02/06 Links Pt2: Trump Thwarts Irish Effort to Boycott Israel; The Cape Town water crisis — proudly brought to you by BDS; The radical left-wing rejectionist front ~ EoZ

From Ian:

‘Arafat got a Nobel so BDS nomination no surprise’ say Israel activists

Pro-Israel activists have expressed contempt of the Nobel Peace Prize after the BDS movement received a nomination, pointing to the fact that late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat received the award in 1994.

The leader of the Red Party in the Norwegian Parliament, Bjornar Moxnes, nominated the International BDS movement on Friday, stating: “As a member of the Norwegian parliament, I proudly use my authority as an elected official to nominate the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights for the Nobel Peace Prize.”

“Awarding a Nobel Peace Prize to the BDS movement would be a powerful sign demonstrating that the international community is committed to supporting a just peace in the Middle East and using peaceful means to end military rule and broader violations of international law," Moxnes wrote in a statement published by Inter Press Service news agency.

Many pro-Israel activists took to social media to express their disdain of the nomination.

"The BDS movement is an anti-peace movement, they made this very clear over and over again," Israeli activist Hen Mazzig told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. "They are 'anti-normalization' of the relationship between Jews and Arabs and actively pushing Palestinians and Israelis to fight each other."

On Monday, Mazzig debated Rebecca Vilkomerson, the Executive Director of the far-left organization Jewish Voice for Peace on i24 News.

Jewish Voice for Peace is reportedly among some 20 organizations on a blacklist Israel is compiling as part of its ban on BDS activists.

The US-organization tweeted that the nomination was “wonderful news.”

The Cape Town water crisis — proudly brought to you by BDS

Cape Town 2018 is what happens when a city is more concerned about politics than people. Cape Town 2018 is what happens when national government wants to demonstrate to local government who is boss. Cape Town 2018 is what happens when local government is not equipped to deal with a real crisis. And Cape Town 2018 is what happens when communication falls apart to the point that the noise is so deafening, that no message can be heard.

Cape Town 2018 is also what happens when relevant lifesaving solutions are discarded because of BDS and anti-Semitism.

Cape Town is set to be the first major city to run out of water. The city is experiencing its worst drought in history. Residents are being asked to utilize less than 50 liters (13 gallons) per day and it is unlikely that it will avoid “Day Zero.” The day the taps run dry. It is unimaginable what contingencies can be put in place to deal with the series of events that will follow this day.

We all have that friend. Mine often sends me a WhatsApp simply saying “ITYS!” At first, I had no idea what he meant, until I realized he was saying “I told you so” (but was too busy to type out the sentence). It’s annoying and frustrating and infuriating. Especially when he is right. And maybe sometimes it’s not bad to hear it.

There is no satisfaction in the fact the residents of Cape Town are on the brink of a humanitarian crisis that could have and should have been avoided. Even if we saw it coming.

Trump Admin Thwarts Irish Effort to Boycott Israel, Criminalize Trade

The Trump administration played a key role in thwarting a recent effort by the Irish government to boycott Israel and make it a crime for Irish citizens to purchase products made in contested areas of the Jewish state, a move that would have severely jeopardized Ireland's trade with the United States, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.

The Irish Parliament was poised last week to pass a major piece of legislation that would make it crime to engage in trade with Israelis. The bill, which was seen as part of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, or BDS, would have imprisoned Irish citizens who purchased souvenirs in Israel for a maximum of five years and subjected them to a fine of more than $310,000.

Upon learning of the effort, senior Trump administration officials in the State Department are said to have scrambled to open up channels to Irish leaders in a bid to scuttle the bill and avoid a standoff with the Irish government over the measure.

Trump administration officials are said to have made clear to Irish leaders that passage of the bill would put them starkly at odds with the United States and subject them to inclusion on a list of countries supporting boycotts of the Jewish state.

