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Saturday, June 17, 2023

06/17 Links: Joe Biden’s UNESCO fiasco; What George Soros's succession plan means for America; Michigan man arrested for planning mass attack on synagogue

From Ian:

Joe Biden’s UNESCO fiasco
UNESCO passes more scandalous anti-Israel resolutions
What is particularly galling about this move is that just last month, UNESCO once again passed a series of scandalous anti-Israel resolutions at the 216th session of its executive board in Paris, which was held from May 10 to 24.

Take, for example, Item 33 of the UNESCO board’s agenda, which is titled “Occupied Palestine” and reads like it was formulated by the worst of Israel’s foes.

In a subsection about Jerusalem, the Jewish state is described as the “Occupying Power” over the city, and the board’s members declare that Israel’s Basic Law on Jerusalem, which established the city as our united capital, is “null and void and must be rescinded forthwith.”

Another subsection declares that both Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, where the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish people are buried, are “Palestinian sites” which are under Israeli occupation.

This is so patently offensive and insulting to Jewish belief that it borders on outright antisemitism.

Denying the Jewishness of our ancestors is nothing less than a direct assault on the very foundations of the Jewish people, and UNESCO deserves to be shunned for it, not embraced.

Regarding Gaza, the UNESCO board criticized “Israeli army violations” in the area, while failing to mention Hamas and Islamic Jihad or their habit of firing thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians. And it also bemoaned the situation on the “Occupied Syrian Golan.”

If this is what UNESCO’s director-general had in mind when she said that she had managed to “reduce political tensions and find consensus on the most sensitive topics, such as the Middle East,” then I would hate to see what a flare-up might look like.

THE FACT of the matter is that UNESCO and its obscene anti-Israel bias has not changed one whit.

As the Palestinian news agency WAFA gleefully reported on May 19, “For the first time, a symposium marking the 75th anniversary of the Nakba was hosted at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO’s) Headquarters in Paris.”

In other words, an organization ostensibly devoted to promoting the benefits of knowledge and culture instead played host to an event mourning the establishment of the State of Israel.

These outrageous positions are in line with UNESCO’s long-standing hostility toward Jewish history and memory.
Rep. Mark Green: Rejoining UNESCO ‘undermines’ US-Israel relationship
Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) told JNS that the United States must continue to stand with its ally Israel, which rejoining UNESCO undercuts.

“The Biden administration’s decision to rejoin UNESCO undermines this important alliance because of UNESCO’s history of passing anti-Israel resolutions, including one identifying Israel as ‘the occupying power’ in Jerusalem,” Green said. “Any organization that doesn’t treat Israel as a legitimate and contributing nation does not deserve U.S. support or participation.”

At a time when Washington ought to be cutting spending, Americans should be “furious” that the Biden administration is paying hundreds of millions of dollars to UNESCO, according to Green, a member of the House Republican Israel Caucus.

“The U.S. will likely return to becoming its largest funder. This is a bad use of taxpayer dollars, to say the least,” he said. “UNESCO made its stance on Israel clear. By rejoining this organization, the Biden administration is turning its back on our friend and ally.”

It had previously been illegal under U.S. law for Washington to fund any U.N. entity that bestows full membership on entities lacking “internationally recognized attributes” of statehood. In 2011, the Obama administration stopped funding UNESCO after it welcomed Palestine as a member, and in 2018, the Trump administration exited UNESCO altogether, and Israel followed thereafter.


Jonathan Tobin: What George Soros's succession plan means for America
The focus on smearing Soros critics as antisemites also overlooks the way the causes OSF supports actually work to promote antisemitism and the century-old war on Zionism being waged by the Palestinians and their supporters.

Soros foundation partners are a mainstay of the left-wing NGO archipelago in Israel that aids organizations that support BDS and seek to undermine the Jewish state’s efforts to defend itself against terrorism. Just as important, the Soros family supports groups that champion intersectional ideology that likens anti-Israel activism to the struggle for civil rights, which itself results in the promotion of antisemitism. Toxic ideas such as critical race theory and the woke catechism of diversity, equity, and inclusion, now the official policy of the Biden administration, which has mandated that every government department and agency set up its own DEI indoctrination program, grant a permission slip for antisemitism in a manner that has helped it migrate from the margins of society to mainstream discourse.

