09/16 Links: Yom Kippur attack on German synagogue averted by police; US court says it won’t stop ‘Jewish Power Corrupts’ protests outside synagogue ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Yom Kippur attack on German synagogue averted by police

Police averted a possible Islamist attack on a synagogue in western Germany and arrested four people including a 16-year-old Syrian youth in connection with the threat, the regional interior minister said on Thursday.

Authorities had received a "a very serious and concrete tip" that an attack on the synagogue in the town of Hagen could take place during the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur, the minister, Herbert Reul, said.

Officers tightened security around the building on Wednesday evening and searched it for bombs but found nothing dangerous, Reul, interior minister for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, told a news conference.

He said the synagogue had called off its celebration of Yom Kippur, when observant Jews hold overnight vigils. The tip-off had included details of the timing of an attack, he added.

Earlier on Thursday, police in Hagen said they had arrested four people as a result of their investigation into the threat and had searched various buildings.

Reul said one of those detained was a 16-year-old from Hagen with Syrian roots.

US court says it won’t stop ‘Jewish Power Corrupts’ protests outside synagogue

Provocative pro-Palestinian protests outside a Jewish synagogue in Michigan are protected by the Constitution’s First Amendment, a federal court appeals said on Wednesday.

The court declined to stop the demonstrations or set restrictions in Ann Arbor. The protests have occurred on a weekly basis since 2003, with people holding signs that say “Jewish Power Corrupts,” “Stop Funding Israel” and “End the Palestinian Holocaust.”

Members of Beth Israel Congregation, including some Holocaust survivors, said that the protests have interfered with their Saturday worship and caused emotional distress.

“But the congregants have not alleged that the protesters ever blocked them from using their synagogue or that the protests were even audible from inside the building,” Judge Jeffrey Sutton said.

He said a proposed remedy — a 1,000-foot buffer and limits on signs — would likely violate the First Amendment.

“The key obstacle is the robust protections that the First Amendment affords to nonviolent protests on matters of public concern,” Sutton said in summarizing the case.

He was joined by Judge David McKeague. Judge Eric Clay agreed with the result but on different grounds.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a brief in support of the activists, saying that the protests are entitled to protection even if “offensive, upsetting and distasteful.”

Discover Card Cuts Ties With Palestinian Terror-Linked Organization

A major credit card company severed ties late last month with an organization accused of abetting Palestinian terrorism and backing economic boycotts against Israel.

Discover Card will no longer process donations to the Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ), a left-wing advocacy organization that provides funding to the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, a group that works to free Palestinians from the Israeli prison system. Discover Card froze donations after Israel designated Samidoun as a terror group earlier this year for its alleged ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), according to information provided to the Washington Free Beacon by the Zachor Legal Institute, which has been pressing companies to cut ties with these organizations for several months.

Discover’s decision to cut ties with an organization accused of financially supporting Palestinian terrorism comes as online donation portals have increasingly come under scrutiny. In January, the online donation processing company Stripe cut ties with President Donald Trump’s campaign. Last month, ActBlue, the Democrats’ online fundraising platform, booted former New York Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo days before he resigned office in the wake of a sex scandal.

ActBlue, in particular, has come under criticism for facilitating donations to terror-tied groups that back the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which wages economic warfare on Israel. Rep. Tim Burchett (R., Tenn.) petitioned the Justice and Treasury Departments in March to investigate ActBlue for its work with these anti-Israel groups.

While Discover has not stated its reasons for booting AFGJ, its decision came after the Zachor Legal Institute pressured the credit card company to remove the group for its relationship with known terrorist organizations. Discover did not respond to a request for comment, but communications reviewed by the Free Beacon confirm that the company will no longer process donations made to AFGJ, and, by proxy, Samidoun. Israel’s designation of Samidoun as a terrorist organization tied to the PFLP came as part of Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s campaign against the PFLP and its affiliates.

A Reminder for the Biden administration

Twenty years have passed since the largest terrorist attack humanity knew and carried out on U.S. soil. In the September 11, 2001 attacks some 3,000 people were killed and more than 6,000 wounded by 19 Al Qaeda Muslim terrorists.

