12/15 Links Pt2: EU-Funded Review of Palestinian Textbooks Reeks of ‘Incompetence, Concealment’; Giant Boomerang Menorah lights up Cairns Esplanade ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Observers Say EU-Funded Review of Palestinian Textbooks Reeks of ‘Incompetence, Concealment’

Benjamin Strasser, a German politician of the Free Democratic Party, also expressed his concern and told JNS, “false school materials can cement hatred and prejudice for decades. Neither German tax revenues nor our contributions to the Palestinian Authority may be used to promote antisemitism and hatred against Israel.”

Steve McCabe MP, chair of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), blamed the British government for spending taxpayers’ money “on a review which appears deeply flawed and which we may never have the chance to see.”

He accused the government of “hiding behind the EU to escape accountability for its own inaction,” and demanded that the United Kingdom “immediately suspend all PA aid related to the delivery of the PA curriculum until wholesale and urgent revisions are guaranteed.”

LFI vice chair and Member of Parliament John Spellar sent a letter to the government on this same issue, asking for an explanation.

In an emailed statement to JNS, a spokesperson for the Delegation of the European Union to Israel defended the flawed GEI study as “being carried out according to best international standards with native Arab speaking experts being part of the research team.”

The statement said that the EU’s Final Report “will be finalized by the end of the year. … Given that the final report has not even been published yet, any criticisms at the stage are clearly premature in our view, in particular as they have been based on alleged leaks regarding a preliminary report which had no other value than to inform the scoping of the study. … We should clarify that the EU does not fund and will not fund Palestinian textbooks.”

Howard Jacobson: A Jew Is a Jew Is a Jew

Reflecting on the proximity between the deaths of two towering figures in, respectively, literature and the arts, Howard Jacobson sees a certain symmetry between the philo-Semitic Gentile and the uncomfortable Jew:

Quite what Miller supposed he achieved by refusing his Jewishness in “the face of other Jews,” or in what spirit he affirmed it only to those who hated it, is hard to fathom. But in both instances he stripped Jewishness of its amity, making it a thing of hostility and even confrontation. Wouldn’t it have been easier just to say he was a nonpracticing Jew?

Well, not if you were Alec Berman, the hero of Betty Miller’s novel Farewell Leicester Square, whose Jewishness lay like a curse on him and those who loved him. A thing “he never forgets for one moment ... it’s always there, at the back of his mind, whatever he does and wherever he is. It haunts him …” Betty Miller was Jonathan Miller’s mother. Farewell Leicester Square was written, remarkably, when she was only 22 and described the agitations of a young Jewish filmmaker in 1930s London. The London Jonathan Miller had to make his way in, 20 years later, was less hostile to Jews and so less likely to induce such paranoia as Betty Miller described. But it’s a reasonable assumption that her son read his mother’s novel at an impressionable age. He grew up in an upper-tier intellectual milieu, bristling with discomfort in the matter of being alien. Not for him, one might imagine him deciding, the enervating Jewish self-consciousness of Alec Berman.

Nothing unusual or reprehensible in that. You have to get yourself up off the canvas. But Miller continued uncomfortable and sneering. Israel displeased him in the usual, unthinking ways. To the question where else Jews could look to for refuge come the next catastrophe, he posited a sort of Darwinism of destruction: The time might have come, he said, for Judaism to die out.

Clive James sometimes gave the impression that he’d have liked to be a Jew. That’s a luxury, of course, that only a non-Jew can afford. And, unlike Miller, he was a schmoozer. I knew him well enough to benefit from his schmoozing but not so well as to get beyond it. His curiosity, though, was always genuine, as was his disappointment when he learnt I hadn’t made myself a Talmudic scholar, hadn’t learnt Yiddish, and couldn’t read more than a few words of Hebrew. He learnt Russian in order the better to read Tolstoy and would certainly not have written a novel about Jews without mastering both their ancient and their modern languages. I don’t think it was his intention to make me feel I’d failed his expectations, but I did. He was a staunch supporter of Israel and saw through the fashionable denunciations of Zionism made by people “dedicated to knowing as little as possible about the history of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians.” If there was one thing that tried his magnanimity it was partisanship built on ignorance. His own knowledge was formidable and principled, as witness Cultural Amnesia, his extraordinary 800-page tribute to 20th-century art and thought—not a feat anyone could have pulled off had they not liked keeping company with the imaginations of Jews. Maybe Jonathan Miller possessed as wide a store of knowledge but, if he did, he didn’t employ it to such generous purpose.

