Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, June 19, 2017

06/19 Links Pt1: PA names square after murderer of 22 children; US shoots down Syrian warplane

From Ian:

PMW: PA names square after mastermind of massacre of 22 children and 4 adults

The Palestinian Authority has named yet another square after a terrorist. The newly inaugurated "Martyr Khaled Nazzal Square," is named after the terror leader who planned the attack that led to the murder of 22 children and 4 adults in the Ma'alot Massacre on May 15, 1974. This is just the latest example of the PA's relentless glorification of terrorists.
This new square in Jenin is named after terrorist Khaled Nazzal, the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), and commander of its military branch. He was responsible for the Ma'alot Massacre, during which terrorists took school children and their teachers as hostages, and eventually murdered 22 children and 4 adults. Terrorist Nazzal also planned an attack which resulted in the murder of 4 hostages in an apartment in Beit Shean (Nov. 11, 1974), and a shooting and grenade attack in central Jerusalem in which 1 was murdered and 47 others were wounded (April 2, 1984).
The "Martyr Khaled Nazzal Square" was inaugurated at a rally with PA officials, "under the auspices of the Jenin District and the [Jenin] municipality." Participants included the Deputy District Governor of the Jenin District, and the DFLP in Jenin.

Amb. Alan Baker: New Palestinian Attempt at UNESCO to Claim Hebron and the Patriarch’s Tomb as a Palestinian Site

From recent media reports, it is evident that the Palestinian campaign to delegitimize Israel, falsely adjust history, and abuse the international community by manipulating a respected international specialized agency is proceeding at an enhanced pace. The campaign has turned UNESCO into a partisan political tool beyond, exceeding, and ultra vires its own constitutional principles. This despite recent indications since the Abbas-Trump meetings of a relaxation on initiatives in the international community against Israel.
The latest example of this is the Palestinians’ request to register the Old City of Hebron – including its Tomb of the Patriarchs – to the “State of Palestine” at the upcoming meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, scheduled to take place in from July 2 to 12, 2017, in Krakow, Poland.1
Both these sites are being fast-tracked and listed for debate as “endangered” World Heritage Sites on the agenda for the upcoming meeting of the World Heritage.
This attempt by the Palestinian leadership runs counter to any claim by Palestinian representatives as well as by leaders in the international community, that the Palestinians come with clean hands to the international community and genuinely seek a peaceful solution with Israel.

PreOccupiedTerritory: Opposition Fumes: AG Refuses To Investigate Netanyahu Culpability In London Fire (satire)

Lawmakers from several Opposition parties in the Knesset voiced anger today at the Attorney General for not opening an inquiry into Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu over possible involvement in the London blaze last week that left dozens of people dead.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has not initiated an investigation into Netanyahu’s guilt in the Grenfell Tower fire that claimed the lives of at least 79 people last Wednesday, with more still missing. Politicians from Meretz, Labor, HaTnua, and the Joint List alliance blasted the Attorney General’s inaction and called it yet another manifestation of his partisan refusal to take proper measures against the prime minister who appointed him.
“Everyone knows who ultimately carries blame for every problem, every misfortune,” declared an exasperated Ilan Gilon of Meretz. “It’s axiomatic. That is what makes Mandelblit’s refusal so mind-boggling. On top of the corruption he’s supposed to be investigating, but for some reason that eludes me has not recommended police action, he must now investigate Bibi for dozens of counts of criminally negligent homicide. What does he think he is, some objective personality? Those are no longer relevant in the postmodern world of the narrative. And our narrative deems Bibi a criminal. Act, Mandelblit!”
Labor leadership Hopeful Erel Margalit cast Mandelblit’s inaction in even starker terms. “Protests have been going on in front of the Attorney General’s house for months now,” he recalled. “And just the other day one of the protesters held up a sign calling him a traitor. I used to think such language was out of bounds, considering that in the popular consciousness – that is, in the consciousness of the left and the media, which is what counts – such rhetoric led to the assassination of Rabin. But now I’m not so sure we should be so restrained in our speech.” He cited the example of the gunman who shot Congressman Steve Scalise last week, and suggested that liberal activism might still legitimately include political violence. “It’s for the right cause,” he explained.

My friend and ally Mike Harris (author of How to Win a Debate with an Israel Hater) forwarded me this story, with which many EOZ readers are likely familiar.

By now, it’s a commonplace for radical anti-Israel groups like Jewish Voice for Peace to try to bring their disruptive protest tactics to any event promoting support for or celebration of the Jewish state. Yet this year, they chose a very special target for one of their “direct actions.”

