07/09 Links: UNRWA – Who asked you?; Iran sought chem and bio weapons in Germany ~ EoZ

From Ian:

New York University’s Students for Justice in Palestine Blames Police Shootings of Blacks on Israel

The killings this week of African Americans Alton Sterling and Philando Castile by police have sparked soul-searching and protests across the nation. Thousands have rallied against police violence and racism towards blacks. In Poland, President Obama took the time after midnight to deliver a sobering speech on the racial disparities in America’s criminal justice system. Both liberals and conservatives have called for reform.
Meanwhile, the New York University chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine was busy trying to pin the police shootings on the world’s only Jewish state. On Thursday, the group—which advocates the total boycott of Israel—posted the following on its Facebook page:

The irony of critiquing racism in American society through the bigoted displacement of responsibility for it to Jews in the Middle East was apparently lost on SJP. As was the fact that the sordid history of American violence towards black people far predates the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. (And let’s not even get into the libelous and offensive allegation of Israeli genocide, for whose refutation one need only consult the official Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, which records the Palestinian population’s exponential growth since Israel’s creation.)
What’s particularly pernicious about the posting is that by erasing the American history of predatory conduct towards blacks and instead exporting culpability to a scapegoat, SJP short-circuits any necessary national conversation about U.S. police violence. As long as shadowy outside forces can be blamed for the problem, there will be no internal reckoning.
As of this publishing, despite critical comments on its Facebook page, NYU SJP has not apologized for crudely instrumentalizing the suffering of African Americans to disingenuously attack the Jewish state—or corrected their misspelling of Alton Sterling’s hometown of “Baton Rouge.”

David Collier: From Hezbollah to Hamas. The PSC rally at Downing Street

After the events of last weekend, when the Hezbollah flag was raised in London, spending an evening at a rally with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) seemed positively benign. How wrong I was.
08 July 2016. Richmond Terrace, London SW1A. An area directly opposite Downing Street that is used for demonstrations. It is two years since the 2014 Israel–Hamas conflict, and today the PSC dusted off their ‘stop the attack’ banners, and came out to protest.
But it isn’t 2014 anymore. It was staged to be a big event. It was an anniversary, it was advertised heavily by the PSC minions, their ‘interim head honcho’ Sarah Apps was there, as were their other ‘chiefs’. By half time I heard conversations amongst the organisers making excuses for the low turnout. Scores of banners were left by the sidewalk, with not enough hands to raise them all aloft
A fact about the state of pro-Palestinian activism is this: More people turned out for the Hezbollah Flag than for this PSC anniversary. There were 170, maybe 200. The Facebook event page suggests 557. It seems lots of those that did attend have multiple accounts on Facebook.
I did learn that I need to take my disguise up to another level. I was wearing a hat and a large Keffiyeh, but was ‘clocked’ as soon as I entered. The PSC and I have history, I am passive, I am an ‘investigative journalist’ and they don’t like what I write. A ‘persona non grata’ they can do little about.

UK Lawmakers Call for Ban of Hezbollah Following Public Outcry Over Displays of Terror Group’s Flags During ‘Al-Quds Day’ Rallies

After Hezbollah flags were waved during recent anti-Israel rallies in Britain, two lawmakers are calling for an outright ban of the Lebanese terror group, the Jewish Chronicle reported on Thursday.
In the UK, only Hezbollah’s military branch — which shares the same flag as its political branch — is classified as a terrorist organization. Leader of the House of Commons Chris Grayling announced he would be taking up the issue with Home Secretary Theresa May, after the matter was raised by MP Matthew Offord, who pledged to the pro-Israel community to address the issue in parliament.
“The European Union, including the UK, recognizes the difference between the military and political wings of Hezbollah, but such a distinction does not appear to be recognized by the organization itself,” Offord told lawmakers.
“Therefore in the light of the confusion about the legality of demonstrators displaying Hezbollah flags on the streets of London last Sunday, can we have a statement on the legality of the display of Hezbollah flags?” he asked.
In response, Grayling said, “I agree with my honorable friend. If an organization is proscribed in the UK, it should not be able to publicize itself in the UK whether through flags, or placards, or anything else.”

