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Friday, August 31, 2018

08/31 Links Pt2: US announces it’s cutting all funding to UNRWA; Deborah Lipstadt: Jeremy Corbyn’s Ironically Ahistorical Anti-Semitism; Peres remembered as visionary who strived to unite nation

From Ian:
US announces it’s cutting all funding to Palestinian refugee agency
The Trump administration announced Friday it is cutting nearly $300 million in planned funding for the UN agency that aids Palestinian refugees, ending decades of support.

The State Department announced in a written statement Friday that the United States “will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation.”

“The fundamental business model and fiscal practices that have marked UNRWA for years – tied to UNRWA’s endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries – is simply unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years,” the statement said, a reference to the fact that the agency grants refugee status to all the descendants of the original Palestinian refugees, something not granted to those from any other places.

However, the statement said the US would look for other ways to aid the Palestinians.

“We are very mindful of and deeply concerned regarding the impact upon innocent Palestinians, especially school children, of the failure of UNRWA and key members of the regional and international donor community to reform and reset the UNRWA way of doing business,” it said, adding that “Palestinians, wherever they live, deserve better than an endlessly crisis-driven service provision model. They deserve to be able to plan for the future.”

The US will now work together with other international groups to find a better model to assist the Palestinians, the statement said.

Reports had circulated throughout the week that the US was planning the move.
Palestinians clash with IDF on Gaza border; 180 said wounded
Some 5,000 Palestinians protested Friday along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, with some 180 wounded, according to Palestinian reports.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said some 180 demonstrators were wounded in clashes with IDF troops, including several who were hit by live fire. Among the wounded were a ten-year-old boy and a female paramedic, identified as Horouq Abu Masamah, the ministry said.

The IDF had no immediate comment.

The Ynet news site said that a hand-grenade was thrown at IDF troops and that Palestinians also managed to down an IDF drone used to disperse tear gas on the protesters. There were no IDF injuries, Ynet said.

One incendiary balloon sent over the border from the Strip caused a fire near Kibbutz Be’eri. Fire fighters extinguished it before it could spread.

The clashes came despite reports that Israel is in advanced indirect talks with Hamas, via UN and Egyptian mediation, for a long-term truce in the Strip.

Gaza has seen a surge of violence since the start of the “March of Return” protests along the border in March. The clashes, which Gaza’s Hamas rulers have orchestrated, have included rock and Molotov cocktail attacks on troops, as well as attempts to breach the border fence and attack Israeli soldiers.
The Anti-Jewish Jews
Anti-Israel activist Peter Beinart had spent years arguing that Hamas was a potentially moderate organization. Then when he was questioned at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, he played victim.

But as Caroline Glick notes, there was every reason for Israeli authorities to question Beinart’s visit, because the anti-Israel BDS activist had participated in anti-Israel protests in Israel. Beinart was not, despite his claims, detained. He was asked about his participation in that protest by the Center for Jewish Nonviolence. The Center, despite its name, is used by Jewish Voice for Peace members, a BDS hate group, which also, despite its name, advocates for and supports terrorists who attack Israel.

JVP members are on the banned list. Beinart had participated in a protest organized by a group that it used as a vehicle. So it’s completely normal that he was asked about it just as visitors to this country are asked about their membership in prohibited organizations such as the Nazi, Communist and other totalitarian parties. The BDS blacklist that bigots like Beinart rave about is no different than the United States blacklist on anyone who “has used a position of prominence to endorse terrorism.”

That’s the BDS movement.

JVP declared that it was proud to host Rasmea Odeh. Odeh had been convicted of a supermarket bombing in Israel that killed Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner: two Hebrew University students. It called the terrorist an “inspiration” and used the hashtag, #HonorRasmea. That’s using “a position of prominence to endorse terrorism” which gets you banned from both the United States and Israel.

Beinart writes for The Forward, a paper notorious for attacks on Israel and Jews that veer into the anti-Semitic. Typically anti-Semitic Forward headlines include, "3 Jewish Moguls Among Eight Who Own as Much as Half the Human Race” and "Why We Should Applaud The Politician Who Said Jews Control The Weather."

Beinart, an anti-Jewish activist of Jewish descent, is the perfect fit for an anti-Jewish tabloid of Jewish descent. The Forward's rebranding dropped the "Jewish" part of its name in 2015. That was also the year that Beinart accused Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel of a “tendency, to whitewash Jewish behavior.”

"He is largely blind to the harm Jews cause," Beinart railed against Wiesel in terms ominously similar to those used by anti-Semites. Israel, he claimed, "leads gentiles of goodwill to fear that if they criticize Israel they’ll be called anti-Semites." Peter Beinart or Richard Spencer: who wore the bigotry best?

But the gauzy line between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is if anything even thinner among obsessive Israel bashers of Jewish origin like Beinart or The Forward’s Jane Eisner, its radical editor who stripped the lefty tabloid of its Jewishness, but not of its poisonous hatred of Jews. On the cocktail party circuit, Beinart is misleadingly billed as a ‘liberal Zionist.’ Like the Holy Roman Empire, he’s neither a liberal nor a Zionist. Neither liberals nor Zionists excuse Hamas or blame the victims of terror for their own deaths.

Terrorism is a "response to Israel’s denial of basic Palestinian rights," Beinart has insisted. It’s “the Israeli government is reaping what it has sowed.” His vicious hatred of the Jewish State is matched by his crush on Hamas. "Hamas is the final frontier," Beinart bloviated in 2009. “A shift in US and Israeli policy towards Hamas is long overdue,” he insisted in 2011. And seven years later, it’s still overdue.




John Kerry’s new book details his relationship with Bibi
An exclusive sneak peek at former Secretary of State John Kerry’s upcoming book titled Every Day Is Extra.

In the book set to be released on September 4, a copy of which was obtained by Jewish Insider, Kerry writes about the failed Middle East peace initiative he undertook after becoming Secretary of State, what drove his optimism that he would succeed in solving final status issues, how both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas failed to live up to expectations, and why the Obama administration decided to abstain at the UN Security Council on UNSC 2334 in December of 2016.

— Kerry suggests that Trump’s appointment of David Friedman as U.S. Ambassador to Israel impelled Obama to act: “President-elect Trump had announced he was going to appoint an ambassador to Israel who was a hard-core proponent of the settlements and an avowed opponent of the two-state solution. At the same time, the Israelis had shown themselves to be completely disdainful of our policy by starting a process of formally legalizing outposts… We could not defend in the UN Israeli actions that amounted to a massive and unprecedented acceleration of the settlement enterprise.”

Kerry writes that following fierce Israeli criticism, he felt the need the respond, receiving Obama’s backing for a speech he later delivered at the State Department: “I remember sitting with former undersecretary of state Wendy Sherman in my office with a draft of the speech I was planning to give about the resolution. Wendy and I both have strong ties to the Jewish community. She reminded me of what we both understood: ‘Mr. Secretary, If you give this speech, you’re going to lose some friends.’ I looked out of the window of my office over the Mall in Washington and said to Wendy, ‘I understand that. But I have done a number of things in my life because I thought it was the right thing, not because it was easy.’”
Deborah Lipstadt: Jeremy Corbyn’s Ironically Ahistorical Anti-Semitism
British Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn declared that Zionists "clearly have two problems. One is that they don't want to study history, and secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don't understand English irony, either."

It wasn't their ideology he attacked, but what he deemed their lack of Englishness - that "Zionists" might live in Britain for a very long time, even all their lives, and still remain alien, unable to grasp either history or irony.

For this Jew, this was a cut to the quick. For what is it but a sense of history and irony that has sustained Jews through the vicissitudes of their collective experience?

Jews are obsessed with history. Every Jewish festival is linked to a moment in the collective history of the Jewish people. The central prayer of every Jewish service describes God as the Lord of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And no sense of irony? Jews have relied on irony to help them traverse the most difficult moments in their history.

It was this latest recording from Corbyn that left many Jews utterly convinced that this was a man in whom contempt for Jews ran deep - far deeper than necessary.

Maybe Corbyn should be reminded of the retort offered by Benjamin Disraeli, a prime minister of Jewish origin, when attacked in the House of Commons for being a Jew. "Yes, I am a Jew. And when the ancestors of the right honorable gentlemen were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon."


Veteran UK Labour Party lawmaker quits, citing anti-Semitism scandal
A veteran British lawmaker quit the Labour Party grouping in Parliament Thursday, saying the opposition party had become a “force for anti-Semitism.”

Frank Field quit with a letter to the party’s chief whip accusing the leadership of the left-of-center party of overseeing an “erosion of our core values.”

“Britain fought the Second World War to banish these views from our politics, but that superhuman effort and success is now under huge and sustained internal attack,” he wrote.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been under mounting attack for his own allegedly anti-Semitic positions and for failing to root anti-Semitism out of Labour, Britain’s main opposition party. Earlier this week, Britain’s former chief rabbi, Lord Sacks, called Corbyn a dangerous anti-Semite. Labour dismissed this claim as absurd and offensive.

The latest firestorm to engulf the party followed the revelation last week of comments made by Corbyn in a 2013 speech at the Palestinian Return Centre in London, where he said of a group of British “Zionists”: “They clearly have two problems. One is they don’t want to study history and, secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don’t understand English irony either.”
Veteran Labour MP Frank Field resigns the Labour whip, calling Jeremy Corbyn “antisemitic”
Veteran Labour MP Frank Field has resigned the Party whip over antisemitism in the Party.

In a letter addressed to the Labour Party’s chief whip, he wrote that the Labour leadership is becoming a “force for antisemitism in British politics” and accused Jeremy Corbyn of trying to “deny that past statements and actions by him were antisemitic.”

He added: “Britain fought the Second World War to banish these views from our politics, but that superhuman effort and success is now under huge and sustained internal attack…It saddens me to say that we are increasingly seen as a racist party. This issue alone compels me to resign the whip.”

Gideon Falter, Chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “It is very sad that after almost 40 years as a Labour MP, Frank Field felt morally compelled to resign the Labour whip because the Party that was fiercely anti-racist when he joined it has now become infested with antisemitism. It is inevitable that if a political party is led by an antisemite who lets Jew-hatred run rampant, people of conscience will reject it. The indications are that others may now follow where Frank Field has led.”

The move comes as 35,000 people signed our petition in just a few days calling on Labour MPs to leave the Party if Jeremy Corbyn does not resign.

