08/01 Links: Melanie Phillips: A day to teach the world; When Progressives Embrace Hate ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: A day to teach the world

And that’s what so many in the west also don’t grasp – that the Jews alone are the indigenous people of the land, and that Judaism is based on an actual nation which practised its religion in the actual historic kingdom of Judea.
But because Islam holds that any territory ever occupied by Muslims remains Muslim for ever and can be ruled by no-one else, the Muslim world will not accept this. That’s why the war over Temple Mount is not being waged in the name of the Palestinians or even the Arabs but – according to Mahmoud Abbas amongst others – all Muslims.
It is an Islamic holy war – not just against the State of Israel but against Judaism itself. For both the Temple and the land of Israel are central to Jewish religious belief. Not all Jews are Zionists, for sure. Neither are all Jews religiously observant. But Judaism is inextricably composed of the people, the religion and the land. Those who want to strip away the land from the Jewish people are attacking Judaism itself.
Some Jews question why Tisha b’Av remains a day of mourning when Israel has been so triumphantly reborn from the ashes of history. But today it’s surely more important than ever to mourn. For the destroyers are still with us, the Temple Mount is still occupied and the stones are still being hurled down from it. The only difference is that the murderous destroyers hurling the rocks today are not the Romans but the Arab Muslims.
Well, the enemies of the Jewish people didn’t destroy us before; against impossible odds the land of Israel was restored to its indigenous people, the Jews; and they won’t succeed in destroying us now, or ever.

NYTs: When Progressives Embrace Hate

What wasn’t to like?
A lot, as it turns out. The leaders of the Women’s March, arguably the most prominent feminists in the country, have some chilling ideas and associations. Far from erecting the big tent so many had hoped for, the movement they lead has embraced decidedly illiberal causes and cultivated a radical tenor that seems determined to alienate all but the most woke.
Start with Ms. Sarsour, by far the most visible of the quartet of organizers. It turns out that this “homegirl in a hijab,” as one of many articles about her put it, has a history of disturbing views, as advertised by . . . Linda Sarsour.
There are comments on her Twitter feed of the anti-Zionist sort: “Nothing is creepier than Zionism,” she wrote in 2012. And, oddly, given her status as a major feminist organizer, there are more than a few that seem to make common cause with anti-feminists, like this from 2015: “You’ll know when you’re living under Shariah law if suddenly all your loans and credit cards become interest-free. Sound nice, doesn’t it?” She has dismissed the anti-Islamist feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali in the most crude and cruel terms, insisting she is “not a real woman” and confessing that she wishes she could take away Ms. Ali’s vagina — this about a woman who suffered genital mutilation as a girl in Somalia.
Ms. Sarsour and her defenders have dismissed all of this as a smear campaign coordinated by the far right and motivated by Islamophobia. Plus, they’ve argued, many of these tweets were written five years ago! Ancient history.
But just last month, Ms. Sarsour proved that her past is prologue. On July 16, the official Twitter feed of the Women’s March offered warm wishes to Assata Shakur. “Happy birthday to the revolutionary #AssataShakur!” read the tweet, which featured a “#SignOfResistance, in Assata’s honor” — a pink and purple Pop Art-style portrait of Ms. Shakur, better known as Joanne Chesimard, a convicted killer who is on the F.B.I.’s list of most wanted terrorists.

Best Friends: Linda Sarsour and Muslim Brotherhood Supporter Omar Suleiman

In late August 2014, Linda Sarsour declared that Imam Omar Suleiman made her “more proud to be a Muslim and a Palestinian.” One year later, she praised him as one of several Muslim “scholars … who speak truth w/ courage & w/o apology.” Suleiman responded: “jazakiallah khayr [may Allah reward you with goodness] and thank you for being a leader in the trenches!”
In July 2016, Sarsour promoted a glowing tribute to Suleiman and told [archived] her Twitter followers: “Check out this profile of one of America’s most prominent imams @omarsuleiman504. Proud to call him a friend.” Suleiman warmly returned her compliments, responding: “Just following in your footsteps 🙂 It’s an honor to have you as a sister, friend, and leader.” And just a few weeks ago, Sarsour shared yet another article praising Suleiman; she told her followers: “Imam @omarsuleiman504 has inspired me to love my religion even more. A man of spirituality, conviction & justice.”
We all know the saying, “Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are.” So perhaps finding out who Omar Suleiman is will tell us a bit more about the controversial activist Linda Sarsour.
Suleiman describes himself on Twitter as “Scholar & Community Servant. Founder & President of @YaqeenInstitute, Professor @SMU, Resident Scholar @ValleyRanchIC.” According to the first article that Sarsour shared, Suleiman is also “a new kind of American imam” with “a wildly popular social-media presence, with more than a million likes on his Facebook page and tens of millions of views for his YouTube sermons.”

