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Sunday, May 31, 2020

05/31 Links: Who owns the Land of Israel?; Melanie Phillips: EU second thoughts over hostility to Israel?; Between Minneapolis and Jerusalem;

From Ian:
Pastor John Hagee: Who owns the Land of Israel?
I am inspired to send this message to the 8.2 million-plus members of Christians United for Israel by the fact that months ago president trump met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington to present the administration's peace proposal. I was there!

It was a masterful proposal that gave the Palestinians the opportunity of a better life through a 50 billion dollar investment package. It was an effort that required years of work by the brilliant and talented inner circle of the president.

It was made clear at the Washington meeting that this historic peace plan could go into effect within days. If the Palestinians immediately reject the plan, the US Will be prepared to accept the enactment of Israel's sovereignty over parts of the West Bank within 48 hours.

It was made clear that this historic plan could go into effect within days. However, days have become weeks, weeks have become months.

To be clear, the Palestinians have never owned Judea or Samaria. That Israel will meet with a Palestinian leadership that still supports terrorists and incites violence against the Jewish people is a commentary on Israel's willingness to make every effort to advance peace with their neighbors, not a commentary on the Palestinians being deserving of yet another chance at the negotiating table.

Our role is to heed the commandment that we "pray for the peace of Jerusalem!" And that time is now!
Melanie Phillips: EU second thoughts over hostility to Israel?
Has the European Union reached a tipping point over Israel? Or to be more precise, is the Europeans’ bluff finally to be called over Israel’s proposal to extend its sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria?

The E.U. has been mulling over punitive measures against Israel if it goes ahead with what its western critics call “annexation of the occupied territories of the West Bank.”

A number of member states, headed by France along with Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Belgium and Luxembourg are calling for a hard line.

Measures being considered include supporting any U.N. moves against “annexation”; public support of proceedings against Israel currently underway in the International Criminal Court at The Hague; and increasing the boycott of settlements in various ways, along with increased financial support for the Palestinians.

The E.U. and Britain maintain that Israel is illegally occupying the disputed territories, and that its settlements there amount to a transfer of population into those lands in contravention of the Geneva Convention.

This is a serious misreading of international law. Israel is not “occupying” these territories. In law, occupation can only occur if the land belongs to a sovereign power, which was never the case here; and a state can also hold onto land which continues to be used for belligerent purposes against it.

It is also a gross misreading of the Geneva Convention, as the Israelis living in these territories were not transferred but moved there entirely of their own volition.
Between Minneapolis and Jerusalem
The killing of Eyad al-Hallaq in Jerusalem was unsettling, as was the horrific images of George Floyd in Minneapolis gasping for air.

Both of them civilians, both killed by police. Their tragic and outrageous deaths are part of a long history of violence.

But the similarities end there, and after observing the path social media took this weekend, maybe it needs to be said clearly: The attempt to draw parallels between Jerusalem and Minneapolis are manipulative, and in many ways irresponsible.

Joint Arab List MK Aida Touma-Sliman implored "whoever is shocked by the murder in the US, to look closely – a whole nation is choking under occupation without being able to breathe."

Leading pundits worked hard to frame the shooting of al-Hallaq as an example of systemic racism in Israel, and many even blamed the public security minister by proxy.

Others expertly determined that it was "murder", and a few self-branding mavens were quick to use the hashtag #ArabLivesMatter, the local version of #BlackLivesMatter.

That's not only self-righteous populism but a manipulative way to use conscience. The shooting in Jerusalem, as horrible as it was, did not take place on racial background, but in the context of a nationalist conflict, which unfortunately creates terror. Just this week there were those who told us an intifada was the natural and desired result of all the talk about extending sovereignty. That is the reason for police presence in Jerusalem, and that is the background for the tension.



Los Angeles Synagogue Vandalized With ‘Free Palestine,’ ‘F— Israel’ Graffiti
A synagogue in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles was vandalized on May 30 with graffiti stating “free Palestine” and “f— Israel.”

Lisa Daftari, founder and editor of the foreign policy news outlet The Foreign Desk, first reported on the graffiti on social media.

“Synagogue Congregation Beth El on Beverly Blvd in Los Angeles vandalized… Tell me this ugly hatred is still about #BLM or #GeorgeFloyd?!” she tweeted.


