(photo credit: Dov Epstein) |
(photo credit: Dov Epstein) |
(photo credit: Dov Epstein) |
. . . many of which now, as a result, belong to Jews: Jews who stayed the course, stayed in Israel, risking their lives.
(photo credit: Dov Epstein) |
(photo credit: Dov Epstein) |
(photo credit: Dov Epstein) |
- 7.47% of the PA's operational budget is for salaries to terrorist prisoners, released terrorists, and payments to families of "Martyrs" and woundedMurder of 11 at Savoy hotel in 1975 was “greatest and most wonderful quality operation,” says Fatah
- The PA has 2 budget categories rewarding terror; together they equal 44% of anticipated foreign aid
- New in 2018 Budget: For the first time since 2014, the PA is directly paying the Commission of Prisoners, which pays the salaries to terrorist prisoners; as a result, the PA now fits Israel's criteria to be declared a terror organization
Total PA 2018 operational budget: 16.559 billion shekels ($4.76 billion)
Salaries to terrorist prisoners: 550 million shekels ($158 million)
Payments to families of "Martyrs" and wounded: 687 million shekels ($197 million)
Total expenditure in budget categories rewarding terror = 1.237 billion shekels ($355 million)
For comparison: PA Ministry of Health which serves the entire population of 5 million has a budget of 1.787 billion shekels, a mere 44% more than 1.237 billion shekels serving the recipients in the two budget categories rewarding terror
In the same week that the United States passed the Taylor Force Act, which cuts off nearly all US aid to the Palestinian Authority if it continues paying salaries to terrorist prisoners and allowances to families of terrorist "Martyrs," the PA publicized the main parts of its 2018 budget. In open defiance of the US, other donor countries, and Israel, the PA's new budget shows it is continuing to reward terror. The amount the PA has budgeted to spend on the two categories that reward terror (salaries to prisoners and allowances to families of "Martyrs" and wounded) is 7.47% of the total operational budget. The amount equals 44% of the funding the PA hopes to receive in foreign aid in 2018, which is 2.79 billion shekels according to the budget.
United Nations agencies that single out Israel may soon be on the hook to lose a certain portion of US funding.'There's a tendency in Israel to demonize Sweden' (not satire)
According to a little-noticed provision in the massive government spending bill that President Donald Trump signed into law last week, UN agencies and entities that act against the United States or its allies, including Israel, could lose 5% of their US contribution.
The new law requires the secretary of state to consult with the US ambassador to the UN to determine if an “agency or entity has taken an official action that is against the national security interest of the United States or an ally of the United States, including Israel.” Israel is the only US ally that is explicitly named in both the bill’s text and its accompanying report language.
In an effort to sway UN policy, the law stipulates that the UN agency must take steps to change the policy in question before receiving the withheld funds. Otherwise, the funds are subject to reprogramming for other international organizations.
Josh Reubner, the policy director for the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, a coalition of groups supporting Palestinian statehood, denounced the new law as “yet another example of how the United States bends over backward to shield Israel from valid criticism at the UN.”
“It also shows how the Republican-led Congress is closely coordinating with the Trump administration to make good on its threat to punish the UN for criticizing Israel’s separate-and-unequal policies toward Palestinians,” added Reubner.
But US lawmakers and successive US administrations have long held that the UN singles Israel out for unfairly harsh treatment relative to other countries. Nonetheless, the Trump administration is considering options to make the UN more favorable to Israel.
Sweden’s ambassador to Israel on Tuesday claimed there was a tendency in Israel to “demonize” his country and in particular foreign minister Margot Wallstrom.
In an interview with i24news, the ambassador, Magnus Hellgren, also insisted he doesn’t see the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement as anti-Semitic.
Relations between Israel and Sweden have been tense in recent years. Wallstrom in particular has come under fire for her harsh anti-Israel comments.
In 2014, then-Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman denounced Sweden’s decision to recognize the Palestinian Authority (PA) as "the State of Palestine", saying that “relations in the Middle East are a lot more complex than the self-assembly furniture of IKEA”.
