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Thursday, October 31, 2019

A 5th grader taught "P is for Palestine" author some Talmud!



Right after the reading of the book "P is for Palestine" - the book that glorifies terrorism by saying "I is for Intifada" - in Highland Park NJ two weeks ago, I received an email describing some of the things that happened inside the actual reading by the author, Golbarg Bashi. I didn't report it because it is the sort of story that could easily have been changed in the retelling. Here is what it said:

In the end, three children and their parents showed up, with the boys wearing kippot.
One of the boys was asked by Bashi, "What is your favorite book?" His answer "The Mishna ! ". When she followed up to ask him what book he was reading, he said "Bava Metzia ! "
The Mishna is the basis of the Talmud, and Bava Metzia is the volume of Talmud that religious Jewish kids usually learn in fifth grade.

It's a funny story. And it turns out that Bashi confirmed it in her account of the reading.
Here I am reading and engaging with 3 innocent children who were accompanied by their Zionist fathers and a grandmother to Sunday's event at Highland Park Public Library in the State of New Jersey. I had been informed by the head of the library that all seats in the reading room had been immediately reserved in person by Zionist Highland Park Library Card holders on the day registration for the event opened up.

Still, the 3 innocent children who attended the reading (albeit under the unfortunate watchful and weary eyes of their Zionist families--two fathers, and one grandmother) brought a genuine smile to my heart.
When the people registered for the event, did they have to answer a question whether they were Zionist? Does Dr. Bashi have a Zionist detector?

No, of course not. Any religious Jew is obviously a Zionist. Bashi just doesn't want to say "Jewish." Their children, however, are "innocent" of the crime of Zionism.
The 6 year-old little boy was sharp, engaged and so cute! His brother in 5th grade spoke of his love of sports and the NFL, and someone named Adam who plays for the NFL (when I asked him if the NFL is basketball, he patiently explained that the NBA is basketball) and told me his favorite subject in school right now, takes place during second period and currently involves a particular mode in Jewish religious ethics, named "mitzvah" or "the obligation to return lost objects to their owner." The 5th grader enlightened me on what applies within mitzvah and what one must do when finding e.g. a lost purse as opposed to a pencil belonging to an unknown person on the street.
 Bashi misunderstood - the kid said something like "I'm learning Bava Metzia about the mitzvah of returning a lost object" and Bashi thought he meant that a mitzvah was defined as returning a lost object.

The kid seems to have accurately summarized parts of the Talmud for the author. I wonder if Bashi knows that! "Talmud" is an evil word in Arabic media.
They asked fun questions, were incredibly attentive, and had the most creative suggestions on words that start with certain letters of the alphabet. For example for the letter A, our 5th grader suggested that the certain Adam who plays for the NFL and [אַבְרָהָם,] Avram (Prophet Abraham or Ibrahim (to Muslims), the name of the first monotheistic Prophet, and of great significance to millions of people who adhere to Abrahamic religions, namely Muslims and Christians. We talked more about Prophet Abraham and that he is buried in Al-Khalil/Hebron which makes the city and the entirety of Palestine, so precious).
Of course, under Muslim rule, Jews couldn't visit the place where Abraham - or Isaac, Jacob and their wives - are buried. Only since 1967 have Jews been able to visit, and now half of the site is off-limits nearly all year to Jews.

Too bad no one asked about that.

But someone did bring up something similar:
Upon reading the page for B is for Bethlehem, the 5th grader's father sternly instructed him to ask if Jews can also live in Bethlehem. . .
Did she answer? I don't know. But the answer is a resounding "no."

Which would be called apartheid if it was a Jewish town...

You can still read my more cynical - yet accurate - illustrated version of a Palestinian alphabet book here.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

10/31 Links Pt2: Despite terror ties, SJP 'antisemitic force' active at Harvard, Columbia; Antisemite Of The Week- Max Blumenthal, an Antisemitic Jew Obsessed with Hating Jews

From Ian:
Despite terror ties, SJP 'antisemitic force' active at Harvard, Columbia
The National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) is an “antisemitic force on campus,” according to a new 96-page report about the organization.

The document, published by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) in advance of NSJP’s annual conference being held November 1-3, tracks the history of the organization and highlights how NSJP “promotes antisemitic rhetoric” and is “associated [with] violence and terror, ideologically and politically.”

The study, titled “National Students for Justice in Palestine and the Promotion of Hate and Antisemitism on the University Campus: The Threat to Academic Freedom,” is authored by Charles Asher Small, David Patterson and Glen Feder.

“For centuries, the most violent antisemitic attacks on Jews, including expulsions and pogroms, were rationalized by a need to bring justice to other groups,” said ISGAP chairman Natan Sharansky. “Today, the new antisemitism is brought to the world of academia under the pretext of justice for Palestinians.”

In the report’s foreword, Sharansky says that demonization, delegitimization and double standards against Jews are now being applied to the Jewish collective in the State of Israel.

“All those who value both justice and academic freedom should be resistant to it,” he said.

The report cites dozens of incidents, mainly on social networks, in which traditional antisemitic tropes are used by NSJP local chapters.

In 2017, for example, Students Supporting Israel at City College in NY described on their Facebook page a reaction by SJP members to the visit of Dani Dayan, the Consul General of Israel in New York. According to the post, “Comparisons to Hitler and Nazis were hurled by students… Rather than listening to what the speaker had to say, they put their antisemitic hate on blast, demonizing the Jewish State of Israel and all who would support it.”

Harvard’s NSJP chapter, the Palestine Solidarity Committee, posted on their Facebook page in 2012 that “Zionism is racism. Women who immigrated from Ethiopia eight years ago say there were told they would not be allowed into Israel unless they agreed to be injected with the long-acting birth control drug Depo Provera, according to an investigative report aired yesterday on Israel Educational Television.”

Stony Brook University’s SJP also had multiple inflammatory posts, including one noting that “together, we can create a domino effect to ensure Zionism is an extinct ideology.”
A Beginner’s Guide to the SJP National Conference
In a surprise to nobody, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) announced that its upcoming National Conference, set to commence on November 1, will be held on the University of Minnesota Campus in Minneapolis (UMN). Why is this unsurprising? Because Minneapolis happens to be the district of antisemitic Congresswoman Rep. Ilhan Omar, a prominent figure in the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS) against Israel.

This is not a coincidence. In fact, the very first goal stated on the conference website is to capitalize on shifts in the political climate, represented by the elections of BDS supporters Rep. Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib. However, the REAL shift in the political climate- one that SJP themselves have played a substantial role in- is the resurgence of the world’s “oldest hatred” in the US, under the guise of BDS.

Countless articles and in-depth studies have delineated the various calls for violence by SJP leadership, as well as their intimate connection with Palestinian terror organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the PFLP, all of whom thrive off an ideology of Jew-hatred. It’s not just the leadership which is guilty of purveying antisemitism, but many student members of SJP as well. How many times must an SJP chapter host convicted terrorists like Rasmeah Odeh at their events before they are called out for their antisemitism? How many social media posts fawning over convicted terrorist Marwan Barghouti and PFLP founder George Habash must be shared by official SJP accounts until the tech overlords ban SJP from their platforms? How many t-shirts glorifying PFLP terrorist Leila Khaled must be sold at their events before the world opens its eyes?

In the past few years, several analyses have been published revealing the link between BDS activity on campus and antisemitism. According to a Brandeis University study, one of the strongest predictors of hostility towards Israel and Jews on campuses is the presence of an SJP chapter. Furthermore, the campus antisemitism watchdog AMCHA Initiative found that antisemitic activity was 8 times more likely to occur on campuses where anti-Zionist student groups were present.

This brings us back to the SJP National Conference, the epicenter of left-wing antisemitism. We will not be privy to real time updates from the conference since access is heavily restricted, and the speaker list has yet to be announced. But If history is any indication, the conference will be replete with the usual delegitimization and demonization of the Jewish State. They will sell paraphernalia with slogans advocating violence; they will compare Israel to Nazis; and they will host terrorists.



Prominent US Reform Rabbi Warns of Growing Anti-Israel Sentiments in Democratic Party
A prominent US Reform rabbi warned on Wednesday of growing anti-Israel sentiments in the Democratic Party.

The senior rabbi at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan, Ammiel Hirsch, spoke out following statements made by a number of Democratic presidential candidates at the annual J Street conference earlier this week about conditioning US aid to Israel.

“Overwhelmingly, most American Jews — including most liberal Jews – passionately support a strong US-Israel relationship,” Rabbi Hirsch stated. “They believe that foreign aid promotes the interests of both countries and oppose any cut in, or redirection of, those funds. American support helps Israel stand against an array of anti-democratic, anti-liberal forces that seek its destruction.”

“The crisis of antisemitism within the UK Labour party began with intense anti-Israel animosity at the party’s margins,” he went on to say. “That anti-Zionism increasingly devolved into the downright antisemitism of the Labour Party itself, severely damaging its standing and reputation and stripping it of Anglo-Jewish support. I fear that a similar process is beginning here in the United States.”

“The Democratic Party is increasingly tolerant of voices that are opposed to Israel’s existence,” Rabbi Hirsch noted. “To allow this process to go unchecked will cause irreparable harm to the bilateral US-Israel relationship and to the Democratic Party, itself.”

“Reducing American support for Israel will not bring peace any closer. To the contrary, it will distance it even further,” he concluded.
BESA: U.S. Presidential Candidates and Military Aid to Israel
Three leading Democratic presidential candidates recently said they would consider cuts in U.S. military aid as a means to pressure Jerusalem into changing its policy in the West Bank. These statements are completely out of touch with the realities of Palestinian-Israeli relations and developments in the Middle East.

The candidates deliberately distort the nature of U.S. military aid to Israel. They ignore the Palestinians' repeated rejection of peace negotiations and peace proposals. They also ignore the unrelenting Palestinian campaign of delegitimization against Israel and the monthly payments to terrorists convicted of murdering thousands of Israeli civilians.

The term "aid" in the context of U.S.-Israeli defense relations is itself misleading. The more accurate term is "investment," as most of the funds are reinvested back into the U.S. economy as it goes to American defense manufacturers. In return for aid, Israel provides the U.S. military and defense industries with information about weapons effectiveness, develops innovative military technology like missile defense systems and border surveillance technology, and shares intelligence and battle-proven military doctrines.

