07/25 Links Pt1: Murray: Terror is the new normal for Germany and France; The shape of things to come

From Ian:

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Douglas Murray: Terror is the new normal for Germany and France

At such moments one can feel the political axis of Europe wobble. Too many fixed narratives are at risk. For some people Sonboly is obviously an Islamist. For others he is obviously a white nationalist. Others will claim that he only did what he did because of failed housing systems in the Munich area, insufficient welfare payments or bullying at school. I say we wait. Especially now a 16-year old Afghan friend of the Munich shooter has been taken into custody.
But the coverage of the attack was revealing. Was it a surprise that the BBC and other broadcasters stopped broadcasting the Munich gunman’s middle name? Perhaps. It certainly seems at one with the audible sigh of relief when the name of Breivik emerged. Hurrah – went the barely-disguised speech-bubble over everyone’s heads – now we can blame racist European society. Though you won’t find many people in Europe who thinks Breivik’s actions should dictate Europe’s foreign or domestic policies. Whereas you can find many ‘moderate’ Muslims and left-wingers in our media and politics who find Islamist terrorists to be a helpful advance wing of their own political agenda.
Nevertheless, this is going to require caution. When an Iranian born in Germany can be portrayed as a white nationalist but a set of ‘Allahu Akbar’-shouting Mohammeds are symptomatic of nothing in particular, you know our continent is engaged in a piece of cognitive dissonance from which we will be wrestled only very reluctantly.

MEMRI: Following ISIS Attacks, Arab Journalists Call To Acknowledge Existence Of Muslim Extremism; Reexamine Religious Texts

The large number of terrorist attacks carried out by ISIS in Western countries over the past year – including the July 14 truck attack in Nice, France (84 dead, some 100 wounded), the June 12 shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida (49 dead, over 50 wounded), the March 22, 2016 combined attacks in Brussels, Belgium (32 dead, over 300 wounded), and the combined attacks in Paris, France in November 2015 (129 dead, 350 wounded) – has sparked a wave of harsh criticism in the Arab and Islamic world, both due to the fear of Western responses and the increase of Islamophobia, and due to the torrent of youths who flock to the extremist organization.
Alongside the many articles that stressed that terrorist attackers do not represent Islam and operate out of outside interests, there have been an increasing number of articles in the Arab media calling to acknowledge that Islam, and the obsolete interpretations of it that are still applied today, are indeed related to the wave of global terrorism. Writers called on Muslims to be honest and admit the existence of Muslim religious extremism instead of blaming others, and to uproot it. The writers argued that the source of ISIS's extremist ideology is the Muslim social and cultural structure and that Muslims must therefore declare a war on this "cultural affliction" in their midst. According to them, this war requires fundamental reforms in Islamic interpretations alongside reforms in cultural, governmental and education patterns in Arab countries, which, they say, cause many Muslims to harbor covert sympathy for ISIS.
Many writers argued that most of ISIS's religious practices are drawn from the most important Islamic law books, while stressing that these laws do not reflect explicit Koranic dictates, but rather the opinion of jurisprudents that lived in a certain reality that is no longer relevant today. Therefore, they explained that in order to rescue the universal values of Islam from the culture of ignorance, backwardness, and violence, the Islamic jurisprudents of today must critically and rationally review the history of Islam and its religious texts, and adapt Islamic interpretations and laws to the spirit of the times, while taking into account the current circumstances and the greater good. In their opinion, some Islamic dictates should even be cancelled altogether to conform with universal progressive values such as liberties and human rights.

Germany: Suicide bomber 'refugee' had ISIS material on phone

German authorities announced Monday that they found a video on the mobile phone of a Syrian suicide bomber who blew himself up in Germany in which he "pledged allegiance" to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said the man, who has not been named, also "announced an act of revenge against Germans because they were standing in the way of Islam."
Other jihadist propaganda was found on his phone, as well as his laptop, police say.
"Some Salafist content was found," Hermann added.
A total of two phones, several SIM cards and a laptop were discovered on the bomber's body and at his apartment, the minister added.

ISIS claims Germany suicide bombing

The Syrian failed asylum seeker who blew himself up outside a music festival in Germany was a "soldier" of the Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS), the jihadist group's Amaq propaganda arm said on Monday.
It quoted an "insider source" as saying Sunday's attacker in the southern city of Ansbach who wounded 15 people "was a soldier of the Islamic State" who had acted "in response to calls to target nations in the coalition fighting" ISIS.
The latter statement appears to indicate that the bomber acted on his own, or with limited guidance from the terror group itself, but was "inspired" to act by ISIS propaganda, which has repeatedly called upon Muslims in Western countries to carry out lone wolf-style attacks. It is a pattern also seen in the aftermath of an ax and knife attack by another recent Muslim immigrant to Germany - whose attack ISIS took credit for soon after.

Ex-congresswoman claims Israel behind European massacres

A former US congresswoman claimed on Twitter that an Israeli photographer had been on hand for massacres in Nice and Munich, proving that Israel had a hand in both attacks.
Cynthia McKinney, a Democrat and former member of the US House of Representatives from Georgia, posted a video on Twitter with the message: “Same Israeli photographer captures Nice and Munich tragedies. How likely is that? Remember the Dancing Israelis?…”
The video claimed that Richard Gutjahr, a German journalist married to former Israeli Knesset member Einat Wilf, had been present for both a rampage by a truck driver in Nice, France, earlier this month that left 84 dead, and a shooting at a mall in Munich in which nine teenagers were killed.
Gutjahr’s Twitter profile shows he posted pictures from Nice but not from Munich. He is not known to have taken Israeli citizenship.

Vic Rosenthal: The shape of things to come (with apologies to H. G. Wells)

Things are getting worse and they will probably get much worse before getting better. It isn’t going to be easy for Israel to survive in the coming chaotic world. So here are some of my suggestions:

1. PM Netanyahu’s efforts to improve relationships with India, Russia, China, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and several smaller African nations (did I leave anything out?) are a good thing. Chad won’t replace Germany, but in a wild melee, every friend counts.
2. We need to keep maximum strategic depth. It would be very stupid to open up an eastern door to Iran or Da’esh in return for Western guarantees. The West can’t guarantee its own borders, never mind ours. Just say no to two-state stupidity.
3. We need to maintain our military strength, even in scenarios in which we can’t depend on the US. The F-35 that the US is selling Israel is very expensive, has numerous problems, is not a match for the latest Russian fighters, and doesn’t meet our needs for a long-range attack aircraft capable of hitting Iran. The US would not agree to provide a new F-15 stealth variant instead of additional F-35s. It may be too late to develop our own, but there are other countries that manufacture capable aircraft, including Russia and China.
4. We should take steps to reduce the ability of other countries, especially the US, to intervene in our politics and our military operations. Get rid of the European-paid NGOs and the American radar installations. Stock up on ammunition and equipment that is hard to replace.
5. We should encourage European Jews to make aliyah. This might be a short-term burden for Israel, but it could save their lives. In the long term it will benefit our economy and society.

Israel Deserves Better

The German intelligence service recently reported many clandestine Iranian attempts to obtain dual-use chemical, biological and nuclear technology.
In the Iran nuclear deal, the parties decided to engage "in different areas of civil nuclear co-operation," including construction and modernization of Iranian light water reactors, provision of technical assistance and on-the-job training. Meanwhile, Israel has been denied a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement with the US.
Israel's reported MOU requests on security assistance, missile defense, and regional qualitative military advantage are justified.
The terms of any U.S.-Israel agreement must withstand comparison to the concessions offered Iran in the JCPOA and show unequivocally that Israel, a trusted ally and major strategic partner, fared better in negotiations than an unconstrained enemy.

Palestinians call for UNSC action over new Israeli building plans in east Jerusalem

The Palestinian Authority has called on the United Nations Security Council to act against Israeli settlement building, in the wake of the Jerusalem Municipality’s decision to advance 770 new Jewish homes in its Gilo neighborhood, which is located over the Green Line.
“This is yet another opportunity for the international community to show its real commitment for the two-state solution and to take all needed action in order to have Israel fully cease settlement construction in the occupied state of Palestine,” PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat said.
“We have asked the State of Egypt and the leaders of Arab countries during our recent visit to call for an urgent meeting of the Arab Quartet in order to submit a draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council to halt settlement expansion,” Erekat said.
Israel holds that Jerusalem would remain its united capital in any final status agreement with the Palestinians for a two-state solution. As such, it has said, that it has a right to build homes for its residents in all areas of the city.

Netanyahu says he’ll quit soon… as foreign minister

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that he intended to give up some of the four additional ministerial posts he currently holds, including that of foreign minister. But he didn’t say when.
At a stormy session of the Knesset’s State Control Committee, Netanyahu faced two hours of critical questions by opposition lawmakers on his foreign policy, including over the fact that he has held the Foreign Ministry portfolio since the 2015 elections. He also fills the roles of economy minister, communications minister and regional affairs minister.
He told Knesset members at the meeting that he intended to give up “a few portfolios soon.” He added that, “I don’t want to hold on to the Foreign Ministry forever,” but did not say when he would appoint someone to that post or any of the others he holds. (The prime minister has kept the multiple portfolios under his control to make them available to possible coalition partners, but has also been criticized for the influence he has consequently been able to exert in the multiple fields.)
“I didn’t say there is no need for a full-time foreign minister,” he said at the end of the two-hour session. “I am the full-time foreign minister.”

