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Sunday, June 30, 2019

Egyptian academic writes in popular newspaper that Jews who were forced to convert in the 1400s-1700s are Trojan horses to take over the world

Youm7 (Seventh Day) is one of Egypt's most popular newspaper sites and one of the top 300 Internet sites worldwide, with roughly the same world rank as Buzzfeed.

Over the weekend it published an astonishingly antisemitic story, written by Dr. Huda Darwish, Professor of Comparative Religion, Zagazig University.

It starts out like this:
The Jews have been known to deal with usury, bribery, the creation of lies, creating division among nations, the provision of false and misleading information to the peoples, and the swaying of hearts and minds.

Our purpose in writing these lines is to reveal the root of the Jewish personality, which accepts subterfuge in all its meanings and types - whether religious, political, economic or social - by following all means of camouflage and concealment to achieve its purposes.
It gets worse. Jews who were forced to convert or die by both Christians and Muslims are characterized as having infiltrated these religions in order to destroy them from inside. For example:

In the course of the ages, Jewish sects have become assimilated to other faiths, whether forced, coercive or voluntary. These sects adopted secret methods that were vague enough as to reach the practice of worship of other religions openly, while their rituals were held secretly and hidden away from the eyes. These include New Christians who lived in Europe on the Iberian Peninsula since the 15th century, and the Dounma or Sabbatean sects of Asia who lived east in Turkey since the 17th century.

The Marranos, with their commercial investments, formed pressure groups on the peoples of those countries, where they managed to infiltrate into the ranks of the monks, adding intolerance to Christianity. The Jewish rabbis succeeded in converting to Christianity and held positions as supreme preachers in the state, such as popes, priests, baptists and members of the Inquisition, to sentence to imprisonment, murder and burn the accused Jews for the preservation of their property.

Thus, the Jewish penetration in Spain and Portugal was led by the ingenuity of the Jews in the disposition of money and speculation. They were the money changers, the financiers and the owners of the financial and commercial houses. They represented the vanguard of liberalism groups in the world in order to elevate the individual at the expense of the state. 
 The professor goes on to say that Sabbatean Jews also infiltrated Ottoman society and Muslim sects like Sufi and took major positions while practicing Judaism in secret.
To this day, many individuals belonging to the Marranos and Donna sects continue to live hidden among the peoples of the earth, infiltrating them with deceit and hypocrisy, as if they do not constitute a danger among them, in order to enable Zionism, to undermine Christian and Islamic sanctities, to build the Greater State of Israel and to achieve glory Of the Jewish people in the land and the west.
This is pure antisemitism, in one of the world's most popular websites.

Western media and human rights groups, as always, remain silent. Because while they all claim to be against antisemitism, when actual Arab and Muslim antisemitism shouts out to them "Look at me! I'm proud to hate Jews!" they look the other way.

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06/30 Links: With Their Repeated Rejections, Palestinians Risk Total Irrelevance; For 3 years, the PA has paid family of murderer of a 13-year-old Israeli girl

More Palestinian cartoons against US, Israel and Gulf states

From Al Resalah, a Hamas-oriented news site:

 "Manama auction for the selling of Palestine"


Top left: "71 years from the occupation of Palestine"
Writing on white sign: Normalization (of relations with Israel)
 The two sticks holding the stick on which the Palestinian guy is roasted: on one it says "Balfour Declaration"  on the other it says: "Trump Declaration" 


Top: "The sun of truth cannot be covered by a sieve"
In sun: "Palestine from the River to the Sea"
In brown writing: "Deal of the Century"



Top: "Greater Israel is the result of Arab normalization (with Israel)"
On flag: "From the Nile to the Euphrates"


 Arab normalization wholesale!
(h/t Ibn Boutros)


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Someone wishes Jews a "Shabbat Shalom" from Kaaba in Mecca, Muslims freak

The IDF Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee tweeted an image from someone at Islam's holiest site, the Kabaa in Mecca, with a handwritten message wishing Jews a peaceful Sabbath, "Shabbat Shalom."


Adraee commented, "How beautiful is coexistence and mutual respect!"

Arab media are fuming. They are assuming that someone who wishes a peaceful Sabbath for Jews must be Jewish themselves, and therefore this is proof of a Jew who infiltrated the Muslim-only city of Mecca and its holiest spot!


Because no self respecting Muslim would ever send good wishes to Jews!

This story shows not only that individual Muslims are getting more comfortable with being public about their interest in and friendship with Jews and Israel (since this was sent to the IDF's Adraee) but also it proves that the Muslim claim to only be against Israel and not Jews is so much garbage.

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Palestinians who attended Bahrain conference feel they are "in great danger"; Erekat offered to "help" before Fatah media "outed" them



From Israel HaYom:

The Palestinian Authority on Saturday night released Hebron businessman Saleh Abu Mayala after he had been detained upon his return from the US-led economic conference in Bahrain.

According to Palestinian reports, the decision to release the businessman came following a threatening letter from the US Embassy.

Mayala had attended last week's conference in Bahrain with a small group of Palestinian colleagues, led by businessman Ashraf Jabari, who is viewed with deep suspicion by fellow Palestinians and authorities for his close ties to Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

A PA security official said intelligence services detained Mayala in Hebron for interrogation, without elaborating on the reason for the arrest.

Aside from Jabari, the identities of the other Palestinian participants were not publicly announced, though a picture of some of them at the conference was widely circulated on social media.

Another participant, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said he and the other Palestinian attendees feel they are in "great danger," having been threatened by the PA and on social media.

The NYT adds:

Intelligence officers summoned another conference participant, Ashraf Ghanem, also from Hebron, by phone on Friday night, after they did not find him at home. Instead of turning himself in, Mr. Ghanem was sheltering on Saturday in Mr. Jabari’s house, according to the two men, in the Israeli-controlled section of Hebron — an area where the Palestinian Authority security forces cannot operate without prior coordination with the Israelis.

A Palestinian security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on a sensitive security issue, said the Palestinian businessmen’s participation in the conference was “tantamount to betrayal,” adding that Palestinian law punishes those who betray their homeland. Once the Palestinian leadership had decided to boycott the event, he said, participation was not optional or a matter of individual freedom.

A second government official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the arrest. He said there had been public pressure on the Authority to put those who attended the conference on trial.
And, absurdly:
Reached by phone, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the Palestinian Authority’s minister of information, said he did not know anything about Mr. Abu Mayala’s arrest.
That is only the beginning of the farce.

Palestinian media did not report on the arrest until Israeli media did not allow them to ignore it. At first only an Israeli Arab news site mentioned the report. Finally, a small Palestinian news site mentioned it, but spun the story to pretend that Mayala turned himself in out of shame for the terrible thing he did:

[Abu Mayala's] family said: "From the first moment we learned that a family member was present at the conference, we denounced this news and took the appropriate measures. We asked him to leave immediately and return to Hebron and heresponded to our request and contacted the relevant authorities.

Al Jazeera reports that the businessmen are being threatened:

Earlier this week, Palestinian social media users circulated online a list of Palestinian businessmen who attended the event in Manama.

The handful of Palestinian businessmen who attended the workshop have been branded as "collaborators" by some in the Palestinian leadership.

Perhaps the most absurd part of this story is that before the conference, PLO executive director Saeb Erekat claimed that all Palestinian businessmen voluntarily boycotted the conference - an allegation that the world media believed - but he offered to "help" anyone who felt threatened to attend, asking them to reveal themselves beforehand.

No one was stupid enough to do that.

As the workshop was underway, Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Voice  media listed the names of the Palestinian attendees as an implicit threat, naming  Ashraf al-Jaabari, Khaldun al-Husseini, Saleh Abu Miyaleh, Marwan al-Zubaidi, Jaris al-Taweel and Mohammed Aref Masad.



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Saturday, June 29, 2019

06/29 Links: Cory Booker's Hypocrisy on Louis Farrakhan; PA arrests Hebron businessman who attended Bahrain conference; Iran sought in 2018 weapons proliferation technology for its nuclear program

From Ian:
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: Cory Booker's Hypocrisy on Louis Farrakhan
When former vice preisident Joe Biden spoke of the civility he practiced in the Senate with segregationist Democrat senators James Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia, my friend Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), among others, saw an opportunity, and jumped all over him.

He condemned Biden’s remarks and demanded he apologize.

“Vice President Biden’s relationships with proud segregationists are not the model for how we make America a safer and more inclusive place for black people and for everyone,” Cory said in a statement. He followed up with a tweet of a photo of black marchers in the Memphis sanitation workers strike of 1968 holding signs that said, “I am a man.”

Cory is right. Biden should not be praising segregationist senators. Segregation is affront to the Biblical insistence that all humans are equally God’s children and that we are all one human family. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. became the greatest American of the twentieth century by dismantling segregation, a movement for which he paid with his life.

But how does this square with Cory’s bizarre comments about being open to meeting with the foremost antisemite in America, Louis Farrakhan?

Asked whether he would meet the Nation of Islam leader at a campaign event in Nevada, Cory said, “I don’t feel the need to do that, but I’m not one of these people that says I wouldn’t sit down with anybody to hear what they have to say.” He then added that he is very acquainted with Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam from his time as mayor of Newark, N.J., stating, “I am very familiar with Minister Louis Farrakhan and his beliefs and values.”

Huh?