Jewish groups condemned the graffiti.

“Vandalism is never ok,” Anti-Defamation League Los Angeles tweeted. “Anti-Semitism is never ok. The answer to hate and bigotry is not more hate. We are better than this Los Angeles.”

American Jewish Committee Los Angeles Regional Director Richard S. Hirschhaut said in a statement to the Journal, “It is deplorable that certain protestors in Los Angeles today resorted to violence and vandalism. Sadly, their destructive opportunism included the defacing of Congregation Beth Israel, one of the oldest synagogues in Los Angeles and the spiritual home to many Holocaust survivors over the years. The epithets scrawled on the synagogue wall do nothing to advance the cause of peace or justice, here or abroad.”

Liora Rez, director of the Stop Anti-Semitism watchdog, said in a statement to the Journal, “Once again we see vile anti-Semitism being disguised as activism. To vandalize a synagogue during this horrific time does nothing but further divide a broken country.”
Palestinian-American Owner of Cup Foods Called Cops on George Floyd over Counterfeit $20
Mahmoud Abumayyaleh, a.k.a. Mike, is the owner of Cup Foods at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He and his three sons, Samir, Adam, and Mahmoud, bought the store in 2012. Last Monday, one of the Abumayyalehs’ employees lit the match that ignited a week-long riot in 25 cities.

The employee in question (his or her identity are kept secret in light of the numerous death threats posted on social media) caught the soon-to-be-martyred George Floyd, 46, an African American customer, trying to pay with a counterfeit $20 bill. So they called the cops on him.

The rest is well videotaped history: after handcuffing him, Minneapolis police officers positioned Floyd at the curb, and one of them placed his knee on his neck until he suffocated. Floyd became one of very few Americans to receive the death penalty for passing a bad bill.

According to Ali Harb, reporting for the Middle East Eye, Arab Americans are now debating their role in the midst of African American communities where Arab small businessmen have replaced Jewish and Asian store owners. Indeed, according to Harb, some Arab Americans advocate not reporting black crime to the police because of the unknown consequences of such complaints.

“Mike” Abumayyaleh told Sahan Journal (which claims it is “the only independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit digital newsroom dedicated to providing authentic news reporting for and about immigrants and refugees in Minnesota”): “We stand for Black Lives Matter. We are against abuse of power and racial injustice. We have a system that is broken, and it must be fixed.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the store, Jamar B. Nelson, said “there have been countless death threats. They threatened to do harm to the store, and they threatened to do bodily harm to individuals in the store.”
Founder of IfNotNow Rebukes Minnesota Congresswoman Who Objected to Riots
Yonah Lieberman, a Brooklyn-based founding member IfNotNow, the virulently anti-Zionist US group which supports BDS and campaigns against Democrats who support Israel, on Thursday took time out of his preparations for the holy pilgrimage day of Shavuot to lambaste Rep. Betty McCollum (D., Minn.) who dared to object to the riots in her district.

McCollum tweeted: “I’m in Washington sickened by reports of the looting in St. Paul. This is not a civil rights protest. It is criminal mayhem against our families and neighbors and I condemn it.”

“Wait what…” Lieberman retorted, “Betty is a progressive champion on so many issues, but really gets it wrong here, siding with multi-billion dollar corporations over the people of color that elected her.”

Blackness Everdeen agreed: “That’s not out of the ordinary for progressive champions, sadly.”

And Lieberman agreed: “You’re 100% right!”

Following which a Jewish human rights activist named J Lee Goldstein dropped the proverbial china plate on the hardwood floor, exclaiming: “Wait…you are cheering on looting ? That’s disgusting crime…you nut…”




Not Satire




Jerusalem students in isolation as coronavirus spreads throughout city
Several dozen if not hundreds more students and teachers in Jerusalem entered isolation on Sunday as the coronavirus continues to spread around the city – a five-fold increase in the number of people diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 in one day, according to newly appointed Health Minister Yuli Edelstein.

He said that there were 28 positive results out of 1,012 tests. The Education Ministry reported that there are 44 new students and staff sick with the virus since yesterday - around half of them from the Gymnasia Rehavia middle and high school in Jerusalem.

