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Wednesday, October 31, 2018

From Ian:

Sohrab Ahmari: Why This Catholic Loves the Jews
For starters, it was mainly Jewish writers who dispelled the dangerous Marxist illusions of my youth and ushered me to political maturity. Were it not for Leon Kass, Arthur Koestler, Irving Kristol, and Leo Strauss, to name but a few of them, I probably would have continued to wallow in the lethal “idealism” of the very hard left. In Natan Sharansky’s gulag memoir, Fear No Evil, I discovered the link between faith in the God of the Bible and freedom, both political freedom and the more important kind: spiritual freedom. The words that sustained Sharansky through his ordeal belonged to Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav: “The entire world is a narrow bridge, and the important point is not to be afraid.”

Reading those lines while picturing Sharansky in his punishment cell sent shivers of understanding down my spine. A part of me knew that Nachman was right, even though I would have insisted that I was an unbeliever at the time. And that intuition raised an uncomfortable thought: I could only cross the bridge fearlessly and avoid the abyss below if there was Someone at the other end waiting for me—a metaphysical direction and endpoint, a loving Almighty who thunders: “Be not afraid.”

I picked up that interior confidence—that no force on earth could shake me if I feared Almighty God, that no regime could compel me to abide evil if I hewed to God’s ways—from Jewish writers, some of whom weren’t even traditional believers. Initially, I was reluctant to articulate this newfound confidence in the first person, lest my mostly secular friends sneer at me. But eventually, I professed faith in the one God.

When I did, I professed faith in the Christian God—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who, I believe, entered human history a little more than 2,000 years ago and made of himself the bridge across that terrifying abyss that Rabbi Nachman had written about. I concluded that the bridge is cruciform, in other words. And that, of course, is where Jews and Christians part theological ways. But in so concluding, my mind never gave in to the classical anti-Semitism that historically disfigured relations between Christians and Jews.

Rather, my attitude was one of gratitude. Gratitude for the Jewish genius of the Hebrew Bible. Gratitude for the Jewish landscape of human salvation and the Jewish men and women that peopled it, not least Jesus of Nazareth and his blessed mother. Gratitude for Jews as Christianity’s elder brothers and sisters, who nurtured faith in the true God like a “well-cultivated olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild shoots, the Gentiles,” as the Vatican II declaration Nostra Aetate has it. Gratitude for the depths of Jewish ethics, for the resounding Jewish “No” to pagan abominations and emperor-worship, a “No” that echoes to this day.

Thanks to Judaism, the Jewish tradition, and Jewish intellectuals, I’m a Christian believer and not a modern pagan. How could I then not love the Jewish people?
Kevin D. Williamson: Green Floyd: Roger Waters and the Great Green Chevron Scam
The slow unraveling of the case against Chevron has been eye-opening, not least for the glimpse it offers into the way money moves through the progressive activist world.

The background: Chevron was accused of inflicting horrible suffering on the people of Ecuador through mismanagement of drilling operations there, contaminating the groundwater and exposing thousands of people, mostly in nearby indigenous communities, to a stew of toxic sludge. The most obvious problem with the case was that Chevron had never drilled for oil in Ecuador; it acquired Texaco, which had done so years before, in partnership with the Ecuadoran state oil company. At the conclusion of its operations, Texaco received a formal certification from the government of Ecuador that it had cleaned up after itself (at a cost of about $40 million) and that it was released from further liability for the operations, which were continued by the state oil company. Like many state oil companies, Ecuador’s had at times been something less than scrupulous in its observance of environmental standards. Its operations are likely the source of the pollution in Ecuador.

But American lawyer Steven Donziger, an old basketball buddy of Barack Obama’s, managed to obtain a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron in an Ecuadoran court. Chevron complained that this judgment was the product of corruption, that Donziger et al. had falsified evidence, paid off allegedly neutral experts, bribed judges, and more. Chevron took those complaints to court in the United States and was successful.

Chevron wants the court to find Donziger in contempt because he “willfully and repeatedly has violated the RICO injunction, monetizing and profiting from the fraudulent Ecuadorian judgment by selling, assigning, pledging, transferring, and encumbering interests therein.” The court is considering its claims.

Roger Waters, the rock musician, has denounced Chevron for its “greed,” complaining that it is “disquietingly apparent that the rich and powerful are still much attached to the feathering of their own nests at any cost to others.” Well. Documents submitted to the court show “George R. Waters” taking two equity positions in the case, one for 0.076 percent and one for 0.025 percent, through “Fenwick,” presumably the firm of Mark Fenwick, Rogers’s manager and an heir to the Fenwick department-store chain in the United Kingdom. That would come to roughly $9.6 million of a $9.5 billion judgment. You could feather a lot of nests with that. (I was unable to contact Waters or Fenwick for comment. Rock stars are really hard to get on the phone.) If taking in a few million dollars via an investment in extortion and bribery is not greed, then what is?
Pens to Wear 'Stronger Than Hate' Patches Tonight Against the Islanders
Pittsburgh Penguins players will wear special "Stronger Than Hate" patches on their jerseys for tonight's game against the New York Islanders at PPG Paints Arena (7 p.m.).

The patches - and the accompanying jersey auction - are part of the organization's effort to support victims and families of Saturday's tragic shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill.

Each player will sign his jersey after the game, and the jerseys will be available for auction at treeoflife.givesmart.com.

All proceeds from the jersey auction and the Penguins other fundraising efforts, including tonight's 50/50 Raffle, will benefit the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and a fund established by the City of Pittsburgh Department of Safety to benefit police officers wounded during the attack.

The jersey auction will start at 11 a.m. today and continue until November 13 at 12 p.m.

The Penguins will also conduct a collection of monetary donations at all three entrance gates at tonight's game. Fans may donate online at treeoflife.givesmart.com.

The Penguins Foundation also is donating $50,000 to the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and to the officers' fund.



Special Editorial: #WeAreAllJews
The following is a joint editorial drafted by Jane Eisner, Editor-in-Chief of The Forward, and Dovid Efune, Editor-in-Chief and CEO of The Algemeiner, and signed by a dozen leaders in American Jewish journalism.

Earlier this year, our colleagues at the three leading Jewish newspapers in the UK published the same front-page headline and joint editorial voicing concern over rising antisemitism in Britain’s Labor party.

Today we have found a mournful occasion to follow in their footsteps.

For many Jews, the United States has long held a unique role in our collective imagination. It has been an unprecedented land of promise, of refuge, of freedom, opportunity and of safety.

But after the horrific attack this past Shabbat at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in which 11 of our brothers and sisters were brutally murdered, we can’t help but be shaken and concerned for the America we have come to know and love.

We therefore join together to unequivocally condemn this brutal act of antisemitism and all deadly acts of hate. We also condemn the climate of hate that has been building for some time now, especially on college campuses and on social media, where the veneer of anonymity has allowed antisemitic cesspools to flourish, and from irresponsible political leaders who engage in hateful speech and who are abetted by the silence of others.
Is America Any Different When It Comes to Antisemitism?
On November 9th, communities around the world will mark the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the infamous antisemitic pogrom that symbolized the acceleration of Hitler’s murderous campaign against the Jewish people. The decimation of European Jewry was soon to follow.

On that night, in 1938, my grandmother, then only 9 years old, peered out of the window of her apartment on Vienna’s Lilienbrunngasse. On the street below she witnessed the devastation wrought on the neighboring synagogue. A Torah scroll, hallowed by Jewish worshipers, lay muddied on the ground. It was a scene that remains etched in her memory and she recounts it with crystal clarity to this day.

For American Jews, the commemoration this year will bear added tragic significance.

In what is being described as the “deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States,” a synagogue in the leafy, peaceful neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, was targeted during morning prayer services on Saturday. The white supremacist attacker killed 11 worshipers and wounded four others. FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Jones described the crime scene as the “most horrific” he’d seen in 22 years with the bureau.

For a community that still lives with the collective trauma of a tormented past, the attack presents a paradigm shift. In the past, the targeting of Jews for murder was largely thought to be centered on specific geographic regions. For many American Jews such attacks were of a historic nature, or, more recently, mostly confined to European countries with restive radical Islamist populations. Israeli Jews, as well, surrounded by myriad enemies, faced daily threats.

Now the US Jewish community must contend with a devastating new reality. Even here, in America, long seen in the Jewish consciousness as a place of refuge, a safe haven, Jews can be massacred in their houses of worship.
StandWithUs: An old hatred in modern times
When Jewish communities warn of the rise in antisemitism, it's not a scare tactic. It's high time we listen.


Pennsylvania’s Dark History of Hate
How did it happen here? The horror in Squirrel Hill seems doubly unthinkable, in a state not noted for extremism, and even more in a city that has long boasted its wide-ranging multiethnic cooperation. Yet of course, Pennsylvania has a deeper history of hatred and racial violence, and of startling continuities that do indeed provide a context for the slaughter at the Tree of Life.

The story goes back to the turn of the last century, when Pennsylvania was at the heart of American industrialization, and of mass immigration. New ethnic and religious groups poured into the state, both into the thriving city of Philadelphia, and the industrial areas around Pittsburgh and the anthracite country. This transformation drove a reaction that focused on religious rivalries, above all on the Catholic loyalties of so many of the immigrants. Infuriated older white Protestant communities became increasingly militant. They found their voice in the Ku Klux Klan movement and made Pennsylvania a national center of Klan militancy.