That target was the LGBTQ contingent of New York’s annual Celebrate Israel parade featuring gay men and women – young and old – showing their support for the only nation in the Middle East where their sexual orientation is not a legal and religious crime.

The way JVP decided to show their displeasure with that part of the event was to infiltrate the group and, at a key moment, disrupt their program by killing the music, tearing off their outer garments to reveal “Israel = Apartheid” t-shirts beneath, and screaming their slogans from the stage someone else (New York’s gay Jewish community) built.

The fact that some of the people terrorized by the infiltrators were kids was immaterial to the protestors and – more importantly – the planners of the protest who had determined in advance that their anti-Israel agenda trumps everything, everywhere, always.

While it would be easy to analyze such behavior through the lens of JVP hypocrisy and moral degeneration, it’s more interesting to think about what must be going on in the mind of those who have decided that the best way to push their allegedly progressive agenda is to infiltrate and terrorize gay youth.

Why this is interesting is that groups like JVP don’t simply think of themselves as progressive, but insist that they and their allies get to define who deserved that label and who does not. The slur PEP (which stands for “Progressive in Everything But Palestine”) is one that gets routinely trotted out whenever a left-leaning individual or organization tries to stray from the anti-Israel orthodoxy groups like JVP are trying to enforce – demonstrating that maintaining Left-wing credentials is just as important to them as maintaining anti-Israel ones.

This poses a problem, however. For progressive opinion has also been highly supportive of gay rights and increasingly supports people (including young people) exploring a constellation of sexual orientations. And, whatever you might think about those ideas and associated political goals, it’s pretty clear that gay rights has become a defining principle for those who call themselves progressive.

The problem for JVP et al arises because, as mentioned previously, Israel not only represents an oasis of toleration in a Middle East sea of murderous homophobia, but is actually the most gay-friendly nation on the face of the earth. This makes the agenda of Israel’s enemies one which must end with the increase in territory where homosexuality is punishable by imprisonment or death.

Israel bashers have used their usual tricks to get around this problem: highlighting and inflating the importance of incidental anti-gay violence by Israeli Jews while never mentioning the issue of systematic violation of gay rights by everyone else, for example. When Israel’s friends ignored those taunts and began touting Israel’s progressive credentials through the lens of gay rights, JVP and its regressive allies came up with a new way around the problem: accusations of “Pinkwashing” (a fake phenomenon you can read about here).

This brings us back to that Israel Pride disruption that began this discussion. For it is one thing to make the argument that gay support for Israel contradicts progressive values and be ready to defend that argument against those who claim the opposite. But it’s quite another thing to jump up on someone else’s stage and start shouting your slogans that contradict the opinions of those whose space you just commandeered.

The interesting thing about JVP’s deliberate targeting of the LGBTQ contingent at the parade is that it required moving from fierce disagreement with the political opinions of segments of the gay community, to direct targeting of real human beings making up that community. In other words, the protestors’ determination to establish themselves as True North for all progressive causes (including gay rights) required them to terrorize living, breathing gay people.

As mentioned previously, it would be simple to dismiss this whole episode as one more example of dishonest, reactionary behavior on the part of the anti-Israel fringe. But whenever one moves from treating people as human beings to treating them as mere means to your own political ends, we are dealing with something far more dangerous than misdirected zeal.

For if Israel’s enemies are so lacking in empathy that they are ready to storm the gates to keep gay people in line (while all the while claiming and believing themselves to represent progressive thought in its purest form), what might they be willing to do next?

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Nothing like a giant mural of a terrorist to enhance your appetite - in Oakland eatery

This is what the checkout line at Reems Bakery in Oakland, California looks like:

Yes, that's Rasmea Odeh, the PFLP terrorist responsible for the murder of Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner in 1969.

Here's another angle:

After a gushing article in a local paper came out showing the "striking mural," readers complained about the incongruity of a huge picture of a murderer on a restaurant/bakery wall.

The owner defended the choice:

For Assil, who is of Palestinian-Syrian descent, “[Odeh] embodies the resilience of Arab women fighting for justice in this country. She is an elder to a lot of us younger women who are activists and want to do right among our community,” said Assil, who compares Odeh to a modern day Malcom X [sic]. In addition to serving as a figurehead for pro-Palestinian activists, Odeh has also garnered support from humanitarian activists and members of the Black Lives Matter Movement. “[The mural] pays our respect to people like her who have had to endure,” said Assil.
When asked why she would bring such a divisive figure into a bakery that is meant to be a sanctuary space, Assil responded: “She is divisive because she’s an advocate for Palestinian self-determination and anti-Israeli government occupation. Any time you put up a Palestinian figure it’s going to be divisive.

