05/08 Links Pt2: Deborah Lipstadt: Behind the lies of Holocaust denial; More Lies from the UN ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Entire platoon calls commander who claims he beat Palestinians a 'liar'

Former members of a platoon in the IDF's Nahal Brigade who served with Dean Issacharoff, spokesman for the nongovernmental organization Breaking the Silence, which publicly and often anonymously criticizes IDF conduct in Judea and Samaria, are furious with their former comrade over public claims that while serving in the army, he beat a Palestinian he had been sent to arrest while his fellow platoon members watched.
Issacharoff made the allegation on camera at an event hosted by Breaking the Silence, a group whose aim is to collect recorded testimonies of IDF misconduct in Judea and Samaria.
Issacharoff 's former platoon comrades went on record calling his "testimony" an outright lie, and are even threatening to sue him for slander.
On Thursday, the Reservists at the Front organization, which is devoted to countering false or distorted narratives about IDF conduct, posted a video on its Facebook page in which 11 former members of Issacharoff 's platoon, as well as company commander Omri Synar, face the camera -- their full names appearing on screen -- and deny his claims. The video went viral, racking up about 270,000 views and thousands of likes and shares. The post was also translated into English.
"When I saw his testimony, I was just astonished," Synar told Israel Hayom.
"I talked to the war room, the command center, and all the soldiers. Maybe there had been something I hadn't seen. No one understood what he was talking about. I'm willing to take any lie detector test. It never happened. It's a completely made-up story," the company commander said. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Behind the lies of Holocaust denial

"There are facts, there are opinions, and there are lies," says historian Deborah Lipstadt, telling the remarkable story of her research into Holocaust deniers — and their deliberate distortion of history. Lipstadt encourages us all to go on the offensive against those who assault the truth and facts. "Truth is not relative," she says.

Undercover at a secret ‘neo-Nazi’ meeting with Holocaust denier David Irving

Holocaust denier David Irving spoke alongside other anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists at a secret meeting of the “neo-Nazi, white supremacist” London Forum, where it was claimed Auschwitz was “like Disneyland” and that the Holocaust was “gossip”, “propaganda” and a “rumour", The Independent can reveal.
Mr Irving, whose defeat in a libel trial is dramatised in 2017 blockbuster Denial, began by praising the organisers for ensuring there were “only white faces in the audience”.
Fellow speakers delivered anti-Semitic jokes and coded references to Adolf Hitler to a receptive crowd of around 100 at the meeting, which was attended by an undercover reporter.
One attendee told this reporter the murder of MP Jo Cox was “cheery news”. Another claimed there were Jews controlling “all 193 states” and a third said life for African-Americans was “better before the end of slavery”.
Far-right luminaries appearing alongside Mr Irving included Vincent Reynouard, a Frenchman who like Mr Irving has been imprisoned for Holocaust denial; Alison Chabloz, whose anti-Semitic songs have seen her banned from the Edinburgh Fringe; and David Shayler, an MI5 agent turned 9/11 truther who has claimed he is the Messiah.

Daniel Gordis: Why Many American Jews Are Becoming Indifferent or Even Hostile to Israel

