Sunday, June 30, 2019
With Their Repeated Rejections, Palestinians Risk Total Irrelevance
Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, shocked Jewish leaders at a closed-door meeting in New York last year. "In the last several decades, the Palestinian leadership has missed one opportunity after the other and rejected all the peace proposals it was given," said bin Salman, according to press reports. "It is about time the Palestinians take the proposals and agree to come to the negotiations table or shut up and stop complaining." The future king even said that the Palestinian issue was not a top priority for the Saudis, adding that Saudi Arabia "has much more urgent and important issues to deal with" in the Middle East.Prof. Phyllis Chesler: They do not care if they go down in history as barbarians
Less than two years earlier, in the same city, then-President Barack Obama devoted just one sentence of his last speech before the United Nations General Assembly to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. One sentence was still more than the year before, when, for the first time since becoming president, Obama did not even mention the conflict during his annual speech at the United Nations. Compare that with Obama's first three speeches before the General Assembly—in 2009, 2010, and 2011—in which he focused 10 percent, 23 percent, and 18 percent of his lengthy remarks, respectively, on the peace process. The drop-off is striking.
The cases of bin Salman and Obama represent the growing indifference of two pro-Palestinian groups—the Arab leadership and the Western, liberal elite—to the Palestinians being stateless and underdeveloped. The two cases also serve as microcosms of a larger trend: the world growing increasingly apathetic about the Palestinian plight, with traditionally sympathetic voices less interested in trying to help—save for the radicals of the Western progressive movement, who have an irrational hatred of Israel, and perhaps some Arab populations. One reason for this trend is the surge in chaos across the Middle East unrelated to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A belligerent Iran on the march, the Islamic State wreaking havoc, the war in Syria showing the depths of humanity's cruelty—how much attention can political leaders give to the Palestinians with such priorities in the Middle East? But the other reason, which is hard for pro-Palestinians voices to acknowledge, is the stubbornness, the rejectionism, the Jew-hatred, and anti-Semitism of the Palestinians themselves.
People want to remember their ancestors as noble or as victims, never as perpetrators.PMW: For 3 years, the PA has paid family of murderer of a 13-year-old Israeli girl
Nothing has really changed. Despite all the righteous Gentiles, Eastern Europeans would again probably incinerate the Jews. In fact, in Ukraine today, the city has sold what is a mass grave of Jews murdered in Poltava to a real estate developer. Only last year, the existing monument for the Poltava victims was defaced with “Heil Hitler” and “Death to the Kikes.”
Barbarians is a film of agonized conscience. It reminded me of the film Aftermath which fictionalizes the 1941 pogrom of Jedwabne’s Jews at the hands of their Polish neighbors. Like Odessa, and like Ostroleka, Jedwabne’s Jews were herded by their neighbors into barns and buildings and set on fire. A contemporary Christ figure who tries to do the right thing is literally crucified by the Poles who do not want to be held accountable for their evil, greedy deeds.
Pasikowski’s powerful film Aftermath caused a huge controversy in Poland—it was banned in some Polish towns—as did Jan Gross’s painstaking documentation of this same atrocity. The Polish government threatened to strip Gross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland and his impeccable research was hotly challenged. Something similar happened to Anna Bikont who also published The Crime and the Silence—another superb piece of research on this subject.
Nazi Germans industrialized ethnic cleansing. Catholic priests and nationalist leaders incited their populations to take up their proverbial pitchforks and torches and begin hacking away, burning Jews alive, possessing their tiny apartments and their pitiful crockery. Jedwabne and Ostroleka were both impoverished, agrarian communities, not large cities. The Jews did not have enviable crystal and chinaware.
See this hard-hitting film about the barbarians in our midst. It will be opening in New York City on July 19 at the IFC Center and in Los Angeles on July 26.
Three years ago today, a 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist murdered 13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel while she slept in her bed. The terrorist was killed by Israeli security personnel at the scene.
Since the murder, the Palestinian Authority has paid the family over 50,000 shekels, just because their son murdered an Israeli 13-year-old girl and died a “Martyr” as they call it.
