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Saturday, November 30, 2019

11/30 Links: 'Breath-taking heroism': praise for Londoners who tackled knife attacker; Rabbi Mirvis’s message sounds the alarm over antisemitism; Transcendence: 50,000 Jews celebrated Zionism in Hebron

From Ian:
London Bridge killer, 28, was jailed for eight years in 2012 for plotting to BOMB the London Stock Exchange and build an Islamic terror training camp - but was RELEASED last year and had an ankle tag on when he stabbed two people to death
Scotland Yard has named the terrorist responsible for yesterday's attack on London Bridge as 28-year-old Usman Khan, who was convicted of a plot to blow up the London Stock Exchange in 2012.

Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu confirmed that a man and a woman were killed in the attack which saw Khan, wearing a fake suicide vest, stab up to five people before being shot dead by armed police.

Commissioner Basu also revealed that Khan, who was from Stoke-on-Trent, had a prior terrorism conviction and had been jailed for eight years in 2012.

He was released on licence in December 2018 and was still wearing a monitoring tag.

Anti-terror police have raided a house in Staffordshire area linked to the killer.

The commissioner also confirmed that Khan had been attending a seminar in Fishmongers' Hall run by Cambridge University's Criminology Department to help offenders reintegrate into society following their release from jail.

Khan had threatened to blow up the building at the start of his five-minute rampage which ended in his death on London Bridge.

Dramatic video footage showed him being tackled to the ground by at least six members of the public. One man chased the attacker with a fire extinguisher while another used a Narwhal whale tusk to restrain him.

Khan had previously been arrested on December 20, 2010, four days before he and his nine-strong Al-Qaeda-inspired gang had planned to plant a bomb in the toilets of the London Stock Exchange.

Police found a handwritten list of targets which included the U.S. Embassy and the homes of London Mayor Boris Johnson, the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral and two rabbis.
'Breath-taking heroism': praise for Londoners who tackled knife attacker
Ordinary Londoners who showed "breath-taking heroism" in disarming a knife-wielding attacker were praised by politicians and members of the public alike after they intervened to stop an attack which injured several people at London Bridge on Friday.

Police shot dead the man, who had strapped a fake bomb to his body before stabbing a number of people, in what they said was a terrorism incident.

Videos on social media showed a crowd of people who had tackled the man to the ground, before being moved away by police who then shot him.
"I ... want pay tribute to the extraordinary bravery of those members of the public who physically intervened to protect the lives of others," Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. "For me they represent the very best of our country and I thank them on behalf of all of our country."

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said those who confronted the attacker would not have known that a bomb device strapped to his body was a hoax.

"What's remarkable about the images we've seen is the breath-taking heroism of members of the public who literally ran towards danger not knowing what confronted them," Khan told reporters.

"They really are the best of us," he added.
Bad to the bone: Moment hero Polish chef called Luckasz used a narwhal tusk to tackle London Bridge terrorist after grabbing it off the wall at Fishmongers Hall
A chef at Fishmongers' Hall who grabbed a narwhal tusk to fight off a knifeman is the latest hero to be identified in the London Bridge terror attack.

Luckasz, originally from Poland, tried to pin down knifeman Usman Khan, 28, who wore a fake suicide vest, using a five-foot narwhal tusk he took from the wall of Fishmongers' Hall yesterday.

One man - identified as Cambridge graduate Jack Merritt, 25 - and one woman were killed in yesterday's attack, and three others were injured.

Video exclusively obtained by the Daily Mail shows Luckasz using the narwhal tusk as he and a group of men try to pin down the attacker.

The Queen today praised the 'brave individuals who put their own lives at risk to selflessly help and protect others' during yesterday's attack.

Hero Luckasz's colleague, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Times: 'Luckasz grabbed a nearby pole and ran at him, getting stabbed in the hand in the process but continued to pin him down.

'Being stabbed didn't stop him giving him a beating. Luckasz is a hero.'

Luckasz is thought to have suffered from cuts but is not critically injured.



First victim in London terror attack named; officials praise ‘hero’ bystanders
The first of two victims in Friday’s London Bridge terror attack was named on Saturday as Jack Merritt, 25, a University of Cambridge graduate who worked in its criminology department and had attended an event prior to the attack where the suspected terrorist was also present.

A second victim, a woman, was not yet named. Three more people were injured in the stabbing attack.

Merritt was attending a Cambridge University conference on prisoner rehabilitation as part of a program called “Learning Together,” where he was a course coordinator. The event took place at Fishmongers’ Hall at the north end of London Bridge and was attended by dozens of students and former offenders. Among them was the 28-year-old attacker Usman Khan.

Khan began “lashing out” at the event but was “bundled out of the front door as he tried to go upstairs,” according to a Sky News report on Saturday.

“We believe the attack began inside before he left the building and proceeded onto the bridge,” said London police counterterrorism chief Neil Basu on Saturday. Basu said the suspect appeared to be wearing a bomb vest but it turned out to be “a hoax explosive device.”

The Telegraph reported that one of the event’s organizers tried to intervene when Kahn began “ranting and waving two knives around before launching his murderous attack.”
Usman Khan: Al-Qaeda-inspired militant launched London Bridge attack
Nine years before Usman Khan killed two people in a stabbing spree on London Bridge, he was overheard by British security services discussing how to use an Al-Qaeda manual he had memorized to build a pipe bomb.

It was a snippet of conversation, along with other intelligence about a plot to bomb the London Stock Exchange, that prompted British police to arrest Khan - then 19 years old - and a group of older men on Dec. 20, 2010.

Sentenced to a minimum of 8 years in prison in 2012 with a requirement that the parole board assess his danger to the public before release, he was released in December 2018 - without a parole board assessment.

On Friday, he strapped on a fake suicide vest, armed himself with large kitchen knives and went on the rampage at a conference on prisoner rehabilitation beside London Bridge.
JPost Editorial: Rabbi Mirvis’s message sounds the alarm over antisemitism
The chief rabbi’s harsh comments triggered a media frenzy – and an important statement of support from Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

“That the chief rabbi should be compelled to make such an unprecedented statement at this time ought to alert us to the deep sense of insecurity and fear felt by many British Jews,” Welby said. “The chief rabbi’s statement provides all of us with the opportunity to ensure our words and actions properly reflect our commitments to mutual flourishing and inclusion, for the common good.”

Corbyn has come under fire from Jewish leaders and lawmakers both outside and within his party for his failure to combat antisemitism in Labour. It has led to the resignation of a string of Labour MPs, most notably Dame Louise Ellman, who after 22 years in parliament said Corbyn was “not fit” to be prime minister.

Corbyn himself declined several opportunities to apologize for his party’s approach in a tough interview with BBC broadcaster Andrew Neil on Tuesday night. The next morning, Corbyn acknowledged the chief rabbi’s concerns, but insisted that Labour still has many Jewish supporters, and he had made it clear that antisemitism is wrong. “Our party did make it clear when I was elected leader, and after that, that antisemitism is unacceptable in any form in our party or our society and did indeed offer its sympathies and apologies to those who had suffered,” he said.

But words are not enough. In a letter to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, World Zionist Organization vice chairman Yaakov Hagoel stated, “One of the top contenders for the United Kingdom’s leadership is a declared antisemite, a hater of Israel and a terrorist supporter.

“In 2019, nearly 300,000 Jews are living in fear for their own future and their own security,” he wrote. “Jewish symbols are hidden in fear of rising antisemitism on the streets of Britain.”

Hagoel urged Britain’s government, currently headed by Conservative Party leader Boris Johnson, to “take immediate action to protect her Jewish citizens through physical and legal protection.”

President Reuven Rivlin voiced his support for Mirvis in a meeting in London on Wednesday. “Your clear voice and leadership, particularly in the last few days, fills us all with pride,” Rivlin told Mirvis.

It should be noted that a record number of almost 900 antisemitic incidents were reported in the UK in the first six months of 2019, and the situation seems to be getting worse. The Community Security Trust, British Jewry’s largest watchdog, noted there was a 10% rise from the same period in 2018.


Ruth Smeeth, Jewish Labour MP, carries panic button due to death threats
Prominent Jewish Labour party politician, Ruth Smeeth, admitted to local newspapers in her electoral constituency of Stoke-on-Trent North that she carries a panic button in her pocket, and refrains from using public transport due to death threats.

Despite the threats, Smeeth said that she “won’t be bullied by anyone.” In her discussion to Stoke on Trent Live, Smeeth noted that an additional death threat was sent to her constituency office last week, following years of incidents targeting her after party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s rise to power.

Local police said that are investigating the threat and “malicious communication being sent to a local MP.”

“As with every election the police’s role is to prevent and detect crime and enable the democratic process to take place unhindered,” a spokesperson for the local police force said.

Smeeth remarked on the history of death threat made against her, mentioning that she received her first death threat in 2014 after being selected as a candidate for the seat of Stoke-on-Trent North. She also noted that the threats came form both far-left and far-right elements, with half of them being of an antisemitic nature.

Smeeth also said that police ranked her among the top 10 MPs most likely to be targeted by death threats or violence, which she attributes to her being a Jewish woman.

“My house is a fortress, my office is a fortress. I’ve got panic buttons in my house, I carry one in my pocket. I have to live in an environment that no-one should have to live in,” she told the local newspaper.


Dutch daily’s cartoon shows Netanyahu behind Labour anti-Semitism scandals
A major Dutch daily ran a caricature that critics said reinforces anti-Semitic tropes and suggests that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attacking Britain’s Labour Party over anti-Semitism to distract from corruption charges against him.

In the caricature Thursday in De Volkskrant, Netanyahu is depicted holding a stone labeled “anti-Semitism charges” in one hand and reading an indictment for corruption in the other.

Opposite the Israeli leader is Jeremy Corbyn, who heads the UK Labour Party, which is under an investigation by the British government’s Equality and Human Rights Commission over complaints that Corbyn’s anti-Israel agenda and far-left politics have made the party institutionally anti-Semitic.

Corbyn says in the illustration: “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone,” an utterance attributed to Jesus in the New Testament.

Netanyahu has rarely referenced Corbyn publicly and has not spoken out about anti-Semitism in Labour. In 2018, Netanyahu condemned Corbyn’s laying of a wreath four years earlier on the graves of Palestinian terrorists.

The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel, a Dutch-Jewish watchdog group on anti-Semitism, called the caricature’s statement “absurd” and said that British Jews, not Netanyahu, are the ones making allegations of anti-Semitism against Corbyn.

“Jews have a right to speak out against anti-Semitism. The fact that an indictment was filed against the Israeli prime minister is irrelevant,” the center wrote. It also said the caricature “reaffirms the anti-Semitic stereotype that Jews are more loyal to Israel than countries where they live.”