The numbers are astonishing. At its brief height in the mid-1920s, the Klan had perhaps 250,000 members in Pennsylvania, perhaps a quarter of whom lived in the counties surrounding Pittsburgh. We have detailed records of that membership, and we see how the Klan organized the white Protestant population of whole communities and industries. The city in the nation with the highest proportion of Klan members was Altoona. Actually, these were not Klansmen but “Klanspersons,” the movement taking a pioneering line in gender-neutral terminology. That may sound like a whimsical trivia note, but it actually highlights the movement’s broad appeal to Protestant women, and its use of ideologies of sexual purity and white womanhood.

Modern readers might be amazed to see the Klan so firmly rooted so far from its Southern roots, but at this point, the sect had firmly moved its heart to the North and the Midwest, where its chief—but not exclusive—raison d’être was anti-Catholicism. That in fact goes far to explain the Klan’s sharp decline after 1924, when a draconian Immigration Act satisfied the Klan’s core demand for a steep reduction in Catholic migrants. The 1928 presidential candidacy of Catholic Al Smith sparked a brief revival.
American Yahrzeit
It is understandable that many of us have reacted to that darkness by trying to shout into it. We have sat for hours on Twitter, liking and retweeting and refreshing so that we can yell at and about strangers; emailed articles that made us inexplicably angry or sad over news about people and places whose names meant nothing to us hours earlier; written posts so maudlin that a year from now, when Facebook shoves a reminder of it in our faces, we will cringe. If there is one thing we inadvertently learned from the people of Pittsburgh this week, it is how clearly our very online lives are killing us—if not instantly, as Robert Bowers did this week, then steadily. Think of it like food. Instead of one small serving of actual human connection, we are stuffing ourselves with saccharine tweets and articles and Instagram posts that are not only devoid of any nutritional value but will at some point—as we suspected all along—cause some form of cancer.

These are not evil impulses; they are the completely logical moves of people who feel helpless—who want to connect with those in pain, who want to understand a historical moment from the inside out, but who have been isolated from the means to do so.

But as long as we are lucky enough to live inside these bodies, the isolation is not complete. Instead, this week, get yourself a symbolic apple: If you can, get on a train or plane and come to Pittsburgh and go to a shiva call. Donate money to the families of the wounded police officers, to the synagogue that will need rebuilding, or to the community—which is collectively bearing the costs of funerals, physical injuries and lives that will now be changed in unimaginable and unpredictable ways. If none of those ideas are feasible for you, write out a feeling, any feeling, and express it in a card—not an e-card, a real card, made of paper—and mail it to a person or institution here. They will feel your humanity in it—and so will you.

Indeed, the laws of Jewish grieving are themselves a stark warning against isolation. Guests in a house of mourning are enjoined to bring food, and perform tasks that the mourner cannot perform for him or herself. The mourner’s job is to mourn, and to be seen mourning, inside their home, by the community. After seven days, the mourner arises and begins to resume, one by one, some aspects of normal life, according to a structure that lasts until the end of the year-long ritual of reciting the kaddish—a ritual that he or she cannot perform without a quorum of other people.

In this way, the onen returns to being just a Jew—which is all we ever wanted in America, or anywhere. But, as with everything else in life, we can’t do it alone.
Stop Erasing the Jewish Victims of Anti-Semitic Violence
The mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27 was the deadliest attack on Jewish Americans in history. We must be clearheaded about the nature of this attack. This was not only a shooting. This was not only an act of hate. This was not only an act of violence. This was a direct attack on the entire Jewish community, designed to make us cower in fear and abandon our places of worship. This was the culmination (for now) of years of rising threats to our community. It is the deadliest attack on a Jewish community in American history.

Hate crimes must be written about in a way that honors the communities that have been attacked. This particular crime was an incredibly violent, deadly act of anti-Semitism—an ancient, violent, systemic hatred that must be named, studied, understood, and ferociously fought. Anti-Semitism must be named. And Jews must not be erased from the specific form of hatred that is targeting us and killing us.

Yet what is so astounding, and depressing, in this moment of our communal pain, is how many of our fellow Americans, including many on the progressive left, seem uncomfortable with the particularly Jewish nature of the attack. Instead, they prefer to couch it in more gauzy and inclusive terms, terms which efface and erase us, while promoting causes and victim groups that they feel more comfortable with.

Jews were murdered. They were murdered for being Jews. The shooter said “Kill All Jews.” He was an anti-Semite, and you must name him—with no hesitation.
What Happened in Squirrel Hill?
Later on Monday afternoon, dozens of students from the nearby yeshiva girls high school davened mincha in front of the synagogue. They closed the service singing the words of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov in Hebrew: “The whole world is a narrow bridge, and the important thing is not to fear.”

When the boys finished doing shemona esrei at a service that took place about a half-hour later, they raised their heads to see Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto standing eye-to-eye facing them, just feet away. He promised their yeshiva would remain safe; moments later, in front of the mayor and several police officers, New York Rabbi Avi Weiss recited a psalm in honor of the four policemen who were shot on Saturday subduing the shooter.

There has never been a synagogue attack of this scale in the United States before, and therefore no real communal template for the aftermath of such an atrocity. Every scene that emerges from Pittsburgh is something that’s never been witnessed in America before. “These things don’t happen in Squirrel Hill,” Wasserman said. “Oh wait, they happen in Squirrel Hill. I don’t know what it means. It’s like an out-of-body experience watching this.”


Trump Visits Pittsburgh Synagogue Massacre Site, as Funerals for Victims Get Underway
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday visited the Pittsburgh synagogue attacked by an antisemitic gunman and lit candles for each of the 11 slain worshipers, while thousands protested his presence in the city and victims’ families began burying their dead.

The presidential trip, which sources said congressional leaders of both parties declined to join, came as Trump drew widespread disapproval for inflammatory rhetoric that some critics said may have helped provoke the deadliest attack ever on American Jewry.

Shrugging off public assertions from Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto that Trump’s visit was ill-timed, the president entered the Tree of Life temple where Saturday’s shooting rampage occurred, accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump.

They were greeted by Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who led them inside the temple to light ritual yahrzeit candles in memory of the victims. Emerging about 18 minutes later, the couple walked to a memorial outside the building, where the first lady placed a flower and the president placed a small stone on a marker for each of the dead.

Trump, who according to press secretary Sarah Sanders, described his visit as “very humbling and sad,” left in his motorcade after about 30 minutes at the synagogue.

He made no public remarks.


Behind-The-Scenes Video Shows Trump Surprising Overjoyed Pittsburgh Hospital Staff
Many media outlets covered the protests and the demonstrators’ message to the president.

Pittsburgh resident Sheryl Mascio, however, captured a behind-the-scenes moment of the president as he visited survivors of the shooting at a nearby hospital. Mascio posted the video on Twitter and it quickly went viral.

The video shows Trump and Melania stopping on their tour of the hospital to greet doctors and nurses who were tending to the victims. (RELATED: Sarah Sanders: Pittsburgh Widow Told Trump She Wanted Him To Know He’s Welcome)

“I wanted you to see the President tonight at UPMC in Pittsburgh visiting the survivors of the shooting as the nurses and [doctors] were waiting to see him,” Mascio said. (h/t MtTB)
Tree Of Life Rabbi Doesn’t Blame Trump For Pittsburgh Shooting After CNN Presses
Tree of Life Rabbi Jeffrey Myers declined to blame anyone for the shooting at his synagogue despite hints from a CNN anchor that President Donald Trump is to blame.

During a Monday interview on CNN, anchor Alisyn Camerota asked Myers if he blames anyone “beyond the gunman” for Saturday’s shooting that claimed the lives of 11 congregants.

“I don’t really foist blame upon any person,” Myers said. “Hate does not know religion, race, creed, political party. It’s not a political issue in any way, shape, or form. Hate does not know any of those things.”
Correcting the ADL’s False Anti-Semitism Statistic
Finally, it’s worth noting, that despite showing a 57 percent increase in incidents overall, from 1,267 to 1,986, the ADL study shows a 47 percent decrease in physical assaults, from 37 to 19. This is obviously inconsistent with the meme that 2017 saw a surge in violent anti-Semitism. Physical assaults are also the most objective sort of incident to document, which adds to concerns about the robustness of the rest of the data.

The ADL itself is primarily to blame for how its own study has been misconstrued and misused. As noted, the ADL’s press release accompanying the report was highly misleading. It publicized the assertion “that the number of anti-Semitic incidents was nearly 60 percent higher in 2017 than 2016,” which then became a meme and has spread throughout the media.

Unfortunately, we can’t attribute the press release simply to overly enthusiastic PR personnel. ADL president Jonathan Greenblatt distorted the report’s findings as recently as two days ago in The New York Times, asserting that the ADL report found a 57 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents in 2017. He added rather misleadingly that this figure includes “physical assaults,” though one assumes he understands that the report actually showed a large decrease in physical assaults.

