Tuesday, April 05, 2022
Emily Schrader: In the Middle East, the silent majority want normalization with Israel
AS THE Negev Summit went on, extremists tried to derail the atmosphere of peace. While the attacks are heartbreaking and must be stopped, they actually proved that Israel’s alliance with the Arab world is authentic. For the first time we saw foreign ministers of Arab states condemning terrorism against Israelis, openly speaking out about the importance of people-to-people peace in preventing and stopping extremism.Islamic Tolerance: The Anti Muslim-Brotherhood League
In the days following the Negev Summit, we also saw Turkey strongly condemn terrorism against Israel, despite years of tension and support for Hamas terrorists, and a historic visit of Defense Minister Benny Gantz and President Isaac Herzog to Jordan to meet King Abdullah.
Simultaneously, a similar phenomenon is occurring within Israel: Israeli society and the younger generation of Israeli Arabs are pushing further toward unity, as understanding grows that Israelis really are one people, and those who attack us, attack all of us.
Despite that, extremists from the Israeli Arab society have tried to hijack the narrative to distract and fight this reality. This occurred last May with the riots, and it occurred this past week with several of the terrorists murdering their fellow citizens.
Israel must do everything it can to stop this wave of terrorism, but we have more reason than ever to be hopeful as the momentum is continuing to head in the right direction, both regionally and within Israel. The path to normalization isn’t easy, but at this point it is inevitable.
Israeli society is diverse and unique, composed of Jews, Arabs, and Druze, the vast majority of whom want to be Israeli, and want to live together in peace. As time goes on, the silent majority who support normalization will prevail.
This month’s issue of Sephardi Ideas Monthly inaugurates a new series exploring a very important cultural development in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) that has been almost completely ignored by the Western Press. What’s the story?Report: Israeli Delegation Secretly Met With Senior Sudanese Military Officials
A serious struggle is being waged by Islamic scholars from Morocco to the Gulf to cultivate and advance a tolerant form of Islam that respects non-Muslims and that recognizes minority rights based upon Islamic principles.
The efforts of Islamic scholars must of course be seen within larger political contexts. In the Middle East, religion and politics are rarely separable. Additionally, even if one identifies with these scholars’ aims, it’s possible to wonder about the effectiveness of scholarly-religious pronouncements and documents, in general. Different dimensions and critical perspectives will be examined in the course of the series.
But Sephardi Ideas Monthly respectfully submits that if you had been following the various forms of Islamic reform and their interaction with global Jewish communities over the past few years, meetings often spear-headed by the American Sephardi Federation, then you weren’t terribly surprised when the Kingdom of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates established and the Kingdom of Morocco restored and upgraded diplomatic relations with the Jewish state in 2020. In order to understand political developments across MENA, it’s helpful to keep an eye on religious developments.
An Israeli security delegation held meetings with senior Sudanese defense officials during a secret visit to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum recently, Kan News reported in recent days.
According to the report, the Israeli delegation also held meetings with the head of Sudan’s Sovereign Transitional Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who in the past has confirmed that his country’s relations with Israel include cooperation on intelligence, security and military cooperation, the London-based Alsharq Al-Awsat added on Sunday.
This is the third reported visit for a security Israeli delegation in six months.
In January 2021, Sudan became the third Arab state, after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, to normalize relations with Israel by signing the Abraham Accords. Steps to normalize ties between the two countries began the previous year.
“In 2021, Sudan’s ruling sovereignty council and cabinet voted to abolish the Israel boycott law as part of the normalization of ties between the two countries. The law had been in force since 1958,” said Alsharq Al-Awsat.
European Union funding illegal Palestinian projects in West Bank
A report by Israel’s Intelligence Ministry sharply criticizes the European Union for funding the Palestinian Authority’s illegal “takeover” of areas that are recognized as being under Israeli sovereignty.Haley Stevens: U.N. is seeking to delegitimize, withdraw recognition of Israel
First translated by Honest Reporting, the document details how foreign governments gave hundreds of millions of euros to Palestinian projects in Area C in Judea and Samaria. Such funding is contrary to international law and relevant agreements.
