03/17 Links Pt2: Amb. Baker: Was the Balfour Declaration Legal?; Who is Chloe Valdary? ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: How the monstering of Donald Trump has confused the Jews

Everyone should calm down and stop jumping to conclusions with every phone call, visit or remark.
At a deeper level still, it also surely reflects the profound fissure within conservatism itself. For decades, progressives have rejected Western national identity and values as a form of white racism and cultural oppression.
Many conservatives bought into much of this onslaught, usually without realizing it.
That’s why millions in the West have felt so disenfranchised; and why conservatives no less than liberals were so astonished by both Brexit and the rise of Donald Trump. Both these phenomena expressed the urgent wish of the people to defend the identity, culture and democratic accountability of Western nations against the attempt to destroy them.
Yet this reasonable, even admirable impulse has been vilified as racism not just by the Left but also by mainstream conservatives – amongst whom are many anti- Trump Jews. That’s why Trump’s philosopher-strategist Steve Bannon, who is driven by the desire to restore Western national identity based on Judeo-Christian values, has been smeared and defamed as a “white nationalist.”
Yet it’s also why ultimately Donald Trump, despite his manifold flaws, is a true ally of the Jewish people. It’s a great pity so many Jews don’t see it.

Amb. Alan Baker: Was the Balfour Declaration Legal?

With the 2017 centenary of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which acknowledged the right of the Jewish people to their national homeland in Palestine, the international community is witnessing a highly orchestrated attempt by the Arab League and the Palestinian leadership to question its legal veracity.
This campaign is one of the means of manipulation of the international community used by the Palestinian leadership to cast doubt and undermine the historic and legal basis and rights of the Jews in the area.
Sadly, and completely at odds with history and international law, this campaign appears to be receiving support from other countries.
In the context of the Balfour Declaration centenary, the Palestinian leadership called on the Arab League at its September 2016 summit meeting in Nouakchott, Mauritania, to institute “an international criminal case for the crime committed against our nation by the UK for issuing the Balfour Declaration.”
The Palestinian leadership launched a “Balfour Apology Campaign” with a disturbing statement to the UN General Assembly on September 22, 2016, in which Mahmoud Abbas stated:
100 years have passed since the notorious Balfour Declaration, by which Britain gave, without any right, authority or consent from anyone, the land of Palestine to another people.
Abbas went on to formally demand an apology from the UK for issuing the Balfour Declaration.

25 years since the bombing of Israel's Embassy in Buenos Aires

On 17.3 we mark 25 years since the terror attack on Israel's Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people.
May the memory of the victims be a blessing

Who is Chloe Valdary?

Chloé Valdary is the Director of Partnerships & Outreach at Jerusalem U. Chloé was named one of the top 100 people positively affecting Jewish life today by Algemeiner and was a Tikvah fellow under Pulitzer Prize-winner Bret Stephens at the Wall Street Journal. Her outspoken defense of Israel and championing of the Jewish people can be seen in Jerusalem U videos, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel, Tablet Magazine, Huffington Post, Israel Hayom, The Daily Beast, Al Jazeera + and others.
Connect with Chloé and find out more about her:
http://ift.tt/2mbTxWO...
https://twitter.com/cvaldary
http://ift.tt/1zS6zca
She even has her own wikipedia page: http://ift.tt/2mbGYed

Chloé Explains It All

The Lie of ‘Israeli Apartheid’

In Israel, by contrast, the Declaration of Independence was granted legal status when it was added as the first article in the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty — in particular, the paragraph that pledges to “ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.” A review of High Court rulings shows that one of the best predictors of winning in a petition is nationality. An Arab’s chance of winning in a petition to the High Court is higher than a Jew’s.
Regarding Judea and Samaria, the Palestinians live autonomously and vote for their own institutions. Until the rise of terrorism and murder, Jews and Palestinians lived together. Even today, our separate lives are not the result of any racial or national principle, God forbid, but of proven security concerns. Speaking of apartheid, it is the fans of the two-state solution who are not prepared to grant Palestinian citizenship to Jews and are demanding that the area be free of Jews (“Judenrein”). By contrast, those advocating the application of sovereignty to the area are prepared to grant Israeli citizenship to the Palestinians.
For the non-Jews who have received citizenship or residency in Israel, nothing resembles the situation that existed in South Africa — except for the desire to bash Israel. South African parliamentarian Kenneth Meshoe, who suffered under the apartheid regime, said the comparison of Israel to apartheid South Africa “betrays the memory of those who suffered through a real apartheid” and those who draw such comparisons “are minimizing the suffering that black South Africans endured.” Addressing those who promote such comparisons, he said, “You are damaging the truth, you are damaging any chance for peace in the Middle East, and most of all, you are destroying the memory of the real apartheid.”
Former South African President F.W. de Klerk has also sharply criticized those who call Israel an apartheid state.
“It is unfair,” he said. But what does he know?

