Foxman said that if the Guggenheim “wants to become a platform to discuss art and censorship, this is legitimate. However, to the best of my knowledge, Tamir’s article seems to be the only one about Israel, which is a blatant distortion on what is happening in Israel.”Liberals’ Shameful Attacks on Israel
According to pro-Israel blogger Elder of Ziyon, since 2006 the Guggenheim has been attempting to build a museum in Abu Dhabi, UAE, which “routinely engages in real censorship of art. Not the false ‘withholding funds’ definition that idiot artists like Chen Tamir whine about where a government doesn’t want to support someone publicly defecating on their flag, but honest-to Allah censorship of art.”
“When an artist or a museum sees an opportunity for self advancement, suddenly censorship is not so big a deal,” he wrote. “The Guggenheim, by publishing an article about the horrors of nonexistent Israeli censorship, has no problem with partnering with a country where art censorship is normal and explicit. The double standards to which Israel is subject by these supposed defenders of art and freedom of expression is stunning, and their hypocrisy is blatant.”
In response to The Algemeiner’s request for clarification as to why the Guggenheim would promote on its website an article demonizing Israel, a spokesman for the museum said, “As an arts institution, the Guggenheim welcomes a multitude of voices and perspectives on topics of interest to the wider artistic and cultural community. The views expressed are those of the writer, a curator who lives and works in Israel, not necessarily those of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation.”
What explains this troubling trend? A friend of mine puts it this way: The Left thinks in terms of oppressor and oppressed, and in those terms it’s much easier for them to see the Palestinians as the oppressed than the Israelis, and arguments about who is at fault or who refuses to come to the table don’t change the basic power relations of a powerful, wealthy, successful society facing a weak, poor, failed one. It suggests the Left’s entire oppressor/oppressed framework often is misguided, but that’s just how liberals tend to think.Anti-Semitism is on the rise, Spielberg warns in Harvard speech
What’s wrong with this progressive construct is that it is morally offensive and empirically insane. One can sympathize with the suffering of individual Palestinians while also recognizing that Palestinians, not Israel, have brought these miseries upon themselves.
To quickly review the historical record: For those who blame the so-called “Israeli occupation” for Palestinian hostilities, it needs to be pointed out yet again that the PLO, an organization committed to the destruction of Israel, was founded in 1964, three years before Israel controlled the West Bank or Gaza. The entire Palestinian movement, from its inception to this day, is based on vanquishing the Jewish state.
This was evident in August 1967 when Israel’s offer to return all the land it had captured during the 1967 war in exchange for peace and normal relations, was rejected out of hand by Arab leaders meeting in Khartoum.
It was evident on the day Yasir Arafat signed the Oslo accords in 1993 when he addressed the Palestinian people and justified his action as the first step “in the 1974 plan,” referring to a phased plan whose goal was the ultimate eradication of Israel.
It was evident at Camp David in 2000, in Taba in 2001, and again in 2008 when enormously generous offers – Palestinian statehood, the division of Jerusalem, the return of the West Bank and Gaza – were rejected by the Palestinians, often followed by an intifada.
Acclaimed director Steven Spielberg admitted he was “wrong” to think as a child that anti-Semitism “was fading,” telling Harvard’s graduating class that President Barack Obama was right when he warned that “anti-Semitism is on the rise.”
Spielberg, whose 99-year-old father Arnold sat in one of the first rows at his address before the Ivy League university’s class of 2016, told the graduates Thursday that the world “is full of monsters” espousing “racism, homophobia, ethnic hatred, class hatred” and “religious hatred.”
The Oscar winner also offered veiled criticism of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, known for his anti-migrant rhetoric. “We are a nation of immigrants — at least for now,” Spielberg said, and urged the graduates to vote in the upcoming election.
“As a kid, I was bullied — for being Jewish,” Spielberg recalled in his speech. “This was upsetting, but compared to what my parents and grandparents had faced, it felt tame. Because we truly believed that anti-Semitism was fading. And we were wrong. Over the last two years, nearly 20,000 Jews have left Europe to find higher ground. And earlier this year, I was at the Israeli embassy when President Obama stated the sad truth. He said: ‘We must confront the reality that around the world, anti-Semitism is on the rise. We cannot deny it.’”
Stupid myths about Metis people proliferated, and things that were demonstrably false and patently ridiculous were accepted as fact. For instance , because many Metis were tall and large-boned, it was said that physically we were not really human beings, but of a different race. We had extra muscles and thicker bones because of this perceived physical superiority. We were inferred to be mentally inferior – that way white people could maintain their perceived superiority. They would say that even though Metis people were physically strong, we were like children. Apparently very large, very strong, very entrepreneurial children. We were also supposedly wicked and corrupt because it was hard to reconcile our business success with idea that white people were mentally superior. Therefore it must have been due to us having some sort of “advantage.”The U.N. Goes Beyond the Pale—Again
We were polite but firm about maintaining our culture and traditions. This frustrated white people who believed in the superiority of white culture. Our refusal to adopt it was taken as an affront. When we expressed a desire to create a native state, it was considered an attack.
Our identity was always viewed strictly through a white lens, with a refusal to consider it through our own. We were pariahs who as long as we were useful would be tolerated and periodically we would be seen as impediments and removed with no compunctions.
So you see, if you simply change a few of those words, you should be able to understand why I feel kinship with Jews. Everything I just said about my people could have been referring to Jewish people (except the height thing, because Jews tend to be short). When I look at Jews, I look through a Metis lens, not the white lens. I don’t view their history as tragedy after tragedy because that would be false. I view it as a combination of tragedy and triumphs and frankly the triumphs vastly outnumber the tragedies, for one simple reason.
They are still here, pissing off the white culture of acquisition, possession and dominance through their very existence. I mean come on, you want to talk about iconoclasts, these people have been going their own way for three thousand years, refusing to assimilate, never doing what they are told, fighting for what they believe is right even against odds that are beyond ridiculous. As long as they are doing that, I feel like my people are not alone. That someone else understands us. I have always gone my own way, done my own thing. I refuse to just accept majority opinions without thought. I feel like my moral code is strong, so how I could I not feel a kinship with a people who are often so much like me and mine?
The expression “have you no shame?” has been applied so many times to resolutions biased against Israel at the United Nations, that it has simply lost its meaning.Arab League looks to French summit to force Israeli concessions
We were reminded again this week of the futility of fairness at the United Nations and its agencies when the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted a measure calling for an investigation of Israel over “mental, physical, and health” violations. It cited “the health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory,” as well as “the occupied Syrian Golan.”
Voting for the resolution were 107countries including, shamefully, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Those three countries should be singled out not only for knowing better, but for their continual pandering on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
As Syria burns (and where hospitals are bombed), Yemen implodes and Islamic extremism spreads daily through the Middle East and Africa, the UN system—seemingly impotent to stop any of these crises—is reaching back once again to the tried and true hectoring of Israel. And with frightening threats posed by the Zika virus and by a new strain of an antibiotic-resistant virus, it strains credulity as to why the WHO has chosen to muddy its reputation by politicizing its mission.
It is no secret that Israeli hospitals and doctors not only treat Palestinians in need, but patients from throughout the Arab world. The Israeli organization Save a Child’s Heart has performed thousands of pediatric heart operations on Palestinian children, and hundreds of others from the Arab world and Africa. My synagogue is currently raising funds to support two such operations, for Palestinian and Tanzanian children.
Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi blasted Israel as a bastion of "fascism and racial discrimination" on Saturday at a meeting of foreign ministers to discuss a French Middle East peace initiative.Abbas asks for NATO to replace IDF in West Bank as part of peace deal
The Arab ministers are expected to adopt a resolution on the plan to revive
negotiations between Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority.
