10/08 Links Pt2: Mark Regev: The problem with Corbyn, AOC and left-wing antisemitism; Museum unveils 14th century hand-painted scroll depicting ancient Israel

From Ian:

Mark Regev: The problem with Corbyn, AOC and left-wing antisemitism - opinion

FOR BRITISH Jews, the Corbyn phenomenon was highly unsettling. The outbreak of antisemitism at the top tier of Her Majesty’s loyal opposition was a genuine shock, especially as it was centered on the individual who challenged three consecutive Tory prime ministers for the keys of 10 Downing Street.

American Jews also took notice. Prior to COVID-19, delegations to Israel from American Jewish organizations were always looking for something new to attract participants, and years ago started including a stopover of interest in the itinerary – a tour of Jewish Prague, a visit with Morocco’s Jewish community or even a meeting in Amman with the Jordanian foreign minister. During my tenure as Israel’s ambassador in Britain, more and more they included a stopover in London.

A UK visit was not just a matter of showing solidarity with a Jewish community undergoing a difficult period. The American Jews I met in London were anxious that Corbyn’s takeover of Britain’s Labour could be a sign of things to come in the Democratic Party.

Such fears were exacerbated following the 2019 phone call between Corbyn and US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a conversation that took place after Corbyn’s antisemitism had already received significant media coverage in the US. Corbyn, who at the time had legitimacy issues with social-democrats across Europe, thoroughly enjoyed his 45-minute discussion with the New York representative, tweeting: “Great to speak to @AOC on the phone this evening and hear first-hand how she’s challenging the status quo.” AOC responded with a warm tweet of her own: “It was an honor to share such a lovely and wide-reaching conversation with you, @jeremycorbyn!” Consistent with honoring Corbyn, she later pulled out of an event hosted by the dovish American Friends of Peace Now to commemorate assassinated prime minister and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Yitzhak Rabin.

Does the Iron Dome funding episode indicate that “the chickens have come home to roost?” Unclear. In Britain, the Jewish community played a decisive role in the effective public campaign against antisemitism in the Labour Party. If American Jews and their allies act with a determination akin to that shown in Britain, the Iron Dome funding affair may turn out to be just a troubling aberration. If not, the incident could very well be a milestone in the growing Corbynization of the Democratic Party. The latter development may have highly problematic implications for the American Jewish community and for the US-Israel partnership.

A discredited Corbyn was ultimately forced to resign his leadership after Labour’s unprecedented losses in the 2019 national elections, with the party’s faithful increasingly convinced that Corbynism was a prescription for keeping Labour out of office in perpetuity. Hopefully, Democrats are closely following developments across the pond.

Dreyfus, Zionism, and Sartre

A Jew most often combats the antisemite’s onslaught by being reasonable. He asks for fair treatment, as Dreyfus did, but this, Sartre points out, is a frail defense, which causes the Jew to further victimize himself, while inflaming the malice of his accusers.

Sartre has gotten much bad press for his claim that “it is the antisemite who makes the Jew.” But Sartre was being polemical—he ignored the rich resources of Jewish self-definition so he could focus on the Jew who was anxious about being a Jew. Such an anxious, inauthentic Jew, Sartre says, “has allowed himself to be persuaded by the anti-Semites ... He admits with them that, if there is a Jew, he must have the characteristics with which popular malevolence endows him, and his effort is to constitute himself a martyr, in the proper sense of the term [i.e., a witness], that is, to prove in his person that there are no Jews.”

Sartre’s analysis applies to those Jewish anti-Zionists who wish to wipe Jewish nationalism from the map and turn the Jew into the universal man or woman—a purely virtuous apostle of human rights (while at the same time applauding Palestinian nationalism). By contrast, Sartre was a committed Zionist who argued that the United Nations ought to have armed the Jews when the British departed from Palestine. In 1949, he said that the creation of Israel was one of the rare events that “allows us to preserve hope.” “I will never abandon this constantly threatened country whose existence ought not to be put into question,” he remarked in 1976. In Anti-Semite and Jew, composed before the birth of Israel, he wrote that the Jew “may also be led by his choice of authenticity to seek the creation of a Jewish nation possessing its own soil and autonomy.” Though Sartre also says one can be an authentic French Jew, this seems a less attractive option given pervasive French anti-Semitism.

