[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 09/08 Links Pt2: It Is Disgraceful to Compare European Migrants to Holocaust Victims ~ EoZ

From Ian:

It Is Disgraceful to Compare European Migrants to Holocaust Victims

If we are to believe Robert Frolich, Hungary’s chief rabbi, we’re witnessing scenes not seen in Europe since the Holocaust. “It was horrifying when I saw those images [of migrants in Europe],” Frolich told The New York Times. “It reminded me of Auschwitz.”
What were those images? Thousands of migrants had entered the Czech Republic illegally, and police had written numbers on the arms of some with markers, to help keep track of them. This simple procedure reminded the rabbi of the tattooing of concentration camp inmates marked for death. Meanwhile, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece and France have been erecting flimsy razor-wire fences in a desperate and unsuccessful bid to keep out illegal immigrants who have been pouring across their borders en masse for weeks and months.
Another outrage caused Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch’s Jewish executive director, to trot out his own Holocaust comparison. “Certainly those images of the trains can’t help but conjure up nightmares of the Holocaust,” he pontificated.
Roth was referring the trains carrying thousands of migrants from their points of illegal entry in sovereign nations like Hungary towards Germany, via Austria, where they had insisted on going, and where they would be housed in relative comfort – not shuffled off to their deaths in concentration camps.
“They tell them that the train was going to Austria and then take them to a camp instead,” Frolich chimed in. “[I]t is very similar to what happened to Jews in the 1940s.”
Is it? Such gratuitous comparisons to the fate of Jewish Holocaust victims are not only fatuous; they are disgraceful – especially coming from a rabbi and a human rights activist, both of whom should know better. It was the migrants themselves who had insisted on getting on those trains in the first place. When Hungarian authorities in Budapest tried to stop them, the asylum-seekers came close to rioting.

IsraellyCool: We Can’t Compare Syrian Refugees And Jews Fleeing Nazis

Since the moment we saw those pictures of that little boy washed up on the beach, there has been a clamouring noise from too many people keen to relate the current refugee crisis to the plight of the Jews in Nazi Europe. Let’s overlook the hundreds of thousands already murdered in Syria’s civil war.
So I was just wondering if I could ask something of all those people quick to claim that Syrian refugees are the new 1930’s Jews.
For those Jews who managed to escape Nazi Germany, where were the refugee camps, like the ones in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan today hosting 4,088,099 registered refugees (6th Sept). Because I’ve never heard anyone mention them. I’m sure a lot of Jews must have been saved in those camps.
As far as I know, in 1939 there were precisely zero Jewish countries and zero safe and secure refugee camps. I suspect if there had been a Jewish country or even a refugee camp it would have taken in some refugees. Worse: the major nations of the world, especially Britain, blocked Jews from reaching safety and sent them back to be murdered by Hitler.
There are 23 Arab countries and a somewhere north of 60 Muslim countries and beyond the immediate neighbours housing huge UNHCR camps, they are doing almost nothing to help and are certainly not offering to permanently settle refugees as the nations of Europe are being called upon to do.
To punch emotional buttons and compare people who are fleeing safe and secure (if desperately unpleasant and hopeless) refugee camps with the 6 million murdered Jews is really, really dark.

Douglas Murray: Where is the ‘Ummah’ now?