In response to the attacks, the late Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister at the time, gave a speech in which he called on the countries of the world to fight terrorism and declared a national day of mourning in solidarity with the United States. The summary statement of the Special Session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, held on September 16 in solidarity with the American people, which was approved by all parties except the Arab parties, read, among other things:

"The Knesset considers these terrible terrorist attacks, carried out with satanic intent and with the aim of killing innocent civilians, as another illustration of the partnership of destiny between the people of Israel and the people of the United States. The Knesset notes that the acts of terrorism directed against the free world in the United States expose the longing and roots of fundamentalist "sons of darkness" and fanatical Islamic terrorist networks wherever they are, in their brutal struggle against one's freedom and values. The Knesset condemns and denounces the celebrations of joy of the supporters of terrorism, who could not resist and while overseas counted the bodies of innocent civilians, the latter chose to dance on the blood of the dead. The Knesset sees terrorism as the initial strategic threat to world peace and strengthens the hands of the administration and the President of the United States in their decision to embark on a determined struggle to eradicate terrorism – its planners, preachers, cheerleaders and sponsors – all of its carriers. We are all soldiers in the campaign against global terrorism, and no civilized member is entitled to declare his refusal to serve in this heavy campaign."

The period in which the 9/11 attacks were carried out in the United States will be remembered in Israel as "Tidal Events" or "The Second Intifada", in which a wave of murderous terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians led to Operation "Defensive Shield". During this period, serious attacks were carried out by suicide bombers from "Hamas", "Islamic Jihad", "The Peoples front", and even the "Tanzim" and "Fatah" P.L.O terror organizations, which claimed the lives of more than 1,000 Israelis and injured more than 8,000 others.

The response of the Arabs in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian Territories and the refugee camps in Lebanon to the terrorist attacks in the United States cannot be interpreted other than gloating. As such today, nothing has changed and there is a continues expression of support for terrorists after each successful attack carried out by those villains. Although the PA leadership tried at the time to prevent the record of mass joy on the streets and even threatened the lives of journalists who covered the comments, it failed to do so, and the false condolences of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat did not sound very convincing, while supporting and carrying out murderous attacks against Israelis.

For example, 3,000 marchers chanted: "Beloved bin Laden hit Tel Aviv", while carrying Hamas flags, enjoying candies and oriental sweets while a spirit of joy in the air. Near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, men, women and children were recorded waving Palestinian flags and expressing joy with chants of "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) while distributing sweets to smiling passersby.

Joe Biden’s next blunder – Jerusalem

Perhaps they forget, or need to be reminded, that Israel is a sovereign nation, and Jerusalem is its capital…been so for 3,000 years. (A must read.)

The Palestinian Arabs have no legitimate claim.

The return of the US consulate, however, would let them pretend that they share the capital. Step one, in their minds, to taking it over completely.

The Palestinian Arabs, successfully pushed aside by Trump, don’t need much to place themselves back into the big picture. Nobody does it better.

Are the Abraham Accords still safe from Biden’s wrecking ball?

From day one, Biden has been on a spree to savage all of Trump’s accomplishments. So we can’t be sure about anything…nothing that he touches.

For the terrorists among the Palestinian Arabs, however, in Biden they see someone they can work with handily, being the un-Trump.

Biden, after all, cut and ran and gave up Afghanistan to the jihadists…. people of the same family as the PA.

That is surely a signal to Ramallah and Gaza that here is a man always ready to give up old friends in order to make a separate peace.

Palestinian statehood would be a 'terrible mistake' - Bennett

It would be a terrible mistake to create a Palestinian state, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a series of media interviews he gave on Tuesday night just after his return from his historic meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

"I oppose a Palestinian state. I think it would be a terrible mistake that would take the terrible situation in Gaza and recreate it in Judea and Samaria," Bennett told KAN news.

His comments referred to Hamas's ouster of the Palestinian Authority from Gaza in a bloody coup in 2007 and its forcible take over of the coastal enclave as well as the consequent rocket attacks against southern Israel.

He inferred that if Hamas or another radical Palestinian group would similarly take over the West Bank, it would turn the lives of Israelis living in Kfar Saba and his home city of Ra'anana into a living hell.

"I will not do that," he said.

Bennett said that he understands that in any event, Palestinian statehood is not feasible at this time and thus the question of whether to support it was not relevant.

It is, however, important to provide economic opportunities for the Palestinians that would improve their lives, he said.

"My outlook is a very business-like one," he said. "If we create more business, strengthen the economy and improve living conditions for everyone in Judea and Samaria, that would be better."

US: We haven’t explicitly called for direct Israeli-Palestinian talks

The US does not expect to see renewed talks between Israelis and Palestinians in the near future, US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington on Wednesday.

“I don’t think you’ve heard us call for explicitly face-to-face negotiations at the present,” Price said.

