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Monday, October 18, 2021

10/18 Links Pt2: Islamist Who Defended Murderers of Jews to Speak at Tree of Life Anti-Hate Summit; Economist frames antisemitic tweets as merely 'anti-Israel'

From Ian: Islamist Who Defended Murderers of Jews to Speak at Tree of Life Anti-Hate Summit
In October, former President George W. Bush, Biden's DHS Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, ADL boss Jonathan Greenblatt, and other notables will descend on the massive Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh. The occasion isn’t a party convention, but the inaugural Eradicate Hate global summit inspired by the Tree of Life massacre in the area.

During the Tree of Life massacre, a white supremacist gunman opened fire on worshipers at the suburban synagogue in Squirrel Hill and killed 11 people. The shooter had told police, “All these Jews need to die”. The Eradicate Hate summit will commemorate that occasion by inviting a hater, Salam Al-Marayati of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), to speak.

Salam Al-Marayati has defended Hamas and Hezbollah. MPAC had called for removing them from the list of terrorist organizations. He responded to 9/11 by suggesting that Israel was behind the attacks. Just last year he came out with an op-ed accusing Jews of having “weaponized antisemitism to marginalize critics of Israel, especially American Muslims.”

In the 90s, Jewish groups protested the decision by Democrats to appoint him to a counterterrorism commission after his organization argued that the murder of Jews had been adopted by terrorists as one of the "violent reactions to express their despair and suffering".

The Tree of Life gunman would have said the same thing.

Salam Al-Marayati is one of the summit’s “global advisers” and will be appearing on three different panels, including one on deradicalization. Even if MPAC is better at radicalization.

Flora Yehiel, a 24-year-old Jewish woman, was waiting at a Jerusalem bus stop when a Muslim terrorist rammed his car into the crowd killing her and wounding 23 others. After crashing the car, the terrorist shouted “Allahu Akbar”, got out and kept coming. A survivor at the scene shot him, but he still kept coming, until he finally died. Hamas claimed credit for the attack.


Left-Wing Activist Slammed by Jewish Org for Claiming Attention Is Only Paid to the Holocaust Because Victims Were European
A prominent left-wing activist was criticized by a top American Jewish organization on Sunday for claiming on social media that the Holocaust is only considered important because its victims were Europeans.

Shaun King, an outspoken supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders and the Black Lives Matter movement, posted on Instagram, “The only reason why people celebrate ‘Christopher Columbus Day’ and never ‘Adolf Hitler Day’ is because Columbus massacred non-europeans [sic].”

In response, the American Jewish Committee tweeted, “Shaun King’s comment is both deeply offensive and blatantly false, fueled by the age-old antisemitic trope of ‘Jewish privilege.’”

“Six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis specifically because they were NOT considered white European,” said the AJC.

The group asserted, “King should apologize.” In 2019, King drew criticism for telling a group of Sanders supporters that the senator had always spoken out for unpopular causes, and then saying, “Even today, he speaks out against apartheid-like conditions in Palestine even though it’s not popular.”




Economist frames antisemitic tweets as merely 'anti-Israel'
An Oct. 16th Economist article, “A prominent academic resigns after benefactors try to exert influence over her curriculum”, included several examples of academics whose careers were allegedly harmed due to the influence of university donors, including the following:
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign rescinded a job offer for a professor after his public criticism of Israel’s behaviour in the 2014 Gaza conflict prompted donors’ threats to withdraw their gifts.

Though they oddly don’t name the professor, it’s clearly a reference to Steven Salaita. However, contrary to the Economist’s claim, Salaita’s job offer wasn’t rescinded after his “criticism of Israel’s behavior”, but because of virulently antisemitic tweets, such as these:
If the author of the article wanted to argue, on academic freedom grounds, that Salaita was treated unfairly, that’s legitimate. But, to frame such racist comments as merely ‘anti-Israel’ is dishonest, and grossly misleads readers.
Why did report about a UK charity appear on the BBC’s ‘Middle East’ page
On October 16th a filmed report titled “Meghan Markle’s donation a ‘lifesaver’ for community kitchen users” was published on the regional ‘Nottingham’ page of the BBC News website’s UK section.

That short report concerns a Nottingham-based charity called ‘Salaam Shalom Kitchen’.