Are the Hard Leftists Aligned with Radical Islamists?

The leftist media and other American liberals insist on portraying President Trump's position as a fight against Islam and Muslims. In fact, most moderate Muslims are not offended by the phrase "radical Islam," because they are very distressed by the fact that their religion has been commandeered by the radicals and transformed from a religion of peace into a more radical version.
I just wonder where those feminists and John Kerry were when millions of Egyptian women needed their support when they marched against the Muslim Brotherhood, asking for America's help. Where were they when thousands of Syrian and Iraqi women were enslaved and raped by radical ISIS militants?
While not a single voice among these liberal feminists spoke out against these inhumane acts perpetrated against Muslim women by radical Islamists, a Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer, Linda Sarsour, co-organized the anti-Trump Women's March on Washington. What's worse, these liberal feminists want Sarsour to represent all Muslim women, while in fact she speaks for nobody except herself and those who fund her.

Linda Sarsour: Time Traveler (satire)

SCENE: a cell in a Budapest Jail, 1944. A female prisoner sits on her cot. Suddenly, a woman in a salmon pink blazer and magenta hijab materializes, Star Trek style.
Woman: Are you Hannah Szenes the Zionist?
Prisoner (with weary sarcasm): You can just call me Hannah. But yes. Yes I am.
Woman: Well my name is Linda Sarsour. And I have traveled from the future to inform you that you are not a feminist.
Hannah: Oh hey Linda. Of course, of course. I follow you on Twitter. And I guess you have a point. I mean, I only parachuted behind enemy lines to fight the Nazis.
Linda: By the way, did you know that Saudi Arabia offers 10 weeks maternity leave? Pretty good huh?
Hannah: Hey that’s great, but the Gestapo just said I’m going to be shot tomorrow at dawn because I won’t snitch. So, like not that relevant, know what I’m saying?
Linda: Whatever. I just came here to speak truth to power.
Hannah: Look, I appreciate that you stopped by. I really do. You’re the first visitor in weeks who didn’t click his heels like Ralph Fiennes in Schindler’s List. But did you bring anything to help? A nail file? I could saw my way out. Maybe a hair pin? I could stab the guard tomorrow.
Linda: Sorry, but this whole war is a bit too intersectional for me.

The 'Forward' is dead wrong, Gorka is a defender of Israel, Jews

So there it in a nutshell - Gorka’s accusers: An aggressively anti-Trump, pro-Syrian-refugee publication unperturbed by either the Nation of Islam or the jihadi threat, working with a reporter who shares its commitment to flooding the West with refugees from an antisemitic culture, citing the work of a an author affiliated with a website promoting Intifada, and a pro-Syrian-refugee activist-lawyer willing to engage in rank speculation.
The Forward’s entire fiction connecting Gorka to antisemitism is predicated entirely on allegedly questionable associations rather than on his own behavior. Perhaps readers would do better to consider the Forward’s own associations, and the words and deeds of the accusers, in assessing the credibility of its slanders. We find it impossible to excuse the Forward’s omissions of both exonerating facts about Gorka and damning facts about its reporting as anything other than intentional and reprehensible.
All in all, it seems that the Forward manufacturing an entirely baseless campaign of character assassination against a key Trump White House figure.
In a backhanded way though, it also manages to vindicate Gorka. Despite being targeted by ideological and driven investigative reporters, Gorka has been vetted under a microscope vis-à-vis antisemitism and he has passed. Even those absolutely committed to slandering Gorka have found nothing and have been forced to propagate innuendo and outright fiction instead.
Whether one agrees or disagrees with his policy conclusions, Gorka is in fact dedicating his life to protecting us as best he knows how. The American Jewish community owes him a humble and profound debt of gratitude.

