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Friday, September 30, 2016

From Ian:

George Soros’ Israel-Hatred Spills Out Into the Open
Billionaire George Soros generally does not hide the fact that he uses the considerable funds at his disposal to support his extremist, leftist ideals.
So when he does hide something, it should raise some serious questions. A series of leaked documents recently revealed that Soros’ philanthropy network, the Open Society Foundations, has been giving money to a number of anti-Israel organizations with the goal of smearing the Israeli government and undercutting its relationship with the United States.
The list of organizations is a veritable who’s who of hostile, anti-Israel actors. One of the leaked documents shows that between 2001 and 2015, Soros funneled over $9.5 million into a range of groups including Adalah, the Al-Tufula Center, the Arab Association for Human Rights, Baladna, The Galilee Society, Molad, the New Israel Fund and others.
Even worse, these documents showed that while the Soros network was systematically and methodically doling out its funds to these controversial groups, it was also working extremely hard to keep its donations and advocacy work quiet.
According to the private documents, which have now been published online, Soros and his network are engaging in these subversive tactics in an effort to “hold Israel accountable” for its supposed violations of international law. In truth, it seems more fitting that Soros be held accountable for his inscrutable policies. His so-called Open Society Foundations certainly don’t appear to be so open after all.
By secretly dispersing his money to influence politicians and the media, Soros hopes to drive a wedge between America and Israel without anyone noticing. This approach is wrongheaded and shameful. And it’s not new.
Michael Oren On Trump, Clinton, American Leadership And His Future Ambitions
Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren won’t take sides in the U.S. election — but that doesn’t mean he won’t express concerns about aspects of both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton’s policies.
During an appearance on “The Jamie Weinstein Show” podcast, Oren opened up about how Israelis view the U.S. election, his view of America’s role in the Middle East, whether he has ambitions to be foreign minister or even prime minster one day, and so much more.
The Mottle Wolfe Show: The Case For Trump
Mottle and Brian John Thomas discuss the loss of Shimon Peres. Brian John Thomas then goes on to layout the reasons why he supports Donald Trump for president.



Former Israeli President Shimon Peres demonized on official PA TV
PA TV's Israeli affairs expert Fayez Abbas: "Shimon Peres, 93, from Belarus, immigrated to Palestine at the age of 11. Of course, it is known that Shimon Peres is the spiritual father of the Israeli settlement in the West Bank, and he is also the spiritual father of the Israeli atomic bomb, which he succeeded in bringing or buying from France. He is also the spiritual father of all the wars against Arab states because he participated in all the wars, and [in] the last war that he participated in he was responsible for the Kafr Qana massacre in Lebanon, when he bombed a school in which women and children hid, in the war against Lebanon (referring to shelling of a UN facility in response to Hezbollah fire from the site in April 1996, during Operation Grapes of Wrath -Ed.). Of course if we look at the history of Shimon Peres, I am convinced that he is the one who established the State of Israel, and he is the one who led Israel to [become] a formidable military power. When he began to speak about peace, I believe he was deceiving the world. In other words, when Shimon Peres focused [in speech] on the issue of peace, this meant that war was coming. He essentially succeeded in convincing the world about Israel's point of view, even though it occupies and kills - the crimes he committed in Lebanon could have led him to the International Criminal Court, but the entire world forgave Shimon Peres-"
Official PA TV host: "And he received the prize-"
Fayez Abbas: "The Nobel Peace [Prize], together with Martyr (Shahid) President Yasser Arafat and [then Israeli Prime Minister] Yitzhak Rabin."
[...]
PA TV host: "The Israeli press talked about Peres' long life and said that exercise, eating little, and drinking wine were the reasons for-"
Fayez Abbas: "He would drink whiskey, he and Rabin loved whiskey. But Shimon Peres did for Israel what no one did, nor will do. The greatest fraud in the history of the Zionist movement, Shimon Peres. He is a man that the world undoubtedly loves, even the Arab states believed that Peres was a man of peace, even though he was the greatest man of war in Israel, more than [former Israeli Prime Minister] Menachem Begin and even more than [former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon."
[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Sept. 28, 2016]
Kafr Qana in Lebanon - Shelling of a UN facility by Israel in response to Hezbollah fire from the site in April 1996, during Operation Grapes of Wrath. It resulted in civilian casualties.


