From Ian:
‘Don’t give up on Or,’ pleads family of Israeli missing in Nepal
Family and friends of the last Israeli missing in Nepal insisted they still hoped to find him alive Saturday, a week after a deadly quake hit the Himalayas, and they urged the public not to give up on him either.
“Rescue teams told us about instances in which they rescued people healthy and whole, even after a month,” Or Asraf’s friends told the Walla news site, as hopes of rescuing more survivors from last week’s earthquake dwindled.
“We’re not giving up and we’re asking everyone — from the teams on the ground to the people at home — not to lose hope and not give up on Asraf.”
Nepal’s government on Saturday ruled out the possibility of finding more survivors buried in the rubble from last weekend’s massive earthquake as it announced the death toll had risen to 6,841. Over 14,000 were injured.
IDF Rescue Dog Searches for Victims in Kathmandu Rubble
A GoPro camera strapped onto an Israeli Army dog revealed first hand the search for survivors of Saturday’s deadly earthquake in Nepal.
In a 30-second clip, posted by the IDF on Facebook, the canine is shown walking across rubble in Kathmandu and through evacuated buildings looking for survivors. The dog sprints past demolished homes and still standing structures where walls are torn apart and personal belongings are scattered across the floor.
The short video provides a glimpse into the extent of the damage wrought by the natural disaster that killed more than 6,000 people, while thousands of others are still unaccounted for.
Aside from searching for survivors, the Israeli Army is also helping to treat wounded Nepalis. Three days after the earthquake, a 260-member IDF delegation, including 127 medical personnel, arrived in Nepal and set up a field hospital to help the injured. The hospital has provided medical care to 246 people since opening on Wednesday morning and doctors have already performed some 15 life-saving surgeries, The Times of Israel reported.
Israel Army Rescue Dog searches for Nepal earthquake survivors
Slain Jerusalemite’s Father: Israel is at War, But We’re in Denial About it
Rabbi Uri Sharki, whose son was run over and killed in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem last month, said “Because we are in the midst of a struggle, we should assume that the [incident] was a terrorist attack until proven otherwise.”
It took five days for the attack that killed Shalom Yochai Sharki to be recognized as a terrorist attack because police had to prove it was not simply a traffic accident.
Sharki sees this hesitation as part of a larger issue that has overtaken Israeli society. He said that he understands that from the perspective of “professional ethnics,” the police have to remain cautious about giving definite answers, “and I also do not want to condemn an innocent man. But the question is, what is the underlying assumption?”
Sharki explained that, for police, an incident is not a terrorist attack unless it is proven to be so afterwards.
“But, it is also possible to operate in the opposite manner: for the starting point to be that this is a terrorist attack, until it is proven otherwise,” said Sharki.
Guy Bechor: Democrats are losing Jewish vote
Obama is reaching the end of his term, and the question is what is the extent of the damage he has caused, and may still cause, to the continuation of the Jewish support for the Democratic Party, which was born following the Democrats' support for Israel from its very first days. This support has two dramatic implications in the upcoming presidential election, which may see a tight race.
The first implication is that there are at least three important states in which the Jewish vote can tip the scales: Florida (with a Jewish population that keeps growing), Illinois and Pennsylvania. Florida is critical for a victory, either Republican or Democratic. The second implication is that the Jews are known as generous donors to the Democratic Party. Now, as the US Jewry is shifting to the right, like in Israel, the amount of donations to the Republicans is increasing.
There is another measure of the Jews' shift to the right: The two parties' attitude towards Israel. The Republicans' starting point since Gallup began studying this attitude was low: In 1988, only 47% of Republicans identified with Israel more than with the Palestinians; today, 83% identity with Israel – nearly an all-time record. The jump in the Republicans' solidarity with Israel can also be attributed to the fact that many Jews have joined the party.
In the same time period, from 1988 to this day, the Democrats' solidarity with Israel more than with the Palestinians rarely crossed the 50% mark (today it stands at 48%). From 1993 to 2001, only 35% of Democrats identified with Israel more than with the Palestinians. So many Jews are asking themselves: If the Democrats are not very fond of Israel, why should we be fond of them?
