10/08 Links: Fatah glorifies murderer of 3 Israelis; Gal Gadot Speaks to Her Israeli Roots in ‘SNL' Monologue ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Violent husband Nimr Mahmoud Ahmed Jamal, who murdered three people in Har Adar two weeks ago, was the latest in a long line of depressive, mentally ill, or "whacked out" Palestinian terrorists for whom the killing of Jews blotted out the label "crazy" that Palestinian society had previously stuck on them.

By killing, Jamal, like dozens of other troubled murderers, resituated himself in his society as normative, and even bought himself a ticket into the Palestinian hall of fame as a shahid [martyr] for the price of the three people he killed two weeks ago.

The more mentally ill Palestinians carry out lethal terrorist attacks, the more people get used to categorizing their bloodfests as a separate genre of attack, which presents a problem. Even more than this approach goes easy on the attackers from the "new" group, it goes easy on Palestinian society, which embraces them.

A healthy, sane society keeps the deranged at a distance and cares for the troubled. But in Palestinian society, murdering Jews gives even the mentally ill and those in the midst of various emotional crises a place of honor in its ethno-religious pantheon.

In Palestinian society, the murder of Jews allows even the most delusional and problematic marginalized characters under the perverted canopy of the institution of martyrdom.

PMW: Fatah glorifies murderer of 3 Israelis

Since a Palestinian terrorist murdered 3 Israelis last month, Fatah, which is headed by Mahmoud Abbas, has repeatedly emphasized his status as hero. Palestinian Media Watch reported that only a few hours after the murders, Fatah celebrated the morning scented with the fragrance of the Martyrs.

Subsequently, Fatah has issued and distributed a poster glorifying murderer Nimr Mahmoud Ahmed Al-Jamal who shot and murdered an Israeli border police officer and two security guards and wounded another Israeli at the entrance to Har Adar, northwest of Jerusalem, on Sept. 26, 2017.

In a PA TV News broadcast, the murderer's children and others were seen holding the Fatah issued poster which displays a large picture of terrorist murderer Nimr Al-Jamal, together with pictures Mahmoud Abbas and Yasser Arafat, with the text:

"With all honor and pride, The Fatah Movement, Jerusalem district, Beit Surik branch, mourns the death of its heroic Martyr Nimr Mahmoud Ahmed Al-Jamal." [Official PA TV News, Sept. 29, 2017]

The poster also featured the Fatah logo that includes a grenade, crossed rifles, and the PA map of "Palestine" that presents all of Israel as "Palestine" together with the PA areas.

David Collier: In Edinburgh they are still promoting SPSC antisemitism

This highlights the difficulty of the fight we are in. Whilst we are mainly passive, these ‘haters’ are aggressive. Single actors in a variety of settings become ‘enablers’. In unions, on councils, in schools. Intersectionality drives their strategy and in every setting where just one single member of the group has been tainted, the poison is spreading.

In this example someone who shared hard-core antisemitic material was a speaker at an event held by a group known for hard-core antisemitism. Yet such poison is still allowed to spread inside a school setting, just two months after the groups antisemitism had been laid bare.

This isn’t an exception. In February, my report into antisemitism inside the England & Wales PSC threw light onto the activities of Tapash Abu Shaim. A PSC activist who had helped run the PSC stall at the 2016 Labour Party Conference. Despite this receiving national coverage, despite complaints to the Labour party. Nothing changed. As I reported from the 2017 conference last week, Tapash was there, back at the PSC stall. Once again my own research is being shared, but if people are looking to groups like the PSC or SPSC, or even Political parties like Labour, to ‘self cleanse’, they misunderstand the depth of the problem.

On every council, in almost every school, in every community centre. Wider society is not dealing with toxic groups the way that it should because of individual sympathisers who have become activists. It takes just one member of the group to have ‘fallen into the trap’ of believing that antisemitism cannot exist where a humanitarian flag is waved. Where that happens, hard-core antisemitism is promoted and allowed to spread. When left unchallenged this turns each environment into a hostile environment that sees Jews as the problem. Because of this, society is not dealing with Jew hate in the same way it does other forms of racism. We have a real fight on our hands. We cannot stop, we cannot relax. Not for a second.