It’s true that not every criticism of George Soros is fair or accurate.

In particular, the obsessive focus of many on Soros’s manner of survival during the Holocaust is unseemly. His father hid him from the Nazis’ extermination of Hungarian Jewry by placing him with non-Jews who were profiting from the dispossession of Jews subsequently sent to Auschwitz. That’s not a particularly heroic story, but he was a child. And no one now living has a right to question how anyone, let alone a child, managed to evade the death sentence that the German occupiers and their collaborators imposed on every Jewish man, woman, and child in 1944.

It's equally true that some of the criticism aimed at him in his native Hungary by supporters of the popular conservative government led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, which has itself been the target of OSF’s unfair smearing of it as authoritarian or undemocratic, has employed tropes that speak to that country’s antisemitic past.

But the attempt to label virtually any mention of the way George Soros has used his money to promote left-wing causes and, especially due to his prosecutor project, made American cities safe places for criminals as antisemitic doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

The argument from pearl-clutching centrists and liberals that people should pull their punches about George Soros because some lunatics on the fringe will use their critiques to justify antisemitism doesn’t pass the smell test. But George Soros and his apologists very much need to silence legitimate criticism, even when it is, as in Musk’s case, expressed in satire, in order to distract the public from the reality of George Soros’s agenda and how much of an impact he’s having on American life.

Putting the more attractive personality of Alexander Soros at the head of OSF doesn’t alter the facts about how one family enterprise is changing America for the worse. It isn’t going too far to assert that the Soros foundations are now endangering American and even Jewish lives as much as virtually any other factor.


Putin: My Jewish friends say Zelensky isn’t Jewish, is a ‘disgrace’ to the faith
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday claimed Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish, is viewed as a “disgrace” to his faith by other members of the religion.

“I have a lot of Jewish friends,” Putin told an annual economic forum in Saint Petersburg. “They say that Zelensky is not Jewish, that he is a disgrace to the Jewish people.”

“This is not a joke and not an attempt at irony, because today neo-Nazis, Hitler’s disciples, have been put on a pedestal as heroes of Ukraine,” Putin added, according to the TASS Russian News Agency.

Putin later noted that Zelensky was “a man with Jewish blood” before adding that “he covers for these freaks, these neo-Nazis, with his actions.”

“Why do you put Nazis on a pedestal?” Putin asked rhetorically regarding Zelensky.

Former Israeli minister and Jewish Agency chief Natan Sharansky responded to Putin by saying Ukrainians should be proud of having elected a Jewish president.

“Zelensky unites the Ukrainian people against barbaric aggression, and we Jews can be proud that a representative of our people plays a historic and significant role in uniting the whole world for the sake of protecting our future,” he said in a statement.

The US State Department’s antisemitism envoy, Deborah Lipstadt, said, “President Zelensky’s Jewishness has nothing to do with the situation in Ukraine.”

“Putin’s continued focus on this topic and ‘denazification’ narrative is clearly intended to distract from Russia’s war of aggression against the Ukrainian people,” Lipstadt said.

Since launching his war on Ukraine


Dem DA's staffer who praised Louis Farrakhan placed on leave after antisemitic remarks uncovered
An official in a Massachusetts district attorney’s office who is a disciple of Louis Farrakhan was placed on leave Friday after Fox News revealed he said his minister and mentor wouldn't be friends with "a Jewish guy that's got short arms and deep pockets."

True-See Allah, the director of community engagement/strategic partnerships at the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office which represents Boston, has shown in social media posts and various interviews that he's a fan of Farrakhan, the well-known antisemitic leader of the Nation of Islam. He posted a photo of the two of them on Facebook in 2020, for example, with a caption calling Farrakhan the "Undisputed Champion for all of humanity."

Suffolk County DA's office, which covers Boston, said Allah was placed on paid leave after Fox News asked for comment on his antisemitic remarks.

"In keeping with our policy of intolerance for racism, bigotry, bias or prejudice against any segment of our population, we have initiated a review of information provided to us regarding alleged statements made seven years ago by True-See Allah," Chief Of Communications James Borghesani said. "Mr. Allah has been placed on administrative leave while the review takes place."

