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Sunday, September 08, 2019

09/08 Links: Daniel Gordis: What American Jews just don’t get about Israel; Zionists need to embrace the real story of Hevron; PA raises salary of suicide belt makers who murdered 16 in Café Hillel and Tzrifin attacks

From Ian:
Daniel Gordis: What American Jews just don’t get about Israel
The United States and Israel are very different projects. America’s Declaration of Independence begins “When in the course of human events,” while Israel’s begins “The land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people.” America was created to be a haven to “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” as Emma Lazarus’ poem at the foot of the Statue of Liberty declares, while Israel was intended to be, as the British Balfour Declaration of 1917 notes, “a national home for the Jewish people.”

When we expect Israel to behave as America should, Israel often seems to fall short. And that, more than any of Israel’s actual policies, has long been the root cause of the fraught relationship between American Jews and the Jewish State.

“End the occupation,” American Jews chant. But Israelis are also exhausted by the occupation — they just have no idea how to end it without the West Bank becoming a breeding ground for terrorists, as happened with Gaza once Israel pulled out in 2005. That’s a risk Israelis are not willing to take.

To Israeli ears, when American Jews say, “End the occupation,” it sounds like “Abolish taxes.” It’s a great idea but entirely unrealistic.

American Jews look at Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians as a civil-rights issue. Israelis see it as a survival issue.

A country’s foremost obligation is the protection of its citizens, and any government Israelis elect will understand that. Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians is unlikely to change until the Palestinians declare that they have ended their drive to destroy Israel. That will not happen anytime soon, however, and that is why, should Netanyahu lose, progressive American Jews are in for a grave disappointment.

To be sure, there is much that Israel must do differently in its relationship with American Jews. A healthy relationship between American Jews and Israel is critical for both sides, and both need to alter their rhetoric to rebuild their partnership.

Most important, though, is for American Jews, and Americans at large, to understand that despite all their similarities, America and Israel are radically different endeavors. One was meant to embrace all of humanity, while the other was intended to save the Jewish people. All of the candidates vying to become prime minister understand that. Protecting the state that has revived the Jewish people will always remain, by far, their topmost priority.


Zionists need to embrace the real story of Hevron
The story of Hevron also reminds us why a strong military and independent State of Israel are needed for Jews to survive. Ninety years ago, 67 Jews were murdered in a single day. The rioters killed and looted families without making distinctions between long-established residents, including the doctor who treated them compassionately for years, and newcomers, or Zionists and their religious opponents.

The 1929 riots were exceptional in their barbarity and a turning point in modern Jewish-Arab relations. But throughout the Islamic rule over the city, Jews suffered from various forms of discrimination, and most famously were forbidden from entering the building of the Cave of the Patriarchs or even going further than the seventh step leading to it.

Hatred has only grown since the riots. Incitement is alive and well throughout the Palestinian Authority, and it is now coupled with denial of the Jewish history and connection in the area altogether.

Today, Hevron and villages around it are a Hamas stronghold, spreading violence against Jews throughout the 'West Bank'. In the four decades since the reinstallment of the small Jewish community in and around the city, allowed because of the city's significance to Judaism, the violence has continued.

The current mayor, Tayseer Abu Sneineh, himself is among the murderers of six Jews (including two Americans and one Canadian) in a 1980 mass shooting on a Friday night as they returned from prayers — a biographic detail, including the fact that they were shot from the back, he brushed off during his 2017 election campaign. In 2001, 10-month old Shalhevet Pass was intentionally shot in her stroller by a sniper lurking in the hills above the Old City.

Jewish presence in Hevron is more justified than in almost any other place in the world. But under present circumstances, this presence can be ensured only by the Israeli military — the army is all that stands between 1,000 Jews and utter chaos. It is a heavy price to pay in terms of freedom of movement for everybody in the Israeli-held area. But this is a consequence, not the cause, of the Arab refusal to admit the tiny Jewish minority back in the city.

Over eighty percent of Hevron is entirely under Palestinian control and empty of any sort of Jewish presence.

The uneasiness that liberal Zionists feel about the situation in Hevron is legitimate. But the shame is not: Hevron tells us a story that is complex and far from perfect, but it is a vital part of Jewish history from which we should not shy away.
PMW: PA raises salary of suicide belt makers who murdered 16 in Café Hillel and Tzrifin attacks in 2003
The Palestinian Authority has paid 3,248,900 shekels in financial rewards to the Hamas terrorists who carried out two consecutive suicide attacks on Sept. 9, 2003 (16 years ago tomorrow). The first attack at a bus stop near the Assaf Harofeh Hospital and the Tzrifin military base resulted in the murder of 9 people and the injury of 18. The second attack in Jerusalem's Café Hillel resulted in the murder of 7 people and the injury of 57.