Howard Jacobson: The Phony Peace Between the Labour Party and Jews

Desperate to win any sort of concession from Labour, Jews have settled for a phony peace. You desist from overtly anti-Semitic discourse — invoking the malignancy of our appearance and ambitions — and we will allow you your anti-Zionism. But the deal is beginning to unravel as it was always bound to. For the truth is you cannot keep the Jews out of Zionism.

A willful historical ignorance sustains anti-Zionism. In some accounts the Israelis drop out of a clear blue sky in 1967 and occupy the West Bank; in others, Zionism is a recent ideology always contested within Jewish society itself. What is elided is the 2,000-year history of Jews returning to the country from which they had been exiled, whether in response to longings for a homeland, to pray where they had once prayed, or to find a place of safety.

In 1862, the socialist Moses Hess, collaborator of Karl Marx, published “Rome and Jerusalem,” an argument for the Jews — since all other attempts to live free of persecution had failed — to return to that “inalienable ancestral homeland” toward which they’d been directing their gaze for millenniums. “No modern people which strives for a fatherland of its own,” Hess continued, “can deny the Jew his, without committing moral suicide.”

Zionism was thus, in a phrase of Simon Schama’s, a long-gestating movement for “regenerative transformation” — more spiritual than political, and not at all the imperialist adventure that anti-Zionists accuse it of being. A grand ambition, bound to lose its shine when it declined into the banal and sometimes cruel exigencies of statehood, but can we hate a thing in retrospect because we don’t like what it became? And if we do hate it, where is our understanding of the desperation that made it necessary?

What needs to be insisted on is that Zionism — the idea not the political events to which it has given rise — is integral to the Jewish mind and imagination. Those who say they are against Zionism but not Jews are speaking in riddles. It is not the Jew who needs to see himself apart from anti-Zionism; it is the anti-Zionist who needs to ask himself what feeds his fervor and whether, in his righteous rage, he is committing what Moses Hess called “moral suicide.” Until then the Labour Party’s slogan will go on reading, “For the many, not the Jew.” (h/t Yerushalimey)

Trump to 'give peace a shot' before moving embassy to Jerusalem

U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview broadcast on Saturday that he wanted to try to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians before making good on a campaign promise to relocate the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

In June, Trump signed a temporary order to keep the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, disappointing many in Israel who hoped Trump would fulfill his promise thereby officially recognizing Israel's capital.

In an interview with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee on the TBN program "Huckabee" on Saturday, Trump noted his administration was working on a plan for peace between the two sides.

"I want to give that a shot before I even think about moving the embassy to Jerusalem," he said.

"If we can make peace between the Palestinians and Israel, I think it'll lead to ultimately peace in the Middle East, which has to happen," he said.

Asked if there was a time frame for the embassy move, Trump said: "We're going to make a decision in the not too distant future."

Friedman: I'll continue to push for moving US embassy

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman took part Sunday in a cornerstone laying ceremony for the new dormitory of the Yeshivat Hesder Sderot in southern Israel, along with MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) and Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi.

During the ceremony, Smotrich addressed President Donald Trump’s recent remarks regarding the proposed relocation of the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

On Saturday, President Trump told former Arkansas Governor and 2008 and 2016 GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee that he would hold off on moving the embassy in order to give his push to reboot negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority “a shot”.

“I want to give that a shot before I even think about moving the embassy to Jerusalem,” Trump said. “If we can make peace between the Palestinians and Israel, I think it’ll lead to ultimately peace in the Middle East, which has to happen,” he added.

Abbas says 'no' to Trump

The Fatah Revolutionary Council, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, met at the Palestinian Authority presidential headquarters in Ramallah to discuss the latest developments in the efforts to achieve reconciliation with the Hamas terrorist organization.

According to the official PA news agency Wafa, Fatah leader and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said at the meeting that Jerusalem was "the eternal capital of the state of Palestine."

He praised the 'victory' of the Arab residents of Jerusalem for the "tyranny of the occupation" after the thwarting of the installation of metal detectors at the entrance to the Temple Mount.

Abbas stated that there was an inherent danger in the Balfour Declaration, which was issued 100 years ago, and stressed the importance of calling for Britain to apologize for the "historic injustice" caused to the Palestinian Arabs by the declaration, as well as for the cancellation of all events marking the anniversary of the declaration.