Titled “The Palestinian Campaign for Area C: Shaping a Security Reality on the Ground, Description and Implications,” the report describes how the Palestinians use E.U. funds to build thousands of illegal structures and grab swaths of agricultural land.
It was prepared in June 2021 but declassified and made public this year. Israeli intelligence claims that the E.U. also provides the P.A. with actionable and diplomatic support.
The report states that the P.A. has received more than half a billion dollars to carry out “unilateral land seizure moves over the past eight years.”
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) argued on Thursday that the United Nations’ repeated investigations of Israel may be part of a campaign to delegitimize and potentially withdraw recognition of the Jewish state in the body’s General Assembly.Debunking liberal assumptions about Jewish security in Europe
Speaking during a virtual AIPAC event, the sophomore congresswoman condemned the U.N.’s “wild targeting of the State of Israel, over and over and over again to the tune of it almost [feeling] like a conspiracy theory.”
“Saying and declaring Israel to be an apartheid state, which is wholly outrageous and wrong, will be the delegitimization of the state because as you go up through the U.N. and the General Assembly, the General Assembly doesn’t recognize apartheid states. So is that the end goal of this? Where are we actually going?” she asked.
The Michigan congresswoman added that silence in the face of terrorist attacks against Israel “is violence, silence is being complicit” and “we don’t need to be sympathizing with terrorist organizations or egging them on or engaging in activities that might embolden Iran.”
AIPAC endorsed Stevens in her primary fight against fellow incumbent Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI). Stevens has sought to highlight the differences in Israel policy between herself and Levin.
“I’m very clear. We can’t get into the place where we’re forcing Israel to make all the concessions or being silent when things like the [U.N.’s] Commission of Inquiry and the Amnesty International reports come down,” she said.
Stevens added that she seeks to “not just come up with a big wish list of pie-in-the-sky ideas — I am here… to deliver results for people, and I have done that time and time again.
Still, it's possible to condemn the situation of the press in Hungary while pointing out that America is also not free from faults. In 2020, a powerful combination of mainstream corporate press outlets and Big Tech companies that control social media and access to the Internet helped to largely silence reporting that pointed to corrupt activities by members of President Joe Biden's family by calling it Russian disinformation. Today, those same outlets admit it was all true.Students for Justice in Palestine Wants Hatred, Not Peace
One can also take issue with some of Orban's "illiberal" ideas without accepting the notion that he is an opponent of democracy.
His main fault in the eyes of most of his European critics is his refusal to go along with the same open-border immigration policies that led to a massive influx of largely Muslim migrants from the Middle East and North Africa into Western nations. Downplayed by the left is the direct link between Orban's tough immigration policies that cut off a surge of people who were bringing the Jew-hatred prevalent in their home countries with them. But the connection between the two cannot be refuted. Orban's opposition to "globalism" is assumed by many to be a dog whistle to anti-Semitism, but his defense of sovereign borders and hostility to multilateral institutions has clearly been good for the Jews.
Orban's belief that governments should uphold traditional values about marriage and the family is derided by those who see them as hostile to the LBGTQ community. Whether you agree with his beliefs or not, the prime minister's point about this issue is to some extent illustrated by the largely disingenuous condemnations of legislation recently passed in Florida that merely seeks to ban the sexualization of education for children under 10.
Most Jews would disagree with him on that. Yet so strong is the hostility to Orban that, many Jews were willing to back the opposition coalition that sought to defeat him, even though its largest component was the openly anti-Semitic neo-Nazi Jobbik party. If opposition to "illiberal democracy" requires acquiescence to a government composed of neo-Nazis, then perhaps it's necessary for liberals to rethink their critique of Orban. The same may be true of their knee-jerk assumptions about the nationalist philosophy he espouses since it seems to rest on ideas that are both good for the Jews of Hungary and cheered when they are espoused by Ukrainian nationalists.
In a Europe that has been shaken by the impact of mass immigration and then by Russian aggression, Jews do well to worry about their future, as well as that of democracy. But traditional assumptions that the sort of conservative nationalism that Orban espouses is antithetical to Jewish security should not be blindly accepted. Just as the Jews have sometimes found friends in odd places, so, too, may the future of democracy be more dependent on those who reject liberalism than some liberals are willing to admit.
