Saturday, May 25, 2019
Al Jazeera Writes Another Chapter in Its Own Ugly History
Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the former host of the show, has been banned from the U.S., Britain, and France for his extremist views, which include praise of Adolf Hitler and an insistence that the killing of American soldiers is a “religious obligation.” Al-Qaradawi has been considered the intellectual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, and his status as a respected imam in Qatar is secure despite his retiring from television.Gil Hoffman: John Hagee’s Juggernaut
Sunni preachers such as al-Qaradawi are Al Jazeera’s go-to experts on political subjects, all the better to offer the Muslim world an anti-establishment, Islamist alternative to other state-run outlets, which the network seems to suggest have weakened their respective countries. The Nation’s Kristen Gillespie wrote in 2007 that the “clear, underlying message” of the field reports is that the way out of the humiliation of the Muslim world by the West is “political Islam.” After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Al Jazeera’s secular Baghdad bureau chief was replaced by Wadah Khanfar, an Islamist sympathizer who former employees note was responsible for the hiring of hard-line Islamists as his assistants.
In July 2008, Al Jazeera’s flagship Arabic channel threw Samir Kantar, a Lebanese man who killed three Israelis — including a four-year-old girl — in 1979, a party upon his repatriation in a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hezbollah. “Brother Samir, we wish to celebrate with you,” Ghassan Ben Jeddo, then the network’s Beirut bureau chief, was filmed exclaiming during the party, which aired on the channel, and included a cake with Kantar’s picture on it. Wadah Khanfar, by then Al Jazeera’s director general, later apologized for the incident, writing in a letter that the broadcast violated the outlet’s code of ethics. He also assured the public that he had ordered the channel’s programming director to take measures that would prevent similar incidents in the future.
Evidently, whatever measures were taken — if any were taken — have failed. As last weekend’s video showed, Al Jazeera continues to rely on conspiratorial anti-Semitic tropes and Islamist rhetoric to fan the sectarian flames in the Middle East. The damage it does should not be underestimated: It appears in the channel listings of every home with Arabic-language satellite television, in the Middle East and the West. Its English-language affiliate offers slick propaganda to appeal to progressives in hopes of sugarcoating the sinister political aims of its Qatari corporate overlords. This latest controversy is just the tip of a very large iceberg.
The CUFI founder and Texas megachurch pastor reflects on his organization’s membership reaching six million.Little Help From American Jews During the Holocaust
When entering the offices of Christians United for Israel (CUFI) in San Antonio, the first sight seen is the Western Wall.
The model of the Kotel is no coincidence.
A visit to the site in Jerusalem more than 40 years ago inspired CUFI founder and chairman Pastor John Hagee to become America’s leading Christian Israel advocate and arguably the world’s most successful builder of support for the Jewish state.
A year ago, Hagee delivered the benediction at the US Embassy opening in Jerusalem, in which he called Israel “the lone torch of freedom in the Middle East” and said the message of the embassy move should be heard by every Islamic terrorist in the halls of the United Nations and at the presidential palace in Iran.
Hagee celebrated the one-year anniversary of the embassy opening by announcing that CUFI had reached the symbolic figure of six million members, less than six months after the organization reached five million, and 13 years after it began with 400.
He said antisemitism becoming more mainstream in America has made CUFI more vital than ever. The six million number was not CUFI’s only recent achievement.
The embassy opening happened after more than 135,000 CUFI members emailed the White House asking US President Donald Trump to keep his pledge to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Israel’s capital.
In March 2018, after a 15-month lobbying campaign, including more than one million emails sent to elected officials by CUFI members, the Taylor Force Act became law, threatening to freeze State Department funds to the Palestinian Authority unless it ends its longstanding practice of compensating terrorists and the families of terrorists convicted in Israeli courts.
CUFI also claims credit for Trump’s cutting all US funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in August 2018, and Trump formally recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights in March.
American public opinion before World War II was deeply divided about what to do about Nazi Germany, and even less interested in the fate of German Jews under the Nazi regime.
Those are two of the conclusions that emerge from recent examinations of the period, which were highlighted last week at a program in Atlanta, “What Were We Watching? American’s Responses through Cinema, Radio and Media.” It was presented at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in downtown Atlanta by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The program featured Daniel Greene, a distinguished historian and curator of a major new exhibit at the Holocaust museum in Washington, “Americans and The Holocaust,” which opened last year. The exhibit details how many of the issues that America wrestled with in the Depression years of the 1930s shaped the response to the rise of Nazis. Issues such as how to cope with isolationism, racism and extremism on the left and right made it difficult for Americans to come to terms with anti-Semitism in America, much less what was happening in Europe.