Israeli Diplomats Celebrate 72nd Anniversary of UN Decision That Led to Jewish State’s Founding
Friday marked the 72nd anniversary of the UN General Assembly’s passage of Resolution 181, which lead to the establishment of the State of Israel.

Israel’s current UN ambassador, Danny Danon, celebrated the occasion with a tweet, saying the Jewish state “continues to exemplify the Zionist ideals, fulfilling our ancestors’ dreams.”


He added, “Today, 163 nations recognize the State of Israel as we continue to build our state and be a rising force in the world. Am Yisrael Chai!”

The Israeli Foreign Ministry tweeted, “We’re proud of Israel’s achievements and contribution to the world in the last 72 years.”

Israeli Ambassador to the UK Mark Regev highlighted the Palestinians’ rejection of the partition plan, accusing their leaders of choosing “violence over compromise.”

“When will they finally admit their mistake?” he asked.
A Newly Published Book of Letters Provides a Thrilling Eye-Witness Account of Israel’s Birth
Mordecai Chertoff moved from the United States to Palestine in 1947 as a young man, writing evocative letters to his family back home and capturing the drama of Israel’s birth. These letters were collected and annotated by his son, Daniel Chertoff, in a newly published book, Palestine Posts: An Eye-Witness Account of the Birth of Israel. This letter was translated by Rachel Chertoff Kaminetsky.
***
And so it was—And it came to pass at midnight!

And a redeemer will come unto Zion!

My dear family—Friday afternoon, before Shabbat, we sat crowded together and fearful around our huge radio in the newspaper office, and heard the proposal to postpone the vote—Our eyes dimmed and our blood froze in our veins: They’re “pulling one over on us,” as the children say. After the broadcast we walked through the silent and sad streets of Jerusalem, and found no comfort. We envisioned military posts at every corner and machine guns, explosions and sirens, the terror and suffering renewed. Then comes a clear Shabbat morning under the scalding sun, and the people walk about with some sort of hope and prayer on their lips, and they stream to the Western Wall to pray with the chief rabbis. I visited Rabbi Herzog before going to the office to hear the latest broadcast, and to work with no logical hope of victory but with a great sense that despite all, we will triumph. Friends on the street and at the cafe ask me, the journalist, how the debate will end, what the night will bring and I answer their prayers with a quiet “it will be okay.” And until 11:30 [pm] I stand hunched over the desk, gloomy and irritable and answer every question with only “It will be okay.”

Dr. Aranha begins, and the delegate from Lebanon speaks, and another and yet another after that, and “our Herschel” and then Gromyko (hero of the Hebrew state) demands a vote. And suddenly, amid all the chaos, the chairman announces a vote not regarding France’s proposal, but on the Partition Plan itself. We sat glued to our seats, each of us with a piece of paper to calculate his prophecy, and pen in hand: [And thus he would count:] One, one and two, one and three… thirty-three: A great, joyous cry and silence, the silence of the moment we’ve awaited for two thousand years. And in the narrow, smoke-filled room, heavy with tension and oppressive concern, one long sigh of relief and fumbling for cigarettes and pipes. As though the conductor of the dance gave a secret sign—a silent Mazal Tov from the depths of the heart. (h/t Isaac Storm)


Palestinian Authority urges all EU members to recognize Palestinian state
The Palestinian Authority has increased its efforts to convince all European Union members to recognize a Palestinian state in response to US and Israeli policies and decisions regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday called on the EU to “collectively recognize” a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 lines, with east Jerusalem as its capital.

Abbas made his appeal during a meeting in Ramallah with Spanish diplomat and politician Miguel Moratinos, who also serves as the UN High-Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations.

The EU is the single largest donor of foreign aid to the Palestinians.

PA officials have been waging a diplomatic offensive to convince the EU to recognize a Palestinian state – with east Jerusalem as its capital – since US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Gaza rocket explodes in open field in Israel; IDF strikes Hamas post in response
Rocket sirens wailed in Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip Friday night, with the army saying a rocket launched from the Palestinian territory exploded in an open field in Israeli territory. There were no reports of casualties or damage in the attack.

In response Israel Defense Forces aircraft struck a Hamas military post in the northern Gaza Strip, the army said.

Some time later sirens once again went off, this time in the Ashkelon area north of Gaza. The army said “non-rocket fire” had triggered the alarms, and that Iron Dome interceptors were fired in response but no interception was made.

The incidents came hours after a Palestinian teenager was reported killed by Israeli troops during a protest near the Gaza-Israel border.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry reported that 16-year-old Fahed al-Astal was shot in the stomach and that five others were wounded. No official demonstrations were held Friday. An Israel Defense Forces spokesman said some demonstrators had approached the border fence and attempted to sabotage it. Troops responded with less-lethal means as well as some live fire.
Is Hamas the true beneficiary of the Israel-Islamic Jihad escalation?
On the morning of November 12, 2019, the Israel Air Force conducted a surgical airstrike against Bahaa Abu al-Ata, a senior terrorist in Gaza who belonged to Islamic Jihad. Based on Israeli intelligence, al-Ata was preparing an immediate terrorist attack on Israeli civilians and IDF troops. He was also responsible for hundreds of other terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.

Islamic Jihad retaliated by launching over 450 rockets toward 110 communities in Israel, tethering Israelis to their bomb shelters at night and preventing more than one million kids from going to school. Israel responded to the jihadist aggression by targeting Islamic Jihad rocket launchers, missile factories, rocket storage-spaces and terrorists.

It took 48 hours of back-and-forth fire until Egypt mediated a ceasefire between Israel and Islamic Jihad. A number of Islamic Jihad violations of the ceasefire were recorded but at the moment of writing these words, things seem to be quiet, order is restored.

I found it interesting to see how Israel reacted to the rockets from Gaza this time, as opposed to how it acted in the past. In the past, Israel had held Hamas accountable for any terrorist activity originating from Gaza. Hence, when an attack occurred, Israel reserved the right to target not only the terrorist organization behind the attack, but also Hamas’s infrastructure as well. The thought was that Hamas would help restrain any aggression towards Israel so that it doesn’t get hurt by Israeli strikes.
US ambassador slams Norway for praising bypass of Iran sanctions
US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell on Friday savaged the Norwegian ambassador to Iran Lars Nordrum for lauding a European system to circumvent American sanctions targeting Tehran for its illicit nuclear activities and terrorism.

“Terrible timing – why fund the Iranian regime while it’s killing the Iranian people and shutting off the Internet?” tweeted Grenell, the most high-profile US ambassador in Europe. “You should be standing for human rights not funding the abusers.”

The UK-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International said in November that at least 143 protesters were killed in Iran during demonstrations against the regime due to gas price increases and opposition to the clerical regime system.

Nordrum tweeted that “We join INSTEX with the E3 to facilitate trade with Iran and preserve the JCPOA.”

The JCPOA is the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name for the Iran nuclear deal that is supposed to curb Tehran’s nuclear weapons ambitions in exchange for sanctions release.

INSTEX is an abbreviation for the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges, a European special-purpose vehicle (SPV) launched in January to circumvent US sanctions imposed on Iran. The US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 because, the Trump administration said, the agreement does not stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon and ballistic missiles, or its use of terrorism.

Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden joined on Friday the United Kingdom, France and Germany as partners in INSTEX.
Book review: Ex-Irish minister says he was framed
Irish Journalist Paul Williams writes about Ireland’s Jewish former minister for justice, equality and defense Alan Shatter that “no other politician in living memory endured such a frenzied onslaught by the baying mob of populist politicians... intent on deliberately targeting his career and reputation in order to destroy him.”

In Frenzy and Betrayal: The Anatomy of a Political Assassination, Shatter explores how and why he was treated so maliciously by the Irish establishment – politicians, the judiciary and the media – before and after he resigned in May 2014. His resignation came in the wake of two reports that wrongly condemned his conduct.

Shatter’s book comprehensively deals with the how, charting the five years between the period prior to his resignation and his final and total vindication. I was tempted to write “vindication and exoneration,” except Shatter has not been exonerated. Official Ireland has yet to acknowledge that the frenzied onslaught that destroyed his reputation was based on falsehoods.

What the book does not and cannot do is answer the why. Why did former Irish prime minister Enda Kenny, to whom Shatter had shown extraordinary loyalty when other members of the Fine Gael hierarchy tried to depose Kenny, demand his resignation? Why did Kenny never contact Shatter, even after the courts declared that the grounds for Shatter’s resignation had been false?

Why did Shatter’s cabinet colleague, then-minister of transport and current Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, use Shatter’s absence from the country on official government business to publicly question his judgment? Why did current Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney send a congratulatory private text to Shatter after he won one of his legal victories to clear his name, but refuse to publicly state that Shatter was owed an apology from the government?
On Fox News, the Fix is In Against Israel when Trey Yingst is Reporting
While Fox News opinion hosts are often very fair – or even sympathetic – towards Israel, the reporters Fox News sends to Jerusalem are a different story, often going out of their way to bash Israel as they seemingly mimic their more senior colleagues at the New York Times or the BBC.

With former Fox Jerusalem reporters like Reena Ninan or Conor Powell the Palestinian narrative always took center stage.

Unfortunately the same seems to be true with the current reporter Trey Yingst. Consider his interview with Mediate, where he explained that since Palestinians in Gaza face serious hardships, they have nothing to lose by demonstrating against Israel:
Residents in Gaza live with four hours of electricity a day, limited access to clean water and high rates of unemployment, so many people there have nothing to lose.

But the shortages of electricity, water and jobs in Gaza are all due to its Hamas rulers, who steal so much of the international aid sent to Gaza and use it to attack Israel. Cement meant to rebuild or repair buildings, along with the necessary fuel, for example, has been diverted to building attack tunnels into Israel. As for water, Gaza sits on a large aquifer – it is essentially an oasis – but the Hamas rulers and before them the Palestinian Authority did nothing to stop massive illegal over-pumping, allowing sea water to infiltrate and foul the water. Neither did the Palestinian rulers of Gaza do anything to treat sewage, instead allowing it to collect and percolate through the porous soil into the aquifer, further fouling the water.

So if the Palestinians have nothing to lose, it’s not because of Israel, it’s because of their own rulers. Perhaps Yingst should ask them why they’re not attacking and overthrowing Hamas.
BBC WS radio facilitates unchallenged HRW monologue – part one
The November 25th afternoon edition of the BBC World Service radio programme ‘Newshour’ included a long item (from 14:05 here) relating to the ‘Human Rights Watch’ employee Omar Shakir whose work visa was not renewed by the Israeli authorities in May 2018 and who – following several court cases – left the country on that day.

Presenter Razia Iqbal introduced that eight minute and thirty-nine second item as follows:
Iqbal: “Now, a controversial fight [sic] between Israel and one of its most vociferous human rights critics. The outcome is the expulsion of the director of Human Rights Watch based in Israel, Omar Shakir, who is a US citizen but was accused by the Israelis of advocating BDS – a Palestinian-led campaign calling for the boycotting, disinvestment and sanctioning of Israel until it meets what it des…what is described as Israel’s obligations under international law.”

