Thursday, February 16, 2023

02/16 Links Pt2: Top Left-Wing Network Blocked From Credit Card Processor Over Ties to Palestinian Terror Group; Arkansas Legislature Passes IHRA Definition; Israel exports crude oil for first time

From Ian:

Top Left-Wing Network Blocked From Credit Card Processor Over Ties to Palestinian Terror Group
One of the nation’s most prominent left-wing dark money groups announced Tuesday that it was unable to process credit card payments, following reports of its ties to a Palestinian terrorist group.

The Alliance for Global Justice said in a statement that Salsa Labs, which handles its credit card contributions, locked the "anti-capitalist" group and its network of 140 left-wing initiatives out of its online fundraising platform. The Alliance claims the freeze-out is the result of a January Washington Examiner report that the group was illegally fundraising for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a U.S.-designated terror organization.

The move could prove financially calamitous for the Arizona-based group, which in 2021 helped raise over $56 million for the initiatives it sponsors. Discover Card blocked the Alliance from accessing its network in September 2021 over its financial ties to the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, an Israel-designated terror group that works to free Palestinians from the Israeli prison system.

Few fundraising tools remain on the table for Alliance as of Tuesday. The group asked supporters to "donate via paper checks" to buoy the group "as the enemies of the people gloat about our trouble."

The Zachor Legal Institute, a pro-Israel think tank that filed an IRS complaint in January against the Alliance for its alleged ties to the Popular Front, praised Salsa Labs for cutting ties with the group.

"We are happy to see that the platform provider for Alliance for Global Justice’s terror funding efforts has finally complied with its legal obligations to terminate unlawful uses of its platform," Zachor Legal Institute founder Marc Greendorfer told the Examiner. "We hope that there will also soon be federal action to put an end to the unlawful terror financing being enabled by Alliance for Global Justice."
UK Organizations Fundraise for Gazan Hamas Charity Run by Killers
A Hamas-run organization in the Gaza Strip managed by two terrorists personally responsible for the stabbing and bombing of Israeli civilians is organizing public events in the United Kingdom and receiving support from multiple British charities, an investigation by FWI has found.

The revelation comes just a week after the publication of the British government-commissioned Prevent review, which concluded that "those who fundraise for Hamas or break the law in support of the group's activities must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law," in the same manner as "those who support Islamic State, National Action, or other proscribed organisations."

FWI has identified five British groups funding or in partnership with the Qawafil Al-Khair Association, which two Hamas terrorists, Mansour Rayan and Ali Al-Mughrabi, established in 2015.

Rayan and Al-Mughrabi were released from Israeli jails in 2011 as part of the "Wafaa al-Ahrar" deal, Hamas's agreement with Israel for the return of imprisoned terrorists in exchange for the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli solider kidnapped by the terrorist organization.

Both Rayan and Al-Mughrabi have blood on their hands. In 1994, Rayan broke into the home of Israeli civilian Yoram Sakuri in the West Bank Israeli community of Kiryat Netafim, stabbing him to death, and wounding his wife.

As for Al-Mughrabi, he was part of a terrorist cell that organized multiple attacks in Israel, including the suicide bombing of the Moment café in Jerusalem in 2002, in which 11 were killed, and 54 injured. According to Haaretz, Al-Mughrabi served as a "right hand man" for his elder brother, the cell's leader. Al-Mughrabi "transferred funds, stole cars for [the] attacks and photographed the suicide bombers," for which he received two life sentences.
Israel exports crude oil for first time, with shipment heading for Europe
Israel has exported crude oil material for the first time, with a shipment headed to Europe from the country’s offshore Karish gas field, according to an announcement Tuesday by Greek gas company Energean. The London- and Tel Aviv-listed firm is in charge of production at the Karish and Tanin natural gas fields in Israel’s economic waters in the Mediterranean.

In a statement Tuesday, Energean said “the first ever lifting of an Israeli crude oil cargo has taken place at the company’s Karish field,” and a cargo ship of hydrocarbon gas liquids (HGLs) extracted from natural gas (and then used in a mixture to make crude oil) was exported to global markets “for the first time in the history of Israeli oil and gas production.”

“This creates a significant differentiated income stream, fundamentally separate to gas-derived revenues,” Energean said, welcoming Israel into the “club of international oil exporters.” The cargo was “sold as part of a multi-cargo marketing agreement with Vitol; the first of a new source of East Med energy to reach Europe,” it added.