Greene spoke about America’s response to Kristallnacht, the German attack on Jews in November of 1938. While Roosevelt condemned the attack and recalled America’s ambassador to Germany, he kept a firm lid on Jewish immigration to America, Greene said.
“There was no political will to liberalize the immigration system.”
In a 1939 poll, two-thirds of Americans were even against taking in any refugee children threatened with annihilation.
Eddie Cantor, the popular Jewish-American entertainer, lost his radio program’s sponsor when he spoke out about the Nazis in 1939.
“It was Southern Democrats led by Sen. Robert Reynolds of North Carolina, who argued that American children had their own problems and we needed to take care of American children.”
The Left is mainstreaming Palestinian Marxist terrorists
The university's Students for Justice In Palestine chapter hosted now-deported PFLP terrorist Rasmieh Odeh via videoconference in 2015. Odeh played a key role in a 1969 Jerusalem supermarket bombing that killed two students.Will the Ukranian Embassy move to Jerusalem?
The mainstreaming of this violent terrorist group at San Diego State University is not isolated.
The Temple University Students for Justice In Palestine chapter posted the same image of Khaled on its official Twitter page in March 2016 in celebration of International Women's Day. Last summer, the same SJP chapter wrote a lengthy opinion piece supporting the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Chapter leader Brandon Do, lamenting the loss of the Soviet Union, attacked modern Palestinian leaders, who he claimed sold out to Zionism by agreeing to the 1993 Oslo Accords.
Support for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has gone mainstream elsewhere on the progressive Left. The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights and its Executive Director Youssef Munayyer have tweeted their support for this designated terrorist group. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez retweeted Munayyer on an unrelated issue in February, illustrating how few degrees of separation there are between these trendy terrorists and actual elected officials. The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, whose leadership includes at least one Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine official and whose events frequently feature PFLP's flag, has also thrown its support behind Ocasio-Cortez and fellow freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., posed for a photo with a Samidoun's U.S. coordinator Joe Catron last month.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a terrorist group. It has been officially designated as such by the U.S. government since the Clinton era. It's a very bad sign for today's divided politics that students and others on the American Left would glorify terrorists and their violent acts.
Nearly one-fifth of Ukraine parliament members co-signed a draft resolution urging their new president to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the embassy there.Israel Institute says New Zealand taxpayers are funding extremism
Of the 450 members of the Verkhovna Rada, 86 signed on as co-authors of a bill submitted for a vote on Friday, the news site Ukraina reported.
Parliament calls on “the President of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to transfer the Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Israel to its capital, the city of Jerusalem,” reads the explanatory note to the bill. The embassy is currently in Tel Aviv.
A vote has not yet been scheduled for the measure, which will not be binding on the government if it passes.
Israel Institute of New Zealand co-director, Dr David Cumin, is calling for a moratorium on any further Kiwi taxpayer funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) until serious issues of corruption, antisemitism and extremism within that agency are resolved.Hebron businessman with ties to settlers may be lone Palestinian at Bahrain meet
UNRWA was established in 1949 and is the UN agency tasked with delivering relief and works programmes for Palestinian refugees. It is almost entirely funded by voluntary contributions from UN member States – including New Zealand, which recently committed a further $3 million to support core UNRWA programmes between 2019 and 2021.
However, Dr Cumin is calling for this payment to be reversed and further funding withheld until serious issues within UNRWA are resolved.
“UNRWA doesn’t work toward addressing the Palestine/Israel conflict – it perpetuates it. UNRWA school textbooks have recently been found to display extreme anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiments; UNRWA staff have posted antisemitic material and supported terrorism on social media; and UNRWA schools have been used to store weapons for terror groups and as cover for the entries to terror tunnels”.
Dr Cumin says that, despite these issues being well documented, the New Zealand government has never raised public concerns about any of them
The lone known Palestinian businessman to have said he may attend next month’s economic summit in Bahrain, as part of the Trump administration’s peace proposal, is a Hebron industrialist who has close ties to the Trump administration and Israeli settlers and is regarded by some as far outside the Palestinian mainstream.PA top negotiator urges ‘all countries’ to snub US peace summit in Bahrain
Ashraf Jabari, 45, told The Times of Israel Tuesday that he does not think a two-state solution presents a viable endgame to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, seemingly signaling support for the US-backed peace plan, which will reportedly not include a sovereign Palestinian state and which has been preemptively rejected by Ramallah.