Jonathan Tobin: Leftist Jews Are Helping Whitewash Raphael Warnock’s Long Anti-Israel Record

When Rev. Raphael Warnock compared Israel to apartheid-era South Africa in a sermon, he probably wasn’t looking ahead to a run for the U.S. Senate. Nor was he thinking about how best to mobilize the support of leftist Jewish groups when he compared the Palestinian war on Israel’s existence to the Black Lives Matter movement, denounced the moving of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Likewise, defending Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s pastor before he became president, came naturally to Warnock since he shares the radical Chicago clergyman’s views on America and Israel, as well as in believing Jesus to be a “Palestinian” rather than a Jew. Like Wright, Warnock has also defended himself by preemptively declaring himself innocent of antisemitism.

Like so much of what Warnock said before beginning his effort to unseat Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., including his defense of socialism and attacks on the U.S. military and police, Democrats are scrambling to toss the Democrat’s public comments about Israel down the memory hole. No aspect of his party’s determination to circle the wagons around the radical Atlanta pastor’s record, however, is as disingenuous as that of Jewish Democrats to wish away his past.

Much like the way leftist groups like the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and the Anti-Defamation League have sought to grant absolution to a veteran race-baiter like Al Sharpton, many of the same people are now working even harder to pretend Warnock is a friend of the Jewish community. Hundreds of rabbis have rallied around Warnock, praising him as an ally while dismissing his past offensive statements as meaningless. Meanwhile, they seek to turn the tables on his Jewish critics by characterizing them as motivated by racism rather than concerns about Israel or the safety of Jewish people.

In doing so, Jewish leftists are demonstrating that they understand the importance of Warnock’s success to the Democratic Party in its hopes of obtaining unfettered control of the U.S. government. So if Warnock has to receive a political makeover by his Jewish friends to be transformed from a leftist enemy of Israel into what some liberal rabbis are calling a “beloved ally” of the Jewish community, then that is what they are prepared to do.

Warnock Praised Farrakhan’s Nation Of Islam In 2013: An ‘Important’ Voice

In 2013, Rev, Raphael Warnock, who is currently running for the U.S. Senate as a Democrat, called the Nation of Islam, which has been headed by anti-Semitic and racist Rev. Louis Farrakhan for decades, an “important” voice for blacks, adding, “we’ve needed the witness of the Nation of Islam.”

Warnock was prompted by a member of the audience of the 2013 event who said, “You referred to ‘the church,’ and I realize that there are many churches, but what would you say is the church’s relationship with the Nation of Islam and the Islamic movement that has a growing number of African-American members, and perhaps as a part of that, can you discuss whether the black church is having the same type of attendance problems that the so-called mainstream white churches and synagogues are having, and if so, why or why not?”

Warnock, the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta since 2005, replied, “Well, the Nation of Islam is significant, but its numbers don’t come anywhere near the membership of our churches. Its voice has been important, and its voice has been important even for the development of black theology. Because it was the Black Muslims who challenged black preachers and said you’re promulgating, you know, they called, ‘the white man’s religion. And that’s a slave religion; you’re telling people to focus on heaven meanwhile they’re catching hell.’”

“And so we’ve needed the witness of the Nation of Islam, in a real sense, to put a fire under us and keep us honest about the meaning of the proclamation coming from our pulpit,” Warnock stated.

Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, has infamously referred to Jews as termites. In 2018 he boasted that he wasn’t an anti-Semite, but “anti-termite,” calling the Jewish community and the white community “stupid.” He declared:

Radical Liberal Raphael Warnock during 2013 speech:

The voice of the Nation of Islam is “important” pic.twitter.com/yIz58bgoT6
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) December 14, 2020

Anti-Israel Activist Knocks on Doors for Team Biden in Georgia

An anti-Israel activist is knocking on doors for Team Biden in Georgia—even though the president-elect has spurned her for espousing anti-Semitic views.

Linda Sarsour, a leftist anti-Israel activist, said in a "Vote-a-thon" Facebook Live event Sunday that she had temporarily relocated to Georgia, where she will be knocking on doors and attempting to turn out the vote for Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.

"I'll probably be coming to a door near you," Sarsour said at the event, which was held by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

President-elect Joe Biden disowned the anti-Semitic activist just months ago. In August, a Biden spokesman said that Sarsour, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention's Muslim Delegates Assembly, "has no role" in the Biden campaign.

Sarsour said Sunday that she left her husband and three children and temporarily relocated to Marietta, a small town outside of Atlanta, to canvass for the Georgia Democrats.

"Don't talk to me about any other communities," Sarsour said on the call. "You, the Muslim American community in Georgia, by yourselves can literally swing this entire election and send two Democrats to the U.S. Senate, which makes Kamala Harris the deciding vote."

Democratic representatives Ilhan Omar (Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), critics of the Jewish state who share a history of making anti-Semitic remarks, also spoke at the event.

Sarsour's alleged connections to terrorist groups came to light in 2017, when the Daily Caller reported on a photograph of the activist posing alongside a known funder of Hamas. She stepped down from the board of the Women's March organization following that report.

Jewish Voice for Peace's anti-Israel activity sinks to new low - opinion

The ironically titled American nonprofit “Jewish Voice for Peace” has achieved a new low in its obsessive anti-Israel efforts. The organization has a long track record of hard-line stances against the Jewish state, including support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and the embrace of convicted terrorists such as Rasmea Odeh. Now, however, JVP seems to be taking things to even greater extremes. JVP’s actions prove unquestionably that the organization calling itself Jewish Voice for Peace is neither representative of Jews, nor of peace by any measure.

Along with other extremist organizations, JVP stirred up controversy this month with its choice of speakers for a panel on “dismantling antisemitism” that included the divisive Peter Beinart, BDS activist Barbara Ransby, and public figures Rashida Tlaib and Marc Lamont Hill, known for their own controversial antisemitic statements. Instead of bringing in leading scholars or experts on today’s antisemitism, or even a diversity of opinions, JVP invited exclusively fringe anti-Israel voices, most of whom are not even Jewish. Even the one exception, Peter Beinart, represents a very controversial opinion that is rejected by the majority of the Jewish community.

Understandably, the consensus Jewish community expressed outrage from Left to Right that some of today’s most prominent voices who have given legitimacy to antisemitism would be lecturing Jews about what is or isn’t antisemitism today.

Rashida Tlaib, the US congresswoman from Michigan with Palestinian roots, is notorious for her anti-Israel stance. She sparked uproar after her comments on the Holocaust in which she refused to mention Jews. Similarly, Marc Lamont Hill, a former CNN contributor, was fired from CNN after calling on air for a “free Palestine from the river to the sea,” commonly used to call for the eradication of the State of Israel.

Even if we assume that Tlaib and Hill made such outlandish comments from the place of ignorance and not malice, the idea that they should be lecturing anyone on what antisemitism is today is preposterous. Ignorance of antisemitism does not excuse it, and those who lack the nuance to see how their comments can be used as a tool to promote antisemitism should be condemned and rejected by the Jewish community, not given speaking gigs on a panel purporting to address the issue.

Jeremy Corbyn really sells his vision for the new project here.

Who's onboard? #JeremyCorbyn was #NewProject #Hero #Legend pic.twitter.com/zyNIzbl7C6
— Milk Media UK (@milkmedianewyor) December 14, 2020

Why France's shutdown of a pseudo-human rights NGO is so important

On 2 December, the French government shut down CCIF (Collectif contre l'islamophobie en France), a well-known group that claims to fight Islamophobia and promote human rights. This reflects an increased awareness that charities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) can pose a real threat to society – something that we at NGO Monitor have been documenting for years.