One of the participants states:
“We decided that it was really important for our two [Muslim and Jewish] communities to come together, to do something good for the city of Nottingham, to be visibly working together against perceived barriers. It certainly is a wider held belief that Jews and Muslims don’t get on and we wanted to prove that wasn’t the case.”

While it is obvious why that report appeared on a regional page on the BBC News website, what is less clear is why the site’s editors decided that it should also be published on its ‘Middle East’ page, where it was promoted with the caption “We’re proving Jews and Muslims get along”.

Anyone who has spent time in the one Middle East country with substantial Jewish and Muslim populations (including, one hopes, BBC staff) cannot fail to be aware of the fact that in Israel, Jews and Muslims work together in a wide variety of fields including retail outlets and hospitality, hospitals and other medical services as well as the security forces, government and the judiciary.

If BBC editors believe that the story from Nottingham warrants promotion to Middle East audiences simply because it involves British Muslims and British Jews and therefore should interest people of the same faiths in an unrelated part of the world, or that audiences in the Middle East need a two-and -a quarter minute film from the UK to provide them with an example of how to “get along”, that surely says more about BBC perceptions of the Middle East than anything else.
PreOccupiedTerritory: J Street Finds No Difference In Social Media Engagement During Internet Outage (satire)
A progressive lobbying organization that bills itself as “pro-Israel, pro-peace,” but has failed to resonate with the overwhelming majority of American Jews and Israel-supporters, disclosed today that while Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram went down for six hours two weeks ago, the organization registered no appreciable change in the traffic, shares, comments, or Likes of its materials on those platforms.

A spokesman for the liberal J Street outfit observed Monday that the major collapse on October 4 of several of the world’s largest social networks appears not to have had an adverse effect on its social media reach and engagement. The spokesman pointed to traffic and engagement statistics from during the outage and the close-to-identical numbers before and after the incident.

“We’re pleased that our outreach matrix is robust enough to maintain our reach even under such challenging circumstances,” stated J Street’s Assistant Director of Communications Bootstrap Stroehmann. “The task before us is to leverage that robust matrix to expand the reach beyond its current level, which unfortunately had shown disappointing growth since President Obama left office.”
In Nod to Texas, Jeremy Corbyn Volunteers to Write ‘Opposing View’ of Holocaust Books (satire)
With a Texas school district under fire for telling teachers to offer an “opposing view” to books about the Holocaust, a former British opposition leader has stepped in to save the day.

Jeremy Corbyn, who led the UK’s Labour Party from 2015 to 2020, said that he has flown out to Texas and begun work on a series of books with opposing views of those documenting the genocide of European Jews during World War II.

“Believe me, the last thing I wanted to do was spend the next six months to a year writing about how great a guy Hitler was, or how the Jews were really the ones to blame,” Corbyn told The Mideast Beast. “But if the Carroll Independent School District of Southlake, Texas needs me, then I will answer the call.”

Texas administrators were confused by Corbyn’s offer, calling his services unnecessary and saying the initial call for opposing views was based on a misunderstanding.

“We never asked for Jeremy’s help but he just keeps calling us non-stop,” said Gina Peddy, executive director of curriculum and instruction for the district. “Every day he’s leaving me messages asking, ‘How many books do you need? Should they say that the Holocaust was good, or just that it never happened? Do you need an opposing view on Kristallnacht too? He just won’t leave it alone.”




NY Cops Arrest Brooklyn Woman in Connection With Attempted Arson Attack on Jewish School
Police in New York City have arrested a 39-year-old Brooklyn woman in connection with an attempted arson attack last week on a Jewish school in the Flatbush neighborhood.

The NYPD announced on Sunday that officers had arrested Sharee Jones on a hate crime charge, with additional charges for reckless endangerment and attempted arson.

A woman alleged to be Jones was captured on CCTV setting fire to Yeshiva of Flatbush on Avenue J at approximately 7.30 pm last Thursday. The woman, dressed entirely in black and carrying a red gasoline canister, was seen dousing the entrance to the school with gasoline before she lit a fire.

A security guard who was inside the school discovered the arson attack while it was still in progress, extinguishing the fire by pouring water on the flames before alerting the police. No one was reported injured by the flames.

