02/03 Links Pt2: NY Times gets Pallywooded by JVP; Wix unveils 2016 Super Bowl ad ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Amb. Alan Baker: France’s Ultimatum to Israel – Legally Flawed and Politically Imprudent

France Undermines the Oslo Accords It Witnessed
The commitments set down in this agreement, to negotiate the permanent status of the territories as well as other central issues such as Jerusalem, borders, settlements and refugees, are solemn Palestinian and Israeli obligations which France, together with its EU partners, as well as the United States, Russia, Egypt, Jordan and Norway are obligated to honor after placing their signatures on the agreement as witnesses.
By the same token, the UN General Assembly in its Resolution A/50/21 of December 4, 1995, supported by France, expressed its full support for the Oslo Accords and the peace negotiation process.3
In its capacity both as a signed witness to the agreement, as well as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, it is incumbent on France, which voted in favor of the UN resolution endorsing the agreement and the negotiation process, not to attempt to undermine the same agreement and process, nor to prejudge issues that are still open and to be negotiated.

Anne Bayefsky: The UN Commemorates the Holocaust with Israel-Bashing

It is hardly a secret that the UN agenda is to find reasons for treating the Jewish state differently — notwithstanding the UN Charter’s promise of equality for nations large and small. The settlements bandwagon is one of many.
In effect, the “occupation” rant is the PC version of ISIS’s “Allahu Akbar.” It has been the Arab cry since the minute of Israel’s birth in 1948 and is the verbiage that presages destruction, not peaceful coexistence. It is the complaint about Jews living on Arab-claimed land, despite the fact that ultimate ownership of this land — according to legal agreement — is to be decided by negotiations, not UN fiat.
The bigger picture tells the story. The UN just wrapped up a year in which there were a total of 26 General Assembly resolutions condemning specific countries for human-rights abuse: 19 — that’s 73 percent — against Israel and one, for instance, against Syria. In 2015, the UN Commission on the Status of Women adopted one resolution condemning a country for violating women’s rights: Israel — for violating the rights of Palestinian women.
Finding excuses for demonizing Jews, discriminating against Jews, delegitimizing Jewish self-determination, and just plain old Jew-hatred, is thousands of years old. It has a name, anti-Semitism.
Which is where the UN’s international Holocaust Remembrance Day comes in. At the UN, it provides cover. So on January 27, Ban Ki-moon showed up at the General Assembly’s annual commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz.
After checking-off “present” in his Holocaust remembrance speech, the secretary-general could manage to mention anti-Semitism only once, and only together with “anti-Muslim bigotry.” His UN secretariat also used the day to promote the claim that there were multiple Holocausts, adding for the first time to the rostrum of the annual event a Sinto speaker, who repeatedly referred to “the forgotten Holocaust of the Sinti and Roma.”

Sir Eric Pickles: A thriving vibrant Jewish community is an integral part of British identity

There is a darkness descending on universities across Europe.
What should be institutions of lightness and open discussions risk becoming places where Jewish students need to move discreetly, avoiding the attention of their peers. Late last year I talked to Jewish students in France, they spoke of violence on their campuses and a conflating of Israel and Jewish opinion. Just as worrying are the consorted attempts to delegitimize Israel and present it on every occasion as outside the community of nations.
This is not a passive policy; it involves the denial of a platform to speak, and the drowning out of opinions when they are expressed. In some cases, it has become the thinnest of veneers for anti-Semitism.
Last week we saw its latest manifestation at one of London’s leading universities, when an unruly mob of protesters attacked a classroom where the former head of the Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency), Ami Ayalon, was speaking with a small group of students. Slogans were chanted, fire alarms were set off and windows were broken. A group of bullies set out to frighten those attending into submission, and into silence.