Israel’s military edge at risk as Obama ‘scrambles’ to placate Arab fears on Iran deal
The Obama administration is said to be “scrambling” to find ways to reassure Arab allies that it is not abandoning them, despite the imminent nuclear deal with Iran. To that end, it is considering a range of options such as weapons sales that might reduce Israel’s hitherto sacrosanct military edge, the New York Times reported Friday, including selling the F-35 fighter jet to the United Arab Emirates.
Among the options cited by the paper as being under consideration: A defense pact under which the US would commit “to the defense of Arab allies if they come under attack from outside forces”; joint training missions for American and Arab military forces; designating Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as “major non-NATO allies,” a step that would loosen restrictions on weapons sales and offer “a number of military advantages that are available only to NATO allies”; and approving the sale of its advanced F-35 stealth fighter to the UAE three years after it is delivered to Israel.
The administration is hurriedly weighing such options ahead of a Camp David summit set for May 14 for President Barack Obama and Gulf allies, the New York Times said. Countries might reportedly “downgrade” their participation at the summit, intended for foreign ministers, if the president does not come up with a satisfactory offer.
House committee approves Israeli missile defense funds
The US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee has approved $474 million for Israel’s anti-missile systems.
Included in the US-Israel cooperative missile defense funds is $41.4 million for the short-range Iron Dome rocket defense system, which Israel says was key in repelling rocket attacks during last summer’s war with Hamas.
Also included in the amendment approved Thursday are $165 million for David’s Sling, another short-range system, and the longer-range Arrow-3 missile defense programs, as well as $267.6 million in research and development funds.
Reps. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the committee chairman, and Adam Smith (D-Washington), its ranking Democrat, initiated the allocation as an amendment to the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, which now must be approved by the full House and Senate.
New Bipartisan Congressional Resolution Demands Release of Americans Held by Iran
Rep. Dan Kildee (D – Mich.) introduced a bipartisan Congressional resolution Thursday calling on Iran to “release all detained Americans immediately,” The New York Times reported.
Characterizing the resolution as the product of legislative anger at Iran, the Times reported:
The latest evidence of indignation was seen on Thursday when Representative Dan Kildee, Democrat of Michigan, announced at a news conference in Washington that he had introduced a bipartisan congressional resolution that says in part, “Iran should release all detained Americans immediately and provide any information it possesses regarding any Americans that have disappeared within its borders.” …
Mr. Kildee’s constituents include the family of Amir Hekmati, 31, of Flint, a Marine veteran whose parents emigrated from Iran. He was seized while visiting relatives in August 2011, convicted of spying and sentenced to death, a verdict later reduced to helping a hostile country, with a 10-year sentence.
The other Americans known to be incarcerated are Saeed Abedini, 34, of Boise, Idaho, a Christian pastor imprisoned since 2013 on charges of disturbing national security, and Jason Rezaian, 39, of Marin, Calif., The Washington Post’s Tehran correspondent, who was arrested last July and is facing espionage charges.
Map Shows That Iran Has No Intention of Defeating ISIS
A map of the current position of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), as well as Iranian anti-ISIS forces, shows that while Iran will continue fighting ISIS, it has no interest in defeating the terror organization. The map was created by security researcher Michael Pregent, who was interviewed yesterday by Armin Rosen of Business Insider.
As the map demonstrates, the jihadist group’s domain lies beyond both Iran and the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government’s priority defensive boundary. As Pregent told Business Insider, the map shows that “Iran has no intent of defeating ISIS.”
As Pregent notes, ISIS has been defeated nearly everywhere the group has been fought on the ground. “The map tells a story,” he told Business Insider. “ISIS is able to maintain territory because it’s unopposed. But where it’s opposed it loses territory, in both Iraq and Syria.”
The black ring cutting through central Iraq and Syria is there because the region’s military actors just aren’t interested in challenging the group in those areas.
Iran's FM denies Islamic Republic jails people for their opinions
Iran's Foreign Minister is facing a flurry of criticism after suggesting in a recent television interview that the Islamic Republic does not persecute individuals based on their opinions.
Mohammad Javad Zarif, whose representation of Tehran during the P5+1 nuclear negotiations in Switzerland brought him into the public eye, sat down with Charlie Rose on Friday for a sixty-eight minute in which he was asked about the ongoing detention of Jason Rezaian, an American-Iranian journalist that has languished in the Iranian prison system for the past nine-months.
