Sunday, April 25, 2021

04/25 Links: Protesters mass in France, Israel, UK to demand justice for Sarah Halimi; Palestinian factions call to escalate Jerusalem ‘intifada’; Rashida Tlaib lies about Jerusalem riots

From Ian:

Protesters mass in France, Israel, UK to demand justice for Sarah Halimi
Protesters gathered in Paris, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and London on Sunday to demonstrate against the ruling of France’s highest court that the killer of a Jewish woman in the French capital was not criminally responsible because he had smoked marijuana before the crime.

Sarah Halimi, a 65-year-old Orthodox Jewish woman, was pushed out of the window of her Paris flat to her death in 2017 by neighbor Kobili Traore, who shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great” in Arabic).

But in a decision earlier this month, the Court of Cassation’s Supreme Court of Appeals upheld rulings by lower tribunals that Traore cannot stand trial because he was too high on marijuana to be criminally responsible for his actions.

Thousands of protesters, many of them Jewish, gathered in Paris to demand justice for Halimi.

Under the banner of “Justice for Sarah Halimi,” the rally at Trocadero Square overlooking the Eiffel Tower reflected the widespread indignation of many French Jews at the April 14 ruling by their country’s highest court.

It was held under tight security arrangements in a cordoned-off enclosure where the Jewish umbrella group CRIF played a video on a giant screen in which French Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia demanded another “trial of facts,” even if it ends without sentencing of Traore.

The rally Sunday was the first time in decades that a large number of French Jews gathered to protest against organs or actions of the French state.
#JeSuisSarah: Social media campaign launched demanding justice for Sarah Halimi
The Combat Anti Semitism Movement launched a social media campaign Sunday to protest what it called the “unfathomable” decision of France’s highest court that the murderer of Sarah Halimi was not criminally responsible because he had smoked marijuana before the crime.

The umbrella organization of various groups tacking anti-Semitism said that the campaign, which utilizes the #JusticeForSarah and #JeSuisSarah hashtags, is aimed at showing solidarity with Halimi’s family and France’s Jewish community, whose leaders have called for a mass public rally in Paris Sunday afternoon in protest of the ruling.

Halimi, an Orthodox Jewish woman in her sixties, died in 2017 after being pushed out of the window of her Paris flat by neighbor Kobili Traore, who shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great” in Arabic).

But in a decision earlier this month, the Court of Cassation’s Supreme Court of Appeals upheld rulings by lower tribunals that Traore cannot stand trial because he was too high on marijuana to be criminally responsible for his actions.

Traore, a heavy pot smoker, has been in psychiatric care since Halimi’s death. The court said he committed the killing after succumbing to a “delirious fit” and was thus not responsible for his actions.

“The recent legal ruling in France sets a dangerous precedent that murderous anti–Semitism can go unpunished. It is a shocking blow not only to the family of Sarah Halimi and to French Jews, but to anyone who cares deeply about combating racism, anti–Semitism and intolerance. It must not go unchallenged,” said Sacha Roytman-Dratwa, director of the Combat Anti–Semitism Movement.

“By bringing our voices together and speaking in one unified voice, we can make a powerful statement to the world that anti–Semitism will not be excused or tolerated,” she said.


Massive Protest in Paris Over Ruling in Murder of Sarah Halimi



Rally for #SarahHalimi in Tel Aviv: 'French Jews Feels Abandoned'



IDF: At Least 40 Rockets Fired From Gaza Strip Into Israel Over the Weekend
At least 40 rockets were fired into Israel by Palestinian terrorists from the Gaza Strip over the weekend, marking the most dramatic escalation in tensions between the two sides in months.

Three rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip on Saturday evening, one of which was intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.

The second exploded in a vacant lot, while the third fell inside the Palestinian coastal enclave, according to an IDF statement.

Rocket alert sirens sounded Saturday evening in several localities in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip, warning residents of imminent aerial fire.

And in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday morning, the IDF counted at least 36 rockets being fired from the Gaza Strip into the Jewish state, six of which the Iron Dome intercepted.

The IDF retaliated by striking targets belonging to the Islamist terrorist group Hamas, which Israel holds responsible for any aggression emanating from the coastal enclave, with land and air strikes.