Why Doctors Without Borders Has an Israel Problem

On June 30, 2016, Jason Cone, Executive Director of Medecins Sans Frontiers-USA (MSF-USA, Doctors Without Borders) attempted to defend his organization from scrutiny over its politicized, anti-Israel bias. He did so through a strawman argument, claiming that his organization was being falsely accused of antisemitism. In this way, Cone deflected attention from the larger issue, namely, that it is wholly inappropriate for a humanitarian organization such as MSF, to assume a one-sided politicized agenda on a complex, multi-faceted issue like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Along with his colleagues, he has adopted a narrow understanding of this protracted conflict and has decided to agitate against Israel, while embracing the worst of Palestinian extremism.
Under Cone and others, MSF’s various branches have vacillated between ignoring Palestinian violence against Israeli civilians, and seeming to justify or celebrate it, as in the MSF-France online, interactive exhibition, “In Between Wars.” Described by the head of MSF-USA as “depicting the humanitarian hardships Palestinians face,” the presentation serves as a showcase for virulent anti-Israel propaganda.
While purporting to present Palestinian life in the West Bank and Gaza, the exhibition parrots the “Nakba” narrative that views the founding of the State of Israel as a catastrophe, delegitimizing the very existence of the Jewish state. Worse, MSF glamorizes deadly Palestinian violence by referring to images of “armed soldiers face[ing] young stone throwers or Molotov cocktails” as “icons symbolizing the struggle of the Palestinian people against the Israeli occupation.” Similarly, one of the exhibits displays the living rooms of Palestinian homes, identifying them as a place to pay tribute to “martyrs”—a term that whitewashes the murderous terror attacks many carried out against innocent civilians. This sympathetic portrayal of Palestinian violence led Roger Cukierman, head of the Council of Jewish Institutions in France, to condemn the display as “an apology for terrorism” and warn “that [it] could inflame antisemitic violence.”
MSF-Spain has made it clear that it is marching to the same beat, publishing a short video glorifying 14-year old Palestinian Ahed Tamimi. The non-medical video claims disingenuously that “every Friday the village [of Nabi Saleh] demonstrates peacefully” against Israeli policy, thus omitting the numerous planned, directed and premeditated violentincidents instigated by the villagers, including by Tamimi herself.

Europe’s Continuing Fixation on Jews Must Not Grip the United States

"The fiercest arguments we have in parliament are over Israel." These words, spoken by the chairman of the Dutch Foreign Affairs Committee, startled me. But they failed to faze the other committee members from the both the left and right. On the contrary, they all readily agreed. In the end, only I displayed surprise.
"Let me get this straight," I said. "Your country is in economic crisis, tens of thousands of refugees are massing on your borders, and the EU may be unraveling, and yet the issue that most occupies you is…Israel?"
My hosts unanimously nodded. However shocking, the conversation was by no means unusual. As chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee in Israel's Knesset, I frequently meet with European legislators.
Whether Dutch or Belgian or German, they all report the same phenomenon. Israel—more than security, more than refugees, and the economy—sparks their bitterest debates. And each time I hear this, I find myself astonished. At stake, I realize, is not Israel's identity but the Europeans'. For them, the Jewish State is exactly that, a state of Jews against whom the West is once again defining itself.
So it has been for more than two thousand years. The ancient Hellenic and Roman worlds, challenged theologically by a Judaism that rejected their polytheism and the divinity of kings, and threatened demographically by burgeoning Jewish populations, designated the Jews as the ultimate Other.

Yair Lapid: UNRWA – Who asked you?

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness harshly criticized our decision to demolish the homes of two terrorists who last December stabbed two Israelis to death at the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City.
I have one question for Mr. Gunness: Who asked you? UNRWA is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. Its role is clearly defined. It is supposed to help Palestinians find work and if they can’t find work then to assist them with food and medication.
That’s it. It doesn’t have another role. There is nothing in UNRWA’s mandate which justifies intervention in Israel’s security matters.
There is nothing in Chris Gunness’s past which qualifies him to give us advice on how to protect ourselves or to act as judge in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But if we’re already speaking Chris, I have few more questions: Why doesn’t the State of Israel appear on maps in UNRWA schools? If you condemn violence, why were you silent when it became clear that an UNRWA building was used as a hiding place for a terrorist tunnel used to kill three Israeli soldiers? Why are you silent when gays are persecuted and church’s burned down in Gaza? Why are the Palestinians the only people in the world who can inherit the status of refugee from their parents? Why can someone be born in Qatar, live in a villa in Paris, hold a Spanish passport and still be considered a Palestinian refugee? Why is it that among the 23,000 UNRWA employees there are so many Hamas people (I didn’t say that Chris – as you know the commissioner- general of your organization said so himself)?