"Iran does not jail people for their opinions," Zarif answered, despite the fact that Iran maintains one of the worst records for press freedom in the world, ranking 173 according to the 2014 Press Freedom Index, coming in just after Sudan.
Zarif outlined what he says is his government's plan “to improve and enhance human rights in the country."
But people who commit crimes, who violate the laws of a country cannot hide behind being a journalist or being a political activist, people have to observe the law,” he added.
Arab Antiquities Robbers Caught in the Act
Seven residents of Rahat, a Bedouin Arab town in the Negev, were caught on Wednesday night stealing antiquities from the archaeological site Tel Ma'aravim adjacent to Rahat.
The seven, all aged in their thirties, were caught in the act as they dug at the site looking for ancient artifacts, all while causing irreversible damage to the layers of archaeological evidence.
Border Patrol officers and the Israel Antiquities Authority captured the seven in a joint operation.
The Arab criminals were stealing ancient coins from the time of the Roman occupation of Israel 2,000 years ago, which ended the second Jewish kingdom in Israel.
Several of the antiquities thieves were found on the site trying to dig up antiquities, while others were several hundred meters away standing guard and trying to prevent anyone from interfering.
Palestinian youth tries to stab IDF soldier at West Bank checkpoint
An IDF soldier escaped injury on Saturday morning when a 16-year-old Palestinian tried to stab him on a bus in the West Bank.
The incident took place at the Tunnel road checkpoint between the Gush Etzion settlements and Jerusalem during a standard IDF security check.
The passengers of the bus were asked to disembark in order for the soldiers to carry out their search of the vehicle when one of them tried to stab a soldier with a knife, the IDF spokesperson said.
The soldier, a military policeman, succeeded to frustrate the attacker with the help of a civilian security guard.
Israeli Rescuers Try to Save Lives of Palestinian Men Who Drowned in Pond
Despite the best efforts of Israeli volunteer rescuers, two Palestinian men in their 20s drowned on Tuesday afternoon in a pond in the Jordan Valley .
“Two teams of Israeli volunteer rescuers arrived on the scene immediately from Samaria and from the Jordan Valley,” Nathaniel, an Israeli search and rescue volunteer, told Tazpit News Agency. “Our special aquatic team managed to locate and pull the unconscious Palestinians from the water, and began resuscitation attempts.” Unfortunately, these attempts were unsuccessful.
The deaths occurred after a group of young Palestinians went for a swim in one of the natural ponds of the North Jordan Valley. When two of the swimmers disappeared, the others contacted local Israeli security forces, who summoned civilian and IDF search and rescue units.
The Israeli medical team administered CPR until a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance arrived to ferry the men to a Palestinian Authority hospital, where they succumbed to their injuries.
In Ramallah, Jimmy Carter urges Palestinian elections
Former US president Jimmy Carter on Saturday urged Palestinians to hold elections to end the de facto division of the West Bank and the Islamist-run Gaza Strip.
He was speaking at a joint news conference with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the political capital Ramallah in the West Bank.
“We hope that sometime we’ll see elections all over the Palestinian area and east Jerusalem and Gaza and also in the West Bank,” said Carter, a member of The Elders, an independent Group of global leaders.
No election has been held in the Palestinian territories for nearly a decade.
Palestine wants Israel out of FIFA, eyes a three-quarters majority to pass proposal
Rajoub met Blatter in Manama during this week's AFC Congress and is keen for the Swiss to seek a solution. However, he is not optimistic and is in no mood to back down again.
"This is the third year in a row this has come up, first in Mauritius, then Brazil and now again," he explained.
"I don't think anything will change in the next few weeks. We are close to crossing the bridge and no-one can stop us having the proposal on the agenda even if some people would rather it was not."
It would need a three-quarter majority of FIFA's 209 members for Palestine's proposal to succeed and Rajoub believes it will happen.
"Don't think just because Israel is in Europe that Europe will support Israel any longer," he said, referring to the country's footballing ties.
Hamas fighter said killed in tunnel collapse
Amid growing reports of Hamas rebuilding its subterranean infrastructure, the terrorist group on Saturday announced that one of its members was killed while digging a tunnel in the northern Gaza Strip.
Nihad Khalif, 30, of the town of Beit Lahiya died when a tunnel collapsed near the border with Israel, the group’s armed wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said on social media.