No casualties were reported by either side in the skirmishes.
Seth J. Frantzman: How Israel’s missile defense organization is preparing for the threats of the future
The Israel Missile Defense Organization, a division within the Directorate of Defense Research and Development in Israel’s Ministry of Defense, was established in 1991 in the wake of the Gulf War and the Scud missile threat to Israel. Now, the IMDO is now celebrating 30 years of work.

The office coordinates closely with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, a partnership that predates both organizations.

As an example of that partnership, the Arrow system was declared operational in 2000, followed by Arrow-2 and Arrow-3 and the development of David’s Sling and Iron Dome, which was initiated in 2007.

IMDO and MDA are now working on Arrow-4. A variant of David’s Sling Stunner interceptor called SkyCeptor is now produced jointly by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Raytheon and the companies also produce Iron Dome in the US. Israel delivered two batteries of Iron Dome to the U.S. Army in the last year.

The agency’s current head is a retired colonel who studied at Israel’s Technion University and served in the Israeli Air Force before retiring and working at Elbit Systems prior to leading the IMDO in 2016.

Defense News’ Seth J. Frantzman spoke with Moshe Patel, the head of the Israel Missile Defense Organization.
The Jerusalem butterfly effect: What Hamas stands to gain from Gaza rocket fire
The group that claimed responsibility for the rocket fire was the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). It without a doubt received the go-ahead from Hamas and its armed wing.

Indeed, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, issued a statement on Friday stating that it would respond to the “attack on Jerusalem.”

The goal of the controlled escalation is twofold.

First, it delivers a clear message to Israel: Whoever goes to sleep with Bentzi Gopstein of the extremist Lehavov group, which organized the Jewish unrest in Jerusalem on Thursday, shouldn’t be surprised to wake up with rockets on the Gaza border. Hamas wants it to be clear it won’t accept gangs of Jewish extremists sowing chaos in East Jerusalem, attacking Arab homes, or harming Arabs at random.

“Jerusalem is a red line,” Hamas is saying — an old slogan that always works on the Palestinian side.

The message also relates to Israel’s detention of Hamas figures in the capital in the runup to the planned Palestinian elections. Hamas wants to create an equation: Harm us in the West Bank or in Jerusalem, and you’ll get rocket fire from Gaza.

The second goal, as always, is internal-Palestinian related. With its actions against Israel, Hamas is once again portrayed as the primary mover of the Palestinian arena, in contrast to the helplessness and inaction of the Palestinian Authority, Fatah, and its leader Mahmoud Abbas.

This comes amid the understanding in Hamas and Fatah that Abbas is likely to soon climb down from the prospect of Palestinian elections. The Palestinian president understands that he has nothing to gain and quite a lot to lose from the upcoming vote.

Thus, the rocket fire from Gaza amid the riots in East Jerusalem allows Hamas to present Abbas at his weakest and most pitiful — not only as one who runs away from elections with a myriad of excuses, but also one who is unable or, unwilling, to deter Israeli “harm” in Jerusalem.
Hamas urges terror groups in Gaza to keep rockets on ‘standby’
After two consecutive nights of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip toward Israeli cities and communities, the Hamas terror group told armed Gaza factions on Sunday to “keep their fingers on the trigger.”

“We call on our noble resistance in Gaza to keep their fingers on the trigger, to keep their rockets on standby to target the enemy’s fortresses and military and vital structures,” Hamas said in a statement.

Gazan armed factions have launched over 40 rockets into Israel over the last two days. On Saturday, a number of Palestinian terror groups fired experimental rockets toward the Mediterranean Sea as a show of force.

Palestinian terror groups have said that the weekend’s rocket attacks were in response to ongoing unrest in Jerusalem, where Arab residents have demonstrated for several days against Ramadan restrictions on congregating near Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate.

Some of the gatherings have turned violent when police sought to expel Palestinians from the area, with Palestinians throwing stones at armed officers and setting garbage cans ablaze. Police have responded with sponge bullets and sound grenades, arresting over 100 Palestinians since the beginning of Ramadan two weeks ago.


Palestinian factions call to escalate Jerusalem ‘intifada’
Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip on Sunday called to “escalate the uprising in Jerusalem” and to form a “unified leadership for popular resistance” against Israel, while the enclave’s dominant party, Hamas, told terror groups to remain ready to launch more rockets at Israel.

