Thursday, June 27, 2019
JCPA: The Human Shields of the New Anti-Semitism
I understand the mindset of the Israelis who came to the defense of the BDS movement in response to Germany’s anti-BDS resolution.1 They remind me of the Palestinians in Gaza who come to the defense of the terrorists of Hamas in response to Israeli activity against them. Although there are important differences between the two, the similarity in mindset is profound and clearly evident.Ambassador Danon: Time to declare war on Antisemitism
Those who stand on the roof of a building in Gaza, seeking to hamper Israel’s efforts to defend itself against the terrorists operating within the building, are not terrorists. They are not there to kill Israelis themselves. They are there to express a basic identification with the terrorists, with their goals, and with the violent, terrorist means that they employ. When they are there, they hamper the struggle against terror and thereby strengthen terror, and they become participants in the danger that terror creates for the soldiers and civilians of Israel.
Those who come to the defense of the BDS movement in response to Germany’s resolution are not anti-Semites. They do not do so to discriminate against Jews, whether in Europe or the United States. They do so to express a basic identification with a movement that is sullied by anti-Semitism, with its goals and with the malevolent, anti-Semitic means that it employs. When they take a stand there, they hamper the struggle against the new anti-Semitism and thereby strengthen it, and they become participants in the danger that anti-Semitism creates for Jews and for all aspects of their lives.
Identification with the BDS movement is immoral. It is not part of a general struggle against various instances in which one nation-state’s forces are present in the territory of a different nation. This movement has no interest in what happens in Tibet. It has no interest in what happens in the Crimean Peninsula. It has no interest in what happens in Western Sahara. It is interested solely in the presence of the nation-state of the Jewish people in a disputed territory. To take an operative interest in a single situation while fundamentally and perpetually ignoring all the comparable situations is a form of racism. A racist mindset toward Jews is called anti-Semitism. The racist mindset toward Israel is the new anti-Semitism. Those who stand against Germany’s resolution are standing up for it.
On the 26th June 2019, an informal discussion was held in the General Assembly in the UN on “Combating Antisemitism and other forms of racial hate”. Over 90 countries participated in a discussion which included hundreds of guests from the Jewish community in the United States, Jewish and pro-Israel organizations, and many others.
For the New Campus Anti-Zionists, Social Justice and Liberation Entail the End of Jewish Self-Determination
Andrew Pessin, a professor of philosophy, and Doron Ben-Atar, a professor of American Studies, don’t share a discipline or research interests, but they share the experience of being Jewish faculty members targeted and harassed by anti-Zionists at their respective universities. Together, they have edited a volume of essays titled Anti-Zionism on Campus: The University, Free Speech, and BDS. In his review, Jarrod Tanny comments on one of the themes that emerge from the book: the highly porous line between hatred for the Jewish state and hatred for Jews.
Much as 19th-century anti-Semites saw the Jews as the chief perpetrators and beneficiaries of the widespread misery unleashed by political modernization and industrialization, today’s anti-Zionists have centered the Jewish state—a tiny entity that allegedly wields a disproportionate amount of power through its covert machinations—in their cosmology of global oppressions. Social justice and liberation entail the liquidation of Jewish power. . . .
“If the Palestinians stand . . . as symbolic of all the victims of ‘the West’ or ‘imperialism,’” writes [the British scholar of anti-Semitism] David Hirsh, “then Israel is thrust into the center of the world as being symbolic of oppression everywhere.” In this sense, the Palestinian is the universal victim, the 21st-century incarnation of the Marxist’s proletariat whose liberation would lead to the liberation of all. All that stands in the way is the Jewish state and the diasporic communities who advocate for its existence. Social justice and freedom will come only when Jewish self-determination is undone and Israel is forced to vanish into history.
But it is primarily the Jews of the diaspora, not Israel, who are paying the price for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement because its goal, write Pessin and Ben-Atar, is “to change the conversation about Israel and Zionism” in America, not to help the Palestinians. In fact, they go on, “they have changed the conversation quite significantly. It is now permissible to say things about Israelis and Jews . . . that not long ago were impermissible.”
