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Friday, August 09, 2019

08/09 Links Pt2: Europe Poised to Put Warning Labels on Jewish-Made Products; Hijacking Black History to Bash Israel; No, David Brooks, Jews Who Like Being Jewish Aren’t White Supremacists

From Ian:
Europe Poised to Put Warning Labels on Jewish-Made Products
The European Union is poised to mandate that Israeli products made in contested territories carry consumer warning labels, a decision that could trigger American anti-boycott laws and open up what legal experts describe as a "Pandora's box" of litigation, according to multiple sources involved in the legal dispute who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon.

The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice recently issued non-binding opinion arguing that EU law requires Israeli-made products to be labeled as coming from "settlements" and "Israeli colonies."

The decision was seen as a major win for supporters of the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, or BDS, which seeks to wage economic warfare on Israel and its citizens. Pro-Israel activists, as well as the Jewish businesses involved in the legal dispute, see the decision as an ominous warning sign that they say is reminiscent of Holocaust-era boycotts of Jewish businesses.

With the EU court's 15 judge panel now poised to issue its own binding judgment in the case, legal experts are warning that a potential decision mandating such labeling could pave the way for goods from any disputed territory to receive such treatment. The decision also could trigger U.S. anti-boycott laws meant to stop Israeli-made goods from being singled out for unfair treatment on the international market.

Brooke Goldstein, a human rights lawyer and executive director of the Lawfare Project, which is involved in the legal dispute, described the EU court's initial decision as "frankly outrageous."

"The Advocate General's opinion said that goods produced by Muslims are to be labeled from ‘Palestine,' and goods produced by Jews labeled as coming from ‘Israeli colonies,' Goldstein said. "Both people are living in the same geographic location, and yet Jewish goods are being treated differently." (h/t IsaacStorm)
Hijacking Black History to Bash Israel
Academics today are widely known for letting ideology and politics drive their research and teaching, but nowhere is this more evident than in the determination of Middle East studies scholars to situate rejection of Israel’s right to exist within the social justice pantheon of the mainstream Left. And perhaps nowhere is this determination more evident than in Randolph-Macon College history professor Michael R. Fischbach’s new book, Black Power and Palestine: Transnational Countries of Color. I eagerly attended his recent talk at UCLA’s Center for Near Eastern Studies to hear him out.

The social sciences today are dominated by intersectional theory, which, in a nutshell, holds that systems of minority oppression — racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, gender, class, and so forth — are overlapping; that oppressed groups share a commonality of interests; and that tapping into that solidarity is essential to bringing about change. In recent years, anti-Israel activists have used intersectionalism as a rallying cry to pressure social justice movements ranging from Occupy Wall Street to the Women’s March to adopt anti-Israel platforms.

But intersectional theory also poses a problem for academics seeking to delegitimize Israel. If, as tenured Middle East studies radicals have been chanting for the past four decades, Israel is an inherently racist state and part of the same global structure of oppression holding down people of color everywhere, why have the overwhelming majority of African Americans historically been supportive of or indifferent to Israel? Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy is particularly problematic for intersectional theory, as he and most other African American civil rights leaders were unwavering both in their public support for Israel and in their disdain for anti-Zionists. “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism!” King famously remarked in a speech shortly before his death.

