05/29 Links: WHO condemnation of Israel based on blatant PA lies; Israel and the Palestinians: What the media won't report ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Palestinian Health Ministry Passes Off Fauxtography to WHO

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) decision last week harshly critical of Israel for "Health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including in east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan" prompted Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid to describe it as antisemitic.
In preparation for WHO's publication of the decision, the Palestinian Ministry of Health submitted a report to the international organization. Apart from the usual allegations propagated by various NGOs, the official Palestinian submission also includes the following outrageous charges:
• Israel is damaging prisoners' health by "Holding prisoners in polluted areas, such as in the vicinity of the Dimona reactor or near areas in which waste from that reactor has been buried" (page 29).
• "In April 2013 the Russian newspaper Pravda accused Israel of injecting a number of Palestinian prisoners who were approaching their release date with cancer-causing viruses. Despite Israel’s rejection of the accusations made by the newspaper, the question remains: is it true that Israel is injecting prisoners with viruses?" (page 29)
• A Palestinian doctor contends that the Israeli practice of freezing terrorists' bodies and insistence that they will only be returned to Palestinians if they are buried immediately "makes it impossible to ascertain whether the deceased individual’s organs have been stolen" (page 49).
When it comes to the summer 2014 Operation Protective Edge, the Palestinian Ministry of Health delves into science fiction. This picture on page is accompanied by the following caption: "Photograph taken during the Israeli war on Gaza, 2014":
This image, with its primitive Photoshop makeover, was making the rounds in the summer of 2014, and Israellycool exposed it as a hoax at the time. The original picture was published on a blog to illustrate a story on how Israel might attack Iran's nuclear reactors:

Israel and the Palestinians: What the media won't report

Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, and an expert on Middle East conflicts, discusses what the Palestinian leadership really wants.

Watch: Activist not happy at 'Zionists' monitoring Muslim media

"As part of the Zionist movement's cultural infiltration (into American society), it has managed to convince a large part of American public opinion that the two countries share the circumstances of their establishment," Osama Abu Irshaid, the national director of the Chicago-based American Muslims for Palestine organization, stated in a May 18 broadcast on Al-Jazeera. "In fact, there is some truth to it. (In both countries), it was a process of ethnic cleansing."
Abu Irshaid noted the racist term 'American Indian,' and noted both Americans and Jews say they 'discovered' their lands uninhabited before establishing their respective countries.
"(The Zionists) managed to convince the (Americans) of the following: 'We came to two undeveloped countries, and managed to establish two successful states.'," he said. "This is one aspect of infiltrating American consciousness."
Abu Irshaid then discussed MEMRI.
"The cultural infiltration also includes the Zionist influence in the media," he said. "They have a significant impact on the media, as well as on Hollywood. They have managed to endear Israeli and the Jews upon American public opinion."

Obama admin's breathtaking Israel-Iran double-standard

The US State Department has been caught employing a stunning double-standards vis-a-vis Israel and Iran, shedding a light on the antagonism towards the Jewish state by the Obama administration, even as it cozies up to the Islamic Republic.
Last week, State Department spokesman Mark Toner angered officials in Israel, after he criticized the Israeli coalition deal bringing in the right-wing Yisrael Beytenu party as "rais[ing] legitimate questions" over Israel's commitment to peace.
When asked at a Wednesday press briefing if he "had any comments" about the approaching coalition deal to bring in Avigdor Liberman, Toner responded:
"We have also seen reports from Israel describing it as the most right-wing coalition in Israel's history and we also know that many of its ministers have said they oppose a two-state solution. This raises legitimate questions about the direction it may be headed in ... and what kind of policies it may adopt."
Yet just a day earlier, Toner had this to say about the election of an extreme anti-American cleric to Iran's Assembly of Experts, the powerful committee of clerics who will select the next Supreme Leader of Iran."One is you’ll have seen, I’m sure, the reports that Ahmad Jannati, a 90-year-old anti-Western cleric, has been chosen as the head of Iran’s new Assembly of Experts, which is in charge of selecting the new or whomever will be the next supreme leader," Toner was asked. "Is this a good thing? Is this a bad thing? And does this suggest that Iran may be moving toward a more pro-Western, more open-toward-the-West stance?
Toner's noncommittal response was telling:
"We follow domestic events in Iran closely, as you know, but we don’t have any comment at this point on the outcome of the leadership elections of the Assembly of Experts."