He spoke in repose to a question about Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s statements in a media interview he gave on Monday that he has no plans to speak with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Bennett told KAN News, “I do not see the logic in meeting or talking to a person [Abbas] who is suing IDF soldiers and their commanders at the International Criminal Court at The Hague.”

Abbas is “accusing IDF commanders and soldiers of war crimes,” while he is providing monthly monetary stipends to terrorists, the prime minister said.

Price, however, clarified that the US at this time was not pushing for Bennett-Abbas talks.

“We are seeking to see to it that Israelis and Palestinians experience equal measures of safety, of security, of prosperity, and of dignity,” Price said.

“The starting point that we have right now… is not one where I think we would expect to see direct negotiations between the parties lead to any sort of breakthrough in the near term,” Price explained.

Lessons learned from Israel-Arab normalization

The list of global conflicts seems interminable. Tensions in the South China Sea. Violence between Turkey and armed Kurdish groups. India and Pakistan. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. And that’s just a sampling.

This year’s United Nations General Assembly opens today (Sept. 14), and its annual high-level debate session is scheduled for next week, when leaders from around the world are afforded time on the global stage to discuss peace, opportunities and grievances. Many analysts have criticized the UN for doing just that: discussing – for days, weeks and years – without taking concrete actions leading to peace.

It is on that note that nearly 70 ambassadors to the UN gathered on Monday at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York to listen to a success story – one written nearly entirely outside of Turtle Bay. Ambassadors from Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and the United States took the stage to recount the dramatic steps that led to the creation of the historic Abraham Accords normalization agreement, and each of their respective nations’ vision for further peace and cooperation.

Wednesday marks the one-year anniversary of the signing of the accords between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain on the White House lawn.

The sight of it all begs the question: What did the United Nations, often seemingly stuck in quicksand when it comes to solving difficult global conflicts, learn from large-scale Israeli-Arab/Muslim normalization, which only a short time ago was considered unthinkable? Which pieces of the template for fuller Middle East cooperation – economic benefits, uniting against a common enemy, leveraging cooperation with a global power, pooling limited resources – can be utilized by the UN in order to lessen disputes around the world? It’s a question to which apparently few have given much thought, even those who practice the art of conflict resolution.

“I would need to think about that,” said Mitch Fifield, the Australian ambassador to the UN.

“I’m not sure I have an answer to that particular question,” said Ukrainian ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya.

Blinken to Host Event Marking Anniversary of Israel-Arab Normalization Deals

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will host a virtual meeting on Friday with his counterparts from Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco to mark the first anniversary of normalization agreements between the Arab countries and Israel, officials said.

The event will be the Biden administration’s highest-profile display of support for the so-called Abraham Accords, which were widely seen as a diplomatic success for former President Donald Trump.

President Joe Biden has backed the deals since taking office in January, and senior aides have said they were working to get additional Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel after decades of enmity. But the administration until now had been cool to the idea of commemorating the anniversary of the accords.

A State Department official and an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed plans for the meeting, which was first reported by the Axios news website.

The leaders of Israel, the UAE and Bahrain signed the Abraham Accords at the White House in September of last year. Israel and Sudan announced in the following month that they would normalize relations, and Morocco established diplomatic ties with Israel in December, after Biden defeated Trump in the US election.

Palestinian officials said they felt betrayed by their Arab brethren for reaching deals with Israel without first demanding progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state. Until last year, only two Arab states — Egypt and Jordan — had forged full ties with Israel.

A couple days ago Biden's UN ambassador @lindat_g gave a speech about the Abraham Accords in which she refused to say "Abraham Accords."

In new intv, she says she learned how to do her job in a 4 day crash course & complains she has to know how to be "ambassador to everywhere." pic.twitter.com/vPzwu5DjTx
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) September 15, 2021

GOP Lawmakers Probe Biden Admin Humanitarian Aid to Taliban

A coalition of Republican foreign policy leaders in Congress is demanding that the Biden administration turn over all internal documents and communications related to plans to provide the Taliban with cash assets, a move the coalition says would incentivize the terror group's taking of American hostages.

The Republican Study Committee (RSC), the largest GOP caucus in Congress, is spearheading a probe that requires the Biden administration to disclose if the Taliban has insisted on U.S. financial aid in exchange for allowing Americans stranded in the country to return home. The State Department announced last week that it is sending $64 million in humanitarian aid to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, generating concerns that the Biden administration has agreed to a quid pro quo in which the terrorist group gets aid dollars in exchange for providing safe passage to those still stranded in the country.