Hamas’s call came after Gaza’s terror organizations launched more than 40 rockets into Israeli territory on Friday and Saturday.

“The masses of our people continue their uprising in the face of the occupier, their rebellion against its policies and their confrontation with his army and settlers in the streets and alleys of Jerusalem, the Palestinian capital, and in the West Bank,” the factions said in a statement.

The factions said that demonstrations are spreading throughout the Gaza Strip “in a scene that reflects the unity of our people and homeland.” Addressing the residents of east Jerusalem, the factions said that Jerusalem “will remain the capital of Palestine, and its people will remain the pride of the Palestinians.”

According to the factions, the violence in Jerusalem over the past two weeks is part of the Palestinians’ “battle against settlements and attempts to Judaize the city.”
Rashida Tlaib lies about Jerusalem riots

Jerusalem man beaten by Palestinian mob on Friday says city in ‘Third Intifada’
An Israeli man who was badly beaten by a Palestinian mob Friday night during rioting in Jerusalem, and who was subsequently hospitalized, believes he was “a hair’s breadth from death” and described the events in the city as “a Third Intifada.”

Eli Rozen, 27, was the second person in as many nights whose beating by rioters was caught on camera and caused outrage in the country.

Rozen was out walking his dog around 1 a.m. in the Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood in the capital when he was accosted by dozens of angry Palestinians amid confrontations with police in the city. Video shared on social media shows Rozen getting kicked, beaten with a club and hit with rocks. As he runs off, a man hurls a shopping cart at him.

According to Haaretz, Rozen’s case was only one of several incidents Friday in which Jewish men were assaulted in the capital as tensions ran high, including a man who was beaten in the city’s east, several men who were assaulted while on their way to pray at the Western Wall and two who were attacked at the French Hill intersection.

Speaking to Channel 12 from his hospital bed at Hadassah Mt. Scopus Medical Center on Saturday, Rozen said that when his attackers spotted him, they shouted “Yahud, Yahud” and ran after him.

He was punched repeatedly in the face and badly beaten. “It was simply a lynching,” he said. “I saw death. Luckily I somehow survived it. It was really a miracle. Someone else a bit weaker or less [medically] stable could have ended his life there.”

Rozen said he’d suffered three fractured vertebrae, a sprained ankle and swelling in the head which was improving.

“It’s a Third Intifada, without a doubt,” he said. “I came out fine considering the number of people who attacked me and what happened. I was a hair’s breadth from death.”
PMW: Fatah seeks to incite violence in Jerusalem
After a week of Arabs rioting every night in Jerusalem, Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party is actively supporting the rioters and encouraging more violence.

The PA is claiming that Jerusalem is under threat because Israel has not announced its agreement to allow PA elections to take place in Jerusalem. As part of the support for the rioters, Fatah posted on its Facebook page dozens of posts in support of the violence, including a video of Mahmoud Abbas that PA TV broadcast 19 times in three days in October 2014, to signal to Palestinians that the leadership wanted violence and terror.

The post opens with the text:
“The message of [PA] President of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas to our people in Jerusalem – we will defend Jerusalem with our lives. Long live Fatah, the defender of our land, our holy sites, and our people.”

[Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, April 23, 2021] At the time, as PMW reported, this video was one of the triggers to a violent terror wave that left 12 Israelis murdered. Among the attacks in that terror wave was the Har Nof Synagogue massacre on Nov. 18, 2014, when two Arab terrorists from East Jerusalem entered a synagogue in Jerusalem and attacked worshippers with guns, knives, and axes, killing 5 worshippers and a police officer.

The following is Abbas’ call for violence on Oct. 17, 2014, that was rebroadcast now by Fatah:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: "It's not enough for us to say: 'There are those carrying out Ribat' (i.e., religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic). We must all carry out Ribat in the Al-Aqsa [Mosque]. It's not enough for us to say: 'The settlers have arrived [at the Mosque].' They have come, and they must not come to the Sanctuary (i.e., Temple Mount). We have to prevent them, in any way whatsoever, from entering the Sanctuary. This is our Sanctuary, our Al-Aqsa and our Church [of the Holy Sepulchre]. They have no right to enter it. They have no right to defile it. We must prevent them. Let us stand before them with chests bared to protect our holy places."

[Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, April 23, 2021 ]




Seth Frantzman: Here's how Ankara uses genocide as blackmail - analysis
Turkey’s policy was to pretend it was above history, above ever being held to account or even critiqued. Many US diplomats went along with this; for years they appeared almost more pro-Turkey than Turkey’s own diplomats.

Ankara cast a kind of spell over Western policymakers, usually through quiet or open threats. The ability of Turkey to spread real-world threats has also grown. Last year, it engineered a crisis with France over cartoons published years ago, and its rhetoric likely led to at least one terrorist attack in France.

Turkey will continue to try to leverage Islamist extremism in Europe to its own ends. It has already threatened at various times to use refugees against Europe unless the EU pays it more money. Meanwhile, it radicalizes the refugees and uses them as mercenaries. Turkey played a key role as a conduit for ISIS members from Europe, including providing a base for radicalization.

It is entirely possible that Turkey could end up doing for the next al-Qaeda what Pakistan and Afghanistan did for al-Qaeda of the 1990s: providing a base and conduit for extremism. That trajectory is one that Turkey will ride regardless of whether the US recognizes the genocide. Supporting extremism comes with its own negatives because extremist countries usually suffer economic decline. Turkey’s confrontation with the US over the term “genocide” will be weighed against its desire to have economic power, which underpinned its claims in the past to being of “geopolitical” importance.

If it cares about “geopolitics,” as Western analysts claim it does, then it will have more to lose from confrontation. The trend in Ankara was to work with Iran, China and Russia anyway.

Whether the Biden administration’s finally standing up to Ankara will lead it to work with authoritarians more is a question Ankara has to weigh against its own claims of wanting “reconciliation” with countries it has attacked over the past few years.

There is no evidence that denying the genocide helped keep Ankara more liberal, tolerant, democratic, open-minded and closer to the West.
Seth Frantzman: Turkey’s genocide blackmail: Threats to work closer with Iran and Russia
The US decision to finally recognize the Armenian genocide comes after decades in which Turkey and its lobbyists in Washington threatened the US. Their narrative was that if Washington would just use the term “genocide” – for a crime committed 106 years ago by a former government in what is now Turkey – then Ankara would rapidly move to sanction the US, close its bases, threaten its citizens and ally with Iran, China and Russia, or other US enemies.

This bizarre, mafia-like threat is the same one that Tehran used regarding the Iran deal. It is because non-Western countries learned that the way to deal with Western countries was to prey on their fears. For instance, today Pakistan is threatening to expel France’s ambassador because far-right religious extremists in Pakistan claim to be offended by cartoons published years ago in a French magazine.

Ankara’s attempt to hold countries hostage regarding the Armenian genocide worked well for many years. It prevented many countries, including Israel, from “offending” Ankara by mentioning the genocide. It’s unclear if this same blackmail would have worked had Germany in 1946 also told countries that they can’t mention the Holocaust or Germany would be “offended,” so that Western countries would have denied the Shoah the way some continue to deny the Armenian genocide.

Turkey was coddled for many years because it sold itself as a key to helping the West confront the Soviets. When the Soviets were gone in 1989, Turkey shifted its pattern of denial to claims that it wanted to be part of the European Union, was somehow a bridge between the West and Asia, and that if it was offended it might aid Islamist extremism or something.
White House: Israeli Delegation Will Not Sway Biden Into Abandoning Iran Nuclear Deal
An Israeli security delegation due to visit Washington on Monday will not change the Biden administration’s position on rejoining the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at a press briefing on Friday.

The team of senior officials led by Mossad Director Yossi Cohen and National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat plan to express their objections to the White House, which is currently emerged in indirect negotiations with Tehran in Vienna.

Jerusalem insists that the Iran deal, which the US abandoned in 2018 under former President Donald Trump, is “dangerous for Israel and the region” and has panned the deal as a feckless gesture that merely prolongs Iran’s march to nuclear armament.

Psaki acknowledged in her remarks Friday that the White House “knew [talks] would be challenging, we’re encouraged that there are still conversations between all parties and that they’re still happening.”

