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Monday, February 07, 2022

02/07 Links Pt2: The Palestinian myth explained and analyzed; Israeli Scientists Engineer 3D Human Spinal Cord Implants to Help Paralyzed Patients Walk; USA Today explores best things to do in Tel Aviv

From Ian:

The Palestinian myth explained and analyzed
Even more imbecilic, why call themselves a name they cannot pronounce in their mother tongue? An English word derived from Hebrew, describing Greeks, then translated into Latin without any Arabic derivation and with such offensive definitions to their, albeit false history and culture.

No, no, shout the offended Palestinians, we are called Filastinians, that is the Arabic word for us. Oh really, this disciplined researcher retorts in astonishment. But ‘Filastine’ is simply the Arab pronunciation of Philistine and therefore apart from one letter to conform with Arabic vocalization the Filastinians are still naming themselves after extinct Greek sailors or uncouth, uncultured heathens – and in Queen’s English. You really couldn’t make it up, it’s Monty Pythonesque – that was a British comedy mocking absurd situations which were themselves exaggerated.

Further investigation is surely necessary as it is patently imbecilic that supposedly, indigenous peoples should be satisfied with such negative and offensive definitions debunking all claims of indigenous ethnicity. So we research into the Filastinian historical archives in the expectation of discovering a people or persons who identified as indigenous Filastinian leaders or a war, battle or conflict fought by indigenous Filastinians against any domestic or foreign invaders throughput the centuries of warfare in their apparent homeland in an attempt to recapture their cherished Jerusalem.

Maybe we will find archaeological evidence of a Filastinian currency, town or city; maybe an historical construct originated and built by indigenous Filastinians and the name of the Filastinian architect. If the Filastinians are indigenous then history and evidence must surely reveal the name of any one, just one historical Filastinian King, Queen, Prince, Princess, President, Imam, Leader, Warrior, Apothecary, Writer, Poet, Scribe, Soldier, Sailor, Tinker, Tailor, Butcher, Baker or Candlestick maker.

Alas, there is no such evidence to be found of any race, culture, or people. Other noted travelers to the area , listed here such as Edward Webbe, 1553 – 1590 , Adrian Reland 1676 – 1718 , Count Constantine Francois Volney 1757 – 1820 , William Thackeray, 1811 – 1863 , Gustav Flaubert , 1821 – 1880 , James Finn 1806 – 1872 , Mark Twain , 1835 – 1910 , and B.W. Johnson, 1833 – 1894 , never recorded , discovered nor wrote of the indigenous Palestinians or Filastinians. These itinerant scribes did not write about them nor the villages they supposedly inhabited because they never existed.

And there is a reason for their nonexistence and it is simply because they are a recent construct invented by those political organizations and Arab countries who sought to eliminate the Jewish State of Israel and deconstruct the geographical area after 1948. And what is equally astounding is that the fiction has morphed into fact. The anthropological miracle we know today as Palestinians have revised history so that a non-existent people have existed apparently since time immemorial.
My silent departure from Algeria
This year is the 60th anniversary of the mass exodus of some 130,000 Jews from Algeria. Morial, the Association of Algerian Jews in France, is collecting testimonies from those who left. Here is an extract of an account by Jacqueline Kadji, nee Chichportich, who was nine years old when she left (with thanks: Leon):

The town of Bou Saada was known as the city of happiness. Life moved to the rhythm of the Jewish festivals – until September 1956, when my uncle was murdered on the eve of Rosh Hashana. He was shot at point blank range in his shop selling bolts of fabric. The whole community was in shock. Two months earlier, one M. Touboul had been murdered in a settling of scores. My father also received death threats. That’s when he resolved to leave for Paris where his two sisters and family were living. That meant dropping everything and leaving my mother in charge of us. There were more and more murders and ambushes in the area. Fear gripped us. Families got ready to leave.

My mother planned our departure. She closed the shop and took all the stock into our house. It was a fun time, I played shops at home – a child’s dream. The days went by as we worried about our future. My mother had decided to put us three older children on a coach to Algiers – my older sister, 29, my brother, 16, and me, nine.

On the day we left my mother told us something chilling: we had to go our separate ways as there was an ambush en route, ‘so we don’t all die at once’ . Those words carved themselves into my young memory. Was I every going to see my mother again? A tsunami of emotions engulfed me. I was cut adrift, separated for the first time. No tears, no expressions of fear – I did not want to upset my mum. without being capable of further explanations, I was already catapulted into the adult world, aged nine.
In wake of Whoopi Goldberg’s race comments, US Jewry reflects on identity in America
Schneider and others expressed hope that the episode reminds people that Jews have historically experienced extensive discrimination in America, such as being barred from purchasing homes in certain areas, excluded from country clubs and denied admission to some universities.