In his speech to the ministers, Arabi, who has been a vocal critic of Israel, said the country "has truly become today the last bastion of fascism, colonialism and racial discrimination in the world".
Abbas has rejected an Israeli offer for direct negotiations instead of the French multilateral peace initiative, which Israel has turned down.
On Saturday, he blamed Israel for stalling the talks.
"We tried hard with the Israeli government to implement signed treaties and respect our and their commitments, but they refused," he said.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo on Saturday called for NATO forces to replace the IDF in the West Bank, as part of as part of any peace deal that leads to the creation of a two-state solution.Report: Israel and Arab states discuss new Palestinian leader to succeed Abbas
He also rejected the idea of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, when speaking before the Arab League.
Recognition of Israel as the Jewish home land as well as acceptance of a demilitarized Palestinians state, with the IDF maintaining a military presence in the West Bank, has been two of the cornerstone Israeli demands for any resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Abbas spoke in advance of the June 3 ministerial meeting in Paris, to launch a new French led peace initiative, which would set the parameters for renewed negotiating process.
Neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians have been invited to the Paris meeting. Israel has opposed the initiative which it believes dictates the results of the negotiations.
The United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan are reportedly planning to have former Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan replace Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.Abbas: Yes, Palestinians incite, but so does Israel
Citing unnamed senior Palestinian and Jordanian sources, Middle East Eye reported Friday on the joint plan to bring Dahlan, the former leader of Abbas’ Fatah party in the Gaza Strip, back from exile in the Gulf.
The plan was discussed with Israel, according to the article, which did not indicate Israel’s reaction.
Dahlan, a bitter rival of Abbas, was driven from Gaza after Hamas seized control of the coastal enclave in 2007. In 2011, he was expelled from Fatah amid allegations of corruption and accusations that he had poisoned longtime Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat.
Abbas, 81, has headed the Palestinian Authority since 2005. Dahlan who is 54 and headed the Palestinian police in Gaza in the immediate aftermath of the 1993 Oslo Accords, “has close ties to” the UAE’s royals, according to the Middle East Eye. (h/t Gastwirt)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday addressed the Arab League in Cairo, telling Arab leaders that PA-controlled media outlets and school programs indeed incite against Israel but that Israel does the same against Palestinians.Palestinians hold mass funeral for assailant killed by Hebron soldier
“Yes, we incite [against Israel] in the media and in educational institutions, but so does Israel,” he told the 22-member Arab body, according to Channel 2.
Abbas further called on the US to intervene in the issue, as he did last month when urged to renew the Trilateral Anti-Incitement Committee, which monitors cases where incitement to violence and terror is suspected.
The committee — whose members include Israeli, Palestinian and American officials — was formed as part of the Wye River Memorandum in 1998, and met every two months until the outbreak of the Second Intifada in September 2000.
Israel has repeatedly accused Abbas of failing to condemn the wave of Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians and security forces that erupted in mid-September, and says his PA hierarchy presides over incitement to violence against Israel.
Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, a Palestinian assailant who was shot and killed by Israeli soldier Elor Azaria in March as he lay disarmed on the ground, was buried on Saturday in Hebron. Israel had returned al-Sharif’s body to his family on Friday.Deceiving Cairo and helping IS, Hamas sets Gaza on course for new troubles
A crowd estimated at 1,000 attended the funeral of al-Sharif’s, whose body was wrapped in a Hamas flag, as seen in a video broadcast by Hamas channel Al-Quds TV. Cries of “Allahu akbar” (God is great) as well as other slogans could be heard from the crowds.
Israel has expressed concern that the burials of slain attackers are being used to incite against the Jewish state. As interim defense minister, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized the return of the body for burial.
On Saturday, Sharif’s father Yusri, 43, demanded that “a fair sentence” be handed down against Azaria. “The Israelis must judge their own just as they judge the Palestinians,” he told AFP. “Imagine if it was the other way around, that a Palestinian had killed someone. They would sentence him to life,” he added.
Jaffa Military Court last month indicted Sgt. Azaria for manslaughter and inappropriate military conduct for shooting and killing Sharif on March 24, minutes after Sharif participated in a stabbing attack against Israeli soldiers in the city of Hebron.
A few days ago, Hamas’s security forces in Gaza arrested a group of Salafi activists — members of Salafiya Jihadiya, a movement made up of Islamist groups that identify mainly with Islamic State. The head of the group is the son of a well-known Salafi preacher from the Shahin family. Hamas officials claimed that the group was planning to cross Gaza’s border into Sinai to join members of Islamic State in their fight against Egypt.BBC News fails to report another Gaza missile attack to English-speakers
News of the arrests created the sense that Hamas was working to stop attempts by these Gazan activists to help Islamic State in its war against the Egyptian army. The arrests were presented as part of an impressive operation by Hamas, fulfilling promises its representatives made to Egypt during a visit to Cairo two months ago. At that time, amid escalating tension between Egypt and Hamas and accusations of close collaboration between Hamas’s military wing and Walayat Sinai (Islamic State’s branch in Sinai), the high-ranking Hamas delegates assured Egyptian officials that Hamas would end its relationship with Islamic State there and then.
Hamas has indeed since reinforced its troop deployment along the Gaza-Egypt border, and promised to stop all smuggling done via the tunnels there. The Salafi arrests thus provided further ostensible proof of the new Hamas commitment to Egypt’s well-being. (Those arrests, in turn, prompted rocket fire at Israel two days ago, for which the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade, a Salafi group, claimed responsibility — a case of Israel being targeted by a Gaza terror group angry with Hamas.)
Yet there seems to be a wide gap between what senior Hamas officials are telling the Egyptians and what the heads of its military wing are actually doing on the ground. Despite the promises by Gaza’s rulers to stop the smuggling to and from Sinai and the recent arrests, Hamas continues to maintain a delicate and complicated web of interests and alliances with Islamic State in Sinai.
At around 11 pm on May 25th missiles were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel with one projectile landing in open ground in the Sha’ar HaNegev district. The attack was apparently claimed by a Salafist group. Later in the night the Israeli air force responded with strikes on two Hamas installations in the Gaza Strip.Report: Hezbollah digging tunnels, placing rockets on border for next conflict with Israel
There was no reporting of that attack on the BBC’s English language website but the Israeli response was the subject of an article which appeared on the BBC Arabic website.
Since the beginning of 2016 the BBC has not reported on any of the missile attacks from the Gaza Strip on Israeli civilians living near the border in the English language. However, Israeli responses to those attacks have received coverage in Arabic.
Lebanese terror organization Hezbollah is preparing for its next conflict with Israel by digging terror attack tunnels, tracking IDF movement and positioning its large arsenal of rockets along the northern border with Israel, Lebanese daily newspaper as-Safir reported Saturday.On looking down, not up
The report comes as a flurry of articles are being published marking the 16 anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon, in which the two countries were in engaged in the so called South Lebanon Conflict from 1985 to 2000.
"Resistance fighters are watching, making preparations and digging tunnels so enemy soldiers and settlers are losing sleep", the newspaper said.
"Observations of advanced electronic infrastructure and night-vision goggles are closely watching the border fence, which are able to transmit real-time information," the report added.
The newspaper noted that the "preparations are being established so Hezbollah fighters can participate in combat at any moment."
The report additionally addresses the terror tunnel infrastructure Hezbollah is creating along the northern border with Israel, taking notes from their jihadi militant counterpart Hamas.