Jabari was one of a handful of Palestinian businessmen to receive an invitation from the White House to a June 25-26 conference in Manama focusing on economic aspects of the long-delayed peace plan, with the declared aim of achieving Palestinian prosperity.
While other Palestinian business leaders have said they will not attend the conference and go against the Palestinian government’s rejection of the peace bid, Jabari has indicated he may participate.
“God willing, I will be able to make it,” he told The Times of Israel.
However, as co-chair of the Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce — an NGO that promotes Israeli-Palestinian commercial partnerships beyond the Green Line — Jabari said he needed to discuss the matter with his colleagues before providing an official reply.
The Palestinian Authority’s top negotiator, Saeb Erekat, on Saturday urged “all countries” not to participate in a US-led economic peace conference in Bahrain next month.Palestinians: Arabs not mandated to represent us at US-led workshop
The White House announced Sunday it would co-host the June 25-26 meeting in the capital city of Manama and is expected to unveil the economic aspects of its long-awaited Middle East peace plan, with the declared aim of achieving Palestinian prosperity.
“The conference will surely fail without Palestinian participation,” Erekat said.
Intimating that participating Arab nations were doing so only because they were beholden to the US, he said countries should not pay their debts to Washington “at the expense of the Palestinian people,” and urged them to reconsider their stances.
Erekat called the Trump administration “a cornerstone of the extreme right-wing Israeli ideology,” charging that the US was “sowing fear in the region.”
The PA had on Wednesday formally rejected an invitation to the June conference. The PA had previously indicated that it would not participate in the event, but had not officially refused.
The Palestinians have not authorized anyone to speak or negotiate on their behalf at next month’s US-led conference in Manama, Bahrain, where the US administration is planning to unveil the economic portion of its peace plan, PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat said on Friday.Nasrallah slams U.S. peace plan, calls for unified resistance
In an implicit criticism of Arab countries that have agreed – or are inclined to agree – to attend the conference, Erekat said in an interview with the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen television network: “As for those who are going – and this is their decision – we did not authorize anyone to speak in our name. If the Palestinian people are not there, and if the Palestinian leadership is also not there, why are they participating?”
Erekat’s statements came amid growing concern in Ramallah that several Arab states would participate in the Bahrain conference despite Palestinian opposition.
“The Arabs are telling us that they stand with the Palestinians, while at the same time they are collaborating with the US administration in liquidating the Palestinian cause,” a senior PA official told The Jerusalem Post. “Why are the Arabs acting against the promises they made to the Palestinians in all the Arab League summits and the [2002] Arab Peace Initiative.”
Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Fatah official, said that “Jerusalem was not for sale and all the billions are not worth a stone of its Old City.”
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday that the day was “fast approaching” when a US-backed “plot” would aim to keep Palestinian refugees in Lebanon permanently. He said there was a need to work towards joint “Palestinian-Lebanese” resistance according to Al-Mayadeen and other sites that followed the speech. He was speaking on the occasion of Liberation Day in Lebanon which commemorates the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000.Mayor Pete Buttigieg's De-Evolution on Israel Policy
Nasrallah slammed the US-backed conference in Manama in Bahrain in which Washington is expected to roll out part of its peace deal. Nasrallah urged Lebanon and the Palestinians to reject the US plans. He claimed the US was involved in a “plot” to destroy the Palestinian “resistance” and called for participation in “Jerusalem Day” next Friday. His speech shows that Hezbollah is closely following US President Donald Trump’s “deal of the century,” which Nasrallah says is a disaster in the making. He called to boycott the Bahrain conference.
According to Hezbollah’s Al-Manar Nasrallah also praised the Palestinians for their unity in the face of US demands. Even though the Palestinians are actually divided between leadership in Ramallah and Gaza, both Hamas and Fatah oppose the US “deal of the century.”
Buttigieg’s comments Thursday suggest that he learned nothing from Obama’s failures. They also invite questions about whether he has a deeper antipathy to Israel. In his columns for the Harvard Crimson a decade-and-a-half ago, Buttigieg suggested that Israel and Saudi Arabia were nations “who cause suffering,” and opposed the term “homicide bomber” to describe Hamas terrorists (a term some adopted to minimize empathy for the “suicide” of the terrorist).US House of Representatives Rejects Anti-BDS Provision from Retirement Savings Bill
But the truth about Buttigieg’s views on Israel is more complex. Last year, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, visited Israel as part of a delegation of mayors organized by the American Jewish Committee. He returned with praise for the way that Israel handled the threat of terrorism, and he also criticized Hamas for causing Palestinian suffering in Gaza. Earlier this year, on The View, he rejected any moral equivalence between Israel and Iran in terms of human rights.
