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Thursday, September 17, 2020

09/17 Links Pt2: Caroline Glick: The Red-Green alliance's war against Israel continues; Bribing Harvard to hire a terror apologist — with your tax dollars

From Ian:
Caroline Glick: The Red-Green alliance's war against Israel continues
And this brings us to the second side of the BDS movement – its Western side. Westerners involved in the BDS campaign don't care if the members of the anti-Islamist bloc end their boycott of Israel. They are happy to suffice with the continuation of the boycott by members of the Islamist axis.

This is the heart of the matter. The BDS campaign is a central component of the working alliance between the European Union, the Western left and the Islamist bloc. The Palestinian Authority, controlled by Fatah in Ramallah is dependent on the Western half of the Red-Green axis. Hamas is controlled by the Islamist bloc.

All members of the Red-Green axis share a deep-seated hostility towards Israel, the Trump administration and the anti-Islamist Arab bloc. Whereas for decades the Palestinians were proxies of the Arab world and their war against the Jewish state was an Arab proxy war, today the Palestinians are a proxy of the Red-Green alliance. They wage their multi-dimensional campaign against Israel with the active support and involvement of their Red-Green axis sponsors.

Whereas the Trump administration and the members of the anti-Islamist bloc ended their financial support for the PA and the Hamas regime in recent years, the EU, its member states, leftist foundations, Turkey, Qatar and Iran all increased their financial support to the two Palestinian regimes.

The Europeans and the international Left have taken a leading role in several aspects of the Palestinian war. They are the authors and primary engine behind the PA's campaign to seize lands in Area C. They run the information and diplomatic efforts against Israel at the UN and the Hague tribunals. They fuel and finance political warfare campaigns aimed at delegitimizing the IDF and Israeli society more generally and subverting Israel's legal system through their Israeli and Palestinian registered NGOs.

Members of the Islamist bloc finance and direct the terror forces in Judea and Samaria and Gaza and work in cooperation with their front groups in the West.

Tuesday, supporters of BDS who demonstrated outside the White House hailed from fifty anti-Israel groups that span the spectrum from the Marxist left, to the anti-Zionist, self-hating Jewish left, to Fatah and Hamas front groups.

The icy coverage the historic ceremony at the White House received from the liberal media in the US and from the European media made clear that the Western side of the Red-Green alliance isn't interested in Middle East peace and stability. And the fact that neither senior Democrats like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, nor representatives from any EU member nation aside from Hungary attended the ceremony underscores this reality still more. With or without Israel-Arab peace, under the Red-Green alliance, all aspects of the war against Israel will continue unabated.
162 House Dems Vote Against Measure to Combat Anti-Semitism
More than 160 House Democrats voted on Wednesday against a measure to combat anti-Semitism.

Republicans offered the anti-Semitism measure as an amendment to a piece of Democrat-backed legislation promoting greater inclusivity in federal programs. The bill, dubbed the Equity and Inclusion Enforcement Act, would permit the filing of private civil suits for violations of federal regulations that "prohibit discrimination on the ground of race, color, or national origin in programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance." The Republican amendment, which passed by a vote of 265 to 164, with 162 Democrats in opposition, mandates that anti-Semitism also be considered as discrimination.

The Republican effort to include anti-Semitism in federal definitions of discrimination follows similar moves by the White House to consider discrimination against Jewish people illegal under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which affords protection to minorities and other groups. House Democrats have been divided in recent years on issues of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel advocacy in the United States. The latest vote highlights a deep divide between Democrats and Republicans on the issue, which is playing out against the backdrop of rising anti-Semitism across the globe.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.), sponsor of the anti-Semitism amendment, said that any legislation altering Title VI must include protections for Jewish Americans.
Democratic super PAC leaflets show Jewish GOP candidate clutching dollar bills
A Democratic Super PAC aligned with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has sent out three mailers to voters in a New Jersey congressional district that depict the Republican candidate, who is Jewish, clutching money.

One mailer shows the candidate, David Richter, holding a fistful of fanned-out $100 bills, with more raining down behind him, while the reverse shows his suit jacket lined with bills. Another, showing him holding $100 bills in the shape of a rose, says he “puts personal profits over New Jersey families and it is truly obscene.” A third shows him with $100 bills flying out of his backpack, and carries another image of him using a $100 bill as a parachute.

Richter, the former CEO of a construction management company, is running to unseat the incumbent Democrat, Rep. Andy Kim, in New Jersey’s 3rd District, in the center of the state.

The ads were sent by the House Majority PAC, a super PAC closely associated with Pelosi. An official with the PAC confirmed its authenticity to the New Jersey Globe, a political news site, and said the reference was to Richter’s business history.

Richter said that the ads were anti-Semitic and called on Pelosi to apologize.
NYPost Editorial: Bribing Harvard to hire a terror apologist — with your tax dollars
Countries send billions to the Palestinian Authority . . . which then donates millions to Harvard University. The school then hires a failed, dishonest Palestinian diplomat to teach . . . diplomacy.

It’s true: Harvard just hired Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s chief negotiator, as a “senior leader in diplomacy” — after it got nearly $2 million in donations from the Palestinian Authority, which rakes in billions in foreign aid, including from America, for itself.

It’d be nuts to hire Erekat for his statecraft: He’s been involved in Palestinian-Israeli peace talks for nearly 40 years, and a deal remains nowhere in sight. That might be because he, along with other Palestinian leaders, has vowed never to “recognize Israel as a Jewish state,” as he said in 2014.

In 2000, Erekat and Yasser Arafat turned down a ludicrously generous Israeli offer and launched the Second Intifada, in which Palestinian terrorists murdered and maimed thousands. He and Mahmoud Abbas nixed another deal in 2008.

Critics cite numerous lies he’s told to tar Israel, such as that its army killed 500 innocent Palestinians in a raid on Jenin in 2002. In 2015, he justified random stabbing attacks by Palestinians as “self-defense.”

But from 2017 to 2019, the Palestinian Authority “donated” nearly $2 million to Harvard. Why would a cash-strapped regime do that? Erekat’s new gig is a clue: to buy influence at the prestigious school.