Amb. Alan Baker: The Jews: One of the World’s Oldest Indigenous Peoples

The Palestinian "Balfour Apology Campaign" to demand the annulment of the Balfour Declaration is part of a consistent policy of denying the rights of the Jews to their national homeland as a people indigenous to the area.
Yet the Jewish People for more than two millennia has consistently maintained the strongest claim to be the aboriginal people in its ancestral homeland, and their existence and roots are widely documented, acknowledged, and recognized.
Christianity grew out of Judaism, and the early Christian existence and settlement in the Holy Land were part and parcel of the Jewish existence and settlement there.
Turkish journalist Sinem Tezyapar, citing passages from the Koran, noted in 2014, "The region where the Jews currently live is, beyond any doubt, their homeland, the land that their forefathers lived in and were buried in; thus, they must be allowed to live there....There is no basis whatsoever that prohibits Muslims from recognizing Jews' presence in the region and accepting them as a state."
Arab and Palestinian leaders are attempting to establish a mythical, new narrative according to which the "Palestinian People" have existed as a distinct people indigenous to the area for thousands of years, predating the Jewish People.
Saeb Erekat, the Secretary-General of the PLO, claimed in 2014 that he is a direct descendant of the Canaanite tribes who lived in Israel some 9,000 years ago. Yet according to Erekat's own Facebook entry, the Erekat clan is from the northwestern Arabian Peninsula and settled in the Palestine area around 1860.

Record numbers of Jews visit the Temple Mount Tisha Be’av morning

With the Jewish people commemorating the destruction of the ancient Temples in Jerusalem on the fast of Tisha Be’av on Tuesday, more than 1,200 Jewish visitors went to the Temple Mount on Tuesday morning, activist groups said.
According to the Yeraeh organization, which promotes Jewish visitation and prayer rights at the Temple Mount and which desires to rebuild the Jewish Temple at the site, 1,263 Jews visited from 7:30 till 11 this morning, and between 13:30 and 14:30 in the afternoon.
The previous record was 995 Jewish visitors this past Jerusalem Day. Last year, just 400 Jews visited the site on Tisha Be’av.
According to Yeraeh, the recent tensions over the Temple Mount and the about-face performed by the government over metal detectors at the site has generated massive interest in visiting the site.
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post this week, Asaf Fried, a spokesman for an association of organizations dedicated to Jewish rights on the Temple Mount, said that the activist groups had been receiving numerous calls since the crisis was ended, asking how to practically prepare, religiously, for visiting the Temple Mount.
“People are very angry, the government’s behavior last week was humiliating and degrading,” said Fried.
“If Moshe Dayan gave the Wakf the keys to the Temple Mount in 1967, then last week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave over sovereignty over the Temple Mount to the Wakf.”

Police arrest 33 suspected of instigating Temple Mount riots

Police arrested in raids overnight Sunday 33 men suspected of playing key roles in recent violent demonstrations against Israeli security measures at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Officers and border guards, equipped with arrest warrants, raided homes in East Jerusalem and detained the suspects for questioning, police said in a statement.
Seven were minors aged between 13 and 17, police said.
Raids took place in A Tur, the Shuafat refugee camp, Beit Hanina, Wadi Joz, Ras Al Amud, Issawiya, and the Old City.
The detainees are suspected of taking part in riots and endangering lives, the statement said.
Following questioning they will be brought before a court to have their detention extended.

