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Saturday, July 31, 2021

07/31 Links: Mixed judo team wins bronze, 2nd medal for Israel; Congress must fix UNRWA’s Hamas problem; GOP senators introduce bill for Israel label on West-Bank products;

From Ian:

Mixed judo team wins bronze, 2nd medal for Israel at Tokyo Olympics
Israel’s mixed team in judo won a bronze medal at the Olympics on Saturday, the nation’s second medal at the Tokyo games.

The team scored a victory over their Russian opponents in the consolation round of an event that is being held for the first time this year.

In the battle for bronze, Israeli judoka Gili Sharir lost to Madina Taimazova, giving a 1:0 lead to the Russians.

However Sagi Muki took his bout against Mikhail Igolnikov, bringing the Israelis level at 1:1.

Next up was Raz Hershko who beat Aleksandra Babintseva to take the Israelis ahead 2:1, before Peter Paltchik took the score to 3:1.

A final victory for Timna Nelson-Levy gave Israel a 4:1 win and a spot on the podium.

Muki said the whole team had given everything they had to win the medal.

“Everyone here gave their heart and soul, and together we did it,” he said.

After a week of losses for Israel’s judokas, Paltchik said that the team had finally come together on Saturday.

“Everyone had a week that was very disappointing on a personal level, but something about this special day led to everyone giving a little more for the team, and that’s what made the difference,” he said of the victory. “We were eulogized too soon.”




Congress must fix UNRWA’s Hamas problem
The House Appropriations Committee this month approved the annual foreign aid bill on a party-line vote. The proposal includes the Biden administration’s full request to provide at least $150 million, with no strings attached, to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. The proposal is highly controversial, with scrutiny growing over the organization’s ties to terrorist entities in Gaza. As Senate appropriators eye their own markup, now is not the time for blank checks. Members of both parties should demand much-needed changes.

The urgent need for reform and oversight of UNRWA has been obvious for years. The organization has inflated its registry by falsely accepting the descendants of refugees into its ranks. This has led to bloated budgets and the needless perpetuation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

But the need for reform became increasingly obvious in the wake of the recent Gaza war. The drama began when the guns fell silent. Matthias Schmale, the director of operations for UNRWA in Gaza, told Israel’s Channel 12 that Israeli military operations during the war were carried out with “sophistication” and “precision.” This ran counter to the Hamas narrative that Israel was attacking Gaza indiscriminately. Indeed, Schmale was confirming that Israel operated within bounds of international law during the war.

Schmale also noted, to the surprise of the Israeli anchor interviewing him, that during “the 11 days of war, we did not run out of food, water, and supplies …. So, from my point of view, there is no acute or serious shortage of medical supplies, food, or water.” Again, this was not the Hamas narrative.

Finally, Schmale ceded that UNRWA “cannot work in a place like Gaza without coordinating with the local authorities [Hamas]; that’s true for any autocratic regime of this nature.” This was the real bombshell. Schmale’s interview acknowledged that UNRWA was actively coordinating with Hamas — a terrorist group pursuant to the laws of most Western countries that support his agency.

Not surprisingly, Hamas authorities soon declared Schmale to be persona non grata in the Gaza Strip. He had broken ranks. His organization for more than a decade had toed the Hamas line, parroting the organization’s false accusations against Israel and pretending that its operations inside the Gaza Strip were not structured as a quid pro quo. UNRWA has some serious explaining to do. And Congress should be posing tough questions.


GOP senators introduce bill for Israel label on West-Bank products
Seven Republican senators are backing a bill that would enshrine as law one of former President Donald Trump’s final orders — requiring products from the portion of the West Bank controlled entirely by Israel to be labeled as originating in Israel.

The Anti-BDS Labeling Act introduced this week by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., refers to the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel. It comes on the heels of the controversy surrounding ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s recent decision to pull its products out of the West Bank. Republican lawmakers, however, have been talking about enacting the Trump order since Dec. 23, when the lame-duck president issued the measure less than a month before leaving office.

Biden has not rescinded the order, which applies to goods manufactured in Area C, which is under Israeli control. Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had contemplated annexing the area.

The bill has no chance of passage in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Area C is where Jewish settlements are concentrated, although it also includes a Palestinian population.

Also in the West Bank are the much smaller Area A, which is under total Palestinian Authority control, and Area B under joint Israel-P.A. control. Under Trump’s order, products from those areas are labeled as coming from the West Bank.

In addition to Cotton, the bill is being backed by Marco Rubio and Rick Scott of Florida; Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee; Ted Cruz of Texas; and John Boozman of Arkansas.


Dore Gold: Israel's Jordan policy misrepresented in the press - opinion
Anyone who has been in public life can find himself misrepresented in the press, but sometimes there are broader implications for what has been written. Last Sunday, Fareed Zakaria interviewed Jordan’s King Abdullah on his CNN show, when all of a sudden the interviewer threw out “Dore Gold, an influential adviser to prime minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, recently said, Jordan needs to start thinking of itself as the Palestinian state.”

Whether he realized it or not, Zakaria was feeding into a long-held fear in Jordan that Israel was scheming to solve the Palestinian problem at Jordan’s expense. The problem was that I never uttered the words that were attributed to me. Having been a diplomatic envoy to Jordan in the 1990s, I knew how careful a representative of the Israeli government had to be when it came to this subject. That I would make a statement of this sort was not only inaccurate but it also underestimated the sensitivity Israeli envoys had for their eastern neighbor.

So where might a top American journalist gain the impression that this was nonetheless Israeli policy – or the policy that I advocated? In 2006, Hamas won the Palestinian elections in both the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. At the time, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs hosted the former Jordanian prime minister, Abdelslam al-Majali. In our meetings, and in public addresses he gave in Washington, Majali proposed a peace arrangement based on a confederation between the West Bank and Jordan. He said that this configuration had the support of the king.

Having been a part of roundtable discussions between Israelis and various Arab parties in Rome in the years that followed, the confederation option was discussed. No one said that this means that Jordan is the Palestinian state. It would be a complete misinterpretation of those discussions to reach such a conclusion. But this mythology persisted that this was what Israel was seeking to implement.
82 MKs appeal to Polish counterparts to block anti-restitution law
Amid a spat between Israel and Poland over a law being advanced by Warsaw to prevent restitution to heirs of property seized by the Nazis during the Holocaust, 82 of Israel’s 120 members of Knesset signed a letter earlier this week to members of the Polish parliament asking them to oppose the legislation.

“We, members of Israel’s Knesset, are contacting you with a request to vote against the law that denies Holocaust survivors and descendants of Holocaust victims [the right] to demand the return of the property stolen from them,” reads a Hebrew-language version of the letter published by the Ynet news website.

If adopted, the law would prevent property ownership and other administrative decisions from being declared void after 30 years, which would mean that pending proceedings involving Communist-era property confiscations would be discontinued and dismissed. It affects Polish, Jewish and other property claims that are subject to contested previous determinations.

“There is no doubt that Poles took part in the persecution, theft and extermination” during the Holocaust, reads the letter spearheaded by Likud MK May Golan and Yesh Atid MK Yorai Lahav Hertzanu. “That is the historic truth and it cannot be changed. The attempt by Poland to distance itself from the crimes committed in its territory by Poles is mistaken and dangerous, because how is it possible to educate young people not to repeat crimes that weren’t committed?”

The lawmakers added: “We implore you — as Polish citizens, as public leaders, as humans — to acknowledge the crimes and act to fix them. Not just for the sake of the victims’ memory and respect for the survivors, and not for the sake of the relations between our countries, but for Poland. Acknowledging history, not rewriting it, is the act that would increase the respect for the Polish nation.”
Meretz lawmaker faces internal pushback for rejecting use of term ‘occupation’
Meretz lawmaker Yair Golan faced internal pushback from a senior official in the left-wing party, after saying he refuses to use the word “occupation” to describe Israel’s military control over the West Bank.

“What Golan does not understand is that the ‘occupation’ doesn’t refer to the capture of the land but the situation in which 3.5 million Palestinians have been in for 54 years,” Uri Zaki, a member of Meretz’s leadership, wrote Saturday on Twitter.

He added: “Living under a military occupation, without basic rights or citizenship, while alongside them more and more Israeli citizens in the same territory have full democratic rights.”

Zaki, who is the partner of Meretz Minister Tamar Zandberg, said it was “very sad that comments like these came from a MK included on the Meretz [electoral] list.”

The criticism of Golan came a day after he made the remark in an interview with Channel 12 news, which noted that the term “occupation” appears numerous times in the party’s platform.

“This word has a connotation of a callous act, as if we took a piece of land that we have nothing to do with. Ultimately our roots are in the territory of Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem,” Golan said, using the biblical names for the West Bank.

“I dream of the land of the bible,” he added. “I tell my friends on the right, my connection to every clump of the Land of Israel is no less than yours.”
Biden’s Pick for Anti-Semitism Envoy Said Ilhan Omar’s Israel Comments Were Anti-Semitic
President Joe Biden’s pick for U.S. envoy to combat anti-Semitism once called Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D., Minn.) comments on Israel anti-Semitic in nature.