What Cory should, of course, have said, is this:

“I just condemned a former vice president of the United States for saying he hung out with segregationist senators. So of course I would not meet with Louis Farrakhan, who has called Jews ‘termites,’ ‘satanic,’ and referred to Hitler, who murdered six million Jews, as ‘a very great man.’ I have enjoyed wide moral and financial support from the Jewish community throughout my political career. In addition, I served as President of Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s L’Chaim Society at the University of Oxford and I’ve spoken at synagogues throughout the United States who treated me with love and respect. I would never insult the my Jewish friends and supporters by meeting with a man who demonizes Jews and incites violence against them, especially a time of rising global antisemitism.”

But Cory did not say any of that. Instead, he left the door open to meeting a man who employs Nazi terminology about Jews. (Everyone knows the one thing you do with termites is exterminate them.)

Putin’s War
In late 2013, hundreds of thousands of angry Ukrainians took to the streets to demand the resignation of Viktor Yanukovych, their country’s corrupt, pro-Russian president. Following months of violent clashes in which dozens of people were killed, Yanukovych fled to Moscow and by March 2014, Russian forces had occupied the Crimean Peninsula and began fomenting separatist uprisings in the Ukrainian east.

During the revolution, the Jewish community of Kiev had been subjected to a series of anti-Semitic attacks and in the aftermath of the revolution, many worried that their situation would deteriorate further. However, despite a Russian propaganda campaign warning about the rise of Ukrainian fascism, the real threat to the country’s Jews came not from domestic ultranationalists or anti-Semites but rather from Russia itself. In April 2014, Russian-backed separatist fighters declared a People’s Republic in the city of Donetsk near the Russian border, setting off a war that still rages to this day.

Over the course of the conflict, more than a million and a half people were displaced, including many Jews living under separatist occupation. Among those who fled the war zone were the overwhelming majority of Donetsk’s estimated prewar population of 11,000.

One of them was Pinchas Vishedski, a diminutive Israeli Chabad Hasid who had arrived in Donetsk soon after the fall of the Soviet Union and had worked for decades to rebuild Jewish life in the city.

Two days after reinstatement, Labour MP again suspended amid anti-Semitism row
The UK Labour Party on Friday reportedly reimposed the suspension of an MP two days after it was lifted, amid an ongoing furore over the party’s handling of complaints of anti-Semitism.

Chris Williamson, a Corbyn ally, was filmed in February telling a meeting that the party was “too apologetic” and had “given too much ground” in its response to anti-Semitism allegations.

He was reinstated Wednesday after being suspended pending an ethics review.

However a member of the panel which allowed Williamson’s return to the party, Keith Vaz MP, said he felt the decision should be reconsidered.

Following Vaz’s comments, the Labour general secretary, Jennie Formby, told the party’s national executive that Williamson’s case would be on the agenda for the next meeting of its disputes committee, the Guardian reported.

“Subsequently, the whip is not restored as the decision is still pending,” a source told the BBC.

Williamson, an MP from Derby North, tweeted on Friday that he is “naturally concerned by the lack of due process and consistency in how my case is being handled.”



Behind the scenes of the first morning minyan in Manama in over 70 years
“They may not make peace in Bahrain, but they made a minyan in Bahrain,” David Makovsky, a DC-based think tanker specializing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said Wednesday, as he was taking off his prayer shawl and phylacteries.

We had just concluded the first morning service held in this Gulf nation’s only Jewish house of worship in more than 70 years. Makovsky was sitting in the row in front of Jason Greenblatt, US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, who had come to Bahrain to present the first part of the administration’s peace proposal.

“Participating in shacharit, the morning prayer service, today in a synagogue in Bahrain was very special to me,” Greenblatt told me later on Wednesday. “It was a great example of what can be and should be in this region.”

Just 24 hours earlier, nobody would have dreamed of organizing a minyan — the quorum of 10 men required for a full Orthodox Jewish service — in this Muslim-Arab nation, least of all myself.

It was only when I spotted at least five rabbis as I strolled around the site of the US-led economic peace workshop in Manama this week that I thought it might just be possible.

But first let’s take a step back.

I had tried to arrange a visit to the city’s synagogue for weeks ahead of my trip to Manama for the US-led economic workshop, but the local Jewish community was initially hesitant to open its doors to Israeli journalists. Aware of the acute sensitivity of being a Jew in a Muslim country that does not have formal relations with Israel, I sent several messages, through different channels, to community leaders asking for a private visit, to no avail.

On Tuesday afternoon, my colleague Barak Ravid from Channel 13 suddenly announced to the small contingent of Israeli reporters in Manama that the community had apparently received the green light from the Bahraini authorities, and that we would be given a tour of the synagogue.

We were told to come to an unmarked building on the city’s small Sasaah Avenue at 4 p.m., where Bahraini-Jewish diplomat Houda Nonoo would take us inside and show us around.


Trump: Israeli-Palestinian peace deal will be reached only when I am president
US President Donald Trump, during the conclusion of the G20 summit in Japan, said that if a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians is not reached during his presidency, then it will never happen.

"With me being president, if you don't get that deal done, it will never happen," Trump said.

This comes exactly one week after the "Peace to Prosperity" economic plan for the "Deal of the Century" was released to the public. The plan was released ahead of the Bahrain summit hosted throughout the past week by Jared Kushner, which focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

During the Bahrain summit, Kushner said that he will reveal the political portion of the peace plan "soon." He also said that the plan will go forth when "both sides will be ready to say yes," but admitted that such an occurrence may never happen.

Kushner placed some blame on the Palestinian Authority, saying that "the Palestinians do not have a particularly good record when it comes to closing deals."

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, as well, said that "the missing element is the Palestinian presence, which is a pity."

"It is unclear what their purpose is in boycotting the meeting," he continued. "It is intended for them. No one asked them to give up their ambitions. We do not understand it, but that does not mean we will wait for them because that can take time."
PA arrests Hebron businessman who attended Bahrain conference
The Palestinian Authority arrested a Palestinian businessman who attended the US-led economic conference in Bahrain this past week where the Trump administration unveiled the economic aspects of its proposed peace plan, a senior PA official said on Saturday.

Saleh Abu Mayala was arrested in Hebron by Palestinian intelligence forces in an area under Palestinian Authority security control, the Hebron-based senior PA official told The Times of Israel.

The official said he wasn’t aware of the reason for the arrest, but said that Ramallah might be seeking intelligence on the Bahrain conference.

Palestinian officials refused to attend the summit and urged Arab states not to participate. But some Palestinian entrepreneurs were present.

PA security forces also attempted to arrest Ashraf Ghanam, a Palestinian businessman who attended the conference, in Hebron, but he successfully fled to an Israeli-controlled part of the city, another Palestinian businessman who participated in the confab said in a phone call.
PA calls Bahrain conference a ‘stunning failure’ for Trump administration
The Palestinian Authority hit back at US President Donald Trump on Saturday, accusing him and his administration of pursuing a policy of “punishment and intimidation” surrounding the much-vaunted Bahrain conference this past week.

In a statement to the press, PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh called the conference a “stunning failure,” despite the “policy of punishment and intimidation used by the Trump administration against everyone.”

The charge came days after Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner unveiled the economic aspects of a proposed US peace plan at the two-day summit in the Gulf state and was in response to Trump’s remark earlier Saturday that there will never be an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement if one isn’t negotiated during his presidency.

Palestinian officials refused to attend the summit in Manama, and called on Arab states not to participate. Though there were brief tensions surrounding immediate confirmations to attend, officials from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco were all present in Manama.

The PA has boycotted the Trump administration since December 2017 when the US president officially recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Abu Rudeineh said the Palestinian’s refusal to attend the Bahrain conference should “constitute a clear message to Mr. Trump and his administration that the policy of dictates, threats and coercion is no longer effective with our steadfast people and its legitimate leadership headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, which rejected all suspicious deals aimed at the liquidation of our national cause.”

In a statement Thursday, Abbas argued that a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must precede projects to develop the Palestinian economy.

“We say that national rights are not pieces of real estate that are purchased and sold and that arriving at a political solution that guarantees freedom, dignity, independence and justice for our people must precede any economic programs or projects because that will create stability and security for everyone,” Abbas charged.
After US-Russia summit, Netanyahu says Israel won’t stop hitting Iran in Syria
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday vowed to continue to act against Iranian entrenchment in Syria, days after a high-level trilateral meeting with the US and Russia.

Netanyahu also warned that an Israeli retreat from the Jordan Valley in the West Bank would lead to war, speaking at a ceremony for pilots graduating from the Israeli Air Force’s 178th flight school training program.

“We will continue to act against Iran’s attempt to establish itself in Syria, with the air force having a central role,” Netanyahu told the new pilots.

“We always remember that we must be ready to protect ourselves with our own strength against every threat, that is the basic principle which assures our future.”

The comments came two days after Jerusalem hosted US National Security Adviser John Bolton and Russia’s security adviser Nikolai Patrushev, with National Security Adviser Meir Ben Shabbat, for talks revolving around Syria and Iran.
GPS jamming affecting Israel comes from Russian base in Syria: US researcher
The signal that has been disrupting satellite navigation for planes flying through Israeli airspace in recent weeks originates inside a Russian air base inside Syria, according to data collected by a US-based researcher.

This interference to the Global Positioning System (GPS) reception does not appear to be specifically directed at Israel, but rather the Jewish state is likely collateral damage in an effort by Moscow both to protect its troops from drone attacks and to assert its dominance in the field of electronic warfare, Todd Humphreys, a professor at the University of Texas, told The Times of Israel this week.