All told, the two Jewish communities of the United States and Israel constitute some 85 percent of the world’s Jews. Although other communities around the globe remain significant for their size or other qualities, the future of world Jewry will likely be shaped by the two largest populations—and by the relationship between them. For that reason alone, the waning of attachment to Israel among American Jews, especially but not exclusively younger American Jews, has rightly become a central focus of concern for religious and communal leaders, thinkers, and planners in both countries.
True, other concerns have lately encroached: concerns in both countries, for instance, over the Trump administration’s still-developing stance toward the Israel-Palestinian conflict and, in the U.S., over a seemingly homegrown series of anti-Semitic acts of vandalism and bomb threats against Jewish institutions (most of the latter exposed as the work of a disturbed Israeli Jewish youth). But the larger worry—American Jewish disaffection from Israel—remains very much in place, and its reverberating implications were underscored during the waning days of the Obama administration, when by far the greater portion of American Jews stayed faithful to the president and his party even after his decision to allow passage of an undeniably anti-Israel resolution at the United Nations.
What explains the growing distance between many American Jews and the state of Israel? Two recent books ventured answers to that question, and both authors basically agreed that the problem lay with Israel, a country that had fallen out of sync with the progressive movement of history. To Michael Barnett in The Star and the Stripes, while most American Jews embrace “a political theology of prophetic Judaism” and exhibit “cosmopolitan longings,” Israel is “increasingly acting like an ethnonational state.” To Dov Waxman in Trouble in the Tribe, the movement of the Jewish state in an “increasingly illiberal” direction has forced young American Jews to “turn away . . . in despair, or even disgust.” Making a similar point was a newspaper column by the veteran Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas, aptly titled: “Sorry Israel, U.S. Jewry Just Isn’t That into You.” The reason, wrote Pinkas, was “the reality of decades of Israeli occupation” of Palestinian Arabs, compounded by “the dismissive, inconsiderate, and [at] times arrogant Israeli attitude toward [American] Reform and Conservative Jews.”

Seth Frantzman: Terra Incognita: Israel is not a Western country, and never has been

Because Israel’s Europhile cultural minority is rooted in a different time, the era of Rhodesia and the Old South, when non-Europeans were still openly called primitives. They cannot accept that Israel is not a Western state and that the revolution of Zionism has overthrown Europeanism in “their” Levant. They cannot accept the hybrid culture of Israel. This is why they imagine that only when Israelis are not “welcomed” in Europe will Israelis end the occupation of the West Bank.
But the majority of Israelis today don’t care about being welcomed in Europe and don’t seek European approval. They don’t see themselves as primitives begging for acceptance in the halls of Paris or Berlin. They are proud of their society, and they don’t think that they need to beg acceptance from the grandchildren of Nazis.
At the same time this Israeli rejection of Europe does not end the judgment that Israel is held to “higher standards” because it is seen as a Western democracy. Israel cannot change its clothes and become Tunisia or Lebanon and be judged by different standards as a non-Western, imperfect democracy. So Israel is in the unenviable position of being non-Western but being asked to be like Denmark.
Some see in Israel’s less Western culture a disconnect from the West in general. As if Israeli relations with Russia, China or other countries will harm its connections and trade with the West that it relies on for technology, and other agreements. But that’s an incorrect reading of international relations. The Gulf States are non-Western but enjoy good relations with the West. So does Saudi Arabia, a country with the most diametrically opposite values to the West. The trouble Israel faces is that some of its supporters abroad, particularly Jewish supporters, demand that it represent not only Western values, but particularized Jewish Western values, in order to receive support.
For Israel that will always be a difficult row to hoe. It has to ape being Western and pretend it has some connection to the values of Diaspora Jews, while knowing secretly that it has more in common with the values of Turkey or Eastern European states. Israelis also find it difficult to articulate this Jewish civilizational discussion, because some of them fear that in the mirror what they will find is the Hasmoneans and not Herzl.

Why Don't 'Anti-Fascists' Fight Islamofascism?

Unlike the years leading up to the last Great War against fascism, this time the left in the West has deviated from its historic role and is today an ally of the Islamists.
Two recent incidents highlight this problem.
In India, the Islamic University of Jamia Milli has conferred an honourary doctorate on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, despite the dictator's vicious crackdown on dissenting Turks and ruthless treatment of minority Kurds.
And in the United States, the City University of New York has invited radical Muslim activist, Linda Sarsour, to deliver a commencement address June 1.
Abraham Foxman, former head of the Anti-Defamation League, says, "She's [Sarsour] a bigot, and she shouldn't have been invited [to CUNY]."
With universities honouring such individuals, where does an old-fashioned "AntiFa" (anti-fascist) like me, whose licence plate says, "Mac Pap," go?