Despite serious disagreements between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu, in September 2016 they signed a memorandum of understanding committing $3.8 billion annually for military aid for the next 10 years, as Obama recognized the value of a long-term investment in U.S.-Israeli defense collaboration.
The Irrationality of Punishing Israel by Withholding Aid
Recently several Democratic presidential candidates have raised the possibility of withholding American financial assistance to the Jewish state to induce it to make policy changes. Such a move, notes Michael Koplow, wouldn’t be unprecedented—both George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan did so. To Koplow, however, cutting aid would likely “create more problems than it solves”:

Conditioning aid to Israel is a mess from a policy perspective. If it is intended as a way of punishing Israeli behavior, then it downgrades a vitally important defense and intelligence relationship for the purposes of making a values statement.

If U.S. assistance to Israel were an issue existential to Israel’s survival, that would create a different calculus, but as valuable and important as $3.8 billion in annual security assistance is to Israel, the country would be able to live without it.

Even if conditioning security assistance were to work in changing Israeli behavior in the West Bank, it would still bring a potential unintended outcome of greater casualties on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides. If withholding security assistance means less money for Iron Dome batteries, for instance, it makes larger numbers of Israeli civilian casualties a certainty when rockets are shot from Gaza, which in turn makes an Israeli ground invasion and exponentially higher Palestinian casualties just as certain. . . . While such an outcome is not the aim of those who advocate conditioning aid, it may come about nonetheless.
Antisemite Of The Week- Max Blumenthal, an Antisemitic Jew Obsessed with Hating Jews
Max Blumenthal, whose Jewish father Sidney Blumenthal, was a former Clinton aide, began his career in 2002 as a radical left-wing journalist and already in 2013 and 2014 the Simon Wiesenthal Center named him as one of the country's most prominent antisemites. In 2015, Blumenthal founded a website called “The Grayzone Project,” which is a one-stop propaganda shop, devoted largely to pushing a pro-Assad line on Syria, a pro-regime line on Venezuela, and specifically, a pro-Hamas line on Israel. Blumenthal currently works as a writing fellow at the Nation Institute, which is funded, in part, by George Soros’ Open Society Institute.

Max is a useful Idiot Jew serving as an outspoken supporter and promotor of the antisemitic BDS movement. His book "Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel" drew condemnation even from far left-wing critics of Israel for his outlandish antisemitic opinions and the Louis Brandies Center blamed him for mainstreaming antisemitism. The Nation's Eric Alterman blasted the book, claiming it "could have been published by the Hamas Book-of-the-Month Club (if it existed)."

Max Blumenthal has a long and well known history of antisemitism:
Blumenthal was disinvited from a scheduled speaking engagement by the German “Die Linke” (The Left) party due to his antisemitic views.
Blumenthal’s antics earned him a lifetime ban from the German parliament.
Blumenthal’s works have been cited and praised by radical extremists and neo-Nazis and have been featured on the antisemitic, Islamist blog, Electronic Intifada as well as the neo-Nazi Internet forum, Stormfront.
The left-leaning news outlet Forward referred to Blumenthal’s book as so anti-Israel it, “makes even anti-Zionists blush.”
Blumenthal compared Israel with the Islamic terror group ISIL (=ISIS), calling the Jewish state “JSIL” or the “Jewish State of Israel and the Levant.”
Blumenthal called Israelis “Judeo-Nazis.”
Blumenthal was caught red-handed conjuring up fictitious quotes maligning Israel by Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of the liberal publication, the Atlantic.
Blumenthal spoke at an event held by the British charity War on Want (WoW), which has sponsored numerous anti-Israel events and helped pay for “Israeli Apartheid Week”. According to the London Telegraph, undercover recordings showed that these WoW events were replete with “anti-Semitism, demands for the destruction of Israel, [and] naked support for terror.”
He also has appeared numerous times as a speaker at fundraising banquets for the Council on American-Islamic Relation (CAIR), a group known for ties to Palestinian terror organization.

Senators Sanders and Warren Offer ‘The Squad’ Squalid Middle East Peace Plans
“In the warmest of human hearts,” the socialist Irving Howe once wrote, “there is always a cold spot for the Jews.” The plans which socialist Bernie Sanders and more-than-socialist Elizabeth Warren have just set forth for resolving the Israel-Palestine “conflict” demonstrate that, in their view, Jews have not done enough dying in the past century.

The plans certainly give no evidence of compassion for the three generations of Israelis who have had to bury their own children. No, their compassion is reserved, in Sanders’ case, for the Arab residents of Gaza, ruled by the Hamas organization, whose written constitution pledges its votaries to “kill Jews wherever you find them,” and who use the billions of dollars sent them by charitable organizations to achieve that aim.

Sanders wants America to send funds intended for Israel to Gaza so its rulers will have money to pay for electricity and groceries, lest they be forced to divert the fabulous sums of money they now receive for more sanguine purposes, especially underground tunnels into Israel to perpetrate raw murder.

Warren, less patient than Sanders, would like to give the Palestinian Arabs joint control of the city of Jerusalem so that they can plant their “capital” city in Israel’s capital. The Arabs never, in their long history in the region, thought of making Jerusalem even the capital of a province. But when their war of 1948 against the nascent Jewish state gave the Jordanians half of the city, they showed, apparently unbeknownst to Warren, what happens in such an arrangement: they proceeded to destroy the synagogues, the cemeteries, the holy places, and the Jewish inhabitants of their half with a savagery that would have shamed animals.

Since in this enterprise of Middle East peacemaking, nothing succeeds like failure, the Palestinians were again, in later years, offered control of eastern Jerusalem by Ehud Barak and other Israeli doves, but to no avail.
Sanders Proposes Sending Israel’s Military Aid to Mel Gibson (satire)
Accusing the Jewish state of committing “atrocities” against the Oscar-winner’s acting career, US Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders proposed ending military aid to Israel and instead giving the funds to Mel Gibson.

“It is not anti-Semitic to acknowledge that the Jewish people have completely destroyed this man’s career just for speaking the truth,” Sanders said during a conference hosted by J Street. “Why are we sending $3.8 billion to Israel instead of helping poor Mel rebuild his life?”

Sanders is just the latest Democratic presidential candidate to propose conditions for US military aid to Israel. Senator Elizabeth Warren has proposed ending security coordination with Israel until the Jews let the “toothbrush mustache” come back into style.
U. of Detroit Mercy Prof and BDS Activist Amer Zahr Joins Bernie Sanders Campaign
Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders has brought yet another anti-Israel activist into his campaign: University of Detroit Mercy adjunct law professor and stand-up comedian Amer Zahr.

Zahr was behind the vicious BDS campaign that caused a Lebanese-American man to cancel the planned opening of a Burgerim restaurant in Dearborn (MI) in July, due to threats to his family. The burger chain was founded in Israel, but it is now headquartered in California. Nevertheless, Zahr insisted that Burgerim was built on "on stolen Palestinian land."

Moreover, as JNS's Jackson Richman points out, Zahr "not only endorses BDS, but also has a record of vicious attacks on Jews and Israelis. He refers to the latter as 'foreign colonialist settlers.' He has said that: 'Describing defenders of Israel as "scumbags," "pigs" and "bastards" is not necessary. "Zionist" is sufficiently insulting.'"
Erdogan Ally Met With Omar, Contributed to Her Campaign
Representative Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) has received a $1,500 campaign donation from a lobbying group with ties to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The donation, first reported by the Daily Caller, was made on September 30 by the Turkish American Steering Committee (TASC), a non-profit group that has been active in lobbying efforts on behalf of the Turkish government.

Omar was also photographed at a TASC event with organization co-chairman Halil Mutlu, who is Erdogan’s cousin. Mutlu was present at a 2017 clash between Erdogan’s bodyguards and pro-Kurdish protesters in Washington, D.C. A video of the incident shows Mutlu leading a pro-Turkish government chant from the sidelines.

On Tuesday, Omar refused to back a House resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide, opting to vote “present.” The resolution passed overwhelmingly, 405–11.

“Accountability and recognition of genocide should not be used as a cudgel in a political fight,” Omar said in a statement explaining her decision.

“A true acknowledgement of historical crimes against humanity,” she continued, “must include both the heinous genocides of the 20th century, along with earlier mass slaughters like the transatlantic slave trade and Native American genocide.” She also voted against imposing economic sanctions on Turkey in a separate resolution.
PreOccupiedTerritory: Omar Warns Recognizing Armenian Genocide Leads To Recognizing Holocaust, Israel, Jewish Rights
One of the few Congressional representatives not to vote in favor of a resolution recognizing the organized mass-killing of more than a million Armenian Christians by the Ottoman Empire during the First World War a century ago explained her decision not to join the vast majority of her colleagues by noting that recognition of that atrocity sets one in the direction of accepting other problematic phenomena as having existed, such as the mass-slaughter of Jews under Nazi rule and, the legitimacy of the State of Israel, and there being such a thing as Jewish rights of any sort.

Minnesota Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar spoke following the vote by the House of Representatives to recognize the Genocide that began in 1914-15 and continued intermittently for several years, even as the Ottoman Empire disintegrated and a more secular Turkey took its place. The 435-member chamber voted 405-11 in favor of the resolution, with Omar the lone Democrat not to support it.

“I feel for the Armenians, I really do,” she insisted. “It’s just that this is not the time to engage in such measures, which open the door to all sorts of problems. I’m not just talking about our relations with Turkey, which of course does not accept there was a genocide. I mean the implications for other events. What’s next, recognizing that the Nazis and their collaborators killed millions of Jews in an organized fashion just a couple of decades later? That would in turn lead to a conclusion that some sort of refuge for Jews in their own sovereign homeland might be necessary, and we all know what such thinking means. It’s unthinkable.”




Polls: Despite mixed opinions on Brexit, 93% of UK Jews won’t vote for Labour
While the Jewish population is small, anti-Semitism in the Labour Party does appear to be registering among the wider electorate. Polling carried out in April found that more than half of all voters — including almost a third of those who backed Labour in 2017 — believe Corbyn’s failure to address the issue of Jew-hatred shows that he is not fit to be prime minister.