I have no desire to let Trump off the hook for his very real flaws, and I am not nor have I been a Trump supporter or apologist. But the Jewish community’s assessment of the dangers of anti-Semitism should be based on documented facts, not ideology, emotion, partisanship, or panic. And the truth is this: The claim that anti-Semitic incidents increased 57 percent in 2017 is contradicted by the very ADL study on which that claim is based.
Tree of Life Synagogue massacre: Jon Snow stokes division with Channel 4 #FakeNews
The letter in question came not from the Tree of Life Synagogue community, but from a Pittsburgh-based Jewish group called ‘Bend the Arc (Jewish action)‘, whose mission is: “uniting progressive Jewish voices across America to fight for justice for all”. The letter was not simply a respectful request for the President to wait a week for the funerals to take place, but it basically told him not to show his face in Pittsburgh until he commit himself to “compassionate democratic policies” (including ceasing his “assault on immigrants and refugees”). Jon Snow didn’t mention that. This group also runs an ‘Interrupt Trump‘ operation: “By replacing his enablers in Congress, we can interrupt Trump’s immoral agenda — including attacks on immigrant families, Muslims, women, people of color, students, and our democracy.” Jon Snow didn’t mention that, either. No, Channel 4 News conveyed to their viewers that Pittsburgh’s Jews (not only their leaders) didn’t want President Trump to come anywhere near Pennsylvania because he has instilled ‘Hate in the White House‘, which is precisely what ‘Bend the Arc (Jewish action)’ wanted him to convey.

What Jon Snow didn’t tell us is that the leader of the Tree of Life Synagogue, Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, has positively welcomed news of the President’s visit. Interviewed by CNN, the Rabbi was asked specifically if he blamed Trump for the tragedy, but he didn’t take the bait or resort to partisan pleas on behalf of immigrants or LGBT equality. No, he responded: “The President of the United States is always welcome. I’m a citizen. He’s my president. He is certainly welcome.”

Jon Snow didn’t tell us that.

This is the leader of the Jewish worshipping community which suffered most in this tragedy. In a sense, the views of all the other Jewish leaders – if not of all other Jews – are immaterial. It is his community which mourns and weeps, and he is the focus of their witness to the world at this time. It is difficult to understand why his Jewish neighbours, adhering to other strands of Judaism, are so intolerant of or indifferent to his choice – which may be a political choice or it may be a religious choice – to welcome his President into his Synagogue so they might talk about antisemitism and the Mishnah. Where is the compassion? Where is the respectful humility? Where is the community relationship? Where is the honesty of reporting that Rabbi Jeffrey Myers’ pastoral response to this massacre is to reach out his hand to his President; to welcome, embrace and reconcile?

So when President Trump tweets about #FakeNews and dishonest reporting, he isn’t fabricating from paranoia:
Baroness Tonge steps down from Palestine Solidarity Campaign after suggesting Pittsburgh could be Israel’s fault, but now she must be stripped of her title
The disgraced peer, Baroness Tonge, has stepped down as a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, after claiming that the actions of the Israeli government led by Prime Minister Netanyahu could be contributing to the rise in antisemitism.

In a Facebook post soon after neo-Nazi Robert Bowers slaughtered eleven people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Baroness Tonge, who was twice suspended from the Liberal Democrats over allegations of antisemitism and eventually resigned as pressure mounted, responded to the attack with a post declaring: “Absolutely appalling and a criminal act, but does it ever occur to Bibi [as the Israeli Prime Minister is nicknamed] and the present Israeli government that it’s [sic] actions against Palestinians may be re-igniting antisemitism? I suppose someone will say that it is antisemitic to say so?”

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign reportedly told the Jewish News that it had “contacted Jenny Tonge to express our deep concerns at her post and is in the process of considering any further steps”, but she reiterated her view. In a further Facebook post entitled “Reaction to the Pittsburgh Tragedy”, she wrote: “The hounds have been unleashed and are baying for my blood and I suppose I have got used to it, but now a few days have passed and opinions are flying around and I have to reflect too…I am always puzzling about the causes of the apparent rise in antisemitism here and in the USA. I genuinely cannot understand it, but have long thought that the actions of the Israeli government led by Netanyahu could be contributing to the rise. Many of our fellow citizens do not know the difference between the Zionists who currently control the Israeli government and ordinary Jewish people in this country, many of whom do not support that government and are as horrified by its actions as we are. I accept, that to mention this in the same post that expressed horror and sadness for the tragedy was too premature…The other consequence of all of this is to divert us once again from discussing the horrors which occur daily in Palestine and get ignored by the media. We must make up for that and never forget the injustice being perpetrated on the Palestinian people.”

This appears to have been too much even for the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which has had its own antisemitism problems. In a statement on its website, it wrote: “Baroness Tonge has offered to stand down as a patron of PSC…PSC regards the original post to be deeply troubling. Whilst the post acknowledged that the killings were appalling and a criminal act, it risked being read as implying that antisemitism can only be understood in the context of a response to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Such a view risks justifying or minimising antisemitism.”




Organization Tied to Holy Land Terror Case Supports Vigil After Synagogue Shooting
An organization whose imam was president of a group that was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror case supported a vigil on Monday, hosted by Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, in the aftermath of a gunman shooting and killing 11 Jews at the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday, where six others were injured.

Mohamed Magid, who was born in Sudan in 1965 and arrived in the United States in 1987 after studying in Saudi Arabia, is the current iman of the Virginia-based All Dulles Area Muslim Society Center (ADAMS), which is affiliated with the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror case that proved HLF’s connections to the terrorist group Hamas and other radical Islamic entities.

ADAMS is a network of mosques and Islamic community centers in the Washington area.

The United States designated HLF as a terrorist group in 2001 and it became defunct. The case resulted in 108 guilty verdicts and several years later, five of its leaders were convicted and sentenced to decades in federal prison.

Magid was ISNA’s East Zone representative, then as vice president, and finally as president. The US government listed ISNA in the HLF case as among “individuals/entities who are and/or were members of the US Muslim Brotherhood.”
IPT: Pittsburgh Synagogue Massacre Exposes Sarsour's Two-Faced Opportunism
She and her Women's March colleagues have refused to condemn Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, even after he said "powerful Jews are my enemy" and recently called Jews termites.

Was the slaughter at the Tree of Life synagogue a turning point for Sarsour? It's a valid question, considering her embrace of Rasmieh Odeh, a woman who was convicted in the 1969 bombing of a Jerusalem grocery store that killed two Israeli students. Odeh's friend acknowledged her central role in the bombing plot – on camera – and Israeli investigators found similar explosives in Odeh's bedroom.

Sarsour said she was "honored and privileged" to be in Odeh's presence last year before Odeh was deported for naturalization fraud.

This doesn't even consider Sarsour's inability to condemn Hamas or acknowledge that its obsession with destroying Israel makes life for Palestinians in Gaza worse every day.

Sarsour spoke with emotion Sunday. Her voice cracked at times, and if you didn't know her, you'd think she was offering a sincere, heartfelt expression of grief, love and support. The problem is we do know Sarsour. And we know skepticism is more than justified.
Ben & Jerry’s on Partnering With Group Tied to Farrakhan: We’re ‘Comfortable’ With Idea They Have Different Views Than Our Own
Ben & Jerry's, the Vermont-based ice cream maker, on Tuesday unveiled a new flavor in support of groups that are fighting President Donald Trump's agenda, including the Women's March, despite its leaders' ties to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

"Today we launch Pecan Resist! This flavor supports groups creating a more just and equitable nation for us all, and who are fighting President Trump's regressive agenda," the company tweeted.

The Women's March is one of the movements with which Ben & Jerry's is partnering.

"Women's March is committed to harnessing the political power of diverse women and their communities to create transformative social change," Ben & Jerry's states on its website.

The ice cream maker also tweeted out a picture of several progressive leaders, including Linda Sarsour, an anti-Israel activist and national organizer of the Women's March who has said that "nothing is creepier than Zionism." Sarsour has come under fire for her ties to Farrakhan, such as speaking at a Nation Of Islam event in 2015 where she attacked Israel. She has also discounted anti-Semitism, saying that "while anti-Semitism is something that impacts Jewish Americans, it’s different than anti-black racism or Islamophobia because it's not systemic."

Sarsour is not the only leader of the Women's March to have links to Farrakhan. Earlier this year, Tamika Mallory, the movement's co-president, attended the Nation of Islam's annual Saviours' Day event, where Farrakhan attacked "that Satanic Jew," called Jews "the mother and father of apartheid," and proclaimed that "when you want something in this world, the Jew holds the door." He also said that "the powerful Jews are my enemy."

Farrakhan recently compared Jews to termites and called his Jewish critics "stupid."
The New Anti-Semitism: Any Criticism of George Soros
Do attacks on George Soros inherently constitute anti-Semitism because Soros is Jewish, or because he’s a Democrat? The media’s long-running enthusiasm for attacking conservative donor Sheldon Adelson suggest there just might be a double standard at work in which liberal donors are off limits, while conservative donors are fair game.

After Soros was targeted with a mail bomb by a deranged supporter of President Donald Trump, progressives charged that the conservative movement’s focus and attacks on Soros are anti-Semitic.

Adelson, however, has also been the target of language that draws on the same themes and is at times indistinguishable from attacks on Soros that do indeed echo with anti-Semitic tropes—though in the case of Adelson, such language comes not from the white supremacist site Storm Front but, usually, Chris Matthews at MSNBC.

Adelson, however, has also been the recipient of language that may call to mind imagery of wealthy Jews controlling events from behind the scenes, or, to some, may just be legitimately critical words of a major political power player.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews has called Adelson a "neocon king," warned about him being one of the "financiers" of Trump's inauguration, fretted about his "frightening influence" on Middle East policy, and called him a "sugar daddy" for Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), who looked at the lawmaker as a "sock puppet." Matthews also referred to a gathering of pro-Israel Republicans for Adelson as the donor's "whore bar," because they'll "say anything for that guy, because he’s a hawk, to get his money."