Wallstrom later replied and said she would be “happy” to send Liberman some IKEA furniture “and he will also see that what you need to put that together is, first of all, a partner.”
Following that incident, Wallstrom accused Israel of being “extremely aggressive” and accused the Jewish state of “irritating its allies”.
In December of 2015, she attacked Israel again, claiming during a debate in parliament that Israel was “executing” without trial terrorists who carried out stabbing attacks in Israel.
Over many years I taught a few bible excerpts from anthologies for literature survey courses, but it wasn’t until recently, in researching the history and symbology of Zionism, that I sat down and attentively studied the longer text. The context I found for the liberation of the ancient Hebrew people was, to say the least, disturbing. Aside from the traffic in women, the abuse of animals, the imperative to obedience, the copious administration of capital punishment, and the self-aggrandizement of an authoritarian in absolute command, there was the inescapable ultimate hook on which all the liberation depended: ethnic cleansing and genocide. Neither Yahweh nor his followers were troubled about the Chosen, upon release from bondage in Egypt, being gifted with “a land rich and broad, a land where milk and honey flow, the home of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites” (Exodus 3:7-9).Note that she only decided to read the Bible to research " the history and symbology of Zionism" - meaning, her reading was from the start meant to find ways to denigrate the children of Israel - i.e., the Jews.
I began to search for commentary on the dark side of the saga. Edward Said, in a 1986 essay, may have been the first to note that Exodus could certainly be regarded as a “tragic” and dystopic rather than uplifting tale. He described “the injunction laid on the Jews by God to exterminate their opponents” as “an injunction that somewhat takes away the aura of progressive national liberation…. [I]t isn’t clear how the dehumanization of anyone standing in Moses’ way is any less appalling than the attitudes of the murderous Puritans or of the founders of apartheid.”Yes, the poor Amalekites and Egyptians who stood in Moses' way. So innocent!
The Native American scholar Robert Warrior (Osage) was once a student of Said’s and has written movingly about the elder’s influence on his own thinking. In an influential 1989 essay called “Canaanites, Cowboys, and Indians,” Warrior expanded on Said’s perception that the Exodus narrative left little to rejoice in if read “with Canaanite eyes.” ....Putting the Canaanites at the center of the story completely upends Exodus as a paradigmatic liberation narrative.Malinowitz is obviously subscribing to the "Palestinians are Canaanites" myth, whether literally or figuaratively, because the analogy between the Israelites destroying the Canaanites and the Jews supposedly expelling the Arabs is too irresistible.
Zionism mobilizes race, gender, and sexuality in specific ways, which continue to be a topic of investigation and contestation in fields such as Women and Gender Studies. The history and contemporary discourse of racialized gender and sexuality for Jewish people in Zionism is a site of debate and political protest today--especially as the Israeli state’s project of “pinkwashing” is decried by queer activists internationally. In addition, there is strong contestation among feminists regarding Zionist ideologies. As the case of Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi illustrates, feminists are identifying and protesting contemporary conditions of emergency in Palestine, and pointing out how Zionism targets women and families in broader projects of racialized population control. This, among other histories of feminist debate, show that Zionism as a political ideology needs to be up for debate at minimum.Palestinian nationalism is not up for debate. Certainly, Palestinian misogyny is not up for discussion. The fiction of "pinkwashing" is not up for debate. The absurd idea that Zionism targets women specifically is not up for debate. Arab antisemitism is not even a remote possibility for discussion.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told French and German foreign ministers who visited Jerusalem today that he predicts "with high probability" that President Trump is going to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal on May 12th and urged the Europeans to agree to significant changes in the deal, Senior Israeli officials who attended the meetings told me.
Why it matters: The European powers — Germany, France and the U.K. — have been engaged in intense negotiations with the U.S. in an attempt to reach a formula that would save the Iran deal. The Europeans believe the chances of finding a formula which will satisfy Trump are very slim.