Last spring, the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Northeastern University circulated a petition calling for the university’s Student Government Association (SGA) to drop its adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.Bristol University Professor Loses Appeal to Overturn Firing for Harassment of Jewish Students
The IHRA definition states that antisemitism is “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
In other words, according to the IHRA, antisemitism is general hostility towards Jews, Jewishness, and its manifestations. SJP’s petition was by no means surprising: SJP is an anti-Israel group with a history of glorifying terrorism against Jews. SJP strives to strike down the IHRA definition — and any other serious effort to combat antisemitism, for that matter — because their actions clearly violate the IHRA definition.
Just recently, for example, they promoted an event featuring Mohammed El-Kurd, an anti-Israel and anti-Jewish extremist, with a long history of praising and promoting acts of terror against Israeli civilians. El-Kurd has denounced Israel’s right to exist and defend itself from terrorism; denied the Jewish connection to the land of Israel; and engaged in denial of Judaism’s ancient temples in Jerusalem.
But what is most surprising — and horrifying — about the SJP’s recent move, is that campus groups such as Northeastern Students Against Institutional Discrimination (NUSAID), the Roosevelt Institute, Sunrise NEU, the Northeastern Progressive Student Alliance (PSA), and the Northeastern Chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) also signed on to SJP’s petition.
If members of these groups learned about what Israel is really like, they would realize that Israel aligns with their ideals.
David Miller, the former University of Bristol professor who was fired after harassing Jewish students, has lost an appeal to be reinstated.New York State Supports Hamas, Muzzles Anti-Islamist Reporter
In October, University of Bristol fired David Miller after he called for “the end of Zionism” and spread conspiracies about British Jewish students. At the time, the university issued a statement saying that Miller’s conduct was unbecoming and that his employment would be “terminated with immediate effect.”
“Support David Miller,” a group representing Miller, announced on Wednesday that the appeal had failed. Responding to the news the following day, Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), an education watchdog, said the appeal decision vindicates the concerns of Jewish advocacy groups about the sociology professor’s treatment of Jewish students. CAA had previously planned to sue the university over the issue.
“This ruling is a further vindication of the courageous Jewish students on whose behalf we brought proceedings against the University of Bristol last year,” said CAA CEO Gideon Falter. “Following the launch of our lawsuit and an outcry from across the Jewish community, it was clear to the university that it would be held to account in court and had to act to protect Jewish students in accordance with the law, and David Miller was fired within a month.”
Falter continued, “Universities across the country should be warned that we will do whatever it takes to defend Jewish students from racists on campus by upholding their rights in court where necessary.”
In Wednesday’s statement, David Miller said his firing is part of a “pernicious witch hunt led by known assets of the State of Israel in the UK and funded by the dirty money of pro-Israel oligarchs” and that he will again appeal his firing at an employment tribunal.
The letter states that the "IPT reportedly infiltrated the Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), through its longtime leader, Romin Iqbal, who reportedly leaked confidential documents and recordings in possible violation of his fiduciary duties." The logic of the "infiltration" accusation is belied by James's own assertion that Iqbal was a "longtime leader." In fact Iqbal was a CAIR employee long before he began to pass information on to the IPT, and if he gave information "in violation of his fiduciary duties," then he's the one who acted illegally, not the recipient of the information.YouTube finally removes channel that inspired Texas gunman in victory for JC
Iqbal was not a mole but a whistleblower. It's beyond belief to think that James would make a similar statement about any of employees who gave information "in violation of their fiduciary duties" to the Trump Organization.
Next, the letter asserts that "public statements from those involved in the operation suggest that IPT targeted these organizations in a concerted effort to hamper Muslims in the exercise of their civil rights, including the right to worship, to peacefully assemble and organize politically, to petition government, and to vote." This too is absurd. James treats the IPT as though it were a government entity rather than an investigative news organization. I'm surprised she didn't accuse it of "McCarthyism."
The letter mentions Tariq Nelson, of the Dar Al-Hijra mosque in Virginia, claiming that he recorded "confidential conversations without other participants' knowledge," but that case seems beyond the jurisdiction of the New York State AG. The letter concludes with a request to contact the Special Council for Hate Crimes in the Civil Rights Bureau of the AG's office, warning that "failure to comply with this directive may result in further action."