The report of the fighter’s death came after amid of sustained efforts by Hamas to rebuild its offensive capabilities against Israel, including the conscription of new fighters, rehabilitating its cross-border attack tunnels and restocking its rocket arsenal with longer-distance rockets.
According to a Times of Israel report in April, Hamas has begun using heavy machinery and engineering tools to accelerate the excavation of attack tunnels leading from the Gaza Strip under the Israeli border. The equipment, sources in the Palestinian enclave said, includes small bulldozers with the ability to maneuver in tight spaces.
The Qassam Brigades shared a photo of the fighter on Twitter.
Palestinian gunmen turn heroes in UK production of ‘The Siege’
British Jewry is bracing itself for attacks on Israel ahead of the month-long national tour of a new play by the Freedom Theatre of Palestine called “The Siege.”
The theater company, based in the West Bank town of Jenin, structured the play around the April 2002 siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The company, whose mission is “generating cultural resistance,” is bringing the play to the United Kingdom in May and is set to perform in a number of locales with large Jewish communities. According to the theater’s website, “The Siege” is supported by the EU, the British Council and the Roddick Foundation.
It will open in Manchester at Salford’s Lowry Theatre on May 13 and 14, and will then tour Britain, with performances at London’s Battersea Arts Centre and major stages in Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham and Glasgow, as well as some smaller venues.
The background story: Back in 2002 during the height of the Second Intifada, in an attempt to stem terror attacks, the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Defensive Shield and occupied parts of the West Bank, including Bethlehem. During a 39-day standoff, scores of suspected Palestinian gunmen holed up in the Bethlehem church, taking as human shields or hostages around 200 Christian clergy and civilians. By the siege’s end, eight Palestinians had been killed.
Legal scholar Dershowitz wants honorary Israeli citizenship to counter BDS
Prominent Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said on Friday that he would like to become an honorary citizen of Israel to fight the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS).
“I think the good answer to the BDS movement is to institutionalize what Evgeny Kissin did,” Dershowitz told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview.
Kissin, a world-renowned classical pianist, became an Israeli citizen in 2013 to stymie countries and organizations that sought to boycott Israel.
Kissin, the Moscow-born prodigy, said at the time “When Israel’s enemies try to disrupt concerts of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra or the Jerusalem Quartet, I want them to come and make troubles at my concerts, too: because Israel’s case is my case, Israel’s enemies are my enemies, and I do not want to be spared of the troubles which Israeli musicians encounter when they represent the Jewish State beyond its borders.”
Dershowitz said that if Israel offered “honorary citizenship to musicians and academics who could be subject to BDS” it could dissuade boycotts of the Jewish state. He added that those who accept honorary citizenship would not make full aliya like Kissin’s symbolic decision but use their citizenship as an act of solidarity with Israel to blunt BDS.
Phyllis Chesler: 145 American Writers Think Honoring Charlie Hebdo is 'Islamophobic'
The PEN award to the survivors of the Charlie Hebdo massacre has drawn some very distinguished fire. On April 26, 2015, six PEN "table hosts," all highly regarded writers, publicly protested PEN's decision to give an award for "Freedom of Expression Courage" to these courageous survivors. This award, to be given on May 3rd, is separate from the literary prizes.
By April 30th, the six (Peter Carey, Teju Cole, Rachel Kushner, Michael Ondaatje, Francine Prose, and Taiye Selasi) were joined by one hundred and thirty nine authors who signed a petition of protest. In all, this represents only 4% of their membership.
Salman Rushdie, a writer who knows what it is to pay the price for having criticized Islam and is also a former President of PEN had this to say: They are "six authors in search of character." He is right. They do not know how to stand up to the false charge of "Islamophobia."
Thus, one hundred and forty five authors have decided to shame PEN—publicly, and at the last minute—in order to make an "anti-Islamophobic" political statement which renders every critic of Islamic gender and religious apartheid, and every critic of Islamic terrorism, that much more vulnerable.
Bowdoin College students start voting on total Israel boycott
On Thursday, April 30, 2015, I reported on a developing story at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine: ALERT: Bowdoin College Students May Vote on Israel Academic Boycott
The Bowdoin College Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) group may obtain sufficient signatures on a Petition to send a referendum endorsing the full academic and cultural boycott of Israel to a vote by the full student body.