I have just returned from a trip abroad to find Britain and Europe in a state of madness. I will not reflect on any connections between these events. But perhaps a reader could enlighten me as to why in recent days Britain and Europe appear to have decided that Syria’s refugees are entirely ‘our’ responsibility. Other than a generalised sense that we are all human beings, Europeans are about as far down the list of those responsible as it is possible to be.
Neither this country nor any of our European allies have made any significant intervention in Syria’s civil war. So why should Hungarians and Slovakians, Austrians and Poles be expected to bear such a significant responsibility for this?
Whenever Britain or America or Israel do have any involvement in any Islamic country we hear a very great deal about the ‘Ummah’. The OIC and the Arab League, for instance, never miss an opportunity to talk about the brotherhood and unity of the Islamic nation and how much any ‘hurt’ or offence to any part of this entity hurts and offends the whole.
Well Iran and Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Turkey and almost every other Muslim country in the Middle East have been involving themselves in the Syrian civil war for four years now. Many have sent fully-equipped armies of their own to fight intra-Islamic rivalries in the homeland of the Syrian peoples. And yet it is Europeans who are falling for the idea that because of this, it is our responsibility – not theirs – to pay for the mess they have created.
Well it seems to me that at the very least we should ask these countries ‘Where is your “Ummah” now?’ Sure, Jordan and Lebanon are grudgingly having to cope with plenty of refugees from Syria. But not one of the Gulf States – not one – has a resettlement programme for a single Syrian refugee.

World Questions Absence of Wealthy Gulf Nations in Migrant Crisis

The ongoing wars in the Levant area of the Middle East, particularly in Syria, have claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands, and many have chosen to flee in desperation. However, none of these migrants from war-torn countries seem to be traveling south to the Gulf, and for good reason.
Their Arab co-ethnics in the Gulf states are, for the most part, refusing to offer resettlement to a single person, drawing the ire of NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, the Washington Post reports. The situation is also exacerbating the ongoing migrant crisis in Europe.
Luay Al Khatteeb of the Brookings institution tweeted out a map showing that the oil-rich Gulf nations, such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE have not taken in a single refugee from the ongoing Syrian Civil War.
These oil-rich nations have plenty of cash at their disposal, and their citizens live much more comfortable lives, on average, when compared to their northern Arab neighbors, which would seemingly create a situation where the Gulf nations would be able to absorb some refugees.
The article also points out that the Gulf states have not exactly been “innocent bystanders” when trying to create a result from the regional wars. For example, the piece notes that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and others have funded rebel and Islamist groups fighting against the Assad regime.

Growing number of EU states say they prefer non-Muslim refugees

European Union member Cyprus said Monday it was willing to take in up to 300 Middle East refugees to help ease the crisis facing the EU, but preferred them to be Christians.
It thus joined a growing list of EU nations which have expressed a preference for Christians, rather than Muslims, in their acceptance of asylum seekers.
“We have already stated that 260, a maximum of 300, people can be taken in” by the small eastern Mediterranean island, Interior Minister Socrates Hasikos told state radio.
“We would seek for them to be Orthodox Christians … that’s what we would prefer,” he said, adding that this would allow them to “integrate better” with the island’s predominantly Greek Cypriot population.
Hasikos later issued a statement clarifying that other EU members have also said they would prefer to take in Christians and that Cyprus has in the past rescued and received refugees “without discrimination on ethnicity or religion.”
Those other EU members include Bulgaria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Estonia and possibly Poland. All have claimed their policies are not discriminatory but rather an effort to maintain cultural cohesion.

'More Killed in a Day at Auschwitz Than All of the Nakba'

Holocaust survivor Yosef Kleinman, who was imprisoned in Auschwitz-Birkenau during the war and later testified at the trial against Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann, was among the protestors.
"Two weeks ago I heard this symposium was taking place the Van Leer Institute. I was shocked," Kleinman recalled. "How can we even make a claim like that. More people were murdered in one day at Auschwitz then all of their 'Nakba.'"
"I was there and I was here in 1948 too and I know what was there [in Auschwitz]. Four chimneys emitting black smoke day and night. When that wasn't enough, they dug pits and buried and burned corpses in those pits. There were days when the smoke didn't reach the sky, but dispersed and covered all of Auschwitz-Birkenau."
"Based on this, they say the so-called 'Nakba' was similar to our Holocaust? The Arabs wanted to destroy us," Kleinman asserted. "They fled from here because their leaders told them it would be easier that way to destroy us."
"Now they come...just to denigrate the people of Israel. It's an illness," he blasted.