Knesset Members to Visit Saudi Arabia, Recognized Relations with Israel Come to Light

Arab-Israeli member of the Knesset Issawi Frej told Israeli state media on Sunday that preparations are ongoing for a visit of opposition members in the Israeli parliament to Saudi Arabia—a first of its kind.
Frej, 52, member of the left-leaning Meretz party told the state broadcasting service Voice of Israel that a Saudi delegation that visited Israel last week and met with opposition MPs expressed willingness to enhance relations with Israel.
The Saudi delegation was headed by retired general Anwar Eshki and included academics and businessmen but, according to Israeli media, did not include officials. However, the delegation met with Israeli officials including director general of the Israeli foreign ministry Dore Gold.
The meeting of the Saudi delegation with opposition members in the Knesset was attended by member of the central committee in the Palestinian Fattah movement Jibril Rajoub.
Both the Saudi visit and the planned Israeli one serve as an example of the rapidly developing bilateral relations between the two countries that have been officially unrecognised since the two close-in-age countries were established. Saudi authorities deny visas for citizens of Israel or foreigners who have visas for Israel in their passports.

Proposed Knesset Bill Seeks One-for-One Prisoner Swaps; No Dead Israelis in Exchange for Live Terrorists

According to a new Israeli bill, prisoner swaps will now involve a one-to-one equation, with no more than a single terrorist released in exchange for an abducted, missing or dead IDF soldier, Israel Radio reported on Sunday.
The proposed bill also states that no live terrorists will be exchanged for dead Israelis. In addition, it says, in the event of a kidnapping of an Israeli, the conditions of prisoners in Israeli jails who belong to the terrorist organization that committed the abduction will be made harsher.
In the explanatory section of the bill – initiated by MK Elazar Stern of the centrist Yesh Atid party – a reference is made to the fact that in all the prisoner exchanges thus far, a total of some 7,500 terrorists have been released in exchange for 14 live Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers, and for the bodies of six soldiers.

Australia moves to indefinite detention of terrorists

High-risk terror offenders may be kept in jail after their sentences finish, Australian officials said Monday as they move to tighten security laws following attacks in the United States and Europe.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the proposed changes were prompted by an increase in the frequency and severity of terrorist attacks around the world as he noted the recent mass shooting in Orlando and a lorry attack in Nice, France.
"In the wake of Orlando, Nice, and other terrorist incidents, as well as our own experience... we cannot afford for a moment to be complacent," Turnbull said.
In response to the evolving threat, he said Australia, which has already ramped up security laws since 2014, would move to keep high-risk terrorists in detention beyond the completion of their sentences.
"This legislation will enable additional periods of imprisonment for terrorist offenders who have served their sentences but are still judged to present an unacceptable risk to the community," he said in a statement.

Lecturer at Ben Gurion University: The Jews are stealing answers

Racism at Ben Gurion University? Channel 10 reported that one of the lecturers in a course on biological sciences sent an email intended for his Arab students - but which the Jewish students received, as well - in which he asserted that the Jews are "stealing answers" on tests.
In the letter, the lecturer wrote: "After checking the grades, I realized the Arab students had a problem. You don't have to be shy during the test. Raise your hand and ask about what is unclear. Your Jewish friends ask questions to verify, or "steal," answers from the lecturer. That's one of the reasons they can get higher grades."
The lecturer quickly realized his mistake, however, later sending another email in which he clarified that " the goal of the previous email was to encourage Arab students to ask questions because they are shy - and therefore make extraneous mistakes. In order to encourage them, I compared them to Jewish students who aren't embarrassed to ask questions on every topic, something which I view very positively. I apologize if somebody interpreted it differently and was hurt by it."
However, the student cited in the article said that "the email was written in a racist fashion, in which the lecturer represents the 'Jews' as those that know how to ask questions and 'steal' answers, while the Arab population is embarrassed to ask. After the email was posted on social media, the lecturer sent a 'letter of apology,' in which he basically threatened us by saying that posting private emails on social media is a criminal offense which is punishable."

Palestinian Authority Fears Hamas Will Win October's Municipal Elections

Hamas is likely to win the Palestinian municipal elections scheduled for October, Fatah and Palestinian Authority officials fear.
The Hamas movement, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, has recently agreed to hold elections in the Strip, and announced it would take part in the elections in the West Bank as well.
Hamas Spokesperson Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri said that his movement would put forth lists of politically unaffiliated “technocrats who would be at the best service of the people.”
Hamas sees the municipal elections as an opportunity to regain a foothold in the West Bank in the wake of severe repression against its terrorist as well as civilian infrastructures by the Israel Defense Forces and the PA’s security services.
Elements within Hamas are pushing to form coalitions with local movements so that the IDF will be unable to prevent their participation.

PreOccupiedTerritory: Teacher No Longer Accepting ‘The Occupation’ As Homework Excuse (satire)

Parents and students at the Yasser Arafat Primary School expressed outrage today that a fourth-grade teacher at the institution now refuses to excuse missed assignments attributed to Israeli military occupation.
Students came home from school yesterday and related that their teacher had issued an ultimatum regarding homework, which reportedly is done infrequently and inadequately, with the poor performance usually blamed on the Occupation. According to the students, as of next week the class, which is in session over the summer to make up for time during the school year lost to violent demonstrations against Israel, must submit its homework in better order.
The parents of all thirty children in the class of Yusuf Ahmad were kept out of school Monday in protest over the teacher’s policy change, which they say undermines the national ethos and promotes normalization with the enemy. A spokesman for the parents told reporters they had sent a letter to the principal of the school and to the Ministry of Education, demanding that Mr. Ahmad either revert to the previous homework policy or resign.
“We cannot allow this man to continue to poison the minds of our children,” warned Jabber Mustaki, whose son is in the class. “We spend years inculcating certain values into our children, and now we face the prospect of them not seeing the Occupation as the root of all evil. It goes against everything we’ve been working for, and against the explicit policies of the Ministry of Education.”

Assassination plot reported against Egypt’s President Sissi

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi reportedly canceled a visit to Mauritania, where an Arab League summit starts Monday, due to “credible information” of a plot to assassinate him in Nouakchott, the nation’s capital.
Egypt’s delegation at the summit is instead being headed by Prime Minister Ismail Sherif.
A presidential statement gave no reason for Sissi’s cancellation but the Egyptian press carried unconfirmed reports of a possible planned attempt on Sissi’s life during the gathering in the Mauritanian capital.
In a statement, presidential spokesperson Alaa Youssef denied that Sissi canceled the trip out of security fears but did not give a reason for the cancellation.
The private-owned Al-Masry al-Youm daily reported that the president’s office received “credible information” about the plot and based on it, the president decided not to go.

Hamas — and Erdogan’s Funny Definition of Democracy

Hamas was one of the many entities rushing to congratulate Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his successful quashing of the attempted coup against his government last weekend. Like leaders of other countries worldwide, the heads of the terrorist organization ruling the Gaza Strip hailed Erdogan’s success as a “victory for democracy.”
Unlike those who waited for the military takeover to fail before applauding the autocrat in Ankara, Hamas was genuinely relieved. After all, the Islamist Palestinian group has no greater friend than Erdogan.
Thus, Hamas has been able to proceed with its summer activities in a particularly festive manner. Two of these activities are particularly worthy of note.
The first is a special exhibit marking the second anniversary of Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s 2014 incursion into Gaza to destroy the terrorist infrastructure — tunnels and missile-launchers — used by Hamas to kidnap and kill innocent Israelis.
Though Israel managed to decimate much of the infrastructure, leaving swaths of Gaza in ruins, Hamas did not feel defeated; nor should it have. No military match for the mighty Israeli army, it nevertheless succeeded in sending the Israeli populace into bomb shelters several times a day, while retaining political power and several tunnels and subsequently buckets of money and materials with which to keep its terror mill running.

Turkey and Erdogan: Here comes the (real) caliphate

Erdogan wants power for himself, but he also, sincerely, wants it for his faith. He’s a true believer and a megalomaniac. His ambitions will ultimately lead Turkey, its neighbors and, quite possibly, its blind, bewildered allies into a succession of bloody tragedies, but for now he has real support among half of the population, those for whom the fever of faith is the ultimate intoxicant. He polls better than Hitler did. “Mein Kampf” is no match for the Holy Koran.
In recent years, the term “Islamo-fascism” has been thrown around a good bit, usually by those who understand neither Islam nor fascism. But “Islamist fascism” genuinely fits Erdogan’s program: populist intolerance justified by faith and harnessed by a leader who explains any failure in terms of victimhood. Erdogan offers exaltation and revenge, the tastiest dish in politics.
And, as in Nazi Germany, those confident citizens who deluded themselves that the new leader could be managed find themselves in prison cells or desperate for visa stamps in their passports (if their documents haven’t already been confiscated).
The double-speak language, the naked propaganda, is present, too — as in Erdogan’s claim that his purge of the opposition will strengthen Turkish democracy. His version of democracy is less convincing than Putin’s.
From Reichskanzler to Fuehrer, or from president to sultan-and-caliph, to Erdogan the step appears inevitable. It’s only a matter of timing.
Among the would-be sultan-and-caliph’s cynical initiatives this week has been floating the revival of the death penalty for treason — in order to finish off key opponents permanently and intimidate those permitted to survive. But the real execution warrant has been issued: Erdogan killed the secular Turkey of Ataturk, the dream that a Muslim nation could take its place in the front rank of civilization.