Once upon a Time Jews Lived Here

For over six decades, Arabic-speaking people have undertaken a deliberate effort to erase the memory of the Jews who lived amongst them. The collective decision was successful with governments and citizens joining in eradicating the physical presence of the Jewish presence in Arabic-speaking countries, which had lasted for over twenty-five centuries. For the past decade, Arabic-speaking people have begun to show interest in this erased memory. In this essay, Samuel Tadros reviews two recent novels dealing with the presence and loss of Jews from Arabic-speaking countries. He explores how the authors attempt to depict these Jews against the background of the Arab Israeli conflict, as well as the limitations and taboos still shaping the attempt to remember.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD .PDF

Polish historian's book on killings of Jews exposes raw nerve

A prominent Polish historian presented evidence Wednesday about Polish villagers' widespread killings of Jews who were fleeing the Nazis during World War II, touching a raw nerve in a country still grappling with its role during the Holocaust.
The research is likely to irk the nationalist Polish government, which has taken aim at those seeking to undermine its official stance that Poles were only heroes in the war, not collaborators who committed heinous crimes.
In launching the English-language version of her 2011 book "Such a Beautiful Sunny Day," Barbara Engelking details dozens of cases of ordinary Poles raping Jewish women and bludgeoning Jews to death with axes, shovels and rocks. The book, which came out in Polish under the previous government, takes its title from the last words of a Jew pleading with peasants to spare his life before he was beaten and shot to death. It offers a searing indictment of Polish complicity that will now reach a far wider audience.
"The responsibility for the extermination of Jews in Europe is borne by Nazi Germany," Engelking writes. "Polish peasants were volunteers in the sphere of murdering Jews."

Antisemitic 'End Jewish Privilege' Fliers Distributed at Chicago University Rattle Students; School Issues Condemnation

Jewish students at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) were rattled this week by fliers that were distributed on campus reading, “Ending White Privilege Starts With Ending Jewish Privilege,” The Algemeiner has learned.
“Singling out any religion or race, in this case, Jews, is not right,” UIC student Joseph Sepiashvili said of the fliers, which appeared on Tuesday, that depict a pyramid of “privilege” — with Jews at the top, labeled by Stars of David and described as unfairly and disproportionately successful.
“Is the 1% straight, white men? Or is the 1% Jewish?” the fliers ask, citing Pew Forum studies.
Students have said the fliers — whose creator and distributor remain unknown — are reminiscent of Nazi-era propaganda.
“Yes, it’s free speech, but it’s not the right approach for college-educated students or any sane, mature adult,” Sepiashvili said. “We need to be working more on being inclusive, understanding and have more dialogue.”
Given the recent spate of bomb threats against Jewish community centers, desecration of Jewish cemeteries and anti-Israel activities on many campuses across the country, Sepiashvili added, “We need to do better, as citizens and college students.”
“It’s important to spread love and kindness even in dark times like these,” he said. “A little light can go a long way.”

UIC Investigates Anti-Semitic 'Jewish Privilege' Flyers Posted On Campus

In a letter to students, faculty and staff, Chancellor Michael D. Amiridis and other university officials reaffirmed UIC's commitment to "the importance of tolerance, inclusion and diversity" and also "the right to free expression."
"Today, anti-Semitic posters were found on campus that defame, insult and negatively portray Jewish members of our campus community," the UIC announcement reads. "Such actions do not reflect the values we hold as a community. Acts that invoke hatred or violence toward members of our community will not be tolerated on our campus."
"As we investigate this recent event, we strongly encourage all members of our university to exercise their right to free speech in a manner that recognizes these principles and avoids prejudice or stereotypes," the alert adds.
Zeltser told Chicagoist that that the university's response was "better than what we've seen in past." She said the school "still has a ways to go" in getting rid of anti-Semitism on campus.
UIC representatives did not comment further about the incident beyond the campus announcement.
Other Chicago universities have been targeted with racially and ethnically charged flyers in the recent past. A white supremacist group put up several such posters in January and February on the University of Chicago campus. In December, a neo-Nazi group put up at least one poster of Adolf Hitler, emblazoned with swastikas, in UChicago's Levi Hall.
The flyers were distributed at a time when Jewish community centers have increasingly found themselves the targets of threats. JCC Chicago has received three bomb threats in as many months, the most recent one over the weekend. Acts of anti-Semitic intimidation—such as the Loop synagogue defacement last month—have been on the rise this year.