All of the students and staff of the Gymnasia Rehavia school are in isolation. So far, 134 students and staff have tested positive for the virus, around 8.7% of the entire school, according to an announcement by the Health Ministry,

A student at the Masorti high school in Jerusalem - the daughter of a Gymnasia staffer - tested positive, as did a teacher from the Hartman Religious Zionist boys’ high school. The math teacher also works at Gymnasia.

Additionally, an 11th grader from the Jerusalem Art School tested positive, as did a fifth grader who studies at the Zalman Aran school – also in the capital.

It was also revealed on Saturday night and Sunday that people were found to have the virus in Holon, Kiryat Ye'arim and Bnei Brak.
Ambassadors from Britain and Israel reflect on 70 years of diplomatic ties
Mark Regev, Israeli ambassador since 2016

As I approach the end of my posting here in London, I have been truly fortunate to serve during such an extraordinary time for the partnership between our two democracies. Choosing a winning moment for me is, therefore, difficult, but two stand out in particular.

The first has to be the Balfour Declaration centenary celebration at Britain’s prestigious Spencer House in November 2017. Graciously hosted by Lord Rothschild, whose predecessor was the recipient of that famous statement of British policy, and in the presence of the current Lord Balfour, the assembled great and good included Boris Johnson, then foreign secretary, and the two prime ministers, Theresa May and Benjamin Netanyahu, who was welcomed as a guest of Her Majesty’s Government.

Theresa May described the Declaration as “a letter which gave birth to a most extraordinary country”, and stressed Britain’s pride in “our pioneering role in the creation of the State of Israel”.

Benjamin Netanyahu thanked the UK for its “foresighted” declaration, for “liberating the Holy Land from 400 years of Ottoman domination”, and for “valiantly standing alone against the Nazi tyranny”. He even visited Boris Johnson’s office and saw the desk from which the Declaration was signed, used by successive foreign secretaries including Dominic Raab today.

The second moment came the next year, in June 2018, when it was our turn in Israel to roll out the red carpet for a very important guest. I was lucky enough to accompany His Royal Highness The Duke of Cambridge when he made history as the first senior British royal to pay an official visit to the Jewish state. During his incredibly busy schedule, including formal meetings with Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Rivlin and Israeli innovators, he found time to get together with Israel’s then newly crowned Eurovision queen, Netta Barzilai. I understand that the two did not attempt Netta’s famed chicken dance together.

Taken together, for me, both these historic occasions symbolise the enduring strength of the partnership Israel and Britain have built, and the progress we are continuing to make. Our democracies are closer diplomatically and economically, culturally and socially than they ever have been, and I am sure there will be yet more historic occasions for the next Israeli Ambassador to London to enjoy. Perhaps one day in the not too distant future we might even see the United Kingdom open the doors of its Embassy in Israel’s capital, Jerusalem.


Israel lauds Austrian parliament for urging action against Hezbollah
Israel on Sunday hailed the Austrian parliament’s resolution urging the government in Vienna and the European Union to step up its actions against Hezbollah.

“This is an important decision against Hezbollah. I hope that the Austrian government will adopt their parliament’s decision and will join the UK, Germany and the Netherlands who have all recognized Hezbollah in its entirety as a terror organization,” Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said in a statement.

The non-binding motion, proposed by two lawmakers from the ruling People’s Party and its junior coalition partner the Greens, passed unanimously on Friday afternoon. It calls on the Austrian government to take “appropriate and effective measures to decisively act against terrorist and criminal activity by supporters of Hezbollah in Austria with all measures available to the state.”

The resolution further calls on Vienna to do more to fight the Lebanon-based, Iranian-backed group’s money-laundering mechanism.

Finally, the motion urges the government of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz to “inspire a reassessment of the question of how to deal with Hezbollah within the EU.”

In the resolution’s introductory text, its authors, Reinhold Lopatka and Ewa Ernst-Dziedzic, reaffirm Austria’s “historical responsibility” for Israel and that the Jewish state’s right to exist must never be questioned.

“To guarantee the safety of the State of Israel in the future, the EU must again deal with Hezbollah, whose military wing has been considered a terrorist organization by the EU since 2013 and whose military activities threaten Israel’s security,” they wrote.
'The Marmara raid wasn't a failure'
Ten years after the 2010 raid on a ship trying to breach the maritime blockade on Gaza Strip, troops involved in the mission that ended with 10 dead passengers and several Israeli soldiers seriously wounded, and which all but sunk the once-close Israel-Turkey relations, insist the operation was not a failure.