Like Stalin, Erdogan Likely to Be Left With No Personnel to Run, Defend Country, Israeli Expert Says

Like infamous Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in the wake of massive purges of perceived opponents, Turkey’s leader is liable to find himself in a predicament of the double-edged-sword variety — in the form of a severe shortage of professional manpower to run the country, an expert told the Hebrew news site Walla on Sunday.
Referring to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ousting – so far — of more than 60,000 members of the government, the military, the police, academia, the media, the judiciary, the religious establishment and even the sports world, a Turkish-studies professor at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University said that Ankara’s greatest problem in the coming months will be rebuilding the country’s mechanisms practically from scratch.
Prof. Dror Ze’evi explained: “The public sector will crash. The education system, the judicial system, and [others] will be dealt a heavy blow… And the people Erdogan instates will be far less familiar with the areas they will be charged with handling and have no experience.”

'Possible that Erdogan engineered coup,' former Pentagon official tells ‘Post’

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a “megalomaniac” and could have manufactured the July 15 coup d’état attempt to rehabilitate his domestic image, Harold Rhode, a former longtime Pentagon official and Turkey specialist, told The Jerusalem Post.
“Giving into the Russians and Israelis in order to repair relations with them was humiliating” for him in the eyes of many Turks and people in the Middle East, said Rhode in an interview on Sunday.
Thus, Erdogan’s contrived victory over the supposed coup attempt shows the world that he is still powerful, said Rhode.
“It is quite possible that Erdogan engineered and then defeated the supposed coup so that he could redeem his honor,” he argued. According to this scenario, Turks and other Middle Easterners would understand this as a great victory.
“Turks have a tendency to see themselves as either the most important force in the world or the weakest, and this can fluctuate,” he explained, regarding the Turkish mentality.

Israel and Cyprus downplay crisis in ties over Turkey reconciliation

Jerusalem and Nicosia downplayed any crisis in ties as Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades flew to Israel Sunday evening for a hastily arranged meeting expected to focus on developments in Turkey and energy issues.
The meeting, planned late last week, fueled speculation of sudden difficulties in the relationship as a result of the rapprochement agreement Israel and Turkey signed last month.
Israel’s relationship with both Cyprus and Greece has flowered in recent years, both as a result of the discovery of natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean and because of the steady deterioration of Israeli-Turkish ties since Recep Tayyip Erdogan first came to power in 2002.
One diplomatic source in Jerusalem said Israel had kept Nicosia abreast of its negotiations to reconcile with Turkey, and that there was nothing dramatic about Anastasiades’s trip. The source said a face-toface meeting was warranted as a result of the developments in Turkey following the failed coup there two weeks ago.
Anastasiades, in comments before meeting Netanyahu, said he and the premier both meet and speak on the phone regularly.

Turkey issues warrants for 42 journalists after coup

Turkish authorities on Monday issued arrest warrants for over 40 journalists in a new phase of the controversial legal crackdown after the failed coup, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was to host opposition party chiefs for an unprecedented meeting.
Over 13,000 people have been detained so far in a vast sweep in the wake of the July 15 coup bid, which the authorities blame on the reclusive US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Istanbul anti-terror prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 42 journalists as part of the investigation into the failed coup, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
Among those targeted by the warrants were prominent journalist Nazli Ilicak, who was fired from the pro-government Sabah daily in 2013 for criticizing ministers caught up in a corruption scandal, it added.
There was no indication any of the journalists had been detained so far.

Thousands of Turkey coup prisoners 'raped, starved and hogtied'

Turkish troops imprisoned after the failed military coup are being raped, starved and left without water for days, it is claimed.
Many of the 10,000 detainees are locked up in horses’ stables and sports halls - some hogtied in horrific stress positions, according to human rights campaigners.
Amnesty International has called for immediate access to prisoners after the coup a week ago which sparked a brutal crackdown and a three-month state of emergency.
More than 200 died in the uprising which aimed to topple dictatorial President Recep Erdogan - and 1,500 were injured.
Amnesty says it has ‘credible evidence’ Turkish police are holding detainees in stress positions for up to 48 hours, denying them food, water and medical treatment and in the worst cases some have been subjected to severe beatings and torture, including rape.

American Jew among those killed fighting ISIS alongside Kurds in Syria

Levi Jonathan Shirley was killed on Thursday in the battle for Manbij, a city in northern Syria, 30 kilometers west of the Euphrates River.
Kurdish and Arab forces from the Syrian Democratic Forces have been fighting to take Manbij from Islamic State for the last month in a major offensive.
Shirley is the second American to be killed in Syria fighting ISIS as a member of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Shirley joined the YPG in February 2015, according to reports, and after returning to the US he went back in January 2016 to fight ISIS. He participated in the battle for Kobani, which became a symbol of resistance to ISIS. His mother, Susan Shirley, told reporters that he wanted to fight ISIS which he saw as evil because it was persecuting the defenseless.
“He had a very big heart...
He was so brave to go back the second time, knowing what he was in for. He just really cared about the underdog,” she said.

Iran complains to IAEA over leaked document on nuclear deal

Iran announced Sunday it will lodge a protest with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over recent media leaks of confidential information about the country's long-term nuclear program, PressTV reports.
Last week, The Associated Press news agency exposed a classified document which revealed that key restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program imposed under an internationally negotiated deal will start to ease years before the 15-year accord expires.
In response, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi said Sunday that “the parts [of the document] published were confidential and were supposed to remain so.”
“Our assumption is that it has been leaked by the (IAEA) Agency,” the Iranian official added, according to PressTV.
AEOI head Ali Akbar Salehi said on Saturday that Iran had asked the IAEA to keep the data on Tehran’s long-term nuclear program confidential as there is no reason to make the information public.
Tehran also agreed that a joint commission, which oversees the implementation of the nuclear agreement, will be notified of the plans in a confidential manner, Salehi was quoted as having said.

Iran destroys 100,000 satellite dishes in crackdown

Iran destroyed 100,000 satellite dishes and receivers on Sunday as part of a widespread crackdown against the illegal devices that authorities say are morally damaging, a news website reported.
The destruction ceremony took place in Tehran in the presence of General Mohammad Reza Naghdi, head of Iran’s Basij militia, who warned of the impact that satellite television was having in the conservative country.
“The truth is that most satellite channels… deviate the society’s morality and culture,” he said at the event according to Basij News.
“What these televisions really achieve is increased divorce, addiction and insecurity in society.”
Naghdi added that a total of one million Iranians had already voluntarily handed over their satellite apparatuses to authorities.

IsraellyCool: Zionist Jellyfish Of Deathᵀᴹ

The Iran Project reported yesterday that,
Israel behind extinction of Caspian Sea caviar
An introduced or non-indigenous species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its native distributional range, which has arrived there by human activity, either deliberate or accidental. Non-native species can have various effects on the local ecosystem.
“Introduced species can disturb the ecosystem of an area,” Seyyed Jafar Mousavian, the Deputy Head of Intelligence and Operation Department at the Biological Headquarters of Civil Defence Organization, said in an interview with Mehr News Agency, as translated by IFP.
Some species can do more harm than good to an ecosystem, he noted.
He noted that Caspian seal, Kilka and Sevruga fish belong to the Caspian Sea; however, comb jellies are alien species that have come from the Atlantic Ocean.
“We firmly believe that the Zionist regime [Israel] is behind the conspiracy of nuisance species as they had sworn to do so,” Mousavi added.

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07/24 Links: Economist Al Durah Cartoon Self-Destructs; The Terrifying Power of Muslim Interpreters

From Ian:

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German University's course claims Israel harvests Palestinian organs

An academic seminar at a German university claims Israel’s military harvests organs from Palestinians and the Jewish state is responsible for a genocide.
“Our sons were robbed of their organs,” was the title of a part of the seminar’s course material, Rebecca Seidler, an academic who blew the whistle on the anti-Israel material, told the weekly German-Jewish newspaper Jüdische Allgemeine Zeitung in a Thursday article.
The paper reported that the University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HAWK) offers a course on “The Social Situation of Youths in Palestine,” which contains the allegedly anti-Semitic material.
After reviewing the content of the course, Seidler, who was slated to conduct the seminar, complained to the university’s management. The Dean of the faculty of Social Work and Health, Christa Paulini, dismissed Seidler’s criticism in a telephone conversation as being overly-sensitive.
Seidler told the JAZ that material showed “a picture of a genocide on the Palestinians, an ethnic cleansing as well as a complete disenfranchisement of Palestinians by Israel.”
The seminar syllabus also covered the “victims of torture in Israeli prisons,” said Seidler. The JAZ wrote the seminar conveyed “anti-Semitic stereotypes.”

Syrian refugee arrested for killing woman in Germany machete attack

One woman was killed and two people were injured on Sunday by a man wielding a machete in the southwestern German city of Reutlingen, near Stuttgart.
Police said a 21-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker was arrested for the attack, according to German news service dpa.
According to Presse Portal, the suspect was known to authorities.
Bild reported that he attacked his victims outside a kebab shop in the city.
The attack comes as Germany is on edge, following a rampage at a Munich mall on Friday night in which nine people were killed, and an ax attack on a train earlier in the week that left five wounded.

Germany: The Terrifying Power of Muslim Interpreters

Interpreters Decide on Asylum
Non-Muslim refugees, in particular, complain of the pressure exerted on them by Muslim interpreters. As Gatestone Institute has already reported, Christians and other non-Muslims are beaten, threatened, and harassed in German refugee homes. One of the reasons that German authorities do not intervene has to do with the Muslim interpreters, says Paulus Kurt, head of the work groups for the Central Committee of Eastern Christians in Germany (ZOCD):
"Interpreters belonging to the Islamic religion often stick with the defendants. I am aware of statements in which interpreters have pressured and supposedly said to Christians, on the way to the police or beforehand: 'If you complain, you can forget your application for asylum.' I often noticed that statements were retracted because Christians were threatened."
The effects of these abuses of power are devastating: interpreters in Germany have great influence on who is granted asylum. In a November 2015 open letter to Frank-Jürgen Weise, the head of their agency, employees of the Federal Agency for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), pointed out the potential problems of this system within their agency:
"A Syrian is someone who identifies himself as a Syrian in writing (checks the proper box on the questionnaire), and the interpreter (usually not sworn in, or from Syria) confirms it. The interpreters are neither employed by the Federal Agency, nor are they in any way sworn in to the legal system of the Federal Republic of Germany. Ultimately, examination of the asylum application is left solely to these interpreters -- insofar as it involves the verification of nationality and, therefore, the country of persecution. In our view, a decision-making process such as this, which is practiced on a massive scale, is not in keeping with due process."