(h/t Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers)

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From the PA's official Wafa news agency:

PLO Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi strongly condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's demand to shut down the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

"Netanyahu's call to disband UNRWA is the epitome of arrogance, particularly since Israel itself is responsible for creating the Palestinian refugee problem,” Said Ashrawi in a press statement issued on Thursday.

“It should not be permitted to defame or slander UNRWA which still remains a lifeline for millions of Palestinian refugees residing in Occupied Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, providing them with essential services, assistance and opportunities for work, growth and development.”

Hanan Ashrawi, the PLO's darling of the liberal media, is not saying that she rejects criticism of UNRWA. She is saying that criticism of UNRWA should not be allowed.

In other words, speech is only allowed when it adheres to Palestinian narrative. Otherwise, it should be banned.

That is how the supposed liberals of the Palestinian Arabs think.

Incidentally, these are exactly the kinds of "liberal values' that UNRWA teaches in its schools as well.

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The UN may recommend to criminalize Israeli falafel

CBC reports:

Indigenous advocates from around the world are calling on a UN committee to ban the appropriation of Indigenous cultures — and to do it quickly.

Delegates from 189 countries, including Canada, are in Geneva this week as part of a specialized international committee within the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a United Nations agency.

Since it began in 2001, the committee has been working on creating and finishing three pieces of international law that would expand intellectual-property regulations to protect things like Indigenous designs, dances, words and traditional medicines.

The meeting takes place as concern grows worldwide about the rights of cultures to control their own materials.

Speaking to the committee Monday, James Anaya, dean of law at the University of Colorado, said the UN's negotiated document should "obligate states to create effective criminal and civil enforcement procedures to recognize and prevent the non-consensual taking and illegitimate possession, sale and export of traditional cultural expressions."

Whatever the merits of this proposal - and to me it looks close to worthless - you just know that Palestinians, the people with next to no indigenous culture of their own*, will be chomping at the bit to claim that Israeli food staples like falafel, hummus and tehina are really stolen Palestinian culture and therefore Israelis have no right to - eat them. They'll go to the UN to condemn Israeli fashion designers who make variants of keffiyeh patterns. They might even try to claim that the Jerusalem skyline is part of Palestinian culture and Israel has no right to build new buildings.

Mark my words. It's going to happen and Mondoweiss and Electronic Intifada will write long, pseudo-scholarly articles to support it.
____________________________________
*The only exceptions I've ever seen of anything that could be considered culture that seemingly originated from Arabs in "historic Palestine" are soap from Nablus and costumes from Bethlehem.

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The official PA news agency Wafa had two stories on Friday that form an interesting juxtaposition.

One described how hard it was for Muslims to reach the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount for the third Friday in Ramadan due to Israeli checkpoints. The streets of the Old City are narrow and Israeli police must do crowd control on all religious holidays to make sure that people can get where they need to go. But Wafa quotes officials complaining that Israel restricted those under 40 from coming (because of terror fears), and the PA "foreign ministry" condemned Israeli actions.

An article posted a short time later said that, despite the heavy Israeli restrictions, 300,000 Muslims managed to reach the Temple Mount on Friday.

That is more Muslims visiting Judaism's holiest place in one day than the number of Jews who visited in the past thirty years.

But every time a couple of dozen Jews visit, it creates headlines - not only in Palestinian newspapers but throughout the Arab world.

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06/18 Links: German TV will show ‘censored’ antisemitism documentary; PA turns murderers into victims; Media, Murder and Israel

From Ian:

After pressure, German TV will show ‘censored’ antisemitism documentary

German public broadcaster ARD’s announcement on Friday that it will air a documentary about the outbreak of antisemitism in Europe and the Middle East comes after weeks of harsh criticism, including from Israel’s government, for allegedly censoring the widely praised film.
Volker Beck, a Green Party deputy in the Bundestag, who urged the Franco-German culture station ARTE to show the film, said on Saturday: “I welcome ARD’s willingness to show the antisemitism documentary. Now everybody can form an opinion. And that is good.”
ARD – the German association of public broadcasters that collectively is the world’s largest publicly funded broadcaster – said it will show the German- language film Chosen and Excluded – The Hate for Jews in Europe, on Wednesday evening.
Emmanuel Nahshon, the spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, “Israel believes the film should be shown and we find the decision not to show it very disturbing. Bild is to be congratulated for its initiative. The European public opinion should know the truth.”