PreOccupiedTerritory: Obama Apologizes For Hiroshima Getting Nuked Instead Of Israel (satire)

US President Barack Obama paid a historic visit to the first place ever struck by atomic weapons in hostility and apologized for the carnage it caused, saying that unfortunately, Israel did not exist at the time and could not therefore be nuked instead.
The US dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city on August 6, 1945, in the waning days of World War Two, an attack that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands. While the necessity and military effectiveness of the bombing has been debated ever since, Obama offered his apologies to the people of Hiroshima in a visit there last week, and expressed regret on behalf of the American people that the city would forever have an ignominious legacy that could have been avoided if there had been a Jewish State in existence at the time that could be targeted with the uranium bomb named Little Boy.
“Israel only came into existence in 1948 as a state, and could therefore not be selected as a target when nuclear weapons first became available,” intoned the president during his visit. “We must never forget the horrific specter that the existence of nuclear weapons continues to pose, that Hiroshima reminds us could have been put to better use wiping out Jews.”

Reconcilation conference reportedly to take place in Switzerland on June 30

Switzerland likely will present international mechanisms to support the reconciliation process, including additional aid for the Palestinian government for public employees' salaries and Gaza reconstruction.
Sources told Al-Hayat that the US will not participate in conference, but also does not oppose its taking place.
Hamas and Fatah have reached many reconciliation agreements in the past including the Mecca Agreement in 2007, the Sana'a Declaration in 2008, the Cairo Agreement in 2011, the Doha Agreement in February 2012, the Cairo Accord in May 2012, and the Cairo Agreement II in 2014. But none of these agreements have been implemented.
Moreover, the Geneva conference will take place weeks after a group of foreign ministers meet in Paris in an attempt to renew the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Arab League endorses French peace initiative

The Arab League on Saturday backed France’s Middle East peace initiative and all international efforts to clinch an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord.
The Arab ministers at the end of the meeting adopted a resolution backing “the French initiative and all Arab and international efforts” for peace talks between Israel and Palestinians.
The wording of the resolution appeared to leave room for reported efforts by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to mediate talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
In his speech to the ministers, Arab League chief Nabil al-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.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud 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.

Far-left Meretz party uniting with Arab anti-Zionists?

Some 2,000 left-wing activists demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, protesting Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman’s appointment as Defense Minister.
The protest was led by Zahava Gal-On, head of the far-left Meretz party, and Ayman Odeh, chairman of the predominantly Arab Joint List party.
The pair praised what they called the joint demonstration, saying that the cooperation between the largely Jewish Meretz party and mostly Arab Joint List represented a new opportunity for the creation of a “third camp” in Israeli politics.
“It’s exiting that thousands of Jews and Arabs have told Netanyahu that his Defense Minister is not appropriate,” Gal-On told Maariv on Saturday.
Gal-On lambasted Liberman, call him “the most racist and corrupt man” in Israeli politics, and decried his appointment as Defense Minister, saying the move was “only for political survival.”
The demonstration marks a heightening of ties between the anti-Zionist Joint List, and Meretz, which once claimed the mantle of radical socialist Zionism.