Harvard Hires Palestinian Leader Saeb Erekat: Here's Why it Matters
The newest fellow at Harvard University’s prestigious Future of Diplomacy Project is Palestinian politician, Saeb Erekat. He's one of the architects of the Palestinian government’s 400 million dollar a year “Martyr’s Fund,” and also promotes BDS, whose aim is to bring about Israel’s total destruction. Harvard has a First Amendment right to hire people who support racism and violence, but we have a right to know about it. So HonestReporting is taking action, and we need your help. Please click on the following link https://honestreporting.nationbuilder... to sign our petition encouraging the media to tell the full story on this important issue. Together, we really can make a difference.


MEMRI: 'Black September,' Then And Now
Meanwhile, the "cause of Palestine" would be the flag of convenience and bloody shirt for every rogue and genocidal maniac in the region – Assad father and son, Saddam, Qaddafi, Khomeini, Khamenei, Erdogan and others. The Palestinian leadership would use and be used by all of them. Assad (using his Lebanese and Palestinian proxies, especially Amal) would kill more Palestinians during the "War of the Camps" in Lebanon in 1985-1988 than were killed by the Lebanese forces at Sabra and Shatila.[7] The PLO itself would support Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, and even send fighters to Uganda in 1979 to try to prevent Idi Amin from falling to Tanzanian forces.[8]

That same cause of Palestine would be cynically used to this day. Hizbullah plunged Lebanon into war with Israel in 2006 for the sake of "resistance" against Israel. And Hizbullah and Iran would intervene directly in Assad's genocidal repression inside Syria, wrapped in the cloak of resistance for the sake of the Palestinians. When Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh visited a Lebanese refugee camp in September 2020, his travel was facilitated by supporters Turkey, Qatar, Iran, and Hizbullah, and Haniyeh boasted of Hamas rockets being able to reach Tel Aviv from Hamas-ruled Gaza.[9]

Despite that show of force by Haniyeh, and vociferous denunciations by the PLO of Arab states "normalizing" with Israel, the region is changing. The change is not so much about Israel but about the Arab region and its neighbors as a whole. The aggressive and intrusive non-Arab powers in the region today are not Israel but Turkey and Iran. That may not trouble the Palestinian leadership, comfortably ensconced in Ramallah, but is of immediate and serious concern to states in the line of fire. An Iran which boasts of controlling four Arab capitals is matched by the feverish neo-Ottoman dreams of the Turkish strongman, who is currently occupying parts of Syria, shelling Iraq, and sending expeditionary forces to Libya and Qatar.

Aside from predatory actions by Ankara and Tehran, the Arab world faces a whole host of urgent socio-economic problems which now appear to dwarf the cause of Palestine: a hot, thirsty, angry, poor, and mostly unemployed region looks for answers and solutions from regimes more skilled in repression and duplicity than in governance. Palestine may be a popular issue in some quarters, a necessary name check, but its existence or absence will not bring water or jobs to the region.

Arab regimes could do what they have always done – wrap themselves in this cause, posture and deceive and try to buy time – or they could look at the region coolly and logically though the lens of their own pressing national interests. This is what the UAE and Bahrain, and perhaps others, are doing, calculating how an alliance with the least threatening and most technologically and militarily advanced of three major rising non-Arab powers in the region can enhance their security and wellbeing in an extremely unstable region. This is common sense, no doubt encouraged by American diplomacy. Both states have already been threatened in detail by Turkey and Iran and by their Islamist proxies well before there was an agreement with Israel. They could have opted for the usual hypocrisy, but chose a braver path. They are betting on a real, normal "warm" peace rather than the cold peace with Israel practiced by the regimes in Egypt and Jordan.

For the corrupt and feckless Palestinian political leadership, and for a host of Western pundits and think tankers who have made a lucrative career on the "peace process," recent events have come like a bucket of ice-cold water. It is not that Palestine is not important, but that rather than falsely and dishonestly placing it on some sort of artificial pedestal, an increasing number of states in the region are seeing it as one of many issues, and for most players not the most pressing one.
Ed Husain: Bassam Tibi’s 40-year fight against Islamic fundamentalism
Tibi argues that the Islamist agenda is far more modern than the fundamentalists want to admit, and springs from the political totalitarianism invented in the last century. Taking Hannah Arendt’s definition of the term, he categorises all aspects of this ‘political religion’ as authoritarian. He draws out the modern, totalitarian nature of Islamism in his research: for example in his analysis of the works of Hassan al-Banna, who founded Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood in 1928. It was this movement, Tibi says, that came up with the idea of modern-day jihadism and enforced the notion of Islam being incompatible with western values.

‘When I sit with civilised Europeans, they look at me. I am a Muslim, I am a democrat: what do they think is wrong with me? What do they dislike about me being a Muslim? They say, “But you are more European than a Muslim.” I say no. That’s why I coined the term Euro Islam, European Islam.’

Using the language of medieval Muslim rationalists from Farabi to Ibn Rushd, famous in the Latin West as Averroes, Tibi defines Islam of the Enlightenment as advocating the primacy of reason. He also takes a definition of Enlightenment from Kant: that reason is the court in front of which every-thing must establish itself. But Ibn Rushd made this point in the 12th century, he says. ‘So why are we Muslims now dismissed as underdeveloped people when our greatest philosopher, Ibn Rushd, foresaw things six centuries ahead of the greatest philosopher of Europe?’ In fact, he says, Ibn Rushd perhaps has more relevance to our age, ‘the age of the return of religion’, because his work focused on the unity of faith and reason.

This certainly is the battleground now. The much-needed reformation of Islam will not be about headscarves and beards. Terrorism will only end when scripture is not taken literally. In pursuit of such an enlightened future, Tibi’s work can remind westerners — and Muslims — of a different, less divergent history.
UN’s treatment of Israel continues to belie its lofty ideals
The majority of E.U. countries tend to hypocritically play along with this misuse of international organizations, voting for blatantly one-sided anti-Israel resolutions or at best abstaining from them. This occurs for several reasons.