Energean got the green light last October to begin production at Karish, a day before Israel and Lebanon signed a long-awaited, US-brokered maritime border deal that ended a dispute over the gas field.

The Karish and Tanin fields contain a total of around 75 billion cubic meters of natural gas. About 12 billion cubic meters are consumed annually in Israel.


Even with Corbyn cast out, Labour still has a long way to go on antisemitism
Jeremy Corbyn made antisemitism mainstream for the first time in a major UK political party. His obsession with Israel and what even his friends describe as a ‘blind spot’ on antisemitism emboldened a host of cranks and loons who felt they had free rein for their repugnant views. A fine example is the former MP Chris Williamson who, prior to Corbynism, had barely said a word about Israel but has now gone down a dark conspiratorial hole talking of Jewish ‘power’ and control on Iranian state television.

Equally striking is how many people still seem to be willing to give Corbyn the benefit of the doubt. A poll last night by You Gov found that 47% of Labour voters thought Corbyn should be allowed to stand as a Labour MP at the next election, highlighting that this problem is far from over.

So what could Starmer have done differently? For starters, he should have spelled out exactly what Corbyn and his leadership team had done that was antisemitic, and made clear that left-wing antisemitism is every bit as pernicious as right-wing racism. But then that would have begged a very awkward question: if Starmer knew about all this, why did he stay in this man’s Shadow Cabinet? Why did he say he was ‘100%’ behind Corbyn becoming Prime Minister?

It is this lack of openness, failure to educate which is one reason why the danger with Labour is not over. It is telling that Labour has ignored calls by the Campaign Against Antisemitism to investigate 12 of its MPs, including his Deputy Angela Rayner, over antisemitism complaints. A few big, punchy speeches is one thing, but Starmer actually needs to ‘do the work’ if British Jews are going to have faith that his changes are more than cosmetic.

The best thing I can say about Starmer is that he is not an antisemite. If he wins the next election I won’t feel any of that dark fear of 2019. But my worries remain about the wider state of the party; cracks don’t disappear with a fresh lick of paint.
EHRC decision is not cause for celebration, it's the crossing of a very low bar
Following their damning report eighteen months ago, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) have announced they are no longer monitoring the Labour Party for discriminatory practices against Jews. It is a landmark day. Finally this mainstream British political party is no longer officially institutionally antisemitic.

The announcement was certainly a welcome development but it was not something to celebrate. It just marks the end of a shameful episode for the Labour Party, perhaps the worst in their history.

The Labour Party is now following the basic legal requirements for any political party. This is not optional and even the British National Party had to adhere to it. They are the only other political party to be investigated by the EHRC.

No longer breaking equality law in three different areas over their treatment of Jews is the lowest possible bar for the Labour Party. As a party that prides itself on being anti-racist, this should not be “job done” but a step on the path to some serious introspection.

Labour leader Keir Starmer speaking at Toynbee Hall as The Equalities and Human Rights Commission announced that is has ended monitoring the Labour Party (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Keir Starmer’s tone seems to have changed somewhat to reflect those sentiments and I welcome his more somber assessment. His premature statement last year said that “we’ve now closed the door on a shameful chapter in our history” when it was very much ajar. But work has been done and today his statement in reaction to the EHRC announcement said “I don’t see today’s announcement as the end of the road. I see it as a signpost that we are heading in the right direction.” He also called for “a moment of reflection”.


Rabbi arrested, banned from Cleveland universities over his anti-Palestinian activism
For days, students and police at Cleveland State University had been trying to figure out who stole a banner belonging to a campus Palestinian rights group.

The banner, which belonged to the student group Palestinian Human Rights Organization, read “CSU Solidarity for Palestinian Rights” and was illustrated with an outline of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip collectively emblazoned in the Palestinian flag. A dove holding an olive branch appeared on top of the image.

Then, on Jan. 19, police charged their top suspect: a local Orthodox rabbi, whose presence on campus had become all too familiar. A few days later the man confessed to the theft on Instagram, announcing that he had stolen the banner from the school’s student center “as an act of civil disobedience.”