For Sartre, as for Herzl, the Jew’s problem was rootlessness: the Jew ran the risk of becoming nothing except a defender of universal rights, and so not Jewish at all. By default, his loyalty, like Dreyfus’s, would belong to the nation-state that oppressed him. A new Jewish rootedness—Zionism—was needed instead. And so Sartre’s logic leads in a Zionist direction, though this remains less than explicit in Anti-Semite and Jew.

Near the end of his life, Sartre gave a lengthy interview to Benny Lévy, his young Maoist secretary, who later abandoned Marx and became a rabbi in Israel. Sartre shocked his leftist comrades by telling Lévy that Jewish messianism was superior to the Marxist ideology he had long championed. For the Jews, Sartre argued, each virtuous act is justified because it contributes to the coming of the Messiah, and this seemed to him a better idea than Marxist class warfare, since it spoke to Sartre’s ideal of committed personal action.

Most European Jews, instead of emigrating to Palestine, had either remained loyal like Dreyfus to the nations that scorned them, or simply hoped they could survive the coming persecution without leaving their homes. Their hopes were ruined. Outside Paris’ schools, the visitor can now see plaques commemorating the thousands of Jewish children murdered by the Nazis with the active assistance of the French state.

Dreyfus’ nephews fought and died for France in World War I. His son Pierre, who passed through the hell of Verdun, earned the Croix de guerre. Dreyfus himself died in 1935, too early to see French gendarmes deport his favorite granddaughter, Madeline, to Auschwitz.

Museum unveils 14th century hand-painted scroll depicting ancient Israel

The Israel Museum unveiled the Florence Scroll on Wednesday, a hand-painted scroll from the 14th century which is now displayed unrolled to its full length inside the glass vitrine of a museum gallery.

The nearly 11-meter parchment is the focus of “Painting a Pilgrimage,” the exhibit depicting the pilgrimage of a medieval Egyptian Jew from Cairo to the Land of Israel, the earliest known visual travelogue of the Holy Land.

It’s a scroll dominated by the cherry red, leaf green and ochre yellow lines that make up its 130 illustrations, displaying holy sites located from Egypt to Lebanon and offering one painter’s idea of what the region looked like 700 years ago.

“Scrolls are usually rolled up and kept out of the light, so the colors are kept sharp and bright,” said Rachel Sarfati, the senior curator who has been researching the scroll for the last 14 years.

The parchment includes illustrations of Egyptian and Lebanese landscapes, a central drawing of the Temple Mount, others of Mount Sinai, the Cave of the Patriarchs and the Tower of David.

It’s a relic that depicts sites and places built and visited in ancient times, yet in a landscape that is very familiar to the museum visitors, accentuated in the “Painting a Pilgrimage” exhibit with hands-on, digital maps and two wall-sized slide shows offering a pictorial view of those locations in modern times.

“Rachel Sarfati curated this, she realized its importance and brought it to light,” said museum director Ido Bruno at the opening on Wednesday night.

Comprehensive report exposes antisemitism in Ireland

Collier noted that the report likely underestimates the true scope of the problem, as many accounts could not be verified and were therefore excluded from the final document.

"Because of the conservative and careful manner in which data was collected, and the number of accounts discarded because identification proved impossible, the true scale of the problem is likely to be even higher than identified."

Some of the most egregious social media posts were tweets, including one that read "stop calling yourself (((irish))) you subversive piece of ****. You're a jew and everyone sees what you're doing." and another saying "No way is the protocols a hoax, sure all ya have to do is look at who supposedly 'debunked' them... The Jewish owned London Times..," apparently referring to the early 20th-century antisemitic screed The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Another tweet said "This is a joke! Make alliance, you want penance for the utter destruction and devastation you have imposed onto Palestine. Your kind fund American foreign policy encouraging war for your Shylock pockets."

Shylock is a common antisemitic slur that comes from a Shakespearean Jewish character.

"You all should repent and beg forgiveness from Palestine, the world and God," the tweet continued. "You freed Barabas to crucify our Lord. The cause and victims of every war, the fighters and Victor's of none."

The previous post exemplifies the antisemitic idea that Jews killed Jesus, a notion that is popular among some churches of numerous different Christian denominations.

BDS Will Be Back in Burlington, Vermont

Last month, the City Council of Burlington, Vermont, voted — after a long discussion — to withdraw an anti-Israel BDS resolution from its agenda, prompting pro-Israel groups to declare victory and praise Councilor Ali Dieng for his role in making the withdrawal happen.