"We have serious concerns about negotiations with the Taliban leading to the payment of ransom—whether marketed as humanitarian assistance or sanctions relief—which will give the Taliban resources that could be used to attack the United States or our allies," a group of 21 RSC lawmakers wrote in a letter exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon and sent Tuesday to the State Department. "The payment of ransom to terrorists, likely including the September 13 announcement of $64 million dollars in humanitarian aid to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan provided without guardrails, will only further place Americans in harm's way by incentivizing the Taliban, and other terrorist groups, to kidnap more Americans."

The latest investigation is one of several helmed by Republicans in Congress who want to know why the Biden administration pulled U.S. forces from Afghanistan without a plan to stop the Taliban from regaining control of the country. The Biden administration is under intense criticism for leaving Americans and vulnerable Afghans behind in the country as the Taliban angles to use them as leverage in negotiations with U.S. diplomats. The State Department still "has not presented a plan before Congress illustrating how it will ensure that Americans will not be left behind through diplomatic negotiations," the RSC wrote in its letter.

COLONEL RICHARD KEMP, THE FORMER COMMANDER OF BRITISH FORCES IN AFGHANISTAN, JOINS THE SHOW TO DISCUSS THE TALIBAN TAKE OVER OF AFGHANISTAN AND THE FUTURE SECURITY THREAT A TALIBAN CONTROLLED AFGHANISTAN POSES WORLDWIDE. @COLRICHARDKEMP https://t.co/pjSCy8lalg
— Mahgdalen Rose ?? (@MahgdalenRose) September 10, 2021

Jerusalem stabbing victims released from hospital, day after attack

Two people wounded in an alleged terror stabbing in Jerusalem on Monday were cleared to return home on Tuesday, the Shaarei Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem said.

The two men, ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students in their 20s, were rushed to the hospital in moderate condition after suffering stab wounds to their upper bodies during the attack near the capital’s central bus station Monday afternoon.

Authorities say that Basil Shawamra, a 17-year-old Palestinian from the Hebron area, entered a store near the usually-bustling bus station and knifed the two men. He was shot by a police officer as he fought with one of the victims and was hospitalized at Shaarei Zedek in serious condition.

Palestinian sources said that he was still in serious condition and intubated on a ventilator.

“He pulled out a meat knife, not a very large one, and stabbed my friend five times,” Meir Navon, one of the victims, told the Ynet news site. “Then he came at me and managed to stab me in the back. I ran toward the store and he caught me by the suit and tried to stab me in the neck, head and back.”

“I said to myself, ‘I have to defend myself,’ and I grabbed his throat and we fell together to the floor, where I grabbed his hand so he could not stab me anymore.”

Palestinians to hold municipal elections in December

The Palestinian Authority has decided to hold municipal elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in December, for the first time since 2017.

The first phase of the elections will be held on December 11 for 388 municipalities and village councils in the West Bank and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, the PA government announced. The second phase of the elections will be held at a later date.

However, it was not clear on Thursday whether Hamas would allow the elections to take place in the Gaza Strip.

In June, the PA government dissolved the elected municipal and village councils after their term expired and turned them into caretaker committees under the supervision of the Ministry of Local Government until new elections are held before the end of the year.

Elections for the PA Parliament and presidency, which were supposed to take place on May 22 and July 30, respectively, were called off by PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Elections for the PLO’s legislative body, the Palestinian National Council, which were scheduled for late August, were also indefinitely postponed.

On Wednesday, the Palestinian Central Elections Commission discussed the PA government’s decision to hold the municipal elections.

Ringleader of Palestinian Prisoner Escapees Recounts Details of Escape

Mahmoud al-Arida, the ringleader of the group of six Palestinian terrorists who escaped Israel’s Gilboa Prison last week, has given his lawyer copious details on the escape, which he described as a major achievement.

According to Palestinian news agency Ma’an, al-Arida said that preparations for the escape began in December of last year when the escapees began digging a tunnel out of the prison, and continued until earlier this month.

He also said that the prisoners’ destination was the West Bank, but this proved impossible due to Israel’s heavy deployment of security forces in the area.

Al-Arida claimed that the escapees tried to avoid entering Israeli-Arab villages and that no one alerted police to the prisoners’ presence, though both of these claims have been contradicted by Israeli media reports.

He further said that the prisoners’ arrests happened by chance and not due to any information given to police.

In addition, al-Arida claimed the escapees received no aid from other prisoners in their escape, which again contradicts Israeli reports.

He added that he considers the escape a major achievement.