NGO Monitor: Does the “Humanitarian Imperative” Override Financial Anti-Terror Regulations? A Response to Chatham House

On April 28, Chatham House in London published a position paper by Tom Keatinge and Florence Keen of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in the UK, criticizing British and international financial regulations that mitigate the risks of corruption and aid diversion in NGO-run humanitarian operations. Specifically, the authors decry the ways in which banks, in order to comply with various national and international anti-terror financing laws, have avoided transferring funds and offering financial services to NGOs active in conflict areas where “Non-state Armed Groups” (read: terrorists and militias) operate.
The authors contend that these protocols hamper the ability of agencies to deliver humanitarian aid and are unnecessary, asserting that “Humanitarian NGOs [non-governmental organizations] generally accept the need for regulation and due diligence.” Moreover, the report demands that the UK “must make greater efforts to include exemptions for humanitarian action in international sanctions” and suggests that the government “consider the introduction of humanitarian exemptions from counterterrorism laws.”
These positions understate recent developments that highlight the susceptibility of humanitarian aid to diversion, including by terrorist organizations. On July 26, 2016, the Washington Post reported that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) suspended hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to Syria, in response to reports of fraud and aid diversion. In explaining the decision in testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, USAID Inspector General Ann Calvaresi Barr stated, “Despite our goodwill, bad characters have taken advantage of the complex situation for personal gain, ultimately denying Syrian people the food, clothing, health care and other aid they urgently need.”

An Arab Opinion Survey Is Bad News for the U.S.

A recent survey of young people in sixteen Arab countries reported declining support for the U.S. and increasing support for Russia. The American Interest comments:
[T]he survey recorded a seventeen-point increase among Arab youth who consider the U.S. an enemy, while the number of countries where a majority hold that view doubled. Antipathy to Donald Trump certainly seems to be a big factor here: 70 percent of respondents consider the president to be anti-Muslim. . . .
It would be a mistake, however, to lay all the blame for the dismal results here on President Trump. American influence in the Arab world declined precipitously under Barack Obama, while Russia has cannily exploited the vacuum to re-emerge as a credible power broker. Indeed, the impression of Russia as a more dependable, less fickle partner than the United States seems partly to explain the trend. . . . Countries with substantial Iranian proxies (like Iraq and Yemen) are more likely to favor Russia, while youth in such countries as Saudi Arabia and Qatar maintain a more favorable view of the United States.

FIFA - kick terrorism out of football

All this begs the question, what is the difference between Rajoub glorifying his killers to that of Bin Laden praising his Al-Qaeda terrorists, or Al-Baghdadi promoting his ISIS murderers? Why are these arch-terrorists globally condemned, while terror-promoting Rajoub continues to be welcomed as a FIFA official?
A campaign in now under way to demand that FIFA remove Jibril Rajoub and to sanction the Palestinian Football Association for their persistent glorification of terror in their football clubs and at their footballing events.
Much of the evidence incorporated in our complaint to FIFA was collated by Jerusalem-based Palestinian Media Watch.
The Israel Institute for Strategic Studies, Palestinian Media Watch, UK Lawyers for Israel, and New York-based, Lawfare Project, have lodged joint and separate detailed complaints with FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee outlining serious breaches of FIFA’s Code of Ethics by Rajoub and Palestinian football.
They have now been joined by One Family, the terror victims organization, and have invited terror victims and bereaved families to participate in the campaign by signing individual letters of complaint, each one itemizing their personal grievances with FIFA that has allowed Rajoub and the PFA to go unpunished.
The FIFA campaign has just begun, but already over thirty terror victims have signed onto the campaign and, globally, major organizations have voiced their readiness to lobby FIFA.
The time has come to “Kick terrorism out of football.”

Will FIFA Kick Israel Out of World Football?