Slain soldier Hadas Malka laid to rest

Thousands of friends and family attended MSG. Hadas Malka's funeral Sunday, two days after she was murdered in a terror attack near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City.
Officials who attended the funeral included Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan, Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh, Border Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai and other ministers and Knesset members.
Hadas' brother, Guy, eulogized her, saying, "You had so many dreams, we wanted to see you get married. Get up, please say this is a dream. Say this isn't you. A damn terrorist ruined our dreams. We will never forget you as our hero sister who defended Jerusalem. Watch over us from above, we love you forever."
Commissioner Alsheikh also spoke at the funeral, praising her for her courage and determination to serve the country. "You fought for the border police out of a deep sense of mission and desire to contribute. Your friends have said that you are full of values and loved your country and its people," Alsheikh said. "They say that in addition to being a professional and a patriot you were a great sister to all the other fighters, always worrying about everyone's wellbeing, always smiling, always willing to lend a helping hand."
Turning to the attack itself which ended Hadas's life, Alsheikh said, "You fought against a terrorist who attacked you, but unfortunately, we are standing here today seeing the cost: a fresh grave and pain for your family, the border police, the Israel police and the entire nation. I call upon all Israeli citizens to remember you, not just as a fighter against terrorism, but also as a fighter in the police's war for Israeli society, a war which isn't always given its proper recognition."

Benjamin Netanyahu slams Palestinian Authority after Jerusalem attack 'No limit to lies, brazenness'

The international community must demand that the Palestinian Authority end payments to the families of terrorists, “something that only encourages terrorism,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.
Netanyahu's comments came in the wake of the terrorist attack at the Damascus Gate on Friday night that killed Border Police officer Hadas Malka. Netanyahu noted that not only did the Palestinian Authority not condemn the murder, but Fatah – which is headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas – issued a statement condemning the Border Police for killing the terrorists.
“Apparently there is no limit to lies and brazenness,” he said.
Netanyahu said that the the same PA that refused to condemn the attacks will now pay salaries to the families of the murderers.
"I call on the nations of the world to condemn the murder and those who praise it, and to demand the immediate ending of Palestinian Authority payments to the families of terrorists,” he said.

Part of the documentary on European antisemitism translated to English (video)

A chunk of the documentary on European antisemitism that was barred from being shown on TV has been translated and subtitles added, by the Vlad Tepes blog.

Here are the three parts released so far:

(h/t EoL)

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UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nikolay Mladenov has shown his implicit support for Palestinian terror by attending an Iftar breakfast in honor of and support of terrorists and their families.

The PLO's Negotiations Affairs Department holds an annual Ramadan Iftar (breakfast) meal for diplomats. But it isn't only for diplomats - it is for families of terrorists in Israeli prison.

So Mladenov sat there, smiling, as Saeb Erekat said that terrorists should all be released and that all of Israel was "occupied territory:"

The iftar has become an annual tradition that brings together the families of prisoners and members of the diplomatic corps of Arabs and foreigners in Palestine. This year we remember the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, and 70 years since the Palestinian Nakba, and 50 years on the setback and the occupation of the rest of the land of Palestine.

We seek and work to end the occupation and and towards the embodiment of the sovereignty of the State of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital and the release of all prisoners without restriction who are freedom fighters, and the answer is the end of the Israeli occupation that lies in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem".

He also respectfully listened as the PA's Minister of Prisoner Affairs Issa Qarage confirmed that the point of the Iftar was to teach the diplomats how much the terrorists are suffering in Israeli jails (their cable TV channel selection is severely limited, according to the prisoner leaders), and insisted that the proud Palestinian people will continue to insist that the terrorists and their families be paid (with international funding, of course.) "Calling the prisoners and martyrs 'terrorists' is unacceptable...the occupation is the cause of terrorism in the region," Qarage told Mladenov.

Other speakers, including Marwan Barghouti's wife, emphasized how central the issue of rewarding terrorists and their families for attacking Israeli Jews is to the Palestinian people.

Mladenov, ever the diplomat, spoke as well about Israel's obligations to follow international law in its treatment of prisoners, without saying exactly what international laws are being broken by Israel today. He also expressed sympathy for the "suffering of the prisoners."

Mladenov didn't mention this event on his Twitter account.

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The PLO has again gone beyond satire. From the official Palestinian Authority new agency Wafa:

Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Saleh Rafat, said Thursday that any Israeli action against financial allowances made to families of prisoners and those killed by Israel is unacceptable.

