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Monday, July 31, 2017

"Israeli spy eagle" shot down over Syria

It's happened again.

Ma'an reports today that Mossad Agent Eagle S99 has been shot down and killed from over the skies of Idlib, near the Turkish border, by the Free Syrian Army.

The independent, supposedly professional newspaper says that the bird was carrying "Israeli spy equipment."

Too bad they don't do the slightest amount of fact checking. Because this story was already debunked in Arab media days ago.

The bird was shot down in Daraa province near Israel, not in Idlib. The email address that was attached to the bird belonged to an Israeli research center in the Golan. A local fisherman, Mohammed Merad, was concerned when the bird was perched on his roof. He shot it down with a rifle and saw the email address, and sent an email where he found out that it was a research project.

There were conflicting reports about what happened to the bird but apparently it was buried in Syria, not handed over to Israel as some articles say.

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Muslim Sages meeting Monday in Abu Dhabi to discuss "Zionist violations against Al Aqsa"

From the Standard Republic:

Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb, Sheikh arrived in Abu Dhabi where he is set to chair the emergency council meeting of the Muslim sages tomorrow.

The meeting will discuss the Zionist violations against Al-Aqsa mosque.

The Grand Imam was received by Minister of Higher Education Dr. Ahmed Bahloul Al-Falasi, General Secretary of the Council of Muslim Sages Dr. Ali Al-Nuaimi, and Chairman of the General Authority of Islamic Affairs in Abu Dhabi Dr. Mohammed Mattar Al-Kaabi.

The meeting isn't about defending the Al Aqsa Mosque from Israel. The meeting is how to leverage the Al Aqsa Mosque to fan more Arab anger towards Israel and Jews.

It isn't as if the "crisis" is still going on, unless you define the crisis as Jews existing in Jerusalem.

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Palestine Today reports that the UAE is sending a ship filled with natural gas to help run the Gaza power plant.

According to the story, this ship will be moored off the coast of Gaza - and that Israel has no objection because it does not want a Gaza power crisis.

This effort is reportedly another attempt by Mohammed Dahlan to assert his role in Gaza, cooperating with Hamas and Egypt in bringing this about.

This sounds unlikely, because Israel's naval blockade of Gaza would be broken by such a vessel. My guess is that if the story is true the ship will go to the coast of Egypt adjacent to Gaza and the fuel will be offloaded there.

Israel's reaction as the ship approaches will be very interesting.

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07/30 Links: Secretary Tillerson should resign; Imams incite murder; American Muslim leaders silent

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Weakness and indifference over Temple Mount incitement

Join me here as I discuss with Avi Abelow of Israel Video Network why the Arab violence over Temple Mount is not the result of “clashes”, as the western media claim, but the incitement of emotionally overwrought and hysterical Arabs to murder and mayhem.

David Collier: The hard-core antisemitism of the Scottish PSC (SPSC)

Significant representation & Jews providing cover
The report sought to quantify antisemitic tendency and sheds light on concentration levels of antisemitic ideology in anti-Israel activism. One of the case studies looked at the Jackie Walker event in Glasgow. Using a sample of thirty-two activists, the study found that 44% of those present had shared numerous hard core antisemitic posts. This level of Jew hate found at an event set up to deny the problem of antisemitism.
Whether deliberate or not, people like Jackie Walker are currently expending large amounts of energy providing antisemites with a defence. You cannot deny such significant representation and pretend it is only a ‘fringe’. These people are the core activists at the SPSC. But it is not just Jackie Walker giving cover to Jew hate. Here is Max Blumenthal with two of the activists picked up in the report:

In February I published a report on antisemitism in the England & Wales PSC. Following the publication I was hounded, threatened and stalked. Yet those few Jews who sit in the camp criticising Israel, did not read the report and acknowledge the hate. They attacked me instead. Jonathan Ofir wrote a piece in Mondoweiss attacking someone who had uncovered antisemitism. That article was then gleefully headlined by the Jewish led group ‘Free Speech in Israel’ (my response). There is nothing in any of these reports that has anything to do with Israel. It focuses on classic antisemitic tropes. Why on earth are Jewish people, even if they are a small minority, giving cover to people who share posts about Holocaust denial? Is the ’cause’ so infected with Jew hate, that a level of 40-50% is tolerable because as activists, there is not enough power to start the engine if they actually clean the group of racism?
The results for the second case study are even more frightening. Last August, outside a peace festival set up to celebrate Israeli diversity and culture, the SPSC gathered to protest. About one-hundred and twenty demonstrators. Over sixty activists were identified. More than 50% of them had shared numerous hard core antisemitic posts.

Statistical breakdownIn the small crowd, there were at least ten who spread material denying the Holocaust.
Findings
The findings of the report were almost self-evident.
*The inevitable conclusion is that antisemitic tendency is a primary driver of anti-Israel activism*
Following on from this:
*There is a strong probability that those who are introduced to anti-Israel material by SPSC activists on the streets are being influenced by people who adhere to an antisemitic mindset*
And also:
*Much of this activity seeks to spread antisemitic thought*

Morton A. Klein, ZOA President: Secretary Tillerson should resign

When Rex Tillerson was nominated for Secretary of State, the pro-Israel community harbored concerns about Tillerson’s reported closeness to Jim Baker, ties to Arab states such as terrorism-financier Qatar, and minimal knowledge about the Arab war against Israel. Still, we hoped those nagging concerns would prove unfounded, and that Tillerson would implement President Trump’s anti-terrorism, pro-Israel policies, and drain the notoriously biased-against-Israel swamp at the State Department.
Unfortunately, the State Department’s new anti-Semitic, Israel-bashing, falsehood-filled “Country Reports on Terrorism 2016” (issued July 2017) – which blames Israel for Palestinian Arab terrorism against innocent Israelis – has caused us to lose confidence in Secretary Tillerson’s ability to promote President Trump’s Mideast agenda.
President Trump’s courageous speech in Riyadh appropriately blamed extreme barbaric Islamist ideologies for terrorism targeting innocent Jews, Christians and Muslims. The president sensibly insisted that we must “honestly confront the crisis of Islamist extremism and the Islamist terror groups it inspires” and “cut off the financial channels” that enable terrorism.
Stopping worldwide terrorism requires honestly confronting Islamist genocidal incitement to murder Jews. There cannot be a double standard when Jews are the victims. Because every method that Palestinian Arabs “pioneered” for murdering Jews – suicide bombing, truck ramming – is copied by terrorists in Boston, Nice and elsewhere.
We must honestly confront Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’ Islamist incitement and unconscionable $355 million per year of “pay to slay” martyr payments incentivizing Palestinian Arabs to murder Jews.

Memo to Jewish community: Imams incite murder; American Muslim leaders silent

Remember the 2015 ISIS video showing beheading of 21 Coptic Egyptians, identified as “people of the cross, followers of the hostile Egyptian Church.”
Yet, the Obama administration balked at acknowledging the victims were targeted because they were Christians, referring to them only as Egyptian “workers”. For years, the US, fearful of sparking a holy war, turned a blind eye to the religious fanaticism that plays a key role in this struggle.
But that holy war is already here. The Davis Imam followed the same jihadist script that spawned terrorism and mayhem on every continent.
If he isn’t jailed for incitement to mass murder, his parishioners and the public should banish the bigot.
If his mosque stands behind Shahin’s murderous calls, then the IRS should reevaluate its charitable status.
Shahin’s screed came just as a group of 60 courageous imams from Belgium, France, the UK and Tunisia participated in a peace march. They prayed at the sites where Jihadists butchered innocents. Voices like theirs should be given prominence everywhere, starting with San Bernadino and Davis, California.
Shahin’s screed also challenges both President Trump’s and previous administrations’ policies. How many more people who carry the same hatred driving Shahin got through the old vetting process? Yet, Shahin is from Egypt, a country not on President Trump’s list. The Davis Imam proves that takes more than knowing the zip code of origin to keep such people out. We need to know about their schools, mosques and social media ties. Young people indoctrinated to a culture of death represent a threat to virtually anyone-including other Muslims– who doesn’t embrace their jihadist worldview.
The Davis Imam seeks to ignite a holy war between religions. Jews in Davis and Riverside California and around the US hoped that Muslim groups who have been getting vocal Jewish support to oppose any religious test for immigrants from Muslim countries, would take on the religious bigotry in their midst. For one week, there was wall-to-wall silence, except for those groups endorsing an intifada for Israel’s audacity at installing metal detectors after murderous gunfire from al Aqsa. This Friday MPAC released a statement stating it was “disturbed” by the sermon of Imam. But for the rest, could it be some silently cheer on the bigoted pulpit thumpers? Do they actually believe that the G-d of Abraham sanctions the murders of Jews and Christians?
After Davis no can say for sure.

ADL Accepts Genocidal Imam’s Feeble Apology For Saying Things “Hurtful To Jews”

Imam Ammar Shahin has apologized for offending Jews with one of his sermons.
“The last thing that I would do is intentionally hurt anyone, Muslim, Jewish or otherwise. It is not in my heart.” Really? Sounds to me like his heart is bursting with excitement at the prospect of Judgment Day when the Muslims are slaughtering us Jews – with the help of talking stones and trees (except for that one type of uncooperative, Jew-loving tree).
It is not like he inadvertently said all of these things in a moment of insensitivity. He really believes them. I’m guessing Shahin really does not like the idea of jail, so has made this feeble apology, while continuing to pray for our destruction – just without posting it on YouTube from now on.
Shame on the ADL for accepting this clearly not genuine apology, and not going after him for hate crimes.
I’d prefer he’d be making those high-pitched sounds from prison.