CCIF was shut down not because its leadership was arrested for terror-linked or violent activities, nor for being indicted for similar actions. Rather, CCIF was closed for creating an atmosphere of hate, discrimination, and antisemitism and for spreading conspiracy theories. The French government accused the NGO of using the façade of human rights to advance politically motivated ideologies that involve hate speech, incite to violence, and in certain cases glorification of terror and terrorists.

The government’s decision cites evidence that the senior leadership at CCIF holds extreme Islamist political views and associates with radical Islam elements (including Al Qaida fighters). The decision document goes into great detail and references specific statements and incidents, such as CCIF’s close connection to an individual who justified ritual stoning and described AIDS as a punishment for sinful behaviour. Particular attention is given to this individual also promoting antisemitism and creating an atmosphere that would allow or even call for physical violence against Jews.

Notably, in 2012 during the debate over cartoons published by Charlie Hebdo, the NGO shared caricatures by a caricaturist described by the French government as an infamous antisemite and Holocaust denier. The government also underlines CCIF’s failure to reject violence and condemn terror, which is seen as a form of endorsement.

Reflecting these concerns, for years NGO Monitor has pointed to clear connections between terror groups and senior officials at Palestinian NGOs, as well as their public endorsement of violence and glorification of terror. We highlighted multiple cases of NGOs promoting antisemitic tropes, accompanied by an almost blanket failure to condemn terror and the murder of innocent civilians.

According to @jvplive, Rasmea Odeh is a "Palestinian organizer". The only thing she organized was a coffee can full of explosives in a Jerusalem supermarket that killed 2 people and injured 9. #HowLowCanJVPgo pic.twitter.com/10lf4RN1Ss
— The Mossad: Zionists and Loving It (@TheMossadIL) December 15, 2020

‘Dehumanizing’ Guardian Report Ignores Israel’s Need to Prevent Terror Attacks

An article by Peter Beaumont in The Guardian on 29 November titled “Dehumanising: Israeli groups’ verdict on military invasions of Palestinian homes” includes several anecdotes depicting IDF raids on Palestinian homes as being conducted only to intimidate, as well as sections dedicated to the PTSD-inducing effects of these operations.

The piece is based on a “damning report” by controversial far-left organization Breaking the Silence, and demonstrates extreme bias and serves as an unreasonable representation of the Israeli military. The inaccuracies are manifold: there is not a single hard piece of evidence, but rather only unverified claims from Palestinians and political activists with a well-documented anti-Israel agenda; the situation is presented without relevant historical or political context; and the Israeli side of the story is almost completely excluded. Misleading Headline “Dehumanizes” the IDF

The title of the article is sensationalist, factually incorrect, and accusatory. It depicts search and arrest missions as “dehumanising” to conjure graphic and traumatic imagery. Similarly, the phrase “military invasions” is grossly misapplied: military invasions typically refer to the aggressive conquering of territory. A more accurate description of the activity described in the article would be “arrests”. Units in the West Bank are sent to enter homes in order to arrest either known or suspected perpetrators of terror and violence.

As a combat soldier currently serving in the Israeli military told HonestReporting, “It’s how conflict works everywhere in the world. The West Bank, for all the political nuances there are, it’s no different. We have to go in and do our job, and it’s going to cause some discomfort for whoever is in the house, whoever isn’t the suspect.”

When Israeli soldiers enter Palestinian homes to carry out an arrest, there is no systemic intent to make the citizens of those communities feel patronized or ‘dehumazined’. Rather, the IDF is fulfilling its obligation to keep Israeli citizens safe.

Another issue with the title is the use of the phrase “military invasions”. A military invasion is historically linked with the aggressive conquering of territory or governments. A more appropriate description of the activity described in the article would be “arrests”. No unit is entering Gaza or the West Bank to initiate war or begin to shift fragile political borders; they enter homes in order to arrest either known or suspected perpetrators of terror and violence.