“This incitement to annihilation of Israel should have never been permitted at CSU,” Rabbi Alexander Popivker, a 46-year-old Cleveland Heights resident whose neighborhood is six miles from the school, wrote on social media accompanied by a picture of the flag he stole.

It was far from Popivker’s only recent run-in with local university students.

A former Chabad-Lubavitch emissary in Naples, Italy, who now works in the Cleveland area as a handyman and part-time rabbi for a Russian-speaking Jewish community, Popivker has become known around town as a vigilant and omnipresent pro-Israel advocate. He can often be spotted counter-protesting at local pro-Palestinian demonstrations, or putting on displays of his own, with his wife Sarah on hand filming every contentious encounter.

One major theme of his protests, and his worldview, as he explained to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: “Palestinians and Nazis are the same thing.” (h/t jzaik)
Connecticut College cancels fundraiser at venue with antisemitic, racist reputation
Dozens of students at Connecticut College in New London are calling on Katherine Bergeron, president of the private, liberal arts college, to resign after a school fundraiser was slated to occur at a venue with an alleged history of discriminating against blacks and Jews.

The Everglades Club in Palm Beach, Fla., is reported to have escorted Sammy Davis Jr., who was black and Jewish, from the club. And in 1972, after Jewish cosmetics magnate Estée Lauder attended an event at the club, the member who hosted her was reportedly suspended.

The club has claimed to have Jewish members and that it has not turned away black members because none have applied, it has said publicly.

On Feb. 7, in protest over the planned fundraiser, Rodmon Cedric King, dean of institutional equity and inclusion at the college, resigned.

King was the third person to hold that role, according to Sam Maidenberg, an undergraduate who serves as editor of the student paper The College Voice. He told WSHU public radio that “that position has just been on a constant revolving door.”

Bergeron was reportedly responsible for sticking with the venue even after its history came to light. A “select group of students,” which met with the college president, alleged that she was aware of the club’s reputation and still moved ahead with the event planning, according to The College Voice.


Unpacked: Why do these Jews Hate Israel?
The Neturei Karta are a tiny, fringe sect with an outsized reputation. They’ve rubbed shoulders with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They advocate for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state. And they’re at every anti-Israel rally, proclaiming their opposition to Zionism.

Did we mention they’re Jewish?

Why would a Jewish group advocate against their own self-determination and endorse antisemitic groups? And how should the wider Jewish community respond to an extremist group like the Neturei Karta?




PreOccupiedTerritory: I Was Palestinian Like The Iroquois Were ‘New Yorkers’ by Jesus of Nazareth (satire)
OK, this is a relatively new one. I’ve been called all manner of things, and I’ll be the first to acknowledge no all those things are consistent with “Son of God” and good connotations. But I’m especially irked by the recent effort – it’s only been a few decades, but hasn’t faded – by various propagandists to characterize me – a proud Jew from Judea, whose followers branded him King of the Jews, a descendant on his mother’s side of King David himself – as “Palestinian.” It makes as much sense to call the Mohawk or Lenape indigenous peoples “New Yorkers.”

I never hear of “Palestinians” until recently – first it meant Jews, since Arabs of the Land of Israel identified either by tribe or as ‘Arab Syrian,’ “Palestine” being a name imposed by outsiders: first by the Romans, supplanting the too-Jewish name for the land “Judea;” and later, on and off, by various European powers, the last of which was the British, under their League of Nations Mandate. Scattered references to the land as “Palestine” occur in various other sources, of course, but all of those monikers come from foreigners, and the earliest, a Greek passage in the writings of Herodotus, might well be just a translation of “Israel” – in keeping with the Greeks’ practice of translating, rather than transliterating, the toponymies of their subjects. Only about sixty years ago did anyone think to transform “Palestinian” into a term of Arab identity. So no, I never saw myself as Palestinian.

Oh, me, I can’t believe I had to say that.

As I said, it’s the same rhetorical device as referring to the First Nations of North America by names of places that genocidal European conquerors imposed. Imagine the reaction among the Cherokee if you called them “North Carolinians” or “Georgians.” Same thing.
Falsehoods and false equivalence in BBC reports from Neve Yaakov and Jenin
A week after the terror attack in Neve Ya’akov in which seven people were murdered, listeners to two BBC radio stations heard reports from the BBC Jerusalem bureau’s Yolande Knell relating to that incident.