While some Irish lawmakers described the effort as a "crackpot bill," its passage through the Parliament was all but assured until U.S. officials from the Trump administration became involved, multiple sources told the Free Beacon.

Govt. minister says all countries should pass laws banning 'martyr payments'

All countries should pass a law like the US’s Taylor Force Act, which bars the Palestinian Authority from making so-called “martyrs payments” to the families of terrorists, Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan told a Jerusalem anti-BDS conference of international lawyers on Monday.

Erdan told the conference that the PA’s hand in making payments to terrorists and the families of terrorists creates an atmosphere of incitement and cultivates “a culture of hate.”

Pivoting toward fighting the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign, Erdan said that BDS supporters restrict the IDF from protecting civilians from attacks by Hezbollah and Hamas.

“Courts of law are used to try to prevent the IDF from fighting terrorists who show disregard of any law... attacking Israeli children, while hiding behind Palestinian and Lebanese children,” he said.

Furthermore, the BDS campaign threatens artists on social media who want to perform in Israel and threatens companies who do business in the country, he said. “Boycotters are not interested in human rights or humanitarian law. They couldn’t care less about human rights violations in Iran, Syria and other parts of the Middle East.”

BDS supporters, he continued, “refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the Jewish state anywhere in the Middle East,” adding that the campaign was simply an effort to destroy Israel after failed military efforts proved that the country could not be defeated on the battlefield.

In addition, Erdan said, “The BDS movement seeks to drive Israel and the Palestinians apart... delegitimizing Israel and putting up barriers between the sides.”

Ben-Dror Yemini: The radical left-wing rejectionist front

Several weeks passed, and Kerry launched an odd, aggressive campaign in which he basically pointed an accusing finger at Israel. The Palestinians had said no, but it was Israel’s fault. Kerry, caught in the radical formula that justifies the Palestinians because they are “miserable,” explained repeatedly that terror was actually the result of poverty and turned jihad into a distributive justice movement.

It’s hard to believe that such nonsense came out of the mouth of the secretary of state of the world’s strongest power. A series of studies, including one conducted by the World Bank, have totally refuted Kerry’s argument. The economic situation of most of jihadist terror recruits, the study found, is above average. And in general, there are hundreds of millions of poor people in the world, and they don’t turn to terrorism. Only radicalized Muslims, who are not necessarily the poorest ones in the group, turn to terrorism. But let’s not confuse Kerry with the facts.

What exactly did Kerry tell Hussein Agha? That’s unclear. It’s clear, however, that “the forces of progress” are repeatedly encouraging the Palestinians to radicalize their stance. They are turning the “right of return” into the most important thing, although there is no such right and although it’s clear that the actual demand for such a right is an obstacle to peace.

Peter Beinart, one of the mentors of the Jewish Left in the United States, called on his camp in a 2014 article to ensure that Kerry and President Barack Obama’s peace proposal wouldn’t give the Palestinians less than they were offered in the Clinton Parameters. It’s not that the Palestinians intended on compromising, but the Left already started accusing the administration of making offers which were not good enough. Beinart, let me remind you, defines himself as a Zionist.

Admittedly, peace seems far away, and one of the reasons is that Palestinian rejectionism is supported by Kerry, Beinart and many others from the radical left. Well, not exactly the left. Beinart, Kerry and others are the supporting back of the Palestinian radical right, just like they serve the radical right in Israel. The result will be one big state, and that’s no cause for celebration.

France’s Jewish population has good reason to feel afraid

One of the Islamists’ most skilful manoeuvres in recent years has been to wage their war of anti-Semitism behind the armour-plating of ‘Islamophobia’, an impenetrable protection in today’s Europe. And so it is the Jews who suffer because of the continent’s moral cowardice.