Channel 4 News airs anti-Israel propaganda riddled with errors

Even by the standards of bias we’re used to, a recent report by Channel 4 News (“Activist Akram Salhab on the Palestinian experience of British colonialism”, Dec. 14) reached a new low in the British media’s willingness to legitimise anti-Israel propaganda – a ‘report’ that doesn’t even feign fairness.

Akram Salhab, the show’s creator and narrator, is a British-Palestinian anti-Zionist activist and former Palestinian Solidarity Campaign student coordinator who routinely accuses Israel of “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing”, and champions the Palestinians’ unlimited ‘right of return’.

Here’s the full broadcast:

The deceptions begin in the first few seconds, when Salhab complains that Palestinians’ history has been ‘silenced’ in the UK, which, as we argue later in our post, is arguably the exact opposite of the truth.

At 1:56, a Palestinian named Ziad claims his family was made refugees in 1948 as the result of the British, who “bear responsibility for it”. However, if Palestinian leaders accepted the partition plan, as the Zionist leadership did, a Palestinian state would have been created, and there wouldn’t have been even one refugee. The refugee problem is not Britain’s fault, but the result of the Arab decision to reject partition and launch a war of destruction against the nascent Jewish state.

At 3 minutes in, Salhab mentions the 1917 Balfour Declaration, and claims this was the first step in a series of events which led to their loss of the Palestinians’ homeland in 1948.

In addition to the fact that there wasn’t a distinct Palestinian national identity in 1917, Salhab’s narrative ignores the fact that, following Palestinian leaders’ rejection of the 1947 partition plan, and the 1948 war launched by Arab states, Jordan and Egypt occupied the West Bank and Gaza, and failed to create a Palestinian state within those territories. British leaders had no role in such decisions by Arab leaders.

BBC WS Arab affairs editor misleads on Sudan and Morocco

In his book ‘1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War’ historian Benny Morris notes that (p. 230 Hebrew version) “units from Yemen, from Morocco, from Saudi Arabia and from Sudan” joined the Arab forces during Israel’s War of Independence and he goes on to document battles in which the six companies of Sudanese forces fighting with the Egyptian army participated.

Arab affairs analyst and WINEP fellow Ehud Ya’ari notes that:
“Khartoum’s decision differs from the Emirati and Bahraini normalization moves in another notable respect: Sudan and Israel have a history of past military clashes and other hostile behavior. For example, Sudanese companies fought alongside the Egyptian army in the 1948 and 1967 wars. Shortly after the latter conflict, Khartoum hosted the summit at which the Arab League adopted its infamous “three no’s” policy—no peace, no negotiations, no recognition of Israel. And during the 1973 war, Sudan sent an expeditionary force to the Suez front, though only after a ceasefire had been reached, rendering the deployment largely symbolic.”

On October 11th 1973 Reuters reported on a reception for Moroccan soldiers about to depart for the Egyptian front, noting that:
“It was the second time in four months that an expedition of the Moroccan Army was leaving the western-most part of the Arab world for the Middle East. Three thousand Moroccan troops and an armoured unit have already been reported in action on the Golan Heights.”

During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, six Moroccan soldiers were taken prisoner by Israel. In July 1974 the AP agency reported on “Moroccan and Syrian troops parading before King Hassan of Morocco, after fighting alongside the Syrians on the Golan Heights”.

Sebastian Usher’s attempt to downplay the significance of the normalisation agreements by means of the inaccurate claim that Sudan and Morocco “have never really been overtly at war with Israel, not involved in wars” is clearly materially misleading to audiences.

Long Island Jewish school's website hacked with Nazi images, slurs

Anti-Semitic images, slurs and songs were posted on the website of a Jewish school in Long Island on Monday in an apparent hack, video shows.

The North Shore Hebrew Academy High School’s homepage was splattered with a Swastika and clip of marching Nazi SS guards, according to the footage posted on Twitter.

More Nazi imagery was also posted on the “About Us” page, which was hacked to read “The k–e race.”