Given that Dieng was the councilor who sponsored the resolution in the first place, his motion to withdraw seemed to bring a decisive end to the controversy, and he seemed to deserve praise for his actions.

But if you listen to what Dieng and other city councilors actually said during the September 13, 2021, meeting, you’ll discover otherwise.

Dieng and his allies made it perfectly clear that while they supported the withdrawal of the resolution on September 13, their intent is to bring BDS back for discussion and a vote at a future date. It’s all right there in this video.

Even as he admitted his resolution wasn’t “ready,” was “one-sided,” and didn’t deal effectively with the issue of antisemitism, Dieng declared his intention to make the Israel-Palestinian conflict a “standing item” on the agenda of the Racial Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Committee (REIBC), which itself is a creation of the Burlington City Council. (It was this ironically named committee that vetted and sent the BDS resolution to the City Council for approval.)

By making the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a “standing item” on the REIBC, Djieng wants to turn Burlington city government into an annex of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which puts the Jewish state on permanent trial with “Item Seven.” Item Seven is a standing agenda item titled “Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.” It gives Israel’s enemies on the council leave to demonize the Jewish state while ignoring human rights abuses elsewhere in the world.

This is exactly what Dieng’s constituents want in Burlington — a witch trial venue where they can regularly inveigh against Israel and put Israel’s supporters in Vermont on the defensive.

(Including Dave Chapelle)

— leekern (@leekern13) October 7, 2021

The global Jewish population still hasn’t recovered to it’s pre-Holocaust level. By contrast the Palestinian population has boomed over the decades. That’s because there is no extermination or ethnic cleansing intent from Israel. It’s a lie the Jews have become like Nazis.

— leekern (@leekern13) October 7, 2021

After an antisemitic incident at Westin Leipzeig, the hotel posted this as an “apology” Imagine someone was Islamophobic and in their apology posted a pic with Jewish and Islamic symbols, like wtf?

Its great to show interfaith alliance but it has nothing to do with what happened pic.twitter.com/q3ODV0yNoS

— Emily Schrader - ????? ?????? (@emilykschrader) October 7, 2021

Some good news from #Germany, as a Court throws out a #BDS appeal against the Bundestag’s resolution condemning BDS & restricting public funding.https://t.co/J0XDDBXsos via @JuedischeOnline

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) October 7, 2021

Many pro-palestinian social media accounts have been praising @Nike for stopping its sales to Israeli retailers claiming it as a "BDS win".

No. False. Wrongo.

Nike is stopping its sales via retailers all over the world. pic.twitter.com/1lIzxmIZeE

— The Mossad: The Social Media Account (@TheMossadIL) October 7, 2021

Multiple Mezuzahs Torn Down at Indiana University Since High Holidays

Jewish groups at Indiana University, Bloomington (IU) have reported several antisemitic incidents since the Rosh Hashanah, according to a student newspaper report, including repeated vandalism of the ritual scrolls fixed to doorposts.

“Four different mezuzahs have been torn down since the start of our New Year, one of them was torn down twice,” Rabbi Levi Cunin, Director of the IU Chabad House, told the Indiana Student Daily on Monday. “This has to be done intentionally — it’s high up on the door.”

On Sept. 24, Jacob Bohrer, student and president of Alpha Epsilon Pi, informed IU President Pamela Whitten of one student’s mezuzah being torn from the door of her dorm room twice in several days.

“It’s not just specific to Bloomington, it’s around the world,” he told the Daily. “Ten percent of our campus population are Jews, which is a lot of kids. I’m not sure why the school has not come out with a statement, which is why I emailed President Whitten.”

Detailing past instances of antisemitism on campus, he recalled an incident in 2019, when two of his brothers at the traditionally Jewish fraternity were assaulted by eleven members of Pi Kappa Phi for trying to enter a party at the Pi Kappa Phi House. In 2020, he added, a driver passing by an outside service heckled at Jewish worshippers.

IU Spokesperson Chuck Carney told the student paper that the incidents do not reflect the university’s values.

“IU-Bloomington has received reports of bias incidents involving antisemitism in the residence halls that do not reflect IU’s commitment to equitable and inclusive environment for people from all backgrounds,” Carney said. “We ask the IU community to join us in shaping a campus where everyone feels welcome, respected and comfortable no matter their race, ethnicity, identity, political or religious beliefs.”