Deborah Lipstadt, a Holocaust historian and leading expert on anti-Semitism, was formally nominated Friday to serve in the State Department as U.S. ambassador to combat and monitor anti-Semitism. In 2019, Lipstadt told Jewish Insider that Omar’s depiction of pro-Israel Americans as having "allegiance to a foreign country" is a clear example of anti-Semitism.

"I believe it is" anti-Semitic, Lipstadt said. "Dual loyalties is part of the textbook accusations against Jews. They are cosmopolitans, globalists, not loyal to their country or fellow citizens."

While Omar has said multiple times that she does not view her remarks as anti-Semitic, the lawmaker’s views are colored by this attitude, according to Lipstadt.

Omar "may think she is only criticizing Israel and its policies but one cannot ignore the fact that she is relying on traditional anti-Semitic tropes to do so," she said. "What it suggests to me is that, at best, these people exist in a place where anti-Semitism is out in the ethosphere; they hear it, breath it in, and don’t even recognize it as anti-Semitism."

Lipstadt will need to be confirmed by the Senate before assuming her role. She is expected to garner broad bipartisan support given her status as one of the leading authorities on anti-Semitism.


Lebanese athlete said to pull out from MMA contest to avoid facing Israeli
A Lebanese mixed martial arts fighter announced on Saturday that he will not compete in an upcoming championship in Bulgaria to avoid facing an Israeli opponent, according to media reports.

Abdullah Miniato and his coach Muhammad Al-Gharbi said they are withdrawing from the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation Youth MMA World Championships, after a draw placed Miniato against an Israeli, the Hezbollah-affiliated al-Manar said.

The Lebanese television station said that the player “refuses to recognize Israel or practice any form of normalization” and therefore pulled out of the competition immediately upon learning who he’d face.

The IMMAF Youth MMA World Championships for 12 to 18-year-olds is being held this weekend in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Seven Israeli athletes are registered, according to the event’s organizers. Eight are from Lebanon, including Miniato.

There was no immediate statement from the IMMAF on the matter.
US State Department okays potential sale of 18 heavy lift helicopters to Israel
The US State Department said Friday it approved the potential sale of 18 Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion heavy lift helicopters to the Israel Defense Forces as part of a deal worth up to $3.4 billion.

The Defense Ministry chose the US-made helicopter earlier this year to replace the IDF’s fleet of CH-53 Sea Stallions which have been in service since the 1960s.

The deal includes engines, navigation systems, weaponry, support equipment, spares and technical support, the Reuters news agency reported.

Although a contract has not necessarily been signed, the State Department said in a statement that “the United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability.”

The prime contractors on the deal are the Lockheed Martin Corp and General Electric Co.

The Defense Ministry had been wavering between the Boeing CH-47 Chinook and Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion heavy transport helicopters to replace its 50-year-old CH-53 helicopters, whose Israeli version is named Yassur.

When Defense Minister Benny Gantz came into his post he ordered the military to reconsider its plan to purchase the V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft, which can function as both an airplane and a helicopter, giving the military — particularly special forces — greater flexibility.
Seth Frantzman: Iran trying to draw retaliation red line at sea against Israel
Within hours of reports that an Israel-linked ship had been targeted by drones off the coast of Oman some pro-Iranian social media accounts and media began to discuss the attack as “retaliation” for what they claim are Israeli attacks. The claims appear to point to a new Iranian red line that is being drawn at sea. The message from Tehran is that this is where Iran will strike. Iran has the drones and weapons, such as mines and IRGC fast boats, to target commercial vessels. It has done so over the last several years. It is saying it will strike at what it sees as a soft underbelly of Israel, or a kind of weak link, which is commercial shipping.

What is Iran openly saying? Press TV released a clip on Saturday claiming that “informed sources believe that the raid has been in response to an Israeli missile attack on Syria.” Press TV quotes western media and Israeli sources, appearing to launder information on the attack to others. What matters here is the overall depiction of this attack as an escalation, a response and a new type of response. This is because all the former attacks did not appear to try to inflict casualties. This attack apparently involved precision drone strikes aimed at areas where crew would have been on the ship.

Defense and security analyst Farzin Nadimi writes that that the unique “Attack was designed to be merciless: one of the drones was directly aimed at the tanker's bridge, to kill people, because it was in retaliation for April 24 attack off Baniyas against Lebanese/Iranian product carrier Wisdom, in which 3 were killed, incl 2 crews [sic].” He notes that “this attack was a follow-up to the Jul 5 attack on CSAV Tyndall which was a misidentification. If Israel chooses to retaliate in kind, Iran will do the same.” Al-Alam TV in Iran says the attack was retaliation for a July 22 airstrike near Qusayr in Syria at Al-Dabaa airbase.

Veteran war correspondent Elijah Magnier asserts that this attack represents a new phase as well. “Iran started a ‘battle between wars’ against Israel. The Israeli killing of members of the ‘Axis of the Resistance’ in Syria won't be disregarded. Israel was expecting a reaction from #Iran following the attack in #Syria against al-Daba'a airport. Therefore, it should stop playing the victim and understand that every act of killing will be met by a similar act in the future,” he writes.

Meanwhile Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has slammed Iran in the context of the incident and he has spoken with the UK’s Foreign Secretary. "Iran is not just an Israeli problem, but an exporter of terrorism, destruction and instability that harms us all. The world must not be silent in the face of Iranian terrorism," Lapid said.
Seth Frantzman: Deadly attack on Israel-linked tanker is major escalation - analysis
IRAN HAS been practicing using drones at sea in recent drills and operations, and has tested drones and missiles for precision attacks. The Islamic Republic has also outfitted IRGC fast boats with small drones that can be launched from the boats. Hours after the first reports of the attack on the tanker, the Saudis said they thwarted a drone attack on a ship as well.

The picture emerging is that Iran was behind the attack – and that it was sophisticated. Tehran has previously been careful about using drones to kill people. In September 2019 it used more than a dozen drones and cruise missiles to attack Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq facility, but no one was killed. In Iraq the Iranian drones have not killed US personnel, but targeted a CIA hangar.

What this means is that this is a potential game changer. While there have been numerous incidents at sea in the last six months, the overall goal of those carrying them out appears to be to avoid casualties. Iran, for instance, likely mined ships in May and June 2019 in the Gulf of Oman, but no one was killed. The question will be how countries that have now been threatened will respond.

The National’s report says that the British military group said it was "investigating another unexplained incident in the same area, but did not elaborate.” This is unclear but it hints that something else happened.

The fact that a drone attacked an oil tanker is also an escalation from attacks on commercial cargo ships. “At the time of the incident, the vessel was in the northern Indian Ocean, travelling from Dar es Salaam to Fujairah with no cargo on board,” Zodiac said of the incident. The fact that the ship had no cargo may mean that whoever planned the attack didn’t want to risk a major oil spill. However, the fact they killed two people would appear to point to a murderous act. Whether the international community and local naval powers will take this seriously remains to be seen.
Seth Frantzman: What does Iran's use of drones against ships mean for the future?
IF IRAN has reached a new level of precision drone strikes and is using them against shipping in deadly attacks, this is a major milestone. Iran may also be moving these drones to the Houthis or others, or basing them on ships. Iranian ships have recently sailed all the way to Russia, around Africa, and brought drones with them. It has also placed drones on its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fast boats. Additionally, Iran has tested drones in recent naval exercises.

The Iran threat from drones based in Syria, or with Hezbollah, Hamas and pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, was known. The Houthi drone threat was also well known, and in addition, Iran’s use of drones to attack Saudi Arabia’s Aramco oil-processing facilities in Abqaiq in September 2019 was a major incident that some experts described as a sort of Pearl Harbor in using this technology.

Air defenses have been improving against drones, but the Houthis continue to use them against Riyadh, and pro-Iran militias in Iraq have showcased dozens of Iranian drones that are now in their arsenal. It is believed they used a drone to strike a secret CIA hangar in Erbil in the Iraqi Kurdistan Autonomous Region in April of this year. In 2019 it is also believed that the Kataib Hezbollah proxy, active in Iraq, used an Iranian-supplied drone to strike at Saudi Arabia.

Iran also used drones to monitor attacks on ISIS and in Syria in 2017 to help fight ISIS. It also used drones flown from Kirkuk in 2018 to target Kurdish dissidents; in July 2019 it again used a new drone unit to target Kurds.

All of this shows how Iranian drones and drone technology are now a major emerging threat: from Lebanon all the way through Syria and Iraq to the Persian Gulf and then to the Gulf of Oman and Yemen, stretching thousands of miles and potentially putting ships and forces from the US and many allies and partners in danger.

Iran may be signaling that it will strike using drones at sea in deadly attacks in what it claims are responses to Israeli strikes in Syria or elsewhere. A pro-Iran social media account says that Tehran’s armed drone ability is increasing and that this incident showcases the new Iran policy of retaliation.
Israel passing intel to US, UK tying Iran to deadly attack on ship — report
Israel has been providing the United States and United Kingdom with intelligence showing Iran was responsible for a deadly drone attack against an Israeli-operated ship, in an effort to ramp up international pressure on Tehran, according to a Saturday television report.

Israel was arguing to the international community that Iran didn’t just hurt this country with Thursday’s attack, but harmed global interests, including shipping routes, Channel 12 news reported. The Jewish state has been holding talks with the US and UK over the past day and passed on the information marking Iran as culpable, the report said.