Republican Campaign Mailer Fuels Anti-Semitism Complaints In State Senate Race
A campaign mailer showing a Jewish candidate for state Senate with a fistful of money is drawing condemnation for what critics say is its blatant anti-Semitic imagery.

It was sent out by Republican Ed Charamut and targets Democratic state Rep. Matthew Lesser, his opponent in the race for the 9th Senate District seat, which represents Middletown, Wethersfield, Newington, Cromwell and Rocky Hill.

The mailer, which arrived in some mailboxes Monday, has stoked controversy just days after 11 people were killed and six others were wounded in a synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in what investigators have categorized as a hate crime.

It coincides with a spike in the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents across the nation, which the Anti-Defamation League says rose by 53 percent last year.

“I started getting text messages about it when I was at a forum with teachers in Cromwell [on Monday], people said they got an anti-Semitic flyer,” Lesser said. “I did not believe them, I thought there was a mistake. Someone showed it to me and I think it would be a gross understatement to say I was surprised.”

Lesser, 35, has served five terms as Middletown’s 100th House District representative.

Charamut, 60, a member of the Rocky Hill Town Council, stood by the content of the flyer in an email to The Courant Tuesday and accused Lesser of playing identity politics.

Poll: 38% of British voters brand Jeremy Corbyn an anti-Semite
Thirty-eight percent of Britons believe Jeremy Corbyn, the hard-left leader of the country’s main opposition party, is an anti-Semite, according to a new poll released Wednesday.

Only 25% of voters agreed that the Labour leader is a committed campaigner against racism of all kinds, including anti-Semitism.

The poll also shows deep public skepticism about Corbyn’s repeated insistence that his controversial contacts with terror groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah are designed to bring about an end to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

The annual survey for the British Israel Communications and Research Center, an independent UK-based think tank, indicates that Corbyn’s tough anti-Israel stance is out of step with most voters. Support for the Jewish state in Britain is holding steady after reaching a seven-year high in polling conducted last October.

Bishop Strachan School fires head and issues apology after production of Merchant of Venice criticized for being anti-Semitic
One of Toronto’s most prestigious private schools for girls has fired its head and issued an apology in the wake of a controversial and deliberately provocative touring adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.

The performance, by a U.K. theatre company, offended students at Bishop Strachan School (BSS), and sparked fury amongst parents who described it as blatantly anti-Semitic. A group of two dozen unnamed parents expressed outrage in a letter to the board over the “demeaning, derogatory and highly inappropriate language” in the play, including an audience participation element with students urged to chant “Hallelujah” in response to statements like “Burn the Jews” and “Take away their holy books.”

On Monday, BSS issued an apology, admitting “it was an error to present that particular version of the play” and “appropriate context was not provided to students to prepare them.”

“For that, BSS is deeply sorry,” according to an emailed statement from the school. “An internal review is underway to establish guidelines and procedures to ensure this will not happen again.”

The school has “parted ways” with its head Judith Carlisle in the wake of the controversy, citing “an inability to align on a strategy for moving forward for the future.” She is replaced by the deputy head, Angela Terpstra. Carlisle is the school’s 19th head and was appointed last year after BSS hired her away from Oxford High School in England.
IsraellyCool: Another “Own Goal”: Hater Got Those Allenby Street Blues
An Israel hater by the name of Asad Salameh (who espouses the view “When peaceful revolution is not possible, violent revolution is inevitable”) posted the following on Facebook last month.

Clearly, the mindless sheep sharing it did not do their due diligence.

All they had to do was look closer at the image to see something was amiss.

That’s Hebrew writing right there, the first indication this photo is anything but a “Zionist” free zone.

This colorized version is clearer and shows Hebrew on the other signs as well (click to enlarge). Note also the Stars of David on the center balcony balustrades.

The Hebrew on the left now more clearly shows this is Allenby Street TEL AVIV, not Jaffa/Yafa.

Then the haters should have done a reverse image search – they would have discovered further inconvenient facts:

Allenby Street. Shmuel David House, which was built in 1923 by architect Zvi Tabachnik on 79 Allenby Street, can be seen on the left, followed by Segalov House on 81 Allenby Street, which was built by architect Yehuda Magidovitch in 1933 (Photo: Eric Matson, Library of Congress)

Zvi and Yehuda sure don’t sound like Arab names to me.
Headstones toppled at Jewish cemetery in Texas
Headstones were pushed over at a small Jewish cemetery in the Texas port city of Orange.

The vandalism at the Hebrew Rest Cemetery, which is more than 100 years old, was discovered on Monday morning by the cemetery groundskeeper, who had arrived to mow the lawn, local CBS affiliate KFDM reported. Permanent vases also were ripped from their vases.

Orange Police are investigating it as criminal mischief, according to the report.

Orange Mayor Larry Spears Jr. praised the city’s diversity and said that bigotry and hate will not be tolerated within its borders.
Halloween haunted house holds ‘Swastika Saturday’ on day of Pittsburgh attack
An Ohio venue set up as a haunted house for Halloween held a “Swastika Saturday” on the same day as the Pittsburgh synagogue attack.

The Haunted Hoochie in Pataskala, near Columbus in the southern part of the state, advertised Oct. 27 on Facebook as “Swastika Saturday.” Its owner, Tim May, described it in news reports as the last day of the official Halloween season, when the actors paint swastikas on themselves.

On Monday, May issued a statement on Facebook saying “we screwed up big time” and pledging to donate $50,000 to the synagogue, while extending condolences to families affected by the shooting. The statement has since been removed.

“The Haunted Hoochie is a place to escape the true evil in the world through the magic of Halloween theater – NOT perpetuate real evil,” the statement also said, Fox 8 reported.
French students accused of ranking Jewish classmates on FB
University students in France listed and ranked Jewish classmates according to their level of affiliation as part of a string of jokes online and on campus featuring anti-Semitic hate speech, an alleged victim of this behavior said.

The medical student at Paris 13 university, a 19-year-old woman identified only as Rose, filed a complaint with police on Oct. 20, the Europe 1 radio station reported Monday.

“Jew level 31, involved but capable of interacting with the goyim,” one remark about a Jewish student read on Facebook group belonging to Paris 13 students.

“Jew level 75, category 4, will do anything for the community,” another said.

A third one read: “Level 2, aware that there’s a holiday called Shabbat.”

Rose said the list was part of a series of incidents involving anti-Semitic hate speech that she had experienced in recent months.

Several months ago, a group of students began making anti-Semitic jokes about the Holocaust on campus in Rose’s presence, she told police, including by performing the Hitler salute. To offend her, they also played a game they called “frispa” in which a kippah is thrown around like a Frisbee, she said. She said the classmates would point at her and make insults, ignoring her pleas that they stop.
Auschwitz exhibits Jewish ex-prisoner’s depictions of the camp
The Auschwitz museum unveiled Tuesday its largest-ever exhibition of the art of David Olere, a survivor of the World War II Nazi death camp who detailed his experiences in the gas chambers on canvas after the conflict.

“His work is exceptional because without him (Olere), we wouldn’t know what was going on inside the crematoria,” Serge Klarsfeld, president of Sons and Daughters of Jewish deportees of France, told AFP at the opening.

“We wouldn’t even know what the gas chambers looked like,” he said at the site of the former death camp set up by Nazi Germany in the southern city of Oswiecim in then occupied Poland.

“This exhibition comes a few days after the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre. Anti-Semitism is still active, perhaps more than ever,” Klarsfeld added, referring to the murder of 11 Jewish people in the US city on Saturday.
Israel, Boeing sign multi-billion-dollar ‘reciprocal’ spending agreement
The Economy Ministry announced Tuesday that it had reached a deal with Boeing that will see the multinational corporation spend billions of dollars in the Jewish state if it wins major defense contracts.

The “reciprocal procurement” agreement will have Boeing collaborate with Israeli companies for at least 35 percent of the value of any transaction it signs with the Israeli government, Reuters reported.

The ministry said Boeing is in competition in Israel for a number of important tenders, including the manufacture of additional F-15 aircraft, refueling planes and transport helicopters.

The Economy Ministry said Israel expects to spend over $10 billion with Boeing over the next decade, and the deal will mean $3.5 billion worth of new business in Israel, according to Reuters.

It is thought the deal could ease concerns within Israel’s defense industry that the US aid package to Israel — the biggest of its kind, giving Israel $38 billion in military assistance over ten years starting from 2019 — could decimate local industry due to its requirement that all the money eventually be spent on US-manufactured arms.
Bon Jovi planning to return to Israel
More than three years after its first concert in Israel, Bon Jovi is expected to make a comeback to the Jewish state.

According to multiple Hebrew media reports, the rock band will be returning to Israel for a show in Tel Aviv on July 25, 2019. The entertainment news show Good Evening with Guy Pines reported that a link to the site with the Tel Aviv date was available for a short period before it was pulled down.

A local PR representative who was responsible for Bon Jovi's last concert in Israel did not deny the report, but said she "had no more details currently available."

Accordingto Pines, the Israeli concert organizers had intended to wait until December to announce the show on the This House is Not For Sale tour.

In October 2015, the band - fronted by Jon Bon Jovi - gave its inaugural Israel concert to a reported crowd of 50,000 screaming fans.

“We’re finally here. It took me long enough,” Bon Jovi said at the concert, according to Jerusalem Post reviewer Lahav Harkov.
Merkel Honors German IsraAID Branch for Social Work With Women Refugees
German Chancellor Angela Merkel presented the German branch of the Israel-based humanitarian group IsraAID the German government’s highest honor for integration on Monday.