Edgar Davidson: If World War 2 had been conducted like the current 'war on terror' (satire)

If World War 2 had been conducted the way Western Governments are now conducting the Jihad war being fought against them we might have had the following kind of behaviour:
The Scene: May 1940. We have just gone through the 254th consecutive night of German bombers blitzing London. The British Government announces its total surprise that on this particular night London should have been chosen to be attacked. The PM goes on the radio and makes the following statements about the current "War on Airplane bombers":
Nobody should jump to conclusions about who might be responsible for this particular bombing, especially as we have no conclusive evidence yet that any of the previous 253 bombing raids were in any way related.
In fact, our intelligence on previous raids reveals they were carried out by men from different cities with nothing whatsoever in common other than the fact that the cities all happened to be in Germany. What we must not do is infer from this that the German people mean us any harm whatsoever especially as their Government adheres to the Nazi philosophy which we know seeks worlds peace.

De-Judaization and Palestine at UNESCO

For over two years, the Wiesenthal Centre has been tracking the odyssey of the Palestinian Museum that opened on UNESCO’s World Museum Day, May 18, 2016, in Bir Zeit, a suburb of Ramallah.
First tagged as “a safe space for unsafe ideas,” this $24 million shimmering glass building, designed by Dublin- based architect Heneghan Peng, was officially inaugurated by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas – but totally empty. The museum director had been fired, while the chairman pointed to future exhibitions that “explore the cultural meaning of martyrdom, the debate over who inhabited [the land] first... If we as an independent institution can’t tread into these tricky areas, then who is going to? ...Nobody is. That’s the power of culture.”
Since Palestine entered UNESCO in November 2011, it has turned that UN agency’s World Heritage Committee (WHC) into a battlefield, with an insatiable appetite for Jewish and Christian sites. Beginning with a 2012 claim to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem – based on a letter of endorsement from its three custodians, Coptic, Armenian and Franciscan. Palestine received the site despite a dispute over the letter’s bona fides.
Jewish-revered sites such as the Cave of the Patriarchs and the Tomb of Rachel have been rebaptised in UNESCO as mosques. Their wish list includes Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
A Saudi historian recently claimed that the Jews never entered the Holy Land – their true narrative developed in Arabia.
Imagine a delusional claim by Israel for the two mosques and Kaaba Rock in Mecca as a Jewish heritage site. Yet,the Islamicization of Jewish heritage has become par for the course.

As Europe suffers unprecedented terror, Aftenposten publishes essay: We are all Israelis.

Although the writing has been on the wall for a long while, that terror would hit European cities and villages, it is still astonishing to see that Aftenposten now concedes what has been known for a long while. You either fight terror, or succumb to terror. Dialogue is of no value. I sincerely hope that Europeans do not have to suffer their weddings, religious holidays, public transportation, school trips, student dorms, private homes or anything else bombed to smithereens but I do hope that the automatic narrative of evil Israel now gets a serious revision.
lifted from aftenposten.no, google translate
Norway: We are all Israelis | Klaus Wivel
Whether we like it or not, the Islamic terrorism creates a kind of fraternization between Israel and Europe.
About the Author: journalist and foreign correspondent in the Danish Weekend newspaper. Wivel is the author of the book “The last Supper – A journey among the persecuted Christians in the Arab world.”
How would Europe respond? I thought so often, when I as a journalist in the years 2000 to 2005 covered the so-called Al Aqsa Intifada. Terror against Israeli civilians was virtually everyday occurrences.
In those years nearly a thousand Israeli civilians lost their lives, and over 5,000 were wounded in terrorist attacks – in a small country the size of Jutland, with slightly more inhabitants than Denmark.
Almost all Israelis know someone who was affected.

Wrong and rude on Iran and Israel

The Democrats are out selling Tim Kaine as a solid citizen, experienced politician, and a great choice for vice president on the Hillary Clinton ticket -- someone who could step in quickly as president if needed. The traditional pro-Israel community, led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, are undoubtedly preparing to signal their comfort with him as a Clinton running mate, much as they did with the supposedly pro-Israel Barack Obama, twice. Kaine has voted in favor of foreign aid; he has traveled to Israel; he voted in favor of funding some weapons systems for Israel; he has raised a lot of money from liberal Jews (running for governor, senator, and head of the Democratic National Committee). Therefore, he must be a great supporter of the U.S.-Israel relationship. So great in fact, that he was happy to take money from the J Street political action committee and accept its endorsement when he ran for Senate. AIPAC, J Street, Kaine, all one big happy family in the pro-Israel club.
Of course, on the Iran nuclear deal, the single most important foreign policy decision since the vote on the Iraq war in 2002, Kaine was not only wrong, but extraordinarily disrespectful to Israel's prime minister. He chose to boycott Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech before a joint session of Congress on the issue in early 2015, saying that he thought Netanyahu's aim was mainly to help himself with his own domestic politics in the Israeli elections, held two weeks later.

Democratic chair said cut from convention over Sanders email leak

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chairwoman, will not speak at the party’s convention this week, reportedly because of the discovery of emails revealing tensions between the party and the Bernie Sanders campaign.
In a related issue, a top DNC official apologized for an email in which he suggests depicting Sanders, who is Jewish, as an atheist as a means of undercutting him during the primary season.
Sanders, an Independent senator from Vermont, turned in a surprisingly strong primary campaign, and only this month conceded to the front-runner Hillary Clinton, who will this week accept the nomination at the Philadelphia convention.
Sanders on Sunday told ABC’s “This Week” that Wasserman Schultz should resign immediately.

IsraellyCool: What Does The Post-Obama Democratic Party Think About Israel?

Since Bernie Sanders put Cornel West and James Zogby on the Democratic party’s platform nominating committee, BDS supporters have exulted in the inroads they think they are making into the Democratic party. West and Zogby, however, failed to get their anti-Israel, antisemitic positions actually included in the platform. Now, one of the emails leaked by Wikileaks from the DNC hack shows that the BDS agenda is still just fringe, even in the Democratic party.
Ben Norton at Salon can barely conceal his disappointment:
In one of the messages, from May 19, DNC Communications Director Luis Miranda sent Wasserman Schultz a link to the Washington Post article “DNC to offer Sanders a convention concession.” The piece revealed that the Sanders campaign was going to push the party to adopt “a more balanced position regarding Israel and Palestinians.”
The Post report noted that Sanders’ push for a more “even-handed” stance on the illegal Israeli occupation “has made some of Clinton’s backers nervous.”
“The Israel stuff is disturbing,” Wasserman Schultz wrote in response to the article. The DNC chair is a longtime Clinton ally, and served as co-chair for Hillary’s 2008 presidential campaign.

IsraellyCool: WikiLeaks Jew Hatred

Back in 2011, WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange denied he was antisemitic, after reportedly making some statements that suggested he might just be.
Julian Assange has blamed a number of journalists for a “Jewish” conspiracy against his whistleblowing website, WikiLeaks, according to the editor of Private Eye, Ian Hislop.
Well, it would seem Assange was full of beans – this is what the Wikileaks account tweeted yesterday (widely believed to be controlled by him).

If you recall, the ((brackets around names)) is a way for Jews and their supporters to get back at neo Nazis who have been highlighting Jewish Twitter users for targeting with this designation. And the word “tribalist” has its own clear connotation. As does the caricature of the mJew with black-rim glasses.
And he can’t claim ignorance. After this was pointed out to him, he just kept digging.

Economist Al Durah Cartoon Self-Destructs

Tom Gross caught it, Nidra Poller confirmed it emphatically: the two foreground figures are Muhammad al Durah and his father, Jamal. The wall behind them is the famous wall behind the two, “riddled” with bullets, allegedly shot “like rain” and “in cold blood” by the IDF.
The piece is supposed to accompany the article, which combines a sympathetic story of Palestinian distress at Realpolitik alliances such as Sissi and Bibi,
The shift has left the Palestinians, whose fate once topped the Arab agenda, feeling abandoned.
with an implied threat that, if we don’t pay attention to the plight of the Palestinians, they just might get violent.
What really stirs Arab emotions are scenes of Israelis killing Palestinians. Violence over the past year has left dozens of Israelis and more than 200 Palestinians dead. Most Palestinians, according to polls, back a return to an armed intifada (uprising). With the Arab world focused elsewhere, America in the throes of a presidential race and progress towards a two-state solution halted, they may see no other way to capture the world’s attention.
The article has no author, but appears not to be an editorial (although it would certainly fit nicely in the opinion section, written jointly by the Jerusalem and Cairo correspondents). Presumably, this kind of writing seems both professional and informative to the editorial team who published it. But when we read the cartoon against the grain, we get a remarkable comment on the inveterate lethal journalism that dominates European reporting on the Middle East.