Iran's role in Temple Mount clashes revealed

The recent clashes in and around the Temple Mount were fueled in part by the Iranian government, Palestinian sources told Israel Hayom this week.
The clashes erupted after Israeli authorities installed metal detectors at entry points to the site in response to a deadly terrorist attack there on July 14. Many Muslims locally and around the world viewed the Israeli security measure as a bid to usurp control. Israel insisted the measure was meant only to prevent further attacks, and removed the devices less than two weeks later.
According to the Palestinian sources, tens of thousands of Muslim protesters received prepackaged meals along with notes in each one citing a famous quote attributed to 1979 Iranian Revolution leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini: "With the help of Allah, Palestine will be liberated! Jerusalem is ours." The note also depicted the Dome of the Rock and the Palestinian flag.
According to reports in the Palestinian media, a nongovernmental organization run by Iranian youth movements was in charge of distributing the meals. Arabic news sites affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps also pointed to Iranian NGOs as being behind the "supply of food to the heroes fighting for the liberation of the besieged Al-Aqsa mosque until victory is achieved over the Zionist occupier."
Despite those reports, a senior official in the Palestinian security forces told Israel Hayom that such a large logistical effort could not have been single-handedly managed and funded by a youth movement.

Ex-mufti's latest libel: Israel planted spying devices at Al-Aqsa

Sheikh Ekrima Sa'id Sabri, the former grand mufti of Jerusalem and current head of the Supreme Islamic Committee in Israel, made allegations bordering on incitement against the Jewish state on Monday.
"The occupation authority [Israel] planted spy equipment inside Al-Aqsa mosque and electronic devices underneath the mosque when the site was closed off," Sabri wrote in Arabic on social media.
One of the more extremist figures in the Arab sector, Sabri rejects Jewish claims to Israel and in the past has supported suicide bombings against Israelis.
He added: "A committee was established by the Waqf (the religious authority that administers the Temple Mount) to examine the damages caused by Israel during the closure. People have noticed that several tiles were removed and reinstalled inside the mosque and in the offices around Al-Aqsa mosque. We know what is hiding beneath the tiles."
Sabri also called on the entire Islamic and Arab nation to "wake up" and pressure Israel, by any means necessary, to protect Al-Aqsa mosque from harm.

Palestinian Authority Resumes Security Coordination With Israel

Palestinians officials have confirmed that security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) has resumed in a gradual manner.
The decision was made during a meeting between PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Commander of the General Intelligence Service Maj. Gen. Majed Faraj, a high-ranking Palestinian security official told Israel Hayom.
A senior PA official from Abbas’s office confirmed the decision, which included the renewal of economic cooperation, but noted that security coordination would be reinstated gradually and on the basis of developments on the ground.
Abbas had suspended security coordination in protest at the installation of metal detectors at entrances to the Temple Mount after the 14 July terrorist attack, in which two Israeli policemen guarding the site were killed. The installation sparked two weeks of widespread violent protests and condemnation from the Muslim world.
The PA official also praised Israeli security services and the IDF for their handling of the mounting tensions over the holy site and expressed hope that the two sides were on the way to resuming working ties.

IsraellyCool: Yes, There Really Is a ‘Media Creativity Award for Palestine’!

This is not satire.
Submissions have opened for an inaugural award recognising creativity in coverage of Palestine.
The Media Creativity Award for Palestine, which will accept entries until December 31, aims to recognise “creative endeavours that contribute to achieving a deeper and better understanding of Palestine’s issues in the past and present”.
The three prizes, ranging from $5,000 to the grand prize of $15,000, will be awarded to submissions that eschew “conventional or formulaic” depictions of the Palestinian cause, according to the International Palestinian Conference for Media and Communications, which is organising the contest.

Then to the rules: believe it or not, there is this
The submitted work must be to a professional standard (accurate information, objective, and credible without exaggeration) and within a proper and sound linguistic framework.
which seems to disqualify pretty much everything we see regarding “Palestine”-related content.

Israeli-Palestinian conflict may not be solvable, Kushner says

In a private, off-the-record conversation with congressional interns on Monday, Jared Kushner said he was not sure the Trump administration could offer anything “unique” to solve the Israeli Palestinian conflict and praised Israel’s handling of a recent crisis over the Temple Mount.
The discussion was recorded by one of the interns present and subsequently leaked to Wired, which published Kushner’s entire answer to a question about the White House’s attempts to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, which US President Donald Trump has repeatedly referred to as the “ultimate deal.”
“What do we offer that’s unique? I don’t know,” he said. “I’m sure everyone that’s tried this has been unique in some ways, but again we’re trying to follow very logically. We’re thinking about what the right end state is. And we’re trying to work with the parties very quietly to see if there’s a solution.”
“And,” he went on, “there may be no solution, but it’s one of the problem sets that the president asked us to focus on. So we’re going to focus on it and try to come to the right conclusion in the near future.”