Lee Kern on why the hard left is jealous of Zionism
Argentine Foreign Minister Reiterates Justice Call for Victims of 1994 AMIA Jewish Center Bombing
Argentina’s foreign minister has reiterated his country’s determination to bring to trial the Iranian-backed terrorists responsible for the July 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires — the worst terror atrocity in the country’s history, in which 85 people were killed and over 300 wounded.
“We do not cease in our demand for justice, or our request that the accused appear before Argentine justice,” Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie told a gathering at the United Nations in New York this week to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the AMIA atrocity.
Faurie said that the AMIA bombing — carried out by Iranian and Hezbollah operatives — “was not only an attack against the Jewish community, but against all Argentines and the democracy of our country.”
He added that his government was committed to “the eradication of antisemitism and all forms of hatred, which are the seeds of violence.”
Other speakers at Monday’s commemorative event included the president of the 73rd session of the General Assembly of the UN, María Fernanda Espinosa; the president of AMIA, Ariel Eichbaum; and the president of the North American section of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), Evelyn Sommer.
85 candles were lit during the ceremony in commemoration of each of the AMIA victims.
UN Watch: Anti-Western “Experts” Gather to Bash Sanctions, Defend Dictators
The panelists’ biased backgrounds ensure that any discussion will reinforce event host Cuba’s mission of blaming the West for contemporary issues in Latin America — particularly in Cuba and Venezuela — and beyond.Prof. Gerald Steinberg: Review: The Trials of Richard Goldstone
The panelists:
1. Idriss Jazairy, UNHRC official: UN Expert on the negative impact of economic sanctions who focuses his mandate on attacking democracies. As Algerian ambassador to UN, he once said “antisemitism targets Arabs.” Most famously, he led a major effort to muzzle UN human rights experts. And then he became a UN human rights expert himself.
2. Alfred de Zayas, ex-UNHRC official: Former UN Expert on the Cuban-sponsored mandate on “Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order.” Zayas used his UN post to spread overt propaganda praising Venezuela’s Maduro regime. He is a long-time defender of Fidel Castro and a hero to Holocaust deniers for his writings accusing the Allies of committing “genocide” against Germany.
3. William Schabas, ex-UNHRC official: UN Investigator into the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict who was forced to resign after it was revealed that he performed paid legal work for the PLO. Schabas’ resignation highlighted the fact that he and others like him on this panel had been selected by the UNHRC precisely because of their long history of partisan campaigning against Israel.
4. Rahmat Mohamad, Malaysian prof: Malaysian law professor who authored a paper persuading Malaysia not to ratify the Rome Statute, which governs the prosecution of perpetrators of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
5. Leo Gabriel: Austrian journalist, specializing in Latin American affairs, who has appealed for the removal of Hamas from the EU’s terror list.
6. Ignacio Ramonet: Spanish academic who has been a long-time defender of Fidel Castro. Ramonet has been a long-time critic of globalization and founded an activist organization aimed at promoting a tax on foreign exchange transactions.
The threat of “lawfare”—political warfare using international legal frameworks and accusations of war crimes—is particularly acute for Israel. Since the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2002, Israel has been a central lawfare target.Petra Marquardt-Bigman: Cary Nelson Makes the Progressive Case Against BDS
For many, the name Richard Goldstone is closely associated with lawfare. Goldstone’s report on the three-week Gaza war that began at the end of 2008 (Operation Cast Lead), compiled and published by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), falsely accused Israelis of intentionally killing civilians and raised the specter of ICC prosecutions. IDF soldiers sent into Gaza to end rocket and missile attacks were demonized as war criminals by a UN commission headed by a Jewish judge.
Ten years later, Goldstone's name remains synonymous with similar UN reports, published after every round of Hamas attacks and Israeli responses (the most recent, from February 2019, dealt with the violent border confrontations). The ICC prosecutor appears to be preparing official investigations based on these lawfare campaigns.
For these reasons, the issues surrounding Goldstone’s role remain important. It is still unclear how he allowed himself to become the symbol of lawfare, but his personal history could provide answers to key questions. What role did his upbringing under the South African apartheid regime, legal training, and Jewish identity play in shaping his outlook and actions? What lessons, if any, have been learned?
This is the backdrop to the detailed biography of Goldstone written by Daniel Terris. Despite the author’s overly sympathetic treatment, which often uncritically repeats his subject’s justifications, his book provides significant insights.
