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Monday, November 18, 2019

11/18 Links Pt2: JPost Editorial: Don’t vote Corbyn; David Collier: Exposed – the true face of the Palestinian cause; Maajid Nawaz explains why anti-semitism is the 'most dangerous' form of racism

From Ian:
In major shift, US set to rescind stance on illegality of settlements
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to announce on Monday that the US is softening its position on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the latest in a series of Trump administration moves that weaken Palestinian claims to statehood.

Pompeo plans to repudiate a 1978 State Department legal opinion that held that civilian settlements in the West Bank are “inconsistent with international law.” The move will likely anger Palestinians and put the US at odds with other nations working to end the conflict.

The Trump administration views the opinion, the basis for long-standing US opposition to expanding the settlements, as a distraction and believes any legal questions about the issue should be addressed by Israeli courts, according to a draft of Pompeo’s remarks on the policy obtained by The Associated Press.

“Calling the establishment of civilian settlements inconsistent with international law has not advanced the cause of peace,” Pompeo says in the draft. “The hard truth is that there will never be a judicial resolution to the conflict, and arguments about who is right and who is wrong as a matter of international law will not bring peace.”

US administration moves that have weakened Palestinian efforts to achieve statehood have included US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the movement of the US embassy to that city, and the closure of the Palestinian diplomatic office in Washington.


JPost Editorial: Don’t vote Corbyn
In the weeks leading up to the December 12 general election in the UK, more and more efforts are being made to sound the alarm and make non-Jewish voters aware of the systemic antisemitism in the Labour Party.

Last week, a group of well-known British intellectuals and artists – none of whom are Jewish, and many of whom do not plan to vote for the Conservative Party – wrote an open letter urging voters to reject Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Among the signatories were spy novelist John le Carré, historians Antony Beevor and Tom Holland, Muslims Against Antisemitism head Ghanem Nuseibeh, and writer Maajid Nawaz.

“The coming election is momentous for every voter, but for British Jews it contains a particular anguish: the prospect of a prime minister steeped in association with antisemitism,” the letter reads. “Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, Labour has come under formal investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission for institutional racism against Jews. Two Jewish MPs have been bullied out of the party. Mr. Corbyn has a long record of embracing antisemites as comrades.”

“Antisemitism is racism,” Nawaz wrote on Twitter. “Antisemitism is the *only* form of racism that unites all fascists: far-left, far-right & theocratic Islamists. This is why antisemitism is the most dangerous form of racism...There were always excuses made for Jew hate in Europe. Do not make excuses for it...Do not betray Jews.”
Maajid Nawaz explains why anti-semitism is the 'most dangerous' form of racism
LBC's Maajid Nawaz has explained why he believes anti-semitism is the "most dangerous" form of racism in a heated debate.

Caller John, from Suffolk, said he was "confused" as he thought saying anti-semitism was the "most dangerous" form of racism was an "idiotic argument".

John added he thought this was because "all racism is equal" and happens all over the world.

Explaining his reasoning, Maajid said: "The far left, the far right and Islamists, all three of them, campaign, propagate and recruit on an anti-semitic basis.

"Therefore unlike other forms of racism that I may suffer, the far-left don't campaign and propagate anti-brown or black racism, they pretend to be defenders of it while propagating anti-semitic racism.

"The far right don't propagate anti-white, say, racism but they do propagate anti-semitism just like the far left.

"The Islamist theocrats aren't recruiting people based on anti-black racism, though obviously anti-black racism exists in the Arab world, but they do recruit people on the basis of anti-semitic racist tropes.
UN envoy Danon slams Bernie Sanders's Israel comments
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon didn’t mince words when slamming Bernie Sanders’s recent remarks about US aid to Israel on Sunday night.

Speaking at the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) gala in New York City, Danon said: “Mr. Sanders, a few months on a kibbutz in 1963 can only teach you so much." He was referring to the Vermont senator’s brief time at an Israeli kibbutz near Haifa in his youth.

Danon then attacked Sanders for comments he made during the J Street Annual conference in Washington, DC last month. There, Sanders declared that some of the $3.8 billion in aid the US allocates to Israel, should be given to the Gazan people as well.