Also on April 1, James's office sent to Merrick Garland a letter making the same claims about the IPT and requesting a "DOJ investigation into IPT's possible violations of federal law," asserting that "it would send the message that the federal government will also use its powers to protect Muslims' rights." With subway-pushers, gun-toting teenagers (and preteens), and homeless encampments in New York City, and carjacking now a regular occurrence throughout the state, James has used her office and political clout to make investigative reporters stop investigating and reporting while sticking up for a group with intimate ties to Hamas. Excelsior!
YouTube has finally removed two channels linked to notorious hate preachers including one whose antisemitism inspired a British Islamist to travel to the US to take Jews hostage at gunpoint.BBC ECU upholds complaint about ‘Paris Police 1900’
After weeks of pressure from the JC, the tech giant today removed the channel of Israr Ahmed, and on Wednesday removed the channel of Wagdy Ghoniem. Between them, they had a combined total of more than 3.5 million subscribers.
The JC has been exposing harmful YouTube content in a series of investigations since last June. YouTube had previously not only failed to remove the channels but did not even provide a response.
Testimony from a whistleblower who worked for Crisp, a content moderation firm contracted to YouTube, exclusively published by the JC, has finally prompted the company to act.
The moderator, counter-terrorism expert Khaled Hassan, had repeatedly raised the issue of Jew-hatred on YouTube - including flagging the newly removed channels of Ahmed and Ghoniem - but saw his concerns ignored.
Mr Hassan had submitted a report to YouTube on 28 October highlighting Ahmed’s videos which “used the phrase ‘Jew World Order’.” The report cited the hate preacher’s statements that Jews – described as “cursed people” and a “cursed race” – had conspired against Muslims for centuries, and that they were “followers of Satan, intent on destroying Islam.”
Readers may recall that last October the BBC amended the synopsis to the first episode of a drama series titled ‘Paris Police 1900’ to remove a description of Alfred Dreyfus as a “notorious Jewish spy”.
As reported at the time by the Jerusalem Post:
“According to the BBC, the summary was later changed to avoid misunderstanding. The line from the program page was rewritten to describe Dreyfus instead as having been “previously arrested for spying.”
“The sentence was not intended as an [sic] historical statement, but to reflect the rumors towards the Dreyfus case that we see in the drama — which also depicts the rise of antisemitism,” the BBC Spokesperson said in response to a Jerusalem Post inquiry.”
Mr Stephen Franklin contacted the BBC to request that the change in wording be acknowledged on the BBC’s ‘corrections and clarifications’ page.
Mr Franklin has now received a reply from the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit upholding his complaint and the outcome appears on the corporation’s complaints page:
Is social media enabling antisemitism? - analysis
Emily Schrader, CEO and co-founder of the digital marketing firm, Social Lite Creative, has also had content removed from Instagram. She posted a video of terrorist Ahlam Tamimi smiling joyfully when she found out she killed eight children in the 2001 Sbarro terror attack and captioned it, “This is what evil looks like.” It was removed 12 hours later.CTV NEWS TORONTO GIVES PLATFORM TO HOLOCAUST DISTORTION
Michael Dickson, executive director of StandWithUs, an education organization that combats antisemitism and supports Israel, explains that it’s crucial social media platforms "ensure that their algorithms, as well as human oversight, do not confuse the posts that are meant to expose violent content with the posts that are meant to inspire hate and violence.”
In terms of content restrictions, Schrader states, “TikTok has also censored and removed my content countless times about pro-Israel issues. In some cases, the same content has been reposted by other supporters of my work and theirs won't be censored, but mine is! The people reposting have smaller followings than me. I think they are able to post because people mass report mine.” Schrader also notices an extremely disproportionate number of likes and comments compared to the view count.
Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism.org, explains, “We are often the target of mass reporting campaigns that sometimes results in the ‘downranking’ of our page. We’re thankful for the relationship we have with META so incidents like this are often remedied quickly. However, the majority of Israeli and Jewish influencers and allies do not, unfortunately resulting in their voice and content suppression…It’s essentially a form of censorship.”