For 200 pages, Terris covers the first seventy years of Goldstone’s life, presenting him as an icon bravely battling apartheid through the South African legal system and taking on other injustices through international tribunals. It is in the final third of the book—covering only three years—that Terris traces the unraveling of Goldstone’s career and reputation through the UN’s Gaza investigation.
From the outset, Nelson leaves no doubt that he is staunchly in favor of a negotiated two-state solution and peaceful co-existence between a democratic Jewish State of Israel and a hopefully also democratic Palestinian state. Yet Nelson is by no means a starry-eyed idealist. He has visited Israel and the West Bank repeatedly, and understands that peace may be a long way off.Qanta Ahmed: Battling BDS: Sanctioning Islamist antisemitism stokes retaliation
But his decidedly left-wing political stance allows Nelson to demonstrate in considerable detail that despite all the lofty rhetoric about “justice” and “equality,” BDS activism does nothing to promote peaceful coexistence, and is instead “about two things only: demonizing and punishing Israel. It is no accident that the terms that give it a name — boycott, divestment, and sanctions — are all punitive.”
Moreover, as Nelson rightly emphasizes, BDS has never “done anything that actually helps Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank nor articulated proposals to do so.”
While Nelson acknowledges that “BDS leaders are explicit about wanting to eliminate the Jewish state,” he believes that “there are certainly well-meaning faculty members and students who sign on to the BDS agenda out of frustration with a stalled peace process. They want to do something to voice that frustration, and they feel that Israel, as the more powerful party, is the most responsible of the two. BDS often seems the only game in town. They see no alternative form of action.”
I have to admit that I’m rather reluctant to assume that people might be “well-meaning” if they support campaigns like BDS. But Cary Nelson may well be right to think that there are many BDS “fellow travelers” who are eager to delude themselves and imagine that support for BDS might somehow promote peace. For those who are truly “well-meaning,” Nelson outlines convincing alternatives for constructive engagement.
For all those who are not particularly well-meaning and prefer to support BDS, Israel Denial will hopefully make it much harder to pretend that the “scholarship” that presents Israel as the despicable Jew among the nations is worth more than the “research” of Nazi “scientists” who measured Jewish skulls to confirm their vicious theories about race. But perhaps you can’t be too picky if you want to confirm your theories about Zionism.
Today’s antisemitism in the United States is of a different ilk than historical forms launched in Europe nearly a century ago. A new poll from the Hudson Institute reveals almost 60% say antisemitism is more commonplace now than 15 years ago.Cuomo to AOC: Concentration Camp Comparison ‘Wholly Inappropriate’
In the most recent action in California, a judge denied a motion filed by a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement representative seeking retaliation against attorneys who successfully secured the right to free speech, and freedom from discrimination for American Jewish students.
In so doing, the judge ruled against Islamist antisemitism.
Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, a founding member of the BDS movement, brought the motion against human rights attorney Brooke Goldstein, founder and director of The Lawfare Project, seeking penalties of nearly $429,000.
Goldstein, director of the New York based nonprofit litigation fund defending the civil rights of Jewish communities worldwide, along with fellow counsel from Winston & Strawn, had earlier this year won a civil rights lawsuit against the California State University System. CSU was found guilty of cultivating a campus environment hostile to Jewish students.
The case was prompted by the earlier incident at San Francisco State University excluding Hillel, a Jewish student group, from a campus “Know Your Rights” fair. The Lawfare Project recognized this as an act of discrimination and bigotry on the basis of their Jewish identity.
The Lawfare Project assisted the excluded Jewish students in filing state and federal lawsuits against CSU on the basis that SFSU had violated California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, legislation which enshrines equality and outlaws all forms of discrimination.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo criticized fellow New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Wednesday afternoon for comparing immigration detention facilities to concentration camps.
"There is no comparison to the Holocaust, period, and to draw an equivalency suggests one does not understand what happened in the Holocaust," Gov. Cuomo said when asked about his opinions about Ocasio-Cortez's comparisons during a press conference ahead of a planned trip to Israel.
He later added to his criticism by saying any comparison is "wholly inappropriate."
Ocasio-Cortez has received blowback from Republicans and Democrats over tweets last week suggesting immigration facilities at the southern border were akin to concentration camps operated by the Nazi regime in Germany in the 1940s. Nonpartisan institutions and historians weighed in on the controversy, including the US Holocaust Memorial Museum which denounced any "efforts to create analogies between the Holocaust and other events."