Michael Lumish: Settlement Construction and the Criminalization of Jewish Life

And this brings us back around to those uppity Jews, like my friend Yosef Hartuv of Love of the Land fame, and all the other hippie Jews like, say, Yishai Fleisher, who insist that we have every right to live in the land of our posterity.
When racists like Barack Obama suggest that the Jewish people have no right to build on historically Jewish land they are resurrecting old, long established, medieval tropes that portray Jews as endless wanderers... as the Wandering Jew.
Somewhere in the introductory pages of A Tale of Love and Darkness Amos Oz reminds us that early twentieth-century European Jews were told, and I paraphrase, "Get out of Europe! Go back to Palestine where you belong!"
Now we are told by leftist legends like former White House correspondent Helen Thomas to "get the hell out of Palestine."
The Jewish people are a long abused minority and we represent a whopping .02 percent of the world population.
Much of the Left often suggests that world peace is dependent upon making the Jews of the Middle East leap through imaginary hoops.
But the Day of the Dhimmi is Done.
My suspicion is that a growing number of Jewish people are getting tired of being pushed against the wall - for our own alleged well-being - by false friends like Barack Obama.
The real lesson of the Holocaust is that we must stand up for ourselves.

It's a mad, mad, mad world

Events of the past weeks alone are indicators of our blithe nonchalance: A 13-year-old girl is brutally murdered in her bed; a devoted father of 10, a brilliant educator, and his family are shot on the road; an elderly woman is stabbed on the street; cafe patrons are butchered while sipping coffee, and what do we do? Sure, we shrink in horror at the barbarism of these Nazi-like perpetrators – and make no mistake, dear reader, Hamas and their supporters are no less than this generation’s Nazis – but we do not forcefully act.
We do not rise up en masse and demand change, retribution, justice.
And why not? Because, in plain language, we are just not angry enough.
Well, I am angry, very angry. At all the so-called civilized nations – led by the United States and England – which throw hundreds of millions of dollars at the terrorist Palestinian Authority, allowing the Palestinians to go on their merry murderous way, as they pitifully blame Israel for their misfortune instead of actually doing something productive with their lives.
I am angry at the press – including, dare I say, this very newspaper at times – for too frequently giving space to intelligence- insulting articles that claim we still have a “partner for peace.” And I am angry at our government, on both sides of the aisle, who talk a good game but rarely add bite to their bark, who – at this very moment – are contemplating yet another disastrous “exchange” deal, à la the Schalit fiasco, that will only mock our system of law and order, embolden the terrorists and cause untold more murders of the innocent. Why must we abandon all logic and principle? And why do we return terrorists’ bodies for jubilant funerals in their home villages? We should be burying them secretly in unmarked graves, to be handed over if and when the Palestinians make peace.

Caroline Glick: AIPAC’s moment of decision

Later this month the Republicans and Democrats will hold their respective conventions. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will officially become the presidential nominees.
Ahead of the conventions, both parties selected delegates to draft their platforms. The Democratic platform committee convened late last month.
As soon as the delegates to the Democratic platform committee were named, it was clear that the party’s support for Israel would come under assault.
After Clinton clinched the Democratic nomination with her primary victories, she decided to allow her defeated opponent, socialist senator Bernie Sanders, to appoint a third of the committee’s membership.
Three of Sanders’s representatives are outspoken opponents of the US alliance with Israel. Rep. Keith Ellison, Prof. Cornell West and James Zogby have all distinguished themselves as rabid critics of Israel and apologists for Palestinian terrorism.
Although commentators downplayed the significance of their appointments, noting that Clinton’s representatives were, by and large, supportive of Israel, the fact is that Clinton was under no obligation to give Sanders’s supporters a seat at the table. That she did so shows that she wanted to showcase growing Democratic opposition to Israel and tip her hat to the growing power of anti-Israel forces in the party.
As expected, Sanders’s representatives submitted a draft platform that called for an “end to the occupation and the illegal settlements.”