“My solution is, to Israel, if you want military aid you’re going to have to fundamentally change your relationship to the people of Gaza,” Sanders said. “I would say that some of the $3.8 billion should go right now to humanitarian aid in Gaza.”

Finding that stance absurd, Danon said such a belief would “undermine the security of both Israel and the US”

“Perhaps Mr. Sanders didn’t hear about Israel leaving Gaza in 2005,” he said. “Maybe he hasn’t had the chance to visit the Kerem Shalom crossing, where hundreds of trucks pass daily to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza. Maybe he doesn’t know about the terror tunnels.”

“[Sanders] is suggesting to give less military assistance to the United States’ most important ally in the Middle East in order to give it to Hamas, a terrorist organization that celebrated the tragedy of 9/11,” he continued.

Danon vowed to fight against these “radical” voices threatening Israel.



David Collier: Exposed – the true face of the Palestinian cause
Much of my research is about exposing the true face of the Palestinian cause. I see a clear difference between having sympathy for the plight of the Arabs of Ramallah and Gaza and the hate that drives anti-Israel activism. Much of the criticism I face is from those who do not understand this difference. They see a Palestinian flag waving in London and think that it stands for human rights and peace.
A trinity of extremism

Nothing could be further from the truth. The hate that holds the Palestinian cause aloft is a trinity of extremism from the radical left, right and Islam. The Palestinian cause is also the only issue that the three extremists, the Marxist, the neo-Nazi and the radical Islamist, can ever agree on. Which makes it a convenient issue that they always want to focus on. Ignorance, naivety and antisemitism has given these extremists- under the umbrella of the Palestinian cause – almost free reign in the west. Waving the Palestinian flag in ‘solidarity’ has destroyed the moral compass of much of the left.

Rarely is the true face of the Palestinian cause so easily exposed as it was this week. Three examples are provided – to highlight the dangers – not just to Jews in the Diaspora but to wider society.
Event one. The Palestinian cause on campus

On Tuesday there is an event on campus at Warwick. The University of Warwick has two active anti-Israel groups. One of these groups was actually started by Faculty because the student group wasn’t considered ‘extreme’ enough. They regularly hold anti-Israel events, there is even one the day before and Monday’s event is all about how to push the Boycott of Israel on campus. On Tuesday they are protesting the arrival of an Israeli, Eyal Dror:

Palestinian causeThe event description states that:
“The Warwick Jewish Israeli Society is hosting the misnamed Israeli ‘Defense’ Force’s Lieutenant Colonel Eyal Dror, with permission from WarwickSU on Tuesday from 12-1. It is shameful for Warwick to allow an Israeli Lieutenant on campus”

So who is Colonel Eyal Dror? He has been saving lives for years. Not Israeli lives but Syrian ones. Eyal Dror oversaw the operation ‘Good Neighbour’. It helped Syrians near the border who had been caught up in the Syrian civil war. More than 7,000 Syrian’s were treated in Israeli hospitals, 49,000 packages of baby food were delivered, 26,000 medical cases were sent by Israel. Tents, cars, caravans, fuel and generators amongst so much more was all facilitated and sent by Operation Good Neighbour under the command of LTC Dror. His team also led the evacuation of the White Helmets. The man is a hero and the episode of Israeli humanitarian activity during the Syrian civil war is a story that should be heard. Which is exactly why the anti-Israel activists are protesting him. They don’t want the world to hear the truth.

The Labour Society are co-hosting. A timely reminder of what the Palestinian cause has done to the moral compass of the Labour Party. This isn’t about Palestinian rights or Israeli activity in Gaza- this is a demonstration against a man who saved the lives of his neighbours. The Palestinian cause is not for human rights – it is against an entity – no matter how good or worthwhile that entity may be. Anti-Israel rather than pro-Palestinian.