The now infamous flotilla incident took place on May 31, 2010, when the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish vessel, attempted to breach the maritime blockade Israeli had imposed on the Gaza Strip three years prior, after the Hamas terrorist ousted rival Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement from the coastal enclave in a military coup.

Upon approaching Gaza's waters, the Israeli Navy hailed the Marmara several times, advising it was about to breach the blockade and ordering it to stop and turn around. The Marmara refused, leaving Israeli commandos little choice but to board the ship.

The operation was met with violence by the passengers, which clashed with the Israeli troops. Ten Turkish nationals were killed and several Israeli soldiers were seriously wounded.

Footage of the raid, especially of Israeli soldiers being assaulted and thrown overboard by the passengers, dominated the international news cycle for weeks. The incident caused a rift between Israel and Turkey, and the once warm diplomatic relations between Jerusalem and Ankara have become chilly, at best, despite Israel's $20 million reparations to the victims' families.

The experience has been etched into the memory of the Shayetet 13 Naval Special Forces Unit that led the mission.

"It wasn't the first flotilla we were required to stop, nor was it the last," one former commando told Israel Hayom.

"The unusual factor here was the number of passengers on board and the fact that we didn't know that there were about 60 IHH terrorists among them."

The Turkey-based IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, which organized the flotilla led by the Mavi Marmara, is designated as a terrorist group by Israel, Germany and the Netherlands.

"In the flotillas that preceded the Marmara we encountered peace activists – not terrorists who were paid to kill Israeli soldiers," he said."
10 Years On: A Look at the Mavi Marmara Incident
The International Criminal Court on Monday ordered the tribunal's prosecutor to reopen a probe into whether Israel should face charges over a deadly 2010 raid on a flotilla attempting to carry aid to the Gaza Strip.

Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda first ruled in 2014 that she would not prosecute Israel after ten Turkish citizens were killed when Israeli navy commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara along with a number of vessels trying to break the naval blockade on the Gaza Strip.

The case was first filed by the Comoros, where the ship's flag was registered but Bensouda ruled that it was "not of sufficient gravity," meaning the case would not be determined as inadmissible fore the ICC.

The prosecutor again affirmed the decision in 2017 after judges said she must take another look at the case.

But in a fresh setback for Bensouda after a number of high-profile failures, appeals judges ruled on Monday that she must once more examine whether to bring Israel before the Hague-based court.


Honest Reporting: Misleading Headlines Suggest Tragic Jerusalem Killing Was Deliberate
With several US cities gripped by violence following the death of George Floyd on May 25, one might think this the time for editors to show restraint from clickbait headlines adding fuel to the fire of a volatile situation.

Think again.

In a different shooting eclipsed by the furor over Minneapolis, Israeli security forces killed a Palestinian man in they mistakenly believed was carrying a gun in Jerusalem’s Old City on Saturday. When officers asked a 32-old man to stop, Iyad Halak, who is autistic, ran. Pursued by the chasing officers, he was tragically shot dead. Investigators are now questioning two members of the Border Police.

The West Bank is already combustible. A new Israeli government is weighing applying sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and settlements. The Palestinian Authority has threatened to end security cooperation. Add to that Halak’s death, and it’s easy to see how Palestinian calls for revenge could escalate.

Unlike the Minneapolis killing. the shooting of Halak took place on the backdrop of years of terrorism. With the Old City the site of repeated attacks on Israeli security forces and Jews (not all of whom were Israeli), the location is a well-known flash-point for violence. Officers stationed there are tasked with preventing the next terror attack — a question of not if, but when.

Nevertheless, headline writers opted for headlines which implied Israel heartlessly killed Halak in cold blood.


Gaza imam gets 1 year in jail for smuggling funds from Malaysia to Hamas
The Beersheba District Court on Sunday sentenced a Gaza imam to one year in jail in a plea bargain on a conviction for smuggling funds from Malaysian charities to Hamas.

The Southern District Attorney’s Office said it had encountered various evidentiary difficulties in the case, leading to the plea deal with reduced charges and a light sentence relative to the original charges.

In February, Imam Walid Div, 43, was indicted for a range of offenses related to helping finance Hamas, including traveling from Gaza to Egypt numerous times since 2013 en route to deliver religious sermons in Malaysia.