Richard Landes: Why I am a member of Peace When

Two State Solution, yes, just not now;
or,
Why I am a member of Peace When.
Peace When.
The two-state solution is indeed the most equitable resolution to this tragic fight between two peoples who could well be productive friends. But in order to reach that kind of justice, it will take some time before Palestinian culture has developed the ability to move from the zero-sum world of dispute settlement through violence (upon which, despite always losing so far, Palestinian leaders insist) to dispute settlement through a discourse of fairness that includes reciprocity. Until then, pushing Israel to make concessions to players who reject reciprocity and view concessions as signs of weakness, merely plays to the hand of war.
All of the following suggestions are demands that are perfectly reasonable if the Palestinians are planning to make peace with Israel; they’re unacceptable if the Palestinians are planning to destroy Israel. Seems like the least that well-intentioned outsiders, who say they believe in a two-state solution now, could ask from the Palestinian leadership:
- Show of good faith about compromising on the refugees by beginning to move refugees out of camps and into decent, permanent housing.
- Show of respect for women, by seriously tackling the problem of honor-killings, including cases where father or brother raped the victim.
- Stop persecuting Palestinians who get along with Israelis for being spies and traitors.
These items are chosen because they attack the cultural issues making peace so hard. Obviously any effort for peace would also include asking that the Palestinian officials stop broadcasting the ugliest kind of war propaganda: incitement to genocide, irredentist claims and promises, glorification of people who kill innocent civilians. But that’s almost too obvious to mention… or is it? (h/t Alexi)

The Broader Framework of Trudeau’s Holocaust Distortion

The absence of any mention of Jews in Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day has drawn much criticism. The omission of Jews in any commemorative statement on the Holocaust and its victims, even if unintended, serves as a typical example of a much wider phenomenon — the de-Judaization of the Holocaust.
The Anne Frank story perhaps offers the best-known example of such de-Judaization. When the diary was first published in 1947, several of the initial reviews in Dutch papers did not mention that Anne was Jewish. A German edition was published three years later. The foreword, written by the German author Albrecht Goes, also made no mention of Jews, referring to the Jewish people as “Israel” instead.
Eleanor Roosevelt wrote the foreword for the first American edition of Anne Frank’s diary, published in 1952. Here, too, no mention was made of the terms “Jew” or “persecution of Jews.” American writers Francis Goodrich and Albert Hackett wrote the first play based on the diary, which was produced in 1955. They pushed facts about Nazis and antisemitism, as well as that Anne Frank was persecuted as a Jewish girl, to the background. This play had an important impact on how Anne Frank was perceived, particularly in the United States.
De-Judaization often appears hand-in-hand with universalization of the Holocaust, and Trudeau’s text illustrates this. He stated: “The Holocaust is a stark reminder of the dangers and risks of allowing hate, prejudice, and discrimination to spread unchallenged. It also reminds us that silence must never be an option when humanity is threatened.”

‘Pinkwashing’ and traitors to the human mind

There persists on the intellectual Left an obstinate refusal to recognize this self-evident fact, or even to acknowledge information that might support it. “The nationalist” Orwell wrote, “not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.”
At a 2013 event held at the LGBT Centre in New York, Sarah Schulman declared herself to be in opposition to anyone “invested in systems of supremacy, whether it’s gender supremacy, religious or racial supremacy.” Asked by the journalist Sohrab Ahmari if she considered Hamas to be among those invested in such systems, she replied: “I don’t know enough about Hamas to give you a complete, intelligent analysis of Hamas.” So mesmerized is Schulman by the idea of the Palestinians that she cannot bring herself to even look at the specifics.
“Many whose allegiance went to the Soviet Union,” wrote the historian Robert Conquest, “may well be seen as traitors to their countries, and to the democratic culture. But their profounder fault was more basic still. Seeing themselves as independent brains, making choices as thinking beings, they ignored their own criteria. They did not examine the multifarious evidence, already available in the 1930s, on the realities of the Communist regimes. That is to say, they were traitors to the human mind, to thought itself.”