“As far as Israel is concerned, we have kept them informed, as a key partner in these discussions, of our intentions and we will continue to do so on their next visit,” she said.
Iran army chief threatens to ‘teach Israel a good lesson’ after tanker targeted
Iran’s Armed Forces chief Mohammad Bagheri on Sunday threatened to “teach Israel a very good lesson,” appearing to hint the Jewish state was behind a reported attack on an Iranian tanker off Syria’s coast over the weekend, but stopping short of blaming Jerusalem directly for the incident.

Bagheri told reporters: “We don’t announce anything about the incidents that happened recently, nor do we know who did it, but the Resistance Front will teach Israel a very good lesson,” according to several Iranian journalists.

“Israelis think they can keep hitting Syria and making mischievous moves elsewhere and in the seas and not receive any response,” said Bagheri, according to tweets by Iranian journalists Reza Khaasteh and Abas Aslani.

“The moves made in the past few days and future moves against their interests will bring them to their senses,” Bagheri added. “It is not clear how Iran will respond, but the Zionist regime will not remain peaceful.”

Bagheri seemed to be referring to recent apparent targeting of an Iranian tanker off Syria’s coast on Saturday, outside the Baniyas refinery, which allegedly killed at least three people, according to a pro-opposition war monitor.
Anti-racism novelist probed by police over 'anti-Semitic social media posts'
Police are investigating reports an anti-racism campaigner sent anti-Semitic web abuse.

Shazia Hobbs has penned a novel about the struggles of a mixed-race girl growing up in Britain, based on her upbringing with a white mum and Pakistani dad.

But she allegedly attacked a member of an anti-Semitism awareness group, including a picture showing a Nazi salute and the words “raise your hand if you are tired of” (the alleged victim).

The 50-year-old writer, from Glasgow, is reported to have been banned from Twitter after spouting hate and now posts on Telegram and Gab forums.

She allegedly shared content featuring swastikas on Telegram and accused a Holocaust survivor of being a liar on Gab.

The author’s book contract has been cancelled over the allegations, her Gab profile claimed.

Hobbs has been pictured at an event run by the far-right group Patriotic Alternative, run by Mark Collett, who was kicked out of the British National Party after praising Adolf Hitler in Channel 4 documentary Young Nazi and Proud.

And last summer she defended a blogger who was jailed for making anti-Semitic comments on radio and online – saying there was “strong evidence of a conspiracy against” her.

The Metropolitan Police said: “Police received an allegation of malicious communications relating to content of an anti-Semitic nature that had been posted online. Officers are in touch with the complainant. Inquiries are ongoing. There have been no arrests at this stage.”
With Israel’s Economy Reopened, Some Media Keen to Revive COVID-19 Palestinian Vaccine Libel
With Israeli authorities having lifted most coronavirus-related restrictions due to the country’s world-leading vaccination campaign, several media outlets are seemingly keen on reviving the thoroughly debunked libel that Jerusalem is somehow preventing Palestinians from accessing COVID-19 inoculations.

Last week, PBS NewsHour aired a segment titled, “Israel pushes forward with successful vaccine program, but Palestinians feel left behind.” In the television report, correspondent Martin Himel asserted:

On the same day, German broadcaster DW News also targeted the Jewish state. “And you’ve still got a lot of Palestinians to get vaccinated,” anchor Ben Fajzullin interjected during an interview with the CEO of an Israeli hospital.

Enter HonestReporting, which actually took the time to crunch some numbers. And it turns out that the Palestinians are actually doing better than many other populations afflicted by the pandemic.

A COVID Mortality Rate Similar to Canada
According to recent COVID-19 statistics, 58,467 in 1 million Palestinians have contracted the disease, a rate well below those of nearby Arab states like Jordan and Lebanon. The rate of incidence in the Palestinian territories is also lower than that of the United States and many European nations.

Perhaps most notably, the figure for Israel is about 40% higher: out of every million Israelis, almost 100,000 contracted the coronavirus.
BBC Two’s ‘Newsnight’ prioritises agenda over information
Viewers were not informed that the proposal was to apply Israeli civil law to parts of Area C rather than “the occupied territories” as a whole or that it came within the framework of the then US Administration’s ‘Peace to Prosperity’ proposal, under which the PA would gain territory as part of a two-state solution.

Hotovely spoke of the importance of the Abraham Accords while Maitlis repeatedly interrupted her to ask “are you in favour of the two-state solution?”. As Hotovely pointed out that the Palestinian Authority is currently not interested in negotiations, Maitlis brought the interview to a close.