Police are also investigating whether the alleged arsonist was the same woman spotted just before the fire at the corner of Avenue J and Nostrand Avenue who was photographed while carrying a red gas canister and yelling through a megaphone.

Local residents — who include the largest community of Holocaust survivors outside the state of Israel — were reported to be deeply shaken by the attack.
Drumming for Bubny marks 80 years since first WWII transport of Jews from Prague
The annual Drumming for Bubny event at Prague's former Bubny railway station on Saturday marked the 80th anniversary of the departure of the first Jews from Prague during the Holocaust. The event took place for seventh time, and was attended by survivors of WWII events and their families.

Like every year, the aim of the event was to subvert the silence with which many passively watch the suppression of human rights and genocide.

Silence was and is an accomplice of the mass murder than can be repeated, Pavel Štingl, one of the organizers of the event, stated.

Performers on Saturday were led by six drummers from the Tam Tam Batucada band, accompanied by some wind instruments. The crowd of spectators joined in by drumming their own hand-made paper drums. Several hundred people arrived, fewer than the thousand who turned up at the first Drumming for Bubny event in 2015.

The drumming was followed by an invitation to visit an exhibition of photos from the late Pavel Diaz that showcases the pain and memories of Holocaust survivors and recently opened in the House of the Black Madonna in the center of Prague.
Israeli-Developed App Proven to Reduce Blood Pressure, Study Shows
Hello Heart, an Israeli digital therapeutics company that focuses exclusively on heart disease, has announced that a new study has shown that its digital health application for blood pressure management can achieve and maintain lower blood pressure over time, even for those most at risk for heart disease. Over 84% of participants with stage II hypertension achieved a reduction in their systolic blood pressure, which was maintained over three years, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Medical Association.

Hello Heart’s connected blood pressure cuff and smartphone app empower users to self-manage their heart health and detect serious issues before they occur. Founded in 2013, Hello Heart incorporates medication adherence reminders and clinically-based, personalized digital coaching to drive lifestyle change. This research is the largest multi-year study of the efficacy of a digital therapeutic in controlling hypertension.

Researchers tracked 28,189 adults with employer-sponsored health insurance who used the Hello Heart technology and program. They found that the more people engaged with the Hello Heart digital therapeutic, the more their blood pressure improved, especially amongst those with stage II, the most severe form of hypertension.

“This is the first peer-reviewed, published study reporting the long-term experience of a digital health application for blood pressure management, with a magnitude of association that is clinically meaningful,” said Alexis Beatty, MD, MAS, a cardiologist and associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and the lead author of the study. “On average, participants used Hello Heart for 25 weeks, a level of engagement I have not seen in other digital hypertension management programs. Sustained engagement and decreases in systolic blood pressure of more than 20 mmHg can reduce a person’s chances of heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, and death.”

The researchers found that for the majority of users, any level of engagement with the Hello Heart program was associated with a reduction in blood pressure. Further, Hello Heart demonstrated the ability to capture hypertensive crises in men and women and timely identify potential events before they become catastrophic. The results were statistically significant even after adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic conditions, and behavioral factors.
Israel, Germany partner on moon oxygen
Israel and Germany have teamed up on lunar exploration. German space technology group OHB SE has signed a memorandum of understanding with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Israeli startup Helios to include Helios' technology for producing oxygen on the lunar surface in OHB's first three Lunar Surface Access Service (LSAS) missions to the moon.

Helios is an Israeli company founded in 2018 and has the backing of the Israeli Space Agency, the Ministry of Energy and the Israeli Innovation Authority.The company's vision is to enable sustainable human life on Earth and beyond. Among its core developments are reactors to produce oxygen on the lunar surface and reactors to produce iron and silicon on Earth with zero carbon emissions.

"Production of oxygen on the lunar surface is key to enable the expansion of humanity beyond Earth and to dramatically reduce the cost of space exploration. Oxygen is going to be the most sought after consumable in space as it makes up over 60% of the mass of any fully loaded space vehicle designated for lunar missions and beyond," explains Helios CEO Jonathan Geifman. "Helios' lunar mission with OHB serves to mature its oxygen production technology under real lunar environment, and is a significant step to realize the upcoming cislunar industry."

