06/15 Links Pt2: MLA members pass ANTI-BDS resolution by 2-1 margin; The Holocaust Did Not Create Israel ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Alan M. Dershowitz: Oliver Stone's Response to Being Laughed at for Defending Putin: Blame the Jews

When film director Oliver Stone could not come up with a plausible response to Stephen Colbert's tough questions about why he gave a pass to Vladimir Putin for trying to influence the American presidential election, Stone resorted to an age-old bigotry: blame the Jews – or, in its current incarnation, shift the blame to the nation state of the Jewish people, Israel. Colbert was interviewing Stone about his new documentary, "The Putin Interviews" – a film comprised of conversations he had with the Russian president over the past two years. The exchange regarding Israel did not make it to air but was relayed to the New York Post's Page Six by a source who was in the audience.
When pressed by Colbert about his apparent fondness of the Russian dictator, Stone replied: "Israel had far more involvement in the U.S. election than Russia." He then said again, "Why don't you ask me about that?" Colbert responded: "I'll ask you about that when you make a documentary about Israel!"
If Stone's absurd response were not reflective of a growing anti-Semitism by the intolerant hard left (of which Stone is a charter member) it would be laughable. Indeed, Stone resorted to the "socialism of fools" (which is what German Social Democrat, August Bebel, coined anti-Semitism) precisely to save face because he was being mockingly laughed off stage by Colbert's audience for giving Colbert ridiculous answers. Some of Stone's bizarre pronouncements included:
"I'm amazed at his [Putin's] calmness, his courtesy...he never really said anything bad about anybody. He's been through a lot. He's been insulted and abused." Stone also expressed his "respect" for Putin's leadership. But no answer was more ridiculous than his bigoted claim that Israel did more to try to influence the election than Russia.

Israeli envoy slams TV channel for dropping anti-Semitism documentary

In an unusual move, Israel’s ambassador to France criticized in harsh terms a French-German television channel’s nixing of a documentary on anti-Semitism.
The decision, announced last week by the state-funded Arte channel citing the film’s alleged focus on Muslim countries, is “an obfuscation of information and an encroachment on the public’s right to information,” Ambassador Aliza Bin-Noun wrote in an open letter addressed to Véronique Cayla, the president of Arte’s France division. The letter was published Wednesday by the Actualite Juive weekly.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry rarely comments publicly on content in the media of friendly countries that does not involve Israel directly.
Arte’s program director, Alain le Diberder, told Deutsche Welle that his channel decided not to air the program because its creators, Joachim Schroeder and Sophie Hafner, had said the documentary would focus on anti-Semitism in Europe, whereas in reality it ended up dealing mainly with the phenomenon in the Arab world.

Kosovo charges 9 with plotting attacks at Israel-Albania soccer match

Kosovo prosecutors said on Wednesday they had charged nine Kosovar men with planning attacks at a World Cup soccer match in Albania against the visiting Israel team and its fans last November.
Last year, Kosovar police arrested 19 people - including the nine charged on Wednesday - on suspicion that they had links with ISIS (also known as the Islamic State) and were planning attacks in Kosovo and neighbouring Albania.
At the time, fearing such attacks, Albanian authorities moved the Nov. 12 qualifier to a venue near the capital Tirana from a stadium in the northern town of Shkoder.
The state prosecutor said some of the nine men charged were in contact with Lavdrim Muhaxheri, a prominent ISIS member and the self-declared
"commander of Albanians in Syria and Iraq" from whom they received orders to attack. Police and family members told Reuters last week that Muhaxheri has been killed in Syria.
The group was also planning to launch attacks inside Kosovo against local and international institutions and buy weapons with money received from Muhaxheri, the prosecutor said.