Fischbach’s answer, in effect, is that pro-Israel sympathies within the African American community aren’t genuine. The professor began his presentation to a small group of 16 attendees — mostly graduate students and younger faculty — with a string of well-worn anecdotes about the supposed depth of solidarity between African Americans and Palestinians today. In 2013, an American activist claimed to have seen a Palestinian mural of Trayvon Martin. During the August 2014 unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, a number of Palestinians posted tips about combating the effects of tear gas. In 2015, anti-Zionist campaigners managed to put just over a thousand African American signatures on a “Black Solidarity Statement.” But the icing on the cake, which Fischbach played to the audience in its entirety, was the 2014 music video “Checkpoint” by the obscure rapper Jasiri X, an angry tract with spurious apartheid comparisons and calls for a “free Palestine” that has managed to garner just 66,911 views on YouTube in the past five years despite zealous promotion by anti-Israel activists everywhere.
No, David Brooks, Jews Who Like Being Jewish and Not “Judeo-Christian” Aren’t White Supremacists
In a recent column, David Brooks blames recent mass shootings in America on “a broader movement—anti-pluralism—that now comes in many shapes.” Among the anti-pluralists, writes Brooks, are “Trumpian nationalists, authoritarian populists, and Islamic jihadists”—and also, evidently, Jews. “Eighty years ago,” he laments, “Protestants, Catholics, and Jews did not get along, so a new category was created, Judeo-Christian, which brought formerly feuding people into a new ‘us.’” But now that pluralistic amalgam has come unglued, leaving Judaism in the category of a “dead culture.”

A pure culture is a dead culture while an amalgam culture is a creative culture. . . . The terrorists dream of a pure, static world. But the only thing that’s static is death, which is why they are so pathologically drawn to death. Pluralism is about movement, interdependence, and life.

Ira Stoll takes Brooks to task:

Sorry, but no. Jews who prefer to remain Jewish rather than becoming “Judeo-Christian” are not similar to white supremacists or Islamic jihadists who go into Walmart or a nightclub or an army base and open fire in hopes of committing mass murder. Judaism in the 1930s, before the creation of the “new category” of “Judeo-Christian,” wasn’t static or dead—it was full of vibrant Yiddish culture, Zionist innovation, and religious reform and reaction. . . .

What’s more, the term “Judeo-Christian,” though perhaps useful as a political, rhetorical formulation to label the Jewish and Christian alliance against Nazism and later Communism, never really became a practically meaningful “us.” Jews and Christians still feud, as can be seen in everything from the Christian left’s support for anti-Israel boycotts to the Jewish left’s opposition to Christian conservative legislative moves to restrict abortion. Jews and Christians still go to different synagogues and churches.

When asked about religion, very few people voluntarily describe themselves as “Judeo-Christian.” The theological and ritual differences between the two different religions are just hard to blur without eliminating the force and meaning of the 2,000- or 4,000-year-old traditions. And because Christians far outnumber Jews, it’s not hard to predict that if Jews and Christians did merge into Judeo-Christians, Christianity would dominate. How that counts as “pluralism” rather than as a kind of anti-pluralism—the refusal to accept the continued existence of Judaism as a distinct religion—is a mystery to me.



IfNotNow Suggests Israeli Teen Partly to Blame for Own Murder
The far-left, anti-Israel organization IfNotNow blamed a slain Israeli teen for his own murder in the West Bank, saying it mourned that he was part of a controlling regime that makes everyone "less safe."

IfNotNow sounded like terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad in one of its tweets purporting to mourn the death of Dvir Sorek, an 18-year old found stabbed to death Thursday outside the West Bank settlement Migdal Oz. He was a yeshiva student participating in a program combining religious study and military service, according to the Times of Israel, and was returning from buying books for a teacher.

In a series of tweets, IfNotNow mourned his death but then added, "We also mourn the disastrous political decisions that enlist thousands of young Israelis like Dvir into the project of controlling and ruling over millions of Palestinians — making everyone in the land less safe."

"We fight to end the Occupation for a future of freedom and dignity for all Israelis and Palestinians," the group added. "We are also deeply concerned to see [Benjamin] Netanyahu and other politicians exploit this tragedy to further incite fear and hatred against Palestinians and to deepen the Occupation."


How pro-Palestinians manipulate facts
The two dominant Palestinian parties are institutionally criminal. Hamas, which rules Gaza, aims for the genocide of Israelis, even though from time to time its leaders try to hide it. Fatah, the leading party in the Palestinian Authority, glorifies the murderers of Israeli civilians. The PA also rewards them or their families financially.