Rewriting history

Rather than reading like a rush job, the fruits of their time-intensive labor – the alternate- history novel The Ambassador – is a compelling, intricately plotted page-turner that deftly combines well-researched historical detail, Avner’s vast experience in diplomatic circles and Rees’s finely tuned storytelling skills.
The premise is not new, but has never been executed with such flair and authoritative confidence: What would have happened to the Nazi war effort and its program to exterminate the Jews of Europe if Israel had come into existence in 1938 instead of 1948? In Avner’s and Rees’s parallel universe, the Peel Commission’s recommendation to establish a Jewish state in the Land of Israel is accepted by the British Cabinet in 1937, resulting in the State of Israel declaring its independence in 1938.
The Ambassador is centered around the life and actions of Dan Lavi, a young diplomat whom Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion has sent to serve as Israel’s first ambassador to Berlin. His instructions: Cooperate with Hitler’s henchmen, such as Adolph Eichmann, in order to bring as many Jews as possible to Israel.
Sometimes that stance puts him at odds with his fellow embassy staff, some of whom would be happy to use their special access to eliminate the Nazi upper echelon.
The convincing settings and zesty dialogue are the results of Avner’s decades-long career in closed meetings and diplomatic intrigue, as chronicled in his acclaimed book and subsequent two-part film The Prime Ministers.

Manchester gang took ‘great joy’ in beating up Jewish kid, says his father

A 17-year-old Jewish teenager who was beaten unconscious at a train stop in Manchester in a suspected anti-Semitic attack on Saturday night underwent surgery and was brought out of a coma on Monday, Israel’s Channel 2 news reported.
The TV report named the victim as Moshe Fuerst. His father Michael said the attack was carried out by a gang of “non-Jewish boys who were drunk” and who took “great joy, I’m sure, from the fact that they were beating up a Jewish kid.”
Three other Jews — two 18-year-olds and a 20-year-old — were also hurt in the assault. Police are treating the incident as an anti-Semitic attack.
“Antisemitism and hate crimes of any sort are totally unacceptable,” Communities Minister Baroness Williams of Trafford said. “I am appalled to hear of this weekend’s attack in Manchester and would urge anyone with information to come forward. Let me be clear, this government takes fighting anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hatred seriously and anyone found guilty of these vile crimes will feel the full force of the law.”
Moshe suffered “a suspected bleed to the brain,” according to local newspaper reports.

More Troubling Conduct By AMZ Productions Owner

Following my expose of AMZ Productions antisemitism, their owner Jesse Locke engaged me on Twitter, refusing to explain why he ‘Liked’ the antisemitic comment or even to condemn antisemitism. Instead, he doubled down and accused Israellycool of “harboring hatred,” being “racially charged against palestinians” and “promoting physically threatening children.”
The basis of these charges? Some comments left on the site, which I had not checked, and which I certainly do not condone.* Nevertheless, this was the best he could do to try and tarnish this site, instead of expressing remorse for endorsing a vile, antisemitic comment.
In the meantime, he quietly removed the offending ‘Like’ from the antisemitic comment, but kept the comment on the site, while removing some pro-Israel ones.
So he would not seem to be a fan of Jews, which might help explain why he is helping produce a Pallywood movie.
Meanwhile, a reader has sent me a link to Locke’s Facebook page, which contains the following photo:
Besides Locke’s nonchalance towards playing dress-up as a Nazi to represent “book burning,” notice the comment by his FB friend with a Jewish-sounding name – a comment Locke seems to ignore.
Now this might ordinarily be seen merely as poor taste, but his endorsement of an antisemitic comment on a FB page might put it into a different, more disturbing perspective.

Students Supporting Israel: First SSI Conference, It's All About the Students!