According to the indictment, while in Malaysia, Div was asked by Malaysian charities Aman Palestine and Mapim to smuggle funds into Gaza for Hamas.

In 2013, he smuggled $3,000 on behalf of the Malaysian chapter of Aman Palestine to Hamas.

Div also worked with many of the same charities to smuggle funds to Hamas from Malaysia on other occasions, including contact with the Aman Palestine chapter in Gaza.
PMW: Fatah announces “last warning,” threatens an “explosion” and “self-sacrifice,” if Israel annexes Israeli cities and Jordan Valley
PA Chairman Abbas has announced that the PA has absolved itself from “all the agreements and understandings with the American and Israeli governments… including the security ones” because of Israel's presumed future annexation - i.e., application of Israeli law - to the Jordan Valley and Jewish cities and towns in the West Bank:
Abbas: “The [Palestinian] leadership has today decided the following: First, the PLO and the State of Palestine are absolved, as of today, of all the agreements and understandings with the American and Israeli governments and of all the commitments based on these understandings and agreements, including the security ones.”
[Official PA TV, May 19, 2020]

On the day of Abbas’ speech, the official PA daily editorial also warned of impending violence. The editorial prescribed “fighting this plan… regardless of the extent of the sacrifices and the quantity of the Martyrs’ blood”:
“The possibility that stands before Palestine with its people, its leadership, and its factions… is either treason through silence over the destructive colonialist annexation plan, or fighting this plan… on the basis of resolve and perseverance in the paths of national struggle, regardless of the extent of the sacrifices and the quantity of the Martyrs’ blood. On these paths there can be no compromises of any kind; either the free and independent State of Palestine whose capital is East Jerusalem with a just resolution for the refugees’ problem, or ‘fire from generation to generation.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 19, 2020]

Abbas’ Fatah Movement has also threatened violence against Israel, promising “an explosion of the situation” and “self-sacrifice”:

Fatah, Jenin:
“We hold the Israeli occupation and the current American administration fully responsible for the explosion in the situation in the Palestinian territories, and say to them that the Palestinian people will defend its land and its right with self-sacrifice… We will not allow any occupying power to expropriate our historical Palestinian right, and we will all mobilize to fight with the sword of justice against the dark forces of occupation, until the occupation is defeated and independence is achieved.” (See full statement below)
[Official Fatah Facebook page, May 20, 2020]

Fatah in Hebron “warned” Israel that Fatah “will be watching” and that “options are completely open” – a Palestinian euphemism for threatening to use violence and terror. The Hebron branch further stressed its willingness to die for “Palestine” – defending Abbas’ decisions “with our lives, our blood, and our bodies”:
Abbas: The PA is absolvedof all agreementswith the US and Israel


Abbas: We are committed to fight international terrorism “regardless of its shape or source”


Abbas: “We are against colonialist America, the America of [Trump’s] administration”




Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians launch campaign to boycott IDF humanitarian, economic aid
Palestinian activists and journalists have launched an online campaign to boycott the social media accounts of the Ministry of Defense’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).

The COGAT unit engages in coordinating civilian issues among Israel, international organizations, diplomats and the Palestinians. Its main mission is to facilitate humanitarian issues and economic and infrastructure projects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The campaign comes on the heels of PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s May 19 decision to renounce all agreements and understandings with Israel and the US, including security cooperation.

The campaign, titled “You are either with me or with the Munasseq [Arabic for Coordinator],” specifically targets the popular Arabic accounts of the head of COGAT, Maj. Gen. Kamil Abu Rukun. As part of the campaign, Palestinians are being urged to unlike and stop following the accounts.

The Arabic Facebook page of COGAT has more than 600,000 likes, while its Arabic twitter account has more than 11,000 followers.

COGAT mainly uses the accounts to inform Palestinians about the unit’s various activities, particularly issuing permits for workers, patients and merchants to enter Israel. In the past three months, COGAT also used its social media accounts to provide Palestinians with information about the coronavirus pandemic.
Iranian-backed organizations establish a foothold in the Gaza Strip
Iran is exerting its regional influence in the Middle East and Gaza is not an exception. Social welfare programs and charities throughout the Gaza Strip have been established by Iran to influence the hearts and minds of its residents.