IDF tank used in 1982 battle in Lebanon, famous for MIAs, to be returned by Russia

Amid growing ties between Jerusalem and Moscow, Israel announced on Sunday that Russia will return an IDF tank from the famous 1982 Sultan Yacoub battle in Lebanon, during which three Israeli soldiers — Zechariah Baumel, Tzvi Feldman and Yehuda Katz — disappeared.
“I want to thank Russian President Vladimir Putin for responding to my request to give Israel the tank from the Sultan Yacoub battle,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
“For 34 years the families of the missing [soldiers] who disappeared without a trace, have had no burial plot to go to,” Netanyahu said. “The tank, which is the only evidence from that battle, will now be returned to Israel."
News of the tank’s return comes ahead of Netanyahu’s scheduled visit to Moscow in two weeks and as ties between Israel and Russia are growing. It will be Netanyahu's second trip to Russia in less than three months. Following his visit in April, Netanyahu said that he had spoken with Putin about increasing and improving security coordination between Israel and Russia regarding the ongoing civil war and Russian operations in Syria.
An IDF delegation is already in Moscow to discuss the transfer of the tank, which has been in Moscow’s armory museum, to Israel. It was given to Russia by the Syrians but it is unclear if this particular tank was the one manned by the three missing soldiers.

Authorities to drill massive rocket attack this week

The National Emergency Authority will this week test national and local responses to a massive wave of rocket and missile fire from Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Authority head Betzalel Treiber said on Friday that the aim of Emergency Preparedness Week is to test responses among all emergency responders and the civilian sector “to potential scenarios that we expect.”
The authority, a part of the Defense Ministry, has assessed that the home front’s current level of preparation for such a scenario is a little higher than average. But while stockpiles of medical equipment and food are satisfactory, much remains to be done to improve the country’s ability to supply fuel and power in a state of war, according to the latest assessments.
Hundreds of people from government ministries, local councils, emergency services, water providers, and the Electric Corporation will meet in the coming week to discuss responses.
“This threat forms a very significant challenge to the readiness of the home front, because Hezbollah and Hamas understand that the main target is the country’s home front, and the resilience of civilians and national infrastructure,” Treiber said.

Israelis feel prepared for missile attack, but not safe — poll

A new study by the Israeli military shows that although a large majority of Israelis feel confident about how to react to a large-scale missile attack on the country, such a scenario could still generate wide-scale panic.
The study, by the Defense Ministry’s National Emergency Authority, was released at the start of National Emergency Week, during which government ministries, local authorities, and emergency services will review procedures and practice cooperation in dealing with a large-scale attack on the country.
The overwhelming majority of respondents — 92 percent — said they had a reasonable to great understanding of what to do in the case of massive missile attack.
Yet, while many believe they would know how to react, only 25% of the respondents said they would feel safe during such an attack. According to the survey, citizens of the south, who have suffered the brunt of rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip over the past eight years, were more likely to feel safe during an attack (33%) than the rest of the population (25%).

Hamas cell accused of bombing Jerusalem bus nabbed

Israeli security forces arrested six alleged members of a Hamas terror cell accused of planning and carrying out a suicide bombing in Jerusalem last month, the Shin Bet security service announced Sunday.
On April 18, Abed al-Hamid Abu Srour boarded the number 12 public bus in the capital and detonated an explosive device, injuring 19 people and killing himself, in the first suicide bus bombing in Israel since 2004.
The Shin Bet, Israel Defense Forces and Police launched an investigation to track down Abu Srour’s accomplices. Details of the case were placed under a court-approved gag order, which was removed Sunday morning.
The alleged Hamas terror cell was made up of six Palestinian men, all from the Bethlehem area, the Shin Bet said.
The security agency would not reveal the precise dates of the arrests, only that they’d happened “in recent weeks.”