“North Shore Hebrew Death Camp,” another page read.

The non-profit foundation StopAntisemitism.org — which shared the video on Twitter –said that the personal information of students and teachers at the Great Neck school were also leaked in the cyber-breach.

“A Hebrew Academy in Great Neck (Long Island), NY is being hacked!,” the post read.

“Nazi songs, imagery, messages continue to be posted. They have also leaked students’ and teachers’ addresses and credit card information.”

A picture of Adolf Hitler was also posted on a page that called the school the “North Shore Concentration Camp.”

More pictures from the hack. pic.twitter.com/4hLnf91JUE
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) December 14, 2020

Pressure to Resign Growing on New Hampshire Legislator Who Posted Link to Neo-Nazi Website

Residents of the New Hampshire town of Laconia are demanding the resignation of a Republican state legislator who posted a link to an article on a neo-Nazi website that included a viciously antisemitic cartoon.

Newly-elected state representative Dawn Johnson shared a Dec. 7 post from the “Daily Stormer” — a website run by an American Hitler-worshiper, Andrew Anglin, that is named in honor of the Nazi gutter newspaper “Der Sturmer.”

The article shared by Johnson regurgitated unsubstantiated claims that last month’s US presidential election was rigged in favor of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

At the foot of the piece was a cartoon showing the Republican governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, standing next to a crudely-drawn stereotype of an elderly Jewish man carrying a sign that announced “rent hike effective immediately.” The caricature was accompanied by the caption, “Riggers, Jews…Bad News.”

Johnson, who also serves on the Laconia School Board, later expressed regret for sharing an article from a neo-Nazi outlet. “I have removed the report as it came from a source I do not agree with and thanks to a couple of people who showed me,” she wrote on her Facebook page.

However, Johnson has firmly rejected calls for her resignation from both the New Hampshire legislature and the local school board.

South African Jews Moved by Heartfelt Apology From Former Student Leader Who Declared, ‘I Love Hitler’

South African Jewish leaders have welcomed a “truly remorseful” public apology from a former student activist who caused outrage in 2015 by declaring “I love Hitler” and calling Jews “devils.”

Mcebo Dlamini — who in 2015 served as chair of the Student Representative Council at the University of Witswatersrand in Johannesburg — laid out his apology in a two-page open letter addressed to the “Jewish community.”

Dlamini’s original offense involved a Facebook post titled “I love Hitler,” which he then defended by saying that the German dictator managed to “uplift the spirit of the German people,” as well as praising his “organizational skills.”

“What puzzles me is that people make the Jewish Holocaust … to be worse than the black apartheid,” he stated.

In a subsequent radio interview that brought about a law suit from the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), Dlamini opined that Jews were “devils…good for nothing…They are uncircumcised in heart.”

In his letter, Dlamini acknowledged that, in 2015, he had “uttered statements about Jews and Israelis that were not only provocative but also extremely offensive.”

“It is only in retrospect that I began to appreciate how much my statements were both ill-advised and to a certain extent dangerous because they ignored the kind of trauma that they caused,” he wrote.

Rio inaugurates long-awaited Holocaust memorial with 72-foot-tall tower

Rio de Janeiro inaugurated a Holocaust memorial that includes a 72-foot-tall tower and overlooks the Sugarloaf Mountain, one of South America’s most famous landmarks.

Several government officials and Jewish communal representatives attended an inauguration event in Brazil’s second largest city on Sunday. Brazil’s Secretary of Communications Fabio Wajngarten, who is Jewish, represented President Jair Bolsonaro.

“I am a grandson of Holocaust survivors. My grandmother had a number tattooed on her arm and what she told me I will never forget. We cannot forget the atrocities of the Holocaust,” Wajngarten said.

The memorial’s tower is divided into 10 parts, representing the Ten Commandments. At its base, the sentence “Thou shalt not kill” is written. A large underground space houses a high-tech interactive exhibition area.