One is old-fashioned self-interest. The Europeans, like others in the global bazaar that is the United Nations, trade favors and votes in order to pursue their own interests inside and outside the world body. Inside the United Nations, this includes gaining votes in elections to prominent bodies such as the U.N. Security Council (UNSC). For example, in the lead-up to the June 2020 vote for the two Western representatives on the UNSC, for which Canada, Norway and Ireland competed, the three countries’ records on Israel became an issue.

As Yves Engler, writing in the Hill Times, opined: “Canada’s anti-Palestinian voting record should disqualify it from a seat on the UNSC … since 2000 Canada has voted against 166 General Assembly resolutions critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Ireland and Norway haven’t voted against any of these resolutions.

Sure enough, Ireland and Norway beat out Canada.

At other times, the positions of European countries inside the United Nations are determined by interests outside its halls and include lucrative contracts for major European corporations with countries such as Iran. While American companies are greatly limited in their ability to compete for such contracts due to U.S. sanctions, the Europeans’ conciliatory approach toward Iran in international forums and willingness to ignore Iranian violations of international law gives a leg up to E.U. companies.

However, an additional factor at play is Europe’s reliance on the conventions and frameworks of international institutions due to its military weakness. As a weak power, the E.U. depends on the norms of international bodies and “consensus” to restrain stronger powers and even out the playing field.

As put succinctly by Ireland’s ambassador to Israel in a June 2020 interview: “We’re not a superpower, so [we] don’t rely on the threat of force to protect our interests. Instead, we rely on international law and international consensus. And if there’s no rules-based system, our interests are seriously affected.”

The same is true for the European Union writ at large.

E.U. members should reconsider the failed strategy of ignoring or even facilitating the use of international institutions to target Israel. Their strategy might buy them short-term benefits, but by enabling the world’s worst human-rights violators and terror sponsors to use international forums for political campaigns, they are contributing to global instability.

Additionally, given E.U. members’ repeated declarations of their commitment to the fight against anti-Semitism and the adoption by many of the IHRA Working Definition of Anti-Semitism, they must refuse to take part in U.N. processes that apply double standards and promote anti-Semitism.

The Trump administration has spoken out courageously against the U.N.’s political bias and has backed up its words with actions, such as quitting the UNHRC and UNESCO. All future U.S. administrations, whether Democrat or Republican, must continue to recognize the reality of such international institutions and strongly oppose their absurd agendas.


Anti-Israel German party seeks to block arms deal to UAE-owned firm
The largely anti-Israel German Left party, whose MPs have expressed support for the terrorist movements Hamas and Hezbollah, seeks to block a €250 million weapons deal with a German company indirectly owned by the United Arab Emirates.

It is unclear if the Left party in the East German state of Thuringia, where the weapons company C.G. Haenel is located, wants to pull the plug on the agreement because of Israel’s peace deal with the UAE.

The Christian Democratic Union Party in Thuringia welcomed the arms deal for the local arms manufacturer. According to Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk ,the public broadcaster for Thuringia, Merkel’s CDU Party in the state said the arms deal was a "sustainable, good decision.” The €250 million contract involves C.G. Haenel delivering assault rifles to the German armed forces.

C.G. Haenel is a subsidiary of the company Suhler Jagd-und Sportwaffenherstellers Merkel, a manufacturer of hunting weapons located in Suhl, Thuringia. The hunting weapons company Merkel is owned by Caracal-Holding in Abu Dhabi in the UAE.

A spokesman for the Left party in Thuringia said lawsuits in connection with the selection of C.G. Haenel are possible. The party's spokesman told Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk that it welcomes business growth but “from the perspective of the Left, not with armaments.”
First Chadian military cargo plane to land in Israel for humanitarian aid
The first military cargo plane from Chad is set to land in Israel late Wednesday night to pick up humanitarian aid from a private nongovernmental organization called Israeli Flying Aid (IFA).

According to the group’s founder Gal Lusky, the flight will land at Israeli air-force base after flying over Sudan.

Israel does not have formal relations with Sudan but it is on the list of Muslim majority nations likely to establish diplomatic ties with Israel in the near future as part of the US backed efforts for such normalized ties. Chad and Israeli re-established ties in 2019 after they had been terminated in 1972.

According to Lusky, the flight was jointly coordinated by both countries through the Prime Minister’s Office and National Security Council. IFA with the help of the American Jewish Committee has donated tents to help 12,000 people made homeless by floods in that country.

About 760,000 people have been hit by severe flooding in recent weeks in parts of West and Central Africa, out of which 188,000 were impacted in Chad. (h/t Zvi)
COVID-19 closure? Knesset votes to extend travel to 1 km from home
The citizens of Israel will enter the New Year in lockdown, after the government and the parliament on Thursday approved a closure that will last at least two weeks. The nation-wide lockdown begins at 2 p.m. on Friday.

“We find ourselves before the second closure since the start of the global coronavirus pandemic,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday during a television address. "We have determined that one of the criteria for new restrictions would be a red flag from the health system - and it was waved last week," Netanyahu said. “So, we are imposing the closure that will begin tomorrow. We are making every effort to balance health and economic needs."

The prime minister added that in the last two days the country has seen a further increase in morbidity, as well as growth of seriously ill patients.

On Thursday morning, the Health Ministry reported 4,560 new cases of the virus in the last day, and another 3,843 between midnight and press time. Some 573 people were in serious condition, including 149 who were intubated. The death toll spiked to 1,169.

“I had a conversation with [Health Minister Yuli] Edelstein, [coronavirus commissioner Prof. Ronni] Gamzu and the other experts and asked them one question: Does this condition require us to further tighten restrictions?”
Israel’s population up to 9.25 million, though growth rate, immigration down
Israel added over 150,000 people to its population rolls since the last Jewish New Year, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) said Wednesday, days before the new year begins.

The population now stands at an estimated 9,246,000 people, 1.6 percent more than a year ago. Some 170,000 babies were born over the past year, while 44,000 people died, the bureau said.

The figure is a downturn after last year saw the population grow by 2.1%.

Another 25,000 people immigrated to the country, most of whom did so under the Law of Return, which grants citizenship eligibility to anyone with a Jewish grandparent.