Nidra Poller’s Comment on Economist al-Durah Cartoon

Presuming that Israel is blamed for the failure to conclude a peace treaty based on the everyone-knows-two-state-solution, the illustration suggests that no solution can erase the sin of “killing” Mohamed al Dura.
The father is trying to explain to his son that an Arab leader makes peace with Israel over the boy’s dead body.
The images of the father and son are, curiously, Westernized. It took me a while to realize they were meant to be Jamal and Mohamed Al Dura. Then I recognized the wall. The halo of bullet holes.
But this “reconstructed” wall has something like three times more bullet holes than the original video. As if the blood libel has increased in fury over the past 16 years.
Conclusion: The Economist, a Western publication, defends a primitive, tribal notion of relations between groups and nations: unforgiving, unforgivable revenge.
But the illustrator did not think to reproduce the declaration scrawled in red over the heads of the al Duras in the original version: “What is taken by violence can only be taken back by violence.”
[RL: That is also the slogan behind of Arafat’s “No” to a negotiated settlement at Camp David 2000, and his launching of the Oslo Jihad in late 2000.]

In Israel, ex-Saudi general says Palestinian state would curb Iran aggression

A retired Saudi general visiting Israel this week to promote the Arab Peace Initiative said on Sunday that a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would eliminate Iran’s excuse for supporting regional terrorist groups.
Dr. Anwar Eshki, who was leading a delegation of academics and businessmen on an extremely rare visit seeking to encourage discussion of the Saudi-led peace plan, told Army Radio that normalized ties between Israel and the Arab world were contingent on the cementing of a peace deal with the Palestinians.
“There will be no peace with Arab countries before there is peace with the Palestinians,” said Eshki, whose group met with Israeli officials and MKs in Jerusalem.
“To my knowledge, there is no cooperation between Israel and Saudi Arabia in counter-terrorism efforts, and though they share the same approach in seeking a solution, we want Israel to put an end to what has caused this terrorism.”
Asked if he believed Israel to be the source of regional terrorism, Eshki said: “The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not the source of terrorism, but it does create fertile ground for acts of terrorism in the region.

Abbas's Harshest Critic

The Palestinian battle for succession has heated up in the past year. Many candidates vying to serve as the next Palestinian leader have tried to court President Mahmoud Abbas. Meanwhile others have expressed criticisms of the aging president’s leadership. Muhammed Dahlan, one of the many Fatah leaders who hopes to become the next Palestinian leader, has likely expressed the harshest criticisms of President Abbas and his leadership.
Dahlan, born in 1961 in the Khan Younis refugee camp, first rose to the top of the Palestinian leadership when the late Palestinian Authority president Yasser Arafat appointed him as chief of the Palestinian Preventive Security in Gaza in 1995. Dahlan quickly gained a reputation as a heavy handed and effective security leader, but resigned from the post in 2002 over differences with Arafat. In the subsequent years, he served in a number of top posts including national security advisor, minister of state and security affairs, and minister of civil affairs.
In 2007, with Hamas threatening to topple the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, President Abbas appointed Dahlan as national security advisor for a second time. He attempted to restore order to Gaza, but Hamas’s armed factions overwhelmed the PA’s security forces and took control of the small coastal enclave. In the following weeks, many Palestinian leaders in Ramallah pointed their fingers at Dahlan for losing control of Gaza.
Soon thereafter, Dahlan began expressing sharp public criticisms of President Abbas, but still won a seat on the Fatah Central Committee (FCC) in 2009. He gradually intensified his criticisms and in 2011, the FCC revoked his membership. Later in 2011, PA security forces raided his home in the al-Tira neighborhood of Ramallah and Dahlan fled to Jordan.

Qatar gives $30 million to pay Gaza public sector workers

Qatar said on Thursday it would give $30 million to help pay the salaries of thousands of Gaza Strip public sector workers left without a full wage package since 2013.
The donation was welcomed by Hamas, which said it would help ease the wage shortages that have tested already strained relations with the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority, based in Ramallah.
There was no immediate comment from Palestinian Authority or Israel, who have long been suspicious of Qatar's regular donations to Hamas and other Islamist groups across the region.
The emir of the wealthy Persian Gulf state, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, said the payment of 113 million riyals seeks to "alleviate suffering and financial distress," according to the state-run Qatar News Agency.
Hamas violently seized control of Gaza in 2007, forcing Western-backed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas out of the enclave and triggering years of mutual distrust.

Internet hunt: Where’s “Waldo” (anti-Israel academic boycotters boycotting Turkey)?

Since then, I’ve only been able to find the slightest hint that the anti-Israel boycotters recognize their dilemma.
The Israel-boycotting American Studies Association told me that some members are “discussing” a possible boycott among other measures, but could not provide details. Robert Warrior, the ASA’s President and a supporter of the Israel boycott, did not respond to my email requesting details.
Other than that, I can’t find any evidence that Israel academic boycotters are organizing a boycott of Turkish universities. I’ve checked the Twitter timelines and Facebook pages for many of the usual suspects, and nothing. I’ve Google-searched, nothing.
Both Twitter and Facebook searches for “academic boycott Turkey” pull up moslty posts by Israel-supporters mocking the failure of Israel-boycotters to boycott Turkey, as well as some petitions condeming Turkey but not calling for an academic boycott. I signed this one.
I did find a statement from the group which came close to getting the American Anthropological Association to boycott Israel, but it was just a condemnation not a boycott call, Anthropologists for the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions

PreOccupiedTerritory: Lacking Jews To Blame, Residents Of Exoplanet Forced To Solve Own Problems (satire)

The inhabitants of this rocky spheroid in orbit around the star Kepler have been coerced by circumstances into addressing and developing solutions for problems that Earthlings would avoid by accusing the Jews of causing.
Lacking Jews, which evidence indicates exist only on Earth, the Keplerings do not have the luxury of blaming misfortunes on the sinister machinations of some Jewish cabal. As such, said local resident Sane Person, their societies have evolved mechanisms for overcoming challenges that involve directly addressing the contributing factors.
“We’re not blessed the way Earth is with a minority that can be conveniently and universally blamed for all ills,” explained Person, whose planet lies approximately 1,200 light-years from Earth. “We actually have to do something about those problems. Whether it’s crime, the drastic shifts in atmospheric temperature, disease, what have you – our planet just doesn’t have Jews, and never did, so we have to find other ways of functioning when it comes to meeting our challenges.”
Theoretically, say scholars, denizens of Kepler-62f could blame the Jews on distant Earth for their problems. “A rational assessment of whether or not Jews are actually at the root of a given misfortune or problem has seldom been a necessary prerequisite for blaming them,” noted Julian Assange, a thinker who has dabbled in the phenomenon. “But for some reason we have yet to understand, the various sentient societies of that distant world have never gone that route, preferring instead to directly treat the issues that threaten them, and have learned to live with or mitigate the problems that cannot be definitively solved.”

Newsweek Singles Out Israel on African Refugees

In a sloppily written diatribe, Newsweek’s Jack Moore singles out Israel for criticism with regard to the wide-ranging African refugee crisis.

First, Moore unfairly criticizes Israel for approving less asylum applications than other Western countries, while he omits the critical context that Israel is a tiny country, with limited resources. In fact, on a per capita basis Israel is facing over three times the number of asylum claims as Europe.
(The population of Europe as of 2015 is 743,122,816 with 1,321,560 asylum claims which yields .0018 asylum seekers per capita. For that same year, Israel’s population is 8,412,000 with 46,437 African asylum seekers which yields .0055 asylum seekers per capita.)
In addition, Europe has been attempting to close its borders in an effort to keep African refugees from entering in the first place. Furthermore, while a portion of African asylum seekers are true political refugees, a great many are actually economic refugees, in search of better jobs, but not actually in fear for their lives or safety. Moore, of course, mentions none of this.

The Nuclear Deal Hasn’t Prevented Iran From Building a Bomb

On July 14, 2015, the P5+1 and Iran signed an agreement (the JCPOA) regarding Iran’s nuclear program. Under this “agreement,” Iran kept the capability to renew its efforts to produce a nuclear weapon. Iran also went on with developing and testing its long-range surface-to-surface missiles so they could eventually carry a nuclear warhead.
Despite the deal, Iran’s leaders continue to express their hostility toward Israel. For example, on June 3, 2016, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that the United States, Britain and Israel are Iran’s “main enemies.”
In early July 2016, the annual report by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (the German equivalent of the FBI), charged that Iran had made at least nine attempts to develop technology that could be used to build a nuclear arsenal. Most of those attempts failed due to the cooperation between German companies and the country’s intelligence agency.
The Obama administration will do whatever it can to keep what it sees as its biggest foreign policy achievement in tact. As long as Iran does not openly breach the deal and provoke the United States, the latter might not pay too much attention to Iran and its nuclear program.

Turkey seizes over 2,250 institutions in coup crackdown

In a new tactic against suspected coup plotters, Turkey on Saturday announced it had seized more than 2,250 social, educational or health care institutions and facilities that it claims pose a threat to national security.
The health ministry said patients at hospitals that are being seized will be transferred to state hospitals, highlighting the sweeping impact of the government’s crackdown after a failed July 15 coup attempt.
A top Turkish official also accused some European countries of downplaying the grave danger posed by the failed insurrection, an apparent response to Western concerns about possible human rights violations in the government’s crackdown.
“Some European colleagues think this is a Pokemon game, this coup attempt,” said Omer Celik, Turkey’s minister for EU affairs. “Come here and see how serious this is. This is not something we play in a virtual game. This is happening in real time in Turkey.”