The Holocaust Did Not Create Israel

Music conductor Daniel Barenboim wrote in Ha'aretz on June 8 that Israel exists because of the Holocaust. The claim is that Israel "was given" to the Jewish people by the guilt-ridden world after the Holocaust.
Israel was not "given" to the Jews. The last thing on the agenda of the European nations at the end of World War II was guilt feelings toward the Jews.
Just as India and Pakistan and other nations did not need the murder of a third of their people to receive a country at that time, the Jewish people would have obtained its own state at the end of World War II, not because of the Holocaust, but rather because of the dismantling of the British empire as a result of the war.
Denying Zionism means denying that Jews can, by force of vision, desire and work, act as an active agent and shape a future in which they are not the victims of others. Denying Zionism means that the State of Israel becomes a "gift" that was given by others - not as a result of what the Jews did by and for themselves.
Moreover, denying Zionism turns Israel - alone among all countries in the world - into a conditional state, which is permitted to exist as long as those who received it, by grace and not by right, will find favor in the eyes of those who "gave" them the country.
The right of the Jewish people to have a country in its own homeland is a universal right, which is reserved for every people - the right to stand on its own authority and to control its fate.

Modern Language Association members pass ANTI-BDS resolution by 2-1 margin

18,000 member group says academic boycott of Israel “contradicts the MLA’s purpose to promote teaching and research on language and literature”
In a severe blow to the anti-Israel academic boycott movement, the 18,000 member Modern Language Association has passed a Resolution explicitly rejecting the academic boycott of Israel.
The academic boycott of Israel had been termed a grave threat to the academic freedom of everyone and the free exchange of ideas by over 250 university presidents and numerous prominent university organizations. Nonetheless, the academic boycott, which is part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, is a focal point of anti-Israel activist professors and graduate students.
There are many lessons from this defeat against the academic boycotters.
One lesson is persistence. The key to BDS efforts is to wear good people down. At MLA and elsewhere, the boycott push is a multi-year, ongoing effort.
Another lesson is to educate people. BDS, as all hate, prevails where propaganda is unchallenged. MMFSR members produced fact sheets and other factual information to counter the false narratives and ahistorical arguments of BDS.
A third lesson is not to be passive. Bringing the anti-BDS resolution before the MLA was a risk. It might have undercut a prime argument that academic, scholarly organizations should not take positions on political issues. But that shipped already had sailed at MLA and elsewhere. The boycotters, whose entire identities revolve around boycotting Israeli Jews, cannot let go of the issue and seek to insert it into unrelated organizations.
Congratulation to MLA, which has salvaged its integrity.

On Linda Sarsour’s Politics of Hate and the Pathos of Her Jewish Enablers

Part of the explanation for this phenomenon may be that the “Jewish values” or “Jewish communities” that many of Sarsour’s supporters claim to represent are of only secondary or tertiary importance to them. Consider New York City Councilman Brad Lander, Linda Sarsour’s chief Jewish “ally.” A reform Jew married to a non-Jewish woman, he uses a reform synagogue in Brooklyn as a progressive political-organizing platform. While now publicly identifying himself as a “Zionist” in his defense of Sarsour, it wasn’t long ago that he was doing weird things like reportedly using his son’s circumcision ceremony to denounce Israel. “We are thrilled to pronounce you a Jew without the right of return,” Lander pronounced to his 8-day-old child. “Your name contains our deep hope that you will explore and celebrate your Jewish identity without confusing it with nationalism.”
Last month, in an interview with The New York Times about the CUNY controversy, Lander remarked that, “One terrible feature of the Trump regime is that it threatens to tribalize all of us,” casting aspersions on his fellow Jews who had the temerity to speak out against a publicly funded institution’s decision to honor a bigot who targets Jews for opprobrium and exclusion.
The strategy is a familiar one. In left-wing milieus across the Western world, Jews are simultaneously told that the (often violent) bigotry directed against them is but a figment of their hysterical, oversensitive imaginations. The most recent attempt to exterminate them en masse, in the form of the Holocaust, was not a uniquely insidious event, as Jews were merely one among many victim groups. And today, because they are “white,” Jews cannot be victims of the “systemic” oppression endured by women, Muslims, ethnic minorities, queer people et cetera and ad infinitum. Paradoxically, the existence and nature of Jewish historical suffering is fully acknowledged only when it can be used to further other causes and concerns (“the African Holocaust,” “Syria’s Anne Frank,” etc.). As for when Jews mention actual Jewish suffering in defense of other Jews, they are painted as extremists who exploit the Shoah. Yet the people making these accusations are always willing to retail Jewish pain and victimhood whenever it suits them—namely, when the victims in question aren’t Jews.