There is wilfull blindness to the top-down institutional propagation of Labour’s AntisemitismLabour UK reinstates member despite anti-Semitic comments
The silence of those first few weeks still stuns me, and makes me feel viscerally sick for having pledged my allegiance to Labour. It wasn’t so much the promotion of Corbyn & his tribe, whose Soviet-infused Marxism’s embrace of ‘Anti-Colonial’ Islamism had brought together two smouldering brands of antisemitism & re-kindled a phoenix-fire of Jew-hate: no, we knew about that. It was that mainstream Labour leaders were silent on the eternal hatred that they knew full-well was now encamped in their home.
Perhaps, like us, they wanted to give the crank-rank outsider — a man who’ddefied the whip 428 times — a chance to readjust to his lottery win and to re-assess his past associations in the context of the moral responsibility of leadership … but five months later, at an ‘acid test’ meeting with the Board of Deputies he moved not one jot. The event for the Jewish community was seismic; yet the press and Labour Party barely registered a tremor.
All of his behaviours signalled antisemitism, but none were antisemitic acts per se. However, on the 5th of April, 2016, as chronicled here, Jeremy Corbyn crossed a line. In short: when the Antisemitic fringe that he had so emboldened led to a Jewish MP complaining of antisemitic abuse, Jez agreed with his brother Piers that her complaint was disingenuously got up as a plot to defend ‘Zionist’ interests. The Jews are crying wolf. The Jews have other motives. The Jews are not what they seem. With three words: ‘He’s not wrong’, in defence of a sibling so antisemitic he believes ISIS is a Jewish creation, he flagrantly and publicly moved from fulsome backer of antisemites to antisemite.
I watched, knowing that Jewish leaders, senior members of the Labour Party and newspaper editors would have understood exactly what they had witnessed. What would they say?
The Board of Deputies spoke, but all they could coax from dry lips was to pronounce his statement ‘Deeply disturbing’. As for the rest of the polity:
Nothing.
A leader of the left-wing ‘Momentum’ political action committee and member of the UK’s Labour party has been reinstated, following an investigation into what were described as anti-Semitic statements that had led to her suspension.Former London mayor Ken Livingstone fired from radio show following Hitler comments
Jackie Walker, who was suspended earlier this month following controversial comments condemning Jews as enablers of the “African holocaust”, was placed on suspension from the party, which in recent months has seen dozens of members – including MPs, town councillors and even former London Mayor Ken Livingstone come under fire for allegedly anti-Semitic statements.
On Saturday a Labour UK spokesperson released a statement regarding Walker’s status within the party.
“Following the outcome of an investigation, Jacqueline Walker is no longer suspended and remains a member of the party.”
Walker had earlier claimed that Jews were the “chief financiers of the sugar and slave trade” and had played a pivotal role in what she described as “the African holocaust.”
“[W]hat debt do we owe the Jews?” Walker wrote. “[H]aving been a victim does not give you a right to be a perpetrator”.
Controversial former mayor of London Ken Livingstone was fired from his radio broadcast show Saturday following comments he made last month claiming Adolf Hitler supported Zionism, according to The Independent.Longtime Cantor Rebukes Leeds Jewish Community for ‘Absolutely Disgusting’ Decision to Host ‘Antisemitic’ Labour MP Naz Shah
Livingstone, who hosted a Saturday morning talk show on LBC Radio, was informed of the decision over the weekend by the station's owner, Global Radio.
On news of Livingstone's abrupt termination, The Campaign Against Antisemitism hailed the decision, saying in a statement that they "applaud" Global Radio for taking appropriate action against the former UK Labour official.
“The strongest response to racism is for society to shun racists, which is what LBC’s owner Global Radio has rightly done, and we applaud them for heeding our calls," the statement said.
“Having offended Jewish people, and others committed to decency and anti-racism, Ken Livingstone proceeded to repeat his comments as widely and frequently as possible in the media. Global has now removed his most prominent outlet for doing so,” it added.
The decision by the Jewish community of Leeds, UK to host a Labour member of parliament who was suspended from the party for antisemitism is “absolutely disgusting,” a longtime local congregational leader told The Algemeiner on Friday.Cambridge Referendum Calling to Break Ties With National Student Union Over ‘Antisemitic’ President Narrowly Defeated
David Apfel — who has served as a cantor for the Leeds Jewish community for the last 35 years and whose father served as the Av Beit Din (rabbinical court head) of the city — said it was “wrong and distressing the Leeds Jewish Representative Council (LJRC) is inviting antisemite Naz Shah to occupy a platform at a leading synagogue.”
Naz Shah, who was suspended in April after it was revealed that she had called for Israel to be relocated to the US, will take part in an event titled “An evening with Naz Shah, MP for Bradford West,” hosted by the LJRC and the Beth Hamidrash Hagadol (BHH) Cultural Committee. The event was initially slated to take place at the BHH synagogue, but was moved to the local reform synagogue, Sinai Temple.
According to a LJRC spokesman who spoke to the UK’s Jewish Chronicle, the event was planned immediately following Shah’s apology in the House of Commons for her posts, which she said were “not excusable.”
Britain’s Cambridge University narrowly voted to remain a member of the National Student Union (NUS) this week after calls were made to disaffiliate over the organization’s incoming controversial president who has been accused of antisemitism.Daphne Anson: "Free Palestine" Speech Wins London Schoolgirl a Speaking Award
The results of the vote – which took place between May 24-27 — were announced Friday by the Cambridge University Students’ Union (CUSU). 46.62 percent of students voted in favor of disaffiliation, with 51.52 against. Voter turnout was high, with 28.76 percent of eligible voters casting their ballot.
Adam Crafton of the “NUS: Let Cambridge Decide” campaign, which called for disaffiliation from the NUS, said in a statement, “We are of course disappointed not to have seen this through and secured the disaffiliation vote.”
While the vote may not have resulted in their favor, Crafton said, “We believe that we have awoken the Cambridge student community to the challenges facing Jewish students on British campuses in 2016 and that is an immensely satisfying achievement. It has been a draining challenge at times but hugely rewarding.”
Crafton issued congratulations to the “Remain Campaign,” saying he “truly hopes they honor their campaigning promises to fight for Jewish students within the NUS.”
This year's Redbridge Regional Finals Award has been won by Wanstead High School student Leanne Mohamad, who declares, inter alia, that "Islam is perfect!" and ends the highly tendentious emotive speech with"Let Us Together say 'Free Palestine!", to thunderous applause.Erdogan condemns US support of Kurdish militias in Syria
I may be wrong, but I have a hunch that young Leanne was preaching to the converted...
Meanwhile, outside Holiday Inn (scene of the G4S AGM) in the leafy outer London suburb of Sutton, some old friends of ours do what they do best in this Alex Seymour video. Before the usual Israel-demonising declarations, a singer-guitarist serenades ...
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday condemned the United States’ support of Kurdish fighters in Syria after AFP pictures revealed US commandos wearing the insignia of a militia branded a terror group by Ankara.Al Quds Day Toronto's Sly and Clever Branding Uses "Icon" Mandela to Disguise Its Genocidal Aims
“The support they give to… the YPG (militia)… I condemn it,” said Erdogan. “Those who are our friends, who are with us in NATO… cannot, must not send their soldiers to Syria wearing YPG insignia.”
Erdogan’s comments came after an AFP photographer captured images of US troops in Syria wearing insignia of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Ankara regards the YPG as a terror group, accusing it of carrying out attacks inside Turkey and being the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which has fought an insurgency against the Turkish state for over three decades.