This is not a mere “divestment” resolution. In calling on the full student body to endorse the complete boycott of Israel, the referendum appears to be taking an unpredecented move among college anti-Israel initiatives, which normally are narrowly tailored.
It is a resolution, much like that passed by the American Studies Association, that would cut all academic and cultural ties with all Israeli Universities and any Israeli scholar or student acting on behalf of or through those universities. The ASA boycott was condemned as a violation of academic freedom by over 250 University Presidents (including Bowdoin’s) and several major academic groups, such as the American Association of University Professors.
As of 5 p.m. yesterday, Bowdoin SJP apparently obtained the necessary signatures, even though the online petition is short of the 383 signatures needed. There were some students who signed on paper, I am told, to reach the required number.
The voting on the referendum has just started, as detailed below. But there is a question as to whether it even is procedurally proper.
The referendum may be procedurally defective under the Bowdoin student government Constitution since there was nothing in the text of the Petition which stated that the signatories wanted a referendum on the issue. The Petition did not contain the word “referendum” or any specific referendum language.
University of Sydney Staff Thinks Antisemitism Has a Place on Campus
University of Sydney staff argued that supporters of the Islamic State be given a platform to “express” antisemitism, News.com.au reported on Friday.
“I would say yes, we should ‘allow’ [individuals] to express their anti-Semitism — within bounds, of course,” wrote Philosophy Department lecturer Yarran Dylan Khang Hominh in an email chain among arts staff discussing freedom of speech.
His assertion was part of a larger debate over free speech on campus, after staff and student members of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions group faced disciplinary measures for disrupting a speech by retired British Army officer Richard Kemp.
One heckler, Professor Jake Lynch, was accused of antisemitism after he allegedly waved money in front of an elderly woman’s face, according to the report.
Following the protest, the BDS group continued to ruffle feathers on campus when it published an open letter on the freedom of expression on campus that criticized the university for canceling a speech by the spokesperson for an international Islamist group called Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is an outspoken backer of the Islamic State.
Man described by BBC as ‘a businessman’ gets terror designation
A man described twice by the BBC as “a businessman” in an article from September 2013 has been named as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US State Department.
“Hussein Atris is a member of Hizballah’s overseas terrorism unit. In 2012, Atris was arrested in Thailand in connection with a terror warning about a possible attack in Bangkok. Atris was found to be hiding nearly three tons of ammonium nitrate, a component in the manufacture of explosives. In 2013, a Thai court sentenced Atris to two years and eight months in prison for illegally possessing the materials. He was released in September 2014, and traveled to Sweden and later Lebanon, where he is believed to be located currently.”
In its reporting at the time of Atris’ arrest and trial, the BBC consistently misrepresented Hizballah’s terror designation, suggesting to audiences that the United States alone considers it a terrorist organization.
BBC amends inaccurate claim on Gaza mortar fire
The BBC News website explained the source of the inaccuracy as follows:
“It was, as you point out, a mistake to say the UN inquiry summary said it found that Israeli forces had fired 88 mortars at the girls’ school. It appears the error originated in a report by AP.” [emphasis added]
Agencies such as Associated Press are obviously not subject to the same editorial standards of accuracy and impartiality as apply to BBC content and therefore any agency material should surely be subject to rigorous fact checking before it is used (in this case, without any indication) in a BBC report.
Whilst this correction is clearly very welcome, the continued lack of a dedicated corrections page on the BBC News website of course means that it is highly unlikely that those who read the original version of the report would have returned to it three days after publication and seen the appended footnote.
The Mulish Media and Civilian Casualties in Gaza
Each and every time, without fail, when escalating Palestinian violence provokes a large-scale Israeli response, the media and "human rights" activists portray Israeli military actions as indiscriminate and reckless, mainly harming Palestinian civilians, especially women and children. It is remarkable how intractable the media and its acolytes are in the face of emerging evidence refuting their favored motif that Palestinian civilians account for the bulk of the victims.
During the Cast Lead operation (Dec. 27, 2008 to Jan. 18, 2009) and Protective Edge, the 50 day conflict between Israel and Hamas during the Summer of 2014, the media accepted without hesitation the fatality tallies provided by the U.N., even though the UN relies on the information provided by a terrorist entity, Hamas, that is a party to the conflict and has an obvious interest in misrepresenting the make-up of these fatalities. It is a curious thing, that so much credence is given to figures provided by a terrorist organization with a poor record of accountability, while contradictory figures from Israel, a country with a proven record of conducting independent investigations, are dismissed.