Brazil’s Supreme Court president, Judge Luiz Fux, stressed that one cannot remain indifferent to the pain of others and quoted Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

“Indifference is the greatest danger for humankind. All of this was due to indifference. Not remembering the Holocaust means killing these people again,” said Fux, a Rio-born grandson of Romanian Jewish refugees who became the first Jewish president of Brazil’s highest court earlier this year.

Israeli drip irrigation emerges to solve rice paddy problem

An Israeli company has developed a drip irrigation system for growing rice to replace the flooded paddies that have supplied the world with rice for generations but cause a surprising level of damage to the environment.

Rice is the staple food for more than half the global population, but its cultivation uses 30-40% of the world’s freshwater and is responsible for 10% of manmade emissions of greenhouse gas methane, according to the U.N.-backed Sustainable Rice Platform.

Netafim, a company that pioneered drip irrigation decades ago to grow produce like potatoes and melons across Israel's challenging arid landscape, has just finished a pilot scheme using its technology on 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) of rice fields in locations from Europe to southern Asia.

At one such location, at La Fagiana farm in northeast Italy, two fields, side-by-side, grow a high quality rice for risotto. One is flooded, covered entirely by up to 15 cm of water to maintain temperatures and keep away weeds.

Israeli scientists turn the tide against toxic water bacteria

An Israeli startup has developed a new weapon to fight the spread of a killer bacteria that threatens to turn lakes and oceans toxic.

Authorities in Florida called in BlueGreen Water Technologies after two large lakes showed signs of infestation by algal blooms that grow from cyanobacteria and have contaminated bodies of water across the globe. The company has successfully treated similar outbreaks as far away as China, Russia and South Africa.

“We pride ourselves,” said the company’s chief technology officer Moshe Harel, “in taking care of the world’s most precious resource: water.”

Cyanobacteria are present in most lakes and oceans, but a buildup of nutrients from fertilizers and pollution, together with rising temperatures, can accelerate their growth into harmful algal blooms that starve the water of oxygen and turn it toxic. The “alarming increase” is “threatening sustainability of lakes and reservoirs worldwide,” according to researchers in China.

Last spring, slimy blue-green algae began appeared one morning in Lake Minneola near Orlando, Florida. Even when it seemed to die off, the pungent foam kept away many of the swimmers and boaters who usually flock to its shores.

Florida is not alone. The toxic algal blooms that threatened its waters affect half of the world’s freshwater lakes and millions of square miles of ocean, causing more than $250 billion in damage to the economy, environment and people’s health.

Israelis, tourists can now pay for public transportation with all-in-one app

Moovit and Pango, two of Israel’s most popular transportation apps with millions of users, have teamed up to improve the payment and travel experience for passengers. The cooperation paves the way for riders in Israel, starting Tuesday, to get public transit information, help with travel planning and easy mobile payment all in one app.

Moovit, a startup acquired by Intel Corp. in May for some $900 million, is a free, crowdsourced application that provides real-time information about public transportation schedules in Israel and abroad, and as of May was used by 930 million riders in 3,400 cities across 112 countries as of mid December.

The Pango app allows users in Israel to pay for parking, toll roads, rescue services, refueling services and even purchases at Sonol convenience stores. Pango will provide the technology for user accounts and payment clearing in the new app.

The new service, according to a statement, will revolutionize payment for public transportation in Israel as riders will be able to pay their fares via the Moovit app without having to buy and top up a travel card – called a Rav Kav card — in advance, and without concerns of losing or forgetting it.

Rav Kav cards are used on public transportation but can be a problem for one-time users or tourists who do not have the card, as buses have stopped selling tickets on board.

Jay Leno on Support of Israel: ‘I Don’t Like to See People Get Picked On’

Television icon and comedian Jay Leno talked about his avid support for Israel and the Jewish people during the StandWithUs “Festival of Lights” virtual gala on Sunday night.

“My dad said you always want to be proud of who you are, and that’s why I like Jews. They’re proud of who they are,” the former host of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” told Jewish comedian Elon Gold in a pre-recorded message that aired during the live Hanukkah event.