The award was for giving psychological support in Arabic to at-risk refugee women and others affected by gender-based violence living in shelters, in addition to training and counseling for shelter staff. “The program empowers women living in refugee shelters to build better self-help structures, improve interactions with shelter staff and strengthen personal and child safety,” according to IsraAID.

“The global refugee crisis is among the most pressing humanitarian challenges of our generation,” said Yotam Polizer, co-CEO of IsraAID. “We pay tribute to our fantastic, multicultural and multinational team in Germany, whose work is being recognized today, and to our partnership with ZWST, which makes this program possible.”

He added that “the IsraAID Germany program being honored today—Bridge Building, which works with mostly Syrian and Iraqi refugee women—is a striking testament to the power of our common humanity as we support communities on the journey towards a better future.”
Israeli Gold Medal Judoka Dedicates Abu Dhabi Win to Pittsburgh Massacre Victims
The Israeli judoka who won a gold medal at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam judo tournament has dedicated his victory to the 11 Jews were slain this past Shabbat at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

“I send my condolences to the families of the murdered and wish a speedy recovery to the injured,” 26-year-old Peter Paltchik — who competed in the under-100 kilogram category — wrote in an Israel Hayom op-ed on Tuesday.

The judoka also called the playing of “Hatikva” — Israel’s national anthem — after the win was “most certainly a moment I will never forget.”

Paltchik was the second Israeli in 24 hours to win a gold medal at the tournament in the United Arab Emirates — the other being Sagi Muki, in the under-81 kilogram category.



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Al Watan Voice has an article about how the Communist movement was dominated by "Zionists."

Sometimes the author slips and says "Zionist Jews."

So we learn that Karl Marx was a "Zionist Jew" who came from a long line of Talmudic scholars.  (Marx was baptized at 6 and raised as a Christian.) Practically all the people behind Communism were "Zionists."

"Zionist Jews" were responsible for the murder of 66 million people in the Soviet Union from 1918-1959, we are told.

Meanwhile, an article in Iran's Al Alam says that Jews are cowardly, claiming that Israeli Jews are emigrating from Israel in droves when faced with a single rocket that lands in an open area, damaging nothing.

Al Ahram published a letter from Dr. Ali Bayoumi of Zagazig University saying that Israel was implementing Protocol 15 of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in Gaza.

The Protocols are accepted as fact in many Arabic articles.

This is only in the past couple of days.

The issue of endemic Arab and Muslim antisemitism is Kryptonite to Western media, who want to always paint Muslims and Arabs in the best possible light to avoid accusations of "Islamophobia." So the real threats to Jews are downplayed in order to appease the very Muslims who want to kill them.





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I Boycott Jerusalem Elections, Then Complain The City Ignores Me

By Alhaf Suwij, East Jerusalem resident
Arab manRas-a-Amud, Jerusalem, October 31 - Maintaining one's ideological principles is important. Me, I adhere to my people's official position that participating in the holy city's municipal elections normalizes occupation, and therefore all Palestinians must refrain from voting. But that will not stop me from criticizing the city government for disregarding the desires or expectations I thus refused to express.
Al-Quds has been an Islamic city since its conquest in the early eight century CE, and control of it cannot be relinquished - which means control by n non-Islamic entity must never be granted legitimacy. My peers and I will on principle never dignify the Zionist occupation of even a centimeter of this holy ground by setting foot in a Zionist-run polling place. And I will also enlist NGOs, a pliant media, and international bodies in railing against the city's elected government for neglecting the needs of the Arab residents who could have cast a vote for representatives to fight for them on the city council, but refused to do so.
It is a matter of integrity. I cannot in good conscience condone non-Islamic control of Jerusalem, and I cannot in good conscience abandon the Palestinian sense of entitlement that characterizes our behavior on the world stage. I might not engage in the political life of this city, but by thunder, am I going to lambaste those who do for failing to do the job I refuse to do.
The international media, of course, make it easy. They echo, even amplify, the assumption that we deserve to be served by the municipality as we wish, and paint our refusal to participate in the city's political administration as a noble position. Even some Israelis side with us on both points. Why should we change anything, then, if we get such sympathetic treatment in the public arena?
The icing on the cake, though, is when these NGOs and media people point to the inadequate services in Arab areas of the city - emergency medical services, firefighting, electrical infrastructure, sewage, plumbing, road maintenance, or what have you - and when the city or whoever does send people, those personnel get attacked because they're Jewish, or because they're acting on behalf of the illegitimate Jewish administration of the city. It's poetic in a way I find difficult to articulate.
In this week's municipal elections there were some residents of our neighborhoods who did participate, and one even ran for office. That cannot be allowed to continue! Getting our needs met by others without our having to take responsibility is an inseparable part of the Palestinian way of life. Any attempt to alter that constitutes an attempt to undermine our very culture and identity.




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From Ian:

The West Must Stop Fetishizing Palestinian Extremists
He is bare-chested, muscular and not unattractive. A Palestinian flag blazes in one hand, a slingshot is strained taut in the other. All around him is smoke and press photographers. Aed Abu Amro, a 20-year-old Gazan, is rioting on the boundary between the Hamas-run statelet and Israel's southern frontier. Amro, who was snapped mid-rampage on Monday, has stirred that morbid romanticism which draws Western progressives to the Palestinians.

Newsweek gushed of "the now-iconic photo." The New Zealand Herald told its readers the image had "drawn comparisons with the iconic French Revolution painting, 'Liberty Leading the People,' by Eugene Delacroix." There is scarcely an anti-Israel agitator who has not tweeted, Facebooked or Instagrammed the picture. Depictions of heroic resistance rewrite the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a romantic epic in which righteous victims are ennobled by their oppression at the hands of inhuman tormentors.

Amro is the new Ahed Tamimi, the 17-year-old Palestinian jailed for eight months for assaulting Israeli soldiers. In a series of interviews with Tunisian media this month, she said: "We should always be slapping soldiers, wherever they may be, regardless of whether they did anything or not....We, as a generation, will fight for the liberation of Palestine in its entirety."

Tamimi will fight for the destruction of the world's only Jewish state, which is located, for those who still inhabit the fact-based community, on land to which Jews are indigenous, in which they alone have ever been sovereign, from which they were expelled, to which they returned, and upon which a rival Palestinian nationality so defined has staked a claim to nationhood for little more than a century and to statehood for around half that time.

Westerners have little time and even less comprehension for Palestinians who seek comity and compromise, who acknowledge Israel as the state of the Jewish people, who recognize Israel's legitimate security needs and who spurn the self-harming violence of their fellow Palestinians. The peacemakers exist but they do not capture the imagination of remote revolutionaries. They are the wrong kind of Palestinians.

Instead, Aed Abu Amro will be the face of Palestine and Tamimi its voice. The Palestinians will go on being pin-ups and go on being stateless.

Einat Wilf and Adi Schwartz: Is UNRWA damaging the Palestinians?
Shmuel Rosner chats with Einat Wilf and Adi Schwartz, the writers of the book “The War for the Palestinian Right of Return”, about the Palestinian refugees, the right of return and the existence of UNRWA.

Einat Wilf is a writer and a politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Independence and the Labor Party.

Adi Schwartz is a journalist and academic. A former staff writer for Haaretz, he currently works as a freelance journalist for Israeli and international newspapers and magazines. (h/t Elder of Lobby)




Seth Frantzman: Iranian plot to assassinate dissidents in Denmark foiled
Iranian agents plotted to assassinate a leader of a dissident group that fights for the fights of Arabs in southwest Iran.

A Norwegian citizen of Iranian origin allegedly traveled to Sweden on October 21 and was arrested. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo thanked Denmark’s government for arresting the “Iranian regime assassin” on Tuesday.

According to reports in The Guardian and Saudi Gazette, one perpetrator was arrested in the plot. He was taken into custody and extradited to Denmark according to Finn Borch Andersen, head of the Danish Security Service.

The search for the alleged assassin, who was thought to be in Denmark on September 28, led to a major security operation between Denmark and Sweden. The unprecedented action took place as police hunted a Swedish citizen that was apparently seen near the home of a dissident activist from the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz. Denmark closed the Oresund bridge that links Denmark to Sweden and the Great Belt bridge, linking the Danish island of Zealand with the mainland, effectively cutting off Copenhagen and the island around it.

Denmark closed its borders and used dog and helicopters to seek the suspect. Eventually the suspect was found, not in Denmark, but in Sweden on October 21. The suspect had photos of houses and apartments of dissidents from ASMLA. The suspect denied the charges. “We are dealing with an Iranian intelligence agency planning an attack on Danish soil," Andersen said at a press conference. Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen condemned the incident as “completely unacceptable" and Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said that Copenhagen would work closely with the UK and other country to "stand up to Iran."

The plot joins other Iranian-backed attacks and incidents in Europe. On October 26 France expelled an Iranian diplomat over a plot in June to attack an opposition rally. In connection to the same case Germany has backed the extradition of Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat based in Austria and detained in Germany. He may be extradited to Belgium. In the complex June plot a bomb was supposed to be delivered to a couple who would bomb the opposition event in France. The case spans Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany and France. In November 2017 an activist named Ahmad Mola Nissi from ASMLA was assassinated in Holland. In September an attack in Iran targeting a military parade was blamed an the Ahwaz movement but Tehran later accused ISIS of the terrorist attack. Nevertheless Iran wants to crack down on opposition groups. It has fired ballistic missiles at Kurds in Iraq and is hunting dissidents online and globally.
Israel says Mossad tipped off Danes to alleged Iranian assassination plot
The Mossad intelligence service provided its Danish counterpart with information concerning an alleged plot by Tehran to assassinate three Iranian opposition figures living in the Scandinavian country, Israeli officials said Wednesday.