Among the victims of the Café Hillel attack were Dr. David Applebaum and his daughter Nava, who was to be married the day after the attack. American-born Dr. Applebaum was chief of the emergency room and trauma services of Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Medical Center and a specialist in emergency medicine. Before the attack he had just participated in a symposium where he taught terror-trauma procedures to medical professionals.

Alon Mizrachi, the security guard of the café who was killed when he identified the suicide bomber and shoved him out as he exploded, thereby saving many other lives, was the uncle of Ziv Mizrachi, an IDF soldier who was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in November 2015.

According to the calculations of Palestinian Media Watch following the PA's own pay scale, the PA has, to date, paid the six terrorists who were arrested and imprisoned for their roles in the attacks, a total of 2,892,500 shekels. The PA has also paid the families of the two suicide bombers - so-called "Martyrs" - a total of 356,400 shekels since the attacks.

While the PA will continue to pay monthly salaries to all of the terrorists, it is noteworthy that the PA just raised the salaries of the two terrorists who prepared the suicide belts to 7,000 shekels/month. Similar to an employee of any company that receives a raise after a certain period of employment, the PA - following PA law - just raised the salaries of these two terrorists as they completed 15 years in prison (they were arrested in July and August 2004). For the last five years the PA paid them 6,000 shekels/month.



MEMRI: Pakistani Writer Dr. Sughra Sadaf Urges Pakistan To Establish Diplomatic Ties With Israel, Says: 'The Thing To Remember Is That The Freedom Of Palestine Is Not Just The Problem Of Muslims'
Every year or so, some Pakistani citizens write urging their government to establish diplomatic relations with Israel. In February 2018, Pakistani student Mohsin Saleem Ullah wrote: "Pakistanis endorsing better relations [with Israel], put forward their stance that Israel can help the country, not only with computer science, agriculture, electronics, medicine, solar energy and more, but more importantly, with its international relations."[1]

On August 25, 2019, senior Pakistani journalist Kamran Khan kicked up the issue again, tweeting: "High time Pakistan counter nefarious Indian designs with bold foreign policy moves. Our deepest friends making fresh alignments. No permanent friends no enemies. Why can't we openly debate pros cons of opening direct and overt channels of communication with the State of Israel."[2]

There has always been recognition among Pakistani thinking classes that the country must establish diplomatic relations with Israel. However, each time the issue is raised in the media, the Pakistani government buckles under pressure from Islamic clerics and domestic public opinion.

In recent weeks, there is new speculation inside and outside Pakistan that Prime Minister Imran Khan might establish diplomatic relations. However, Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, when asked about this by a reporter, rejected the assertion that the country was planning to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.[3] Foreign Office spokesman Dr. Muhammad Faisal stated: "Our policy on Israel is very clear and there is no change to it."[4]

A day later – on August 30, 2019 – Dr. Sughra Sadaf, a freelance Pakistani writer, pressed ahead with this question in an op-ed, advocating the establishment of diplomatic ties between Pakistan and Israel.
The U.S.-Taliban Negotiations: A Deadly Qatari Trap
One can understand President Donald Trump's wish to leave Afghanistan. There are, however, ways to leave without losing people, respect, and allies. Mr. Trump, instead of leaving unilaterally, while reinforcing the democratically elected government in Kabul without boots on the ground, is unfortunately empowering his Taliban enemy by protracted negotiations, where America makes successive concessions and ultimately throws its Afghan allies under the bus.

Afghan officials are the first to sense that the sellout of the Kabul government is impending, and are scurrying to defect to the Taliban (in July alone there were 800 defections).

As opposed to what many Americans think, Qatar did the US no favors in building the base in the mid-1990s. It needed an American base for its own self-protection and this dependence still persists. Without this base, this Lilliputian energy Gulliver would be taken over by its neighbors (whether Iranian or Saudi) within a day. The US military establishment ignores this reality to its own detriment, and behaves as if America is in Qatar's debt rather than the reverse.