A substantial part of the PA’s "Pay for Slay" program is to pay the families of dead terrorists a monthly allowance. Since being elected as Chairman of the PA in 2005, Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly approved increasing the monthly allowances paid to the families of dead terrorists. Currently, the PA pays such families at least 1,400 shekels/month, with additions for terrorists who were married, terrorists who had children and terrorists who lived in Jerusalem or other parts of Israel.
The different institutions headed by Abbas have all referred to the murderer as a “Shahid” (Martyr) - the highest honor achievable in Islam according to the Palestinian Authority.
Reporting on the murder, both the PA’s official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida and WAFA, the official PA news agency, referred to the murderer as a “Shahid,” as did PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi.
Also honoring the murderer, Fatah immediately posted his picture on Facebook, declaring him a “Martyr.”
The murderer’s mother expressed her pride in her son, stating that “My son is a hero. He made me proud.” She also encouraged other young Palestinians to carry out similar murders:
Mother of terrorist Muhammad Taraireh: “My son is a hero. He made me proud. My son died as a Martyr defending Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa [Mosque]. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, he [my son] has joined the Martyrs before him, and he is not better than them. Allah willing, all of them will follow this path, all the youth of Palestine. Allah be praised.”
[Hebron News YouTube channel, June 30, 2016]
Seth Frantzman: Russia and Syria: How Moscow views the Middle East today
NONE OF WHAT Russia has said in these last statements is entirely new. Russia has often said it rejects US support for Syrian rebels, or US involvement in Syria. It has warned against the spread of “chaos” and asserted that Western claims of support for democracy have led to instability. Putin gave an interview to the Financial Times this month in which he rejected “liberalism,” which he said has become obsolete.The Bahrain Conference and the Big Omission
Russia’s goal is to present itself as the key mediator in conflicts such as Syria and appear to be an alternative model to the West or the US. It does this by trumpeting its consistent foreign policy. In a sense, it also argues that although in the West its support of the regime of President Bashar Assad in Syria was condemned as supporting a crackdown on dissent and bombing of cities, that Russia was correct in its overall portrayal of the Syrian rebels as being infiltrated by instability and terrorists.
Russia also wants to balance its various allies and partners. For instance, it has brokered agreements in Syria to stop a regime offensive into Idlib where Turkish forces are located. Russia also says that it has discussed “Russian-Israeli cooperation in fighting terrorism, issues related to ensuring the safety of Russian citizens in Israel, ways to deepen ties between the law enforcement agencies, special services and defense agencies, as well as other issues on bilateral, regional, and international agenda.” Russia understands Israel’s concerns about Syria. This is a corollary to its messages to the Middle East.
Today, Russia is increasing its influence. This includes the conference it held at Ufa and also Putin’s meetings at summits in central Asia earlier this month. Russia is cultivating ties not only with Iran but also with China and Turkey, seeking to build a more comprehensive partnership that includes key regional powers and global economies, all looking at certain issues similarly, and mostly opposed to US hegemony. The idea is that as we approach 30 years after the Cold War ended and Russia was plunged into its own internal instability, the world has changed. Russia also wants to be the go-to for countries that require it to help reduce tensions in places like Syria. It wants to be an alternative to the US and show that it plays a constructive role.
The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy Magazine, and others reported on the PA’s refusal to participate, but failed to note that it was in keeping with a long history of Palestinians rejecting opportunities for peace.
In recent years, the PA has refused US and Israeli offers for a Palestinian state in 2000 at Camp David, 2001 at Taba, and 2008 after the Annapolis Conference.
As former AP reporter Mark Lavie detailed in Tablet Magazine:
In September 2008, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a map, a proposal that would give the Palestinians 93.7 percent of the West Bank, with Israeli territory to make up 5.8 percent, and a corridor to Gaza from the West Bank for the other 0.5 percent. Olmert insisted that Abbas initial the map before taking it. It was clear that this was Israel’s final offer. Abbas rejected it.