“Iran is not just an Israeli problem, but an exporter of terrorism, destruction, and instability that are hurting us all,” Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said on Friday.

The MT Mercer Street oil tanker, managed by an Israeli billionaire, was struck on Thursday in the northern Indian Ocean, killing two crew members — one British and one Romanian national — in what American and Israeli officials said was a drone-style attack.

A senior Israeli government source said on condition of anonymity Friday evening that “Iran is sowing violence and destruction in every corner of the region. They were so eager to attack an Israeli target that they’ve embroiled themselves and incriminated themselves in the killing of foreign citizens.”

The source said that with a new hardline Iranian president set to be sworn in, “the masks are coming off and no one can pretend they don’t know the character of the Iranian regime.


US Military Says it is Assisting Tanker That Was Attacked off Oman
The US Navy is assisting an Israeli-managed petroleum products tanker that was fatally attacked on Thursday off the coast of Oman, the US military said on Saturday, adding the ship was most likely hit by a drone strike.

The Mercer Street, a Liberian-flagged, Japanese-owned vessel, is currently being escorted by the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, the US Central Command said in a statement.

“US Navy explosives experts are aboard to ensure there is no additional danger to the crew, and are prepared to support an investigation into the attack,” said the Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia.

“Initial indications clearly point to a UAV-style (drone) attack,” it added.

Israel’s foreign minister blamed Iran on Friday for the attack, which killed two crewmen, a British and a Romanian.

US and European sources familiar with intelligence reporting said on Friday Iran was their leading suspect for the incident, which a US defense official said appeared to have been carried out by a drone, but stressed their governments were seeking conclusive evidence.

Al Alam TV, the Iranian government’s Arabic-language television network, cited unnamed sources as saying the attack on the ship came in response to a suspected, unspecified Israeli attack on Dabaa airport in Syria.


Khaled Abu Toameh: Despite thaw in relations, Palestinians to step up ‘popular resistance’
Despite the apparent rapprochement between the new Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian officials called this weekend for escalating the “popular resistance” against IDF soldiers and settlers in the West Bank.

The officials accused the IDF of killing three Palestinians in the West Bank last week, a move which, they said, shows that the Israeli government “is not serious about improving its relations with the Palestinians.”

One of the victims was 12-year-old Mohammed al-Alamy, who was reportedly shot by IDF soldiers at the entrance to the village of Beit Umar on the Bethlehem-Hebron highway. After his funeral, Shwkat Awad, 20, was shot dead during clashes with IDF soldiers, according to the PA Health Ministry.

In a third incident, Palestinians said that Shadi Salim, 41, an employee with the Beita Municipality near Nablus, was shot dead by troops near the town. Security sources said that he was targeted after he approached soldiers in a menacing manner while holding what appeared to be an iron bar.

Last week, the Israeli and Palestinian health and environmental protection ministers held rare meetings as part of a US-sponsored effort to improve relations between the two sides.
BDS Announces Boycott of the Palestinian Authority, Citing “Close Economic Ties With Israel” (satire)
In a surprising turn of events, organizers of the BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) have announced that the internationally recognized political representative of the Palestinians – the Palestinian Authority (PA) – will become a target of their activities. The BDS movement, originally a place where anti-Semites could hide behind a more civil banner, is dedicated to convincing people, governments, and corporations that Israel is worth thinking about in their spare time. Still attempting to boycott anything related to Israel, it appears that BDS is collecting controversies like Jews collect pennies (to put it in terms they’d understand). Despite this questionable position, support for BDS remains strong, leading many followers to wonder about their newest announcement concerning the PA.

“The PA has all the hallmarks of an organization we’d like to boycott,” BDS leader Jon Katz told The Mideast Beast. “The PA does business with Israel, works on joint projects with Israel, many of the people it represents work in Israel and for Israelis. Just look at a map- it’s even touching Israel. I have to tell you, it makes me sick.” Katz hopes to see international support for the PA evaporate, and as a result, Israel along with it. “When you really think about it, the Israeli military industrial complex needs the PA; how could they justify buying so many guns for shooting civilians without an enemy to fight?” And with this point, the logic of the argument is revealed like the horns on a Jew when taking off his hat.
Israel said set to toss 80,000 expiring vaccine doses at midnight
Israel was set to dispose of 80,000 COVID-19 vaccines due to expire at midnight, Channel 12 news reported Saturday evening.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines were said to be worth NIS 6 million ($1.8 million).

According to the network, which said that Pfizer refused to extend the expiration date, Israel has not previously thrown out such a high number of vaccines during the pandemic.

“The State of Israel is managing its stock of vaccines while paying attention to the expiry of the product,” the Health Ministry said in response.

“The state signed confidentially agreements and cannot reveal the exact amount of vaccines,” it added.

Earlier this month, Israel shipped some 700,000 doses set to soon expire to South Korea, as part of a deal that will see Seoul send fresh vaccines in exchange later this year.


MEMRI: Iranian Political Analyst: Iran Had the Ability to Make 10 Nuclear Bombs Even before the JCPOA
Iranian political analyst Emad Abshenas, the editor-in-chief of Iran Diplomatic Newspaper, said that unlike Rouhani’s team, President-elect Raisi’s administration does not seek to reach a fundamental resolution of all disagreements with the U.S., but only to have the sanctions lifted. He made his remarks in a show that aired on Sky News Arabiya (UAE) on July 24, 2021. Abshenas said that he does not think that Raisi’s team wants to obtain nuclear weapons, although Iran has all the technology to manufacture a bomb, and if it wanted to, it could do so at any time.

Abshnenas also said that “even before the JCPOA, (Iran) had the ability to manufacture ten nuclear bombs.” He added that Iran’s first priority will be resolving disagreements with the neighboring countries and getting closer to “the countries of the East” like Russia and China instead of getting closer to Europe and the United States.


Philip Carl Salzman on the Perils of "Scholar Activists" in Middle East Studies
Philip Carl Salzman, an MEF writing fellow and professor emeritus of cultural anthropology at McGill University in Montreal, was interviewed by Winfield Myers, director of the Middle East Forum's Campus Watch project, in a July 16 Middle East Forum webinar (video) about the increasingly ideological and politicized nature of what passes for scholarship in Middle East studies.

Salzman, a specialist in the study of tribal societies in the Middle East whose works include Culture and Conflict in the Middle East, and Postcolonial Theory and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, found himself the target of the cancel culture in November 2020. An open letter circulated by McGill students called for the university to revoke his emeritus title, accusing him of writing articles that were "racist and Islamophobic" and complaining that they didn't "feel safe."

The letter took particular issue with an article by Salzman that set out to explain "the nature of conflict in tribal societies and pre-industrial states" of the Middle East. The article made no mention of either race or Islam – it was his depiction of the region as "a place where doing harm and being cruel to others is regarded as a virtue and a duty" to which his detractors took offense, which is ironic. "I suspect that the families of most of them came to North America because they didn't feel safe in the Middle East."


Ice cream boycott shows radical Left is running the show
The Knesset vote on applying sovereignty to Judea and Samaria, which was designed to embarrass members of the coalition, managed to put on full display their opposition to the move. But we must also look at the pressure waged by some on the anti-Israeli Left on senior coalition members.

Who would have thought that Meretz MK Yair Golan would withdraw his signature from a letter that condemned the Ben & Jerry's boycott over Judea and Samaria. Golan claimed that only after affixing his signature was he made aware that Jewish settlements there are not part of the State of Israel. So what if those settlements are currently not considered within Israeli borders. As far as sovereignty is concerned, Israel is the sovereign power in Judea and Samaria and has every right to exercise its sovereignty. The Ben & Jerry's boycott is an antisemitic move because it targets Jewish communities. In that sense, it's worse than a boycott of Israel.

But fellow Meretz faction member MK Mossi Raz's pressure on Golan dovetails with the campaign led by anti-IDF movement Breaking the Silence, in which it has warned Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev that "violence by settlers should NOT happen under your watch." Using building wraps, they put on this slogan with quotes from the two ministers. The wrap was taken down after people realized that it was on a government building.

When you combine the ice cream boycott, Raz and the Breaking the Silence campaign, it becomes clear that the radical anti-Israel Left has been setting the tone and has adopted an arrogant approach that wants to dictate to ministers how to act. So in this climate, how can a deputy minister oppose a boycott on Jewish settlements?
Artists cut ties with museum over owners' alleged Israel connection
A group of 25 artists have ended their connections with the London contemporary art museum, the Zabludowicz Collection, over the museum's alleged connection to Israel and the Israeli military, ArtForum Magazine has reported.

The artists, who have all either exhibited at or collaborated with the Zabludowicz Collection in the past, sent letters to the museum and its affiliates, detailing their plan to "de-author" all the "conceptual content" that they had created for the museum.

This included any screenings, talks, initiatives, and commissions, as well as the artwork itself.

The letters, all signed individually, were authored by the Boycott/Divest Zabludowicz (BDZ) movement, which was established in 2014 and calls for a boycott of the Zabludowicz Art Trust, of which the collection is a subsidiary.

The boycott calls for an end to the trust's "continued complicity in the ongoing colonization and occupation of Palestine, and of apartheid policies against Palestinians," according to ArtForum.