So what happened? Buttigieg’s pro-Israel comments attracted negative attention within the Democratic Party among anti-Israel activists who are increasingly in control of the party’s foreign policy agenda. A group of anti-Israel activists crashed his presidential campaign launch rally last month in South Bend, for example, telling Newsweek that “they hoped to nudge him on his foreign policy, particularly as it relates to Israel and its neighbors in the Middle East.”
A few days before that, Netanyahu — facing a tough re-election battle — promised to annex parts of the West Bank if he returned as Prime Minister. That prompted Buttigieg’s first public criticism of Netanyahu: “This provocation is harmful to Israeli, Palestinian, and American interests. Supporting Israel does not have to mean agreeing with Netanyahu‘s politics. I don’t. This calls for a president willing to counsel our ally against abandoning a two-state solution.”
But there are parts of Judea and Samaria that will certainly be part of Israel under any two-state solution. Buttigieg’s criticism was more opportunistic than substantive: he saw a chance to break publicly with the Israeli government.
The US House of Representatives rejected on Thursday an amendment preventing firms that support the anti-Israel BDS movement from receiving tax subsidies as part of Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act that would, if enacted, boost retirement savings.Thousands gather for mass rally to ‘safeguard Israeli democracy’ from Netanyahu
The tally of the motion to recommit was 200 in favor and 222 against with 12 Democrats and two Republicans breaking ranks from their parties.
Reps. Anthony Brindisi (NY), Joe Cunningham (SC), Josh Gottheimer (NJ), Kendra Horn (OK), Chrissy Houlahan (PA), Elaine Luria (VA) Seth Moulton (MA), Max Rose (NY), Elissa Slotkin (MI), Abigail Spanberger (VA), Jeff Van Drew (NJ) and Susan Wild (PA) were the Democrats, while Thomas Massie (KY) and Justin Amash (MI) were the Republicans.
Anti-BDS legislation has stalled in the House as many Democrats have voiced reservations with such a measure, citing free speech concerns. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) has repeatedly said that the bill, which was passed as part of comprehensive legislation in the Senate, would be moving in the lower chamber “soon.”
Rep. Liz Cheney, chairman of the House Republican Conference, said last week that Democratic leaders “have said repeatedly that they stand with Israel, in spite of these antisemitic comments.”
“Well, if they truly stand with Israel, then they ought to put this bill on the floor, and they ought to come down and sign the bill,” she said.
Thousands of protesters gathered on Saturday evening for a mass demonstration outside the Tel Aviv Museum against looming legislative efforts by the incoming coalition that would grant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immunity from prosecution and radically limit the powers of the Supreme Court. Netanyahu is attempting to finalize deals with his likely coalition partners ahead of a Tuesday deadline, and is widely reported to be seeking their support for legislative moves to safeguard him from prosecution in three corruption cases.Roughly 3,000 Palestinians protest along the Gaza Security Fence
Tens of thousands of people were expected at the rally Saturday night under the banner “Stopping the Immunity Law — A Defensive Shield for Democracy.” The event was primarily organized by the largest opposition party — Blue and White — alongside Meretz and the Labor Party. Both Arab-Israeli political parties announced Saturday afternoon that they, too, would participate after an outcry over Blue and White’s alleged failure to include non-Jewish representatives among the speakers at the demonstration.
Blue and White’s No.2 Yair Lapid told Channel 12 news ahead of the rally that the protest was not about left and right. “That’s how Netanyahu wants to define it,” he charged.
Rather, the event was about protesting the prime minister’s efforts “to avoid going to jail,” and the damage he is threatening to do to Israeli democracy, said Lapid. Noting that many protesters were wearing Turkish-style fez headgear, he said they were conveying the message that they don’t want Israel “to turn into [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan’s Turkey.”
Roughly 3,000 Palestinians clashed with IDF forces along the Gaza Security fence during Friday March of Return protests, Maariv reported.Iraqi militia commemorates “martyrs” who fought Israel in 1973
Hamas officials are taking part in the violent clashes, which include throwing explosives on IDF soldiers and attempts to breach the fence.
A Palestinian medic was injured due to an IDF gas grenade east of Khan Younis, Palestinian media reported. Sixteen protesters were injured to to a direct hit by a rubber bullet or inhaling tear gas, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported. .
The Friday protest takes place three days after Israeli media reported that an early agreement to a cease fire deal was reached between Israel and Hamas. These reports were quickly dismissed by both parties.