PMW: Following PMW reports, British MP demands immediate Palestinian cessation of “incitement surrounding Temple Mount”

In letter to British Prime Minister Theresa May, MP Joan Ryan asks that Britain demand the PA "halt all incitement, particularly that surrounding the Temple Mount"
PA "failure" to comply "should be met with deep and meaningful cuts in British aid to the PA, with the money instead redirected to coexistence projects and health and education projects in Palestine run by trusted NGOs"
MP Ryan quotes PMW reports that document PA leaders' call for "escalation" and "rage," warnings of "explosion of the situation" and "religious war," and repetition of the PA libel that Israel is "targeting the Al-Aqsa Mosque," which needs "Allah [to] guard [it] from evil"
MP Ryan's letter include additional findings by PMW that illustrate the PA's policy of educating children and youth to see terrorist murderers as "role models": j
"... as research by Palestinian Media Watch has shown, children attending schools named after so-called martyrs are well-aware that they are being encouraged to view them as 'models' and, in the words of one, to 'follow [their] path'."
[Letter from MP Joan Ryan to Prime Minister Theresa May, July 25, 2017]

Removing Temple Mount security hard but necessary choice, PM says

In comments made before the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said he had ordered the measures rolled back over concern for Israel’s overall security, after weeks of violent protests by Palestinians boycotting the site.
Polls showed much of the public did not support the decision to remove the measures, which were put in place after a deadly terrorist attack carried out with guns smuggled onto the Temple Mount, and many saw it as a “capitulation” to Muslim authorities seeking to exert control over the flashpoint Jerusalem compound.
“I am attentive to public feeling,” Netanyahu said, referring to Israeli outrage over the removal of the detectors. “With that, as the prime minister of Israel, as the one who carries on his shoulders the responsibility for the security of Israel — I must make decisions coolly and judiciously. I do that out of a view of the big picture, a wide view of the challenges and threats that are facing us. Some of them are not known to the the public and as is the nature of things I can’t go into details.”

Journalist Engages in Defining the Temple Mount Status Quo

From Spokesperson Heather Nauert's State Department Press Briefing on July 25, 2017 we learn that the US Administration was pressured about its response and possible involvement with the Temple Mount security issues last week.
Some excerpts of her replies to AP's Matt Lee's questioning:
QUESTION: Can you guys – we talked a little about this last week, although I was unable to pry an answer from you.
MS NAUERT: Oh, okay...
QUESTION: -- and that has to do with the metal detectors and their replacement.
QUESTION: So did you guys think that it was a – or do you think that it is a good idea for the Israelis to remove the metal detectors?
MS NAUERT: I think – and I’m going to repeat this again – anything that serves to de-escalate tensions and pave the road for the two sides to come together and have conversations not only about this, but also about the peace process moving forward, we would certainly support that. As you know, we support the maintenance of the status quo at that site and we welcome all sides and their commitment to the status quo.
QUESTION: Well, right. So the Israelis say that they’re going to take the metal detectors away but replace them with these --
QUESTION: Cameras.
QUESTION: -- high-tech, high-definition, high-resolution cameras. This is something that I spent hours with your predecessor, because the previous secretary of state got an agreement between the Jordanians and the Israelis for cameras similar to this that never were put in place because the Palestinians objected.
Did anyone discuss their refusal to permit the cameras? Was it criticized? And was it the Palestinian Authority or actually the Waqf? Why didn't Jordan, who funds the Waqf, force the issue?

Waqf again monitoring Jewish visitors to Temple Mount

This morning marked an end to the Jewish visits to the Temple Mount unaccompanied by members of the Jordanian Waqf, the Muslim trust which manages the Temple Mount, that had characterized the last two weeks.
Nrg reported that the Waqf again began accompanying Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount this morning, Sunday, following Israel’s removal of security measures it had installed after the July 14 Temple Mount terror attack.
The Waqf had avoided the Temple Mount after the installation of the measures as a sign of protest, and had called on Muslims not to pray on the Temple Mount as long as the security measures were in place.
Following the removal of the measures last Thursday and the subsequent flooding of Muslims into the Temple Mount complex, a massive riot broke out. The rioters attacked police stationed at the site, and also threw rocks from the Temple Mount onto the Western Wall Plaza below.

Jordan’s Abdullah Practically Declares A Holy War, No-one Gives A Damn

Imagine for a second that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the following
“We will continue our historical, political and legal role in preventing the Islamization of the holy places, despite difficult challenges.”
How do you think the Arab and Muslim world would react, given what we have seen with their reaction to mere metal detectors? And how about the international community and media? There would no doubt be swift condemnation from all and sundry.
Well, the statement has been made – only not by Bibi but by the Beave. And he of course referred to Judaization, because Islamization would be a good thing.

PA leader: We are sovereign in the land

PA leader Rami Hamdallah praised Palestinian Arabs’ “struggle” leading to the removal of security measures on the Temple Mount.
While touring Qalqilya on Saturday, Hamdallah said, “Our nation showed that through steadfastness, national unity, and peaceful struggle, Jerusalem will remain our eternal capital city, and the crown of the identity uniting us.”
He added: “We will not allow any change in [Jerusalem] and will not agree to any step that takes away from our sovereignty over the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. [Palestinian Arab] leadership, headed by our brother President Mahmoud Abbas, will continue diplomatic talks with the countries of the world, to encourage them to take responsibility and prevent any attempt to change the status quo in Al-Quds, and to force Israel to stop attacking worshipers, hurting Muslim feelings and portraying the conflict as a religious one.”
“I congratulate the members of our people who stand with them and those who cling to Al-Quds, the sovereign masters and owners of the house in the land who rose up to defend their city, the sites holy to them and their identity, and forced the Israeli occupation to retract its decisions and remove its aggression from the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque," Hamdallah said.

Watch: Little Jihadi girl with gun wants to marry Jew-killer

Q: Why did you break off your wedding with (Hamas Spokesman) Abu Ubaida?
Girl: Because he stopped killing Jews and waging war.
Q: So, who are you going to marry now?
G: Somebody else from Jerusalem who will kill the Jews!

Islamic anti-Semitic training starts young

Palestinian little Jihadi, armed with a gun, hopes to marry a man who kills Jews. #FridayFeeling http://pic.twitter.com/KNZz6qilhs
— Amy Mek (@AmyMek) July 28, 2017

PreOccupiedTerritory: Arab Regimes Face Rising Mossad Prices For Generating Distractions From Oppression (satire)

Rulers of Arab and Muslim states in the Middle East and beyond voiced frustration today at the increasing costs of engaging Israel’s secret intelligence service to manufacture crises for purposes of diverting Arab populations’ attention from the oppression, abuse, and denial of rights their governments perpetrate against them.
Sources in the Jordanian, Egyptian, Saudi, and Qatari governments, among others, told reporters this week that producing distraction in today’s sophisticated media environment requires greater and greater expertise, and while the Mossad can provide solutions, the schemes it must implement demand much greater expense than analogous operations in decades past. Flat oil prices have hampered the outlays the governments of those countries can afford, and challenge them to maintain the illusion of an Israel so sinister that it can be invoked to stoke emotions strong enough to divert focus from the lack of democracy, freedom of expression, and other indicators of liberty in the Arab-Muslim world.
“The Temple Mount crisis was relatively small potatoes, but still expensive to engineer,” confessed a Jordanian official. “Fomenting unrest, adding to it the complicating factor of killings at the Israeli embassy in Amman, and involving the king in visible efforts to defuse the situation cost so much more than it would have a mere ten years ago, even accounting for inflation. The Mossad is still the best at what it does, and no one else even comes close, so it’s worth it, but is becoming less so.”

Jews from Libya are worried about the fate of the country’s Jewish artifacts

Gina Waldman was forced to flee her native Libya in 1967 as anti-Jewish mobs took to the streets of Tripoli, burning down her father’s warehouse.
Waldman, like thousands of other Libyan Jews who left the country amid public and state-sponsored anti-Semitism in the 20th century, was forced to leave behind both personal belongings — she was only allowed to bring a single suitcase with her — and a rich cultural heritage that testified to over 2,000 years of Jewish presence in the North African country. Today no Jews remain in Libya.
That heritage — including synagogues, cemeteries and ritual objects — has long been under threat. But now an additional obstacle is coming from an unlikely place, said Waldman, president and co-founder of the group Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, or JIMENA.
The threat stems from a memorandum of understanding request by the Libyan government — currently under consideration by the State Department — that would prohibit artifacts dated 1911 and earlier, including Jewish ritual objects, from being brought into the United States from Libya.
That would mean that anyone attempting to bring in antique Torah scrolls, tombstones, books and other ritual objects would be stopped at the US border, and the objects would be confiscated and sent back to Libya.

Iran @ the UN. Global platform for inciting terror. 07/28/2017

Internal UN Report Shows Peacekeepers’ Sexual Abuse Scandal Not Properly Responded To

An internal United Nations report revealed that the organization has been mishandling cases of sexual abuse by its peacekeepers.
The report, from the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services, indicated that the organization's bureaucracy has not properly handled, investigated, and documented crimes committed by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR), Fox News reports. MINUSCA, the leadership of the peacekeeping force, was particularly criticized.
For years, sexual abuse by peacekeepers has been a problem in the CAR, and commanders have been terminated due to the ongoing scandal. Addressing sexual abuse in the CAR has been a key focus of new U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
However, sexual abuse still occurs under the UN's leadership of 10,700 peacekeepers in the land-locked African country.
Potential problems have been identified in over half of 37 UN bases in the CAR. Criticism also included a lack of trained personnel and a lack of safe spaces for victims to go.
Critics of the UN's personnel in the CAR say that the soldiers stationed there operate with a "culture of impunity," and are generally unaccountable for their crimes.