He also called on the UN Human Rights Council to publish its blacklist of companies which do business in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, and reiterated that the payments made to terrorists in Israeli prisons would continue.

Abbas called the payments to terrorists a national, moral, political and human duty.

In surprising move, Arab states slated to withdraw anti-Israel UNESCO resolution

The Arab states are expected to withdraw their biannual resolution asking UNESCO ’s executive board to disavow Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, according to Israel’s ambassador to that organization, Carmel Shama Hacohen.

The 58-member board had been expected to vote on two resolutions condemning Israeli actions in Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights on Friday, but according to Shama Hacohen it is likely that the board will agree to delay the issue for six months.

“Time will tell whether this is a tactical change or a new approach. If it is, it is significant progress toward wiping the table clean from the incitement and politicization against us in the organization,” Shama Hacohen said, adding: “It could be a significant step toward the elimination of these proposals altogether.”

There is no reason why the organization should consider such resolutions, he said.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has approved such resolutions for many years. The issue became highly publicized in 2016 when the board approved a text that ignored Jewish ties to its holiest sites, the Temple Mount and the adjoining Western Wall Plaza, referring to them instead as al-Haram al-Sharif and the Buraq Plaza.

This year, the Arab states toned down the text, with the resolution they submitted to May’s executive board meeting disavowing Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem but using more generic language to talk about the holy sites.

.@UN On Oct. 20, do not elect even more abusers to your Human Rights Council.
No to:#Afghanistan #Angola #Congo #Malaysia #Pakistan #Qatar http://pic.twitter.com/DvkAffsZfM
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 7, 2017

Belgium Suspends PA Construction Projects After Palestinian School Renamed for Notorious Terrorist

The Belgian government is suspending any efforts to construct or furnish Palestinian schools, after one built with Brussels’ aid was renamed in honor of a mass-murdering terrorist, The Algemeiner has learned.

Located in the southern West Bank, the school’s controversial name pays homage to Dalal Mughrabi, who led a massacre of 38 people — including 13 children — near Tel Aviv in 1978. Its logo also includes a map erasing Israel, while its Facebook page has posted pictures glorifying Palestinian attackers.

A plaque at the school, which was first identified by the monitoring group Palestinian Media Watch, notes that it was established with Belgian support.

Didier Vanderhasselt, a spokesperson for the Belgian Foreign Ministry, confirmed to The Algemeiner that the school’s construction was supported by the Belgian government between 2012 and 2013.

“When the school building was handed over to the local community in 2013 it was called ‘Beit Awwa Basic Girls School,’ subsequently the name was changed to ‘Dalal Mughrabi Elementary School,’” Vanderhasselt explained. “The Belgian government was unaware of this name change.”

He added that Belgium “unequivocally condemns the glorification of terrorist attacks,” and “will not allow itself to be associated with the names of terrorists in any way.”

Shin Bet: Murder of Jewish man in Arab city was terrorism, 2 arrested

The Shin Bet security agency on Sunday said two Palestinians were arrested over the recent murder of a Jewish man in the Arab Israeli city of Kafr Qassem, confirming that the killing last Wednesday was a terror attack.

In a statement, the Shin Bet said the Palestinian suspects, both from the West Bank city of Qabatiya, were arrested last week in connection with the murder.

Reuven Schmerling, a resident of the West Bank settlement of Elkana, was found dead in a storage unit belonging to his business in Kafr Qassem’s industrial area on Wednesday, hours before the start of the Jewish festival of Sukkot.

Police and the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, opened a joint investigation into the murder, looking at possible motives including a work- or money-related dispute. Schmerling owned a coal business in Kafr Qassem, employed residents of the city and had business contacts there.

Tel Aviv Mayor supports theater that honored terrorists

Hundreds of people, including Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, rallied at Jaffa's Arab-Hebrew Theater Friday. The Arab-Hebrew Theater is facing a cut in the state subsidies it receives after it honored Dareen Tatour, an Israeli-Arab poet who was indicted in 2015 for incitement to violence and support of terrorism.

"This is a theater that does not oppose the State of Israel but loves it very much, so we will continue to support it," said Huldai.