The PA refused to even make a counteroffer to Olmert’s plan — just as they did when Abbas’ predecessor, Yasser Arafat, was presented with the 2000 and 2001 proposals.
In 2014 and 2016, the Obama administration sought to present plans for restarting negotiations, with the 2008 offer as a starting point. But yet again, the PA refused to sit down and engage in bilateral negotiations with the Israeli government — despite the fact that the Oslo Accords stipulate they must do so.
Instead, the PA has insisted on paying salaries to terrorist murderers and their families — even when threatened with aid cuts by the US and others.
And this trend is not recent.
.@POTUS explains why he cut aid to the palestinians. He was 100% correct to do so https://t.co/UjkFad9Red
— Ozraeli Dave (((דיויד לנג))) (@Israellycool) June 30, 2019
Utter nonsense, @UPI. Although @realDonaldTrump stopped the repeated deferral of the transfer of the US Embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the official statement at the time made very clear that it had no bearing on the final status of Jerusalem. pic.twitter.com/g78Jh0ORmX
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) June 30, 2019
Bahrain’s Khalifa says interviews to Israelis ‘nowhere near normalization’
Bahrain’s foreign minister defended his decision to grant rare interviews to Israeli media outlets last week and said doing so did not mean Manama supported normalizing ties with the Jewish state.US envoys to attend opening of controversial archaeological site in E. Jerusalem
Khalid bin Ahmad Al Khalifa spoke to the Times of Israel and journalists from Israel’s Kan broadcaster and Channel 13 news on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the US-led Peace to Prosperity conference on the Palestinian economy.
His comments, expressing legitimacy for Israel’s existence and hopes for peace, were praised in Israel and elsewhere as groundbreaking, but also drew anger by some in the Arab world who oppose any contact with Israel until the Arab-Israeli conflict is put to rest.
“There are those who say this is normalization. This is not normalization. This is not even a step toward normalization,” he told the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel on Friday.
“You must send the correct message to the person you want to address and solve a problem with. That is the Israeli people.”
In a wide-ranging interview on the sidelines of the US-led Peace to Prosperity conference in Manama on Wednesday, Khalifa told The Times of Israel that Israel’s existence is a fact, and that Bahrain would like peace with it. “Israel is a country in the region… and it’s there to stay, of course,” he said. “Who did we offer peace to [with] the [Arab] Peace Initiative? We offered it to a state named the State of Israel, in the region… We do believe that Israel is a country to stay, and we want better relations with it, and we want peace with it.”
US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and the White House Mideast peace envoy Jason Greenblatt are due to participate Sunday in the inauguration of an archaeological tourist site in East Jerusalem, drawing rebuke from the Palestinian Authority and a left-wing Israeli organization.Amb. Danny Danon to protesters: 'Shame on you'
In response, Greenblatt called the PA criticism “ludicrous.”
The event, hosted by the City of David in the mostly Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, south of the Old City, will also be attended by Israeli ministers and lawmakers.
It will inaugurate the Pilgrims’ Road, a now-subterranean stairway that is said to have served as a main artery for Jews to the Temple Mount thousands of years ago, which archaeologists have been excavating for the past eight years at the City of David National Park in Jerusalem, beginning at the intersection of the Kidron and Ben Hinnom Valleys.
But the dovish Peace Now group slammed the initiative on Saturday, branding the Pilgrim’s Road “the controversy tunnel” and saying it had been “dug under the homes of Silwan residents, caused the evacuation of Palestinians’ homes in the neighborhood and increased tensions between Palestinian residents and the Jewish settlers acting more intensively than ever in recent years to Judaize the neighborhood, as part of an effort to sabotage the two-state solution.”
Peace Now said it would demonstrate outside the event in protest of “the trampling of Jerusalem as a city that is holy to the three [monotheistic] religions and belongs to all its residents, and turning Silwan into the messianic Disneyland of the far-right in Israel and the United States — several meters from the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Temple Mount.”