Content creator, Libby Walker, (@libbyamberwalker) Jewish educator and food blogger, Melinda Strauss (@therealmelindastrauss), and Lifestyle blogger, Sivan Banai (@sivan_g) say that they all been targets of vitriolic antisemitism on TikTok that appears to be a mass organized cyberbullying campaign, and comments that they report are never taken down.
For Walker, it started with a Birthright Israel branded video that received so many antisemitic comments that it was removed, resulting in her account having a high risk of being banned. Walker spoke out by posting a statement that was widely shared, and was able to get her video restored. She turned off the comments this time. “No one should have to prove themselves this much to be Jewish online,” she says.
Alarmingly, on March 30, CTV News Toronto broadcast a report by journalist Sean Leathong about a former Ukrainian soldier, now a 97-year-old living in Canada, who says he saw the echoes of the battle he fought in WWII, as he watched the news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.Family of French Jew killed in seemingly antisemitic attack demand answers
Leathong reported that: “(John) Riopka fought for a Ukrainian division under German leadership called Galicia. They were relentlessly shelled by the Russians at the Second Battle of Brody in Western Ukraine, summer 1944.”
The report notes that Riopka wears a pin on his lapel, which Leathong describes as being just below “a medal he received for fighting in the Second World War.”
The Ukrainian division called the Galicia unit fought alongside the Germans against the Russians as part of a unit of collaborators that were complicit in the German conquest of Ukraine, which at the time of the war, held the largest population of Jews in Europe.
This Ukrainian division has been in the news recently as Jewish groups are calling for the removal of statues honouring Nazi collaborators from local Canadian cemeteries.
While scholars are still researching the scale of the Holocaust in the Ukraine, it’s estimated that 1.5 million Jews were murdered there, many by mobile killing squads called the Einsatzgruppen, that were led by Germans, but which also included Ukrainian collaborators.
The circumstances of the death of Jeremy Cohen, a 31-year-old French Jew who died after being hit by a tram while running away from a mob of attackers, have become a hot-button issue in the final stretch of the presidential race in France.39 years later, US arson conviction overturned due to antisemitism at trial
Cohen, an observant Jew who wears a kippah, was attacked in February by a group of Muslim immigrants in the town of Bobigny, near Paris. He reportedly did not notice the incoming tram when trying to escape his attackers. Cohen was evacuated to a nearby hospital in critical condition and succumbed to his wounds shortly after.
The police originally deemed his death an accident, but footage of the assault that emerged later suggests it might have been the result of an antisemitic attack. The footage was obtained by Cohen's brother, Rafael, who launched a private investigation into the matter. In the wake of the video, Jewish and right-wing media outlets in France accused the police and authorities of trying to downplay the affair. Evidence gathered by the Cohen family has prompted law enforcement to launch another investigation.
The Jewish presidential candidate Éric Zemmour, who has campaigned on the need to address violence by Arab and Muslim immigrants, tweeted, "Why is it that no media outlet, politician, or parliament member speak about the death of Jeremy Cohen?"
Marine le Pen, far-right presidential candidate and head of the National Rally party, tweeted, "What was presented as an accident could be an antisemitic murder."
French Jewish lawmaker Meyer Habib, a member of the lower house of parliament National assembly, called the incident "heartbreaking" and said he had urged France Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin to address the matter immediately.
Darmanin "has promised me that the authorities are taking this case very seriously and that it is under the examination of the Justice Ministry," Habib said, adding that "with only a week remaining until the first round of the presidential election, it seems like a new case of covert antisemitism is gaining momentum."
Habib also pointed out that Cohen's death occurred around the anniversary of the murder of French Jewish teacher Sarah Halimi, who was beaten and thrown to death off her balcony by a Muslim neighbor in 2017, while the police, who were nearby, did not act to save her. Halimi's alleged killer, Kobili Traoré was never prosecuted as the court ruled he had suffered a psychotic episode during the attack caused by cannabis use.
Barry Jacobson spent 40 days in prison in 1983 after being convicted of setting a fire at his Massachusetts vacation home.New South Wales to Ban Public Display of Nazi Flags, Swastikas
He spent the next 40 years pressing for his innocence and arguing that his conviction was tainted by antisemitism.