Since last spring, pilots flying through the Middle East, specifically around Syria, have noted that their GPS systems have displayed the wrong location or stopped working entirely. This came shortly after a large suicide drone attack on Russian forces in Syria.

Using a series of sensors onboard the International Space Station, Humphreys and his team have been tracking the phenomenon for several months. They were able to identify the geographic source of the signal: the Khmeimim Air Base, which was built by Russia in 2015 along Syria’s western coast as one of Moscow’s permanent facilities as part of its support for Syrian dictator Bashar Assad in the country’s civil war.

“[The signal] is so strong that I can see it from space,” said Humphreys, an aerospace engineer, specializing in satellite-based navigation.

Similar GPS disruptions have been reported in recent years around the Black Sea, along Russia’s borders with Norway and Finland, and near the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s palace.
Yisrael Medad: Another Unpublished Letter-to-the-Editor
Sent to the New York Review of Books:

Rashid Khalidi quotes Lord Balfour, writing in 1919 to the anti-Zionist Lord Curzon, as an example and proof that "the Palestinians...do not warrant being consulted about their national future" ('The Neocolonial Arrogance of the Kushner Plan', June 12). Further, Khalidi points out, in contrast, that Balfour was of the opinion that "Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land.”

Khalidi is being a bit anachronistic. In 1919, there were no "Palestinians" per se. And if they were, they were not solely Arabs but all persons who lived in the area, of all religion and ethnicity. Formally, Palestinian nationality came about through the 1925 Palestinian Citizenship Order in Council of the British Mandate, a requirement of Article 7 of the 1922 League of Nations decision to reconstitute the Jewish people's national home through their "historical connection" to the country. In 1919, the Arabs residing in the territory referred to themselves as "Southern Syrians" and throughout the 1920s, petitioned the Mandate Commission in Geneva to have the country reunited with Syria.

Ironically, if it were not for the Jews and Zionism, there would be no "Palestine" in a geo-political sense, nor a specific Arab "Palestinian people".

To clarifty my last point: the first time "Palestine" was provided borders was under the Mandate. Previously, the Ottoman Empire had divided it up multiple ways multiple times. Districts altered and reshaped.

The first time a "Palestinian Nationality" was declared and a passport crated was under the Mandate.

And the Mandate was created for the Jews to reconstitute their historic national home in Palestine.


Pennsylvania officials attend events with anti-Israel CAIR representatives
Several state and local officials in Pennsylvania participated in recent days in events hosted by members of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which is known for spreading antisemitic messages.

US Senator Bob Casey organized a town hall meeting at Dickinson College, according to the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), and invited CAIR local board member Aaysha Noor to moderate.

CAIR-PA (CAIR-Pennsylvania) later also co-hosted a town hall meeting in Carlisle, PA which included state representatives Movita Johnson-Harrell and Patty Kim.

CAIR-PA's Executive Director Jacob Bender has been quoted calling Israeli treatment of Palestinians during protests along the Gaza border a "massacre." He additionally claimed that "Israelis and their supporters in the US are almost euphoric at the number of Arabs dead."

Bender also equated Israel to jihadists groups in a letter he wrote in 2014 in which he stated that CAIR denounces injustice and violence, "whether it is ISIS beheading American journalists in Iraq, or Israeli troops killing hundreds of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, or the Taliban murdering over 150 school children in Pakistan."

CAIR has been involved in the past in attempts to devalue the problem of antisemitism, such as when the organization tried to stifle an "Antisemitism Awareness" bill that would have directed the US Department of Education to adopt a widely-accepted working definition of antisemitism.
Gazan arson balloon sparks fire in southern Israel
An arson balloon launched from the Gaza Strip ignited a fire Saturday near Kibbutz Nir Am in the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council, marking a breach in an unofficial truce renewed on Friday between Israel and Hamas.

Israel’s firefighting teams arrived on the scene and extinguished the blaze.

The latest incident came after incendiary balloons from Gaza sparked 14 fires Friday in southern Israel, hours after Israel granted a number of economic concessions to the Strip in exchange for an end to arson attacks and other violence along the border.

This week approximately 100 fires were started by balloon-borne arson devices launched from Gaza, according to figures from the local fire departments.

In response to the ongoing attacks — a breach of an unofficial ceasefire agreement between Israel and Gaza terror groups — Israel halted the flow of gasoline and diesel fuel into the Strip on Tuesday, a move that drew criticism from human rights advocates who condemned it as collective punishment.

On Friday, as part of a renewed truce agreement, an unnamed Israeli official confirmed that Israel had resumed fuel deliveries that were cut off earlier in the week and extended the fishing zone up to 15 nautical miles from 10.
80 Palestinians injured in East Jerusalem clashes after police shooting
Dozens of Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli security forces in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya on Friday, after police killed a man who launched fireworks at them in the area on Thursday.

At least 80 protesters suffered light injuries in the Friday night violence, the Ynet news site reported.

Earlier in the day, around 30 rioters threw stones at police, who responded with stun grenades. Later, demonstrators were again launching fireworks at officers in the restive neighborhood.

Security forces killed 20-year-old Mohammad Samir Obeid on Thursday during a skirmish between police and Palestinians in the neighborhood. Police said Obeid launched fireworks at them from a close range, “endangering the lives” of officers.

Issawiya residents have been clashing with security forces since the shooting. Overnight, a community center in the neighborhood that often coordinates with Israeli authorities was burned down in an apparent protest.

A Jerusalem court on Friday reportedly rejected a request to release Obeid’s body to his family for burial.
UN Clash: Miss Iraq Sarah Idan Calls Out Abuses By Iraqi Government


Iran sought in 2018 weapons proliferation technology for its nuclear program
Germany’s federal intelligence said on Thursday in its new report on security threats that Iran’s regime worked to obtain equipment for its nuclear program that could be used for weapons of mass destruction.

According to the 388 report reviewed by The Jerusalem Post, which covers a range of security threats to Germany’s democracy, the intelligence document said the agency “was only able to identify isolated indications of Iran's proliferation-related procurement attempts for its nuclear program compared with the previous year.

"Such indications emerge when the methodological approach to the procurement of goods, their possible use also in a nuclear program and / or existing findings on the final recipient or the requesting body point to a potential proliferation-relevant procurement background.”

The intelligence report covers 2018 and said, “The spreading of atomic, biological or chemical weapons of mass destruction or the use for their manufacture and corresponding products, as well as weapons carrier systems such as rockets and drones, including this Know-how, is called proliferation.” According to the definition of proliferation contained in the new federal intelligence report and other German intelligence documents examined by the Post, the Iranian regime's activities meet the criteria of seeking to purchase technology that can be used for weapons of mass destruction.

The intelligence report added, “To the extent that verification of these indications [of Iran's proliferation-related procurement attempts] was possible, it did not provide evidence of a breach of the JCPOA.”

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is the formal name for the Iran nuclear deal reached between the world powers and the clerical regime in Tehran.
Iran says it will soon exceed enriched uranium limit under nuclear deal
Iran said on Saturday that it will soon exceed the limit for enriched uranium reached under the 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers, after talks in Vienna with the remaining signatories to the deal “could not satisfy Iran’s just demands,” an Iranian official said according to the Fars news agency.

“As the commission meeting in Vienna could not satisfy Iran’s just demands … Iran is determined to cut it commitments to the deal and the 300 kilograms enriched uranium limit will be soon breached,” an unnamed official was quoted as saying.

Tehran has been pushing for Britain, Germany, France, China, Russia, and the European Union – which signed onto the deal negotiated under the Obama administration – to save the controversial agreement after the US under Donald Trump withdrew last year, and to stem Washington’s increasing sanctions.

Iran has asked European partners to advance the EU-proposed Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) which would help ensure trade between Iran and Europe by allowing buyers and sellers to exchange money without relying on the usual cross-border financial transactions.

After a meeting on Friday in Vienna, Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, said that for the INSTEX system to be useful, “Europeans need to buy oil from Iran, or to consider credit lines for this mechanism.”

Iran recently quadrupled its production of low-enriched uranium. It previously said it would surpass a 300-kg stockpile limit set by the accord by Thursday, but then said it was below the limit Wednesday and there would be no new assessment until “after the weekend.” It is currently a holiday weekend in Iran.
Iran says progress made at nuclear meeting but ‘still not enough’
A meeting of the remaining partners in the Iranian nuclear deal produced some progress but not enough to satisfy Tehran’s demands, a senior Iranian official said Friday, offering little prospect for now of the country backing away from a move to surpass a uranium stockpile threshold that could doom the agreement.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, said after meeting with senior officials from Britain, Germany, France, China, Russia and the European Union that a complex barter-type system set up to keep trade with Iran afloat is now active. But he insisted that for the so-called INSTEX system to be useful, “Europeans need to buy oil from Iran, or to consider credit lines for this mechanism.”

Araghchi described the meeting in Vienna, a regular quarterly gathering of signatories to the 2015 accord, as positive and constructive. He said it was “one step forward” compared with previous sessions, “but it is still not enough, and it is still not meeting Iran’s expectations.”

The 2015 agreement was aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the accord last year and he has imposed new sanctions on Iran in hopes of forcing Tehran into negotiating a wider-ranging deal.