Israel Advocacy Movement: Death threats screamed at Jews in London
Yesterday on the streets of London anti-Israel protesters screamed these death threats at Jews in Arabic: You dog only death will come to you You son of a b*stard only death will come to you You Zionist only death will come to you


Corbyn embraced speaker who claimed Zionism had made Jews “immoral”
Jeremy Corbyn stood on a stage in Trafalgar Square and listened while a speaker claimed Zionism had made Jews “immoral”, and then embraced him as he walked off. Corbyn also appeared to be present while another speaker told Palestinians to “explode in the faces” of Israelis and threatened “jihad, jihad, jihad until Palestine is free.”

The speeches were part of a Palestine Solidarity Campaign rally in 2008, an organisation Corbyn is still a patron of. In addition to the Labour leader, MPs Richard Burden, Caroline Lucas and George Galloway were all reportedly at the event, although there is no evidence that they heard the comments.

Footage of the rally shows Corbyn stood just a few feet away from Ismail Patel as he says, “we see the impact of Zionism on Palestinians, but it has had a devastating effect on the Jewish community itself: it has made them immoral in justice.” The two men embraced as Patel walked off the stage a minute later, to be followed by Corbyn’s address.

Patel is the Chair of Friends of Al-Aqsa, a Leicester-based campaign which raised £10,000 for Corbyn’s first leadership campaign. The donation caused the Labour leader problems in 2016, when it was discovered it had never been declared, despite Electoral Commission rules requiring declarations for all donations over £7,500. Corbyn’s spokesperson said at the time “there is nothing dodgy going on.”

Corbyn was also stood to the side of the stage while the academic Azzam Tamimi delivered a message to people in Gaza saying, “if they starve you, if they deny you water, if they deny you life, explode in their faces, do whatever you want.” Tamimi also pledged that unless Palestinian’s rights were fully recognised, “it will be jihad, jihad and jihad until Palestine is free.”


Video emerges of Labour candidate Alana Bates singing “Israel is a racist state” in a song titled “From the river to the sea” with her band
A video has emerged of the Labour Party’s candidate for St Ives in Cornwall, Alana Bates, playing a song “From the river to the sea” with her band, The Tribunes.

One verse in the song goes: “From the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea, Palestine will be free,” which is a common and unsubtle call for the destruction of the Jewish State and is thus an attempt to deny the Jews, uniquely, the right to self-determination.

The song also includes the lyrics: “Israel is a racist state, Israel is an apartheid state.”

Ms Bates, a bass player and backing singer in the band, conceded that the song was written by the group but denied that it has any antisemitic meaning in a bizarre clarification in which she said: “I obviously support Israel’s right to exist. The song says that Israel is a racist state. I would personally say that the government policies of Israel are racist.”

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination (e.g. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour)” is an example of antisemitism.

Ms Bates, who is also a councillor on Penzance Town Council, also confirmed that the Labour Party had ordered her to remove the song from her social media.
Labour deselects candidate Ed Murphy after it emerges he described the IDF as “international pirates” secretly backed by the Conservatives
Ed Murphy, the Labour Party general election candidate for North West Cambridgeshire, has reportedly been deselected by the Party after it emerged that he accused the Israel Defence Forces of being “international pirates” secretly backed by the Conservatives on Peterborough City Council.

Mr Murphy, who is a councillor on Peterborough City Council, reportedly deleted a tweet from July 2014 in which he alleged that the Israel Defence Forces were backed by the Conservatives on the council, apparently posting: “Israel a terrorist state? And Israeli military (secretly backed by the Cons on Pboro Council) are international pirates.”

The tweet is said to have been accompanied by the image of the Israeli flag turned into a symbol of piracy, and Mr Murphy is alleged to have shared the image on Twitter twice more in 2015 with the hashtag #MilitaryStatePirates.

It has also been claimed that Mr Murphy, who was then Labour’s leader on the council, proposed Alan Bull as a candidate in a Peterborough City Council election, despite knowing that Mr Bull had shared a post on social media suggesting that the Holocaust was a hoax and other controversial material.