Israel slams ‘slanted’ CBS headline on Jerusalem attack

Israel’s Foreign Ministry blasted on Wednesday a headline by major American news outlet CBS News that seemed to imply that three Palestinians killed while carrying out a shooting and stabbing spree in Jerusalem, killing a police officer and wounding another, were the victims of an attack.
The attackers were shot dead by police as they opened fire with three makeshift Carl Gustav firearms and stabbed the Border Police officers, killing 19-year-old Hadar Cohen and seriously wounding another officer, outside Jerusalem’s Old City.
CBS reported the story with the headline: “3 Palestinians killed as daily violence grinds on.”
The headline is “unprecedented chutzpah, a slanted and false headline,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said.
“We are working to correct the CBS headline,” he added.
After causing a storm on Twitter, the headline was changed a few hours later to: “Israeli police kill 3 alleged Palestinian attackers.”

Jewish Voice for Peace Takes Credit for Israel-Bashing Fake New York Times

A branch of Jewish Voice for Peace and a second left-wing group have taken credit for distributing a fake issue of the New York Times on February 2 made up of commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The local New York chapter of JVP, and a small New York-based pro-Palestinian activist group Jews Say No!, issued a statement February 3 claiming credit for the stunt, calling the paper a “parody.”
The activists distributed a product meant to resemble the New York Times both online and in printed copies handed out in New York City. Twitter suspended an account set up for the stunt. A website that mimicked the New York Times’s design was also suspended by its host.
The stunt was meant to “point out how biased current reporting is on Israel and Palestine and to show what a paper that was fair and accurate could look like,” one of the fake paper’s writers said in JVP’s statement.
In an emailed statement, the Times said that it was able to shut down online versions of the fake paper because it was “deliberately designed to trade on our name and mislead users.” (h/t Yenta Press)

NY Times gets Pallywooded

It was extremely professionally done, with multiple articles and fake advertisements. A reported 10,000 copies were handed out in New York City, including outside Times headquaters. That must have cost quite a bit.
This level of sophistication and expense makes it unlikely to have been done by your typical college groups, like Students for Justice in Palestine, who normally just disrupt and shout down Israeli speakers, or who pass out fake “eviction notices” to intimidate students.
The fake was so good that it fooled many people at first glance. Including the Editor-in-Chief of The Forward, a liberal publication popular among liberal Jews.

NPR's Former Israel Reporter 'Sad' That Hoax Anti-Israel Agitprop Not Real

Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR's former bureau chief in Jerusalem, admits she was "sad" to discover that a fake New York Times editorial distributed by anti-Israel activists wasn't real.
The agitprop, which was handed out to passersby in Manhattan and promoted on social media, purported to be an apology for bias — pro-Israel bias, that is — and an announcement of changes to editorial policy. It included false statistics about recent New York Times coverage.
The hoax editorial did not appear on an authentic New York Times website, and was published alongside several farcical advertisements with anti-Israel messages. But despite these clear signs that the material was fake, a number of journalists fell for the hoax.
Matthew Bell, a reporter for PRI's The World, shared the material on Twitter:
So did The Forward's editor-in-chief Jane Eisner:
Rick Dunham, a former reporter for Hearst and the Houston Chronicle and one-time president of the National Press Club, likewise credulously described the material as coming from the New York Times:
(Unlike Bell and Eisner, Dunham quickly updated his full Twitter following upon discovering his mistake.)
In response to the PRI reporter's tweet, Lourdes Garcia-Navarro told her colleague that the material was "sadly" fake:(h/t Yenta Press)

ADL slams mock anti-Israel NYT supplement as 'deceptive'

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was similarly disturbed by the group's attempt "to leave the impression that Israel is worthy of far more criticism that The Times usually allows."
Arguing that the fake newspaper's creators were entitled to their view that The Times was pro-Israel, even in contrast to many of the paper's critics, the ADL stressed that "to do it in a surreptitious manner, as they have done, is deceptive."
"The diatribe, published anonymously, conveys false facts and themes consistent with anti-Israel advocates and supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement," it added, welcoming The New York Times own objection to the "assault on their brand."
Both the ADL and the American Jewish Committee announced Wednesday they are looking into who is behind the fake supplement.