A few decades ago, most decent Westerners – not national-socialists, fascists or communists – would still have considered this abhorrent or one or more of its synonyms – detestable, repugnant, disgusting, repulsive, hateful, heinous or scandalous.

Many Western pro-Palestinians, politicians and others, in their verbal attacks on Israel – a democracy that fights against its terrorist enemies with one hand tied behind its back because of international law – do not give Palestinian crime much, if any, attention. Doing so would undermine their anti-Israelism.

In order to better understand the systematic neglect of such crime, it helps to divide these pro-Palestinians into a number of categories.

The most extreme are supporters of the genocidal terrorist movements. Yet it is rare that they say so. One exception is British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has called Hamas and Hezbollah his “brothers” and “friends.”

A second category is protectors of murderers. One finds them in various parts of the Left. One person in this category is the socialist foreign minister of Sweden, Margot Wallstrom. She asked for an international investigation into the killing of terrorists by Israel during murderous attacks. As she did not do so for any other country that killed terrorists in such attacks, this was a typical act of antisemitism according to the definition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Sweden’s vote in favor of this definition as part of the board of that organization enabled its acceptance.
'Word Crimes' Co-Editors Set the Record Straight on Israel Studies Controversy
In the wake of the public apology issued last week by two editors of the publication Israel Studies, who were responding to the uproar over a special issue that dissects the language employed in anti-Zionist scholarship, Donna Robinson Divine, Miriam Elman and Asaf Romirowsky---co-editors of "Word Crimes: Reclaiming the Language of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict"---are setting the record straight.

As they put it, "The special issue struck a chord – sales have been brisk and it's now in a second printing – not only because it raised questions about the conventional discourse but also because it challenged the right of an increasingly politicized academy to serve as gatekeepers, determining what can and cannot be said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

Read the whole thing.
J Street: Anti-Semitism Charges Against Omar Are ‘Reckless’
Liberal advocacy group J Street defended Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) against accusations of anti-Semitism, telling the Washington Times such charges are "reckless."

Logan Bayroff, communications director for the group, told the Times that criticisms of Omar were "politically motivated" and undermined bipartisan efforts to support Israel.

Other groups differed on whether or not Omar's controversial remarks required forceful pushback from her fellow lawmakers. The American Jewish Congress criticized the perceived "weaponization of the charges of anti-Semitism," and asked that politicians "avoid accusing their fellow politicians of heinous crimes." However, the Jewish Institute for the National Security of America told the Times that Omar's comments were "purely anti-Semitic," however they were not representative of the larger Democratic Party.

Omar has a long history of making offensive statements regarding Israel's role in American politics. In 2012, she tweeted that "Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel." After the tweet was widely criticized as anti-Semitic, Omar eventually apologized, tweeting that she "spent lots of energy putting my 2012 tweet in context and little energy is disavowing the anti-semitic trope I unknowingly used, which is unfortunate and offensive."




Sarah Silverman warns pastor who calls for her death is going to get her killed
An extremist Christian pastor’s anti-Semitic rant in which he called for the death of Sarah Silverman has the Jewish comedian fearing for her life.

Silverman, a vocal supporter of numerous liberal causes, on Thursday posted a video to Twitter of the sermon and said, “This is Adam Fannin of the Stedfast Baptist Church in Florida and he is going to get me killed.”

In the video, Fannin says:
You know these Jewish false prophets, anti-Christian, anti-God, they’re willing to put Jesus to death again … You heard this comedian Sarah Silverman? … Listen, she is a witch. She is a Jezebel. She is a God-hating whore of Zionism. I hope that God breaks her teeth out and she dies. She is a wicked person and she is like the perfect representation of religious Judaism … She is Satan’s scoffer and she is there to take the world and make ’em laugh and then diss Jesus, try to take away the respect from Jesus.

It is not clear exactly when the clip dates from, though the background and pulpit look similar in style to Stedfast videos uploaded to YouTube in the second half of 2018, Newsweek wrote.