Now, Jacobson’s quest has been answered. A Massachusetts district attorney is set to announce Tuesday that Jacobson, who is Jewish, was wrongfully convicted by a jury whose forelady reportedly referred to him as “one of those New York Jews who think they can come up here and get away with anything.”
“This has weighed deeply on his mind and conscience for decades,” said Bob Cordy, an attorney for the now 78-year-old Jacobson.
“For nearly 40 years I have been haunted by this wrongful conviction,” Jacobson said in a statement. “Time and again it has affected my career, my business, my family, and my community. It has been beyond painful. It is an experience I would not wish on anyone.”
Andrea Harrington, the Berkshire County district attorney, decided to vacate Jacobson’s conviction and dismiss the case after undertaking a review spurred by the Anti-Defamation League and the Innocence Project, a path-breaking legal organization that seeks to overturn wrongful convictions.
“The credible evidence of antisemitic juror statements undermine the fairness of this verdict and denied Mr. Jacobson his Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury trial,” Harrington said in a statement released by the New England Anti-Defamation League, which earlier this year filed an amicus brief in the case.
“Prosecutors have the responsibility to implement policies to ensure fair convictions and to rectify past injustice,” Harrington said.
The Australian state of New South Wales is preparing to pass legislation that would outlaw waving Nazi flags and publicly displaying memorabilia featuring swastikas.Germany gets approval for Israel's Arrow 3 missile defense system
NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman said the government is set on introducing a bill criminalizing the public display of Nazi symbols in order to “provide an additional safeguard to the existing protections in NSW against vilifying conduct,” Australian Associated Press reported on Sunday.
Under the proposed law, the maximum penalty for violators would be a $5,500 AUD fine ($4,151 USD), imprisonment for six months, or both. The bill was introduced by Labor MP Walt Secord, who has advocated for banning the public display of Nazi symbols for two years.
“Sadly, we are seeing a surge in far right-wing activity in Australia and overseas,” he said.
The bill would, however, permit swastikas to be used in historical or educational settings. This would include religious purposes, such as display by Hindus.
Germany has received approval from Israel and the United States to purchase the Arrow-3 missile defense system, The Jerusalem Post has learned.‘We Developed Technology to Identify and Locate Hostile Drones, and We Take Control of Them’
German legislators have in the past pushed for Berlin to buy Israel’s Iron Dome system to ward off aerial threats, but on Monday the head of the German Air Force, Lt.-Gen. Ingo Gerhartz, told the Post that the Arrow 3 is the most relevant system for the threats facing the European nation.
“The Iron Dome is used for short-range threats, and we have quite a capable industry back home, and we will procure systems for that,” Gerhartz said. “And for higher interceptors, we have the Patriot weapons system that we will modernize. [But] if it means [threats at a range of ] 15,000 km. [9,320 miles] and then it is exo-atmospheric, we don’t have anything, and that is why I had a close look at the Arrow 3 and we are really interested in the system.”
The purchase of the system, which has been pushed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, “starts with the approval of Israel and the United States - and they gave us the approval,” Gerhartz said. “They gave us the approval that we can cooperate on it. But, we still have to talk about the details.”
Should Germany buy the system, it would mark the first time that the Arrow 3, one of Israel’s most advanced air defense systems is capable of intercepting ballistic missiles at altitudes of over 100 km. (62 miles) and has a reported range of up to 2,400 km. (1,490 miles), has been sold to another country.
Russia has stationed Iskander missiles in locations that could reach many European cities like Berlin. The missiles that have been used in Ukraine fly too high to be destroyed by conventional air defense systems.
“We must all prepare ourselves for the fact that we have a neighbor that is currently prepared to use force to assert its interests. That’s why we have to work together to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Scholz said in an interview with German television last week.