Next week at the annual FIFA Council and Congress to be held in Manama, Bahrain, member states are expected to deliberate and vote on a set of recommendations that include having the IFA (Israeli Football Association) thrown out of the organization.
FIFA—International Federation of Association Football—is the governing body of international soccer. It’s among the world’s most important sports organizations.
At issue is a two-year-long campaign by the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) and a host of anti-Israel ‘human rights’ groups to have FIFA suspend IFA membership on account of its inclusion of six football teams that play in Judea and Samaria/the West Bank, what the PFA and its supporters call “stolen land.”
If FIFA reaches that decision next week, it would effectively leave Israel unable to play in international soccer tournaments.

Outrage After Dartmouth Appoints Israel Boycotter as Head of Faculty

The pro-Israel community at Dartmouth College is reeling following a decision by school leadership to appoint as their new head of faculty a leading supporter of the movement to boycott Israel and Jewish academics.
Dartmouth President Phil Hanlon is facing criticism following his recent decision to appoint Native American studies Professor Bruce Duthu—a leading supporter of the anti-Israel Boycott, Sanctions, and Divestment movement, or BDS—as Dartmouth's dean of faculty.
Dartmouth, which declined Washington Free Beacon requests to comment on the matter, has come under criticism from the pro-Israel community, including within the school's own staff, for elevating Duthu to a post of prominence. Duthu's vocal support for boycotts of Israeli academics and efforts to lead the charge in the BDS movement is dangerous, these individuals argue, and anathema to academic freedom.
The appointment also has renewed fear within the campus pro-Israel community given Dartmouth's anti-Semitic past, which included the active "Christianization of its students"
While pro-Israel faculty members spent weeks petitioning Dartmouth's leadership about Duthu's support for the BDS movement—which included co-authoring a leading BDS document backing the boycott of Israeli academic institutions—President Hanlon moved forward with the decision, prompting some to go public with their concerns.

Reader Post: Why Dutch Journalist Derk Walters Is Really Being Expelled From Israel

In order to guarantee freedom of the press, international rules have been drawn up that serve as a guideline. This is also the case in Israel. No journalists are above the law, not even Derk Walters of the NRC Handelsblad.
When Walters applied for an extension of his work permit, the Government Press Office requested certain information together with a standard application form. For reasons only known to Walters, no attention was given to this for 2 months.
Illegal Work
However, Walters continued to report from Israel without a valid work permit. This did not seem to be an innocent or administrative mistake, when looking at the correspondence with NRC and several third parties, including the Volkskrant and NRC, which have published the position of NRC and/or Peter Vandermeersch.
In a letter from May 2, Peter Vandermeersch wrongly claimed that the decision not to extend Walters’ visa has been an attempt by Israel to interfere with the freedom of press.
Address Fraud
Once NRC understood they wouldn’t be able to bypass the GPO through their diplomatic allies, they finally contacted the GPO directly; But when doing so, Derk Walters gave a fictional residential address in Tel Aviv in his visa application. Again, it was not a mistake but a calculated action. He actually lives in the Muslim Quarter of eastern Jerusalem (which is allowed for foreign journalists and there was no reason to lie about it), so he committed fraud by providing the wrong address. Neither Walters nor the NRC are above the law.

Larry King: I never saw any bias on Israel at CNN (not satire)

Legendary journalist Larry King said in his 26 years at CNN, he never saw any biases for or against Israel in the network’s news coverage.
King received a Lifetime Achievement Award on Sunday at The Jerusalem Post Annual Conference in New York from Editor-in-Chief Yaakov Katz, before taking part in a wide-ranging interview on his life and work.
“I never saw anything antione side on CNN,” he told the crowd, to some laughter and boos. “I thought we were always fair... I only experienced people trying to be fair and objective.”
King, a veteran journalist and broadcaster, hosted the acclaimed Larry King Live show on CNN for more than 25 years.
Today, at a sprightly 83, King hosts shows on Hulu and RT America.