When I walked into Students Supporting Israel’s very first conference, with my SSI pin on the lapel of my black blazer, I was filled with pride. During the past eight months that I have been a part of this organization, I have watched it grow from 20 to nearly 50 chapters, with SSI leaders across North America who came together in the city where it all started – Minneapolis.
I could write about everything I learned at the conference, or the remarkable speakers, but the best part of the conference is what SSI is really about – the students. SSI is different from any other pro-Israel organization because it is built by students, for students. Every leader and founder of an SSI chapter has played a fundamental role in shaping the organization and leading the pro-Israel fight on university campuses. Every student is just as much a part of SSI as our founders at the University of Minnesota.
Our first conference was not just a milestone; it was a personal accomplishment for each and every one of us. It was an opportunity to recognize the work we had done and look forward to another year of pro-active, pro-Israel activism. Even if every SSI leader has had different experiences on campus, and we have all had to fight different battles, we have never had to so alone. SSI is more than a network of students – we are a family. Being a part of SSI does not only mean empowering ourselves to be the pro-Israel voices on our respective campuses, it means empowering each other.

BBC Panorama on Jeremy Corbyn

Last night’s Panorama broadcast is well worth a look if you haven’t seen it already.
Remember that British forces were in the thick of it in Iraq when this was published.
For another look at this corner of Corbyn’s foul world, see this report from the Cairo conference. Naturally Corbyn’s mate John Rees shows up:
In the opening session John Rees, from the Stop the War Coalition in Britain, received loud applause when he said, ‘We stopped George Bush from launching his re-election campaign in London last month. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people poured onto the streets. People have come from Britain in solidarity with you. This is not merely because we sympathise with your struggle, and that of Iraq and Palestine. We come because your struggle is our struggle, your enemy, our enemy.
Will this bring Corbyn’s “peace process” lies to an end? It certainly should but it won’t, of course.

BBC Asks Corbyn if He Thinks Iraqis have the Right to Kill British Troops

The Brits that want to see Netanyahu behind bars

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit London on Wednesday, where he will be welcomed by his friend and ally British Prime Minister David Cameron. “The visit will provide the opportunity to explore new bilateral cooperation in a number of fields,” the Embassy of Israel in London said ahead of the visit, “and to discuss regional issues affecting both countries.”
When Netanyahu’s convoy reaches Downing Street, however, he may notice that not everyone is happy about his trip. Several anti-Israeli organizations are planning a protest under the slogan “We tell Cameron: Netanyahu not welcome in the UK.”
“Mr Cameron should get his priorities straight”, says Hugh Lanning, Chair of Palestine Solidarity Campaign who claims to have sent Cameron a letter with 10 thousand signatures, calling on the British prime minister to cancel Netanyahu's visit and instead impose sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel. “We want to know why David Cameron is welcoming a man directly responsible for UN-identified war crimes to the UK,” he states. “His welcome for Netanyahu sends out a very negative message about the UK government’s attitude towards Israel’s serial human rights abuses and the war crimes it committed in Gaza last year.”
Participating in the protest is also Member of Parliament Tommy Sheppard of the Scottish National Party, who will be a keynote speaker.
“I want to register on behalf of myself and my SNP colleagues a concern about Mr. Netanyahu being welcomed by Cameron to London when we think the British government should be trying to put pressure on the Israeli government to change some of its policies with regard to settlements, the occupied territories, treatment of Palestinians and actions in Gaza,” Sheppard said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post. “I believe the current policies of the Israeli government are probably the current largest obstacles to achieving peace in the Middle East.”

BBC Radio Wales promotes and endorses anti-Israel activist with a penchant for Nazi analogy

The ‘Stop the War Coalition’ is just about the last organisation one would approach for rational, impartial, factual and informative comment on anything connected to the Middle East. As has been noted here before, the StWC:
“… collaborates with 9/11 ‘troofers’ and antisemites such as Lowkey. It supports the annual Al Quds Day anti-Israel hate-fest organized in London by the Khomenist-regime’s UK supporters at the IHRC. It dabbles in anti-Americanism and antisemitism of its own and has rallied in support of the Assad regime in Syria and the Iranian dictatorship.”
Nevertheless, that was precisely the group from which BBC Radio Wales solicited comment in an item concerning Cardiff council’s cancellation of a photography exhibition showing coexistence in Israel through football less than a day after it opened which was broadcast on September 4th on its ‘Good Evening Wales’ programme.