Top PA official Saeb Erekat treated in Israel as he awaits lung transplant

Palestinian Authority chief negotiator and secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization Saeb Erekat has a serious lung disease and is currently on the waiting list for a transplant in Israel and the US, according to a report Tuesday on the Ynet news site.
Erekat, 62, was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis over a year ago and had been on medications that were effectively treating the disease. However, the drugs stopped working several months ago, and his condition has since deteriorated dramatically.
The chief PA negotiator has been receiving additional treatment at a hospital in central Israel, but doctors have warned that his condition cannot improve without an immediate transplant, the report said.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed his intelligence chief, Majed Faraj, to replace Erekat temporarily in the capacity of chief negotiator if his condition worsens, or if he undergoes a transplant.
Faraj is known for his good relations with diplomatic officials in Western and Arab countries, though he does not speak English fluently as Erekat does. (h/t Yenta Press)

Palestinian negotiator says US silence fostering ‘apartheid’

A senior Palestinian official on Tuesday said silence in US President Donald Trump’s administration over settlement growth and its failure to explicitly support the two-state solution encouraged “apartheid” Israeli policies.
The criticism by chief negotiator Saeb Erekat came in a statement after the Palestinians had previously been careful not to antagonize the new US leader since his inauguration in January.
Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been frozen since 2014.
“The fact the US administration did not declare the final goal of the peace process is to achieve two states on the basis of the 1967 borders, and its silence regarding the intensification of Israeli colonial settlement activities, are interpreted by the Israeli government as an opportunity to destroy the two-state solution and replace it with one state with two systems,” Erekat said.
“That is what the Israeli government is doing on the ground through its policies,” he said, adding that such a system was tantamount to “apartheid.”

PA, Morocco press African leaders to boycott Africa-Israel summit

The Palestinian Authority and Morocco are working to upend an Africa-Israel summit scheduled for Lomé, Togo, at the end of October, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
According to African diplomatic officials, the PA is putting pressure on Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé to cancel the summit, and is also urging Muslim countries in Africa not to attend, saying that going to the conference will show support for Israel and be a setback for the Palestinian struggle.
Togo will send invitations to all 54 African states to attend the four-day Africa-Israel summit, while between 20 and 30 heads of state are expected to take part. Israel has diplomatic ties with 40 of the 48 sub-Saharan African states.
According to the officials, PA President Mahmoud Abbas asked to meet Gnassingbé at the African Union summit held in Addis Ababa at the beginning of July and urged him to reconsider the Africa-Israel summit. One senior African official said this was the first time Abbas had ever asked to meet the Togolese leader, who has been in office since 2005.

David Singer: Australian Labor Party (ALP) Policy Change Boosts PLO Aim to Destroy Israel and Jordan

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.
He writes:
The Resolution of the NSW Labor Party Conference urging the next Federal Labor Government to recognise “Palestine” (Resolution) has given a boost to the political objectives of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) whose Charter calls for the destruction of Israel and Jordan.
Prior to the Resolution being passed its prime mover and shaker – Bob Carr – former Australian Foreign Minister, NSW Premier, Chairman of Labor Friends of Israel turned Patron of Labor Friends of Palestine, tweeted:

Carr’s “no ifs or buts” echoed similar demands passed by the Arab Heads of State (including the PLO) at Khartoum on 1 September 1967 following the Six Day War:
“no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it, and insistence on the rights of the Palestinian people in their own country”

IsraellyCool: WATCH: Aussie Columnist Peta Credlin Rips NSW Labor For Recognizing a Palestinian State

Yesterday, in the wake of NSW Labor’s decision to recognize Palestine as a state, I posted Caroline Overington’s article in support of Israel.
Now I bring you another sane voice from Australia: Peta Credlin, a columnist, Australian political adviser and former chief of staff to ex Aussie PM Tony Abbott (hat tip: Boris).
While I am sure at least some in NSW Labor will tell you they do not support Hamas but rather the PA, Peta’s point stands. Even if you believe the PA are not terrorists like Hamas, how can you support a palestinian state while Hamas governs Gaza?