Meanwhile, thousands of people have begun changing their profile photos on social media as part of our “Together Against Antisemitism” campaign to show solidarity with Jews against antisemitism in public life.
Jeremy Corbyn 'ignored Israeli Labour's invitation to visit Yad Vashem', Isaac Herzog says
Jeremy Corbyn ignored an invitation from Israel’s Labour Party to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, the party’s former leader has said.

Isaac Herzog told the JC he wrote to the Labour leader to make the offer in March 2016 but never received a reply.

In an interview to mark his appointment as chairman of the Jewish Agency, Mr Herzog also backed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for condemning Mr Corbyn.

“Two years ago, while I was still leader of the opposition and the Israeli Labour Party, I sent a written invitation to Jeremy Corbyn, as leader of Labour’s Israeli sister party, to come to Jerusalem and visit the Yad Vashem museum,” Mr Herzog said. “Sadly, the invitation wasn’t answered.”

He continued: “It’s good that there’s a clear and sharp protest from the Jewish community in Britain and that the political leadership in Israel has echoed them.

“After all, it’s not a fringe party. You ask yourself how come, in Great Britain, with a democratic system so respected around the world, you have such a deep phenomenon at the heart of the political establishment?”

But the Labour Party denied Mr Corbyn had never sent an answer.
Jeremy Corbyn is accused of misleading MPs after failing to disclose private meeting with Holocaust denier in Parliament
Jeremy Corbyn held a private meeting with a Holocaust denier in Parliament and failed to disclose it when quizzed by a Home Affairs select committee inquiry into anti-Semitism, MailOnline can reveal.

The meeting with Deir Yassin Remembered (DYR), run by Holocaust denier and notorious anti-Semite Paul Eisen, took place in 2014, one year before Mr Corbyn was elected Labour leader.

When giving evidence to the select committee in 2016, Mr Corbyn admitted attending public DYR events but claimed to have stopped when he learned of its leader’s views.

He made no mention of a private meeting in Parliament just two years before. Mr Eisen has been open about his Holocaust denial since at least 2005.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign, of which Mr Corbyn is a patron, disavowed Mr Eisen and DYR in 2007 due to Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism. The group's co-founder, Tony Greenstein, publicised the decision in an article in the Guardian.

‘Participation in DYR is incompatible with being a member of PSC,’ he wrote. ‘You cannot oppose racism against the Palestinians and turn a blind eye to anti-Semitism.’

The Labour leader continued to attend DYR public events for a further six years, however, and is today exposed as having met privately with them in Parliament a year later.
As Labour ‘considers’ IHRA anti-Semitism rules, it practices a sleight of hand
For Britain’s Labour party, parliament’s long summer recess has resembled the movie “Groundhog Day.”

Barely a morning has passed without new revelations about Jeremy Corbyn’s past associations with a motley crew of anti-Semites, terrorists and Israel-haters.

Last week’s disclosure of a video showing the Labour leader suggesting in 2013 that British Zionists “don’t understand English irony,” despite “having lived in this country for a very long time,” brought the whole ghastly show to an abysmal nadir.

It is therefore grimly appropriate that, as parliament returns September 4 and the new political season commences, the battle begins where it ended in July: with another row over whether the Labour party will adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism.

This summer’s crisis — the latest episode in the row over Jew-hate within the party’s ranks, which has regularly rocked the party throughout Corbyn’s three-year leadership — was triggered by Labour’s decision in July to write its own definition of anti-Semitism. Quite deliberately, the party’s governing body, the National Executive Committee (NEC), adopted a code of conduct which omitted key illustrative examples of anti-Semitism — all of them relating to criticism of Israel.

These guidelines matter: they will be used by Labour to decide the huge backlog of up to 300 complaints against members who have been accused of anti-Semitism and whose chances of escaping disciplinary action were immeasurably aided by the NEC’s stance.


Corbynista Andrew Murray and Hezbollah
It is easy to see why Andrew Murray has been welcomed to Jeremy Corbyn’s inner circle. He is a fanatical Israel hater.

Consider a scene from London in July 2006, when Murray, Corbyn, far left agitators and Islamists marched to protest against Israel’s bid to defend itself against Hezbollah.

Excited, Murray reads a message from Hezbollah to a cheering crowd. It is addressed to “our friends from around the world” from the “freedom fighters of Hezbollah”. Unity! Listen for yourself.

Explicit support for Hezbollah was right out in the open at this demonstration. The poor old Socialist Party was somewhat disgruntled:

However, left-wing leading members of the Stop the War Coalition, including George Galloway and Andrew Murray, not only failed to raise socialist ideas but also expressed uncritical support for the Islamist Hamas and Hezbollah.

The crowd was predictably ugly. “Victory to the Intifada!”

“Raise the red flag!”

“We are all Hezbollah!”

“Let’s chant for Hezbollah as Azzam ‘Kaboom’ Tamimi speaks!”

For his part, Jeremy Corbyn shouted about Israeli “state terrorism” and told the crowd it was important that they had assembled because the demonstration would be reported on television. For him, the nasty scenes were a matter of pride.

Hezbollah is not enough for Andrew Murray. As readers know, he also supports “resistance” against NATO forces. Our soldiers on active duty overseas? Best kill them.
Dem Socialist Candidate’s Brother and Mother Say She’s Lied About Her Upbringing
Contrary to Salazar's claim that "my mom ended up raising my brother and me as a single mom, without a college degree and from a working-class background," her brother says they lived comfortably and their father made six-figures as a pilot and continued to pay child support following their divorce.

"We were very much middle class. We had a house in Jupiter along the river, it was in a beautiful neighborhood," he said.

Julia, in response, said since her parents separated when she was six, there were two years that she lived only with her mother before Christine Salazar graduated from college.

Salazar's claim that "I was raised by a single mom who didn’t have a college degree. My father didn’t graduate from high school," was also wrong, they said. Christine Salazar got a college degree in psychology when her daughter was eight. Her husband, Luis Hernan Salazar, attended high school in Santa Barbara, California, although it’s unclear whether he ever graduated from the school. Christine Salazar said it’s possible he received his degree from a night school as an adult if he did not in fact graduate from the California school as a teen.

The Salazars said there were times when money was a bit tight, such as when Luis Hernan Salazar was briefly laid off or late in his life when he went on disability. But they denied the assertion on Julia's campaign website that she began "working at a local grocery store when she was 14 to help make ends meet." Christine Salazar said she encouraged her children work to build character and because they didn't get an allowance, not out of necessity.

Salazar's family also denied the candidate's claim that she spend her childhood moving back and forth between Florida and Colombia. The family made a few visits to Colombia they said, but never lived their permanently. "Maybe she was just referring to going there more than we went anywhere else," her mother suggested.

Another fib from Salazar was her claim that growing up, "We didn’t all have permanent residence in the U.S." By the time she was born, every member of the family was a U.S. citizen.


Julia Salazar: “My Hebrew name is רחל בת דולזל” (satire)
Everyone’s favorite immigrant born in Florida who grew up poor in a McMansion has come out forcefully that she is in fact Jewish. Julia Salazar is running for New York State Senate from Brooklyn and has embraced the identity as a Woke Latina Jew. Despite certain statements contradicting her claim of Jewish ancestry from unreliable partisan organizations, like, um, her brother, Julia adamantly stands by her claim of Jewish roots. “I even have a Jewish name! she explained to the Daily Freier. “רחל בת דולזל. She was a hero from the Bible or something. I dunno, the Rabbi explained it halfway through the conversion, but I was texting Shaun King and must have forgotten.“

The Daily Freier asked Ms. Salazar the name of the Rabbi who converted her, and she quickly answered that it was Krusty the Clown’s dad from the Simpsons he works at the same Shul where Tim Whatley converted in the ‘Yada Yada Yada‘ episode. When the Daily Freier tried to delve further into our claim, she accused us of being “Anti-Dentite“.

The Daily Freier then asked Ms. Salazar about her future plans, and she replied: “I really want to win this, praise Jesus, I mean, B’zrat HaShem. But if this doesn’t work out, maybe I can move to Spokane and chair a NAACP chapter.“
Tufts Student Condemns ‘Colonizing Palestine’ Course Taught by Professor Who Claims ‘Israeli Occupation’ Started in 1948
A student at Tufts University in Massachusetts has condemned an upcoming class led by a instructor who previously suggested that the entirety of Israel is occupied Palestinian land.

Spencer Zeff, co-president of the campus club Tufts Friends of Israel, wrote in an op-ed published in the school’s student newspaper on Wednesday that the course Colonizing Palestine “positions a one-sided narrative as truth from the outset of the semester.”

As the Jewish News Syndicate first reported, the course will be taught by Thomas Abowd — a lecturer in American Studies and Colonialism Studies — starting next week. It will help students “address crucial questions relating to this embattled nation, the Israeli state which illegally occupies Palestine, and the broader global forces that impinge on Palestinians and Israelis,” according to its description.

Zeff noted that this summary does not mention any “Jewish writers or filmmakers,” and warned that the exclusion of “any non-Palestinian perspective” may prevent students from properly examining the subject matter.

The course “quite literally denies Jewish indigeneity to Israel,” he argued, and “overtly labels” Israelis — including his family members — “as foreign settlers and colonists, as if it was a dynamic as simple as Europeans coming to North America.”
Yisrael Medad: A Fact Falsifier and An Adulterator of History
Nimer Sultany is Senior Lecturer in Public Law, the School of Oriental and African Studies at University of London and a member of its Center for Palestine Studies. Sultany expresses an affinity and identification with "radical left theoretical thought and radical left practice". At that Center, a graduate student, and undergraduates as well I would presume,

will develop an understanding of Palestinian history, political structure, development, culture and society.

As for Israel, insight into the school's agenda perhaps could be gained from what Sultany published in one of his early articles on Israel's Supreme Court, he paraphrases David Grossman's, The Yellow Wind, writing of "occupation" that

With one stroke, the West Bank becomes Judea and Samaria, Nablus becomes Schem, al-Khalil turns into Hebron, and the Occupied Territories become the Area, the administered Territories or the Territories. Language becomes a mechanism to disguise and conceal the reality, a mechanism to present an alternative reality by giving it new packaging.