IsraellyCool: A Letter To Those Who Distributed Antisemitic Fliers At UIC

Dear antisemites behind the fliers distributed at the University of Illinois at Chicago this week,
Privilege is defined as “a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group of people.”
My people, the Jews, have not been granted any such privileges. Quite the opposite, actually.
Since being exiled from our indigenous homeland almost 2,000 years ago, we have been living in different countries in the Diaspora, where the pattern has more or less repeated itself. We start off disadvantaged, limited as a minority in the society. But through our culture of intellectual pursuit, hard work, dedication and family – and, dare I say it, G-d’s blessing – we succeed. Resentment ensues, and we end up being persecuted and thrown out of the country. And that’s if we are lucky enough not to be killed.
Rinse, wash, repeat.
And true to form, many Jews in the US have become successful, despite starting off as poor immigrants, with only the clothes on their back.
So what your brochure is actually illustrating is Jewish success despite the odds. A culture of succeeding in the face of being disadvantaged, not privileged.

Burnt Mezuzah on Doorpost of University of California Hastings Law Student’s Dorm Room Called ‘Cowardly Act of Antisemitism’ by Chancellor

A San Francisco law student told The Algemeiner he was shocked this week to find the mezuzah on the doorpost of his dorm room partially burned.
“Nothing like this has ever happened before at University of California, Hastings (UC Hastings),” said the student — who wishes to remain anonymous on the grounds that “it’s about Jews in general, not just me” — referring to his discovery Monday morning that the bottom of his traditional Jewish scroll was damaged by what appeared to be a lighter, with the plastic cover holding the parchment blackened and slightly melted.
“Given the climate around the country — like the bomb threats targeting Jewish community centers — it’s not entirely unexpected, but you still don’t imagine it will happen to you,” he added.
UC Hastings Chancellor David Faigman sent a letter Wednesday morning to students, faculty and staff, calling the incident an apparent “cowardly act of antisemitism” and saying the university “will not tolerate hateful actions of any sort against members of our community.”
In response to the vandalism, representatives of the Jewish Law Students Association said it plans next week to distribute dozens of mezuzoth to Jewish students wishing to hang them up as a sign of solidarity. The student who was targeted said he sees this as “the perfect response.”

UK Labour MP hopeful Antisemitic claims part of 'smear' campaign

A potential replacement for a UK Labour parliamentarian claimed Thursday that he is the focus of a smear campaign after it was discovered he previously compared Israel to the Nazis, according to The Jewish Chronicle.
Afzal Khan, British Member of the European Parliament, announced that he intends to fill the seat vacated by former UK Labour lawmaker Sir Gerald Kaufman after the latter's death earlier this month.
In the summer of 2014, during Israel's 50-day war with the Islamic terror organization Hamas, Khan had tweeted an article containing the headline: “The Israeli government are acting like Nazi’s [sic] in Gaza.”
When approached with the issue by The Jewish Chronicle, Khan told the London based daily that the tweet did not equate to an endorsement of the statement, and claimed his name was being tarnished for political purposes.
“I have long since deleted this tweet and when this issue was raised with me last year I apologized for any offense caused,” Khan said.

BBC ignores Gaza missile in English but reports response in Arabic

Late on the evening of March 15th a missile launched from the Gaza Strip exploded in the Western Negev district.
The rocket exploded on impact. No one was hurt and no damage was reported from the explosion.”
Hours later the IDF responded with strikes on two Hamas installations in the Gaza Strip.
No coverage of the attack appeared on the BBC’s English language website despite the fact that a member of staff at the BBC’s Gaza bureau knew it had taken place. However, the BBC Arabic website did publish a report concerning the Israeli response to the attack.
Since the beginning of the year six missile attacks against Israel have taken place – four from Gaza and two from Sinai – none of which have been reported by the BBC’s English language services. Israel’s response to three of the attacks launched from the Gaza Strip has however been the subject of coverage on the corporation’s Arabic language website.