Shai Glick, who heads the human rights organization Bzalmo, blasted Huldai, telling Arutz Sheva that "it is very unfortunate that the mayor chooses to divert taxpayer money to fund events supporting terrorists. The Bzalmo organization appealed to the Attorney General, asking him to order the mayor to stop supporting the theater because it honors terrorists."

Directors at the theater will be summoned for a hearing with representatives of the ministries of finance, justice, and culture after it hosted an event honoring Dareen Tatour, whose poems are considered incitement against the State of Israel.

Revealed: Israel scrapped plan to bomb Syrian crematoria

American intelligence reports suggesting Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime was cremating the bodies of hundreds of prisoners in a facility near Damascus prompted Israel to examine the possibility of bombing the area, but the plan was eventually shelved over the defense establishment's concerns that the move would lead to a rapid security escalation on the northern border.

The existence of the Syrian crematoria was revealed in May, when the U.S. State Department presented reports saying that crematoria had been built near the Sednaya Military Prison, north of Damascus, with the aim of disposing of evidence proving the Assad regime had been committing mass torture and murder of dissidents.

The American report included satellite images of the crematoria, alongside information suggesting they had been operating for several years.

In February, three months before the State Department's report, human rights watchdog Amnesty International reported that the Syrian government executed some 13,000 prisoners in mass hangings and had systematically tortured thousands of prisoners at Sednaya during the civil war, a scale amounting to war crimes under international law.

Slippers under the radar: Gaza army boot smuggling foiled

Israeli authorities have foiled an attempt to smuggle thousands of military-grade shoes labeled as slippers destined for Hamas’s military wing in Gaza, Israel’s Defense Ministry announced Sunday.

The boots were discovered after authorities at the Kerem Shalom Crossing stopped an Israeli truck carrying a large shipment of “slippers” after it aroused suspicion. According to the defense ministry, when security officials examined the innocent-looking slippers, which had emojis on them, they found professional-grade Magnum military boots in a variety of colors.

According to Gaza District Coordination Office (DCO) Commander, Col. Fares Atilla, the smuggling attempt that was thwarted “is another attempt by the Hamas terror organization to abuse Israel’s policy towards the civilian residents of the Gaza Strip. We will continue to remain vigilant and ensure that goods are not for terror purposes.”

Israeli authorities intercept illicit goods heading for Hamas on a regular basis at crossings from Israel into the Strip. Last January, the Office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said that it had foiled 1,226 smuggling attempts in 2016 through the Kerem Shalom crossing, an increase of 165% from the previous year.

Director of the Kerem Shalom crossing, Ami Shaked, praised the activity of the inspection team, saying that constant smuggling attempts are part of a “daily war” that is fought by the best people in the country and mostly hidden from the public eye.

Hamas vows it won't disarm until Palestine is liberated

With the ink on the reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas not yet dry, with the mutual declarations of "real reconciliation on behalf of Palestinian national strength" still reverberating in the background, the first signs of division over the implementation of understandings began to surface over the weekend.

In response to reports that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is demanding Hamas relinquish its weapons as a condition for lifting the sanctions he imposed on the group, and reports in the Egyptian press that the head of Egyptian intelligence, Khaled Fawzy, relayed a message to Abbas that Hamas will not agree to discuss the demand, senior Hamas representatives said over the weekend that the terrorist group will not accept any dictates or conditions that include dismantling its military wing.

Ismail Radwan, a senior Hamas member, said in an interview with the Lebanese-based Al-Mayadeen network that only armed struggle against Israel will lead to results.

"The path of armed struggle has proven itself and the path of agreement with Israel hasn't led anywhere," he said.

Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri echoed those sentiments, adding that the organization would not surrender its weapons even at the cost of derailing inter-Palestinian reconciliation.

Anti-Israel play about terrorists twists facts, sparks outrage

New York University has come under harsh criticism in recent days over its decision to host a controversial anti-Israel play that critics say distorts the facts of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

NYU's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, one of New York City's major presenters of international work, plans to host a 10-day run of the "The Siege," a Palestinian play that claims it is based on the 2002 events in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, during Operation Defensive Shield, a large-scale Israeli campaign carried out at the height of the Second Intifada with aim of eradicating terrorist nests in Judea and Samaria.