In the past, there even were travel guides for Jews with tips on how to avoid discrimination on the road, guidebooks that preceded the 1936 debut of “The Negro Motorist Green Book,” which provided similar advice for African Americans.

Rabbi Noah Farkas, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, recalled growing up in Plano, Texas, where the handful of Jewish families, including his own, sometimes experienced antisemitism.

“We never saw ourselves in the same category as any of the white Anglo Southern Baptists,” he said. “Although we had white skin, we didn’t consider ourselves part of the white culture.”

The racial equation has only grown more complex as Jews of color — including African Americans, Hispanics and Asian Americans — account for a growing percentage of the overall Jewish population.

“Jews are multiethnic, multiracial,” Farkas said. “We don’t consider ourselves just a community of faith.”

Farkas said systemic discrimination against Jews in the US has largely faded over the decades, but antisemitism persists and antisemitic violence over the past five years has been at its highest level in decades.

The deadliest incident was the mass shooting in 2018 at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, where 11 worshippers from three different congregations were killed by a gunman who railed against Jews and immigrants they helped, according to prosecutors in his pending hate-crimes trial.
Critics of Whoopi Goldberg suspension for Holocaust remarks see missed chance by ABC
Goldberg explained to talk show host Stephen Colbert in an episode that aired Monday night that her perception of race is based on skin color but that she was wrong.

She apologized again Tuesday morning on “The View” and invited Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, on to that day’s episode to talk about the Holocaust. He said in a tweet he deeply appreciated her invitation and that “her apology is very much welcome.”

But ABC News President Kim Godwin announced her suspension later on Tuesday. On Wednesday, former GOP communications director Tara Setmayer sat in as guest co-host and nobody said anything about Jews or the Holocaust.

In announcing the suspension, ABC said it was asking Goldberg “to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments.” The network did not respond to requests for comment Friday about the public reaction to the suspension.

What people seem to be forgetting is that Goldberg made her remarks during a segment about a Tennessee school board’s banning of “Maus,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Nazi death camps during World War II, said author Frederick Joseph.

Conservative officials across the country are trying to ban access to books such as “Maus” and the “The 1619 Project,” which puts Black slavery and Black Americans at the center of US history. His own book, “The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person,” is being protested by some parents, he said, because they say it’s indoctrination.

Joseph said Goldberg was seeing the issue of race through the lens of a Black woman in America and the lens lacked historical knowledge of what the Holocaust was actually about.


Emily Schrader: Genocide Olympics: Winter Games in China is a stain on humanity
THE CHINESE efforts to save face by covering up their crimes and failures aren’t really new either. After all, China famously covered up the literal starvation of tens of millions in order to save face for communist dictator Mao Zedong.

Similarly, the IOC has a long and rich history of looking the other way in the face of very obvious crimes against humanity, such as what occurred in 1936 in Nazi Germany.

But while the IOC is continuing to play China’s games, western countries, and broadcasters, should play no part in it. The CCP should be isolated for the pariah that it is, in every way it can be.

While a diplomatic boycott by most democratic countries is a start, it is a weak response and far from sufficient for holding accountable a genocidal regime committing mass human rights atrocities. A cursory glance at the list of countries that are not boycotting the 2022 Winter Olympic Games should tell you everything you need to know, from Russia to Pakistan to Qatar, not to mention multiple UN officials in attendance.

It isn’t only a stain on the IOC that the Winter Olympics in Beijing are now taking place. It’s a stain on humanity.
A conservative marketplace – a timely response to corporate wokeness
From a business perspective, tens of millions of conservative families would prefer to buy from companies that endorse their values instead of companies that undermine them. In addition, such a marketplace would allow thousands of small- and medium-sized companies to showcase their products and services, giving a boost to suppliers that more often produce in America and employ American workers.

From an ethical perspective, such a marketplace would allow observant Jews and religious Christians to spend money in harmony with their values. As long as we buy from woke companies that support Amnesty International, the Southern Poverty Law Center and JVP we are complicit in furthering an agenda that threatens our way of life and corrupts the society our children are raised in.

On political grounds, a conservative marketplace competing with Amazon and eBay will mobilize the economic power of conservative America and drain the swamp of corporate wokeness that profits from the liberal cartel of mainstream media, publishing houses and elite academic institutions.