To bigotry no sanction

Several professors at CUNY who penned a letter defending Sansour wrote that she represented “new activism of young people, women, immigrants, and others speaking out against discrimination and intolerance.”
They are clearly expressing support for the keynote speaker. A letter from Jewish leaders representing leftwing congregations and organizations in defense of Sarsour, stated that they “do not offer our stamp of approval to every tweet or message she has ever posted.” Indeed, they might not completely approve of her views but they are sufficiently acceptable to come to her defense.
It would be a pleasant surprise if those Jewish leaders who defended Sarsour would feel so compelled to defend Israel when its reputation is so often defamed. Also, to all the Jews who rushed to her defense, a word to the wise: People like Sarsour may smile and express appreciation for your gestures, but are simply showing that they know how to play you.
Then there is the silence: The Jewish organizations that have not spoken out against Sarsour, will only encourage more bigotry.
The local politicians of New York with a few exceptions have also failed to address the matter. But it is more than silence, there are politicians in New York who have supported Sarsour.
The events in New York City this spring should put up a warning flag to those who prize the values of freedom and mutual respect. Freedom is not a given. It must be safeguarded by people of good will who can discern between right and wrong without the numbing influence of political correctness.
If manipulation and enmity is given a pass by the silence of the majority, then the freedoms which the American forefathers endeavored to safeguard might someday be in jeopardy.

Linda Sarsour’s brother works in a NY glatt kosher restaurant

Talk about guilt by association.
Controversial Palestinian-American activist and Women’s March organizer Linda Sarsour generated a wave of press coverage after she was tapped by CUNY as a commencement speaker for one of its graduate schools.
Now, her brother, who works at a popular Crown Heights kosher barbecue joint, is being caught up in her wake.
The Jewish Defense Organization, an extremist group that the Anti-Defamation League said has an agenda “of hate, fear mongering and intimidation,” posted fliers in Crown Heights demanding that the owner of the popular kosher restaurant Izzy’s Brooklyn Smokehouse fire Mohammed Sarsour for, in essence, being Sarsour’s brother.
“Linda Sarsour[,] a hard core Hamas Islamic Nazi terrorist … has a brother pro-Hamas terror [sic] who works at Izzy [sic] Smokehouse. … Let us run him out now before it’s too late!!” the flier said.

Washington Post’s Unrelenting Assault on the Jewish State

The first six-page special issue, titled “Occupied: Year 50” (5/28/17) starts with a timeline of the conflict, beginning with “1948: Israel declares independence, Mass exodus of Palestinians.”
What that sounds like is that when the Israeli George Washington — David Ben-Gurion — proclaimed Israel’s independence in 1948, the Palestinians flooded out of the area as a result of the announcement! How can such distortion meet any journalistic ethical standards? In 1948, when Israel declared its independence after the UN affirmed its right to the land, five Arab armies viciously attacked Israel. This war was not just about winning land from Israel but about decimation. In the words of Azzam Pasha, the Arab League’s first secretary-general: “This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongol massacres and the Crusades.” Only the Arabs lost. Israel suffered horribly, losing one percent of its population — 6,000 people. It would be like America suffering three million fatalities. But it was one of the greatest victories in military history. The Six-Day War in 1967 was also a great victory against tremendous odds. Yes, Arabs were displaced by this war, but not because of any announcement or declaration!
The second five-page special issue, “The 50-Years War” (6/4/17), dealing with Jewish settlements, strangely described the Six-Day War as a “battle to capture territory.” Rather than extol the miracle of tiny Israel’s victory, the Post focuses on the losing side — those that attempted genocide of the Jewish people in their one homeland. Year after year, in story after story, the Post empathizes with suicide bombers who blow up discos, pizza shops, school buses filled with children, athletes at the Olympics, and with terrorists who knife Israeli citizens at random.
The story of Israel is a great one. Shame on the Washington Post for not telling it like it is.