Al-Arida and his lawyer also claimed without evidence that al-Arida has been subjected to harsh interrogation and torture since his arrest.

Qatar restarts distributing aid to needy Gazans, minus the suitcases of cash

Qatar resumed its distribution of aid to Gaza on Wednesday for the first time since the May conflict between Israel and the territory’s terror groups, this time through a new mechanism that does not involve suitcases full of cash.

The Hamas-run government’s official news agency said that the money is being disbursed through supermarkets, money exchange shops and other retail stores in a process that will continue over the coming days. The United Nations has said that the funding amounts to $40 million.

The aid is part of an informal truce brokered by Egypt and the UN in recent years, in which the Hamas terror group, the Strip’s rulers, traded calm for the easing of a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt when it seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007. Israel views the blockade as a necessary measure to limit the ability of Gaza’s terror groups to arm themselves.

Israel had been allowing millions in Qatari cash to flow through Israeli crossings into Gaza on a monthly basis since 2018, in order to maintain a fragile ceasefire with Hamas. As of early 2021, some $30 million in cash was being delivered in suitcases to Gaza each month through an Israeli-controlled crossing.

Since an 11-day conflict in May, Israel has blocked the payments and imposed heightened restrictions on the enclave.

Hezbollah brings Iranian fuel deliveries to Lebanon, despite US sanctions

Dozens of tanker trucks carrying Iranian fuel arranged by the Hezbollah terror group arrived in shortage-hit Lebanon on Thursday.

As they entered from Syria through an illegal crossing in the eastern region of Hermel, the trucks were greeted by Hezbollah supporters waving the group’s yellow flag, ululating women tossing rice and rose petals, and men firing guns.

Hassan Nasrallah, the Iranian-backed terror group’s leader, had promised in August that he would bring fuel from Iran to alleviate the rationing that is sowing chaos across the country.

Lebanon defaulted on its debt last year and can no longer afford to import key goods, including petrol for vehicles and diesel to power generators during almost round-the-clock power cuts.

The first Iranian ship reached the Syrian port of Baniyas earlier this week. The cargo was offloaded there and trucked to Lebanon, the first of several planned deliveries.

A total of 80 trucks carrying four million liters (more than one million gallons) of petrol entered Lebanon on Thursday and were expected to fill the tanks of Al-Amana, a fuel distribution company which is owned by Hezbollah and has been under United States sanctions since February 2020.

Iran’s nuclear chief admits removing damaged IAEA monitoring cameras

Iran acknowledged on Wednesday that it had removed several surveillance cameras installed by United Nations nuclear inspectors at a centrifuge assembly site that came under a mysterious attack earlier this year.

The chief of the country’s nuclear program, Mohammad Eslami, sought to portray the removal of cameras as Tehran’s response to world powers reneging on their commitments under the tattered 2015 nuclear deal.

“The parties did not implement their commitments so there was no necessity for the cameras’ existence,” Eslami said after a meeting with lawmakers — remarks apparently aimed at his own domestic audience under the country’s new hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi.

Eslami’s comments come days after a confidential International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report that revealed that the nuclear watchdog found one surveillance camera to be destroyed and a second severely damaged after their removal from the centrifuge manufacturing site in Karaj, a city about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Tehran.

In June, Iran accused Israel of mounting a sabotage attack on the site, which makes components for machines used to enrich uranium. Without disclosing details of the assault, Iranian authorities acknowledged the strike had damaged the building.

Addressing swirling questions about the agency’s broken surveillance cameras, Eslami said on Wednesday that they were damaged during recent “terrorist operations,” without elaborating.

University of Manitoba Student Union to Voice ‘Solidarity With Palestinians’ After ‘Contentious’ Debate

On Tuesday, the University of Manitoba Student Union (UMSU) approved a motion to issue a “Statement of Solidarity with Palestinian Students,” following a months-long campaign by an informal group of several dozen students, according to the campus newspaper The Manitoban.

UMSU approved the idea after nearly four hours of what its president called a “contentious” debate, the report said, joining several other student unions at Canadian universities following the conflict between Israel and Hamas in May.

“We’ve come such a long way. The word Palestine is going to be uncensored,” junior Zahara Rizvi told The Manitoban in response to the news. “There is nobody to speak for [Palestinian students.]”

On September 7, the UMSU Board of Directors declined to approve a draft statement addressed to “all students affected by events in the Middle East” after some students analogized it to the “all lives matter” slogan.

“I often don’t like comparing all social movements with Black Lives Matter, but there are definitely parallels to what’s happening here,” said Black Students Union President Reem Elmahi. “We shouldn’t be lumping all Middle Eastern issues together.”