The information about Israel’s involvement in the thwarting of the plot was first released to a small number of journalists by a “senior official,” but was later confirmed by others.

According to Israel, the Mossad gave Denmark the information about the Iranian plot to kill three Iranians suspected of belonging to the anti-regime Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz.

The Danish Security and Intelligence Service — known as PET — would not confirm the Israeli claim, saying only that it “cannot comment further on the ongoing investigation.”

Israeli officials have repeatedly stated that the Mossad not only is responsible for preventing attacks against Israeli targets, but also provides intelligence to Israel’s allies around the world.

The intelligence reportedly provided by the Mossad to Danish security services prompted the arrest of a Norwegian national of Iranian origin earlier this month. Denmark on Tuesday also recalled its ambassador to Iran over the incident.
Denmark in talks with allies on possible Iran sanctions over attack plot
Denmark said Wednesday it was consulting with its allies about possible sanctions against Iran after accusing Tehran of plotting an attack against Iranian dissidents living in the Scandinavian country.

“We are going to reach out to our European allies in the coming days to try to find a united response,” Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters during a meeting of Northern European leaders in Oslo.

British Prime Minister Theresa May expressed her support for Denmark at the meeting.

Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen was to begin contacting his European counterparts on Wednesday to discuss possible sanctions against Iran — most likely economic ones, a diplomatic source told AFP.

“We want to preserve the nuclear agreement,” Lokke Rasmussen said, referring to how possible sanctions would approach the 2015 international accord meant to rein in Iran’s nuclear program.

That sentiment was echoed by the European Union, who condemned the alleged assassination plans but insisted the incident should not undermine Europe’s support for the beleaguered nuclear deal with Iran.

“We deplore any threat to EU security and take every incident extremely seriously, and therefore we stand in solidarity with the member state concerned, in this case Denmark,” Maja Kocijancic, a spokeswoman for the European Commission, told reporters.
Denmark recalls envoy to Iran over foiled attack plot
Denmark on Tuesday recalled its ambassador to Iran after it accused Tehran of plotting a foiled attack against three Iranians living in the Scandinavian country.

“I have decided to recall Denmark’s ambassador in Tehran for consultations… Denmark can in no way accept that people with ties to Iran’s intelligence service plot attacks against people in Denmark,” Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen told reporters.

The planned operation was “totally unacceptable,” he said, adding he was consulting with “partners and allies,” including the EU, about possible sanctions.

Earlier Tuesday, the head of Denmark’s intelligence service PET, Finn Borch Andersen, said his agency believed the Iranian intelligence service “was planning an attack in Denmark” against three Iranians suspected of belonging to the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz.
Israeli Diplomat Calls for ‘Strong’ European Response to Iran After Revelation of Thwarted Denmark Attack
An Israeli diplomat called on Tuesday for a “strong, united European response” to the Tehran regime after Denmark revealed it suspected an Iranian intelligence service had tried to carry out a plot to assassinate an Iranian Arab opposition figure on its soil.

“Now it’s official,” Israeli Ambassador to Denmark Benny Dagan tweeted. “Iran’s death squads have been operating on European soil for quite some time.”
Despite mounting pressure, Netanyahu says Israel seeking to prevent war in Gaza
Israel’s top priority in dealing with the ongoing violence on Gaza is to prevent the infiltration of terrorists into Israel and to prevent the situation from spiraling out of control, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.

While another large-scale military operation in the Strip might prove unavoidable, it is in Israel’s interest to try to do everything possible, including accepting the mediation and assistance offered by the international community, to prevent such a scenario, he said.

“We are acting first of all to protect Israel from infiltration by people who come to harm us — our soldiers and our communities — and who want to cross the border and kill our civilians and soldiers. We have prevented it thus far,” he told Israeli diplomatic reporters during a briefing in his Jerusalem office.

“On the other hand, we’re trying to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza,” he said. To that end, Israel is ready to accept the involvement of the United Nations, Egypt and other Arab countries in order to bring about a solution, he said.

Egypt has long served as a mediator between Jerusalem and the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, and in recent days Qatar has been delivering fuel to the territory in order to boost the power output there.

Netanyahu’s comments came against a backdrop of ongoing violence at the Gaza border, and a demand by some members of the security cabinet for harsher action.
Israeli Teens Living near Gaza Share Images of Palestinian Destruction on Instagram
Videos of Iron Dome interceptions in the sky. Photos of fields set alight by incendiary kites and balloons. The sounds of red alert sirens waking families from their sleep.

A group of eight teenaged girls from the Gaza border communities want to share their experiences living under fire with the world. And within less than two weeks, their Instagram account about life under fire has gained more than 50,000 followers.

"We, children of the Gaza border communities, live a kilometer away from the separation fence," they wrote on their first post earlier this month. "Because of the situation we are going through, we decided to open an Instagram account that will reveal the daily war that we feel in our region. We don't know if you are involved in the situation but you should know that every day we have incendiary kites, exploding balloons, fires, shelling, tear gas we breath in and choke on - and this is just the beginning."

For the past two weeks, the teens - ages 16-18 - have been sharing video and images of their daily experiences.

Why did the BBC News website erase an accurate statement?
It therefore came as something of a surprise to find that in a report published on the BBC News website’s Middle East page late on the evening (UK time) of October 28th – relating to an incident which had taken place earlier the same evening – BBC audiences were finally informed that:

“Palestinians in Gaza have been protesting weekly along the border with Israel since March.

The protests, orchestrated by the territory’s militant Hamas rulers, are held in support of the declared right of Palestinian refugees to return to their ancestral homes in what is now Israel.”


Remarkably though, some eleven hours after its initial publication that article – titled “Israeli strike ‘kills Gaza youths planting bomb’” – was completely rewritten and re-dated, with all mention of Hamas’ role in organising the violence erased.

The revamped report did however mention the rocket attacks launched two and a half days earlier against Israeli civilians which the BBC had ignored at the time.
Daphne Anson: David Singer: Trump’s Thinking Hints at One-State Solution to the Jewish-Arab Conflict
The King and his Foreign Minister’s gloomy prognostications would disappear in their entirety if that “one-state solution” did not comprise Israel and the entire West Bank – but comprised Jordan united with a Jordan enclave in part of the West Bank.
A Jordan enclave would:
  • Contain possibly 95% of the existing West Bank Arab population – once again being reunified in a single territorial entity with Jordan as existed between 1950 and 1967
  • Enable Jordanian citizenship to be restored to the enclave’s population – as previously existed between 1950 and 1988.
  • Remove apartheid fears – since the Jordan/enclave population would be entirely Arab with family ties extending over the two banks of the Jordan River
  • Be as democratic or undemocratic as the re-united populations wished – as occurred between 1950 and 1988
  • Complete the original two-state solution first contemplated by the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine:
  • an Arab State – Jordan – sovereign in about 80% of the territory of the Mandate -and
  • a Jewish State – Israel – sovereign in about the remaining 20% of the Mandate

Interestingly, Safadi – in answering a question on resolving the seven-year-old Syrian conflict – remarked:

“I think if we all look in the mirror and ask ourselves the question, have we been following the right approach to solving the problem, I think facts on the ground will tell us no. We need not double down on positions that have gotten us where we are now. We need to be more realistic. We need to follow new approaches that will bring about a political solution to that crisis.”

The single bi-national state is neither a fallacy nor a disaster – if both national entities are Arab.

A Jordan enclave in the West Bank – negotiated between Israel and Jordan under President Trump’s auspices – could indeed prove to be the new approach and realistic political solution to ending the 100-year-old Arab-Jewish conflict.

Why the Trump Peace Deal Can’t Ignore Jewish Refugees
For some weeks now, governments and opinion-makers have been waiting with baited breath for Donald Trump to unveil his peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

We’ve had a foretaste of how he sees the “refugee” issue — a “final status” question that has hitherto been pushed to the back burner in Middle East peace talks. Trump has decided to curtail funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the agency that cares exclusively for Palestinian refugees and their descendants. These are now said to number more than five million. Yet there were no more than 711,000 original refugees, or fewer, according to some estimates. Only 30,000 of these are believed to be still alive.

At about the same time as the Palestinian refugees, a greater number (850,000) of Jewish refugees fled Arab countries. All but 4,500 were forced out by state-sanctioned discrimination, arrests, synagogue burnings, and murderous riots. They abandoned billions of dollars worth of land and property — equivalent to four times the size of Israel itself. Returning to Arab countries would have put their lives at risk; it still does.
PA downplays recommendation to suspend recognition of Israel
Palestinian officials on Tuesday attempted to ‎downplay a statement by the Palestine Liberation ‎Organization's Central ‎Council that the PLO ‎was suspending its ‎recognition of Israel until ‎Israel agrees to acknowledge an ‎independent ‎Palestinian state within the 1967 borders ‎and with ‎east Jerusalem as its capital.‎

In its announcement Monday, the Central Council also said the PLO was ‎suspending all security ‎and economic ties with ‎Israel, as outlined in the ‎‎1994 Paris Economic ‎Protocol.‎

The decision essentially means that the PLO wants ‎to ‎cease compliance with the 1993 Oslo Accords on ‎which ‎the Israeli-Palestinian peace ‎process is founded. ‎

However, officials in Palestinian Authority stressed Tuesday that the ‎announcement was declarative and nonbinding, and said ‎it was doubtful that PA President ‎Mahmoud Abbas would endorse ‎it. Abbas must ratify the council's ‎resolution for it to come into force.
JPost Editorial: Abu Dhabi of gold
‘Hatikvah” played for the first time in the United Arab Emirates this week, as judoka Sagi Muki claimed victory at the Judo Grand Competition in Abu Dhabi. Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev, who was in Abu Dhabi to witness the historic event, congratulated him.