Colorado High School Student Appealing First Amendment Case After Expulsion for Antisemitic Snapchat Post

A Colorado student is appealing a district court’s dismissal of a free speech lawsuit over his expulsion from high school due to an antisemitic Snapchat post made off campus, according to a local report.

In 2019, the Cherry Hill High School student — identified as “C.G.” — captioned a Snapchat Story of his three friends wearing hats and wigs, “Me and the boys bout to exterminate the Jews.”

He deleted the image and apologized hours later in another post, but it was shared by his friends and brought to the attention of parents and Cherry Hill High administrators, and ultimately the Anti-Defamation League Mountain States division, which alerted the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office.

After interviewing the student, police determined he did not pose an immediate threat to the Jewish community, but school administrators suspended him for violating school policies against verbally abusive speech. Following a hearing, the school later expelled C.G. for one year, finding him in violation of prohibitions on hazing, intimidation, and obscene comments.

A suit from the boy’s family against the Cherry Hill School District, arguing that its decision violated the First Amendment, was dismissed in US District Court in August 2021 — prompting the recent appeal.

Submitted to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in September, with the Colorado ACLU, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and the Cato Institute each filing an amicus brief on the family’s behalf.

How the Media’s 9/11 Anniversary Coverage Shifted From a Critical Look at Al-Qaeda to Attacking America

Whispered first — and then shouted from the dust and wreckage of the morning of September 11, 2001, came the words that have become a mantra: Never forget.

And in the two decades since the attacks of 9/11, there is much we never did forget: the deaths, the despair, the fire, the fear, the photographs of the missing. But this 20-year anniversary revealed that there is, also much that we tragically, dangerously lost track of along the way: our commitment to democracy; our dedication to the American ideal; our defense of the Enlightenment values of the West; and our devotion to their survival. And most of all — to remember the ideology of the Islamist terrorist perpetrators of the single largest terrorist attack on American soil.

In their place, across editorial pages and in opinion-laden monologues recited over cable news, we were subjected to accusations, self-flagellations, apologetics, and regrets. In a New York Times op-ed included in a section devoted to the anniversary, for instance, Farah Stockman declared that the war in Afghanistan had been corrupt from the start, the entire enterprise only about money and defense contractors’ profits.

Yet in the same breath, Stockman also insisted that America had invested too much money in Afghanistan, and was therefore to blame for the country’s corruption. In her eyes, in other words, not those killed in 9/11, but the Afghan people wronged by America were the real victims, and America, not A-Qaeda, the evildoer.

Then there was Michelle Goldberg’s contribution to the same Times 9/11 anniversary section, in which she explained “How 9/11 Turned America Into a Half-Crazed Fading Power.”

“We inflated the stature of our enemies to match our need for retribution,” Goldberg wrote. “We launched hubristic wars to remake the world… we midwifed worse terrorists than those we set out to fight.”

But it wasn’t just the Times. An Atlantic article, for instance, told us that “After 9/11, the U.S. Got Almost Everything Wrong.” And it also wasn’t just in America: In the UK, for instance, a Guardian piece reviled “the most epically damaging man-made calamity of recent times.” And in the Netherlands, national daily the Volkskrant stated, “The war on terrorism … has entirely missed; [it] has only spawned more innocent victims and an irreparable chasm between conservative Islam and the Western world.” What’s more, the Volkskrant added, “Since 9/11, innocent Muslims around the world have been the victims of Islamophobia.”

Andrew Bolt: 'Where does it begin and where does it end' with John Lyons book criticising Israel lobby

AIJAC National Chairman Mark Leibler says John Lyons book, ‘Dateline Jerusalem: Journalism’s Toughest Assignment’, points out “only three people can tell the editors of The Australian what they can and cannot publish”.

It comes as the head of investigative journalism at the ABC, Mr Lyons, wrote a book where he criticised the Israel lobby.

“It’s laughable and this is the basis for accusing AIJAC of properly corrupting the journalists process, it’s worse than that, I mean it’s worse but it’s really funny,” Mr Leibler told Sky News host Andrew Bolt.

“He says specifically that there is no lobby in Australia as powerful as Israel lobby; so the Israel lobby, AIJAC, is more powerful than the BCA, more powerful than the Australia Conservation Foundation.

