Thursday, August 09, 2018
A homicidal Jew-hatred is going viral, again
The culture of suspicion against Jews circulates now in a country that had not participated in the Holocaust, , which did not have ghettos, but where today for a mixture of Thirdworldism, consistent Islamic electoral interests, anti-colonial madness out of maximum time and anti-Zionism practiced by the progressive elites, the English citizens of Jewish origin today no longer feel at ease.Watchdog Group Sues US Government to Obtain Records of BDS Groups Under Obama Administration
The previous day there was the indictment of an imam of Copenhagen who in a sermon invited the faithful to kill the Jews. The day before there was the reconstruction of the history of the Imam of the Great Mosque in Toulouse, also guilty of having invited the faithful to get rid of the Jews.
Previously, there was a pan-European flotilla of solidarity to Hamas and Gaza which stopped in many Italian ports. Also a law in the Senate of Ireland which sanctions with prison those who import post-1967 Israeli goods.
And then the launch of hundreds of missiles on the Israeli houses in the south. And then the threats of elimination of the Jewish people coming from the spiritual father of Iran, Ali Khamenei.
And we do not stop here, since the last few weeks have seen nothing short of attacks on Jews in the cities of Germany and France.
A conservative watchdog group has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the State Department, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense over Obama-era records pertaining to anti-Israel BDS groups.Israeli Air Force Gets First-Ever Female Squadron Commander
Judicial Watch filed the FOIA lawsuit in order to obtain records from 2015 of groups affiliated with BDS movement, which lobbied “the Obama administration to adopt policies to harm companies doing business with Israel,” the group said in a statement.
The lawsuit occurred “after all three agencies failed to respond to nearly identical April 23, 2018, FOIA requests,” the organization explained.
“Americans deserve to know if the Obama-era agenda of supporting anti-Israel radicals in subverting US law is ongoing,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “These entrenched bureaucrats of the Deep State clearly require lawsuits to compel observance of FOIA law.”
The lawsuit states, despite Obama signing the 2015 Trade Enforcement Act, “the Customs and Border Protection Bureau restated the West Bank Country of Origin Marking Requirement rules requiring labeling of goods as being from the ‘West Bank,’ despite the fact that it is not a sovereign country,” reported Judicial Watch.
The Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) applauded the move by Judicial Watch.
The Israeli Air Force has appointed the first female squadron commander in its 70-year history.
According to Israel’s Channel Two, the commander, who for security reasons is referred to only as “G.,” will be promoted to lieutenant colonel and put charge of the 122nd Squadron, known as “Nachshon.” The squadron is composed of planes specifically geared toward intelligence gathering.
The 34-year-old G. has been active in the Air Force since 2003, and has served in several command positions, including deputy commander of the “Nachshon” Squadron itself.
G. — currently a major — said that she was “happy with the appointment,” which she called “a great privilege alongside a great responsibility.”
“The real work is ahead of me,” she added. “I’m proud to serve in the Air Force.”
Son of Imam Linked to WTC Bombing Kept Children in 'Filthy' Compound, Allegedly Trained Them to Shoot Up Schools
Horrifying details emerged on Wednesday in the case of Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, the son of an imam linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, who was arrested in New Mexico on charges of keeping 11 starving children in a filthy compound. According to court documents filed by prosecutors, Wahhaj was training the children to carry out school shootings.
Prosecutors asked the judge to hold Wahhaj without bond for felony child abuse. He is also the subject of an extradition warrant from Georgia on charges of kidnapping his own son from the state in December. His son was not among the starving children rescued from the compound. There are fears the remains of an as-yet unidentified child found at the compound could be Wahhaj’s son.
Prosecutors said on Wednesday that Wahhaj and four accomplices possessed an AR-15 rifle and four pistols with ample ammunition and were training the children to commit school shootings.
Wahhaj’s father, who was born under the name Jeffrey Kearse but now also uses the name “Siraj Wahhaj,” is an imam in New York who was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He served as a character witness in the trial of mastermind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, also known as the “Blind Sheikh.”