Differing BBC definitions of human shields in Iraq and Gaza

Back in November we noted the contrast between BBC reporting on the use of human shields by ISIS in the Mosul area of Iraq and its silence concerning Hamas’ use of human shields in the Gaza Strip during the summer 2014 conflict.
As readers no doubt recall, within hours of the 2014 conflict’s commencement the BBC began to repeatedly amplify false claims that Israel was ‘targeting civilians’ – and hence committing ‘war crimes’ – while failing to report Hamas’ placement of military assets (including missile launchers) in populated civilian areas.
A written report which appeared on the BBC News website’s Middle East page on March 13th (“IS fighters left in Mosul will die, says US envoy McGurk“) again informed BBC audiences of the use of human shields by ISIS.
‘”Mosul’s liberation is increasingly in sight, albeit with increasingly difficult fighting ahead,” Mr McGurk [US envoy to the multinational coalition] told reporters on Sunday.
He said Iraqi forces were retaking “some of the most difficult ground that we knew would have to be reclaimed”.
He added: “They’re doing this in a dense urban environment facing a suicidal enemy that’s using civilians as shields.”’

Now Magazine’s 1-Sided Anti-Israel Review

In a March 15 review on the documentary film “The Settlers” by Shimon Dotan, Now Magazine writer Norman Wilner writes that Israeli settlements have “derailed” the peace process and that the settlements are built on inherently “Arab” land.
No mention that Palestinian intransigence, unilateralism, incitement, and violence have produced a process, but no peace and has protracted the conflict. No mention that the Palestinian failure to accept the right of the Jewish state to exist is what is truly impeding peace.
Nor was there any mention of the Israeli religious claims and legal rights to the lands where the settlements exist and how the 1967 Six Day War was a war of self-defence waged against pan-Arab armies threatening Israel’s annihilation.
No sense of balance could be found in the review, nor was an Israeli perspective included. Instead, Now Magazine readers were made to fear of “Zionist fanatics.” What about Israel’s fear of Hamas “fanatics” bent on a genocide of Jews?
The publication’s review states that former Israeli prime minister “Ariel Sharon, who used the Palestinian violence provoked by the settlers as an excuse to drag his feet on peace negotiations.”

Report: Amid Rising Antisemitism, Secular Jewish Families in France Increasingly Transferring Children to Religious Schools

Amid rising antisemitism, secular Jews in France are increasingly taking their children out of the public school system and sending them to private Jewish institutions, the public Internet radio station for Seattle news and information KUOW reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, because French law prohibits collecting statistics based on race, ethnicity and religion, “it is difficult to quantify the number of Jewish students leaving public schools…But anecdotal evidence — and a steady flow of Jews leaving not only French schools, but France itself — points to a climate of insecurity that may be getting worse.”
Elodie Marciano, founder of Choisir L’École Juive — a nonprofit organization that, since 2013, has helped more than 400 families transfer their children to private Jewish schools through donations that help pay for the additional costs — said, “Often these families are not particularly religious, but when an [antisemitic] incident happens in school and they go to the headmaster to say something, they’re asked not to report it.”

Nazi fan dad wants to change name to Hitler

A New Jersey white supremacist who gave his four children Nazi-linked names has reportedly filed a request to change his last name to Hitler.
Isidore Heath Campbell has appealed to the Hunterdon County Superior Court to make the name change, according to Courier News, a request not likely to be honored.
Campbell and his family are well known for their Nazi-themed shenanigans.
In 2013, Campbell wore full Nazi regalia to a court appearance to request visitation rights for his children who had been taken into state custody.

Israeli-American medical tech makes taking blood easier

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center have joined forces to set up a company that will seek to commercialize a new system to make it easier for medical practitioners to insert needles into veins for a range of medical procedures, like taking blood or intra-venous feeding.
The new company, Xact Medical, will further develop and bring to market the Fast Intelligent Needle Delivery (FIND) system, that uses robotics and ultrasound to guide and insert a needle into a patient’s body.
The technology, which combines clinical, research and engineering expertise, will be particularly significant for children, whose vascular systems are so small and where precision can be critical, the two entities said in a joint statement. The new tool, which looks like a joystick, will make it easier for clinicians to make a precise, quick and convenient placement of a needle at the right point, and will help “significantly” improve the odds of successful vascular access on the first try.
“it is not easy to place a needle within a vein,” said Prof. Hugo Guterman of BGU’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and technical advisor for Xact Medical. “Of every 10 such procedures, three are not successful. Just in the US some 300 people a year die, because of infections” due to misplaced needles.