I would maintain that that semantic sleight-of-mind is exactly what the Arabs-called-Palestinians have done and do to Eretz-Yisrael. By the way, Nablus is the Arabic pronunciation of Neapolis, the Roman name for Shchem, just as Filastin is the approximation in Arabic pronunciation (the language has no 'P' sound) of Palestina, the Latin term the Romans awarded vanquished Judea.
IsraellyCool: Champion Debater Wipes Floor With BDS-Hole
On South African TV, BDS-hole Muhammed Desai challenged champion debater, writer, analyst and commentator Jamie Mithi, who opposes BDS (and BS).

Muhammed Desai never stood a chance.
Can one be politically neutral?: Lets Have it Out - Part 1


Is Israel an Apartheid state?: Lets Have it Out - Part 2


Are sanctions ineffective?: Lets Have it Out - Part 3


Lana Del Rey cancels Israel gig, cites inability to perform for Palestinian fans
In an apparent victory for boycott Israel activists, American singer Lana Del Rey on Friday canceled her show in an Israeli music festival set to take place next week.

Del Rey said that due to scheduling constraints she would not be able to play in front of both Israeli and Palestinian crowds, and decided to cancel her performance at the Meteor Festival in the Galilee as a result.

“It’s important for me to perform in both Palestine and Israel and treat all my fans equally,” Del Rey wrote on Twitter.

“Unfortunately, it hasn’t been possible to line up both visits with such a short notice, and therefore I am postponing my appearance at the Meteor Festival until a time when I can schedule visits for both my Israeli and Palestinian fans, as well as hopefully other countries in the region.”


One to watch on BBC Two
Next Tuesday and Wednesday – September 4th and 5th – at 9 p.m. BBC Two will air a two-part programme titled ‘We Are British Jews‘.

“In a two-part series, eight British Jews with a broad range of opinions, beliefs and practices, go on a journey to explore what it means to be Jewish in Britain today and examine some of the most pressing questions and challenges facing the Jewish community at home and in Israel.

In the first episode, the group meet in Manchester, home to the UK’s largest Jewish community outside of London. After getting to know each other, and discovering their differences, they explore what antisemitism looks and feels like in modern Britain and reflect on how perceptions of Israel affect them here at home. They meet the owner of a local restaurant which has been attacked a number of times in recent years and talk to a Labour MP who has been the focus of abuse online. The group go on to meet with Jewish students, where they hear how they have needed security when they have held Israel events on campus.

The group then travel to Israel, the country many of the group call their homeland. Starting their journey on a Kibbutz, a communal farm, they get some stark reminders of the realities of life in the Jewish State and meet a young American woman who has volunteered to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces.”

“In the second episode, the group continues their journey in Israel. The group travel the country and go to the occupied West Bank, meeting with people from across the religious and political divide – Israelis and Palestinians – who force them to question their long-held views.
'His views on Jews, gays and immigrants show a total lack of R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Call him an Uber out of there': Fury as anti-semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has a front row seat with Bill Clinton at Aretha Franklin's funeral
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan was seated on the stage at Aretha Franklin's memorial alongside Bill Clinton, Rev Jesse Jackson and Rev Al Sharpton.

Photos and livestream video show the controversial religious figure and black nationalist front and center at the star-studded service honoring Franklin, who died aged 76 from pancreatic cancer on August 6.

At points during the five-hour-long service, Rev Sharpton appeared to be leaning away from Farrakhan and whispering to Rev Jackson to his left, who is seated next to former President Clinton.

At points during the five-hour-long service, Rev Sharpton appeared to be leaning away from Farrakhan and whispering to Rev Jackson on his left

Farrakhan detailed his long relationship with Franklin in a statement issued after her death earlier this month.

Japanese gov't opens Israeli startup accelerator
Tel Aviv (Tribune News Service) - Economic cooperation between Japan and Israel is being stepped up: the Japanese External Trade Organization (JETRO), a Japanese governmental agency, is opening a business center and accelerator program for Israeli startups. The center will support Israeli startups and mediate business cooperation between Japanese and Israeli companies. The JETRO center is focusing on support for Israeli companies in the founding stages and the expansion of their business to Japan.

JETRO promotes bilateral trade and investments between Japan and the rest of the world. As part of its activity, JETRO operates the Invest Japan program aimed at helping foreign companies wishing to develop their business in Japan. The program includes a great deal of information for foreign investors about all aspects of doing business in Japan by providing professional consultation and temporary office space for free in large business centers throughout Japan. Under the name Global Acceleration Hub (GAH), similar Japanese centers operate at 12 sites around the world.

The JETRO program is designed for Israeli startups interested in finding fruitful ground for cooperation with Japanese companies. The center's personnel will assist with information about the Japanese market and in finding suitable companies for cooperation. In cases in which such a company is found, the center is likely to obtain support in establishing a presence for the Israeli company in Japan.
Israeli Startup Wins European Sports Technology Award
Track160, a Petah Tikva-based Israeli startup developing a fully automatic team sports analytics service using deep learning technology, won first place in the 2018 European SportsTech held during the SpielMacher conference in Hamburg on August 9.

The victory cup was awarded to Track160 cofounder Miky Tamir.

“Artificial intelligence and deep learning methods completely change sports technology,” said Tamir. “We can now produce new services and products for sports professionals and for the broadcast and gaming markets that have never been dreamed of just few years ago.”

Tamir established Track160 in 2017 with fellow sports technology and computer vision expert Micha Birnboim. Their fully automatic system tracks player and ball position and produces performance and tactical metrics, without GPS sensors, RF receivers or human operators.

The patented technology combines a single-viewpoint camera unit (two handycams or any professional video unit on the customer side) and miniature low-cost tags worn by the players. Later on, the system will become “pure optical,” the company says.

Based on the players’ IDs, locations and ball position, Track160 automatically prepares a comprehensive team/players game analytics database as well as injury and roles predictions.
A New Excavation Could Uncover Evidence of the Israelites’ Migration to Canaan
In the Bible’s telling, the Israelites, after leaving Egypt, traveled through the Sinai Peninsula into what is now Jordan, and from there entered Canaan from the east. While there is scant archaeological evidence to support this narrative, scholars are divided on what that absence implies; after all, nomads who wandered through an area for a generation or two wouldn’t leave much behind. New excavations, however, may reveal traces of just such evidence, as Philippe Bohstrom and Ruth Schuster write:

[A]rchaeologists are excavating strange ruins previously found in inhospitable parts of the Jordan Valley, hoping to prove or disprove the theory suggested by the late Adam Zertal of Haifa University: that the stone structures found there were erected by the ancient Israelites as they slowly crossed into Canaan 3,200 years ago. Interestingly, if the Israelites did build these structures, they may have done so to shelter not themselves but their livestock. . . .

[A] meticulous survey of 1,000 square miles of the western part of the Valley, headed by Zertal and his team from 1978 onward, found the remains of hundreds of ancient settlements. (One seems to be shaped like a foot, with toes and all.) Of the hundreds, Zertal estimated that about 70 had been erected in the early Iron Age. That is, about 3,200 years ago, which is when the ancient Israelites were said to have been led by the Prophet Joshua from the wilderness to fertile Canaan. . . .

No signs of the builders’ identity have been found thus far. The only reasons to associate the structures in the bitterly inhospitable valley with the ancient Israelites are their location and the estimated timing of their erection. [The current excavation] began with a large and very strange settlement called Khirbet el-Mastarah (loosely translated as “hidden ruins”). While today the only sign of life there is the occasional Bedouin shepherd passing by with his herd, Mastarah seems to have once housed a large Iron Age village. . .
Two years after death, Peres remembered as visionary who strived to unite nation
Speakers at Friday’s memorial ceremony marking the second anniversary of the death of Shimon Peres, Israel’s ninth president and two-time prime minister, praised the late leader as man who aimed to unite the nation, strived for peace, and sought to strengthen the moral character of the Jewish state.

Peres dreamed of “the image of the state before it was established and afterwards become one of its best builders, and one of the most prominent of its visionaries,” said President Reuven Rivlin, who spoke at the event at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl, where Peres is buried in the Great Leaders of the Nation section.

“Some ask how much our country really belongs to everyone, is really good for everyone, really wants all of its citizens,” Rivlin continued. But Peres “always [knew how to explain] how much we all are connected to each other, how responsible we are for each other.”

The event, which was organized by the Peres Center for Peace, was also attended by IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot and Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog.

“You were so optimistic,” Rivlin said of Peres. “Keep showing our good side [to the world], continue to be an advocate for all of us.”

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.

08/31 Links Pt1: Palestinians Step Up Verbal Attacks on U.S. and Israel; Why are Palestinian refugees different from all other refugees?; Abrams: What is the role of UNIFIL?

From Ian:
Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians Step Up Verbal Attacks on U.S. and Israel
Palestinian officials in Ramallah on Thursday stepped up their verbal attacks on the US administration and its representatives, and again vowed to thwart President Donald Trump’s yet-to-be-announced plan for peace in the Middle East.

The officials accused the US administration of meddling in the internal affairs of the Palestinians and exploiting the “suffering” of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to create a separate Palestinian state there.

They also warned that any Palestinian who cooperates with the US and Israeli “conspiracies” would be considered a traitor.

The latest Palestinian condemnations of the US administration were triggered by a statement released on Thursday by Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s Special Representative for International Negotiations, concerning Egypt’s effort to bring calm to the Gaza Strip.

In his statement, Greenblatt said that the Palestinian Authority “should be part of the solution for the Palestinians of Gaza and Palestinians as a whole.” However, he warned that if the PA does not want to be part of the solution, “others will fill that void.” He added: “Leadership is about making hard choices. The people of Gaza, and Israelis in the area around Gaza, have suffered for far too long. It is time for the Palestinian Authority to lead the Palestinian people - all Palestinians - to a better future.”

PA presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh said in response that the Palestinians alone, and not the US or any other party, “could decide on their fate and elect their legitimate leadership.”

Accusing the US and Israel of being behind “conspiracies to eliminate the Palestinian cause,” Abu Rudaineh said that there was no alternative to the PLO as the sole, legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.”

Caroline Glick: The generals’ revolt
On Sunday, Hadashot News revealed that a “senior security official” warned against the Trump administration’s reported intention to defund UNRWA. The unnamed general said that if implemented, the move would destabilize the security situation.