The New York Post reported on Monday that the elder Wahhaj is currently the head of the Majid at-Taqwa mosque in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The other defendants in the compound case are the younger Siraj Wahhaj’s wife, his two sisters, and his brother-in-law.
Re the New Mexico jihadist's father:
— ConservativeLA (@ConservativeLA) August 8, 2018
"Siraj Wahhaj [Sr.], a former member of CAIR’s advisory board, remains one of the organization’s most frequent speakers. Wahhaj has preached that homosexuality" is punishable by death. https://t.co/shD23SCUTb
More: https://t.co/OgPrcTdOsf
Siraj Wahhaj Sr was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 93 World Trade Center bombings. He is also Linda Sarsour's mentor.https://t.co/l9jPr1V85E
— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) August 8, 2018
At last year's ISNA conf, Linda Sarsour began the speech thanking her “favorite person in this room … Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who has been a mentor, motivator, & encourager of mine.”
— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) August 8, 2018
Whole Wahhaj fam just went down for setting up a terror training camp in NMhttps://t.co/1OIRlaR36u
Taking money from others and promoting terrorism and antisemitism will do that to you. pic.twitter.com/viTWEHovZH
— The Mossad (@TheMossadIL) August 8, 2018
Palestinians celebrate relative's victory in U.S. Congressional race
Sharing smiles and hugs, the extended family of Rashida Tlaib, who is set to become the first Muslim woman to join the US Congress, celebrated her election victory in the courtyard of their West Bank house on Wednesday.Nick Cohen: The old left and the new anti-Semitism
The oldest of 14 children born to a family of Palestinian immigrants, Tlaib is a Detroit native. Her father worked at a Ford Motor Company plant in the city, home of the US car industry, and she became the first Muslim woman elected to the state legislature.
On Tuesday, she won her district's Democratic nomination for Michigan's 13th Congressional district, encompassing parts of Detroit and surrounding suburbs and home to one of the largest Muslim and Arab-American populations in the United States.
Since no one ran in the Republican primary, Tlaib is poised to win the seat.
Only the handful of Jews who have stuck with the far left believe that now. There are abundent examples of Labour members endorsing racism. The supernatural Jew of Nazi Europe has been reinvented by the left. The Jew is now ‘the Zionist’: the sinister force behind 9/11, the Iraq War, the banking crisis and attacks on the beloved leader.Britain’s Labor Party Is Now the Party of Anti-Semitism
This sounds like fascism. The convergence between the extremes should not hide the fact that the disgrace of the British Labour party flows from distinctly left-wing sources that threaten the German and wider European left.
The first is failure to come to terms with the crimes of communism. Corbyn was a regular writer for Britain’s communist newspaper, the Morning Star. His chief adviser, the upper-class socialist Seumas Milne, defended the old GDR. The racism on the British left, in its content and tone, dates back to Stalin’s almost forgotten ‘anti-Zionist campaigns,’ at the time of the Slansky trial and ‘doctors’ plot’. I have no doubt that if Corbyn and his allies were Germans, they would be in Die Linke.
There is a second factor. After the fall of communism, the dominant section of the British far left preferred to make common cause with radical Islam or the secular Middle Eastern dictatorships of Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi and Bashar al-Assad than to make their peace with liberal democracy. Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories did them no harm for decades. In Britain, as in Germany, Jews are a tiny minority. The far larger Muslim minority is a key part of Labour’s base now. Although it is a libel to say that all British Muslims are anti-Semitic, it is a statement of fact that the Islamist groups who back Corbyn are reactionary on all questions including Judaism. In any case, because Britain never experienced communism or fascism there is little understanding here about what anti-Semitism is and how dictatorial movements from the Tsarists to Islamic State have used it to attack liberal values.
Let me end with a warning. Labour under Corbyn has avoided the collapse in support that has afflicted social democratic parties across Europe. Corbyn’s acolytes are now telling German social democrats to follow his example. Let the shameful state of the once proudly anti-fascist Labour party stand as a warning to them. They may win more votes. But they will never produce a centre-left politics worth having.