During the meeting, Rizvi told the UMSU Board of Directors that the alternative proposed would be “not inclusive” and “disrespectful to the work that the coalition of students has done so far and an injustice [not to] just Palestinian and impacted students but also to every Black, Indigenous, and student of color.”

EXCLUSIVE: Zarah Sultana invited to learn about Prevent after repeating false ‘Free Palestine’ claim

Labour MP Zarah Sultana has been invited into the Home Office to learn more about the work the government’s counter-extremism programme Prevent after she repeated a widely-debunked claim that a teenager had been referred to the scheme for wearing a ‘Free Palestine’ badge.

The invitation came after the Coventry South MP spoke at a Westminster Hall debate on Islamophobia last week, telling MPs about the “targeting of Muslims” and citing the case of a student referred to Prevent for expressing his support for Palestinians.

A senior source at the Home Office confirmed to the JC the story was not true and revealed an invitation had been issued to the MP to learn more about Prevent.

The programme was launched by the government in 2015 to combat the ideology of extremism and terrorism. Ministers announced in January a programme review, to be led by William Shawcross.

Muslim community groups and human rights campaigners have boycotted the review claiming Mr Shawcross, a former director of the Henry Jackson Society, has in the past expressed “Islamophobic views” – something he strongly denies.

Speaking about Prevent, Ms Sultana said: “Countless studies and human rights groups have demonstrated [it] discriminates against Muslims. From young girls being referred to the programme simply for choosing to wear a hijab to a Muslim teen being questioned by anti-terrorism officers for wearing a ‘Free Palestine’ badge.”

Canadian NDP Candidates Resign Over Antisemitic Social Media Posts as General Election Looms

Two parliamentary candidates from Canada’s center-left New Democratic Party (NDP) have resigned over controversies regarding antisemitism just five days before the country heads to the polls for a snap general election.

NDP spokesperson George Soule said on Wednesday morning that Sidney Coles, running in Toronto-St. Paul’s, and Dan Osborne, running in the Nova Scotia riding of Cumberland-Colchester, were resigning by choice, but that the party supports their decisions, CBC News reported.

Both had agreed to learn more about the problem of antisemitism, Soule added.

Coles’ offense was to promote the fabrication that Israel was responsible for doses of the COVID-19 vaccine that allegedly went missing in the US last winter.

She later apologized for posting “unsubstantiated theories about vaccine supply linked to Israel” on Twitter, saying, “I recognize this frame is a common antisemitic trope, though that was never my intent.”

Osborne, meanwhile, sent a tweet to TV personality Oprah Winfrey asking whether the Auschwitz extermination camp was “a real place.”

Though the tweet was sent in 2019, Osborne said he had no memory of posting it in an apology he issued on Sunday.

Guardian's former Jerusalem correspondent is up to his old tricks

So, we’re told that Israeli aircraft struck targets in Gaza “while” Palestinian militants launched rockets into Israel, and that there has been three consecutive nights of fighting between the two sides. But, the timeline of events, and the question of who initiated ‘hostilities’, is left vague. However, what clearly occurred is that, on late Sunday night, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired two rockets towards Israel. The IDF responded to recent rocket attack by striking Hamas military targets.

On Friday and Saturday, the two previous days, the same sequence of events occurred: terrorists in Gaza fired a rocket at Israel, and the IDF retaliated on military targets in the strip.

Beaumont’s language blurred cause and effect, obfuscating the fact that Gaza terrorists initiated the fighting during the last three days.

Now, here’s another sentence from the article, one that grossly misleads via an omission:
The last meeting between an Egyptian president and an Israeli premier was in January 2011, when Hosni Mubarak received Benjamin Netanyahu, weeks before Mubarak was toppled in a popular revolution.

In the political turbulence that followed, relations between the two countries deteriorated as protests were staged outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo in 2011.

It wasn’t merely “protests” outside the Israeli embassy in September 2011 that caused a deterioration in relations.

An Egyptian mob got past embassy security, broke into the embassy and, if not for a last minute rescue by Egyptian commandos, would have almost certainly killed six Israeli security staff who were hiding in a safe room. The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent at the time, Harriet Sherwood, reported it:

And, we know for sure that Beaumont knows what happened during the ‘protests’ because he personally commented on it (here) in the Guardian’s Live Blogging of the 2011 protests, two days after the embassy was stormed.