Australia thwarts 'Islamic-inspired' plane attack plot

Security has been tightened at Australian airports after police foiled "Islamic-inspired" plans for a bomb attack on an aircraft during counter-terrorism raids in which four men were arrested, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said on Sunday. The increased security presence caused minor delays for some air transport operators on Sunday and authorities warned travelers to prepare for potentially more significant disruptions as traffic picked up during the week.
"In recent days, law enforcement has become aware of information that suggested some people in Sydney were planning to commit a terrorist act using an improvised device," AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin said during a press conference with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday.
"We do believe it is Islamic-inspired terrorism. Exactly what is behind this is something that we will need to investigate fully.
"At this time we don’t have a great deal of information on the specific attack, the location, date or time. However, we are investigating information indicating that the aviation industry was potentially a target."
Five properties were searched on Saturday across the Sydney suburbs of Surry Hills, Lakemba, Punchbowl and Wiley Park. The commissioner said four of those searches may continue for days.
An AFP spokesman told Reuters the four men, who were arrested on Saturday, had not been charged as of Sunday afternoon.

Netanyahu, Liberman urge pardon for Hebron shooter after sentence upheld

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Sunday called for a pardon for former IDF soldier Elor Azaria after his 18-month manslaughter sentence was upheld by a military appellate court earlier in the day.
“My opinion has not changed on the question of granting a pardon to Elor Azaria, as I expressed it after the [January] conviction. When the subject comes up [in the context of pardon deliberations], I will offer my recommendation for a pardon to the relevant authorities,” Netanyahu tweeted shortly after the ruling was handed down.
As a former soldier, Azaria would only be able to receive a pardon from President Reuven Rivlin or IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot. However, it is unlikely that Rivlin would grant his release against Eisenkot’s recommendation. The IDF chief of staff has expressed criticism of Azaria’s conduct.
Since a pardon request can only be made once Azaria is in prison, his attorneys would have to forgo an appeal in order to seek clemency.
But Azaria’s attorneys on Sunday indicated they would proceed with an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Slain Palestinian assailant’s family surprised Azaria not exonerated

The family of a disarmed Palestinian assailant shot dead by former IDF soldier Elor Azaria in March 2016 after he stabbed Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday said they had expected the military appellate court to let Azaria walk.
The court on Sunday upheld the manslaughter conviction and 18-month prison sentence for Azaria. Handing down the ruling, the panel of five judges ruled that Azaria had treated “the scene of a terror attack” like a shooting range, discounted his testimony, and rejected the defense’s argument that soldiers in similar situations had been let off.
The family of the Palestinian assailant Abdel Fattah al-Sharif said in a statement, “We were certain Elor Azaria would be exonerated” by the appellate court, Channel 2 news reported.
The family said it “opposes all forms of violence, by Palestinians and Israelis alike.”
Azaria fatally shot Sharif after the assailant was disarmed and seriously injured after having attacked two other IDF soldiers with a knife minutes earlier.

Abbas' health taking a turn for the worse?

The security establishment is monitoring with concern the health condition of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Haaretz reported.
On Saturday morning, Abbas was hospitalized for several hours in Ramallah before being released.
PA leadership claimed that Abbas was hospitalized due to exhaustion as a result of the severe tension between the Palestinian Arabs and Israel over the past two weeks within the context of the Temple Mount crisis.
The crisis' management required the PA chairman to monitor the events constantly, to hold frequent meetings with his advisers and with Fatah and PA leadership, and to maintain contact with Arab leaders and Western diplomats.
According to the report, Israeli and Palestinian Arab sources believe that Abbas’ health has deteriorated somewhat in recent months, and that a continued deterioration could hasten a change in leadership in the PA.

Five post-Abbas possibilities

The question of succession has both a sense of urgency and also dread, with one official describing it in 2014 as a like “Samson in the temple,” ready to bring it all down. Abbas was re-elected President of Fatah in 2016, but analysts also see his reign as stifling democracy, and becoming more authoritarian. They worry he has not named a successor, that elections have been postponed too long and freedom of the press has been eroded in the PA. All of that, combined with lack of realization of a Palestinian state, leads to a combustible situation should the leader leave office. Here are a few scenarios of what might come next.
The next generation?
Palestinians in their 50s, born after the 1948 war whose formative years were post-1967 contain some options for post-Abbas leadership. Fatah insiders such as Majid Faraj, head of PA intelligence has had his name tossed around. Grant Rumley, Research Fellow at Foundation for Defense of Democracies and co-author of a biography on Abbas, told Reuters in 2014 that “the Americans love him and the Israelis love him.” Marwan Barghouti, serving five life sentences in prison, is another name that always comes up. He and others have pointed to Jibril Rajoub, currently sports czar and a former security chief; Mohammed Shtayyah, a politician and economic expert and Mahmoud al Aloul, a new Fatah vice-president.
Chaos or Hamas
In 2015 Nathan Thrall, a senior analyst with the International Crises Group, wrote in the London Review of Books that a new round of Israeli-Palestinian violence would be the “end of the Abbas era.” He claimed that Palestinians were taking “matters into their own hands. They did so gradually at first, in areas outside PA control: Jerusalem, Gaza, Israeli prisons, and villages and refugee camps.” The street protesters were “crushed and divided” but even in weakness they pursued national goals.
The Old Guard
When the British Israel Communications and Research Center (BICOM) presented the question of what happened after Abbas in 2016, Paul Scham, an academic, responded that “of the half dozen likely candidates and a similar number of dark horses, there is none currently more likely to be chosen than the others.”
What about Dahlan?
In the last years Mohammed Dahlan, the one-time Gaza strongman, has made an interesting comeback among commentators and Palestinians, to be considered for a leadership role. He was the former head of the Palestinian security services in Gaza, but was unceremoniously expelled by Hamas in 2011 (conveniently, while he was abroad). In what seemed like a terrible defeat one cannot return from, his forces were crushed by the Islamists. However, years make memory grow different, and in 2017 there is talk of the return of Dahlan. He is supported abroad by governments in the region such as the UAE and Israelis know him from the 1990s and 2000s.
Annexation
In May, Israel Minister for Jerusalem Affairs and Environment Protection Zeev Elkin said that Israel must prepare for the post-Abbas era. “The Palestinian Authority will not survive Abbas’s departure, because he oppressed any political culture in the PA,” he was quoted as saying.

IDF seizes cars bought with payouts to Hamas killer’s family

During an overnight raid, Israeli security forces seized from the family of a Palestinian terrorist who carried out a deadly 2015 shooting attack vehicles paid for with Hamas compensation, the army said Sunday.
The West Bank raid was part of a continuing crackdown by Israeli authorities against funding for Palestinian terrorists and their families.
The vehicles, estimated to be worth tens of thousands of shekels, were financed using cash Hamas gave the families of the terror cell that killed Eitam and Naama Henkin in a drive-by shooting in October 2015, the IDF said in a statement.
The statement did not identify which family of the four-member terror cell that carried out the attack was raided or where it took place. At least four of the terrorists came from families living in Nablus. It did not say how many cars were impounded.
The Henkins were driving with their four young children — the oldest was nine years old at the time — on the road between the northern West Bank settlements of Elon Moreh and Itamar when they were ambushed as their car slowed down at an intersection.

Sunday Times pulls anti-Semitic article targeting female BBC hosts

After an outcry, the Sunday Times newspaper apologized and removed an article that singled out Jewish BBC television hosts as knowing how to negotiate high salaries because of their heritage.
The piece, which focused on inequalities of salary between top-grossing male and female stars, was taken off the British newspaper’s website following an online backlash.
In the offending article, entitled “Sorry ladies — equal pay has to be earned,” writer Kevin Myers noted “that two of the best-paid women presenters in the BBC — Claudia Winkelman and Vanessa Feltz, with whose, no doubt, sterling work I am tragically unacquainted — are Jewish. Good for them.
“Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price, which is the most useful measure there is of inveterate, lost-with-all-hands stupidity. I wonder, who are their agents? If they’re the same ones that negotiated the pay for the women on the lower scales, then maybe the latter have found their true value in the marketplace.”

Students For Justice In Palestine Battle Roiling Fordham Campus

Students at Fordham University are suing the university saying it’s violating its own laws and procedures by not allowing them to register a Students for Justice in Palestine club at the school’s Lincoln Center campus. The student government body initially approved the club, a decision which was subsequently overturned by Dean of Students Keith Eldredge in a move that critics say is “unprecedented.”
The students, represented by Palestine Legal, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and cooperating counsel Alan Levine, filed the lawsuit on April 26. The university responded to the suit last month with a motion to dismiss, to which the plaintiff issued a response. The case is expected to proceed to a hearing before the New York State Supreme Court.
“Fordham’s decision to deny SJP official recognition is a flagrant violation of its own policies promising to uphold free expression,” said Ruhan Nagra, a Bertha Legal Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights who is working on the case. “The evidence suggests that it’s unprecedented for the dean of students to veto a decision that the student government has made to approve a club.”
The chapter in question would only serve the Lincoln Center campus; there has been no attempt to start an SJP chapter at Fordham’s main campus, in the Bronx. (h/t Jewess )

SlutWalk Chicago backtracks, will allow Zionist symbols at event

The organizers of Chicago’s annual SlutWalk announced that Zionist symbols would be allowed at the August 12 event, overturning an earlier decision which barred participants from carrying any such religious signs.
Speaking to Haaretz, one of the event’s organizers, Red, said the event would be open to anyone wishing to protest rape culture, including those who would choose to display Zionist or Jewish symbols. The organizer added that he believed SlutWalk Chicago should apologize to Jews for the previous ruling.
“We are not banning any symbols or any kind of ethnic or heritage flags,” Red told Haaretz. “Those are welcome, everyone is welcome to express themselves as they see fit at SlutWalk. And we encourage people to bring signs and symbols that represent fighting sexism, patriarchy, rape culture, and that takes a lot of different forms for different people, and we support them in how they decide to show up for SlutWalk.”
SlutWalk Chicago had originally banned Zionist symbols in a statement July 16, less than a month after the organizers of a separate parade in the city celebrating the lesbian community banned three Jewish women carrying Jewish Pride flags.