Since the hard-left parliamentarian Jeremy Corbyn became its leader in 2015, the UK’s Labor party has seen near-continuous anti-Semitic outbursts by its members and revelations of Corbyn’s own association with vicious Israel-haters, coupled with several ostensible attempts to set things right which proved to be shams. Most recently, the party has disciplined two MPs for complaining about anti-Semitism. Tamara Berens concludes that this is far more than a passing problem:
Many focus on the question of whether Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite himself. He may or may not be. However, his deliberate actions to reject the Jewish community’s concerns, silence his moderate Labor detractors, and pedal anti-Zionism as central to his political image show that he is more than happy to utilize anti-Semitism for political purposes.
Anti-Zionism—and by extension, giving credence to anti-Semites—is fundamental to the worldview Corbyn has cultivated on his journey to political stardom. For most of his political career, Corbyn was a fringe socialist politician and supporter of the USSR, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, the Iranian ayatollahs, and the Venezuela of Nicolas Maduro [and Hugo Chavez]. After becoming Labor leader, Jeremy Corbyn toned down some of this support for radical anti-Western groups. Nonetheless, he has consistently maintained his support for anti-Zionist causes. What’s undoubtable is that throughout his career, his ultimate goal has remained the same: rejecting Western values and embracing the alliance between radical socialists and Islamists in a strategic bid to normalize and implement socialism in the UK.
Politically, Corbyn’s strategy is working: according to a recent YouGov poll, 61 percent of the party believes Corbyn is handling accusations of anti-Semitism well. And 80 percent of the party deems him a good leader overall. The events of the past few weeks indicate that the Labor leadership has been able to build on their apparent success to . . . distance themselves from the overwhelmingly Zionist British-Jewish community. This perhaps became most apparent last Friday, when Jeremy Corbyn published another article in the Guardian disregarding his part in normalizing anti-Semitism in the party. The piece came out at 5:00pm, when the majority of Jews in the country were busy preparing for the Sabbath.
Times 27 July 1994 pp.1-2
— Mr Corbyn in The Times (@TimesCorbyn) August 6, 2018
This thread focuses on the car bombing of the Israeli Embassy & Balfour House, North Finchley in 1994 and Mr Corbyn's support for those convicted of this terrorist outrage.
14 were injured in Kensington & 6 in North Finchley. pic.twitter.com/mRv1xn0wqE
Jeremy Corbyn and the 9/11 Conspiracy Theories of a “Very Honoured Citizen”
In one of his bids to escape the antisemitism crisis engulfing the Labour party, last Friday Jeremy Corbyn offered this line in The Guardian:UK Labour MP under fire for accusing Israel of ‘genocide’ in Gaza in 2012
Labour staff have seen examples of Holocaust denial, crude stereotypes of Jewish bankers, conspiracy theories blaming 9/11 on Israel, and even one individual who appeared to believe that Hitler had been misunderstood.
Mr Corbyn should know all about 9/11 conspiracy bunkum. He has been an enthusiastic champion of Raed Salah, one of the notable peddlers.
Raed Salah is the leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel. It is close to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Salah visited the UK in 2011, planning to speak alongside MPs as part of his tour, including Mr Corbyn.
A senior lawmaker in the British Labour party has come under fire after a 2012 video surfaced that saw him claiming Israel was attempting to commit “genocide” against the Palestinians.Extremist-Linked Assad Fan Lord Sheikh and His Zionist-Bashing Group
The opposition party, which has been mired in an ongoing anti-Semitism scandal, defended John McDonnell after the clip was published by the Daily Telegraph.
McDonnell is the UK’s shadow chancellor of the exchequer, having been appointed to the post in 2015 by Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has been repeatedly been accused of being soft on anti-Semitism among his party members.