As Claudia Mendoza, director of policy and public affairs at the Jewish Leadership Council, argues: “From the polling we have done, there is no doubt that Corbyn’s inability to tackle anti-Jewish racism has had an impact beyond the Jewish community. Jews have friends, neighbors and colleagues who will have seen the strength of feeling.”

Mattinson points to another effect of the anti-Semitism issue. For quite a long time, voters in focus groups didn’t know what anti-Semitism meant, but that’s now changed.

“The electorate now feel that they know [Corbyn] and some of the things that they know about him they don’t like,” she says. “In some ways, the biggest thing it says to them is not so much that he’s racist, but that’s he unable to manage his very divided party.”

There are signs, however, that Jewish support for the Tories rests more on antipathy to Labour than affection for Johnson’s party. Last week’s Jewish Chronicle poll showed that 42% of Jews — a figure which rose to 57% among 18-34 year-olds — said they would consider voting Labour if Corbyn wasn’t leader.
UK Jewish Labour group won’t campaign for Corbyn-led party in December elections
Britain’s Jewish Labour Movement on Thursday announced that it would not send members out to canvass for Labour Party candidates ahead of the elections scheduled for December, amid a rift with the party over its handling of charges of anti-Semitism.

The movement, which has been harshly critical of Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, said it would only support candidates in “exceptional” cases.

“This crisis of anti-Semitism in the Labour party stems from a failure of leadership from Jeremy Corbyn. When the answer has been to take swift, decisive action, the reality has been equivocation and token gestures,” the movement said in a statement..

“We will not be campaigning unless in exceptional circumstances and for exceptional candidates, like our parliamentary chair Ruth Smeeth, and members of the parliamentary Labour party who’ve been unwavering in their support of us. We will not be giving endorsements to candidates in non-Labour-held seats,” the organization said.

“Political interference is endemic in the system, which is used to protect the leaderships’ friends and allies, rather than ensure the party is a safe space for Jews,” the movement charged.
Jews almost four times more likely to be targets of hate crimes than other faith groups, CAA analysis of Home Office stats shows
An analysis by Campaign Against Antisemitism of new Home Office statistics shows that Jews are almost four times more likely to be targets of hate crimes than any other faith group.

Police forces across the country record hate crimes against Jews as religious hate crimes, and these records show that in the year 2018/19, a record 1,326 hate crimes were committed against Jews, compared with 672 in the year 2017/18, making Jews the target in eighteen percent of the total number of religious hate crimes.

These figures mean that there is an average of over three hate crimes directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales. Hate crimes against Jews are also still widely believed to be under-reported, and also do not reflect the extent of antisemitic material and abuse on social media.

However, when one accounts for the miniscule size of the Jewish population, it emerges that Jews are statistically almost four times more likely to be the targets of hate crimes than any other religious group, with some 255 hate crimes per 100,000 of the Jewish population in 2017/18 rising to 503 hate crimes in 2018/19.


Israel frets as imminent EU ruling expected to force settlement labeling
Israel is worried about an expected court decision that would enshrine in law the requirement for European countries to label Israeli products made in the settlements.

On November 12, the Court of Justice of the European Union is set to issue its final decision on a case that began when an Israeli winery in the West Bank and a pro-Israel advocacy group appealed a French court’s decision that determined that wines produced by Israeli settlers may not be labeled as “Made in Israel.”

The EU court is widely expected to rule that settlement goods must indicate that they were produced in Israeli settlements, as opposed to in sovereign Israel.

The court’s decision cannot be appealed and will be legally binding on all EU member states. In practice, it would allow any pro-Palestinian activist to take legal steps against West Bank products labelled as as made in Israel, Israeli officials said this week.

Furthermore, Jerusalem fears the forthcoming ruling could have a chilling effect on European businesses currently considering whether to import settlement products, which has the potential to seriously hurt Israeli exporters.

“We are concerned about the expected verdict,” an Israeli diplomatic source told The Times of Israel. “We expect European countries that value the peace process and that deem the relationship with us important not to implement the ruling in a manner that would damage our relationship.”
Toronto Raptors Object to BDS Claiming Victory Behind Canceled Israel Trip
Despite activists from the anti-Israel BDS claiming victory over the Toronto Raptors canceling their planned visit to Israel this summer after winning the NBA championship this year, the team’s co-owner Larry Tanenbaum said the issue pertained to scheduling conflicts.

Tanenbaum, who is Jewish, said that the #RaptorsDontGo campaign by the Canadian BDS Coalition played no role in the trip not transpiring.

“Following our NBA championship win, as an organization, our intention was to take the Raptors to Israel, but as you can imagine, managing a group of championship basketball players with increasingly demanding schedules, as well as having many of our players and coaches participating in the FIBA World Cup in China during August, made it simply impossible to find dates that worked for the whole team in this shortened off-season,” Tanenbaum told The Canadian Jewish News.

“I find it curious that anti-Israel activists, about whom I have little knowledge, are taking credit for our scheduling challenges. I think legitimate questions can be raised about the intentions of a group that is attempting to sow division through sport,” he continued. “It seems to me that sport should be used as a vehicle to bring people together. Look at the Raptors. Our approach to diversity, in part, won us a championship.”
New Yorker Corrects Headline Which Presumed Israeli Firm’s Guilt
Following communication from CAMERA’s Israel office, New Yorker editors today corrected a headline which presumed the guilt of an Israeli firm facing a lawsuit filed by WhatsApp for alleged exploitation of the platform to enable governments to spy on human rights activists and journalists.
Although the veracity of WhatsApp’s accusations have not yet been confirmed, the headline had stated: “WhatsApp Sues an Israeli Tech Firm Whose Spyware Targeted Human-Rights Activists and Journalists.”
Numerous leading media outlets carried headlines which carefully qualified the charges in the suit as claims, accusations, or allegations. Examples follow.
New York Times: WhatsApp Says Israeli Firm Used Its App in Spy Program
Wall Street Journal: Facebook Sues Israel’s NSO Group Over Alleged WhatsApp Attack
BBC News: WhatsApp Sues Israel firm over phone hacking claims
BBC Arabic radio promotes Israel-free map of ‘Palestine’ for children
The October 24th episode of BBC Arabic’s radio show “Dardasha Layliya” (‘Nightly Chat’) included an interview with an Israeli Arab environmental engineer called Omar Asi who identified himself as being a resident of “the interior of Palestine” and who was described by the BBC presenter as calling from “Palestine”.

In that interview – presented by BBC Arabic’s Heba Abd al-Baqi – listeners were acquainted with Asi’s project: a child-friendly map of “Palestine” from the river to the sea. The map and a link to the programme were also promoted on the BBC News Arabic Facebook page.

(all translations, emphasis and in-bracket remarks by CAMERA Arabic):
“(26:55) What distinguishes this map is that we see a lot of diversity, a lot of colours in it, and the colours […], indeed, aren’t coincidental, I mean, Palestine is always characterized by [this], it is said that during certain times [of the year], it has four seasons on the same day, in the Negev you’d see summer, in the North you’d see winter, and there’s a lot of diversity in Palestine, in terms of climate, even in terms of biodiversity, I mean, if we look at the map we’ll see that in Jaffa there are oranges, in Hebron there are grapes, in Nablus there’s kenafeh [a type of dessert], and in Jerusalem there are bagels, all of this diversity, it would be impossible for the child to get it from maps he sees in schools, the traditional maps. That is if he [even] sees maps of Palestine, I mean, many children like me, who went to schools which are called ‘Arab-Israeli schools’, children from the interior of Palestine, they don’t see maps of Palestine, they see maps of Israel…”.

The BBC News pot and the Washington Post kettle
October 28th saw the publication of a report headlined “Washington Post criticised, and lampooned, over Baghdadi headline” on the BBC News website’s ‘Middle East’ and ‘US & Canada’ pages.

“The Washington Post faced criticism on Sunday for calling Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group who had died the day before, an “austere religious scholar”.
The newspaper amended its headline to call him an “extremist leader”.
Vice president of communications Kristine Coratti Kelly said the headline “should never have read that way and we changed it quickly”. […]
The first version of the Washington Post’s headline called Baghdadi “terrorist-in-chief”, before it was changed to “austere religious scholar at the helm of Islamic State”.”

The BBC is of course itself no stranger to problematic portrayals of terrorists and terror attacks. As we have documented on these pages over the years, the corporation has described the terrorist Leila Khaled as “beautiful”, “sultry-eyed”, “iconic” and a “dissident”.

Other Palestinian terrorists have also been portrayed by the BBC as “dissidents” and terms such as “militant”, “guerrilla” and “political prisoner” have been employed in BBC reporting for nearly five decades. In 2014 the BBC’s Jon Donnison reported the death of a Palestinian ‘charity worker’ without mentioning that the PFLP described him as a “fighter commander” in its ranks.
Senators Launch Bipartisan Task Force to Combat Antisemitism
Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) on Monday launched the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism.

The collaboration is the first of its kind in the US Senate, serving as a corollary to the House of Representative’s Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism, of which Rosen was a member when she served in that chamber.

This week’s launch coincided with the one-year anniversary of the 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue in Pittsburgh, where 11 Jewish worshippers were shot and killed during Shabbat-morning services—the deadliest American Jewish history.

“In the United States, we’ve seen evidence that antisemitism and acts of hate are growing at an alarming rate,” wrote Rosen and Lankford in a joint opinion piece announcing the launch of the Task Force. “As Members of Congress, our responsibility to our neighbors, to our friends, to our community and to our children is to work together in a bipartisan way to prevent antisemitism before it starts—to educate, to explain and to empower.

“The mission of this Task Force will be to collaborate with law enforcement, federal agencies, state and local government, educators, advocates, clergy and other stakeholders to combat antisemitism by educating and empowering our communities,” they wrote.

Earlier this year, the US House of Representatives’ Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism was relaunched.
Nazi flag seen hanging in California parole office
Why was a Nazi flag hanging on the wall inside a California parole office over the weekend?

The state’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has launched an investigation to find out.

An anonymous video uploaded Saturday on Imgur, a video and photo sharing website similar to Instagram, shows a red Nazi flag with a black swastika in the center visible through the window of a CDCR office in downtown Sacramento. The video also shows what appears to be a second flag, black with SS bolts, hanging below it.