It might be argued that such a marketplace will exacerbate existing fractures within American society. In truth, given the hegemonic position of Amazon and eBay in online retail, a conservative alternative would introduce healthy competition.

Secondly, it might be argued that successfully challenging Amazon and eBay is chimeric. However, it would suffice for this marketplace to pay conservative media outlets for advertisement slots with stock options in order for prohibitive marketing costs to sink substantially.

Given that liberal outlets such as MSNBC, the Huffington Post and the New York Times are bound to go berserk as soon a new retail player vows to defenestrate corporate wokeness, we can also look forward to this new marketplace receiving tons of free publicity… and therefore, to soon be able to buy from suppliers who share and promote our values.


BBC Persian again employs context-free quote to ‘support’ speculation
On the morning of February 6th an article headlined “Israel’s Mossad suspected of high-level Iran penetration” was given prominent placing on the BBC News website’s ‘Middle East’ page, together with the by-line “The spy agency is said to have worked its way high up into Iran’s security services”.

Written by Jiyar Gol, the article serves as promotion for a television programme by that BBC Persian journalist called “Israel and Iran: The Hidden War” which is to air in coming days on the BBC News Channel and the BBC World News channel and which is described as follows:
“For years, Israel and Iran have been involved in an escalating hidden war, a conflict played out in the shadows, on land, air and sea, with tit-for-tat attacks that avoided open clashes. But they are now becoming more conspicuous – with Iran’s nuclear programme a major flashpoint. Iran’s leaders say they have no plans to build nuclear weapons – but Israel claims otherwise. Numerous explosions in Iran’s nuclear and missile facilities have been blamed by former Iranian officials on Israel’s Foreign intelligence service, Mossad. The BBC’s Jiyar Gol travels to Israel on the trail of half a ton of missing Iranian secret documents and investigates evidence suggesting they led to the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist.”

Not for the first time we see the BBC promoting the erroneous notion that Israel is the sole country to reject the Iranian regime’s claims of a ‘peaceful’ nuclear programme while ignoring the fact that the JCPOA came into existence precisely because other countries and international bodies were equally unconvinced by that claim.

Sources cited in Gol’s highly speculative written report include “Iran’s intelligence minister, Mahmoud Alavi”, unidentified “[s]ources inside Tehran’s Evin prison security ward”, an unnamed “former intelligence officer for the IRGC Quds Force” and the former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
From Hebrew School to the UN, NY Times Touches Up Attacks on Israel’s Legitimacy
As such, Sander’s anti-Zionism is not a peripheral point; it is the salient fact of the story. Thus, beyond the headline which miscasts her animus towards Israel’s existence as mere “criticism” and the paper’s concealment of the fact that her case has no legal standing as the protective employment laws do not apply to a Zionist synagogue which chooses not to employ an anti-Zionist, the question remains: why, then, is this even a story? What’s news about an ideological organization which opts not to employ an ideological opponent?

From the young Hebrew teacher to the storied halls of the United Nations, The New York Times’ touch ups of anti-Israel sentiment are apparent. Thus Rick Gladstone’s Jan 20 piece, “U.N. Approves Israeli Measure to Condemn Holocaust Denial,” paints the international body’s consistent anti-Israeli bias in much more palatable terms, referring to “the United Nations, where the narrative is often perceived by Israelis to be biased in favor of Palestinians’ aspirations for their own state.” (Emphasis added.)

This language wildly twists the “Israeli narrative” in a way that not only misstates and minimizes the actual concerns of the country, but that effectively is dismissive of those concerns by claiming they amount to no more than hostility to Palestinians (and, specifically, Palestinian statehood).

In fact, Israel’s central criticism of the United Nations, shared by other world leaders and even United Nations officials, is the body’s overwhelming anti-Israel bias, in which the Jewish state is singled out for disproportionate scrutiny and lopsided obloquy.

To restate it simply: Gladstone’s language inaccurately, unfairly, and rather absurdly misrepresents opposition to anti-Israel discrimination as being opposition to Palestinian statehood.


A lesser known history: Romania’s key role in Holocaust explored in new book
Maksim Goldenshteyn recounts a story his grandmother once told him about how, as a 4-year-old child, she snuck out of a Jewish ghetto during World War II to retrieve her favorite dolls that had been left behind, when her family was forcibly evicted from their home in occupied Soviet Ukraine.

“She knew, even at that age, that because she had lighter hair and blue eyes, she could pass for a local Ukrainian girl,” said Goldenshteyn. “She put on a kerchief and slipped out of the ghetto.”