Arutz Sheva spoke to the Israeli ambassador to the UN Danny Danon shortly before the unveiling of the Herodian road, the Pilgrim's Road, in the City of David on Sunday evening.
"The Herodian road in the City of David is a historical representation that attests to the Jewish people's connection to Jerusalem," Danon said. "Demonstrations will not change historical truth. I say [to the protestors], "Shame on you. You should come and get connected yourself to our ancient history and our ancient Jerusalem."
Ambassador Danon, who is currently visiting Israel, took part today in the festive occasion celebrating the inauguration of the Pilgrim Road alongside the special envoy of the Trump administration to the Middle East, Jason Greenblatt, and the US ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
Danon said regarding the intent of various organizations to protest against the ceremony that "holding demonstrations and spreading false facts will not change the historical truth and will not sever the unbreakable connection to the heart of the Jewish people. I will continue to bring delegations of dozens of diplomats from around the world."
The Herodian road led the pilgrims to the Temple, currently passing between the Pool of Siloam on the slopes of the City of David, the Givati Parking Lot, up to the City of David, and by the Davidson Archeological Park adjacent to the Western Wall.
The only ideologues here are @KenRoth & his @hrw team, who are not in the slightest committed to the pursuit of justice, but rather defense of Palestinian terror and the vilification of Israel. https://t.co/rJus0QFW7p
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) June 29, 2019
After US threat, PA frees man who attended Bahrain summit
The Palestinian Authority on Saturday night released Hebron businessman Saleh Abu Mayala after he had been detained upon his return from the US-led economic conference in Bahrain.
According to Palestinian reports, the decision to release the businessman came following a threatening letter from the US Embassy.
"We are pleased the PA has released the Palestinian they arrested after attending the Peace to Prosperity workshop," White House envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt tweeted after the release. "We look [forward] to continuing our conversation [with] all who attended the workshop & anyone else who wants a better future for the Palestinians."
Mayala had attended last week's conference in Bahrain with a small group of Palestinian colleagues, led by businessman Ashraf Jabari, who is viewed with deep suspicion by fellow Palestinians and authorities for his close ties to Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
A PA security official said intelligence services detained Mayala in Hebron for interrogation, without elaborating on the reason for the arrest.
Fatah Militants Threaten Bahrain Workshop Participants: We Still Remember Black September, Our Gun is Capable of Roaming Arab Capitals pic.twitter.com/fbnKFm2KBq
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) June 30, 2019
Jabari: Palestinians who follow peaceful path with Israelis will be harassed
Anyone who follows the path of peace with Israelis will be harassed, and obstacles will be put in his way – but in the end, that path will succeed, Hebron businessman Ashraf Jabari said on Wednesday in Manama, Bahrain.Hezbollah’s secret, grandiose plan to invade Israel in the post-tunnel era
Jabari, one of some 14 Palestinian businessmen who attended the US-sponsored ”Peace to Prosperity” conference last week, made his comments to The Jerusalem Post at a reception hosted by a Bahraini interfaith NGO called This is Bahrain.
His words came before the arrest of a businessman by the Palestinian Authority and the attempted arrest of another on Friday, for attending the conference.
“We are saying to the world that we are working toward peace, true peace – between the two people, not the governments,” Jabari said.
Jabari said that the Israelis and Palestinians have been “with this problem” for 70 years. “We must live either in peace or violence,” he said. “The way to peace is easier. For 70 years, we have not gotten anywhere. Let’s live in a calm situation and look for a better future for our children.”
Jabari said that while 14 Palestinian businessmen came to the conference, another 14 did not come because of the anger and opposition of the PA.
The question now is how, now that the Israeli military has revealed and destroyed Hezbollah’s secret strategic weapon — the cross-border tunnels — the Lebanese organization plans to operate inside Israeli territory and take control of a town or a piece of land.In UN appeal, southern Israelis to accuse Hamas of violating their human rights
Perhaps Hezbollah doesn’t have another strategic weapon like the tunnels, but it can be assumed it still has an extremely ambitious and detailed plan to occupy communities and military posts on Israel’s northern border.