BBC framing excludes important aspects of Amman embassy story

After a security officer at Israel’s embassy in Amman was attacked and stabbed by a Jordanian on July 23rd – and subsequently shot the attacker, accidentally fatally wounding another man at the scene – the BBC News website produced three consecutive reports on the incident.
1) “Israeli ‘kills attacker’ at Jordan embassy” originally published 23/7/17
2) “Israel and Jordan in diplomatic standoff after embassy deaths” 24/7/17
3) “Israeli embassy staff home after Amman standoff” 24/7/17
All three of those reports included highly rare references to the Jordanian occupation of parts of Jerusalem, although that occupation actually began the year before the BBC claims.
“Jordan, which occupied East Jerusalem from 1949 to 1967, is the custodian of the site, which is known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and Jews as the Temple Mount.”
“Jordan, which occupied East Jerusalem from 1949 to 1967, funds the upkeep of the site, which is known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and Jews as the Temple Mount, and runs the Waqf, the religious trust which administers the compound.”
Additionally, all three articles included an inadequate ‘explanation’ of the reason for the introduction of security measures at Temple Mount – failing to clarify that the two Israeli policemen were murdered in a terror attack carried out by terrorists using weapons that had earlier been smuggled into the al Aqsa mosque.

New Jersey ‘partners in hate’ get 35 years for anti-Semitic firebombings

Two New Jersey men convicted in the firebombing of North Jersey synagogues in 2011 and 2012 were each sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Anthony Graziano and Aakash Dalal were charged on a 30-count indictment in 2013 with arson and bias-related incidents that occurred from December 2011 to January 2012 in the Bergen County towns of Paramus, Rutherford, Maywood and Hackensack, according to NorthJersey.com, which reported their sentencing Friday.
Aakash Dalal of Lodi was convicted last November for vandalizing and firebombing synagogues and a rabbi’s home in 2012. He was convicted by a Bergen County court on 16 other counts, including conspiracy to commit arson, attempted arson, bias intimidation, possession of a weapon and possession of a destructive device.
Dalal, a former student at Rutgers University, was arrested in March 2012. Dalal has been called the mastermind behind the attacks and did not actually participate in them.
Graziano, his former high school classmate, also was found guilty of terrorism and 19 other counts in May 2016 for the attacks.

America’s Strategic Future Lies with India and Israel

As the geopolitical balance shifts throughout Asia, and the Trump administration is formulating its foreign policy, India and Israel have moved closer together—as exemplified by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Jerusalem earlier this month. The U.S., argues James Jay Carafano, should encourage this realignment and support these two democratic, pro-Western countries:
Prime Minister Modi has unmoored his country from its stagnant, “non-aligned” [i.e. anti-American] foreign policies. Moreover, India is an emerging economic power. Combined, these developments leave India poised to become a net-exporter of regional security, particularly in the Indian Ocean.
Additionally, the prime minister’s historic trip to Israel this month augurs an important shift of the Modi government on Middle East policy. For decades, India has had warm relations with Iran, if for no other reason than the country was a major importer of oil. . . . New Delhi has not walked away from Tehran. Still, once the 2015 Iran deal lifted many sanctions against the regime, New Delhi noticeably did not race to ramp up ties. Modi’s visit to Iran last spring was restrained and very carefully orchestrated. . . .
India’s shift dovetails well with the view from Washington toward both South Asia and the Middle East. The Trump administration shows every sign of continuing the momentum toward a closer relationship with India. The recent meeting between Modi and Trump could not have gone better, and there is plenty of room to grow that relationship. . . .

Indian Animal Health Company Reaches $150 Million Deal With Israeli Vaccine Maker

Phibro Animal Health and Zydus Cadila recently announced their intention to enter into a long-term deal that would see the Indian company license Israeli Phibro’s innovative poultry vaccine technologies.
A Globes report said the five-year deal was worth $150 million.
“We are proud of the more than 20-year partnership with Zydus Cadila serving the Indian animal health market and we view this as an exciting next step in our relationship,” said Jack Bendheim, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Phibro.
Phibro is a developer, manufacturer and marketer of animal health and mineral nutrition products for use in the production of poultry, swine, dairy, beef cattle and aquaculture.

Israel Providing First Aid Training to Volunteer Indian Responders

Israel’s national emergency service, Magen David Adom, is helping train volunteer first responders in India, the Hindustan Times reported this week.
The project — being run in cooperation with the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) — is focused on teaching participants how to carry out tasks such as “bandaging wounds, stopping bleeding [and] cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR),” the report said.
“This mission between India and Israel is an initiative to train the community in providing first aid during emergencies, natural disasters and accidents and to teach life-saving skills that will save precious lives,” Dr. Vanshree Singh — director of the IRCS blood bank — was quoted as saying.
Israel and India are currently celebrating the 25th anniversary of the official establishment of diplomatic relations. Ties between the two countries have flourished in recent years and, earlier this month, Narendra Modi became the first-ever sitting Indian prime minister to visit the Jewish state.

Israel's health system ranks as one of the best globally

A recent study ranked Israel's health care system as the ninth-best in the world, the UK's Business Insider reported.
The research, conducted by the London-based Legatum Institute, compared 104 variables and listed nine subindexes. The study examined three basic components of health: availability of preventive care, health infrastructure, and citizens' physical and mental health.
149 countries were included in the comparison, with Israel included in the top ten. These ten were, in order:
9. Israel
Israel received the highest health rating in the Middle East, and its citizens have a life expectancy of 82.5 years - eighth highest in the world. The country's single-payer, multiple-provider system ensures that every citizen receives health coverage, yet insurance providers must compete in order to draw clients and receive funding.
In January 2016, Israel ranked as the world's eighth most powerful country, and in May of that year, the country's average life expectancy was declared fifth highest in the world. In June 2016, two of Israel's universities ranked in Asia's top 20, and six made the top 200.
Earlier this year, Israel ranked fourth in the list of best countries for expats and families.
Not all is rosy, though: Despite Israel's high ranking in health, it came in 133 - out of 149 - in the quality of the natural environment, environmental pressures, and preservation efforts.

The Story of a Syrian Treated in Israel

This is the touching story of F, one of the thousands of Syrians who has received treatment in Israel.

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Some are fighting the anti-Israel narrative from Germany

The Jerusalem Post reported last week:

The online editor-in-chief of the mass-circulation Bild published Sunday a column filled with blistering criticism over the anti-Israel media in Germany during the Temple Mount clashes.

“No other country, which suffers under permanent terror, is reported on in Germany in the cynical, ice-cold and heartless manner like Israel is,” wrote Julian Reichelt. His commentary was at one point the second most read article on the popular website.

The title of his column reads: “Middle East coverage in the German media: Perpetrators turned into victims.”

Reichelt wrote that “Metal detectors at the entry to the Temple Mount are described as injuring religious feelings. And the German media briskly spreads this fairy tale from an Israeli attack on religious freedom.”

He lambasted the German press for “routinely interchanging perpetrator and victim.” Reichelt cited the example of the German public news show Tagesschau’s rationale for terrorism against Israeli Jews.

“The Taggeschau permitted the father of a young Palestinian, who slaughtered a Jewish family, to justify his son because the ‘honor of Muslims’ is endangered.”

His media criticism took headline writers to task. “When terrorists attack soldiers, it reads: ‘Two Palestinians killed by Israeli military action.’ That is as if one would write about the terrorist from Nice: ‘Truck driver shot by police.’”

Reichelt noted that “Israel is on the front line in the battle against a murderous ideology that envisions annihilation of us... we Germans should back the Israelis in this battle instead of expecting that they nicely allow themselves to be destroyed.”

Die Welt had another op-ed, by Richard Herzinger, that questioned the reflexive support for Palestinians in Germany:

The conflict over the Temple Mount is not about injured religious feelings of Muslims nor about mistakes of the Israeli security authorities: Jewish history is to be delegitimized.

Israel dismantles the metal detectors on the Temple Mount, which have given the Palestinian Authority (PA) the pretext to stir up rebellion against the hated "Zionist occupation". But no one should believe that this concession could end the recent, religiously charged Palestinian hate-wave against the Jewish state.

In German and international media it has often been felt that the increased security measures taken by the Netanyahu government after the shooting of two Israeli police by Palestinian terrorists are the cause of the current unrest. But this represents a breathtaking reversal of cause and effect as well as the offender-victim relationship .

In fact, the conflict over the Temple Mount is not about any injured religious feelings of Muslims nor about possible mistakes of the Israeli security authorities. The latest confrontation is the result of a strategically conceived, systematically driven campaign by the PA leadership to discredit and isolate Israel.

These are baby steps but they may be hiding a much larger sea change in European opinion that most are not yet comfortable saying out loud.

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Palestinians were chanting slogans against Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt during protests

This video was taken during the Jerusalem protests last week:

According to this tweet from Al Jazeera's Line Alsaffin, the people are chanting "Down with Al Saud"; and "Son of Hussein [King Abdullah] you coward" and [Egyptian president] Sisi son of a dog."