“I mean where does it begin and where does it end? This is the head of investigative journalism at the ABC, now what do you say? I don’t know.”

Why does the BBC promote denials that have been disproved in court?

On the afternoon of October 4th the BBC News website published a report titled “Israel accuses Iran over Cyprus alleged hitman plot” on its ‘Middle East’ page.

The BBC’s portrayal of that currently rather opaque story is similar to that produced by local media outlets and includes Iranian denials reported by Reuters.

The broader ‘context’ provided by the BBC at the end of the report is however worthy of note.

“Israel has previously accused Iran or its ally Hezbollah of carrying out, or planning to carry out, attacks on Israelis abroad. In 2012 Cyprus convicted a Hezbollah member of plotting to attack Israelis there. That same year, Bulgaria and Israel accused Hezbollah of carrying out a suicide bombing there which killed five Israelis and a Bulgarian.

Iran and Hezbollah denied involvement in the incidents.”

The claim that “[i]n 2012 Cyprus convicted a Hezbollah member of plotting to attack Israelis there” is inaccurate. While the operative concerned was arrested in July 2012, as the BBC itself reported at the time, he was convicted in March 2013.

Not surprisingly given that the BBC did not cover it, another example of Hizballah activity against Israelis in Cyprus dating from 2015 is not mentioned in this report.

The statement “[t]hat same year, Bulgaria and Israel accused Hezbollah of carrying out a suicide bombing there which killed five Israelis and a Bulgarian” is partly accurate: Bulgaria’s announcement was actually made in February 2013. Significantly, the BBC refrains from informing its audience that the accusation was – as it reported at the time – later proven in court.

Daily Mail editors provide post-truth response to our complaint

Earlier today, we complained to Daily Mail editors about an article by Sam Baker falsely claiming that Professor David Miller was dismissed by Bristol University due to his ‘comments about Israel’. We demonstrated that he was sacked due to his record of conspiratorial antisemitic statements, some of which were directed towards the Jewish students he was teaching – and which reportedly led to Jewish students on campus being subjected to harassment and abuse.

We noted that – as we demonstrated in a recent post – Miller has called for the end of Zionism “as a functioning ideology of the world”, depicted Bristol’s Jewish Society, and indeed all Jewish Societies in the UK, as local agents of a foreign power – Israel – trying to subvert British freedoms, and evoked the idea of a global Zionist conspiracy. Indeed, we added, Miller’s conspiratorial thinking expressed itself following criticism of those very comments about the Jewish Societies, when he suggested that attacks on him by British Jews and organisations were “directed by the State of Israel”.

Further, Miller’s own teaching has included antisemitic tropes concerning Jewish control and power. We promptly received a reply denying that the article claimed that Professor Miller was sacked due to ‘comments about Israel’. But, as you can see in the snapshot below, the article made some variation of that claim four times – in the headline, strap line, first sentence and third sentence.

German Foreign Minister Lambasts Alleged Antisemitic Insult to Jewish Singer

German foreign minister Heiko Maas uttered an appeal for society to join forces to combat antisemitism after a popular German-Jewish singer-songwriter was allegedly turned away from a hotel because he was visibly wearing a Star of David pendant on a chain around his neck.

Speaking at the ceremony for the Shimon Peres Award 2021 for German-Israel cooperation, Maas stressed that he was “stunned” by the antisemitic insult Gil Ofarim had to experience. Earlier this week, Ofarim posted a video on Instagram in which he reported that he had been turned away from the Westin Hotel in the German city of Leipzig as he tried to check in.

“This is the antisemitism many Jews are exposed to in our country every day. Leipzig is not an isolated case. It is all the more important that we oppose antisemitism,” Maas exclaimed. “Society needs to join forces in the fight against antisemitism. We can’t look the other way when someone is insulted in an antisemitic manner. It is up to all of us to speak out loud and clear. Antisemitism has no place in our country.”

Maas added that the federal government of Germany plans to spend more than 1 billion euros in the fight against right-wing extremism, racism, and antisemitism.

The Combat Antisemitism Movement thanked Maas for condemning the “ugly antisemitic behavior” against Ofarim.

“Antisemitism is rising in Germany at alarming levels. It must not be tolerated in any way, history must not repeat itself,” the statement read.

German Soccer Club Bans Fan for Antisemitic Abuse Against Israeli Fans

The Union Berlin German soccer club banned one of its fans on Wednesday for targeting visiting fans of the Israeli club Maccabi Haifa with antisemitic abuse during a game in Berlin.