During the Wednesday press conference, Cuomo voiced concern over the growing number of anti-Semitic attacks occurring in his state.
"The anti-Semitic activity that is happening in this state is horrifying to me," Cuomo said.
Governor Cuomo on AOC's concentration camp remarks: “It’s wholly inappropriate comparison. ... Six million Jews died during the Holocaust, there is no comparison to the Holocaust, period.”
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) June 26, 2019
“To draw an equivalency suggests one does not understand what happened in the Holocaust” pic.twitter.com/igPyTTwBhA
PreOccupiedTerritory: Palestinians Furious That Ocasio-Cortez Stole Their ‘Concentration Camp’ Libel (satire)
Middle East Arabs who have used a term evocative of Nazi persecution and genocide of Jews to demonize Israel voiced outrage today that a New York freshman Congresswoman has appropriated the phrase to refer to facilities where the United States holds people who crossed the border illegally from Mexico.Ilhan Omar's antisemitic, pro-polygamy voter bloc open secret in Minneapolis
Palestinian officials and activists criticized Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) this week following the latter’s use of “concentration camp” to describe the tent cities and other places where Border Patrol units imprison those who enter the US without proper documentation or permission. While Ms. Ocasio-Cortez sought to provoke anger within the US at the treatment of the inmates, many of them children, her choice of words instead shifted focus to the semantic question of whether the facilities live down to the Holocaust associations the term evokes, while in Palestinian areas her rhetoric sparked fury that someone else had the gall to invoke the Holocaust outside the context of painting Israel as evil.
“That’s OUR rhetorical device,” protested Saeb Erekat, a close adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. “How dare she employ it in a manner that not only does not demonize Jews, but distracts the world from the Palestinian issue, which everyone knows must dominate the news everywhere always?”
Keean Bexte of TheRebel.media reports: Yesterday, I was in Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s Minneapolis district asking residents about allegations that she married her brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi.
Michael Gove: Antisemitism ‘now finds a home in British politics’
A senior cabinet minister has lamented how antisemitism “now finds a home in British politics” in reference to the Labour Party, while arguing that the test of any nation’s civility lies in its approach to Jews.UK Labour Party’s Readmission of Corbyn Ally Accused of Antisemitism Called ‘Slap in Face’ to Jewish Community
Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, made the comments at an event promoting UK-Israel trade in central London on Tuesday evening, sponsored by Teddy Sagi’s LabsTech. The event was organised by UK Israel Business.
Gove, who narrowly failed to make the final cut in last week’s Conservative leadership selection process, said antisemitism was today being “nurtured and encouraged by British politicians… it is one of the struggles of our time”.
He argued that anti-Zionism and antisemitism were now one and the same, saying: “The form antisemitism takes now is an attack on the Jewish home, an attempt to undermine and delegitimise Israel… The idea that the Jewish people should not have their own home, their own nation, a right to self-determination, that is antisemitism pure and simple.”
Saddened by its reappearance in British politics, he said: “The test of how civilised a country is, throughout history, does it stand with the Jewish people? Do Jewish citizens feel that they have a friend and are free in that country?
A Labour member of the British Parliament and arch-ally of far-left leader Jeremy Corbyn was welcomed back into the party on Wednesday, following a brief suspension over a remark that Labour had been “too apologetic” over the antisemitism scandals that have plagued its ranks since Corbyn took charge in 2015.90 Labour MPs and Peers Call for Corbyn to Strip Whip from Chris Williamson
A three-person internal committee decided on Wednesday to reject a recommendation by party officials to refer Chris Williamson — who represents the constituency of Derby North in central England — to the next stage of a disciplinary process.
A vocal supporter of the BDS campaign targeting Israel and a backer of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign — a group which advocates the elimination of the Jewish state — Williamson’s offenses include signing a petition in support of Gilad Atzmon, a notorious antisemite and former Israeli citizen who is based in the UK.
Williamson’s social media behavior has included approving retweets of posts by Sonia Mota, a Holocaust denier and an active defamer of the Talmud, the ancient body of Jewish religious law. Meanwhile, at the House of Commons, Williamson used his privileges as an MP in 2018 to show a documentary by Jackie Walker, an activist who was expelled from Labour because of her antisemitic outbursts.