Cleveland Area Man Charged with Assaulting Jewish Couple at a Pro-Palestinian Rally

A Westlake man was charged with assault and obstruction of justice following an incident at a pro-Palestinian rally May 14 at Crocker Park in Westlake, in which a Cleveland Heights couple who were counter-protesting said they were assaulted.

Rocky River Municipal Court mailed Alec Popivker a criminal protection order dated Aug. 31 showing Mohammed Ayman Sbeih, 20, was ordered to stay away from the Popivkers. Sbeih was arraigned Aug. 31 in Rocky River Municipal Court and released on personal recognizance.

The terms of the protective order include Sbeih not enter the residence, business, place of employment, day care center or child care provider of the victims, that he stay at least 500 feet from the victims, that he not use any form of electronic surveillance of the victims, that he not cause or encourage anyone to do any act prohibited by the order, that he not possess, use or carry any deadly weapon while the order is in effect, and that he not use or possess alcohol or illegal drugs.

Both the assault charge and the obstruction of justice charges are first-degree misdemeanors. Each carries a maximum fine of $1,000 and a maximum jail sentence of six months.

Over 1 in 5 adult Jewish US gamers face online antisemitism, ADL survey finds

More than one in five Jewish adults who play online multiplayer games faced antisemitism while playing, according to a new survey from the Anti-Defamation League.

The survey, published on Wednesday, found that harassment and bigotry are common across the 97 million Americans who play multiplayer games. Among adult gamers surveyed, 83 percent said that they have been harassed while playing. 60% of gamers aged 13-17 who were surveyed said the same.

Among adults, nearly half of women said they were harassed, as did 42% of Black gamers and more than one-in-three Asian and LGBTQ+ gamers. A quarter of Muslim gamers also said they were harassed. More than seven-in-10 adults reported what the ADL calls “severe abuse, including physical threats, stalking, and sustained harassment.”

Among teems, Black, female and Asian gamers also reported the highest rates of harassment in their age group, though harassment is less common across the board among teens.

Only 7% of Jewish teen gamers said that they were harassed for their identity. But 10% of teen gamers, and 8% of adult gamers, said they’ve been exposed to white supremacist extremism online. Among teens, 17% said that they didn’t feel like talking to family or friends after being harassed, and 10% said that they did worse in school because they were harassed.

Anti-Semitic bigot spits on man in Brooklyn, yells slur: cops

A hate-spewing anti-Semitic attacker spat on a man on a Brooklyn sidewalk, cops said Wednesday.

The 46-year-old victim, who wore a yarmulke on his head, was walking along Utica Ave. at Park Place in Crown Heights just after 5:30 p.m. Sept. 9 when the suspect approached him, cops said.

NYPD are looking for a man they say allegedly approached a 46-year-old male victim and made anti-Jewish statements towards him in front of 182 Utica Ave. in Brooklyn Sept. 9.

The man spat on the victim’s chest, then said, “F---ing Jew, I’m going to kill you,” cops said. He tried to punch the victim, but the blow didn’t connect.

The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the attack.

Cops released a photo of the suspect and are asking anyone with info to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.

Trial date set for man accused of anti-Semitic podcasts

A date has been set for the trial of a man accused of distributing racist and anti-Semitic podcasts.

James Allchurch, 49, also known as Sven Longshanks, appeared at Swansea Crown Court on Wednesday morning.

He denied 15 charges of distributing a sound recording stirring up racial hatred on or before May 17 2019 to on or before March 18 2021.

Allchurch spoke only to confirm his name and reply “not guilty” as each charge was read out.

The charges allege that he distributed recordings with titles including Rivers Of Blood, Banned In The UK, The Leftist Supremacist Mindset, and The Usual Suspects.

Judge Paul Thomas told him: “Your trial will be on June 27 but there will be a further hearing either in March or April.”

The defendant, of no fixed address but originally from Pembrokeshire, was released on unconditional bail.

Bennett makes the ‘TIME 100 most influential’ list; Mansour Abbas pens his entry

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has made TIME magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people, and his Arab-Israeli coalition partner Mansour Abbas thinks he knows why.

“It all comes down to courage,” Abbas, the leader of the first Arab party to join an Israeli governing coalition, writes in the accompanying blurb explaining why his political opposite was recognized on the list published Wednesday.

“After four elections in two years, a bold act was needed to unite a country frayed by political stalemate and brought to a desperate standstill. Something dramatic needed to change, but more importantly, someone courageous needed to make that change.”

