewish Temple sacrifices, were found a few hundred meters from the Gate and remained until the early 20th century when they were cleared for buildings.
The earliest photo of Damascus Gate dates back to 1844, taken by a French photographer, Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (1804 - 1898), believed to be a student of Louis Daguerre who is credited with inventing photography in 1839.
Photographs over the last 180 years indicate that the Damascus Gate was the primary entrance to the Old City. The gate is adjacent to the Old City's Muslim and Christian Quarters.
Photographs also show how Damascus Gate was a center for nationalist and military activity in the 20th century after World War I.
In 1938 local Arab terrorist gangs took control of the Old City. In October 1938, the British recaptured the city, described in the British Mandate report below:
During the month [October 1938], the arrival of strong military reinforcements brought about an improvement of the security position. The Old City of Jerusalem, which had become the rallying point of a large number of bandits and from which acts of violence, murder and intimidation were being organized and perpetrated freely and with impunity, was fully re-occupied by the troops on the 19th of the month. This was a successful, organized operation of considerable magnitude.
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