MEMRI: MEMRI TV YouTube Channel Reaches 15 Million Views – And Almost 50,000 Followers
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 29, 2021 – The MEMRI TV YouTube channel has passed the milestone of 15 million views since its launch in December 2017. It has also acquired nearly 50,000 followers during this time. You can subscribe to our channel here.

To date, the MEMRI TV YouTube channel has posted 2,248 clips, of the nearly 9,000 on the MEMRI TV website, and had 15,006,317 views; it reached one million views in November 2018 and 10 million views in June 2020.

You can receive all the latest clips by visiting the MEMRI TV YouTube channel and clicking on "Subscribe." Join over 500,000 daily subscribers to MEMRI content on social media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Vimeo, and TikTok.
Argentine show uses Anne Frank to illustrate ‘women who don’t leave house’ song
In a recent episode of “Showmatch,” one of Argentina’s most popular talent contest shows, a contestant sang about “women who don’t leave the house” — in front of a background image of Anne Frank.

The song, titled “I’m Not That Woman” and written by Spanish singer Paulina Rubio, refers to empowered women who do not follow traditional societal norms. The image of Anne Frank appeared on a giant monitor right as singer Sofia Jimenez sang the lyrics “I’m not the type of woman who doesn’t leave the house” on an episode that aired last Friday. The screen showed other prominent female figures throughout the song, including Oprah Winfrey and Mother Teresa.

Argentine Jewish institutions condemned the incident, and some of the show’s producers, as well as its host, visited the Anne Frank House in Buenos Aires, a museum that recreates the famed Jewish diarist’s attic hideout.

“To use Anne Frank as the background for a song by a woman who refuses to stay at home is to bring the banalization of the Holocaust to its extreme expression,” the Anne Frank House had written in a statement. “Anne Frank did not stay at home because she was a submissive woman, but had to hide to escape the persecution of the Nazi machinery.”

The DAIA Jewish umbrella group called the show’s image choice “unfortunate and confusing.”
MEMRI: The San Francisco-Based Internet Archive – Neo-Nazis' Favorite Website For Spreading Their Materials
In an op-ed published by SFgate.com on July 20, 2021,[1] titled "This San Francisco-Based Website Is A Favorite Of Neo-Nazis To Spread Their Hatred," MEMRI Executive Director Steven Stalinsky summarized MEMRI's comprehensive study[2] of the massive amount of neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and Holocaust denial content hosted by the San Francisco-based Internet Archive.

The MEMRI report, published in January 2021, included a preface by renowned Holocaust historian Prof. Yehuda Bauer, the academic advisor to Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center and a member of the MEMRI Board of Advisors.

Bauer wrote in his preface that this study "is of major importance in the fight against hate speech generally, racism, and extreme rightist white supremacy propaganda, and especially its central antisemitic component... The Internet Archive, which is universally available, is circumventing all the efforts, in themselves laudable ones, to limit hate speech disseminated via social media."

Op-Ed By MEMRI Executive Director Steven Stalinsky: 'This San Francisco-Based Website Is A Favorite Of Neo-Nazis To Spread Their Hatred'

In recent years, neo-Nazis, antisemites and other white supremacist and racist groups have been using the San Francisco-based Internet Archive (archive.org) for spreading their propaganda and incitement online. The massive online digital library allows them to, in its own words, "upload movies, audio, texts, software, images, and other formats ... any time you wish" and to freely share the link to the resulting page.

For the past decade, Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) research has been exposing the Internet Archive's enabling of Al-Qaeda, ISIS and other jihadi propaganda efforts and its function as a database for their distribution of materials, recruitment campaigns, incitement of violence, fundraising and even daily radio programs. We wrote that ISIS liked the platform because there was no way to flag objectionable content for review and removal — unlike on other platforms such as YouTube. Today, the Internet Archive enables neo-Nazis and white supremacists in the same ways, and its terms of use still deny responsibility for content uploaded to it.
France's Macron to sue advertiser for depicting him as Hitler
French President Emmanuel Macron's attorneys announced this week that he is planning to sue a billboard owner for depicting him as Adolf Hitler.

Several such images were placed across the southern province of Vaud as part of a broader backlash against Macron's coronavirus restrictions policy.

One billboard in the city of Toulon portrayed Macron in a uniform as the Nazi leader, with a hairstyle and mustache similar to that of Hitler's. The swastika armband was changed to LREM РLa R̩publique En Marche Рthe name of Macron's ruling party. An accompanying slogan read: "Obey. Get vaccinated."
Swastikas scrawled on Bnei Brak synagogues
Swastikas were scrawled on the walls of two synagogues in Bnei Brak on Saturday, with Israel Police opening an investigation on Saturday night.

In front of one of the synagogues, photos of Shira Banki, who was murdered by a haredi extremist in the Jerusalem Pride Parade in 2015, were scattered in front of the entrance. Friday marked 11 years since the murder took place.

"The bullying rampage and spray-painting of swastikas on a synagogue in Bnei Brak on Shabbat is the rotten fruit of continued and unbridled incitement against everything that smells of Judaism and haredim," said United Torah Judaism MK Yaakov Asher on Saturday night, expressing hopes that he would be able to pass an amendment to expand the legal definition of racism to include incitement against haredim.

In 2015, Yishai Schlissel, a resident of Modi'in Illit, stabbed six people at the Jerusalem Pride Parade. In 2005, Schlissel stabbed several people at the pride parade, serving 10 years in prison until he was released just weeks before carrying out the attack in 2015.

"The swastikas painted on the walls of the synagogue in Bnei Brak are a despicable, dangerous and disgusting act," said Labor MK and Reform Rabbi Gilad Kariv on Saturday night. "The dumping of photos of the late Shira Banki on the spot only adds to the ugliness of the act and desecrates her memory and the message her parents have been carrying since her murder."
Helping the disabled regain their independence with a flick of a wrist
Being disabled doesn’t only inhibit a person’s ability to move but also limits their social, financial, and physical independence. Israeli startup 6Degrees Ltd. focuses on improving disabled persons’ mobility with its wearable bracelet device that studies a patient’s movements similar to how a voice-activated device “learns” a person’s voice, and alongside bluetooth connectivity, allows users to control their electronic devices. Its second-generation device, still in the works, functions as a virtual reality (VR) video game, and helps disabled and amputee persons overcome the pain caused by phantom limb syndrome.

Yet, the impact-oriented startup is about more than just doing good. Its founders, husband-and-wife team Miri Berger and Aryeh Katz, understand the pain of being disabled from up-close. Katz was injured during his military service in a paratrooper’s unit, and the duo searched for ways for them to regain their independence.

“The thing that hits you isn’t just the pain or the loss of a limb,” 6Degrees CEO Miri Berger noted, “it’s the loss of independence. We want to encourage the disabled or those suffering from an amputee or mobility-restricting disease such as cerebral palsy to ‘get back on their feet’ both financially and socially,” she said. Israel promotes impact-oriented businesses that are sustainable, and the group jumped at the chance upon their return from the United States. Berger holds a background in industrial design, while Katz, who serves as CTO, was Head of the Innovation Lab at NYU and holds a background in electrical engineering and software development.

6Degrees operates in the digital health field, and its first-generation device is already available, while its second is in the works. “We created this technology to empower mobility-challenged individuals who have lost mobility. Our product addresses key human needs, such as gamification, employment, and recovery as well as encouraging individuals to pursue social, financial, and physical independence.”


3 women receive kidneys in Israel-UAE organ exchange, 1st with Arab state
An Israeli woman has donated a kidney to a recipient on Abu Dhabi, in a first-of-its kind arrangement that will bring a kidney from the United Arab emirates to a different Israeli woman.

At 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday, doctors at Sheba Medical Center removed a kidney from Shani Markowitz, 39. The surgery went smoothly, and the organ was raced to Ben Gurion Airport in a special cool box, to be flown to Abu Dhabi.

Meanwhile, a woman in Abu Dhabi underwent surgery and her kidney is en route to Israel, for a woman at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. The husband of the Rambam patient is giving a kidney to Markowitz’s mother, via a surgery at Rabin Medical Center. And Markowitz’s kidney has gone to the mother of the Abu Dhabi donor.

It is part of an arrangement between three families, in which one person in need of a kidney receives a suitable organ, while their relative donates their kidney to a stranger. This complex system is needed because none of the patients have relatives whose kidneys are suitable for them.

“This is very exciting. It’s the first time we have conducted such a process between Israel and an Arab state, and it really shows that medicine has no borders,” Dr. Rafi Bayer, chairman of the Israel Center for Organ Transplantation, told The Times of Israel.

Negotiated by the center’s chief executive, Dr. Tamar Ashkenazi, it is one of several instances of health cooperation brought about by the year-old Abraham Accords between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Bayer said that, given the proximity of the UAE, it is an arrangement that can be used regularly to save lives.







Friday, July 30, 2021

07/30 Links Pt2: Sorry, Ben & Jerry: You’re on the wrong side of history along with all who boycott Israel; CUNY Professor Claims Muslims Will ‘Erase This Filth Called Israel’ in Anti-Semitic Sermon

From Ian:

NYPost Editorial: Sorry, Ben & Jerry: You’re on the wrong side of history along with all who boycott Israel
“Imagine Whirled Peace,” a John Lennon tribute flavor, is as close as Ben & Jerry’s get to promoting actual world peace — and the founders’ claim that halting business in the West Bank puts the company on the “right side of history” is beyond bunk.