"Europe, learn from Israel!": Exclusive interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is still a shadow. But her voice at the telephone is clear, tough, cool. It is that of a young Somali woman who has undergone genital mutilation, who has lived in Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Kenya, before being betrothed to a Canadian cousin she had never seen before. Hirsi Ali escaped from Germany to the Netherlands.
Your name appears in the same list of targets alongside the late director of Charlie Hebdo, Stephane Charbonnier, and other cartoonists. “My name was on the list of Charlie, so I am not surprised by what happened a year ago. Charbonnier and the other journalists were heroes. Unfortunately, today there is a combination of fear and multiculturalism, moral relativism, the sense of guilt for the Muslim population because of colonialism. When I started going to university in the Netherlands, many did not want to hear about the Holocaust in the classroom, they were told not to speak of the Jews of Israel. This served to suppress criticism of Islamic doctrine. We must stop demonizing Israel and learn from it."
"Unfortunately, today countries like Saudi Arabia do great missionary work in Europe, trying to suppress dissent. Freedom of expression is therefore fundamental for the opening of the Islamic world to reason. But sometimes I think it’s too late. Think about Italy, France, Germany, England, the whole great tension between Muslims and Europeans. In this context it is becoming difficult, more difficult, to exercise the right to freedom of speech."
"I am happy in America, but even here there are the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist organizations. In ten years I have seen a significant radicalization in America”.

Douglas Murray - The EU is to blame for rise in Anti-Semitism

Students Supporting Israel: Is it Fathomable that Our Own Classmates Condone Terrorism? Sadly, the Answer is Yes

SJP not only took the opportunity to celebrate murderers, it used the names of individuals who died of natural causes and blamed these deaths on Israel. For example, Ibraheem Dar-Yousif, 46, died of a heart attack (Maan News). SJP and some of its followers are exploiting death to garner hatred towards the Jewish State and the Jewish community.
The names and events listed above are not isolated but are part of a harmful ideology, which has penetrated UCLA’s campus. Unfortunately SJP is merely echoing its role models whom routinely incite Palestinians to attack and kill Jewish civilians and celebrate “every drop of blood spilled”[2].This behavior is not acceptable nor does it have any place on campus.
UCLA has a thriving Jewish community and many students’ love for Israel is an inherent part of their Jewish identity. Many Jewish students, administrators, and professors have family and friends living in Israel that are the victims of these celebrated terror attacks.
How can Jewish students on campus feel safe when their peers are condoning the terrorism that has stolen the lives of their relatives and friends? How can the student body feel safe as condoning terrorism becomes acceptable? This behavior is shameful and unacceptable.

BDS Event to Be Held by Columbia Students Demanding The University ‘End Investments in Israeli Apartheid’

Two student groups have banded together to pressure Columbia University into divesting “from companies that benefit from or provide funds for the continued presence of Israeli homes, business, and infrastructure in the West Bank,” the CU student-run, campus news website Bwog reported on Monday.
Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace have dubbed their joint organization “Columbia University Apartheid Divest” (CUAD), and are advertising their “first-ever” event on Thursday evening at the Ivy League school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
They are also circulating an online petition and referring students to a Facebook invitation page, BDS 101, on which there is the following post: “CUAD is happy to announce that Barnard Columbia Socialists will be cosponsoring this event with us!”
The lecture hall where the event is slated to take place is in the mathematics department, in a room that purportedly seats 55 – though as of the time of this writing, there are 96 people who say they are definitely going and another 106 who have expressed interest in attending.

NGO bent on holding anti-Israel event at landmark

The third International Conference on the Return of Palestinian Refugees will take place at a controversial venue this year: The Eretz Israel Museum Tel Aviv (also known as the Land of Israel Museum).
The radical left-wing NGO Zochrot, which will organize the conference in March, said the location was important because of the symbolism. In the official invitation to the conference, Zochrot says the museum sits on the "lands of the [Arab] village of Al-Shaykh Muwannis, which was located there till the Nakba." The term "Nakba," which means catastrophe in Arabic, is used by anti-Israel groups to describe the displacement of Palestinian Arabs during Israel's War of Independence.
Zochrot Director Liat Rosenberg said Tuesday that holding the conference at the Eretz Israel Museum would show defiance in a "reality where cultural institutions and intellectuals feel persecuted and intimidated as a result of controversial events, and are afraid to make political statements." She added that "Zochrot has made a point of having the Nakba and the right of return be part of the public discourse in the very places that do not want us partaking in their events."