Pew: American and Israeli Jews: Twin Portraits From Pew Research Center Surveys
If you are Jewish, odds are that you live in Israel or the United States. Four out of every five Jews in the world live in these two countries, with approximately 6 million Jews in each.
Differing perspectives
Pew Research Center has surveyed Jewish adults in both places, and has found deep bonds between them. Nevertheless, their experiences and perspectives are very different. For instance, we asked Jews in Israel to describe, in their own words, the biggest long-term problem facing their country. They were as likely to cite economic concerns (such as Israel’s high cost of living, or a shortage of affordable housing in Tel Aviv and other cities) as they were to mention military or national security issues (such as terror attacks or Iran’s nuclear program).
Yet when American Jews were asked to name Israel’s biggest long-term problem, fully two-thirds cited a military or security issue, and hardly any (1%) mentioned economic difficulties – which suggests that many Jews in the United States either don’t know much about Israelis’ day-to-day economic challenges or don’t worry much about them.
Israeli Jews aren’t simply Pollyannaish about their security problems. In fact, Jews in Israel are much less optimistic than Jews in the United States about the prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Fewer than half of Israeli Jews (43%) polled in 2014 and 2015 said they believe “a way can be found for Israel and an independent Palestinian state to coexist peacefully with each other,” compared with a clear majority of American Jews (61%) polled on the same question in 2013. (h/t Yerushalimey)
JPost Editorial: Back to Africa
Most media coverage of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the US focused on his meeting with US President Barack Obama, his speech at the UN and his meetings with US presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Another event that received less attention but was arguably no less important, however, was a meeting that took place between Netanyahu and African leaders. Three heads of state were present as were 12 prime ministers and foreign ministers from Africa.
There has been recently a veritable renaissance in Israel- Africa relations. Indicative of the changing sentiment was a statement by Togo President Faure Gnassingbe that African countries hesitant about strengthening ties with Israel should stop looking for excuses and begin to work with Jerusalem.
“Africa is beset by difficulties and Israel holds the key to them,” Gnassingbe said. He is planning to host an Israel-Africa summit in the spring of 2017.
Israel is finally coming back to Africa.
JPost Editorial: Custodian of the holy
In his speech to the General Assembly, Abdullah condemned Islamist terrorists who “want to wipe out our achievements and those of our ancestors; to erase human civilization, and drag us back to the dark ages.” The king might have included Palestinian terrorists who share those goals, at least as far as Israel is concerned.
He might have mentioned Jordan’s own short-lived effort to help maintain peace on the Temple Mount. This past March, the kingdom announced plans to set up 55 closed-circuit cameras to monitor the site, 24/7, and broadcast live footage over the Internet – but not to help the Israeli authorities arrest Palestinian extremists bombarding Jewish worshipers with rocks, firebombs and firecrackers.
“The goal is to document the violations and infringements in the mosque complex by the Israeli authorities and present it to the world,” Jordanian Minister of Holy Sites Heyal Daoud said.
Nevertheless, Israel welcomed the plan, which was mediated by US Secretary of State John Kerry, because it would reveal that the constant violence on the Mount was initiated by Muslims. But barely a month after the plan was announced, Palestinians plastered the Temple Mount with warnings that they would destroy the security cameras, which they said would be used by Israel to crack down on rioters.
Then-prime minister Abdullah Ensour hastily announced Jordan’s decision to drop its plan to install security cameras on the Temple Mount.
Though he said the plan’s goal was to document “recurring assaults” by Israelis on the sanctity of the holy site, he noted that the cameras would have brought “legal, political and media benefits” to the Muslims.
In his UN address, Abdullah asked the world leaders, “When and how did fear and intimidation creep so insidiously into our conversation when there is so much more to be said about the love of God?” Abdullah should take some of his own advice and, instead of heaping blame on Israel, embrace the efforts the Jewish state is making to forge stability in the region.
Remembering the 1929 Hebron massacre
Dr. Yinon Elmakias, who lectured about the Torah scrolls, was one of the academics who led the seminar marking the 87th anniversary of the 1929 massacre that took 67 lives and resulted in the expulsion of the Jewish community. Young and old walked through the now inhabited Jewish quarter in the city that suffered from the worst of the disturbances that year.
The conference took place on August 10, and began at Midreshet Hevron, a college in Kiryat Arba. Prof. Gershon Bar Kochba, a Hebron resident, spoke about what was called the Jewish ghetto of Hebron, the only place in Israel referred to by that name. With copious notes and photos of the neighborhood – including maps and diagrams of what 1920s Hebron Jewish life was like – Bar Kochba described a traditional, tight-knit, humble community on a lower economic stratum.
The next speaker was Dr. Yuval Arnon-Ohana of Ariel University. In contrast to the previous speaker, he was clean-shaven, bare-headed and spoke almost without any notes. He fascinated the crowd by his lecture on Arab riots, which were instigated by Haj Amin Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem.
Arnon-Ohana explained that Husseini’s excuse for the riots was the increase in Jewish immigration. He countered, however, that in the late 1920s, Jewish immigration was at one of its lowest points. He argued that the real reason was a bid for power by Husseini, who sought to consolidate Arab factions by whipping them into a frenzy over a common enemy.
Husseini later became a supporter of Hitler, as evidenced by the famous photo of the two sitting together in Germany.
UK opens secret files on 1940s ‘Jewish terrorists’ in Palestine and beyond
A secret note written on April 14, 1947, warns that a reliable source had told British agents about an agreement between the Stern Gang and the Irgun group to coordinate policy and plans.
“The main point is that terrorist activities are not to be confined only to Palestine — but will take place also in the UK, France and Italy,” the note says, adding that “certain Jewish terrorists” have already arrived in the port city of Alexandria, Egypt, and have purchased a 200-ton ship to be used to transport weapons.
The plots described were many and varied, including a failed plan by militants to blow up the British destroyer Chevron off the coast of Haifa. The files indicate that plotters left a bag of primed explosives and detonators on board and were later arrested on land with concealed explosives.
The files also detail successful kidnappings carried out by the gangs.
The sporadic but deadly attacks spawned extensive British discussions about whether Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin could travel safely to Cairo without undue risk of assassination.
Many attacks were relatively minor, involving small arms fire, grenades, improvised explosives and land mines, but the campaign clearly made it hard for the British to conduct normal business without adding layers of protection. Railways, bridges, government facilities and officers clubs were all targeted.
The state of Israel was proclaimed in 1948; some of the militants went on to become influential figures, including future Israeli prime ministers Menachem Begin, who would sign the landmark Camp David peace accords in 1978, and Yitzhak Shamir.
Col. Kemp: Terrorism, refugees and Donald Trump
One obvious problem is security. Even with the proper process and patience it will be virtually impossible to weed out from the truly benighted each and every terror operative. As James Clapper, US Director of National Intelligence, noted last year, ‘We don’t obviously put it past the likes of Islamic State to infiltrate operatives among these refugees.’ Indeed, the attacks in San Bernardino and Orlando are tragic reminders of the group’s magnetic effect on violent residents of the United States.
For this reason, we agree with Donald Trump, that the United States ought to admit men, women, and children — but only after undergoing a robust vetting process. While this will not completely eliminate the threat of infiltration, it will substantially diminish it. Moreover, it will allow the United States to demonstrate to the international community that it’s actually Muslims who are suffering the most under Islamic State treachery, zealotry and barbarism. It’s a point we can’t make enough. We need more Muslim allies in the fight.
But there’s a less obvious yet equally formidable problem few are willing to talk about. Polling in Muslim-majority countries reveals that large percentages of Muslims who reject violence still adhere to beliefs that are inimical to liberal, democratic norms. In this sense, the refugee crisis is not only a dire humanitarian crisis; it also represents an immense cultural challenge for the West as a whole.
And yes, religion plays a role. In our Judeo-Christian tradition, we’ve come to believe in rule of law, accountable government, tolerance, pluralism and respect for diversity. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to engage those among us of different traditions who reject democratic principles and behaviors. We must return to, and evolve standards for, citizenship and requirements for those otherwise living in America and the West.
Let’s take in those suffering from war and calamity, in a way that sensibly protects the safety and security of our own citizens. And let’s also be clear to those who wish to stay — and here we can learn from Europe’s mistakes — that a future in a free society is an honour to be earned, not a gift bestowed.
What Trump and Clinton Said (and Didn't Say) About the Middle East
Apart from the rants, attacks, and insults, when it came to Middle East issues, last night's debate was like an old and broken record -- rehashing disputes over the Iraq war (2003), the withdrawal of troops from that country (2011), and the Iran nuclear deal (2015). As important as clarity on those issues may be, there was regrettably little discussion of pressing issues the next president is sure to face on Inauguration Day.
These include:
Syria. The most glaring foreign policy lacuna in the debate was the almost complete omission of the world's most pressing strategic cum humanitarian challenge. With Russian and Syrian bombs falling on civilians in Aleppo, the candidates offered no hint that they would ditch what one could call President Obama's policy of "strategic indifference" and implement a more robust approach -- one designed to create strategic balance on the ground in order to compel the Moscow-Tehran-Damascus axis to negotiate a political resolution.
The Islamic State. In terms of the fight against IS, both candidates replayed stock lines from stump speeches. Overall, Hillary Clinton's paragraph on defeating the group was much more detailed than Donald Trump's; it included support for Kurdish and Arab allies, a focus on targeting IS leadership, and a sequence of action (liberate Mosul by the end of 2016, then focus on squeezing the group in Raqqa), all done with enhanced U.S. air support but not ground forces. For his part, Trump did not go far beyond a commitment to massive military action against IS, falling back on his critique that the Obama administration permitted the group's rise by precipitously withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq and mishandling Libya. Neither candidate, however, addressed what most experts believe to be the most serious challenge -- what to do the day after liberating IS-held territory so that it does not become the base for the next iteration of radical Sunni jihadists.
Iran. Clinton and Trump spent considerable time jousting over the wisdom of the Iran nuclear accord, including Trump's remark that Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu remains displeased with the deal. However, the Republican candidate offered no specific alternative to the existing agreement, and the Democratic candidate offered no detailed suggestions to push back against Tehran's success in taking advantage of the deal to extend Iranian influence throughout the region.
Anti-Semites in Labour feel emboldened by the leadership
This first Labour Party conference of the Jeremy Corbyn era was a dispiriting place for those committed to the fight against anti-Semitism.