Anyone familiar with the long years of BBC refusal to inform its audiences of the BDS campaign’s aims would not be surprised by Iqbal’s blatant whitewashing of that subject. The BDS campaign – which is not “Palestinian-led” as claimed by Iqbal – does not aspire to have Israel ‘meet international law’. Rather it seeks to end the “occupation and colonization of all Arab lands” and promotes a right of “Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties”: goals which undermine the fundamental right of the Jewish people to self-determination.

Yet as we see, Iqbal refrained from providing listeners with that obviously relevant background information before she went on to introduce her two sole interviewees – both from ‘Human Rights Watch’. She did however promote one of HRW’s long-standing talking points while referring to “a 2017 law” (actually an amendment to existing legislation) which she failed to explain.
BBC WS radio facilitates unchallenged HRW monologue – part two
Iqbal closed the pre-recorded interviews there, failing to point out to listeners that Shakir’s claim of ‘using the same standards’ in Israel as it does “everywhere else” is patently untrue and that – for example – it did not campaign for Airbnb to de-list holiday rentals in other disputed territories such as northern Cyprus.

Listeners then heard an ‘explanation’ of why ‘Newshour’ completely failed to provide its listeners with any other perspective.

Iqbal: “Our correspondent in Jerusalem has attempted to get reaction from the authorities in Israel but they have rejected requests for interviews. We have also been trying here in London.”

That of course does not excuse the entirely one-sided nature of this long item in which listeners repeatedly heard HRW’s long-standing spin on the story go unquestioned and unchallenged but were told nothing at all about the court’s findings.

Once again we see that when reporting on ‘Human Rights Watch’ – which is one of the political NGOs most quoted and promoted by the BBC in its coverage of Israel – the BBC tosses its editorial standards on accuracy and impartiality aside, opting for journalistic activism over providing its audiences with the full range of information necessary for proper understanding of the story.
A third superficial BBC News website report on ‘Human Rights Watch’
An additional paragraph was given over to amplification of similar comments from another political NGO which engages in lawfare against Israel, ‘B’tselem’ and yet another paragraph (also seen in the previous report) told readers that:
“Former Israeli officials and human rights groups filed motions to join Mr Shakir’s appeal against the deportation order at the Supreme Court, while the European Union and United Nations Secretary General António Guterres called on the Israeli authorities not to deport him.”

BBC audiences were not however informed that among those expressing support for Omar Shakir and ‘Human Rights Watch’ was Hamas.

While the caption to the main image illustrating the article told BBC audiences that “Omar Shakir vowed to continue investigating and reporting human rights abuses”, both a Tweet from Shakir embedded into the article and a Tweet from the head of HRW make it very clear that the NGO’s interest in human rights is far from universal.

This is the third BBC News website report on this topic (see earlier ones here and here) and all three have extensively and unquestioningly amplified the talking points of HRW and other political NGOs while failing to inform BBC audiences of the obviously relevant issue of the aims of the BDS campaign.

Clearly the BBC has no interest whatsoever in providing its audiences with the full range of information necessary for proper understanding of the story and its wider related background but that editorial policy is more comprehensible when one appreciates that while for years ‘Human Rights Watch’ has been one of the political NGOs most quoted and promoted by the BBC in its coverage of Israel, that organisation’s political agenda and funding has never been adequately clarified to audiences as required by BBC editorial guidelines on impartiality.
Jewish Practice in Europe ‘Severely Under Threat,’ Prominent Rabbi Warns
Jewish practice in Europe is “severely under threat,” a prominent rabbi from the continent warned this week.

“The continued efforts made by several European nations to restrict our ability to observe important religious customs and traditions are increasingly worrying and problematic,” Chief Rabbi of Moscow Pinchas Goldschmidt — president of the Conference of European Rabbis — said at a gathering in Geneva, Switzerland. “Following the recent banning of religious slaughter in two regions of Belgium and challenges to religious circumcision in Iceland, there are constant discussions in other states including Sweden, France and Germany.”

Goldschmidt noted that protecting Jewish life in Europe was “of the utmost importance within today’s political and social climate.”

“The future of the Jews in Europe is once again thrown into question,” he added. “Many are experiencing huge anxiety about whether they are able to continue living on this continent.”
London Man Jailed for ‘Vile’ Antisemitic Harassment of Jewish Women
20-year-old man from London was jailed on Thursday after he admitted to stalking and harassing Jewish women.

Sam Hemmati targeted a number of Jewish victims and bombarded them with antisemitic messages across several different social media platforms, local news outlet the Ilford Recorder reported on Friday.

Between September 2018 and March of this year, Hemmati stalked and harassed a total of eight women.

In a number of the communications, Hemmati sent the victims sexually-explicit material. He also made offensive comments, including making reference to the Holocaust.

He repeatedly contacted the women — whom he had found via social networks — even after being asked to stop.

Police Inspector Jason Scrivener who led the investigation said: “The nature of Hemmati’s online communications can only be described as vile.”

Scrivener said that Hemmati “took pleasure in hounding his innocent victims using online channels, subjecting them to the most horrendous vitriol about their religion.”
Norwegian mayor asks church to take down Star of David decoration
A Norwegian mayor asked a church to replace its traditional Star of David Christmas decoration due to complaints that it’s too associated with Israel and Jews.

Strand mayor Irene Heng Lauvsnes asked the Klippen Pentecostal church, which lights a large Star of David neon decoration in a municipal park where it holds a Christmas celebration, to replace the symbol with a “traditional Christmas star,” the Strandbuen newspaper reported Wednesday.

The park in southern Norway must remain “neutral,” especially in light of the controversy, Lauvsnes told the Aftenbladet news outlet.

Unnamed critics said the church “designed [the decoration] as a Star of David, a national symbol both for the Jews and for the State of Israel” and “therefore does not fit in the public space” in Strand.

The church is considering the request as it does “not want to provoke in any way,” its representative told Strandbuen.

The use of the Star of David in Christmas decorations is common throughout northern Europe.

The municipality’s intervention provoked anger, including by the editor in chief of the Dagen daily, Vebjorn Selbekk.

“Municipal Christmas bureaucrats obviously do not want a Jewish or Israeli mark on their Christmas. Then we almost have to remind them of some key facts about why we celebrate Christmas at all,” Selbekk wrote in a column titled “merry Jew-free Christmas,” adding the the holiday “is marked by the fact that a Jewish boy was born to a Jewish mother in a Jewish stable in a Jewish city in a Jewish country.”
Miss Hitler beauty pageant winner 'was among 19 people arrested for trying to establish a new Nazi party in Italy'
The winner of a neo-Nazi online beauty pageant was among those arrested yesterday when Italian authorities seized a huge stash of weapons and far-right memorabilia from 19 homes across the country, Italian reports say.

Francesca Rizzi, 26, who won the 2018 Miss Hitler competition, is believed to be among those being investigated for plotting to form a neo-Nazi party called the National Italian Socialist Workers' Party.

The 26-year-old woman, who is from Milan, was among 19 people arrested during an operation by Italian officers called 'Black Shadows'.

She won the online fascist beauty pageant in 2018 under the name Miss Eva Braun, and her upper back is covered with a tattoo of the Reichsadler – a Nazi emblem with an eagle atop a swastika.

During the nationwide raid, police seized an arsenal of swords, knives, crossbows, hunting rifles and automatic weapons from 19 homes.

Rizzi's co-accused include a middle-aged female civil servant called Antonella Pavia who refers to herself as 'Hitler’s Sergeant Major'.


Flying high: Military prowess helps Israel become global force in drone industry
In a fierce battle for market share against world superpowers China and the United States, Israel’s drone industry likes to say it has a secret weapon — military experience.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used daily by Israel’s military in and around its borders.

The senior echelons of the country’s industry are populated by former military and intelligence officials, many of whom became founders or engineers in local startups.

Israel’s first rudimentary drone dates back to 1969. It was a remote-controlled plane with an attached camera to spy on neighboring rival Egypt.

Drones became more common, though not much more technically advanced, during the war in Lebanon from 1978.

But half a century later, tiny Israel is now a global force in the multibillion-dollar UAV industry, competing against China and the US.

It trades on its unique selling point: enemies at its borders and therefore plenty of opportunities to test and fine-tune its UAVs.

Ronen Nadir was a military commander specializing in missile development before establishing his company, BlueBird Aero Systems.
Thyssenkrupp invests millions in first 3D metal-printing in Israel
The German-based company Thyssenkrupp has announced an investment of several million euros in a new center that will focus on advanced manufacturing aided by 3D metal-printing technologies. The 3D metal printing center will serve Israeli companies that need customized metal parts.

The new center, called Metal Point, was inaugurated during a recent visit to Israel by Dr. Alexander Orellano, a member of the board of directors of Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems.

Metal Point is the outcome of a collaboration between Thyssenkrupp and the Israeli company Impact Labs.

Metal Point will benefit from the support of the Economy Ministry, the Manufacturers Association of Israel, the Israeli Institute of Metals at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and other agencies that encourage innovation in advanced manufacturing. The Economy Ministry estimates that advanced manufacturing technologies will help increase Israel’s industrial GDP by NIS 25 billion per year.

“We regard the economic strengthening of Israel with innovation and entrepreneurship as an important goal,” Orellano said. “The establishment of a first-of-its-kind 3D metal-printing innovation center will allow Israeli start-ups and industrial companies to enhance their position in the international market. The strategic collaboration with Impact Labs is a significant example of ThyssenKrupp’s commitment to the long-term relationship with Israel.”
Transcendence: 50,000 Jews celebrated Zionism in Hebron
Despite the intense focus on Israel’s ongoing political stalemate, the Israeli media have found plenty of room in recent days to run lengthy features on food, music, sports, shopping and social gossip.

This includes the victories of Tottenham, Manchester and Liverpool in the British Premier League, another visit to Israel by Quentin Tarantino and the pregnant Daniela Pick, a comedy show in Tel Aviv by Louis CK, Sacha Baron Cohen’s attack on Facebook, oodles of advice about where and whether to buy cellphones on Black Friday, instructions on how to baste your Thanksgiving turkey, Miri Mesika’s tell-all magazine cover story, and much excitement about the upcoming seventh annual Solidarity Film Festival and the Jacob’s Ladder Music Festival.

But Israeli media found little reason to cover the biggest festival of the month – the largest gathering in at least 2,000 years of Jews in Hebron, last Shabbat, to mark the anniversary of Abraham’s purchase of the Jewish people’s first piece of land in Israel, the field and Tomb of the Patriarchs.