Both of Knell’s very similar reports used the same framing that has been evident in BBC coverage of Palestinian terrorism since last year:
Promotion of false equivalence between victims of terror and perpetrators of terror and violence
Promotion of false equivalence between terror attacks and counter-terrorism operations
Failure to provide the full background to the rise in terrorism in Judea & Samaria such as Hamas funding and supply of weapons, foreign weapons supply, internal political issues within the Palestinian Authority, participation of PA security forces in terror and violence

That framing enables the BBC to promote the trite notion of a ‘cycle of violence’ and thus avoid the issue of Palestinian responsibility for the deterioration over the past year and a half.


Guardian contributor doesn't understand what 'autocracy' means
An op-ed by Guardian columnist Jan-Werner Müller (“Is the US going to stand by while Israel becomes an autocracy?”, Feb. 14) addresses the extraordinarily contentious issue of judicial overhaul in Israel. As the headline suggests, Muller argues that the proposed legislation would turn Israel into an “autocracy”, a term used several times in the op-ed.

However, though there has been ferocious opposition to the changes being proposed by Justice Minister Yair Levin, reforms which don’t seem to have the support of most Israelis, the charge that Israel could become an “autocracy” – a term which refers to a undemocratic system of government by one person, or a few people, with absolute power – is inaccurate.

Tellingly, the Israel Democracy Institute, one of the organisations leading the fight against the proposals, doesn’t use such a term. Their analyses, echoing the criticism of many thoughtful observers, has instead argued that the ‘reforms’ would erode the separation of powers and result in a less robust and less liberal democracy – but a democracy nonetheless.

Freedom House published a useful report titled The Global Expansion of Authoritarian Rule which helps explain what is meant by “democracy” and “autocracy”, and why Israel – regardless of whether the legislation becomes law – would remain a democracy. In contrast with Israel, the Palestinian Authority has been recognised by democracy analysts as an authoritarian/autocratic regime.


Newsweek Corrects Israel Has Ties With Plenty of Countries Assisting in Turkey
CAMERA’s Israel office this week prompted correction of a Newsweek article which had wrongly reported that Israel has no ties with any of the countries which sent rescue missions to Turkey. Tom O’Connor’s Feb. 9 article, “Israel Troops Say Voices Still Heard in Turkey Earthquake Rubble Days Later,” had absurdly erred: “And despite Israel’s difficult relationship with Turkey and lack of any ties with other nations that have sent rescue units, Colonel Liron Gershowitz, head of the IDF Home Front Command’s Medical Division, said diplomatic problems have been a ‘non-issue’ for the common goal of saving lives.”

Among the countries which sent rescue units to Turkey and which maintain ties with Israel are the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, South Korea, India, Mexico, China, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Moldova, New Zealand, El Salvador, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Austria, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine and United Arab Emirates.

and The few countries which sent rescue missions to Turkey with which Israel has no relations include Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Pakistan.
Novel about Chinese rescuer of Jews raises questions of fact vs. fiction in Holocaust stories
Ho Feng-Shan, the Chinese diplomat stationed in Vienna who helped thousands of Jews escape from Europe during World War II, never met Adolf Eichmann.

But in “Night Angels,” a novel based on his life, Feng-Shan comes face to face with Eichmann several times — and his wife Grace’s Jewish tutor, Lola, tries to kill the architect of the Holocaust.

That detail is one of many that has spurred Ho Manli, Feng-Shan’s daughter, to speak out against “Night Angels,” the fourth novel by the Chinese-American author Weina Dai Randel. Manli says the book distorts elements of her father’s story, which was unknown before she spent decades documenting his heroic efforts to issue visas allowing Jews to escape to Shanghai.

“What I have found in doing this story is it’s very difficult to try to maintain the historical integrity of the facts,” says Manli, who lives in San Francisco, where her father spent his later years. “Countless people … want to use this for their own means, whether it be commercial like this novelist, whether it be political, or whatever. So over the two decades that I have been doggedly trying to uncover more and more, I’ve been constantly fending off these sorts of opportunistic assaults.”

The dispute is casting a shadow over the novel, released this month, and reinvigorating longstanding debates over the importance of truth in historical fiction — particularly in stories about the Holocaust.