“We made history; the people of Israel live,” she wrote on social media.

Israel has sent its best judokas to compete in the Gulf state. Gili Cohen, Baruch Shamailov and Timna Nelson Levy won bronze medals on Saturday. On Monday, Judoka Peter Paltchik also won gold in the under-100 kg. weight category. Once again, the national anthem played. Regev congratulated him, speaking of his historic journey to Abu Dhabi.

“The members of the delegation proved superiority throughout the contest by winning five medals. The whole team showed a tremendous fighting spirit,” she said.

Ordinarily, a sports competition would come and go without such fanfare. But for Israel, sports in the Middle East and in many Muslim countries has been more about politics than athletics. In 2016, an Egyptian judoka refused to shake the hand of Or Sasson at the Rio Olympics. He had allegedly been subjected to attacks on social media by Islamist extremists who said that shaking hands would be a “shame” for Muslims. Israel condemned the incident as going against the spirit of the Olympics.

In November 2017, an Iranian wrestler threw a match to a Russian wrestler so he wouldn’t have to face an Israeli. He was banned for six months for the behavior, which took place at the U-23 World Championship in Poland. Iran’s regime was pleased with him for his “noble and heroic actions.” Iranians have often refused to compete against Israelis. In Beijing, an Iranian wouldn’t even put a toe in the same pool as an Israeli, and in 2004, in Athens, a judoka refused to compete with an Israeli.
Oman Is Israel's Link to the Middle East
In the fall of 1979, two Israelis carrying foreign passports arrived on a flight to Muscat, the capital of Oman. One was Reuven Merhav, a senior Mossad official who later became the director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The other was IDF Maj.-Gen. Menachem (Mendy) Maron. "The importance of that meeting was in its very existence," Merhav recounted on Saturday. "These are direct ties, though covert, with an important Arab country." The meeting was one of many between senior Israeli officials and officials in Oman. The ties with Oman opened the door to important covert ties with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

What does Israel gain from Prime Minister Netanyahu's public visit to Oman on Friday? Oman can serve as a channel to many countries - including Iran, Qatar and Syria. Another hope is that other countries would take courage from this visit and also expose their own covert ties with Israel.

Finally, for Netanyahu, exposing the ties with Oman is another layer in his Middle Eastern strategy, which includes creating covert alliances - and public ones whenever possible - with moderate Sunni nations and movements, in an effort to prevent Iran's spread throughout the region.
Secret no more: Israel’s outreach to Gulf Arab states emerges into the open
It was a scene unthinkable just weeks ago: an Israeli cabinet minister, tears of joy filling her eyes, proudly singing her country’s national anthem at a sports event in the heart of the Arab world.

The spectacle of Miri Regev singing the Israeli national anthem “Hatikva,” which describes the Jewish yearning for a homeland in Zion, was just one in a series of taboo-busting public appearances by Israeli officials in Gulf Arab states that have thrust the once-secret back channels of outreach into public view.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has for years boasted about warming ties with key Arab states that have no diplomatic relations with Israel. But those ties — still largely unpopular among the Arab public — were rarely visible.

That changed on Friday, when Netanyahu made an unannounced visit to Oman, where he met longtime ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said. It marked the first visit by an Israeli leader in more than 20 years to the tiny Gulf state, a US ally that has in the past facilitated negotiations between the United States and Iran.

“These were important talks, both for the state of Israel and very important talks for Israel’s security,” Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday. “There will be more.”
Bahrain writer: We do not need permission to normalise relations with Israel
Bahraini writer Abdullah Al-Junaid has sparked controversy after saying that his country will not ask for anyone’s permission to establish direct and formal relations with Israel.

“If Bahrain finds its interest in this, it will not take permission from anyone,” Al-Junaid said in an interview with Russia Today, adding that the Palestinians must return to what he described as “political reality”.

“Why do they not form political parties instead of armed fronts,” he said.

Al-Junaid’s statements sparked controversy on social media with one user saying he does not represent the Bahraini people.

Bahrain has recently supported Israel’s right to self-defence, after Tel Aviv targeted “dozens of Iranian military positions in Syria”. In return, Israel praised Manama’s support and described it as “historic”.

Read: Palestinian anger over Bahrain-UAE delegation participation in Israel-sponsored race

Israeli media reported late last year that Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa opposes the Arab states’ boycott of Israel and intends to allow citizens from his kingdom to visit Israel freely.
Likud Minister Calls for ‘Peace and Security’ at Dubai Conference
Communications Minister Ayoub Kara called for “peace and security” on Tuesday during a visit to the United Arab Emirates, as Israel launches an unprecedented diplomatic push into Gulf states.

“Peace and security in every state… with economic and scientific progress is what guarantees a future for the coming generations,” Kara, a member of the ruling Likud party, said at a telecommunications conference in Dubai.

Kara’s statement comes amid a diplomatic push by Israel in the mainly Sunni Gulf, which Israel sees as an ally against Shiite power Iran.

It follows visits by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Oman on Thursday and Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev to Abu Dhabi at the weekend.

Neither Oman nor the UAE has diplomatic ties with Israel.

Normalizing ties with Israel — or recognizing it as a state — remains the most controversial policy debate in the Arab world, which largely boycotts Israel over its control of areas Palestinians claim for a future state.

Regev, known for making controversial comments, on Sunday toured the famed Sheikh Zayed mosque in Abu Dhabi — wearing a red full-length abaya and white headscarf and speaking to the camera in Hebrew.

“This is the first time that an Israeli minister is here on a visit,” Regev said, surrounded by a group of people in traditional Emirati dress.
Arabs Fear Warming Ties With Israel Will Cause Democracy, Freedoms (satire)
A high-profile visit by the Jewish State’s Minister of Culture this week to this Arabian Gulf emirate, coupled with a recent trip to Oman by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, have regional leaders concerned that a friendlier relationship with Israel will bring unwelcome consequences to their nations, in the form of civil rights, governmental accountability, and other values that democratic Israel preserves.

Officials in Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, and several other states in the Middle East expressed their worries this week in interviews, taking care to couch their warnings in terms of Israeli or Jewish perfidy or ethnocentrism.

“It’s merely a new form of imperialism,” contended one Egyptian minister. “The indigenous peoples of this region are perfectly happy to remain dedicated to hereditary dynasties, whether the heads of those dictatorial dynasties call themselves emirs, presidents, or whatever. If they’re unhappy – which of course they are not unless agitated by outsiders looking to foment and exploit trouble – they can just tell those in power, and in due course those who complain will no longer be complaining.”

“Democracy is a nice word, but it’s a foreign idea that should never have been introduced into the region,” argued a Jordanian prince. “Imagine having to answer to the people or not be reelected? The very thought nauseates me. What the hell to the people know, anyway? Israel’s closer ties to some Arab states might bring certain short-term military, economic, or diplomatic benefits, but you can’t let a virus such as individual liberty into the system. It may never leave.”
Netanyahu likely to attend Bolsonaro inauguration
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to attend the inauguration next month of Brazilian president-elect Jair Bolsonaro, a symbolic step that would signify a dramatic change in relations between the two countries.

According to the Brazilian daily Folha de S.Paulo newspaper, Netanyahu told Bolsonaro of his intent to attend the swearing-in ceremony during a congratulatory phone call he made to the president-elect on Monday

“I congratulated him on his victory,” Netanyahu tweeted of his conversation with the new Brazilian leader. “I told him I’m certain his election will lead to a great friendship between our peoples and a strengthening of Brazil-Israel ties. We are waiting for his visit to Israel.”

Bolsonaro responded by posting on Facebook that “ I’ve just received incredible words from the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu as well as from [Israel's] ambassador Yossi Shelley. Our friendly ties will undoubtedly result in mutual agreements that will surely benefit both of our nations and citizens.”

Bolsonaro, an Evangelical Christian, said during his campaign that Israel would be the first country he visited as president, that he will move the country's embassy to Jerusalem and that he will close the Palestinians embassy in Brazil because Palestine is not a country.
Israel Names its First Female Ambassador to Egypt
For the first time, Israel’s Foreign Ministry has appointed a woman to be its next ambassador to Egypt.

Amira Oron, who previously served as Israel’s chargé d’affaires in Ankara, Turkey, became the highest-ranking Israeli diplomat from 2010 until 2015, when Turkey expelled Israel’s ambassador in the wake of the Mavi Marmara flotilla incident.

She also served as the deputy spokesman and head of the Arab Media Department at the ministry. She will replace David Govrin, who has held the position since 2016.

Three more women were named to ambassadorial appointments in an announcement on Tuesday: Rodica Radia-Gordan, who will be ambassador to Madrid, Spain; Orly Gil, who will be ambassador to Riga, Latvia; and Marina Rosenberg, who will be ambassador to Santiago, Chile.