Before Allah's description of the Jewish man was revealed, the DA's office stood by its employee after Middle East Forum uncovered his priase of Farrakhan. In a statement, a spokesperson said Allah never espoused the Nation of Islam leader's "derogatory statements."

During a 2016 interview, Allah recounted a story about his mentor, former Boston-based Nation of Islam minister Don Muhammad, introducing him to a Jewish man who was bringing a Reebok store to Boston. Allah said he met with the Jewish man when seeking a job and was later hired as a manager for the store.

"So I did a couple of temp jobs and then Minister Don had a, I want to say, a colleague, um, an acquaintance," he said. "I ain't gonna call him a friend 'cause he's a Jewish guy that's got short arms and deep pockets, but he was basically in charge of bringing Reebok to the Washington Park Plaza."

The comments seem to play into an antisemitic trope suggesting the man was both wealthy and stingy with his money.
Jamal Khashoggi’s widow files lawsuit against NSO Group
Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, the widow of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, is suing the Israeli surveillance company NSO Group over the alleged use of the firm’s technology in the lead-up to her husband’s assassination, Reuters reported Friday.

According to the lawsuit filed Thursday in the Northern District of Virginia, NSO software infiltrated Elatr’s phone, allowing her messages to be read in the months prior to her husband’s murder in Istanbul in 2018.

NSO did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on the lawsuit. The company has previously denied that its Pegasus software was involved in the killing of Khashoggi.

According to a Washington Post report in 2021, the spyware was placed on Elatr’s phone while she was being interrogated by security agents at Dubai Airport months before Khashoggi was killed. The Citizen Lab research group said the spying was carried out by a United Arab Emirates customer, and the US newspaper claimed it was a UAE government agency.

Khashoggi and Elatr, who is Egyptian, were married in an Islamic ceremony in 2018 that was later certified by a Virginia-based cleric. According to The Washington Post, where Khashoggi was a columnist at the time of his killing, she was the Saudi journalist’s fourth wife after he had divorced the previous three.

Before he was killed in the consulate in Istanbul, Khashoggi had been accompanied there by his Turkish fiancé Hatice Cengiz. In a 2018 column for The New York Times, Cengiz said Khashoggi went to the consulate for a document certifying his divorce, apparently his third wife in Saudi Arabia.

NSO Group has faced a torrent of international criticism over allegations it helps governments spy on dissidents and human rights activists. NSO insists its product is meant only to assist countries in fighting crime and terrorism.

The issue has become a diplomatic concern with numerous Israeli allies, who have demanded answers after reports revealed the software was being used within their countries. The US Department of Commerce has blacklisted NSO, restricting the Herzliya-based firm’s ties with American companies over allegations that it “enabled foreign governments to conduct transnational repression.”
US State Department: Israel inadequate in fighting human trafficking
Israel does not fully meet the minimum standards set for eliminating human trafficking, according to a US State Department report published Thursday, marking the third straight year Israel’s conduct on the matter has been considered inadequate.

However, the report also recognized “significant efforts” made by the Israeli government to improve on the matter.

Israel remains in Tier 2 of the State Department ranking, meaning that while the government does not fully meet the United States Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s standards, there is a recognition of efforts to reach those standards.

According to the report, Israel’s efforts demonstrated an overall improving trend compared to the previous reporting period. The measures Israel has taken include approving a comprehensive anti-trafficking implementation plan for 2022-2026, recognizing more victims of trafficking and revising the procedures for victim recognition. A modest increase in the investigations, prosecutions and convictions related to human trafficking were also reported.

Nevertheless, the US State Department highlighted that Israel fell short of meeting the minimum standards in several crucial areas. The report underscored that Israel’s efforts to hold labor traffickers criminally accountable are still inadequate. Notably, the government did not consistently investigate labor trafficking cases referred to them by non-governmental organizations. In 2022, 25 investigations regarding human trafficking were initiated by the police.

Furthermore, the report raised concerns about the Israeli government’s “non-enforcement” policy for the 14,000 Ukrainian refugees and asylum seekers who fled to Israel following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These refugees, working on tourist visas in Israel, have found themselves in a vulnerable state that the report says could potentially lead to trafficking.