Chris Williamson Speaks in Carpark Alongside Notorious Tony Greenstein
Yesterday, Guido reported on the farce of Chris Williamson’s Brighton event being cancelled three times by venue hosts once they learnt of his vile brand of politics. Eventually however, Williamson’s loony followers did find a venue to hear him speak… A car park.

Guido’s co-conspirators who went along found that it wasn’t just Williamson speaking in Regency Square, he also shared a platform with the notorious Tony Greenstein, someone Guido readers will remember for being expelled from Labour after using the term “Zio“, ranting about “Zionist scum” and saying “Gay Zionists make me want to puke“.

If Labour were hoping Williamson would use his period in the wilderness to change his ways, they’ve got a long wait yet…


PreOccupiedTerritory: Corbyn Supporter Pretending To Be Jewish Almost As Convincing As William Shatner Singing ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’ (satire)
An anonymous Twitter user claiming to see eye-to-eye with the leader of the UK Labour Party on every issue, and who defends him most vociferously on the issue of the party’s systemic antisemitism problem, also puts himself forth as a member of the Hebrew faith, an assertion that has swayed nearly as many people on the subject as the number who think a 1968 TV-star-cum-wannabe-pop-idol’s rendition of a famous psychedelic anthem conveyed an authentic hallucinogenic experience.

“Dan Katz” has made multiple daily tweets invoking his ostensible Jewish credentials to lend weight to his strident support for Jeremy Corbyn amid years of mounting evidence that the Labour chief has ignored, condoned, and actively invited Jew-haters in the party’s ranks, the point that numerous Jews and other concerned members have left the party. “Dan’s” efforts to display his Jewish bona fides have all landed awkwardly, lending his posts almost the same convincing power as William Shatner’s attempt at a cover of the Beatles hit “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”

Shatner, of Jewish extraction, played Captain James Kirk of the Starship Enterprise in the original 1960’s sci-fi series Star Trek, bringing to the role an overacted quality that he employed in the multiple Star Trek film releases that followed and every other acting part in his subsequent career. His overwrought delivery featured in a 1967 album that attempted to ride the psychedelic wave of the era, a release on which, among other aesthetic debacles, Shatner “sang” the Beatles number, and later claimed he recorded it in the voice of someone tripping on LSD. Rolling Stone magazine characterized that claim in 2011 with the words “Nobody has ever tripped that bad.”
Students from 80 campuses worldwide will attend CAMERA's conference
In the wake of rising antisemitism across the US and particularly on college campuses, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) will host a conference in Boston to train students how to react.

The event will train students from 80 campuses across the country and the world, including Europe and Israel, on how to respond to anti-Israeli activity.

This is CAMERA's ninth such conference.

"Radical anti-Israel activists are working hard to make colleges and universities unwelcoming to Jewish students," said Taylor Roth, who's entering his senior year at the University of Florida.

Andrew Netzer, a student at Florida International University, said that "there are students and professors who try to hide their antisemitism behind the language of human rights. They erroneously claim that Israel is the main violator of human rights when, in reality, it's the only progressive country in the Middle East. CAMERA's conference will help us develop ways to spread the truth about Israel."








The Washington Post Omits Context and Facts on “Occupation”
The Washington Post is at it again. When it comes to Israel, the newspaper’s “Post Everything” section often seems to omit key facts. An Aug. 5, 2019 op-ed entitled “Why are Democrats Afraid to Say Israel is Occupying the West Bank?” is a case in point. The commentary, by writer Nathan Hersh, a former managing director of Partners for Progressive Israel, leaves out essential information.

Hersh takes to the pages of The Post to highlight what he views as Democrats unwillingness to talk about “Israel’s occupation and West Bank settlement growth.” The writer claims it is a “dangerous mistake” and seeks to link it to the July 22 demolition of “the Palestinian community Wadi Hummus in the village Sur Baher, which was under construction east of the rest of the village and well within Palestinian territory.”