"Returning and establishing a permanent base on the Moon requires international cooperation and the creation of partnerships between space agencies and privately-held companies", says Director-General of the Israeli Space Agency Uri Oron. "The Israeli Space Agency welcomes the cooperation between OHB SE, Helios and Israel Aerospace Industries. This cooperation demonstrates the strong, long-lasting relationship between Germany and Israel, and the contribution this partnership can yield to the space industry."
11 Israeli projects get millions in funding for personalized medicine research
A partnership created to boost precision medicine research in Israel has chosen 11 multidisciplinary projects that will together get some NIS 32 million ($9.9 million) in funding to promote a variety of studies. These include the use of advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence for treating breast cancer and Crohn’s disease, genomic sequencing and analysis for the discovery of new disease genes, and treatments for rare disorders, and advanced machine learning image analysis to profile different cancers.

The Israel Precision Medicine Partnership (IPMP), launched in 2018, aims to expand personalized precision medicine research by supporting studies that are expected to lead to a deeper understanding of human diseases and advance the implementation of new healthcare approaches. The overall IPMP budget, some NIS 210 million, enables funding of four application cycles. The duration of each project is up to four years.

The 11 approved research projects are part of the third cycle for the initiative.

IPMP is a collaboration between the Israeli government, including the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education and the Digital Israel initiative of the Ministry of Social Equality, the Klarman Family Foundation in the US, and the Yad Hanadiv Foundation in Israel. The IPMP program is administered and operated by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF).

“In IPMP’s third program cycle, we once again witnessed a wealth of outstanding research proposals that reflect the depth of science and the spirit of collaboration among researchers and physicians in Israel, and among universities, hospitals, and health funds,” said Prof. Yuval Dor, head of ISF’s Life Sciences and Medicine Division, in a statement. “The winning proposals come from a variety of universities and medical institutions, address fundamental questions in human health, and are expected to generate important scientific insights and medical applications.”
Israel’s first Arab breast surgeon has a gift for shattering glass ceilings
There is no glass ceiling that Dr. Marian Khatib believes she cannot shatter.

The 40-year-old mother of two, raised in a small Arab village outside Acre, has just been appointed the director of the Breast Surgery Center at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center.

She is the first Arab breast surgeon in the country and the only oncoplastic breast surgeon in Israel’s public health system who performs both the resection and the reconstruction for breast cancer patients.

“I am proud that the public medical system in general and Ichilov Hospital, in particular, do not have a glass ceiling,” Khatib said. “I ask every girl, no matter where she grew up and what her background is, to see me and to believe that anything is possible and that the sky’s the limit.”

Sourasky is referred to as Ichilov in Israel.

Khatib was born in the United States to Arab-Israeli parents, who returned to Israel when she was just a baby. At a young age, her parents had her assessed, she was diagnosed as gifted and they decided to invest in her education. They moved to Acre and sent her to school in Haifa, where she could receive enrichment classes.

After she graduated, she began studying medicine at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. By her fourth year, Khatib said she was not convinced that she would even continue studying to be a doctor. But then, in year five, she encountered surgery.
Turning Dates into Honey: How a Biblical Fruit Made a Modern-Day Comeback in Israel
In the last decades, all the new palm tree plantings in Israel are exclusively medjool and the very best ones come from the Arava desert. The same combination of extreme arid heat and a cocktail of brackish water drawn from artesian wells that is responsible for candy-sweet cherry tomatoes and extra juicy bell peppers also yields medjools of unparalleled beauty.

Such is the popularity of medjools today that they have eclipsed other date varieties. I recall a date vendor at the Tel Aviv farmers market calling them “beginner dates.” “Sure, medjools are large, super juicy and very sweet,” he argued, “but their flavor is one-dimensional.” The latest trend among knowledgeable foodies is to explore other date varieties, like golden toffee flavored zahidi, honeyed smooth skinned deglet noor, meaty chocolatey deri, or crunchy bar’hi, aka the yellow date, which is the first one to be harvested and it stays on the market for only two months around Rosh Hashana.