AIPAC Allies Weakened Pro-Israel Language in 2012 GOP Platform

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the nation’s foremost pro-Israel lobby, pursued a quiet campaign to weaken pro-Israel language in the Republican Party’s 2012 platform, according to video obtained by the Washington Free Beacon and sources who attended the 2012 platform committee deliberations.
The sources described AIPAC’s bid to weaken the GOP’s language on Israel as an attempt to bring it more in line with the Democratic Party’s platform, in order to reinforce the perception long promoted by AIPAC that both parties are equally pro-Israel.
The lobby’s ultimately successful effort to weaken the 2012 pro-Israel language left some Republicans angered, according to sources who told the Free Beacon that the fight over the platform’s Israel language is likely to revive next week in Cleveland, when AIPAC will again face Republicans who advocate language that is more pro-Israel than that of the Democratic Party. AIPAC denies working to water down pro-Israel language in the 2012 GOP platform.
AIPAC-backed changes to the 2012 platform included the removal of support for an “undivided” Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, as well as the removal of language calling for the relocation of the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
The 2008 Republican platform stated: “We support Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel and moving the American embassy to that undivided capital of Israel.”
That language was not included in the 2012 version, which states: “[W]e envision two democratic states—Israel with Jerusalem as its capital and Palestine—living in peace and security.”

Labour MP who questioned Jewish envoy's 'loyalties' promoted

A British lawmaker who once accused a Jewish ambassador to Israel of dual loyalty will serve as a senior opposition leader.
Paul Flynn, a Labour Party lawmaker from Wales since 1987, was named shadow secretary of state for Wales and shadow leader of the House of Commons this week.
The appointment comes shortly after a report on anti-Semitism within the party saying it is not overrun by anti-Semitism or other forms of racism, but there is an “occasionally toxic atmosphere.” The report’s 20 recommendations did not include permanently banning offenders, but urged party members to be “vigilant against subtler and invidious manifestations” of anti-Semitism.
Labour in recent months has seen the suspension of at least 20 members, including at the senior level, for anti-Semitic hate speech that critics say party leader Jeremy Corbyn is not doing enough to curb.
The report itself was criticized as not objective, given that it was carried out by a party member, Shami Chakrabarti.
In 2011, Flynn said that Britain’s ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould, “was serving the interests of the Israeli government.”

Jewish couple in Morocco found murdered, dismembered

An elderly Jewish couple in Morocco were murdered in their Casablanca home last week. The killer then dismembered their bodies and disposed of the parts in different areas across the city.
According to Moroccan media, the couple’s gardener was arrested by police and has confessed to the crime, which he said he committed due to financial hardship.
The victims were identified as Sam Toledano and Vicky Chetrit.
According to local reports, the man, identified in the Moroccan daily Le360 by the initials M.R., was facing eviction from his apartment when he hatched a plan to kill the couple and steal their money and jewelry.
He arrived at the couple’s home last Sunday and killed Toledano before attacking and killing Chetrit. He then dismembered their bodies and disposed of them in various neighborhoods of the sprawling Moroccan city.
The two were reported missing last Wednesday by a member of the local Jewish community.

Exclusive: Iran sought chemical and biological weapons technology in Germany

Iran’s illicit proliferation activities span eight German states and involve a range of activities to advance its chemical and biological warfare, as well as its nuclear and missile programs.
The vast scale of Iran’s network to obtain nuclear and missile technology goes beyond the two reported German intelligence reports released on Thursday.
The Jerusalem Post examined intelligence data and reports from the 16 German states, which included new information on Iranian chemical and biological weapons programs. Half of Germany’s state governments reported in their 2015 intelligence documents attempts by Tehran to secure nuclear-related goods.
The German state of Saarland wrote in its 2015 intelligence report that “so-called danger states, for example, Iran and North Korea, make efforts to obtain technology for atomic, biological or chemical weapons.” The intelligence document stated that Iran also seeks “missile delivery systems as well as goods and know-how for proliferation.” Saarland’s intelligence agency released its report in June, 2016.