‘London Muslims’ Blame Jews for Big Gay Iftar

Every year London hosts a gay pride parade to support the LBGT community. This year, Pride falls during Ramadan. As a gesture of inclusion, the gay community will host a “big gay iftar” dinner to bring the Muslim and LGBT communities together.
However some Muslim groups vocally oppose such an event, even going so far as to blame the Jews.
Last year such an iftar was held in the wake of the Orlando terrorist attack in which 49 people killed in a nightclub in Florida. Last year’s organizer, Mas, told Channel Four TV:
“It’s hard enough being religious person and LBGT. Orlando’s not changed my attitude. I think more than anything it has changed people’s attitude towards me. And I think that’s the biggest change.”
This year’s event will be much larger. Hosted at St Andrew’s Church in Southwark on June 24, it will be an official part of the two weeks of events leading up to the pride parade on July 8.

'Banning kosher slaughter attacks our status as equal citizens'

The European Jewish Congress has strongly condemned the decision of the Walloon region in southern Belgium to back the formal proscription of the slaughter of non-stunned animals as of 2019, thereby effectively banning shechita, the Jewish form of humane slaughter for meat.
EJC President Dr. Moshe Kantor described the decision as "scandalous" and said it stands in opposition to the European Union's freedom of religion laws.
On Friday, the Environment Committee of the Wallon Parliament in Belgium's French-speaking region voted to ban all slaughter without stunning as from September 2019. The Parliament's plenary will now debate the issue later this month. A similar move has been proposed by the parliament in the Flanders region.
The proposal will now be presented later this month to a vote in the plenary of the Wallon parliament in Namur.
"This decision, in the heart of Western Europe and the centre of the European Union, sends a terrible message to Jewish communities throughout our continent that Jews are unwanted.," Dr. Kantor said. "It attacks the very core of our culture and religious practice and our status as equal citizens with equal rights in a democratic society. It gives succor to anti-Semites and to those intolerant of other communities and faiths."
"We call on legislators to step back from the brink of the greatest assault on Jewish religious rights in Belgium since the Nazi occupation of the country in WWII.

Major Norwegian Party Votes to Ban Circumcision, Prompting Concern Among Country’s Jewish Community

Norway’s libertarian Progress Party voted at its annual national conference this past weekend to ban the circumcision of males below the age of 16.
The measure, should it become government policy, would prevent Norwegian Jews and Muslims from carrying out a central requirement of both faiths. Jewish law states that all males should be circumcised eight days after birth, in recognition of God’s covenant with the biblical patriarch Abraham.
The Progress Party — a partner in Norway’s ruling coalition and known for its free market advocacy and anti-immigrant policies — also voted to ban Muslim girls from wearing hijabs in public schools.
The circumcision measure passed after a compromise motion that would have prevented state funding for the practice, and not circumcision itself, failed to win support. Progress Party leader Siv Jensen told Norwegian journalists she was personally not in favor of an outright ban. Jensen also invoked her party’s support for Israel to deflect the anxieties of Norway’s tiny Jewish community of 1,300.
“This is very sad,” Ervin Kohn, a Jewish community leader in Norway, told the Aftenposten newspaper. “They [the Progress Party] must know they won’t get a majority for this in parliament. It seems like they want to send a signal that we are unwelcome in the country.”