WATCH: Peta Credlin says the push by NSW Labor to recognise Palestine is 'outrageous'. Live on @SkyNewsAust http://pic.twitter.com/ZAjGUIFhcw
— The Bolt Report (@theboltreport) July 31, 2017

Austria sentences Hamas man to life for terror plot in Israel

Austria sentenced a Hamas operative to life in prison for enlisting Palestinians in the West Bank to carry out terror attacks against Israeli targets.
The Palestinian man, whose name is being held under gag order in Austria, was sentenced last week, Israel’s Justice Ministry said in a statement.
The Hamas operative was previously serving a life sentence in Israel, but was released to the Gaza Strip in the 2011 prisoner exchange deal for IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. He later relocated to Austria.
In 2016, the Palestinian man contacted two residents of the West Bank over the internet and enlisted them to carry out grenade attacks in Jerusalem and to assemble additional cell members.
The planned attacks were never carried out.

'They dragged me to the ground, beat me, bit me, strangled me'

One of the two Israeli journalists attacked by an Arab lynch mob in Jaffa Saturday night spoke out for the first time since the attack, describing the attack in a lengthy Facebook post on Sunday.
On Saturday night, Channel 2 reporter Gilad Shalmor and photographer Gal Zeitman were assaulted by Israeli-Arab rioters while covering the funeral of an Arab man who was shot and killed after he attacked and fled a police officer.
Arabs attending the man’s funeral rioted, damaging property and clashing with police.
Shalmor and Zeitman, who were just meters from the funeral procession, soon became targets as dozens of rioters formed a lynch mob, beating, strangling, and kicking the two hapless journalists.
"I've been in some unpleasant situations, but yesterday the feeling was that if you did not get yourself out of there, no one would rescue you," said Zaitman. "At some point we felt that if we did not summon the strength and try in any way to break through this circle of youths - we would just not get out of there. Because there was not one single shout from an adult trying to break it up, but on the contrary - there was enthusiasm. We managed to get out of there with a lot of luck.”
Shalmor took to Facebook Sunday evening to put his own testimony on record.

Watch: Jewish woman explains Machpelah House

Tehilla Flick Levy, a resident of Miami, arrived yesterday with her family to visit the Tomb of the Patriarchs.
Afterwards, they came to support Machpelah House, which was purchased from Arabs several years ago.
"Where else can you buy a house legally, pay a lot of money fior it and not be allowed to live in it?", Levi asks.
Tehilla shares her mixed feelings and says that sometimes it seems easier to be an Arab in Israel, since they frequently do not pay taxes, nor electricity bills, and enjoy free land and easy lives.

BDS provocateur files restraining order against Hevron mother

The Jerusalem Post reported today (Monday) that a BDS activist from the United States, Ariel Gold, filed an application for a restraining order against Anat Cohen of the Jewish community in Hevron and that the request would be heard in the Jerusalem District Court on Wednesday.
Cohen was surprised to hear the news when Arutz Sheva contacted her. She made an inquiry and then confirmed that a request for a restraining order had indeed been filed against her.
"I went out to work in the morning and saw her arguing with one of our boys, a little boy, and I just told her to leave the street if she only came to fight with little children," Anat Cohen told Arutz sheva. "I told her, go to al-Aqsa, where she will have someone to identify with, go to Halamish, where she may be happy to see the disaster that befell us there.
"For some reason, this whole gang likes to do their harassing here," Cohen said. "I live here, I have 11 children here, I have been living here for 35 years and she came to our streets to quarrel and provoke.
"She went to court to issue a restraining order," she added. "Why? Who is she? She should say thank you that she was even allowed to breathe the air here; she is violent, I do not touch these types, how do I know what diseases they carry with them?"

Man fires pistol in Jenin hospital, demanding care in Israel

A man fired a pistol in the emergency ward of a hospital in the West Bank city of Jenin after he was told that his injured relative could not be moved to an Israeli hospital for treatment.
The incident was caught on security cameras and posted on Facebook by a Jenin news site. The footage also shows a second man throwing a chair at one of the medical staff behind the counter, and other men turning the counter over.
Doctors at the al-Razi Hospital could not transfer the patient — a Palestinian traffic policeman injured in a motorbike accident, according to Israel Radio — because it did not have the authority to decide on the transfer.
While the incident did not appear to result in any serious injury, it highlights the gap between the level of medical care available in the West Bank and that offered in Israeli hospitals.
The prevalence of weapons in Palestinian areas has been an ongoing source of concern for Israel as well as the Palestinian Authority.