The number represented a large drop from the last Jewish year, when some 38,000 people moved to the country, but was still lower than the years before that, during which some 26,000 to 30,000 immigrants moved to Israel annually

Despite the slowed growth, the bureau kept its population projections from last year, which predict that the Jewish state will reach a population of 10 million in 2024, 15 million in 2048 and 20 million in 2065.

Jews in Israel make up about 74% of the population, with 6,841,000 citizens registered as Jewish. Another 1,946,000 (21%) are Arab, and the rest, 459,000 (5%), are members of other groups. The percentages are roughly the same ratio as previous years.
Eli Rozenberg holds 42% of El Al shares, company prepares to renew flights
Eli Rozenberg’s Kanfei Nesharim company has bought a significant portion of El Al stocks, and now controls 42.85% of the company, Globes reported.

This replaces the former controlling shareholder Moses Borowitz, whose shares have taken a hit during the pandemic.

The State of Israel, which had agreed to buy shares the public doesn’t want, has bought shares worth about NIS 100 million, giving it a 12%-15% stake in the company.

“We are proud of the results of the public offering of El Al, the national airline, which at the end of the offering saw us holding a 42.85% ownership in the company,” A company statement this evening said. “First and foremost, Kanfei Nesharim takes upon itself a great responsibility to restore the trust of passengers, and to ensure the jobs of thousands of El Al employees and lead Israel’s airline into a secure future.

“Throughout recent months. Kanfei Nesharim has proven its seriousness, commitment and financial ability to help rehabilitate El Al,” the statement said.
East Jerusalem woman arrested for allegedly spying for Hezbollah
Israeli authorities arrested a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem who spied for Hezbollah, the Shin Bet domestic security service announced on Thursday.

In a press release, the Shin Bet said that Yasmin Jaber was arrested last month under suspicion of attempting to recruit “Israeli and Palestinian civilians and residents to carry out terrorist activities in Israel.”

Jaber’s employer, the National Library at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, expressed “great surprise that our employee, Yasmin Jaber, is suspected of such grave offenses.”

“The security services did not update us over the past weeks as to her arrest. The Library will help in every possible way with the investigation in the event that we are asked to do,” a spokesperson for the National Library said on Thursday.

The Shin Bet said that Hezbollah seeks to hide its operations by recruiting agents from inside Israel during otherwise innocuous visits to Lebanon. To hide their affiliation with the terror group, operatives meet their handlers in third countries such as Turkey and are sent instructions through coded messages over social media, the Shin Bet said.

The Shin Bet alleged that Jaber was recruited during an international “youth conference” in Lebanon in 2015 that Hezbollah exploited to locate and recruit Arab Israelis as agents.

Since her recruitment by the Lebanese terror group, Jaber communicated with her Hezbollah handler through secret messages on social media, according to the Shin Bet. In its press release, the Shin Bet published an Instagram photo which it said contained secret Hezbollah messages that Jaber allegedly used for instructions.
HonestReporting: ABC Reporter Calls Rocket Attacks on Israel 'Symbolic'
ABC Australia reporter Eric Tlozek refers to rocket attacks that injured innocent Israelis as "largely symbolic."

He also falsely blamed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Israel alone even though Israel has made numerous peace offers to the Palestinians.


Hamas Trying To Increase Balloon-Bomb Range To Reach UAE, Bahrain
The militant Islamist organization that governs this coastal territory aims to improve how far it can send wind-borne incendiary devices so as to target two Persian Gulf countries that signed a peace treaty with Israel this week, a spokesman for the movement announced Thursday.

Hamas directed its weapons development personnel to alter their plans for helium-balloon-carried firebombs to reach farther into the Jewish State, and instead give greater focus to much longer-range weapons intended for the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, the two Arab nations whose representatives signed the Abraham Accords on the White House lawn on Tuesday.

Hamas representative Fawzi Barhoum spoke to reporters at a press conference Thursday morning. “The Zionist Entity will always be there,” he intoned. “I mean, no it won’t, because we’re engaged in the epic jihad to rid the land of that scourge, but- oh, forget I said that. Let me start over. Our righteous efforts to strike painful blows deep within enemy-occupied territory will continue, but we will also pursue vengeance against those who have betrayed the holy Palestinian cause by normalizing relations with the descendants of apes and pigs instead of subordinating all their policies to our agenda.”

Barhoum declined to respond when asked whether Gaza militants’ principal sponsor, Iran, would provide other weaponry to help them reach the UAE and Bahrain.
Egyptian Journalist: U.S. Ignores Qatar's Hosting Of Terrorist Leaders
On August 22, 2020, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hosted in Istanbul a senior Hamas delegation that included the head of the organization's political bureau, Ismail Haniyah; his deputy Saleh Al-'Arouri; the head of Hamas's Diaspora Office, Maher Salah; political bureau member 'Izzat Al-Rishq, and Hamas's representative in Turkey, Jihad Yaghmour. In response, the U.S. State Department issued a statement condemning Erdoğan and Turkey for hosting Haniyah – the head of an organization that the U.S. and the E.U. have designated as terrorist – and warning that this step "serves to isolate Turkey from the international community."[1] Following the condemnation, Egyptian journalist Suleiman Gouda wrote in a September 6, 2020 article in the Egyptian daily Al-Masri Al-Yawm that the U.S. employs a double standard in its foreign policy: on the one hand it justifiably condemns Turkey for hosting the Hamas delegation, but on the other hand it ignores the fact that this selfsame Hamas delegation, headed by Haniyah, arrived in Turkey from Qatar, where its members have been residing for many months. According to Gouda, given this double standard it is no wonder that U.S. foreign policy has lost its credibility.

The following are translated excerpts from Gouda's article:[2] "Reading a statement by the U.S. State Department, I wondered whether the U.S. expects us to believe its contents, or [actually] realizes in its heart of hearts that the double standard [evident] in this statement will lead us to disbelieve it, and therefore to disbelieve [official U.S. statements about] other matters as well!? U.S. State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said that… the reception held by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara [sic] for Ismail Haniyah, head of Hamas's political bureau, and for the delegation that accompanied him, will be one of the reasons for the isolation of Turkey in the international arena. What caught my attention was the expressions used by Spokeswoman Morgan, who said that Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the E.U. and that the reception of its leaders in the Turkish capital transforms [Ankara] into a capital that supports terrorism and assists it all the way!