Jewish Labour MP Ruth Smeeth called the decision to readmit Williamson “disgusting” and said colleagues did not want Williamson in the party. “I am horrified,” she told The Guardian newspaper on Wednesday. “It says a great deal about how seriously we’re taking anti-Jewish hate.”
Smeeth said that she was “not comfortable being in the same room” as Williamson.
Over 60 Labour MPs and 30 peers including deputy leader Tom Watson have issued a statement calling for Jeremy Corbyn to remove the whip from Chris Williamson “immediately”. Despite a highly irregular Labour NEC panel overturning his suspension as a member of the Labour Party, it is still up to Corbyn whether he retains the Labour whip in Parliament. Will Corbyn act? Will the MPs act if he doesn’t?Chris Williamson Suspension Panel Member's Passionate Corbyn Palestine Rant
At least they’re taking it more seriously than Lincoln MP Karen Lee who wrote that she was “absolutely chuffed to bits” with the news Williamson had been reinstated in a now deleted Facebook post. You couldn’t make it up:
UPDATE: Now over 70 Labour Party staffers have written to General Secretary Jennie Formby to protest Williamson’s reinstatement. They have called for an immediate review and the implementation of a “truly independent complaints process”.
The fallout from Labour’s decision to re-admit Chris Williamson to the party continues this morning – countless Labour MPs have come out overnight to express their incredulity at the decision. Actions speak louder than words, many of them like Louise Haigh still went out to campaign for Lisa Forbes in Peterborough and then welcome her to Parliament even after her “Zionist slave masters” rants were revealed. Corbyn’s Labour has been here so many times before, MPs’ Williamson protestations are nothing more than hot air without serious action this time…
Williamson’s suspension was lifted after a three-person NEC panel overruled advice from party officials yesterday. One of the three was Huda Elmi – predictably she’s already been uncovered ranting about Corbyn and Palestine by the indefatigable Iggy Ostanin. She’s close to tears as she calls Israel a settler-colonialist state and accuses institutions like the IMF and the World Bank – “who literally have money stained with blood” – of trying to bring down Jeremy Corbyn and not respecting “Jeremy’s mandate”. Labour have serious questions to answer over how they thought she was remotely an appropriate person to be sitting on a disciplinary panel judging cases like Williamson’s…
UK Society for Middle Eastern Studies passes Israel academic boycott resolution
The British Society for Middle Eastern Studies passed a resolution calling for an academic boycott of Israeli institutions.J Street’s Tip Sheet to Debating Democrats: Talk about Settlements and Occupation
The boycott passed on Monday at the society’s annual general meeting in Leeds with almost 80 percent support, according to the Middle East Monitor.
The society, known as BRISMES, was founded in 1973 to encourage and promote the study of the Middle East in the United Kingdom, according to its website.
The resolution charges that Israel has “obstructed Palestinians’ right to education by destroying Palestinian universities and schools, arresting students, raiding and forcing Palestinian universities to close, and restricting Palestinians’ movement.”
It also claims that “Israeli universities are playing a key role in planning, implementing and justifying Israel’s illegal military occupation and are maintaining a close and supportive relationship with the Israeli military, including involvement in developing weapon systems, providing justification for military actions and extra-judicial killings, rewarding students serving in the occupation forces, designing and delivering special program for soldiers and officers, building on occupied land, and systematically discriminating against non-Jewish students.”
The first debate of the 2020 presidential election season is taking place in downtown Miami over two nights, Wednesday and Thursday, this week, with 20 Democratic candidates. If you opted not to watch the first debating team last night, we’ll tell you that according to CNN, Senators Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren, and former San Antonio mayor Julián Castro were the winners, and Beto O’Rourke the clear loser (they said he was “hard to watch” and “out of his depth,” ouch). Tonight’s match will include the leaders of the pack so far, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, who between them have 155 years of wisdom to share with the American people.Israeli Lottery Cancels Prize to Film About Pro-Terrorist Attorney Tsemel
Ben Shnider, Vice President of Political Affairs and Strategy at J Street, sent all the Democratic candidates in both debates a well thought out memo chock full of debate tips regarding how to deal with questions from the Miami audience regarding Israel.