“This is a trashy way to represent this beautiful city, especially in a state building,” a caption on the online post read.

By Tuesday, the video had been viewed more than 23,000 times.

A CDCR spokesperson confirmed that the flag had been hung in its state parole office at 1608 T St. In a statement emailed to J. on Tuesday, press secretary Dana Simas said the office deals with high-level offenders and often comes into contact with “objectionable” items.

“While CDCR has a zero tolerance policy for the display of objects that are derogatory in nature, in an office that covers gang members and high-risk sex offenders we will come into contact with items that may be considered objectionable,” the statement read. “However, we take this issue seriously and have removed the item and are looking into the circumstances for why the flag was displayed in potential view of the public.”
‘I Had to Face a Whole Clique Every Day’: Berlin Jewish High School Students Tell German Justice Minister of Rampant Antisemitic Bullying
Germany’s justice minister visited a Jewish school in Berlin on Tuesday where she met with students driven out of the city’s public education system by antisemitic bullying.

According to a report in the German news outlet Bild, the minister, Christine Lambrecht, was “horrified” by the stories she heard from the students, who now attend the Gymnasium Moses Mendelssohn. Reopened in 1993 as the city’s Jewish high school, its building had served during the Nazi era as a deportation center for Berlin’s Jews.

One student, who gave her name as Emily, told Lambrecht, “I didn’t say at my old school that I was Jewish, I didn’t wear my Star of David.” She explained that the “aggressive hatred” she faced at the school had compelled her to hide her identity.

When Lambrecht expressed outrage at Emily’s treatment, arguing that it was the perpetrators who should be forced to leave a school rather than their victims, the 17-year-old replied, “That would have been difficult. It wasn’t just one person, it was a whole clique that I had to face every day.”

Another student, David, told Lambrecht: “If I forget to remove my kippah when I’m outside, I receive stupid insults.”

Continued the 17-year-old: “It’s hard for me to come out as Jew.”

Nineteen-year-old Rafet told Lambrecht of a personal connection to the attempted massacre on Oct. 9 of worshipers attending Yom Kippur services at a synagogue in Halle. The gunman, a neo-Nazi, murdered two people outside the synagogue after failing to break through the building’s security doors.

“A friend of mine was in that synagogue — if those doors hadn’t held, he would have been dead,” Rafet said.
Mayor of French City Condemns Rising Antisemitism After Frenzied Individual’s Attack on Jewish School is Foiled
The mayor of the southern French city of Nice has strongly condemned rising antisemitism in his country following an incident at a Jewish school in which a man yelling antisemitic epithets tried to break into the building.

Christian Estrosi — the mayor of Nice — declared on his Twitter feed that such acts were “intolerable.”

Referring to the attempted intrusion at the Or Torah School on Tuesday, and noting the “antisemitic threats” made by the offending individual, Estrosi said, “I condemn these intolerable acts. I cannot accept the rise of antisemitism in our country.”

According to local media reports, security guards at the school swiftly overcame the intruder and hauled him outside, where he carried on yelling threats and antisemitic invective. Police officers arrived at the scene quickly, and there was no direct threat to the children inside the school at any point during the incident.

Estrosi also paid tribute to the “professionalism of the officers of the Municipal Police of Nice and the National Police.” The school’s security guards, too, had acted “calmly and courageously,” the mayor said.


Court blocks sale of Holocaust letter by Yad Vashem board member
The Tel Aviv District Court issued an injunction against the sale of a letter written by a young girl killed in the Holocaust after her surviving relatives sued to prevent a prominent Haredi activist from bringing it to auction.

The letter, one of several that was set to be auctioned off as a lot on Tuesday evening, was written by Rachel Mintz, a Jewish girl from Poland, when she was 11 years old. It described life in 1937 Poland and her desire to immigrate to Israel.

Mintz was the the youngest of five brothers and sisters. Her older brothers fled east and survived the Holocaust while she and her mother remained in Poland and hid. They were eventually murdered after a Jew from the town informed the Germans of their hiding place. She was 16.

The letter was found along with other letters sent by Jewish children from Poland and were intended to be delivered to children at a school in Haifa. The school principal took the letters home, and after his death, they ended up into the hands of a merchant who sold them.

From there they came to Dudi Zilbershlag, a Haredi businessman, activist and journalist who is a member of the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum council. He in turn offered them to the Dynasty auction house.
Free College Tuition for American Jews
With universities becoming increasingly hostile to Israel, Liel Leibovitz suggests that American Jewish philanthropists should offer to pay the tuitions of young American Jews willing to attend college in the Jewish state. After demonstrating the economic sense of his proposition—tuition at Israeli universities runs about $3,000 a year—he touts its potential benefits:

What could better appeal to young American Jews of all political leanings and persuasions [than a free education]? . . . It should also appeal to parents who are paying upward of $70,000 a year to send their children to universities where they are being turned into progressive piñatas in a bankrupt system in which ideological indoctrination has largely replaced the teaching of history, literature, and political philosophy.

For about $60 million a year, paid for by whatever combination of generous American benefactors and the Israeli government, we can send a cadre of about 1,000 American Jewish students to Israel each year, each one of whom can serve as a human bridge that will help bring our two worlds closer together. Some of them may want to undertake aliyah, serve in the army, and marry an Israeli, and [thus] strengthen the interfamilial bonds between the two Jewish communities in the most direct ways possible. A majority will hopefully return to America after four years of college in Israel, speaking fluent Hebrew and able to form a powerful core for the next generation of American Jewish communal leadership.

Some may return after a year or two, or four, and continue their education in an American college, equipped to face whatever awaits them there. But all of them will get to know Israel as few young American Jews know it now—and, just as important, introduce American Judaism to an Israeli society largely ignorant of its beauty and richness.
Report: Mnuchin Proposes FDA Branch in Israel, Meets With Health Officials
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met on Tuesday with Israeli health officials to discuss opening an Israeli branch of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a Treasury spokesperson told JNS.

Calcalist first reported the meeting.

The meeting, which included Marius Nacht, co-founder of life sciences and healthcare venture capital fund aMoon, as well as senior executives from Israeli health-maintenance organization Clalit and Sheba Medical Center, was held at the home of US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman in Herzliya.

The FDA has few branches outside the United States, including those in China, and several European and Latin American nations.

“At first glance, Israel is too small to meet the FDA criteria for a local branch, but the matter is being considered due to the country’s unusually large concentration of biotech and medtech companies,” reported Calcalist, citing a source familiar with the matter. “While it will not replace the need to apply for FDA clearance in the US, it could shorten the application process for Israeli companies.”

Estimates are that such a branch could be established in Israel in the near future, the person said.
Jaguar-Land Rover Partners With Israeli Car Fleet Management Startup Fleetonomy
Tel Aviv-based car fleet management startup Fleetonomy has signed a collaboration agreement with Jaguar-Land Rover and its investment arm InMotion Ventures, the company announced Monday. Under the agreement, Fleetonomy will provide Jaguar with technology to launch and operate its premium electric chauffeur service Havn.

Founded in 2016 by Lior Gerenstein and former Check Point Software Technologies executive Israel Duanis, Fleetonomy develops a cloud-based fleet management service for carmakers, car rental companies, and ride-sharing services. The company employs 25 people and has raised $4.5 million to date.

In recent years, there is increased demand from international automotive manufacturers for technology that could be used not only to manage car fleets, but to optimize services in real-time and improve them over time, Gerenstein said in a statement.

The right technology partner is critical for the entire service, Lars Klawitter, managing director of Inmotion’s Studio 107, said in a statement.
Pakistan: The Australian Consul-General's wife tale
If you visit the Israeli town of Ramleh, you will find a synagogue built by Pakistani Jews. It is named Magen Shalom, after the synagogue in Karachi which no longer exists. The Jews of Pakistan once numbered about 3,000, but the violent repercussions to the Arab-Israeli conflict have driven the community away. (In addition, as the case of Asia Bibi has shown, Pakistan is hardly today a beacon of religious freedom.) The following story is based on real events and centres around the Jews of Karachi, who were desperate to cross the closed border with India in the 1970s. Wayne Croning has recreated the story in his own words...names are made up.

Hannah made the driver cover the number plates of the Mercedes, even made him remove the flag from the bonnet. She got in front and gave him the address. Jamila Street, in the Ranchore.

Her husband David was posted to Karachi a few months previously, as the Australian Consul-General. Hanna and their children arrived a few weeks later. They had been to several countries, including some in South America. The city reminded her of Bombay, where she and her family once lived.

Crowded, bustling, hot and humid. But she loved it. She loved the food, the people and the culture. The first thing she did on arriving at any new country was to look up the Jewish population; being Jewish herself. After a short search with help through a high ranking local official, she found to her amazement, that there was indeed a small but thriving Jewish community with a decent-sized synagogue in the commercial hub of the city.

As they drove from Clifton to Saddar, they eventually got onto Bunder Road (M.A.Jinnah Road), and took a turn off this busy street.The street they were on now was narrow, but crowded with people, cars, rickshaws, motorcycles. The synagogue was not hard to find. A large stone and brick building soon appeared on their right. Above the steel gate, and on the building itself was a sign: 'Magain Shalome Synagogue’.
Ex-Australian PM, John Howard, honors soldiers of Battle of Beersheba
The sound greeting the hundreds of participants who came to the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery on Thursday to commemorate the 102nd anniversary of the Battle of Beersheba was the indigenous Australian musical instrument the didgeridoo played by Chris Williams, a descendant of the Waka Waka tribe that lives in the island continent’s northern state of Queensland. The didgeridoo realistically emulates the sounds of nature.

Among the arrivals were former Australian legislators, Australian and New Zealand representatives of seven Zionist youth groups, as well as diplomatic representatives and military attaches from the embassies of the United Kingdom, United States, France, Canada, India, Germany and Turkey who participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the catafalque that was led by Australian Ambassador Chris Cannan and New Zealand Ambassador Wendy Hinton.

Also among the wreath layers was a representative of Israel’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, who attended despite the fact that the Foreign Ministry is on strike, and that for some weeks now its representatives have not attended diplomatic events hosted by the ambassadors of other countries.

Declaring that the Battle of Beersheba – which was decisively won 102 years ago by Australian and New Zealand Forces – changed the course of history in the region and the world, former Australian prime minister John Howard honored the memories of all brave soldiers, friend and foe, who fell in battle in 1917.