Anti-Zionism is Anti-Semitism: BDS(M) hurts itself again in l’affaire Matisyahu

Last month’s pathetic “Matisyahu affair” conclusively demonstrated the obvious. BDS — or what some call, with a mischievous wink, and not inappropriately, “BDSM”: the sadistic Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions Movement to destroy Israel — is anti-Semitic. For this time — as everyone knows by now — the performer they tried to ban from singing at a music festival in Spain was Jewish-American, and not Israeli. Yet that didn’t stop these so-called “anti-Zionists.”
Far from it. Seamlessly conflating Jews with Israel, the anti-Jewish activists in this case demanded of a popular reggae artist that he alone — as the condition of being allowed to participate like anyone else — make a statement on the Arab-Israeli conflict, one in keeping with their ideology. Or else. When the young man refused to be bullied, he was dropped from the program. Fortunately, when the embarrassed Spanish government found out about it, he was reinstated.
But by then, the latest bit of self-lacerating damage to BDS’s already decidedly sketch reputation had been done. Once again — in an increasingly symptomatic pattern of dramatically self-destructive acting out — they’d revealed what they really want. To be punished.
As with the blatant discrimination faced on campus last year by Jewish undergraduate students Rachel Beyda (of UCLA) and Molly Horowitz (of Stanford University), what Matisyahu’s cruel singling out reminded the world of was plain: anti-Israel activists inevitably strike at not only the Jewish state but, by definition, Jews in general. If nothing else, they succeed at creating an environment where the idea of suspecting — even “testing” — Jews in particular concerning their level of “political correctness” becomes possible. Today’s anti-Zionism, in other words, is the “new anti-Semitism.”

Mark LeVine Defends Matisyahu Boycott at Spanish Music Fest

UC Irvine professor and Campus Watch Howler of the Month legend Mark LeVine told me once that if I ever called him an anti-Israel activist again, I was going to have a big problem. That was slanderous, said Mark.
So it never ceases to confuse me when Mark writes articles like this-for Al Jazeera, no less. In this latest piece de resistance,Mark confuses us all with this twisted analysis of the recent appearance of pro-Israel Jewish performer Matisyahu at a Spanish reggae festival.
"Among his views, as detailed by the BDS Pais Valencia, Matisyahu has defended the murder of international activists by IDF forces in the infamous 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla,....."
If he is referring to the Mari Marmara incident, since when is self defense "murder"?
"Matisyahu has no place appearing at a peace festival."
How about Bob Hope, Mark? How about Marlene Dietrich? Or don't you know your history?
The truth is that the attempt to cancel Matisyahu was just another example of the intimidation and suppression tactics of the BDS movement worldwide. BDS's ultimate objective is the elimination of the Jewish state of Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian state-"from the river to the sea". As for Mark LeVine-he is an anti-Israel activist. It is his right to be so, but he shouldn't deny the obvious, right Bob?

Israeli bubble maker that employed Scarlett Johansson is closing a factory

Birnbaum called the factory “an island of peace in the Middle East,” where Jews, Muslims, Christians and Druze make home-carbonation machines that retail for $79. BDS activists called it apartheid.
The skirmish over who is right and who is hurt by the boycott movement comes as Israeli leaders express growing fear that a campaign of “delegitimization” against the Jewish state is more dangerous than Islamist militants from Hamas and Hezbollah.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government vowed to spend $25 million to combat BDS efforts. At a conference in June hosted by the Las Vegas casino magnate, GOP megadonor and Netanyahu supporter Sheldon Adelson, as much as $50 million more was pledged for anti-BDS campaigns by wealthy American Jews.
Israeli officials insist that BDS has not hurt the economy — yet — although they don’t act like it.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported last month that Israeli military intelligence units have been tasked with tracking BDS groups abroad, as they would terror organizations.
Ohad Cohen, head of the foreign trade administration at the Israeli Ministry of Economy, said now that SodaStream has left the West Bank, there aren’t that many big Israeli brands left for BDS to go after. “We are talking about maybe only 100 companies; their exports are only between 1 and 2 percent of Israel's total exports,” he said.