The tunnel project was meant to shock Israel, funneling hundreds of members of the terror group’s Radwan commando unit into the country to carry out various attacks.
“Radwan” was the alias of Imad Mughniya, Hezbollah’s military chief who was assassinated by Israel in 2008. Members of that unit are given high priority in almost everything: budget, equipment, resources and logistics. Sometimes their activities resemble those of elite IDF units, such as combat soldiers trained to use ATVs or navy commando fighters supposed to sneak into Israel in small underwater vessels.
In the absence of the tunnels, the mission of Radwan members will likely be to covertly get thousands of fighters into Israel at once through several points on the border while bombarding the border region, hoping that will overwhelm the IDF and allow some of the fighters to reach an Israeli border community or army post.
Hezbollah’s hope at the moment is that a heavy artillery bombardment of the entire border area, plus the use of high-caliber rockets that can destroy targets such as military posts, will do the trick.
Residents of southern Israel are preparing to appeal to the United Nations with charges that the Palestinian terror group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and seeks to destroy Israel, is violating their human rights.
The communities are planning the appeal in response to the ongoing launching of incendiary devices from Gaza into Israel, which continued over the weekend despite an unofficial truce recently renewed between the Israeli government and Hamas, according to a Saturday report by Channel 12 news.
Residents of the affected southern Israeli areas and local political leaders were checking the legal requirements for issuing an independent appeal to the UN, according to the report.
The communities closest to Gaza have also been pummeled in recent years by repeated rounds of violence in which Palestinian terror groups have launched countless rocket and mortar attacks. Over the past year, weekly border protests have drawn thousands of Gazan demonstrators to the security fence in events that often turn violent, with riots and efforts to break through the fence.
Additionally, a near-constant stream of incendiary devices launched from Gaza has decimated southern Israel’s wildlife and agriculture.
This week approximately 100 fires were started by balloon-borne arson devices launched from Gaza, according to figures from the local fire departments.
#Ahed's father, #BassemTamimi with her adored cousin #AhlamTamimi, on the run from @FBI. The TV show on which they're appearing is a #Hamas production to encourage jihad and killing. Beamed throughout the world by #Hamas mouthpiece Al-Quds TV [https://t.co/Q1WWqB1ARh]. pic.twitter.com/bg90KIZoZL
— This Ongoing War (@ThisOngoingWar) June 30, 2019
The inhumanity! https://t.co/RAuSpaYFFf #Gaza
— Ozraeli Dave (((דיויד לנג))) (@Israellycool) June 30, 2019
Iranian state TV earning ad revenue while broadcasting internationally
Iranian state TV has been earning advertising revenue from YouTube content, according to Radio Farda.
State TV channels have also been able to garner a following internationally through social media and live broadcasts, as a Press TV director explained in an interview with the Iranian Fars News Agency.
The state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) owns and markets TV sitcoms and other programs for Persian speakers around the world, a report by the Shahrvand newspaper in Tehran said, according to Farda.
IRIB's entertainment channel iFilm has a YouTube channel with over 25,000 followers, according to the report. Videos uploaded on the channel have been viewed 15 million times as of late June.
Asr-e Jadid (The Modern Age), an IRIB talent show, has 10,000 followers on YouTube and has been viewed over three million times.
The programs available on YouTube are free to view, but IRIB reportedly receives a share of the advertising revenues.
Other Iranian media companies, such as Rasaneh Novin (Modern Media), also earn money on YouTube. Some of them present Iranian TV on their YouTube channels by leaving out credits and information about producers, according to Radio Farda.
Advertising fees are usually calculated based on the number of views, monthly views, number of clicks and other factors.