Iran recently quadrupled its production of low-enriched uranium. It previously said it would surpass a 300-kilogram stockpile limit set by the accord by Thursday, but then said it was below the limit Wednesday and there would be no new assessment until “after the weekend.” It is currently a holiday weekend in Iran.
Iran 'Unlikely to Comply with US Demands'
i24NEWS' senior diplomatic correspondent Christian Malard offers his analysis of the rising tensions between the Iranian regime and the administration of Donald Trump.


Iran-backed militia says it took part in assault on Bahrain embassy in Iraq
An official with an Iran-backed militia said members of his group comprised the majority of protesters outside the Bahraini embassy in the Iraqi capital that was attacked this week. But he said he doesn’t know who stormed the mission.

Jaafar al-Husseini, spokesman for the Kataeb Hezbollah, said that storming the embassy was a “natural right for the protesters” to express their anger over Bahrain’s hosting of a US-led economic conference to promote peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

He told the Associated Press that the group’s supporters did not storm the embassy in Baghdad.

Iraq is home to Iran-backed militias and the embassy attack comes amid tensions between the United States and Iran in the Middle East. Iraq has close relations with both Washington and Tehran and has been trying to ease tensions between them.

Protesters stormed the embassy compound in Baghdad Thursday night, removing the flag from above the building and replacing it with a Palestinian banner to protest the economic conference held in the Gulf nation to push Washington’s Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.

No one was hurt in the standoff that lasted more than an hour and later in the night, Iraqi security forces were in control of the area.
Why is Turkey So Determined to Buy Russia's S-400 System?
Turkey remains insistent on purchasing the S-400 missile defense system from Russia, despite warnings from the U.S. against it and concerns among European NATO allies. Why is it so insistent on doing so? TRT World analyst Yusuf Erim analyzes.


“When You Make Generalizations about Muslims, All 1.6 Billion Muslims Are Offended,” Says Apologist with Tenuous Grasp on Concept of Irony (satire)
The question of what constitutes an offensive remark about minority groups continues to plague us in somewhat the same way Miley Cyrus’ twerking most often results in involuntary vomiting. Muslims are often cited as being among the most easily offended people, in what has become a close race with hipsters, old-timey Southern women who say, “well, I never!” and Donald Trump who has skin as thick as Kanye. And while it remains obvious to most people that not all Muslims can be offended by any single remark or action, this fact ironically flees from apologists trying to make that exact point.

In an interview earlier this week, Yousef Mohamed, a young, hotshot journalist and political pundit was being interviewed about the alleged oversensitivity of his coreligionists. Mohamed was incensed by the implication that all “1.6 billion Muslims could be grouped together and generalized about.” Ironically however, he then proceeded to make a sweeping generalization of his own, asserting that such accusations serve only to insult all those Muslims about which no generalizations can be made. So, what can we learn from this odd tactic? Well, we’d really rather not say, lest we make a generalization about which people should or should not learn lessons based on points we may or may not be making.
Bestselling Jewish novelist removed from two UK literary events
Bestselling novelist Richard Zimler, has been dropped from two "literary events" in the United Kingdom due to two cultural event coordinators terminating publicizing his novel due to feared outrage from anti-Israel activists, according to the Guardian.

Zimler was "deeply shocked and upset," saying that he had no words to be said initially after being told, and now worries that an "atmosphere of fear" and antisemitism means that Jewish professionals will now be denied work.

“I never expected my career in the UK would be prejudiced by my being Jewish. It made Britain seem like a place I didn’t know and maybe never knew. Even just asking about my religious affiliation struck me as outrageous," Zimler wrote in the Observer.

While his publicist added, "I was very shocked and surprised. People in the literary world are not usually narrow-minded. Everyone who knows Richard knows he is his own person.”

Zimler has won many awards for his works, publishing 11 novels translated into 23 languages. Now living in Portugal, the irony is within the fact that Zimler has no connection to the State of Israel nor does he have family in the country.

“If cultural organizations are afraid of hosting events for Jewish writers, then Britain has taken a big step backwards," Zimler said in his Observer op-ed, stating further that he has been "long endeavored in [his] novels to give voice to people who have been systematically silenced by prejudice and bigotry."
More monochrome BBC WS radio reporting on the Bahrain workshop
That of course would have been the ideal opportunity for Yolande Knell to point out that some 7% of the Palestinian Authority’s annual budget – around $330 million a year according to a BBC report from a year ago and more according to other sources – is spent on payments to terrorists and their families. Knell however refrained from providing listeners with that relevant information.

Knell: “Can President Trump fix the Palestinian economy?”

Issam: “No. From what we saw when he became the president, he has done nothing to help the Palestinian economy unfortunately.”

Knell: “With financial woes at the heart of so much suffering here, it’s easy to see why White House aides view the economy as a way to exert influence. But so far, few Palestinians are buying their argument that the ‘deal of the century’ could be their opportunity of the century.”

The rest of that nearly twelve minute-long item was given over to a conversation between Tim Franks and David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank who attended the workshop in Bahrain. During that conversation Mr Makovsky observed that “solving the whole conflict” is “easier said than done”, noting – as a former Obama administration official – that:

“We had a president who was very engaged on the Palestinian issue and we couldn’t get even an answer from the Palestinian Authority…”

Tim Franks chose not to follow up on that statement and once again BBC audiences heard a long yet monochrome report on the Bahrain economic workshop which avoided the key issue of the Hamas-Fatah split and sidestepped the topic of Palestinian terrorism.
BBC R4 Bahrain conference coverage continues – part one
In other words, not only does the BBC appear to have failed to fact check Shah’s claim that the phrase ‘the deal of the century’ was coined by Mr Trump, it has adopted the language used by Palestinian officials who opposed the US initiative before it was even made public.

Ritula Shah went on:

Shah: “Well Palestinian leaders have rejected the plan and won’t be in Bahrain. Israeli officials haven’t been invited because of the Palestinians’ absence. Several Arab countries agreed to attend but, out of solidarity with the Palestinians, have sent more junior ministers.”

While that may be the case as far as Egypt and Morocco are concerned, Shah’s portrayal obviously does not give listeners an accurate portrayal of the event because it fails to clarify that the finance ministers of the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain participated in the workshop along with foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, the head of the IMF, the president of the World Bank and ten Palestinian businessmen.

Shah: “But the White House says they’re interested instead in appealing to ordinary Palestinians keen to improve their parlous economic prospects. Our Middle East correspondent Yolande Knell has been speaking to some of them.”

Listeners then heard the same report from Knell that was aired on the BBC World Service radio programme ‘Newshour’ on the same day – a report was similar to both a televised report billed Palestinian poverty which she produced for BBC One’s ‘News at Ten’ on June 20th and an article she wrote which was published on the BBC News website on June 25th under the headline “Trump’s ‘deal of the century’ falls flat in West Bank”.
BBC R4 Bahrain conference coverage continues – part two
An audibly irritated Shah once again interrupted her interviewee.

Shah [interrupts]: “Well is it a distraction if you…but is it a distraction if the ultimate goal is a two-state solution?”

Lerner: “The ultimate goal is peace. Whether it’s two states or one state or any number, any other formulation is to be determined. But by making the issue of settlements the dominant one in the discussion of the challenges facing the Middle East and facing the Palestinians, you actually take attention away from the more critical issues.”

Shah: “So just finally; we have yet to see this political road map or political plan that you talk about but should Palestinians in a sense still keep their hopes up that there could be a two-state solution under the Trump administration’s proposals?”

Lerner: “Absolutely. They should engage in it. They should continue to keep their hopes up because the goal of the Trump administration’s plans is to settle all of the disputes, have a peace agreement and improve the lives of both Palestinians and Israelis.”

Remarkably, Shah’s line of questioning throughout this whole interview mirrored the Palestinian Authority and PLO talking points complaining that the economic section of the plan does not include the political issues which – as had already been clarified – will be in its second part. Predictably, the only ‘political issue’ promoted twice by Shah was “illegal settlements” but she had nothing to say on relevant issues such as the Hamas-Fatah split or the fact that Hamas is not interested in a two-state solution or any other type of resolution of the conflict.

So while Radio 4 listeners did finally get to hear a different view of the Bahrain economic workshop in this interview, Shah nevertheless ensured that it avoided subjects far more relevant to the issue of the chances of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than ‘settlements’.
California Jews uneasy as man who threatened synagogue shooting allowed bail
A 23-year-old East Bay man who threatened on a gaming website to murder “over 30” Jews and police officers wants his gun back.

Ross Farca of Concord, California returned to court this week to contest a restraining order that would extend a prohibition on his possession of firearms.

Farca was released on bail days after his arrest on June 10. The move shocked the local Jewish community: According to a police investigation, Farca professed admiration for the Poway and Christchurch shooters, assembled his own AR-15-style assault weapon, and on a gaming website detailed a plan to mow down “clusterf***s of Kikes.”

Jewish Vocational Service, based in downtown San Francisco, circulated an email with Farca’s mugshot, warning recipients to contact police if they saw him. One congregation hired a professional guard for Shabbat services on June 21 and requested an increased police presence, according to a community-wide email.

A group of anxious parents and grandparents from the East Bay Jewish community who attended a preliminary hearing in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez on Tuesday wanted to know why Farca was released on bail in the first place.

One father in the group described Farca as looking “creepy” and “disturbed.”