The report also criticized an Israeli policy limiting asylum seekers from working in 17 different cities, thereby raising the likelihood of trafficking.

In a statement, the Justice Ministry division dealing with human trafficking expressed disappointment regarding Israel’s Tier 2 ranking, but added that the report reflects Israeli efforts to mitigate the problem.


Mahmoud Abbas unveils bust of Yasser Arafat in China
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas unveiled a bust of former president Yasser Arafat in Beijing on Friday, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Abbas unveiled the commemorative bust in the garden of the Chinese Museum in Beijing during a three-day official state visit to the People's Republic of China.

During the visit, Abbas met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and discussed multiple issues with him, including efforts to mobilize international support for the Palestinian cause.

Abbas also asked for help in achieving full membership in the United Nations as well as support for an advisory opinion in the International Court of Justice on the legality of Israel's presence in the West Bank.

The two also discussed historical bilateral relations and their views on current developments in international issues which concern both countries. Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas attends a signing ceremony with China's President Xi Jinping (not pictured) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China June 14, 2023.

Strong relations
Xi and Abbas agreed to establish a strategic partnership between China and the Palestinian Authority affirming the strong relations between the two. They also signed several other agreements aimed at enhancing cooperation.


Terrorist financier released under First Step Act, says he 'would be proud' to fund terrorists again
A convicted terrorist financier serving a 30-year sentence in U.S. federal prison was recently released under the First Step Act after serving only 23 years, and said he "would be proud" to send money again to the same terrorist organization he was convicted of providing support to.

Mohamad Youssef Hammoud, a Lebanese national who illegally immigrated to the U.S. in 1992, was convicted in 2002 of providing material support to Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based militant group that the State Department designates a terrorist organization, among a number of other charges.

Hammoud was initially sentenced to 155 years in prison, but the punishment was later vacated by the U.S. Supreme Court. He was re-sentenced to 30 years in 2011.

The First Step Act, a criminal justice reform law that passed through Congress with the support of both parties and was signed by former President Donald Trump in 2018, provided a means for Hammoud to request an early release, including through the compassionate release statute of the law.

Despite the Biden administration's opposition to an early release of Hammoud on the grounds of compassionate release, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina granted the request on the grounds of "a disparity between his sentence and other sentences for comparable conduct," and "the disproportionally in his sentence caused by the application of the 'terrorism enhancement.'"

It's unclear exactly when Hammoud was released, however, the court documents ordering his release directed him to immediately turn himself into immigration authorities for deportation. He arrived in Beirut on Wednesday to celebrations with friends and family, according to Alarabiya News, a Saudi-based outlet.

The report said that, shortly after his arrival, Hammoud had multiple interviews with Hezbollah-affiliated media outlets in which he expressed no regret for his actions and denied that he ever sent money to Hezbollah.

"I would be proud to send money to Hezbollah, and I could say I sent money to Hezbollah. But in 1999… I did not send a penny to Lebanon," Hammoud said in one video shared by Alarabiya. In the video, he can be seen sitting in front of a portrait of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah, and late-Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2020.
Yemen's Houthi Ansar Allah Movement Promotes Summer Camp Program For Children; Pro-Islamic State (ISIS) Media Outlet Warns Yemenis Against Shi'ite Recruitment Of Children
On April 29, Yemen's Iran-backed Ansar Allah Movement (the Houthis) launched a summer camp program for children and teens in Sanaa and other Northern governorates. According to Yemeni opposition websites, the program, titled "Science And Jihad," aims at radicalizing children by training them in the use of weapons. Reports further noted that nearly half a million children are expected to join the program.[1]

Houthi summer camps first emerged in 1990. However, this year's promotion campaign follows major new changes to educational curricula in primary and secondary schools in areas under Houthi control.

This year's promotional campaign received growing publicity from Houthi officials, including the group's leader Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, who urged parents to send their children to these camps and stressed that his government will provide full support to ensure the success of the program.[2]

Posters shared on Houthi-linked Telegram channels advertised the summer camps as educational and cultural programs, posting images of young boys and girls reading Quran.