Bennett Cohen and Jerry Greenfield wrote a New York Times op-ed in defense of the company’s move to ban sales in what it called “the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” on top of stating earlier that it was “brave.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio actually got it right: “You cannot have peace if you undermine the economic reality and create division.”

Building a functional Palestinian state requires building a functional Palestinian economy, which means boosting commerce of all kinds on the West Bank — even when the customers are Jews, it means jobs for Palestinians.

All the boycotting and divestment simply leaves Palestinians more distraught — and more prone to buy the hate-propaganda of their anti-democratic, anti-liberal rulers, who pretend that Israel can somehow be eliminated or at least turned into a majority-Arab state.

Neither of which is going to happen.

In fact, the future is in the Abraham Accords — the multiple Arab-Israel peace agreements aiming at mutual prosperity, which were reached only after Team Trump gave the hand to the goons who control the West Bank.


Dear Ben and Jerry: Ignorance is Not a Jewish Value
Why did Ben and Jerry not show a desire to go deeper and better understand a complicated conflict? Maybe because the messy truth didn’t fit their easy narrative.

Regardless of how one feels about Israeli policies, the messy truth is that chronic Palestinian rejectionism, more than any other factor, has defined the conflict. Had Ben and Jerry done just a little homework, they would have learned that the intent to eliminate the Jewish state predates any Jewish settlements. It’s a fact that when the PLO was founded in 1964 as a militant anti-Israel movement, there was not one Jewish settlement.

It makes one wonder: What incentive do Palestinian leaders have to end the occupation when they see what a useful weapon it has become? As long as they keep saying no, the international money keeps rolling in and they get to enjoy op-eds of Jews bashing the Jewish state based on “Jewish values.” And they’ve learned through the years that as long as they refuse to end the conflict, the global anti-Israel movement will march on.

Israel has made its share of mistakes, but in the old days, before peace became a pipe dream, it was the Jewish state that stuck its neck out and made significant compromises to try to resolve the conflict. Palestinian leaders, who may have panicked when Israel called their bluff, couldn’t even bring themselves to make a counter offer.

Dear Ben and Jerry: If you’re going to cover yourself in Jewish values, go all the way. Delving into complexity in the search for truth is one of the great Jewish values. By neglecting that complexity and taking the easy way out, you have reinforced the narrative of antisemites who malign Israel as a peace-hating, oppressive country, and elevate corrupt, terror-promoting Palestinian leaders as helpless victims.

That’s not Jewish or peace-loving, it’s just ignorant.
Eugene Kontorovich: What the Ben & Jerry's Boycott is Really About: Fox Business appearance
In an interview with Stuart Varney, I explain that Ben & Jerry's and Unilever are not boycotting Israeli settlements - they are boycotting Israel.


Responding to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield
What is clear is that the company is planning to cut ties with its factory and licensee in southern Israel, located between Tel Aviv and Gaza. According to Avi Zinger, CEO of Ben & Jerry’s Israel, this is because he rejected a demand to stop selling ice cream in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem — an area which includes the Jewish people’s holiest sites, like the Western Wall.

In essence, Ben & Jerry’s is saying that any company based in Israel should be shut down if it also sells to people in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Because the economies of Israel and the West Bank are deeply intertwined, this approach would target countless Israeli and international businesses, amounting to a near total boycott aimed at crippling the Jewish state. It’s also potentially illegal for any Israeli company to work with Ben & Jerry’s under these conditions. In practice, going through with this decision is very likely to result in Ben & Jerry’s boycotting all of Israel.

As a result, 160 Israeli workers of all backgrounds, including Jews and Arabs, may lose their jobs in 2022 or before. Palestinians working at an Israeli distribution company in the West Bank may lose their jobs as well. Cohen and Greenfield ignore the harm that Ben & Jerry’s is causing to these workers and their families, as well as the broader context mentioned above.

Their op-ed also promotes a major factual inaccuracy, stating that, “Israeli policy … perpetuates an illegal occupation.” While reasonable people in Israel and around the world can and do criticize Israel’s policies in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, its control over these territories is absolutely not “illegal.”
Without an Aggressive Response, Ben & Jerry’s Decision Is a Harbinger of Further Divestment From Israel
There has been a debate over the past week among American Jewish progressive leaders on whether the Jewish community should be so vocal on Ben & Jerry’s. Some have suggested that when the Jewish community exerts power, it only creates more antisemitism — or that Ben & Jerry’s capitulation is an acceptable version of BDS since Unilever added a sentence to the Ben & Jerry’s board announcement stating that the company would like to stay in Israel but not the “Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

But the time to get loud on Ben & Jerry’s is now. There should be no hesitation, no fear about antisemitism — which will exist regardless of whether the Jewish community exerts influence or sits quietly. There should be no slicing and dicing of BDS by Jewish organizations focused on battling with Israel over the settlements; the goal of BDS is to rid the world of Israel, and the settlements are just a stepping stone. There will be time for difficult conversations about the conflict, but now is the time to respond to the prolonged campaign of economic warfare aimed at Israel.

The Jewish community needs to realize the power and scope of the corporate social responsibility and socially responsible investing movements, and the uncomfortable fact that the BDS campaign’s narrative on Israel has thoroughly infiltrated these influential arenas.

As a result, companies are under enormous sustained pressure to avoid or divest from Israel.

Launching a counter controversy assault on Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever may or may not make the company back away from supporting BDS, but more importantly, it will signal to the CEOs of the 124 global (non-Israeli) companies actively being pressured by BDS that the controversy doesn’t go away once the company acquiesces to BDS — it only gets worse.


Illinois, Arizona, Take Steps to Reverse Ben & Jerry’s Israel Boycott
The Illinois Investment Policy Board, which is tasked with “ensuring the investment of public money does not occur in entities that are prohibited from investment by Illinois law,” is planning to set a 90-day deadline for Unilever, owner of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, to reverse its decision to boycott Israeli communities, Andy Lappin, the board’s chairman, told the Associated Press on Thursday.

“We’ll meet in the next week or so just for this issue, asking the board to send a letter to Unilever giving it 90 days to confirm or deny” the decision to boycott Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

“In this case, it was a blatantly open statement made by the chairman of Ben & Jerry’s and we need to determine if Unilever deems it appropriate to walk the statement back,” Lappin said.

The board’s schedule notes that the Illinois Investment Policy Board committee on Israel boycott restrictions will meet at 11:40 AM, Wed, September 9, 2021.

Meanwhile, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey tweeted that Ben & Jerry’s decision to join the BDS movement “is discrimination,” adding, “Arizona stands with Israel,” and “will not do business with a company that boycotts Israel — in 2016 and 2019 I signed bills to make sure of it.”
Top German Foundation Dedicated to Fighting Neo-Nazis Condemns Ben & Jerry’s ‘Antisemitic’ West Bank Boycott
A leading liberal German foundation dedicated to fighting far-right agitation against immigrants has forcefully condemned ice cream manufacturers Ben & Jerry’s for their “antisemitic” boycott of Israeli communities in the West Bank.

In an open letter to the company’s board published on Wednesday, the Amadeu Antonio Stiftung decried the move. “We cannot comprehend the decision to boycott Israel in this way,” the letter stated. “We are especially disappointed that the company is following the line of the antisemitic BDS boycott movement.”

Established in 1998, the foundation is named in honor of Amadeu Antonio Kiowa, an Angolan contract worker who was brutally beaten to death by neo-Nazi thugs in the town of Eberswalde in November 1990. Two Mozambicans who were with Kiowa that night were stabbed multiple times, but survived with serious injuries. Kiowa, however, was left in a coma. He passed away 11 days later.

The foundation’s letter to Ben & Jerry’s argued that the boycott would do little to advance the rights of Palestinians.

“A boycott … neither advances the peace process, nor does it make life easier for Palestinians. On the contrary, it deepens tensions and aggression and further hardens the fronts,” it argued. “The boycott of your products — in the West Bank, of all places — shows how little thought is really given to the Arab population. Palestinians, of all people, can no longer buy your ice cream. What’s the point? What use is that to them? What do you wish to achieve with this?”

The foundation also expressed dismay that the decision in favor of a boycott was taken amid a climate of rising antisemitism globally.
Delta passengers outraged at airline’s serving Ben & Jerry’s on flight to Israel
Bitter scoop: Passengers on a Delta flight from New York to Tel Aviv on Wednesday were displeased when they discovered that the in-flight service included a less-than-sweet treat—Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream.

Many of the passengers on the flight handed the dessert back to the flight attendants, who said that they had warned the airline that it was an “inappropriate” choice, given the company’s recent decision to stop selling its products beyond the Green Line.

The decision caused an international controversy and much concern in Israel, where it was seen as a capitulation to the BDS movement.

One of the passengers was former Likud Knesset member Anat Berko, who was traveling with a relative. Subscribe to The JNS Daily Syndicate by email and never miss our top stories

“After the ice cream was served, a lot of people protested the serving of a food product whose producer boycotts Judea and Samaria. I protested, as well, and gave my ice-cream back,” said Berko.

The former MK said that a few upset passengers declared that they would write to Delta to protest its decision to serve Ben & Jerry’s.