Israel’s Gauzy to join Mercedez-Benz accelerator

Israeli startup Gauzy, which makes liquid crystal glass panels, or smart glass — used for applications from dimming the windows in a car to interactive shop windows — has been selected to take part in Mercedes-Benz’s accelerator program.
The program, set up in June, targets startups that are working on advanced technologies that can be incorporated into motor vehicles. Gaudy was among the 13 companies selected for the program, out of 300 startups that applied globally, the Tel Aviv-based company said.
Gauzy’s patented technology brings high technology to glass and allows for a number of applications, including controlling the transparency of windows to light, creating optical blinds within the glass, making the doors of a fridge fully see-through at a touch, and transforming the glass panels in bathrooms from transparent to opaque, for greater privacy.
“The choice of Gauzy by Mercedes-Benz is evidence of the official commitment by the automobile giant to long-term collaboration, whose fruits will be seen in the Mercedes luxury car category in the coming years,” Eyal Peso, the company’s chief executive officer said in a statement.

IsraellyCool: Steve Earle: “I’m Not Afraid Of Roger Waters; I Go To Israel”

American musician, record producer, author and actor Steve Earle was recently interviewed about his recent collaboration with fellow musician Shawn Colvin.
In the interview, Earle explains his views on boycotts.
Earle is a hero to many as well for his outspoken views on politics and social issues. The House Bill 2 issue here didn’t keep him from showing up.
“I don’t boycott anybody,” Earle said. “I don’t think cultural boycotts work. I understand why bigger acts do it, because they think they’re taking money out of the economy. But I’m not afraid of Roger Waters; I go to Israel,” he said, referring to the Pink Floyd co-founder who favors boycotts and sanctions against Israel.

Israel to Send Its Biggest Team Ever to Compete in 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil

Israel will send its biggest delegation ever to compete this summer in the 2016 Olympic Games, according to the Business Standard.
Team Israel will consist of 47 athletes, 10 more than the delegation sent to the 2012 Summer Olympics. The group will compete with athletes from around the world in 16 sports.
The Israeli delegation in the 2012 Summer Olympics, which was held in London, did not win any medals. In the 2008 Games in Beijing, Israeli windsurfer Shahar Zubari took home the bronze medal. The Jewish state has won 16 medals throughout its Olympic history, including a gold medal by windsurfer Gal Fridman in Athens in 2004.

Israeli tech set to shine at Rio Olympics

Israel will make its 16th appearance at the Olympic Games this August with its largest delegation of athletes ever.
But Israel’s representation in Rio de Janeiro extends beyond the sporting contests to the tech arena where startups will show their prowess in security technologies, live video transmission technology, public transportation navigation, AR systems, satellite technologies and sports tech.
Israeli company International Security and Defense Systems (ISDS), BriefCam and the EROS-B satellite will likely snag the most attention as they take on security.
ISDS, which has been providing integrated solutions for complex security projects since 1982, is the “Official Supplier” of security solutions for the Games.
“It’s an honor for ISDS to be the very first ever Israeli group to be part of the Olympic family,” Leo Gleser, ISDS president and a former Mossad agent, told JTA.

Warner premieres Gal Gadot ‘Wonder Woman’ trailer

Warner Brothers gave fans a sneak peek at the upcoming “Wonder Woman” on Saturday, showing the hotly-anticipated film’s first official trailer at San Diego Comic-Con.
The preview opens with the Amazonian heroine, played by Israeli actress Gal Gadot, leaning over Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) after he has washed up on a beach.
“You’re a man?” she asks him, and he replies: “Yeah, do I not look like one?”
The teaser moves on to the brunette warrior — alias Diana Prince — moving away from the lush island of Themyscira into modern civilization.

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07/23 Links: Is BDS headed for defeat?; Columnist Says Israel ‘Last Hope’ for Arab Christians Before Total Annihilation

From Ian:

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Michael Lumish: "Occupy" is an Unusual Word

It is not a very nice word, either.
In terms of the never-ending Arab and Muslim violence against the Jews of the Middle East the word "occupy" has ominous connotations.
It implies the brutal military occupation of those heinous Jews upon another people's land.
The word "occupy" also, of course, has benign connotations when used in other contexts. For example, no one would have any problem, - other than Jihadis - with the fact that I am occupying my chair in my office.
The truth, however, is that Israel occupies Israel like France occupies France or the Czech Republic occupies the Czech Republic. There is nothing remotely illegal or illegitimate, to use Obama's term, about Jews living and building in the land Jewish people have lived in for over 3,500 years.
The Land of Israel is where Jews come from and to argue otherwise is to suggest that the Jews are, or should be, a forever wandering people.
The very word "Israel" means, along with the Jewish State, the Jewish people. Israel is the Jewish nation. So to argue that Israel is illegally occupying Israel is to argue that the Jews should have no home. And Israel includes that part of Israel that the Jordanians dubbed "West Bank" in order to rob the Jewish people of our posterity within our own homeland.
This is to say that the foundation of the conflict is an irrational and Koranically-based hatred toward the Jewish people, without whom Islam would never have emerged to begin with. Without Israel, which is to say without the Jewish people, there never would have been a Koran or the emergence of imperial Islam.

Is BDS headed for defeat?

From recent defeats, it appears that efforts by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement to undermine Israel’s legitimacy may have fallen on hard times. But appearances can be deceptive, and we – supporters of Israel as the secure, democratic nation-state of the Jewish people – cannot afford complacency.
It is true that BDS recently experienced a string of setbacks in the United States. These include an executive order from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo prohibiting his state from doing business with companies that boycott Israel, rejection by the American Anthropological Association (AAA) of a boycott resolution directed at all Israeli academic institutions, and the United Methodist Church’s repudiation of divestment and move to withdraw from the “US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation,” a pro-BDS coalition.
To understand the real threat posed by the BDS movement, however, we need to look at the forest and not just the trees. There have been and will continue to be both short-term “wins” and “losses.” The BDS movement’s long-term strategic objective is to erode the perception that Israel embodies those values underpinning its special alliance with the United States – democracy, human rights, equality under law and peace. In other words, their underlying aim is to turn Israel into a pariah state, viewed similarly to the apartheid South African regime.
While the BDS movement is very far from achieving its malicious agenda, we cannot ignore some worrisome trends. According to a Pew Research Center poll released in May 2016, overall American public support for Israel remains high. At the same time, liberal Democrats expressed greater sympathy for the Palestinians over Israel by a 40 percent to 33 percent margin. Millennials expressed greater sympathy for Israel, but even among them there has been a steady increase of sympathy for the Palestinians, from 9 percent in 2006, to 20 percent in July 2014, and 27 percent in this latest poll.

Is the BDS movement facing economic warfare?

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is staring down the barrel of economic warfare with financial assaults on BDS, replicating in many ways the sanctions architecture imposed on Iran to compel a change in its behavior over its illicit nuclear weapons program.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s now-famous anti-BDS comment from last month – “It’s very simple: If you boycott against Israel, New York will boycott you” – harks back to the strategy targeting European companies conducting business with Iran’s regime.
European banks and firms faced being frozen out of the lucrative US market if they continued trade relations with Tehran.
Cuomo’s executive order to punish companies which have state business who are engaged in BDS is part and parcel of a broader campaign unfolding in US state governments to turn BDS into a pariah movement. Robust anti-BDS legislation in Illinois coupled with State Sen. Mark Kirk’s call for an investigation into German BDS bank accounts has played a critical role in disrupting BDS funding.

Columnist Says Israel ‘Last Hope’ for Arab Christians Before Total Annihilation

Arab Christians must come to understand that Israel represents their “last hope” to be saved from annihilation by jihadists in the region, a Middle Eastern Christian columnist wrote Thursday in an op-ed published by the online news magazine The Federalist.
According to Luma Simms — who grew up in Ba’athist Iraq — Middle Eastern Christians must overcome widespread anti-Jewish indoctrination that is rampant in Arab lands.
“Anyone who claims that the Arab world — Muslim and Christian — is not pathologically antisemitic is delusional. This is the elephant in the room in the Arab Christian subculture; the secret sin no one wants to bring to the light,” she wrote.
It is this “secret sin” — which Simms calls “a blight upon the people of my heritage” — that prevents Arab Christians from reaching out to Israel for help as they suffer at the hands of radical Islamic jihadists.
Antisemitism has deep roots in the Middle East, Simms wrote, recorded as far back as the biblical Book of Esther outlining the genocidal plans of Persian vizier Haman against the Jewish nation. Islamic rulers adopted the idea of Jews as the “scapegoat” for their problems and this antisemitism “trickl[ed] down to minority groups living in Islamic dominated lands.”

Museveni’s Palestine blunder that wasn’t

Prime Minister Netanyahu has just concluded a tour of four African countries in what the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has qualified as a "historic" visit.
Among the countries included in the tour was Uganda, where, as part of the festivities celebrating 40 years since the Israeli rescue mission at Entebbe, Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, gave a speech.
The speech made repeated references to Israel and Palestine and was met with dismay, bewilderment and downright criticism by a variety of observers, including the Israeli delegation.
Le Monde classified the speech as "absurd" and wrote that it peddled in "strange comparisons." CCTV thought that Museveni "repeatedly confused Israel and Palestine". ThisIsAfrica called the speech "awkward." Times of Israel remarked that Museveni’s words do "not seem related to Palestine, but instead to Israel" and went on to call them a "mistake.". Arutz Sheva called the speech "bonkers."
The supposed "mistake" was in turn attributed to Museveni’s old age or qualified as an insult to PM Netanyahu.
Museveni’s speech made numerous and consistent references to a unitary mass of land he called the Holy Land / Israel / Palestine.
But while Museveni refers - perhaps confusingly - to one land by two interchangeable names, he is crystal clear in referring to the people who inhabit this land as "the Jews" and "the Arabs" and does not mention, even once, a people called the "Palestinians."
In doing so, Museveni removes, in one stroke, both the false claim to distinct peoplehood of Arabs who live in Israel / Palestine as the artificially constructed notion of the "Palestinians" and of the Islamic origins of the conflict, seeming to imply it is a fratricide conflict over land rather than a religious one.