Galloway vows 'mother of all protests' against Israel event

Former British MP and current candidate for London's Mayoral Elections George Galloway has promised "the mother of all protests" at next year's Tel Aviv Festival in the UK capital.
Galloway, a longtime anti-Israel activist, issued the pledge in a tweet Monday. His comments were in response to statements by both front runners - the Conservative Party's Zac Goldsmith and Labour's Sadiq Kahn - in support of the festival.
In response, Galloway declared that regardless of whether he was London Mayor by then, he would lead a mega protest against the event, tweeting: "I promise you this whether I'm the Mayor or not there will be the mother of all protests outside any Festival for the Apartheid state..."

EU: €155m in R&D deals proves there’s no boycott of Israel

Whatever individuals or groups in Europe do, the European Union does not boycott Israel, EU ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Andersen said this week in Tel Aviv in a meeting with the head of the Federation of the Israeli Chambers of Commerce.
“Our wide-ranging economic cooperation is thriving and remains very strong. It is possible that our economic ties with Israel are stronger than they are with any other non-EU country,” Faaborg-Andersen told Federation president Uriel Lynn Tuesday.
According to Faaborg-Andersen’s office, Israel has signed no fewer than 240 agreements with the EU as part of the Horizon 2020 research and development program, with grants to Israeli start-ups and research groups worth up to €155 million euros ($170 million). In its previous R&D project, FP7, Israeli companies got NIS 1.6 for every shekel invested, his spokesperson added.

Elliott Abrams: Palestinian torture produces no outrage

The invaluable group Palestine Media Watch reported on Sunday on torture in Palestinian detention centers in the West ?Bank and Gaza.
This is not the first time such allegations have been made against both Hamas and the ?Palestinian Authority. What's worth noting is the reaction from Washington and among the ?donors to the PA: silence. And what's even more noteworthy is the reaction from the ?innumerable groups attacking Israel for human rights violations: more silence. Such ?abuses, which would arouse a global round of denunciations of Israel if Israel acted this ?way, arouse yawns when committed by the PA.?
There are some lessons here. One, as noted, is that official Palestinian human rights abuses ?get next to zero attention. Another lesson is that this immunity carries a price -- and the price ?is paid by Palestinians. Instead of evolving steadily toward a more democratic political ?system that respects human rights, the Palestinian system has stalled. There are no ?elections, there are widespread human rights abuses, there are few or no corrective ?mechanisms, and there is global indifference. Governments and organizations that say ?they want to help build peace in the Middle East should realize that withholding criticism of ?the PA for its abuses is not a way forward. It is a guarantee that human rights conditions in ?the West Bank will continue to deteriorate.?

Honest Reporting: One woman stood up to NPR...and won!

Peering Through a Distorted World View

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion recently released the sort of supposedly even-handed statement that is all the rage among political leaders weighing in on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The statement read, “Canada is concerned by the continued violence in Israel and the West Bank…As a steadfast ally and friend to Israel, Canada calls for all efforts to be made to reduce violence and incitement and to help build the conditions for a return to the negotiating table.”
Mr. Dion may be concerned, but it appears that he is concerned about all the wrong things. In the last four months, there have been 177 shooting, stabbing, and car ramming attacks perpetrated by Palestinians against Israelis.
These attacks have left 30 people dead and almost 300 injured. Half of the victims have been civilians. They include a pregnant woman working in a clothes shop, a mother of six slashed to death in front of her children, young parents gunned down with their children in the backseat, an American student, a 15-month-old baby, and half a dozen septuagenarians.