It is one of the stories that Seattle native Goldenshteyn tells in his book, “ So They Remember,” which recounts — with a blend of intimate family memoir and historical research — the Holocaust in Transnistria, a territory in occupied southern Ukraine that was controlled by Romania, a close ally to Nazi Germany for most of the war.

In that territory, where around 150 camps and ghettos operated, a lesser-known but equally sinister chapter of the Holocaust played out, with hundreds of thousands of Jews brutalized, exploited, and murdered. Many died of starvation; some succumbed to disease or exposure; some were executed.

Goldenshteyn, 33, whose family moved to the US from the former Soviet Union in 1992, says he heard fragments of his family’s past while growing up, but he never linked it to one of humanity’s darkest chapters.

“They didn’t really align with the image of the Holocaust that I thought was representative,” he said. Then, 10 years ago, his mother told him the story.
Holocaust survivors up in arms over planned auction of Nazi memorabilia
Holocaust survivors and those involved in efforts to maintain the memory of the Shoah are up in arms over plans to put around 20 Nazi artifacts up for auction next week.

Among the artifacts to be sold by Pentagon Auctions are daggers, what the auction house has described as a "particularly rare" SS officer's helmet, a Nazi symbol the auction house says was screwed onto senior Nazi officials' cars, a five-yard long flag that was hung on official Nazi buildings, and tags worn by slave laborers at the Daimler-Benz auto plant.

Yossi Pollack, the director of the Dorot Hahemshech memorial organization, which operates a number of popular Facebook groups on the Holocaust, said he has received quite a few complaints from survivors who are furious about the items being sold online.

"People wrote me and asked how we could be willing to allow such a thing to happen," he said. He promised to fight the auction "the same way we led a war against the sale of the tattoo kits," he said, referring to the planned sale of a tattoo kit reportedly used on inmates at the Auschwitz death camp.
Tennessee teacher accused of telling Bible class ‘how to torture a Jew’
The mother of a Tennessee middle-schooler claims a class on the Bible as literature included Christian proselytizing and comments offensive to Jews and other non-Christians, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported.

Juniper Russo posted to Facebook that she withdrew her eighth-grader from the class after the teacher wrote an English translation of the Hebrew name for God on the whiteboard and told students, “If you want to know how to torture a Jew, make them say this out loud,” according to the post.

“This name is traditionally not spoken out loud, and is traditionally only written in the Torah,” Russo wrote. “My daughter felt extremely uncomfortable hearing a teacher instruct her peers on ‘how to torture a Jew’ and told me when she came home from school that she didn’t feel safe in the class.”

Hamilton County Schools issued a statement saying the district is investigating a complaint about its Bible History course and will “take appropriate steps based on the findings of that review.”

Russo said she has also reported the incident to the Anti-Defamation League.

Russo wrote on Facebook that her daughter enrolled in the Bible class because other electives were not accessible to her because of a disability. Her daughter was uncomfortable answering questions on assignments such as, “Do you read the Bible at home?” because she did not want to be singled out as Jewish, Russo wrote.
New South Wales Lawmakers Debate Proposed Ban on Public Displays of Nazi Symbols
Parliamentarians in Victoria, Australia, are still considering whether to introduce new laws to outlaw the public display of Nazi symbols, including swastikas, according to a report by Australia’s ABC News.

Shadow Police Minister Walt Secord, who is proposing the new law, told the lawmakers last Thursday that police were powerless to stop those who displayed the Nazi flag in 2020, because it wasn’t against the law. “It’s deeply offensive; it’s a symbol of genocide,” he said. “Someone who is carrying a Nazi flag in public is just beyond The Pale.”

A range of exemptions to the ban are also being mulled, including when Nazi symbols are used in films, museums and/or by religious groups, such as the Hindus, who consider the broken cross an ancient religious symbol.

NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson cautioned, however, that forcing such symbols underground with a ban might result in them gaining “a certain mystique and attraction for certain individuals. We’re not dealing with people who are mainstream Australia,” he warned, “we have individuals who align themselves to extreme right-wing ideology,” who he said would “certainly be attracted to the prohibition of this type of symbol.”

Hudson added, however, that his reservations were “not in relation to [the bill’s] intent, but in relation to the mechanics of how it might operate.”