Abbas and Bennett agree on little ideologically. Abbas leads the United Arab List, a party that champions Palestinian self-determination, while Bennett comes from Israel’s right wing and has pledged that a Palestinian state will not arise on his watch. But they coalesced around the goal of removing Bennett’s predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, who they saw as divisive and corrupt.

Arab parties have been part of coalition negotiations previously, and for a period in the 1990s supported a government from outside the coalition. But, Abbas notes, those negotiations always were conducted behind closed doors.

“I don’t do things in the dark,” Abbas quotes Bennett as telling him when Bennett surprised him by opening their coalition talks to the media.

Bennett to address UN General Assembly on September 27

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will fly to New York City to speak at the 76th United Nations General Assembly on September 27.

Bennett will speak about Israel’s national security and regional issues, according to his office. His remarks will likely focus on Iran’s nuclear program and its support for armed proxy groups.

The trip will be Bennett’s second official visit to the United States as prime minister. On August 27, Bennett met with US President Joe Biden at the White House, during which both sides sought to exude an atmosphere of warmth and cooperation.

Bennett’s predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, was known for making headlines with his speeches on the Iranian nuclear threat at the UN General Assembly, often using cardboard graphics and other props to get his point across.

The two-week-long event kicks off on Tuesday, and will be markedly different than last year’s event, which was conducted mostly online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bennett will be one of at least 83 world leaders who plan on attending in person, according to Turkish diplomat Volkan Bozkir, president of last year’s gathering.

Twenty-six leaders applied to speak remotely, said Bozkir last week.

Taiwan’s longtime rabbi, whose life brimmed with global intrigue, dies at 103

Ephraim Einhorn, a rabbi and businessman who helmed Taiwan’s fledgling Jewish community after a career that included clandestine missions on behalf of oppressed Jews, has died.

Einhorn’s death on Wednesday morning in Taipei, just hours before the beginning of Yom Kippur, came after an extended illness and weeks of intermittent hospitalizations. He had turned 103 three days earlier.

Einhorn was Taiwan’s first resident rabbi and, for 30 years, the only one to serve the community that now includes an estimated 700 to 800 Jews. He was also a teacher, diplomat, businessman, scholar and father whose personality loomed large.

“He was sometimes impatient with people and could be intimidating. But at the same time you felt underneath that layer there was a great deal of kindness and empathy,” said Don Shapiro, a former president of the Taiwan Jewish Community group, who first met Einhorn in the early 1980s. “So he was a very complex individual. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone else even closely like him.”

Einhorn’s life spanned a century of upheaval and renewal for the Jewish people.

Born in Vienna in 1918, he attended several yeshivas across Europe before moving to the United Kingdom. (His parents, who remained in Austria, were murdered by the Nazis.) According to his retelling, he gained admission not by applying in the regular manner, but by impressing rabbis with his mature knowledge and remarkable recall of proverbs his rabbi father encouraged him to memorize when he was young.

After earning both rabbinic ordination and a doctorate in philosophy from a London yeshiva that is now defunct, Einhorn began working with the World Jewish Congress, first in England, and later in the United States, where he simultaneously led several congregations as a rabbi in the late 1940s through the 1950s.

Saving Iraq’s Tomb of Nahum, a secret mission resurrects Kurdistan’s Jewish past

On a spring day in April 2017, two jeeps, their windows blacked out, sped down a sandy highway in Iraqi Kurdistan toward the small Christian village of Alqosh.

In the cars sat two Israeli engineers, one in each, for security reasons. They had entered the country holding the only passports they had — Israeli — to take part in an extraordinary reconstruction mission.

The two, Yaakov Schaffer and Meir Ronen, watched through sealed windows as they drove past scenes of ruinous destruction left by nearly two decades of war. Some 15 miles away, fighters from the Islamic State terror group were battling the Iraqi army.

As they approached the village, the jeeps pulled over and Schaffer and Ronen got out, accompanied by their Kurdish security guards. On foot, they climbed into the town and made straight for the antiquities site at the northern part of the ancient city: the Tomb of Nahum, the Old Testament prophet.

For decades, the people of Alqosh, members of the Chaldean Catholic Church, guarded a shrine once revered by local Jews as the final resting place of Nahum of Elkosh. But on that day, the structure that lay before them was crumbling around a caved-in roof.

“The walls and pillars were cracked and crumbling. It looked like the rest of the building would collapse at any minute,” recalled Adam Tiffen, an American entrepreneur and project manager who had visited the site a year earlier and was there that day with the Israelis.

The three of them entered. As they began to examine the structure, they unfurl the options that lay before them to save the ancient shrine.