The play is scheduled to open on Sunday night and run until Oct. 22.

The play is produced by the Jenin-based Freedom Theatre, which claims to "stage professional theatre productions, hold theatre workshops in the refugee camp, Jenin town and villages, offer training in acting, pedagogy, and photography, and publish books, exhibitions and short films."

The play is based on an event that took place between April 2 and May 10, 2002, during which 39 armed terrorists barricaded themselves in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, taking 46 monks and 200 civilians, including children, hostage. The terrorists booby-trapped the holy site and threatened to blow it up and kill the hostages. At the end of long negotiations, 13 of the terrorists were deported abroad, the rest were expelled to the Gaza Strip, and Israeli military sappers defused the explosives that threatened one of Christianity's holiest sites.

But the playbill seems to have twisted the facts in favor of a clear anti-Israeli agenda.

Guardian reviews anti-Israel Guardian play…and approves!

The Guardian’s Michael Billington gave My Name Is Rachel Corrie four stars out of five in his review of the anti-Israel play now showing at the Young Vic Theatre in London. Billington’s review doesn’t hide the fact that the play was written by the late Alan Rickman and now Guardian Editor-in-Chief Katherine Viner.

Why oh why did this play need to be revived yet again having been shown in London in 2005 and Edinburgh in 2006? Corrie was killed in Rafah in Gaza in 2003 while standing in front of an Israeli bulldozer that was about the demolish a house that was shielding a Hamas weapon supply tunnel from Egypt into Gaza.

Her death was at the height of the second Intifada when Hamas were using these supply tunnels to blow up Israeli citizens inside Israel using suicide bombers.

Judging by the Billington’s review the play doesn’t mention this crucial narrative. The play merely shows Corrie “was crushed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza” and that Corrie goes to “work in Gaza with the International Solidarity Movement to support Palestinians whose homes were being systematically demolished.”

So there is no mention that at the trial of the driver of the bulldozer he was found innocent by the court because there was no way he could have seen her standing in front of the bulldozer based on how high up he was in his carriage. But the play accuses the driver of murdering Corrie.

Anti-Israel FAKE HISTORY “Nakba Tour” scheduled throughout U.S., Canada

Now in its second consecutive year, the Nakba Tour is a speaking event that brings several Palestinian women registered as refugees in Lebanon to university, church, and other community venues across North America.

The talks rightly highlight the many overwhelming challenges that Palestinians face in Lebanon, including the denial of basic civil rights and endemic discrimination.

Lebanon’s dozen refugee camps have long been considered among the worst in the region in terms of poverty, health, education, and living conditions. It is important for people in the U.S. and Canada to learn more about the hardships that Palestinians face there so that solutions can be found.

But the Nakba Tour doesn’t link the deplorable conditions for Palestinians living in Lebanon to the real culprits: the Lebanese state and society. Instead, the tour’s speakers, along with the materials provided on the Nakba Tour’s website and social media, blame Israel for Lebanon’s failure to treat Palestinians decently.

Promoted and sponsored by virulently anti-Israel activists and organizations, the Nakba Tour insists that Palestinian refugees have the “right of return”, advocates for Palestine to replace Israel (violently if necessary), and scorns Zionism as antithetical to justice and as inherently racist and oppressive.

The Nakba Tour is promoted as an educational experience. But it’s also a “Call to Action”.

Why I Continue to Love Alan Parsons

The Express has a fascinating interview with music legend Alan Parsons, who reveals what it was like working with some of the world’s best bands, including the Beatles and, yes, Pink Floyd.

What is interesting to me is who he does not mention.
It’s clear that after a few minutes talking with this giant of music production, his warmth and attention to detail is as apparent in person as in his legendary trademark sound recordings.

In particular, his production of sound on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon album.

Parsons explains: “Nick Mason was always very supportive of me and my role. I feel comfortable in the knowledge that Dark Side would have been different without me and my contributions.

Sure, it might not mean anything. Or it might mean he is really no fan of Roger Waters. He certainly does not seem to be these days.

But it gets better. Alan actually mentions Waters’ latter day nemeses.
Parsons declared that he would like to work with both Coldplay and Radiohead, should the opportunity present itself in the future.