However, it took the Labour compliance unit eight months to suspend Mr Bull in a saga that neatly illustrated Labour’s institutional antisemitism, as Mr Bull’s critics were hounded out of the Party.
General election 2019: Plaid suspend member over anti-Semitism claims
Plaid Cymru has suspended a party member included in its party election broadcast over allegations of anti-Semitism.

The party said it will conduct an investigation into historical social media comments made by Sahar Al-Faifi.

Ms Al-Faifi appeared in Plaid Cymru's party political broadcast for the general election, which aired on BBC Wales, ITV Wales and S4C on Thursday.

The party said it will not tolerate anti-Semitism or racism "in any form".

Ms Al-Faifa has been asked to comment on the posts, which were deleted some time ago.

In the broadcast, she said: "Activists, it's us," in a reference to Plaid's slogan for the election campaign: "Wales, it's us."

Since the party election broadcast, Sahar Al-Faifi has been accused on social media of making anti-Semitic Facebook and Twitter comments between 2012 and 2014.

Plaid Cymru said: "We have taken immediate action to suspend the person in question. We will investigate all allegations.

"Plaid Cymru will not tolerate anti-Semitism, racism or intolerance in any form. That includes the appalling abuse the individual has been subject to. It is not a part of the Wales we want to build."

She has also appeared on broadcasts for BBC Wales discussing her faith.
Plaid's Taffy Jihadi Blamed Lord Ashcroft for London Terror Attack
The Plaid Cymru activist who starred in their party political broadcast and is at the centre of a storm over anti-Semitism and extremist views has apologised and declared she has undertaken “anti-Semitism training” after her social media posts of hers surfaced that Sahar Al-Faifi admits “crossed the boundary of criticism of Israel into anti-Semitism.” Al-Faifi has been suspended by the party…

The suspension was over posts Al-Fafi wrote between 2012 and 2014 when she:
- Celebrated the return of Hamas leader Khalid Meshal to Gaza. She wrote “we have given you a clear conquest… Allah may aid you with a mighty victory.”
- Wrote “If Saudi Arabia stopped producing oil for one day, the West would kneel on their knees & #Israel would disappear. Shame on Arab rulers! #Gaza”

Guido can reveal that far more recently, Al-Faifi has made deeply troubling comments. In 2016, the activist wrote of alleged Al-Queda member Moazzam Begg that “one cannot but laud Begg for his an inimitable courage in his cause, to have a more answerable government and hold MI5 and MI6 to account.”

In the wake of the 2017 London Bridge terror attack, she wrote a social media post entitled “London Bridge attack, who is to blame?” In it, she placed blame not on the Jihadi terrorists, but “pro-Zionists pro-war individuals such as Robert Rosenkranz, Lord Ashcroft and Lord Kalms the owner of Dixons”
The resurrection of the Blood Libel - by pseudo-scholars
Jews have been accused of harming and murdering non-Jews since the twelfth century in England, when Jewish convert to Catholicism, Theobald of Cambridge, mendaciously announced that European Jews ritually slaughtered Christian children each year and drank their blood during Passover season.

That medieval blood libel, largely abandoned in the contemporary West, does, however, still appear as part of Arab world’s vilification of Jews—now transmogrified into a slander against Israel, the Jew of nations. But in the regular chorus of defamation against Israel by a world infected with Palestinianism, a new, more odious trend has shown itself: the blood libel has been revivified; however, to position Israel (and by extension Jews) as demonic agents in the community of nations, the primitive fantasies of the blood libel are now masked with a veneer of academic scholarship.

The latest example of this pseudo-scholarship—born out of contortions of history and fact to conform, instead, to spurious narratives—has embroiled Boston University in a debate about the academic qualifications of a prospective faculty hire, Sarah Ihmoud, a postdoctoral associate in Anthropology and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

As is the current trend in the humanities and social sciences in academia, Ihmoud, in her writing about feminism and sexuality, focuses obsessively on the predations of the Jew of nations, Israel, in a torrent of so-called research. Not surprisingly, since the left is in the thralls of intersectionality and the commonality of oppression, Ilmoud’s views are so biased against Israel, so focused on the barbarity and aggression of Zionism, and so dedicated to exposing the moral depravity of Israel’s Jews that she is not content to merely deal in history and fact.
Paving the way to total boycott
Although the Platform claims its campaigns "aren't part of the boycott movement," its president, Claude Léostic, said in an interview that "we certainly support it." In a report that Léostic and other boycott groups published in June 2018, they call on French companies such as Egis, Systra and Alstom to "terminate their contracts with the Israeli authorities” and urge the French government to "take all the measures needed" to prevent French public operators SNCF, RATP and CDC from fulfilling their contracts with the Jerusalem tramway.