In April last year, 65-year-old Sarah Halimi was allegedly beaten to death in her Parisian apartment by her Muslim neighbour. Coming as it did during the final weeks of presidential campaigning, most of the candidates avoided commenting on the subject, as did the majority of the media, who tried to pass it off as the act of a mentally ill individual. This despite the fact eye-witnesses testified they heard Traoré, the alleged killer, scream ‘Allahu akbar’ and recite verses from the Koran as he rained down blows on Madame Halimi.

In the face of a refusal on the part of the police and judiciary to classify the murder as a hate crime the victim’s brother, William Attal, described the killing as ‘a modern day Dreyfus affair’, adding: ‘There is a willing blindness on behalf of the French authorities to see and do justice’.

His words were echoed by CRIF, an umbrella group of Jewish communities in France, which issued a statement, expressing their anger at what they called the official ‘Omerta’ over the killing. ‘What is being hidden?’ they asked. ‘Why this denial of anti-Semitism?’.

The murder was finally declared an anti-Jewish attack in September and Traoré was last week declared mentally fit enough to stand trial. Indeed, his psychiatric report stated that since he beat Halimi to death he is ‘more peaceful’.

The same cannot be said of France’s Jewish population, or what remains of it, with William Attal and his family among the latest to emigrate to the safer environs of Israel.

With Anti-Semitic Attacks on the Rise, France’s Popular Jewish Radio Station Moves Into Unmarked, Secure Studio

Three years after the Hyper Kosher siege, the French Jewish community is still wary. Last week, the Minister of Interior published the yearly numbers of anti-Semitic crimes. While racist crimes dropped by 16 percent, violent anti-Semitic ones committed nearby or at Jewish locations increased by 22 percent in 2017. That same week, the trial of Kabili Traore—a Muslim Parisian who stabbed and killed Sarah Halimi, a sixty-year old Jewish Parisian last April—took an unexpected turn as the felony was not recognized as a hate crime, even though, according to several witnesses, Traore shouted anti-Semitic slurs as he murdered his victim.

It is in this context that Radio Shalom, a very popular left-wing French Jewish radio, has decided to relocate. On a frisky Sunday morning in a backstreet near Republique square, Bernard Abouaf, the yarmulke wearing director of the station, opened the door to guests.

“I am the bouncer today,” he said, smiling. The new studio has neither bell nor sign, only a reinforced door. It is a very anonymous entrance, which is intended to keep potential disruptors away.

Abouaf is keen on speaking about the new studio, guaranteeing that the station will keep its “unbiased information.” Launched in the early eighties, Radio Shalom has a sizable audience, registering about 100,000 daily listeners. It is famous for sustaining a conversation in a community that has been less and less inclusive over the years. “Today, the community needs open-minded media, with a strong tone. We also need to be able to listen to everyone,” Abouaf said. While commenting on Halimi’s trial, he added that the French Jewish community needs to gather around a project. For many years, the dislocated community struggled sharing the same opinion on various topics, weakening its representatives.

SPME BDS Monitor: Israel Bans Boycott Groups, More Positive Developments

January was shaped by the Israeli decision to ban high-profile BDS activists from the country — as well as a series of embarrassing missteps by the BDS movement. With support apparently dropping on campus, the BDS movement’s antisemitic anger is exacerbating its clumsiness and prompting new tactics — including linking Israel with the Trump administration and covering its intent with broad “human rights” concerns. These have had limited success, since the antisemitic backgrounds of supporters are often quickly apparent.

The most significant BDS-related development in January was the decision by the government of Israel to ban activists from a number of high profile BDS groups. These include “Jewish Voice for Peace,” Students for Justice in Palestine and its supporting organization — American Muslims for Palestine, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, War on Want, the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine, BDS South Africa, BDS Chile, and the American Friends Service Committee.

Israeli Strategic Affairs minister Gil Erdan stated the move marked a shift from defense to offense against the BDS movement. Ordain added: “No country would allow visitors who arrive to harm the country to enter it, and certainly not when their goal is to wipe out Israel as a Jewish country.”