Iran financially and militarily supports a number of its proxies in the Middle East including militant organizations in Gaza such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees. However, Iran’s support does not solely go to Gaza’s militant groups.

During the first week of Ramadan, Harakat al Nujaba, an Iranian-backed Iraqi paramilitary group, distributed food baskets and other Ramadan gifts to the families of prisoners and those who have been killed fighting against Israel.

“A gift on the occasion of the blessed month of Ramadan, presented by al Nujaba for the families of the martyrs and captives in Palestine,” a message in the food basket read.

Furthermore, al Nujaba’s Information and Relations office stated “The staff of al Nujaba’s office in Gaza, having collected the needed medical and food supplies, distributed a package of diverse Ramadani presents among the families of martyrs and captives in ash-Shujaiyya and northern areas of the Strip, an act carried out secretly and at night for the image of the targeted families is maintained.”

The statement by al Nujaba is important because it demonstrates that an Iraqi paramilitary group funded and supported militarily by Iran has a presence in the Gaza Strip.

It is noteworthy to mention al Nujaba isn’t the first Shia movement with a military wing to operate in the Gaza Strip. Harakat al Sabireen, founded by former Palestinian Islamic Jihad members who converted to Shia Islam, operated in the Gaza Strip for some years until Hamas arrested its leader and seized the group’s weapons in 2019.

Another Iranian funded organization operating in the Gaza Strip is the Palestinian-Iranian Friendship Association (PIFA). The organization also has branches in Lebanon and Syria.










Fox Sports slammed over ‘sickening’ Hitler image
FOX Sports has tonight (Sunday) come under fire after airing a photoshopped image of Adolf Hitler as a fan at an NRL match on national television.

The incident happened on the Matty Johns Show on Fox League during the Manly Sea Eagles Vs Canterbury Bulldogs match.

NRL fans have slammed the program for airing the “distasteful” and “shockingly offensive” image.

“I understand people can get precious about things and very easily offended but this is not one of those times. You can’t make jokes about Hitler,” one fan wrote on Twitter.

Another wrote, “Sickening. The NRL has really worked hard to change the culture around league and it’s definitely improving so I’m disappointed that someone in 2020 would think Hitler jokes are funny and try and dump them in it.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said this sort of “stupidity, the casualisation of Hitler, Nazis, and by extension their crimes, is what leads to swastikas being graffitied throughout our cities and school kids being harassed with gas chamber jokes”.

Ryvchin called on Matty Johns and Fox to “tell their viewers it’s not on”.

Federal MP Josh Burns tweeted, “Please tell me this didn’t actually happen.”

As of late Sunday evening, the program had not apologised over the incident.
German government urged not to honor Holocaust rescuer with murky record
More than 200 people, including a Dutch chief rabbi, are protesting plans in Germany to honor a Holocaust-era official who is said to have both saved and doomed Jews.

The call came in a letter that the German ambassador to the Netherlands received Thursday from Hans Knoop, a Dutch-Jewish journalist. It concerned the German government’s reported plans to fund a museum named for Hans Calmeyer in Osnabruck.

As a jurist for the Nazi German forces in the Netherlands, Calmeyer was tasked with reviewing ethnicity issues, primarily in appeals by people who were registered as Jews but claimed to be Aryan.

In the 1990s, Israel’s national Holocaust museum Yad Vashem asserted that Calmeyer’s actions in his post saved at least 3,000 people, or two-thirds of the applications he reviewed.

However, newly discovered testimonies and other materials suggest that Calmeyer also arbitrarily declined solid appeals by applicants who may have been spared deportation under the Nazi occupation’s own racial laws.

According to some accounts, he also reversed the Aryan status of hundreds of civilians who never contacted his office, with tragic consequences for them. Calmeyer died in 1972. Yad Vashem is reviewing the new materials.
Creating trade opportunities between Oz, Israel
ISRAEL’S Trade Commissioner to Australia Shai Zarivatch has praised Australia for embracing innovative solutions since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and said “Down Under” is becoming a particularly attractive destination right now for Israeli firms searching for new markets.

More than 200 Israeli companies have operations in the Australian market already in fields from cyber and fin-tech to agriculture and mining, but there has been a particular wave of interest since mid-March.

Zarivatch told The AJN that, in particular, Israeli tele-health firms and cyber-related companies that focus on work-from-home solutions “have been approaching our office in unprecedented numbers”.