Another boycott group working alongside the Platform is the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). Together, they established the "created illegally" campaign in France, which calls on the French government to sever its economic ties with the "Israeli settlements" and any business with connections to them. The campaign's demands include prohibiting the import of products from these communities to France, convincing French companies "not to invest in the settlements," and providing information to tourists in order to "ensure they avoid supporting local companies or tourist sites in the settlements."

The innocuous rhetoric is meant to divert the discussion from its true goal: A complete boycott of Israel, sans actual effort to promote co-existence or human rights in the region. Indeed, these measures will also hurt Palestinians trying to make a living, but a senior EU official justified the initiatives by saying the Europeans "regret it, but need to look at the wider picture."

When the EU decided in 2015 to recommend labeling Israeli products from Judea and Samaria, the Golan Heights and east Jerusalem, the EU's ambassador to Israel at the time said the move was "just a technical matter." Two days ago, the current EU ambassador to Israel said the European Court of Justice's ruling reflects "parts of the EU's consumer policy."

We must ask, are assisting and funding boycott campaigns against Israel, harming Palestinian employment, discriminating on the basis of nationality and seeking to return the Golan Heights to terrorist groups in control of what was once Syria – also technical matters and part of the EU's consumer culture?
European Court Applies Double Standard against Israeli Products
The Court of Justice ruling, which effectively encourages the strict French labelling requirements to be applied across the European Union, has been roundly condemned as reflecting the EU's anti-Israel bias. Many commentators noted that of all the world's many territorial conflicts — from Crimea to Northern Cyprus to Tibet to Western Sahara — the EU has singled out Israel as the only country subject to special labelling requirements.

"There are over 200 ongoing territorial disputes across the world, yet the ECJ has not rendered a single ruling related to the labeling of products originating from these territories. Today's ruling is both political and discriminating against Israel." — Israeli Foreign Ministry.

"It also goes against the international standard of trade set by the World Trade Organization... This is the worst kind of fiddling while Rome burns. The European court quoting Israel for its 'breach of the rules of international humanitarian law' whilst Hamas and its acolytes are bombing innocent civilian populations in Israel is one of the most perverse ironies I have witnessed in quite some time." — Menachem Margolin, Chairman, European Jewish Association, Brussels.


Austrian city bans public funds for antisemitic BDS and political Islam
The central city of Graz in Austria on Thursday outlawed public space and institutional support for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, as well as for political Islam.

According to the legislation reviewed by The Jerusalem Post, the city council of Graz announced that “Municipal services are not allowed to support group events that pursue or promote the goals of the BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) and political Islam.”

The law added that “Space and institutions that are under the city administration must not be made available to organizations that express themselves in antisemitic terms or question Israel’s right to exist.”

The measure was passed with votes from a wide range of political parties, including the conservatives, the Greens and social democrats. The communist faction of the city council voted against the anti-BDS law.

The anti-BDS law in Graz is significant because the city is the second largest municipality after Vienna. Graz is the capital city of the state of Styria, with a population of nearly 300,000. Elie Rosen, the head of the Jewish community in Graz, welcomed the city council’s action to ban BDS. Graz’s mayor Siegfried Nagl also supported the anti-BDS measure.
Pro-Israel activist Hen Mazzig booed at Vassar College
Pro-Israel activist Hen Mazzig was shouted down while speaking to students at Vassar College. Members of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Vassar chanted "from the river to the sea" as Mazzig attempted to give his lecture entitled, “The Indigenous Jews of the Middle East: Forgotten Refugees.”