Pro-ISIS Outlet Launches Anti-Houthi Poster Campaign In response, Mithani, a pro-Islamic State (ISIS) media outlet, released several posters in recent weeks warning Sunni Yemenis not to send their kids to Houthi camps.[3]

The ongoing poster campaign, titled "The Apostate Summer Course," emphasizes the ideological differences between Sunnis and Shi'ites from an ISIS perspective, which deems the Shi'ites non-Muslim, thereby legitimizing attacks on them.

Notably, as part of its self-declared Caliphate in Iraq and Syria, ISIS routinely recruited children for military purposes, sending children as young as four years old to training camps.[4]
The Biden Administration's Secret Capitulation to Iran's Regime
The Biden administration also reportedly wants to pump $17 billion dollars into the Iranian regime's treasury. These benefits will not only enable the mullahs' to finalize their nuclear weapons program, but also to send more arms to Russia to attack Ukraine, as well as to further enable the regime's ruthless expansion throughout the Middle East -- in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and the terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip -- and throughout Latin America.

The US, intriguingly, seems hell-bent on supporting a regime that its own Department of State has called the "top state sponsor of terrorism."

Based on Iran's abysmal track record of complying with its own agreements, any deal in which Iran might promise to stop enriching uranium is just a sick joke.

"I continue to believe, Biden said on July 14, "that diplomacy is the best way to achieve this outcome."

Someone recently replied, "Neville Chamberlain believed that diplomacy was the best way, too."

The Biden administration, by keeping the American people and the Congress in the dark regarding these ongoing secret negotiations with Iran, appear to understand that is doing something malign. The countries disastrously affected by any "deal" with the Islamist regime of Iran are "only" the US, the Gulf States, Israel, Latin America and Europe. The Biden administration nevertheless appears determined to give the ruling mullahs of Iran the ultimate $17 billion gift: the deadly nuclear deal -- so that Iran will promise not to use their nuclear weapons on this administration's watch.


'Our preparations are for a scenario in which it becomes apparent Iran is on the verge of crossing the last threshold'
All that separates Iran from transforming into a nuclear state rather than a nuclear-threshold state is one decision. The Israeli security agencies are closely monitoring what is happening in the Islamic Republic that openly threatens Israel with annihilation and is keeping abreast of the reports of the emerging deal with the West.

In public, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the defense establishment have repeatedly said that Israel will maintain the freedom to act in such a scenario. Against this backdrop, with Israel watching the shifting sands in the region and gearing up for a new reality, Israel Hayom spoke with National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi for an interview on the threats facing Israel. Despite the rising dangers on multiple fronts, he remains optimistic.

Q: The US and Iran have been discussing a limited nuclear deal, and Israel hasn't even publicly come out against it. It looks like we have lost any clout on the Biden administration.

"This statement is categorically false; it ignores the facts that are known to all. The current US administration has been doing its utmost to have Israel enter the Visa Waiver Program, which currently has only 40 countries. There would have been no such effort had they not thought that Israelis deserve this. This was not an easy decision because some in the Democratic Party have a lot of criticism on this, viewing it as a prize to Israel despite it not accepting the demands on the Palestinian issue and the settlement. On all the most important things for the country – the bond is at an all-time high."

Q: But it seems as though there is not a lot of affinity toward Netanyahu from the US president.

"I have been privy to the talks between Biden and Netanyahu and I have seen a lot of warmth. More importantly, substantively speaking, we can trust the US in this period just like in the past on matters that are critical to national security."

Q: How do you square that with an emerging deal between Iran and the West?

"The US doesn't work for us; when interests clash, you would not expect the US to automatically support us in all cases.

"Between real friends, it is very legitimate that two sides have disputes on important issues, with mutual respect for that disagreement. The best example is the settlement issue. The US has pressured us for 40 years to stop what it considers to be an obstacle to peace. I sat here in the adjacent room as the chief of staff to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who faced unrelenting pressure from the US so that he could go to the international conference that would see a Palestinian state formed. Forty years have passed, and the disagreements with the US over this have not been resolved – but the ties have only gotten closer."