In the video, taken in November 2012 during a round of violence between Israel and terror groups in the Gaza Strip known as Operation Pillar of Defense, McDonnell said: “Nobody can speak without expressing some form of solidarity with the people of Gaza … as the children are murdered and the bombs are flying from Israel.”
“I think it’s absolutely critical now that we use every platform we can to expose what’s going on, which is effectively an attempt at genocide against the Palestinians,” he charged at a far-left rally organized by the Unite the Resistance organization.
Sheikh is on the record publicly praising the controversial group the Al Muntada Trust. The group faced scrutiny after fears were raised that its funds had ended up with Boko Haram extremists. It has been linked to a series of anti-Semitic, homophobic and extremist preachers. In the video above, Lord Sheikh calls the group “marvellous”…Birthright co-founder: Don't criticize Israel on our nickel
Then there is Lord Sheikh’s praise for the East London Mosque. Sheikh said:
“I would certainly commend the Mosque and Centre: not only do you provide a place of worship, but you provide a holistic service and more importantly the empowerment for women.”
Once again, the East London Mosque has well-known and established links to a series of misogynistic and homophobic speakers.
It gets worse. Lord Sheikh has links to the hugely controversial Interal charity, which was investigated by the Charity Commission over its links to Hamas.
Birthright Israel co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Charles Bronfman said on Wednesday that young Jews are free to criticize Israel, but not while enjoying a free trip, JTA reported.Another Jump the Shark Moment from JVP
“If people want to call Israel names and say bad things about the country, they certainly have the right to free speech. But they don’t have the right to do it on our nickel,” he was quoted as having told Haaretz in an interview.
His comments came after at least two groups of American Jews visiting Israel on the 10-day trip left the tour to join leftists groups on visits to Palestinian Arabs. The walk-offs reportedly were encouraged by the leftist American-Jewish group IfNotNow.
The young Jews who walked off the trip and some others who remain on them are critical of what they say is Birthright’s failure to deal with Israel’s alleged “occupation” of Judea and Samaria. Some have complained that maps handed out to participants do not draw a proper distinction between Israel and Judea and Samaria.
Bronfman said in his interview with Haaretz that participants on Birthright can extend their trip and join any kind of group they want or travel on their own to areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
“If they want to go to the West Bank or Gaza, they are certainly free to go,” he was quoted as having told Haaretz.
“What is not fair is making a big tzimmes while the trip is on. Frankly, I just don’t think that is fair to their fellow participants,” added Bronfman.
The latest email from Jewish Voice for Peace's Deputy Directory Stefanie Fox may be a jump the shark moment for the anti-Israel group. The subject line reads "Why is the ADL training ICE in Israel?" Maybe Stefanie is secretly hoping you don't bother to read the rest of her offering. (Spoiler alert: they aren't)American Association of University Professors: Don’t boycott the anti-Israel academic boycotters
Stephanie claims ICE has been learning techniques and tools from the Israeli military. She doesn't care if Peter Edge was in Israel studying cyber-security or attempting to learn from Israel's remarkable sucess at curtailing human trafficking. If it involves Israel, it must be made to be nefarious. Stefanie Fox spews typical JVP vitriole: "The real-world results of these trips have been Israeli & US officials sharing “worst practices” -- deportation and detention, shoot-to-kill policies, massive spying and surveillance -- that have become the go-to policies of agencies like ICE."
Why the hyperbole? Because 3 years ago, during the Obama administration the Deputy Associate Director of Homeland Security Investigations, one man, Peter Edge joined a delegation to Israel sponsored by the ADL.
But if you uphold the right to boycott, you necessarily need to uphold the right to counter-boycott.Legal action taken against first BDS motion by Latin American municipality
The problem with this is that AAUP upholds the right to boycott, but only on one side. Substantively it opposes both the boycott and counter-boycott, but procedurally it upholds only the right of the boycotters.
AAUP also sent a letter to Israel regarding Israel’s denial of entry to Columbia Law Professor Katherine Franke, an academic boycott supporter.