Prior to the event, the group also published a statement about Mazzig's lecture, condemning his presence on campus.

"Students for Justice in Palestine at Vassar rejects Mazzig’s presence on this campus and VOICE’s role in obscuring Israel’s settler colonial project."

"I walked into the room at 5:30 p.m. when the event was supposed to start, the doors were closed, people were inside, they introduced me... and as I started speaking they started chanting," Mazzig said. He added that as the chants began, a few school administrators walked out of the room towards where the students were protesting, but he is not sure what the administrators did.

Mazzig posted a video of the incident on Twitter, writing: "Tonight, as I spoke about how anti-Zionists hung my great grandfather in Iraq, anti-Zionists chanted for my death at Vassar College in NY. (Note: “from the river to the sea” is a chant used by Hamas when they call for the genocide of all Jews) Am Israel Chai [may the nation of Israel live!]."


Toronto graduate student union apologizes for saying kosher food is ‘pro-Israel’
The Graduate Student Union at the University of Toronto has apologized for having “unintentionally caused harm toward the Jewish community” after a union official suggested that the executive board would not support a campaign by the school’s Jewish student organization to make kosher food available on campus since such food is “pro-Israel.”

Hillel, the campus Jewish student group, acknowledged the apology but said it didn’t address the “anti-Semitic nature” of the union’s original remarks.

In response to a Jewish graduate student’s request for the union to officially support the Kosher Forward Campaign, the union’s External Commissioner had suggested the student union’s Executive Committee might be reluctant to bring such a motion forward to its board of directors since Hillel is “pro-Israel” and that supporting it would go against the “will of the membership.”

The Graduate Student Union voted in 2012 to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS movement against Israel.

Hillel’s kosher food campaign had highlighted the lack of kosher food options on the university campus, even though Jewish students who reside on campus must pay into a food plan.

In its apology statement issued on Sunday evening, the union also said: “The External Commissioner did not intend to do harm in using this language, but recognizes that this is not an excuse for the harm that the wording of this response caused to the individual receiving it as well as to Jewish students at U of T.”

The statement noted that no official decision has been made on whether to bring the motion forward at the next board meeting.
University of North Carolina Expresses Willingness to Confront Antisemitism
The US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights informed the Zionist Organization of America this month that the University of North Carolina expressed a willingness to resolve the ZOA’s allegations through a resolution agreement.

The Oct. 14 agreement required the university to take reasonable steps to enable students not to face a hostile environment, including appropriately responding to antisemitic acts.

UNC interim chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz must issue a statement to students, faculty and staff that UNC does not tolerate antisemitism, and that students are encouraged to report such incidents.

Additionally, UNC must revise its written harassment and discrimination policy to (a) reiterate its commitment to an environment free from prohibited harassment, including antisemitic harassment; and (b) include a statement that the harassment of students based on their actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, including antisemitic harassment, may constitute national origin discrimination in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The revised policy may provide a clear definition of antisemitism and must provide a description of the forms of antisemitism that can manifest in the UNC environment.


BBC News amplifies Syrian and Russian propaganda yet again
On November 11th the BBC News website published an article about the death of the ‘White Helmets’ co-founder James Le Mesurier in Turkey and readers of that report were told that:
“…the Syrian government and its allies Russia and Iran have accused the White Helmets of openly aiding terrorist organisations and the Russian foreign ministry last week accused Mr Le Mesurier of being a former agent of the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6.”

The BBC also thought it appropriate to embed a screenshot of the Tweet from the Russian foreign ministry in which that accusation was made before telling readers that a UK official had denied the allegation.

In April 2018 BBC Trending produced a report titled “Syria war: The online activists pushing conspiracy theories” which included a whole section on conspiracy theories relating to the ‘White Helmets’. The BBC is certainly aware that the Russian and Syrian propaganda was exposed and debunked two years ago and it also surely comprehends why such propaganda is spread by those regimes.
Haaretz Corrects No Gaza Fishing Ban
CAMERA’s Israel office today prompted correction after Haaretz erroneously reported in Hebrew and English that Israel imposed a fishing ban on the Gaza Strip in response to the barrage of rocket attacks launched by Islamic Jihad against Israel. On page 2 today in Haaretz‘s print edition, and online here, Jack Khoury and Almog Ben Zikri erred:

Tuesday’s events have not immediately damaged the economy, but that could change if the border crossings stay closed and the temporary ban on fishing isn’t lifted.