Kata’ib Hezbollah, an Iraq-based Shi’ite militia, honored families of “Iraqi martyrs” who had fought against Israel in the 1973. A report on Al-Etejah TV, which is linked to Kata’ib Hezbollah, posted about the ceremony on Saturday.MEMRI: Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei Presents Portrait Of IRGC Commander Who Downed U.S. Helicopter In Persian Gulf In 1987
Iraq sent an armored division and aircraft to support the Syrian army during the battles near the Golan in 1973. The Iraqi 3rd Armored division and thousands of men were part of the 4th Corps of the Iraqi army. The unit suffered casualties, including several hundred Iraqis who were estimated killed in the conflict.
Kata’ib Hezbollah was founded after the US invasion of Iraq and led by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. It is closely linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who Muhandis had worked with. It is also linked with other large pro-Iranian Shi’ite militias in Iraq such as the Badr Organization. Muhandis had trained in Iran and was sentenced to death in Kuwait for his role in a 1983 terror attack against US forces. The US designated Kata’ib Hezbollah a terrorist organization in 2009. It was involved in numerous attacks against US forces in Iraq.
As Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei spoke to students on May 22, 2019, one of the students waved aloft a portrait of a martyr, and said that he wanted to give it as a gift to Khamenei even though it was customary for Khamenei to be the one giving gifts to others.Controversy in Iran amid reports Zarif met U.S. Senator
Khamenei ordered that the portrait be placed on a table next to him; it remained there until the conclusion of his meeting with the students.
The incident was likely coordinated in advance, since it is not reasonable that anyone would be allowed to approach Khamenei in public unexpectedly.
The Fars news agency, which is affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), identified the martyr as Nader Mahdavi Basria, commander of the Zolfaghar Naval Squadron of the IRGC navy. On October 8, 1987, Mahdavi was involved in the downing of an American helicopter during a battle with the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf. "Mahdavi is known in Iran as a symbol of the martyrs killed in the resistance to the Great Satan [i.e. the U.S.]," Fars stated.[1]
Iranian media was divided on Friday over stories in the US reporting that Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif had met US Senator Dianne Feinstein.MEMRI: Latest Issue Of Urdu-Language Magazine Nawa-i-Afghan Pays Tribute To Osama Bin Laden, Says: 'Crusader Chief America Is Restless To Withdraw Its Troops Who Are Being Defeated In Afghanistan'
“Why has Zarif begun negotiating again?,” a member of Iran’s Election Commission asked Fars News Agency, amid several stories that put Zarif in a difficult position as Iran is in the middle of tensions with Washington.
Politico.com reported on Thursday that Sen. Feinstein (D-Calif.) met with Zarif for dinner. It was “arranged in consultation with the State Department,” the report noted. Zarif visited the US in late April and did television interviews as well as giving a speech at the Asia Society. Zarif then went to Qatar on May 1 and Russia a week later. He then went to Turkmenistan, India, Japan and China, and held talks in Pakistan on May 24. This was a busy month, and Zarif is trying to burnish Iran’s image as the US has increased threats.
Zarif wants to make it seem like business as usual even as Iran’s economy suffers from US sanctions and amid news that Turkey and India have stopped importing Iranian oil.
Supporters of the Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda have released the latest issue of Nawa-i-Afghan Jihad ("the Voice of Afghan Jihad"), an Urdu-language monthly magazine aimed at these groups' followers in Pakistan. A PDF version of the May 2019 issue of the magazine was posted on U.S.-based website Archive.org and other social media platforms.Democrat Rashida Tlaib Promotes Anti-Semitic Movement Designed To Destroy Israel
The coverpage of Nawa-i-Afghan Jihad.
The issue includes a series of articles paying tribute to late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a U.S. raid on May 2, 2011, in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Several articles in the issue discuss the religious significance of Ramadan, the fasting month of the Islamic calendar. Two articles are devoted to the importance of the Battle of Badr, which took place in March 624 CE, coinciding with Ramadan that year, and was the first major battle involving a Muslim army.
These articles are mostly translations of Arabic articles into Urdu. Nawa-i-Afghan Jihad also has translations of articles by Al-Qaeda leader Sheikh Ayman Al-Zawahiri and late Al-Qaeda commander Sheikh Abu Yahya Al-Libi. At least two articles critique the policy of secularism by governments in South Asia, while two others argue that Pakistan's future lies in the enforcement of shari'a.
The 119-page magazine has reports from the battlefronts in Afghanistan, including a detailed a list of all armed clashes between the Taliban and the Afghan government forces that took place in April 2019.
In an unsigned editorial mainly devoted to the significance of Ramadan, the editors also observe: "Today the Crusader chief America is restless to withdraw its troops who are being defeated in Afghanistan."