“I sat behind him in the courtroom while he was talking quietly with his lawyer,” said the individual, who wished to be identified only as a “concerned East Bay Jewish parent” out of fear of being targeted. “Reading about his boasts of body counts, I thought — this man wants to kill my son.”
Salesforce to turn Israel into second-largest global innovation hub
San Francisco-headquartered cloud technology giant Salesforce will significantly expand its Israel-based operations in the coming years, a company executive said on Thursday, making Israel the company’s second-largest research and development hub worldwide.

Founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff and Parker Harris, Salesforce is recognized as a global leader in the field of cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) applications. More than 150,000 companies use the company’s platform today.

The company’s R&D facilities in Israel, built on acquisitions made in recent years, already play an important role in building strategic technologies and products for the company. The centers focus primarily on developing solutions in the fields of artificial intelligence, big data and cybersecurity.

Salesforce, which first entered into the Israeli market in 2011, now intends to recruit dozens of new employees, both this year and next, to turn Israel into the company’s second-largest research and development center worldwide, after the United States.

“For our customers, it is a statement that we are here to stay, and reassures the Israeli market that we are here to deliver a better service and with much more manpower,” Olivier Elbaz, Salesforce senior regional vice president, told The Jerusalem Post on the sidelines of the company’s Basecamp Tel Aviv 2019 event. “Combining the three pillars of artificial intelligence, marketing and analytics through data, and security will deliver innovation for our hundreds of thousands of customers around the world.”

Salesforce has made five acquisitions in Israel to date, including the purchase of AI-powered marketing intelligence platform Datorama for approximately $850 million in July 2018 and, most recently, conversational intelligence platform Bonobo for an reported $40m.-$50m in May.

The company has also invested in 12 Israeli companies to date and is expected to further widen its investment portfolio in Israel after Salesforce Ventures, the company’s venture arm, launched a $125m. fund to back enterprise cloud start-ups in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Comedian, actor, film director Mel Brooks celebrates 93
Iconic Jewish-American comedian, actor, and film director Mel Brooks marked his 93’d birthday on Friday, and was congratulated by peers and fans for his outstanding life-long career.

Brooks, who was born as Melvin Kaminsky in 1926, is one of the few people to ever win all meaningful awards in American entertainment, including the Oscar, the Emmy, the Grammy and the Tony awards.

Brooks rose to fame in 1968 with his first movie The Producers, leading to two cult movies in 1974, Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles.

Brooks is famous for creating brilliant parodies such as the 1993 film Robin Hood: Men in Tights and the 1987 Spaceballs.

His 1981 film History of the World included a song called Jews in Space.

Film director David Lynch congratulated “the great Mel Brooks.”

Matt Oswalt confessed to watching outtakes from Young Frankenstein “at least once a month when I need cheering up.”


Natan Sharansky’s lifetime award for lifelong zionism promotion
Natan Sharansky was a childhood hero of mine. Though his struggle was not in my generation, I grew up on the stories my US-born father told of the activism and demonstrations for Soviet Jewry. In 1977, when the campaign to free Soviet Jewry was gaining momentum, my father was sent to Russia to make contact with Soviet Jews and offer them both material and emotional help.
As new immigrants to Israel, my parents traveled by bus from Jerusalem to Ben-Gurion Airport to stand in the crowd to welcome Sharansky just hours after he was released from prison, on the historic February 11, 1986, night he landed in Israel – the place he had fought so hard to reach.

Thirty-three years later, I found myself sitting in a classroom at Shalem College in Jerusalem, listening to Sharansky deliver a riveting course of lectures.

The former prisoner of Zion presented his unbelievable personal history, highlighting the important moments. Very quickly, my fellow students and I realized that he was not just telling his story, but a doctrine born of the Russian prison cells where he sat in solitary confinement, as an inspirational struggle for the freedom of the Jewish people and all of humanity.

It is a deeply philosophical and well-thought out doctrine whose main premise is based on two concepts: freedom and identity. Sharansky believes these two ideas are the most essential and important values to which human beings should strive. He showed us how he applied them in a variety of scenarios, from the fight of dissidents in the former Soviet Union to his work as a minister in the Israeli government.

Sharansky is convinced that these concepts apply to people around the world, particularly those who have no freedom. Most importantly is how they apply to democracy, the form of government Sharansky passionately supports and advocates. Sharansky challenged us to see how European and Western civilization are giving up their identity, while other civilizations in the Middle East, which surround the State of Israel, have given up on freedom. He argues that it is a universal struggle to achieve both of these values, and he thinks that the miracle of Israel brings both these concepts together in one nation state.

On June 11, the prisoner of Zion became a Guardian of Zion, the 23rd annual recipient of the prestigious prize from Bar-Ilan University’s Faculty of Jewish Studies and the Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies.

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.

Friday, June 28, 2019

06/28 Links Pt2: Judea Pearl: Inspiration and a Rallying Cry for Jewish Students and Graduates; Melanie Phillips: The dangerous drive to correlate Islamophobia with anti-Semitism

From Ian:
Judea Pearl: Inspiration and a Rallying Cry for Jewish Students and Graduates
The following is Judea Pearl’s speech at the fourth annual UCLA Jewish Graduation on June 16.

Dean [Maria] Blandizzi, friends, families, distinguished guests, and especially you, the graduates.

I am deeply honored by the opportunity to address this graduating class, and to speak to you on topics that are so very dear to my heart.

I know that I am speaking today to a unique group of graduates. Unique, because all of you felt the need to add a distinctly Jewish color to one of the most memorable days of your life.

And the question you are probably asking is: What is the nature of this extra color we call Jewish? Is “being Jewish” some sort of a birthmark with which one is burdened or blessed for life? A genetic incident? How can one be proud of a genetic incident? Is it a religious belief? An ethnic loyalty? A commitment to a certain mode of behavior or perspective? An attitude? Is it just a collection of sweet childhood memories, decorated with mother’s cooking? Or a language to communicate with our ancestors and decode their wisdom and experience? Most importantly, could a coherent, meaningful answer ever emerge from a community whose members view the question through such diverse prisms?

The question is not trivial, and it shook up the core of my soul 17 years ago, when our son Daniel was murdered in Karachi, Pakistan, and his last words, facing his abductors’ camera were: “My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish — I am Jewish. Back in the town of Bnei Brak, there is a street named after my great-grandfather, Chaim Pearl, who was one of the founders of the town.”

These words have since become an identity banner to every Jewish soul, to every lover of Israel, and to every scholar of peoplehood. But at the time, they raised more questions than answers: What did he mean? What does any of us mean when he or she says: “I am Jewish?”
Melanie Phillips: The dangerous drive to correlate Islamophobia with anti-Semitism
In Britain, a campaign by the former Conservative party chairman Baroness Warsi to outlaw Islamophobia is falsely accusing the Conservative party of institutional Islamophobia and Islamophobia-denial. This is clearly an attempt by British Muslims to appropriate for themselves the moral high ground now supposedly occupied by British Jews as a result of the unaddressed anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

Anti-Jewish appropriation and inversion are fundamental to Islam. One reason why the existence of Israel as a Jewish state is anathema is that Islam teaches that the real, authentic Jews are … the Muslims. Thus, Osama bin Laden declared in his Letter to the American People:

“It is the Muslims who are the inheritors of Moses (peace be upon him) and the inheritors of the real Torah that has not been changed. … If the followers of Moses have been promised a right to Palestine in the Torah, then the Muslims are the most worthy nation of this.”

Since pious Muslims believe that Islam is perfect and everything else is the province of the devil, Muslim aggression against Jews and others becomes self-defense while defense against it becomes aggression.

All espousing the Palestinian cause go along with this surreal appropriation and inversion agenda. In turn, it plays directly into the post-modern discourse of the West where lies are believed as truth and truth disdained as lies in accordance with the dogma of secular ideologies from multiculturalism to environmentalism.

Like Islam, these ideologies are also premised upon the perfection of the world, agendas which brook no dissent and which demand that heretics be destroyed.

If you feel you are living in a terrifying, discombobulating and sinister hall of mirrors over anti-Semitism, Israel and Islamophobia, this is why.
David Collier: Mental health and antisemitism – the shameful ridicule of Labour activists
Over the last few weeks Rosa Doherty from the Jewish Chronicle has spoken to several campaigners fighting antisemitism about the impact that struggling against anti-Jewish hate was having on their mental health. Yesterday, the Jewish Chronicle published three articles. The first contained a few case studies. The second featured some comments from mental health experts, taking a wider look at the impact anti-Jewish hatred was having on the community. The third was about lessons the Jewish community can learn about how to deal with these issues.

I don’t shy away from anything and remain fully aware that you cannot possibly face a tsunami of hate and abuse without it having an effect. I was more than willing to open up to Rosa to discuss the personal cost of fighting antisemitism. Others did too. Sara Gibbs spoke of ‘tearful nights, nights feeling disbelieved, ignored and alienated’. Miriam Mirwitch, chair of the Young Labour movement, did open up but also spoke of her reluctance to discuss the issue so as not to show weakness. Which in itself says much about the cost people are being forced to pay. Emma Feltham, probably the most notable non-Jewish face of grassroots activism against antisemitism, felt ‘forced’ to see a doctor because of mental health issues surrounding this fight. Like most who publicly defend Jewish people, Emma has also required help from both the CST and the police.

Rosa spoke to a handful, I know dozens. Behind the scenes a massive self-support network has opened up amongst activists. And what about the more public figures? Like Rachel Riley or Tracy Ann Oberman. All these brave female fighters have the added ingredient of misogyny to deal with too.