Remembering Leo Frank: Antisemitism Then and Now
August 17th marks the 106th anniversary of the lynching of Leo Frank, an Atlanta Jewish businessman who was falsely accused of murder and then kidnapped and executed by an antisemitic mob.

As the commemoration approaches, one cannot refrain from reflecting on the current wave of antisemitism in the United States. Although much has changed over the past 100 years, Jew-hatred remains an unfortunate facet of American life.

However, when comparing the history of American antisemitism to its manifestations today, a glaring divergence becomes apparent in the responses to it.

In the past, those who fought antisemitism appealed to classic American principles — liberty, tolerance, constitutionalism, and individualism.

The country is different now. Many hold classic American principles in disrepute. American liberty, equality, tolerance are claimed to be racist lies. The Constitution? A veritable slave manual.

While the Jewish people once occupied a position of authority and high ground in our battle against hate, American Jews have now, sadly, often been reduced to pleading with progressives for tolerance. For example, many have tried to tie antisemitism with racism — but many progressives, and many in the Black Lives Matter movement, won’t allow that fusion. After all, American Jews are majority white-skinned and are linked to the “colonial, oppressor” State of Israel.

But consider the historical, non-progressive alternative to fighting antisemitism with strength and pride.
Greens leader Adam Bandt distances party from Burnside
Greens leader Adam Bandt has moved to distance his party from a comment by former high-profile candidate Julian Burnside likening Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to Nazi Germany, which drew a fierce backlash from the Jewish community.

Several leading Jewish figures accused the prominent Melbourne barrister of anti-Semitism and breaking his promise to Holocaust survivors after he tweeted on Wednesday night that Israel’s “treatment of the Palestinians looks horribly like the German treatment of the Jews” during World War II.

The post was in reference to a Human Rights Watch report into violations of international law during 11 days of fighting in May between Israeli forces and Hamas militants.

The outspoken advocate for asylum seekers faced a similar backlash in 2018 after posting an image showing now-Defence Minister Peter Dutton’s face superimposed on a Nazi officer in a uniform that ­included the “death’s head” emblem used by the SS unit responsible for concentration camps.

Mr Burnside said at the time it was not a reference to the Holocaust but accepted an invitation from the Anti-Defamation Commission to meet with survivors as a “common courtesy”.

Responding to calls from Jewish leaders to condemn Mr Burnside’s comment, Mr Bandt said the Holocaust was “one of the darkest moments in human history” and was “without modern comparison”.

“It has left an enduring and painful scar on the Jewish people, the impacts of which are still being felt today. The Australian Greens abhor racism in all its forms and are particularly concerned by the resurgence of anti-Semitism seen across the world,” Mr Bandt said.


BDS Rages as the Summer Sizzles On
As the fall semester approaches, signs point to an even more heightened campus environment of harassment and intimidation aimed against Israel and its supporters. Control of narratives remains key to shaping perceptions.

The most blatant manipulations came from outside academia, with continued condemnations of Israel from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who added that her Jewish colleagues in Congress were “not equally engaged in seeking justice.” Her comments produced a firestorm of responses that, among other things, pointed to the long history of Jewish advocacy of civil and human rights causes in the US and worldwide.

The idea that Israel, its supporters, and at least some Jews stand on the ‘wrong side’ was articulated in more than 100 statements condemning Israel from faculty groups and departments. One implication of growing faculty and student extremism is that it effectively gives antisemitism an “academic mandate.” And many defend their anti-Israel attacks in the name of ‘academic freedom.’

A typical example came at Vassar College, where faculty members issued a letter accusing Israel of “settler colonialism, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing” and declaring that they regard the “movement against racism, police brutality, and mass incarceration in the United States and the Palestinian struggle against apartheid as interconnected.”

In response, the university president pointed to the school’s code of conduct and noted that the “College “welcomes forms of dissent and protest that acknowledge and encourage the expression of different perspectives. It is with this in mind that we will continue to support free speech on our campus. The moment such speech provokes lawlessness or violence, however, it becomes unacceptable.”

But institutional efforts at maintaining nominal civility at the expense of academic integrity and Jewish students are increasingly insufficient for BDS supporters. The manner in which aggressors indignantly characterize criticism, pushback, or anything short of capitulation is a longstanding BDS ploy that has escalated dramatically.
‘People Use Israel to Attack Jews,’ Says Toronto Man Who Survived ‘Free Palestine’ Antisemitic Assault
A Jewish man in Toronto has given a moving account of his experience of an antisemitic attack on Wednesday, during which the assailant yelled the anti-Zionist slogan, “Free Palestine.”

In a video posted to his Facebook page, Toronto resident Sam Brody explained that he had been walking his dog in the Eglington neighborhood of the city at around 9 a.m. on Wednesday. Brody, who wears a kippah, said that the male assailant pushed him into a wooden fence, knocking him onto the ground.

The assailant then told Brody: “F*** you, you Jews, you’ll never take Israel — free Palestine!”

In his video recounting the ordeal, Brody said that he was sharing his experience to inform “those who are not aware that antisemitism is a very real and growing problem in our country and around the world.”

Brody added that, “unfortunately, people use Israel as a platform to attack Jews. Being anti-Israel is the politically correct way of being an antisemite today.”

He said that while he understood why “people want to separate the issues, but the practicality on the ground is that they cannot be separated, and in almost every case of antisemitism, anti-Israel sentiment is also expressed.”
CUNY Professor Claims Muslims Will ‘Erase This Filth Called Israel’ in Anti-Semitic Sermon
An imam who serves as an adjunct professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) said in a sermon that Muslims will "erase this filth called Israel" after accusing Jews of creating a "colonial" settlement.

Mohammad Abbasi, who teaches at the CUNY School of Professional Studies, delivered the remarks in a June 25 sermon at the Islamic Center of Union City, N.J.

"So they won this time, they established their colonial project called Israel," Abbasi said. "So here is the conclusion. I don't want to leave you depressed. I want to give you the good news now. With the help of Allah they will erase this filth called Israel."

Anti-Semitism has increasingly become a problem for the CUNY system. More than 100 professors resigned from CUNY's Professional Staff Congress, the university's branch of the American Federation of Teachers, after the union passed a resolution that referred to Israel as an "apartheid" state, the Washington Free Beacon reported. The union also backed the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement and said it condemns the "massacre of Palestinians by the Israeli state."

Several Jewish professors who left the union told the Free Beacon they've been attacked and targeted for their faith while at CUNY. University administrators have failed to respond to any of the incidents, the professors said, disregarding a federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission report from February confirming that the university has created a hostile environment for Jews.

It's not surprising that CUNY hired Abbasi, Kingsborough Community College adjunct business professor Michael Goldstein told the Free Beacon.

"Why should we not at all be surprised that CUNY would be employing a vile, Jew-hating antisemite like this individual?" Goldstein asked. He said former CUNY chancellor Joseph Murphy, whose mother was Jewish, "has to be rolling over in his grave."


Rutgers Student Groups Call for Defunding of Hillel and other “Zionist Organizations”
A survey of Jewish history teaches us that antisemitism is an ever-evolving prejudice. The Christ-killer myth, the blood libel myth, and the racial inferiority myth are just a few of the ways in which Jews have been targeted. In a post-Holocaust world, it is undeniable that antisemitism knows no bounds but rather molds itself to fit the popular narrative. The recent antisemitic and anti-Zionist iterations by both administration and student organizations at Rutgers University are proof of this growing movement.

If you step inside the expansive Hillel house at Rutgers University-New Brunswick or find yourself in conversation with a student or rabbi, you’ll often hear one phrase, repeated with varying levels of irony: “Rutgers is a great place to be Jewish.” The largest public college in New Jersey, Rutgers prides itself on its ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic diversity, as well as a Jewish undergraduate population of 6,400 students (17.7% of its student body). With a Chabad-Lubavitch center bookending the other end of its College Avenue campus and rabbis from every major sect of Judaism on-staff, the school appears to be a haven for Jewish students in the region. But not everyone at Rutgers agrees that Jewish organizations have a place there.

Like many of the anti-Zionist incidents reported in recent months, the most recent attacks on Rutgers’ Jewish community have involved social media. On 26 May 2021, during the height of military clashes between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas, Rutgers University chancellors Christopher J. Molloy and Francine Conway emailed a statement to students entitled “Speaking Out Against Antisemitism.” Both expressed sadness and outrage over “recent incidents of hate directed toward Jewish members of [Rutgers’] community.” While the statement did not name specific dates or attacks, this wording alluded, in part, to the egging of a Jewish fraternity on Holocaust Remembrance Day, during the reading of victims’ names. After linking antisemitism to the uptick in crimes against Asian-Americans, Muslims, and Indigenous people, the chancellors mentioned “the deaths of children and adults and mass displacement of citizens in the Gaza region and the loss of lives in Israel.” The statement ended with unequivocal support for the Jewish community and an overall rejection of intolerance.

The outrage that followed made international news. Rutgers issued two following emails in the two succeeding days. The second email, once again written by the chancellors, appeared to be an apology for condemning antisemitism without mentioning the Palestinian plight in Sheikh Jarrah, but Rutgers president Jonathan Holloway quickly remedied the issue in his own letter, a reaffirmation of standing against antisemitism and all bigotry.
Guardian op-ed by Mohammed el-Kurd on Sheikh Jarrah Nearly fact-free.
Though Palestinian Sheikh Jarrah ‘activist’ Mohammed el-Kurd claims he has no problem with Jews, as we’ve previously demonsrated, the record shows he’s a racist ideologue in every sense of the term.