Qatar is already threatening to limit potential operations against Iran from Al-Udeid, should they be needed, and Qatar's Tamim told Rouhani that "only countries [placed] along the coast [of the Persian Gulf] should keep security in the region."
Trump cancels peace negotiations with Taliban after Kabul attack
US President Donald Trump tweeted on Saturday night that he canceled planned peace negotiations with the Taliban after they admitted to carrying out an attack in Kabul in which an American soldier and 11 others died.

"Unbeknownst to almost everyone, the major Taliban leaders and, separately, the President of Afghanistan, were going to secretly meet with me at Camp David on Sunday," wrote Trump. "Unfortunately, in order to build false leverage, they admitted to an attack in Kabul that killed one of our great great soldiers, and 11 other people. I immediately cancelled the meeting and called off peace negotiations."

"What kind of people would kill so many in order to seemingly strengthen their bargaining position?" added Trump. "They didn’t, they only made it worse! If they cannot agree to a ceasefire during these very important peace talks, and would even kill 12 innocent people, then they probably don’t have the power to negotiate a meaningful agreement anyway. How many more decades are they willing to fight?"

One of the blasts took the life of 34-year-old US Army Sergeant 1st Class Elis A. Barreto Ortiz from Puerto Rico, bringing the number of American troops killed in Afghanistan this year to 16.

Taliban fighters, who now control more territory than at any time since 2001, launched fresh assaults on the northern cities of Kunduz and Pul-e Khumri over the past week and carried out two major suicide bombings in the capital Kabul.
Taliban justifies 9/11 attacks in recently released video - watch
A Taliban video published earlier this summer justified the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as caused by the "interventionist policies" of the United States.

"This heavy slap on their dark faces was the consequence of their interventionist policies and not our doing," reads a voice in the video showing United Airlines flight 175 hitting the World Trade Center. The video, entitled "Umari Army (6)" was produced by Taliban's official media arm Al-Emara.

The video was shared with the public by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), and an article about it was published in the NGO's Long War Journal.

In 2001, Mullah Omar Mohammad, a former leader of the Taliban, gave an interview with Voice of America, in which he, too, explained that "America deserved the 9/11 attacks." That interview was published then by The Guardian.

"Everyone is afraid of America and wants to please it," said Omar, as he confirmed that the Taliban would not give up Osama bin Laden. "But Americans will not be able to prevent such acts like the one that has just occurred because America has taken Islam hostage.

"America has created the evil that is attacking it," added Omar. "The evil will not disappear even if I die and Osama dies and others die. The US should step back and review its policy. It should stop trying to impose its empire on the rest of the world, especially on Islamic countries."

The "Umari Army (6)" video also includes a statement claiming that the Taliban "shall never accept a single occupying soldier," according to the Journal.
Israeli spy Eli Cohen’s daughter laments inaccuracies in Netflix’s ‘The Spy’
The daughter of legendary Israeli spy Eli Cohen said Sunday “it hurt” to watch the new Netflix series about her father’s life and execution in Syria, lamenting historical inaccuracies in the adaptation but praising Sacha Baron Cohen’s performance.

“The Spy,” which was released Friday, tells the story of Cohen, who spied for Israel in Syria during the 1960s, providing valuable intelligence that was said to have greatly assisted the Israeli military in the 1967 Six Day War.

Cohen was caught and eventually executed by Syrian authorities in 1965. Israel has for decades worked to retrieve his remains.

“It hurt. It was hard to see the distance from the truth” in some parts of the series, Sophie Ben-Dor said in an interview with Channel 12 news.

Asked to pinpoint what she found not to be reflective of her family’s experience, Ben-Dor said “the ethnic gap,” noting her mother was never a maid as was portrayed in the series.

“This was unnecessary,” she said.

Ben-Dor, who was four years old when her father was killed, said she was pleasantly surprised by actor Cohen’s portrayal.
Ad Kan Forces Meretz Leader to Beg Forgiveness from Fake News Victim
Here’s a heartfelt apology that was published on Sunday:

“In anticipation of Yom Kippur, I would like to apologize to Yair Trabelsi for hurting him. I uploaded his picture with a caption that did not reflect the true situation. The picture was taken during a terrorist attack that was prevented by Yair as the village security chief, his action did not create violence but prevented it. I didn’t expect that the caption would be interpreted as blaming him for violence. I apologize from the bottom of my heart and ask for his forgiveness.”