Hate-filled, antisemitic letter published by @MetroUK. Unacceptable content, and even worse that it's published anonymously. Media outlets must not allow themselves to become a platform for hate. HonestReporting is making an official complaint to Metro. pic.twitter.com/s18w9xZNBJ
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) June 30, 2019
The Muslim plot to bomb a black church the media won't talk about
The arrest of the refugee black church bomber makes it clear that there is an irreconcilable choice.Honest Reporting: Coffee Bean Roasted Over “Jerusalem, West Bank”
Pittsburgh and America can accept refugees fleeing Muslim terror. Or they can accept migrants from Muslim terror countries. But to welcome “all refugees” is to terrorize true refugees and immigrants.
The bombing of a black church strikes deep into the nerve center of the civil rights movement.
Democrats claim that stopping attacks against black churches should be a major law enforcement priority, but their own policies brought the latest black church bomber into the heart of Pennsylvania.
And yet we know that this terror plot against a black church will pass. It will receive far less scrutiny and horror than the attacks carried out against black churches by white men. The Democrats who want to talk about white supremacy and white nationalism, don’t want to discuss Islamic supremacism.
What happens when an Islamic supremacist tries to bomb a black church? Silence.
But on Wilson Avenue, in Pittsburgh, in a formerly African-American neighborhood that is losing its character, a worn church with red doors stands witness to the bigotry whose name we may not speak.
The bigotry of Islam nearly killed here, as it slew thousands in black churches across Nigeria.
Mustafa Alowemer failed. The next one of the thousands of Syrian Muslim migrants may succeed.
HonestReporting’s international headquarters is located in the heart of downtown Jerusalem. Many tourists will be familiar with the area in the west of the city, which includes Jaffa Street with its many offices, stores, cafes and the light rail running up and down the pedestrianized thoroughfare.
Given the amount of media to monitor, HonestReporting staff can be forgiven for needing the odd coffee or two (or three or more) to get them through the day. Thankfully there are plenty of coffee bars and restaurants only seconds from the office. Including the international franchise Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.
Our local branch, however, according to the company’s global website, is located in…
Yes, you read that right.
“Jerusalem, West Bank.”
We walked out of our office (which isn’t in the West Bank) to take a look for ourselves.
The role of journalists isn't to merely report each side's claims, @UPI. It's to report events. There's zero doubt that Hamas releases firebombs attached to balloons into Israeli territory. It freely admits doing so on social media, and thousands of videos document the results. pic.twitter.com/319Sa0JAEi
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) June 30, 2019
BBC’s Middle East editor Tweets about ‘attitudes’
On June 30th the Jerusalem Post published an article which included statements issued by the Palestinian Authority concerning the opening of an archaeological site taking place on the same day.
“The PA Foreign Ministry strongly condemned plans by US Ambassador David Friedman and US special envoy Jason Greenblatt to attend the inaugural ceremony of the discovery of “Pilgrim’s Road” in Jerusalem’s Old City. The expected presence of the American officials at the event will be the first time the US will recognize Israeli sovereignty within areas of the Old City Basin.
The PA ministry said their participation underscores the US administration’s support for the “Judaization” of Jerusalem.
“This is a new image of American aggression,” the ministry said. “The American presence [in the ceremony] and celebrating Judaization activities in occupied east Jerusalem are an act of hostility against the Palestinians.”
Greenblatt responded to the claims on Twitter, saying that the PA should recognize history and archaeology and “stop pretending it isn’t true.””
Shortly after Mr Greenblatt had sent that Tweet the BBC’s Middle East editor put out one of his own.
Anti-Semitism leads to spike in demand for homes in Israel
Global anti-Semitism is rearing its head, and Jews in Europe are starting to be afraid to wear kippot in public. Meanwhile, US synagogues are turning into sites of bloodbaths. The sense of insecurity many Diaspora Jews are feeling is prompting them to invest in homes in Israel, whether as part of a plan to make aliyah or out of a desire to have a safe haven in place.Pittsburgh Jewish federation gives over $650,000 to Christchurch victims
Currently, there are some 14.5 million Jews worldwide, approximately 6.5 million of whom live in Israel.
The phenomenon is particularly prominent among French Jews, many of whom have made aliyah in the past few years out of fear they would be in danger if they remained in France.