The most telling moment came during the debate on anti-Semitism at the Momentum fringe festival. Anti-Zionist campaigner Jonathan Rosenhead recounted hearing the Chief Rabbi being interviewed on the radio about anti-Semitism. As Rosenhead told it, when the Chief Rabbi said that anti-Semitism is a serious concern, the presenter then asked if he personally had experienced any anti-Semitism, to which, Rosenhead said, the Chief Rabbi answered that he hadn’t – drawing a round of laughter from the Momentum supporters in the room.
We at CST know how much anti-Semitism gets directed at the Chief Rabbi’s office, because his staff send it our way before he sees it. That, however, is not really the point. If Dianne Abbot or Sadiq Khan said that they personally do not suffer racism but that many people in their communities do, a left wing audience would not laugh in such a scornful way.
There were some people at Labour Party conference who seemed determined to obstruct and divert any serious discussion about anti-Semitism. One group of activists repeatedly interrupted and undermined the party’s own official training session on anti-Semitism that was delivered by its Jewish affiliate, the Jewish Labour Movement. It was like a National Union of Students conference at its worst.
Danish Jew — Whose Daughter’s Bat Mitzvah Was Bloodied by Murder of Guard During Copenhagen Synagogue Attack — Deeply ‘Disappointed’ in Acquittal of Terrorist’s Accomplices
The Danish-Jewish woman whose daughter’s bat mitzvah was tragically cut short last year when a terrorist opened fire at the community center where the celebration was taking place told The Algemeiner on Tuesday about her sadness in light of the upshot of a long terrorism trial whose outcome was not what she had anticipated.
Mette Bentow was referring to the acquittal of four defendants on trial for aiding and abetting the perpetrator of the attack, in which volunteer security guard Dan Uzan — whom she knew well — was killed.
“It is not an easy day,” Bentow told The Algemeiner. “Nothing will bring back Dan to his wonderful family or to our community. Nothing will make the experience go away. But I am left with a sense of disappointment that the authorities did not manage to obtain the guilty verdict I had hoped for.”
The trial in question began in March, more than a year after L.E. (aged 20), I.A. (18), B.H. (24) and M.R. (31) were charged with assisting Omar El-Hussein in the deadly assault on the Jewish center/synagogue in Copenhagen, after he first committed an attack on the Krudttønden cultural center in Østerbro — at an event called “Art, Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression” — killing one civilian and wounding three police officers.
According to the indictment, the four men met with El-Hussein at 4:30 pm on the day of the two attacks — February 14, 2015 — and supplied him with a hoodie and a shoulder bag. The prosecution also contended that they provided the terrorist with access to a computer; gave him ammunition; and encouraged him to commit the second attack.
FBI: Men Who Stole Chelsea Bomber's Suitcase Are Egyptian Airline Employees
The two men caught on surveillance camera footage swiping a suitcase dropped by accused New York/New Jersey bomber Ahmad Khan Rahami have been identified as employees of an Egyptian airline by the FBI.
“Authorities had previously said the men were not considered suspects in the attempted bombing and appear to have removed the [explosive] device from the bag on Manhattan’s 27th street in order to lug away the suitcase,” reports ABC News.
NYPD counterterrorism chief James Waters sagely observed the men were “very, very lucky” the bomb didn’t go off when they dumped it to steal the suitcase, which seems like a very odd thing to do. The surveillance video shows them admiring the luggage for a while before removing the pressure-cooking bomb and absconding with it.
The two are considered witnesses in the case, rather than suspected accomplices, and are thought to have returned to Egypt.
The Associated Press characterizes the two Egyptians as “tourists,” and says American investigators have told Egyptian authorities they would like to question the men, emphasizing they have no need to fear being arrested.
Frank Luntz: 5 Ways to Combat Antisemitism on College Campuses
Republican pollster and political consultant Frank Luntz said there are five rhetorical methods Jewish students can utilize to combat antisemitism on college campuses more effectively.
Luntz suggested university students do the following: use the word “imagine,” which “changes the entire communications process and brings people to your side,” according to Luntz; emphasize human rights, social justice and equality when responding to the BDS movement; talk about ending a “culture of hate;” know that the Hamas charter denies Israel’s right to exist and Jews the right to live; and teach that hate will never lead to peace.
This advice is part of a new collaboration between Luntz and the Jewish National Fund (JNF) to develop a “language library” that will educate Jewish students on how to engage in conversations about antisemitism, specifically BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions].
Luntz said the project hopes “to be the most efficient process in providing information, awareness and messaging that will help make the Jewish community stronger, safer and effective in what it does.”
“It’s not what you say that matters, it’s what people hear,” he said, adding that college students need to be encouraged and taught to “communicate with confidence and pride and lead fellow students to be supporters of Israel.”
Luntz said that no Jewish student should face antisemitism at university or college, but that he thinks fighting this form of discrimination is not a top priority outside of the Jewish community.
IsraellyCool: Reader Post: How To Start A Pro-Israel Group On Campus
Our main goal was to first get full recognition on campus, which was what we felt was most necessary being that we were a new organization. Once we accomplished our first goal we then started to host events as well as tabling. While tabling we experienced everything from rude comments, nasty facial reactions to students asking where we were hiding all this time; however the majority disregarded us. Those who ignored us were the ones who wanted to stay “neutral” and not get involved. The rude comments and the disgusted facial reactions came from the pro Palestinian students who were approached by the SJP prior to us. What we found to be very interesting about the newly pro Palestinian students was that they did not have any reasoning to back up why they believed that Israel was bad. They only knew that they were supposed to think of and picture Israel as this horrible thing. We encountered a perfect example of this when a student came up to our table, and after realizing what we were supporting, quickly said “Oh no I was just over there (pointing to the SJP table) and my friends would kill me if I joined you guys.” We then asked him for his reasons as to why he couldn’t support us and he simply didn’t have an answer. Right there and then we understood SJP’s method, which is to manipulate students and friends into supporting them.
As a pro-Israel group on campus we did not choose to manipulate students into joining or supporting us. We showed respect to everyone and presented facts to back up our reasoning. All of us stayed positive and shaped our group’s image to be warm and welcoming to all.
After we established SSI at Pace University, Hillel reopened its doors and became active on campus. The most notable thing I have experienced with founding and running SSI on campus has been that the Jewish students almost never participate in our events, except for a select few. Something else to note about my experience is that students who know most about Israel do not show support or attend our events, but the students who know the least show up to our events and show incredible support.
It’s easy for Jewish students to take the truth for granted, but if I’ve learned anything it’s that cowering in fear, shame or embarrassment won’t solve the problem – standing up for the truth will.
If you want to start an SSI on your campus, contact ssicampusmovement@gmail.com.
At Vassar College, hosting a pro-Israel speaker still is controversial
One of the ways the Vassar administration has attempted to deal with the situation is to bring some semblance of balance in public speakers by including pro-Israel speakers as part of a speakers series. While it certainly is not enough, at least the administration appears to recognize the problem and is taking some steps.
In that regard, as part of the series Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens appeared on campus on September 20, 2016, and participated in a question and answer session titled “Why I support Israel and Why You Should Too.”
This pro-Israel appearance was a drop in a bucket of anti-Israel discourse on campus. Nonetheless, the student newspaper noted that the “arrival of a pro-Israel speaker on campus on Sept. 20 rapidly reignited students and faculty in the debate on the Israeli-Palestinian con­flict.”
According to Stephens’ statements in the discussion, there were threats by Vassar Students for Justice in Palestine to protest the event. It doesn’t appear that happened. There was none of the stage-takeovers or shout-downs that have become the norm for SJP tactics around the country.
Instead, Joshua Schreier, the pro-BDS former head of the Vassar Jewish Studies Program (yes, really) led an SJP/JVP event to counter Stephens’ appearance.
New Batch of Terrorism-Sympathizing Professors Added to Campus Watchdog Dossier of Radical College Faculty
A member of a covert campus watchdog group told The Algemeiner about the organization’s recent addition of six college professors to its dossier of academics who sympathize with terrorists.
The Canary Mission representative — who spoke on condition of anonymity — said that these professors have exhibited radical behavior, including the use of antisemitic rhetoric and — “the biggest revelation — explicit and implicit personal support for Palestinian terrorism and violence directed at Israelis and Jews.”
These professors are: Georgetown University’s John Esposito, a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement; Rabab Abdulhadi of San Francisco State University (SFSU), who is a national leader of the BDS movement and founding member of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI); Swarthmore’s Sa’ed Atshan, an “avid supporter” of BDS and featured speaker for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP); Stanford’s Joel Beinin, a founding member of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and backer of BDS; University of California, Irvine’s Mark LeVine, member of JVP and proponent of BDS; and Duke’s Miriam Cooke, a terror sympathizer and BDS supporter.
Report: Tenured Holocaust Denying Professor Asked by Canadian University to Resign, Following Outcry by Jewish Group
After years of complaints about his antisemitic rhetoric, a tenured professor at Canada’s University of Lethbridge is reportedly being asked to resign.
Professor Anthony Hall — who supports “open debate” on the Holocaust and has blamed Israel for the 9/11 terror attacks — told The American Herald Tribune, a website he helps run, that he was asked to step down after Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith Canada urged the university to launch an investigation into his behavior.
“If the University of Lethbridge allows Hall to continue teaching, it would demonstrate complete disrespect for true scholarship and the values of the academy,” Amanda Hohmann, national director of B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights, told The Algemeiner on Thursday. “When a professor is allowed to abuse the academic stage in order to promote antisemitism and crackpot conspiracy theories, it brings the entire university and discipline into disrepute.”
Hall — a co-host of the YouTube program “False Flag Weekly News,” which promotes conspiracy theories about Zionists and Jews — has come under fire in the past for his spread of antisemitic and anti-Israel sentiment. In June, Lethbridge defended Hall’s right to do so, on academic freedom grounds.
According to anonymous reviews of his classes by students, Hall “basically abuses the stage he receives as a ‘teacher’” and “would rather spread his misguided views than actually teach a class.” One student said that “anyone who does not believe in the 9/11 conspiracy should not take this class.”
Daphne Anson: Lynch Mob in Lichfield: Pappe & Co head to Israel-bashing conference at city's cathedral
Lichfield, perhaps most famous as the birthplace of Dr Samuel Johnson, is a pretty city in the English Midlands. It's the location of a medieval cathedral, notable for its unusual feature of three spires.
And it is under the auspices of that cathedral that a conference (plus related book sale) is to be held over the weekend of 7-9 October (hat tip: Ian G).
As seen at left, the title of the conference is "Holding Palestine in the Light,"which reflects the despicably one-sided nature of the enterprise, for the overwhelming majority of the speakers are notable, to a greater or lesser degree, for their antipathy towards Israel.
That sad fact reflects the prejudices of the apparent driving force behind the conference, the Dean of Lichfield.