Additionally, AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure sent a letter to the Israeli government in regard to the interrogation, subsequent expulsion, and apparent banning from Israel of Columbia Law School Professor Katherine Franke over her supporter of the “Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions” (BDS) movement in April. The letter urges the government of Israel to “reconsider your immigration officer’s decision and to revoke any further ban on Professor Franke’s entry for purposes of collaborative academic and scholarly work in Israel.”
Again, AAUP upholds Professor Franke’s right to boycott Israel and Israelis, but does not uphold the reverse. It does not matter that it is the Israeli government boycotting Professor Franke, since the BDS movement regularly seeks to impose government boycotts of Israel. So governmental power is used by both sides.
By turning academia into war by other means, the anti-Israel academic boycotters invited relatiatory boycotts. By affirming the rights of the boycotters to boycott Israel, but rejecting the right of Israel and supporters of Israel to counter-boycott, AAUP is not consistent or principled.
An organization of Chilean-Israelis has filed a legal action against the municipal council of the Chilean city of Valdivia and its mayor, which recently approved the first municipal BDS motion in Latin America. BDS refers to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement targeting Israel.Anti-Semitism Soars on U.S. College Campuses
The Chilean Community of Israel (CCHIL) organization sent a letter on July 30 to the Chilean state comptroller arguing that the motion contravenes Chilean law, that a municipal council has no jurisdiction to take such actions and that the mayor has overstepped his legal authority by advancing and signing the motion.
In Spain, dozens of municipal authorities have adopted BDS motions against Israel prompted by the pro-Palestinian advocacy of the left-wing populist Podemos Party.
Anti-BDS activists are now concerned that this phenomenon could spread to Latin America, and the legal motion to the Chilean state comptroller is an effort to try and stop it in its tracks.
The ACOM organization in Spain has successfully sued 33 local municipal authorities out of at least 100 that approved BDS motions. It is hoped that the widespread adoption of such measures can be avoided in Chile and the broader region.
Indeed, the Valdivia municipal decree itself, passed in June, references the BDS motions in Spanish cities, saying that its own measure was following in those footsteps.
Anti-Semitic incidents on U.S. college campuses have continued to grow in 2018, with at least 384 recorded incidents in the first half of this year, according to a new report showing the number of genocidal expressions towards Jewish hit new highs on campuses across the United States.Christian Science Monitor Highlights Benefits of Jewish Sovereignty
A new report by released Wednesday by pro-Israel organization the AMCHA Initiative, a group that tracks anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activity on college campuses, shows that much of the anti-Semitism on U.S. campuses is the result of activity by anti-Israel activists who promote imagery such as swastikas and tropes calling for the destruction of the Jewish people, according to the report.
Genocidal expression, such as images and language promoting the killing of Jews and destruction of Israel, "rose dramatically" over the past years, with at least 75 percent of such incidents "involving classic anti-Semitism" and "genocidal expression," according to the report. The number of such incidents appear to have dropped slightly from 2017 to the first part of 2018, the report notes.
Most notably, according to the report, "Israel-related incidents were significantly more likely to contribute to a hostile campus," the report found.
The AMCHA report puts figures to a range of anecdotal and reported conflicts on college campuses across the United States, where anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activity continues to flourish. Pro-Palestinian campus activists continue to aggressively silence those in the Jewish community and foster an unsafe environment for many Jewish students.
One underlying message that modern mass media offers about Israel is that Jewish power and sovereignty in the land of Israel is a threat or obstacle to the welfare of people living in the Middle East. This dishonest narrative, which fits the agenda of authoritarian regimes and de-stabilizing political movements that use anti-Zionism as a unifying political agenda, infects much, if not most of the media coverage of the Jewish state. This “blame-Israel” narrative is so ubiquitous that it comes as a shock when a news outlet gets it right and portrays Israel as a force for good in the Middle East. But it does happen.BBC double standards in reporting social media incitement evident again
It happened in an article published on July 11, 2018 in the online edition of The Christian Science Monitor and reprised in the July 30, 2018 issue of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly.