PreOccupiedTerritory: Israelis Considering Benefits Of BDS After Bieber Concert

Last week’s performance of teen heartthrob entertainer Justin Bieber in Yarkon Park has many Israelis wondering whether they might be better off if Israel were in fact the target of a broad boycott by artists and other public figures.
Bieber’s concert last Wednesday drove home to many Israelis that it might be worth it to undergo international isolation and economic hardship just to avoid exposure to the hack Canadian musician who for some reason remains popular among the demographic of screaming preteen and teenage girls.
Parents of concert attendees formed the largest portion of Israelis now mulling support for the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement against their country, a sharp turnabout from the movement’s status as anathema to the vast majority of the population. Until the performance, supporters of BDS had largely been considered traitors to the society, which sees the movement as a thinly veiled effort to undermine Israel’s legitimacy. But Bieber’s performance, his second in the last several years, has brought about a shift in sentiment so profound that the most patriotic Israelis are weighing the benefits of a Bieber-free environment even if that means crippled trade, academic quarantine, and diplomatic pariah status.
“I’m willing to do almost anything to keep this from happening again,” stated Iddo, a shaken father of two girls. “My God. This has to stop somehow. Won’t someone think of the children?”

Omissions in the BBC’s report on terrorist’s ‘hunger strike’ nosh

While this article promotes the claim that the hunger strike is a protest against “conditions in Israeli jails”, once again readers are not informed of the political background to the story and its connection to internal Fatah power struggles.
With regard to Barghouti himself, readers are told that he “was convicted on five counts of murder by an Israeli court in 2004” and that:
“Barghouti is the former leader of the Fatah movement in the West Bank and chief of its armed wing, the Tanzim.
His trial during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, turned him into household name and he enjoys widespread support among many Palestinian factions.
The 57-year-old has been touted as a possible successor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.”
Remarkably – yet unsurprisingly – the BBC refrains from informing readers that groups that Barghouti headed and founded engaged in terrorism under his leadership and that the “five counts of murder” for which he was convicted were terror attacks. The sole use of the word ‘terrorists’ in this report comes in a quote from an Israeli minister.

BBC News website plays along with the ‘softer’ Hamas spin

Although the phrase “anti-Jewish language” was also seen in an earlier report on the topic of the new Hamas document, there it was clarified what that means.
“For years there has been criticism of Hamas over the language of its charter, in particular articles which were branded anti-Semitic.
The charter speaks of the need to fight “warmongering Jews” and cites a hadith – a report of what the Prophet Muhammad said or approved – that declares “The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews)”.
It also refers to the “Jews’ usurpation of Palestine” and accuses Jews of controlling the world’s media and of being behind the French Revolution, secret societies and of controlling imperialist countries.”
No such explanation appears in this latest report.
While journalists at the BBC News website (in contrast to some of their colleagues) clearly understand that Hamas’ latest moves are no more than an attempt to embellish its image for various outside audiences, that its original antisemitic charter still stands and that no significant changes have been made to Hamas policy, curiously they apparently still find it appropriate to provide a platform for the spin of a ‘softer’ Hamas and refrain from informing audiences in clear terms that Ismail Haniyeh is no different to – and no more ‘pragmatic’ than – his predecessor.

#FakeHistory: CBS Analyst Says Holocaust Caused By Nationalism

All the worst events of the 20th century took place because of the triumph of identity over idealism in Europe,” said Michael Gerson on Sunday’s Face The Nation, hosted by John Dickerson.
In discussing France's presidential election, Gerson implied that Marine Le Pen and National Front — nationalistic political movements, more broadly — threaten to usher in violence reminiscent of the 20th century’s bloodiest wars and genocides.
The Holocaust and communist-driven mass murders of the last century, suggested Gerson, were functions of national identity overcoming “transnational ideals." No explanation of "transnational ideals" was offered by Gerson, nor was he invited by any of Face the Nation's guest panelists or the show's host to articulate the nature of "transnational values."
No mention was made of the anti-Semitic dimension of Nazi ideology or communism's commodification of human lives. As Gerson ignored broader historical forces shaping the 20th century's deadliest events, none of his Face the Nation colleagues challenged his historical analysis.
While nationalism was a significant element of Hitlerian ideology, it was fused with a paradigm of racial struggle. Adolf Hitler viewed race as integral to national identity, with the natural state of the human condition being characterized by a zero-sum battle between racially-defined nations for territory and power.
Gerson invoked the racial dimension of Nazism in his description of contemporary nationalisms across the West, describing them as rooted in "blood and soil."