Well, after all, employing the saintly Nelson serves two purposes. First, it helps Febreze a stinky Khomeinist agit/prop effort whose ultimate goal is the eradication of the "cancer" of Israel. Second, alluding to South Africa is an aide–mémoire meant to remind all that Israel-is-an-apartheid-state/Zionism-is-racism/the Palestinians-are-Mandela's-heirs, etc.Khamenei warns of Western ‘schemes’ as his new MPs meet
Apparently, someone over in Iran made the executive decision that calling it, say, Final Solution Day, or even Shia Supremacism Day, would be far less likely to coax the usual useful infidel idiots, the ones who idolize Mandela, to flock to their toxic cause.
And BTW, there appears to be no objection at all this time to these hate mongers holding their Zionhass-a-palooza on the grounds of the Ontario government legislature--and on the Canada Day holiday weekend, yet!
Gee, I wonder how many of Justin Trudeau's newly-settled Syrian "refugees" will show up to swell the ranks of the Jew-hating throng?
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged newly elected lawmakers Saturday to resist “schemes” from the West as parliamentarians met in Tehran for the first time since elections finished in April.Iranian General With US Blood On His Hands Formally Invited By Iraq To Help Fight ISIS
“The turbulent state of the region and the world and the international adventurism of oppressors and their vassals have confronted the Islamic Iran with conditions more complicated than before,” said a message from Khamenei, read to a packed parliament chamber.
Khamenei, who has the final say on all matters in the country, repeated his familiar call for loyalty to the principles of the 1979 revolution and resistance against Western infiltration.
“It is the revolutionary and legal duty of you to make the parliament a stronghold against the schemes, charms and impudently excessive demands of the Arrogance,” his message read.
“Arrogance” was a term first used by the Islamic republic’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to describe Western powers, especially the United States.
Not only is Iran participating in the battle for the Iraqi city of Fallujah, reports claim the Iraqi government formally requested assistance from the notorious Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani.Iran arrests 8 for producing ‘obscene’ music videos
The battle for Fallujah, which officially began over the weekend, is the most recent major operation in the fight against Islamic State in Iraq. Various forces are participating in the battle, including elements of the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Units (PMUs) and Maj. Gen. Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Qods Force.
The revelation Soleimani was formally requested by Iraq symbolizes the remarkable influence Iran has in the country, and how the influence of the U.S. may be waning. Iran, once Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s mortal enemy, has solidified itself as a major influence in Iraqi politics, especially since the U.S. withdrawal in 2011.
Soleimani has been an integral factor in Iran’s popularity among the majority Shia population in Iraq. He is known to have once said “we’re [Iran] not like the Americans. We don’t abandon our friends.”
Iran has arrested eight people involved in producing “obscene” music videos, Tehran prosecutor general Abbas Jafarabadi told the judiciary’s news agency Mizan Online on Saturday.Bangladesh tycoon charged over meeting with Israeli official
“Eight people producing obscene music videos, whose clips were broadcast on a famous anti-revolutionary television channel, were arrested in Tehran last week,” he said.
Their charges will be reviewed by the special court of culture and media, he added.
Dozens of Persian-language television channels are broadcast on satellite, all based outside Iran. Some air news programs while others show only music videos, television series and movies.
Some entertainment channels have become very popular in the country in recent years despite being banned inside the Islamic republic.
Bangladesh police Thursday charged a senior opposition official with sedition for allegedly plotting against the state when he met an Israeli government adviser, an official said.Irreverent comedy on anti-Semitism gets first screening — by French Jews
The move comes as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government is stepping up a crackdown on political opponents in the Muslim-majority country, which is reeling from a wave of killings blamed on Islamists.
Aslam Chowdhury, a joint secretary of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was arrested last week after local media reported he had met an Israeli government adviser in India in March.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Masudur Rahman said Chowdhury was now charged with sedition and could face up to three years if convicted.
When the French-Jewish film director Yvan Attal titled his much-hyped comedy about anti-Semitism “They Are Everywhere,” he did so in reference to how some anti-Semites feel about Jews and vice versa.WATCH: Israeli Startup Trying to Manufacture Drugs in Outer Space
But the French-language title applies in another way, too: Though the film has yet to be released, Attal and the star-studded cast have been all over the French media, which are abuzz over the irreverent take on a problem that’s seen — by some, at least — as a scourge of French society.
“The Jews” — the English title for the film — stars Attal, an Israel-born actor-director who grew up in Paris, and his life partner, actor-singer Charlotte Gainsbourg. The mere fact of the film’s existence has been the subject of dozens of news articles by major publications in recent weeks, including Le Figaro, Paris Match and the Agence France-Presse.
The cast — including famed comedians in France like Dany Boon, who is Jewish, and Benoît Poelvoorde — have appeared on several prime-time talk shows.
Given the high profile of the movie, I could hardly believe my luck when CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish communities, invited me to a pre-premiere of the film — it had not been screened before any audience — followed by a Q&A with Attal.
More than 5,500 startups are operating in Israel today, with 1,400 new ones founded just last year, creating innovative new high-tech products in fields such as software, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and 3D printing. A video report for Bloomberg Businessweek took viewers inside Israel’s thriving startup scene.Could a New Smart Cam for the Blind Also Help Dyslexic People?
Israel has been able to replicate Silicon Valley where other countries have failed because it has “come closest to replicating an environment that floods an area with clever engineers, encourages them to take risks, and feeds them with plenty of capital,” Businessweek correspondent Ashlee Vance reported. Due to their army service, “soldiers learn to make quick, massive decisions early on, and they form deep bonds with their comrades that carry over to the startup life.”
In the course of his report, Vance profiled the startups Consumer Physics, which makes a device that can analyze the chemical composition of everyday products; SpacePharma, which is developing ways to adapt drug manufacturing to space; and Umoove, which makes software that can analyze one’s health by tracking eye movements. He also visited Nazareth to meet with Fadi Swidan, the founder of the tech accelerator nazTech, which helps Arab engineers become part of Israel’s tech ecosystem. (Swidan works with Hybrid, an accelerator created by the Israeli Ministry of Economy and Industry, to match Israeli-Arab entrepreneurs with alumni of Unit 8200, the elite IDF intelligence unit whose alumni have gone on to found many successful startups.)
At some point, after hours of speech therapy, countless consultations with child specialists and thousands of dollars spent without much progress to help my dyslexic daughter, Gefen, learn to read, I was at a loss for how to move forward.Israel Provides Disaster-Relief Supplies to Sri Lanka After Deadly Floods
Despite my own passion for reading and writing, I was about to give up and trust my worldly instincts that in the digital age, with cellphones and Siri, some clever gadget would eventually come along to help her make sense of letter groupings.
No one else could.
A visit this week to Jerusalem high-tech company, OrCam, indicated that my theory was not just derived from lazy parenting but a real intuition that evolving technology has huge potential for all matter of visual and learning difficulties.
OrCam was set up five years ago by the same folks who brought us the accident avoidance system Mobileye, that little camera that sits on your vehicle to stop it — or us — from colliding with a foreign object.
The company has been exploring the field of artificial intelligence and for now has settled on developing a device aimed primarily at enhancing the quality of life for the blind and visually impaired.
It's called MyEye.
The device is comprised of a smart camera connected to a tiny computer that attaches to a pair of glasses. The camera can be programmed to identify places, people and products. And, more important, it reads text. Not just one or two random words but entire books.
The Disaster Relief Management Ministry of Sri Lanka received water pumps, water filters, solar lighting kits and LED torches, as well as 50,000 tablets for water purification. The MFA said in a released statement that, depending on the needs of the Sri Lankan people, Israel will also provide long- and medium-term cooperation, which will include water expertise.
“At this difficult times, the people of Israel and its government stand by the people of Sri Lanka,” the ministry said.
Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Center (DMC) confirmed that the floods across the country claimed the lives of at least 101 people, while another 100 people were still listed as missing in the central district of Kegalle, which was affected the most, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. The floods triggered landslides, and a DMC spokesperson said, more than 530 houses have been completely destroyed, and another 4,000 “partly damaged.” A third of the 650,000 residents in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo were driven out of their homes, and Sri Lanka’s Finance Ministry estimated the damage to small businesses and industries at about $2 billion, according to AFP. The government has promised compensation to victims, though details have yet to be announced.
Israeli Ambassador to Sri Lanka Daniel Carmon said the Jewish state was “honored” to provide emergency assistance to Sri Lanka following the natural disaster. He said that a “National Day” reception taking place Thursday in Colombo will be dedicated to victims of the flood and to the “cementing” Israel’s strong relationship with Sri Lanka.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel."David Cameron has placed himself front and centre of a disingenuous Remain campaign, setting himself at odds with half of the Parliamentary Party and 70 per cent of our members and activists on the most important issue facing our Country in a generation,
"Whatever the result, I believe his position will be untenable."A reminder that, since 1990, civil war has been the Conservative Party's natural state. David Cameron's early years as leader now look like a glorious exception.
Senior WHO official Bruce Aylward told the BBC that risk assessment plans were in place, and reiterated that there was no need to delay the Games.
The mayor of Rio said disease-carrying mosquitoes were being eradicated.I expected it because I have seen Jaws (and Peter Benchley had obviously seen An Enemy of the People).
While never monolithic, the pro-Israel community has been mostly unified since Israel became independent. That has all changed since the emergence of J Street as a lobby that explicitly set out to challenge the establishment. The group claims it is pro-Israel, but it is fundamentally divisive and philosophically more in tune with the Arab lobby than the pro-Israel lobby.Tariq Ramadan, Islam’s Goebbels
This was most recently apparent when J Street decided to support President Obama’s catastrophic nuclear deal with Iran despite the opposition of both the Netanyahu government, the opposition Labor Party, and, according to the polls, approximately 80 percent of both the Israeli and American population.
Now we learn that its campaign to mislead Congress and the American public about the Iran deal was paid for by the Ploughshares Fund. Ironically, Ploughshares seeks to eliminate the world’s nuclear stockpiles and yet supported an agreement that encourages nuclear proliferation. The Fund paid J Street an astounding $576,500 – the equivalent of nearly one-third of the lobby’s entire 2014 budget — to help the Obama administration undermine Israel’s security.
According to deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, the Ploughshares Fund was a key partner in the campaign to recruit nongovernmental organizations, proliferation experts and “friendly” reporters to create an “echo chamber” to support the Iran deal. J Street’s executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami had numerous meetings with White House officials, including Rhodes, and the organization created a website, Iran Deal Facts, to echo the administration’s talking points. Blogger Elder of Zion described J Street succinctly as “nothing but a paid shill for the White House to split the U.S. Jewish community and put it at odds with how Israelis feel.”
The Iran case is just one example, however, of J Street’s malevolent influence.
A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with Georges Bensoussan, one of France’s most important scholars of the Holocaust. He told me that “Tariq Ramadan’s request for French nationality is a political provocation of the same nature as that used and abused by the Nazis against the Weimar democracy. It is the Islamist version of Nazi tactics of 1930-1932 years, when Goebbels said that the Weimar Republic had given the Nazis the weapons of its own defeat.”Sweden Choosing to Lose War against Middle East Antisemitism?
Tariq Ramadan is Islam’s Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda. This Nazi official punctually arrived late at his own rallies: “It increases the tension”, Goebbels said. And to those who reproached him because he used a taxi, Goebbels replied: “You have no idea of what is propaganda. I would have to get two taxis, one for me and one for my bag.”
It was Goebbels’ idea to launch the Nazi appeal to the heart in order to manipulate public opinion. “The art of propaganda” he said, “consists precisely in the ability to solicit the public’s imagination with an appeal to the feelings, in finding the appropriate psychological form that will attract attention and will touch the hearts of the masses of the nation.”
Joseph Goebbels was frail, slender, with a large head and a hollow face, a beautiful voice. People flocked to hear him, because he was able to instill in the public different feelings such as hysteria, hatred, enthusiasm. He knew how to use every means: books and films, radio and music, media and tourism. He conquered writers, philosophers, scientists, intellectuals. “It is nice to exercise power with guns, but wonderful is gaining power over the hearts and the brains,” Goebbels said.
This is exactly what Mr. Ramadan and other Islamists are doing today in Europe: the ferocious appeal to the Muslim masses, the manipulation of hatred and emotions through mosques and schools, the conquest of brains and hearts through televisions and rallies.
Dr. Goebbels and Dr. Ramadan also share the same goal: the submission of Europe. Yesterday to the Aryan race, today to Islam.
Who invited this "Salafist megastar," who denies the Holocaust and is known for making anti-Semitic statements, to visit Malmö? What do you do when anti-Semitism in Malmö, Sweden's third-largest city, is so normalized that children in a public school can endorse a conference with anti-Semitic elements?
Anti-Semitism is such a gigantic problem in Malmö that even senior city officials cannot understand how it became so normalized. They seem to dismiss it as part of a non-Swedish culture that, in a multicultural society, must be tolerated, even accommodated.
If there are children in Swedish public schools today who are promoting an anti-Semitic conference, what will these children do in the future?
Is Sweden really turning into a country where Jews are no longer welcome, someday to become a country without Jews? And if that happens, what does that say about Sweden? And who will come next after the Jews?
A series where I use history to debunk common misconceptions about the Middle East conflict.The Middle East needs to stop blaming Western imperialism for everything
I have previously covered the Six Day War from the point of view of the New York Times in June 1967. Time Magazine from right after the war provides some additional insight.
The article captures the mood at the time: overwhelming support for the Jewish state in the US, with even groups – like leftist US Jews – who are nowadays no great friends of Israel being fully in support of her fight. Also made clear from the article:
- Israel was in great peril at the time and would not have fought had the Arab aggression (including blockading the Gulf of Aqaba) not taken place
- Nasser’s lies to strengthen support (some things have not changed)
- Israel’s shooting of the USS Liberty during the hostilities – a favorite of the neo Nazis and other haters – was an accident for which Israel apologized.
The Middle East looks like it does today because of Western imperialism and Eastern imperialism, Arab nationalism and Jewish nationalism, Sunnis and Shias, secularism and fundamentalism, capitalism and communism; internationalism and isolationism.PreOccupiedTerritory: Man Insists You Take Bible Literally So He Can Disprove Your Religion (satire)
Sitting around twiddling our thumbs looking for someone to blame as the root of all evil in the region is fun intellectually, but ultimately pointless. There comes a point where you have to say: well all that happened, but grievances have their limits don’t they?
Anti-Zionism is a variation on this theme, which conveniently airbrushes out the Ottomans from history: the Jewish Zionists were the imperialists, and there was no empire around here before they showed up!
Today, Syria is in turmoil as thousands flee barrel bombs and terror devices, and Iraq reels still from the past decade of conflict. More than ever, now is time to think rationally about the steps that the region needs to take in order to escape its cycles of doom.
Rejecting Islamist jihadi terrorism, accepting Jewish and Kurdish national autonomy, tolerating freedom of worship and conscience for Christians, atheists, and all types of Muslims, promoting democratic rights and building democratic systems of governance are a few practical steps that the Middle East can take.
The Middle East doesn’t need to liberate itself from Sykes-Picot; instead it needs to unburden itself from its navel-gazing, self-defeating “anti-imperialist” narrative that it has indulged for far too long.