Introduced in NSW on October 13, 2021, the Crimes Amendment (Display of Nazi Symbols) Bill 2021 “seeks to create a new offense specifically aimed at curbing public expressions of Nazi insignia, in recognition that they’re designed to intimidate,” the NSW Courts website explains.
Suspect sought after yelling ‘all of you should be killed’ at Jewish students
Police in Chicago are searching for a man who threatened a group of Jewish students at a school last month, yelling “all of you should be killed.”

The incident happened just before 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 13 outside the Yeshivas Tiferes Tzvi Academy on North Carolina Avenue, Chicago police said.

The suspect, described as a Black male between 40 and 49 years old with a black mustache and beard, yelled profanities and threats at a teacher her students, according to authorities.

The suspect was described as a Black male between the ages of 40 and 49, with a black mustache and beard, authorities said. (Chicago Police Department)

As the suspect walked by, the victims told police that he yelled “all of you should be killed.”

The suspect was seen wearing a dark knit cap, black coat, a white hooded sweatshirt and dark pants, according to police.

Authorities asked anyone with information about the suspect or incident to call the Bureau of Detectives Area Three at (312) 744 – 8261.

There have been several antisemitic hate crimes against the Jewish community in Chicago in recent weeks.
"NYPD Hate Crimes Unit Probing Antisemitic Attacks in Williamsburg, Brooklyn"
The New York City Police Hate Crimes unit is investigating two attacks Friday night on Jews in the Brooklyn Jewish community of Williamsburg. One of the attacks was caught on video, showing a gang creeping up from behind, with one of the group then walloping a Jewish man in the head before fleeing the scene.

The blow knocked the man’s Shtreimel off his head as he lost balance. This incident was reported to have occurred between Marcy Avenue and Stockton Street.

“The second of these incidents is reported to have occurred in the same located, but limited details are currently available,” the organization said.

In the second attack, New York City Council Member Lincoln Restler (33rd District) of Brooklyn reported that swastikas and graffiti were spray painted on a yeshiva school bus in the neighborhood, near the corner of Division and Rodney Streets.


Brooklyn Jews Remain on High Alert Following Two More Antisemitic Attacks Over Weekend
The Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn is again on high alert following at least two antisemitic incidents over the weekend that involved violence and vandalism.

A Jewish man who was walking along Stockton Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of the borough on Friday night was assaulted by a man who emerged from a minivan. CCTV footage of the attack, which occurred at 10:30 p.m., showed the assailant run from the van and punch his victim, who was identifiably Jewish through his traditional clothing. Medics treated the victim at the scene for injuries to his face.

On Sunday morning, multiple yeshiva school buses parked in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn were discovered to have been vandalized with swastika graffiti.

New York City politicians and Brooklyn council members rushed to condemn both incidents.

“Antisemitic acts of violence are an attack on every New Yorker and they will be met with the force of the entire city,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared on Twitter.

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams commented on the footage of Friday night’s assault that it was “difficult to watch these videos that have become too frequent.”

“Acts of hate continue. Antisemitism continues. The better New York must continue to stand up in face of bigotry,” Williams urged.


Israeli Scientists Engineer 3D Human Spinal Cord Implants to Help Paralyzed Patients Walk
Israeli scientists from Tel Aviv University say they have engineered 3D human spinal cord implants to treat paralysis, which if successful in clinical trials in human patients could help people stand up and walk again.

The study, conducted in mice and led by Prof. Tal Dvir of the Sagol Center for Regenerative Biotechnology, showed an 80 percent success rate in restoring walking ability. The results were published in the peer-reviewed journal Advanced Science.

“The model animals underwent a rapid rehabilitation process, at the end of which they could walk quite well,” Dvir said Monday. “This is the first instance in the world in which implanted engineered human tissues have generated recovery in an animal model for long-term chronic paralysis — which is the most relevant model for paralysis treatments in humans.”

“Individuals injured at a very young age are destined to sit in a wheelchair for the rest of their lives, bearing all the social, financial, and health-related costs of paralysis,” he said. “Our goal is to produce personalized spinal cord implants for every paralyzed person, enabling regeneration of the damaged tissue with no risk of rejection.”

Dvir noted that millions of people around the world are paralyzed due to spinal injury caused by traffic accidents, falls and sports-related accidents — with no effective treatment for their condition.

The organ engineering technology he developed with his research team relies on taking a small biopsy of fatty tissue from the abdomen of a patient, and reprogramming the fat cells into embryonic-like stem cells.
USA Today explores best things to do in Tel Aviv
We often feel that comparing two destinations isn't entirely fair to either. But in some instances, places share such strong traits, it's almost impossible not to draw parallels.