Both in 2009 and 2014, even as hostilities flared, information provided by the Palestinians themselves cast doubt on the claims that civilians made up the vast majority of fatalities. In both cases, independent Israeli organizations conducted investigations of the identities of the listed fatalities by the Palestinians. A study by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center disclosed that more than half of those killed in the 2014 conflict, for whom sufficient information existed to categorize their status, were identifiable as members of terrorist organizations or participants in the hostilities. To avoid the accusation of partisanship, the Center's report exhaustively catalogs each individual, showing the evidence of their participation in the hostilities and affiliation with terrorist groups.
40 Person Mob Assaults 2 Jews on Paris’ Boulevard Voltaire
Two Jewish residents of Paris were assaulted on the street by a gang of about 40 people on Friday, Israeli French JSS News reported on Friday.
The attack against the two Jewish residents, both in their 20s, occurred about 2:30 p.m. on Boulevard Voltaire in Paris’ 11 arrondissement, according to the report.
Police launched an investigation into the incident and warned local Jewish businesses owners to be extra vigilant, JSS News said.
Witnesses on the scene said members of the Jewish community volunteered to watch over the many local Jewish businesses on Boulevard Voltaire, according to French antisemitism watchdog group the Bureau National de Vigilance Contre l’Antisemitisme.
The gang of attackers were associated with anti-Israel groups Gaza Firm and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, said security personnel responsible for protecting the Jewish community.
The attack marks the latest in a growing antisemitic trend in France and Europe as a whole. Earlier this year, Islamist gunmen seized a Kosher supermarket in Paris and killed four Jewish hostages. Just a few weeks later, a security guard was killed in Copenhagen when a lone gunman opened fire in front of the city’s Great Synagogue.
Antisemitic Graffiti Found in Istanbul: ‘No Parking for Pigs and Jews’
Antisemitic graffiti is becoming commonplace in Istanbul’s Gaziosmanpaşa neighborhood, the Algemeiner learned on Friday.
Slogans such as “no pigs and Jews allowed,” “no parking for pigs and Jews,” and “free Jerusalem, death to Jewish murderers,” were discovered spray-painted on various edifices throughout the area.
The appearance of hateful graffiti is new to the area, said local resident Suleyman Sahin, despite the fact that there are likely no Jews living in the neighborhood. Residents said that there could be political motives behind the graffiti, especially given the proximity of upcoming elections and an unpopular redevelopment plan.
About 95 percent of Turkey’s thousands of years old Jewish community lives in Istanbul today. According to some sources, the number of Jews in Turkey is about 17,000 people, a tiny fraction of the country’s 73.7 million person population.
Germans said to increasingly view themselves as victims of WWII
Germany’s perception of World War II is rapidly changing, as cultural attitudes and literature are beginning to paint Germans as victims of a cruel Nazi regime rather than accomplices to it.
Following an increased focus on WWII’s alleged Allied atrocities, the deaths of an estimated 7-9 million German people, and the displacement of an additional 14 million, statistics have shown that Germans’ perceptions of the Nazi era have changed, according to a Thursday report by the London Times.
A recent survey conducted by the Forsa Institute, a German polling and market research firm, found that the majority perceived the Allies’ victory as a liberation for Germany from the Nazi regime, with only 9 percent of Germans viewing World War II as a defeat — dramatically down from 34% in 2005.
Florian Huber, the author of Child, Promise Me You Will Shoot Yourself, a literary examination of the mass suicide phenomenon that plagued Germany in the aftermath of the war, claimed history has paid little attention to the suffering of ordinary Germans during and after the Nazi regime.
Germans cannot turn backs on Nazi past, Merkel says
Germany cannot simply draw a line under its Nazi past and must remain sensitive to the damage it caused to other countries including Greece, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday, just ahead of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two.
Speaking in her weekly podcast, Merkel said she was looking forward to a May 10 memorial in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin. She and other leaders have said they will not attend Russia's traditional May 9 military parade amid tensions with Moscow over its annexation of Crimea and fighting in Ukraine.