But Hersh omits that “their construction began after 2014, even though a 2011 edict prohibits construction within such a short distance of the” security barrier (“David Friedman Slams Obama Adviser, Ilahn Omar Over Wadi Hummus Tweets,” July 24, 2019, The Jerusalem Post). Indeed, the demolition of “some but not all illegal structures”—12 buildings only some of which were occupied by a total of 15 people—was not only ordered on national security grounds, it only occurred after seven years of legal proceedings and a ruling by Israeli courts.

Put simply: the buildings were built in violation of a court edict ordering them not to be constructed due to their proximity to a security fence, which itself was built to prevent Palestinian terrorist attacks into Israel. Hersh’s commentary notes the latter, but makes no mention of the former. But this isn’t his biggest omission.

In 1,144 words, Hersh blames the entire Israeli right, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the IDF, the Democratic Party and Christian Zionists for the “occupation” of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). Not once does he note that Palestinian leaders have been given numerous opportunities to end it—and they’ve declined to do so every single time.
Gaza propaganda on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’
Listeners heard another clip from the film before Husain went on:

Husain: “Garry Keane; do you think it is a fair portrait of Gaza? And I ask that because you talked about ‘trapped and tortured people’. The Hollywood Reporter felt that you airbrushed Hamas and its responsibility out of the story.”

The Hollywood Reporter review of the film includes the following:

“The press notes for Gaza say Hamas is one of the villains of the story, but that’s a ludicrous statement. Hamas may be one of the villains of the actual historical record, but it’s a non-factor in the documentary. Occasionally we pass by a military-affiliated figure with a rocket launcher or a machine gun, but to watch Gaza you’d think such weaponry was only used to be fired in the air when the Israelis free unjustly imprisoned Palestinians.”

Keane: “Ahm…we have been accused on occasion – on very few, you know, very limited occasions – of making a propaganda film for Hamas but anyone who claims that we feel has an agenda to serve. We show Hamas armed military wing on the streets conducting large rallies with enormous rockets on display. A character in the film says that Palestinian problems would be solved if Hamas weren’t there. We don’t serve the views of Hamas or any of their supporters. Our film is all about highlighting the effects of an unjust blockade on the ordinary people of Gaza. You know, a blockade that even the UN constitutes as collective punishment. So I think it’s ridiculous to say that, you know, that just because we disapprove of the actions of the Israeli government and want to highlight that, that we’re accused of racism or…this film is not about race or religion or about propaganda. It’s about human rights violations being perpetrated on two million citizens of the Gaza Strip. You know this is a film about promoting understanding.”

With nothing at all to say about the human rights of the Israeli civilians living for years under the shadow of Hamas terrorism, Husain closed the item there.

Husain: “Garry Keane and Fadi Hussam Hannona, thank you both.”

Once again BBC Radio 4 has presented a one-sided item which does not even pretend to fully inform audiences but promotes plenty of buzz words and slogans which conform to the corporation’s standard politicised messaging on the Gaza Strip.


Poland bans neo-Nazi group filmed celebrating Hitler’s birthday
A Polish court on Wednesday banned a neo-Nazi group for celebrating Adolf Hitler’s birthday in 2017, an event that was secretly filmed and then broadcast by a local news channel.

The court in Gliwice, southern Poland, ruled that members of the “Pride and Modernity” (DiN) group who organized the event had been aware that it propagated Nazism, something that is illegal in Poland.

“There was no doubt about the nature of the event” caught on camera, Judge Bozena Klimaszewska said in her ruling, quoted by the Polish PAP news agency.

Aired in January 2018, hidden camera footage of the group celebrating Hitler’s birthday sparked uproar in Poland, a country still grappling with the memory of Nazi occupation during World War II.
Polish government invites top rabbi to event honoring accused Nazi collaborators
The chief rabbi of Poland on Wednesday criticized plans by the country’s right-wing government to honor a group of ultra-nationalist underground fighters accused of collaborating with the Nazis during World War II.

Rabbi Michael Schudrich said he felt “insulted” by an invitation from the Polish veterans’ affairs ministry to a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the creation of the Swietokrzyska Brigade, also known as the Holy Cross Mountains Brigade.