Israel Hayom Forum on US-Israel Relations
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: A steadfast alliance, stronger than ever
Theodor Herzl, who envisioned and paved the way for the rebirth of Israel as a nation, lent great importance to the forging of alliances and the fostering of friendly relations between the Jewish people and the nations of the world. I am happy and proud that in the fabric of our ties with the nations of the world, the alliance between Israel and the United States stands first and prominent. This alliance is steadfast and stronger than ever, and under President Donald Trump it has reached new heights.

We remember very well that it was the United States, led by President Harry Truman, was the first country to recognize Israel 71 years ago. Over time, this friendship has grown deeper, and in the past few years, it has proved itself as a close strategic alliance.

We have always shared the common democratic values of liberty and justice, as well as mutual interests. But the big change lies in the fact that Israel is becoming a growing global force in the fields of security and technological innovation.

These impressive achievements are the result of the policies promoted by the governments under my leadership, with aim of making Israel's economy free and robust, and to establish our status as a technology and cyber power. At the same time, we are investing considerable resources in securing the superiority of our intelligence apparatus and our military might.

Our growing strength has brought many countries closer, which attests to the deep appreciation they have for Israel's capabilities. Israel's flourishing diplomatic relations with nations across the five continents is the result of our exceptional achievements and a policy of fostering and nurturing the strengths that are our advantages.
President Reuven Rivlin: Israel says thank you
The State of Israel's commitment to Jerusalem is not just a commitment toward the history of the Jewish people, but a commitment to all the residents of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a tiny example of our ability as Jews and Arabs to coexist.

The embassy's relocation was a genuine step in deepening the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital after many years in which this was done by the American Congress, and I want to thank the many members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, for their love of and support for Israel.

Today, we can say that our friendship is stronger than ever. We are continuing to dream and tighten the ties between us for many years to come. We continue to lay the foundations that connect our peoples in such a way that will allow for our prosperity and mutual development, as well as for all those who live in the region.

I want to thank Israel Hayom publisher Dr. Miriam Adelson for her efforts to bolster the relationship between Israel and the United States, and Israel Hayom owner Sheldon Adelson for their love and support for the State of Israel.

I want to thank Israel Hayom Editor-in-Chief Boaz Bismuth for his journalistic work and for his commitment to publishing a daily newspaper with rich and fascinating content.

I would like to welcome and to thank former US Ambassador to the UN Ms. Nikki Haley. It is a pleasure to welcome you to Israel and to our capital Jerusalem. You are a dear friend of Israel. We appreciate your strong stand on the world’s most important stage, in support of the security, of the people, and the State of Israel. And all you did, and still [are] doing – to stand up for the values of freedom and democracy, that we share. Welcome back to Israel, Welcome back to Jerusalem.

God bless you all.
Danny Danon: Shaping a new reality, together
“It was a shameful day for the United States. We weren’t there for our friend when it needed us and that will not happen again, not on my watch” – this was the first thing US Ambassador Nikki Hailey told me when we first met.

She was referring to Security Council Resolution 2334, which ruled that the Judea and Samaria settlement enterprise was illegal and was adopted because of the Obama administration's decision not to veto it.

Haley, in just a few words, summed up the new reality ushered in with the onset of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Under constant criticism from the international community, the Trump administration has been leading unprecedented changes to US foreign policy with respect to the State of Israel.

In three historic decisions – exiting from the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, relocating the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and the American recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights – the president proved that the fear of these steps was disconnected from reality and has even harmed Israel.
Ambassador David Friedman: Lessons from the Golan
This past Sunday I was privileged to have been invited to a meeting of the cabinet of the government of Israel. The meeting – convened in an open field on the Golan Heights with pure air and breathtaking views – had a single item on the agenda: a proposed resolution to authorize a new community at that site under the name “Ramat Trump” (“Trump Heights”).

The resolution passed unanimously. It was the first time since Harry Truman (1949) that an Israeli village was named for a sitting American president. The resolution was a fitting tribute to President Trump’s bold and courageous decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

In the aftermath of President Trump’s momentous proclamation of March 21, 2019, many rose to applaud while words of criticism emanated from the usual corners. But as the noise dissipated and the sun rose the next day, two new realities were beyond dispute: America’s stature in the world had risen and the security of its ally Israel had been enhanced.

Now, several months later, I look back at some of the lessons learned:

1. Foreign policy must evolve with changed circumstances. Many who criticized the president’s decision noted that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, of blessed memory, had negotiated with Hafez Assad in 1994 to return portions of the Golan in exchange for peace and they urged that this failed process remain open. But almost nothing about the circumstances that existed then are relevant today. In particular, the Syrian Civil War, in which Syria has murdered or displaced more than one million of its own people and became a client-state of Iran, is a seminal event that cannot be ignored. By affirming Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, President Trump has sent a clear and moral message to the world that Syria has forfeited any legitimate claim to the Golan Heights.
Netanyahu: If Israel wasn't here, the Middle East would collapse
As far as growing anti-Israel feeling in the US, Netanyahu said that there was still considerable support for Israel in the Democratic party, but the reason sentiment was changing had to do with America – not Israel.

Stressing the need for historical perspective, Netanyahu said that this week's historic tripartite summit in Jerusalem between Israel, the US, and Russia was "one hell of a change in our international standing."

With the strongest alliance Israel has ever had with the US, and good relations with Russia, Israel is in a position to speak to both, and discuss ways of removing Iran from Syria, the prime minister said.

Bismuth asked Netanyahu if he believed a solution could be found to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We must address the root of the conflict. The root remains the Palestinians' stubborn refusal to recognize the Jewish state along any borders. Secondly, I think it demands a political solution. Just because a political solution is hard or must be done in stages, it shouldn't delay the important Bahrain summit. An economic basis [for peace] is important. It doesn't exempt the Palestinians from ideological change."

Netanyahu said that the economic plan rolled out in Bahrain was "very strong," and aimed to change the Palestinian economy from a welfare-based economy to one based on investment.

"It's a brilliant idea. We did it in Israel, and it worked," Netanyahu said.

"As far as the US and Israel, I truly believe, Israel has no better or greater ally than US, and the US has no better ally than Israel. It's not a slogan, it's true," he said.
Netanyahu to Nikki Haley: You are a great champion of U.S.-Israeli ties
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lauded former US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, for her work in support of the Jewish people and as a champion of the strong ties between the US and Israel.

He spoke with her and her husband, Michael, in his Jerusalem home. Netanyahu and his wife hosted the couple for lunch.

Both Netanyahu and Haley will address an Israel Hayom forum in Jerusalem on Thursday night.

"The entire people of Israel appreciate the extraordinary way that you represented our alliance between America and Israel and the way you defended Israel and the truth in the UN,” Netanyahu told her.

“You were a great champion of this alliance and you have the enduring gratitude of all the people of Israel, really heartfelt. Thank you,” he said.

Haley thanked the prime minister on behalf of the United States for Israel's partnership.

"Thank you for your hospitality and your friendship but more than that, thank you for your partnership," she told Netanyahu. "There have been some really great things between these two administrations and it has forever bonded us."

“We look forward to many, many more years of strength and partnership between Israel and the United States," she said
'The better and stronger we make Israel, the safer we make the world'
In a special interview at the Israel Hayom Forum for US-Israel Relations, held in Jerusalem on Thursday evening, Dr. Miriam Adelson sat down with former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley.

During Haley's time representing the US at the international forum, she was a staunch defender of Israel and did not hesitate to call out UN organizations for their entrenched anti-Israel bias.

In 2018, Haley declared fearlessly that she would use her high heels to "kick" the enemies of the Jewish state.

After introducing Haley as Israel's "real-life" Wonder Woman, Dr. Adelson said, "Throughout her service, Nikki has demonstrated moral clarity and courage. She put the fear of God into a godforsaken place. She stood up to bullies and called out hypocrites."

"Nikki defended Israel, always openly, without hesitation, and often in defiance of other world powers. She did so, I believe, because Israel is good, and she did so because she knows the US is never more credible than when it honors its allies," Dr. Adelson told the forum.
Ex-UN Envoy Nikki Haley: A Strong Israel Makes a Strong America


‘To make a difference we have to have the courage to be honest about the conflict’
At the Israel Hayom Forum for US-Israel Relations in Jerusalem on Thursday evening, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman opened by saying: "It seems that if you don't make history every couple of days on this job, you should probably check your pulse; that's what it's like to be here."

The ambassador began his speech, of all things, with a critique on the current state of journalism.

"The words 'media' and 'truth' used to be essentially synonymous," he said, "Now they're not and unfortunately are sometimes contradictory. Today, news anchors have no misgivings about sharing their views with the audience, perhaps shading their reporting to fit their ideological leanings. I'm talking about hard news, about the conflation of opinion journalism and hard news."

"When hard news become subject to opinion journalism, the victim is democracy," Friedman said. "If the electorate is ill-informed, deprived of the hard facts, unvarnished an unspun, then we essentially as a nation are deprived of [the] democratic process."

"It doesn’t matter if you lean hard to the Left or to the Right… but report truthfully and put your opinions on the editorial page … Today, unfortunately, more and more people believe they are entitled to their own facts."
US Envoy Jason Greenblatt Speaks at US-Israel Forum


US ambassador: Obama left Israel 'parting gift of betrayal'
Discussing the previous American administration, Friedman said that when former President Barack Obama ended his term in 2016, his administration "left a parting gift; I would say partying betrayal to the State of Israel. UN Resolution 2234, which deemed all of Judea and Samaria, all of Jerusalem… all of it was deemed to be illegally occupied territory. That resolution was a lie. I wish there was a better word, but there really isn't."