Perhaps 50,000 (!) Israelis and Jews from around the world camped-out in downtown Hebron adjacent to Ma’arat HaMachpela (the Cave or Tomb of the Patriarchs), to celebrate the Chayei Sarah Torah reading, which tells the story of Abraham’s negotiations over a burial plot in that city for his wife, the matriarch Sarah.

Of course, the importance of Hebron in Jewish tradition and nationalism is broader than the spiritual legacies of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah – all of whom are buried in Hebron according to the biblical record. King David’s throne was established in Hebron, and he ruled there for seven years before moving his capital to Jerusalem.

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Friday, November 29, 2019

11/29 Links Pt2: Jeremy Corbyn Reminds Us Why Israel Exists; Liberal Jews and their anti-democratic, anti-liberal critique of Israel; Canceling Roger Waters; The BBC portrayed Raed Salah as ‘the Gandhi of Palestine’

From Ian:
Jeremy Corbyn Reminds Us Why Israel Exists
Israel looms large in Corbyn’s worldview. The Corbyn-led Labour Party was initially unable to adopt The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance of anti-Semitism until tremendous outside pressure compelled them. Why? Because the guidelines conflicted with its anti-Zionism, the most significant and consequential form of Jew hatred that exists in the world today. Anti-Zionism is now the predominant justification for violence and murder against Jews in Europe and around the world. Corbyn is one of its champions.

“It’s not anti-Semitic to be critical of Israel,” Corbynites, and their progressive ideological cousins here in the United States like to say. And, of course, they’re correct. Curiously enough, though, those who reserve special opprobrium for a Jewish state they view as an inherently racist and colonial endeavor, as most Corbynites do, also seem to have odious views about the people who democratically govern that small strip of land.

As Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis correctly points out, Corbyn hasn’t merely “tolerated” anti-Semitic attitudes — as so many publications like to claim — but rather he has actively transformed Labour, once one of the most important political parties in the free world, into a safe haven for Jew hatred. As Mirvis notes, under Corbyn, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, Labour has “hounded parliamentarians, members and even staff out of the party for challenging anti-Jewish racism.”

Perhaps Corbyn’s rise simply reflects a new — or is it a renewed? — reality in Europe? A recent ADL poll claims that a quarter of Europeans hold anti-Semitic views. Around 45 percent of Poles and 42 percent of Ukrainians admit to pollsters that they believe that “people hate Jews because of the way Jews behave,” a view that over 30 percent of our old friends the Austrians and Germans share. And one of the fastest growing groups in Europe, Muslims, are importing an even deeper enmity towards Jews than is found in Poland, Ukraine, Germany, and elsewhere. Muslims in Western Europe are anti-Semitic at almost three times the rate of the general population. Thus far, Corbyn has appeased, rather than tried to extinguish, this hatred.

If Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party ends up winning next month, Britain will be led by an openly anti-Semitic government. Mirvis warns that such a result is an existential threat to Britain’s Jewry. What he can’t say, but implies, is that people such as Corbyn are exactly why Israel must exist.


Daniel Gordis: Liberal Jews and their anti-democratic, anti-liberal critique of Israel
All of this ultimately proves the central thesis of my book. What separates American Jews and Israel is, well, everything. The majority of Israeli Jews and the majority of American Jews are demographically different, have different instincts when it comes to concessions for peace, and differ when it comes to visions for Jewish life. It was inevitable that Jews who constitute 2% of the population of the country in which they live and those who constitute some 80% would see the world differently and create radically different visions of what Jewish life can and should be.

Israel was not created in order to enable American Jews to feel virtuous – it was created to be a sanctuary of Jewish survival. Israelis have fashioned different instincts than American Jews on the ideal balance between risk and the quest for peace and have made their own unique determinations about what Jewish cultural survival looks like.

We ought to celebrate those differences, not bemoan them, for it is our disagreements that give us what to learn from each other. The first step toward that mutual learning, however, is not preaching, but listening, seeing each other through the most generous lens we possibly can.

Sadly, condescending and paternalistic attitudes to each other (in Rabbi Yoffie’s concluding words, “It may be that Israelis themselves don’t see as clearly what US Jews see from there”) take us in precisely the wrong direction.
David Collier: The orthodox Rabbis, the letter and the offices that weren’t
Did you see the letter supposedly written by the Orthodox Rabbis supporting Jeremy Corbyn? This week has been full of drama. It started on Monday, when the Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis wrote a scathing article about Jeremy Corbyn, claiming he is ‘not fit’ for high office. The Chief Rabbi was supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury and British Hindu leaders. The timing could not have been more problematic for the Labour Party. The article came as they prepared to launch their ‘race and faith manifesto’. Instead of a positive news cycle, the headlines were telling the story of Labour’s total failure on the antisemitism issue.

The situation did not get any better. On Tuesday morning, Corbyn was late for the launch of the manifesto. The reason? An anti-Corbyn demonstration by British Jews was taking place. Worse still, three vans had parked outside the venue displaying billboards about Labour’s failure to deal with antisemitism. Corbyn’s team did not want him to be filmed walking past such a demonstration, so they held him back. Eventually, as neither the demonstration nor billboards left, they had to send Corbyn in anyway. A few minutes before he arrived a few loud and large pro-Corbyn activists appeared – clearly a damage limitation rent-a-mob – and there was a scrum as he made his way to the venue.

Tuesday night saw the car-crash interview of the decade. Andrew Neil destroyed Jeremy Corbyn in 30 excruciating minutes. The interview was littered with not-to-be-missed disaster moments. Jeremy Corbyn and his election campaign were on the ropes. Corbyn’s activists needed some ammunition to deflect the tsunami of criticism.
The Orthodox letter arrives

Suddenly and without warning a pro-Corbyn letter emerged. It was apparently written by a group of ultra-orthodox Rabbis presenting themselves as a group called ‘United European Jews’. The letter condemned the words of the Chief Rabbi. It was dated 26th November, signed by a Rabbi Mayer Weinberger and it carried a letterhead with several other Rabbi’s listed.

The pro-Corbyn machinery sprang to life. Jewish Voice for Labour, Socialist voice, the Canary and Skwawkbox all pushed the letter. JVL’s tweet alone had over 1000 retweets. Official Labour outlets such as ‘Southgate Labour’ retweeted it. The letter went viral. In just one day, Jewish advocacy groups on Facebook had to delete 1000s of repetitive posts, placed by Corbyn activists who wanted to argue that Chief Rabbi Marvis is a Tory, doesn’t represent many Jews and it is all one big media smear. Suddenly everyone was an expert in the divisions of the Jewish community.



Labour doesn’t have a few bad apples. It’s systematic rot
Under Corbyn, it seems that a dual track approach was taken to try and play to the hard left activist base that his leadership had attracted, whilst keeping the status quo. However, this approach, much like his ‘wait and see’ approach on Brexit which has tried to play to both Brexiteers and Remainers, has failed.

You see, that hard left activist base, anti-imperialist in its nature also brought with it conspiracies about the ‘Rothschilds’, about Jews being ‘all powerful’ and ‘controlling the banking world’; these classic tropes had become fused within this hard left activist base who then used Palestine as their social justice crutch to rehash these tropes.

They also must have thought that this world view was one that Corbyn’s leadership may subscribe to, given that he, in their eyes, was an ‘anti-Imperialist’ campaigner.

Corbyn has tried to balance this base whilst repeatedly claiming that he is against antisemitism and an ardent anti-racist.

However, the question can be asked, that if you know someone is racist, doesn’t justifying and keeping their existence in your presence make you as bad as them?

You see, this is the fundamental issue here; that Labour’s antisemitism problems are not just a ‘few bad apples’.

There is a systematic rot that starts with dear ‘Comrade Corbyn’. How long will he be seen as ‘Cuddly Corbyn’ or ‘Grandpa Corbyn’, before we realise that he has actively played the Labour Party and sold out Jewish communities in his desire to play all sides. With racism, you can’t play all sides – you have to choose what you stand for. On this Corbyn has made his decision. He stands with the hard left and all of the antisemitic baggage they bring.


Corbyn rejected by prominent British Nazi historian
Sir Richard Evans, one of the world’s leading historians of Nazi Germany, on Friday reversed his decision to support the British Labour Party in the December 12 election.

“Back from a visit to Germany to find Anthony Julius's persuasive open letter to me in the New Statesman. As much as [Labour leader Jeremy] Corbyn's lamentable failure to apologise in his tv interview, or the intervention of the Chief Rabbi, this has persuaded me to change my mind and not vote Labour,” wrote Evans on Twitter.

Julius, a British solicitor advocate who holds the chair in Law and Arts in the Faculty of Laws at University College London, wrote to Evans: “Let me remind you, on the subject of the Jews, the party has become cruel, malicious, stupid and dishonest. The cruelty has been persistent and extreme – death threats, shouted abuse at branch meetings, online trolling. The malice has been patent, incontinent and pervasive.”

Evans tweeted on Sunday that “I'm voting Labour. Great manifesto, pity about the leader, shame about Labour's support for Brexit, though at least they promise another referendum. The failure to deal with antisemitism in the party makes me very angry. But in my constituency only Labour can beat the Tory.” Evans's message electrified the Twitterverse because of his standing as a prominent historian and intellectual historian.

Julius responded in his letter: “But recall Corbyn's disparagement of ‘Zionists who, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don’t understand English irony.’ My friend David Hirsh got it right: Corbyn was enjoying the old, sneery English view of Jews, and he was doing it to humiliate the Jews he was talking about. They live among us but they’re not really one of us.
Respected European Rabbi Menachem Margolin says Corbyn’s legacy is abhorrent to the Jews of Europe
The respected Rabbi Menachem Margolin has delivered a blistering attack on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Rabbi Margolin, who is based in Belgium, is the founder and chairman of the Brussels-based European Jewish Association, a leading organisation in the community.

On Mr Corbyn, Rabbi Margolin told Campaign Against Antisemitism: “There is no nuance, no clever turn of phrase or election soundbite that can undo what is done by Jeremy Corbyn. His record of supporting terrorists who want nothing short of the destruction of the world’s only Jewish State, his sympathy with those who murder and maim women, children, the elderly – any civilian – as long as they are Jewish – is a matter of public record that no amount of spin or whitewashing can erase. This is his legacy. He must live with it, and the solid and justified judgement and abhorrence that comes with it from the vast majority of Jews, not just in the UK but in Europe too.”

Rabbi Margolin’s intervention comes following that of Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who declared that Mr Corbyn is “unfit for office”. The Chief Rabbi was supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Senior Sefardi Rabbi, Joseph Dweck.

It also comes after a fringe anti-Zionist group, United European Jews, released a statement backing Mr Corbyn. A previous letter by this group was promoted by Jewish Voice for Labour, an antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation.
Leaked document casts doubt on Corbyn antisemitism claim
Jeremy Corbyn faced veteran interviewer Andrew Neil this week, who grilled him on the party’s handling of antisemitism.