The Knesset voted on Wednesday in the preliminary reading to deduct the equivalent of the allowances estimated at $280 million a year from the tax funds it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority on products entering through its ports but destined to the Palestinian areas.

Rafat accused in an interview on Voice of Palestine radio the Israeli parliament of piracy and of stealing the Palestinian money, saying it will not be accepted.

He stressed that Palestinians killed by Israel and the prisoners are victims of the occupation.

He said if Israel does carry out such an act, then the Palestinian Authority will take it to the International Criminal Court.

Yes, a PLO official is saying that Israel must pay the people who try to, or succeed, in murdering Israeli citizens - under international law.

Please, please go to the ICC, Mr. Rafat.

And beyond that: Please publicize this Israeli human rights violation widely. Especially in Europe, where Palestinians still have significant support among the people.

Please ask Amnesty and HRW to join you in this campaign. Publicly.

Please make sure that Mahmoud Abbas makes this demand the next time he addresses the UN.

Saleh Rafat, by all means, expose Israeli human rights abuses by its reluctance to reward terrorists and their families.

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06/17 Links: PM demands PA condemn Jerusalem attack; Marking a decade of Hamas rule in Gaza

From Ian:

Friends mourn Hadas Malka, stabbed to death near Old City, as ‘a true Wonder Woman’

Hadas Malka, 23, the Border Police officer stabbed to death by a Palestinian assailant in a terror attack outside Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday evening, had sent a final selfie to her friends just minutes before the attack, wishing “Shabbat Shalom to my loving friends.” Those friends on Saturday remembered her as loving and fearless — a “real-life Wonder Woman,” said one.
Staff Sergeant Malka was a resident of Moshav Givat Ezer in central Israel. She will be laid to rest on Saturday night at 12:30 a.m. in the southern city of Ashdod. She leaves behind parents and five siblings, three sisters and two brothers.
Heartbroken friends on Saturday recalled how they heard about the attack and tried to message her, as they did every time there was an incident in Jerusalem where she served, but this time she did not reply.
“I woke up from a nap and my mother told me there had been an attack in Jerusalem. I said how can there have been an attack? She just sent us a message,” Nofar Sarusi told the Ynet news site.
“Every time there was an attack in Jerusalem I would SMS her to see if she was okay and she would answer,” Sarusi said. “Yesterday she simply didn’t answer.”
The friends spoke of how Malka had been in the navy, but wanted to be a combat soldier and transferred to the Border Police where she did the rest of her mandatory military service and then extended it 15 months ago and became an officer.

Netanyahu demands PA condemn deadly Jerusalem attack

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday demanded that the Palestinian Authority condemn the terror attack in Jerusalem by three Palestinians in which Border Police officer Hadar Malka was stabbed to death.
“The Prime Minister demands that the Palestinian Authority condemn the attack and expects the international community to do so too,” a statement from his office said.
The statement came after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party condemned Israeli forces for shooting dead the three attackers.
In a statement late Friday, Fatah called the deaths of the three assailants, who attacked at two locations near Jerusalem’s Old City, a “war crime.”
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman responded bitterly to the Fatah stance, saying that it “shows there is no partner (for peace) on the other side.”
Liberman praised Malha, 23, who tried to draw her weapon and fought with her assailant as he was stabbing her, for the “determination and courage” with which she acted. She was “an inspiration to all of us,” he said.

Abbas’s Fatah slams Israel for killing 3 Palestinians carrying out fatal attack

Fatah, the political faction of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, condemned Israel for killing three Palestinians who killed Israeli police officer Hadas Malka and injured four others in a stabbing and shooting terror attack in Jerusalem on Friday.
In a statement, Fatah called the deaths of the three assailants, who attacked at two locations near Jerusalem’s Old City, a “war crime.”
All three of the assailants were members of Palestinian terrorist organizations, according to both Israel’s Shin Bet and Hamas.
Fatah “condemns the war crime carried out by Israeli occupation forces in Jerusalem against three Palestinian teens,” spokesperson Osama al- Kawasme said in a statement. Fatah added that “the international community’s silence emboldened Israel to further spill the blood of Palestinians.”
The three West Bankers, armed with an automatic weapon and knives, carried out near simultaneous attacks at two adjacent locations. Two attacked a group of police officers at Zedekiah’s Cave with an automatic weapon and knives, and a third stabbed Malka a short distance away at Damascus Gate.
The 23-year-old staff sergeant died of her wounds at Hadassah Hospital in Mount Scopus. Four other people were lightly and moderately injured in the attack — including a policeman and two East Jerusalem Palestinians. Some reports said the gun used by the attackers jammed, preventing further casualties.
The attackers were identified by the Shin Bet internal security agency as Bra’a Salah and Asama Atta, both born in 1998, and Adel Ankush, born the following year. They were shot dead by security forces as they carried out their attacks.