During an interview with MSNBC that he retweeted, he argued that all Israelis are the same, ‘they’re all terrorists’. He’s written that Jews who live across the Green Line are “psychotic” and “rabid dogs”. He’s also peddled the historically lethal lie that Jews are threatening to destroy al-Aqsa, and even claimed there’s no archaeological evidence that the 1st and 2nd Temples existed.

On Twitter, he said it’s “psychotic” to ask Palestinians to refrain from violence, praised a PFLP terrorist, compared Israeli actions to that of the Nazis, characterised Zionism as inherently genocidal and retweeted (and praised as ‘eloquent’) a video of the late Kwame Ture accusing Zionism of being a “Satanic movement”.

He also asked God to rid the world of Zionists.

So, naturally, Guardian editors decided he should be given the opportunity to disseminate his propaganda to their readers, in the form of an op-ed (“Here in Jerusalem, we Palestinians are still fighting for our homes”, July 28th).
No surprises BBC promotes HRW’s latest anti-Israel screed
On the evening of July 27th the BBC News website published a report headlined “Israel-Gaza conflict: Apparent war crimes committed, says rights group” on its ‘Middle East’ page.

The “rights group” already signposted in that headline and later described as a “campaign group” is one of the political NGOs most quoted and promoted in BBC content: ‘Human Rights Watch’ (HRW) but as is inevitably the case, no effort is made in this BBC report to inform readers of that organisation’s long record of anti-Israel campaigning by means of frequent ‘reports’, ‘lawfare’ activity and support for boycotts, divestment and sanctions.

There is of course nothing remotely surprising about the BBC’s editorial decision to uncritically promote (including a link) HRW’s latest anti-Israel screed seeing as the corporation has in the past diligently amplified the NGO’s similar reports on previous conflicts in 2006, 2008/9, 2012 and 2014. The BBC has also self-conscripted to promotion of HRW reports on topics such as African migrants, Thai workers, business activity and ‘apartheid’ and has provided worldwide amplification to HRW anti-Israel campaigns concerning for example football, holiday rentals and Covid vaccinations.

Comment from HRW employees is frequently promoted in BBC reporting on a variety of sometimes unrelated topics and in 2014 the corporation provided promotion for a film about the organisation. Particularly noteworthy was the BBC’s extensive coverage of the non-renewal of the Israeli work visa of HRW employee Omar Shakir in 2018/19.

This latest BBC article – tagged inter alia ‘human rights’ – uncritically promotes HRW’s talking points and buzz words.

“Israeli forces and Palestinian militant groups carried out attacks during May’s Gaza conflict that apparently amount to war crimes, Human Rights Watch says.

An investigation by the campaign group into what it says were three Israeli strikes that killed 62 civilians found no evidence of military targets nearby.”

No information is provided to readers concerning HRW’s methodology which – as has been the case in the past – relies on local sources.
BBC News avoids another Gaza Strip human shields story
On the morning of July 22nd an explosion occurred in al Zawiya market in Gaza City. One person was killed and between ten and fourteen people – including six children – were injured by the blast.

Later in the day it emerged that the site of the explosion was a weapons storage facility belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group, which issued a related statement. The Jerusalem Post reported that:

“The PIJ seemed to take some form of responsibility on Thursday evening, announcing that it would “rise up to its responsibilities” and follow up with all concerned parties concerning the explosion in the market. The terrorist movement expressed its “full solidarity” with those affected by the explosion.

The injured were transferred to Shifa Hospital in the coastal enclave. The Palestinian killed in the incident was identified by Palestinian media as Atta Saqallah.”

BBC audiences saw no coverage whatsoever of that story on any platform and regionally based staff including the Jerusalem bureau’s Tom Bateman, BBC Arabic’s Michael Shuval and Rushdi Abu Alouf in Gaza City made no mention of the incident on their Twitter accounts.
Bungling Arizona’s Holocaust Education Bill
The multi-year effort to pass a Holocaust Education bill in Arizona bore fruit on July 9, when Governor Ducey announced he signed HB2241. Before arriving on the Governor’s desk, the bill was subject to a “strike everything” amendment by Senator Paul Boyer. A “strike everything” amendment is a versatile legislative instrument, often used to bypass certain procedural deadlines to fast track revisions or whole new bills on a shortened timeline. Boyer’s “striker” bill copied the text of the original Holocaust bill, with one additional page: an added provision that Holocaust Education must adhere to the guidelines outlined in the IHRA definition of antisemitism. The original bill did not include the IHRA definition.

Per Arizona procedure, Boyer’s amendment would have to pass the Senate, then required approval from the sponsors of the original Holocaust Education bill to proceed to a final vote in in the Arizona House of Representatives.

Just a year earlier, in 2020, a bill containing the IHRA definition passed the House, breezing through with bipartisan support to a final vote of 52-8.

After that vote, the 2020 bill was sent to the Senate, but not without controversy. Antizionist activists, in league with the ACLU, targeted the Senate with a campaign against the IHRA, recycling the false yet pervasive claim that defining antisemitism is tantamount to a state-sponsored crackdown on free speech. The ACLU letter was signed by characters like Amer Zahr and Marc Lamont Hill, among others.

The 2020 campaign against the IHRA caused enough stir for Democratic Representative Alma Hernandez and Republican Senate President Karen Fann to respond with a letter to colleagues, addressing misinformation spreading on social media, with straightforward clarifications about the IHRA definition.
A Multi-City Ad Campaign Hopes to Fight Antisemitism With Eye-Catching Messages. Who Is JewBelong For?
Dozens of hot-pink billboards and transit ads have appeared in major American cities over the last month, referencing the Holocaust and antisemitism.

“We’re just 75 years since the gas chambers. So no, a billboard calling out Jew hate isn’t an overreaction,” reads one. “Being woke and antisemitic is like being a vegan who eats veal,” reads another.

The ads are the brainchild of JewBelong, a New Jersey-based nonprofit whose stated mission is to “rebrand Judaism” with a hip, made-for-social-media bent. But now JewBelong is going through a rebrand of its own. Founded in 2017 primarily as a vehicle for increasing Jewish pride among what it deems “disengaged Jews,” the organization has recently shifted its operations to focus specifically on combating antisemitism.

The $450,000 campaign — which is being branded as “JewBelong or JewBeGone” — first made waves with a massive billboard in New York’s Times Square last month. Now, in addition to New York, it’s focusing on San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and Miami, and the group has plans to expand into other markets before the campaign ends in August.

JewBelong founders Stacy Stuart and Archie Gottesman are longtime marketers who made their names with irreverent and often left-leaning advertisements for Manhattan Mini Storage, a company owned by Gottesman’s family. They started out focusing on low-barrier Judaism, like a Zoom Passover seder and online explainers on marriage and baby names.

But Gottesman told the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent that the pair felt it was inappropriate to continue JewBelong’s business as usual — providing rituals, Shabbat songs and recipes — during a time “when people are hating you.”
Oklahoma Republican Party compares vaccine mandates to holocaust
The Oklahoma Republican Party posted Friday asking Oklahomans to call for a special legislative session to address vaccine mandates comparing them to the gold stars Jews wore before being taken to concentration camps.

Lt. Governor Matt Pinnell is the acting governor while Governor Kevin Stitt is out of the country.

They're asking that Pinnell call for a special legislative session to address private employer vaccine mandates.

Currently, state employees are protected by legislative action from earlier this year.

The photo attached to their post is a gold star with 'unvaccinated' on it along with a date, ID number, and microchip.
VA House candidate: Being a conservative teacher is like being a Jew among Nazis
A history teacher running for the Virginia House of Delegates said that being a conservative teacher in US state today is akin to being Jewish in Germany during the 1930s.

“To come out and say that you’re a teacher on the right is almost as dangerous as saying, as almost saying, going through Germany in the 1930s and saying ‘I’m Jewish.’ It’s gotten that bad,” Julie Perry said Wednesday in an online event entitled “Educators for Youngkin Coalition.” Glenn Youngkin is the Republican nominee for governor.

“Think about what’s happened with Tanner Cross,” Perry said. Tanner Cross is a Loudon County teacher the school system suspended for saying in a public forum that he would address transgender students by their birth gender pronouns. A court issued an injunction against the suspension and Cross is suing the school system.

A number of Republicans over the last year, including the prominent Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, have likened coronavirus restrictions and safety measures to the Nazi treatment of Jews, drawing rebukes from Jewish groups who say it cheapens the horrors inflicted on Jews at that time. Jews targeted by Nazis in the 1930s — the period leading up to the Holocaust which historians generally say started in 1941 — were stripped of their property and livelihoods, beaten, deported and frequently murdered.

The Democratic Party of Virginia condemned Perry’s statement and called on Youngkin to denounce Perry.


Group to Turn Thousands of Jewish Headstones Found in Belarus Into Memorial
A charity organization is working to create a memorial with Jewish gravestones that have been discovered around Belarus, Israel Newsstand reported.

Jewish headstones from the former Brest-Litovsk Jewish cemetery, which is today a sports field, began resurfacing at an old prisoner of war camp from World War II and in construction sites across Belarus eight years ago.