Last Wednesday, Moshe “Mossi” Raz, former secretary general of Peace Now and a former Meretz MK, tweeted a 2-year old image showing Yair Trabelsi, the local security coordinator of Karnei Shomron, pointing his weapon at an Arab boy and girl, which Raz captioned: “Violence is chipping away at the foundations of democracy,” suggesting, of course, that the man in the picture was a danger to the rule of law.

It tunred out that Raz had copied a screenshot from a video documenting a serious security incident during which Trabelsi and other Karnei Shomron security personnel foiled the efforts of two young Arab terrorists who had arrived at the entrance to the settlement and attempted to stab a civilian. In fact, the image that Raz screenshot shows an early moment along the incident, with the two terrorists still holding their knives which they later dropped in response to a warning shot.
Five Rockets Fired at Southern Israel as Border Riots Continue
Five projectiles were launched from the Gaza Strip toward Israel late Friday night, the Israeli military confirmed after rocket warning sirens sounded in the Israeli border town of Sderot and two nearby villages shortly before midnight.

One rocket fell in an open field but there were no injuries, Israeli media reports said.

Israel responded with tank and air strikes on a number of Hamas military targets in the northern Gaza Strip, an Israeli military spokesman said. Palestinian officials said no one was injured.

At the same time, the weekly riots on the Gaza-Israel border continued, with two rioters shot by IDF forces.

An Israeli military spokesman said troops guarding the border on Friday were faced with more than 6,000 demonstrators at several points along the fence, some hurling explosive devices and firebombs.

He said that some briefly managed to cross the fence before returning to Gaza, and that Israeli forces responded with riot dispersal measures.

Egypt, Qatar, and United Nations officials have been working to keep the border calm in recent months.
Egyptian delegation enters Gaza: Palestinian report
An Egyptian security delegation entered Gaza to follow up on ceasefire talks with Israel on Sunday, just hours after the Israeli Air Force struck Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an earlier drone attack against an IDF humvee positioned along the border fence.

According to Palestinian media, the delegation is set to meet with senior Hamas officials in order to deescalate the situation in light of growing violence ahead of the upcoming Israeli elections.

Following weeks of relative quiet along the border, the past weekend saw two Palestinian youth killed by the IDF during Great March of Return Border riots which the IDF called “especially violent in nature.” Five rockets were launched from the Hamas-run enclave on Friday evening and on Saturday a drone flown from the southern Strip attacked an IDF vehicle.

In retaliation for the drone attack the military struck naval combat equipment belonging to the terror group and two military centers for Hamas’s aerial systems in airstrikes in the northern and central Strip which lasted close to an hour.

“The IDF will continue to act against attempts to harm Israeli citizens, and holds the Palestinian terror group Hamas responsible for everything that takes place in the Gaza Strip, and which emanates from there,” the military said in a statement.
"A War with Hezbollah is Only a Question of Time"
Former deputy head of Mossad Ram Ben-Barak discusses with host Yoav Limor on the latest escalation on the Israel-Lebanese border.


Lebanese React on Social Media Over Israel Tension
After Hezbollah launched an anti-tank missile to an IDF vehicle, the Lebanese celebrated — on and off social media — even though the actual outcome of the event is still under much debate. Take a look.


Honest Reporting: Hezbollah and the UN’s Toothless Resolution 1701
Following the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1701, at the time perceived as a strongly worded document. It was aimed at not just maintaining the ceasefire, but of strengthening the hands of the government in Beirut by endorsing and calling for the central government to assert control over the entire country.

However, for the most part 1701 has reflected the toothless inability of the international body to take those words and effectively implement them on the ground.

The 2006 war was not between two countries, but between Israel and the terrorist Hezbollah organization headed by Hassan Nasrallah that is funded, trained and armed by Iran. Hezbollah is not under the control of the Lebanese government, is not part of the Lebanese Armed Forces, and thus considers itself not obligated at all to the document. It’s terrorist activities have been documented for years.

Resolution 1701: In Its Own Words

Two paragraphs in the UNSC resolution appeared to have been directly aimed at Hezbollah:
- “security arrangements to prevent the resumption of hostilities, including the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL …”
- “full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, and of (UNSC) resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that, pursuant to the Lebanese cabinet decision of 27 July 2006, there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese State.”

In short, 1701 calls for the disarming of Hezbollah and the deployment of the Lebanese army to exert sovereignty – especially in the south of the country along the Lebanon-Israel border. That area is monitored by UNIFIL, the United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon that is tasked with monitoring the area and whose heavy presence was intended to dissuade militias.