Reactions to the announcement were predictable, with prominent media, BDS activists and left wing groups excoriating the decision as an “antidemocratic” infringement of “rights,” and a slap at global Jews. Members of Israeli opposition parties also condemned the move. More thoughtful observers pointed out the right of any national government to control who is admitted.

But others also criticized the decision, noting that it unnecessarily gave BDS groups the opportunity to depict themselves as martyrs, and situated the decision within the calculus of Israeli politics. Since Israel, like other countries, already exercises the ability to restrict entry of undesirables, it is unclear what the practical effect of the list will be.

Hen Mazzig returns to UCL

At our demonstration last week in support of pro-Israel activist Hen Mazzig, we witnessed Jewish students beginning to demoralize the anti-Zionist protesters with their enthusiasm and positivity. Mazzig has now twice been dehumanized and defamed in an antisemitic manner during visits to UCL, University College London. However, as Jewish and pro-Israel students, we will continue to stand up for ourselves and our beliefs and strive for an open environment surrounding discussion of the Middle East on campus.

We have indeed reached a milestone. Palestinian demonstrators feel that Jewish students are successfully portraying themselves as “the good guys.”

Last year, Mazzig was violently protested at UCL at his event with CAMERA on Campus UK and UCL Friends of Israel. With the slanderous claim that he was complicit in “war crimes,” we came in expecting to be on the defensive. The Palestinian Society from UCL and other London-based universities caught the Jewish community off-guard. On the whole, our response to their antisemitic chants of “from the river to the sea” was fear and confusion. They jumped through windows, banged on the doors, pushed, shoved and screamed and we were collectively shocked into inaction.

This time, we were prepared to stand up for ourselves in a decisively peaceful manner. We organized a protest entitled “Tel Aviv Takes UCL Quad” and created an atmosphere in which we celebrated our identities, our freedom of expression and the State of Israel. We danced, we sang, we chanted peacefully and we attempted to hand out Israeli food to protesters and passers-by.

An op-ed written by a Palestinian demonstrator after the event recalls that we behaved “appallingly, demonstrating racist and dangerous views.” The same writer, however, notes that we appeared to “win over the hearts of the uninformed.”

NGO Monitor: Value Clash: Civil Society, Foreign Funding, and National Sovereignty

For centuries, the principles of national sovereignty and noninterference in internal affairs that arose in Western Europe were central to international relations. Recently, however, this framework has been weaked considerably through a number of mechanisms and practices, including international institutions and allied nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Furthermore, while NGOs are formally independent actors as reflected in their self-descriptions, the boundaries have become blurred, and favored advocacy groups are often closely connected to governments, including as recipients of funding provided to influence the policies and politics of other states. In many Western countries, millions of dollars, pounds, and euros are allocated annually directly to advocacy NGOs active in other countries, or indirectly for distribution to NGOs via international organizations such as by various UN agencies.

Many of the recipients are global actors such as Oxfam, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, World Vision, and Médecins Sans Frontières, which possess substantial resources. These groups openly seek to influence the policies of governments and international institutions such as the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and the International Criminal Court (ICC). In the late twentieth century, international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) in particular gained standing to participate in the deliberations and activities of international organizations, and their influence has been significant.

Hikind praises Facebook after Israel added as background option

New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) expressed his appreciation Tuesday to senior Facebook officials for taking immediate corrective action after he alerted them to the exclusion of Israel as an option for one the social media giant’s features.

Now, following Arutz Sheva’s publication of Hikind’s statement, when creating a background profile on Facebook, users can choose the Israeli flag as their frame.

Earlier this week, Hikind issued a public statement calling on Facebook to include the Israeli flag as an option for background profiles, noting that Palestine, a semi-autonomous entity rather than a state, was included – but not the Jewish state.

“As I pointed out to Facebook less than 48 hours ago, Palestine is not even a country, so including Palestine, as they had, and excluding Israel was insulting and sent the wrong message,” said Hikind on Tuesday.