“We are here not in triumph but in tribute,” he said in the course of his address at the cemetery where 1,241 British, Australian and New Zealand soldiers are buried. Of these, 173 have been identified as Australians.

The year 1917 was a miserable and traumatic one for Australia, with so much slaughter on the battlefields, said Howard,

“In October 1917, more Australians died on the battlefield than in any other war before or since.”

Howard attributed the ultimate success of the campaign to “very basic Australian bravery and daring.”


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Just another meeting at a university

Here are students listening to a lecture at a university.:



Well, the university is in Gaza, the sponsor of the talk is the Islamic Association at Al-Aqsa University.

The topic was "Our Jihad: The time is coming," to celebrate the anniversary of the Islamic Jihad terror group and of Israel's assassination of its founder.



Dr. Riad Abu Znada told the group, "We stand today to commemorate the major symbol of Palestine,  a commando who sacrificed everything to instill the idea of ​​jihad and resistance in our minds."

Another speaker said the state of conflict with "the occupation" will remain in place until Israel ceases to exist.

Who says Palestinians aren't progressive? Chances are we will see lectures like this in universities worldwide, soon enough!


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'Monsters, Inc.' Documentary Explores Israel Harvesting Palestinian Children's Screams For Energy (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory. 


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Monsters IncRamallah, October 31 - Academics and political advocates focusing on the Middle East in general and Palestinian issues in particular have expressed puzzlement that a groundbreaking 2001 film exploring Israel's exploitation of Palestinian children's terrified reactions to its monstrous presence to produce electrical power attracts little to no attention from important audiences.

Monsters, Inc. launched in 2001 and at the time made significant cultural impact, but, activists observe, has had no measurable lasting effect on the discourse around Israel-Palestine, a fact that has prompted them to wonder whether sinister, repressive forces have managed to silence such a powerful public relations tool.

The 90-minute documentary follows the events over several days in a secret Israeli facility that processes Scream, a form of energy  that Israeli soldiers and agents extract from innocent Palestinian children by scaring them. Over the last several decades, cumulative Israeli atrocities and crimes have resulted in more resistant, harder-to-scare children, forcing Israel to resort to more and more extreme measures to secure fuel for its increasing energy needs. The forecast shortfall in energy production leads Israels leadership to new depths of crime and depravity involving the abduction of Palestinian children for experimental new scream-extraction methods that demonstrate no regard for whether the child lives or dies.

"This should have been a watershed moment in the history of the conflict," observed Omar Barghouti, who has campaigned for years to get companies, artists, and institutions to boycott Israel over its treatment of Palestinians, all while earning a postgraduate degree at Tel Aviv University. "This film had a brief moment when the whole world was abuzz with it, but that seems to have faded, and that's unfortunate. No one talks about Palestine except for every organ of the UN, a disproportionate number of NGOs, and tens of thousands of political and cultural figures."

Some academics believe that while overall the documentary tells a solid story of Israeli evil and Palestinian innocence, it took some liberties with the presentation. "The whole fantasy sequence where everything is resolved through laughter is a nice dream, but that should have been left out as unrealistic," remarked commentator Reza Aslan. "The only way to stop the real Scream Extractor from terrorizing Palestinian children is to destroy Israel, because there's always some Jewish tentacled beast trying to oppress and control while looking respectable and moral. I also suspect those of us who might otherwise have been more vocal have been silenced by the Mossad-trained CDA."

"Also, for some reason everything was in English. That was a weird choice."

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10/31 Links Pt1: The Balfour Declaration and the Jewish Threat that Made Britain Honor It; The Myths Indulged by Israeli Advocates of a Palestinian “Right of Return”; Israel, US seek tighter UN scrutiny of UNRWA

From Ian:
Ben Shapiro: EXCLUSIVE: Excerpt From Ambassador Nikki Haley’s Upcoming Book, Slamming Media And Obama Administration
On Thursday, The Daily Wire obtained an excerpt from Ambassador Nikki Haley’s upcoming book, With All Due Respect. Haley is widely perceived to be among the leading Republican candidates in 2024 and beyond; her approval numbers as of April 2018 were unprecedentedly high, with a 75/9 split among Republicans, 55/23 split among Democrats, and 63/19 split among independents. The excerpt demonstrates just why Haley was so popular with Americans across the political spectrum: she was extraordinarily willing to speak hard truths to countries with malign practices and intent, and she stood strongly with American allies in her position as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

The excerpt opens with Haley explaining that when she first arrived in her new position, she made sure to break with foreign policy tradition by taking her first meetings with the members of the U.N. Security Council. Instead, she writes, “We decided to send a message by going another way. I thought it was important to visit our friends first.” After meeting with the British and French ambassadors, therefore, she next “ditched protocol and met with the ambassador from Israel, Danny Danon.” Haley explains:

Seeing Danny in person gave me an opportunity that I had wanted for some time: to know what the passage of Resolution 2334 had been like from his perspective. Danny said he knew something was going on in those last weeks of the Obama administration, he just didn’t know what. He and his colleagues tried for days to reach out to Ambassador Power and everyone they knew in Washington. No one would take their calls. No one would return their messages. The United States had literally stopped talking to Israel.

The most painful part of our conversation was Danny’s recounting of the vote itself. When a non–Security Council member country, like Israel, is the subject of a Security Council vote, its ambassador sits at the huge C-shaped table with the Security Council members. So when Resolution 2334 was passed, Danny was right there. Disgustingly, all the ambassadors at the table stood up and applauded after the vote was tallied. The audience cheered. And in the middle of it all was the Israeli ambassador, remaining seated while the council applauded his country’s humiliation. As Danny told me about it, all I could think was how that feeling was all too familiar to me. I know what it feels like to be dif­ferent, humiliated, and ostracized for being who you are.

Greenblatt's Legacy: The Administration's Peace Vision
U.S. Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason D. Greenblatt will leave his post at the end of October.

Greenblatt repeatedly took the Palestinian Authority to task over its duplicity, such as over its "pay-to-slay" policy of paying Palestinian terrorists and their families.

He asked the UN Security Council, "How is it that we can't find an international consensus that the Palestinian Authority rewarding terrorism and the murder of Israelis using public funds, some donated by countries in this very room, is abhorrent and must be stopped?"

"There is no easy answer as to how to balance the absolute imperative of protecting Israel's security - a principle on which the United States will never compromise - with Palestinian aspirations," he said in June. "Yesterday's peace plans have been unable to create a path to a brighter and more prosperous future while addressing the many challenges to overcome."

One of his legacies is a semantic shift in the vocabulary of U.S. negotiators. Greenblatt has refused to use the word "settlements" for Israeli communities beyond the Green Line, and has instead called them "cities" and "neighborhoods."

Greenblatt told the UN Security Council, "It is true that the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority continue to assert that east Jerusalem must be a capital for the Palestinians. But let's remember: An aspiration is not a right....Aspirations belong at the negotiating table. And only direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians can resolve the issue of Jerusalem if it can be resolved."
The Balfour Declaration and the Jewish Threat that Made Britain Honor It
November 2 marks the 102nd anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, about which I have previously written at length in Mosaic. There, I focused on how the actors who brought the declaration into being assured it would have international legitimacy, and on the tragic failure of Britain and the international community to keep their promise to the Jewish people in the aftermath. Here I want to reflect on an overlooked rationale proposed by the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann to give the declaration some staying power after the world war would finally end.

Historians have long been preoccupied by this question: why did the war cabinet of Prime Minister David Lloyd George issue the November 2, 1917 declaration in the first place? After all, it seemed so improbable, both at the time and in retrospect. That sense of improbability was well expressed by the Hungarian Jewish writer Arthur Koestler, who called the declaration “an act dangerously outside the cautious routine of diplomacy. The whole thing was unorthodox, unpolitic, freakish.” Given that impression, the document quickly invited obsessive speculation as to the real motives behind it, and initially the speculation ranged very widely.

The guesswork would subside when Britain opened its archives in the 1970s. We now know that, far from being “unpolitic,” the Balfour Declaration was very politic indeed. The bottom line was this: the British war cabinet thought a declaration supporting a Jewish national home in Palestine would make for good propaganda among the Jews of Russia and America, who had been tepid in their support of the Allies in a war that had been dragging on for three long years. The Jews, so the reasoning went, would be fired by the prospect of a Jewish Zion, and would use their influence to keep Russia firmly in the fight and persuade the United States to step up.

The war cabinet also thought that official British sponsorship of Zionism would give England an edge over France in the inevitable postwar wrangle over the disposition of the territories of the Middle East. By assuming the noble burden of helping the Jews, Britain would extricate itself from its promise to share Palestine with France as stipulated in the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement—a deal that Lloyd George wanted to break for reasons of postwar imperial strategy.

To summarize: the Balfour episode was a matter of realpolitik all along. True, some have argued with surface plausibility that both Lloyd George and foreign minister Arthur Lord Balfour were motivated at least in part by religious sentiment. That they held such sentiments is not in doubt; but no evidence of this shows up in the cabinet papers themselves. Rather, British officials debated Palestine as they debated India or Egypt, that is, as an element in their thinking about how best to preserve and, if possible, expand the presence of the British empire on the world map.



The Myths Indulged by Israeli Advocates of a Palestinian “Right of Return”
In 2018, two books appeared in Hebrew on the subject of the so-called Palestinian “right of return,” which, if recognized, would allow for the influx of the descendants of Arab refugees from the Israeli War of Independence into an Israel that has already surrendered control over the West Bank. The War over the Right of Return, by Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf, explains why there is no legal, moral, or historical basis for such a right, and why recognizing it would be a disastrous mistake. In Nakba in Hebrew: A Political Journey, Eitan Bronstein-Aparicio and Eleonore Merza-Bronstein—both professional self-hating Jews—make the opposite case. Reviewing both books, Emmanuel Navon writes of the latter:

Bronstein describes at length his efforts to identify the remnants of Arab villages abandoned in 1948 and to make Israelis feel guilty about their erasure. . . . Bronstein lists villages whose names were Hebraized after Israel’s independence, such as Beit Guvrin (formerly Bait Jibrin) and Ein Ayala (formerly Ain Azal). But a similar list could be made of villages with Arabized names: Saffuriya (formerly Tzippori in Hebrew), Nablus (formerly Neapolis in Greek), and Latrun (formerly Le Toron in medieval French), for example. . . . The renaming of conquered cities is hardly an Israeli invention.