Local computer technician David Borders knows your belief system is untenable because your holy scriptures can only be understood literally, area sources reported today.Let’s Take BDS to Court
Borders, 31, has concluded that the only acceptable approach to Biblical analysis is to take each sentence in its strictest translation and interpretation, and that any understanding that takes into account figurative language, metaphor, or poetic devices can be safely disregarded. The divorced father of one explained that since the easiest way to dismiss Bible-based faith is to show the inherent contradictions, ahistoricity, and unreliability of the text is to use only the most literal interpretation, it follows that Biblical literalism is the only valid approach.
“Don’t try to explain away the seven days of creation as some metaphor, or some non-literal use of the word ‘day,'” insisted Borders. “That’s a cop-out. Back in the day, nobody ever used ‘day’ to mean anything other than a twenty-four hour period.”
“And don’t go telling me it’s possible to look at the first two chapters of Genesis and say the conflicting accounts of creation don’t disprove the whole thing,” he added. “Since when is it possible to hold two conflicting ideas in one’s mind at the same time?” continued Borders, who continues to have a love-hate relationship with his ex-wife. “You’re just trying to confuse the issue if you adopt some pie-in-the-sky idea of using an existing idiom in the culture to convey a larger idea – you won’t even get to first base with me an approach like that.”
The tactics of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement out to destroy Israel turn out to be in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, which is largely held in higher esteem than the Bible is in Europe.In huge blow to Israel, Netherlands declares BDS ‘free speech’
While this is hardly a surprise to those who still have their logical faculties intact, in the morally skewed and ethically challenged world that our generation inhabits, it is unfortunately necessary to have a court adjudicate that singling out the Jews — for the millionth time in world history — for discriminatory and hostile treatment is not the humanitarian thing to do.
It was judges on the panel of a Spanish administrative court who ruled that boycotting Israel is not compatible with the ECHR, as well as being in violation of the Spanish constitution.
The ruling came in a case brought before Administrative Law Court No. 1 of the city of Gijon recommending the legal invalidation of four points of a resolution adopted on Jan. 13, 2016, by the Gijon city council. In these points, Gijon is declared free of alleged “Israeli apartheid” and the city council undertakes to introduce legal measures to prevent public procurement and to avoid entering agreements with companies that allegedly violate international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In addition, they also pledge that the city will cooperate with the BDS movement against Israel.
The pro-Israeli group ACOM brought the case before the court. In its ruling, the court stated that the boycott constitutes “infringement of the fundamental rights of equality and nondiscrimination on the grounds of racial or ethnic origin, religion, or convictions expressly proscribed by our constitution as well as by international treaties.”
In a huge blow to Israel, Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders announced Thursday that calls to boycott the Jewish state fall within the limits of free speech, undermining intensive Israeli diplomatic efforts to sway European capitals to outlaw the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment Movement.Don’t Lose Focus
“Statements or meetings concerning BDS are protected by freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, as enshrined in the Dutch Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights,” Koenders said Thursday during a debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the Dutch parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee in The Hague.
He added that the Dutch government has explained to Israel that it opposes any boycott against it, but that BDS endorsement is a free speech issue. Sweden recently made a similar declaration.
His words came just two day after the State Comptroller charged Israel was losing the battle against BDS and delegitimization because of government disorganization and a lack of resources. Dutch Ambassador to Israel Gilles Beschoor Plug told The Jerusalem Post that Thursday’s decision did not reflect a change in government policy. “Supporting BDS by people in Holland is not illegal and therefore it falls within the limits of freedom,” the ambassador said.
Now why is their cause “futile” when they continue to launch BDS campaigns, create walls out of plywood, and invite Hamas apologists to college campuses while the administration turns the other cheek? The answer is simple: They do not have the same resolve and the same patience as we do.Surprise! Anti-BDS gift box coming straight to your front door
Let me explain. We waited over 2,000 years to return to our indigenous homeland after being expelled by the Romans. We spent over 2,000 years saying l’shanah haba’ah b’Yerushalayim at the end of our holiest days. We underwent the harshest of circumstances, from Inquisition to HaShoah, only to remerge stronger and more determined than before. Yes, countless Jews lost their faith over that period of time, by force or by choice, but those who remained upheld their holy covenant to HaShem. We are the descendants of those who witnessed HaShem deliver the Ten Commandments and the Maccabean warriors who reclaimed Judea from the mighty Seleucids.
Are we stupid enough to let a minority of radical left activists redetermine our history and our destiny when it has outlived far greater and far worse powers of civilization?
The answer is no. Hell no.
As long as proud, self-determined Jews recognize our own history and our own place in this glorious history from King David to David Ben-Gurion, we will never experience defeat.
We are more patient and more ambitious than our enemies. Our resolve is far greater than anything they will ever comprehend.
We have the advantage, “anti-Zionists.” You will lose.
Omri Akunis is tired of hearing about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaigns against Israel, and the start-up he leads aims to counteract the movement.Donor withholds $1m. from BGU over Breaking the Silence panel
“In recent years we witness ostracism by movements and countries which result in boycotting products manufactured in Israel,” Akunis said.
His solution? A gift box of Israeli products to be delivered right to your door.
Akunis co-founded the company iBox, which offers a blue-andwhite, made-in-Israel surprise box to its customers.
“It’s a surprise box,” explains Mai Hermann Akunis – another co-founder and Omri’s wife, “you get things that you don’t know but that are something you would need.”
In 2014, a trend of “surprise box” or “subscription box” companies began popping up, offering customers an unusual deal: For a subscription fee, they would receive a box each month with surprise contents. A health surprise box, for example, might arrive with different healthy snack foods every few weeks, or a “Barkbox” could surprise with different doggy toys.
A prominent British donor is withholding a $1 million donation from Ben Gurion University of the Negev to protest the school’s sponsorship of a conference that includes members of Breaking the Silence, The Jerusalem Post has learned.BDS: Israel Supporters See Successes and Challenges With Protestant Churches
British businessman Michael Gross, a longstanding member of the Beersheba university’s board of governors, explained his decision to withhold the donation in a letter to the Post.
“Next Monday, Ben-Gurion University will officially sponsor a conference by leading figures and supporters of Breaking the Silence. This is effectively financed by the Israeli government and ignorant foreign donors, but absolutely nothing is done about it,” he wrote.
As support for Israel erodes in many Western countries, especially among liberals and the millennial generation, American-Christian backing for the Jewish state is considered one of the bulwarks against such trends. But not all Christians feel warmly about Israel. During the past several years, a number of leading mainline Protestant churches — including the United Church of Christ, Presbyterian Church USA, the Episcopal Church, and most recently the United Methodist Church (UMC) — have considered or voted on resolutions supporting the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.Dalit Baum and BDS: Corporate Social Irresponsibility
In May, at the Church’s quadrennial general conference in Portland, Ore., UMC committees rejected four resolutions that called for divestment from companies doing business in Israel, such as Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions, and Hewlett Packard.
“What happened at the UMC’s general conference is a miracle,” Dexter Van Zile, a Christian media analyst for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), told JNS.org.
Van Zile praised the Methodist delegates for going a step further in their decision by voting to encourage UMC institutions “to disaffiliate with the US Committee to End the Occupation, a far-left anti-Israel agitprop organization that includes ISM (International Solidarity Movement) groups that condone violence against Israel and others that agitate for Israel’s destruction.”