Car ramming terrorist's citizenship to be revoked

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) filed a request to the Haifa District Court Sunday, to initiate the revocation of the citizenship of the Israeli-Arab terrorist who rammed his car into pedestrians in Gan Shmuel, Allaa Rayid Ahmad Ziyud.
In October 2015, Ziyud ran over two soldiers at a Gan Shmuel bus stop - including a female soldier who was seriously wounded - before getting out of his car and stabbing two others. He was overpowered by a civilian who managed to bring him down after being stabbed several times.
Ziyud, a man in his twenties from Umm al-Fahm, is an Israeli citizen born to an Arab Israeli citizen mother and a Palestinian Arab father with permanent residency status; he had received this status as part of "family reunification" between Arabs already in Israel and their family members elsewhere.
Then-Interior Minister Silvan Shalom (Likud) made the request to strip Ziyud of citizenship soon after the attack, but various governmental changes have apparently stalled the decision.

Watch: Arab 'arson terror' strikes Samaria

Arab assailants from the village of Urif in Samaria set two fires adjacent to the Jewish town of Yitzhar last Friday afternoon, report residents of the Jewish town.
The town's firefighter team, together with soldiers and residents, struggled against the large blazes just west and south of Yitzhar for over two hours, until they finally achieved control over most of the fire.
Then over Shabbat on Saturday, the Arab attackers lit three other fires at various points around the town. The blazes were controlled just before they had the chance to spread out and cause serious damage.
In the Shabbat assault the assailants came from the further towns of Huwara and Einabus as well as Urif, and they lit a fire just beneath the eastern neighborhoods of the town.

What motivates a Gazan to dig a tunnel

On April 6, a man from Gaza named Mahmoud Atauna infiltrated Israel. The feat didn’t take a great deal of effort or resourcefulness; all he needed to do was jump over a barbed wire fence and then crawl under a second fence. After he was caught, he had told his investigators that was planning on killing IDF soldiers.
Another Gazan resident named Medhat Abu-Zenima had crossed the same border a week prior to Atauna. He had initially intended to cross the border to Egypt in search of his brother Abdallah, who had joined ISIS in the Sinai Peninsula. When he saw the large presence of the Egyptian army along the border, however, he tried returning to Gaza, eventually deciding to flee to Israel.
Another young man, whose identity remains unrevealed, had infiltrated Israel from Gaza a month earlier after a physical altercation with his father, who had suspected he was courting the neighbor’s daughter.
After being interrogated by the Shin Bet and the Police Central Unit, all three have been indicted on security offenses and are currently awaiting trial at Shikma Prison in Ashkelon. They are not alone, though: since the beginning of the year, 61 Gazans were found to have illegally crossed the border into Israel, out of which 14 have been indicted on security-related matters. In 2015, 25 Gazans were intercepted and indicted, all of them being either active or former members of Hamas, and some having recently been at work digging tunnels to Israel. Their testimonies offer a rare glimpse into the growing underground world in Gaza, including the methods used by the diggers, their daily routine and even salary.
So far, those arrested have provided valuable intel regarding the military wing of Hamas, their involvement in tunnel digging, the names of other active members, available weaponry and forms of training. But their testimonies also included a different form of vital information: in describing the abject poverty and lack of employment opportunities that contribute to thousands of young Gazans digging underground tunnels for $150–200 a month. The job is intense, runs around the clock and includes both tunnels that pass through Gaza as well as those that cross over to Israel.

If Palestinians are Scared, it Must be Real

On May 21, 2016, the New York Times ran a front page story “New Tunnels Instill Fear on Gazan Side Too.” The front page story continued onto page A6 with two black-and-white pictures of attack tunnels dug from Gaza into Israel.
The story spoke of the fear of Palestinian Arabs living in Gaza because Israel might seek to destroy the Hamas tunnels. The article described the “parallel anxiety” of Palestinian Arabs and Israelis stemming from the tunnels.
The Times article failed to mention that Hamas was democratically elected to a majority of parliament by these same Palestinian Arabs, based on a public platform that called for destroying Israel. For their part, the Israelis had no role in bringing Hamas to power.
The article correctly pointed out that “the tunnels were the prime rationale Israel gave for its ground invasion of Gaza during the 2014 battle with Hamas.” However, back in 2014, the New York Times did not think much about those attack tunnels.