Bronstein’s “solution” to the Israel-Palestinian conflict is the practical implementation of the Palestinian “right of return,” [of which] the inevitable outcome would be a binational state with a Jewish minority. Anyone familiar with the Middle East, and with the history of the Jews in Arab lands, knows that such a state would not resemble Canada, Belgium, or Switzerland—but rather Lebanon, Iraq, or Syria. Fortunately, for Bronstein and Merza, they have foreign passports that would allow them to run for their lives after “solving” the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Back in his native Argentina, Bronstein will undoubtedly look for the remnants of former Inca villages destroyed by the Spanish. But then, the Incas themselves were an empire, one that colonized the Diaguitas in the mid-15th century. Bronstein could decide instead to do justice on behalf of the Mapuches. But they, too, conquered other tribes, such as the Puelches and the Querandis. In other words, Bronstein’s Manichean theory of “colonized” versus “colonizers” does not stand the test of historical scrutiny, and is therefore a myth.
Israel, US seek tighter UN scrutiny of Palestinian refugee agency
Washington is once again siding with Jerusalem in its efforts to compel the United Nations to subject the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East to tighter scrutiny.

Next week, a committee named by the UN General Assembly is set to begin discussions on the renewal of UNRWA's mandate. The move traditionally garners an automatic majority, which prevents the agency's shuttering. This year, Israel and the United States have partnered to make the UN increase its oversight of the agency, which is grossly anti-Israel.

The Trump administration has been pushing for reforms in UNRWA and has even sanctioned the agency over its failed financial practices, withholding over $100 million in funding.

In preliminary discussions between the Israeli and US missions to the UN, and with the support of several other countries, it was decided to present the General Assembly with two demands: The first – cutting UNRWA's mandate short, so that it is renewed annually rather than every three years; and the second, compelling UNRWA to increase its financial transparency.

These demands are posed against the backdrop of recent allegations that the agency's actions are tainted by corruption.

The Israeli Mission to the United Nations hopes that the power the US wields in the international body, as well as the growing demand by donor states to know exactly what their money is used for, will lead the UNRWA to instate a much-needed reform.

Israeli Ambassador to UN Danny Danon issued a statement saying "UNRWA is a burden to the international community. It utilizes the world's funds for the dissemination of false narratives against Israel and systematically avoids fulfilling the mission for which it was established. Until such time as UNRWA is permanently closed, we will use all tools at our disposal to increase the oversight to which it is subjected."
HRC Op-Ed In TorStar Papers: “UN Palestinian Agency Doesn’t Reflect Canadian Values”
In the TorStar newspapers the Hamilton Spectator and Waterloo Record today, HRC Research Analyst Noah Lewis argues that Canada should put a moratorium on funding UNRWA, the corrupt UN Palestinian relief agency tarred for having ties to terrorists, whose staff author and distribute virulently antisemitic materials, and which perpetuates the conflict by promising that all refugees (and their descendants) will one day “return” to Israel.

The so-called “right of return” is a code word for the Palestinian’s aspirational dream of destroying Israel and the Jewish state through a demographic ticking bomb with the influx of millions of Palestinian Arabs into Israel.

Read our op-ed in full below:
UNRWA in no way embodies our Canadian values

Earlier in October, Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer announced that a Conservative government would decrease foreign aid spending by 25 percent, asserting that Canadian foreign aid should only be used to “support the Canadian values we hold dear,” rather than to support “anti-Semitic organizations and prop up foreign dictatorships.”

Included in this cut would be Canada’s funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the UN organization responsible for supporting the Palestinian “refugees”, to which Canada was the thirteenth largest donor in 2018, contributing over $26 million USD.

Despite Ihmayed Ali’s attempt to justify Canada’s continued funding of UNRWA, through his own experiences as a Palestinian refugee, the fact of the matter is that UNRWA is a corrupt organization which indoctrinates Palestinian youth with anti-Jewish and anti-Israel, terrorist propaganda, further perpetuating Palestinian suffering and has been criticized for employing and having close ties to Hamas terror operatives.
Six Middle Eastern Countries Join The US In Sanctions Against Hezbollah-Linked Iranian Financial Network
Six Middle Eastern countries have joined the U.S. in sanctioning an Iranian financial network linked to the Iranian military and Hezbollah, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Wednesday.

Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and U.S. are all part of the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC), “a collaborative approach to confronting new and evolving threats arising from terrorist financing,” according to the Treasury Department.

Mnuchin said in a Wednesday statement that he is meeting with officials “from across the region” during his tour of the Middle East to “bolster the fight against terrorist financing” through the TFTC, which was created in May 2017.

“It is a bold effort to expand and strengthen the cooperation amongst seven countries … to counter the financing of terrorism. The TFTC coordinates disruptive actions, shares financial intelligence information, and builds member state capacity to target activities posing national security threats to TFTC members,” Mnuchin continued.

U.S. officials view the collaboration as crucial to continue President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, the fifth largest oil producer in the world, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Mnuchin said the TFTC’s sanctions against Iran’s financial networks used to “fund terrorism” demonstrates unity among Gulf countries and the U.S., adding that “Iran will not be allowed to escalate its malign activity in the region.”

“We are proud to join forces with our TFTC partners to expose and condemn the Iranian regime’s gross and repeated violations of international norms, from attacking critical oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia to fomenting strife in neighboring countries through regional proxies such as Hizballah,” he continued.
US rebukes Germany for refusal to say Iran's threat to destroy Israel is anti-Semitic
Threats by Iran to obliterate Israel have been played down by Germany, prompting the Trump administration’s highest-profile ambassador to criticize Chancellor Angela Merkel government’s attitude towards Tehran.

“Threatening the destruction of Israel is something that should not be dismissed, especially when the threats come from Iranian regime officials who regularly use terrorism as a weapon of intimidation. When someone shows you who they are, believe them,” Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, told Fox News Tuesday.

Mojtaba Zonnour, chairman of National Security and Foreign Policy Committee in Iran’s Majlis legislature, said in October: “If Israel or America make a mistake, Israel won’t live for longer than 20 or 30 minutes.”

According to U.S. organization the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Zonnour delivered his threat on Iran’s Channel 5. He said Iranian drones are tracking activity in American military bases as far as the island of Diego Garcia, a British overseas territory in the central Indian Ocean that is more than 3,000 miles away from the Islamic Republic.

Weeks before Zonnour threatened the destruction of Israel, Major General Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), delivered a call to exterminate the Jewish state that was publicized by the state-funded IRNA agency as well as other Iranian regime outlets.

Salami, speaking to an audience of IRGC leaders, declared, “This sinister regime [Israel] must be wiped off the map and this is no longer… a dream [but] it is an achievable goal.”
Shame on Germany for Denying the Iranian Regime’s Antisemitism
With all of these antisemitic actions that have been carried out by the Iranian regime or its thugs, as well as the antisemitic statements from the regime’s leaders, perhaps the most outrageously antisemitic actions by the Iranian regime have been their full support for vile Holocaust denial.

In December 2006, the Iranian regime proudly hosted a Holocaust denial conference attended by many American and European antisemites. In 2015 and 2016, the Iranian regime’s state-run Sarcheshmeh Cultural Institute organized the country’s official Holocaust Cartoon competition in Tehran that offers up to $50,000 to the cartoonist who featured the most “interesting Holocaust denial cartoon.”

But the antisemitism and Holocaust denial garbage spewed by the Iranian regime is nothing new. This disgusting behavior has a long and proud tradition dating back to the inception of the Islamic Republic. The regime has always maintained warm relations with notorious antisemites, including former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke and other American neo-Nazi groups who frequently appear on the regime’s state-run English language news platform Press TV to spew their messages of Jew-hatred.

Furthermore, the Iranian regime has a long history of ties to European neo-Nazi groups and Holocaust deniers. For example, the Iranian regime proudly announced many years ago that it paid for the legal defense in France of French Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy, who was convicted and fined $80,000 in 1998 for denying the Holocaust. Garaudy was subsequently welcomed in Tehran as a hero and met with the Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

The list of antisemitic actions and statements from the Iranian regime that are not related to Israel is quite long, and it is utterly ridiculous for the current German government to deny it. That Merkel and members of her government continue to maintain diplomatic and economic relations with the Iranian regime that so proudly denies the Holocaust is shameful.

German laws prohibit denying the Holocaust, but German government officials are hypocrites for failing to apply that same law and standard when it comes to the Iranian regime’s officials who do so. The failure of Merkel and her government to oppose the Iranian regime’s open and proud antisemitism is caused either by their desire for economic ties with the regime or a sinister tradition of antisemitism in Germany. The German nation and people should be among the first and most vocal critics of the Iranian regime’s antisemitism, instead of being its apologists.
Normalization – the ultimate betrayal, or the path to peace?
For the hard-line supporters of the Palestinian cause, “normalization” (or “tatbia” in Arabic) is the worst political sin any Palestinian can commit. It has been adopted as a term of abuse by the Palestinian leadership and by organizations that support them – including the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement – to stigmatize any form of joint Palestinian-Israeli activity.

In June, the Palestinian Authority (PA) sacked a man from its Education Ministry and removed him as council chief of the West Bank village of Deir Kadis after a social media video showed four Israeli neighbors joining in the celebration at his son’s wedding.

In December 2018, a Palestinian court in Ramallah sentenced a Palestinian-American to life imprisonment for brokering the sale of a house in the Old City of Jerusalem to an Israeli organization.

In September 2016, the PA arrested four Palestinians for sharing a cup of coffee with Jewish community members in the West Bank town of Efrat, claiming that it was a crime for Palestinians to meet socially with Jewish settlers because it promoted normalization.

In short, in the view of the anti-normalizers, no form of joint activity, cooperation or dialogue with Israelis is acceptable, even engaging with Israeli peace activists who have the best of intentions toward them. All such undertakings must be viewed as collaboration with the enemy, the “colonial oppressors” of the Palestinian people.