06/16 Links Pt2: Another Stunning Loss for Anti-Israel Academics; Kemp: How to Fight Terror - Learn From Israel

From Ian:

Border Police guard killed in Jerusalem attack named as Hadas Malka, 23

The Border Police officer killed in a coordinated stabbing and shooting attack in two areas in Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday was identified as Hadas Malka, 23.
She was a resident of Moshav Givat Ezer in central Israel, having joined the Border Police 15 months ago. She leaves behind parents and five siblings, three sisters and two brothers.
Malka was critically injured in a stabbing attack on Sultan Suleiman Street near Damascus Gate on Friday evening. She was transferred to Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus in Jerusalem where she underwent emergency surgery and later succumbed to her injuries.
She fought her attacker for several seconds while attempting to draw her weapon, according to a Border Police statement. Nearby troops shot and killed the assailant.
In a nearby location, at Zedekiah’s Cave, two attackers, one of them with a knife and another with a homemade Carl Gustav sub-machine gun, attacked a group of Border Police officers. The troops opened fire and killed them.

Another Stunning Loss for Anti-Israel Academics

That this resolution passed the Delegate Assembly 101 to 93 was stunning. While a number of academic organizations have voted down BDS resolutions, I know of no professional academic organization that has voted up a resolution rejecting BDS.
Yet the resolution to reject BDS had another high hurdle to clear, a full membership vote. The MLA, in order to prevent tiny minorities from speaking for the whole organization has a rule that resolutions require an affirmative vote of at least 10 percent of the entire membership to pass. Since only a small percentage of members typically bother to vote, it is very hard to muster that 10 percent, particularly when facing determined opposition. Moreover, insofar as humanities scholars lean even further left than the rest of the academy, one might expect them to be susceptible to the argument boycott advocates were making. To vote to reject BDS would be positively . . . Trumpian! As one prominent pro-BDS academic subtly puts it, “in a climate of rabid right-wing suppression of minority rights, of Trumpian chants to ‘build walls’ and ban Muslims, of egregious bigotry and hatred, any gesture curtailing political expression is a political disaster and a gift to reactionary zealots.”
But it turns out that even in the present political atmosphere and among left-liberals, the ritual invocation of Trump cannot disguise how contrary an academic boycott is to the spirit of scholarship and teaching the MLA claims to stand for. It cannot disguise how distasteful the BDS movement, which has flirted with anti-Semitism even in the course of otherwise staid MLA discussions, is. And it cannot disguise how harmful an endorsement of the anti-Israel boycott would be to the MLA’s reputation. The resolution to “refrain from endorsing the boycott” passed overwhelmingly, 1954 to 885.
Naturally, the boycotters plan to continue the struggle. They are not deterred that their attempt to pass a pro-BDS resolution has resulted instead in an anti-BDS resolution. Evidently the only thing worse than suffering a humiliating defeat is the idea of going back to teaching language and literature.

Eric Pickles: How did Corbyn’s comments on Hamas not put off voters?

Much has been made of the Conservative resurgence in Scotland, spearheaded by Ruth Davidson. Important though this is, commentators ought also to be looking at north London.
Were it not for the Jewish community’s strong support for Conservative candidates in north London, then Comrade Corbyn could well be in No 10 right now. The support prevented a near whitewash of the Conservatives in London. Steadfast friends of Israel and the Jewish community – Bob Blackman, Mike Freer, Matthew Offord and Theresa Villiers – held on narrowly thanks to support from Jewish constituents. Sadly, CFI officer David Burrowes lost in Enfield Southgate.
A Jewish Chronicle pre-election poll showed 77 percent of British Jews would vote Conservative. It’s only with hindsight that one can appreciate the significance of this. The UK’s Jewish community has a proud history of engaging in politics and this election offered a timely reminder of the importance of its voice.
Worryingly, it seems Jeremy Corbyn’s relationships with hardline and extremist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, simply didn’t concern British voters in a way one would have foreseen. It seldom came up on doorsteps. That this would fail to resonate at a time when Britain has suffered from three appalling Islamist terror attacks is acutely concerning.