IsraellyCool: Israel Haters Game Google Maps
As of the time of this post, the non-existent Ken’s Kosher Koffee does not appear on Google Maps because it is subject to a review. Which means there is such a review process – and the Free Palastine cafe passed it!
What is not clear is how. Does Google base the review on the “standing” of the Google user, without performing any other checks? Or is this an example of an anti-Israel Google employee? Either way, it has led to this ridiculous situation.
The good news is there is way to redress this. If you see such fake places, you can report them to Google as follows:
After doing this, Google should remove them.
Besides highlighting a problem with Google crowdsourcing, this latest instance reaffirms something else. Do you notice how it is invariably the Israel haters doing this? I suspect they know the truth is not on their side, so they have to resort to such subterfuge.
Update: The non-existent Ken’s Kosher Koffee was also approved. So Google just do not properly check the submissions.
Yarden Frankl: Terrorism in New York (Times)
The Times has no choice but to write that there are indeed such things as “terrorist” networks.
But that begs the question, who are these networks? ISIS? Al Qaeda? Maybe Hamas, which the United States State Department and the European Union among many others have labeled a “terrorist” organization.
It seems reasonable to expect that if the Times writes about the existence of networks of terrorists, then they should not be afraid to use that label when referring to an organization identified the world over in that way.
I am sure that the Times would have preferred to leave the word out of the story on Rahami’s father, but doing so was not possible.
The example shows just how difficult it is to set a word off-limits, especially when that word is becoming more and more a part of the global conversation.
Terrorism is not a dirty word and the media should adopt the same definition that many governments use. That way they have a defense against those who accuse them of using the word to promote a partisan political agenda.
And then, when a terrorist attack takes place, whether in the streets of New York or Jerusalem, they would be able to provide their readers with the most accurate description.
Vice News Covers-Up For the Violent “Gandhi of Palestine”
A highly misleading article from the online publication “Vice News” begins with the headline, “A Famous Palestinian Activist Could Be Sent to Israel Prison for His Years of Nonviolent Protest.”
Journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon says that Issa Amro is called the “Palestinian Gandhi,” and quotes an interviewee who compares him to Martin Luther King, Jr.
But what Vice won’t tell you is that Amro is actually not “non-violent” at all. In fact, he is quite violent.
According to the charges, Amro was actually arrested for his years of violence against Israeli soldiers and civilians, and for actively harming and degrading human beings in ways that Gandhi and Dr. King, in their time, found utterly deplorable.
BBC report on EU Hamas terror designation gives incomplete picture
As the BBC’s own profile of Hamas states, Israel also designates Hamas. In addition, Australia designates Hamas’ Izz al Din Al Qassam Brigades as a terrorist organisation, as do New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
Like the December 2014 report, this one too gives a whitewashed account of Hamas’ violent take-over of the Gaza Strip.
“After winning parliamentary elections in 2006, Hamas ousted its Fatah rivals from Gaza the following year and has since fought three conflicts with Israel.”
The caption to the image illustrating the report similarly states:
“Hamas took over Gaza in 2007 and has since been involved in three conflicts with Israel”.
Remarkably, in an article all about Hamas’ terror designation in the EU, the BBC did not find it necessary to provide readers with factual information concerning Hamas’ long history of terror attacks against Israeli civilians, including the thousands of missile attacks which brought about those tepidly portrayed “three conflicts”.
Two egregious omissions illustrate continued anti-Israel bias at the Independent
However, McKernan fails to include vital information regarding the two ‘news outlets’. According to multiple reports (including at Associated Press), Quds News Network is believed to be affiliated with Islamic Jihad, and Shehab News Agency is said to be affiliated with Hamas. Indeed, both media outlets are known for articles and posts on their social media sites encouraging violence and promoting antisemitism.
In Nov., 2014, Palestinian Media Watch reported that the Facebook page of Quds published a ‘music video’ urging Palestinians to use cars to commit terror attacks against Israelis. That same month, after two Palestinian terrorists launched a deadly attack on worshipers in a Jerusalem synagogue, Shehab News Agency’s Facebook page posted photos of Muslim children with letters of support “for the heroic Jerusalem operation.”
Additionally, the Indy reporter fails to note another extremely important element of the story. According to other reports on the incident, six out of the seven “journalists” had their Facebook accounts reinstated within a day of the original suspension – a fact acknowledged by Al Jazeera in their report on the row. AJ reported that a Facebook spokesperson apologized, saying the suspension[s] had been “accidental”.
Remarkably, even Electronic Intifada, in a post on Sept. 24th, two days before the Indy published their story, noted that the Facebook pages were restored shortly after the suspension.
These inconvenient facts not reported by the Independent, regarding both the terror-affiliation of the ‘media outlets’ and the reinstatement of the Facebook accounts, of course undermine the desired narrative of the article: that due to Israeli collusion with Facebook, the pages of seven Palestinian “journalists” were suspended.
Once again, the Indy has shown its propensity – at least regarding their coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict – to favor propaganda over professional journalism.
US Cyclists Join Wounded IDF Veterans on Bike Tour of Israel
A group of United States cyclists recently joined wounded veterans of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on a solidarity bike tour of Israel.
Some 37 cyclists from the organization American Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) took a cross-country bike ride with the Israeli vets, who had all benefited from the FIDF’s rehabilitative programs and prosthetic devices.
“This cycling tour was an incredible opportunity to bring FIDF supporters together with Israeli soldiers and strengthen the bonds between them,” said FIDF Cycling Tour leader Dany Saar, a former IDF soldier and cyclist living in West Bloomfield, Mich. “Biking across Israel with wounded veterans allowed participants to really connect with the brave men and women benefiting from FIDF programs.”
The bike tour began in northern Israel near the Sea of Galilee (“Kinneret” in Hebrew) and covered more than 400 miles with a total vertical climb of 32,000 feet. The tour concluded in six days at Tel Aviv’s Mediterranean beach.
Along the way, the group visited Israeli military bases, national landmarks and ancient historical sites.
FIDF was established by a group of Holocaust survivors in 1981 and has more than 150,000 supporters today.
2 female lawyers appointed as Israel's first Ethiopian judges
In a historic first, two female lawyers were appointed as Israel's first Ethiopian judges on Thursday, as the Judicial Nominating Committee has named Adenko Sebhat-Haimovich to the magistrates' court, and Esther Tapeta Gardi to the traffic court.
The committee announced a total of 26 judicial appointments, 13 of which were of judges who were promoted to a higher bench and 13 were attorneys who were named judges for the first time.
One of the new judges appointed Thursday was Miriam Banki, mother of the late Shira Banki, who was murdered at the Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem in 2015.
Judicial Nominating Committee Chairwoman Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked welcomed the new appointees, saying she was certain that "the judges who have been appointed would issue just rulings."
Shaked said she also saw the appointment of two women from the Ethiopian community as judges a fulfillment of late President Shimon Peres' wishes. Peres was prime minister at the time of Operation Moses, which brought Ethiopian Jewry to Israel in 1984.
Britain’s Prince Charles Turns Heads at Peres Funeral With Personalized Royal Kippah
Britain’s Prince Charles turned some heads at the funeral of the late Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem on Friday with a personalized kippah bearing his official crest.
“One heck of a royal yarmulke on Prince Charles at the Shimon Peres funeral,” Peter Baker, the New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief, tweeted.
The Heat Street news site asked its Twitter followers, “Isn’t it more than a little tasteless to make your funeral headgear all ‘me me me’?”
This was not the first time Prince Charles has worn the kippah in question. As previously reported by The Algemeiner, he also wore it three years ago to celebrate the official induction of the UK’s new chief rabbi.
The prince was making only his second-ever visit to Israel for the Peres funeral. His first trip to the Jewish state took place two decades ago, when he attended the November 1995 funeral of assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
On Thursday, Haaretz journalist Allison Kaplan Sommer tweeted, “It’s nice that Prince Charles is flying in for Peres’ funeral. But it also continues the Royal Family’s policy of only visiting dead Israelis.”
According to the UK’s Telegraph newspaper, the British Foreign Office determined “a long time ago” that visits to Israel and the Palestinian Authority were “too politically fraught for the royals to be involved in.”
5 feel-good stories from Israel in 5776
The Jewish state has nearly made it through another Jewish year and, as always, there was plenty to kvetch about in 5776. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is a time to take stock and celebrate.
Before the shofar blowing begins, here are five Israeli stories from the past year worth trumpeting. Expect them to echo into 5777 and beyond.
The Olympics gave Israelis reason to hope.
For Israel, the margin between Olympic disappointment and glory can be a single medal. The country came up empty in 2012, but two Israeli judokas grappled and leg-swept their way to bronze at the Rio games in August.
Their fellow citizens rejoiced: Waving flags and singing patriotic songs, hundreds thronged Ben Gurion Airport to give Yarden Gerbi and Or Sasson a hero’s welcome. The athletes were showered with flowers and hugs, and were immortalized by countless selfies. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later met with the judo team.
Israel made new friends in a hostile world.
As the Olympics reminded Israelis, their country is unlikely to win any international popularity contests. But in the past year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government managed to find some new friends and potential allies.
Israel and Turkey officially reconciled recently following a six-year falling-out over the Mavi Marmara affair. While the deal, signed in June, may not make the countries BFFs again, it should help them cooperate amid the chaos of the Middle East. Exporting Israel’s natural gas bounty and rebuilding the Gaza Strip are potential joint projects.
Haredi Orthodox men in Israel rolled up their sleeves.
A majority of haredi Orthodox men in Israel have jobs. That may not seem worth blowing the shofar about, but it’s a first. Since officials started keeping track, most of the demographic has been out of work.
In 2015, the workforce participation rate for haredi men was 52%, part of a 12-year rise since the figure was 36 percent in 2003, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics reported in February. Haredi men in Israel have long preferred Torah study to work or army service, living off yeshiva stipends, state benefits and perhaps their wives’ salaries.
More women than ever were making Israel’s laws.
The 28 women elected to Israel’s parliament in 2015 set a record. Since then, political reshuffling has seen the number move a little higher.
When Avigdor Liberman became defense minister in June, his Knesset seat went to Yulia Malinovsky, a member of his hawkish Yisrael Beiteinu party — sending the number of female lawmakers to 33. That’s right, more than a quarter of the 120 legislative seats are now occupied by women.
The government backed adding Sunday to the Israeli weekend.
It’s not often that something happens with the potential to redefine how an entire country understands the relationship between time and space.
But that something happened in Israel in June, when ministers approved a bill that would give Israelis six three-day weekends a year starting in 2017 as a step toward making Sunday a day off. The legislation is to be reworked in committee before going to the full Knesset for voting.