A Toxic Echo Chamber

Stephen Pritchard, the reader’s editor at The Guardian, recently announced that the paper will start restricting reader comments posted in the Comment is Free section in articles on three “sensitive” topics: race, immigration, and religion.
Why those sacred cows?
Certain subjects – race, immigration and Islam in particular – attract an unacceptable level of toxic commentary, believes Mary Hamilton, our executive editor, audience. “The overwhelming majority of these comments tend towards racism, abuse of vulnerable subjects, author abuse and trolling, and the resulting conversations below the line bring very little value but cause consternation and concern among both our readers and our journalists,” she said last week . . .
This was not a retreat from commenting as a whole, she said; it was an acknowledgement, however, that some conversations had become toxic at an international level – “a change in mainstream public opinion and language that we do not wish to see reflected or supported on the site”.
Israel activists can relate. For years, Comment is Free has been a toxic cesspool of hatred against the Jewish state. I’ll credit The Guardian for improving its monitoring of the most abusive comments, but the overwhelming balance of articles, talkbacks, and cartoons are sharply critical of Israel.
Let’s face it: mainstream Zionists are so maligned at Comment is Free, most don’t spend time there any more. So as we approach Comment is Free’s 10th anniversary in March, it’s a stretch to call the section a forum for real dialogue about the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
There’s no inclusiveness for Israel. Comment is Free is just an echo chamber where leftists reinforce their views.

'Which terrorist are you' Facebook page

A new Facebook page by the name of "Which martyr are you," featuring a GIF that scrolls through the images of numerous Palestinian terrorists who recently murdered Jews, has been getting a lot of attention on social media.
The GIF already has close to 6,000 likes and over 2,500 comments.
The page, which identifies itself as Quds news agency, features the GIF and asks people to click on the image to make it stop scrolling and have the face of one of the recent terrorists appear. It then asks viewers to write down the name of the "martyr" who appeared when they clicked. The page can be viewed here.
Despite complaints Facebook still has yet to take down the post. While Facebook does have the ability to report posts that encourage violence, it apparently the company is not qualifying the post as falling under its Community Standards guidelines since the post itself does not explicitly advocate violence, but rather encourages and praises those who carry out terrorism.

The BBC, complaints, corrections and accountability

Readers may recall that a BBC Radio 4 News bulletin from December 20th 2015 misled listeners with regard to the fact that Samir Kuntar’s role in the 1979 terror attack in Nahariya was proven in a court of law.
“A leading figure in the Lebanese militant group Hizballah has been killed by a rocket attack in the Syrian capital Damascus. Samir Kuntar had previously spent thirty years in an Israeli prison for his alleged role in the killing of four people. Hizballah said Israel was behind the rocket attack. An Israeli minister welcomed his death but didn’t say whether his country had carried it out.”
A member of the public who immediately alerted the BBC to the use of that inaccurate and misleading wording received (over two weeks later) one of BBC Complaints’ infamous template responses – which completely failed to address the issue raised.

Scottish MP: Jewish Community Feels ‘Under Threat’

The Scottish Jewish community feels “under threat,” Conservative member of Scottish Parliament Jackson Carlaw told Israel-advocacy group Stand With Us at a gathering in Glasgow on Sunday.
“It’s true that MSPs do commemorate the Holocaust,” said Carlaw, according to the UK’s Jewish Chronicle. “Sometimes I think some think they have ticked a box when they do that and are free the rest of the year to be deeply critical about Israel, and at times to allow that anti-Israel expression of view to cross into an antisemitic expression of view, and not see the difference between them.”
“I don’t want the future Jewish community to feel no longer welcome in Scotland or that they have to follow through on discussions about whether it is time for them to leave,” he said.
The Scottish MSP said he planned a motion for a members’ debate to discuss the Jewish community’s contribution to Scotland and Israel’s “place in the world.”

London Police Arrest Teen Caught Throwing Fireworks at Jewish Pedestrians

Police arrested a 14-year-old boy in the Hackney neighborhood of London after he was caught throwing fireworks at Jewish passersby.
The teenager was initially detained by the London Shomrim, an organized neighborhood watch for the Jewish community. No one was injured in the incident.
“A 14-year-old male was arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated common assault and possession of a firework in the street,” said police, according to Jewish News Online. “He was taken to a north London police station and subsequently released on police bail to a date in early March.”
Hackney has faced a growing problem of antisemitism over the last year. According to Metropolitan police figures, antisemitic crimes were up 88% in 2015 compared to the previous year, especially in the Samford Hill area, which is predominantly Orthodox Jewish.