“When it comes to Israel and US foreign policy in the Middle East, some candidates may be feeling a bit of trepidation,” Shnider started his tip sheet, recalling that “for a long time, the conventional wisdom warned against voicing even mild criticism of the Israeli government or giving equal weight to Israeli and Palestinian rights.”
“But times have changed – and the old playbook is long out of date,” he suggested. “Many of the 2020 presidential hopefuls have publicly critiqued and condemned the far-right policies, rhetoric and ideology of Prime Minister Netanyahu,” and, “Importantly, we’ve seen candidates make clear that they won’t shy away from attaching a cost to a potential disastrous Israeli annexation in the West Bank.”
Do we want to read books or watch movies about controversial people with whom we disagree vehemently? Should our government support works that deal with marginal individuals who dedicate themselves to helping the most brutal enemies of Israel? It makes for an exciting argument, which surfaced this week over the decision of Israel’s national lottery to award 150,000 shekel ($49,000) to a film about attorney Lea Tsemel.BACKGROUNDER: The World Health Organization (WHO)- Another Biased UN Body
To illustrate just what a marginal person Leah Tsemel is, she managed to shock an Ha’aretz interviewer who asked her about her defense of Abd al-Aziz Salha, the man who took part in a lynching of two IDF soldiers who strayed into Ramallah in October 2000. Salha is the crazed man who was photographed waving his bloody hands at the window of a police station, having just murdered his two victims.
Ravit Hecht, who is more likely to share a plate of humus with Ahmad Tibi than, say, Bezalel Smotrich, asked Tsemel if she wasn’t troubled by having to represent the perpetrator of that lynch, and Tsemel said: “Not at all. And what lynch? Big deal…”
So yes, although I believe that in a democracy even the worst criminal is entitled to legal representation, I’m pretty sure Lea Tsemel is as close as a woman with two Polish parents can get to being the devil.
I’d still want to watch a movie about her. “Leah Tsemel, Attorney,” has won the DocAviv international documentary film festival in Tel Aviv best film award for 2019. And the lottery awarded it $49,000 which can go a long way in Israel – but then it took it back.
A WHO-produced video-graphic, originally embedded in the site and now linked to from the site, presents the same clichéd accusations of Israel restricting Palestinian access to healthcare in simplistic propaganda-form.
Claiming to be “based on the true story of a young patient with cancer,” the video is a child-like cartoon focuses on a fictional cartoon character named Ahmed who is repeatedly denied an exit visa from Gaza by Israeli authorities, preventing him from obtaining necessary medical tests. The cartoon goes on to accuse Israel of separating families for months, and, even when it does grant permits, of making “frail and elderly relatives accompany children.”
It also alleges that “patients and their families risk arrest and detention by Israeli forces en route to receiving care.” These accusations are presented as blanket truths, without any evidence and without any acknowledgement of valid Israeli security concerns – documented examples of terrorists trying to infiltrate into Israel under the guise of seeking medical treatment. (See, for example: “Hamas Operatives Pose as Medical Patients to Infiltrate Israel”; “Cancer Patient Caught Smuggling Explosives for Hamas, Shin Bet Says“; “Israel Reveals: Hamas Exploits Sick Palestinians for Terrorism”; “Hamas’s Systematic Use of Civilians to Promote Terrorism”; “Budding West Bank Hamas Cell Aimed for Major Bloodshed”)
There is, of course, no reference to Israel’s complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and its takeover by a terrorist group worn to Israel’s annihilation.
Were the WHO really interested in improving Palestinian healthcare, it would examine all the factors involved in regulating healthcare. But like the Hamas Health Ministry, the WHO seems more concerned with spreading anti-Israel propaganda than in seeking improvement to Palestinian healthcare.
Today's palestinian forecast after hearing about this: angry with a chance of seething. https://t.co/ohA6ihq6TZ
— Ozraeli Dave (((דיויד לנג))) (@Israellycool) June 27, 2019
Peace! https://t.co/My6Q24IuhG
— Ozraeli Dave (((דיויד לנג))) (@Israellycool) June 26, 2019
YouTube ‘mistakenly’ takes down anti-Shoah denial video
YouTube has reinstated a video denouncing antisemitism and Holocaust denial having initially removed it for violating its hate speech policy.