The article, titled “Syrian war comes to Israel’s doorstep, brings swirl of changing attitudes,” was written by Dina Kraft. In the article, Kraft recounts how 10,000 people fleeing from Syrian Civil War have come to rely on Israel for their welfare and safety. They have gathered near Syria’s border with Israel because of the protection the Jewish state affords them under “Operation Good Neighbor.” The program provides food, fuel, medical supplies and in some instances medical treatment to people living in villages near Israel. As a result of the program, “[s]ome 5,000 Syrians have been treated in Israeli hospitals,” Kraft reported.
These acts of kindness have changed how many Syrians view the Jewish state, the article indicates.
In April of this year the BBC News website’s domestic pages reported the sentencing of a Salford man previously found guilty of “encouragement of terrorism”.Shocking documentary shows how Sweden’s ruling leftist party ‘helped’ Nazi Germany
“Muslim convert Adam Wyatt, 48, admitted disseminating a terrorist publication that said “Britain must atone for its sins in Palestine” and posting on social media that jihad was an obligation for all Muslims.”
The following month the website reported the sentencing of a man from Sunderland who had previously pleaded guilty to similar offences.
“A shopkeeper who tweeted support for Islamic State (IS) and called for “death to Shias” has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.
Mohammed Zahir Khan, of Nora Street, Sunderland, had admitted encouraging terrorism, dissemination of a terror publication and stirring up religious hatred.”
Unsurprisingly, the BBC did not send a reporter to interview either of those men before they were sentenced. Neither did it promote the notion that they were put on trial because of their identity to millions of audience members or portray either of their cases as being about “free speech”.
However, when an Israeli-Arab woman was sentenced to five months in prison after having been convicted of incitement to violence in her poems and social media posts, the BBC News website amplified her claims of political persecution in a July 31st report titled “Dareen Tatour: Israeli Arab poet sentenced for incitement“.
A shocking documentary about Sweden’s ruling Social Democratic Party, shows how the leftist party ‘inspired and helped’ Nazi Germany.Jewish couple in Belgium targeted with death threats
The documentary, produced by the party’s right-wing opponent, the Sweden Democrats, was removed by YouTube yesterday in an act of censorship.
But after a backlash it is now visible again on the social media channel of broadcaster Samtiden Dokumentär.
Ironically the documentary starts with the leader of the leftist Social Democratic Party, Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven, telling how the right-wing Social Democrats historically have Nazi roots.
But now the Sweden Democrats are hitting back and have produced this documentary to tell the truth about their leftist opponents.
And it is revealing as it shows that the Swedish Social Democrats inspired Nazi Germany on the issue of Eugenics or “ethnic cleansing”.
A Jewish woman living in Belgium said her family has been targeted with anti-Semitic abuse since one of their neighbors discovered they were Jews.Mayoral candidate: Questioning Holocaust isn't anti-Semitism
The woman, identified only as Nicole, 43, in an article published last month by the La Meuse regional daily about her ordeal, had been living for over two years in Marchienne-au-Pont, a suburb of Charleroi 30 miles south of Brussels, without incident, according to the report.
But this summer, the report said, she and her family have been targeted in a campaign of harassment that has featured written death threats stuffed into their mailbox and the scrawling of anti-Semitic graffiti on their front door.
“We are too afraid to leave our home since this started,” Nicole, a Chile native, was quoted as telling the newspaper. “Several people discovered we’re Jewish and ever since we’ve been getting death threats.” One letter addressed to Nicole called her a “dirty whore” and other insults.
The couple have filed several complaints with police but no suspects have been brought in.
A self-proclaimed Holocaust revisionist is planning a run for mayor of Hilton Head, South Carolina, but says his beliefs will not impact his local anti-development platform.Germany lifts ban on Nazi symbols in video games
Michael Santomauro, 59, filed papers to enter the race on Monday, according to the Island Packet.
Santomauro, who founded a roommate-matching service, made headlines in New York City in 2003 when subscribers to his service received a stream of emails spreading his beliefs denying historical accounts of the Holocaust.