Former Saudi general visits Jerusalem, meets Israeli officials

A retired Saudi general visited Israel this week, heading a delegation of academics and businessmen seeking to encourage discussion of the Saudi-led Arab Peace Initiative.
According to a report in the Haaretz daily, the delegation led by Dr. Anwar Eshki met with Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, and several Knesset members from the opposition.
Such a visit by former general Eshki, who was once a top adviser to the Saudi government, is an extremely rare occurrence. “While this wasn’t an official visit, it was a highly unusual one, as Eshki couldn’t have traveled to Israel without approval from the Saudi government,” the newspaper report said.
The meetings with Gold and Mordechai reportedlty did not take place at official Israeli government facilities but at the King David Hotel.

Deadly Munich shooting perpetrated near 1972 massacre of Israeli Olympians

A deadly shooting rampage in Munich, Germany - which police say has left at least ten people dead - was perpetrated near the Munich Olympic stadium where Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.
Police say a lone gunmen on Friday evening attacked a busy shopping mall, spraying bullets as people fled in horror for safety from what police said was a terrorist attack.
Police said ten people had been killed and that the attacker had taken his own life. They told the public to get off the streets as the city - Germany's third biggest - went into lock down, with transport halted and highways sealed off.
Friday's attack took place a week after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a German train in an axe rampage. Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.

ISIS supporters celebrate Munich killings on social media

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but supporters of Islamic State celebrated the "likely terror attack" conducted in Munich, Germany Friday evening in what police believe was orchestrated by a lone gunman.
"Thank God, may God bring prosperity to our Islamic State men," read one tweet.
"The Islamic state is expanding in Europe," read another.
Police said at least ten people were killed when a gunman on Friday evening attacked a busy shopping mall, spraying bullets as people fled in horror for safety from what police said was a terrorist attack. Police added that they believe the attacker had taken his own life in the aftermath of the assault.
Friday's attack took place a week after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a German train in an axe rampage. Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.
German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper's Friday edition before the mall attack that there was "no reason to panic but it's clear that Germany remains a possible target".

Daily Mail: Grinning Obama Jokes During Munich Terror Presser

As news reports of a gun massacre in Munich crossed the Atlantic Ocean on Friday, the President of the United States was cracking jokes.
Barack Obama delivered a brief update to reporters at the White House about the still-unfolding shooting rampage that left the German city on lockdown.
Eight are confirmed dead, and 10 injured.
The president was speaking to law enforcement agents at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House.
But as cameras rolled on the somber moment, Obama grinned and chuckled – and drew laughs from his audience – about his elder daughter Malia leaving the nest and heading for college.

Tim Kaine Boycotted Netanyahu Speech, Backed Iran Deal

Democrats are touting Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Hillary Clinton’s new running mate, as a pro-Israel voice in Congress. The left-wing Forward ran a tribute exulting: “5 Reasons Tim Kaine Will Be the Jewiest Vice President Pick for Hillary Clinton.”
Yet Kaine joined anti-Israel radicals in Congress in boycotting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech in March 2015 — the last plea of a beleaguered nation against an agreement that Iran is already violating with ballistic missile tests.
At the time, Kaine dismissed Netanyahu’s speech as purely an attempt to influence the upcoming Israel elections — on which the speech had virtually no effect — and complained that Republicans were trying to make support for Israel a partisan issue.
Bloomberg News at the time predicted that Kaine’s decision to boycott the speech “could resonate for years,” describing it as a sop to the party’s left-wing base.
Notably, Kaine is supported by J Street, the George Soros-funded radical left-wing organization widely regarded as anti-Israel for its opposition to every attempt by Israel to defend itself against terror.
When Israel needed to be defended from an Iran deal that the Obama administration had no intent of enforcing, and that the ayatollahs had no intent of keeping, Tim Kaine joined a walkout, putting politics above principle and sound foreign policy.

Top DNC Official Wanted To Smear Bernie Sanders For Being Jewish

In a recent e-mail sent to several Democratic party staff, a top Democratic National Committee (DNC) official suggested that the party should raise questions about Sanders’ “Jewish heritage” in key primary states.
“It might ma[ke] no difference, but for [Kentucky] and [West Virginia] can we get someone to ask his belief[?]” DNC chief financial officer Brad Marshall wrote in an e-mail to several other party officials on May 5, 2016. “Does he believe in a God. He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist.”
“This could make several [percentage] points difference,” Marshall continued. “My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist.”
The very next day, the Sanders publicly accused the DNC of “trying to tip the party convention in Hillary Clinton’s favor.” In December of 2015, the party cut off the Sanders campaign’s access to its own voter data.
Marshall’s e-mail was part of a large trove of DNC messages released by Wikileaks on Friday. The revelation of his suggested attacks on Sanders’ only poured fuel on the fire of accusations that the DNC was anything but neutral during the party’s primary between Sanders, a sitting senator from Vermont and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Jewish, Pro-Israel Groups Call for Immediate Expulsion of Controversial British Peer After She Blames Israel for Rise of Global Terrorism

Jewish and pro-Israel groups in Britain called for the expulsion of a controversial British peer on Friday, following her remarks yesterday blaming Israel for the global rise of terrorism.
In an address to the House of Lords, Baroness Jenny Tonge said, “The treatment of the Palestinians by Israel is a major cause of the rise of extreme Islamism and Daesh [ISIS].”
According to Tonge, Israel is “creating a generation of terrorists who will have a justified grudge against Israel and the countries who support her.”
“I’ve heard it said these actions [terrorism] are caused by incitement, by the Palestinians themselves…I question that,” she said, adding that Israeli soldiers are “wimps” for defending themselves against what she called “children throwing stones and sticks or carrying scissors.”
Tonge’s comments prompted outcry from prominent Jewish groups in Britain, who called for her immediate dismissal.
Marie van der Zyl, vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said in a statement, “Another House of Lords debate and another outrageous speech from Baroness Tonge on the Middle East. It is time for Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron to expel her once and for all from the party.”
Jonathan Sacerdoti, director of communications at the Campaign Against Anitsemitism, said, “By suggesting there would be Palestinian ‘terrorists with a justified grudge’ against Israel she is effectively justifying the terrorism that is aimed at Jewish people in Israel and around the world by Hamas and other terrorist organisations.”
“We cannot expect her to apologize, as she means it, and has a long history of antisemitism which has seen her forced to resign from the Parliamentary Liberal Democrat Party. It is now time for her to be expelled from the Liberal Democrat Party entirely, and from the House of Lords.”

Hagee: Pro-Israel evangelicals will ‘storm’ US voting booths

Almost 400 miles away from Cleveland, sweltering in a Washington, DC heat wave, thousands of potential voters stood on their feet, opening their arms in testimony, waving American and Israeli flags and vowing that for Zion’s sake, their voices would be anything but silent.
Christians United for Israel’s annual summit was booked years in advance of the announcement that the Republican Party would hold its nominating convention in Cleveland the same week, but the powerful grassroots-based organization sees itself as playing a central role in the drama that continues to unfold in the 2016 elections cycle – and beyond.
The organization sprung to its feet in advance of the Republican convention, when the platform committee sat down to draft party doctrine for the coming election. CUFI sought to restore language describing Jerusalem as “undivided” – asserting support for Israel’s claims over all of the city, on either side of the Green Line.
“Our 501c4 [lobbying organization] was instrumental in having the word ‘undivided’ added to the Republican platform,” says Pastor John Hagee, the organization’s founder and spiritual mentor. “It was extracted previously and we as an organization want to see Jerusalem the eternal capital of the Jewish people undivided today, tomorrow and forever.”

Steve King: Trump lacks ‘long-term,’ ‘sustainable’ Israel policy

On Trump and Israel
While King adamantly defended his controversial comments, he was less willing to fully champion Republican nominee Donald Trump’s articulated approach to conducting US foreign policy toward Israel.
The self-proclaimed constitutional conservative has been strongly pro-Israel throughout his House tenure. Moreover, he was co-chair of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential bid, which made robust support for the Jewish state a lynchpin of the campaign. Cruz also bashed Trump repeatedly for saying he would be “neutral” on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Asked if he thought Trump would wind up pursuing such a strategy, King indicated he couldn’t say exactly, but expressed some concern over how much the Republican nominee has solidified his thinking on the matter. “I don’t think I know,” he said. “A lot of people don’t know what he’s going to do, and I hate to speculate. I would say that I’m not sure that Donald Trump has worked out a policy toward Israel that’s long-term, good and sustainable.”
To be sure, King added, “I think he’s still shaping foreign policy, so I give him some room on that. And I’m going to listen very carefully to his speech on Thursday night, and there will be things in there that are surprises. There will be news that will be out of that immediately, and people will be live blogging and the next morning there will be pundits talking about it. I want to pay attention to that.”
Asked whether Trump’s vow to seek a two-state solution to Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians (he promised to give it “one hell of a shot”), and the party’s removal of support for such an outcome from its platform, reflected a divide within the party over Israel policy, King insisted it did not.