Toronto Star Op-Ed Smears Israeli Star Gal Gadot as Endorsing Violence Against Palestinian Civilians

There’s no foundation to Azeezka Kanji’s smearing Israeli movie star Gal Gadot as someone who supports “… violence against the women, children, and men of Palestine…”
Kanji’s commentary which was published in the Toronto Star today was beyond the pale.
Any death of a civilian is deeply regrettable, but let’s not be obtuse to how the Hamas terror group commits double war crimes by firing rockets at Israeli daycares, homes, and hospitals while hiding within and adjacent to Palestinian residential areas, United Nations schools, and mosques. These are bona fide war crimes in violation of international law, yet “legal analyst” Kanji excuses Hamas’ flagrant violations of the Geneva Conventions.
Let’s not forget that Hamas initiated the conflict in 2014 when it kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenagers in the west bank. Furthermore, Hamas fired thousands of rockets at Israel and carried out deadly assaults on Israelis by digging terror-attack tunnels. Just this week, a Hamas-dug tunnel was found under an UNWRA school.

Smotrich catches Amnesty red-handed

MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) called for denying Amnesty International tax-free status because it called for an economic boycott of the State of Israel and violated the Boycott Law.
In a letter to MK Moshe Gafni, Chairman of the Finance Committee, Smotrich noted that a few months ago a discussion was held in the Finance Committee regarding the recognition of donations for tax purposes under section 46 of the Income Tax Ordinance for Amnesty International.
"Already at the hearing, I and other members had serious complaints about approving the organization's status, since there was already a heavy cloud of support for the boycott of the State of Israel, a call to put IDF soldiers on trial in international courts, and to present the State of Israel as a war criminal," wrote Smotrich.
At an October meeting of the Finance Committee, Amnesty's status was finally approved. However, Smotrich believes he has now caught the organization in flagrant violation of the Boycott Law.
"In the past week, Amnesty International published on its Facebook page - and later in the media - a call on countries that do business with products manufactured in Judea and Samaria to boycott the State of Israel and not to purchase these products," added Smotrich, and quoted from the organization's website: "Human Rights Movement Amnesty International calls on the international community to ban the importation of all types of goods and products from the illegal settlements built by Israel and to stop the flow of millions of dollars fueling mass violations of Palestinian human rights."

IsraellyCool: Real Jews vs Real Palestinians

One of the main tactics the BDS Movement uses to hide its underlying Jew-hatred is to point to the few anti-Zionist Jews who support them as “proof” that they aren’t really anti-Jewish, only anti-Israel or anti-occupation. They hold up this fringe minority of Jews as the only “Real Jews,” while the rest of us who support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish State are imposters or “fake Jews.”
But like the rest of BDS’s “logic,” this reasoning is only acceptable when it comes to Jews and certainly not when it comes to Arabs, Palestinians, or Muslims. Were a Jew to say that Islamic State are the only true Muslims (given most Muslims oppose it), he would be accused of Islamophobia. Were an Israeli to say terror supporters are the only true Palestinians, he’d be accused of racism even though 46% support suicide bombings, 67% support stabbings, and 89% support rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. But for BDS to hold up anti-Zionist Jews (a very small minority) as the only true Jews is for some reason considered acceptable.
It would never be ok to attack a Muslim by sending them a picture of an ISIS atrocity and saying “this is the true Islam,” and yet BDS and their blue-and-whitewashing friends at Jewish Voice for Peace Palestine are perfectly happy to do the exact same thing to Jews.
So the next time someone tweets you an image of the Neturei Karta (who barely number a few thousand members), tweet this right back:

Human Rights Watch censures Arab states for closing Qatar Media

Restrictions against Qatar-supported media by a number of Arab states are in violation of freedom of expression and breach international law, an international human rights group said today (Wednesday), reports Sputnik International.
"The action is a violation of freedom of expression… Authorities should repeal or amend laws that are used to criminalize peaceful expression. International law on freedom of speech prohibits the banning of peaceful criticism of governments, and crimes such as insulting the president or state authorities,” Human Rights Watch said.
The watchdog specified that on May 25, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates blocked Qatari media outlets, including Al Jazeera, while Egypt blocked 62 websites favorable toward the Muslim Brotherhood.
Al Jazeera’s Amman bureau was closed and stripped of its operating license on June 7, and the channel’s Riyadh bureau was shut down on June 8. Also, on June 9, since there is no way to stop satellite beaming, Saudi authorities ordered hotels and other tourist facilities to block all channels related to Al Jazeera, threatening punishment for violators.

New York Times Falsely Describes Six-Day War 50th Anniversary Celebrations as ‘Muted’

The news columns of the New York Times marked the 50th anniversary of the Six-Day War last week with a “memo from Jerusalem” by Times Jerusalem bureau chief Ian Fisher.
Its tone was pretty much summed up in its conclusion: “[L]ike most of the 1967 anniversary events, this one is expected to be modest, with little of the unconflicted triumphalism of the celebration of the nation’s founding, and little clue about what is next.”
The paper reported on a “muted feeling”: “Most events, too, are small and spread out: The reunification of Jerusalem, as Israelis consider it, seems safe enough to celebrate. The continuing occupation of the West Bank, much less so.”
The New York Times did not let readers in on the news of any 1967 anniversary events that were not “modest” or “small.”
Part of the problem is a false distinction by the New York Times between the reunification of Jerusalem and the 1967 war. It’d be somewhat odd to celebrate a war — Jews love peace, and people die in war. Americans celebrate the Declaration of Independence on July 4, not the “Revolutionary War.”

BBC bows out of coverage of 10 years of Hamas rule in Gaza

While in the last couple of weeks the BBC has invested quite a lot of resources and energy in opportunistic promotion of its chosen political narrative concerning the Six Day War, it has on the other hand to date completely ignored an additional anniversary that is, to put it mildly, no less important as far as audience understanding of the reasons for the absence of a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is concerned.
This week marks a decade since the violent take-over of the Gaza Strip by the terrorist organisation Hamas and the ousting of the body recognised by the international community as representing the Palestinian people – the Palestinian Authority – from that territory.

Tools used in Nazi medical experiments uncovered in Argentina

Police in Argentina discovered original Nazi objects from World War II, including tools for Nazi medical experiments, at a house in Buenos Aires.
The objects were found Friday in a hidden room of the house in the northern part of the city. They are in the custody of the justice who is tasked with investigating the find.
“We are too shocked, too touched by the impressive finding, but also happy” to have made this discovery, Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said Tuesday in a statement accompanying a video published on her You Tube channel to show the objects. Bullrich called it “the biggest seizure of archaeological objects and Nazi pieces of our history.”
The judge in the case is Sandra Arroyo Salgado, the widow of prosecutor Alberto Nisman. Salgado imposed a gag order on the investigation, so no further details were revealed. But Bullrich said she will ask the judge to have the objects donated to the Holocaust Museum of Buenos Aires.