CAA complains to Channel 4 over failure to remove stream of abusive comments on its Facebook videos for Holocaust Memorial Day

The Labour MP for Leeds North West, Alex Sobel, has recieved a string of antisemitic abuse online following an impassioned speech last week in the House of Commons to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

In a candid and emotional speech to the House, Mr Sobel described how the events of the Holocaust had impacted his family and expressed concern that genocide and intolerance was still taking place around the world.

Shockingly, a Channel 4 Facebook video of Mr Sobel’s speech, which has been viewed over 130,000 times, attracted a stream of antisemitic abuse directed at the MP.

Mr Sobel’s heartfelt speech mentioned family members murdered and sterilised by the Nazi regime. He expressed his sorrow for family members that never even had a chance to live, and shared memories of his great aunt in Tel Aviv having numbers tattooed onto her arm and the confusion that caused him as a child.

However, Channel 4’s video of the speech was strewn with abuse such as: “Meanwhile, let’s forget the current Holocaust” and “…not one mention of the genocidal tyranny being inflicted upon the Palestinian people by the people ‘who suffered so much’. It must be due to his personally deep felt shame that he swept this ongoing tragic event under the carpet.” Another user posted “God in heaven. I’m bloody sick of hearing this. Politicians use the Holocaust like a royal flush in poker.”

In response to the shameful comments, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted: “Appalling that Alex Sobel has received a stream of antisemitic abuse online after Channel 4 posted a video of his speech to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. We must root out this disgusting prejudice from our society.” Twitter users responded by asking Mr Corbyn whether he would start with antisemites in his own Party.

IsraellyCool: It’s Just So Hard To Believe Ha’aretz

From an otherwise unremarkable Ha’aretz piece about looking for the evil murdering SOB terrorist who stabbed father of four, 29 year old Rabbi Itamar Ben Gal, yesterday:
According to Palestinian reports, Israeli soldiers raided the town of Kifl Haris near Ariel. Security forces suspect the terorrist fled to the town and are searching Kifl Haris and other neighboring villages. The head of the local council of the town, Abd al-Rahim Buzaya, told Haaretz that the army blocked all the entrances to the town, did not allow anyone to leave and confiscated security cameras from the stores in the village.

The phrase “confiscated security cameras from the stores in the village” is meaningless nonsense. Did they really tear down all the cameras and carry them off with dangling cables in a big sack?The writer probably means “took the digital recordings”. It’s possible they took the physical recording units though that would be dumb because then the cameras wouldn’t be working. What the Ha’aretz writer says here leaves us no way to know what actually happened.

It’s sloppy writing that leaves me doubting everything else they write.

Indy treats Palestinian street theatre as real life.

The Independent did what it often does when reporting on Israeli removal of illegal, EU funded buildings in Area C (areas of the West Bank under full Israeli control): they illustrated the story with a photo designed to maximize the desired narrative of Palestinian dispossession.

The photo used for the article (Israel demolishes EU-funded Palestinian classrooms in occupied West Bank, Feb. 5) leaves the impression that the demolition of their classroom – funded by the EU in an attempt to create ‘facts on the ground‘ in the contentious E-1 area connecting Ma’ale Adumim with the rest of Jerusalem – forced Palestinians to learn while sitting outside amidst the rubble.

The photo caption used by the Indy also leaves this impression:
Bedouin children attend improvised class in the village of Abu Nuwar, West Bank, after the Israeli army demolished their two-classroom school in the West Bank on Sunday AP

However, the scene is almost certainly staged, and the Palestinians depicted are not in fact forced to learn while sitting on old tyres. We know that because the full AP photo caption makes this clear:

Indy editors were clearly aware that the children were moved to nearby facilities to continue classes, but decided not to convey this information to readers.