Jewish Cemetery struck by vandals

Sixty tombstones knocked over. One broken in half and destroyed. Several others severely damaged.
The Jewish Cemetery at 6224 Decatur Road was vandalized to the tune of $20,000 sometime in the past three weeks, and Fort Wayne police are now investigating leads as to who would topple grave markers.
Cemetery officials found the headstones knocked over Monday and called police. In a report, officers counted 54 grave markers knocked over and one split in half. A statement Tuesday from the Fort Wayne Jewish Cemetery Association said about 60 were toppled with several sustaining severe damage.
No graffiti or drawings were found, leading investigators to believe the vandalism was not aimed at the Jewish community.
According to police reports, it appeared as though at least two people went through the cemetery kicking over the headstones.

Hiker discovers 3,500-year-old Egyptian antiquity in Galilee

A 3,500-year-old Egyptian seal in the form of a scarab was discovered by an Israeli during a walk in the Lower Galilee.
Amit Haklai spotted a tiny white object while on an outing with his small children on the Horns of Hittim near Tiberias, Army Radio reported Tuesday.
Noticing that it was shaped like a scarab and had decorations engraved on it, he realized it was an ancient Egyptian seal and took it to the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Archaeologists determined that it was an amulet from the New Kingdom period of Ancient Egypt, from the 16th to the 11th century BCE.

Psychedelic powerhouse Tame Impala to play Israel

Tame Impala, one of the most successful psychedelic rock bands in the world, will be performing in Israel in July, the concert’s producers announced Wednesday.
Tickets to the concert, scheduled for July 11 at Rishon Lezion Live Park, have gone on sale, with the first 2,000 being offered at a discounted price of NIS 249 ($62).
Tame Impala was founded in 2007 by vocalist and guitarist Kevin Parker and bassist Dominic Simper in Perth, Australia.
The band’s style, resembling the psychedelic rock of bands such as The Flaming Lips and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, caught the ear of Australian record label Modular Recordings, which awarded the band a record deal.

WATCH: IDF's new Commando Brigade holds its first combat drill

The recently established IDF Commando Brigade completed its first full combat drill, held on a hilltop in the Jordan Valley on Wednesday.
In recent days, units in the brigade practiced a number of commando operations during wartime in a range of simulated areas. This was conducted "under the command and management of the brigade's command level, which began forming just before the drill," said Brig.-Gen. Uri Gordin, Commander of Division 98, to which the Command Brigade belongs.
Gordin said the drill, dubbed 'Night of the Bridges,' was based on practicing a series of "operational activities by small elite forces that achieve significant gains against the enemy." "The Commando Brigade is a new thing for operational forces in the IDF. It directly and clearly strengthens the operational end of the military," he said.
The new brigade's establishment provides new tools to strike with, Gordin said, adding that "we are in the process of creating a new capability. This is the first and very significant result in a learning and development process." In December, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot said Israel needs the Commando Brigade now more than ever, in light of threats from Hezbollah and the Islamic State, during a ceremony marking the creation of the unit.

IDF Blog: 5 ways to achieve your fitness resolutions – IDF style

Early February and you still haven’t fulfilled that New Year’s Resolution to get out and exercise? Well, now is the perfect time. Follow our IDF Combat Fitness Instructors with these 5 basic moves to see your fitness improve.

Israel’s Wix unveils 2016 Super Bowl ad

Wix.com, the Tel Aviv-based do-it-yourself website development company, on Wednesday released a commercial it will broadcast during the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 7.
The 30-second spot, which will air during the 3rd quarter of the CBS broadcast, features characters from DreamWorks Animation’s “Kung Fu Panda 3” wondering how to promote Mr. Ping’s Noodle Shop, and opting to start with a Wix website.
The commercial, part of Wix’s #StartStunning campaign, was developed in collaboration with DreamWorks.
The spot marks the second time Wix has invested in a Super Bowl ad.

Kung Fu Panda Discovers the Power of Wix

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.