All German army barracks to be searched after Nazi-era memorabilia found

The head of Germany's armed forces has called for an inspection of all army barracks after investigators discovered Nazi-era military memorabilia in a garrison, broadening a scandal about right-wing extremism among soldiers.
The discovery at a barracks in Donaueschingen, in southwest Germany, was made in an investigation that began after similar Nazi-era items were found in the garrison of an army officer arrested on suspicion of planning a racially motivated attack.
As a result, General Inspector Volker Wieker ordered a wider search of barracks.
"The General Inspector has instructed that all properties be inspected to see whether rules on dealing with heritage with regard to the Wehrmacht and National Socialism are being observed," a Defense Ministry spokesman said.
Defense Minister Ursula Von der Leyen said the military must root out right-wing extremism.
"We are training people with weapons. It is right that there are higher standards for us. A 'carry on' attitude is out of the question," she told weekly newspaper Bild am Sonntag.

Wife of Honduran candidate apologizes for praising Hitler

The wife of a prominent Honduran presidential candidate wrote a letter to Latin America’s umbrella Jewish organization to apologize for praising Hitler.
Iroshka Elvir, 25, was named Miss Honduras in 2015, said “Hitler was a great leader” during an interview with El Heraldo newspaper published on April 26.
“When I talked about Hitler I talked about his leadership because, to my understanding, he did not do anything good,” wrote Elvir, who is the wife of presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla, in a letter addressed to the Latin American Jewish Congress after the organization, along with the Honduran Jewish community, reprimanded her remarks.
“The newspaper published that I admire Hitler, but it is not true, I never told them that I admired Hitler,” she said. “I am a great admirer of Israel, I love and bless that great nation. Receive my letter and my apologies since at no time did I want to offend any Jew.”

Col Kemp: Posing outside Lloyds Bank: The Nazi monsters who murdered thousands in BRITISH camps

We believe a memorial should also be constructed on Alderney, in belated recognition of the thousands of slave labourers who were undoubtedly murdered on the island. We have a moral duty to acknowledge their lives and their suffering for the sake of their memory and for all those relatives and loved ones who never knew where they had met their fate.
It would be a place for education and reflection where future generations could honour the dead, admire their courage and learn about the horrors that result from unchecked totalitarianism.
Alderney has a unique history that we believe would qualify it as a world heritage site, to be preserved at all costs. All around, you can still find evidence of the lives and deaths of those thousands of victims of Nazi brutality and mass murder.
Bullet holes in walls where they were shot by firing squads; their footprints and names inscribed in wet cement; the remains of the camps in which they lived and suffered; the monstrosities they were forced to build and where many are probably buried; the mass graves.
All bear sad testament to their passing. For them, Alderney is hallowed ground that needs preserving. A reminder of man’s inhumanity to man — one that, in our own troubled world, we perhaps need more than ever.

In Monaco, The Largest-Ever Jewish Gathering

The city state of Monaco, which is sandwiched between France and Italy, saw the largest Jewish gathering in its history during a visit to the principality by more than 1,000 Russian Jews.
The celebration Thursday, which was hosted by the tiny Jewish community of Monaco, was organized by its president, Aaron Frenkel, and Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar as part of the Eurostars program of Lazar’s Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia.
Launched in 2012 by Chabad rabbis in Russia, the Eurostars program annually brings hundreds of young Russian Jews on subsidized trips to Western and Central Europe to strengthen intercultural ties between Jewish communities. All trips include a visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau former death camp in Poland.
Monaco, which has only a few hundred Jews, was selected as a destination this year for the first time so that the participants “can see how, even in a small community, it is possible to celebrate one’s Jewish identify openly,” Lazar said.
Anti-Semitic incidents are rare in Russia, according to Lazar, a Milan-born Chabad rabbi who settled in Moscow more than 25 years ago. “There is no institutional anti-Semitism, Jews are safe to practice and openly be Jewish,” he said. Yet, despite Russian Jewry’s cultural and spiritual revival since the fall of communism, “there is still one big problem of mentality. Jews in Russia still don’t feel comfortable wearing a kippah in their daily lives, on a random visit to the bank,” Lazar added.