President Donald Trump reportedly is poised to adopt a policy that reduces the number of so-called “Palestine refugees” by 90%, from five million to 500,000 to reflect the fact that under international law, refugee status is not hereditary. The US similarly reportedly intends to end all US funding for UNRWA activities in Judea and Samaria.

Reasonably, the government has heralded the reports. UNRWA was formed to prevent the resettlement of Arabs who left Israel during the pan-Arab invasion of the nascent Jewish state in 1948-1949. As such, UNRWA has arguably done more to prevent a resolution of the Arab-Israel conflict than any other single actor. Its operations are predicated on the view that Israel should be annihilated both physically and demographically through the open immigration of millions of hostile, foreign-born Arabs whom UNRWA have indoctrinated for 70 years to hate Israel and seek its destruction.

UNRWA facilities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, like its facilities in Lebanon, have been used openly as terrorist bases. Its personnel overwhelmingly support terrorist groups including Hamas, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and Fatah. It is unquestionably in Israel’s interest to see the organization shut down and the fake refugees it has cultivated for four generations finally given the rights of all other refugee groups and resettled permanently.

And yet, despite this, the IDF opposes this move in defiance not only of the government, but in contempt of the Trump administration.

This is not surprising. After all, “senior military officials” also warned that moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem would destabilize the security situation.

The candidacy of Golan and Alon for chief of General Staff, along with the military’s open subversion of the government and the US administration, need to serve as an urgent warning to the government. The time has come to finally clean house in the General Staff. If this requires bringing in a retired general to take over or promoting more junior generals to lead, then so be it.

The General Staff’s actions to undermine the moral standing of the country while subverting the government – and the US government – have gone too far. It is time for the government to stand up to the generals and defend Israel’s democracy and national honor against its radicalized General Staff.



Why are Palestinian refugees different from all other refugees?
Meanwhile, the Arab-Israeli conflict produced even more Jewish refugees from the Arab world (and Iran). They, however, resettled elsewhere with little fanfare and no attention whatsoever from the UN.

Then, by design, the Palestinian refugees, and their descendants ad infinitum, were kept in UNRWA camps to serve as permanent reminders of the impermanence of their situation. Taught to focus their hatred on Israel, and to believe they will one day “return,” they’ve been denied chances for new lives. And they’ve been used to create the single biggest stumbling block to achieving peace — the Palestinian fantasy of ending Jewish sovereignty in Israel.

Even now, 13 years after Israel totally withdrew from Gaza, astonishingly, over 500,000 Palestinians continue to live in UNRWA camps there. Why? Gaza is under Palestinian rule, not Israeli.

While the Palestinians are among the world’s largest per capita aid recipients, much of that assistance has been siphoned off to line the pockets of Palestinian officials — who then turn around and seek more funds for their allegedly neglected people.

It’s the same absurd logic that Hamas deploys when it decries energy shortages, while trying to shell the Israeli power plants that provide electricity to Gaza.

The whole process is abetted by an elaborate, well-funded UN apparatus, encompassing more than just UNRWA, created by a majority of member states to support the Palestinians. By contrast, among others, Kurds, who have a compelling case for statehood, and Cypriots, who have lived on a divided island due to Turkish occupation, have no comparable UN bodies to advance their causes.

This is not to say that Palestinians have had easy lives. They haven’t. It is to say that their leaders, with the complicity of too many, have pulled off one of the most successful spin jobs in history. Rather than resettle the refugees, they have shamelessly exploited them and their descendants.

Therein lies the irreducible tragedy — and the heart — of a decades-long conflict.
The UNRWA lobbyists
The Israeli defense establishment is the strongest advocate for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in the country. In the U.S., UNRWA's strongest lobbyist is Saudi Arabia. In recent months, both the Israeli defense and security apparatus and Saudi Arabia have been working, separately and uncoordinated, on behalf of a shared interest: stopping the Trump administration's attacks on the organization.

Reports from the U.S. that the $200 million cut to American aid to UNRWA is only the beginning not only shook up the organization itself, they also came as a shock to the Office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Israel's main opponent to any punitive measures against the U.N. entity, as well as the Saudi royal family, which is the third-largest donor to UNRWA.

COGAT objects to cuts in aid to UNRWA on practical grounds. No one denies that for years, the organization has fostered the perpetuation of the Palestinians' refugee status and even expanded it by making refugee status something that can be passed down through the generations, but even so, the defense establishment hates sudden changes. It wants quiet, and is afraid that if UNRWA is unable to help hundreds of thousands of needy Palestinians due to budget cuts, Israel will see rioting, an escalation in violence, and terrorist attacks.

In the early 2000s, then-COGAT Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad was already working to protect UNRWA. A decade later, as head of the Diplomatic-Security Branch of the Defense Ministry, he coordinated with then-Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren to torpedo a congressional initiative against the organization. UNRWA might be bad, Gilad told Oren, but Hamas is worse. Gilad's successors have kept to that line, and like the IDF they see the UNRWA as the lesser of two evils.
Germany to boost funding to UNRWA as US pulls back
Germany said Friday it would boost funding to the beleaguered UN agency for Palestinian refugees, and called for an international effort to sustain the aid body.

Berlin’s announcement comes amid deep US cuts to funds it provides to the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and with reports proliferating that Washington has decided to halt support altogether. Early this year, the White House announced it was cutting its annual funding by $300 million.

“The loss of this organization could unleash an uncontrollable chain reaction,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said, according to Reuters. “We are currently preparing to provide an additional amount of significant funds.”

He did not say what amount those funds would come to, though he noted it would certainly not be enough to cover the deficit left by the US pullout.

Maas urged Germany’s international partners to work together for “a sustainable finance basis for the organization.”

Jordan said Thursday it would host a fundraiser at the United Nations headquarters in New York next month to keep UNRWA afloat.
Elliott Abrams: What is the role of UNIFIL?
What is to be done? Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, commented that UNIFIL should push back: UNIFIL should “use the tools the force already has, like drones that can monitor Hezbollah’s activities and relay the footage to control rooms around the world, with almost zero risk for troops on the ground.”

But that is not what troop contributor governments seek, so it is very unlikely to happen. Still, one may hope that General Del Col is somewhat tougher than his predecessor, the Irish General Michael Beary. It is almost impossible that he will be less tough. Del Col should, and perhaps he may, try to establish new limits to the ability of the terrorists to treat southern Lebanon as their domain.

What would happen if UNIFIL folded, and the troops went home? Given that the presence of the UNIFIL forces is beneficial to residents of southern Lebanon—the troops can limit Hezbollah’s absolute sovereignty there, and they do spend money there as well—their departure would be unpopular and would be blamed on Hezbollah. Shia residents of south Lebanon, who are already unhappy with the sacrifices Hezbollah is forcing upon them in the war in Syria, would have another grievance against the Hezbollah leadership. That gives Gen. Del Col and UNIFIL some space to work, make demands, and stand up for themselves. Presumably both the Lebanese and Israeli governments prefer to have UNIFIL there as a sort of buffer, but at least in the Israeli case they would clearly like an active buffer that actually tries to do what Resolution 1701 requires of it.

Del Col should test the limits. That will make Hezbollah angry, but if Hezbollah isn’t vexed by UNIFIL's presence then we are all wasting a lot of money--$500 million a year is the UNIFIL budget—and effort supporting that organization and making believe that it is enforcing resolution 1701.
UN warns of fresh Israel-Lebanon war as peacekeeping mandate renewed
The UN Security Council warned Thursday that violations of the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel could lead to a new conflict and urged international support for Lebanon’s armed forces and their stepped up deployment in the south and at sea.

The council’s warning against “a new conflict that none of the parties or the region can afford” came in a resolution adopted unanimously extending the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon known as UNIFIL until August 31, 2019.

Council members urged “all parties” to exercise “maximum calm and restraint and refrain from any action or rhetoric that could jeopardize the cessation of hostilities or destabilize the region.”

UNIFIL was originally created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops after a 1978 invasion. The mission was expanded after a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah so that peacekeepers could deploy along the Lebanon-Israel border, to help Lebanese troops extend their authority into their country’s south for the first time in decades.

The French-drafted resolution again urged all countries to enforce a 2006 arms embargo and prevent the sale or supply of weapons to any individual or entity in Lebanon not authorized by the government or UN force known as UNIFIL — an implicit criticism of the suppliers of weapons to Hezbollah, an Iran-backed terror group.

But the text adopted by the Council does not mention Hezbollah by name, despite US demands.
Twenty five years since Oslo: an insider’s account
The main error of Rabin and Peres in deciding to enter into the Oslo Agreement with Arafat in the early 1990s was that they were misled to believe that Arafat had changed from being a terrorist. Rabin and Peres had concluded that if Arafat was strong enough to prevent anyone else from making a deal with Israel, then he surely must be the only one capable of making such a deal.

The messages that Arafat sent to Israel in Oslo conveyed that he was prepared to make a historic deal. For these reasons, Arafat was perceived by Rabin and Peres as the ideal negotiating partner, a hawkish leader who, when circumstances changed, would be prepared to rise to the occasion and enforce his decisions against any opposition.

But, when Hamas and other terrorist organizations started killing Israelis, Arafat proved himself to be unable and unwilling to stop terrorism. Moreover, when the negotiating parties reached the important issues, Arafat constantly sought internal Palestinian consensus, which required the agreement of Hamas, whose main objective continued to be the destruction of Israel.

Arafat's heir, Mahmoud Abbas, while perhaps a bit more willing, is even less capable of making the kind of historic decisions that are required to bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. No wonder that the Oslo-based peace process has all but come to a standstill.

The most important accomplishment of Oslo is the existence of an autonomous Palestinian leadership in the West Bank that is handling most of the daily affairs of most of the Palestinians. They are building strong security forces that, at least in the West Bank, are cooperating quite successfully with Israeli forces. Oslo enables the two parties to keep building their relations even before they have resolved their most fundamental disagreements.
Analysis: Is the world conspiring against Abbas?
Abbas’s latest argument is that ending the Hamas-Fatah dispute should be the No. 1 priority of the Palestinians and should come before any truce deal. Otherwise, Abbas says, the truce deal with result in the creation of a separate Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip.

But Abbas’s conditions for reconciliation with Hamas are making it impossible to reach any deal. This week, Hamas leaders again reiterated their rejection of most of Abbas’s demands, particularly the one concerning surrendering Hamas weapons to the PA government.