The video in question, posted by journalist Tom Gross, featured Observer investigative reporter Carole Cadwalladr criticising suggested antisemitic search terms on Google.
On June 5 YouTube, which is owned by Google, announced that it had updated its policies regarding “harmful content and hate speech”, saying that videos in breach of its rules “are removed faster than ever and users are seeing less borderline content and harmful misinformation”.
Mr Gross’s video was removed on June 10 — despite YouTube continuing to host many videos elsewhere promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories. It was then reinstated on June 25, but only after the JC contacted YouTube for this article.
A YouTube spokesperson said: “We have an appeals process in place for users, and when it’s brought to our attention that a video has been removed mistakenly, we act quickly to reinstate it.
“The video flagged by the JC was previously removed mistakenly but has now been reinstated.”
Videos that remain available on YouTube include one titled, “My Question for the Jews”, which claims that the Talmud instructs Jews to view non-Jews as “animals”, while others seen by the JC contain antisemitic tropes regarding “the Rothschild banking dynasty” and the “New World Order”.
Actually, @ABCaustralia, the Arab oil embargo did not simply target nations supporting Israel. It also targeted neutral nations such as Canada and Japan, in the (eventually successful) hope of persuading them to become more pro-Arab. pic.twitter.com/u4Z5exExfd
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) June 27, 2019
Manager of Pittsburgh restaurant fired for anti-Semitic Facebook post
The manager of a popular restaurant in Pittsburgh was fired after he shared an anti-Semitic post on Facebook.Israeli Company Wins Bid to Help Secure US Border
Yokoso Japanese Steakhouse owner Jeff Kim apologized in a Facebook post for the action of his employee, calling it “inexcusable.”
He also wrote: “Please know that his comments and views do not reflect the values of the restaurant and its employees. His employment has been terminated.” The restaurant is located on the city’s waterfront.
The post was a meme that shows the interior of an oven and read “Jewish bunk beds for sale.”
The restaurant staff learned of the post on Sunday and the employee was fired on Monday.
The employee, identified as Stephen Guyer, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that the post was a “huge mistake” and that he thought the meme “was something about a Danish bunk bed.”
He added: “My life has been ruined now. I would never disrespect Jewish people intentionally. I love all people no matter their race, color or religion. I made a mistake and I’m very sorry for the outcome.”
Israeli defense electronics company Elbit Systems announced on Wednesday that its US subsidiary has been awarded a $26 million contract by the US Customs and Border Protection to install a multi-sensor system to monitor the US-Mexico border.Report: Israeli Businesses Added $18.6 Billion in Revenue to NY Economy in 2018
According to a report in the Israeli financial daily Globes, Elbit will install an Integrated Fixed Towers (IFT) system in Arizona.
Elbit has been involved in a number of projects with US Customs regarding border security.
The IFT system is a command and control center with sensors that monitors the US-Mexico border and provides intelligence to agents patrolling on the ground.
“Elbit Systems of America is honored to have been selected by the CBP and the Tohono O’odham Nation to provide a solution to suit the needs of those living and working along the border in the Casa Grande Area of Responsibility. This project clearly demonstrates our company’s mission to provide innovative solutions that protect and save lives,” said the company’s president and CEO Ranaan Horowitz, according to Globes.
According to a report by the independent New York-Israel Business Alliance, Israeli-founded companies operating in New York City contributed $18.6 billion in revenue in 2018, and a whopping $33.8 billion—two percent of the New York gross domestic product—when accounting for spending on local goods and services.Moody’s, Israel’s Team8 set up venture to assess cybersecurity risk at firms
Data on the 506 Israeli companies was published Thursday in step with the arrival in Israel of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
According to the report, there are five Israeli “unicorn companies”—valued at $1 billion or more—in New York today: WeWork, Taboola, Payoneer, Lemonade and Compass.
In total, the companies directly employ 24,850 New York residents and indirectly employ another 27,502.
“Part of the key to understanding Israel’s success abroad is to understand the people and the land,” said New York-Israel Business Alliance Founder and President Aaron Kaplowitz, according to the The Jerusalem Post.
“The Israeli population is highly educated and comprised primarily of first or second generation immigrants—natural risk-takers—who acquire leadership and technical skills during their military service,” Kaplowitz said.