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) promoted the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement on Thursday which is designed to destroy Israel.Resignation of Theresa May unleashes wave of online abuse claiming she was “destroying Britain’s future for Israel” and controlled by “Zionist banksters”
Tlaib retweeted a tweet from a far-left Democrat activist that goes by the name "Rasha" on Twitter. The tweet stated: "We are connected in radical love. And we have a duty and a privilege in this position to protect not the most popular amongst us, but the most vulnerable amongst us. @thrasherxy on #Palestine and #BDS"
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) is promoting the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement which is designed to destroy Israel. pic.twitter.com/wnJuMC1NaZ
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) May 24, 2019
The tweet featured a video of NYU commencement speaker Steven William Thrasher who promoted the anti-Semitic movement at the school's graduation this month.
"I am so proud, so proud, of NYU's chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace," Thrasher said, "for supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against the apartheid state government in Israel."
The resignation today of British Prime Minister Theresa May has unleashed a wave of antisemitic posts on social media.BDS supporter set to join the Belgian parliament
‘Syed Umar’ exclaimed “Good riddance Zionist bitch” on Twitter. Notorious antisemite, Gilad Atzmon, who humiliatingly capitulated in a libel case against Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Gideon Falter last year, predictably entered the fray and tweeted: “British Jews thank Theresa Je Suis Juif for being a dedicated Sabbos Goy [sic] and destroying Britain’s future for Israel.”
‘Melville Debyuss’ tweeted a claim that Theresa May’s departure heralded the end of the “greedy corrupt lying cheating racist Zionist terrorist war criminal Tories”, adding that he “loves” Jeremy Corbyn. In reference to the horrendous fires that have blazed in Israel, another Twitter user opined: “Israel is in flames and Theresa May is going to step down as PM??? it really is a month of blessings”.
A user named ‘Jay’ waded into a Twitter thread about her resignation: “Shuttup man, Israel is doing to the Palestinians what the Germans did to the Jews. Enough said.”
A large political movement in Belgium has placed a key promoter of campaigns to boycott Israel on its federal elections ticket, ensuring his place in parliament.Finland: Will the Social Democrats Retain a Pro-Iran Anti-Semitic MP in Its Ranks?
The Belgian League Against Antisemitism, or LBCA, on Thursday protested the placing of Simon Moutquin, a co-secretary of the BDS Belgium movement, on the list of candidates in the Brabant region for the left-wing Ecolo party.
Ecolo and its sister party Groen operate in Belgium’s federal parliament as one bloc and may become one of its largest in Sunday’s elections, according to multiple polls.
Neither Ecolo nor Groen has officially endorsed BDS, an acronym for the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment movement against Israel. But Ecolo’s placing of Moutquin at the top of a regional lists means he is guaranteed to enter the federal parliament, according to Joel Rubinfeld, the president of LBCA.
Ecolo-Groen is “preparing to place in parliament a Trojan horse of antisemitism,” Rubinfeld wrote.
A few days after the Finnish elections, Hussein Al-Taee, the son of the governor of Najaf in Iraq and a pro-Iranian regime advocate, was exposed for having spent eight years posting anti-Semitic, anti-American and homophobic comments on Facebook... For four of these years, Al-Taee served as an adviser on Middle Eastern affairs to the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), a state-run conflict-resolution firm... currently headed by former Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb.‘Free Palestine’ Swastika at San Francisco State Is ‘Far From First Incident of Jew Hatred,’ Student Says
Although Stubb publicly condemned Al-Taee's hate-filled social media comments... he has not been asked why a pro-Iranian regime advocate was working for CMI in the first place.
In other words, Al-Taee was expressing "embarrassment" about his "prejudices, thoughts and language" -- and lying about them -- but did not disavow the sentiments.
Failure on the part of the "center-left" Social Democrats to oust Al-Taee would constitute hypocrisy of the highest order, or else a tacit agreement with hateful positions that the MP has not denied espousing.
A swastika with the caption, “Free Palestine,” was found at San Francisco State University on Wednesday — and it was “far from the first incident on campus of Jew-hatred,” the student who discovered the mark told The Algemeiner.Skullcap-wearing Jews unsafe in parts of Germany, anti-Semitism czar says
The image, accompanied by a Star of David and the name of the university, was spotted in a campus bathroom by Daniel Yeluashvili, a senior studying political science.
“I’ve had experiences where my classmates call Jews cheap, glare at me when I wear a Star of David necklace, and hiss when I say the word, ‘Israel,’ in a class discussion,” Yeluashvili recounted.