"Turkey does deserve to be isolated internationally, of course, not only because of the reception [it held for Haniyah] but for many other reasons, for instance for allowing ISIS members to pass through its territory en route to Syria and Iraq during the period when this organization transformed areas [within them] into the seat of its so-called caliphate state, or because it sent, and is still sending, militiamen and mercenaries to western Libya.

"But the amazing paradox is that Washington knows full well that Haniyah has been residing for months in the Qatari capital of Doha, yet it pretends that it does not to know he is staying there, or that Doha is hosting leaders of terrorist organizations, and wakes up only when [Haniyah] and senior members of his organization go to visit Ankara and meet with Erdoğan!

"In the eyes of the Trump Administration, Doha is a civilized, cultured and respectable capital, which does not host leaders of terrorist organizations. But if those same leaders go to Turkey, then Ankara becomes an uncivilized, uncultured and unrespectable capital, even though the two capitals host the same terrorists to the same extent. America frequently employs this kind of double standards toward us in this region, and then asks, with childish innocence, 'Why don't you believe me?!'"


Pompeo to France: Hezbollah’s Weapons Will Torpedo Attempts to Intervene in Lebanon
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday that France’s intervention to resolve the crisis in Lebanon is bound to fail unless the issue of Hezbollah’s weapons is not dealt with first.

“The United States has assumed its responsibility, and we will stop Iran buying Chinese tanks and Russian air defense systems and then selling weapons to Hezbollah [and] torpedoing [French] President [Emmanuel] Macron’s efforts in Lebanon,” Pompeo told France Inter radio, according to Reuters.

“You can’t allow Iran to have more money, power and arms, and at the same time try to disconnect Hezbollah from the disasters it provoked in Lebanon.”

French President Emmanuel Macron visited Lebanon in early September after the massive explosion in the Beirut port on Aug. 4, and helped Lebanese political parties agree to make Lebanon’s ambassador to Germany, Mustapha Adib, the prime minister-designate.

However, he has not yet addressed the major issue of Hezbollah’s weapons and power in the country.
US set for a weekend UN showdown over snapback sanctions on Iran
US President Donald Trump plans to issue an executive order allowing him to impose US sanctions on anyone who violates a conventional arms embargo against Iran, three sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the executive order was expected to be issued in the coming days and would allow the president to punish violators with secondary sanctions, depriving them of access to the US market.

Neither the White House nor the Iranian mission to the United Nations immediately responded to requests for comment.

The proximate cause for the US action is the impending expiry of a UN arms embargo on Iran and to warn foreign actors - US entities are already barred from such trade - that if they buy or sell arms to Iran they will face US sanctions.

Under the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran struck with six major powers - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - the UN conventional arms embargo is to set to expire on October 18, shortly before the November 3 US election.

The United States, which abandoned the nuclear deal in May 2018, says it has triggered a "snap back," or resumption, of all UN sanctions on Iran, including the arms embargo, which would take effect at 8 p.m. on Saturday night on Sunday.
US threatens to sanction arms makers that sell to Iran
US President Donald Trump plans to issue an executive order allowing him to impose US sanctions on anyone who violates a conventional arms embargo against Iran, three sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the executive order was expected to be issued in the coming days and would allow the president to punish violators with secondary sanctions, depriving them of access to the US market.

Neither the White House nor the Iranian mission to the United Nations immediately responded to requests for comment.

The proximate cause for the US action is the impending expiry of a UN arms embargo on Iran and to warn foreign actors - US entities are already barred from such trade - that if they buy or sell arms to Iran they will face US sanctions.

Under the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran struck with six major powers - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - the UN conventional arms embargo is to set to expire on October 18, shortly before the November 3 US election.

The United States, which abandoned the nuclear deal in May 2018, says it has triggered a "snap back," or resumption, of all UN sanctions on Iran, including the arms embargo, which would take effect at 8 p.m. on Saturday night on Sunday.
Iranians Charged in Cyber Theft of National Security and Nuclear Information
The Department of Justice charged two Iranians on Wednesday with engaging in a wide-ranging state-backed cyber espionage campaign targeting national security intelligence and nuclear information.

The "coordinated cyber intrusion campaign" was conducted by the hackers at the behest of the Iranian government, according to the DOJ. The hackers "stole hundreds of terabytes of data, which typically included confidential communications pertaining to national security, foreign policy intelligence, non-military nuclear information, aerospace data, human rights activist information, victim financial information and personally identifiable information, and intellectual property, including unpublished scientific research," according to the indictment.

The Iranian government was particularly interested in obtaining information on dissidents and human rights activists who oppose the hardline regime. Iran has a history of targeting dissidents and regime opponents in its global spy operations, including those conducted inside the United States.

The hacking operations targeted computers located in New Jersey and other U.S. states, as well as Europe and the Middle East. The hacks started around 2013 and included American universities, an unnamed D.C.-based think tank, a defense contractor, an aerospace company, and several nongovernmental organizations.








Search for new director of U of T law faculty’s International Human Rights Program leads to resignations, allegations of interference
The faculty advisory board of the International Human Rights Program (IHRP) at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law has resigned following a controversy over the hiring of a new director for the program.

Edward Iacobucci, dean of the prestigious law school, has come under fire, accused of rescinding an offer of directorship to prominent international academic Valentina Azarova.

Several national and international scholars wrote to the university to express their consternation that the reversal came after reports of pressure from a sitting judge — a major donor to the faculty. He reportedly expressed concerns in private over Azarova’s past work on the issue of Israel’s human rights abuses in Palestine. All the letters mentioned here have been seen by the Star.

“The recent search for an executive director has generated substantial controversy, including allegations of outside interference in the hiring process,” Vincent Chiao, Trudo Lemmens and Anna Su, three members of the faculty advisory committee, wrote to Iacobucci on Wednesday. “We are disappointed by this outcome, the lack of fair process, including the failure to provide reasons for the decision taken.”