Moody’s Corp., the ratings agency, and Israel’s Team8, a cybersecurity think tank and investor, said Thursday they will be setting up a joint venture for what they hope will become a global standard for evaluating how vulnerable companies are to cyberattacks.Fueled by 15 years of hits, Reggaeton king Daddy Yankee brings Latin heat
The joint venture will combine the ratings agency’s expertise at developing methodologies and global standards to measure credit risk with Team8’s expertise in the field of cybersecurity, the two firms said in a statement.
This risk assessment tool will serve the needs of boards of directors, audit committees and chief executives, among others, to understand the cybersecurity risks firms may be exposed to and assess this risk against that of other firms and over time. The assessments will also help possible acquirers understand the cybersecurity risks facing their acquisition target, as well as help measuring risk when acquiring a cyber insurance policy.
In 2018, Moody’s made a strategic investment in Team8, set up by graduates of Israel’s elite military intelligence Unit 8200.
The concert, his third in Israel since 2015, was the second-to-last on his Con Calma tour, named for his Spanish-language remake of the 1992 reggae rap hit “Informer” by Canadian rapper Snow, who is perhaps one of the few people who can rap faster than Daddy Yankee.Singer Daddy Yankee Floats in Dead Sea, Visits Western Wall Ahead of Israel Concert
Between songs, though, Daddy Yankee slowed down enough to jabber with the crowd. Unlike some other artists who barely bother to acknowledge where they are, he gave the masses what they wanted, repeatedly name-checking Israel and Tel Aviv (though not Rishon Lezion) and calling out the various national flags from Latin American countries people had toted to the show.
“Every time I come here I feel like home,” he said to cheers, thanking the crowd over and over again in Spanish, English and Hebrew.
“Todah Raba,” in fact, was one of the few Hebrew phrases he has apparently learned after three visits in about four years, but he made up for his lack of vocabulary subbing in Spanish, as in “Shalom de la henta.”
“I’m picking it up,” he joked.
But as he’s proved again and again by making non-Spanish speakers in the US, Europe and elsewhere step to music they don’t actually understand (his first hit was about fossil fuels and a cat that’s actually a car that’s actually a woman; his biggest hit is a graphic account of lovemaking), what you say matters less than what kind of beat you say it to.
Popular Latin singer Daddy Yankee is touring Israel ahead of his concert on Wednesday at Rishon Lezion Live Park.
The “Despacito” vocalist landed in the Jewish state on Tuesday and that night visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem. He then shared on Instagram on Wednesday a photo of himself floating in the Dead Sea.
In Israel debut, Reggie Watts gets his shakshuka on
Hundreds of people crowded around the stage at Reading 3 in the Tel Aviv Port Wednesday night, in anticipation of Reggie Watts’s show – his first in Israel. The American comedian walked onstage, stood between the synthesizer piano and loop machine, and said, “Shalom.”
Watts, whose shows are highly improvised, expresses his humor by role-playing scenarios, speaking to the audience stand-up style, and crafting spoken-word poetry with a feigned sense of gravitas. “This next moment is brought to you by life,” he said, with mock sincerity.
The performer, whose comedy leans heavily on non sequiturs and a sense of the absurd, created music at the piano and the loop machine, fiddling with them as though they were extensions of his own hands. His musical compositions transcended the bounds of musical genre and explored reggae, pop, R&B and gospel themes, interspersed with a multitude of onomatopoeic sounds, such as swooshing and licking.
Watts’s voice and persona shifted at multiple points throughout the night, as he jumped from accent to accent, from one language to another, starting, of course, with an Israeli accent, which he admitted sounded similar to a French one.
Watts catered his performance to the audience that he had in front of him, throwing Hebrew words such as todah into his skits and singing about popular foods in Tel Aviv. “Hummus” appeared repeatedly as a refrain in one of his songs.
Newsreel from 1925. The dedication of the new Mount Scopus Campus of Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
— American Zionism (@americanzionism) June 26, 2019
Things to note:
1. Throngs of Jews dressed in their Sabbath best
2. Allenby, Balfour, and Head of Liberal Party Hebert Samuel together
3. Jews dancing the hora in celebration
📽️ pic.twitter.com/SvYteJLKKO
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