“There is no tolerance whatsoever for discrimination at Union Berlin,” said club president Dirk Zingler, reported AFP. “We have therefore taken all measures available to us to remove this person from our ranks.”

The team said the person has been handed an “unlimited” ban from the club and its matches.

Police and the European soccer association UEFA are investigating antisemitic abuse by Union Berlin fans during the team’s 3-0 game (and win) against Maccabi Haifa on Sept. 30.

#Polish #Antisemitic Film About Global Jewish Conspiracy Airs In Warsaw Cinema, Is Promoted By Leading White Supremacist, Ultranationalist, And Neo-Fascist Figures And Channels https://t.co/SRUrxDpwSP #MEMRI pic.twitter.com/T7mPS303cG

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) October 7, 2021

Brazil police find ‘monstrous’ Nazi material in home of suspected child abuser

Police in Rio de Janeiro found a vast collection of Nazi uniforms and memorabilia in the home of an alleged child abuser, along with several weapons, officials said Wednesday.

The 58-year-old suspect, identified as Aylson Proenca Doyle Linhares, was arrested Tuesday after a couple from his neighborhood reported him for abusing their 12-year-old son, said police commissioner Luis Armond, who is leading the investigation.

Police found “monstrous material” pertaining to Nazism, including insignias, documents, uniforms, flags and a Nazi party membership card featuring the suspect’s photo. Images released by the police show that among the hundreds of items of Nazi memorabilia were several framed photos and busts of Adolf Hitler.

Daggers and nine firearms were also found, including a rifle and a machine gun, as well as a large stash of ammunition.

In all, over 1,000 items were found.

Linhares was charged with illegal possession of weapons, racism and pedophilia after police also found photos of minors, Armond said.

The man told police his collection was worth between 2.5 million and 3 million euros (between $2.9 and $3.5 million), “although that is unverifiable,” the commissioner added.

US Lawmakers Urge Spanish President to Investigate Mass Rejections of Descendants of Sephardi Jews Claiming Citizenship

A group of US lawmakers have called on the Spanish president to investigate and reverse the reported pattern of rejections of Jewish claims to Spanish citizenship, made under a 2015 law allowing descendants of Jews expelled from Spain in the late 15th century to do so.

A New York Times report in July detailed how claimants were being stymied in their extensive and often highly expensive efforts to gain Spanish citizenship under the law. The article stated that more than 3,000 people have been rejected this year, in contrast to 34,000 who had been accepted in previous years.

The congressional letter, addressed to President Pedro Sánchez, noted four methods by which applicants are being systematically rejected, including overriding officials called Notarios, who confirm the ancestry of applicants; rejecting confirmations offered by Jewish organizations; changing requirements for genealogical documents already submitted; and requiring that applicants showed a “special connection” to the country via donations to Spanish charities given before the law was enacted.

The letter’s signatories included Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM), a descendant of Inquisition survivors, as well as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA), and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), and Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), among others.

The lawmakers expressed their “concern over the recent wave of rejections” that have made it “nearly impossible” for applicants to gain citizenship.

“This situation adversely affects our constituents and strains the bonds between our nations,” they wrote, urging the Sánchez to investigate.

They also lamented the trend, given that the 2015 law was “a remarkable gesture” that “showed the world how to atone for the sins of the past.”

NHS hospitals install Israeli-invented wheelchair docking stations in UK first

Two NHS hospitals will be the first in the UK to introduce an innovative wheelchair ‘docking station’ thanks to a partnership with an Israeli company.

Wheelchair-sharing stations from Israeli company Wheelshare will be installed at the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, and North Tyneside General Hospital.

The 24/7 and free-of-charge wheelchair docking stations aim to end the problem of patients or visitors needing wheelchairs and not being able to find one at the right time.

“We’re really pleased to be leading the way on this and becoming the first hospitals in the country to install this technology, as we look to ensure the best possible experience for patients and visitors to our sites,” said Damon Kent, managing director of Trust’s estates subsidiary.

Nir Tobis, from Wheelshare, said that traditional hospital provision of wheelchairs often resulted in low availability and issues for patients finding a chair when needed.

“Our innovative docking stations offer a user-friendly solution to all of this and we pride ourselves on providing a service that really makes a difference to patients, visitors and staff, ensuring that they can easily access a chair so that their visit to the hospital is as smooth as possible,” he said.