In 2004, protesters surrounded his home and chanted “evict the Nazi.” He told the New York Post then that the Nazi label is “totally inaccurate.” He told the Island Packet this week that the protesters were “part of a domestic terrorism group.”
In 2011, Santomauro urged his child’s school on Manhattan’s Upper East Side to acquire the book “Debating the Holocaust: A New Look at Both Sides.” The book collects essays denying key aspects of Holocaust history, including the death toll, the accounts of survivors, the physical evidence found at death camps and the feasibility of the methods the Nazis used to carry out mass murder. Santomauro runs American operations for a publisher of e-books dedicated to Holocaust denial.
Computer and video games can include swastikas and other Nazi symbols, a German industry body said Thursday, after a heated debate over the “Wolfenstein” franchise in which gamers battle Third Reich forces.Curator of Elie Wiesel Museum Welcomes Global Outpouring of Support, as Romanian Police Arrest Vandalism Suspect
The game was previously deemed to have fallen foul of the German criminal code, which bars any depiction of so-called “anti-constitutional” symbols, including Nazi swastikas.
Accordingly in “Wolfenstein II,” images of Adolf Hitler were doctored to remove his mustache and the swastika in the Nazi flag was replaced with a triangular symbol.
This sparked an uproar in the gaming community, prompting calls for games to be treated like films.
Because movies are deemed works of art, they are exempt from the ban, similar to material used in research, historical or scientific purposes.
Films set in the World War II-era, for instance, are allowed to be screened in Germany with Nazi symbols.
In the wake of this past weekend’s vandalism incident at the childhood home of the late Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel in Romania, there has been an outpouring of solidarity from across the globe, the curator of the museum at the site told The Algemeiner on Wednesday.Patented Israeli Laser Technology Could be Used to Fight Forest Fires Across the World
Alina Marincean said the incident — in which antisemitic graffiti was scrawled on the home — came as a surprise to both museum staff members and local residents in the city of Sighetu Marmatiei, located in northwestern Romania near the border with Ukraine.
“Nothing of this sort ever happened to us and we are organizing yearly public events with a great impact on the local and regional community,” she noted.
Following the discovery of the graffiti on Saturday, Marincean recalled, “I spent the whole next day responding to emails and answering calls from friends, visitors, people I know from around the world from Finland to South America, Israel and the US, people who expressed their concern and also support.”
“There were also visits at the museum from politicians and intellectuals from Romania who wanted to point out the importance of this place that keeps Elie Wiesel’s work and memory alive, as well as the memory of all those 38,000 Jews who never returned to their homes after May 1944,” she added.
Texas, Oregon, Florida, New Jersey, as well as Canada, Greece, India, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK are among other areas battling massive forest fires, a phenomenon experts expect will only increase due to climate change.Swedish Christian Zionists to sail to Israel
It was the massive forest fires in Israel over the past several years that gave electro-optics physicist Daniel Leigh the idea of using algorithm-controlled laser beams from helicopters or trucks to zap leaves, thin branches and pine needles off treetops in the path of fire. The flames are forced downward, where they can be more easily controlled by conventional methods.
Leigh explains that leafy treetops provide a highly combustible smorgasbord for hungry forest fires. Fanned by extreme wind and weather conditions, a forest fire that rises to the treetops spreads out of control in the blink of an eye.
When Leigh shared his idea with ecologist Zvika Avni, former chief of the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) Forestry Department, Avni agreed to be the ecology and the wildfire fighting specialist for Leigh’s startup, Fighting Treetop Fire (FTF).
Following Swedish pro-Hamas operatives’ failed attempt to reach Gaza by sea, a Christian supporter of Israel from Sweden announced he would take dozens of pro-Zionists to Israel on his yacht.Israeli runner Lonah Chemtai Salpeter wins gold at European Championships
Stefan Abrahamsson today announced on Facebook that his yacht, Elida, will set sail from Sweden on Aug. 25 to Israel to show solidarity with the Jewish State and Middle East Christians.