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The original White House page, from Google cache:




The current one:





Unbelievable.




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People are Googling "Shana Tova U'Metuka" (wishes for a happy and sweet New Year) and my blog comes up as #1 and #2:





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From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Israel, not the West, stands for international law
In fact the US, Britain and Europe have long displayed this contempt by supporting the big lie that Israel behaves illegally or belligerently.
The West maintains that Israel occupies Palestinian territory in the “West Bank.” This is untrue. There has never been any “Palestinian territory.”
Israel’s presence in the disputed territories cannot be legally defined as an occupation. Under the Hague and Geneva conventions, an occupation can only take place on sovereign land. The territories were never anyone’s sovereign land.
Israel is furthermore entitled under international law to continue to hold onto them as a defensive measure as long as its Arab aggressors continue to use them for belligerent ends.
The West says Israel’s settlements are illegal. This is also untrue.
In the 20s, the Mandate for Palestine gave Britain the legally binding duty to settle the Jews throughout what is now not just Israel but the disputed territories too. That Jewish right has never been abrogated.
The Geneva conventions, cited as the reason the settlements are illegal, prohibit an occupying power from transferring people en masse into occupied territory. This was drafted after World War II to prevent any repetition of the Nazis’ forced displacement of peoples. Israelis resident in the disputed territories, however, have not been transferred but moved there through their own free choice.
Kontorovich has looked at every modern example where occupied territories have been settled. In none of them did the international community denounce such action as illegal or demand that settlers had to vacate the land as a condition for peace or independence. If world powers asked the occupying force to withdraw, they referred only to the army and not the settler population. The only exception has been Israel.
The West makes a fetish of international law. Yet it denounces Israel, the one Middle East state that upholds it. It’s time to call out the US, Britain and Europe for aiding the repudiation of law and justice and thus helping promote the Arab agenda of exterminating Israel.

Caroline Glick: The New Middle East
To accomplish these goals, Israel needs to operate in two completely separate arenas. To weaken Iran, Israel should take its cue from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, and from its own past successful military ties to the Kurds of Iraq in the 1960s and 1970s.
Israel needs to deploy military trainers beyond its borders to work with other anti-Iranian forces. The goal of that cooperation must be to destabilize the regime, with the goal of overthrowing it. This may take time. But it must be done. The only way to neutralize the threat emanating from the new Syria is to change the nature of the Iranian regime that controls it.
As for Russia, Israel needs to demonstrate that it is a power that Putin can respect in its own right, and not a downgraded Washington’s sock puppet.
To this end, Israel should embark on a rapid expansion of its civilian presence along its eastern border with Syria and with Jordan. As Russia’s air base in Syria undermines Israel’s air superiority and reliance on air power, Israel needs to show that it will not be dislodged or allow its own territory to be threatened in any way. By doubling the Israeli population on the Golan Heights within five years, and vastly expanding its population in the Jordan Valley, Israel will accomplish two goals at once. It will demonstrate its independence from the US without harming US strategic interests. And it will reinforce its eastern border against expanded strategic threats from both the Golan Heights and the new Jordan with its bursting population of Syrian and Iraqi refugees.
It is ironic that the new Middle East is coming into focus as Shimon Peres, the failed visionary of a fantasy- based new Middle East, is being laid to rest. But to survive in the real new Middle East, Israel must bury Peres’s belief that peace is built by appeasing enemies along with him. The world in which we live has a place for dreamers.
But dreams, unhinged from reality, lead to Aleppo, not to peace.
Why Iran is more dangerous than Islamic State
It is not too late to repair the impression that the West — led by the United States — views Iran as part of the solution to the problems of the Middle East, rather than the chief source of the region’s instability and radicalism. Of course, Iran fights Islamic State; the fact that the world’s leading radical Shiite government fights radical Sunnis should come as no surprise.
Those who believed that the nuclear agreement would lead to a more moderate, open, reformist Iran, at home and abroad, regrettably suffer from wishful thinking. So long as the ayatollah’s regime governs Iran, there is no chance we will see a McDonald’s in Tehran. Instead, we will see more executions, more repression, more tyranny.
This view of Iran is shared across the Middle East by countries that used to be antagonists. While the struggle between Israelis and Palestinians persists, any reference to the conflict between Israel and Sunni Arab states is, for now, obsolete. Today, Arabs and Israelis are in the same boat, facing Iranian-backed threats all around us; in terms of how to address these threats, we are also generally on the same page.
What we lack is leadership from our traditional allies in the West, especially our good friends in America. Should President Obama or his successor shift priorities and lead a campaign to pressure Iran to end its destabilizing policies — applying the same type of pressure that forced Iran to negotiate on its nuclear program — it will find willing partners among both Arabs and Israelis.