The Egyptians and the Qataris are well aware that the chances of ending the Hamas-Fatah dispute are zero at this stage. This is why the two Arab countries have decided to push hard for a truce agreement between Hamas and Israel. Egypt stands to benefit from such a deal because it would bring some stability along its border with the Gaza Strip and enable the Egyptian security forces to devote more time and effort to combating Islamic terrorist groups in Sinai.

As for Qatar, a truce agreement would keep its Hamas allies in power in the Gaza Strip, allowing the emirate to continue meddling in the internal affairs of the Palestinians and the Middle East peace process.

Of course, Hamas also stands to benefit from such a truce, as well as Israel, the US, the UN and everyone else – except Abbas and his PA.

For Abbas, this is a disaster that needs to be prevented, as he faces growing isolation in the local and international arenas. If he fails to foil the truce talks, Abbas will have to face the reality that he is no longer the president of all Palestinians, certainly not those living in the Gaza Strip, and that his power does not extend beyond certain parts of the West Bank.

A truce deal between Hamas and Israel, he fears, would turn him into the “mayor” of Ramallah, whose survival would depend on the presence of the IDF in the West Bank. This would be a blow not only to Abbas, but also to his Fatah faction.
The PA at the end of Abbas’s reign
Quite a few research papers and intelligence assessments have been written on the performance of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and especially on what will follow him. The problem is the sheer number of possible scenarios they propose.

Abbas inherited from his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, a governmental authority that was partially defunct. However, that was not a result of its political, social, leadership, managerial or administrative perspective.

Exactly as it did 10 or 20 years ago, the PA today still relies entirely on international aid on the one hand, and on the tax collection, electricity and transportation infrastructure of the State of Israel on the other. Over all these years, the PA has not developed its own economy and has continued to rely entirely on Israel’s, so that nearly all Palestinian households depend entirely on livelihoods earned from Israeli employers.

The refugee camps in the West Bank today look exactly as they did when Israel pulled out of these areas in 1991. Since then, the PA has done nothing to improve the status or living conditions of the people living there.

Abbas, as was clear from the start, is a very weak leader who lacks charisma and administrative ability. In all his years of control, he has not carried out one important move to benefit his people or strengthen his authority. Due to of this weakness and lack of political leadership, Hamas began to sneak into West Bank politics in recent years, with the intention of instigating a popular coup that would end Fatah’s dominance, similar to what happened in the Gaza Strip.

Fatah leaders themselves already understand that Abbas will not make any significant decisions before the end of his term. The struggle for succession over the Palestinian leadership already began two or three years ago, without Abbas officially announcing the end of his rule.
Bipartisan Bill Introduced to Sanction Terrorist Groups for Using Humans as Shields
Eight senators introduced a bipartisan bill in July to end the use of civilians as human shields.

Introduced by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), David Perdue (R-Ga.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), the STOP Using Human Shields Act, if enacted, would impose sanctions on US-designated terrorist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS and Al Qaeda, all of whom use human shields.

The bill is pending before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“America, Israel and our other allies are engaged in a fight against radical Islamic terrorist organizations, from Hamas and Hezbollah to Al Qaeda and ISIS, who cynically use human shields against us,” Cruz said in a press release with by the offices of the bill’s sponsors.

“Unfortunately, organizations like the United Nations incentivize this barbaric tactic by blaming civilized countries, who do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties, for whatever civilian casualties that do occur,” he added. “The United States should hold accountable the monsters who commit these war crimes. This bill will impose consequences on those who enable and facilitate the use of human shields.”

The Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) said “the barbaric terrorist organization Hamas sees all human life as completely disposable. Hamas regularly uses innocent civilians, including women and children, as ‘human shields’ as a PR tactic against the State of Israel. This abominable tactic must be put to an end.”
Breaking the Silence, Peace Now leaders arrested at West Bank outpost
Left-wing activist groups Breaking the Silence and Peace Now say their leaders and activists were detained by Israel Defense Forces troops on Friday when they arrived at the Mitzpeh Yair outpost in the southern West Bank for a tour of the area.

Breaking the Silence’s CEO Avner Gvaryahu and head of its media arm, Ahiya Shatz, were “arrested,” the group said, after being told by troops that the area, just south of the flashpoint city of Hebron, had been declared a closed military zone.

A Border Police spokesperson said they had been detained for violating the military order. By Friday afternoon they were still being held.

Attorney Michael Sfard was also detained, according to Peace Now.

The activists were visiting Mitzpeh Yair after five left-wing activists were allegedly assaulted by a group of some 15 Jewish settlers near the illegal outpost last Saturday.

According to a Facebook post by Ta’ayush, a Jewish-Arab rights organization to which the activists belong, five of its members were hospitalized after being attacked with sticks and stones. Police said they were investigating the incident.
Soldiers nab 3 Palestinians with pipe bombs in northern West Bank
Israeli troops on Thursday arrested three Palestinians who were in possession of “a number” of pipe bombs in the northern West Bank, the army said.

The suspects were spotted outside the village of Deir al-Hatab, near Nablus, by soldiers monitoring surveillance cameras, and the troops were dispatched to arrest them.

The three suspects were handed over to the Shin Bet for questioning.

The incident came hours after police arrested two other Palestinian teenagers who were found holding improvised explosive devices outside a nearby military courthouse.

The entrance to the Samaria Military Court in the village of Salem was briefly blocked and the area cordoned off, while a police sapper inspected the devices, which were found in plastic bags.

Police said in a statement that officers noticed the “suspicious behavior” of the teens — aged 14 and 18 — and stopped them, thus foiling a terror attack at the court.
Truce talks with Israel exclude prisoner swap, Hamas official says
The Egyptian-led efforts to broker a long-term ‎cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas do not ‎include discussions on a potential prisoner exchange, Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar said ‎Thursday.‎

He stressed that a truce and a potential prisoner ‎swap are two separate issues that Hamas will not ‎agree to link. ‎

Hamas is holding the remains of two Israeli ‎soldiers, Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul and Lt. Hadar ‎Goldin, who were killed in the Gaza Strip in 2014, ‎as well as two living Israeli captives, Ethiopian ‎Israeli Avera Mengistu and Bedouin Israeli Hisham ‎al-Sayed, both suffering from mental health issues, ‎who crossed into Gaza willingly in 2014 ‎and 2015 and were captured by the terrorist group.‎

Sinwar ‎reportedly said that a full cease-fire ‎between Israel and Hamas could be in place in two ‎months' time but reiterated that at this time, any ‎reports of an agreement are false, as no such ‎outline has been finalized. ‎

He further warned against another war with Israel, ‎saying that Hamas' military abilities have "greatly ‎improved" since the 2014 conflict.‎

‎"What the resistance did for 51 days in 2014, it can ‎now do for six months. We can put everyone in Tel ‎Aviv in bomb shelters every day," he said. ‎
Jerusalem: Why Palestinian Leaders Say Don't Vote
Another encouraging development that shows that the Arabs in Jerusalem are no longer willing to listen to what Palestinian leaders are saying: almost 60% of east Jerusalem's Arabs believe they should participate in the city's municipal election, while only 14% oppose doing so, according to a poll commissioned by Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Palestinian leaders have once again shown that they do not hesitate to act against the interests of their own people. The call for boycotting the municipal election in Jerusalem should be seen in the context of continued Palestinian incitement against Israel. Moreover, the call should also be seen in the context of the Palestinian Authority's campaign of intimidation and threats against its own people.

Contrary to the Palestinian leadership's claim, Arab participation in the municipal election does not come with any political implication. The Arabs who are taking part in the election are not being asked to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Nor are they being required to swear allegiance to Israel.

Palestinian leaders and their religious clerics do not want to see Arabs live a comfortable life under Israel. They are afraid that the world would see that Arabs can have a good life under Israeli sovereignty. They are also afraid that Palestinians living under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip will start envying the Arabs living in Israel -- and then demand from their leaders similar conditions.
Iran said to give Iraqi militias ballistic missiles capable of hitting Israel
For the first time, Iran is deploying ballistic missiles in its western neighbor Iraq with a range that makes them capable of hitting Israel and Sunni rival Saudi Arabia.

According to a report by the Reuters news service, several dozen such rockets are already deployed with Iran’s Shiite proxies in Iraq, while Tehran is working to make sure its allied militias in the country are capable of building more rockets indigenously. That includes the installation of manufacturing facilities in al-Zafaraniya, which lies east of Baghdad, in Jurf al-Sakhar, north of Karbala and in Iraqi Kurdistan, according to various sources cited in the report. Iran has also been training militia members in operating the new weapons.

The deployment is meant to improve Iran’s ability to retaliate against any Western or Arab attacks on its territory, as well as to expand its options for attacking opponents in the region, Reuters said.

Iran’s proxies, allied militias and even its own forces are involved in internal conflicts in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.

The report cited “three Iranian officials, two Iraqi intelligence sources and two Western intelligence sources.” It said the missiles are of the Zelzal, Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar types, with ranges from 200 to 700 kilometers (124-435 miles), enough to hit the Saudi capital Riyadh from southern Iraq and Israeli territory from western Iraq.
Satellite photos said to show new Iranian missile factory in Syria
Satellite photos published Thursday purported to show the establishment of an Iranian surface-to-surface missile factory in Syria, raising fresh concerns over the extent of the two countries’ military cooperation on Israel’s northern border.

The photos, which were taken by ImageSat International and published by Channel 10 news, were said to show a facility outside Wadi Jahannam in northwest Syria resembling Iran’s Parchin facility, which has been linked to the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs.

Beyond noting an apparent surge in construction work at the site and the building’s seeming similarity to Parchin, Channel 10 did not say how it was identified as a missile factory.

Unlike other Iranian facilities in Syria that have been targeted in Israeli airstrikes, the report said the site was likely spared due to its close proximity to a Russian S-400 ant-aircraft battery, which is considered to be one of the most advanced air defense systems in the world.

In July, Israeli jets reportedly targeted a missile production facility in nearby Masyaf, where a leading Syrian chemical weapons and missile scientist was killed earlier this month in a car bombing attributed to Israel.
'Hezbollah is planning terror attacks in Judea and Samaria'
A senior Hezbollah commander told the Lebanese media Friday that the Shiite organization is planning to infiltrate Judea and Samaria and carry out terrorist attacks there in the event of conflict with Israel.