Defiant Iran says it will continue ballistic missile tests

Iran said Saturday it would continue its ballistic missile program after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said the missile tests were not in the spirit of the country’s landmark nuclear deal with world powers.
In comments published on Iran’s foreign ministry website Saturday, spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said that “Iran will strongly continue its missile program based on its own defense and national security calculations.”
He said that Iran’s missile program was not linked to the nuclear deal and did not conflict with the UN Security Council resolution endorsing the agreement.
On Friday Tehran dismissed Ban’s report as biased and urged him to produce “a fair and realistic report.”
Reuters on Friday quoted an Iranian Foreign Ministry source as telling Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency that, “I suggest that Mr. Ban give a fair report … in which he also mentions America is not fulfilling its commitments under the deal.”

State Dept. Struggles to Answer Questions on Reports of Iran Obtaining Illicit Nuclear Technology

State Department spokesman John Kirby had trouble responding to questions from reporters on Friday about reports from German intelligence that Iran has been attempting to obtain illicit nuclear materials inside Germany.
Iran’s actions are in defiance of the nuclear deal that it signed along with the United States and five other world powers last summer, according to Germany’s domestic intelligence agency.
Kirby stuck to his statement that the U.S. had no evidence that Iran has violated the nuclear accord, known as the JCPOA, but mentioned other issues involving Iran which are very concerning.
“Now, on the separate and distinct, you know, ballistic missile activity, support for terrorism, obviously we still have very valid concerns in that regard,” Kirby said. “We’ve made no bones about that.”
When asked by a reporter if Iran had sought to procure the nuclear equipment in question, Kirby said that neither he nor the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, had evidence of this. One reporter quickly noted hat the IAEA does not have the means to learn such actions are occurring.
“I have no information to indicate Iran has procured any materials in violation of the JCPOA, and as I said, the IAEA has reported that Iran continues to implement its nuclear related commitments under the JCPOA,” Kirby said.

State Department Spokesman Has Trouble Responding to German Intel Report About Iran

Bulgaria Putting Suspected Burgas Attack Accomplices on Trial in Absentia

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev said Thursday that two alleged accomplices in the murder of Israeli tourists at Bulgaria’s Burgas airport in 2012 will be put on trial in absentia in the coming days.
Five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver were killed in the bombing terror attack. Thirty other tourists were injured. The Bulgarian government said that the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah is to blame for the attack, but Hezbollah has denied any involvement.
Bulgarian investigators have identified the two suspected accomplices as Meliad Farah and Hassan El Hajj, Australian and Canadian citizens of Lebanese descent. Their location is unknown. Bulgaria also identified Mohamad Hassan El Husseini, a dual Lebanese-French citizen, as the bomber; he was killed in the the attack.
“None of us will rest until the people who committed the attack, as well as those who organized it, are brought to court. This will in fact be very soon…It is a matter of days,” Plevneliev said in a news conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, after meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who is visiting the country.

Muslim shopkeeper Asad Shah had 'disrespected Islam' according to man who admits his murder

The family of murdered shopkeeper Asad Shah say they have decided to leave Scotland because they cannot cope with their “pain and fear” after another Muslim admitted killing him for insulting the Prophet Muhammad.
Mr Shah’s father and mother, Syed and Sadiqua, his wife Khalida and his six brothers and sisters said they never thought they would be in danger in Scotland but now feel “imprisoned by our pain and suffering” and unable to live a normal life.
They said the murder in March this year had left them struggling with “simple things” like being in public places or communicating with friends and that Mr Shah’s wife now leads “a life of isolation and solitude”.
The harrowing victims’ statement was made public after Tanveer Ahmed, a 32-year-old taxi driver, admitted driving of Bradford, West Yorkshire, to Glasgow then murdering Mr Shah.
The High Court in Glasgow heard the killer was offended by Mr Shah’s Facebook posts, in which he thought the shopkeeper, 40, was claiming to be a prophet and disrespecting the Muslim faith.