The Labour leader was challenged on a case involving a member who shared a video that cast doubt on whether six million Jews died in the Holocaust — but who only received a “reminder of conduct” letter from the party.

Mr Corbyn said he had “strengthened processes” since then and that “during the last few months” he had “proposed that egregious cases should be fast-tracked”.

But FactCheck has seen an internal Labour party document showing that as recently as mid-October, a senior party insider didn’t expect the policy to be implemented until after the general election.

We asked Labour to show us any proof of its having been introduced, but they did not respond to FactCheck’s requests.

Mr Corbyn has also claimed during this election campaign that: “Where anyone has committed any antisemitic acts or made any antisemitic statements, they are either suspended or expelled from the party and we have investigated every single case.”

But Labour’s own general secretary wrote to MPs in February this year setting out dozens of cases where members were found to have been antisemitic, but were not suspended or expelled from the party. The same letter also revealed that hundreds of complaints of antisemitism had not been formally investigated.
Can the Public Trust Anti-Vaxxer Corbyn with NHS
Can voters trust Corbyn and McDonnell with the NHS – a would-be PM who in 1999 outed himself as an anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist when signing an EDM linking vaccinations and autism. It went as far as calling on the Government to “set up and monitor a register of autistic children“. Corbyn at least didn’t blame this on the Jews…

The conspiracy was based on a paper by ex-physician Andrew Wakefield who was later completely discredited and struck off by the General Medical Council in 2010 for serious professional conduct. This absurd conspiracy is far from the only one pushed by crackpot Corbyn, who has also:
- Suspected the “hand of Israel” in the destabilisation of the Middle East
- Backed Russia’s view in the Salisbury Poisoning
- Defended that conspiratorial antisemitic mural
- Blamed a think tank staffed predominantly by Jewish Americans, ‘The Project for a New American Century’ for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

There are still two weeks before the election for Corbyn to claim Elvis is still alive or that the moon is made of cheese…
McDonnell Stands By Anti-Semitic Poster
This morning on TV, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell showed an extraordinary lapse in judgement standing beside a Soviet poster depicting two hook-nosed ‘capitalists’ being crushed by Stalin’s five-year plan. Gordon Brown levels of self-awareness…


Iranian cleric compares gay marriage to bestiality
Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party, last week canceled her slated appearance at an event with a former representative of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who compared gay marriage to bestiality.

The British paper The Times first reported that Sturgeon and Scotland’s chief constable, Iain Livingstone, pulled the plug on an event in Glasgow with Dr. Mohammad Shomali, who has served as an official representative of Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran.

Shomali wrote: “A hundred years ago, it would have been unthinkable for gay marriage to be sanctioned. Perhaps a day will come when some will desire marriage with animals.” The event was the Peace and Unity conference. According to The Times, they canceled their appearances “after concerns were raised over the presence of the outspoken supporter of the Tehran regime.”

The Times reported that “The multi-faith event was set up by the Ahl al-Bait Society Scotland, a Glasgow-based charity whose director, Azzam Mohamad, accompanied the former SNP [Scottish National Party] leader Alex Salmond on his visit to Iran in 2015.”

Shomali served until recently as the “respected representative of Grand Ayatollah Khamenei and head of the Islamic Center of England, London.” He termed homosexuality as “unlawful.”
How Universities enable hijacking free speech when Jews are involved
In a country where multiculturalism has a reverent following and criticism of protected minorities has essentially been criminalized as “hate speech,” it is more than ironic that on some Canadian campuses radical students have taken it upon themselves to target one group, Jewish students, with a hatred that is nominally forbidden for any others.

And with a recent incident that took place on November 20th, York University, in particular, has now revealed a troubling pattern of tolerating physical and emotional assaults by pro-Palestinian radicals against Jewish students and others who dare to demonstrate any support for Israel or question the tactics of Islamists in their efforts to destroy the Jewish state.

Herut Canada, “a Zionist movement dedicated to social justice, the unity of the Jewish people, and the territorial integrity of the Land of Israel,” was sponsoring an on-campus event featuring Reservists on Duty, former IDF soldiers who would be discussing BDS and the particular challenges facing the IDF in its interaction with terrorism. But York’s perennially-radical group, Students Against Israeli Apartheid at York University (SAIA York), was having no part of the visit and, joined by off-campus members of the equally radical Antifa organization, disrupted the event with some 600 activists heckling, chanting through bull horns, and even physical assaulting other students—all aimed at shutting down the event and preventing attendees from hearing what the guests from the IDF had to say about negotiating for peace.

What was particularly revealing, and chilling, about the hate-filled protest (or riot, more accurately) was the virulence of the chants and messages on the placards, much of it seeming to suggest that more sinister hatreds and feelings—over and above concern for Israeli military operations—were simmering slightly below the surface. Many of the furious protestors, for instance, shrieked out, “Viva, Viva Intifada” and “Long live the Intifada,” a grotesque and murderous reference to the Second Intifada, during which Arab terrorists murdered some 1000 Israelis and wounded more than 14,000 others.


Canceling Roger Waters
Something significant happened last month that went pretty much unnoticed. A small group of activists fighting back against rising antisemitism got a screening of the Roger Waters documentary US + Them canceled in IPic Los Angeles regional theaters.

In Jewish circles, Roger Waters has become almost as well known for his antisemitism as for his music. Waters first came under fire for floating a pig-shaped balloon with a Star of David and a dollar sign at his concerts in 2013. Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center described the balloon as a “grotesque display of Jew-hatred.”

In a Rolling Stone interview in the same year, Waters called on fellow artists to join him in a boycott of the Jewish homeland commonly referred to as BDS (an acronym for boycott, divestment, and sanctions). Since then, he has made numerous statements attacking Israel and denigrating entertainers who chose to perform there. He claims other artists are afraid to join him because they fear that it would end their careers; an accusation clearly aimed at Jews in the music business and not at Israel.

Despite all this, Waters has remained relatively unscathed at a time when the accusation of other “isms” like racism and sexism have derailed many high-profile careers. His concerts continue to generate millions of dollars, he is a popular subject for interviews, and he has faced relatively few successful counter-boycott campaigns. A couple of notable exceptions include the city of Miami Beach, which abruptly canceled the participation of a dozen teenagers in a concert after the local Jewish Federation accused him of antisemitism; and several German public broadcasters that dropped plans to air his concert for the same reason.
BBC ignores conviction of man it portrayed in 2011 as ‘the Gandhi of Palestine’
Readers of that profile are told that:

“Sheikh Salah has been described by some as the “Gandhi of Palestine”.”

“Sheikh Salah is a poet and a father of eight children.”

“Sheikh Salah is a citizen of Israel – he was born in 1958 in the town of Umm al-Fahm, which a decade earlier had become part of the state of Israel when Palestine was divided.”

“…he became a founding member of the Islamic Movement in Israel, which is a legal organisation. He is now leader of its northern branch.”

The Northern Islamic Movement ceased to be a “legal organisation” four years ago.

If the BBC is going to leave backgrounders such as this fawning profile of Salah (which includes a link to a pro-Hamas website) online as “historic public record”, then it should obviously be obliged to update them as subsequent events occur in order to ensure that the information available to audiences accurate and relevant.
CAMERA Op-Ed Politico and Unpleasant Truths
“There are no facts, only interpretations,” the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once asserted. This seems to be the operating principle of Politico, the Washington D.C.-based publication, when it comes to reporting on Israel. Facts that are inconvenient to the preferred interpretation are simply omitted. One only need look at Politico’s Nov. 18, 2019 dispatch “Pompeo bends toward Israel with new U.S. stance toward settlements,” for confirmation.

The article, by correspondents Caitlin Oprysko and Nahal Toosi, details the Trump administration’s recent announcement that it does not consider the construction of “settlements”—homes in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria)—to be illegal. However, the report is littered with omissions and an unwillingness to confront the real obstacle to peace: Palestinian rejectionism.

At a press conference on Nov. 18, 2019, U.S. Sec. of State Mike Pompeo said, “The Trump administration is reversing the Obama administration’s approach towards Israeli settlements.” The decision, Politico told readers, was a rejection of a 1978 State Department legal opinion “that categorically calls Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank ‘inconsistent with international law.’”

In fact, the Carter administration’s 1978 ruling was itself an aberration. As Pompeo noted in his remarks: “In 1981, President Reagan disagreed with that conclusion and stated that he didn’t believe that the settlements were inherently illegal. Subsequent administrations recognized that unrestrained settlement activity could be an obstacle to peace, but they wisely and prudently recognized that dwelling on legal positions didn’t advance peace.”


Group of men attack two Jewish teens in Crown Heights, Brooklyn
A gang of five men attacked two identifiably Jewish teens on the street in Brooklyn.

The incident happened on Nov. 11 in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, but was reported by police on Wednesday, according to the New York Post.

The group approached a boy 14, dressed in traditional Hasidic garb, and smacked him in the head, knocking off his kippa. They then snatched the hat off the head of a second boy, aged 15.

The boys were not injured in the attack, according to police.

The incident is being investigated as a hate crime.
Swedish city plagued by anti-Semitism to invest millions to fight phenomenon
The Swedish city of Malmo, plagued by anti-Semitism in recent years, has finally decided to allocate funds to fight the phenomenon after an outcry from the local Jewish community.

The city's municipality announced that it will invest some 20 million Swedish Krona ($2 million) in various initiatives intended to protect Malmo's Jewish community which over the past 10 years has dropped from 3,000 people to some 1,500.

Despite a low number of Jewish residents, the city - the third largest in Sweden - suffers from dozens of anti-Semitic incidents annually, due in part to the rise of Neo-Nazism in Europe and Jihadist views (a third of Malmo's population is from Muslim countries).

Among the initiatives proposed by the city's officials are educational programs in schools to uproot racism against Jews, promotion of Jewish culture and a study to gauge the public's perception of Jews.

Malmo mayor Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh said her city is a global hub and that is why "we are promoting programs to counter any kind of racism."
Jewish residents say they are still wary of going out in public wearing Jewish markings and expressed the hope that the municipality's initiatives will put an end to their hesitancy.

The Swedish government is reportedly planning to hold an international conference on anti-Semitism in Malmo.
Italy uncovers plot to create new Nazi party
Italian police said on Thursday they uncovered a plot to form a new Nazi party and seized a cache of weapons during searches across the country.

Police in 16 towns and cities from the Mediterranean island of Sicily to the Alps in northern Italy took part in the investigation, which was launched two years ago.

The probe revealed a "huge and varied array of subjects, residents in different places, united by the same ideological fanaticism and willing to create an openly pro-Nazi, xenophobic and anti-Semitic movement", a police statement said.

Police did not say how many people joined the group or how many arrests were made. In Italy "defense of fascism" and efforts to revive fascist parties are considered crimes.