Clearly Ambassador Hotovely’s views concerning the two-state solution and her reception by some sectors of the Jewish community in the UK have nothing at all to do with the topic of the Green Pass and the British government minister’s related visit to Israel. But rather than inform domestic audiences about how the kind of scheme that their own government may adopt works in practice, Maitlis and her ‘Newsnight’ team elected to focus on those unrelated issues and to amplify a politically motivated narrative concerning vaccinations for Palestinians that BBC audiences have seen promoted relentlessly since the beginning of the year.


Argentine authorities thwart terrorist attack against Jewish community
Prosecutors in the Tucumán Province of northern Argentina have announced the arrest of two suspects in a plot to carry out a terrorist attack against the local Jewish community last Saturday, Argentine authorities announced Sunday.

The suspects were arrested while in possession of knives, guns, and antisemitic books.

Police began investigating the suspects after an DAIA, the umbrella organization that represents Jewish groups in Argentina, filed a complaint. Federal security services began tracking the suspects, and the investigative process included cracking the social media on which the two were active in the planning stages of the attack.

The social media correspondence between the two increased in frequency once messages took on a specific nature about the attack that was being plotted for Saturday, at which point the federal counter-terror police raised two addresses – one in the provincial capital San Miguel de Tucumán, and the other approximately 10 km. (6 miles) to the south.

Upon entering, police found weapons caches that included hunting rifles and machetes in addition to bugging equipment. There were also two books: The Myth of the 20th Century by Nazi propagandist Alfred Rosenberg, and a book about Hitler and the occult.
UK soccer leagues announce social media boycott against online racism
The English Premier League, the highest level of soccer in England, has joined forces to announce a social media boycott next weekend in response to continued online racist abuse of players.

The boycott will take place across a full fixture program in the men's and women's professional game from 3 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) on Friday to 11:59 p.m. on Monday May 3.

Clubs across the Premier League, English Football League, Women's Super League and Women's Championship will switch off their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts to emphasize that social media companies must do more to eradicate online hate.

"Racist behavior of any form is unacceptable and the appalling abuse we are seeing players receive on social media platforms cannot be allowed to continue," Premier League CEO Richard Masters said in a statement.

"The Premier League and our clubs stand alongside football in staging this boycott to highlight the urgent need for social media companies to do more in eliminating racial hatred.

"We will not stop challenging social media companies and want to see significant improvements in their policies and processes to tackle online discriminatory abuse on their platforms."
Police Search for Suspect Who Hurled Rocks, Smashed Windows and Doors at Two Bronx Synagogues
New York police were still searching Saturday for a suspect caught on security footage throwing rocks at the glass doors and windows of two Bronx synagogues, including one that was previously the target of a foiled 2009 bomb plot.

A man was taped throwing multiple rocks at Riverdale Jewish Center (RJC) late on Thursday. Security footage revealed that he had already approached the building on Wednesday afternoon.

“We’re just doing what we can to work with law enforcement, and to ensure that the shul is safely protected and that those responsible for the crimes against our shul and community are properly investigated,” said Oren Hiller, RJC executive director, to The Algemeiner.

A second, similar incident was also reported Friday at Chabad of Riverdale, situated half a mile away. “They threw two rocks at two windows,” said Rabbi Levi Shemtov, who heads the congregation. “They broke the windows, and the glass and the rocks are all over.”

A police spokesperson told The Algemeiner on Saturday that both attacks have been deemed possible bias incidents, with the Hate Crime Task Force investigating.

“Unfortunately, these incidents continue to occur, and too often go unreported to law enforcement and the media. It is critical that synagogues and other Jewish institutions properly report these incidents to ensure they are adequately addressed,” said Joshua Gleis, president of Gleis Security Consulting, a security firm that specializes in protecting synagogues and works with houses of worship around the country, including the Riverdale Jewish Center.
Faces of the Holocaust: The Boxer who Fought for his Life at Auschwitz
Salamo Arouch, a young Jewish boxer from Greece, was sent to Auschwitz in 1943. Suddenly finding himself in brutal matches staged to “entertain” the Nazi SS officers, the undefeated Balkan light-medium weight boxing champion was no longer fighting for a title, he was fighting for his life.