Conservative commentator Andrew Bolt is forced to move his children to another home after receiving death threats from Islamic State terrorists

Political commentator Andrew Bolt has revealed he was forced to relocate his children to another home, after receiving death threats from an alleged supporter of Islamic State.
Mr Bolt confirmed to The Australian that he had received a 'string of death threats' less than 24 hours after he wrote a newspaper column on Australia’s Grand Mufti, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammad.
The column, published on Wednesday, referenced a recent letter written by the Grand Mufti, warning that criticism of a gay-hating imam (an Islamic leadership position) was likely to incite terrorist attacks.
The Grand Mufti was referencing recent alleged anti-gay comments made by Sheik Shady Alsuleiman.
In response, Mr Bolt wrote in his column that One Nation senator-elect Pauline Hanson was right to feel threatened by Islam in Australia.
He said the Grand Mufti's letter 'conveyed an implied and sinister warning: that to criticise a Muslim cleric is to criticise Islam itself and risk death'.

Arizona Jihadist Charged With Plotting Attacks on Jewish Targets

An Arizona grand jury has indicted an accused Islamic State sympathizer on charges of plotting to stage an attack Phoenix-area Jews and other targets with bombs and other weapons, prosecutors said on Thursday.
The suspect, Mahin Khan, 18, of Tucson, was arrested on July 1 by FBI agents in an investigation that began with citizens alerting authorities to suspicious behavior, according to a statement from the Arizona attorney general’s office.
In a three-count indictment, Khan was charged with terrorism, conspiracy to commit terrorism and conspiracy to commit misconduct involving weapons. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted with aggravating factors proven at trial, attorney general spokeswoman Mia Garcia said.
He was scheduled for arraignment on July 14, she said.
Prosecutors said the charges stemmed from an investigation by the FBI and state authorities of Khan’s repeated communications with an individual he believed was an Islamic State fighter.

Antwerp: Magnet for Muslim Terrorists

Not only Brussels, but Antwerp too, is a significant terrorism hub in Belgium. By January 2016 there were about 440 Belgian jihadists in Syria and Iraq, and most of them were young Muslims from the suburbs of Brussels and Antwerp.
It was in Antwerp in March 2010 that Fouad Belkacem, a Belgian radical Muslim of Moroccan descent, established "Sharia4Belgium." The group was actively involved in recruiting young Belgian Muslims for the jihad in Syria and Iraq. A Belgian court in Antwerp ruled in February 2015 that "Sharia4Belgium" was a dangerous terrorist organization and that Belkacem and his followers were responsible for sending dozens of young men to Syria. Belkacem, an arrogant and intolerant man, got a 12-years prison sentence.
On June 25, 2016, Belgian Federal Police arrested 38-year-old Saïd M'Nari in the Antwerp suburb of Borgerhout. M’Nari was Belkacem’s right-hand man and left for Syria in May 2013, where he reportedly joined the notorious terror group Al-Nusra, which is linked to Al-Qaeda. The Flemish Arabist Pieter Van Ostaeyen claims, however, that it is quite possible that M’Nari joined the so-called “Islamic State in Syria and Iraq” (ISIS or IS). "We don’t know which group he belonged to,” Van Ostaeyen told a Dutch radio reporter.

Jewish Voice for Peace and Its Disgusting Response to Islamic Terrorism

What else could the group Jewish Voice for Peace do that would shock me? The organization, which has so many university chapters that promote anti-Israel activity, has already placed ads in the LA Times and New York Times promoting a boycott of Israel. It pushes for a Palestinian right of return, to bring an estimated 5 million Arab-Muslims into Israel — therefore turning the only Jewish country into an Arab majority state. And it “proudly” supports the BDS movement, which was started by, among others, the Palestine Liberation Organization [see Munich] and anti-Israel countries such as Iran.
So, nothing could surprise… until now., as the following announcement on JVP’s homepage illustrates:

JVP’S NETWORK AGAINST ISLAMOPHOBIA STATEMENT ON HORRIFYING ATTACK IN ORLANDO
We are grieving today with and for the Orlando LGTBQ community, and, in particular, the queer and trans Latinx communities that were the targets of this horrifying attack. Our hearts break for all those lost and their loved ones, for all those injured and traumatized.
We cannot ignore that this murderous attack takes place in the context of a political climate in this country where homophobic, transphobic, racist, and Islamophobic laws are commonplace, and where the same politicians promoting those laws adamantly oppose any restrictions on guns and assault weapons…
A Muslim-American slaughtered 49 people (and wounded dozens) while pledging his allegiance to ISIS, and JVP’s response is not an outcry against the man or his belief system, but against the United States, where “Islamophobic laws are commonplace.” For JVP, though, this logic makes sense. For decades, Arab-Muslims have callously spilled the blood of thousands of Jewish men, women, and children in Israel, and JVP only blamed Israel’s policies.

Kiev renames major street to honor Russian Nazi collaborator

Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, on Thursday renamed its Soviet-era Moscow Avenue after a Russian figure accused by the Kremlin of siding with the Nazis during World War II.
Kiev’s local council decided that one of the bustling city’s main northern arteries will now honor Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera.
The decision is in line with the push against totalitarian regimes such as the Communist Party that Ukraine launched after the February 2014 ouster of its Russian-backed leader and the decision by the new leaders to anchor the country’s ties to the West.
Dozens of Lenin monuments have since fallen as authorities took out their outrage against a lifetime of Soviet rule.
Bandera, who died 55 year ago, remains a deeply divisive figure in Ukraine, glorified by many in western Ukraine as a freedom fighter but dismissed by millions in eastern and southeastern Ukraine as a traitor to the Soviet Union’s struggle against the occupying German army.

Canadian Supreme Court Rules Member of Famous Nazi Death Squad May Retain Citizenship, Live Out Rest of Life in Country

Despite efforts by the Canadian government, a member of Adolf Hitler’s notorious Einsatzkommando 10a unit will not be stripped of his citizenship following a Supreme Court ruling, CBC News reported on Thursday.
Helmut Oberlander, 92, who has admitted to working as a translator for the mobile Nazi death squad which targeted Jews — will be allowed to live out his days in Canada, after a 20-year fight with Ottowa.
Born in Ukraine, Oberlander has maintained he was conscripted into the Einsatzkommando at the age of 17 and threatened with the death penalty for desertion. He said he never participated in any killings.
Since 1995, the Canadian federal government has been attempting to permanently revoke Oberlander’s citizenship and deport him.
In February, the government brought Oberlander’s case to court for the third time. The judge presiding over the case ruled that it was inconclusive whether or not Oberlander was cooperating with the Nazis under duress or fear for his life and therefore revoking his citizenship was prohibited.

Spanish party under fire for ‘anti-Semitic’ Obama cartoon

Spanish Jews condemned a left-wing party’s use of alleged anti-Semitic imagery to protest against President Barack Obama’s upcoming visit to the country.
The Madrid branch of Izquerda Unida, or United Left, on Thursday tweeted the controversial image, which shows a depiction of a thick-lipped Obama standing behind a wall amid explosions while hugging an Orthodox Jew with a kippah emblazoned with the Star of David and clutching a wad of money bills sticking out of the Jew’s pocket. It used the hashtag #ObamaGoHome.
United Left, which has eight lawmakers out of 350 in the Spanish congress, later tweeted a picture of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting in hospital a victim of a terrorist attack. “But if only there was an opportunity to visit wounded soldiers of the Islamic State.”
In far-left circles across Western Europe, many have claimed there exist equivalence, cooperation or both between Israel and that terrorist group.

The Israelis Who Went to Jupiter

Dr. Yochai Caspi, 42, a planetary researcher at the Weizmann Institute, watched on Tuesday live the Juno spacecraft in space and was reminded of one of his happiest childhood moments in Nahariyah. “When I was 7 years old the Voyager spacecraft passed close to Jupiter and Saturn for the first time,” he explained in excitement.
"There wasn't any internet at that time, and there wasn't any way to actually see it happening. So my father bought me a NASA poster of Jupiter which I posted above my bed."
Dr. Caspi doesn't need to look at that poster anymore. Him and another Israeli researcher, Professor Ravit Heled, 36, from Tel Aviv University, were a part of the Juno satellite project to study Jupiter.
"Being a part of this enormous project from its inception has been the realization of a dream for me," Dr. Caspi said. "It still fascinates me."
Hundreds of people took part in the Juno project, but only 30 of them were scientists. Drs. Caspi and Heled were the esteemed Israeli scientific representatives on the project.