With the increased availability of drones comes more risk that they will be used in dangerous or malicious ways, says Zohar Halachmi, co-founder and CEO of D-Fend Solutions. But the early solutions for flying threats were meant for large aircraft or they carried risk of collateral damage. D-Fend Solutions created the technology to detect hostile drones and take control of them, leaving other drones and communication systems untouched. Halachmi shares that their work saved the Pope during an event, and most people had no idea there was almost an incident.First MMR radar delivered to Czech Republic from Israel
As the threats evolve, D-Fend’s solution needs to keep up. The company culture of believing that they can deal with everything and that innovation allows the impossible to happen is key to their success, Halachmi explains. This is his first venture into the drone space, but he enjoys moving into a new type of business with each career move.
From a technological and innovative perspective, this cat and mouse game of new technologies arising for drones, how do you as the company make sure that you’re constantly at the forefront of the technology?
The understanding that this is a cat and mouse game is a very important one. Many other types of solutions are ones that you give to the customer, and that’s the solution until the rest of the life of that equipment. That’s not a viable solution in the drones world. You must have this ability to upgrade and update the product all the time.
I think that the best analogy is your antivirus on your computer. We need to have this antivirus updated all the time to deal with the new viruses. What we did was to develop a methodology to do exactly that. We just release updates and we verify that we deal with the most advanced types of threats.
How are you creating a culture of continuous curiosity, innovation, and advancement that allows the company to have that mentality?
First, I call it “make it happen.” We always can deal with everything. This is part of the DNA of the company. And innovation, bottom line, really achieves the impossible. We try to think about all of these problems in an innovative way to find an innovative technology to deal with that.
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has delivered the first of eight ELM-2084 multi-mission radar (MMR) systems to the Czech Republic, the company announced on Tuesday.Maroon 5, Deep Purple add more shows in Israel after selling out
The radar systems, which will replace obsolete Soviet-made ones that the Czech military received in 1991, are part of a deal signed in December 2019 by the two defense ministries. The first system was delivered in late February and the others will be delivered throughout the year, with the last one arriving in early 2023.
The operational and combat-proven MMR that is integrative with NATO systems is the radar of Israel’s Iron Dome, David’s Sling and IAI’s land-based Barak missile defense weapon systems. Some 150 such systems have been sold to customers around the world.
According to reports, the radar systems will be integrated into NATO’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense early-warning systems, providing continuous radar coverage at low altitudes.
The MMR can simultaneously detect, classify, monitor, and intercept multiple airborne projectiles at an altitude of 100 m. to 3,000 m. (330 to 10,000 feet) and cover a wide area of about 250 kilometers.
It can provide defense against aircraft, UAVs and drones, as well as artillery against other hostile projectiles and can identify the location of rocket launches, enemy artillery and mortars while “locating both the launch and expected hit position, and controlling intercepting missiles launched against these threats,” IAI said in a statement.
Israeli music fans must have a lot of pent-up frustration after two years with a dearth of live shows.The Pixies, Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell plan joint show in Tel Aviv
American superstars Maroon 5 quickly sold out their local debut at Park Hayarkon on May 9, selling some 60,000 tickets in a short time.
On Wednesday promoters Live Nation and the band’s frontman Adam Levine announced a second show on the following night, May 10.
“We’re adding a second night because of the incredible response from you guys,” Levine said in a video clip Tuesday. “Tel Aviv, we f******* love you, we are so pumped. We’ve never been and we are just so excited to get there.”
A generation earlier, venerable British rock institution Deep Purple has also added a show to their scheduled performance on May 22 at the Menorah Mivtachim Arena in Tel Aviv. They’ll be performing the next night, May 23 at the Payis Arena in Jerusalem.
The Pixies are finally coming back to Israel, after canceling concerts twice in the past two years, and will perform July 11 at Expo Tel Aviv.‘Fauda’ Season 4 Wraps Filming in Hungary After Relocation From Ukraine
All tickets sold for the original 2020 concert will be honored for this long-awaited show, now with the addition of Jerry Cantrell from Alice in Chains, onstage with his solo show. Tickets are available for the joint Pixies-Cantrell show.
Cantrell’s new album, “Brighten,” his first solo work in 20 years, was released in 2021 to enthusiastic reviews.
Cantrell will also perform on July 10 with his band at Barby Tel Aviv.
The Pixies first performed in Israel at Bloomfield Stadium in 2014, selling out that concert as well as two shows in 2017 in Caesarea.