The elephant in this room is that every day some 130,000 Palestinians cross into Israel from the West Bank to work for some 8,100 employers. They engage in a whole variety of jobs, and their employment is an important part of the West Bank economy. Palestinians working in Israel bring home about NIS five billion ($1.4 billion). Their average salary is two-and-a-half times the average salary in the Palestinian autonomous areas.

In addition to the Palestinians who work in Israel, around 36,000 are employed in Israeli firms in the West Bank, many earning up to three times the average Palestinian wage. Israel has established several industrial zones there, comprising around 1,000 businesses in all.
Israeli forces re-arrest senior PFLP member in Ramallah
Israeli security forces arrested Khalida Jarrar, a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), early Thursday morning, less than a year after she was released from prison.

Security forces collared Jarrar, 56, in her home in Ramallah at approximately 3 a.m., her husband Ghassan Jarrar said.

An Israeli security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that troops arrested Jarrar.

The official added that she was being held on suspicions of “involvement in terror activity.”

Jarrar, who has long advocated for Palestinian prisoners, is a former PFLP lawmaker in the Palestinian Legislative Council, the Palestinian Authority parliament.

Israel, the United States and the European Union consider the PFLP, one of several member parties of the Palestine Liberation Organization, to be a terrorist organization.

Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the PLO Executive Committee, asked the international community to intervene on behalf of Jarrar.

“We demand the immediate release of Khalida Jarrar, a leader in Palestinian political and social work and women right’s issues. We call on the international community to pressure the Israeli government to free her,” he wrote on Twitter.
Hezbollah shoots at Israeli drone over southern Lebanon
The Hezbollah terror group fired an anti-aircraft missile at an Israeli drone flying over southern Lebanon on Thursday, officials in both countries said.

The Israel Defense Forces denied the Iran-backed terror group’s claim that the aircraft had been shot down over the Lebanese village of Nabatieh.

“A short while ago, anti-aircraft fire was detected from Lebanese territory at an IDF unmanned aerial vehicle. The aircraft was not damaged,” the army said in a statement.

Hezbollah later confirmed that it fired on the aircraft, saying in a brief statement, “At 2:05 p.m. Thursday afternoon, fighters of the Islamic resistance confronted a hostile drone in southern Lebanon’s skies with the appropriate weapons and forced it to leave [the area].”

Footage from Nabatieh that was shared on social media (above) appeared to show an anti-aircraft missile being fired into the air. An explosion was also heard in the area, residents told local media.

The exchange occurred amid heightened tensions between Israel and Iran, and amid a rapidly deteriorating political situation in Lebanon, where nearly two weeks of nonstop protests have paralyzed the country.
Dual Canadian-Lebanese arrested for spying for Israel
A Lebanese-Canadian dual national was arrested in Beirut on suspicion of spying for Israeli intelligence, Lebanese authorities said.

The man, identified as 41-year-old Tabet Tabet by Lebanon’s LBCI television network, was arrested by officers of the General Security Directorate at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport Tuesday, on “suspicion of collaborating with Israel.”

According to LCBI, the General Security Directorate had 303 intelligence reports showing that Tabet collaborated with Israel. He was referred to the judiciary for investigation, the statement added.

In a video filmed from his detention at the airport, Tabet called on the Canadian government to get him released.

“I have been held hostage by the corrupt Lebanese government. I am Tabet Tabet and I am at Beirut’s airport. I want the Canadian embassy and government to do her job,” he is heard saying before repeating the message in Arabic.

Israel and Lebanon remain in a state of war, and the Lebanese government has detained hundreds of people on suspicion of spying for Israel since 2009.
Jordan Recalls Ambassador to Israel Over Arrest of Two Citizens
Father of Jordanian citizen Hiba al-Labadi, apprehended in Israel on suspicion of recruiting agents for Lebanese Hezbollah terror group, discharged on Wednesday charges against his daughter. Speaking to Hebrew-language broadcaster Channel 12, the father said, “she is a victim of the political situation between Israel and Jordan, [but] she didn’t do anything.


Khaled Abu Toameh: What Are Palestinian Leaders Afraid Of?
Hamas justified the arrest of Qatoush by accusing him of "leaking security details." It is not clear how a complaint about economic hardship has turned into a security-related case. In the eyes of Hamas, however, it seems that any Palestinian who dares to complain about the bad economy in the Gaza Strip is a "traitor" and a "security threat."

From all accounts, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas are neck-and-neck in their competition to crush freedom of expression and crack down on the media.

"It is certain that the Arab Spring will arrive, sooner or later, to Palestine... The [ruling] Palestinian elite is mostly corrupt and tyrannical. With the exception of a few, the [Palestinian] elite is corrupt and incompetent -- or both." — Hani al-Masri, a prominent Palestinian political analyst, samanews.ps, October 22, 2019.

Criticism is fine, of course -- if it is directed at the Palestinians' arch-enemy, Israel. Otherwise, Palestinian journalists had best keep their criticism to themselves -- lest the PA and Hamas decide to leave them in critical condition.
PMW: Palestinian PM sees mother of 6 terrorist murderers as role model, Ramallah Governor lauds terror mom as "symbol for Palestinian women"
There is no doubt Palestinian Authority leaders value terrorists and murderers, and go to great lengths to show their support for them: The PA pays them generous salaries while in Israeli prison and after, ensures them jobs upon their release, and even rebuilds their houses free of charge when Israel demolishes them as a deterrent to discourage others from attacking Israelis.

The most recent show of this infinite endorsement has come from the very top of the PA - from the Prime Minister himself - to Um Nasser Abu Hmeid who is the mother of 6 terrorists responsible for at least 10 murders.

In May 2018, Islam Abu Hmeid threw a marble block from the roof of the Abu Hmeid family house, murdering Israeli staff sergeant Ronen Lyubarsky. In response, as part of its deterrent policy, Israel demolished the family's house. Immediately afterwards, the PA committed itself to rebuilding it. Despite the financial crisis the PA was in, work on the construction progressed and just a few weeks ago, Palestinian media announced that the new structure was taking form. Enforcing the original decision, Israel destroyed the structure being built.

This prompted PA PM Muhammad Shtayyeh to visit the mother, Um Nasser, and promise her the PA will rebuild the family's house once more. Shtayyeh also praised the terror mom as a role model, calling her "a school for patience," stating that Palestinian society "learn from her":
PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh with his arm around terror mom Um Nasser Abu Hmeid.

"The prime minister said: 'I convey to you the blessings of [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas, and emphasize to you that wewill remain loyal to our commitments to our prisoners and Martyrs and their families, and this is at the heart of our priorities and concerns and we will build what the occupation destroyed.' He added: 'Um Nasser is a school for patience and we learn perseverance and resolve from her, and Allah willing the day will come when we will visit you in your home in Jerusalem.'" [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 25, 2019]


MEMRI: Family of Female Palestinian Suicide Bomber Hanadi Jaradat: Hanadi's Father Handed Out Sweets In Celebration Of Her Martyrdom, Wanted Congratulations Instead Of Condolences
On October 8, 2019, Al-Quds Al-Youm TV (Palestine – Islamic Jihad) aired a report about Hanadi Jaradat, a Palestinian woman from Jenin who carried out a suicide bombing in a restaurant in Haifa on October 4, 2003. Hanadi's mother, who was interviewed in the report, praised Allah for having given Hanadi what she had asked for, and Hanadi's brother said that his father had handed out sweets upon hearing about the operation and wanted people to give him congratulations instead of condolences. Women's issues activist Umm Ahmad said that Israel arrogantly thinks that women who carry out attacks are uneducated and ignorant, but that many of them are doctors, teachers, and lawyers. She ends by saluting Palestinian male and female martyrs.

"When My Father Was Told That His Daughter Carried Out The Operation, He Started Handing Out Sweets, He Said That He Wants Congratulations, Not Condolences"

Hanadi Jaradat's Brother: "When people came and said that it was Hanadi Jaradat who carried out the operation, it was like watching a scene on TV. It was like watching [a report about] an operation on TV. My father, may he rest in peace, would always say: 'May Allah protect the bellies of the mothers of those who carried out the operation.' At the end of the day, it is a matter of venting one's anger."

Hanadi Jaradat's Mother: "Praise be to Allah. This is what she asked for and Allah did not disappoint her. Praise be to Allah for honoring her and giving her [what she wanted]."

Hanadi Jaradat's Brother: "When my father was told that his daughter carried out the operation, he started handing out sweets. He said that he wants congratulations, not condolences.
Khaled Abu Toameh: PA police arrest, harass members of LGTBQ community
The Palestinian Authority’s persecution of the Palestinian LGBTQ community in the West Bank has continued with greater frequency and intensity, notwithstanding protests from human rights organizations, the alQaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society group said on Wednesday.

Members of the Palestinian LGBTQ community have in recent weeks been violently targeted and harassed by PA officers, the group revealed.

“Alarmingly, we have witnessed more than a dozen cases of targeting and harassment that have led to numerous arrests – or rather abductions – in recent weeks,” it said. “We believe there are many more cases that have not reached us.”

In August, the PA police spokesperson issued a statement banning the east Jerusalem-based alQaws’ activities in the West Bank. The statement said that the PA police would prohibit any event organized by the group on the pretext that its activities go against “traditional Palestinian values.”

The PA police called on Palestinians to report any “suspicious” activities and threatened to persecute alQaws staff and activists. The ban came after alQaws held an event in Nablus for its members.

“Although the harassment and persecution disappeared from public discourse, it had not – and still has not – ceased. The violent aftermath of the PA police statement has continued and reached its peak in recent weeks,” alQaws said.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Backed by Iran, Seeks Rocket-Launchers in West Bank
Since Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Palestinian terror factions have turned Gaza into a major rocket production zone, and they’re trying to replicate some of those activities in the West Bank, so far without success.

On Sept. 23, Channel 12 news in Israel reported that Palestinian Authority security forces thwarted an attempt by a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) cell to assemble rockets in the West Bank.

PIJ is backed by Iran and loyal to the Islamic Republic.

Quoting sources in Ramallah, the Channel 12 report said terror operatives were seeking to build the rockets with Iranian instructions, but that the projectiles were not sophisticated in nature.

It appears as if Palestinian terror factions have sought to develop rocket and mortar attack capabilities in the West Bank for several years, though they have not gotten far due to Israel’s tight intelligence grip and its ability to send security forces in to break up plots.