Representatives of Gaza fishermen were told that there would be no fishing Tuesday, and merchants waiting to export produce through the Kerem Shalom crossing found that the gates were closed.

As reported by multiple media outlets yesterday, Israel scaled back Gaza’s fishing zone to six nautical miles, but has not imposed as ban. COGAT confirmed to CAMERA:

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Major General Kamil Abu Rukun, announced yesterday (Tuesday) the closure of the Erez and Kerem Shalom Crossings, as well as the reduction of the fishing zone off the Gaza Strip to six nautical miles from Tuesday morning and until further notice.

Numerous other news sources reported the fishing zone was reduced to six nautical miles, not that fishing is banned.
Conservative Group Fires Michelle Malkin Over Support for Holocaust Denier
A conservative group cut ties with right-wing columnist Michelle Malkin on Sunday over her support for an anti-Semitic internet personality, ramping up a growing conservative civil war centered on college campuses.

Malkin’s firing from Young America’s Foundation, whose speakers bureau had booked Malkin for speeches across the country for the past 17 years, marks the latest battle between supporters of Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and more establishment conservative figures.

“Michelle Malkin in no longer part of YAF’s campus lecture program,” a YAF spokesman said in an email to The Daily Beast.

Malkin didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Since October, Fuentes’s fans have been showing up at conservative college speeches and heckling speakers booked by YAF and another, rival conservative group, Turning Point USA.

The alt-right activists, who call themselves “groypers” in a nod to a meme about an obese toad similar to Pepe the Frog, typically ask the speakers questions about United States aid to Israel and immigration in an attempt to push their racist and anti-Semitic beliefs into more mainstream conservatism. On Nov. 10, the activists booed Donald Trump Jr. at a Turning Point event after organizers refused to hold a Q&A.
NJ man accused of ordering vandalism of 2 synagogues on neo-Nazi network
A New Jersey man, 18, was arrested and held without bond for allegedly ordering the vandalism of two synagogues in other states.
Richard Tobin is accused of using a neo-Nazi social network called The Base to find volunteers to for the September graffiti attacks on synagogues in Michigan and Wisconsin, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Tobin also allegedly said he planned the attacks as part of nationwide campaign he called “Operation Kristallnacht,” a reference to the 1938 pogrom against Jewish homes, synagogues and Jewish owned-owned businesses in Germany and Austria.

Tobin also confessed to driving to a New Jersey mall with a machete that he planned to use to kill black shoppers.

A complaint filed Tuesday by the FBI charges Tobin with conspiring with a hate group against the rights of minorities, including Jews, NJ.com reported.
Devon and Cornwall Police win “highly commended” recognition for response to arson attack on historic Exeter Synagogue
Devon and Cornwall Police have won “highly commended” recognition at the World Class Policing Awards for their response to the arson attack on the historic Exeter Synagogue. This new event recognises outstanding police work from across the world.

The attack occurred on 21st July 2018. Devon Live reported that police attended immediately, reviewed CCTV images, and arrested Tristan Morgan.

As he was put in a police van, he reportedly said: “Please tell me that synagogue is burning to the ground, if not, it’s poor preparation.”

According to police, Mr Morgan is alleged to have poured “an accelerant” into the synagogue, which was built in 1763, making it one of Britain’s oldest synagogues, and then tried to light it.

He was later sentenced to an indefinite hospital order and a ten-year terrorism reporting order.


Israeli artificial pancreas may one day cure diabetes
Ahead of International Diabetes Day, November 14, Israeli startup Betalin Therapeutics announced that it is beginning the application process for clinical trials of its revolutionary artificial pancreas.

Betalin’s Engineered Micro Pancreas (EMP) aims to free patients suffering from the most severe types of diabetes from constantly monitoring blood-sugar levels and injecting insulin. About 160 million people are insulin dependent.