The Iranian people's one and only request of President Biden
President Joe Biden

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

The Islamic Republic President, Ebrahim Raisi, and the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, are known supporters of worldwide terrorism. Not only do they remain a clear and viable threat to the existence of Israel with their nonstop call for the nuclear annihilation of that sovereign nation, but their brutal regime has thoroughly dehumanized the Iranian people, who, for many years now, have yearned to be liberated from these tyrannical and bloodthirsty Islamists who rule over their lives.

Iranians will never forget a massive anti-regime movement in 2009 by millions after the fraudulent re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of the Islamic Republic of Iran and your administration's reaction. The regime’s response to those protesting was a set of dastardly measures typical of dictatorships. People were severely beaten, huge numbers were arrested and herded like cattle into makeshift prisons. Some were shot in the streets as they marched; others were raped and killed in Iran’s prisons. And the world watched.

The Obama Administration failed to voice its support for the brave people of Iran, and he also implied that what was happening in Iran was a kind of family squabble best left to be settled by Iranians themselves. A family feud indeed. One side of the “family” with legions of savages armed to the teeth, the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and their hired thugs, and the other side of the “family” defenseless civilians using their voices to plead their case. The Islamic rulers spared no heinous means in mercilessly silencing the voices of the people.

Former US President Obama has recently admitted that he made "a mistake" by not supporting the Iranian people's 2009 Green Movement against the Islamic Republic. On July 14, 2015, during the Obama presidency, Iran and six world powers known as the P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) signed a disastrous agreement: the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known as ‘Iran Nuclear Deal’ to marginalize Iran’s nuclear program and monitor it in exchange for relief from nuclear sanctions.


Report links New York City attacks on Jews to activist group Within Our Lifetime
In the days before the assault of Joseph Borgen on May 20, 2021, Waseem Awawdeh, who was recently sentenced to 18 months, attended two events held by the organization Within Our Lifetime.

Awawdeh went to a WOL “emergency rally to defend Palestine” two days beforehand and three days before that, he was part of a WOL nakba rally (the Arabic term meaning “catastrophe,” referring to the establishment of the modern-day State of Israel) in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y. He is one of seven anti-Israel activists who attended Within Our Lifetime rallies and awaits trial or has been convicted, according to a new Canary Mission report.

At the May 18 rally Awawdeh attended, a mob attacked two pro-Israel activists. One member of the mob later posted an Instagram video of the assault with the caption “Every punch felt better than the last,” per the report.

The 52-page report “reveals a pattern of violent rhetoric and incitement perpetrated by WOL’s leadership and the resulting violent attacks on NYC’s Jews by some of the organization’s top activists,” Canary Mission stated in a release.

The report contains 26 mini-profiles of the group’s leading activists, who led anti-Israel protests in New York City in 2021 and 2022, and an index addresses 12 more activists.

Most of the violent, antisemitic rhetoric associated with the group traces back to its founder and leader, Nerdeen Kiswani, according to the report. Canary Mission says group leaders frequently incite violence, and that eight acts of violence occurred during or shortly following Within Our Lifetime rallies where violent rhetoric and antisemitic chants were heard.


University of Calgary Student Newspaper Accuses Jews Of “The Ultimate Thievery”
While there remain many elements of disagreement between Israel and the Palestinians which remain as obstacles to any final status peace agreement, there is one fundamental sticking point beyond all others: the Palestinian refusal to accept Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish nation-state.

Tragically, this obstinacy does not remain the exclusive domain of the Palestinian leadership; commentators outside of the Middle East, including in Canada, often express the view that Israel is in illegitimate state with no historical basis.

A recent opinion column which appeared in The Gauntlet, a student newspaper at the University of Calgary, continues this trend.

In a June 15 column entitled: “To exist without existing: The Palestinian injustice,” Voices Editor Reyam Jamaleddine all but accuses Jews of illegally expropriating Palestinian land based on European Holocaust guilt and religious fundamentalism.

Jamaleddine opens her column by writing that “after Hitler’s tragic take over of Eastern Europe in the 1930s and 40s, the Jewish people of Europe suffered one of history’s worst genocides. After decades of enduring this anti-semitism (sic), Jewish people decided on Zionism…As a means of rectifying this situation, they were given the land of Palestine…”

This assertion is blatantly false, both for recent and historical reasons. Modern Zionism as a political movement did not begin following the Holocaust, but decades before with Theodor Herzl’s writings and political advocacy. The First Zionist Congress was held in 1897, two generations before the Holocaust.