In an interview earlier this month with The Forward, Dalit Baum, a leading Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement activist, boasted about an increased focus on corporate social responsibility — the idea that companies and investors ought to make decisions based on ethical principles beyond legal requirements and business interests. According to Baum, any company that profits from a business related to the Israeli occupation cannot claim to be socially and morally responsible, and therefore investors should remove them from their portfolios. Claiming altruism and impartiality, Baum declared that the same criteria for corporate responsibility are applied for every region in the world because “a human rights screen by definition is universal.”Student Protesters at UC Irvine Justify Violent Actions at Pro-Israel Campus Event Where They Shouted ‘All White People Need to Die’
In reality, however, Baum and anti-Israel BDS campaigners are attempting to manipulate the concept of corporate social responsibility to advance their highly discriminatory anti-Zionist ideology. Baum masks her single-minded agenda against Israel through loose language such as “universal human rights,” which, as seen through her actions, are far from universal.
Baum has been a longtime core leader of BDS. She co-founded the Israeli pro-BDS group “Who Profits,” and has also been associated with many virulent anti-Israel NGOs, such as in Boycott from Within, Zochrot, Anarchists Against the Wall, and Women in Black. Although Baum uses the language of morality and peace, her actions and involvement in these groups promote the demise of the Jewish state, not peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Members of two prominent student groups who took part in a violent protest against a pro-Israel event at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) are attempting to justify their actions, following intense backlash and calls for legal action against them.Toronto Star Gives "Latitude" to Error
UCI’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) each released separate statements defending their sponsorship of and participation in the demonstration against a Student’s Supporting Israel (SSI) event featuring Israel Defense Forces (IDF) veterans and the screening of a movie about the army.
As The Algemeiner reported, anti-Israel students at UCI blockaded attendees. One female student was harassed and chased, to the point that she was forced to flee and take refuge inside a nearby building. Police were eventually called in, but allowed the protest to continue. Protesters shouted ,“Long live the intifada,” “f*** the police,” “displacing people since ‘48/ there’s nothing here to celebrate” and “all white people need to die.”
SJP said they were “wholly justified” in protesting the SSI event, because “the presence of the IDF, better known as Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), and police threatened our coalition of Arab, Jewish, Black, Latinx, API, undocumented, trans, and queer students and the greater activist community. Our demonstration was held to protest the presence of military and police forces on campus, which threaten the lives of Black and Brown people every day.”
Canadian journalist Tony Burman, former head of Al Jazeera English, is a frequent contributor to the Toronto Star. With columns that often include scathing commentary about Israel and its supporters, his anti-Israel bias is hardly a secret.The BBC charity’s partnership with terror glorifying PA media
(See, for example, "Should U.S. diplomats meet with Hamas leaders when conducting 'shuttle diplomacy' in the Middle East?"; "What has prompted Canada’s move against Iran?"; "Time for Canada, Israel to stop living in fantasy world"; "Israel’s Netanyahu drops his mask and reveals ugliness"; Netanyahu, his pants on fire, brings torch to Washington")
So it was no surprise that his recent column about the centennial of the Sykes-Picot agreement included an anti-Israel slur. Burman, however, went further than just opinion, including an obvious error when he referred to "Israel's continuing brutal occupation of Palestinian lands."
It is neither factual nor historical to refer to "Palestinian lands" because their status is disputed. While the Palestinians seek to establish an independent state on these territories, the lands never belonged to the Palestinians -- either before or after the Sykes-Picot agreement. As to the future disposition of the territories, it is to be determined in final negotiations between the two sides.
The Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) is controlled by the Palestinian Authority and its television (PA TV) and radio (Voice of Palestine) stations are the PA’s official media channels.IsraellyCool: Foreign Media Union’s Overreaction
As is regularly documented by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), both those stations have a long record of broadcasting material which negates Israel’s existence (including on children’s programmes), glorifies terrorism, spreads incitement, promotes antisemitic tropes and hate speech, propagates falsehoods about Israel and denies and distorts the Holocaust.
One might therefore assume that for organisations from liberal Western countries, the Palestine Broadcasting Corporation would not meet the required criteria for partnership on joint projects – but that is apparently not the case.BBC Media Action
The BBC’s international development charity ‘BBC Media Action’ is officially “legally, financially and operationally independent from the BBC” although according to its website, some of its trustees are also BBC employees. It does not receive funding from the licence fee “except through the provision of office space and a small donation from BBC World Service to support co-production of content with their language services” and the majority of its income is provided by DfID – the UK government’s Department for International Development.
Despite the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation’s record, BBC Media Action (in collaboration with licence fee funded BBC Arabic) began partnering it in 2012.
Foreign media union slams begins one headline after an incident involving security for a private meeting between PM Benjamin Netanyahu and visiting French PM Manuel Valls in Jerusalem, Israel on Monday.Self-described anti-Semitic German pastor resigns from interfaith position
Long Facebook threads are blasting Israeli security for not honoring an FPA photographer’s GPO (Government Press Office) press pass. The media is reacting, way over reacting, in my opinion.
I use my GPO press pass often. The weather has to be really, really bad for me to wear boots to Beit Hanasi, the Israeli President’s House.
I have learned the hard way that my new boots set off the metal detectors. And no matter how many times I have been there, I have to go into the little room, sit down and take off offending boots and wait while they are scanned. I hate it. It is not fun to be searched, over and over. I have watched visiting women from the US go through the same ordeal. I have even apologized to guests for extreme security measures. It is embarrassing.
Every piece of photography equipment, small batteries and wires are put through x-ray machines, as are bags, with wallets and batteries removed. I have dozens of photos of the floor, proving my camera is really a camera.
And all that is simple and nothing like when the Prime Minister is involved!
A culmination of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel incidents has resulted in the resignation of the Protestant Church’s representative for dialogue with religious communities in the city of Bremen.German police probe Britons’ ‘Hitler salute’ at Buchenwald
As the furor grew over Pastor Volker Keller’s public anti-Semitism, he announced his resignation on Thursday from Bremen’s Council of Integration. “My remarks have so unsettled the trust in my work as the representative for dialogue that I no longer want to cause lasting damage to this office and resign from my position,” said Keller in a statement sent to the media by Sabine Hatscher, the spokeswoman for the Protestant church in Bremen (BEK).
Keller and the church desperately tried to defuse the Jew-hatred row by claiming his words were meant as sarcasm.
In an April email to The Jerusalem Post, Keller praised a lecture—widely viewed as anti-Semitic—in his church community building held by an anti-Israel extremist who advocated a boycott of the Jewish state: “Yesterday evening the anti-Semite Arn Strohmeyer delivered a lecture to me... Best wishes to Israel, Yours truly, Volker Keller, anti-Semite,” wrote Keller.
The head of the Buchenwald Memorial site on Thursday blamed growing right-wing populism in Europe for an incident in which members of a British neo-Nazi group appear to have performed a “Hitler salute” at the former concentration camp.PBS to air film of American couple that defied Nazis
German daily Bild reported that a picture posted on a social media site linked to the group National Action showed a blurry image of two people holding the far-right group’s flag, their right arms raised in salute. The photo was posted on the group’s Twitter page. It seems to have been removed.
The picture had the caption “Execution Room @ Buchenwald 2016,” and “Meat Hooks,” with an arrow pointing to hooks on the ceiling used to hang victims of the Nazis.
The Buchenwald Memorial Foundation said it filed a criminal complaint to police after being informed of the picture.
PBS will air a film in September about an American couple that spent two years rescuing Jews in Europe before and after the start of World War II, made by the couple’s grandson with documentarian Ken Burns.
The 90-minute film, scheduled to air Sept. 20, tells of Unitarian minister Waitstill Sharp and his wife, Martha. The Wellesley, Massachusetts, couple helped save hundreds of people in 1939 and 1940, risking imprisonment and death if discovered by the Nazis.