SJP to Host Interfaith Panel This Friday Night (satire)

Amidst rising controversies on US campuses over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Students for Justice in Palestine is outreaching to its diverse students by hosting their second annual “Israel, Palestine, and Occupation Forum” this coming Friday night.

Members of all faiths are welcome to participate to promote easing tensions between Christians, Jews, and Muslims by discussing modern events in Israel. Snacks and beverages will be provided followed by a PowerPoint presentation on the history of the conflict from scholars at Al Jazeera and The New York Times.

When asked about low participation from Jewish students during last year’s event spokespeople from the group shrugged without comment. SJP leadership says reaching out to Jewish students has always been difficult for the organization. “Perhaps comparing Zionists to those who butchered them in World War II isn’t as ‘woke’ as we thought. We are also considering lifting the ban on the Star of David at our events.”

The event will conclude Saturday night with an arts and crafts activity where participants will design a new logo for the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The winner will receive a free trip to Jordan to have lunch with Rasmea Odeh. “Some are critical of our so-called ‘virtue signaling’ over the conflict but if Jews don’t participate actively I guess it’s up to us to narrate the entire discourse and define antisemitism as we see fit”, said SJP organizer Alex, a gender studies major who became educated about the conflict after viewing several informative memes on Facebook.

The ABC's Sophie McNeill’s Bias

Once again ABC Jerusalem correspondent Sophie McNeill has proven to be inconsistent and ignorant in her reporting and handling of news coming out of Israel.

Ms McNeill was passionate in her twitter, play-by-play commentary, of the eviction of the Palestinian Shamesneh family from the East Jerusalem house they had been living in for 50 years. Her emotional plea failed to mention that the Shamesneh’s were squatters in a house that had been vacated during mass evictions, under the Jordanian occupation of East Jerusalem prior to the Six Day War of 1967.

But what of her treatment some days earlier of the tragedy of the Israeli Salomon family who were stabbed to death in their home at their Shabbat dinner table? By contrast with her sympathy for Palestinian family Ms McNeil made only passing reference to the Salomons, without mentioning them by name, as settlers in “occupied territories” Sadly, the death of the three Salomon family members who were gathered around the Shabbat dinner table to celebrate the birth of grandson Yosef, the newest member of the family, is seemingly not news worthy to Ms McNeill. But the Palestinian family, who had to shift are worth a segment on “7.30”

This is an example of the style of Ms McNeill’s reporting. Like her hero John Pilger she dehumanises the side she does not favour by failing to report crucial information about them. She always elevates the Palestinian narrative. This consistent pattern of bias is hard to identify by her editors or ABC views who may not be aware of on the ground events in relation to each other.

White nationalists return to Charlottesville

White nationalists returned to Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday less than two months after one person was killed and dozens were injured when violence broke out after the "Unite the Right" rally.

White nationalist leader Richard Spencer led a group of roughly 30 white nationalists, who gathered at Emancipation Park, according to the Charlottesville's CBS affiliate.

Spencer announced the return on a live stream on Twitter.

The scene was similar to the white nationalist protest in the normally quiet college town in August.

The group carried tiki torches and chanted "You will not replace us," by a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in the park. They also reportedly said, "we will be back."

Poland slams Brussels museum over Holocaust exhibition

Poland on Friday slammed the House of European History recently opened in Brussels, accusing it of presenting a biased view of the Holocaust, denouncing its permanent exhibition for “flagrant misinformation and omissions.”

In a letter to European Parliament head Antonio Tajani, Poland’s Culture Minister Piotr Glinski accused the museum of describing Poland, France and Ukraine as “states and nations complicit in the Holocaust.”

The museum was opened in May as a European Parliament project, and Tajani attended the ceremonial opening.

Without elaborating, Glinski also criticized the museum for presenting Germany as “the greatest victim of World War II” and Communism “in a positive context” without mentioning the millions of victims of this “criminal system.”

Scientist who fled Nazis among Nobel Prize in Physics winners

Three American scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, including one who fled the Nazis with his parents and another whose grandparents were Polish immigrants.

Rainer Weiss, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Kip Thorne and Barry Barish, both of the California Institute of Technology, were awarded the prize on Tuesday for the discovery gravitational waves, which were predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago.