A “Free Palestine” swastika found at San Francisco State University. Photo: Daniel Yeluashvili.
“Specifically regarding vandalism, phrases like, ‘Zionism is Racism,’ and, ‘Zionists not welcome on campus,’ are common,” he added. “Rhetoric equating Zionism with fascism is mainstream, which helps contextualize this particular image.”
“I’ve never seen a swastika, Star of David, and ‘Free Palestine’ slogan combined with one another, though,” Yeluashvili said. “This seems like an unusually overt expression of a common narrative on our campus: that Jewish sovereignty is a white supremacist idea.”
The German government’s top official against anti-Semitism said Saturday he wouldn’t advise Jews to wear skullcaps in parts of the country.Man ‘planned to kill Jewish university students’
Felix Klein was quoted in an interview with the Funke newspaper group as saying that “my opinion has unfortunately changed compared with what it used to be” on the matter. He said: “I cannot recommend to Jews that they wear the skullcap at all times everywhere in Germany.” He didn’t elaborate on what places and times might be risky.
Klein blamed “increasing social disinhibition and brutality.”
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Germany’s main Jewish leader said last year that he would advise people visiting big cities against wearing Jewish skullcaps.
Government statistics released earlier this month showed that the number of anti-Semitic and anti-foreigner incidents rose in Germany last year, despite an overall drop in politically motivated crimes.
Klein also said better police training was needed to tackle the problem.
“There is much insecurity among police and government officials in dealing with anti-Semitism. Many officials do not know what is allowed and what is not,” he said. “There is a clear definition of anti-Semitism, and it has to be taught in police schools. Likewise, it should be part of the education of teachers and lawyers.”
A CONVICTED terrorist who stabbed a man in Sydney’s south-west had plans to kill Jewish students at the University of Sydney as a “revenge” attack, a court has heard.Murderer of Sarah Halimi Will Avoid Criminal Trial, French Jewish Defense Group Says
Taking to the witness box, Ihsas Khan told a sentencing hearing he had bought the knife used in the 2016 attack to target students wearing kippahs.
“I was planning on using it on Jewish students in the university to kill them. Just people wearing the Jewish head gear, the kippah,” he said.
“I was filled with hatred … It was revenge for what was happening in Palestine.”
Khan was found guilty of carrying out an act of terror over the stabbing attack on his neighbour, grandfather Wayne Greenhalgh. He is facing life in jail.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin told The AJN this “deeply shocking” story is a reminder that the “threat to our community, both from organised groups of extremists and from lone actors, is very real”.
“It shows us why communal security is of paramount importance, not only in preventing and responding to attacks, but in providing training to members of our community and teaching vigilance and self-defence,” Ryvchin said.
A leading French Jewish organization said on Friday that it had “learned with consternation” that the man accused of murdering Jewish pensioner Sarah Halimi in April 2017 will not face a criminal trial.Paris Uber driver says he was beaten, robbed because of Jewish name
In a statement carried by the Jewish publication Alliance, the BNVCA — a Paris-based group that works with victims of antisemitic attacks — said that the investigating magistrate in the Halimi case had concluded that the murderer, Kobili Traore, was heavily intoxicated on marijuana when he committed the killing, and mentally unfit to stand trial.
The BNVCA did not disclose its source for this information, which was unreported in the French media on Friday.
Referring to the numerous political and legal obstacles encountered by the Halimi family in their fight for justice over two years, the BNVCA said that it had “sensed from the beginning of the investigation that this crime would go unpunished.”
Halimi, 65-years-old at the time of her death, was subjected to a frenzied beating and then hurled from a third-floor window in the early hours of Apr. 4, 2017, by Traore, a neighbor in the same public housing project in eastern Paris who broke into her apartment.
A French-Jewish taxi driver was mugged and beaten in what he said was an anti-Semitic crime by perpetrators who targeted him because of his Jewish-sounding name.Chabad of Staten Island painted with 'synagogue of Satan' graffiti
The driver, a 33-year-old man from the Paris region whose first name is Israel Hai, said he accepted a ride in Clichy Sous-Bois near Paris early Thursday morning through the Uber application. Drivers and passengers can see one another’s names ahead of the ride.
This is what happened next, he told his wife and parents:
A man in his 20s was waiting for him at the appointed place and asked to sit in the front seat. Then a group of about 10 young men surrounded the car. One of the perpetrators told Israel Hai, “Israel, you k***, you have money, we’re going to need to frisk you.” The men then beat the driver forcefully in the head, causing him to blackout.