The road to an Israeli-made artificial pancreas has been a decade in the making.

When ISRAEL21c first reported on Betalin in 2015, the company had just been founded, based on research in the laboratory of Prof. Eduardo Mitrani at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. (Mitrani is continuing his academic work while serving on Betalin’s scientific advisory board.)

In Type 1 diabetes, insulin-producing cells (known as “beta cells” – hence the name Betalin) in the pancreas don’t function properly.

Doctors have tried implanting patients with islets of beta cells extracted from the pancreas of a donor. Unfortunately, the implanted cells don’t survive long even with immunosuppressive drugs. Half of all transplanted patients are back on insulin injections one year later and 90% revert to insulin dependency within five years.

The relapse rate is so high because beta cells aren’t naturally designed to survive on their own in the body. (h/t vwVwwVwv)
Israeli startup announces open application for artificial pancreas!




Lionel Messi and Argentine national team land in Israel ahead of Uruguay match
Argentina’s national team and its superstar captain, Lionel Messi, arrived in Israel on Sunday evening ahead of Monday’s highly anticipated game against Uruguay and its star player Luis Suarez.

When not playing for their respective national teams, both Messi and Suarez play together for Spanish club FC Barcelona.

The two teams are slated to compete in an exhibition match at Tel Aviv’s Bloomfield Stadium.

A live webcast showed the team disembarking from their flight at Ben Gurion airport, near Tel Aviv, and boarding a team bus on the tarmac, without speaking to cameramen.

Messi was last in Israel in 2013 when Barcelona FC took a break from its pre-season training and touched down in the holy land for a two-day “peace tour” with Israeli and Palestinian kids. A planned visit last year that was to feature a friendly soccer match against Israel was canceled, due to Palestinian pressure and threats to Argentina’s national team. Argentina had been scheduled to play Israel in June 2018 in Jerusalem just before the World Cup in Russia.

The 2018 cancellation led to political fallout, and to FIFA fining and slapping a 12-month ban on Palestinian Football Association head Jibril Rajoub for “inciting hatred and violence” against Messi.
Despite BDS Outcry Messi & Argentinian Team in Israel for Friendly Match
Lionel Messi and his Argentina teammates arrived in Israel Sunday ahead of a friendly match against Uruguay, nearly 18 months after his side cancelled a match against the Jewish state. A live webcast showed the team disembarking from their flight at Ben Gurion airport, near Tel Aviv, and boarding a team bus on the tarmac, without speaking to cameramen. The two South American giants will face off on Monday evening in a match expected to pit Messi against his Barcelona strike partner Luis Suarez. Uruguay arrived in Israel on Saturday.




Holocaust rescuer gets a surprise 100th birthday party in Poland
The day after he turned 100, Jozef Walaszczyk prepared to attend yet another Holocaust commemoration ceremony in his native Warsaw.
Walaszczyk is Poland’s oldest living Righteous Among the Nations – a title given by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust museum to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust – and he attends several such events each year. But he was in for a different experience when a Ferrari pulled up to his apartment building Thursday to take him to the event.

After some negotiation on Walaszczyk’s part to get into the sports car’s famously low frame, he was driven to a birthday gala organized to honor him and 19 other rescuers from Poland, Belarus, Albania and beyond.

“I was so surprised and honored that all of this was done for me,” Walaszczyk told reporters waiting for him at a restaurant inside the famed Zamoski Palace. He called it “the best surprise I have ever gotten in my life.”

As the foreman of a factory outside Warsaw, Walaszczyk helped protect 30 Jews after the Nazis invaded, according to Yad Vashem. Then he took a Jewish woman sought by the Gestapo into his home and arranged false papers for her.

The woman, Irena Front, was subsequently arrested. Walaszczyk bribed police to release her and 20 other Jews, some of whom moved into his apartment. He hired a maid to take care of them in hiding. When they were arrested in 1944, Walaszczyk again intervened to get them out and housed them in a rural hiding place. He continued to support them after the war ended.

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