Jordan scraps 'marry your rapist' law

Jordanian lawmakers have voted to abolish a law that lets rapists off the hook if they marry their victims, rights campaigners said on Tuesday.
They hailed the move, which comes a week after Tunisia scrapped a similar law, as an important step towards ending impunity for sexual violence.
Campaigners have said such laws, which exist in a number of Middle Eastern countries, condemn girls to a lifetime of sexual violence and domestic abuse at the hands of their rapist.
"It is a historical achievement in Jordan today," said Suad Abu-Dayyeh, Middle East consultant for Equality Now, a global legal advocacy organization.
Countries with similar provisions include Lebanon, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria and the Palestinian Territories, according to Equality Now.

Israel Is Right to Boycott the Boycotters

The Knesset passed a new law earlier this year banning active members of anti-Israel boycott campaigns from entering the country. Recently the regulation generated much outrage—even from some supporters of the Jewish state—because it was applied to five members of an interfaith delegation. Miriam Elman defends what she sees as sensible policy:
There’s a radical irony to the hysterical response [by the members of the delegation] to being barred from Israel, an irony no doubt lost on the boycotted boycotters. . . . But laying this aside, those who oppose the law are wrong. [It doesn’t] make it difficult for the vast majority of people who criticize Israel to get tourist visas. . . . To meet the criteria [for being barred from entry], one must hold a senior-level position in certain targeted organizations, be a key activist in the boycott movement, be a [public] figure who openly supports the boycott, or operate on behalf of the targeted organizations. . .
Rather than stifling free speech, [as its critics claim], the law is a long-overdue corrective to the absurd situation that’s developed in Israel in recent years, in which high-profile foreign nationals have routinely taken advantage of the country’s freedoms in order to work against it. . . .
Why would people who so detest Israel want to go there, study there, or screen their films there? . . . Prominent representatives of major BDS organizations who go to Israel, like the five hardcore BDS activists who were prevented from boarding their flight this past Monday, don’t arrive to do touristy things like creating life-long memories at the country’s holy sites, natural wonders, cultural venues, or world-class restaurants.

First German city set to pass anti-BDS bill

City Council members from the two largest parties in Munich – the capital of the German state of Bavaria – submitted a bill banning municipal funding and support for BDS activities in July.
“The bill will pass because the CSU [Christian Social Union] and the SPD [Social Democratic Party] jointly govern and have the majority in the city council,” a spokesperson for the Jewish community told The Jerusalem Post.
The legislation, titled “Against every form of antisemitism – No cooperation with the antisemitic BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement,” is expected to be enacted after the summer break.
According to the bill, the municipality will “not provide city premises for BDS campaigns, events, exhibits or demonstrations that pursue the goals of BDS.”
In addition, the legislation states it will “not support events in the form of grants to groups” that advocate BDS.
The lawmakers from the CDU and SPD said the bill is justified because of widespread modern antisemitism in Germany targeting the Jewish state.

Curious case of Jewish camp’s disappearing apology about flying Palestinian flag

The original letter also said: “Camp Solomon Schechter is a proud Zionist and pro-Israel camp. We honor the Israeli Army and Israeli people on a daily basis at CSS. Our goal was to create a safe space for all, and begin dialogue among the next generation.”
In the version of the letter still available, the camp wrote: “For the sake of a teachable moment, we did raise the Palestinian flag as a sign of friendship and acceptance. It was met with uncertainty by some campers and staff, especially the Israeli’s [sic], but all understood that the message of hope for peace by flying the Israeli flag alongside helped develop empathy. Still we plan to take down all the flags for Shabbat since there is no peace and also to relieve the sadness and anger that some feel by the site [sic] of the flag.”
This version of the letter also said the camp “remain(s) unabashedly pro-Israel and we are celebrating Israel alongside our new friends.”
The independent camp, founded on “the ideals of the Conservative movement,” is not affiliated with the movement’s Ramah camps or Solomon Schechter day schools.
The camp’s Facebook page was no longer available as of Monday morning.