BBC silence on Gaza smuggling continues

Just last month BBC audiences heard a Hamas official blame Gaza’s poor medical care on Israeli counter-terrorism measures without any challenge from his interviewer. The myth that medical services in Gaza are affected by the blockade is one that has been promoted in the past in BBC content, along with similar fables concerning fuel and the allegation that the counter-terrorism measures are ‘collective punishment’.

“Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade around Gaza aimed at preventing attacks by militants there, though the measure has been condemned by rights groups as a form of collective punishment.” BBC News website, February 13th 2017.

“…the stifling border closures the Israeli government says are for security, the people here say are for collective punishment.” BBC World Service radio, February 1st 2017.

“One of the reasons Gaza’s often described as the largest open-air prison in the world is the difficulty of getting across the border with Israel.” BBC World Service radio, May 19th 2015.

And yet, although it regularly amplifies such inaccurate claims, the BBC at the same time repeatedly refrains from informing its audiences of the stories which would enhance their understanding of why the restrictions placed on the border with the Gaza Strip are necessary.

Holocaust denial article on Calgary Muslim website prompts anger, police complaint

Penned by a notorious white nationalist and posted to the website of a self-professed advocacy group for Calgary’s Muslim community, an article promoting Holocaust denial has sparked anger and prompted an investigation by city police.

Posted Saturday to muslimsincalgary.ca, the article “Why “No Free Speech” on the Holocaust?” was originally written in February 2007 on the website of David Duke — noted American white supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan leader.

The article — which contains little more than Holocaust-denial boilerplate — has garnered the anger of B’nai Brith Canada, which took particular exception when the website chose to publish the article.

“To post this on Holocaust remembrance day is both vile and repugnant,” said B’nai Brith Canada chief executive officer Michael Mostyn.

“This is outright anti-Semitism and holocaust denial.”

Republican National Committee condemns Holocaust-denying GOP House candidate

The Republican National Committee denounced on Tuesday an outspoken Holocaust denier and unambiguous anti-Semite, Arthur Jones, who is poised to become the GOP nominee for a US House seat in Illinois.

“We condemn this candidate and his hateful rhetoric in the strongest possible terms,” RNC spokesman Michael Ahrens told The Times of Israel in an email.

Over the weekend, it was revealed that Jones is set to secure his party’s nomination for Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District because no other GOP candidate has entered the race. Since the 1990s, Jones has routinely sought that seat, which represents parts of Chicago and its southwestern suburbs.

IsraellyCool: Dubai Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim: Still Ridiculous After All These Years

Back in the day, the Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim was in the news a fair bit, especially after the ill-fated Mossad operation in Dubai. And he would regularly say ridiculous things. For instance, remember this?

The police chief of Dubai has told a newspaper he received death threats from Israeli spy agency Mossad, after leading an investigation that fingered Mossad for killing a Hamas leader in the Gulf Arab emirate.

I hadn’t given him much thought since then – until this tweet came to my attention.

The Dubai police chief is a strange, little man. Either that, or he’s smoking something he shouldn’t be. Or perhaps both.

He needn’t even look past his own country to see it is the Arab world that finds peaceful relations to be an anathema.

Israel Sending its Largest-Ever Winter Olympics Delegation to South Korea

Ten Israelis athletes will represent Israel in four sports at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, February 9-25: short-track speed skater Vladislav Bykanov, Alpine skier Itamar Biran, skeleton racer Adam (AJ) Edelman, and figure skaters Alexei (Oleksii) Bychenko, Daniel Samohin, Evgeni Krasnopolsky, Paige Conners, Adel Tankova, Ronald Zilberberg and Aimee Buchanan.

This is Israel’s largest-ever Winter Olympics delegation since its first participation in the Games in 1994. Three of the current teammates also competed in 2014: Bychenko, Krasnopolsky and Bykanov.

Israel has never won a medal in a Winter Olympics. This year, many fans have their hopes pinned on Bychenko, who earned the silver medal in the 2016 European Figure Skating Championships and is known for mastering difficult moves such as the quadruple jump.