The new party was called the Italian National Socialist Party of Workers and police showed off a range of Nazi paraphernalia, including swastikas and pictures of Adolf Hitler seized during searches of 19 properties.

They also found a large number of weapons, including pistols, hunting rifles, and crossbows.
Jewish teen leaves German public high school over classroom anti-Semitism
A Jewish parent in the German city of Offenbach near Frankfurt is reportedly removing her son from public high school due to frequent anti-Semitic comments in the classroom, though her son is not personally targeted by them.

It is the atmosphere in the school that led Alina R. to make the move. She told German news media that teachers and administrators had failed to react to anti-Semitic comments thrown casually around the classroom. Comments such as “It’s as hot and humid as Auschwitz in here,” or “you Jew” as an insult are common, she said, noting that her own son’s Jewish identity is not public.

Her son, 16, is transferring to a private school where, his mother said, such problems are less common since the private school takes greater care to call out and punish such behavior.

According to German news reports, Alina R. had encouraged her son to speak with a teacher about the problem. The teacher did not take any action, she said.
German army sorry for ‘retro’ Nazi uniform post
The German army on Wednesday apologized for posting a photo on Instagram of a military uniform complete with two Iron Crosses bearing the Nazi swastika and appearing to celebrate it as “retro”.

After media reports sparked outrage, the army removed the picture of the Nazi-era Wehrmacht uniform and explained that it was an “unacceptable mistake.”

The Bundeswehr said it was seeking to do a photo-essay on the influence of military uniforms on fashion through the ages but failed to provide the correct historical context in its captions.

“We are very sorry,” it said.

“The uniform is an item on exhibition in our military history museum in Dresden. But we did not correctly label the image historically and gave it a wrong and unsuitable caption,” it added on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Bild daily, which first reported on the photo, said it carried a “Retro” sticker and bore the caption “To this day, military style elements remain in haute couture.”
Police officer dismissed over sale of Auschwitz items and Nazi memorabilia on eBay
A police officer in Northamptonshire has been found to have committed gross misconduct for selling items from Auschwitz and Nazi memorabilia on eBay.

Police Constable Matthew Hart was revealed last year by the JC to have, together with a relative, Paula Hart, administered an eBay account by the name of ww2autographs, which sold memorabilia from Holocaust extermination camps. At the time, the police force said that “no wrongdoing had been identified”, but it since decided that PC Hart’s eBay activity “contravened his declared business interest”, and he was hauled before a discplinary panel.

The panel found no evidence of criminality nor any indication that the sales were motivated by any extremist ideology or Nazi sympathies. Instead, it concluded that PC Hart had “a genuine historical interest in this period of history.”
NYC Emergency Services Use Israeli Tech to Protect Computer Systems
Israeli security software firm Indeni has partnered with the New York City Police and Fire Departments to protect their critical computer networks.

Indeni has developed a security infrastructure automation platform enabling organizations to proactively detect and prevent computer system malfunctions before they affect vital operations.

The company currently names Mastercard, Bloomberg and Boston Scientific among its customers. Its platform will also be used by the U.S. space agency NASA to identify and fix computer malfunctions.

"Today, emergency calls to the police, important government services, and water and electricity suppliers are all dependent on advanced computer systems," said Indeni CEO Yoni Leitersdorf. "These systems must be immune to hacking and available 100% of the time."
In possible climate breakthrough, Israel scientists engineer bacteria to eat CO2
In a remarkable breakthrough that could pave the way toward carbon-neutral fuels, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have produced a genetically engineered bacteria that can live on carbon dioxide rather than sugar.

The extraordinary leap — reported Wednesday in Cell, and quickly picked up by prestigious publications such as Nature — could lead to the low-emissions production of carbon for use in biofuels or food that would also help to remove excess CO₂ from the atmosphere, where it is helping to drive global warming.

Plants and ocean-living cyanobacteria perform photosynthesis, taking the energy from light to transform CO₂ into a form of organic carbon that can be used to build DNA, proteins and fats.

As these photosynthesizers can be difficult to moderate genetically, the Weizmann team, under Prof. Ron Milo, took E. coli bacteria — more commonly associated with food poisoning — and spent ten years weaning them off sugar and training them to “eat” carbon dioxide instead.

Through genetic engineering, they enabled the bacteria to convert CO₂ into organic carbon, substituting the energy of the sun — a vital ingredient in the photosynthesis process — with a substance called formate, which is also attracting attention as a potential generator of clean electricity.
Israel to launch campaign on CNN to boost image in Africa
The Israeli government and CNN will for the first time launch a campaign aimed at presenting the Jewish state to Africa, with the goal of branding it as a force for good in the continent.

Despite the network being repeatedly criticized by Israel over alleged bias, several Israeli ministries have hired the network to produce promotional videos with a focus on how Israel has helped the residents of the continent.

Apart from airing the videos, CNN will also launch a special portal to allow users to explore the various Israeli projects in Africa, particularly in agriculture, medicine, and energy.

The campaign, which cost some 4 million shekels (1.2 million dollars) will run for 3 months and will see hundreds of airings and a flurry of posts on social media.

The decision to work with CNN comes in light of its broadcast potentially reaching more than 475 million households and hotel rooms worldwide, while its internet platforms reaching some 220 million people a month.

"This campaign will help us shed Israel in a positive light and present its great contribution in a variety of fields," the acting director general at the Prime Minister's Office told Israel Hayom.
Handwritten letter by Albert Einstein up for auction in Jerusalem
A handwritten letter written by Albert Einstein which includes complex details of his search for a 'Theory of Everything' is to go up for auction in Jerusalem next week. The starting price will be $20,000.

Written in German by the Jewish-German physicist to his friend and collaborator, the mathematician Ernst Gabor Strauss, in June 1950, the letter addresses concerns Strauss had over Einsteins attempts to develop a unified field theory. Following his breakthrough insight that space and time are one in the early years of his career, Einstein devoted the latter 30 years of his life to creating a theoretical framework in with the fundamental forces in nature, gravity and electromagnetic power, could be combined.

"I am glad that you are working so hard on the question of compatibility. But I do not think your concerns are justified. I would like to formulate the proof so that your letters are taken into account," Einstein wrote in the opening to his letter. He goes on to detail a complex and lengthy scientific proof for Strauss, interpreting Strauss’ equations and solutions to distinguish real degrees of freedom from coordinate effects, in order to understand the meaning of the equations’ solutions.

Einstein was ultimately unsuccessful in formatting his Theory of Everything, but his efforts left a lasting legacy in the field of quantum physics.






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Muslim "Protest praying" in Hebron

Last weekend was he one Sabbath of the year where Jews celebrate regaining control over the second most sacred spot in Judaism, the Cave of the Patriarchs. It is one of the ten days of the year that Jews have access to the entire building. Some 45,000 Jews came to celebrate, most staying (and eating) in tents because there are not nearly enough rooms to accommodate them all.

Some youngsters apparently got out of hand but from what I can tell the vast majority was well behaved and had a great time.

But this upset the Muslims so they decided to make their own "protest prayer" event in Hebron on Friday.

Muslims love to say that Israel is trying to turn this into a religious conflict - but what is a "protest praying" if not a desire to turn it into a religious conflict? Using prayer as a protest tool pretty much ignores the entire purpose of prayer.

If religious Jews held a "protest prayer" there would be angry op-eds that they don't know what prayer is. (When left-wing Jews try to hijack religious rituals for their own politics, no one seems to mind.) But a Muslim "protest prayer" shows again what a huge double standard there is between Muslims and Jews.


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11/29 Links Pt1: Melanie Phillips: As the west goes terribly wrong, Arabs inch in the right direction; French Prosecutors Drop Charges Against Muslim Man Who Killed Sarah Halimi; London Bridge Terror Attack

From Ian:
Melanie Phillips: As the west goes terribly wrong, Arabs inch in the right direction
As the west goes in one direction, so the Arab world is now going in the other.

While British and western “progressive” circles descend ever deeper into the sewers of antisemitism and its contemporary mutation, the campaign to exterminate the State of Israel, the Arab world is beginning to renounce its own desire to wipe Israel off the map.

Prominent figures from 15 Arab countries met in London last week to reject the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement — whose aim is to destroy Israel — and encourage the establishment of relations with Israel instead.

The Clarion Project reports that participants were drawn from Morocco, Libya, Sudan, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq and the Gulf states and included journalists, artists, politicians, diplomats, Quranic scholars, women and young people. The meeting was publicised only after its participants returned to their native countries. The New York Times was allowed to post a live stream of the meeting (held in Arabic) after the event.

“The Times reported that the group in London agreed that ‘BDS] has only helped [Israel] while damaging Arab nations that have long shunned the Jewish state. Demonizing Israel has cost Arab nations billions in trade.’ Mustafa el-Dessouki, an Egyptian who is the managing editor of the prominent news magazine Majalla (which is funded by Saudi Arabia), was one of the main organizers of the meeting.

“In recent travels around the Middle East, Dessouki said met many Arabs with similar views to his, including citizens of Lebanon. This was in spite of the fact that the Arab news media and entertainment industry have long been ‘programming people toward this hostility’ against Israel and Jews, he said, while politicians were ‘intimidating and scaring people into manifesting it.’”

Caroline Glick: The split screen
In normal times, a full screen of anti-regime protests in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon would be followed by full screens of security cabinet meetings. We would see Facebook and Telegram videos of Netanyahu speaking in Farsi directly to the Iranian people and expressing solidarity with their aspirations for freedom. In response to requests by Iranian opposition forces, the government would restore Farsi-language Voice of Israel radio broadcasts, directly into Iran.

In a full-screen reality, we would have seen a more serious response to the statements that US Central Command leader General Kenneth McKenzie made to The New York Times last Saturday. In remarks to the paper, the US commander responsible for the Middle East said that the possibility Iran will attack the Gulf states and Israel has risen.

In the event, the Israeli response was limited to a statement Sunday by Netanyahu. On a tour of the Golan Heights with IDF commanders Sunday morning, Netanyahu said that Israel is fully committed to preventing Iran from attacking it.

In normal times, a statement like McKenzie’s would have been followed by a sudden trip to Washington by Israel’s defense minister to visit with his counterpart at the Pentagon.

Our times are not normal times. We are relegated to living in a split-screen reality because our government is incapable of carrying out any real action. Its paralysis is not the result of its status as an interim government. Israel has been living under an interim government for some time now. And its members, including the prime minister, have shown no aversion to doing their job responsibly.

The reason our government is incapable of fulfilling its duty, particularly on issues of strategic importance, is because Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit has decided that almost all government activities require his prior approval.
French Prosecutors Drop Charges Against Muslim Man Who Killed Sarah Halimi in 2017
A French prosecutor has dropped charges against the killer of Jewish kindergarten teacher Sarah Halimi after experts ruled he had suffered a massive psychotic episode by smoking cannabis.