As a result, their ability to produce such weapons is severely hampered, though this has not stopped them from trying again and again.

This is in stark contrast to Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas, and which has developed an extensive domestic-weapons industry. In Gaza, Hamas and PIJ have in excess of 20,000 rockets pointed at Israeli cities.
Moroccan Activist Arrested for Protesting Against Israel's Participation in Exhibition
The trial of the head of the Moroccan Observatory against Normalization (non-governmental), Ahmed Wehman, who is currently under arrest, will begin next Thursday, following his protest against the participation of an Israeli company in international dates fair in the kingdom, stated a Moroccan activist.

The general secretary of the observatory Aziz Hanawi told the Anadolu Agency that the prosecution in the city of Rashidiya decided, Monday, to keep Wehman in custody arrest.

Hanawi added that “the arrest and Wehman came after his protest at the international dates’ fair, organised by the Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture, last Saturday, against the participation of an Israeli company, which prompted the authorities to intervene and halt the protest.”

He explained that the representative of the Public Prosecution in Rashidiya charged Wehman of “insulting an employee and exerting violence.” Thus, Wehman’s trial will take place next Thursday.

“Our main battle is against normalisation and Zionist infiltration, and nothing will stop us from doing so”, Hanawi said.
Mordechai Kedar: The mask is off: Lebanon is Hezbollah
I have some news for my readers: there has been no state of Lebanon for some time now. The entity to the north of us is nothing but a mask covering up the bitter reality – the state is a state of Hezbollah, and its ruler is Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Its agenda is dictated by Tehran, Hezbollah's army is stronger than the official Lebanese army, and the economy is designed to serve Nasrallah's goals.

The Lebanese parliament, government, president, and all other state institutions are nothing more than a façade for players directed by Nasrallah, who also decides on what they will be paid for "good behavior" and whether his collaborators can collect favors from the corruption that is running rampant.

The public is well aware of the situation and is furious about it. Two weeks ago, the people took to the streets to protest "corruption" and demand that the government resign. The unifying slogan has been "Everyone – as in, everyone," meaning – get rid of all the ministers because they are all corrupt, including the ministers that Hezbollah has placed in the government.

Nasrallah and his Iranian sponsors are afraid that the mask will fall off, break, and expose the country's true face – which is the face of Hezbollah – to the world at large. If that happens, the world will stop selling weapons to the Lebanese army ("We have to strengthen the Lebanese army for the challenges facing it," say French weapons manufacturers and others) and stop lending the country money that just goes to support the thieving regime Hezbollah has put in place.
JPost Editorial: Hariri’s resignation
What are the ramifications of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s resignation on Tuesday for Lebanon, the region and especially Israel?

Itzhak Levanon, a former ambassador and head of the North Africa and Lebanon desk at the Foreign Ministry, told Jerusalem Post diplomatic reporter Herb Keinon that the move is unlikely to have an immediate impact on Israel.

“There is no great significance from this for Israel, because no one – at this time – is touching Hezbollah or its military strength,” he said. “The time might come, but no one is talking about it now.”

But other Israeli officials voiced concern, off the record, that Lebanon could be plunged into chaos. They noted that Hariri’s resignation was triggered by a Hezbollah rampage through the main protest camp in Beirut, and warned that a Hezbollah takeover of Lebanon could pose a serious threat to its southern neighbor.

While Hariri, they say, was not exactly a friend of Israel, Hezbollah is an openly hostile terrorist organization bent on destroying the Jewish state; and if Lebanese President Michel Aoun hands over the reins to Hezbollah, Israel could face a major escalation on its northern border.

Hariri stepped down after two weeks of growing antigovernment protests amid the country’s worst economic crisis since its civil war, which lasted from 1975 to 1990. As Aoun deliberated over whom to appoint in his place, or whether to call new elections, the political uncertainty in the troubled country is a cause for concern.

“I’m at a dead end,” Hariri said in his resignation speech. “Jobs come and go, but what’s important is the country. No one’s bigger than the nation.”
Lebanon In Crisis
The protests in Lebanon have dominated the world news. But what is actually going on and how will the aftermath of these countrywide protests impact the future of the people in Lebanon and the Middle East as a whole?


JCPA: Iraqis Take to the Streets to Oppose Iran’s Involvement in their Country
Iran continues to monitor closely and “with great sensitivity” the demonstrations in Iraq and the increasing calls for the cessation of Iranian involvement in Iraq, demanded in the latest round of protests. As expected, the Iranian foreign ministry is pointing a finger at “certain groups” who are exploiting the legitimate calls of the Iraqi people to change and improve living conditions. Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said he was confident that the Iraqi government and the country’s Shiite religious leadership could overcome the obstacles to move Iraq forward with unity. Mousavi emphasized, “Iran has always supported the government and the Iraqi people and helped them in times of crisis through friendship and good neighborliness.”

Iran’s state media – The Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN) and Radio Iran – reported that foreign influences were behind the riots and reported that Iraq temporarily suspended Saudi television broadcasts of Al-Hadath and Al-Arabiya after they took “provocative measures” like quoting Shiite militant Hadi al-Amari, who claimed that both Israel and the United States are inciting the protesters. Also, Qais Khazali, who heads the pro-Iranian Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq militia, blamed Israel for the situation in Iraq.2

Iranian media also refrained from reporting the burning of Iranian flags at the Iranian consulate in Karbala. Hundreds of protesters surrounded the consulate building with the cries of “Iran, Get Out, Get Out from Iraq … Baghdad Will Remain Free.” They burned Iranian flags and caused heavy damage to the consulate building.4 The protesters also trampled on the pictures of Al-Quds force commander Qasem Soleimani (a grave insult in the Arab world).5 The Iranian consulate building in the port city of Basra was also set ablaze despite attempts by Shi’ite militias to protect it. With cries of “Stop the Persian Occupation of Arab Iraq,” the protestors set ablaze the building.6

In Arab social networks, the use of the term “Intifada” also trended during the protest in Lebanon, during which there were also sporadic calls to reduce Iranian involvement in the country through Hizbullah. In this context, Nasrallah’s acknowledgment of Iranian aid in weapons, funding, food, and more (“As long as Iran has money, we have money”) has drawn criticism on social networks. The statement portrays Nasrallah as an Iranian agent and as “working for the Iranians.”7
German gov't company may be working with Iranian terrorist group IRGC
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration and a semi-government company are organizing trade affairs in the Islamic Republic of Iran that are circumventing US sanctions and may expose the German business to American economic penalties due to terrorism.

The European organization Stop The Bomb said in a Tuesday statement that businesses “involved in those fairs were in the past also companies that are affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] and the Iranian military. Those companies hold responsibility for the repression in Iran, destabilizing the region and threatening Israel. Through IMAG’s [International Trade Fair Service] fairs they gain recognition, profit and the possibility to initiate business deals globally.”

The United States government classifies the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization. Stop the Bomb seeks to end Iran’s nuclear weapons program and improve human rights in the Islamic Republic.

Stop the Bomb spokeswoman Ulrike Becker said, “We think it’s unbearable that the German government and German companies are a leading actor in establishing business with the only regime which considers the annihilation of Israel a linchpin of its foreign policy. We call upon both the government and the companies: Stop your activities in Iran! There must not be any business with Iran until the regime stops the threats against Israel, its support of terrorism in the region, and globally and of course, its constant violations of human rights.”

Jerusalem Post press queries to IMAG’s managing director Peter Bergleiter, senior executive Gabriele Kraus, and the company’s public relations director Claudia Grzelke were not answered.

IMAG played a role in organizing the International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago last year. IMAG is slated to organize Conexpo CON/AGG, “North America’s largest construction trade show,” which is held every three years at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Nevada. The next Conexpo CON/AGG event is scheduled for March 10-14, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Last year, US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell told the German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur in connection with German companies, “If you are doing business with Iran, you are giving money to the Iranian regime, which spends massive amounts of money on terrorist activities.”
US envoy: Iran has spent $16 billion on militias in Iraq, Syria
The US envoy for Iran said Thursday that Tehran has funded militia groups in Syria and Iraq to the tune of $16 billion.

US State Department Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook, who made the comments in an interview with Saudi broadcaster Al Arabiya, did not specify over what time period the money was sent.

Iran has longstanding ties to a number of armed Shiite groups in Iraq and was a key backer of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a paramilitary group that fought against the Islamic State jihadist organization.

In Syria, Iran supports militias fighting on behalf of its ally Syrian President Bashar Assad in that country’s civil war.

Tehran also backs other armed factions such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group and the Houthis in Yemen.

Israel has accused Iran of seeking to place advanced weaponry in Iraq and Syria that could be used to target the Jewish state. On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran was trying to launch precision-guided missiles at Israel from Yemen and elsewhere in the region.

On Wednesday, Israeli Air Force chief Amikam Norkin said the military’s multi-tiered network of air defense systems was “on alert” amid a general threat of attack by Iran.
Tehran Is Sinking at Alarming Rate
As years of drought and water mismanagement have depleted underground water reservoirs, Tehran is sinking by 8-10 inches a year.

On Oct. 30, Yahya Jamour, the technical deputy of the Mapping Organization, told ISNA that some electricity towers have tilted as a result of the land subsidence.

Jamour estimated the rate of subsidence in Tehran at 18 cm. or 8 inches a year, while areas around Tehran are sinking at a rate of 26 cm. or 10 inches.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards honor Jewish soldiers who died in Iran-Iraq War
Nowadays, mentioning the words “Iran” and “Jews” together might bring thoughts of the Iranian regime, its attitudes toward Israel and the animosity that exists between the two countries. However, a ceremony was held in Iran this week in honor of Jewish soldiers who died during the Iran-Iraq war, which took place between 1980-1988, Mako reported.

During the ceremony, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps soldiers saluted to the sound of Jewish prayer made in honor of the fallen. Later these soldiers helped clean the soldier’s graves.

In 2014 Iranian authorities inaugurated a new memorial for the Jewish soldiers who had died in the war. Of the Iranian Jews who fought during that war as conscripted soldiers, about 15 were killed.

Over 100,000 people were killed during the eight-year long conflict, although other estimates place that figure much higher.

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