Cantrell has also played Israel before, in 2018 with Seattle band Alice in Chains, his grunge and heavy metal bandmates of the last 34 years.
The hit Israeli television series “Fauda” recently completed filming for season four in Budapest, Hungary, the show announced Monday.Israel Donates Water-Filtration Systems to Typhoon-Hit Philippines
Production for the latest season was originally set to take place in Ukraine, but was relocated due to the country’s conflict with Russia, Yes Studios previously told The Algemeiner. The new, 10-episode season of “Fauda” was also shot in Israel.
A trailer and cast photos were released in late December for season four, which is scheduled to air in Israel in mid-2022 before becoming available on Netflix worldwide. The new season will feature the Israeli undercover unit face the Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon and Palestinian militants in the West Bank.
Returning cast members include “Fauda” co-creator Lior Raz, Itzik Cohen, Rona-Lee Shimon, Idan Amedi, Doron Ben David, Yaacov Zada Daniel, and Meirav Shirom. New actors in season four include Inbar Lavi, Mark Ivanir, Amir Boutrous, Lucy Ayoub, and Loai Noufi.
The Israeli embassy in the Philippines facilitated the transfer of Israeli-made water filtration systems to typhoon-hit regions of the Philippines, The Manila Times reported on Monday.Israel's 2nd astronaut to launch Friday on mission to ISS
The systems made their way to “Del Carmen and San Isidro in Siargao Island, and Cagdianao and Basilisa in Dinagat Islands on March 29,” said the report.
Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss and Deputy Chief of Mission Nir Balzam attended a turnover ceremony together with senior Philippine government officials.
“Water is life,” said Fluss. “This donation is Israel’s initiative to support and promote access to portable water in the Philippines. When Typhoon Odette struck the areas in Mindanao, Israel saw the need for clean, drinking water. We coordinated with MinDA [the Mindanao Development Authority] to help identify which areas we could extend this assistance.”
“Israel’s innovation and technology can contribute to solving some of the challenges of the Philippines,” said the ambassador.
According to the report, the Israeli-made technology comes in the form of a portable, crank-operated machine that is capable of taking water from a polluted source, like a river, and purifying up to 400 liters per hour, “enough to supply all the daily water needs of 300 to 400 people.”
After several delays, Israel’s second astronaut, Eitan Stibbe, is set to take off for the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday for the long-awaited Rakia mission.Only eight Holocaust survivors to join 'March of the Living'
The mission, led by Israel’s Science and Technology Ministry and the Ramon Foundation, selected 35 different experiments for Stibbe to undertake during his 10-day stay in orbit.
The experiments cover a wide variety of different fields of study, including testing or demonstrating the viability of certain technologies, observing scientific phenomena, studying mechanisms of theorized concepts and groundbreaking tests on food and agriculture.
Stibbe will also bring other items with him that are not related to the mission. They include a scale model of the World Peace Bell, an ancient coin dating back to the time of the Bar-Kochba Revolt and a children’s story, Beauty of the World, written and illustrated by Paul Korr, which Stibbe will read for children while he is in space.
The Rakia mission is being launched as part of Axiom mission 1, the first fully private space mission headed by Houston-based start-up Axiom Space. The four astronauts will be launched on Friday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The crew are set to dock at the ISS on Saturday.
Because of the Ukraine-Russia war, this year's March of the Living will take place with reduced capacity, its organizers announced on Wednesday in the UK House of Lords. With only eight Holocaust survivors scheduled to participate this year, it will likely be the last march to include survivors.
The International March of the Living formally announced it will resume its annual procession in person following a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19. It is set to take place in Poland on April 28, the same day as Israel's national Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom HaShoah.
The survivors will be joined by dignitaries, community leaders and representatives of the third generation, the grandchildren of survivors, who will be taking up the torch of remembrance.
It is now incumbent for the young generations to commit to remembering the past as a teaching tool for the future.
The theme of the march will focus on the importance of passing the torch of responsibility onward, of both Holocaust remembrance and education, to the next generation, the grandchildren of those who endured the dark days of Nazi oppression and the systematic annihilation of more than six million Jewish victims.
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