Natalie Portman is Wrong, Scarlett Johansson Right on Boycotts of Israel

While I am not particularly concerned with what Natalie Portman thinks or says about politics as she’s an actress, she has said “I’m very much against Netanyahu.” While many disagree with her perspective on the democratically elected Prime Minister, I believe that’s a fair political opinion for her to hold.
What is out of bounds and must be condemned is Oz’s political work to urge a boycott against products made over the green line – the “settlements” of Israel.
During the high-profile SodaStream debacle, which saw actress Scarlett Johansson step down as “global ambassador” of Oxfam centered around this very issue. Ms. Johansson noted that she has “a fundamental difference of opinion” with Oxfam International because the charity opposes all trade from Israeli settlements, and that she and Oxfam “have a fundamental difference of opinion in regards to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.”
Scarlett Johansson was right – and Natalie Portman is wrong. Any boycott of Israel is harmful, and a danger to peace.

Switzerland to buy 6 Israeli-made surveillance drones

The Swiss parliament on Monday green-lit the acquisition of six Israeli surveillance drones, an internally controversial deal whose cost is estimated at some 250 million Swiss francs ($256 million).
After an earlier approval by the lower house of the Swiss Federal Assembly, the upper house gave its okay as well, with a vote of 30 to 12.
The drone model in question is the Elbit Systems-produced Hermes 900, an unarmed reconnaissance vehicle.
Opponents of the deal have called on the country not to invest in the Israeli military industry due to what they called the “systematic violations of human rights” committed by Israel against the Palestinians.
Socialist Geraldine Savary said the Hermes 900 drones were used by Israel during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip, which killed 2,251 Palestinians. Israel says around half of those killed were terror operatives, and blames Hamas for the civilian deaths.

Report: Russia purchased ten Israeli drones

Russia has purchased 10 Israeli intelligence-gathering drones this year, an independent Russian newspaper has reported in recent days.
According to a report published in the Vedomosti newspaper on September 4, which was made available to The Jerusalem Post by Israeli journalist Shimon Briman, the Russian Ministry of Defense purchased Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)-made Searcher-type drones, which are known as Forpost (Outpost) in Russia.
IAI has declined to comment on the report.
According to Vedomosti, the drones are to be assembled in Russia in accordance with a license awarded to Ural Work Civil Aviation factory.
The Oboronprom defense industry enterprise owns 48.6% of the factory, according to the report.
The report cited two aviation industry managers, as well as a figure close to the Russian military establishment, as the sources for the information.

New Report Documents Anti-Israel Ad Campaigns Sprouting Up All Over America

A new report details the cropping up of anti-Israel advertisements across the United States over the past few years.
The report — “Misleading the Public: the Spread of Anti-Israel Ad Campaigns” — was released on Friday by the U.S.-based non-governmental international Jewish civil-rights organization the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). It highlights the use of public spaces on the part of organizations aiming to promote anti-Israel sentiment. These spaces include billboards, buses and trains.
According to ADL findings, since 2012, there have been at least 20 major anti-Israel campaigns in more than 65 American cities.
“Over the past several years, across the country from New York to California, we have seen various anti-Israel groups attempt to mislead and misinform the public about the Jewish state through the use of public ad campaigns,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL national director. “These ads, which seek to smear and delegitimize Israel, exhibit a gross distortion of historical facts, and do nothing to promote any type of critical thinking or promote civil discussions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
The report shows that the “most common theme promoted by anti-Israel ad campaigns calls for an end to U.S. financial and military aid to Israel, claiming that such support has a negative impact on both foreign and domestic policy. Israel is depicted as using U.S. military aid to engage in human rights violations that provoke anger and resentment across the Middle East and U.S support to Israel’s military budget is also portrayed as undercutting U.S.-sponsored peace negotiations. From a domestic standpoint, the ad campaigns suggest that the money being sent to Israel is redirected from social programs that could benefit Americans and from critical infrastructure in cities throughout the country."