Guardian misleads on bill in response to Arab MKs meeting with terrorists’ families

A Guardian report by Peter Beaumont about new Israeli legislation to allow for the ouster of MKs accused of racial incitement, or supporting terror, included the following background information:
Pressure to pass the law had been mounting following anger when three MPs – Jamal Zahalka, Haneen Zoabi and Basel Ghattas – met the families of several Palestinians killed during a recent surge in street attacks on Israelis. The MPs said they were attending a meeting about the repatriation of the Palestinians’ bodies to their families.
This vague language obscures the fact that the Arab MKs in question (Basel Ghattas, Jamal Zahalka and Hanin Zuabi) met relatives of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces after carrying out deadly (i.e., “successful”) attacks.
Specifically, they met last February with the father of Bahaa Alyan, one of the terrorists who carried out the Oct. 13 attack on an Egged bus in the East Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem. The shooting and stabbing of passengers resulted in the death of Haviv Haim, Alon Govberg and Richard Lakin.
Additionally, the MK’s didn’t merely “meet” with the families of Palestinian terrorists. As Palestinian Media Watch reported, they ‘honored’ the terrorists themselves with a moment of silence, and referred to them as martyrs.
Back in February, when the MK’s visit with families of terrorists was first revealed, we noted that the Guardian similarly misled on the nature of the terrorists’ crimes and the degree of sympathy for the terrorists shown by Arab MKs.

Was BBC News presentation of a new Israeli law balanced and accurate?

The article made no effort to provide readers with the relevant context of impeachment laws in other democracies such as the United States and some EU member countries. It failed to provide readers with information concerning the type of actions to which the new law would presumably apply such as an MK’s participation in a flotilla in support of Hamas organised by a group proscribed under Israeli law.
As was the case at the time, the report gave a whitewashed portrayal of an event which took place earlier in the year.
“In February, three of the 18 Israeli Arab MPs caused outrage and were suspended from parliamentary activity for several months by an ethics committee after they met the families of Palestinians killed while carrying out attacks on Israelis.”
Clearly this article did not provide uninformed readers with a comprehensive view of the legislation itself or the types of activities to which it may apply. However, there is one specific take away message which it obviously tried very hard to get across to BBC audiences.
“The EU warned Israel’s parliament earlier this month that it risked undermining democracy”
“But critics said it was anti-democratic…”
“… the Knesset had risked undermining democracy and freedom of speech…”
“It harms the very building blocks of democracy…”
Reports of the death of Israeli democracy are of course greatly exaggerated – but notably, such reports frequently come from the media organisation supposedly committed to accurate and impartial reporting

Death toll in Kabul blasts claimed by Islamic State climbs to 80

The Islamic State terror group claimed a deadly attack Saturday on a huge protest in Kabul attended by thousands of minority Shiite Hazaras, an IS-linked news agency said.
At least 80 people were killed and over 230 were wounded in the attack on the protest, a official with the Public Health Ministry said.
“Two fighters of the Islamic State detonated their explosive belts in a gathering of Shiites in… Kabul, Afghanistan,” the Amaq news agency said.
The protesters were demanding that a major regional electric power line be routed through their impoverished home province of Bamiyan, one of the most deprived areas of Afghanistan with a large Hazara population.
The sandals of Afghan protesters seen at the scene of a suicide attack that targeted crowds of minority Shiite Hazaras during a demonstration at the Deh Mazang Circle in Kabul on July 23, 2016.

British Teens Caught ‘Taking Selfies,’ Desecrating Jewish Cemetery, While Hunting for Pokemon

A group of British youths aroused the ire of Edmonton residents this week, by playing the wildly popular “Pokemon Go” game at a Jewish graveyard, Jewish News reported.
Local historian Stanley Kaye told the newspaper that a number of boys and girls were “taking selfies” at the Federation Cemetery on Monday. Kaye approached the group and asked them not to step on the graves, out of respect.
“They told me they were looking for the Pokemon,” he said. “Apparently there was a mistake in the coordinates. The location was supposed to be the golf club nearby. The caretaker said he’s had to ask several groups to leave for the same reason. I went online to try to correct the coordinates, but I’m not sure that it will work.”

Antisemitism in New Zealand.

The West has been fed this constant diet of slanted reporting where Israel is the aggressor, and every Palestinian an innocent victim.
If a Palestinian young man attacks without provocation and is killed, the world’s headlines invariably read “Israeli soldier guns down Palestinian teenager”.
This is the same media that will not tell you an attack was carried out by a Muslim; by someone who “chanted something” before shooting into the crowd. And the lone gunman was then killed.
The media as it exists now is the enemy of truth. Media globalisation and shared news feeds mean that the same story is carried worldwide; that a consistently slanted view of the world is fed to everyone in New Zealand via every paper, even in the regional ones.
There is little effort, if any, from editorial staff to address the imbalance they are importing from tainted overseas news sources. Sadly, it also has infected our own media to the point of being staunch defenders of a point of view, rather than reporting on world events as they occur.
….we only need to look at Europe to see what happens when virulently antisemitic rhetoric, which has become prevalent in some parts of society, turns to violence: four French Jews murdered while going about their shopping before Shabbat; in Toulouse school children and their father and teacher murdered at the school gates; in Copenhagen a Jewish man murdered trying to protect Jews in a synagogue celebrating a Bat Mitzvah. Jews are leaving Europe for Israel in large numbers. Many European cities are once again not safe for Jews.
How long will they be safe in New Zealand?

Can a hobbled EU live up to its promise to combat anti-Semitism and racism?

When the late Austro-Hungarian aristocrat Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi attended church on Good Friday, his father would famously cause a scene, storming out when the liturgy came to the anti-Semitic exhortation “Let us also pray for the faithless Jews.”
Such protest was unusual in 19th-century Austria-Hungary, where anti-Semitism and other forms of racism were de rigueur. But the old count — a personal friend of Zionist legend Theodor Herzl — abhorred such biases in part because his wife, Richard’s mother, was Japanese.
Brought up in a multiculturalist home, Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi made the fight against anti-Semitism a cornerstone of the Pan-Europa movement he founded in 1926. It was a major precursor of the European Union, which has evolved into a quasi-federal entity of 28 states with its own executive arm — the European Commission — parliament and judiciary.
Little wonder, then, that prominent Jews such as Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud endorsed the nobleman’s pan-European vision from its inception. They saw it as an antidote to the nationalism and racist hate that culminated in World War II and the Holocaust.
Determined to prevent the recurrence of such traumatic events, postwar European societies became open to adopting the revolutionary pan-European model of government.

The King David Hotel bombing: Letting the people judge the truth

THERE ARE many versions of the tale of the bombing, but the most accurate is likely that which appears on the Irgun website, which also tells something of the hotel’s history.
The hotel was built by the wealthy and influential Moseri family of Cairo and Alexandria, which set up a shareholding company to finance construction. Wealthy Egyptian businessmen and affluent Jews from around the world were among the shareholders. The luxurious, seven-story building with 200 rooms opened to the public in 1931. In 1938, the southern wing was requisitioned by the Mandatory government and used to house its secretariat, as well as its military command.
The British built a communications center in the basement and, for security reasons, added a side entrance linking the building to an army camp south of the hotel. Less than a third of the rooms were reserved for civilian use.
In 1945, the Hagana, Irgun and Stern Group joined in an alliance known as the United Resistance Movement established by the Jewish Agency. It lasted for some 10 months, until August 1946. The alliance coordinated acts of sabotage and attacks against the British authorities.
On Saturday, June 29, 1946, the British launched Operation Agatha, a massive operation in which soldiers and police searched for arms and incriminating documents, and made arrests in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and several dozen settlements. The Jewish Agency was also raided.
Altogether, some 2,700 people were arrested, including Moshe Sharett, who would later become foreign minister and prime minister. The official purpose of the raid and arrests was to end the state of anarchy existing in Palestine.
Soon afterward, Begin received a letter from Hagana chief Moshe Sneh, with instructions to blow up the King David.

US Army Officer Who Rescued Jews During Holocaust Dies at 99 (VIDEO)

A U.S. officer who helped liberate 2,500 Jews during the Holocaust has died at the age of 99.
On April 7, 1945, Lt. Frank Winchester Towers, who was the division liaison officer of Regiment 743 of the 30th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army during World War II, approached (with his regiment’s tanks) a stopped train in which there were 2,500 Jewish prisoners bound for the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. The Nazis stopped the train because they were ordered to destroy it and drown the passengers in the Elbe river.
When the U.S. regiment approached, the passengers shouted, “We’re Jews!” Towers helped his regiment rescue the prisoners by mobilizing ambulances and other vehicles, and helped the freed prisoners get to an American-run field hospital.
“I feel pride and joy to know I had a small part in their release,” Towers told Yedioth Ahronoth in 2010. “They rose from the ashes like the phoenix.…It warms my heart,” said Towers, who also took part in the invasion of Normandy and helped liberate Jews from a labor camp near Magdeburg.

A Nation is Born; the View from San Francisco

Throwback Thursday
Another reminder that while we have history, the other side has "narrative".
May 14 1948, Israel's Independence day, as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle
The Chronicle documents the coordinated attacks on the nascent state by 5 of her neighbors
On Israel’s independence day, Syrian forces were reported across the northern border (map at right arrow No. 1) The Jewish army conceded loss of Kefar Tzion (2) Egyptian Trops were ordered to invade from the South. Other Arab armies of Lebanon, Iraq and TransJordan were reported ready for action
High Muslim Call for "Holy War"
The Arabs considered this a “Holy War”. Sheikh Mohamed Mamoun El-Shennawy, rector of Al Azhar University and chief of the Moslem Theological institute announced “The Hour for Jihad has struck”.adding “This is a holy war for the sake of Allah. He who dies for God will live forever at the side of the Lord”
S.F.Zionists to celebrate on Monday

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