Using the recovered headstones, “The Together Plan” is now working to build a memorial for the Jewish cemetery, where people can learn about its history. The project will be completed in the next three years.

“This is only one part of the story,” said Debra Brunner, the organization’s co-founder and CEO. “This memorial will honor a community that had lived and died, and who never saw the atrocities that took place in 1941-44.”

Brunner estimates that around 1,000 Jewish gravestones have been recovered, some of which date up to 1940. She believes others that haven’t been cataloged yet will date back to the 1850s.

“Some are broken, and from what we can see, we would say that possibly around a third are, more or less, intact,” she said. “We have just started to photograph every piece; this will take about a month. Then we will read and translate them and catalog them.”
Fitch reaffirms Israel’s A+ rating, citing strong finances, pandemic rebound
Fitch Ratings on Thursday reaffirmed Israel’s A+ rating with a stable outlook, citing its “strong external finances and solid institutional strength.”

The credit ratings agency also noted Israel’s relatively high government debt to GDP ratio and security risks.

Israel’s economy contracted by 2.6 percent last year due to the pandemic, but is expected to grow by 5.1% this year and 5.7% in 2022. The economy stood up to pandemic shock relatively well due to Israel’s high-tech industries and successful vaccination campaign, the report said.

The agency predicted Israel’s budget deficit will decline from 11.6% of GDP in 2020 to 7% in 2021, as the economy rebounds from the worst of the pandemic, government support measures recede and the high-tech sector continues its strong performance.

Fitch said it expects the government to pass a budget, its first after over two years of political stalemate, which will further stabilize debt levels. It forecast a budget deficit of around 3% in 2023, after all pandemic support measures end.

The report noted fiscal risks including the government coalition’s razor-thin majority in the Knesset, its diverse membership, and security risks, including instability in Syria, tensions with Iran and potential violence with the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.
Intel Israel appoints Arab vice president for the first time
Intel Israel has appointed an Arab Israeli as a vice president for the first time.

Reda Masarwa, from the city of Taybeh in central Israel, received the promotion after 24 years at the company, Intel announced on Wednesday.

Masarwa started work at Intel after completing studies at Ben-Gurion University. In recent years, he has managed the construction of Intel chip plants, heading a team of 150 Intel engineers and supervising over 2,000 engineers from outside the company.

He is married with four children, and has been living in the United States with his family for the past three years, the company said. In total, he has relocated to different areas for Intel for over 10 years during his career, the company said.

His position has been especially challenging during the pandemic, as he was not able to freely travel to visit global Intel sites.

“This year has proved to me more than anything the importance of building a winning team,” he said in a statement. “A team that I can trust and that is made up of the best professional people in their fields in each country and continent. It gave me the confidence that even in the most turbulent times, I can be assured that we’re moving forward.”

Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint List party and one of Israel’s leading Arab politicians, congratulated Masarwa on the promotion.
Taiwan to Open Extensive Jewish Community Center, Kosher Restaurant
Taiwan’s Jewish community announced the expected December opening of an extensive center to serve tourists and locals alike.

The Jeffrey D. Schwartz Jewish Community Center will house a synagogue that can hold more than 100 people, a banquet hall for 300 people and Taiwan’s first kosher restaurant, i24News reported on Wednesday.

The $16 million complex will also include a mikvah (Jewish ritual bath), library, kindergarten, classrooms for adult-education programs, rooms for group and individual study, and a courtyard for outdoor events. Almost 500 objects of Judaic art from a private collection will also be on permanent display at the Jewish center.

Community spokesperson Glenn Leibowitz, who has lived in Taiwan for 30 years, said approximately 700 to 800 Jews live on the island.

Construction of the facility started in 2020.

Taiwan’s Jewish community has until now operated mainly from a Chabad House and small office in downtown Taipei. Rabbi Shlomi and Racheli Tabib arrived in 2011 to open Chabad Tapei, holding services, holiday and educational programs, and offering Jewish amenities, including kosher meals.
Portuguese Town to Sponsor Country-Wide Initiative Marking Routes Taken by Jews Fleeing 15th Century Persecution
A town in Portugal will be the sponsor of a new initiative to mark the routes taken by 15th century Spanish and Portuguese Jews after they were expelled from those kingdoms.

Thousands of Jews were forced to choose between conversion to Christianity and expulsion in Spain and Portugal in 1492 and 1496, respectively.

Those who chose exile spread out across the entirety of Europe, the Ottoman Empire, and eventually the Americas.

The new project is called “El Kamino De Sefarad al Muevo Mundo” (The Sefarad Route to the New World), and will encompass thousands of kilometers throughout Spain and Portugal.

It is sponsored by the municipality of Castelo de Vide on the initiative of Mayor Antonio Pita, who is also vice president of the Jewish Cities Network in Portugal, and Alan Schneider, director of the B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem.

Castelo de Vide itself has preserved much what remains of its Jewish community’s history, including a synagogue and Jewish quarter, and will soon open a museum dedicated to the Inquisition and its persecution of Jews.
Prince Charles Pens Foreword for Upcoming Memoir by Holocaust Survivor, TikTok Star
The Prince of Wales has written the foreword for a new memoir co-authored by a Holocaust survivor turned TikTok star and her great-grandson that is slated to be released in September.

Dov Forman, 17, said on Wednesday that he and his great-grandmother Lily Ebert, 97, are “honored, humbled and exceptionally grateful to His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, Prince Charles for his moving tribute and foreword” to “Lily’s Promise: How I Survived Auschwitz and Found the Strength to Live.”

Ebert — a native of Bonyhád, Hungary, who now lives in London — became a TikTok sensation when she started an account earlier this year to answer questions about the Holocaust, in an effort to educate people about the atrocities of World War II. Her account, which Forman helps run, has already amassed 1.2 million followers on the video-sharing app.

In “Lily’s Promise,” the duo writes about Ebert’s childhood in Hungary, the death of her mother and two youngest siblings upon their arrival at the Auschwitz camp in 1944, and her dedication to keeping her two other sisters alive. She and her sisters were forced to work in a munitions factory and to partake in a death match that they barely survived.

In the book, Ebert also describes daily life in the camp and “the small acts of defiance that gave her strength,” according to the memoir’s publisher, Pan Macmillan.

“Lily had promised herself that if she survived Auschwitz she would tell everyone the truth about the camp. Now was her chance,” said the publisher. “Lily lost so much, but she built a new life for herself and her family, first in Israel and then in London. It wasn’t easy; the pain of her past was always with her, but this extraordinary woman found the strength to speak out in the hope that such evil would never happen again.”
Unstoppable: The story of Siggi Wilzig: A Must Read book
Just finished reading “Unstoppable: Siggi B. Wilzig's Astonishing Journey from Auschwitz Survivor and Penniless Immigrant to Wall Street Legend - Hardcover”, an amazing must-read book. Its captivating throughout, reading like a movie.

It is the story of Siggi Wilzig, a Holocaust survivor who lived through concentration camps Auschwitz and Mauthausen, and who went on to build a business empire in the oil and banking world in America – after arriving in this country with $240 in his pocket. While the book starts with dark tales of the Holocaust, told in a manner where the reader truly feels they are there, “Unstoppable” is really about so many things besides the Holocaust.

This is a great book about taking chances, about never losing your sense of humor, about doing the right thing, about succeeding in spite of all odds. In an era where so many people today look for shortcuts, we learned that Wilzig cleaned toilets, was a door to door salesman, shoveled snow and so many other things before eventually taking over a bank and running it in a very successful manner. This book shared so many inspirational and relevant tales for all people today interested in learning, interested in growth.

He created a bank which he called “The Bank with Heart”, where he had personal relationships with all of his major customers. His life was always related back to the atrocity of the camps – he felt taking personal care of others and doing the right thing justified having survived the camps. It gave his life purpose and meaning. So many executives today could learn these lessons – of a man who gave charity, of an executive who was honest, decent, charitable and hard-working.

At a Israel Bonds dinner he was honored at in 1975 he said, ‘I am still in Auschwitz every day. I never gave up my belief in the Almighty. He may have created rats and snakes and Nazis, but he also created beautiful birds and butterflies – and for Jews the greatest miracle of all: Israel, a homeland for the Jewish people.”
Amos Levitov, legendary air force pilot captured by Egypt, dies at 73
Amos Levitov, an Israeli Air Force (IAF) veteran who was captured and tortured by Egypt for three years, died in the early hours of Friday morning following a prolonged battle with cancer.

Levitov previously beat cancer six times before succumbing to the disease on Friday morning.

73-year-old Levitov, considered a legendary pilot in the 69 "Hammers" squadron, was captured by the Egyptian military during the War of Attrition on July 5, 1970 with nine other Israeli POWs after his aircraft was shot down.

Following three years of physical torture, he was released in 1973 as part of a prisoner exchange deal in the ceasefire talks between Israel and Egypt following the Yom Kippur War.

After his return from captivity, he resumed his IDF service and fought in the First Lebanon War in 1982.

"It's a story people can connect to," Levitov once said to N12. "After I returned from captivity in Egypt, I resumed my service because I still wanted to pilot aircrafts. My story touched the hearts of many."
StandWithUs: 70 years of Israeli aid






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