Jordan's King Abdullah moves swiftly to block riots over a controversial decision by the Parliament to approve Israeli investment in the country.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II dissolved his country’s Parliament by royal decree on Sunday, and accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Abbdullah Ensour.
Reuters reported it was the end of the legislative body’s four-year term. But the move also had the effect of breaking week-long protests, and riots on Friday by hundreds of residents in the ancient city of Petra — a major tourist attraction — where Jordanians allegedly were rampaging over “fraudulent investments,” according to the English-language Jordan Times.
Veteran politician Hani Mulqi was appointed to become Jordan’s new prime minister, and charged by King Abdullah to set up new elections in October.
The decree came barely a week after an extraordinary session in which the Jordanian Parliament voted to allow Israeli companies to invest in the country. At the time, the king endorsed the decision and issued a decree to end the session at the end of last week, according to Albawaba. The vote was considered very controversial and there was widespread public outcry following the session. Specifically, the Jordanian Parliament voted not to exclude Israel from its National Investment Fund.

UK Labour leader Corbyn ignores Herzog’s Yad Vashem invite

British Labour Party MPs have expressed “shock” over the failure of the party to respond to an invitation by Israel’s Labor Party to visit the country, even as the UK party’s leader Jeremy Corbyn fends off accusations of anti-Semitism in his party’s senior ranks.
In April, Israel’s opposition leader Isaac Herzog responded furiously to the ongoing row over anti-Semitism in the British sister party, inviting its senior officials to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem for a reminder of the results of anti-Semitism.
In a lengthy Facebook post, Herzog, who heads the Zionist Union as well as its senior partner Labor, slammed the “repulsive” comments made that month by Labour’s former London mayor Ken Livingstone, a Corbyn ally, who said that Hitler supported Zionism “before he went mad.”
Herzog also castigated Livingstone’s “anti-Semitic colleague” MP Naz Shah, who posted a message on Facebook in 2014 calling for the dismantling of the State of Israel, pro-Hamas tweets and comparisons of Israelis to Hitler.
Both have been suspended by the party.

WATCH: Sinn Féin European Parliament Member Says Israelis 'Are Like A Rash'

An Irish member of the European Parliament who is also a former convicted member of the IRA terrorist organization said Israeli lobbyists were “all over this place like a rash” during a discussion supposedly dedicated to health issues and sanitation in Gaza and the West Bank.
Martina Anderson is a representative of Northern Ireland for the Sinn Féin party, known for its anti-Israeli and pro-BDS stances. She used the phrase Wednesday when she highlighted the lobbying efforts of Israeli and Jewish groups in Brussels while lamenting the efforts of Palestinian Authority groups.
“We know that the Palestinians do not have the same capacity or personnel as the Israelis do. The Israelis are all over this place like a rash – they are lobbying to no end,” Miss Anderson said.
A clip of Miss Anderson’s comments appears below:

Malia Bouattia was investigated by NUS for anti-Semitism

They were 'satisfied, based on the evidence and information available to me that it was not Malia's intention to be anti-Semitic'.
President of the NUS, Malia Bouattia, has been investigated more than a year ago internally by the NUS for anti-Semitic remarks, with the conclusion that her actions did ‘amount to misconduct and will be addressed through informal procedures.’
Since the universities of Hull, Lincoln and Newcastle have disaffiliated due to these concerns and Cambridge is currently undergoing a referendum on disaffiliation from the NUS, a letter has revealed that Malia Bouattia was investigated internally by the NUS because of concerns raised.
A letter dated 3rd March 2015, sent in response to complaints about remarks made by Bouattia in a speech stated that she violated point 9.4 of the NUS Code of Conduct, ‘ acting in contravention of the NUS Equal Opportunities Policies’, has been handed to The Tab Cambridge.