Nuclear Watchdog Chief to Meet Top Iranian Officials in Tehran on Sunday
The acting chief of the UN nuclear watchdog policing Iran‘s nuclear deal with major powers, Cornel Feruta, will meet senior Iranian officials in Tehran on Sunday, a spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Friday.

“The visit is part of ongoing interactions between the IAEA and Iran,” the spokesman said.

The trip comes before a quarterly meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors next week and after an IAEA report suggested Iran‘s cooperation with the agency was less than ideal, saying: “Ongoing interactions between the Agency and Iran … require full and timely cooperation by Iran. The Agency continues to pursue this objective with Iran.”
Iran Further Breaches Nuclear Deal, Says It Can Exceed 20% Enrichment
Iran said on Saturday it was now capable of raising uranium enrichment past the 20% level and had launched advanced centrifuge machines in further breaches of commitments to limit its nuclear activity under a 2015 deal with world powers.

"We have started lifting limitations on our Research and Development imposed by the deal … It will include development of more rapid and advanced centrifuges," Iranian nuclear agency spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi told a televised news conference.

The 2015 pact curbed Iran’s disputed nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions, but has unraveled since the United States pulled out of it last year and acted to strangle Iran’s oil trade to push it into wider security concessions.

Since May, Iran has begun to exceed limits on its nuclear capacity set by the pact in retaliation for U.S. pressure on Iran to negotiate restrictions on its ballistic missile program and support for proxy forces around the Middle East.

Iran says its measures are reversible if European signatories to the accord manage to restore its access to foreign trade promised under the nuclear deal but blocked by the reimposition of U.S. sanctions.

The deal capped the level of purity to which Iran can enrich uranium at 3.67 percent – suitable for civilian power generation and far below the 90% threshold of nuclear weapons grade.
Cyprus authorities detain 3 Iranians suspected of terrorist links
Three Iranians who were detained in Cyprus may have been part of a terrorist cell, the blog Intelli Times reported on Sunday.

According to the report, the Iranians were arrested in the town of Paphos and told Cypriot authorities that they had obtained false passports in the Turkish-controlled part of the island after arriving from Turkey, ostensibly for the purpose of seeking employment in Europe.

But local authorities suspect they may actually be part of a plot to carry out terrorist activity, in light of past instances where Iranians who had arrived in Europe under the guise of labor migrants turned out to be affiliated with rogue elements such as Iran's Revolutionary Guards' Qods Force, which serves as Iran's arms for regional aggression.

Earlier this year, a large Qods Force cell was uncovered in France and in the past, the force's members were linked to various terrorist attacks against Israelis in Europe and elsewhere.
Iranian soccer stars condemn government after fan sets herself on fire
Iranian soccer players Masoud Shojaei and Vorya Ghaffouri have spoken out in condemnation of the Islamic Republic following the arrest of a 29-year-old woman after she tried to enter a men's soccer match.

The woman attempted to disguise herself as a man in order to enter the stadium. She was stopped by security forces and then quickly escorted to Qarchak prison, known to be one of the country's more menacing prisons due to "inhumane medical and psychological conditions," according to Radio Farda.

"As we are shocked by the limitations that were set for women in the past, the future generation will also definitely be astonished by [finding out] that women were banned from entering sports arenas in our time," said Shojaei, the captain of the Iranian men's football team on a live Instagram post.

"The origin of such limitations is the rotten and disgusting thinking of the past, and will be incomprehensible for the next generation," he said.

Upon her release, the women known only by the alias "Sara" went to the prosecutor's office to collect her confiscated cellphone, where she learned that she will be given a six-month prison sentence for the infraction, according to Radio Farda.
Linda Sarsour emerges as surrogate for Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign
Political activist Linda Sarsour has been named a surrogate for Bernie Sander’s 2020 US presidential campaign.

Sarsour, a Palestinian-American woman who is a supporter of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, spoke on behalf of Sanders over the weekend in Brooklyn, New York. In a video excerpt of the speech tweeted by the campaign, she is identified as a “Civil Rights Activist, 2020 Bernie Surrogate.”

“At a time of a startling rise in white nationalism and anti-Semitism, I would be so proud to win, but also to make history and elect the first Jewish American president this country has ever seen and for his name to be Bernard Sanders,” Sarsour says in the video.