In an interview with the Lebanese paper Al Akhbar, conducted at a former Israeli military post in southern Lebanon, the commander said that Hezbollah was preparing "many surprises for the enemy."

"A small number of well-armed fighters, who are very familiar with the enemy's defenses, can infiltrate and enter the West Bank and cause great damage," the commander said.

Hezbollah, whose fighters have been deployed in Syria to support the forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad in a yearslong civil war there, has been given "a perfect training ground for the resistance," the commander said.

The civil war in Syria has provided training "in operational combat in a residential area and an opportunity to test the various weapons. The battle against the takfiri groups [Islamist groups that accuse other Muslims of apostasy] has prepared us for battle with the Zionist enemy," he said.

"The war is coming. Going on this assumption, we are now preparing for battle," he continued.
Iran's forgotten persecuted Christian minority
According to official statistics, the Islamic Republic is home to 117,700 Christians, although the real number is probably closer to 350,000. The regime, while never tolerant of non-Muslims, seems lately to have intensified its anti-Christian policies. Earlier this month, twelve Iranians were reportedly each sentenced to a year in prison for “propagating against the Islamic Republic in favor of Christianity.” Julie Lenarz and Benjamin Weinthal note some other examples, and urge the West to take action:

Last year, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) arrested two Christians—a mother and her son—as part of a vicious crackdown on Catholicism in the country’s West Azerbaijan Province. . . . Iranian authorities regularly arrest worshippers, raid house churches, and confiscate Bibles, Christian CDs and other religious literature while regime-controlled media outlets spread anti-Christian propaganda.

Four evangelical Christians were arrested in May 2017 and sentenced each to ten years in prison for house-church activities and evangelism. Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani stood trial in July along with three co-defendants because of their house-church activities. They were all sentenced to ten years in prison. It is worth recalling that Nadarkhani was sentenced to death in 2010 for his conversion to Christianity. After a global pressure campaign ensued, Iran’s regime released him from prison, after a three-year incarceration. . . .

The 125,000-member-strong IRGC has a long record of brutality targeting Christians and democracy movements opposed to the mullahs’ regime. The U.S. administration of President Donald Trump designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization in October 2017. Europe, so far, has declined to sanction the IRGC for its blatant human-rights violations.

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.

Labor Day weekend...EoZ day off

Due to travel, I don't think I will be able to blog at all today. (If I can, you'll be the first to know!)

Have a great weekend!

Thursday, August 30, 2018

08/30 Links Pt2: Ron Prosor: A Note to Jeremy Corbyn: You Can’t Fool Everyone All the Time; The sparkling waters of the West Bank; Israel renames nuclear facility after late Shimon Peres

From Ian:
Ron Prosor: A Note to Jeremy Corbyn: You Can’t Fool Everyone All the Time
When I woke up on Tuesday, I learned about a new chapter in my autobiography: It turns out that in addition to being Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom between 2007-2011, I was also chief speechwriter for senior members of the British Parliament.

While this is very flattering, it is best that we focus on who made this accusation: Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

According to Corbyn, the Jews are in control of the British media. Jews, and hence the Israeli ambassador, force the UK prime minister and other legislators to do their bidding on the public airwaves. The Jews also have a strong grip on the global economy.

Despite saying all this, Corbyn insists that he is not an antisemite. As President Abraham Lincoln once said, you can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time.

I met Jeremy Corbyn for the first time in 2008, against the backdrop of Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip. He was spearheading a demonstration in front of the Israeli Embassy in London that was replete with Hamas and Hezbollah flags. He was vocal in his opposition to Israel’s efforts to defend itself, insisting that the rocket attacks on Israeli communities were a result of the “occupation” of the Gaza Strip. He could not be bothered with the fact that thousands of rockets were being fired at Israeli communities, or that Israel had left Gaza several years earlier.

In 2010, as I was about to leave London to become Israel’s envoy to the United Nations, I was impressed by Corbyn’s method of proving he was no antisemite when he compared Israel to the Nazis, and said that Israel’s military blockade against the terrorist entity in Gaza was as bad as Hitler’s siege on Stalingrad.

Corbyn supporters hound Rabbi Sacks for labeling Labour leader antisemite
Several prominent Labour activists who have identified strongly with their party’s embattled leader have hit out at former UK chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks for his fierce criticism of Jeremy Corbyn on Tuesday.

Sacks labeled Corbyn “an antisemite” who has backed “racists, terrorists and dealers of hate,” in an interview with the New Statesman, comments which made headlines throughout the UK press.

Following his comments, numerous pro-Corbyn figures began a smear attack on Sacks, seeking to discredit him and his views, due to his highly respected standing within the UK media and political establishment.

Vocal Corbyn supporter and columnist for The Guardian Owen Jones took to Twitter to attack Sacks for having written a blurb praising a book by Right-leaning author Douglas Murray called The Strange Death of Europe Immigration, Identity, Islam, which raises concerns about mass immigration and multicultural policies in Europe.

Jones pointed out that Murray “favorably cites” Enoch Powell, a Conservative politician active in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, who gave a notorious speech in 1968 known as the “Rivers of Blood” speech, where he criticized mass immigration into the UK, and which was castigated as racist and divisive.

Sacks himself, in his criticism of Corbyn, said that the Labour Party’s 2013 speech in which he said “Zionists” in Britain “do not understand English irony” was the worst political speech since Powell’s.
NGO Monitor: Swedish Gov't Newspaper Invokes Antisemitism and Innuendo to Attack NGO Monitor
In response to NGO Monitor’s research on government funding for civil society organizations, OmVärlden, an online magazine owned by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA, the branch of the government responsible for international development aid), published today twelve (!) articles making numerous false accusations about NGO Monitor. The articles, wholly inappropriate for a government agency consist almost entirely of innuendo, factual inaccuracies, and, most alarming, antisemitic motifs reminiscent of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (spider web, conspiracy theories). The absurdity of the “evidence” for this conspiracy theory reflects the desperation of the actors involved.

These claims are accompanied by statements by activists from Israeli, Palestinian, and Swedish NGOs (including Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem, Al-Haq, Hamoked, and Palestinian Solidarity Association of Sweden), all of which have received funding from the Swedish government (SIDA) and have been criticized as a result of NGO Monitor research. The two journalists behind this obsessive series also have clear ideological bias regarding Israel.

The timing of the articles’ publication in a government-owned outlet is noteworthy – nine days before Swedish elections and following a series of articles critical of Swedish aid.

The use of antisemitic imagery by OmVärlden reflects the need for an independent factual review of Sweden’s engagement in the Arab-Israeli conflict through its support to civil society and highlights the importance of NGO Monitor’s critical voice.



The sparkling waters of the West Bank
Succeed it did. By 2014, with more than 500 workers, SodaStream was among the largest private employers on the West Bank.

Unsurprisingly, champions of the Palestinian cause denounced Birnbaum as anti-Palestinian. In particular, advocates for BDS (the campaign to delegitimize and demonize Israel through boycotts, divestment and sanctions) accused him of stealing Palestinian land, profiting from the "occupation," and exploiting Palestinian workers.

"Suddenly," Birnbaum recounted to me over dinner in Tel Aviv three years ago, "I'm a walking war criminal!"

BDS lobbyists were particularly effective in Europe. They persuaded retailers in Sweden to tell Birnbaum not to send them SodaStream products from the West Bank. Those retailers had no problem receiving merchandise made in China, a country where about a million Muslims are right now incarcerated in "re-education camps"; that occupies Tibet (offering no "two-state solution"); and where persecution of Christians and other minorities continues to worsen.

When Birnbaum needed a new and bigger factory, he decided not to build in the West Bank but instead to relocate to the Negev Desert, well within the "armistice lines," the temporary borders drawn in 1949 when the war between the fledgling Jewish state and the Arab nations surrounding it came to a halt.

The new factory employs 1,400 Bedouins, many of whom have never before had regular jobs with regular paychecks. BDS social warriors began attacking Birnbaum again, this time accusing him of exploiting the Bedouins. The local Bedouin sheikh told them to pound desert sand.

The news of PepsiCo's purchase of SodaStream makes one thing abundantly clear: While the BDS campaign managed to deprive Palestinians of good jobs, it failed to prevent the company that had provided those jobs from becoming an enormous international success.

Also significant is the fact that PepsiCo is the buyer: Years ago, it was one of the companies complying with the Arab League boycott against Israel.
An open letter to Jeremy Corbyn
London-born of British-born parents, two weeks after World War II, I was raised with an immense respect for the power of water – the 25 miles of Channel that saved 330,000 British Jews, listed in the 1941 Wannsee Protocol among the 11 million Jews in 33 countries targeted for Nazi extermination.

Perhaps the justification for my water obsession is proven in the photos of British policemen in WW2 German-occupied British Channel Islands, arresting and deporting 16 Jews to their fate in Nazi concentration camps. A precursor for all those on the mainland.

Yet it was Britain, standing alone that held back a German invasion to win a war in defense of its values and its own salvation. Nevertheless, the post-war Labour government lost the peace for post-Holocaust Jewish survivors, condemned by British Palestine policy to internment camps in Germany and Cyprus until 1948, Israel’s independence.

Mr. Corbyn, British Jews are staunchly British, but have the right to be concerned for their co-religionists, whether in 1945 to 1948, Soviet Jewry in the 1970s and 1980s, Jews in Muslim countries or threats to Israel.

You are quoted as claiming that “Zionists [a clear euphemism for Jews]... having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don’t understand English irony.”

Indeed ironic, for so many of these so-called “Zionists” were dedicated voters and members of the Labour Party.
Jeremy Corbyn and the Bad Antisemitism
Collectively, however, Corbyn’s remarks paint a picture of a mind utterly steeped in antisemitic conspiracy theory: governmental subservience to Jewish interests; control of the media; destabilisation of governments; the hidden hand manipulating events; financial control. The existence of “Zionists in the accurate, political sense” is no more convincing a defence of Corbyn’s Jew as puppet-master, than the existence of people called Rothschild is of David Icke’s delusions.

But even if you believe substituting “Zionist” or “Israel” for Jew provides benefit of the doubt against all the evidence, Corbyn’s conflation of Zionism and Jews disqualifies him from such generous interpretation. And in case you still hold on the belief Corbyn’s Zionist might be non-Jewish, here he is again, contrasting the “very strongly pro-Israel Zionist lobby” with “the Jewish tradition that I am in interested in… the Jewish tradition that I understand”.