‘Post’ investigation finds German city’s facilities used to wage BDS

A group conducting an aggressive anti-Israel boycott campaign has its headquarters in Bremen city-owned property that has received federal funding, an investigation by The Jerusalem Post found.
“The Bremen Peace Forum has already publicly supported the BDS movement for some time. This [BDS] is nothing other than an anti-Israel, yes, anti-Semitic idea. It intolerable when such institutions are still publicly supported,” Gitta Connemann, a leading Bundestag deputy and a member of the German-Israel parliamentary group, told the Post on Thursday.
According to the Bremen Peace Forum’s website, “it is the time to boycott merchandise from Israel, some of which is produced in Israeli settlements, but also other goods that come directly from Israel.”
The forum has staged protests in front of supermarkets urging Germans to boycott Israeli products. Its protesters showed pictures of bloody oranges on their placards to denigrate Israeli fruits.

Edgar Davidson: A schoolgirl's 3-minute video confirms there is no future for British Jewry

This is actually a good news and bad news update to the posting yesterday about how a 3-minute anti-Israel hate speech full of lies and blood libels by Leanne Mohamad of Wanstead High School won the 2015-16 Jack Petchey “Speak Out” Challenge Redbridge Regional Final.
The good news is that I have had a response** (see below) from the CEO of the Speakers Trust (who run the competition on behalf of the Jack Petchey Foundation); she states that the judging panel have now decided unanimously against sending Leanne Mohamad through to the Grand Final. The reason is that they had the same concerns to those I raised. Note, in particular, how the speech was in breach of the two 'fundamental rules made explicit during training'.
The bad news is that the more I think about Leanne Mohamad's speech, and the jubilant reaction to it, the more it is evident that there is no long-term future for British Jewry (and it seems Brian of London agrees with me). Here we have a very well-educated child in an affluent suburban school who has been completely brainwashed into accepting a 'Palestine' narrative that is even more extreme than that proposed by Hamas. Yet, she had the full support of all the school's teachers and pupils as well as the local authorities who clearly bought into, and supported, the same narrative because so much of Britain's political and academic class is controlled by the Islamic/leftist alliance that deems 'Palestinians' as the ultimate victims of our age and Israelis as the ultimate villains.
A very large proportion of schoolchildren are being brought up with the same extreme views as Leanne Mohamad. People with these views are already dominant in Britain's Universities with their "Israel apartheid" weeks and their closing down of any pro-Israel speech on campus. Things are clearly going to get a lot worse with the influx of immigrants who have been fed the same antisemitic propaganda from birth. In 5 years time Leanne Mohamad will be intimidating Jewish students on a University campus with her lies and in 15 years time it is highly likely that Leanne Mohamad will be a member of Parliament (she is after all just a younger version of many like her now in the Labour party). Judging by the comments yesterday of Teresa May someone like her would be welcome in the Conservative party and could even become Prime Minister.

IsraellyCool: WATCH: An ISIS Recruiting Video From Wanstead High School In The UK

Here’s my (angry) annotated version of yesterday’s revolting “Speak Out” video from Wanstead High School in the UK. This is a letter to the Headmaster, Mr Hamlyn and the staff of the “Speak Out” Challenge who allowed Leanne Mohamad to win first prize in your region.
Here is the school’s proud tweet after their student won the regional prize:

New Jersey man convicted of terrorism for synagogue firebombings

A New Jersey man was convicted of terrorism for vandalizing and firebombing Jewish temples and a rabbi’s home, and is now facing a possible life sentence.
Anthony Graziano was found guilty Friday on 20 counts overall by a Bergen County jury. The panel acquitted him of aggravated arson and attempted murder charges.
Graziano, 24, of Lodi, was charged along with longtime friend Aakash Dalal for the 2012 attacks.
The attack in Rutherford ignited a fire in the bedroom of a rabbi’s residence.
Rabbi Neil Schuman, his wife, five children and his parents were sleeping at the time. No one was injured.
“I’m not feeling vindictive. I feel it’s a shame someone so young has chosen to waste their whole life,” Schuman said when told of the verdict, according to NJ.com.