From Jerusalem today. Chants of "Down with Al Saud" and "Son of Hussein [King Abdullah] you coward" & "Sisi son of a dog". I love my people. https://t.co/GRibDEJC0I
— لينة (@LinahAlsaafin) July 27, 2017

Here is the full text of what they are chanting. Notice how important the honor/shame motif is ("We are the people who are the deciding factor!/Death rather than humiliation!")

Down with the Saud clan!
Down with the Saud clan!
Down with the son of Hussein!
Down with the son of Hussein!
Oh Sisi, you son of a dog!
We are the people who are the deciding factor!
Oh Sisi, you coward!
You agent of the Americans!
Oh son of Hussein, you coward!
You agent of the Americans!
From Jerusalem to Amman!
Our honor will not be trampled upon!
From Jerusalem hear oh Amman!
Our honor will not be trampled upon!
Hear oh Mahmoud Abbas!
Our Al-Aqsa is the foundation!( i.e. the most important thing for us)
Hear hear oh Abbas!
Our Al-Aqsa is the foundation!
Netanyahu you son of a dog!
We are the people who are the deciding factor!
Netanyahu you coward!
The people of Jerusalem will not be humiliated!
Raise your hands and shout loudly!
Death rather than humiliation!

The Palestinians are publicly burning their bridges with the Arab leaders who have traditionally been their staunchest supporters. They know that the moderate Arab states are getting more and more impatient with their antics and instead of looking at themselves, they are lashing out, a product of years of coddling them and enabling their childishness.

But the Palestinians aren't quite in a powerful enough position to be able to spit in the face of those who have been trying to help them grow up and accept peace with Israel.

Palestinians, like children, have a short memory. They've been treated horribly by Jordan, by Lebanon, by Kuwait - whenever they are perceived as a threat, their Arab brethren can turn on them on a dime. By inciting against the only nations that are in a position to help them, and by framing their relationship with those nations in terms of humiliation, they are cutting off their legs.

Their only friends left are Qatar and Iran. Together with regular Arab op-eds that support them, the Palestinians are turning a blind eye to what is really happening, and what has been happening for a while, as Arab leaders have been turning cooler towards them with every passing year.

This implosion of support for them from moderate Arab states is not being covered in the West, but it is a huge story that will catch everyone by surprise sooner rather than later.

In a hundred years, scholarly papers will be written about why so many invested so much time and effort to help a group of people whose only accomplishments have been to create modern terrorism and a remarkable ability to consistently back the wrong horse.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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UAE newspaper Al Khaleej has an op-ed by Hayat al Haweeq Attiya talking about the dangers of a comprehensive peace with Israel.

The author opens with a story where she and a group of students in Lebanon met with an Israeli peacenik in the 1970s. The man, supposedly a rabbi named Marr Berger, was against war. The reasons he was against war is what the author is upset about: she says he was only against war to save Jewish lives, which he claimed were priceless. So his solution was to end war and instead integrate Israel into the region economically and culturally, to benefit everyone.

This is terrible. But the reason isn't quite clear yet.

She goes on to say that Shimon Peres was just as "bad." His vision was for the Arabs and the peoples of the Middle East to act as raw materials and labor for Israeli and multinational corporations to exploit.

"This formula of bondage is much worse than the military occupation," Attiya says.

She concludes, "In the name of combating terrorism we come to a humiliating Judeo-Arabization that actually achieves the process of cultural Judaization that paves the way for the completion of economic Judaization" of the entire Arab Muslim world.

Yes, any economic agreement between Israel and the Arab world is essentially slavery, according to this Arab French intellectual.

She doesn't say it, but obviously the only acceptable Arab peace plan for the region is the elimination of Israel.

Attiya considers herself a human rights activist and an intellectual, who has appeared on TV hundreds of times (including in France) and has written thousands of articles.

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07/29 Links: Jordan’s king says he is preventing ‘judaization’ of Jerusalem; Balfour’s Shadow

From Ian:

Jordan’s king says Amman preventing ‘judaization’ of holy sites in Jerusalem

Jordan’s King Abdullah II praised on Saturday his country’s handling of the Temple Mount crisis in Jerusalem in recent weeks and said Jordan would continue to fulfill its “historic role” of protecting “Islamic and Christian holy sites” in the Israeli capital and preventing their “Judaization” while ensuring the maintenance of the status quo at the sensitive compound.
Speaking to a group of local journalists, the Jordanian monarch said Amman worked continuously to “contain the ramifications” of Israel’s imposed security measures at entrances to the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif which houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock sanctuary, and to pressure Israel to roll back the installations and “through our common stand with our Palestinian brethren.”
Israel took the rare step of briefly shutting down the Temple Mount in the wake of a July 14 terror attack in which three terrorists killed two Israeli police officers with weapons they had smuggled onto the holy site, and reopened it two days later with metal detectors and cameras in place.

Amid heavy Jordanian pressure, Israel announces probe into Amman embassy attack

The Israeli Foreign Ministry on Friday announced that a preliminary probe was launched into the attack Sunday near the Israeli Embassy in Amman where an Israeli security guard killed two Jordanian nationals, including a teen assailant who was attacking him with a screwdriver.
The announcement came after Jordan announced that Israeli embassy staff, who came back to Israel on Monday following the violent incident, would not be allowed to return to Amman until an investigation was opened. Jordan has been pressing Israel to probe the incident, which has promoted a major diplomatic dispute between the two countries, which were already navigating tense relations surrounding violence at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, administered by a Jordanian-controlled trust.
On Friday, hundreds of Jordanians held a protest near the Israeli embassy in Amman over the incident, calling on the government to shut it down and cancel the 1994 peace treaty with Israel.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday that Israel was “launching a probe process into the incident, in accordance with the appropriate legal proceedings in such matters.”

Jonathan Hoffman: Balfour’s Shadow

Remember David Cronin? He’s the campaigning Irish ‘journalist’ who tried to arrest Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in Brussels in 2011. Now he’s contributed to the growing pile of Israel-traducing books offered at markdown prices by Amazon, ahead of the Balfour Centenary in November. His book is called ‘Balfour’s Shadow’ and it focuses in particular on relations between the UK and the Israeli Arabs and Palestinians (he wrongly calls them all ’Palestinians’) between 1917 and the present day. The book is published by Pluto Press, the former publishing arm of the far-Left SWP. Cronin spoke about the book at a meeting on 27 July.
Mistake #1 comes with his timeline. In spring/summer 1948 he writes that ‘Zionist forces undertake major ethnic cleansing programme in Palestine’. Not true, see Efraim Karsh. Only a handful of Arabs were attacked by Jewish irregular forces. The vast majority left because their leaders told them to go. They were told to leave for their own safety and that they would be able to return after the fighting. The Mayor of Haifa begged the Arabs to stay.
Mistake #2: Cronin says it’s a myth that Balfour was acting benevolently in issuing the Declaration. No it’s not. Balfour’s appreciation of the history of the Jews was genuine. See for example this quote:
“Here you have a small race, originally inhabiting a small country ….., at no time in its history wielding anything that can be described as material power, crushed between great Oriental monarchies, its inhabitants deported, then scattered, then driven out of the country to every part of the world and yet maintaining continuity of religion and racial tradition of which there is no parallel elsewhere…. We cannot forget how they have been treated during long centuries. Our whole religious organization of Europe has proved itself guilty of great crimes against this race. [Speech to the Lords (1922); Quoted in Lord Turnberg’s book ‘Beyond the Balfour Declaration’]
In fact Balfour and Weizmann became good friends. So much so that in 1930 when Balfour was on his deathbed, Weizmann was the only non-family member allowed to see him.
Mistake #4: Cronin writes that at the time of the Balfour Declaration, the most prominent Jews in the UK opposed Zionism. Some did, others (Lord Rothschild, Herbert Samuel for example) didn’t. The President of the Board of Deputies opposed Zionism but for this he was voted out of office (see this book).

The Anti-Defamation League’s Sad Slide Into Just Another Left-Wing Pressure Group

CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wants the Anti-Defamation League to get ‘involved in fights it has no place being in, like Hispanic hate crime. It’s not their lane. It’s bad, but not anti-Semitic.’
This past April, my husband, New York Post Op-Ed Editor Seth Mandel, started receiving a number of identical hostile tweets (right down to the same typo). He noticed many were officials at various branches of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
Seth had been criticizing the organization’s national director and CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, a former Obama administration staffer, for increasingly heavy-handed bias. Greenblatt was essentially turning the vaunted nonpartisan anti-hate organization into a left-wing pressure group and vehicle for partisan score-settling.
He realized what was happening: The ADL had launched a coordinated rapid-response attack on him — a Jewish journalist. The ADL denied it, but the next month, Tablet Magazine turned up the proof: ADL staffers were sent two sample tweets with which to attack Seth.
The most ironic thing about all this was that less than a year earlier, I had been named to an ADL task force seeking to combat coordinated anti-Semitic online harassment. And here was the ADL itself coordinating such a campaign against my husband.
Alas, that was just one instance in the last several months where conservatives have watched the lopsided manner in which the ADL has attacked anti-Semitism under Greenblatt’s watch. During the election and since President Trump’s victory, the ADL has expended most of its institutional firepower and energy on the alt-right. While President Trump’s appointment of Stephen Bannon, who once deemed his website the “platform” for the alt-right, is concerning and justifies the ADL’s attentions on the political philosophy, conservatives have noticed the ADL’s myopic fight against anti-Semitism. This past week, the ADL put together a list of the 36 worst members of the alt-right and the “alt-light,” leaving many wondering when it would release a similar list of progressive activists.