Burns called it “one of the most incredible tales of compassion, sacrifice and heroism” he’d heard of, and was unaware of them until the Sharps’ grandson, Artemis Joukowsky, told him. Joukowsky has written a companion book that will be out Sept. 6.
Tom Hanks provides the voice of Waitstill Sharp in the film.
NeuroRx, an Israeli start-up that is developing a treatment for depression, is the most innovative life science start-up in Israel, according to judges and attendees of the IATI-Biomed event in Tel Aviv this week.Trouble falling asleep? Israeli start-up has the answer
The company recently successfully completed a Phase II trial for its Cuclurad, a drug based on a molecule called D-cycloserine, which targets the brain’s NMDA receptor rather than the traditional serotonin pathway.
NeuroRx was chosen out of dozens of companies that participated at the conference’s startup competition and met the required criteria, including addressing an unmet medical need. The panel of judges of the startup competition included an all-star lineup of top life science experts, who chose the technology developed by the company as one that could help doctors more successfully treat depression and suicide.
Israeli medical device company 2breathe Technologies has developed a system that both helps users fall asleep and tracks their sleeping patterns, all without the use of pharmaceuticals.Elton John Semi-Dedicates ‘Your Song’ To Israel
“Tracking sleep is nice, inducing sleep is better,” said Erez Gavish, co-founder and CEO of the company.
Users wear a small sensor around their torso held in place by an elastic strap. The device, which sells for $180 with a 60-day guarantee, monitors breathing patterns by detecting pressure on the sensor as users inhale and exhale, and the information is relayed to a smartphone using Bluetooth. The 2breathe app guides clients toward relaxing breathing patterns using customized musical tones. It combines the “ancient wisdom” of therapeutic breathing with modern, cloud-based technology, Gavish said.
At a rapturously received show in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park on Thursday night, Elton John semi-dedicated his first hit, “Your Song,” to Israel and told the crowd there could have been “no nicer place” for him to open his eight-week European tour.
In an era when performers are routinely pressured by anti-Israel boycott activists not to come here, John — who last played in Israel in 2010 — said he and the band were “very happy to be back in Israel.”
Some 40,000 people gathered on warm early summer evening for the show, at which Sir Elton, 69, played a 27-song set featuring most of his classics as well as three cuts from this year’s “Wonderful Crazy Night” album.
He pumped his fists with joy and enthusiasm at the end of most songs, gave out plenty of “thank you”s and “love you”s, and took no breaks during the two-hour-plus show.
At the end of “Your Song,” about two-thirds of the way through the set, he told the crowd, “That’s Your Song, Israel” (at 3:42 in the video below). This was a sweet touch given that the lyrics include lines such as “My gift is my song and this one’s for you,” and “How wonderful life is while you’re in the world.” John has similarly addressed this song, on previous tours, to the cities in which he was playing.
‘I’m proud to be an Israeli Arab,’ says Ta’alin Abu Hanna, 21, from Nazareth. ‘If I had been in Palestine or in any other Arab country, I might have been in prison or murdered’Israeli Cancer Comedy Wins Cannes Prize
An Israeli from a Catholic Arab family was crowned the winner of the country’s first transgender pageant.
Ta’alin Abu Hanna, 21, from the northern city of Nazareth, wore a white bridal dress as she was declared the first “Miss Trans Israel” on Friday at HaBima, Israel’s national theater, in Tel Aviv.
She described her victory as “historic” and said it promotes equality.
She will represent Israel at the Miss Trans Star International pageant in Spain in August — the first time an Israeli will participate.
Two Israeli filmmakers took home prizes at the Cannes Film Festival this week. Or Sinai, a graduate of the Sam Spiegel Film School in Jerusalem, and Asaph Polonsky, who was born in the U.S. but raised in Israel, pocketed rave reviews for their works.
Polonsky’s debut film, One Week and a Day, tells the story of a husband (played by Shai Avivi) and wife (Evgenia Dodina) and the different ways of coping with the death of their 25-year-old son. While the wife returns to her routine, the husband gets high with a young neighbor and sets out to discover that there are still things in his life worth living for. It won the Critics’ Week Award, and was picked up by the studio Oscilloscope Laboratories.
“One Week and a Day is that unassuming gem, the black sheep of the Cannes lineup, that just sticks with you and makes you realize that a film doesn’t need to be three hours long and can also feel comfortable making you laugh, and yet it still fits into the slate of the most prestigious film festival in the world. Asaph is an incredible talent and this is just the start of what will surely be a long and accomplished career,” said Oscilloscope’s Dan Berger.
One Week and a Day received a standing ovation at its official screening at Cannes, and also won the GAN Foundation Award and a $22,000 cash prize.
The Empire State Building will shine blue and white on June 5 — mirroring the colors of the Israeli flag — for the annual Celebrate Israel Parade and festival in New York City, Israel National News reported.Spelling bee champ nails obscure Yiddish word
“We are thrilled that this year, in addition to the parade, we are presenting many opportunities for Jewish New Yorkers to celebrate and demonstrate our collective support for Israel,” said Eric S. Goldstein, CEO of the UJA-Federation of New York, which is hosting the annual parade alongside the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York and the Consulate General of Israel in New York.
The parade calls itself “the largest demonstration of support for Israel in the world.”
On June 5, more than 250 organizations will march from 57th Street to 74th Street along Fifth Avenue in New York, with TV host Kathie Lee Gifford leading the parade as honorary grand marshal.
The final of the nation’s most prestigious spelling bee took a Yiddish turn Thursday night.
Scripps National Spelling Bee finalist Jairam Hathwar, a 13-year-old from Corning, New York, was asked to spell the word “chremslach” in the ultimate rounds of the competition.
Not up on your Yiddish and wondering what the word means? You probably aren’t alone. Chremslach are small, flat fried matzah meal cakes traditionally eaten by Jews during the Passover holiday.
Mazel tov to Jairam, who spelled the word correctly and went on to be crowned spelling bee co-champion, along with Nihar Janga, an 11-year-old boy from Austin, Texas. (After 39 rounds, the contest ended in a tie for the third consecutive year.)
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.A little piece of transport history will be made when direct trains run between Norwich and Dereham this weekend.
It will be the first time that through trains have connected city and town since the Dereham to Wymondham branch line closed to passenger trains in 1969.
The Mid Norfolk Railway, which now runs the line as a heritage attraction, has teamed up with East Midlands Trains to run the services tomorrow and on Sunday.And Wymondham, as any fule kno, is pronounced "Windum".
Politics reared its ugly head in sports once more on Thursday, this time at the World Team Cup wheelchair tennis event at the Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo.
Israel was scheduled to face Morocco in a Men's World Group 2 tie for positions 5-8, but the Moroccans never showed up, being ordered to forfeit by their local paralympic committee.
"This is a sad day for sports, and an even sadder day for paralympic sports," said Israel coach Nimrod Bichler. "Politics have mixed with sports in the past, but paralympic sports were always different." Israel's team, which includes Amir Levi, Adam Berdichevsky and Asi Stokol, was awarded a default 3-0 victory.
...The ITF told The Jerusalem Post in response to Thursday's incident.
"The ITF was established to, among other things, preserve the integrity and independence of tennis as a sport, and to do so without unfair discrimination on the grounds of color, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or religion. In light of the report that the Moroccan team failed to play a scheduled match against Israel in Men’s World Group II of the ITF Wheelchair World Team Cup, we will contact the Moroccan Tennis Federation as a matter of urgency to establish the facts of this situation, and we will follow the relevant ITF Wheelchair regulations and the ITF Constitution, as necessary, to determine the appropriate action."
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