According to David Refael, a real estate agent who founded the Refael Group, this means that demand for Israeli real estate will remain high. Refael noted that the same process takes place with every wave of aliyah. Prior to the massive influx of Jews from the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the average price of an apartment in Israel was some 30,000 shekels. The "Russian aliyah" caused home prices to triple, Refael said.
"Israeli developers should take advantage of the fact that it [the Israeli real estate market] serves a lot more people than actually live in the country, and take advantage of the opportunities before them – opportunities that, unfortunately, are the result of growing anti-Semitism and a growing sense of insecurity many of the Jews who live abroad feel," Refael observed.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh will give more than $650,000 to victims of the Christchurch terror attacks on two mosques that left 51 worshippers dead.New Israeli-Japanese-American strategy could help eliminate cancer cells
More than $60,000 of that total was raised by the Tree of Life congregation, which was targeted by an anti-Semitic gunman five months earlier on October 27, 2018.
“After the March 15 attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, we feel compelled to come to the aid of those communities, just as our Jewish community was so compassionately supported only a few short months ago by people around the world of many faiths. We recall with love the immediate, overwhelming support Tree of Life received from our Muslim brothers and sisters in Pittsburgh,” the congregation wrote on the GoFundMe page it set up two days after the Christchurch attack in order to raise funds for the Federation’s effort.
The money will be transferred to the Christchurch Foundation, and will be used for counseling and other support services, education and vocational training, medical treatment and financial planning for the victims and their immediate families, the Federation announced on Friday, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
The money also will be used for programs that bring the Muslim and Jewish communities together, according to the report.
An innovative strategy for eliminating cancer cells has been developed by an international team led by Israel’s Technion.Gal Gadot talks about antisemitism at Reebok event
The study, which was published recently in Nature Chemistry, is considered a milestone in the application of the discovery of the ubiquitin system. Israeli researchers Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover, and US biologist Irwin Rose, won the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for studying the roles of the ubiquitin system in controlling the cell division process, which today is playing a key role in understanding and curing certain types of cancer.
While many research groups around the world have been working on the ubiquitin system and harnessing it for developing innovative medical treatments – including discovering four drugs approved for treatments – “the progress in the study of the ubiquitin system and the development of drugs based on its understanding are very slow relative to its potential,” said Prof. Ashraf Brik of the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, who headed the recent study.
The strategy developed by Brik and colleagues from Japan and America neutralizes the ability of the malignancy to perform the same manipulation. It is based on an unprecedented combination of Brik’s skill in producing ubiquitin chains using advanced chemical methods and Prof. Hiro Suga of the University of Tokyo’s method of creating very large libraries of molecules called cyclic peptides. As part of the collaboration, the researchers discovered how these cyclic peptides bind to the ubiquitin chains and thus inhibit the breakdown of proteins that help the cancer to grow and thrive.
At a promotional event for Reebok’s new collection at the Tel Aviv port on Thursday, Gal Gadot said that her decision to consistently spotlight her Israeli identity is in part a response to antisemitism.
When asked by the website Walla! if pride in her “Israeliness” is “some kind of strategy,” Gadot said, “No! If it’s anything, it’s just that I receive so many antisemitic messages and reactions. It’s just that that is who I am. I believe we have no place to hide or lie. Those who love will get it and that’s it.”
In response to a question about why she has chosen to speak out about events in Israel, she said “Israel is important to me, very. In general, I wish for our country to really be in a good place, and that there will be quiet, stability, peace, and tranquility. Because I believe in the end that all the people want it. There are no people who want war, God forbid, and their children to go to the army. So I try to strengthen these messages, the good, and the desire for peace and quiet.”
In March, actress and model Rotem Sela was chastised by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Culture and Sport Miri Regev for her Instagram post critical of the treatment of Israeli Arabs. In response, Gadot posted on her own Instagram in Hebrew reading “Love thy neighbor as thyself. It’s not an issue of Right or Left, Jew or Arab, secular or religious. It’s an issue of dialogue,” above a screenshot of Sela’s post, calling Sela her “sister.”