MEMRI: After Israel Removes Al-Aqsa Security Measures, 'Abbas, Fatah Call For Continuing The Struggle

Increasingly Strident PA Statements Prior To Removal Of Security Measures
As stated, throughout the crisis 'Abbas stressed the Palestinian sovereignty in Jerusalem. In a July 25, 2017 meeting of the PLO Executive Committee and Fatah Central Committee in Ramallah, 'Abbas said: "Jerusalem is ours. It is our capital and our sovereignty. As long as the situation in occupied Jerusalem does not return to what it was before July 14, there will be no changes [in our position]." He called for Israel to remove all the security measures introduced since that date, reiterating that "only then will things return to normal in occupied Jerusalem." Praising the Arab residents of Jerusalem, he added: "What you did was defend your honor, your religion and your holy sites. It was the true answer to those who wish to harm our holy sites and the principles of our faith. We supported you in what you did and are [still] doing. We decided to suspend the security coordination; [that decision] still holds. We [decided to] defend the holy sites; that still holds as well. We [now] want to review everything that has happened from [July 14] until today, in order to decide what to do [next]."[1]
Article In PA Daily Praises Home Town Of Halamish Attacker
A harsher tone was evident also in an article by Bassam Barhoum in the Al-Hayat Al-Jadida daily that praised the village of Kobar, home town of Omar Al-Abed, the man who stabbed three Israelis to death and wounded another in their home in Halamish on the evening of July 21. Under the headline "Kobar Creates Glory," the article stated that Al-Abed had carried out the attack "after feeling great anger" at what was going on in Jerusalem: "The village of Kobar is today shaping its glory by means of its steadfastness, provocation, and stand against [Israel]. For the past week, Kobar has known no sleep or tranquility, after young Omar Al-Abed felt great anger in light of what is happening at Al-Aqsa and in Jerusalem and carried out an operation in the settlement of Halamish on Friday... The sons of the village [include also] Marwan Al-Barghouti – Fatah Central Committee member – as well as Fakhri and Nael Al-Barghouti [terrorists released in the Shalit prisoner exchange deal] – the most veteran prisoners who were held in the Israeli prison for over 34 years, along with a prisoner who was expelled to the Gaza Strip, Jasser Al-Barghouti. During the intifadas of the Palestinian people against the occupation, 15 martyrs were from the village of Kobar, as were dozens who were wounded, and hundreds of prisoners... Kobar stands fast against the occupation and today is shaping its special national ethos and writing an illuminated page in the history of the national Palestinian struggle..."[8]
Palestinian Foreign Ministry: We Should Learn From This Struggle Until We Restore The Legal Status Quo That Held At Al-Aqsa Before 1967
The Palestinian foreign ministry called to implement the lessons of this struggle in future campaigns for Jerusalem "until the historical legal status quo that held at Al-Aqsa before 1967 is restored." Its statement described the current achievement as "a real opportunity that should form a basis for further achievements in Al-Aqsa and occupied East Jerusalem," and added: "We should learn from the popular momentum which was a great cry of defiance in the face of the occupation authorities... [This momentum] should be a source of inspiration for us in the next stage of our activity... and a model for emulation in our future campaigns for Jerusalem and the holy sites, chief of them the blessed Al-Aqsa... The Palestinians must be alert and draw lessons [from what happened] in order to preserve the achievement and build upon it until the historical legal status quo that held at Al-Aqsa before 1967 is restored in full."[10]

Arab Opinion Makers Celebrate ‘Victory for the Resistance’ Over Removal of Temple Mount Metal Detectors

Social media users from across the Arab world, including journalists and politicians, have been celebrating what they characterized as a major victory for the Palestinians at the Temple Mount after Israel decided to remove all security arrangements at the various entrances to the complex.
Protest leaders, including top Palestinian officials, claimed the metal detectors were part of an Israeli conspiracy to hamper Muslim worship on the Mount. Israel’s new security measures were put into place in direct response to a Palestinian terrorist attack at the Mount two weeks ago in which three assailants somehow smuggled weapons onto the site.
The Jordanian-Palestinian journalist and analyst Yasser Zaatreh wrote, “The occupation’s surrender is a big lesson for anyone willing to learn. Jerusalem won by force of will and the resistance. Those who made this victory can achieve an even greater victory.”
Egyptian journalist and author Waiel Kandil wrote, “The battle for Al Aqsa: The removal of the electronic metal detectors and the cameras is an exclusive victory for the resistance. … Proponents of normalization will try to pollute this victory with talk of deals under the table.”
Saudi journalist and columnist Ahmad al-Assiri wrote, “After dozens of disappointments, what happened at the Al Aqsa Mosque is the first victory over the Zionists since the Balfour Declaration. … Al Aqsa is a red line.”
Kuwaiti parliament member Majed al-Mutairi wrote, “Allah, as you allowed us to see the victory of the worshippers over the occupation, please allow us to pray in the Al Aqsa Mosque when it is liberated from the occupation and its impurity.”

Security cooperation with Israel to resume ‘gradually,’ PA official says

Security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority will gradually increase as long as Muslim access to the Temple Mount remains unrestricted, a senior Palestinian official told The Times of Israel on Saturday.
The official praised Israel for removing security restrictions imposed at the Temple Mount in the wake of a deadly terror attack at the site earlier this month. He also praised the Shin Bet Security service and the IDF for their handling of the mounting tensions surrounding the Jerusalem holy site, and expressed hope the two sides were on the way to resuming working ties.
Last week, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas suspended security coordination with Israel to protest the installation of metal detectors at entrances to the site, a move that sparked widespread protests and condemnation from the Muslim world.
The security cooperation between Israel and the PA, in place for years despite near-frozen diplomatic ties, is seen as critical for both Israel and Abbas’s Fatah faction to keep a lid on violence in the West Bank, particularly from the Hamas terror group.

Israeli Justice Minister Moves to Deduct Palestinian Debts From PA’s Tax Revenue

Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) is exploring the possibility of using the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) tax revenue, which Israel collects on the PA’s behalf, to pay off debts owed by Palestinian individuals to Israelis, her office said on Thursday.
Under the 1993 Oslo Accords, a mechanism was set up by which Israel collects taxes — value added tax and customs fees — on behalf of the PA, amounting to approximately $100 million a month.
Palestinians’ debts to Israelis currently stand at some 500 million shekels ($140 million), which the Palestinian Authority has been unable to collect from 20,716 individuals.
The situation involves 53,506 cases in which court orders or writs of execution have been issued by the Justice Ministry’s Enforcement and Collection Authority in cases where Israelis involved in transactions with Palestinian were not paid or provided the service for which they paid.
All cases involve transactions under NIS 75,000 ($21,000).

Palestinians: The Metal Detector Scam

Metal detectors and are commonplace at most prominent mosques in the Middle East, and more than 5,000 surveillance cameras (and 100,000 security guards) monitor pilgrims to Mecca in Saudi Arabia during the annual Hajj.
While the Palestinian terrorist was being treated for his wounds in an Israeli hospital, the Palestinian Authority celebrated his actions and set in motion the mechanism according to which he will receive a salary of more than $3,000 per month for his attempt to become a "martyr" through murdering Jews.
It is time for the international community to stop enabling radicals to use the Palestinian people as pawns in their greater agenda, transparent to everyone, including all Muslims: to obliterate Israel through delegitimization.

IDF soldiers raid Palestinian media offices in Ramallah

IDF soldiers raided early on Saturday the offices of a Palestinian media group in the West Bank city of Ramallah, seizing equipment and documents.
The Palmedia group headquarters were raided on suspicion of incitement to terror in its broadcasts and other news content, the Israeli military indicated.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that several offices working with Palmedia, a media production company that provides broadcast services to other media outlets, were also broken into by Israeli forces.
Wafa said the offices were “ransacked,” and some damage was caused to the property.
It also reported that residents hurled stones at the soldiers as they left the area.

Riots break out in Jaffa after police killing of suspect fleeing shooting scene

Dozens of masked rioters in the coastal city of Jaffa hurled stones and rolled burning tires at police officers on Saturday, in clashes that erupted hours after police shot two men allegedly fleeing the scene of a shooting at the city’s port. A man in his twenties died of his wounds and another man of the same age was moderately injured.
Police blocked off parts of the city’s main Yefet Street to vehicular traffic to contain the clashes.
At least three rioters were detained for questioning, police said.
In the early hours of Saturday, police officers opened fire at two men who were suspected of being involved in a shooting at the Jaffa port. According to police, the men attempted to flee the scene of the shooting on mopeds.

Israel and the Arab world Needed by the rulers, hated by the people

This week’s stabbing and shooting incident at Israel’s embassy compound in Amman, the manner in which it was resolved, and the reactions on the street in Jordan say much about Israel’s current situation in the Mideast.
The neighboring governments – or at least some of them – need Israel, want its security and intelligence cooperation, and even appreciate what the country has to offer in the fight against their greater threats in the region: Iran and fanatical Islamic terrorism.
The people, on the other hand, hate the Jewish state.
The first part of the above equation explains why Jordan’s King Abdullah II let the embassy security guard go back to Israel after he was stabbed Sunday night, and fired two shots that killed the assailant and another man at the scene.
The second part of the equation explains the Jordanian public’s furious reaction to the release of the guard. While the incensed public reaction can be explained in part by the fact that the guard did kill two Jordanians – one, evidently, who had nothing to do with the stabbing – there was more to the anger than just this incident, and it reflects a deep, intense hostility toward Israel felt by many Jordanians.