Franki Valli and 4 Seasons to celebrate July 4 in Tel Aviv

Legendary crooner Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons will bring a little taste of America to Israel on July 4, playing their first-ever show in Tel Aviv on Independence Day.
Known as the original “Jersey boys,” on whom the Broadway show and 2014 film by the same name were based, Valli and the Four Seasons are known for their 1960s songs such as “Big Girls Don’t Cry, “Sherry” and “Walk Like a Man.”
Valli, now 83, has been singing since the 1950s, but found his groove with the Four Seasons, whom he joined in the 1960s as the lead singer, bringing his trademark falsetto that marked all their songs.
The group has sold more than 175 million albums, and Valli had a solo career as well, including a star turn as the lead voice for the theme song “Grease,” used in the 1978 film of the same name, with words by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees.

‘Wonder Woman’ trailer shows off Amazon’s dreams

The final trailer for “Wonder Woman,” starring Israeli actress Gal Gadot as the Amazonian heroine Diana Prince, debuted at the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday.
Set to hit theaters on June 2, 2017, “Wonder Woman” focuses on the classic DC Comics character already seen in 2016’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.”
The intense, action-filled third trailer, “Rise of the Warrior,” explores the origin story of Wonder Woman, showing a young Diana dreaming of overcoming traditional gender roles to become a hero.
“Diana, fighting does not make you a hero,” says the woman tucking her into bed. “What if I promise to be careful?” Diana replies. “Just a shield, then — no sharp edges,” she vows.
“Be careful of mankind, Diana. They do not deserve you,” the young Amazonian is warned.

Chris Rock to perform in Israel in January 2018

American comedian Chris Rock is to perform in Israel for the first time as he traverses the globe with his “Total Blackout Tour.”
He will appear in Tel Aviv on January 8, 2018, at the Menora Arena.
Rock is currently on his first stand-up tour in nine years. The 52-year-old has never performed in Israel before, but did visit the country in 2008, along with Ben Stiller and Jada Pinkett Smith, for the Israeli premiere of “Madagascar 2,” in which Rock voiced Marty the zebra.
Rock told Rolling Stone that his tour is “the alimony tour,” after his divorce from his wife Malaak Compton-Rock was finalized in August 2016. “I’ve got to make some money first,” he told the music magazine.
“This is all ‘hold tight, fight through it,'” he said of his current tour. “This is all R&B shit.”

50-YEAR SPECIAL Relive the Six Day War - Arab-Israeli Conflict

June 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War (June 5-10, 1967) between Israel and the surrounding Arab countries. The war was a pivotal event in the history of the Middle East and of the Jewish people.
Israel’s seemingly miraculous victory in defense of its homeland was a transformative experience for Israelis and Jews around the world, filling them with pride and confidence. But the war left much unresolved. Many of the issues featured in the news today trace their beginnings to the Six Day War—the “two state solution”; Jewish communities or settlements in the West Bank; and the future of Jerusalem.
The historical context of the Six Day War is often missing from today’s discussions. This information is critically important for understanding why the war took place and why events unfolded the way they did. Join us as we meet the key players and examine the motives and miscalculations that led to the war and its stunning outcome.
Together, through the lens of 12 short videos released over four weeks, we will re-live this pivotal history as it unfolds event by event, “50 years ago today.”
Sign up now at http://ift.tt/2qjwLhl. For four weeks, we’ll send you 12 two-to-three minute short videos that will teach you exactly what happened 50 years ago on that day.

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