Netanyahu, world leaders mourn the passing of Shimon Peres
In the presence of presidents, ministers and royalty representing more than half of humanity, Shimon Peres – who played a central role on Israel's public stage since the country's birth – was buried on Mount Herzl Friday.
President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Barack Obama and former president Bill Clinton were among those who delivered eulogies. His three children – who also each spoke of their father – recited kaddish.
“Shimon Peres, merited not only a long life, but also a purposeful life,” Netanyahu said. “He was an active partner in the revival of the Jewish people, holding a sword of David in order to defend it. Shimon worked tremendously to ensure our power to defend ourselves for generations, and for that he will have gratitude for generations. At the same time, he did everything he could throughout his later years to achieve peace with our neighbors.”
Netanyahu recalled a late night conversation he had with Peres during which they debated what should be the focus for Israel: security or peace.
Netanyahu said that Peres argued passionately that peace is the real security, while he argued the reverse -- that in the Middle East security is a necessary condition both for achieving peace and preserving it. With time, Netanyahu said, he came to the conclusion that they both were right.
“In the stormy Middle East where only the strong survived, peace will not be achieved except through the continuous preservation of our strength -- but the purpose is not strength and power, it is a means,” he said. “The purpose is existence and coexistence, progress, prosperity and peace, for us, for the people of the region and for our Palestinian neighbors.”
One Last Interview
Three weeks ago, Shimon Peres sat for what he intended to be a Rosh Hashanah-timed discussion about the state of the world. It was also his final one.
I was lucky enough to interview Shimon Peres at length three times over the past 10 years. What has always interested me about him is his personal psychology, which reminded me of a character from a great Viennese modernist novel, and also his memory for specific and important historical facts that no one else alive still remembers, or ever knew. His aides said that they enjoyed our interviews because they weren’t “normal.” In any case, I learned a great deal from him—about the hinges on which history can turn, and how those hinges are made, the power of empathy and imagination as political tools, and the differences between political language, which is always relative, and literary language, which is a closed system that insists on truth.
This interview, the last of any length given before his death this week, was conducted in English (with occasional lapses into Hebrew and French) on Aug. 31 in Jaffo, at the Peres Center for Peace, and was intended to be published before Rosh Hashanah 5777, to greet the Jewish New Year. He was relaxed and alert, and in apparent good health for a 93-year-old man who was about to receive a pacemaker.
JPost Editorial: Obama and Peres
When a great man dies his loss is felt. This is particularly true in the case of Shimon Peres, who was active until his very last days. The tremendous outpouring of emotion from around the world is just one indication of the profound mark Peres made during his lifetime.
Dozens of statesmen are expected to attend the funeral, which is slated to be the largest gathering of world leaders in Israel since the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. But of all the statesmen who will be in Jerusalem to pay tribute to Peres, one stands out: US President Barack Obama.
That the leader of the most powerful nation in the world found the time to make the long trip to Israel as a personal gesture of honor to Peres should not be taken for granted.
The US president went out of his way both literally and figuratively to pay his respects to Israel’s former president and prime minister and by extension to Israel.
In an unusually long and personal statement, Obama described their first meeting, while he was a United States senator, and he described their conversations in detail.
“Shimon was the essence of Israel itself,” he said.
“A light has gone out, but the hope he gave us will burn forever,” he said. “Shimon Peres was a soldier for Israel, for the Jewish people, for justice, for peace and for the belief that we can be true to our best selves – to the very end of our time on earth and in the legacy that we leave to others.”
David Horovitz: Obama’s empathetic speech raises questions of what might have been
The event was solemn and sorrowful, but the optics, and the content, were inspiring. Standing before a line of bright Israeli national flags fluttering in the late morning breeze, President Barack Obama, a skullcap on his head, delivered a speech of admiration not only for Shimon Peres, the former Israeli president and prime minister, but also for the Jewish people and the Jewish state as emblemized and, briefly, led by Peres.
The final speaker at Shimon Peres’s funeral Friday on Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl, Obama detailed Peres’s personal story of hope and achievement after tragedy, and said it symbolized the story of the Jewish people this past century — the longing for a homeland, the devastation of the Holocaust, the revival of the Jewish state. In Peres’s case, noted Obama somberly, “The railroad tracks that had carried him toward the Promised Land also delivered so many of his people to death camps.”
“I could not be more honored to be in Jerusalem to say farewell to my friend Shimon Peres, who showed us that justice and hope are at the heart of the Zionist idea,” Obama said near the start of his address, rescuing the very word “Zionism” from the lexicon of Israel’s demonizers and denigrators. The Zionist ethos, Obama continued, seeks, “A free life, in a homeland regained. A secure life, in a nation that can defend itself, by itself. A full life, in friendship with nations who can be counted on as allies, always. A bountiful life, driven by simple pleasures of family and by big dreams.
“This was Shimon Peres’s life,” declared the president, speaking before the greatest gathering here of world leaders since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin 21 years ago. “This is the State of Israel. This is the story of the Jewish people over the last century.”
Obama remembers Peres as 20th century ‘giant’ determined for peace
Peres “believed in miracles, because in Israel, he saw miracles come true.” And his contributions to Israel, Obama said, are “so fundamental, so pervasive, that perhaps sometimes it could be overlooked.”
Both the United States and Israel have flaws in their histories which they are reluctant to address, Obama said, but because democracy was embedded from the start, “we have the capacity to do what’s right.”
On a personal note, the US president said he “took great pleasure in my friendship with this older, wiser man.”
“I could somehow see myself in his stories. Maybe he could see himself in mine because for all of our differences, both of us had lived such unlikely lives.”
Obama said he shared “a love of words and books and history” with Peres. “And perhaps like most politicians, we shared too great a joy in hearing ourselves talk.”
“Shimon, toda raba, haver yakar,” he closed in Hebrew, riffing former US president Bill Clinton’s tribute to former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 — “Shimon, thank you, dear friend.”
Clinton: Peres was a dreamer who never gave up
Former US president Bill Clinton spoke at the funeral of Shimon Peres at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem Friday, saying he was honored to have known him for the last 25 years.
Clinton put the loss of Peres into perspective paraphrasing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's tweet that Thursday "was Israel's first day without Shimon Peres."
Clinton continued by praising Peres's steadfast commitment to public service, and added he was honored to have shared a friendship with the late president over the last 25 years.
Cinton also thanked the Peres family for letting him speak at the funeral "even though I am not a citizen of a country I love so much."
He said that the tomorrow Peres envisioned was already being lived in Israel, adding "the morals that he envisioned are already being lived here today in Israel."
Clinton said that while his critics often claimed he was a naive, overly-optimistic dreamer, he knew what he was doing with his dreams. "He never gave up on anything."
"Peres started off life as Israel's brightest student, became its best teacher, and ended up its biggest dreamer," Clinton added.
Dear world leaders: Thank you, but ...
Dear kings, princes, presidents, premiers, and ministers, friends all,‎
Thank you very much for honoring the memory of Shimon Peres and his legacy of ‎peacemaking by traveling to attend his state funeral in Israel today. ‎
The fact that so many of you from all corners of the world arrived today on such short ‎notice to attend this extraordinary event, speaks to the power of Peres' powerful ‎presence on the world stage. It is testament to his exemplary optimism and wise counsel.‎
It also is a powerful statement about the importance you attach to your relationships ‎with Israel, and for that, we, the people of Israel, are appreciative.‎
However, I have to wonder and hope that you'll be there for the people of Israel and ‎the State of Israel not just at funeral times, like that of Peres today and Yitzhak Rabin's ‎funeral 20 years ago -- but also in times of crisis. ‎
I pray that you'll stand up for Israel also when we run into conflict and need your hard-‎core political, not just sentimental, backing.‎
Netanyahu, Abbas shake hands, exchange pleasantries, at Peres funeral
After years without meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas shook hands and briefly chatted at the funeral of former president Shimon Peres in Jerusalem on Friday.
The two exchanged polite greetings as world leaders gathered on Mount Herzl to pay their final respects to Israel’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning former president and prime minister.
“Long time, long time,” Abbas could be heard telling Netanyahu and his wife Sara in English. After Netanyahu shook hands with senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, the prime minister thanked the two Palestinian officials for coming to the funeral, saying “It’s something that I appreciate very much, on behalf of our people, and on behalf of us.”
In another video uploaded to YouTube, Sara Netanyahu can be overheard telling Abbas she is “so happy” he came to the funeral.
Abbas and Riviln speak of future meetings at Peres funeral
President Reuven Rivlin and Palestinian Authority President Mahmous Abbas were seen in a video posted on the Facebook page Ramallah News, greeting one another before the funeral of former president Shimon Peres at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on Friday.
The two shook hands and exchanged pleasantries. Rivlin turned to PLO Executive Committee Secretary General Saeb Erakat and stated, "I hope to see you," in which Erakat responded, "anytime, you can get in touch."
"I really believe that it is a time to build confidence," Rivlin continued. "We have to believe that everyone is serious."
According to Rivlin's spokesperson Abbas also expressed desire that the two meet under different circumstances.
The exchange contrasted Abbas's refusal to meet with Rivlin while the two simultaneously visited the European Union's main headquarters in Brussels, earlier this year in June.
UN chief, envoys gather in New York to commemorate Peres
The United Nations’ top officials joined with Israel’s envoys to the world body for a ceremony commemorating Israel’s former president, Shimon Peres, who died Wednesday.
A ceremony held Thursday at UN headquarters in New York saw Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, American Ambassador Samantha Power and envoys from over 40 other countries stand for a minute’s silence in tribute to the former would-be peacemaker.
Israel’s Ambassador Danny Danon, who organized the gathering, described Peres as an optimist and a visionary. “President Peres, one of our founding fathers, was a man of vision and optimism who dedicated his life to the State of Israel. He contributed so much to Israel’s safety and security and never lost hope. This symbolizes the story of Zionism.
Danon added: “After years of representing the true face of Israel to the world, today the parliament of nations has gathered to pay their respects…. President Peres will continue to inspire us all. His leadership will be missed as someone who worked to realize the dream of security and peace for Israel.”