Jerusalem theater to return to Edinburgh in the face of BDS

Three years after they were summarily kicked out of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the cast and crew of the Jerusalem-based Incubator Theater’s The City are planning to make a cautious return next week.
In 2014, the actors behind the cult-favorite hip-hop opera flew to Scotland to stage their show at the largest arts festival in the world. But after just one performance, the venue canceled the rest of their shows due to the large, raucous anti-Israel protest that gathered outside.
The venue and the police said at the time that the logistics of securing the location were too much to handle. But when the cast of the show – members of The Victor Jackson Show ensemble – couldn’t find an alternate location, they were forced to leave the festival, and take a heavy financial hit.
Now, three years later, they will be heading back to Edinburgh for nine shows from August 8 through 10 with help from an unlikely source, and a little aid from the Israeli government.
“The first time we came to make a show and to expose it to a big market,” said Arik Eshet, CEO and artistic director of the Incubator Theater. “This time we’re going really to recover from our trauma and to stand for our rights to perform. Now it’s an ideological mission... We want to come proudly and announce our rights as Israeli artists to perform everywhere.”

SICK: Washington Post Is Touring With Terrorist Group Hezbollah

The Washington Post is taking moral relativism to new heights. The Post’s Beirut bureau chief Liz Sly and contributor Suzan Haidamous co-authored a fluff piece that essentially attempts to re-define the terrorist group Hezbollah as a legitimate political movement.
Going on “tour” with the Lebanese Shia militia, Sly and her colleague took the word of Hezbollah leadership at face value in an apparent effort to normalize the morally depraved non-state actors.
“The current American president is ignorant of the region,” Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif told the Post reporters. “We are the force that fights terrorism while the United States continues to support terrorism in many forms.”
Afif added:
We are the ones defeating terrorism. The Americans and their allies are the ones who are supporting terrorism, and they are the last ones who should be criticizing Hezbollah.
And there you go, it’s the Americans who are “supporting terrorism,” not the jihadist martyrs with an AK-47 on their flag.

WaPo: No “Evidence of the Lebanese State” in Border Area Held by Hezbollah

In territory that Hezbollah’s forces captured in northeastern Lebanon last week, “nowhere was there any evidence of the Lebanese state,” correspondents for The Washington Post reported on Saturday.
Earlier that day, the journalists participated in a tour organized by the Iranian proxy in response to recent comments by President Donald Trump, who denounced Hezbollah as an Islamist terrorist group. The trip “underscored the sway the Iran-backed Hezbollah exerts in Lebanon, where it remains the most effective and best-armed military force and retains the ability to strike at will almost anywhere in the country,” the Post correspondents wrote.
They described the Lebanese territory near the Syrian border that Hezbollah recently captured as “an arid wilderness of ungoverned space devoid of habitation. Hezbollah outposts, flying yellow Hezbollah flags alongside those of Lebanon, are few and far between.”
“Tents labeled as belonging to the Iranian Red Crescent are erected at some of the posts, presumably to supply medical aid to the fighters. There is no sign of its Lebanese equivalent,” the correspondents added.

Irish Jews Come to Defense of Journalist Fired Over Antisemitic Article

Ireland’s Jewish Representative Council came out on Monday in defense of journalist Kevin Myers, the author of an antisemitic article in last weekend’s Sunday Times newspaper that led to a fulsome apology from the paper’s Irish editor and a promise from the paper’s owners that Myers will never write for them again.
In a column on gender pay gaps, Myers acidly suggested that Vanessa Feltz and Claudia Winkleman, two well-known presenters on the UK’s BBC networks, are well paid because they are Jewish. “Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price, which is the most useful measure there is of inveterate, lost-with-all-hands stupidity,” Myers opined.
But the Irish Jewish leaders said in a statement that Myers had “inadvertently stumbled into an anti-Semitic trope,” Irish broadcaster RTE reported.
“Yes, Kevin ought to have known that his bringing the religion of the two BBC presenters into his writings on Sunday would cause concern and upset and that it was both unnecessary and bound to be misunderstood,” the statement continued. However, the statement adamantly rejected the charge that Myers is an antisemite and a Holocaust denier as “an absolute distortion of the facts.” Myers, the statement said, had written “more than any other Irish journalist” about the Holocaust.
The statement did not, however, refer to an article that appeared in the Irish Independent in 2009 – and was abruptly removed from its website in the midst of Sunday’s furor – in which Myers declared, “There was no holocaust (or Holocaust, as my computer software insists) and six million Jews were not murdered by the Third Reich. These two statements of mine are irrefutable truths.”