Friedman praised US President Donald Trump's recognition of Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights, saying that an Israeli resolution to name a new community in the Golan after Trump was a "fitting tribute."

Friedman said he had been privileged to be invited to an open-air cabinet meeting that took place on the Golan Heights, whose only agenda item was to authorize "Trump Heights."

The American ambassador said that the resolution, which passed unanimously, marked the first time since 1949, when Harry Truman was so honored, that Israel had named any community after a sitting US president.

Friedman said that in the aftermath of President Trump’s proclamation of March 21, 2019, many rose to applaud while words of criticism emanated from the usual corners. But as the noise dissipated and the sun rose the next day, two new realities were beyond dispute: America’s stature in the world had risen and the security of its ally Israel had been enhanced.
Tapper Shreds AOC On Border Bill. AOC Doubles Down On Holocaust Rhetoric.
Tapper then pressed Ocasio-Cortez on her use of the term "concentration camp" to describe the immigrant detention facilities located on the southern border.

Tapper asked: "What do you say to Americans especially survivors of the Holocaust or individuals who are related to survivors of the Holocaust you say look, academically you're right, the term concentration camp did not necessarily mean death camp, but colloquially when most people hear it, they think death camp, they think Holocaust and you're undermining your argument and you're — and you're hurting us. What — you're hurting our feelings, hurting our emotions, hurting our memories. What do you say to those Holocaust survivors?"

After claiming that Jewish members of her community stood behind her message, Ocasio-Cortez said that she and her team told survivors of the Holocaust that she was correct for falsely claiming that the United States is operating concentration camps on the southern border.

Ocasio-Cortez also doubled down on comparing the situation to the Holocaust by again invoking the term "Never Again," which is a direct reference to the Holocaust.


Tapper then noted that using her definition of what constitutes a "concentration camp," that former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton would also be guilty of operating "concentration camps."

"So did you call them concentration camps at the time when Obama was president?" Tapper asked.

"Well, at the time I was working in a restaurant," Ocasio-Cortez said, adding that she was opposed to the detention of families under Obama. It's worth noting that Ocasio-Cortez worked in politics while Obama was president as she worked on Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign.
‘Fighting’ hate by indulging it
Two polarizing and publicity-seeking Chicago religious leaders teamed up recently. The results were predictable and anything but positive.

Father Michael Pfleger, a gadfly Catholic priest, hosted Nation of Islam Minister Farrakhan at St. Sabina Church.

It is rare when a religious leader from a mainstream faith like Catholicism provides a platform to a notorious bigot, who regularly goes after not just Jews, but Catholics and even the Pope, among others.

Pfleger is an experienced media commentator and moralist. He surely knew hosting Farrakhan would be controversial. But following Facebook’s ban of Farrakhan (and other bigots), the appeal of a major media event was just too enticing. Pfleger also knew hosting one of America’s foremost intolerant voices was indefensible He thus had no alternative but to contrive disingenuous defenses for his decision.
Joel Pollak: Andrew Cuomo, Israel's Fair-weather Friend
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo left Wednesday for Israel on what was described as a “solidarity and trade” mission. But when “solidarity” counted most last year, Cuomo was nowhere to be seen.

Last year, Cuomo was to have visited Israel a few days after President Donald Trump moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The governor failed to make the ceremony — in fact, no elected Democrat attended — but he was to show his support afterwards.

And then, suddenly, Gov. Cuomo canceled his trip. His spokesperson said that the immediate cause was the violence on the border with Gaza — the “protests” that were orchestrated by the Hamas terrorist group in an effort to infiltrate, and embarrass, Israel.

Though the governor had wanted to visit when Iranian-supplied missiles were being fired at the Golan Heights, she explained, somehow the deaths of Palestinian “protesters” meant Cuomo would no longer arrive.

It was a bogus excuse. The “protests” — in reality, violent riots — had been ongoing for six weeks prior to the opening of the new embassy. (When Palestinians actually protest against its corrupt and tyrannical rule, Hamas suppresses them violently.)

The mainstream media were awash in stories about how Israelis had killed dozens of demonstrators, leading left-wing Democrats to denounce Israel. But in reality, at least 50 of the 62 “martyrs” killed were members of Hamas.
‘What exactly has Labour MP Chris Williamson done to offend Jews?’ Here’s a long list
The announcement that Chris Williamson has been readmitted to the Labour party has been met with some predictable responses.

There has been anger from the mainstream Jewish community – not the indignant fury born of surprise, but rather the reaction of fuel that is heaped on an already white-hot rage.

Then there are the “this is not the party I know and love” episodes of hand-wringing from decent Labour activists and MPs who nonetheless continue to deny, against all evidence, that their party is irredeemably broken.

And then there is a third group – the people who are celebrating. Those on the far-left who deny that the MP for Derby North has done anything wrong.

Apart from celebrating his return, the other thing they are doing is challenging those upset about the decision to provide evidence that Mr Williamson has ever done anything wrong.
Labour MPs who did not sign letter to remove Williamson whip have nowhere to hide
Many in the Jewish community are rightly sceptical about the letter initiated by Labour deputy leader Tom Watson calling for Jeremy Corbyn to remove the whip from the horrendous Chris Williamson.

This letter, on the face of it, seems to be the latest futile attempt by Labour MPs to look like they are challenging the leader over his failure to tackle antisemitism.

Signing it is easy.

And then, by merely attaching their signatures to the statement, these very same MPs can return to the bigger picture of working to get Mr Corbyn into No 10.

But by initiating this letter, deputy leader Tom Watson has recognised that there is actually a bigger issue at stake than winning an internal argument over disciplinary procedures against an MP who should have been booted out of the party ages ago.

This letter actually forces MPs into making a binary choice.

Quite simply, if Labour MPs cannot bring themselves to sign it then they can no longer claim to support Jewish community in Britain.

If they do sign it, they are at least taking some sort of stand and challenging their leader who is unable to show moral leadership himself and remove the whip from Mr Williamson.

By Friday lunchtime, what was most surprising about the letter was not the 120-odd names who have signed it - but the missing names of those who hadn’t.
Israeli MKs, UK MPs to meet about BDS, antisemitism on Monday in London
Two members of the now dispersed Knesset will meet in London on Monday with members of the British Parliamentary Israel Allies Caucus to discuss the dangers of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, and how European Union labeling regulations against Israeli products produced in the West Bank is tantamount to antisemitism.

MK Sharren Haskel (Likud) and MK Orit Farkash-HaCohen (Blue and White) will attend the meeting, representing the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus (KCAC).

For almost five years, Israeli products produced in the West Bank have been clearly labeled as such. The EU considers the territories to be occupied and instituted the regulation to avoid misleading consumers. Israeli politicians from right and left have leveled criticism against the EU for this practice, saying it amounts to antisemitism.

“The BDS movement and the labeling laws are old antisemitic agendas disguised in new colors,” Farkash-Hacohen said, noting that the meeting will be “very significant, as we are taking a stand against the continuous rise of hatred against the Jewish people and the State of Israel within Europe together with European parliament members.”

Haskel added that, “We will work side by side in order to devise tactics to combat the BDS movement throughout European countries.”
Largest-ever anti-BDS conference probes minds and methodologies
Marking the largest international anti-BDS conference in the world, the Annual Global Coalition 4 Israel Forum and the Legal Network Initiative were held in parallel in Jerusalem last week.

The conference was originally established in 2011 to combat the global boycott, sanctions and divestment movement, anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and ongoing attempts to delegitimize the State of Israel.

Initiated by the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, this year’s meeting hosted 350 pro-Israel and Jewish leaders and activists from 40 countries, with the goal of strengthening and consolidating the global pro-Israel advocacy network.

Guest speakers also included leading government officials and global experts on topics such as law and counterterror financing.

US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, Elan Carr, made a series of remarks on the worrisome rise of anti-Semitism in the world, as well as its ties to the BDS movement.

Recently appointed to counter anti-Semitism throughout the world and advise US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Carr called the BDS movement anti-Semitic and declared, “Anti-Zionism is pure hatred of Jews."
Criminal Trial of Antisemitic Killer of Sarah Halimi Still Hanging in Balance, French Lawyer Says
The lawyer for the family of Sarah Halimi — the 65-year-old French Jewish widow brutally murdered in her Paris apartment in April 2017 by an intruder shouting antisemitic slogans — expressed cautious optimism on Thursday that her accused killer, Kobili Traore, would go on trial for his crime, but stressed that there was no possibility of knowing that for sure.

For several months, the family’s legal team and the wider Jewish community have expressed grave concern that Traore, who was 27 at the time of the murder, would escape a criminal trial on mental health reasons. But in an interview with the French Jewish newspaper Actualité Juive published on Wednesday, lawyer Gilles-William Goldnadel said that the Paris prosecutor’s office had “never really left the correct path.”

“It did not take much effort to convince him that Traoré acted on antisemitic grounds,” Goldnadel said.

Despite having a previous criminal record and no documented episodes of mental illness, two of the three psychiatric reports on Traore commissioned by the Paris investigative magistrate concluded that he could not be held criminally responsible for Halimi’s death, on the grounds of impaired judgement caused by his chronic consumption of marijuana.