“Night Angels” follows Feng-Shan and his wife, Grace, as they risk their lives by issuing visas that allow thousands of Jews escape Germany and Austria to Shanghai. Grace, one of the novel’s narrators and main characters, is based on Feng-Shan’s real second wife with the same name who was no longer in Vienna after the Anschluss — Nazi Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938, and the period in which the novel is set. By that time, Feng-Shan had already sent Grace away to Brooklyn. She never witnessed Nazi rule or Feng-Shan’s efforts to save Jews, Manli writes.

Several other events in the book, including Grace’s friendship with a Jewish woman who attempts to assassinate Eichmann and her development of a morphine addiction, are fully fictional. (h/t jzaik)
City of Richmond in British Columbia, Canada, adopts IHRA definition
The city of Richmond in British Columbia, Canada, approved by a vote of 6-3 the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IRHA) working definition of antisemitism.

The measure was a part of a broader adoption by the city council of more than a dozen definitions of racism and discrimination, as put forward by Canada’s anti-racism initiatives.

“Today, Mayor [Malcolm] Brodie and Richmond City Council sent a strong message that antisemitism or hate in any form have no place in society,” Ezra Shanken, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, said in a press release. “The rise of antisemitic hate crimes across the country has made the need to counter them urgent. No one should live in fear because of who they are. The IHRA definition will help the people of Richmond identify antisemitism in all its manifestations so that they can help put a stop to it and protect the values of diversity, equality and community that we cherish.”

B’nai Brith Canada’s most recent Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, issued in April 2022, found that while Jews comprise just 1.25% of the country’s population, they were the target of more than 60% of all hate-crimes incidents against a religious minority. In British Columbia alone, 409 acts of antisemitic in 2021 an increase of more than 110% from 2020.

Palestinian activists at the city council meeting, however, voiced their opposition to the usage of the IHRA definition, saying that it would shut down their attempts to criticize Israel, according to a report in a local newspaper.
Arkansas Legislature Passes Official Working Antisemitism Definition
The Arkansas House of Representatives unanimously passed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism Wednesday after the Senate passed it earlier last week.

The IHRA Plenary in Budapest in 2015, made up of 31 member states, created the working definition in order to provide a more thorough resource for authorities to determine when an act of antisemitism has taken place, according to the State Department. Arkansas representatives voted 95 to zero Wednesday to pass the bill which will now go to Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ desk.

The full IHRA working definition is listed in the bill, which also pointed out that it has” been adopted and used by dozens of countries as well as various departments within the United States Government.”

“Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews,” the definition reads. “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.”

StandWithUs Director of Policy Education Jordan Cope explained in a prepared statement that in the past antisemitism has been hard to “address due to its evolving nature.”

“Having a definition on the books that clearly identifies how antisemitism manifests classically and contemporarily remains critical to defining it and mitigating its venom,” Cope said.


Jewish man shot while leaving morning prayers in Los Angeles
A Jewish man was shot just after leaving the morning prayer service in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles on Wednesday morning, according to a report by The Forward.

The victim was taken to a hospital and released later on in the day, the founder of the Jewish security service Magen Am, Rabbi Yossi Elifort, told Forward.

The shooting occurred near Shenandoah Street and Cashio avenue, around 10 a.m. Pacific Time. According to reports, the shooter, who the LAPD said is a middle-aged Asian male and drove a gray Honda, drove toward the victim and shot twice at him. Luckily, only one bullet grazed him and the other missed him.

Suspected shooter still at large
The suspected shooter is still at large, according to Los Angeles police department spokesperson Jeff Lee. Rabbi Elifort told the Jewish Journal that even though the Jewish man was wearing a yarmulke, the police don't believe that the shooting was antisemitism motivated, which Lee confirmed with The Forward that the police couldn't say whether or not the case was being treated as a hate crime.

"We are horrified by the shooting of a Jewish man leaving prayer service in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles today," the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Los Angeles Regional Director, Jeffrey I. Abrams, said in a statement. "We are grateful the victim is in stable condition. The suspect is still at large and ADL Los Angeles is closely monitoring the investigation, including LAPD's investigation. We will provide updates as we learn more."
Second Jewish Man Shot in Pico
A second Jewish man was shot in the Pico-Robertson area in as many days.