Joint U.S.-Israeli Study Offers New Understanding of Parkinson’s Disease

Researchers from the Technion and Harvard are offering a new theory on how Parkinson’s disease develops that could change the way the neurological disease is treated.
Associate Professor Simone Engelender of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and her colleague Ole Isacson at Harvard Medical School say the toxic protein behind Parkinson’s may not spread like an infection from nerve cell to nerve, but rather that the protein, called alpha-synuclein, may simultaneously affect all parts of the nervous system inside and outside of the brain.
They describe this “threshold theory” of Parkinson’s for the first time in a report recently published in Trends in Neuroscience.
“Instead of studying how proteins move from one neuron to another and searching for compounds that prevent the ‘spread’ of aggregated a-synuclein, we need to study why a-synuclein accumulates within neurons and how these neurons die in the disease, and search for compounds that prevent the general neuronal dysfunction,” said Engelender.

Israel’s MedyMatch inks deal with IBM Watson Health

Tel Aviv-based startup MedyMatch Technology has reached a five-year licensing agreement with IBM Watson Health that will enable the artificial intelligence heath arm of the US giant to market the Israeli technology together with its other services.
MedyMatch, which aims to introduce cognitive tools to the daily workflow of emergency rooms, has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) software that aims to be more accurate than the human eye and help physicians more quickly assess patients suspected of head trauma or stroke, ruling out the presence of a bleed in the brain.
IBM Watson Health uses AI to help doctors and hospitals better diagnose illnesses and cure diseases. The company now plans to integrate the MedyMatch product in the services it offers hospitals globally, using the Watson brand. The software will be offered to experts working in hospital emergency rooms and other acute care settings to help them identify cases of intracranial bleeding as a result of head trauma and stroke.

Science in orbit: Israeli-Swiss company sends mini lab to space

Orbiting the earth at more than 500 kilometers (300 miles), a tiny satellite with a laboratory the size of a tissue box is helping scientists carry out experiments that take gravity out of the equation.
The technology was launched into space last month by SpacePharma, a Swiss-Israeli company. On Thursday, it announced that its first experiments have been completed successfully.
In space, with hardly any interference from Earth's gravity, cells and molecules behave differently, helping researchers make discoveries in fields from medicine to agriculture. Nestle turned to zero gravity -- or what scientists refer to as microgravity -- to perfect the foam in its chocolate mousse and coffee, while drugmakers such as Eli Lilly have used it to improve drug designs.
Usually experiments are sent up to the International Space Station and carried out with the help of astronauts, or they are conducted on parabolic airplane flights that enjoy short bursts of weightlessness.
SpacePharma says its miniature lab is a new way for researchers to work in microgravity for extended periods.

Mobileye sale puts spotlight on founders’ other startup

The Intel Corp. deal to acquire Israel’s Mobileye for a whopping $15 billion will no doubt put the spotlight on another Israeli startup by the founders of the self-driving tech company. And that firm is OrCam Technologies Ltd., which has developed devices to assist the blind and visually impaired.
“We have seen more incoming calls into our call centers in the last day or so,” said Rafi Fischer, the director of media communications at OrCam. “There is huge interest in OrCam, given we share the same two co-founders as Mobileye.”
Fischer was referring to Amnon Shashua and Ziv Aviram.
Shashua is the chief technology officer and chairman of OrCam, which, like Mobileye, develops products based on advanced computerized visual interpretation capabilities, with Aviram as the company’s president and chief executive officer. Each spend part of their time away from Mobileye developing the startup.

Hoping to boost trade, PM heads to China with largest-ever business delegation

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to take five ministers and the largest-ever Israeli business delegation to Beijing early next week on a three-day visit marking 25 years since Israel and China established diplomatic relations.
Netanyahu, who is leaving on Saturday night, is scheduled to meet with China’s three most senior officials: President Xi Jinping — who will host the Israeli leader for an official dinner — Prime Minister Li Keqiang and the head of the country’s parliament, Zhang Dejiang.
His last visit to China was in May 2013.
Besides the diplomatic meetings, Netanyahu will also lay a wreath at the Monument to the People’s Heroes in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. But the focus of the trip is to promote bilateral trade. A number of economic agreements seeking to help Israeli get better access to Chinese markets will be signed.
“I will also meet with the heads of the biggest corporations in China and today, when we say the biggest corporations in China, we sometimes say the biggest corporations in the world, or which are quickly becoming the biggest in the world,” Netanyahu said Thursday during the weekly cabinet meeting.

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