Audrey Macklin, who chaired that committee, and was part of the selection panel that unanimously found Azarova the best candidate for the job, resigned from the board last week.
StandWithUs Letter to New York Medical Board re Dr Walid Khass
Dear Esteemed Members of the New York State Health Department’s Office of Professional Medical Conduct and Members of the New York State Board for Professional Medical Conduct,

We write on behalf of StandWithUs, an international, non-profit Israel education organization, to file a formal complaint against Walid Khass, MD, a pediatric resident physician at New York Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital (“NYP”). It is our understanding that Dr. Khass began his residency at NYP in 2019. Likely unbeknownst to Board officials at the time of his hiring, Dr. Khass has allegedly[1] posted alarming and violent discriminatory and antisemitic statements on his public Twitter account for years. His purported comments specifically target Jews, Israelis and Zionists, repeatedly call for violence, express blatant mistrust for Jews, refer to Jews and Israelis by derogatory names, convey antisemitic conspiracy theories, and most egregiously—particularly for a medical professional in charge of protecting lives—include sentiments indicating his wish that Jews should die.

Dr. Khass’ public discriminatory and antisemitic comments apparently date as far back as 2012 and intensify starting in 2014. In one particularly hateful tweet, Dr. Khass supposedly asks if, “You Ever Just Wanna Take A Zionists Hair From The Sides And Ride Him Like The Pathetic Donkey He Is, Because Same 😊.” In a separate tweet, Dr. Khass allegedly states, “Send Mosquitos To Israel,” in response to a tweet indicating that mosquitoes are responsible for more deaths than all wars combined. When asked if the acronym “smh” stands for “shake my hand,” Dr. Kass supposedly responded, “no it means yekta3 el yahood [Kill the Jews] YASSSSS…”

Dr. Khass evidently continued to express similar sentiments presumably throughout medical school, at least as recently as 2017. In a tweet on February 9, 2017, he apparently emphasized his hatred of Zionism—which is a core part of Jewish identity— stating, “Trump Trust Me, The Only People Ruining Our Country Is The Zionist Israeli’s…#FreePalestine.” Dr. Khass began his residency in 2019, presumably the same year he graduated from medical school. Therefore these alleged statements made contemporaneously during Dr. Khass’ medical studies demonstrate an obsessive and continual spewing of hatred, bias and discrimination against Jews, Israelis and Zionists, spanning years.
Our Guest Speaker Today, Class, Is a Jew-Hating Terrorist
For decades, Leila Khaled has been a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is designated as a terror organization by the U.S., Canada, and the EU. In August 1969, she was one of the hijackers of TWA Flight 840, which was en route from Rome to Tel Aviv before being diverted at gunpoint to Damascus. A year later, Khaled took part in an attempted hijacking of El Al Flight 219 from Amsterdam to New York City. A horrific mass murder was averted when the grenade Khaled carried aboard the plane failed to detonate. She was later released in an exchange for hostages seized in another PFLP hijacking.

Can anyone imagine any university inviting Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon terrorist, to be the featured speaker at a campus program? Would they host a "conversation" with Dylann Roof, the white supremacist terrorist who gunned down nine Black churchgoers in a South Carolina church? Khaled's appearance at San Francisco State illustrates admiration for one specific kind of terrorist: the kind who targets Jews and demonizes Israel. Khaled is being celebrated for her violent career, not reluctantly tolerated out of deference to First Amendment principles.
How even Times of Israel and Jerusalem Post Turned the Tables Against One Activist ……
Scotland is a tough place to be an Israel Activist. This piece is about one such person, Matthew Berlow. He was one of the founders of the Glasgow Friends of Israel street stall which can be found in Buchanan Street every Saturday. Matthew has long been hounded by alleged antisemites. In order to expose one of his stalkers, he hatched a plan. The plan was successful. But you would know none of this from the media reports – which vilify him and have fuelled an antisemitic hate campaign.

Journalists have a responsibility to tell the truth and not to be captured by enemies of Jews. Appallingly my account demonstrates that even Times of Israel and Jerusalem Post have been utterly irresponsible in reporting this case.

What happened?

In the latter part of a very recent piece about an antisemite in Scotland who fakes a Jewish identity with the sole purpose of embellishing her antisemitism, David Collier writes about the case of Matthew Berlow who carried out a sting plan against his alleged stalker Neil McPherson, also a lawyer. Berlow and an Israel-supporting colleague, Ed Sutherland (using the pseudonym ‘Steve Harrison’ and posing as an anti-Israel activist) lured McPherson into supporting an (entirely notional) plan to daub anti-Israel graffiti on Berlow’s house, thus exposing his criminal intentions.

David Collier writes ‘much of the other side of this story will soon come out’. Here goes.

Sutherland set up the ‘Steve Harrison’ account in 2017 – in order to monitor and expose antisemites – after Glasgow Friends of Israel began to receive threats because of its pro-Israel street stall in Buchanan Street. Berlow was not involved in the creation of the ‘Steve Harrison’ account and was unaware of its existence until Sutherland told him that McPherson had initiated contact with it, believing it to be a real person with a grudge against Berlow.
Raja Shehadeh in the Guardian Distortions, lies and conspiracies
A Guardian op-ed by Palestinian writer Raja Shehadeh (“Occupying Palestine is rotting Israel from inside. No Gulf peace deal can hide that”, Sept. 16) is filled with distortions and outright fabrications.

Here they are: Distortion More than a quarter of a century after Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shook hands on the White House lawn, Israel has managed to turn its occupation of Palestinian territory from a burden into an asset.

It’s extraordinarily misleading to characterise all the land in the West Bank (including Area A, which, per the Oslo Accords, are administered and controlled by Israel), as “Palestinian”. In fact, CAMERA has prompted several corrections at media outlets (such as the Wall Street Journal and New York Times) which have similarly characterised disputed West Bank land as “Palestinian”.

Distortion Understanding this development is key to explaining why the Israelis are making peace with two distant Gulf states but not their closest neighbours, the Palestinians – without whom there can be no real peace.