Still, Goldnadel emphasized that the investigating magistrate in the Halimi case may yet decide against a trial — in which event, the family would launch an appeal.

“Anything can happen, including the worst, which would be that Traoré is judged to have no criminal responsibility,” Goldnadel said.
US campuses see 7% increase in white supremacist fliers this academic year
The amount of white supremacist propaganda disseminated through college campuses rose seven percent this academic year, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

A report released Thursday found 313 cases of white supremacist fliers, stickers and posters on campuses in the 2018-2019 year, an increase from 292 during the previous year.

The greatest number of incidents this year took place in California, followed by Kentucky and Oklahoma. Some materials targeted minority groups, including Jews, African Americans, Muslims, immigrants and the LGBTQ community. Others included white supremacist language or referred to websites with such content.

The America Identity Movement — a group formerly known as Identity Evropa, which launched a campus recruitment project in 2017 to promote “white American culture” — was responsible for the largest share of incidents.

The ADL started tracking white supremacist propaganda at colleges in 2016, when it noticed an uptick.
British publisher drops Spanish author’s book following claims of anti-Semitism
A major British publisher cancelled production of a Spanish author’s book that critics said promotes anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

Penguin Random House UK on Thursday announced it would no longer print and ship Pedro Baños’ “How They Rule the World: The 22 Secret Strategies of Global Power,” which was published in English in April by Penguin subsidiary Ebury.

The decision follows an external review of the book that Penguin initiated after it emerged that the translation to English by Ebury omitted a chapter that appears in the Spanish-language original and deals with the Rothschild banking family.

Jeremy Duns, a British author, raised the inconsistency on Twitter. He drew attention to the book cover, which bears an image of octopus tentacles.

The Rothschilds are the subject of countless anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Octopuses have been a common element in anti-Semitic imagery, including that of the Nazis. The Spanish edition refers to “multiple speculations about [the Rothschild’s] capacity to intervene in key global decisions.”

Penguin initially defended the book but decided to limit its dissemination after the review they called, headed by a British Reform rabbi, determined that the Spanish text is “carrying echoes of Jewish conspiracy theories,” as her report said.
Court lets Met keep Picasso masterpiece sold for $12,000 by family fleeing Nazis
A Picasso painting sold under duress by a German-Jewish businessman as he escaped the Nazis can remain at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, an appeals court ruled.

The court rejected appeals by the great-grandniece of Paul Leffmann, saying his family waited too long to demand the return of Picasso’s “The Actor.”

It would be unfair to force the Met to give it up, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

The painting is said to be worth some $100 million.

Leffmann and his family fled Nazi Germany for Italy in 1937. The following year, Leffmann sold “The Actor” to two art dealers for $12,000 in order to escape to Switzerland.

“The Actor,” created during Picasso’s “Blue Period” in 1904-5, was donated to the Met in 1952.

The museum acknowledged the prior ownership of the Leffmann family in 2011, a year after the family began legal action to have the painting returned.
France’s Eldest Auschwitz Survivor Dies, Aged 101
Henriette Cohen, France’s oldest survivor of Nazi Germany’s Auschwitz concentration camp, has died. She was 101.

Cohen stayed silent about the horrors she lived through at the death camp in Poland for four decades before finding the strength to describe it to younger generations. She said it was necessary to speak out so “no one could deny the Holocaust.”

President Emmanuel Macron on Friday paid tribute to a “courageous and strong woman, generous and committed.”

Born in 1917, Cohen was detained with her mother-in-law in a Gestapo round-up in May 1944, near Marseille. The following month, they were deported to Auschwitz. Cohen was consigned to forced labor. Her mother-in-law was sent directly to the gas chambers.

Surviving cold, hunger and exhaustion, Cohen returned to France in 1945 weighing just 35 kilograms (77 pounds). Reunited with her husband and two young daughters, who had hidden on a farm, she went on to have four more children.

“Henriette Cohen has passed away but her fight against the forces of oblivion and hatred remains,” Macron’s office said in a statement. “Faithful to her memory and that of all those who faced Nazi barbarism, we will continue her fight tirelessly.”
Amid protests, Jerusalem Square to be inaugurated in Paris
Protests and controversies are threatening to disrupt the inauguration of Jerusalem Square in Paris, the French newspaper Le Monde reported on Thursday.

The inauguration of the square, which will stand at the intersection of Rue de Courcelles and Boulevard of Reims, in the central 17th Arrondissement, is scheduled for Sunday, June 30.

The square is the site of the future European Center of Judaism (ECJ), which is currently under construction. It is located only a few meters away from the Sainte Odile Square, where, in May, two alleys were named after the three children killed in the 2012 Toulouse terror attack: The 8-year-old Myriam Monsonego, and brothers Arie and Gabriel Sandler, aged 6 and 3, who are buried in Jerusalem.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo officially committed to pursuing the project in a letter to the President of the Central Consistory of France, Joel Mergui, on May 15. The Consistory is the body that represents French Jewry in matters of religion.

“In this sad period of recrudesce of racist and antisemitic acts, recalling the ties that unite the city of Paris and the Jewish community is essential,” Hidalgo wrote.

“For this reason, your proposal of devoting a square to Jerusalem in the capital seems very sensible, also in order to remember the friendship and the unity between the city of Paris and the state of Israel,” she added.
Israeli companies boosted New York’s economy by nearly $34b.
When an Israeli startup wants to expand to the United States, its first step is often to open an office in New York. There are direct flights and the time difference is less than setting up a shingle all the way in Silicon Valley.

That’s turning out to be good business, too – for New Yorkers.

Israeli-founded companies in New York directly contributed $18.6 billion in revenue in 2018 to the New York State economy, according to a new study conducted by the New York – Israel Business Alliance.

If you factor in additional spending on goods and services in New York, the total jumps to $33.8 billion. That works out to a total of 2 percent of the state’s Gross Domestic Product.

All told, there are 506 Israel-founded companies in New York State. They employ 24,850 New Yorkers directly, the study says, and another 27,502 indirectly when accounting for the additional demand for local goods and services. Between 2016 and 2018, Israeli-founded businesses added new jobs at double the state’s rate (2.5 percent job growth vs. 1.2 percent for the state).
Gal Gadot Says She’s Outspoken About Being Israeli Because of Online Antisemitic Abuse
“Wonder Woman” star Gal Gadot, currently one of the most famous Israelis in the world, says she was vocal about her pride in her country because she was subjected to so much antisemitic abuse online.

Speaking with the Israeli news site Walla, Gadot was asked whether her outspoken pride was part of a “strategy.”

“No!” she replied. “If it’s anything, it’s just that I receive a lot of antisemitic messages and responses.”

“It’s just who I am,” she said, “and I believe that we have no place to hide or lie.”

Asked whether she considered it an obligation to “explain” Israel and play a role in Israeli society, Gadot replied, “Israel is very important to me.”

“I wish for our country that we will come to a good place, and some quiet and stability and peace and tranquility,” she said. “Because I believe in the end that all the people want it. There are no people who want war, God forbid, and their children to go to the army. So I try to strengthen these messages, the good and the desire for peace and quiet.”

Walla asked whether, due to her rise to stardom, she still kept in touch with her old friends in Israel.

“My friends from Israel are my friends from Israel,” Gadot said. “They’re my sisters, and they know me the best, the best. … There’s room for everyone. I will not give up on them. No way.”
New discovery in Jerusalem's City of David: 2,000-year-old pilgrimage road
In 2004, a sewage pipe burst in the middle of the neighborhood of Silwan in southeast Jerusalem. The municipality sent in a crew of construction workers to fix the leak, and as is the case in Jerusalem and especially in neighborhoods adjacent to the Old City, they were accompanied by a team of archeologists.

As the repairs progressed, the construction workers stumbled upon some long and wide stairs a few dozen meters from where the Shiloah – the ancient pool Jewish pilgrims would dip in before beginning the religious ascent to the Temple, until its destruction in 70 CE – was believed to have once stood. The steps were just like the ones that lead to the Hulda Gates, a set of now blocked entrances along the Temple Mount’s Southern Wall.

Discovery of the Shiloah Pool led to another monumental find – the central water drainage channel that had served ancient Jerusalem. This channel is the tunnel that visitors to the City of David – known as Ir David – get to walk through today, starting at the bottom of the Shiloah and emerging about 45 minutes later next to the Western Wall.

As is often the case with archeology, though, the first discovery or two are just the beginning. That is how a few weeks ago I found myself on an exclusive tour of an ancient road dug out beneath the village of Silwan and above the now well-known water channel (also the place where Jewish rebels made a final stand against the Roman invaders).

The ancient street is referred to as “Pilgrimage Road,” since archeologists are convinced that this is the path millions of Jews took three times a year when performing the commandment of aliyah l’regel – going up to the holy city of Jerusalem to bring sacrifices to God during Judaism’s three key holidays, Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot.

The Pilgrimage Road goes all the way from the Shiloah Pool to the area adjacent to the Western Wall known as Robinson’s Arch, where today you can still see remnants of the ancient stairway that led into the Jewish Temple.

Titus Flavius Josephus, the first-century Roman-Jewish historian, wrote that 2.7 million people used to visit Jerusalem during the various Jewish holidays, bringing with them some 256,000 sacrifices.

Jerusalem's Old City Shines Bright by 'Festival of Lights'
Jerusalem's annual light festival is underway. For the 11th year in a row, Jerusalem's Old City lights up and creates a glowing performance for all.


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