Ms Halimi, who was Orthodox, was killed after Kobili Traoré broke into her council flat in eastern Paris on April 4 2017.

Witnesses said the 65-year-old was beaten and called a “demon” by her attacker, who recited Koranic verses as he threw her off her balcony.

In an appeals court hearing on Wednesday Traoré admitted killing Ms Halimi, saying he was not aware of his actions on the night of the murder and did not recognise when he broke in.

“I felt persecuted. When I saw the Torah and a chandelier in her home I felt oppressed. I saw her face transforming,” he said.

But in a rare turn of events, French prosecutors were divided on how to proceed.

Local prosecutors in Paris initially argued that Kobili Traoré should be put on trial for his actions. But they were opposed by the more senior procureur général, which argued Traoré should be hospitalised.
French Jews Are Fleeing Their Country
France is home to Europe’s largest Jewish population, the third largest in the world after Israel and the United States. Yet this historic community—dating back to the Roman conquest of Jerusalem and expulsion of the Jewish population 2,000 years ago—is in the midst of an existential crisis.

France's interior minister has warned that anti-Jewish sentiment is "spreading like poison." President Emmanuel Macron declared that anti-Semitism was at its highest levels since World War II. Amidst a string of attacks, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe admitted that anti-Semitism is “deeply rooted in French society.”

Eighty-nine percent of Jewish students in France report experiencing anti-Semitic abuse, according to a poll published in March. In 2017, Jews were the target of nearly 40 percent of the violent incidents classified as racially or religiously motivated, despite making up less than 1 percent of the French population. In 2018, anti-Semitic acts rose by nearly 75 percent.

The current wave of immigration began in earnest after the 2012 Toulouse massacre, in which a French-born Islamic extremist opened fire at a Jewish day school, killing a young rabbi who was shielding his three- and six-year-old sons, then shooting to death both boys and an 8-year-old girl. Three years later, a gunman pledging allegiance to ISIS killed four customers at a kosher supermarket in Paris. “In the days after that, we received thousands of calls from people saying they wanted to leave,” says Ouriel Gottlieb, the Jewish Agency’s director in Paris. “Of the four people murdered at Hyper Casher, three of the families moved to Israel.”

Nearly every year since has seen another deadly anti-Semitic attack, from the beating and defenestration of 65-year-old Sarah Halimi in 2017 to the gruesome killing of Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll in 2018. Less frightening, but just as damaging to this fragile community, are the constant smaller-scale incidents, such as the desecration of Jewish cemeteries and memorials, or attacks on boys wearing yarmulkes. Such attacks have led many here to hide outward appearances of their faith. Others choose to leave.



Several injured in stabbing incident at London Bridge, suspect said killed
Several people were injured in a stabbing incident at London Bridge Friday, British police said. British police cleared the area around London Bridge in the center of the British capital following the attack.

The Guardian reported that the suspected attacked had died after being shot by officers.

London police said the circumstances were “unclear” but “as a precaution we are currently responding… as though it is terror-related.” The Guardian reported that counter-terrorism forces were involved in the investigation.

Unconfirmed reports put the number of injured at five, and said some were in serious condition.

The Metropolitan Police force said officers were called just before 2 p.m. Friday (1400 GMT) “to a stabbing at premises near to London Bridge.” London Ambulance Service said it had crews on the scene.

BBC reporter John McManus was in the area and said he saw figures grappling on the bridge. He said: “I thought it was initially a fight,” but then shots rang out.

One video appeared to show civilians tackling a man to the ground on the bridge before police arrive and shoot him (Warning: graphic images). NSFW

Alleged Terrorist Wrestled and Shot on London Bridge
Here is the footage circulating about the London Bridge incident.


The Metropolitan Police have released this statement:
“Police were called at 1:58pm to a stabbing at premises near to London Bridge. Emergency services attended, including officers from the Met and @colp A man has been detained by police. We believe a number of people have been injured. Further info to follow.”

UPDATE: New footage has emerged showing what appears to be members of the public wrestling a knife off a bearded man before he is shot by police.

UPDATE II: Met Police are treating the incident as terror-related.

At this stage, the circumstances relating to the incident at #LondonBridge remain unclear. However, as a precaution, we are currently responding to this incident as though it is terror-related. One man has been shot by police. We will provide further information when possible.
Honest Reporting: Palestinian Terror Payments: Pay For Slay
What would you call an organization that pays hundreds of thousands of dollars to reward a teenager who takes a knife from his family’s kitchen and stabs a fellow teenager riding a bike along the street?

A monster? The devil?

For many Israelis, the answer that comes to mind is the Palestinian Authority.

Because that is exactly what the governing body of the Palestinian people does.

The terror payments come from the Palestinian Authority Martyrs Fund. They pay monthly stipends to the families of terrorists killed, hurt, or imprisoned for attacking Israelis. This includes those who participate in riots, rock throwing, or even just assisting or planning attacks against Israelis.

The Washington Post reported that in 2017, the PA paid $183 million to families of “martyrs,” terrorists killed while attacking Israelis, and $160 million to prisoners, in Israeli jails for terror attacks against Israelis. 13,000 prisoners were paid $12,307, which is above the average income for Palestinians.

That is out $343 million of the $693 million that the PA received in foreign aid that year. Half of their aid goes to pay terrorists! The terror payments have since been increased and prisoners and their families now receive $3,000 or higher per month.

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy commissioned a poll in June 2017 which showed that 2/3 of the Palestinians were against the policy of financial rewards for terrorist and their families, especially since the terror payments take away foreign aid which is supposed to be helping to improve their quality of life.
Israel will only attain peace through victory
Ever since the Muslim conquest, occupation and colonization of the Middle East and North Africa in the seventh century, the region’s Jews, among others, lived under a dhimmi status. While the Arabic term dhimmi has been translated as “tolerated,” the actual meaning is far more sinister.

Under Islamic law, Jews were less than second-class citizens. They were a brutally oppressed minority, forced to pay special taxes called jizya, frequently forced to place distinctive signs on their houses and clothing and sometimes brutally humiliated in other ways.

The Egyptian-born British author Bat Ye’or wrote that the dhimmi status was a “relationship between conqueror and conquered,” and that “the dhimmi peoples bore the role of victim, vanquished by force; and indeed, it is after a war, a jihad, and after a defeat, that a nation becomes a dhimmi people.”

The Jewish people had lived in the region for millennia before being expelled and forced to flee by Arab leaders in the 20th century. Almost a million Jews had lived in the Middle East and North Africa before their status turned from perilous to entirely unwanted around the middle of the past century, most fleeing to the nascent State of Israel.

On Nov. 30, we will remember them on the Day of Commemoration for the Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries and Iran. We will remember their history, culture and tradition, maintained under difficult circumstances, and also their ethnic cleansing.
The Bahrain Economic Workshop Highlighted the Disparity between the Palestinians' Claims to Moral Superiority and Their Real Goals
The Peace to Prosperity Workshop on June 25-26, 2019, in Manama, Bahrain, was an event of major significance. The American representative, Jared Kushner, implicitly publicly questioned the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority and called for regime change, expressing the view that the PA was not serving its public.

From the founding of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964, the Palestinian national movement has firmly rejected the possibility of a compromise that would result in a peaceful settlement with Israel. It has steadfastly rejected the principle of Jewish nationhood and sovereignty and practices incitement to hatred and violence. It has also designated the United States as an enemy.

The Bahrain Workshop brought into full view the disparity between the Palestinians' real goals and their claims to moral superiority. The ideas which Jared Kushner articulated in the workshop and those of the Palestine Authority, which fixate on the politicide of Israel, remain in direct opposition.
Khaled Abu Toameh: Squabbling among ‘businessmen’ threatens US effort to engage Palestinians
US administration efforts to engage with Palestinians could be facing a setback in wake of a sharp dispute that has erupted among Palestinian figures who have agreed to work with President Donald Trump’s administration.

At the center of the row is a “revolt” by a number of Palestinian businessmen against Ashraf Jabari, the Hebron business leader who headed a Palestinian delegation to last July’s Bahrain economic workshop, sponsored by the Trump administration.

At the workshop, which was boycotted by the Palestinian Authority and most Arab countries, the Trump administration unveiled the economic portion of its long-awaited plan for peace in the Middle East, also known as the “Deal of the Century.”

Jabari, who is closely associated with some Trump administration officials and settler leaders, defied the PA boycott by traveling to Manama at the head of a seven-man delegation of businessmen from the West Bank belonging to a hitherto unknown group called Palestinian Business Network (PBN).

It remains unclear what he and his associates have accomplished by participating in the Bahrain conference. One thing is certain, however: Jabari has managed to alienate some of his colleagues, who are now seeking to distance themselves from the man and are waging a smear campaign against him.
Bolivia to renew Israel ties after rupture under Morales
Bolivia will restore diplomatic ties with Israel, a decade after then-President Evo Morales severed relations because of the 2008-2009 Gaza war known as Operation Cast Lead, the South American country said on Thursday.

The renewal of ties with Israel was announced by interim Foreign Minister Karen Longaric as part of an overhaul of Bolivia’s foreign policy following Morales’s resignation this month.

Many Israeli tourists visited Bolivia before Morales cut off relations with Israel, and the hope is that they will return, Longaric said.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz welcomed the Bolivian announcement.

He said Israel’s Foreign Ministry had worked for a lengthy period to restore relations.

The ouster of Bolivia’s former hostile president, Morales, and replacement with a “friendly government” had also made it possible, Katz said.
Belgian officials boycott trade delegation to Israel
Two of Belgium’s local governments pulled out of a trade delegation to Israel, citing alleged violations of international law and lack of progress in the peace process.

The foreign trade secretary of the government of the Brussels region, Pascal Smet, announced the move Thursday, the RTBF broadcaster reported. The move is a major victory for proponents of attempts to boycott Israel, who have so far had few breakthroughs in their attempts to shape Belgian-Israeli relations.

Elio Di Rupo, a former prime minister of the kingdom of Belgium and the current prime minister of the Belgian state of Wallonia, last week pulled out of the delegation, which is set to take place Dec 8-11 and include businessmen and representatives of commercial enterprises from across Belgium.

“The lack of progress in the peace process, the lack of progress on the ground and the violation by Israel of major elements of the Geneva Convention are prompting us to hold back on official cooperation,” Di Rupo said.
Instinct Beats Technology in Airport Security
Israel takes airport security extremely seriously, as I discovered when passing through the new Ramon airport.

A mandatory pre-flight interview takes place before check-in. Questions range from the highly specific ("When did you book your flight?") to the humdrum, such as your daily routine at work or favorite football team.

"The way a passenger answers is more important than what the answer is," says Philip Baum, visiting professor of aviation security at Coventry University.