Gravitational waves are ripples in space and time that help scientists explore objects in space.

Weiss won half of the $1.1 million prize, with Barish and Thorne sharing the other half.

The Nobel winners and the late Ron Dreyer, also of Caltech, founded the international collaboration of physicists and astronomers known as LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. In February 2016, they announced that they had recorded gravitational waves emanating from the collision of a pair of black holes a billion light years away.

Drever died this year; the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously.

Warsaw Jewish museum welcomes 1 millionth visitor to core exhibition

Less than three years after it opening, the core exhibition of the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews registered a million visitors, management said.

The millionth ticket was bought by a Polish couple, Barbara and Sławomir, from the city of Szczecin in northwest Poland, a museum spokeswoman, Zaneta Czyżniewska, wrote in a statement Wednesday. They received a free museum card and return flight tickets for two to Israel from an airport of their choice in Poland.

The core exhibition, titled “1000-year History of Polish Jews,” is made up of eight galleries, spread over an area of 43,000 square feet presenting the heritage and culture of Polish Jews.
The Gwoździec synagogue roof structure, ceiling paintings and bimah installed in the ‘The Jewish Town’ gallery of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. (Magda Starowieyska)

Earlier this month, the museum was recognized with a top honor from the European Union for a project promoting Jewish cultural heritage.

The Europa Nostra Prize, or Our Europe, was presented at a ceremony at the Warsaw museum. Twenty-nine laureates from 18 countries were honored.

British Newspaper Touts Israel as ‘Country You’d Never Thought to Visit, but Really Should’

People looking for a Mediterranean getaway should “swap ordinary for underrated” and check out Israel, a travel writer for a prominent British newspaper said this week.

“A holiday on the Med usually means Spain, France, Italy, Greece, or — if you’ve grown tired of the above — Croatia, Morocco or Montenegro. But head east — all the way east — and there’s an option that doesn’t often come to mind: Israel,” Soo Kim wrote in The Telegraph on Friday.

Kim went on the cite a number of reasons to visit Israel — including “undiscovered” beaches, “year-round” sun, “thriving” nightlife, “vibrant” food scene and “fascinating” architecture, among others.

She also noted, “With more than 230 museums spread across a relatively small plot of land, Israel is an option for sunseekers who also want culture.”

Tel Aviv cocktail bar named best in Mideast and Africa

Tel Aviv’s Imperial Craft cocktail bar was awarded the Best Bar in the Middle East & Africa Award for 2017 by the World’s 50 Best Bars media group during an event in London’s historic Southwark Cathedral on Thursday.

Aside from receiving the award, sponsored by Asahi, Imperial Craft also placed 50th in the group’s list of the world’s top bars. Two years ago, it came in 17th on the list. Imperial Craft previously won the Best Bar in the Middle East & Africa Award in 2014.

Imperial Craft, located within the Imperial Hotel on HaYarkon street, offers Asian colonial-style dishes alongside intriguing and inventive cocktails, such as the Bullet to the Head — “a heady mix of Woodford Reserve and St-Germain, beet and chipotle syrup, lemon and egg white,” according to the World’s 50 Best Bars website. The bar is owned by Bar Shira, Dror Alterovich and Gilad Livnat, who are involved with three other restaurants in the city as well.

The World’s 50 Best Bars provides an annual ranking of bars as voted for by more than 500 drinks experts from across the globe. according to the group’s website. The list represents the ultimate international guide to the world’s top bars and drinking destinations.

In ‘Saturday Night Live’ Opening Monologue, Israeli Actress Gal Gadot Speaks to Friends and Family Back Home — in Hebrew

Israeli actress and model Gal Gadot hosted “Saturday Night Live” this weekend, and, during her opening monologue, the 32-year-old “Wonder Woman” star spoke to friends and family back home in her native tongue — Hebrew.

“Hi everybody, I just want to let you know that this might be a big mistake,” she joked. “The writers here clearly know nothing about Israel. In every sketch, they have me eating hummus. I mean, I like hummus, but come on.”

“They’re nice, but they’re not very sophisticated,” she continued. I think they believe that I’m the actual Wonder Woman.”

“So good luck to me, I’m hoping for the best,” she concluded, before switching back to English.

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