Of the four antisemitic conspiracy theories of Corbyn’s I’ve highlighted here, three have come to light in the last month. Doubtless there will be more. But even among his harshest critics there is the suggestion that Corbyn, so immersed is he in the Palestinian cause, is perhaps just blind to antisemitism. His continued and easy recourse to antisemitic conspiracy theory to explain uncomfortable events tells a different story. It’s time to accept that the reason he doesn’t see classical antisemitism in a mural when it’s pointed out to him, or is able to dwell in the antisemitic sewer that is Palestine Live without getting so much as a whiff of anything untoward, is because he is largely in accord with it all.

When Louise Ellman complained that Labour activists were getting away with Jew hatred, Corbyn’s brother, Piers, tweeted “#Zionists can’t cope with anyone supporting rights for #Palestine”. Questioned about this, Jeremy Corbyn defended Piers by saying, “No my brother isn’t wrong… We actually fundamentally agree – we are a family that has been fighting racism from the day we were born. My mother was at Cable Street.”

With his record of knee-jerk reliance on antisemitic conspiracy theory and fundamental agreement with his brother on the subject of antisemitism, it’s time to ask whether there is anything other than electoral considerations separating Jeremy Corbyn from this.



BBC’s political correspondent continues to push Labour framing
Earlier this week we noted how, on the morning of August 25th, listeners to BBC Radio 4 heard unquestioning amplification of a statement put out by the Labour Party concerning remarks made by its leader in 2013 from the BBC’s political correspondent Tom Barton.

We observed that Barton had apparently not fact-checked the Labour claim that Corbyn was referring to “a group of people, pro-Israel activists who were made up of both Jewish people and non-Jewish people” before amplifying it to the BBC’s domestic audiences and that the one person who has been identified as having attended that event, Richard Millett, stated in an interview that “he does not recall any other pro-Israel activists in the audience”.

We also noted that a transcript of parts of Corbyn’s 2013 remarks that had been edited out of the video of the speech showed that he had in fact been speaking about Zionist British Jews rather than a specific group of activists at a particular event and that Tom Barton was subsequently provided with that transcript.

Later on August 25th the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘PM‘ aired an item (from 22:00 here) in which Richard Millett was interviewed by Tom Barton. Mr Millett told BBC Watch that he had informed Barton that as far as he was aware he was the only ‘pro-Israel activist’ at that event but that information was not included in Barton’s report.

In short, by early evening on August 25th one would have expected Tom Barton to be a lot more sceptical of what he had earlier in the day described as follows:

Barton: “And this is it, so Labour’s defence of that point is that he was talking in context, very particular, particularly about a group of people, pro-Israel activists who were made up of both Jewish people and non-Jewish people and he was using it to refer to…ah…this particular group of activists and not – they say – to the Jewish community.”
Adelson-backed college activist group to double presence to 80 campuses
The Maccabee Task Force, the initiative funded by billionaire philanthropist Sheldon Adelson targeting the campus BDS movement, will double its presence to 80 campuses and for the first time will operate in Canada.

In place since 2016, the task force works with pro-Israel students on programs countering activities of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel. Last year it funded programs on 40 campuses, chosen because of the intensity of BDS activity on the campus.

The task force sends representatives to campuses and solicits ideas from pro-Israel students and groups on campus, and then funds those that it deems viable. Its most successful program has been to recruit influencers on campus – including student leaders who might already favor BDS – and send them to Israel on fact-finding tours.

In an interview Wednesday, David Brog, who directs the task force, predicted that 70-75 of the 80 campuses Maccabee task force will assist this year will include Israel trips. For the first time, the task force will operate on four or five campuses in Canada, Brog said.

Maccabee Task Force does not publish its expenditures, but a spokesman said that it spends in the low six figures per campus, suggesting that it will spend at least $8-10 million this coming year.
Berlin Falafel Wars: A Microcosm of Changing Sentiment Towards Jews in Germany?
A small protest in Germany’s capital city on August 11 revealed a cross-section of national attitudes towards Jews and Israel, and perhaps a symbolic stance on a much larger problem throughout Western Europe.

On that day, three Jewish protesters stood directly across from a falafel stand. They had successfully appealed a police demand that they move to a side street, citing their right to assembly. The owner of the stand was not present — presumably on vacation.

The falafel is supposed to represent a universal symbol of peace — a bond between Muslims and Jews, even as the Middle East fries in violence. But in Berlin, it has become a cause for concern.

The tree-lined Kollwitzplatz that is home to a Saturday market has become an unexpected pressure-cooker for Jewish-Muslim-German relations ever since Zeev Avrahami, an Israeli journalist and restaurateur based in Berlin, started a demonstration two months ago at the “1001 Falafel” stand belonging to a Palestinian immigrant named Mohammed (whose last name has been concealed in the German press), who left the West Bank 30 years ago.

Avrahami, 49, accuses Mohammed, 42, of serving falafel with a side of free antisemitism, starting with his own encounter three years ago when Mohammad told him: “Israelis have blood on their hands.” Other alleged remarks to customers include: “Hitler should have finished the job” and “dirty Jew.”

“This person should not be able to run a public space in Germany,” Avrahami said in a phone interview while on vacation in Israel.
Third German Intelligence Agency Finds Anti-Israel Boycott Campaign to be Anti-Semitic
A third German intelligence agency has determined that the anti-Israel boycott campaign, known as Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS), is anti-Semitic, Benjamin Weinthal reported for The Jerusalem Post Tuesday.

A section of the report compiled by the Berlin Office of Constitutional Protection, roughly the equivalent of the FBI, was titled “Special Topic: Antisemitism” singling out “campaigns, which targeted Israel with a boycott,” last year.

One incident used to illustrate the agency’s finding was the disruption of a pro-Israel event held at Humboldt University in Berlin that included Deborah Weinstein, a Holocaust survivor, and MK Aliza Lavie, of Israel’s Yesh Atid party. Three pro-BDS activists stormed the event, called Life in Israel – Terror, Bias and the Chances for Peace.

Ronnie Barkan and Majed Abusalama, two of the anti-Israel activists who disrupted the Humboldt event, had previously been barred from speaking at an Oldenburg BDS event due to their anti-Semitism.

Another example cited by the report was an effort to pressure an arts and music festival to refuse sponsorship of the Israeli Embassy in Germany. The organizers of the Pop-Kultur Festival said that they refused to be “intimidated” by the pressure tactics used by the BDS campaign and accepted the sponsorship.

In 2016, after extensive reporting on the growth of the BDS movement in Berlin, the city’s mayor, Michael Müller, observed that a tactic adopted by the BDS campaign of “standing with antisemitic signs in front of Berlin shops” is the functional equivalent of “the intolerable methods used in the Nazi era.”
Anti-Israel protesters take rally into residential streets
If a pro-Palestine protest in a Jewish-Canadian neighbourhood was meant to intimidate, the head of B’nai Brith Canada says it didn’t work.

In fact, says B’nai Brith Canada CEO Michael Mostyn, it did the opposite.

“I can tell you we were not intimidated. What it did was galvanize the community.”

This is what was on display on normally quiet Hove Street — near Sheppard Ave. and Bathurst St. — when about 200 people protectively stood in front of the B’nai Brith headquarters to fend off a group of 80 people attending the “Rally To Oppose B’nai Brith Canada’s Smear Campaign Against The Canadian Union Of Postal Workers.”

What ensued for two hours was a no-holds-barred screamfest over loudspeakers — with opposing factions stationed on opposite sides of the street separated by Toronto police.

It featured the usual rhetoric and heated tempers, but what made this one different was it was on a residential street — home to many Jewish families.
PodCast: How Intersectionality Has Become a Political Weapon against Israel
Drawing on his recent experience as a student at Stanford University, Elliot Kaufman explains how the campus left uses the ideology of “intersectionality”—the notion that one can’t really fight for the rights of American blacks, for instance, without also fighting for the rights of women, or of Palestinians against Israelis—to build powerful coalitions within student government. The result, as Kaufman argues in conversation with Jonathan Silver, is that a variety of left-leaning or identity-based student groups become anti-Israel almost by default, and that students who break ranks risk social opposition. After outlining the problem, Kaufman suggests some possible ways that Jewish students can fight back. (Audio, 37 minutes. Options for download and streaming are available at the link below.)
Antisemitism in France Has Moved ‘From Streets Into Homes,’ Says Head of French Jewish Community
Antisemitism in France has moved “from the streets directly into the homes of Jewish people,” the head of the country’s 465,000-strong Jewish community told The Algemeiner on Wednesday.

“The Jews in France feel threatened in their own homes,” Francis Kalifat — president of CRIF, the French Jewish communal body — said during a discussion of the antisemitism that has resulted in several deaths and injuries among French Jews over the past decade.

Kalifat underlined that “what used to be attacks on buildings, or insults thrown in the street, has evolved into the most violent acts.”

In the last eighteen months, two elderly Jewish widows in Paris — Sarah Halimi in April 2017 and Mireille Knoll in March 2018 — have been murdered in brutal antisemitic assaults, while several incidents of violent raids on Jewish homes involving gangs of mainly Muslim youths have also been reported.

Sadly, as Kalifat acknowledged, the problem is not new — though the pattern of Jewish response is changing.

Following what Kalifat called “the paroxysm” of antisemitic violence in 2012-13 — a year that witnessed the murders of a rabbi and three young children during a terrorist attack at a Jewish school in Toulouse — French aliyah to Israel climbed precipitously, with 8,000 Jews emigrating to Israel in 2015 alone. That trend has now slowed, Kalifat said, overshadowed by what some call an “internal aliyah.”
Tombstones toppled at Jewish cemetery in New Jersey
Four headstones were toppled at a Jewish cemetery in New Jersey over the weekend.

The toppled headstones were discovered on Sunday at the Congregation Agudath Achim Cemetery in Freehold Township in New Jersey. The headstones were pushed over sometime on Saturday or early Sunday morning, according to local reports.

No other acts of vandalism were discovered in the cemetery, the local Asbury Park Press reported. The headstones were not significantly damaged, according to the report.

One of the headstones belonged to a World War II veteran, Michael Berman, executive director of the Freehold Jewish Center, which operates the cemetery, told local media.