Fired Jewish paramedic sues over supervisor’s ‘Anne’s Franks’ comments

A Jewish paramedic in Tennessee has filed a civil rights lawsuit against his former employer for making disparaging remarks about his faith and then firing him for complaining.
Joshua Jenkins was fired in March 2016 after working for the Grainger County Ambulance Service for two years. He is asking for $500,000 in compensatory damages as well back pay, various other related job loss expenses and punitive damages.
According to the lawsuit, Jenkins’ direct supervisor, Patrick Donnelly, and the director of the ambulance service, Roger Ritchie, both mocked his Judaism, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported. Ritchie also disparaged teenage Holocaust diarist Anne Frank, the lawsuit alleges.
“On or about September 12, 2015, Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Ritchie were in Mr. Ritchie’s office when Mr. Ritchie commented that if he were not a paramedic, he would open a hot dog stand called ‘Anne’s Franks’ and proceeded to draw a mock logo that included the words: ‘Fire Roasted Anne’s Franks We Jew Hotdogs Since 1945,’” he said, the News Sentinel reported, citing the lawsuit.

Controversial British Labour Activist Announces One-Woman Show, Compares Her Suspension From Party for Alleged Antisemitic Comments to a ‘Lynching’

A far-left UK politician has created a one-woman show comparing her suspension from the Labour Party for alleged antisemitic comments she made to being lynched.
Jackie Walker — former vice chair of Momentum, a grassroots organization founded soon after Jeremy Corbyn won the Labour leadership in 2015 — will be offering a preview performance of “The Lynching” this Sunday in Kent, before playing the show at the Edinburgh Festival later this summer, according to The Jewish Chronicle.
A flier described the program as the story of “the real-life witch hunt; an attempt to destroy Jeremy Corbyn and an entire political movement.”
The poster featured a picture of Walker next to a dangling noose, and the words, “To oppose Israel is not to be anti-semitic.” At the top of the flier was the headline, “What they wouldn’t let Jackie Walker tell you.”
The flier also included a blurb from famed linguist and anti-Israel activist Noam Chomsky, reading, “I wholeheartedly support the right of anyone to criticise Israel without being branded antisemitic. That goes in particular for Jackie Walker.”
The Facebook page for Sunday’s show featured a photo of a white audience seen beneath the hanging feet of a black victim.
A spokesperson for the Community Security Trust told the Jewish News the use of “lynching” imagery was “disgusting.”

Life after tragedy: New documentary follows Holocaust survivors

Holocaust survivor Ed Mosberg still wears a bracelet bearing his identification number from Mauthausen concentration camp. He and other survivors describe their lives during and after the Holocaust in new documentary "Destination Unknown".
The film, compiled over the course of 14 years, is told through the accounts of twelve Holocaust survivors, some of whom return to the camps where they were imprisoned.
Director Claire Ferguson said what made the film different from other films on the Holocaust was the subject of survivors trying to rebuild their lives after the Holocaust.
"What came across to me as unique and fresh was how do you live with pain? How do you have a life after such atrocity?" she said.
The documentary follows the stories of Jews who were in hiding, those who fought in the Jewish resistance movement and those who survived imprisonment in concentration camps.

Wearable Medical Monitoring Device Wins Israeli Innovation Competition

A startup called BiPS Health edged out 49 other early-stage medical technology companies to win the top prize in the recent Trendlines Medtech Open 2017 held at the Israel Export Institute.
BiPS Health is developing a device worn on the wrist and fingers that constantly monitors vitals including blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation, respiration rate and heart rate. It is designed primarily to replace the need for hospital nurses taking vitals every eight hours, but also will be suitable for remote monitoring.
“In the future, hospitals will move from manual patient monitoring by the nurses to continuous automatic personal monitoring,” said BiPS CEO Ran Keren. “Our device is wearable and comfortable and … will dramatically improve treatment and the ability to detect deterioration in the patient’s condition hours before it actually occurs.”
The founding team of BiPS Health includes CEO Ran Keren, Dr. Nimrod Adi, director of the Intensive Care Unit at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center; Dr. Gil Zoizner, a physician at Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot; and electronics engineer Jonathan Rubin.
The Trendlines Medtech prize totaled $54,000, including $10,000 in cash and a package of professional services. There is no obligation to join Trendlines or any other Israeli incubator.