In 2017, Bychenko took 10th place in the figure skating world championships in Helsinki; second place in the Cup of Tyrol competition in Austria and the Golden Spin in Zagreb; and third place at the Rostelecom Cup in Moscow and the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Osaka.

Athlete Representing Israel at 2018 Olympics Says Helmet With Design of Jewish Biblical Figure Represents His ‘Impossible Journey Made Possible’

An athlete who will be representing Israel at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games told The Algemeiner on Sunday that the Jewish-inspired helmet he will be wearing in the competition is a nod to the obstacles he has overcome in life.

Skeleton athlete AJ Edelman, 26, posted a picture on Instagram on Saturday night of his helmet that was designed with a drawing of the biblical figure Samson, who is shown breaking down pillars with his bare hands.

Edelman told The Algemeiner about the helmet, which also has the image of an Israeli flag on it, “Samson is there to remind people we can do anything. Breaking pillars represents my impossible journey made possible.”

“I was told that I would never make the Olympics for Israel,” he added, “That I could not run fast enough, and I would never be a good competitor. And I wanted to prove that Israelis can do anything.”

Edelman also explained on Twitter how letters on the back of the helmet holds special significance to him. He wrote, “the back of my helmet features a shout-out to my mom, dad, and ‘KR,’ three people who really helped make this journey happen.”

Don’t be narcissistic, Liev Schreiber advises Israeli film students

Actor Liev Schreiber, in Israel this week as a guest of the Tel Aviv University student film festival, offered tidbits about his Jewish background and acting advice during a master class.

Schreiber, an American Jewish actor and director, spoke about the origins of his name (he was named for Leo Tolstoy, one of his mother’s favorite writers), his Jewishness (his mother was Jewish, his father was not), and his grandfather, who traveled to Israel every year and was a tremendous inspiration to Schreiber.

Schreiber, who currently stars as Hollywood fixer Ray Donovan in the eponymous Showtime drama series, spoke about his acting, a skill he said is 50 percent intuition, 30% staging and 20% film work.

He has appeared in dozens of films, and on stage as well, winning the 2004 Tony Award for best featured actor for his performance in “Glengarry Glen Ross.”

Schreiber made his directorial debut in 2005 as the director and writer of “Everything is Illuminated,” based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, telling a fictionalized history of a Jewish shtetl in Poland. He also starred in “Defiance” (2008), a World War II film about the Bielski partisans.

Gal Gadot to Voice Herself in Upcoming ‘The Simpsons’ Episode

Gal Gadot will voice herself in an upcoming episode of “The Simpsons,” the actress announced on Twitter Monday.

“I grew up watching @TheSimpsons and now I get to voice myself in an episode!” Gadot tweeted, accompanying a video of herself signing Marge Simpson’s hair.

Gadot will star in an episode titled “Bart’s Not Dead” airing in during season 30, which will debut next fall.

Representatives for Gadot have not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment.

Gadot most recently starred in “Wonder Woman” and “Justice League,” in which she starred as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman. She will next star in the sequel to “Wonder Woman” and “Flashpoint.”

“The Simpsons” was created by Matt Groening and debuted in 1989. Its 29th season began on Oct. 1, 2017, and it is the longest-running American sitcom and the longest-running American animated program, with 629 episodes.

Miri Regev's 'Jerusalem dress' to be auctioned off

It was the dress seen round the world. And now, you can own it yourself.

Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev will be auctioning off the buzzed-about dress she wore on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival last year.

Regev's statement piece, if you don't recall, was a floor-length gown emblazoned with the Jerusalem skyline. And an online sale that is set to open soon will auction off the memorable dress, which was designed by Aviad Avik Herman. The bodice was gold with a mesh overlay and a neckline adorned with rhinestones, gems and gold leaf, while the skirt was brocade with a 360-degree print of the Jerusalem skyline - including al-Aksa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. The cityscape was created in conjunction with graphic designer Boris Sultanov.

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