Warm weather, sunny skies, sandy beaches, arresting architecture and sizzling nightlife. Are we talking about Miami or Tel Aviv? Both locales fit that description, which is why you’ll often hear Tel Aviv referred to as the "Miami of the Middle East."

More than a party capital, the Israeli city has many distinctive attributes – including a unique blend of old and new that sets it apart from anywhere else.

Admire Bauhaus architecture
A mecca of modern architecture, Tel Aviv is home to 4,000 Bauhaus-style buildings. It’s impossible not to notice the abundance of striking whitewashed façades from the 1930s. Be sure to add the Max-Liebling House and 61 Rothschild Boulevard to your must-see list.

Go to the beach
Seeking fun in the sun? Join a game of matkot (an Israeli paddle ball game) on Geula Beach. Buzzy bars and restaurants dot the shores of Mezizim. Gordon Beach offers volleyball courts and top-notch people watching. It’s also one of the most magical vantage points to view the sunset. While surfers flock to Maravi.
Helen Mirren: ‘Utterly legitimate’ to question if a non-Jew should play Golda Meir
Actress Helen Mirren has commented on criticism of the decision to cast her as Golda Meir in an upcoming HBO biopic on the former Israeli prime minister, saying it was “utterly legitimate” to question if a non-Jew should perform the role.

Mirren was responding to remarks last month by fellow British actress Maureen Lipman, who said she disagreed with the casting decision, as “the Jewishness of the character is so integral.”

The comments reignited debate about having non-Jewish actors play Jewish characters, a practice some have called “Jewface.” Lipman was among a group of Jewish thespians who signed an open letter on the matter in 2019.

In an interview published Friday, Mirren said she too questioned whether it was appropriate to cast her in “Golda” and raised the issue with the film’s Israeli director Guy Nattiv before accepting the role.

“I said, ‘Look Guy, I’m not Jewish, and if you want to think about that, and decide to go in a different direction, no hard feelings. I will absolutely understand,'” she told the Daily Mail.

“But he very much wanted me to play the role, and off we went,” Mirren added.

She said had no hard feelings about Lipman’s comments: “I do believe it is a discussion that has to be had – it’s utterly legitimate.”

Mirren noted the matter raised other questions, such as if it’s then appropriate for a Jew to portray a non-Jewish character.
Israel’s small but proud Olympic delegation takes aim at the Beijing Winter Games
When the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics kicks off in Beijing on Friday, just six athletes will march under the Israeli flag, a drop from the 10 that competed in Pyeongchang in 2018.

Israel has never won a medal at the Winter Olympics – in which it has competed every games since 1994 – and that’s not expected to change in 2022. But the six Olympians this year – none of whom were born in the Jewish state – bring with them a range of experiences, stories and a sense of pride to be representing Israel on the international stage, competing in figure skating, speed skating and alpine skiing.

“We have a very high-quality and experienced delegation,” said Yaniv Ashkenazi, the head of Israel’s delegation to the Winter Games and director of the Elite Sport Department at the Israel Olympic Committee, during a December press conference. “We have a lot of hopes and expectations that our athletes will be good, will be healthy, and we’ll hope for the best.”

Yael Arad, the president of the Israel Olympic Committee and an Olympic silver medalist in judo, said Israel’s delegation to Beijing is not large, but it is impressive.

“We’re sending a very small delegation,” said Arad. “We want them to succeed, we believe in our athletes, we have athletes who are strong contenders for finals, in three different disciplines… we’re always striving as high as possible.

When it comes to Jewish athletes competing in Beijing from around the world – including the US and Canada – a medal finish just might be in the cards.
Israel to open first LGBT shelter for Arab youth
Israel is set to open its first shelter designated for LGBT Arab Israeli youth, in a move hailed as “historic” by one of the lawmakers who led the initiative.

The Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry, which recently announced the decision, also said that it would open two additional housing centers for LGBT Arab adults in the northern port city of Haifa.

Arab youth in need of emergency housing have until now turned toward LGBT shelters run by Jewish Israelis; however, many do not have Arabic-speaking social workers or staff on hand.

Knesset Member Ibtisam Mara’ana (Labor), who pushed for the youth center, said that she decided to do so after speaking to members of the LGBT Arab community and asking them where they felt their needs were not being met.

“The unequivocal answer that I received was that there is a lack of a framework for emergency shelter, as well as transitional living centers for LGBT minors and youth from the Arab sector,” Mara’ana told The Media Line. “I’m the first and only Arab Knesset member to embrace the LGBT community, even before I was elected to the Knesset.”







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