They are seeking business development services and advice to help match and market their innovative product solutions to the needs of potential Australian businesses, major customers and investors.

Explaining this trend, Zarivatch said, “It is in no way to argue that Israel’s handling and management of its [coronavirus] crisis and its own challenges is done in any way better than any other country – rather, it is that Israel is both highly experienced and, unfortunately very adapted to, dealing with times of extreme national emergencies and crises.

“On the Australian side, there is a very strong appreciation of Israeli technology and innovation.”
TV series starring Gal Gadot as Hedy Lamarr to be broadcast by Apple
An upcoming TV miniseries starring Israel’s Gal Gadot as Jewish movie star and inventor Hedy Lamarr will be broadcast by Apple.

The eight episode drama, titled “Hedy Lamarr,” was initially expected to land at Showtime, Variety reported on Friday.

The series will air on the Apple TV+ streaming service as one of the new platform’s upcoming original series. Its expected release date has not been announced.

Gadot, best known for starring in “Wonder Woman,” is also the executive producer of the series on Lamarr. It will be written by Sarah Treem, who is best known for her work on the Showtime series “The Affair.”

Lamarr, a stunning beauty who came to Hollywood from Europe in the late 1930s, worked with top stars including Judy Garland and Clark Gable. 1940’s “Boom Town” and “Ziegfeld Girl” in 1941 were among Lamarr’s films.

But it was her work as an inventor that distinguished her, including a patented device that became a foundation for modern Wi-Fi technology.

The new series will look at feminism during Hollywood’s golden age and World War II through Lamarr’s life and work.
Pnina Tamano-Shata: From desert exodus to member of cabinet
Only three days into the job, Aliyah and Integration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata was only beginning to really internalize her new situation. More messages of congratulations came in through Whatsapp than she could keep up with. She stiffened with discomfort at being addressed as “the minister” by her staff.

“I’m just Pnina,” she said. “The girl who arrived in Israel barefoot is still me.”

“Just Pnina,” though, doesn’t do justice to the historic moment of her ascending to her new position, as the first-ever minister of Ethiopian descent.

“This isn’t just my moment,” she said. “It’s the [Ethiopian-Israeli] community’s moment… It’s an important milestone for Israel. It’s the first time there was a woman from the community, the first time there was someone black in the government.”

But she once again brushed off the honors and added: “Now I have to prove myself with hard work, with modesty – but with determination.”
TAMANO-SHATA’S story begins in 1981 in Wuzaba, a village near Gondar in northern Ethiopia.

When she was three years old, her family, like thousands of other Jewish families, was facing starvation and abuse in a refugee camp in Sudan. They began walking through the desert towards their rescuers from the Mossad. Her mother was heavily pregnant, so her brother carried her on his back.

“Israelis don’t really know the story of what happened in Sudan,” Tamano-Shata said. “It’s a heroic story of people who loved Jerusalem and were willing to do everything for it, including making the greatest sacrifices. They knew it would be a difficult journey – but they knew it was time. That’s what we need to tell as a part of the story of the Jewish people.”
Police block highways so geese families can cross
Police officers on Friday did not duck their responsibilities when they received calls from drivers at two locations about families of geese trying to cross busy highways.

Police arrived at the two locations on routes 2 and 4 and stopped traffic to protect the geese and their chicks and allow them to cross safely.

According to Channel 12, the delay did not ruffle the feathers of drivers, who understood the importance of the brief delay to their journeys.

In fact, some even exited their vehicles and flocked to help officers locate chicks that “went rogue” and took them across the road to be reunited with the rest of the family.


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

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Oleh Musings: "The most comprehensive Zionist blog I have seen."
Carl in Jerusalem: "...probably the most under-recognized blog in the JBlogsphere as far as I am concerned."
Aussie Dave: "King of the auto-translation."
The Israel Situation:The Elder manages to write so many great, investigative posts that I am often looking to him for important news on the PalArab (his term for Palestinian Arab) side of things."
Tikun Olam: "Either you are carelessly ignorant or a willful liar and distorter of the truth. Either way, it makes you one mean SOB."
Mondoweiss commenter: "For virulent pro-Zionism (and plain straightforward lies of course) there is nothing much to beat it."
Didi Remez: "Leading wingnut"
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