EXCLUSIVE: Palestinian Envoy Hints U.S. Postponed U.N. Vote to Fund Palestine Refugee Agency

A controversial General Assembly vote to increase the U.N.’s, and consequently the U.S.’s, funding of a Palestinian refugee agency was postponed Friday, a move that an unhappy Palestinian ambassador suggested to Breitbart News was because of U.S. opposition.
The resolution up for a vote, first reported by the New York Post’s Benny Avni, would increase the funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The agency has proved controversial in part because Palestine is alone in having its own refugee body – all other refugees are covered by the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) – but also because of its alleged anti-Israel bias and links to Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for it to be disbanded, saying it only perpetuates the Israeli-Palestinian crisis by stoking anti-Israeli sentiment. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley has not publicly agreed with Netanyahu’s position but has repeatedly taken strong stances against the anti-Israel bias at the U.N. as a whole.
A letter signed by all 100 U.S. Senators in April called on UNRWA to “pursue reforms or risk significant consequences.” The Times of Israel noted at that time that a third of UNRWA’s budget comes from the U.S. Fox News reported that the U.S. donates $600 million a year to the body.
But the resolution, recognizing what it calls the “extremely critical financial situation” of UNRWA, recommends “a gradual increase in the support to be provided to the Agency from the regular budget of the United Nations.”

Now Is the Time to Pass the Taylor Force Act

The Taylor Force Act stipulates that American aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) be conditioned on the discontinuation of their longstanding sponsorship of terrorism through payments (called “salaries”) to jailed terrorists, and the families of deceased terrorists.
After the past two weeks — when five Israelis have been killed and others injured in a wave of riots and terror attacks that the PA helped to incite — there has never been a better time to pass the Taylor Force Act. Doing so would demonstrate that the continued Palestinian sponsorship and incitement of terrorism will not be accepted, and that those involved in such activities will not be considered credible parties to peace negotiations.
The Waqf (which administers the Temple Mount), and other Muslim sources have claimed that some of the demonstrations were in protest of the metal detectors that were installed at the Muslim entrances to the Temple Mount. Yet these positions ignore the fact that the metal detectors (which have since been removed due to unfair pressure on Israel) were only installed after terrorists killed two Israeli policemen at the Temple Mount; that this was not the first jihadi attack there; that subsequent searches revealed more weaponry at the site; and that the metal detectors did not restrict access to or the freedom of worship at the Temple Mount — nor alter the Waqf’s exclusive Muslim control within the compound.
Regardless of one’s position regarding the metal detectors, the violent demonstrations that the PA, Fatah and the Waqf called for and organized — and their accusations that Israel was attempting to alter the status quo at the Temple Mount (an accusation that has traditionally been interpreted by Muslims as a call to violence) — were clearly unacceptable. In addition to the riots and terror attacks, PA President Mahmoud Abbas also announced the suspension of all relations between the PA and Israel.

Bereaved dad accuses Liberman of ‘abandoning’ son’s remains in Gaza

The father of the fallen IDF lieutenant Hadar Goldin on Friday accused Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman of breaking a promise to return his son’s remains from Gaza.
Simha Goldin’s son was killed in the 2014 war in Gaza, as was First Sgt. Oron Shaul. The remains of both soldiers are still held by the Hamas terror group.
“Liberman is sentencing us to 50 years of suffering,” Simha Goldin said during a memorial service for his son, claiming the defense minister had told him he may have to wait decades for his son’s body to be returned.
“Two days after the last Memorial Day for IDF fallen soldiers, Liberman told us, the Goldin family and the Shaul family, that Hadar and Oron will wait [for their return], just as Eli Cohen waits for his return to Israel, just as those who perished in the Dakar submarine waited,” he said.
Eli Cohen was hanged by Syria as an Israeli spy on May 18, 1965, and despite decades of efforts, his body has still not been returned by the Syrians. The Dakar submarine sank in January 1968 with 69 Israeli crew on board. The wreckage was only found in 1999.

Palestinian jihadist murders one person in Germany

The authorities in the northern German city of Hamburg announced on Saturday that a Palestinian asylum-seeker went on a terror spree in a supermarket, resulting in the murder of a man and injuries to six people.
Hamburg’s interior senator said security officials were aware that the 26-year-old Ahmad A. was an Islamist. Eyewitnesses at the supermarket reported Ahmad shouted “Allahu Akbar” during the terror spree.
Multiple German news outlet reported that Ahmad screamed “Allahu Akbar” during the attack. “Suddenly I saw a man smeared with blood running along the other side of the road with a knife,” Ralf W. told Germany’s mass-circulation daily Bild. Ralf said Ahmed yelled “Allahu Akbar” as he fled the supermarket.
A second eyewitness told the NTV that “as he was running out... he held up his arms and shouted ‘Allahu Akbar.’”
“We have no clear information as to the motive or the number of wounded,” Hamburg police said in a tweet. “It was definitely a lone attacker.” They said initial reports about a possible robbery had not been substantiated.
Olaf Scholz, the mayor of Hamburg, said the Ahmad could not be deported because he did not have personal identity papers. The mayor said Ahmed was egged on by “hate.”
Scholz added, “It makes me especially angry that the perpetrator appears to be a person who claimed protection in Germany and then turned his hate against us.”

"Fight the Jews": Sacramento Bee Sanitizes Anti-Semitic Sermon

The verse is not an obscure one. It appears in the Hamas charter, and is frequently used by preachers urging people to hate and kill Jews.
The Sacramento Bee story about the July 21 sermon opaquely noted that Shahin cited "Islamic texts about an end-times battle," but inexplicably concealed from readers his actual language about Muslims fighting Jews.
This omission is particularly striking in an article that leaves it to readers to decide whether Shahin's sermon was, in fact, anti-Semitic. The imam's words caused "critics to condemn him as anti-Semitic," wrote Sacramento Bee reporter Anita Chabria, before quoting mosque officials who defended the imam and insisted they stand against anti-Semitism. How are readers expected to understand the criticism, and to properly evaluate the comments, if the full extent of Shahin's comments are hidden from them?
Mosque officials claimed that the imam was mistranslated, the Bee reported. Shahin's statements about a "corrupted" Jewish Torah and "Muslims fighting the Jews," though, were made in English. Both comments were omitted from the Sacramento Bee report. The reporter also turned to Berkeley professor Hatem Bazian, who expressed doubts about the precision of a widely circulated translation of Arabic parts of the sermon. The call to "liberate the Al-Aqsa mosque from the filth of the Jews" was more correctly translated as a call to liberate the mosque from "the defilement of the Jews," Bazian told the newspaper.
The Berkeley professor might not have been the most appropriate resource to consult with on such matters. He is the founder of the radical anti-Israel group Students for Justice in Palestine, slurs Israel as an apartheid state, and is affiliated with, and fund-raised for, groups and individuals that have illegally financed Hamas, a designated terror organization committed to Israel's destruction. In testimony before congress, Jonathan Schanzer documented "significant overlap" between Bazian's American Muslims for Palestine and "people who worked for or on behalf of organizations that were designated, dissolved, or held civilly liable by federal authorities for supporting Hamas." The Sacramento Bee did not disclose Bazian's affiliation with the anti-Israel groups.

Reem's: Quashing constitutional rights in the name of "Community"

On July 25, another vigil was held at Reem's, in what appears to be the latest in an ongoing series of actions. The peaceful low-key lunch hour event was again disrupted by a blatant attempt to infringe on the groups constitutional rights of freedom assembly and freedom of expression
And again, Reem Assil's reaction to a non-violent protest was to call "security"
However, there are no trained security guards at Fruitvale Village.
According to the East Bay Express, several years ago, the Unity Council, the non-profit that owns Fruitvale Village decided to end its contract with Universal Protection Services, a unionized security company. Instead, the trained guards were replaced with "neighborhood ambassadors" -workers without guard cards or formal security training.
Reem Assil and the Unity Council are now relying on these "neighborhood ambassadors" to curtail the civil rights of the lawful protesters. The ambassadors from the Safety Neighborhood Ambassador Program (SNAP) are employees of Peralta Service Corporation, a subsidiary of the Unity Council, and are clearly uncomfortable being asked to infringe on people's constitutional rights

Der Spiegel removes 'antisemitic' book from bestseller list

The influential German news magazine Der Spiegel has deleted from its bestseller list a book that one of its own editors had pushed up the rankings, after it was found to be “antisemitic and historically revisionist”.
Finis Germania, or The End of Germany, collects the thoughts of the late historian Rolf Peter Sieferle on the position of Germany, including how it deals with the Holocaust. The book is currently at the top of Amazon.de’s bestseller chart and this month it entered Der Spiegel’s bestseller list, which many bookshops use as a basis for promotional displays, in sixth place.
Germany devours book on Angela Merkel decision to open borders
Read more
Finis Germania is missing from the list in this week’s issue of the magazine. Many bookshops have followed suit and are not displaying the title.
Susanne Beyer, Der Spiegel’s deputy editor, said Finis Germania had been omitted because the magazine considered the book – posthumously published by a small house, Antaios, known for its far-right leanings – to be “rightwing extremist, antisemitic and historically revisionist”.
Since Der Spiegel understood itself as “a medium of enlightenment even on historical subjects”, Beyer continued, the magazine had decided not to help advance the sales of such a book.
Beyer admitted that, in June, Finis Germania had made it on to a prestigious list of nonfiction books of the month, after her colleague Johannes Saltzwedel recommended the title.

AFP Adds Key Information on Arab Attacks in Jordan, Jerusalem

First, the article had originally attributed the fact that a Jordanian carpenter had stabbed an Israeli embassy guard to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, as if the fact could not be independently verified and simply reported without attribution:
The Israeli foreign ministry said the guard shot dead a Jordanian worker who had come to an apartment to install furniture and had stabbed him in the back with a screwdriver.
It's not only the Israeli Foreign Minister which said the Jordanian attacked the Israeli prompting the Israeli to shoot the Jordanian. Upon concluding its investigation earlier this week, the Jordanian Public Security Directorate stated:
Testimonies of eyewitnesses revealed that during the verbal argument between the carpenter and the son of carpentry owner, the carpenter attacked the Israeli diplomat who responded by shooting.
Why qualify the Jordanian attack on the Israeli as an Israeli Foreign Ministry claim when the Jordanians themselves agree that this actually happened?
AFP editors agreed with CAMERA that news consumers should know that Jordanian authorities, along with Israel, confirm that the Jordanian worker attacked the Israeli embassy guard.