"There is a profiler at every entrance to the airport building. They will stop people who do not meet baseline expectations."

In Britain you have to prove you are not carrying liquids in containers over 100 ml., and take off your shoes. But Israel does not fret about liquids, nor electronics in your cabin baggage.

"The system is based on a common-sense approach of identifying negative intent rather than the carriage of prohibited articles," says Baum. Instinct can be smarter than technology.
IDF's Targeted Warning System Reduced Sirens by 50 Percent
The new precise warning system implemented by the Israeli military cut down the number of incoming rocket sirens by 50% across the country during the last round of violence between the IDF and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

More than 400 rockets were fired by the Iranian-backed Gazan terror group towards southern and central Israel over 50 hours, shutting down the country for hours and sending millions to bomb shelters.

But officers in the Home Front Command told The Jerusalem Post that thanks to the new targeted alert system, about 80 localities with 500,000 Israelis did not hear a single incoming rocket siren.

“During the last conflict we saw it in real-time and we were able to see what it does for civilians,” Early Warning Operations Section Head, Maj. Tohar Nitzan, told The Jerusalem Post. “This week we looked at the numbers from operation and saw that had we still been using the old system, there would have been twice the number of warnings. We saved citizens from 50% of the sirens.”

Instead of 2.2 million people experiencing an incoming rocket siren, only 1.7 million people were affected by the last round of violence, which for the first time in years reached central Israeli cities like Tel Aviv, Holon and Rishon Lezion.
Outrage after Supreme Court justice offers condolences to family of terrorist
Supreme Court Justice Neal Hendel sparked widespread outrage in Israel on Wednesday when he told the family of a convicted terrorist who recently died in jail that he “shared in their sorrow.”

The US-born jurist’s comments were included in a ruling he issued voiding an early release petition by the family of Sami Abu Diak, who died Tuesday in Israeli custody after battling cancer. He died before the court was able to hear his case.

Abu Diak was serving three life sentences for voluntary manslaughter and kidnapping, among other charges. He was linked to the armed wing of the Palestinian Fatah faction and was arrested in the early 2000s, during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising. He was convicted over the killing of Ilya Krivitz, a Jewish resident of the Homesh settlement, in 2001 and was involved in the killing of three Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israeli security forces, according to reports.

The Palestinian Authority and Abu Diak’s family had asked for his release to allow him to die at his family’s side, but Israeli officials denied the request. The Palestinians also reached out to European countries and the Red Cross to apply pressure on Israel to release him.

After a public outcry over his expression of empathy, Hendel withdrew his ruling and released a new one without the controversial wording, explaining that it had not been proper for him to issue it by himself. The new, nearly identical, ruling was signed by three judges.

Hendel also apologized to the Krivich family.
ITIC: Identity of the Palestinian fatalities in the latest round of escalation in the Gaza Strip (PDF)
On November 12-14, 2019, a round of escalation took place in the Gaza Strip following the killing of Bahaa Abu al-Atta, a senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). In response to his killing, the PIJ fired about 560 rockets to Israeli territory. The IDF attacked terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip, mostly belonging to the PIJ. Among the attacked targets
were rocket launching squads before and after a launch; rocket launching sites; weapons depots; a plant for manufacturing long-distance rockets; training compounds; outposts; operations rooms and observation posts, as well as underground facilities of the PIJ.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip reported that 34 Palestinians had been killed in the latest round of escalation (with Bahaa Abu al-Atta and his wife among them). From within the 34 killed Palestinians, at least 18 (about 53%) were identified as military operatives, most of them (13) operatives of the PIJ’s military wing, who were the targets
in most of the attacks. In addition, several fatalities were identified as belonging to minor terror networks, most of them operatives of Fatah splinter networks who took part in firing at Israel. Among the fatalities, there was a prominent number of operatives of the rocket launching network, who were killed while attempting to fire at Israel (which is an indication of the efficiency of the Israeli security forces in thwarting the firing attacks). In addition, nine civilians were killed, most of them members of one family in Deir al-Balah, whose home was attacked by the IDF as a result of mistaken identification (the case is under an IDF examination). A Hamas military operative was also killed, and another operative affiliated with Hamas. The large number of PIJ operatives who were killed reflects its central role in the last round of escalation (while Hamas refrained from joining the fighting).
Palestinian said shot dead by IDF troops at unofficial Gaza protest
A Palestinian teenager was killed Friday afternoon as Israeli troops opened fire at a group of protesters near the Gaza-Israel border, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry reported.

The ministry said 16-year-old Fahed al-Astal was shot in the stomach, and that five others were wounded.

Witnesses said dozens of people had gathered near the perimeter fence east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, though there were no official demonstrations planned.

An IDF spokesman did not directly comment on the incident but said some demonstrators had approached the border fence and attempted to sabotage it. Troops responded with less-lethal means as well as some live fire.

For the third straight week, the territory’s Hamas rulers canceled the regular Friday protests for fear of instability. This was followed by two days of fighting between Israel and the smaller Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group earlier this month.
Talks between Hamas and Israel renewed - report
Talks concerning an agreement between the Hamas terrorist group and Israel have renewed in the past two days said Hamas officials to the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar on Friday, according to Ynet.

The UN's Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nikolay Mladenov is expected to meet with the leadership of Hamas in the coming days in order to complete talks about an agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Mladenov will also discuss a long-term agreement addressing issues such as prisoners, hostages and missing people and the easing of the blockade on the Gaza Strip.

A senior official familiar with the negotiations told Ynet that there is still no breakthrough concerning the Israelis being held by Hamas although the official added that the implementation of understandings could make bring progress to the negotiations.

Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, denied any progress related to a potential prisoner swap with Israel.

“There’s no progress in the negotiations with the occupation,” he told the Turkish news agency Anadolu. “The Israeli government is not prepared to pay a price for a new prisoner exchange.”
In Ramallah, hundreds of Israelis join Palestinians to ‘unify forces’ for peace
Fatah official Jibril Rajoub says presence of Israelis at solidarity event proves there is a partner for peace; activists boo Neturei Karta rabbi slating ‘Zionist entity’

Hundreds of Israelis flocked to the Palestinian Authority presidential headquarters in Ramallah on Thursday to participate in an event marking the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

The Israelis, many of who are veteran activists in left-wing groups and organizations, arrived at the PA presidential headquarters in large buses from Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other parts of Israel. They were joined by several Palestinian officials, activists and religious leaders.

A number of the Palestinian officials told their Israeli guests that they appreciated their participation in the event, with Fatah Central Committee secretary-general Jibril Rajoub stating that it indicated that there was an Israeli partner for peace.

“I hope that my family, people and the leadership in Palestine, which I am part of, realize what the presence of hundreds of Israelis [here] on the anniversary of November 29 means,” Rajoub said, referring to the date that the United Nations in 1947 voted to accept a resolution that partitioned British-ruled Palestine into “independent Arab and Jewish states.” The day is celebrated in Israel as a first step toward the creation of the Jewish state a year later; in 1977 the UN declared it as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

“This is a significant message that there is an Israeli partner. I say to the Israelis: Understand us well. Many Palestinians only see Baruch Marzel, Smotrich and those faces who do not represent you,” he stated, alluding to right-wing Israeli politicians — Marzel from the hardline Otzma Yehudit party which failed to enter the Knesset in recent elections, and Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich who heads the National Union faction in the Jewish Home-National Union alliance.
Lebanon Crisis and US Aid Freeze Put Hezbollah in the Spotlight
Violent clashes broke out in Beirut and other areas of Lebanon on Tuesday night, making it three straight nights of clashes in a row, as anti-corruption protests that began five weeks ago push Lebanon into an economic crisis that risks aggravating already tense sectarian tensions.

Clashes and gunfire between supporters of Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Saad al-Hariri, and Shi’ite groups Hezbollah and Amal risked turning the protests into a more violent conflict, Reuters reported based on local media accounts.

Eyal Zisser, an Israeli expert on Syria and Lebanon and the vice rector of Tel Aviv University, said that the current upheaval in Lebanon marks the first time Hezbollah has been criticized domestically.

“This is significant because even the Shi’ites consider Hezbollah responsible or partly responsible for the crisis affecting Lebanon,” said Zisser. “Therefore, in the long run, this has meaning, and without a doubt, it harms Hezbollah’s power.”

Zisser went on to emphasize that it’s necessary to understand that Hezbollah has been sitting in the Lebanese government since 2005, and thus “can no longer say that it has no say on the matter.”

“Hezbollah has grown and expanded over the years, and became corrupt,” he added.
After more than 400 killed in 2 months of protests, Iraqi PM says he will resign
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi said Friday he would submit his resignation to parliament, a day after more than 40 people were killed by security forces and following calls by Iraq’s top Shiite cleric for lawmakers to withdraw support.

In a statement, Abdul-Mahdi said he “listened with great concern” to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani’s sermon and made his decision in response to his call and in order to “facilitate and hasten its fulfillment as soon as possible.”

“I will submit to parliament an official memorandum resigning from the current prime ministry so that the parliament can review its choices,” he said. Abdul-Mahdi was appointed prime minister just over a year ago as a consensus candidate between political blocs.

Al-Sistani said parliament, which elected the government of Abdul-Mahdi, should “reconsider its options” in his weekly Friday sermon delivered in the holy city of Najaf via a representative.

“We call upon the House of Representatives from which this current government emerged to reconsider its options in that regard,” al-Sistani said in the statement.
Pompeo: Iran should know there is a cost to malign activity 'wherever it takes place'
"Hi, this is Mike," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said right at the start of my phone conversation with him. I was told he has always been down-to-earth with everyone, even as the CIA director or a congressman or a businessman, and the way he began our conversation demonstrated that.

Pompeo is a very strong supporter of Israel, and as is the case in many aspects of his work, his actions reflect his words.

Just minutes after he was sworn in at the State Department in April 2018, he departed on his first foreign trip, which included Israel. This was no coincidence.

He had been less than 49 hours on the job when he met Israeli officials, and the message was clear: the Trump administration's second secretary of state is a very powerful and active official and our small country is very much a priority.

Pompeo embarked on a different path than what had been pursued by his predecessor Rex Tillerson and the State Department's bureaucracy.

He has also made sure this new approach is shown in a variety of steps and statements that double down on where the US stands on moral issues.

This has been very much apparent regarding Iran. Pompeo has presented Tehran with 12 demands that it must meet before the US lifts the sanctions it imposed as part of the administration's maximum pressure on the Islamic republic. Just this week Pompeo announced new sanctions against Iranian officials.

Another bold step that was made under his watch, through the leadership of President Trump, is on Israeli settlements. Pompeo announced earlier this month that the administration was reverting to the Reagan administration's position. Namely, the new approach means that the US no longer sees all settlements as a violation of international law just because they are settlements.







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