In the more than a minute-long excerpt, Sarsour also says that Sanders believes in a foreign policy “that sees Palestinians as human beings deserving of human rights and self-determination.” She adds that the candidate does not ask how much foreign policy and heath care and higher education for all will cost, “because only people who don’t believe we deserve these things will ask us how to pay for things like health care, but never ask us how to pay for endless and unjust wars.”


Labour MP John Mann steps down to protest Corbyn anti-Semitism
A longtime Labour lawmaker said Saturday he was stepping down from the British parliament in protest of party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s alleged anti-Semitism.

John Mann, 59, said he would not run in the general election and will instead focus his efforts as the United Kingdom’s top adviser on combating anti-Semitism, accusing Corbyn and others on the far-left of helping “normalize” Jew hatred.

“I’m not prepared to stand as an MP with Corbyn as leader,” Mann told the Jewish Chronicle.

The departure is the latest for a party that has been roiled by claims of harboring anti-Semites and doing little to expel them from the party’s ranks. Those charges have intensified since the far-left Corbyn took over the party in 2015, with many longtime supporters defecting in protest or calling for him to step down.

Mann, who told the Chronicle he would remain a member of Labour, accused Corbyn of allowing anti-Semites to “hijack” the party.

“Corbyn has given the green light to the anti-Semites and, having done so, has sat there and done nothing to turn that round,” he told the Sunday Times.

“Every time I go into a meeting with a group of Jewish people, I wince when they raise the issue of the Labour party and Corbyn. It is impossible to overstate the anger that I have about that. He has not just hijacked my political party – he has hijacked its soul and its ethics. I will never forgive him for that.”

An MP for Bassetlaw, outside of Sheffield, since 2001, Mann has been outspoken about combating anti-Semitism and headed the All Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism, though he himself is not Jewish.

He was named anti-Semitism czar by former prime minister Theresa May as one of her last acts before stepping down earlier this year, and the role was recently upgraded by her successor Boris Johnson, allowing him to take on the job full time, according to The Guardian.

“The role will allow me to devote 95 percent of my life to fighting the war against antisemitism, rather than the five per cent I was able to devote while working as an MP,” he told the Jewish Chronicle.


Honest Reporting: AP Doesn’t Know Who Was Responsible For Munich Olympics Massacre
Forty-seven years ago, Palestinian terrorists from the Black September organization were responsible for the murder of 11 Israeli athletes after taking them hostage at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

This was how the Associated Press (AP) marked the infamous event on Twitter:

So, according to AP, those responsible were not terrorists but “guerrillas” who were members of a “Palestinian group.”

So far, so insulting.

After receiving a roasting from Twitter users, AP removed the tweet and announced the following:

If you were expecting a new and improved tweet from the AP, prepare to be infuriated as the “correction” turns out to be as shoddy as the original. This is the result:

Having told us that the original tweet was “unclear about who was responsible for the killings,” Black September is still referred to as a “Palestinian group.”

Related reading: What is Terrorism and Why Does its Definition Matter?

But no longer are they “guerrillas.” Instead, in the way that so many media avoid using the term “terrorists” in favor of various interchangeable terminology, this time the chosen description is “gunmen.”


Daily Mail (sort of) corrects. Britain’s national mapping service (clearly) deceives.
The Daily Mail’s coverage of Israel is, by and large, not compromised by the egregious bias found in UK media outlets such as the Guardian and Independent, and editors there are generally amenable to corrections when we point out errors. Nonetheless, their “correction” to a complaint we filed over a map they distributed (to close to a million news consumers) in their Sunday print edition, which falsely listed Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital, is disappointing.

Here’s the section of the map in question, which we originally posted about last week.

Now, here’s the ‘correction’ the Daily Mail published in today’s print edition in response to a complaint filed by UK Media Watch (and countless other followers of our blog):

First, it’s important to note that the UK government map cited by Britain’s national mapping agency, Ordnance Survey, which was sent to us by Daily Mail editors in response to our complaint, does NOT, as they claim, list Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital.
Israelis brutally beaten in Poland club, attackers said to scream ‘f**k Israel’
Several Israelis were brutally assaulted in Poland after the assailants asked where they were from, the brother of one of the victims alleged on Sunday.

Barak Kashpizky posted to Facebook a pair of pictures of his bloodied twin brother Yotam, taken shortly after the attack, in an account that quickly went viral.

In it, Kashpizky said that Yotam had gone out to a club in Warsaw with several other Israeli students attending a summer semester abroad at the local law school.