“We want to break the silence of the severe persecution and cleansing of the Christian population that is taking place in this region,” he wrote. “As the only democracy in the Middle East amid dictatorships, Israel welcomes us on this show of solidarity with human rights, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and fundamental democratic values. In turn, we are taking a stand for the values that Israel stands for.”
Abrahamsson wrote that on Aug. 24 he will organize a sendoff party at the Gothenburg marina from which his yacht, carrying about 40 activists, will set sail for Herzliya, Israel. The Elida is expected to reach Israel in October and dock there for several weeks. The sendoff will feature a discussion on “precisely these important issues,” he wrote. Lars Adaktusson, a lawmaker from Sweden in the European Parliament, is scheduled to speak at the event.
Israel’s Lonah Chemtai Salpeter won the women’s 10,000-meter run at the 2018 European Athletics Championships in Berlin Wednesday, completing the race in 31 minutes, 43.29 seconds.2.4 million tourists came to Israel so far in 2018, ministry says
Israeli-Kenyan Salpeter came 9 full seconds ahead of Susan Krumins of the Netherlands, winning the gold medal. Sweden’s Meraf Bahta came third.
The 29-year-old became the first Israeli to be crowned European champion.
“I still don’t believe it,” she said afterwards. “I’m really happy. I dreamed of this, but I didn’t believe it happened.”
Salpeter will receive a grant of NIS 40,000 (some $11,000) from Israeli sports authorities for her win.
Born in Kenya, she first came to Israel in 2008, working as a caretaker at Kenya’s embassy in Tel Aviv. While running at a Herzliya park, she was noticed by running coach Moti Mizrahi, who suggested she train professionally.
Israel’s Ministry of Tourism has announced that 2.4 million tourists have visited Israel since the beginning of 2018, a 17% increase in tourists for the same period in 2017.2,200-Year-Old Earring Found in Jerusalem Excavation Sheds Light on Hellenistic Period in Judea
Citing findings from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, the ministry said in a statement that the number of tourists is 46 percent more than in 2016, almost double the number of tourists that entered during the same period that year.
According to the ministry, 293,400 tourists entered Israel during July 2018 alone, which is around eight percent more tourists than in July 2017.
Over 250,000 tourists came by air, the release said, an 8.8% increase compared to July 2017. 26,200 of them came through land crossings into Israel, a 3.1% increase compared to that month the year before. (Israel only has land border crossings with Egypt and Jordan.)
“Month after month, we are witnessing new achievements and record highs in incoming tourism,” Minister of Tourism Yariv Levin (Likud) said in a statement. “I am pleased that, in the last month, we have also seen an impressive rise in incoming tourism... the tourism industry continues to be a significant factor in making exceptional impact and contributions to the Israeli economy and workforce.”
Levin also praised the ministry’s marketing initiatives and “innovative activities… Together with the incentives for airlines and investments in infrastructure,” for contributing to the rise in tourism.
A 2,200-year-old golden earring was discovered at the City of David’s archaeological excavation just outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, shedding light on life in the city after it was conquered by the Greeks.
The rare artifact depicts a finely-crafted head of a horned animal and delicate filigree work, and is believed to date back to the second or third century BCE, a period during which the Temple was the center of Jewish life, but the region was controlled by the Greeks and a significant percentage of the Jewish populace was influenced by Greek culture and beliefs.
During the time period the earring is believed to be connected to, Judea was a semi-autonomous Hellenistic vassal first under the rule of Ptolemaic Egypt from 301 to 198 BCE, and then under the Seleucid Empire, after Antiochus III conquered Jerusalem. Shortly afterwards, Jews who were not Hellenized ultimately took part in the Maccabean Revolt of 167 BCE, which is commemorated in the Hanukkah story.
According to Professor Yuval Gadot of Tel Aviv University, co-director of the Givati Parking Lot excavation, the find is the first earring discovered in Jerusalem from the Hellenistic period, found in an early-Hellenistic period building deep inside the dig.
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