In fact, yesterday’s signing of a historic peace treaty between Israel and the two Gulf states of UAE and Bahrain, with additional Arab states likely to follow with similar normalisation deals, disproves the conventional wisdom that Arab-Israeli peace is contingent on Israel reaching a deal with the Palestinians.

Lie But from the very beginning of the occupation in June 1967, Israel has been unwilling to recognise the Palestinian nation or cede control of the Palestinian territory occupied in order to make peace.

Israel offered Palestinians a nation state on several occasions since 1967, only to be turned down each time. Moreover, the claim that Israel has been unwilling to ceded control of ‘occupied’ land is a blatant lie – ignoring Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and huge swaths of the West Bank, under the terms of Oslo.
US, UN, UK, German Officials Hear Antisemitism Incidents, Call for Adoption of Definition
Officials from the United States, the United Nations, the United Kingdom and Germany called for greater adoption of the widely accepted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, describing it as a critical tool to combat anti-Jewish hatred.

Organized by the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement (CAM) against the backdrop of increasing antisemitism across the world from multiple ideological directions, an online event on Wednesday featured IHRA chair Ambassador Michaela Küchler, US Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism Elan Carr, Federal Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight Against Antisemitism Felix Klein, UK Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues Lord Eric Pickles and UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief Ahmed Shaheed.

Victims from across the world who have been the target of antisemitism in a wide variety of settings described their firsthand experiences. These personal stories were utilized to illustrate the 11 examples of modern antisemitism under the IHRA definition.

Those who spoke included Jonathan Morales, who tackled the gunman who killed a worshipper at Chabad of Poway in Southern California last year. Israeli writer, speaker and social-media activist Hen Mazzig described how he faced loud cries on campus to destroy Israel. Susan Libby relayed her experience in Chicago in the 1980s, where she was subject to accusations that Jewish doctors infected black babies with AIDS. And Laurel Grauer outlined how she was ejected from the 2017 “Dyke March” in Chicago for displaying a Jewish Pride flag.

Küchler warned: “Antisemitism has arrived in the mainstream of our societies. … It affects us all and it requires each and every single one of us to combat it.”
11 faces of antisemitism
On Wednesday, September 16, the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) hosted a live event on the Jerusalem Post website on modern antisemitism. The broadcast focused on eleven actual events that met the official definition of antisemitism, as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) that has been accepted by 34 countries.

Representatives of Jewish communities around the world recounted antisemitic incidents that they had experienced and discussed the impact that it had on their lives. Jonathan Morales, an off-duty US Customs and Border Patrol agent, was attending synagogue services at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in Poway, California, in April 2019, when a gunman entered the synagogue, killing one worshipper and wounding three others. Morales recounted the shooting and his actions in firing at the shooter. “People are still shaken, hurt, and upset over the loss of life and the injuries sustained,” he said. A Chicago woman who worked at the Department of Health recalled allegations in 1989 that Jewish doctors were injecting black babies with HIV and her disappointment at seeing a recent resurfacing of antisemitic statements recently in the wake of comments made by Louis Farrakhan. A Holocaust survivor in New Jersey who spoke to a student group about the Holocaust reported that neo-Nazis responding to his remarks claimed that the Holocaust was a hoax.

The event featured five of the world’s foremost authorities on the IHRA definition, including Ambassador Michaela Küchler (Chair of IHRA), Elan S. Carr, (US Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism), Dr. Felix Klein, (Federal Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight Against Antisemitism), Lord Eric Pickles, (the United Kingdom Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues) and Ahmed Shaheed, (UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief).

Elan Carr reported that in 2019, there was a record number of antisemitic incidents in the United States and that the overall number is rising globally. Carr noted the importance of having a formal definition of antisemitism, saying that “You have to understand and define the enemy, and an objective definition allows us to be on the same page. All of us have a responsibility to better our world. We have to stand up to it and call it out.” Carr added that while more countries have adopted the official IHRA definition, it is essential that it be adopted by civil society, including Internet organizations, and colleges and universities.
Time Out Magazine Criticized for Promoting ‘Disrespectful’ Makeup Named After Anne Frank
The Hong Kong division of Time Out magazine was lambasted by social media users on Wednesday for printing an article about a new makeup collection that included a product named after Jewish diarist and Holocaust victim Anne Frank.

The article, posted online on Wednesday afternoon by Time Out Hong Kong, is about the Hong Kong-based makeup brand Woke Up Like This (WULT) that launched a “Fab Dab” collection of liquid blushes to celebrate its first anniversary.

The new line “aims to promote Sexual Health Awareness Month by naming the products after inspiring, famous women in hopes to inspire WULT customers to live their dreams and break through gender barriers,” according to the article.

One item in the collection is named “Dream Like Anne” and is available for purchase on WULT’s website.

Jewish author Ben Freeman was one of the first to draw attention to the article on Twitter. He criticized the magazine and WULT, saying, “Naming a shade of blush after Anne Frank, who was a victim of genocide is revolting. Dead Jews are not a marketing opportunity. @timeouthk, shame on you for not noticing and for promoting this disrespect.”
French Rapper Freeze Corleone Facing Criminal Prosecution for Antisemitism, Holocaust Denial on Hit Debut Album
A French rapper whose debut album reached number three on the country’s charts after its release last week is facing criminal prosecution for lyrics on several tracks that promote crude antisemitism and Holocaust denial.

In an announcement on Thursday, Gerald Darmanin — France’s interior minister — denounced rapper Freeze Corleone for his “unspeakable antisemitism and negationism” and confirmed that his ministry would be pursuing legal action. Darmanin also called on Twitter and Facebook “not to spread this filth.”

In addition to Darmanin’s condemnation, fifty members of the French parliament wrote to the Ministry of Justice demanding the rapper’s prosecution, while former cabinet minister Christophe Castaner said that he had referred the case to the Paris public prosecutor.

Released on Sept. 11, Freeze Corleone’s first studio album, “The Phantom Menace,” was replete with “antisemitism, conspiracy theories, and apologies for Hitler, the Third Reich and [Afghan Taliban commander] Mullah Omar,” according to LICRA, a prominent French NGO that campaigns against racism and antisemitism.