Austrian court convicts man who questioned gassing of Jews in WWII

An Austrian court has found a man who claimed the mass killings of Jews in gas chambers under Adolf Hitler was a story made up by Jews guilty of violating the country’s anti-Nazi laws and sentenced him to a suspended 12-month prison term.
Additionally, the man has been convicted of the crime of incitement for calling Muslims vermin. The court in the western city of Feldkirch ordered him Monday to pay a fine of 1,440 euros ($1,690).
Both statements were made on Facebook. In claiming that the mass gassings were fiction, the man said Jews made up the story to make Hitler look bad should he have won the war.
The 34-year old acknowledged the postings were his. He is not being identified in keeping with Austrian privacy laws.

Brooklyn man arrested for arson of Jewish-decorated bus

A 30-year-old Brooklyn man was arrested for allegedly setting fire to a bus decorated with Jewish symbols in the New York borough.
Jackson Joseph was charged with arson Monday after being identified in a surveillance video, WABC-TV reported. Joseph, from the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, is accused of setting the so-called mitzvah bus alight when it was parked June 26 in the Crown Heights neighborhood.
He has not been charged with a hate crime, even though the bus was covered with Jewish symbols.
Brooklyn artist Lev “Leviticus” Schieber uses his bus as a studio and gallery for his paintings in Crown Heights, as well as at festivals and parades. It was seen in the music video “I’m a Jew and I’m Proud” by singer Benny Friedman.
Last summer, the tires on the bus were slashed.

Anne Frank wrote her last diary entry on this day

Jews around the world today are observing the 9th of Av or Tisha Be'av, a Jewish holiday that commemorates the destruction of the ancient Temples in Jerusalem.
Coincedentally, this year the somber fasting holiday shares the same gregorian calendar date as another sad anniversary in Jewish history.
August 1, 1944 was the date of Anne Frank's last diary entry. Frank wrote the diary during the two-year period that her family hid in the attic of Opekta, her father Otto's former place of business, in Amsterdam.
The Frank family went into hiding on June 12, 1942 and Anne began writing in her diary two days later on the 14th. From June 14, 1942 to August 1, 1944, the teenager would document life inside the attic in her diary, which she addressed to "Kitty," ultimately becoming one of the most complete first-hand accounts of a Holocaust victim.
The original occupants of the attic were Anne, her older sister Margot, and their parents Otto and Edith. Three members of the van Pels family -- Hermann, Auguste, and their son Peter -- and Fritz Pfeffer, a German-born dentist, moved into the attic later in 1942.
Three days after her last diary entry, on August 4, 1944, German police entered the attic and arrested all the occupants.

15th anniversary of Hebrew University bombing

Monday marked the 15th anniversary of the Hebrew University bombing which left nine dead and roughly 100 injured.
On July 31st, 2002, an explosion ripped through the cafeteria of the Frank Sinatra International Student Center on the Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus in Jerusalem.
The bomb, which had been placed there by members of a Jerusalem-based Hamas terror cell, went off as summer semester students preparing for exams and instructors had crowded the cafeteria during their lunch break in between classes.
A just after 1:30 p.m., the bomb detonated, killing seven people instantaneously and injuring roughly 100. Two of the injured later succumbed to their injuries, bringing the total death toll to nine.
The victims included five American students studying in Jerusalem, and four Israelis.
The five American students killed in the attack were:
David Gritz, 24
Marla Bennett, 24
Benjamin Blutstein, 25
Janis Ruth Coulter, 36
Dina Carter, 37
All five were killed instantly in the bombing.

Explore the Temple on Google Maps

Amazing is the only word for this. A virtual Street View of the Temple in Jerusalem has been uploaded to Google Maps, and you can explore the entire Jewish Temple and the Temple Mount.

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld Shares the ‘Greatest Jew Joke That I’ve Ever Heard’

Jewish-American comedian and actor Jerry Seinfeld shared what he said was the best “Jew joke” he had ever heard during a guest appearance this week on the podcast Norm Macdonald Live.
The “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” star explained that host Macdonald and other non-Jews might not find the humor in the somewhat confusing joke, but, Seinfeld said, “That’s the joke, is that you won’t get it.”
“The setup of the joke is that it’s a Jew joke,” Seinfeld noted before telling it over: “Two gentile businessman meet on the street. One of them says, ‘How’s business?’ The other one says, ‘Great!’”
As predicted, Macdonald didn’t laugh. His co-host Adam Egert, who is Jewish, laughed along but admitted shortly afterwards that he misheard the joke and in fact didn’t understand it either.

Jerry Seinfeld Tells Norm A Joke Only He (& Adam) Would Get

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