12-Year-Old Connecticut Boy Brutally Beaten by Classmate Yelling ‘Kill the Jew’

A 12-year-old Jewish boy from New Haven, Connecticut was beaten up by a classmate in what his mother called an antisemitic attack, local TV news station WTNH 8 reported this week.
In the televised report, the boy’s mother, Orit Avizov, said her son was “physically attacked and verbally threatened” by a classmate at the Walsh Intermediate School. According to Avizov, the assailant yelled “kill the Jew,” while slamming her son’s head into a locker; knocking him to the ground; and kicking and punching him in the stomach and ribs.
Avizov recounted: “He was afraid. He was humiliated…He was like, ‘Mommy, I don’t want to go [to school],’ and I said, ‘You are going. You are going to be strong[er] than this. We are going to beat this.'” She said she blames the school administration for not doing more to prevent such incidents.
Avizov is part of a coalition of parents from Walsh Intermediate who last week brought the issue of bullying at the school to the attention of the Board of Education. Her son’s attack — which, according to news site Branford Seven, took place in January –– is one among many of such incidents now coming to light.

Ahead of ‘Celebrate Israel’ Parade, ‘Today’ Host Calls Holy Land ‘Heaven on Earth’

Kathie Lee Gifford, co-host of NBC‘s morning show Today, talked to The Algemeiner on Friday about her passion for Israel, ahead of next week’s pro-Jewish state parade in New York City, which she will lead as honorary grand marshal.
“My love for the holy land and its people has only grown with each subsequent visit, as has my knowledge of the word of God that I come to study,” she said. “My idea of heaven on earth is being in the land, studying the word, in my dusty, sturdy hiking books. Maybe I’ll wear them up Fifth Avenue!”
Gifford, who is not Jewish, added that she is “honored” to lead the 2016 Celebrate Israel Parade on Sunday, June 5.
The Today co-host has been visiting Israel since the age of 17, when she missed her high school graduation so she could attend the first Jerusalem Conference on Biblical Prophecy. During her most recent trip to Israel, in March, she returned to her morning show bearing gifts for co-anchor Hoda Kotb.

LA gala raises funds for IAF foundation

More than 250 members of the Jewish community gathered at the Nessah Educational and Cultural Center in Beverly Hills on Thursday for its inaugural fund-raising gala benefiting the Israel Air Force Center Foundation.
The US-based nonprofit organization raises money to support the work of the Israel Air Force Center through a range educational and youth programs designed to help teenagers understand the meaning of patriotism, volunteerism, sacrifice and giving back to the community.
Nessah – a central hub for Los Angeles’ Persian Jewish community – used the event to also celebrate Israeli Independence Day, and highlight the partnership between the Israel Air Force Center and the Israel Air Force.
An IAF delegation flew in from Israel composed of Brig.-Gen. Uri Oron; Lt. Neta Shinekopf, a youth instructor in the IAF Youth Corps unit; and Lt. Ben, an F-16 fighter pilot currently on active duty (and therefore unable to reveal his last name).
The evening, under the theme “Commanding the Sky, Securing the Future,” focused on efforts to build the next generation of Israeli leaders, particularly through the center’s Youth Leadership Training Program, which works with many participants from low-income and minority communities.

Israeli fighter wins Muaythai World Championship

Israeli fighter Nili Block struck gold over the weekend as she fought her way to the gold medal in the 17th IFMA Muaythai World Championship. Block’s extraordinary result comes a year after winning the Kickboxing World Championship for Israel.
The 20-year-old Israeli fighter defeated Irina Chernova of Ukraine in the final round of the under-60 kilogram competition in Jonkoping, Sweden.
Over 2,000 participants took part in the Muaythai World Championship.
“We’re over the moon with excitement,” Benny Cogan, Block’s coach, told Ynet. “We’ve turned the world pro-Israel thanks to Nili’s attitude and sportsmanship.”

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