At 4 a.m., the Israelis were approached by a group of “Arabic speakers” who asked them if they were from Israel.

“When they answered in the affirmative, they were relentlessly attacked, [in blows] accompanied by shouts of ‘fuck Israel,'” wrote Barak Kashpizky, adding that his brother was briefly knocked unconscious.

In addition to Yotam, who suffered a broken nose from the beating, another Israeli was briefly hospitalized. Both have since been released.
Dutch museum defends exhibition on Nazi design, denies glorifying Nazis
A museum in the Netherlands has banned visitors from taking pictures of an exhibition on design during the Third Reich to prevent any Nazi glorification on social media.

The Design Museum Den Bosch also put extra security in each room of the “Design of the Third Reich” exhibit as it opened Sunday.

Among the items on display are a Volkswagen Beetle, photos from the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, films by director Leni Riefenstahl and a sculpture by Arno Breker, one of Adolf Hitler’s favorite artists.

On its website, the museum says the exhibition is aimed at showing the “contribution of design to the development of the evil Nazi ideology.”

According to the Guardian, the exhibit has been criticized by the Association of Dutch Anti-fascists. Members of the local communist party held a protest near the museum’s entrance as it opened Sunday.

Timo de Rijk, the museum’s director, said he assured the protesters the exhibit would not glorify the Nazis.

“They are concerned that maybe we are glorifying it all. I would not be doing this if I thought we were, but I can understand that they are aware of that kind of evil in history,” he told the British newspaper.
Dutch heroine who saved dozens of Jews in World War II dies at 99
Diet Eman, a Dutch woman and resistance fighter who was recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for helping save dozens of Jews, passed away on Tuesday. She was 99.

In 1942, Eman and her boyfriend, Hein Sietsma, gave shelter to a Jewish violinist named Herman in The Hague, The Washington Post reported. From that moment on, Eman became involved in the Dutch underground, helping dozens of Jews.

“In the beginning you have no idea what risk you are taking,” she later told the Sioux City (Iowa) Journal, as reported by The Washington Post. “Then, you’re so deep in it, you can’t go back.”

The Nazis occupied the Netherlands in 1940.

Eman buried weapons in her parents’ garden, translated BBC radio reports to spread forbidden news, and served as a courier. She and Sietsma, who had become her fiancé, joined a small resistance group called Hein, which provided money, ration cards and false documents to Jews on the run.

Eventually, the two were discovered and arrested. At the time of the arrest, Eman was hiding an envelope full of stolen ration cards under her blouse and managed to toss it away, taking advantage of a moment the Gestapo officers were distracted.

She spent some months at the Herzogenbusch concentration camp in Vught, in the southern Netherlands, but resisted interrogations by pretending to be very simple-minded.


The Cold War caper that saw future hockey stars sneak prayer books to USSR Jews
Ask Sherwood “Sherry” Bassin any question about North American amateur hockey and there’s a good chance he’ll know the answer — little surprise given his near half-century in various leagues and positions: team owner, general manager, coach, interim commissioner and elder statesman. In a sport not known for a surfeit of Jews, Bassin, with his open sense of Jewish pride, is an anomaly, especially given the prominent role he’s long played in amateur hockey.

Even growing up in western Canada in the 1940s and early 1950s, hockey and Jewish identity were central facets of Bassin’s life. The two would have an unlikely convergence years later on distant shores.

For all his success in hockey, it was a formerly undisclosed caper Bassin pulled off 36 years ago that earned him a moment of glory in the Jewish world when it was revealed in the media for the first time last winter.

In the fall of 1982, as general manager of Canada’s national junior hockey team, Bassin was preparing for the 1983 World Junior Hockey Championship that was to run in the then-Soviet Union from late December through January.

Knowing the hardship Soviet Jews faced under the Communist regime, Bassin had heard that synagogues there sorely lacked prayer books and ritual shawls. He soon devised a way to help — but he knew it could only work with the cooperation of the team.
Detroit Red Wings’ Steve Yzerman lifts the Stanley Cup after Detroit swept the Philadelphia Flyers in the best of seven series Saturday, June 7, 1997, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Bassin first broached his idea with the team’s head coach and players, none of whom were Jewish. His roster included future National Hockey League (NHL) superstars Mario Lemieux and Steve Yzerman. He explained to the team the plight of Soviet Jews and the adversity they faced trying to practice their religion due to government restrictions.

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