The event will be held under the auspices of Polish President Andrzej Duda.

“The organization of these ceremonies insults the memory of all Polish citizens killed in the fight against Germany,” Schudrich said in a letter addressed to Veterans’ Affairs Minister Jan Kasprzyk.

“I regard being invited to take part in them as a personal insult,” the rabbi said in the letter carried by Polish media.

President Duda has come under fire from opposition politicians for agreeing to back the controversial ceremonies.
FBI may have stopped attack on mosques and synagogues by arresting man on child porn charges
A newly unsealed FBI search warrant revealed new details about how the bureau may have prevented a terrorist attack on mosques and synagogues in Colorado following the arrest on child pornography charges of a man with suspected white supremacist leanings.

Wesley David Gilreath, 27, was arrested and charged just over a week ago with the the crime of child porn possession. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years behind bars. Investigators discovered dozens of images of violent and disturbing pornography depicting underage children, and Gilreath was denied bail.

As investigators examined Gilreath’s phone, they discovered evidence that Gilreath, who has a history of mental issues, had anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, and conspiratorial beliefs.

Based on internet postings he’d made and information he was gathering about synagogue and mosque locations, the FBI suspected he was planning attacks against Muslims and Jews in the Boulder area. Gilreath denied that that is what his plans were.
South African School Principal Apologizes for Picture Showing Students Making Nazi Salute
A South African school principal has apologized for an image of three students caught making the Nazi salute.

South African outlet News24 reported that a photograph of a group of students had been posted on the Somerset West Private School’s home page, with three of them making the offensive gesture, which sparked public outrage.

Morné Coetzer, the school’s principal, initially refused to acknowledge the issue, saying the students were merely making a “Roman salute.”

In response to the scandal, the principal reversed himself, saying, “We apologize unreservedly to the public at large, and all groups and individuals that were victims of the Holocaust.”

“We also acknowledge that referring to the gesture as a ‘Roman salute’ was misjudged and we apologize for the additional offense that has caused,” he added.
Montreal Jews seek $10 million to secure community institutions
Canadian Jews are looking to raise $10 million to provide security to communal institutions in Montreal.

The Federation CJA, one of Canada’s largest Jewish organizations, said it has partnered with 31 Jewish institutions as part of its Community Security Network initiative and hired an outside firm to help develop strategies for protecting the community, the Canadian Jewish News reported Tuesday. The new strategy will focus on surveillance technology.

The Canadians have looked south for some help, consulting among others Michael Masters, the national director of the Secure Community Network, a US American program of the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

In July, new crime data released by Statistics Canada showed that Canadian Jews remained the most targeted minority group for hate crimes in the country for the third year in a row, though there was a 4 percent decrease.
Lithuanian synagogue reopens after government guarantees security
The Lithuanian Jewish community reopened the Vilnius synagogue on Thursday, after top politicians vowed to guarantee security there in response to a spate of threats that led to its closure earlier this week.

The tensions come amid a highly charged public debate over commemorations to wartime officials who the Lithuanian Jewish Community (LJC) says were either involved in the Holocaust or openly anti-Semitic.

Vilnius authorities recently removed a plaque to one of the men and renamed a street named after another — sparking a backlash that the LJC claims has been stoked by some politicians, who have called for protests.

Jewish community leader Faina Kukliansky praised Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis on Thursday for their security assurances and messages of support.

“We do not see the threat at this moment and we trust the state leaders who offered security assurances,” she told AFP, confirming that both the synagogue and the Jewish community headquarters had been reopened.

Two days earlier she announced their indefinite closure after receiving “threatening telephone calls and letters.”
American Airlines to Fly Nonstop From Dallas to Israel Starting Next Year
American Airlines has announced that it will offer nonstop flights from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to Tel Aviv starting on Sept. 9, 2020.

It will be the first time the carrier has flown to Ben-Gurion International Airport since it dropped its Philadelphia to Tel Aviv route in 2015, losing $20 million annually.