“In terms of it being the desecration of a holy space, it is,” Berman told the Asbury Park Press. “Being Jewish, we’re all connected to our history. Our history, unfortunately, has some difficult times in the past and memories that go back to World War II and much farther than that.”
Israel wants to help Pacific with potable water
The Government of Israel says it stands ready to help every person in the Pacific have access to safe drinking water.

The Director General of Israel's foreign ministry, Yuval Rotem, told PACNEWS Israel was ready to share the technology that had allowed it to produce one third of its own drinking water and recycle 90 percent of waste water for use in agriculture.

Mr Rotem said to stop Pacific countries becoming "forgotten islands", Israel could help them turn brackish water into drinking water using desalination plants and enhance food security with drip irrigations systems.

This year Israel provided Papua New Guinea with dialysis units and a portable water treatment system.
Israeli chef Assaf Granit's Barbary named No. 1 eatery in London
In another coup for Israeli chefs worldwide, the London edition of the Time Out entertainment guide has ranked chef Assaf Granit's restaurant The Barbary at the top of its latest list of the 100 restaurants serving the "freshest, most inventive, and most memorable" food in the city.

"It's not possible to have a bad time at The Barbary," the magazine wrote.

"What they've done is taken ancient recipes from across North Africa and the Middle East that have gone on to influence food in today's Israeli kitchen, then reimagined them."

The magazine also praised the atmosphere in the Covent Garden restaurant, describing it as "stuffed full of music, laughter, and people that are beautiful in the best way: inside and out."
Meet The Christian Israeli Who Is On A Mission To Create The First Aramaean Christian Town In Israel
A patriotic Christian Israeli is seeking to found a city exclusively for Christian Aramaeans in northern Israel in his quest to preserve the Aramean culture and language.

Captain Reserve Shadi Khalloul is a 42-year-old Aramean Christian who is a fellow of the Philos Project, and the chairman of the Israeli Christian Aramaic Association. He also was a candidate for Knesset with the Jewish Zionist party in the 2015 elections. In an interview with The Daily Wire, he explained his dream to create his city and the progress so far.

Khalloul describes himself as an Aramean Christian and believes that modern Arameans are indigenous to the land of Israel as well as descendants of the very first Christians. He made it his life mission to preserve his people’s culture while he was in a “Bible as English Literature” class at the University of Nevada where he studied. He said that during a class, the professor referred to Aramaic as a “dead” language, to which he responded that he and his family spoke Aramaic and that it was not dead. Since then, Khalloul returned to Israel and has worked to preserve the Aramaic culture and language.
Canadian Radio Host with Leukemia Saved by Israeli Bone Marrow Donor
An Israeli bone marrow donor who saved the life of Ottawan radio host and leukemia patient Stu 'Stuntman' Schwartz flew out to Ottawa to meet the man whom he says actually helped him, by giving him the opportunity to save a life.

In 2016, Majic 100 radio host and Ottawa Senators announcer Stu Schwartz was dumbfounded when he was diagnosed with leukemia. Given three months to find a bone marrow donor, the options appeared bleak.

Ezer Mizion, a non-profit organization with the largest international Jewish bone marrow registry in the world, found the match that saved Schwartz's life.

David Levi, a 50-year-old Israeli man, was the knight in shining armor. In March 2018, he and Schwartz finally met face-to-face.

The two, now sharing DNA, embraced upon their initial encounter. Although Schwartz repeatedly thanked Levi, the donor insisted that the thanks should be the other way around.

Levi, in his humility, explained how simple it was to donate bone marrow, suggesting that more people should do so.
Kansas town to honor Jewish abolitionist
Salina, Kansas (Tribune News Service) - August Bondi, a Jewish-American immigrant devoted to the abolition of slavery, was honored with a historical marker in Salina, Kansas this week.

Bondi served in the Kansas Volunteer Cavalry in the Civil War before moving to Salina and serving as a postmaster and judge.

The city of Salina, Salina Heritage Commission and Smoky Hill Museum will dedicate the historical marker at 5:30 p.m on Thursday at the museum.

Jerry Klinger, president of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, initially contacted city staff about the marker in October 2015. Klinger, who will speak about Bondi during the dedication, said the marker will celebrate Bondi's support for freedom and his opposition to slavery.

"Kansas is a diverse, active and rich state, with a history that deserves to be remembered and honored," Klinger said.

According to information provided to the Salina Heritage Commission, Bondi and his family left their native Vienna, Austria for America in 1848 when Bondi was 15 in the wake of an unsuccessful democratic revolution.

In 1850, Bondi went to work as a sailor on a freighter that went up and down the Mississippi River and into the Gulf of Mexico. When the ship was docked in Galveston, Texas, Bondi observed the cruelties of slavery.
Schindler's List returning to theaters
To mark the 25th anniversary of the iconic film Schindler’s List, Universal Pictures will be releasing a remastered version of the movie in theaters on December 7.

“It is difficult to believe that it’s been 25 years since Schindler’s List first arrived in theaters,” said director Steven Spielberg in a statement on Wednesday. “The true stories of the magnitude and tragedy of the Holocaust are ones that must never be forgotten, and the film’s lessons about the critical importance of countering hatred continue to reverberate today. I am honored that audiences will be able to experience the journey once again on the big screen.”

The film will have its picture and sound digitally remastered in 4K and hit theaters for a limited engagement in the United States and Canada. Universal – which released a remastered trailer for the film on Wednesday – said the new version “provides a stunning experience on the big screen, to match the power of the film and its significant themes.” The film studio said the movie will also be re-released in some international territories in early 2019.

Ahead of the re-release, the film will also be screened for high school students and educators at free events around North America. The events are being coordinated by the USC Shoah Foundation, which Spielberg founded the year after completing Schindler’s List.
Nobel Prize ceremony venue displays golden menorah in lobby
For the first time, a Jewish symbol is on display in the lobby of Oslo's most exclusive hotel, which hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremony.

It took months of talks between the Grand Hotel, the local Jewish community, and the Jewish donors to reach an agreement to display the menorah in the hotel lobby. What apparently decided the matter was the high number of Jewish Nobel laureates, as well as the fact that the hotel has in the past displayed symbols of other religions.

The 24-karat gold candelabra, which stands 65 centimeters (26 inches) high, is of the type used on Hanukkah, with eight main branches for each of the eight days of the holiday, plus a ninth that is used to light the others. It was donated by the Philipsons, Jewish natives of Oslo who now live in New York.

The collaboration between the hotel and the local Jewish community started two years ago when the community held a procession in honor of a new Torah scroll for the city's Chabad House. Community elders said the parade, a tradition when a new Torah scroll is brought to a synagogue, was something that had never taken place in Norway.
8-year-old boy stumbled on rare 11,500-year-old fertility figurine on hike
A funny-looking pebble pocketed by a child in northern Israel two years ago has been revealed to be a rare 11,500-year-old fertility figurine, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Thursday, praising the boy for his “good citizenship.”

Itamar Barnea, 10, was hiking in the Upper Galilee, near Kibbutz Malkia, his home community, when he was eight years old, when he found an unusually shaped rock in the area between Tel Kedesh and the Dishon stream. He decided to take it home as a souvenir, according to a statement by the IAA.

Itamar, an archaeology enthusiast, put the stone in a box and forgot about it until his mother spotted it a month ago during house cleaning. Curious about the object, she showed it to an archaeologist, Dr. Renate Rosenthal-Heginbottom, who transferred it to the IAA for inspection.

“We were surprised when we were shown a rare figurine — probably the third of its kind found in Israel, about 11,500 years old,” said Ianir Milevski, head of the prehistory department at the IAA.
An 11,500-year-old fertility figurine found in 2016 in the Upper Galilee and identified in August 2018. (Clara Amit/Israel Antiquities Authority)

“The statuette, which at first glance barely looks like it was carved by humans, was made by scraping and chiseling a pebble to resemble a pregnant woman,” he explained. It has now been added to the collections of the IAA’s National Treasures Department.
120th Anniversary of Second Zionist Congress Celebrated With Constructive Campaign
To celebrate the 120th anniversary of the Second Zionist Congress, this week the American Zionist Movement (AZM) marked the occasion of the founding by Theodor Herzl with a public release and promotion of both the Statement of Principles of Zionism and its “Zionism Forward” campaign.

The statement, adopted by the AZM board, consists of 28 national Jewish Zionist groups. AZM works across a broad political, religious and ideological spectrum connecting the American Jewish community to support Zionism, Israel and the Jewish people.

The principles include, but are not limited to, “the sovereign state of Israel’s unconditional right to exist as the Jewish democratic homeland,” “the right of the people of Israel to live in peace and security” and “Israel’s centrality to Jewish identity and life,” according to the AZM.

Meanwhile, the “Zionism Forward” campaign includes, but is not limited to, the mission to “strengthen support for Israel, the Jewish people and Zionism,” “celebrate the ideology and cause of Zionism” and “help strengthen Israel’s position in the global family of nations.”

“In recent weeks and months, we have seen Zionism attacked and mischaracterized in America, Europe and the Middle East—by both public figures and those on university campuses,” said AZM president Richard D. Heideman. “We have collectively rededicated ourselves to this movement and launched the ‘Zionism Forward’ campaign in order to strengthen support for Israel, the Jewish people and Zionism.”
Israel renames nuclear facility after late Shimon Peres
The Israeli government on Wednesday unveiled a new name for a secretive nuclear research facility in honor of late president, prime minister and foreign minister Shimon Peres, who was instrumental to its creation.

Peres, who died in 2016, was put in charge of establishing the Negev Nuclear Research Center in the 1950s. Foreign researchers estimate that Israel has an arsenal of around 70 nuclear warheads, but Israel maintains a deliberate policy of "nuclear ambiguity."

"Shimon aspired toward peace but he knew that true peace can be achieved only if our hands strongly grasp defensive weaponry," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a ceremony unveiling the new name Wednesday, which in English translation will be: "Negev Nuclear Research Center in the name of Shimon Peres."

There is no place for "the weak" in the Middle East, the Israeli premier added.

"The weak crumble, are slaughtered and are erased from history while the strong, for good or for ill, survive. The strong are respected, and alliances are made with the strong, and in the end peace is made with the strong."

Netanyahu praised Peres was a "man of vision and action" and that the establishment of the Dimona nuclear reactor, as the facility is commonly known, was one of his top successes.

Netanyahu first said that the center would be named after the late president in 2016, but it has taken almost two years for it to officially happen.

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.
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