The Los Angeles Scoop first reported on the shooting, saying that the victim was shot in the arm on S. Bedford and Pico Boulevard after leaving synagogue on February 16 and is in stable condition. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) told the Journal that the shooting occurred on the 1600 block of Bedford Street at 8:47 a.m. and that the suspect is believed to be a white male wearing a black mask, black glasses and a black sweater armed with a 9 millimeter handgun. The suspect is still at large and is driving an older model Hyundai sedan that is either black or brown.

Magen Am President Rabbi Yossi Eilfort said in a statement, “It is sickening that in Los Angeles today, two Jews have been shot in the street in two days as they were leaving prayers. Regardless of the motivation of the shootings, Jews deserve to be secure, living and serving G-d in peace.” He added that Magen Am is urging the city “to take a strong stand on behalf of the Jewish community.” “LAPD is currently saying there is no specific information indicating this was driven solely by antisemitism,” Eilfort said. “We await detectives’ updates. While the city does that, *we* choose to focus on what *our* community can do. We are a *strong* community and we need to show this to the world. Magen Am has placed all of our protected schools, guard, and volunteers on a heightened alert.”

He concluded the statement with a call for the community to learn “situational awareness and self-defense” and to either volunteer or support security teams for Jewish institutions. “We are all in this together,” Eilfort said.


New Yorkers hunt for ‘The L Train Nazi,’ caught drawing hate slogans on subway
While waiting for the L train at Union Square one Sunday earlier this month, a commuter named Liz spotted something — or rather someone — whose doings had bedeviled her and a few other New Yorkers for more than a year: A white man, wearing a leather jacket and a black hoodie, scrawling a neo-Nazi slogan in black marker on a support beam.

Liz snapped the man’s photo but he quickly ran away. Since then, she and other activists in the city have been searching for the man, whom they have dubbed “The L Train Nazi.” His graffiti of choice appears to be the number “1488,” a neo-Nazi code recognized as a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League.

“I actually saw someone doodling on the support column,” Liz told the New York Jewish Week. “Sure enough, he was writing ‘1488.’ I was like, ‘get some pictures.’ He looked at me and tried to ignore it [me] and act like nothing happened.”

Liz, like some other activists who spoke to the New York Jewish Week for this article, declined to give her full name or divulge many details about herself, for fear of being harmed by the same white supremacists she has spent the past few years trying to expose. As an anti-far-right activist, Liz said she has attended multiple far-right and neo-Nazi events in cities across the northeast. At these events, she said she has physically confronted rally-goers and has been arrested two times.

The recent encounter on the L train platform, Liz said, didn’t escalate into violence. “He didn’t want to get an assault charge, and I didn’t want to get an assault charge,” she said. “He stormed off and I forwarded the pictures.”

The number 1488, in neo-Nazi speak, stands for two separate things: The 14 stands for a 14-word white supremacist creed — “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children” — and 88 stands for “Heil Hitler,” as “h” is the eighth letter of the alphabet.


Israeli Flight Headsets Adapted for Surgery
Israeli innovators have turned tech made for fighter pilots into an augmented reality headset to help eye surgeons.

The Beyeonics One is now being rolled out in Europe, after receiving the CE mark of approval in the fall.

In America, where it has been used for 2,000 surgeries in research phases, it has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

The technology was recently the subject of peer-reviewed research, which found that it performed well when deployed for the first time for endothelial keratoplasty, a complex procedure to remove abnormal matter from the cornea.

Beyeonics One is an adaptation of the head-mounted displays that pilots have used for decades, and which have become ever more sophisticated. Ron Schneider used to work on such displays at the Israeli defense company Elbit and set up Beyeonics, which he now leads as CEO, to spin out the tech.

“The standard tool today is the old-fashioned surgical microscope,” Schneider told The Times of Israel. “But advanced visualization headsets exist for flight, and the idea here is to harness this power for surgery.”
Israel Hosts Ironman Middle East Triathlon Competition for Second Year in Tiberias
After its successful launch last year, Israel will host for the second time the Ironman Middle East Championship triathlon competition, which will take place this year on November 3.

The sporting event will be held in Tiberias with registration opening on Tuesday. The Comtec Group and the Sylvan Adams Foundation is organizing the event and made the announcement in partnership with the Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Ministry of Tourism, the World Triathlon and the Tiberias Municipality.