More importantly, while Zionism as a modern political movement began in the late 1800s, Zionism was hardly invented by Theodor Herzl. Zionism, which was the Jewish People’s movement of self-determination in their historic homeland, was the continuation of a two-thousand-year struggle following the Roman Empire’s sacking of Jerusalem and exile of the majority of the Jewish population living in Judea (the land of Israel) at the time, in the first century CE.
‘A Significant Deterrent’: US Jewish Groups Praise Conviction of Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter
As the perpetrator of the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Oct. 2018 was convicted Friday of dozens of federal hate crimes, Jewish organizations across the country expressed on Friday their gratitude for the verdict.

“No verdict for the Tree of Life Synagogue murderer, even this one finding Bowers guilty on all charges, can ever compensate the victims or their families for the loss of their loved ones,” Roz Rothstein of StandWithUs, a nonprofit that promotes education about Israel, told The Algemeiner. “That said, we hope the verdict will serve as a significant deterrent to anyone considering committing a deadly attack against Jews or others based on their religious or ethnic identity. We are grateful to everyone who gave their time and energy to ensure that justice has been served for this most vile antisemitic crime.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), a Jewish human rights organization, also thanked the jury but stressed its belief that Bowers’ sentencing must be proportionate to the magnitude of the horrors he committed.

“This is the deadliest attack against the Jewish community in American history and Bowers should face the death penalty as this is the ultimate penalty for the ultimate crime,” SWC associate dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper said. “We also want to recognize the grieving families of the 11 victims. The support their neighbors and their communities has shown them should be a model for all Americans.”

Bowers stormed into the synagogue, located in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018 while it was hosting three congregations, Tree of Life, Dor Hadash and New Light, for weekly Shabbat services. Armed with three handguns and an AR-15 rifle, Bowers shot out of a large window near the entrance to the synagogue and then opened fire on congregants, according to the indictment. He was shot in turn multiple times by police and ultimately surrendered and was taken into custody. Authorities have said they believe he acted alone.

The mass shooting left 11 people dead and six wounded, including four police officers who responded to the scene. Among the dead were a 97-year-old great-grandmother, an 87-year-old accountant and a couple who were married at the synagogue more than 60 years earlier.
FBI arrests Michigan man for allegedly planning mass attack on synagogue
A teenager from Pickford, Michigan, was arrested on Friday by the FBI after expressing explicit neo-Nazi and antisemitic beliefs online, including allegedly planning a deadly assault at a local synagogue, according to local news sites.

Seann Pietila, 19, now faces charges of transmitting a communication containing a threat to injure another individual, according to the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan.

The criminal complaint states that Pietila engaged in conversations on Instagram where he expressed strong hatred towards the Jewish population, voiced support for neo-Nazis and idolized previous mass shooters.

Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at his residence and discovered a cache of weapons, including firearms, a Nazi flag, a ghillie suit, gas masks and military sniper/survival manuals.

During the search, authorities also found a message on Pietila’s phone in the Notes app that identified a synagogue in East Lansing along with a date and a list of equipment. The FBI took immediate action upon receiving a report about threatening online communications, leading them to link the messages to Pietila.

“Antisemitic threats and violence against our Jewish communities – or any other group for that matter – will not be tolerated in the Western District of Michigan,” US Attorney Mark Totten said. “Today and every day we take all credible threats seriously.”

Suspect admired previous mass shootings
The criminal complaint further reveals that the suspect admired the 2019 Christchurch mass shooting in New Zealand. The date mentioned in the notes on his phone corresponded to the fifth anniversary of that event.

The FBI’s investigation into Pietila’s social media accounts uncovered additional troubling content, including images and posts featuring Nazi symbolism and references to other mass shooters.

Among the items seized from Pietila’s residence were ammo magazines, a shotgun, a rifle, a pistol, various knives and firearms accessories.
Uruguay to melt down Nazi bronze eagle, recast it as peace dove
Uruguay will melt down a bronze eagle found on a sunken World War II-era German destroyer off its coast 13 years ago, and recast it as a dove of peace, the South American country’s president said Friday.