Scholars Urge UC Regents to Adopt State Department Antisemitism Definition

Some 34 academic specialists in antisemitism signed a letter calling on University of California President Janet Napolitano and UC regents to adopt the State Department definition of antisemitism and use it on campuses to identify antisemitic behavior and educate about discrimination against Jews.
The academics, which included professors from schools across the U.S., but also Europe, as well as Jewish organizations like the Simon Wiesenthal Center, “Urged UC to include in its ‘Statement of Principles’ a reference to the full U.S. State Department definition, which recognizes that contemporary antisemitism has assumed various disguised forms and, as the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found, is often ‘camouflaged as anti-Israelism or anti-Zionism.'”
The UC Board of Regents will discuss various forms of intolerance, including antisemitism, at its meeting in September. While Napolitano has said she supports adopting the State Department definition of antisemitism, some have expressed concerns over the part concerning the demonization, delegitimization and holding of a double standard of Israel, warning it could shut down debate over politically sensitive issues.
Included in the letter was a quote by the late professor Robert Wistrich, a preeminent scholar in antisemitism, who said that anti-Zionism has become “the most dangerous and effective form of antisemitism in our time.”

Banner calls on Sooners to return Nazi-looted art

A banner flown over the tailgate party of the University of Oklahoma’s opening football game Saturday called for the university’s president to “#return the stolen art.”
The banner towed by a plane for about two hours was referring to an artwork donated to the university that is believed to have been stolen by the Nazis from a Jewish family. It was sponsored by the Virginia-based group Americans for Limited Government, which called on the president, David Boren, to “set a good example for his students.”
Camille Pissaro’s “Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep” was donated to the university by Clara Weitzenhoffer upon her death in 2000, and since then has been hanging in the university’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art.
The 1886 painting, one of 33 donated to the museum from Clara and Aaron Weitzenhoffer’s extensive collection of French Impressionist art, belonged originally to Jewish French department store owner Raoul Meyer.
Meyer’s entire art collection was seized by the Nazis when they invaded France during World War II.

Anti-Semitic Graffiti Won't be Removed from French Sculpture

Anti-Semitic graffiti will not be cleaned off a giant sculpture at France's Palace of Versailles after the country's culture ministry agreed to demands by artist Anish Kapoor that it stay.
Dubbed the "queen's vagina", the controversial steel funnel and the rocks around it were sprayed with phrases such as "SS blood sacrifice" and "the second RAPE of the nation by DEVIANT JEWISH activism" at the weekend.
The sculpture had already been attacked in June and then cleaned, but Kapoor said that this time he wanted the graffiti to remain to bear witness to hatred.
France's culture ministry agreed late Monday, and said panels next to the work would explain what happened.
"It's the artist's choice. The choice to show that some today have a problem with freedom of creation," it said in a statement.
"The work was very seriously defaced, those responsible will be punished."
The steel-and-rock sculpture, which faces the former royal chateau in its world-famous gardens, is 60 meters (200 feet) long and 10 meters (33 feet) high.