Netanyahu said changes will be needed to three parts of the deal to keep the U.S. from killing it:
1. Sanctions on the Iranian ballistic missile program
2. Inspections of suspicious sites in Iran
3. A removal of the the "Sunset clause" which would start to lift limitations on the Iranian nuclear program in nine years
According to the Israeli officials Netanyahu told the European foreign ministers:
"We can debate whether it (U.S. withdrawal from the deal) is a good thing or a bad thing, but it is just the reality. Then you Europeans will have to choose between the small economy of Iran and the huge economy of the U.S."
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told Netanyahu that the current deal is better than no deal. The Israeli officials said Netanyahu replied: "The Munich agreement from 1938 was also a deal. I also want to remind you what happened to the nuclear deal with North Korea."
French foreign minister Jean Yves Le Drian briefed Netanyahu on his recent visit to Tehran, saying he came back deeply disappointed and frustrated with the difficult position the Iranians presented regarding the European demands on the Iranian missile program and the Iranian activity in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, the Israeli officials said.
The muted Arab government reaction to President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is indeed a marker of what has changed — and what hasn’t. In absorbing that step, Arab governments have likewise had to reaffirm their Arab and Muslim solidarity with the Palestinian leadership and the Palestinian claim to Jerusalem. Israel achieved a symbolic victory, but it may face a more united Arab front if it follows up with new unilateral steps that impede Palestinian aspirations. If Israel’s government wants to cultivate Arab state goodwill, it will have to be sensitive to the concerns of Arab governments who face contrary public opinion.'Will UNESCO demand Western Wall be given to the Muslims?'
The new regional environment also presents Israel with new dilemmas it did not face when Sunni Arab states were uniformly hostile. The most vexing concerns whether Israel can tolerate the transfer of sophisticated Western arms and technology transfers to Arab governments. Traditionally, Israel has used its considerable political influence to prevent the United States, Europe, and even Russia from selling Arab militaries advanced technology that might erode the country’s vaunted “qualitative military edge.” It has also expressed unequivocal opposition to any possible transfer of sensitive nuclear technology to Arab states.
But what to do now that the eager seekers of such weapons and technology are Israel’s newfound “friends”? Can Israel afford the risk that in the future these states — which would then be much better equipped — might return to open confrontation? Israel already faced this dilemma regarding a pending sale of advanced German submarines to Egypt — and the disagreements among Israeli military and civilian leaders over this question have now resurfaced amid allegations of corruption and a criminal investigation surrounding Israeli relationships with the German submarine producer. Saudi Arabia’s recent quest for nuclear technology presents an even more vexing issue, since both states oppose Iranian nuclear capability — but to say the least, Israel is not comfortable with the idea of the Saudis acquiring such capabilities either.
It’s clear that today’s chaotic Middle East has created some strange bedfellows. For Israelis who have been isolated in their region for some 70 years, the possibilities are exhilarating. But the new horizons must not blind Israeli leaders or the Israeli public to tough choices they will have to make in dealing with their Arab frenemies in the months and years to come. Sometimes, it’s easier to have an implacable foe.
Several Arab states submitted a new draft resolution to the UNESCO organization on Jerusalem prior to the meeting of the organization's Executive Committee to take place immediately after the Passover holiday.UN Watch: Why is the UN defining Judaism as a war crime?
The proposal is very short, and at first glance appears to be devoid of offensive language against Israel. The title of the proposal deals with 'occupied Palestine', and states that the Old City of Jerusalem is an international heritage site with a Jordanian connection.
The proposal also includes a direct reference to UN General Assembly resolutions on the legal status of 'Palestine' and Jerusalem, and in particular UN Security Council Resolution 2334 which declares all Jewish presence over the so-called 'Green Line' illegal and the recent UN General Assembly resolution condemning US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
The Arab states included a reference to the importance of the sanctity of Jerusalem to all religions in order to avoid the appearance that the resolution is biased against Israel and the Jewish people.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Carmel Shama Hacohen said that "Israel cannot agree to the proposal because it is a package of all the elements we fought against in a miniature package, wrapped in a misleading cover. This is an attempt to persuade us to swallow a small poisonous pill in the shape of a well-wrapped candy, instead of a bucket of poison from previous times that was different in size and that smells very bad due to false, offensive and inflammatory expressions."