Pharrell Williams ‘Excited’ for Tel Aviv Show as Bar Refaeli Welcomes Pop Superstar to Her ‘Home Country’

Shortly after pop superstar Pharrell Williams told fans he was “excited” about his upcoming performance in Israel, Israeli model Bar Rafaeli extended a warm welcome to the Happy singer.
“So excited about Tel Aviv. It’s gonna be so much fun,” Williams said in a video message, which was re-posted on Facebook on Tuesday by Creative Community for Peace (CCFP), an entertainment industry advocacy organization. The singer and producer added, “See you at the show.”
On Wednesday, Rafaeli, who posed with Williams in 2008 for the fashion magazine Glamour, posted on Instagram a photo of her with the singer and captioned the shot, “Finally! @Pharrell is coming to my home country. Can’t wait to see you.”
Williams is scheduled to perform on July 21 at Live Park in Rishon LeZion. He joins a series of performers confirmed to play in Israel this summer, including Carlos Santana, Avicii, Joss Stone, Bruce Springsteen and Sia.
CCFP noted that Williams refused to succumb to pressure from supporters of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in South Africa last September when they threatened to disrupt his Cape Town concert over his partnership with the retail group Woolworths, which imports produce from Israel.

Famed Director Quentin Tarantino Receives Lifetime Achievement Award at Jerusalem Film Festival

Film director and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino was presented with a lifetime achievement award at the 33rd annual Jerusalem Film Festival’s opening ceremony on Thursday night.
The director’s acceptance speech was “short and sweet,” according to Gidi Kleiman, BBC News‘ senior producer in Israel.
The festival, which began Thursday and runs until July 17, will screen Tarantino’s Oscar-winning 1994 feature Pulp Fiction. A restored 35mm print of the film from Tarantino’s personal archive will be shown, followed by a live Q&A on stage with the director, according to ScreenDaily.com.
Tarantino last visited Israel in 2009 to promote his World War II thriller Inglourious Basterds.

Hundreds pay tribute in Elie Wiesel’s native Romania

Several hundred people from Romania’s Jewish community paid tribute Thursday to the late Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate instrumental in getting his native country to face up to its dark past.
Wiesel, born in northern Romania in 1928 and who survived Auschwitz, died on Saturday in New York at age 87. He had devoted his life to keeping memories of the Nazi genocide of World War II from fading away.
“Elie Wiesel became a symbol of the struggle towards a normal society through what he lived through and what he achieved,” Holocaust survivor Liviu Beris told AFP at the event in Bucharest’s synagogue.
Wiesel, who settled in the United States after the war, helped challenge the widely held assumption in Romania, following decades of communist rule, that the Germans alone were responsible for the Holocaust.

Remembering Elie Wiesel

Abraham Foxman was not surprised by his friend Elie Wiesel’s death, but he found the sense of loss inescapable.
It wasn’t just the loss of a friend, someone with whom he could share memories of lost European childhoods in Yiddish, that Mr. Foxman was mourning. “We surviving survivors lost our most authentic voice of memory,” he said. “The world lost a great moral voice. We — the Jewish people, and the state of Israel — lost a strong, constant defender.”
Elie Wiesel died last Saturday, July 2, at 87; his legacy, Mr. Foxman said, is wide-ranging.
Mr. Foxman, who lives in Bergen County, worked for the Anti-Defamation League for 50 years and headed it for almost 30; soon after he retired, he became the first head of a new center studying anti-Semitism at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in downtown Manhattan. When he talks about Mr. Wiesel, who was about a decade older and therefore a teenager during the Holocaust, it is not only with love and a deep respect, but also with a hard-earned understanding.
Had it not been for Mr. Wiesel, Mr. Foxman said, knowledge of the Holocaust might not have been seared as deeply as it has been into the world’s consciousness. “One of the things that he did for both the Jewish people and the world is that he took a uniquely Jewish tragedy — which until Wiesel developed his voice was only our tragedy.

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