Radian-Gordon is currently deputy director-general for the ministry in Western Europe, and has previously served in Bucharest and Mexico City. Gil served previously in Nepal and as consul general for Israel in Chicago. Rosenberg has served previously as a political counselor in Berlin.
EXCLUSIVE: American Seized by Palestinian Authority Was Lured Under False Pretenses, Wife Says
A Palestinian-American allegedly involved in the sale of Jerusalem real estate to Jews was lured to Ramallah two weeks ago under the pretense that he was required to sign some paperwork before being abducted by the Palestinian Authority and detained ever since, his wife told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview Sunday.

The abduction came on the heels of a saga involving a piece of real estate in the Old City of Jerusalem not far from the Temple Mount. Last month a Jewish family moved into the house in question, which once belonged to the well-known Palestinian Joudeh family, sparking an angry wave of protests on the Palestinian street, with people calling for the execution of those who facilitated the sale. Indeed, Palestinians who sell land to Jews can face a death sentence, although capital punishment would require specific approval from PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

Ateret Cohanim, a non-profit that settles Jews in the eastern part of the city, bought the Aqbat Darwish plot from Daho Holdings, a company incorporated in the Caribbean. The original landowner, Adeeb Joudeh al-Husseini al-Ghodayya, who despite being a Muslim is the fabled keeper of the keys to Jesus’ tomb site at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, insists he had no idea the plot would be sold to Jews. According to Joudeh, his lawyer Khaled Atari is responsible for the property ending up in Jewish hands. As per documentation at the Israel Land Registry, Atari purchased the house last April and received $17 million — more than six times the original sum — from Daho Holdings in a deal struck that same day, according to a source cited by the Haaretz daily.

Breitbart News has obtained the U.S. passport of the abducted 55-year-old man allegedly involved in the sale, but due to the threat to his life posed by the Palestinian Authority has chosen not to publish his name.


Exclusive: PA signs secret inspections deal with U.N. nuclear agency
In addition to all of their problems – Hamas and Gaza, settlements and the lack of a peace process – fragile Israeli-Palestinian relations face yet another obstacle. The Palestinian Authority signed a draft agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in February, which was confirmed by the IAEA’s board of governors. Yet because the document is classified as “Restricted,” it has not yet been published.

It is revealed here publicly for the first time. Article 2 of the draft agreement states: “The Agency shall have the right and the obligation to ensure that safeguards will be applied, in accordance with the terms of this Agreement, on all source or special fissionable material in all peaceful nuclear activities within the territory of Palestine, under its jurisdiction or carried out under its control anywhere, for the exclusive purpose of verifying that such material is not diverted to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.”

This means that IAEA inspectors have the right to visit every part of the “Palestinian state” and check the safety of radioactive materials, including uranium, which are currently being used for peaceful purposes.

This is the duty and mandate of the IAEA, which was established in 1957 as an organ of the UN to supervise and prevent the use of nuclear materials and equipment for military purposes, while supporting their use for civilian aims, such as medicine, agriculture, industry and more.

The arrangements between the IAEA and its state members are known as “Safeguard Agreements.” These agreements derive from states’ membership in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Any state that participates in the NPT is committed not to develop, produce, stockpile or proliferate nuclear weapons or materials and equipment related to nuclear weapons. Such a state must sign a Safeguard Agreement with the IAEA, which is the “arbitrator” and thus has the obligation and the right to verify that any radioactive and other nuclear materials are indeed being used only for peaceful purposes.
Palestinian convicted of manslaughter, not murder, in 2016 crossfire death
The Judea Military Court on Wednesday acquitted a Palestinian terrorist of the murder of an IDF soldier, while convicting him of manslaughter.

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman responded to the decision, saying that he agreed with the dissenting judge and that the terrorist, Mamdoach Yufsef Muhammad Amaro, must be convicted of murder.

On February 24, 2016, Amaro approached the Gush Etzion Junction armed with a knife with the intention to stab one of the Jewish bystanders there, said the court.

According to the decision, Amaro was warned by Maj. Eliav Gelman and other IDF troops to halt, but continued to approach.

Gelman and the other troops fired on Amaro, wounding him and preventing him from stabbing anyone.

However, soldiers firing on Amaro were standing opposite Gelman, and shot Gelman by accident in the crossfire.

In light of the complex circumstances — that Amaro did not kill Gelman and did did not have the opportunity to make clear if his intention was to wound or actually kill — the court split 2-1 in acquitting him of murder.
Al Jazeera: Human Rights Watch Report Demonstrates Palestinian Leadership's Weakness, Inability to Lead
On Oct. 23, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published an extensive 149-page report on the abuses and crushing of dissent by both Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. The interviews collated by HRW detail some horrific cases of torture. The arbitrary arrests and interrogations of students, activists, journalists and political opposition is characteristic of many despotic regimes in the region. While the report does not reveal anything new - indeed various Palestinian NGOs have long documented this kind of repression - it elevates these extensive and troubling details to an international platform.

The intense development of the security sector in the years following Oslo resulted in security personnel being elevated to politically powerful positions. The merging of the political and security elites created the perfect environment for a police state.

The abuse of power documented in the new HRW report demonstrates the weakness of the Palestinian leadership and its inability to lead their people. The time has come for us to think about what kind of leadership we actually want after Abbas, rather than who comes next.
MEMRI: Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Inspects Military Foot Drills Depicting Collapse Of The White House
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei inspected military foot drills performed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). During the drills, the soldiers sang: "Allah Akbar! Khomeini is our leader!... America, America, death to your deception! The blood of our youth is dripping from your fingers!" An announcer also said: "We will eliminate the regime of injustice... 'Death to America' is the cry of my life!" The drill included a depiction of the White House with a Star of David on top. The White House was labeled "House of Injustice," and the pillars on the front of the White House were labeled "Corruption," "Racism," "Terrorism," "Axis of Evil," "Hollywood," "Dollar," "ISIS," "Genocide," "War," and "Violence."

The drill then depicted the White House being split by a sword, followed by the collapse of the White House and the Star of David. Among those who appear in the video watching the foot drills are: Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei; Commander of the IRGC Major General Mohammad Ali Jaafari; Major General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, who was IRGC chief from 1997 to 2007 and now serves as senior advisor to the Leader Khamenei; and Qassem Soleimani, who since 1998 has commanded the IRGC extra-territorial special forces unit, the Qods Force. The foot drills aired on channel 5 of the Iranian TV on October 16, 2018. For a similar theme in a 2007 marching drill, see MEMRI TV clip no. 1587 Iranian Leader Ali Khamenei Inspect Military Foot-Drills Showing Sword Ripping Through A US Flag Decorated With A Swastika And A Star Of David, October 24, 2007.


South Korean construction giant cancels $521 million deal with Iran
South Korea's Hyundai Engineering & Construction said on Monday that it had scrapped a $521 million deal to build a petrochemicals complex in Iran because Iran's ability to fund the project has been hit by the prospect of U.S. economic sanctions.

Hyundai had signed a contract to build the complex on the Persian Gulf coast, near the southern town of Tonbak, in March 2017. South Korean and Iranian media said the contract was for the construction of the second phase of the Kangan Petro Refining Complex in the South Pars Gas Field.

In a regulatory filing, Hyundai said the consortium it was leading for the project canceled the contract on Sunday.

"The contract was canceled because financing is not complete, which was a prerequisite for the validity of the contract, as external factors worsened such as economic sanctions against Iran," Hyundai said in its filing.

The United States plans to reimpose sanctions against Iranian crude oil exports as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to force Iran to accede to a more restrictive deal on limiting its nuclear and missile programs.
US Secretary of State Pompeo Calls for End to Fighting in Yemen
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Tuesday for a cessation of hostilities in Yemen and said UN-led negotiations to end the civil war should begin next month.

In a statement, Pompeo said missile and drone strikes by Iran-allied Houthi rebels against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates should stop, and the Saudi-led coalition must cease air strikes in all populated areas of Yemen.

Yemen is one of the poorest Arab countries and faces the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, exacerbated by a nearly four-year-old war that pits the Houthis against the internationally recognized government backed by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the West.

“The time is now for the cessation of hostilities, including missile and UAV strikes from Houthi-controlled areas into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” Pompeo said, using an acronym for unmanned aerial vehicles.

“Subsequently, Coalition air strikes must cease in all populated areas in Yemen,” he added.

The United States helps the coalition by refueling its jets and providing training in targeting. Pompeo said last month that he had certified to the US Congress that Saudi Arabia and the UAE were working to reduce civilian casualties in Yemen.

Three-quarters of Yemen’s population, or 22 million people, require aid and 8.4 million people are on the brink of starvation.
Taliban Spokesman: 5 Men Freed From Gitmo in Exchange for Bergdahl Join Insurgents in Qatar
The five members of the Afghan Taliban who were released from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in exchange for captured American Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in 2014 have joined the Taliban's political office in Qatar, according the insurgent group's spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid.

The five men will be among Taliban representatives negotiating for peace in Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. Some negotiators in Kabul say their presence is a sign that the Taliban desires a peace pact.

Others, however, believe that the the five men—who have close ties to the Taliban's late founder and leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar—share the same fundamentalist interpretation of Islam that defined the group's five-year rule that ended with the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

"The Taliban are bringing back their old generation, which means the Taliban have not changed their thinking or their leadership," said Haroun Mir, a political analyst in Kabul. "What we are more worried about is if tomorrow the Taliban say ‘we are ready to negotiate,' who will represent Kabul? That is the big challenge because the government is so divided, not just ideologically but on ethnic lines."



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