Flavorings firm Frutarom moves closer to ‘unicorn’ territory

Flavoring and ingredient firm Frutarom took a giant step toward becoming Israel’s next “unicorn” – a world giant with a billion dollars in sales – with its tenth acquisition so far this year, tying the record for number of companies acquired by corporation in a single year this century by a corporation (Massachusetts-based Alere Global bought ten companies in 2007). Over the weekend, Frutarom announced it was acquiring 79% of the shares of the Spanish company Nutrafur, a company that develops and markets specialty natural plant extracts bearing antioxidant properties.
The Spanish company was valued at $14.5 million, with Herzliya-based Frutarom’s share worth about $11.4 million. The specific terms of the deal were not announced.
With this year’s acquisitions, including one in Australia, Frutarom has a presence on every continent (except for Antarctica, so far), and is now the seventh-largest flavoring and ingredient company in the world.
Established in 1933, Frutarom offers a total of some 31,000 products, which are sold to more than 15,500 customers in 145 countries around the world – including Algeria, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, via its Flachsmann A/S subsidiary. Now part of an international holding group, ICC Industries, the company is still headquartered in Haifa, and made a profit $63.6 million on revenues of $684 million in 2013.

Novocure files for $300 million IPO

NovoCure – the company known for its novel approach to treat solid tumors with electric fields — has filed for an IPO to raise up to $300 million. The Israeli medical device pioneer received FDA approval in 2011 for its TTFields product designed to treat Glioblastoma brain cancer.
Chief underwriters for the IPO issue are JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, and Evercore; and the secondary underwriters are Wells Fargo, JMP, and Wedbush PacGro.
The commercial stage oncology company is currently taking part in the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC), where it is presenting ongoing and future clinical trial designs in lung cancer.
“Novocure has developed a pipeline strategy to advance TTFields through phase II pilot and phase III pivotal clinical trials across multiple solid tumor types,” said Dr. Uri Weinberg, Novocure’s Vice President for Research and Development. “In addition to ongoing trials in pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer and brain metastases, we are committed to developing TTFields as a potential treatment modality for thoracic tumors, which unfortunately cause the highest number of cancer-related deaths worldwide.”

Skrillex to headline annual Dead Sea rave

One of the biggest DJs in the world has added his name to the list of performers at Israel’s annual Dead Sea EDM rave in November.
American dubstep pioneer Skrillex will headline the Minus 424 rave at the base of the iconic Masada, Channel 2 reported. Also said to be joining this year’s all-night rave is the Russian-German DJ Zedd.
The Californian, born Sonny Moore, won six Grammy awards earlier this decade for his work on albums “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites” and “Bangarang.”
Last year, 13,000 people came to the festival named for its location 424 meters below sea level. Headlined by the world DJ famous David Guetta, party goers danced to the for 12 hours under the shadow of Masada.
A team of partners, including the Tamar Regional Council, the Tourism Ministry, several production companies and MTV Israel, jointly sponsor the Minus 424 event.

On eve of Jewish New Year, Israel's population hits 8.4 million

On the eve of the Jewish New Year there were 8.412 million people living in Israel, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) reported on Tuesday.
Since last New Year, Israel's population grew by 158,000, a 1.9% increase.
Jews made up 6.3 million of the population (74.9%); there were 1.746 million Arabs (20.7%) and 366,000 thousand other residents (4.4%).
The CBS forecasted that Israel's population between 2025-2030 would reach ten million.
Over the last year, 168,000 babies were born in Israel and 42,000 people died.
Net migration to Israel over the last year was 32,000. Of this number, 28,000 were olim, representing a 35% increase over last year. Most of the olim came from the Ukraine (26%), France (25%), Russia (21%), and the US (9%).

WATCH: The first ship to fly the Zionist flag

In this 1948 newsreel, the SS Kedmah departs from Marseille, France, for the brand-new Jewish State.
“Believed to be the first ship officially flying the Zionist flag, this vessel recently left Marseilles on her way to Palestine, shortly after the British Mandate was laid down,” the narrator reports.
As men and women climb aboard, painted Stars of David are visible on the ship’s funnel. The Kedmah, hailed by the ZIM Israel Navigation Company as the state of Israel’s first passenger liner, holds a special place in the nation’s history. During her career, she would carry thousands to the new Jewish State.
“Among her passengers were men who would soon be playing their part in the struggle against the Arabs,” the narrator concludes. “That is, of course, if the United Nations cannot succeed in effecting a settlement.”