The docking system will also have a round-the-clock maintenance helpline to ensure the chairs are fit for purpose.

'Newsweek' lists Israeli cancer, heart treatment among world's best

The US magazine Newsweek published its annual World's Best Specialized Hospitals list this week, listing what it deems to be the world's best providers of specialty care in a number of vital fields. The list features three Israeli medical centers.

The magazine ranks the top 250 hospitals for cardiology and oncology, the top 150 for cardiac surgery and pediatrics and the top 125 for endocrinology, gastroenterology, orthopedics, neurology, neurosurgery and pulmonology.

According to this year's rankings, Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer is No. 42 in the world when it comes to cardiology care. The Heart Institute at Hadassah Ein Karem Medical Center was ranked No. 173 for cardiology, and Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center's cardiology care was ranked No. 204.

Hadassah's oncology care also came in for praise, with the hospital's Sharett Institute of Oncology, located on Mount Scopus, ranking 211 in the oncology section.

Sheba's neurosurgery and gastroenterology departments also performed well, coming at No. 40 and 44 in each category.

Sourasky's Orthopedics Department was ranked No. 123 in that category.

Water. Out of air. In your car.

Thanks to Israeli company @Watergen_INC people around the world are creating water out of air ?? & we're here for it.

Watch ?? pic.twitter.com/y99wH0ctZY

— Israel ????? (@Israel) October 6, 2021

Israel ceremonially opens gleaming pavilion at world's fair in Dubai

Israel ceremonially opened its gleaming pavilion at the world's fair in Dubai on Thursday, over a year after normalizing ties with the United Arab Emirates and amid a pandemic that has disrupted much of the tourist and cultural exchanges promised by the US-brokered accords.

The pavilion's arch – chock-full of videos promoting Israel's windmills, high-tech advances, and historic sights – came to life as night fell.

"I am delighted to invite all of you to come and visit my country," Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov told the crowd of revelers after cutting the ribbon.

Israeli officials, in Dubai to cement ties after the two countries inked a long-awaited visa waiver agreement this week, traipsed through the mirrored pavilion, their reflections unfolding around them. Emiratis in traditional floor-length white dress gazed at panoramic views of Jerusalem's Old City gliding across vertical screens as a pop rendition of "Shalom Aleichem" played. Jewish attendees wore kippahs emblazoned with the tourist logo of the UAE.

"It's not only [about]pavilions and visitors' centers," Noam Katz, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said of the Israeli presence at Dubai's Expo. "It's power gathering."

Opening of the #israel pavilion at #Expo2020Dubai so proud of my country and the @IsraelMFA for a great job ???????????????????? pic.twitter.com/FiCE7eZjJy

— ??? ??? ???? Fleur Hassan-Nahoum (@FleurHassanN) October 7, 2021

Former AIPAC director and Nazi hunter Neal Sher dies at 74

Neal Sher, who as the US’s chief Nazi hunter established the formula that led to the deportation of dozens of Nazis, has died at 74.

Sher, who led the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations for 11 years and was for a period the director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, died Sunday in Manhattan, his widow, Bonnie Kagan, said in an email to friends.

Darkly handsome, dapper and intense, Sher cut a dashing figure throughout the 1980s. At press conferences, he would unveil the discovery of monsters disguised as working men living contented lives in American suburbia.

But behind the drama, there was hard work, in a formula crafted by Sher during his years at the OSI, first as a litigator when he joined in 1979, the year it was established, and then as its director from 1983-1994.

He transformed the Justice Department’s Nazi-hunting system from one that had relied on tips, which were not always reliable, to one which systematically checked Nazi-era German records against US immigration records. Under his system, the office has, since 1979, removed 69 former Nazis, in most cases revoking their citizenship for lying about their Nazi past when immigrating to the United States. A number of them killed themselves as the feds were closing in, some spectacularly.

In one explosive episode, Sher, citing evidence that former UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim had not disclosed his past as a Nazi officer, got the US government to ban his entry to the United States.

Sher’s doggedness led to the discovery not just of Nazi cogs, but of major figures, among them Archbishop Valerian Trifa, who had instigated a pogrom against Bucharest’s Jews, and Arthur Rudolph, the NASA scientist deported to Germany after Sher showed that he had directed a German wartime factory where he worked Jews to death.

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