The 350-kilogram (770-pound) “symbol of violence and war” will be turned into a “symbol of peace and union,” Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou told journalists in the capital Montevideo.

The two-meter (6.5-foot)-tall bird with a Nazi swastika gripped in its talons adorned the stern of the Admiral Graf Spee, a battleship involved in one of the first naval skirmishes of World War II.

The Graf Spee’s captain, Hans Langsdorff, scuttled the battleship — one of the Third Reich’s largest — on December 17, 1939, following the Battle of the River Plate.

The sculpture was found in 2006 after a 10-year hunt in the River Plate off Montevideo.

In 2019, a court ruled that the sculpture must be sold, with half the proceeds going to the government and half to the salvage team.

This 50-50 split had been stipulated in an agreement the salvagers had signed with the Uruguayan navy in 2004. The treasure hunters later filed suit, claiming the government reneged on that deal.

Last year, Uruguay’s Supreme Court ruled the eagle was the property of the state.
New campaign to anonymously return illegally held antiquities nets thousands of items
Thousands who were illegally holding antiquities in their homes returned the items during a two-week campaign this month, the Israel Antiquities Authority and Ministry of Heritage reported on Thursday.

The campaign — “If it’s old – return it with a click!” — encourages private citizens who have artifacts to report them online and return them anonymously and without questions.

It was originally slated to end on Thursday but will be extended for another week.

“We are totally shocked by the intensity and the amount that people are returning,” Yair Amitzur, the director of IAA’s educational initiatives for the central region, told The Times of Israel. Amitzur has been manning the drop-off spot where the public can return smaller items, and also visiting people’s homes to pick up larger items.

“We knew that people had things at home, but we had no idea what they had,” he said. “We’re finding that people are returning things from the entire timeline of Israel’s history, all types of pottery from all of the periods, even things from prehistory. They’re bringing bronze items, jewelry, metal tools, beautiful stone carvings, items that are pretty special.”

On Thursday, the IAA announced that a man named Moshe had returned a 1,700-year-old anchor that he found while diving in Palmachim beach in 1996. The lightweight, small anchor is a rare find because most of the anchors discovered here are much larger and heavier, and are therefore abandoned when a ship got into trouble and the sailors cut the anchor. The 1,700 year old anchor recovered by a scuba diver in 1996 which was returned to the IAA during a campaign to return illegally-held antiquities, pictured on June 15, 2023.

A small anchor was much more likely to be pulled back onto the ship and reused, so there are far fewer of them lying on the sea floor, explained Kobi Sharvit, the director of IAA’s Maritime Archaeology Unit. Sharvit believes the anchor was likely used during the Roman period, from 100 to 300 CE, for a small fishing boat.
Groundbreaking AI project translates 5,000-year-old cuneiform at push of a button
Cuneiform is the oldest known form of writing, but it is so difficult to read that only a few hundred experts around the world can decode the clay tablets filled with wedge-shaped symbols. Now, a team of archaeologists and computer scientists from Israel has created an AI-powered translation program for ancient Akkadian cuneiform, allowing tens of thousands of already digitized tablets to be translated into English instantaneously.

Globally, libraries, museums, and universities have more than half a million clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform. But the sheer number of texts, and the tiny number of Akkadian readers — a language no one has spoken or written for 2,000 years — means just a small fraction of these tablets have been translated.

A new Google Translate-type program may allow armchair archaeologists to try their hand at cuneiform interpretation.

“What’s so amazing about it is that I don’t need to understand Akkadian at all to translate [a tablet] and get what’s behind the cuneiform,” said Gai Gutherz, a computer scientist who was part of the team that developed the program. “I can just use the algorithm to understand and discover what the past has to say.”

The project began as a thesis project for Gutherz’s masters degree at Tel Aviv University. In May, the team published a research paper in the peer-reviewed PNAS Nexus, from the Oxford University Press, describing its neural machine translation from Akkadian to English.

Neural machine translation, also used by Google Translate, Baidu translate, and other translation engines, works by converting words into a string of numbers, and uses a complex mathematical formula, called a neural network, to output a sentence in another language in a more accurate and natural sentence construction than translating word-for-word.




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