Power recalled Peres’s tutelage under his patron, Israel’s first prime minister David Ben-Gurion.
A back-dated deal with a toppled French PM: How Peres secured Israel’s nuclear deterrent
In late September 1957, Israel was set to sign an agreement with France. The French Atomic Energy Commission, after four years of negotiations, had agreed to provide Israel with a plutonium reactor. All that was needed in order to cement the deal was the signature of the French foreign minister and his prime minister.
What happened during the next 24 hours, as documented in Michael Bar-Zohar’s Hebrew biography of Shimon Peres, “Phoenix,” seems to epitomize the political suavity and steely tenacity of Israel’s ninth president.
His first stop on Monday morning, September 30, was at the office of Pierre Guillaumat, the head of France’s Atomic Energy Commission and an avid supporter of Israel. He told Peres what he already knew: the deal could only be finalized with the government’s approval, and the government was teetering on the edge of collapse.
Peres hurried to the office of Foreign Minister Christian Pineau, the main opponent of the deal. Pineau promptly told Peres what he’d told Israeli foreign minister Golda Meir a few days prior. He wanted to help but couldn’t; the Americans would be livid if they found out and might impose sanctions on France that would cripple its own dawning nuclear capacity. Moreover, the agreement could induce the Soviet Union to arm Egypt with nuclear weapons.
Peres bombshell: I stopped an Israeli strike on Iran
If not for Shimon Peres’s intervention, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was planning to bomb Iran, the former president revealed confidentially to The Jerusalem Post over two years ago.
In a meeting at the Peres Center for Peace in Jaffa on August 24, 2014, Peres dropped the bombshell in a conversation with me and Jerusalem Post Managing Editor David Brinn.
I have thought long and hard about whether to publish it, and reached the conclusion that he wouldn’t have told us if he didn’t want us to.
I was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post at the time and had established a close relationship with Peres, who had retired a month earlier as president.
During the course of the conversation (in which just the three of us sat and chatted over coffee), Brinn asked Peres what he considered the greatest achievement of his presidency. He responded by saying that he had personally intervened to stop Netanyahu from ordering a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear sites.
In one of his last interviews, Peres called Trump’s views ‘unbelievable, ignorant’
In one of his final interviews, Shimon Peres excoriated policy proposals being put forth by presidential nominee Donald Trump, calling them “unbelievable” and “ignorant.”
Speaking with Bloomberg Television earlier this month, Israel’s elder statesman, who died early Wednesday at 93, described the Republican candidate as an isolationist who would endanger America’s role in the world.
“The idea of Mr. Trump, to isolate America,” said the former Israeli prime minister and president on September 2 in Cernobbio, Italy. “Shall I say, in a nice way, it’s unbelievable, ignorant.”
The interview was apparently his last with US media before he suffered a massive stroke on September 13.
“America is not out of the world. America is with the world and leading the world, the world will not lead itself,” Peres continued, before invoking Trump’s pledge to build a wall along the US-Mexican border, for which he has insisted Mexico would pay.
“Walls will not separate people. People are stronger than walls, they build them and destroy them and I hope America will decide to continue to lead the world by goodwill, by hope, and by change,” said Peres, the joint 1994 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
The interview was not the first time Peres spoke out against Trump, who has confounded much of the world this past year with his improbable political rise.
Shimon Peres’s greatest achievement: Transforming Israel’s economy
The socialist who spearheaded the transition to capitalism was a monetarist poster boy
It was worse than the Greek crisis.
With inflation raging at 415%, foreign-currency reserves were dwindling so fast that by the summer of 1985 the Jewish state was on the verge of losing the ability to buy abroad even one barrel of oil.
Underpinned by the banking system’s collapse and nationalization two years earlier, the crisis stemmed from the public sector’s swelling to 76% of the economy and from public debt’s ballooning to 221% of gross domestic product through continuous union pressure on employers, government borrowing, and printing of money.
After several rounds of ineffective symptomatic treatments, Prime Minister Shimon Peres gathered a team of economists, heard their analyses of the crisis, broke them into smaller groups with specific assignments, and had them work for several weeks under full secrecy before producing with them a blueprint for action.
Shimon Peres, Statesman-Turned-Social Media Star(1:23)
The late Israeli statesman Shimon Peres had a political career spanning seven decades — he served as the country's president and twice as prime minister. After he retired, Peres became a social media star, using Snapchat and Facebook. Image: Yedioth Ahronoth.
Then, together with his finance minister, Peres called a cabinet session, which he held awake for more than a full night. “No one is leaving this room until we get this business done,” he told several angry ministers who complained they were falling asleep.
Peres, then 62, was wide awake all along, and when the meeting was over it turned out that symptomatic treatment had given way to open-heart surgery.
BBC radio marks Peres’ death with Palestinian propaganda – part two
Following his afternoon appearance on the BBC World Service programme ‘Newshour’, Mustafa Barghouti was back again on BBC radio on the evening of September 28th.
BBC Radio 4’s ‘The World Tonight’ – presented by Razia Iqbal – included an item (from 35:36 here) concerning the death earlier in the day of Israel’s ninth president Shimon Peres. Listeners heard one minute of recordings of statements by the Israeli prime minister and the leader of the opposition and Iqbal read short statements from the US President and Secretary of State as well as the Pope before introducing her next contributor.
That propaganda rant – rich with inaccuracy and blatant falsehoods completely unchallenged by Razia Iqbal – went on for almost four and a half minutes. In other words, the producers of this programme found it editorially justifiable to allocate 77% of a five minute and 41 second item supposedly about a recently deceased Israeli statesman to “a Palestinian view” which contributed nothing whatsoever to audience understanding of the Oslo Accords, their sabotage by Palestinian terrorism or the reality of the situation today.
Police apprehend Jewish, Arab suspects attempting to disrupt Peres's ceremony
Authorities arrested a number of Jewish and Arab suspects thought to have posed a security risk or threat to the funeral proceedings of former president Shimon Peres on Friday.
"We arrested Jews and Arabs who may have threatened or tried to terrorize Peres's funeral," said Police Chief Roni Alsheich during a press conference.
Alsheich added that "there are a few sources that we identify as threatening or trying to cause provocations. I won't go into detail, but this includes Jews and Arabs related to terror, provocation or personal threats."
A ceremony was held in honor for Peres Thursday at the Knesset following his death the previous morning.
The Police and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) on Thursday completed preparations for an unprecedented operation to protect over 60 world leaders who are arriving in Israel for the Friday funeral of the late president.
The domestic intelligence agency said in a statement on Thursday that its units will provide an “intelligence and technological envelope, which includes the use of advanced technological means.”
Congress Must Act to Prevent Unilateral Move to Create Palestinian State
President Obama is rumored to be considering a major reversal of decades-long U.S. policy toward Israel by supporting a UN Security Council resolution that unilaterally recognizes a Palestinian state before a peace agreement is negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians. Congress must act to counter this bold and reckless move that endangers Israel's security and America's strategic interests.
There is much at stake: Israel is a free and democratic ally in a hostile region that has been repeatedly attacked by its neighbors. Before it occupied the West Bank, Gaza, and Golan Heights in 1967, these territories were used as a base of war and terrorism against the Jewish state. Offers to create a Palestinian state in Gaza and most of the West Bank that would allow for a safe and secure Israel have been repaid by intifada after intifada.
Others have argued persuasively that any Palestinian state established in the absence of a peace agreement with Israel will become a virtually ungovernable hotbed of terrorism sure to threaten not just Israel, but also the region and the world. The events in Gaza in the past decade strongly support this position. Ordinary Palestinians will also suffer, forced to endure rule by the same Islamic fanatics and brutal, corrupt autocrats who have destroyed their economy.
Any Palestinian state established absent a peace agreement with Israel will be a hotbed of terrorism.
A White House decision to support unilateral Palestinian statehood would unquestionably be contrary to the will of Congress: 88 senators recently signed a letter opposing such an action, while 388 members of the House have signed a similar letter supporting a veto of all "one-sided" UN resolutions concerning the Israel/Palestine issue.
And these numbers understate congressional opposition: several senators refused to sign the letter because they thought it was insufficiently strong. Furthermore, a White House reversal on unilateral Palestinian statehood would also be contrary to the stated policies of both the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees.
To dissuade a determined White House from this course of action, Congress will have to do more than write letters. Here are some of the legislative options that could throw significant roadblocks in its path.
Father of West Point Graduate Killed in Tel Aviv Stabbing Attack: Palestinian Authority Use of American Funding to Reward Terrorists Must Be Stopped
The father of an American tourist who was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in a Tel Aviv stabbing attack earlier this year told The Algemeiner on Thursday that he was appreciative that new proposed legislation that would restrict US funding for the Palestinian Authority was named after his late son.
“We’re honored, but of course it also makes us very sad,” Stuart Force, who, accompanied by his wife Robbi, traveled from South Carolina to Washington, DC to attend the press conference on Wednesday at which the Taylor Force Act was introduced by Republican Senators Lindsey Graham (South Carolina), Dan Coats (Indiana) and Roy Blunt (Missouri). “Anytime legislation has a person’s name on it, it’s generally not a good thing.”
28-year-old Taylor Force — a West Point graduate who served in Afghanistan and Iraq — was visiting Israel in March on a spring break trip organized by Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management when he was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist on the Tel Aviv beach promenade.
“He had finished the military and was ready to enjoy life and then this happened out of the blue,” Force’s father said.
Earlier this week, Graham told The Algemeiner that the purpose of the proposed legislation — which would cut off US funding to the Palestinian Authority if it continues to pay monetary rewards to terrorists and their families — was to “start a debate that is long overdue.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham targets aid to Palestinians
Senators Introduce Legislation to Cut Off Funding for Palestinian Terror Attacks
U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Dan Coats (R-Indiana), and Roy Blunt (R-Missouri) held a press conference today to introduce legislation which would cut off funding to the Palestinian Authority if they continue their policy of paying monetary rewards for acts of terrorism.
In March of this year, Taylor Force, a former U.S. Army officer, was stabbed to death in a terror attack in Tel Aviv by a Palestinian terrorist. The attack left ten other people grievously wounded. Stuart and Robbi Force, the parents of Taylor, joined Senator Graham at today’s press conference.