GM Israel unveils autonomous car prototype

The General Motors (GM) research and development center in Herzliya yesterday unveiled the company's first prototype of an autonomous vehicle. The car's systems were developed in Israel.
The vehicle, which is based on the Chevrolet Bolt, an electric car, is equipped with an advanced array of sensors and data processors that will enable it to travel without a driver. As of now, the car, which allows a travel range of 380 kilometers without recharging, is being marketed only in the US.
The vehicle was displayed at the Tel Aviv Fair Grounds to a conference of veterans of the IDF 8200 signals intelligence unit. The GM R&D center took part in the conference as part of its efforts to recruit personnel for its expansion in Israel. GM is the first auto manufacturer to establish a center in Israel for developing technologies for the car of tomorrow. Its center is the largest center in Israel for smart transportation, including technologies for vehicles connected to the Internet, autonomous control, user experience, cyber defense, business models for shared transportation, etc.
GM Israel general manager Gil Golan said, "As a graduate of the 8200 unit myself I see the integration of the unit's graduates as an important advantage over other companies and our senior management recognizes the quality human resources that the unit supplies."

David Grossman becomes first Israeli author to win Booker Prize

Israeli author David Grossman on Tuesday became the first Israeli author to win the distinguished Man Booker International Prize for his novel "A Horse Walks Into a Bar." The award was announced Wednesday at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Grossman beat out five other finalists, including fellow Israeli author Amos Oz who was up for the award for his novel "Judas." The monetary prize of 50,000 pounds ($64,000) was split evenly between Grossman and his English translator, Jessica Cohen.
"It's a great sign of honor to our language to have two Israeli writers made the shortlist," Grossman said.
Grossman's novel was selected from 126 books by a panel of five award winning authors, chaired by Nick Barley, the Edinburgh International Book Festival director.
"David Grossman has attempted an ambitious high-wire act of a novel, and he's pulled it off spectacularly," Barley said in a statement.
"A Horse Walks Into A Bar" is set over a single evening during a live performance by failed middle-aged stand-up comedian Dovaleh Gee. Step by step the act unravels the protagonist's troubled past, which continues to haunt him.

Translator of Grossman’s winning novel to donate prize money to B’Tselem

The translator of David Grossman’s award-winning novel announced Wednesday that she would be donating half of her Man Booker International Prize money to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, which operates in the West Bank.
Jessica Cohen translated Grossman’s “A Horse Walks into a Bar,” which became the first Israeli work ever awarded the prestigious prize. The pair will share the £50,000 ($64,000) winnings.
Set in a Netanya comedy club, the story focuses on an embittered comedian falling apart on stage. Grossman beat out another renowned Israeli author, Amos Oz, who was nominated for his book “Judas.”
Cohen was born in England, raised in Israel and lives in Denver, and has translated Grossman as well as Etgar Keret, Rutu Modan, Dorit Rabinyan and others.
In her acceptance speech at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Cohen did not shy away from sharing her views on current affairs coming out of Israel. “I’m not going to waste my breath hoping for change to come from the current Israeli administration, but I do hope that Israeli and Palestinian people can rekindle whatever shred of humanism and empathy they still have,” she said.

Touchdown in Israel 18 US football hall of famers arrive in Holy Land

Eighteen members of the American Pro Football Hall of Fame have arrived for a week-long visit to Israel. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Pro Football Hall of Fame President David Baker are leading the delegation named "TOUCHDOWN IN ISRAEL II - WE ARE ALL PATRIOTS."
The American football community in Israel will host the former NFL greats at Kraft Family Stadium in Jerusalem, on June 18. The “Gold Jackets” will also view Israeli High School football games at a closed event in Ramat HaSharon on Thursday.
The program in Jerusalem will include addresses by Kraft, Baker and AFI (American Football in Israel) President Steve Leibowitz. Several members of the Hall of Fame will recall stories from their playing days and the visitors will take part in a breakout session, where they will have an opportunity to “meet and greet” their Israeli fans.
In Ramat Hasharon the Gold Jackets will view a series of scrimmages between local teams. Several of the former NFL greats will join the Israeli teams as Honorary Coaches. The scrimmages will include games between the Kraft Family IHFL Champion Kfar Saba Hawks v Netanya Sharks and Ramat HaSharon Thunder v Kiryat Ono Wolves.