The renewed interest in less pervasive date varieties is spurred by a minitrend of varietal silan. Recently, in a Tel Aviv home of a fellow food writer, Adeena Sussman, I tasted side-by-side two organic silans produced according to traditional methods in kibbutz Samar, near Eilat. One was made from deglet noor (that used to be the most common date variety before the ascension of medjool), the other from medjool. Both silans were delicious, but the deglet noor was considerably better—less sweet, with more complex fruitiness, an unexpected hint of tartness and luxuriously thick, jammy texture.

If you travel around Israel right now, especially in the Arava desert or the Kinneret, you might still witness date-picking, called gadid in Hebrew. It is an impressive sight: pickers climbing to treetops on specially designed cranes, and hacking off majestic fruit-laden branches with machetes. Gadid starts in late summer and continues well into October. Freshly picked dates will reach markets in Israel and around the world, and some of them will be transformed into silan, the ancient biblical honey that has been given a new lease on life and culinary sophistication.
Nude and painted white, 200 volunteer models pose at endangered Dead Sea
They lined up in rows of 10. Two hundred men and women in the nude, painted white and waiting for instructions from American photographer Spencer Tunick, perched on a ladder with a megaphone and his camera for this third installation about the Dead Sea.

The photographic installation was created to support the establishment of the planned Dead Sea Museum in Arad.

“The Dead Sea is disappearing,” said Tunick. “We need to find a way to sustain the level or to bring freshwater into the Dead Sea, but at the same time, keep all countries surrounding with water. Water is life.”

Tunick said this current installation was smaller and more conceptual than his last one in 2011. This time, the models were painted white to represent the pillars of salt from the biblical story of Lot’s wife, the Genesis character who was turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back at Sodom, the ancient city that was in the Dead Sea region.

“I don’t fear anyone turning to stone, that’s quite a punishment,” said Tunick. “No hummus for maybe a year, but no death.”

Rather, said Tunick, the photographs of white-painted models would channel the natural springs from the Dead Sea that create pillars of salt under the water.
The ultimate guide to Rothschild Boulevard
From pastoral bike paths, cultural institutions and classic Bauhaus architecture to chic cafés, top-notch restaurants and charming kiosks — Rothschild Boulevard offers the perfect Tel Aviv experience.

Rothschild is not only Tel Aviv’s very first boulevard, but also the cultural center of the city.

This picturesque boulevard stretches from Habima Theater to the Neveh Tzedek neighborhood and is shaded by ficus and poinciana trees with pleasant benches scattered at their feet.

Edmond James de Rothschild, “the Known Benefactor,” was a French member of the Rothschild banking family and known for his support of art, science and the Jewish homeland. Respect for him in the Holy Land was so great, that in 1910 it was decided to name one of the first four streets in Tel Aviv after the baron: Sderot (Boulevard) Rothschild.

Over the years, Rothschild Boulevard became the center of a neighborhood where numerous national leaders once lived and many historic events took place, including the Israeli declaration of independence in 1948.

Rothschild attracts a large and diverse public, from local families and hip businesspeople to young couples enjoying a romantic stroll, and elderly Tel Avivians seeking a spontaneous game of pétanque (a type of lawn bowling).

Check out our guide to Tel Aviv’s most beloved boulevard.
900-year-old Crusader sword found by scuba diver off Israel’s coast
An impressive meter-long sword dating back to the Crusader period was found by a scuba diver on the seabed off the Carmel Coast, the Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced Monday.

Shlomi Katzin, a diver from Atlit, spotted several ancient remains such as pottery fragments and stone and metal anchors, as well as the blade, which probably resurfaced after the shifting of sands. Fearing that the artifact might get covered up again, he brought it to the surface and contacted the IAA.

“The sword, which has been preserved in perfect condition, is a beautiful and rare find and evidently belonged to a Crusader knight,” said IAA’s Robbery Prevention Unit Inspector Nir Distelfeld. “It was found encrusted with marine organisms but is apparently made of iron. It is exciting to encounter such a personal object, taking you 900 years back in time to a different era, with knights, armor and swords.”

The Carmel Coast witnessed important moments in the history of the Crusades.

Pursuing the idea of liberating the holy sites from Muslim rule and encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church, European powers initiated several military campaigns in the Middle East between the 11th and 13th centuries, which led to the establishment of a number of Christian states in the area of modern Israel, Lebanon and Syria.







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