"The wording does not include false and offensive details as in the past, but in fact it contains references to all the decisions of the past, including those that the Arabs have already withdrawn from, such as the Islamization of the Western Wall and the Temple Mount through the back door. It is trying to drag countries that voted against this in the past to change the way they vote," added Shama Hacohen.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry began working to ensure that the proposal is not brought for a vote as soon as it was published.
At a recent ceremony at the El-Bireh High School for Girls, school principal Nida Abd Rabbo announced that promoting terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi as a role model to female students is an "educational responsibility":
"It's [the Al-Yasser Cultural Forum's] goal is to strengthen the affiliation with Palestine and its history, and to adhere to the Palestinian identity, because this is a great educational responsibility. The forum's goal is also to return the glory to the fighting Palestinian girls and women such as Dalal Mughrabi and others who sacrificed their lives for Palestine, and also to provide information and knowledge to these female students during recesses..."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 19, 2018]
Dalal Mughrabi led the most lethal terror attack in Israel's history, known as the Coastal Road massacre, in 1978, when she and other Fatah terrorists hijacked a bus on Israel's Coastal Highway, murdering 37 civilians, 12 of them children, and wounding over 70.
PA Minister of Education Sabri Saidam and Fatah Movement Central Committee member Jamal Muhaisen were also present at the ceremony. Palestinian Media Watch has documented that 5 PA schools are named after terrorist Dalal Mughrabi and dozens of other schools are named after other terrorist murderers.
At a ceremony celebrating International Women's Day, Secretary-General of the PA Chairman Abbas' office Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim also chose murderer Mughrabi as an example, pointing out that her role as leader of the attack is "testimony" of gender equality within Fatah:
"From the outbreak of our revolution in 1965, the outlook of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement - Fatah - has been clear in its social aspect; it saw no difference between women and men, and Dalal Mughrabi who led men is testimony to this."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 16, 2018]
Marking the 40th anniversary of Mughrabi's attack, Fatah posted a video praising her, focusing on the fact that the leader of the attack was a woman.
Prosecutors investigating the slaying of a Holocaust survivor in Paris said the two suspects in custody targeted her because she was Jewish.Parisians urged to take to streets after murder of Holocaust survivor
The development in the investigation of the March 23 slaying of Mirelle Kanol came with the arrest of two men on Monday, Le Figaro reported, citing a police source.
“The supposed or actual belonging of the victim to a religion was a grounds” for the attack, the source told Le Figaro, in addition to her being “vulnerable.”
One of the suspects in custody, a 29-year-old man, was a neighbor of Kanol and knew her well, Le Figaro reported.
In addition, Kanol’s son told the French news agency AFP that one of the suspects was a regular visitor of his mother whom she treated “like a son.” The son said the suspect had visited her that day.
The prosecutor’s office reportedly has asked that the suspects remain in preventative custody. They will face possible charges of “murder related to the victim’s religion, real or imagined,” as well as aggravated robbery and destruction of property, AFP reported, citing judicial sources.
On Sunday, a spokesperson for SPCJ, the official monitor and security unit of the French Jewish community, told the 7sur7 news website that a preliminary examination of the crime “does not reveal an anti-Semitic characteristic, but this possibility has not been discounted as police investigate further.”
French leaders and activists called for people to take to the streets to protest racism after prosecutors filed preliminary charges of murder with anti-Semitic motives Tuesday in the death of an elderly Jewish woman.Slain Holocaust survivor’s family: She’d known her killer since he was a boy
Mireille Knoll, 85, was killed Friday in her apartment, which was then set on fire, according to a French judicial official. Francis Kalifat, president of the Jewish group CRIF, said Knoll was stabbed 11 times.