Israel is ‘in our blood,’ outgoing Australian ambassador says

It’s diplomatic etiquette for ambassadors to say nice things about their host countries before they leave. But at his farewell party Sunday in Tel Aviv, Dave Sharma, the outgoing Australian envoy to Israel, went above and beyond, using an unconventional metaphor to describe his family’s attachment to the Jewish state.
“I can honestly say that Israel will always be in our hearts. Israel will always be in our blood,” he told his guests at the Peres Center for Peace, speaking in Hebrew.
“Maybe it works better in English than it does in Hebrew, I’m not sure. But it basically means that Israel is part of our soul now,” Sharma told The Times of Israel on Wednesday, one day before he, his wife Rachel Lord, and their three young children were set to leave Israel after four years.
“Israel will have had a formative imprint not only on my life but on that of my wife and my children,” the unimposing and affable diplomat said. “That’s something we’ll always take with us — not just the memories from here and the relations and friendships we’ve made here, but also some of the life lessons we’ve drawn from here. In that sense, Israel is in our veins. We’ll carry it with us wherever we go.”

IsraellyCool: Rod Stewart Wears It Well In Israel Concert

In yet another high profile concert here in Israel, rock legend Rod Stewart performed in front of 20,000+ fans in Tel Aviv last night.
The only media report to come out about the concert so far is from the Daily Mail, which writes
He’s a rock god of a generation and so it comes as no surprise that Rod Stewart knows exactly how to entertain a crowd.
The 72-year-old defied his years as he put on a very energetic display in Hayrkon park in Tel Aviv, Israel on Wednesday night.
Throwing some serious shapes, Rod whipped his fans into a frenzy with both his moves AND his wardrobe choices.
Former IDF Spokesperson Avital Leibovich tweeted he gave an “amazing” performance.
And judging by footage from the concert, it does seem Rod still has the moves and the wardrobe – as well as the ability to entertain.

Revolutionary technology reveals dazzling ‘hidden’ text on biblical-era shard

Using a modified household digital camera and a revolutionary new technique for performing multispectral imaging, an interdisciplinary team from Tel Aviv University has discovered never-before-seen Hebrew inscriptions on a First Temple-era shard. The discovery raises the possibility that other “blank” shards from the period may also contain undiscovered texts, and there are now plans for a wider reexamination of all shards from that time period.
A corpus of 91 ink-on-clay shards (or ostraca) written on the eve of the Kingdom of Judah’s destruction by Nebuchadnezzar was unearthed at Tel Arad, west of the Dead Sea, in the 1960s. A remarkable find, the shards were found together on the floor of a single room, and what legible writing was discerned was thoroughly deciphered by top scholars. For the past 50 years, they have been prominently displayed in the Israel Museum.
Containing lists of supplies and orders from military quartermasters, the shards’ value to the study of the Hebrew language, the sociology and the economy of the time period is immeasurable.
Now, though, with the discovery of previously “invisible” words, and even sentences on the “blank” verso side of one of the first shards to be examined with the new technology, the pieces have become still more important.
It is speculated that the majority of correspondence and literature of this historical period was written on biodegradable papyrus. Therefore, most surviving biblical-period Hebrew inscriptions are on ostraca. Once unearthed, however, ink on clay fades rapidly; many shards previously thought of as “blank” have been summarily disposed of at digs or during artifact recording.

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