Several media commentators expressed alarm at the brisk sales of the album in France, where Holocaust denial and antisemitic and racist invective can result in criminal penalties.

Within three days of its release, “The Phantom Menace” had sold more than 15,000 copies and attracted 5.2 million listeners on the Spotify digital music platform.
Poland to Ban Ritual Animal Slaughter for Export, Lawmaker Says
Poland plans to ban religious slaughtering of animals for export and the state will offer compensation to businesses that suffer, a ruling party member of parliament said on Thursday.

Poland is one of the biggest European exporters of halal and kosher meat, with 2017 shipments of more than 70,000 tons, mainly to Israel and Turkey, agriculture ministry data shows.

Jewish and Muslim methods of slaughter involve the animals’ throats being cut without prior stunning.

The ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party wants to curb that in a package of bills aimed at improving animal welfare and, according to critics, widening the party’s appeal for a 2023 election.

After all-night discussion by a parliamentary panel, preceded by farmers’ protests in Warsaw, an amendment banning ritual slaughter for export was rejected.

But PiS member of parliament Marek Suski told a news conference that legislation would be re-submitted on Thursday with some “fixes” to ensure the ban on ritual slaughter for export does win majority approval.

“We will also supplement the bill with compensation for those who run companies where ritual slaughtering is being conducted,” Suski added ahead of the debate in the lower house.
Israeli research: Bacteria may be key to curing coronavirus and other viruses
Bacteria could prove key to curing the coronavirus and other viruses, Israeli researchers say, following a finding they are likening to the discovery of antibiotics.

A team from the Weizmann Institute of Science has identified molecules that bacteria produce to protect themselves when they are under attack by viruses.

They believe that the molecules, which can be synthetically made, will have the same virus-fighting ability if introduced to infected human cells, and are testing the theory on human tissue in a lab.

An Israeli drug company, Pantheon Biosciences, has already licensed the rights to develop anti-viral drugs based on the finding.

The Weizmann research was peer-reviewed and published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

“Our finding could lead to drugs that cure various viruses, and provide a solution to the next pandemic, or maybe even this one,” lead researcher Rotem Sorek, of Weizmann’s Molecular Genetics Department, told The Times of Israel.
Arizona’s Yuma, Negev coucil to join forces to boost economies
The City of Yuma in Arizona and Ramat Hanegev Regional Council on Wednesday signed an accord to share expertise in a variety of strategic sectors.

The purpose of the memorandum of understanding signed by the two regions via Zoom is to collaborate on areas of mutual interest such as desert agriculture, high-tech agriculture technologies, desert tourism, broadband, rural internet connectivity, water usage and conservation, aerospace industries, educational innovation, border issues and related opportunities for economic development.

“We look forward to increased collaboration in our shared areas of strength, like agriculture, research, technology and more,” said Yuma Mayor Douglas Nicholls.

Mayor Eran Doron of Ramat Hanegev said: “The resemblance between the two regions, the vast knowledge accumulated over the years in the fields of desert agriculture, desert tourism, water use, and life alongside a border with a neighboring country” is what led Ramat Hanegev Regional Council and Yuma to join hands in their areas of expertise for a better future for both regions.”

The MOU signing comes months after Nicholls traveled to Israel with the Arizona Commerce Authority’s Arizona-Israel Trade Office, where he represented Yuma at a variety of technology and business events relevant to Yuma’s top industries. Director general of the Arizona Israel Trade and Investment Office David Yaari organized the trip, which set the groundwork for developing partnerships and commercial activity.

The US state of Arizona, with its arid climate and a population and economy similar to those of Israel, can be a “launchpad” for Israeli companies that want to penetrate the United States and Mexico, Yaari said last year.
‘Shiva Baby’ Sells Worldwide Rights Ahead of Toronto Film Festival Premiere
The feature film “Shiva Baby” has sold worldwide rights to Utopia Media ahead of its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this month, Variety reported last week.

Emma Seligman’s debut movie is about a young bisexual Jewish woman named Danielle who attends a shiva with her parents, where her older male lover and embittered female high school sweetheart are also present.

She also encounters “other people who make things increasingly more awkward for Danielle” and “much to her chagrin, she finds out that many of them have secrets of their own,” according to the film’s description on the TIFF website.

Seligman said in a statement: “This film was made to represent the various contradictions and pressures placed upon young women, especially young queer women, from traditional families and communities and the anxiety and insecurities they feel as a result. ‘Shiva Baby’ is a comedy about a young woman grappling with her self worth, sexuality and independence and I could not be more thrilled to be working with such a collaborative and filmmaker focused distributor like Utopia.”

The movie, written and directed by Seligman, stars Rachel Sennott, Molly Gordon, Dianna Agron and Polly Draper.
Push underway to save UK church mural made by Jewish artist who escaped Nazis
Conservation activists in Britain are campaigning to save a church mural created by a Jewish artist who escaped from the Nazis that has been damaged by a priest’s dubious decoration.

George Mayer-Marton was commissioned to create “The Crucifixion” mural for the Church of the Holy Rosary in Oldham, a town that is part of Greater Manchester in northern England. It was completed in 1955.

Efforts to preserve the piece were given a boost after Mayer-Marton’s great-nephew Nick Braithwaite was able to determine that paint damage to part of the mural can be removed, restoring it to a complete work, the Save Britain’s Heritage group told The Times of Israel in an email Wednesday.

The eight-meter-high stone and glass depiction of Jesus is flanked by two frescoes of Mary and St. John. With the church boarded up and and not in use, activists fear it could be demolished or sold. It is one of only two ecclesiastical murals by Mayer-Marton that have survived in their original place.

A 2017 request to have the mural listed as official UK heritage was turned down “because it was believed to be only partially intact,” Save Britain’s Heritage director, Henrietta Billings, wrote in an email.

“However, now it has been revealed that the fresco element of the mural is in fact beneath the emulsion paint, and can, according to conservators, be successfully restored,” Billings said. “Our main concern is that the mural is saved from demolition or potential vandalism or neglect. SAVE would like to see the mural retained if possible in the church — failing that, a good new home for the complete piece.”


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