Amb. Danon: "It's time to stop Hamas from exploiting the UN!"


India hits at Jihadi bases inside Pakistan
Last night, the Indian Army carried out a series of covert operations targeting Jihadi bases along its border with Pakistan. According to official Indian sources, the counter-terrorism strikes killed 38 Islamists as well as couple of soldiers of Pakistan’s regular army, who were overseeing these Jihadi bases. Indian Special Forces went 2-3 km inside Pakistan’s border destroying up to 6 Jihadi camps. No casualties were reported on the Indian side. The strikes come less than 2 weeks after Islamists attacked an Indian Army base in India’s Kashmir region, killing 18 soldiers.
India has faced a sustained terrorist campaign in its Muslim majority northern state of Kashmir since the 1990s. Terrorists have killed nearly 5,000 Indian civilians and over 2,000 Indian soldiers since 2001. Tonight’s cross-border operation, first of its kind conducted by India, shows the change in country’s military doctrine since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office 2 years ago.
Following tonight’s strikes India has put its army along the international border with the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on high alert. Indian newspaper Times of India reports:
Israel sends $20 million to Turkey for families of Mavi Marmara victims
Israel has paid Turkey $20 million in compensation for the deadly storming of an aid ship in 2010, a key pillar of a deal signed in June to restore ties after a six-year rift.
The money has been transferred to the account of the Turkish justice ministry, a Turkish foreign ministry official told AFP on Friday, asking not to be named.
Relations between the former allies deteriorated with the rise of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP to power, then broke off almost completely in 2010 following an Israeli naval raid on a Turkish flotilla trying to breach Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
The raid, in which IDF commandos were attacked by activists on board, left 10 Turks dead and several soldiers wounded.
The compensation to the victims’ families was one of the three key demands by Turkey for the reconciliation deal with Israel, along with an apology and an easing of the blockade on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. An apology by Israel was issued three years ago.
Palestinian arrested for planning to attack IDF colonel in West Bank
A Palestinian man was arrested after he approached a senior IDF officer while holding a knife, near the West Bank city of Hebron Friday afternoon, the army said
The attacker approached the command vehicle of Col. Itzik Cohen outside the West Bank settlement of Negohot, southwest of Hebron, the army said.
Soldiers wrestled the suspect to the ground and placed him under arrest. The soldiers did not use their firearms, and there were no injuries reported.
According to the army, the Palestinian approached the officer’s car wielding a knife.
Cohen leads the Judea Regional Brigade, which is responsible for Hebron and the surrounding area.
Gazan man killed in Islamic Jihad tunnel collapse
At least one Palestinian was killed when a tunnel under the border with Israel collapsed in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, an official in the Strip said.
The Gaza Health Ministry said the accident occurred while work was going on in a “military tunnel” used by the Islamic Jihad terror group.
It said Ahmed Mayyat was killed and three others were injured.
Mayyat was a local contractor hired by the Islamic Jihad to remove a bomb from the tunnel, the group said.
Local media reported he also worked for several international aid organizations in Gaza on a freelance basis.
There were conflicting reports on the number of fatalities in the incident. The Maan News Agency reported one person was killed and several were seriously injured. Israel’s Channel 2 reported that three Palestinian diggers died in the cave-in.
Iranian Commander: ‘Thousands of Pages’ of Intel Seized in U.S. Navy Detention
Iran’s FARS news service quotes General Ali Razmjou of Iran’s Second Naval Zone claiming that his forces “seized thousands of pages of valuable intelligence from the US marines during their detention.”
Razmjou was referring to the January 12 incident in which Iran seized two small U.S. Navy boats with ten personnel on board.
Russia’s RT.com supports Razmjou’s claim by quoting the U.S. Navy’s report on the January incident, which said it was “clear that some, if not all, crew members provided at least some information to their interrogators beyond name, rank, service number, and date of birth.”
Additionally, FARS reports General Alireza Tangsiri claimed the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Navy has “detained American and British trespassers twice and the Canadians and Australians once in the Persian Gulf,” without giving any details of the alleged incidents.
US Agrees to Lift UN Sanctions on Iranian Banks Blacklisted for Financing Missile Program
The Obama administration agreed to back the lifting of United Nations sanctions on two Iranian state banks blacklisted for financing Iran’s ballistic-missile program on the same day in January that Tehran released four American citizens from prison, according to U.S. officials and congressional staff briefed on the deliberations.
The U.N. sanctions on the two banks weren’t initially to be lifted until 2023, under a landmark nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers that went into effect on Jan. 16.
The U.N. Security Council’s delisting of the two banks, Bank Sepah and Bank Sepah International, was part of a package of tightly scripted agreements—the others were a controversial prisoner swap and transfer of $1.7 billion in cash to Iran—that were finalized between the U.S. and Iran on Jan. 17, the day the Americans were freed.
The new details of the delisting have emerged after administration officials briefed lawmakers earlier this month on the U.S. decision.
According to senior U.S. officials, a senior State Department official, Brett McGurk, and a representative of the Iranian government signed three documents in Geneva on the morning of Jan. 17.

Russian FM Spokesperson: Kerry's UNSC Speech on Syria Was a Poor Show


N.Y. Based Egyptian American Activist: "The Crescent Must Always Be on Top of the Cross"


Egyptian TV Host: "I Support the Assassination of Jordanian Writer Nahed Hattar"


Saudi Scholar: The Jews Are Like a Cancer; Woe to the World If They Become Strong




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Even though the Gulf countries are seemingly warming up to Israel's existence, they aren't moderating in their other behaviors.

A Saudi teenager has been arrested and faces three years in prison for posting a series of popular videos of online conversations with an American blogger.
Abu Sin, which allegedly translates as “toothless” because of his gap tooth, was having tongue-in-cheek conversations with 21-year-old YouTuber and Californian native Christina Crockett on the video service YouNow. The videos subsequently went viral, bringing Abu Sin relative fame at home.
Saudi police spokesman Col. Fawaz Al-Mayman said that those commenting on Abu Sin’s videos had “demanded for him to be punished for his actions,” according to news site The Saudi Gazette.



This is the first of several videos with the pair. It is nearly unintelligible.

The Saudi Gazette adds:
Lawyer Abdulrahman Al-Lahem said the videos of Abu Sin breach Shariah Law and information technology law. “The teenager could face prison term — ranging from a year to three — depending on the sentence issued by the judge. The ethics and morals of Shariah Law apply even on the Internet,” said Al-Lahem.
But that's not the only news:
It all allegedly started when the decorator took photos inside the woman's apartment block on the chic Avenue Foch in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, reported Le Point newspaper.

The Saudi Princess accused the man of taking the pictures just to sell them to the press, although he said it was just part of the job.

"You have to kill this dog, he doesn't deserve to live," the princess allegedly told her bodyguard soon afterwards.

It's alleged that the bodyguard then struck the decorator in the head before tying his hands.

The guard, who was (legally) armed, then reportedly ordered the Parisian decorator to kneel and kiss the feet of the princess, who is the daughter of the former king Khalid of Saudi Arabia.

The victim told police that the ordeal lasted for four hours before another man intervened, taking a copy of the Parisian man's ID and then telling him "to never return to the 16th arrondissement of Paris".

The worker reportedly still tried to charge the Saudis for the decorating job, but was never paid the €20,000 he demanded. He claims that he was never given back his tools either.

The man has reported the matter to police, who said that his bruises were visible at the time of the report.
Human rights!

(h/t Ronald)




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From The Telegraph:
The world's top female chess players have reacted with horror after being told they must compete at next year's world championship wearing a hijab.

Within hours of Iran being revealed as its host country, the prestigious event was plunged into crisis as it emerged players taking part face arrest if they don't cover up.

In response, Grandmasters lined up to say they would boycott the 64-player knock-out and accused the game's scandal-hit governing body Fide of failing to stand up for women’s rights.

Fide's Commission for Women's Chess, meanwhile, called on participants to respect “cultural differences” and accept the regulations.
The choice of Iran as the venue is even more bizarre because the US has a travel warning to Iran.

What are American chess players to do?

CNN adds:
Iran was the only country which made a proposal to host the event, a World Chess Federation (FIDE) spokeswoman told CNN in a statement.

She added that since there were no objections from any of the other 150 national chess federations -- including the US -- FIDE's General Assembly accepted the proposal.
The justification for the decision by FIDE was bizarre:
Susan Polgar, the Hungarian-born American Grandmaster and chair of Fide's Commission for Women's Chess, responded by defending the federation and saying women should respect "cultural differences".

She said: "I have travelled to nearly 60 countries. When I visited different places with different cultures, I like to show my respect by dressing up in their traditional style of clothing. No one asked me to do it. I just do it out of respect.

"I personally would have no issues with wearing a head scarf (hijab) as long as it is the same to all players. I believe the organisers provided beautiful choices for past participants of Women's Grand Prix.
Polgar is free to act as she wants to out of her views of respect, but to force others to do something against their will doesn't show respect - it shows disrespect.

(h/t Ronald)



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