Sylvan Adams, honorary president of the Ironman Israel Middle East Championship, said in a press release that she expects a record number of professionals to participate this year, all of whom will try to break Patrick Lange’s record of 7:40:00.

The regional competition is one of five Ironman championship events held around the world. The complete triathlon consists of 3.8 kilometers of swimming in the Kinneret, 180 kilometers of cycling and 42.2 kilometers of running. There are no breaks and the participants must finish each section within a time frame.

“In light of the competition’s success last year, I am happy to support the competition again this year and make it a tradition of regional and international importance,” said Israel’s Minister of Culture and Sports Miki Zohar in the press release. “The competition is expected to attract thousands of athletes from all over the world, including athletes from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, and will provide all participants with an opportunity to meet and connect between cultures, religions, and peoples, especially against the backdrop of the spectacular scenery of Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee.”
UAE interfaith compound featuring new synagogue set to open Thursday
A landmark interfaith compound in the United Arab Emirates housing a new synagogue is set to open Thursday afternoon in a ceremony kicking off a series of events over the weekend.

The Abrahamic Family House, located on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, also contains a mosque and church. It was initially slated to open in 2022.

The opening ceremony will be followed by a conference on Friday morning on relations between the faiths. The local Jewish community will hold Shabbat prayers in the synagogue, led by Chief Rabbi Yehuda Sarna.

On Sunday, a Torah scroll donated by UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan will be brought to the synagogue in a dedication ceremony.

The Abrahamic Family House project was announced after Pope Francis’s visit to the UAE in 2019, the first by a pontiff to the Arabian Peninsula. During the trip, the pope signed a joint declaration with the grand imam of al-Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayeb, that called for religious tolerance and dialogue.

An interfaith council to oversee projects advancing tolerance was formed as a result of the declaration, and named the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity. The Abrahamic Family House was its first initiative.
‘Best Ten Days of My Life’: Forty College Students Travel to Israel and United Arab Emirates
A cohort of 40 elite college students took a ten day trip to Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in January.

Chosen by the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) Geller International Fellowship, the visit provided the students a chance to experience Israeli and Emirati culture and see first-hand how the relationship between the two countries has changed since they normalized relations with the signing of the 2020 Abraham Accords.

“We’ve never really run a student trip before, so this was a new thing for us,” ICC CEO Jacob Baime told The Algemeiner. “One of the things that I think was special about it was that we selected these student leaders from all over the country, from all different campuses, and all different types of campuses too. Everything from Ivy League campuses to large public universities to historically black colleges and Hispanic serving institutions. And so, it’s a pretty diverse group actually, and they’re all students who have just exercised strong leadership.”

In Israel, students visited the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at the University of Tel Aviv, met with Israeli leaders, and were given a tour of Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank. Seeing Israel and the West Bank on the ground exposed a gap between media headlines about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reality on the ground, Keron Campbell, a self-described “Black Zionist” and senior at Morehouse College said.

“Sometimes, we think the Middle East is just chaos and destruction,” he explained. “I saw Israelis and Palestinians that want peace and to coexist.”


Codex Sassoon, oldest near-complete Hebrew Bible, set to fetch up to $50m at auction
A Hebrew Bible more than 1,000 years old is set to be sold at auction in New York for up to an estimated $50 million, Sotheby’s announced Wednesday.

The Codex Sassoon — which dates to the late ninth to early tenth century — is the earliest, most complete Hebrew Bible ever discovered.

It will become the most expensive historical document or manuscript to ever go under the hammer when Sotheby’s puts it up for auction in May.

“(It) is undeniably one of the most important and singular texts in human history,” said Richard Austin, Sotheby’s global head of books and manuscripts.

The Codex Sassoon is one of only two codices, or manuscripts, containing all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible to have survived into the modern era.

It is substantially more complete than the Aleppo Codex and older than the Leningrad Codex, two other famous early Hebrew Bibles, Sotheby’s said.

The manuscript bridges the Dead Sea Scrolls — which date back as early as the third century BCE — and today’s modernly accepted form of the Hebrew Bible.

It is named for previous owner David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942) who assembled the most significant private collection of ancient Jewish texts in the world.

The book was considered lost for over 600 years following the destruction of a synagogue in northeast Syria where it was kept, until it reemerged in 1929, according to the New York Times. It has been in private hands since and is currently owned by Swiss financier and collector Jacqui Safra.




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