“Here they are, this little country surrounded by people who literally hate them, and the fact that [these] people are proud of who they are and they stick together—that’s what I like. I like seeing people who are proud of who they are because if you don’t have pride in yourself, you’re not gonna get anywhere,” he added. “So, for me, I like that sort of Jewish pride.”

Speaking to Gold from his garage, where he touts an extensive car collection, Leno shared stories about his relationship with the Jewish community. He reminisced about being a “Shabbos goy” for his neighbors when he was a kid growing up in New York and one of his first comedic gigs performing for Orthodox Jews at a bungalow colony in the Catskill Mountains.

He also told a joke that he once shared with a rabbi who asked Leno for something humorous to use in his sermon for Rosh Hashanah and told of memories with Orthodox Jewish scriptwriter Marvin Silverman, who wrote for his talk show and would make up Jewish holidays so he could take off from work.

When asked by Gold why he supports Israel, Leno replied: “I don’t like to see people get picked on. I remember there was a Chassidic kid in our school, and he would always get picked on, and I went over and made friends with him. And he was the same as everybody else. When you’re a kid, you have to learn that people are the same.”

Giant Boomerang Menorah lights up Cairns Esplanade: Far North Queensland

To celebrate the 2020 Chanukah season, Chabad North Queensland lit up a giant boomerang menorah at the Cairns Esplanade. The life size menorah, was constructed entirely of boomerangs and provided Cairns’ Jewish and wider community with a safe way to celebrate Chanukah amid the pandemic.

On Sunday the 13th of December, Chabad North QLD, an organization dedicated to spreading Jewish awareness and education, hosted this unique candle-lighting ceremony to promote Chanukah. This year’s menorah lighting is done with the recognition of the crucial need for a message of hope during what for many is a very difficult time. Chabad North QLD will also distribute menorahs, candles, and Chanukah-at-home kits to those celebrating at home.

The boomerang menorah was created with the blessings of the current elders of the Ydinji tribe, the native indigenous traditional owners of the Cairns esplanade and area, showing the shared cultural history of the two nations of which Chanukah represents.

“The menorah serves as a symbol of light and hope for us today amidst the darkness of the pandemic, as it did for generations before us,” said Rabbi Ari. “The flames of the menorah shine out into the night, reminding us that even when confronted with much darkness, a tiny light can dispel it all. Another act of goodness and kindness, another act of light, can make all the difference.”

Im crashing Hanukkah this year guys...

By donating part of my last week’s game check to the Tree of Life synagogue here in Pittsburgh.

Happy Holidays!

-Hulk
— Zach Banner (@ZBNFL) December 15, 2020

Bahraini, UAE Delegation Attends Hanukkah Candle-Lighting Ceremony at Kotel

A delegation from the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain took part in a Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony at the Western Wall on Monday night.

Speaking at the event, Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch said, “Who would have believed that peace would come to our home in such a glorious way? It is a Hanukkah miracle to see a delegation from the Emirates and Bahrain that is taking part in the candle lighting.”

Rabinovitch also thanked medical workers at the event, saying, “In the name of the people of Israel, I want to thank you, bless you and send you strength. A little bit of light pushes away much of the darkness. Your light—the light of the mission, the light of a love of Israel, a light of dedication, illuminates us all.”

Also in attendance at the event was Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, who thanked the doctors and nurses he said were “fighting the coronavirus day and night.”

He said that just as in the days of the Maccabees, “now too, we haven’t relied on a miracle. Many have worked day and night, in the full sense of the word, in order to bring this miracle closer.”

I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate #Chanukah, the Jewish holiday of light and hope, than with @sharakango delegation of civil society leaders from #UAE & #Bahrain, lighting a Chanukah candle at the Western Wall in Jerusalem! pic.twitter.com/7RdLQt9KH9
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) December 14, 2020

Lights of Remembrance - Jewish families celebrate #Hanukkah during WWII in the Netherlands, 1943.

Most of the people in this photo were murdered by the Nazis during the #Holocaust.

May their memory forever be a blessing. We remember. pic.twitter.com/gurn10Uuic
— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) December 14, 2020

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