Iran’s terrorism goliath

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps terrorizes its own people and casts a dark shadow over the world
The U.S. Institute of Peace notes that, “Iran has the largest and most diverse ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East.” And that most Iranian missiles “were acquired from foreign sources — notably North Korea.”
Iran and North Korea are strategic partners, pledged by treaty to share science and technology. North Korean scientists are in Iran helping their space program, which is controlled by the IRGC.
According to the U.S. Institute of Peace: “The Islamic Republic is the only country to develop a 2,000-km missile without first having a nuclear weapons capability.”
A Congressional Research Service report “Iran’s Foreign and Defense Policies” (October 2016) and the Federation of American Scientists warn of evidence that Iran is pursuing chemical and biological weapons in violation of its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and Biological Weapons Convention. German Federal intelligence warned in 2015 the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sought German equipment “for atomic, biological, and chemical weapons in a war.”
When the smoke clears over Raqqa and ISIS is no more in Syria and Iraq, the IRGC will be there, and its proxies will be everywhere, casting a darker, more ominous shadow of terror over the world.

Two Years Later, Iran’s Nuclear Deal Has Not Worked

Two years after the US-led group of six world powers reached a nuclear agreement with Iran, President Trump confirmed that Iran has met the conditions for recertification.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly condemned the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as dangerous appeasement — but, six months into his presidency, he has not attempted to dismantle it.
In 2015, President Obama said in a speech that the nuclear agreement would make the world safer. Yet as we mark the second anniversary of the JCPOA, the undeniable reality is that the deal is not delivering the outcomes that were promised.
Preventing a nuclear-armed Iran is one of the greatest geopolitical challenges facing the world today, and our decision-makers owe it to the American people to scrutinize the deal with close attention.
The central goal of negotiations with Iran was, in President Obama’s own words, “to get Iran to recognize it needs to give up its nuclear program.” Unfortunately, the fatal flaws of the deal that was eventually reached mean that the opposite is true. The JCPOA does not permanently prohibit Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. To the contrary, it provides Iran with a patient pathway to achieve exactly that.
By following the terms of the JCPOA, in less than a decade, Tehran will emerge as a nuclear threshold state with an industrial-size enrichment program and the ability to produce nuclear weapons with close to zero-breakout time.

Iran vows ‘strong response’ to US sanctions

Iran was holding an emergency meeting on Saturday to review its response to a package of sanctions approved by the US Senate, vowing a “strong response” to US punitive measures.
Iranian state TV was reporting that a parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy was hosting the meeting.
The Saturday report said deputy foreign minister and senior Iranian negotiator Abbas Araqchi said the US legislation amounts to a “hostile” breach of a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. It now goes to President Donald Trump for signing.
Araqchi says: “A strong answer will be given to the action by the US.”
The new US legislation imposes mandatory penalties on people involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program and anyone who does business with them. It would also apply terrorism sanctions to Iran’s prestigious Revolutionary Guard and enforce an arms embargo.
Earlier Saturday, Iran condemned the sanctions passed by against its missile program, and vowed to continue it.

Iranians stage anti-Israel protest in Tehran

Dozens of worshipers staged an anti-Israel rally in Iran over stepped-up security measures by Israeli forces at the Temple Mount holy site in Jerusalem, which were set up in the wake of a terror attack on July 14 when three terrorists used weapons smuggled onto the compound to kill two Israeli officers near the site.
Chanting “Death to Israel” and “Death to America,” demonstrators in Tehran Friday afternoon were protesting Israel’s security measures at the site where the biblical Jewish temples stood and where Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.
Israel rolled back all the security measures at entrances to the Temple Mount on Thursday, following nearly two weeks of violent clashes and a boycott of the compound by Muslim worshipers heeding calls to pray in the street.

Slovak far-right leader charged with using neo-Nazi symbols

The leader of a far-right party with seats in the Slovak parliament has been charged with crimes related to the use of neo-Nazi symbols, police said Friday.
Marian Kotleba, head of the People’s Party Our Slovakia, has been charged, according to police spokesman Martin Waldl.
He gave no other details, but police said in May they were opening an investigation into whether the party gave financial gifts of 1,488 euros to several poor families in March. The number 1,488 has a symbolic meaning for neo-Nazis.
Kotleba openly admires the country’s World War II-era Nazi puppet state. His party has 14 lawmakers in the 150-seat parliament.

Vandals topple headstones at historic Boston-area Jewish cemetery

Vandals have toppled six headstones at one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in Massachusetts.
Police responded Thursday morning to reports of what appeared to be three teenage boys seen kicking over tombstones at the Netherlands Cemetery in Melrose, Mayor Robert Dolan reported on his blog.
“I am deeply saddened and outraged by this vandalism and potential hate crime,” Dolan said. “Cemeteries are sacred grounds. Any malicious destruction is deeply saddening and must be given the full attention of law enforcement.”

As the New York Film Festival Honors Robert Mitchum, Remembering His Flirt with Holocaust Denial

I love Robert Mitchum. If I ever did something deserving of a biopic, and if I could choose anyone, dead or alive, to play me in that biopic, it would be Robert Mitchum. When you look at Robert Mitchum act, you understand he’s not acting at all: he’s still the boy who punched out his elementary school principle, the kid who got put on a goddamn chain gang at fourteen, the young man whose first job, a machininst with Lockheed, was so stressful it made him go temporarily blind. Robert Mitchum has soul and grit, and to watch him and DeNiro play the same role in their respective adaptations of Cape Fear is to understand all the terrible things that have happened to American Manhood in the last fifty years. So when I heard the announcement this week that the New York Film Festival this fall will honor Mitchum with a special retrospective of his movies, I was thrilled.
And then I remembered that bit with denying the Holocaust.
It was 1983, and Mitchum was 65. He was talking to Esquire. Asked about the slaughter of six million Jews, Mitchum said this in response: “so the Jews say.”
“So the Jews say?” the interviewer, Barry Rehfeld, asked, amazed.
“I don’t know,” Mitchum replied. “People dispute that.”
It was far from his sole pear of wisdom. “How do you say ‘trust me’ in Jewish?” he later asked Rehfeld. “Fuck you.” Then, it was onwards to a string of recollections about Jewish friends he’d had growing up, including Mel Blumberg, whose uncle, a rabbi, would tell stories about the angels climbing Jacob’s Ladder only to piss on the sinners below. To be fair, in the course of the same interview, Mitchum was also deeply dismissive of blacks, the Irish, and women.
Confronted with his comments, Mitchum argued that he was in character throughout the interview, portraying, he said, the racist Coach Delaney, the character he played in That Championship Season. The reporter ought to have understood that, and the whole thing, he wrote in a letter, a prank gone awry and “a tragedy of errors.” A Robert Mitchum character would’ve called bullshit on Robert Mitchum’s nonsensical explanation, a lame attempt to weasel out of a tough spot that is decidedly very un-Robert-Mitchum-like. (h/t MtTB)

‘Transparent’ is Going to Israel

I don’t watch Transparent. I’ve tried, but could never get past the first few episodes. I know enough self-absorbed, morally preening jerks in real life, and find no pleasure in making the acquaintance of a few more. But I know that a lot of people, for whatever reason, like the Pfeffermans—their name is as annoying as their constant whining—and these people should know that in the show’s fourth season, debuting in the fall, the Pfeffermans will be going to Israel.
According to the season’s new trailer, released today, the Jewish state is a perfect manifestation of the Pfeffermans’ state of mind: we see camels, rude haredi men, the Kotel, and the security wall. In short, all the clichéd nonsense you’d stumble upon if you traveled to Israel but were too wrapped up in your own dramas to notice that you’re in a real country, not a collection of clichés curated by CNN.
Maybe the new season will be great. Maybe the Pfeffermans will end up joining the Fauda crew in the best Netflix-Amazon show crossover idea ever, and will set out to become undercover commandos. Meanwhile, enjoy the trailer, below, if that’s your thing.

‘Menashe’ Presents a Rare Authentic, On-Screen Depiction of Hasidic Judaism

In the film Menashe, which debuts across America on July 28, director Joshua Weinstein has delicately crafted a work that emanates a rarely seen authenticity, tenderness and depth sadly lacking in other mainstream films about Hasidic Jews and their communities.
In the film, a Hasidic father named Menashe — who works long hours in a small grocery store in Brooklyn, struggling to make ends meet — has lost his young wife Lea to illness. Their sole child — Rieven, an adolescent — has also become suddenly bereft of his beloved mother. Anchored against the resulting father-and-son relationship is Aizek — Menashe’s former brother-in-law and Rieven’s uncle. He is a successful, but arrogant property owner who seeks custody of the boy to raise him in his own family.
This heart-wrenching triangulated scenario could play out anywhere. But this is Borough Park, home to numerous Hasidic groups, a world unknown — and also misunderstood and misjudged — by many. Filmed on location, this engrossing exploration of love, grief and devotion pulses to the heartbeat of the Hasidic community and its many nuances. In Menashe’s particular community, children must be brought up in a home with a mother, meaning that following his wife’s death, Menashe faces a choice between finding a wife, giving up his son, or violating the community’s tradition.
In the film, spoken almost entirely in Yiddish (with English subtitles), Weinstein sheds layer after layer, and reveals a profound humanity.

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