The perpetrators then pulled him outside of the car by his hair, kicked him and stole his jewelry. Some of them were wearing balaclavas, and some beat him with batons. They then stole his car, glasses, wallet and his shoes. Bruised and barefoot, Israel Hai asked passersby to drive him to a police station, where officers also referred him to medical attention.
The Chabad House of Staten Island, run by Rabbi Moshe Katzman and his wife Chana, has been vandalized, according to a photo shared by one of the synagogue's congregants.Former Arsenal manager Wenger invests in Israeli startup PlayerMaker
“Synagogue of Satan,” was written on the outside of the Chabad of Staten Island synagogue. On the nearby Yeshiva "SOS," was sprayed, apparently in reference to the other graffiti.
The antisemitic graffiti was discovered in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The NYPD were aware of the incident and are investigating, a spokesperson told the website silive.com.
The synagogue was a welcoming place, “We never thought twice [about leaving a door open],” Katzman told silive.com, “and I can’t do that anymore.”
Sports tech, Tel Aviv-based startup PlayerMaker said that former Arsenal club manager Arsène Wenger will be joining the firm as an investor and operating partner.Tunisia's Prime Minister joins guests as Jews celebrate a unique Lag Ba’Omer festival
PlayerMaker has developed a technology that tracks and analyzes soccer players’ technical, tactical and physical performance using sensors that are mounted on the athletes’ shoes.
Wenger will be taking an active role in business and product development, the startup said in a statement.
During his tenure at Arsenal, between 1996 and 2018, Wenger became the longest serving and most successful manager in the British club’s history. He is known for having “revolutionized coaching methods,” and for introducing new technologies and approaches to performance management, the statement said.
“Science can help make players stronger when used with data well — you can measure everything, after that it’s about how you use it,” Wenger said in the statement. “I believe that PlayerMaker is the best available solution to measure performance.”
PlayerMaker’s footwear-based motion sensor provides solutions for talent identification and development, prevents injuries and improves coaching practices, the company said.
You might not expect the Prime Minister of an Arab country to attend a Jewish gathering during the fasting month of Ramadan.Israeli ex-agent’s thriller reflects hi-tech spy world where enemies never meet
But then the festival of the Ghibra, celebrated by the historic Jewish community of Djerba off the southern coast of Tunisia over Lag Ba’Omer, is a unique event.
Its unusual coincidence during Ramadan this year made it the ideal opportunity to highlight the country’s pledge of religious co-existence.
Tunisia’s Prime Minister Youssef Chahed hailed Djerba on Wednesday as a “worldwide symbol and example to be followed.”
The island’s 1,300 Jews were swelled by large numbers of expats from France and a group of 300 from Israel who entered the country on special visas.
They included Dror Zion, who was clearly emotional as he returned to his birthplace for the first time since leaving as a three-year-old more than 60 years before.
Thousands thronged the precincts of the Ghibra, the most venerable of the island’s 15 or so synagogues and the centre of the annual pilgrimage.
While the current building may be less than a couple of centuries old, according to legend the site is linked to refugees who came after the Destruction of the First Temple
It’s already public knowledge that 58-year-old Israeli journalist, editor, and author, Dov Alfon, was connected to intelligence gathering for Operation Opera, a surprise Israeli air strike carried out in June 1981 which destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor just miles outside of Baghdad.
But when asked if he can cite specific examples concerning any operations he’s carried out in the Israel Defense Force’s Unit 8200 as a young man, Alfon retreats from the conversation with guarded hesitancy. “I cannot be quoted on things I’ve done or haven’t done [in Unit 8200],” Alfon tells The Times of Israel with James Bond-like coolness, from an undisclosed location in Paris.
Unit 8200, or Shmoneh-Matayim as it’s called in Hebrew, is considered by most intelligence analysts to be one of the most sophisticated— if somewhat controversial— espionage units on the planet. A 2014 Guardian investigative piece showed, for instance, that it spies on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.
Moral discrepancies notwithstanding, as Unit 8200 is the largest single military unit in the IDF, comparisons to the US National Security Agency (NSA) are not uncommon.
“Unit 8200 concentrates on existential threats to Israel,” Alfon explains. “For example, nuclear deals with Iran, or possible [security] issues with Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, and so on.”
In January, Alfon published what is being marketed as a “Unit 8200 thriller”: “Layla Aroch B’Paris” (“A Long Night in Paris”), was originally published in Hebrew in 2016 and recently hit the shelves in French. The espionage thriller begins with the news that an Israeli tech worker — who was last seen with an attractive leggy blonde dressed in red — has mysteriously vanished from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.