Two men have been jailed in the case, according to the judicial official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media. They were handed preliminary charges of robbery, damaging property, and murder with anti-Semitic motives, he said.
According to reports, Knoll escaped a notorious World War II roundup of Paris Jews, in which police herded some 13,000 people — including more than 4,000 children — into a stadium and shipped them to the Auschwitz death camp in Nazi German-occupied Poland. Fewer than 100 survived.
Then aged 9, Knoll fled with her mother to Portugal, returning to France only after the end of the war.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo called on “all Parisians” to join a silent march Wednesday in memory of Knoll. Politicians across the political spectrum pledged to attend.
Family members of Mireille Knoll, the 85-year-old Holocaust survivor who was stabbed to death and set on fire in her Paris apartment on Friday night, told Israeli media on Tuesday she had known one of her assailants, a Muslim neighbor, since he was seven years old.
“My mother accepted everyone. Even the neighbor who murdered her, she has known since he was seven years old. When he was a boy, he helped her,” Knoll’s son Daniel told Army Radio.
“At first we weren’t sure [the murder] was due to anti-Semitism. We waited for police to say it, and now we know the truth,” he said. “Until now, I haven’t felt anti-Semitism in France. Of course there were dangerous Muslim extremists, but until today I didn’t feel in danger. I work with people from all walks of French society; many are afraid of Muslim extremists, but I didn’t feel that until now. Even today I’m not afraid. There are some who are uneducated, idiots, but they exist everywhere in the world.”
Noa Goldfarb, Knoll’s granddaughter who now lives in the sea-side Israeli town of Herzliya, also said her grandmother had known the suspect “since he was seven years old, and was always happy to see him. It’s unbelievable that it ended like this.”
In a Tuesday interview with Israel Radio, Goldfarb said, “Grandma didn’t believe in evil. That may be the reason she’s no longer with us.”
About 100,000 Tunisian Jews were forced to wear a yellow star during the Second World War, and thousands were sent to labor and concentration camps, where many were killed. One such victim was Victor "Young" Perez, one of the most prominent athletes to grow up in the Tunisian Jewish community.
Victor Perez was born on October 18, 1912 in French-ruled Tunisia. His father -- Khmaïssa, a household goods salesman – and mother, Rene, raised Victor and his four brothers.
Perez began training as a boxer together with his older brother Benjamin at the local "Maccabi" club. He idolized Battling Siki, an American-Senegalese light heavyweight champion, who was murdered in 1925.
Perez won his first match when he was 16. He left Tunis for France in order to compete in the flyweight category and won the French flyweight title in 1930.
On October 24, 1931, only days after turning 19, Perez was crowned world flyweight champion after defeating the American Frankie Genaro. Perez thus became the youngest world champion in history. He also caught the attention of gossip columns for his relationship with the French-Italian actress Mireille Balin.
Victor Perez's career continued until December 1938, by which time he had achieved 92 victories. He lost 26 matches, and another 15 ended in ties.
Despite growing anti-Semitism, Perez continued living in Paris, and even travelled to Berlin for a match in November 1938. When France was defeated by the Germans in 1940, Perez attempted to flee together with a friend, but returned. On September 21, 1943, weeks before his 31th birthday, Perez was arrested by the Gestapo. He was sent to the Drancy concentration camp in France together with 1,000 prisoners – and then on to Auschwitz.
He was forced to perform manual labor and to participate in boxing matches to entertain the Nazis.
The Germans allowed Perez to train at first, but after a match against an SS member he was subject to treatment similar to that of the other prisoners.
On January 22, 1945, Perez was shot dead by a Nazi soldier during the death march from the camp. He was 35 years old.
Perez was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1986. A film called "Victor Young Perez", based on his life, was screened at festivals in 2013.
Buy EoZ's book, PROTOCOLS: EXPOSING MODERN ANTISEMITISM
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The Apartheid charge, the Abraham Accords and the "right side of history"
With Palestinians, there is no need to exaggerate: they really support murdering random Jews
Great news for Yom HaShoah! There are no antisemites!