Beyond names and numbers, Faces of the Holocaust provides a groundbreaking approach that adds a human context to the quintessential crime against humanity.




The ultimate guide to Tel Aviv’s 12 beaches
There are few destinations more desirable than a beach chair in front of the Mediterranean Sea. The magnificent blue waves, white sand, and upbeat energy of Tel Aviv’s beaches are unmatched.

What’s even better about the coastal options here is the variety and unique features that each of the beaches offers. From family-friendly locations to surf spots to work out and sport options, you can find exactly what you’re looking for at one of Tel Aviv’s many beaches.

Below are the key traits and attractions of each beach, listed from south to north.

Givat Aliyah Beach
Givat Aliyah (more commonly known as Ajami Beach) is the most southern beach in Tel Aviv, located in the old port city of Jaffa. This beach is a favorite with locals, as it is dog-friendly and maintains a level of privacy below the boardwalk.

Givat Aliyah is also known for its natural and decorative elements, including large stone arches and palm trees. The waves are crowded with surfers, paddle-boarders, and windsurfers because of the perfect tides. This beach attracts more locals than tourists and is located farther from the beachside hotels.
US giant Blackstone sets up Israel office to fund fast-growth tech firms
Blackstone, a New York City-based investment giant that manages $649 billion in assets, is setting up an office in Tel Aviv to tap into the nation’s growing tech firms.

The office will be run by Yifat Oron, the former CEO of LeumiTech, the tech banking arm of Bank Leumi Le-Israel. As senior managing director and head of Blackstone’s office, Oron will set up a team to vet companies for investment from the US firm’s recently raised, inaugural $4.5 billion growth equity fund Blackstone Growth (BXG).

Blackstone Growth in March completed the final close of its inaugural fund, touted as the largest first-time growth equity private fund ever raised.

Israel — which is undergoing a transformation from Start-Up Nation, in which entrepreneurs set up companies and sell them quickly to the highest bidder, to Scale-Up Nation, in which entrepreneurs hold on to their firms in a bid to grow them into multi-million or multi-billion-dollar firms — is “ripe enough” to be a recipient of the “big checks” Blackstone is looking to write to help these sorts of firms grow even faster, Oron said in a phone interview.

“You have companies that are Israeli originated, with Israeli management and founders who become global leaders and they are worth billions and hopefully tens of billions,” Oron said. “All of a sudden Israel is ripe enough to be a relevant partner for an entity like Blackstone. The stars are aligned to have Blackstone on the ground here.”
The Australian-Israeli relationship: Where roots continue to blossom
The Magazine decided that commemorating ANZAC was an appropriate time to interview Australia’s relatively newly arrived Ambassador to Israel, H.E. Paul Griffiths.

April 25 is commemorated, in both Australia and New Zealand, as Anzac Day (ANZAC being the acronym for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps). On this day, back in 1915 in the midst of the First World War, the Australian Imperial Force – which included a number of Jewish officers and soldiers who later became part of the British Army’s Jewish Legion – together with New Zealand soldiers landed in Gallipoli; the aim was to capture the Peninsula thereby opening the Black Sea for the Allied navies. However, faced with fierce resistance by the Ottoman Army, the bold action planned to knock out the Ottomans from the war, dragged on for eight months resulting in the deaths of 8,709 Australians and 2,721 New Zealanders.

The 25th of April became the day on which Australians and New Zealanders gather at cemeteries, memorials, parks and cenotaphs to remember the sacrifice made by those who died in the war. In Israel the date is commemorated annually with a ceremony at the Jerusalem War Memorial on Mount Scopus. The last ceremony in Israel was held in 2019 as COVID-19 prevented this impressive ceremony from being held in 2020.

The Magazine decided that commemorating ANZAC was an appropriate time to interview Australia’s relatively newly arrived Ambassador to Israel, H.E. Paul Griffiths.

A warm and dynamic personality, Griffiths’s education covered a broad spectrum. With a bachelor’s degree in psychology, he then studied law where – in his words – “I stumbled on a passion for international law and human rights first entering the diplomatic service based on my legal qualifications but haven’t worked a day as a lawyer since! I found myself doing trade jobs – often with a legal bent – moving on to more politically-focused jobs specifically in Jakarta and Washington.”







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