“It’s a huge validation of the tremendous economic growth in North Texas and its immense potential,” said Vasu Raja, the airline’s vice president of planning. “When you look at the marketplace, Tel Aviv is really the largest underserved destination in the American Airlines network.”

“I am thrilled to see American Airlines open a direct flight to Israel from Texas,” said Consul General of Israel to the Southwest United States Gilad Katz in a statement. “This flight demonstrates the important bond Israel and Texas share, while continuing to strengthen business and tourism ties between us. This new route highlights the growing demand from Americans and Israelis who are interested in learning more about one another.”
Elbit Systems Wins $80 Million Southeast Asian Military Contract
Israel’s Elbit Systems said on Wednesday it won an $80 million contract to upgrade tanks and supply radio systems to an unnamed Southeast Asian army.

The contract will be performed over 32 months.

Elbit said it will supply fire control systems and electric gun and turret drive systems for tanks and advanced radio systems from the E-LynX family in several configurations, including hand-held and man-packed radios for infantry soldiers and vehicular radios for armored fighting vehicles.
Siemens Healthineers Buys Corindus Vascular Robotics for $1.1 Billion
German medtech company Siemens Healthineers AG has agreed to buy Israeli-linked, NYSE-listed medical robotics company Corindus Vascular Robotics, Inc., the two companies announced Thursday. As part of the merger agreement, Siemens Healthineers subsidiary Siemens Medical Solutions is set to acquire all issued and outstanding shares of common stock of Corindus for $4.28 per share in cash. The deal is valued at approximately $1.1 billion. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Corindus develops robotic-assisted medical devices for vascular procedures. The company was co-founded in 2002 by Israeli entrepreneur Tal Wenderow and Rafael Beyar, an Israeli entrepreneur and doctor who has served as the director-general and CEO of the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa between 2006 and 2019. The company was founded in collaboration with Rambam and the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. Now based in Massachusetts, Corindus employs 100 people.
The hero who sent himself to hell: Author reveals how a Polish soldier agreed to be captured by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz as the 'eyes and ears' of the resistance
THE VOLUNTEER By Jack Fairweather (W.H. Allen, £20, 528pp)

In 1940, who in their right minds would volunteer to be imprisoned in Auschwitz? Witold Pilecki, the extraordinary hero of this book, did exactly that. 'You must be nuts!' a fellow prisoner told him. But he was just exceptionally brave.

When Germany invaded Poland, Pilecki — a gentleman farmer — did his patriotic duty and volunteered as a soldier.

The German forces routed the Poles in weeks, so Pilecki made his way to Warsaw, reduced to ruins by German bombing.

There, in a Baroque church, he knelt with others and 'swore to serve God, the Polish nation, and each other'. The resistance movement had begun.

In early 1940, Auschwitz was established as a camp for Polish political prisoners.

The resistance needed eyes and ears in the camp, so Pilecki agreed to be captured by the Germans and sent there.

He was immediately aware he was in a hellish place when a man was beaten to death before his eyes. The SS were in charge, but the day-to-day running of the camp was in the hands of the kapos, inmates given power over their fellow prisoners.
Israel Lacrosse Team Gifts Kenyan Athletes With New Cleats After Matchup
Israel’s Women’s Lacrosse team gifted its Kenyan opponents with new cleats on Wednesday following their matchup in the Women’s Lacrosse World Championships.

The two teams competed on Tuesday in Peterborough, Ontario, and during the match, team Israel noticed that their opponents did not have cleats to play with. The next day, following their 13-4 victory, the Israeli team returned to the field with new gear for the Kenyan athletes. The Kenya Lacrosse team posted videos on Twitter of the sweet exchange, including one clip of the Israeli and Kenyan athletes giving each other massive hugs.

Many social media users applauded Israel for the kind gesture and for exhibiting “amazing sportsmanship.” One Twitter user wrote, “No one will remember the score, everyone will remember how this made them feel.”


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