In the German capital, the 70th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Berlin, the climactic battle of the war, was marked in tributes on Saturday. The war ended on May 8, 1945.
"There's no drawing a line under the history," Merkel said, dismissing a yearning that many post-war generations of Germans harbor.
"We can see that in the Greece debate and in other European countries. We Germans have a special responsibility to be alert, sensitive and aware of what we did during the Nazi era and about lasting damage caused in other countries. I've got tremendous sympathy for that."
Nobel medal of German scientist who shielded Jews fetches $395,000
Wieland is known for opposing the Nazi party’s racism and strove to protect Jewish students who were discriminated against by the 1935 Nuremberg laws. Students who were expelled from the University of Munich where he taught were able to stay on under Weiland’s auspices as “Gäste des Geheimrats” — guests of the privy councillor.
Two of Wieland’s students, Hans Conrad Leipelt and Marie Luise Schultz-Jahn, helped distribute anonymous leaflets of the anti-Nazi White Rose resistance group that engaged in non-violent protest by calling for opposition to the Third Reich.
Members of the group were eventually arrested and beheaded by the Gestapo. Liepelt and Jahn collected money for the widow and children of Kurt Huber, a professor who was a prominent member of the White Rose group. They were both betrayed to the Gestapo and put on trial. Wieland testified on behalf of Liepelt but the student was decapitated on January 29, 1945. Jahn was sentenced to 12 years in prison but after being freed with the end of the war went on to study medicine. She died in 2010.
NASA chooses Israeli challenge in International Space Apps competition
For the first time in the history of NASA’s International Space Apps Challenge, the agency selected a challenge based on the work of an Israeli scientist.
Prof. Alon Peled, of the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, developed a challenge based on his new book, Traversing Digital Babel – Information, E-Government, and Exchange, and on his Public Sector Information Exchange research project, one of the leading Hebrew University projects in the field of Big Data.
“The goal of this challenge was to find a way to transform NASA’s information assets so that they are easier to discover on the Web, so that citizens, entrepreneurs, and experts working in non-space domains can discover and use them. NASA receives the solutions developed during the competition and can then use these solutions to develop better keywords to tag the Big Data information assets that it develops and releases on the Web, for the benefit of all of humanity,” said Peled.
His project is supported by a Google Faculty Research Award and received funding from Yissum, the Technology Transfer Company of the Hebrew University.
The US federal space agency sponsored the 4th Space Apps hackathon in April 2015. During the global competition, 12,780 participants developed 947 projects in 133 locations worldwide.
‘Tikkun Olam Makers’ Turn Technology Into Solutions for People With Disabilities
From cyber-security to medicine to agriculture, Israeli innovators are coming up with ideas that make our lives safer, easier, and more efficient. These creations, in turn, simultaneously fund the Jewish state and yield profits for their overseas investors. A new organization is taking this entrepreneurial ecosystem to a new level, merging technological savvy with tikkun olam (the Jewish value of repairing the world) to solve societal needs.
Tikkun Olam Makers (TOM), a project of the Reut Institute and ROI Community, is bringing together strategic thinkers, engineers, designers, and project managers to solve unmet social challenges in disadvantaged communities. TOM is built on six core values: scalability, community integration, collaborative competition, affordability, smart development, and innovation.
In March, TOM held its second “make-a-thon” in Tel Aviv (an event dubbed TOM: TLV), partnering with the Ruderman Family Foundation to harness cutting-edge technology to design affordable aids for people with disabilities. The goal was to create solutions that increase integration and inclusion.
“The event was a direct meeting ground for people with special needs and the people with the ability to help solve [their challenges],” TOM Founding Director Arnon Zamir says of the 72-hour program, which produced 25 technological prototypes.
The International Middle East Media Center is employs Palestinian Arab journalists in order to push anti-Israel propaganda in English. It is apparently associated with Alison Weir's "If Americans Knew" organization through which Americans can give tax deductible donations to IMEMC.
Here's one article that shows how incompetent and nutty these Palestinian "journalists" are:
Greater Israel is a term used, historically, to define the so-called "natural" or desired borders of Israel in the eyes of radical Israeli nationalists.
Founding father of the modern Israeli colonial movement, Theodore Herzl, described the area of the proposed Jewish state as stretching “from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates.” According to Rabbi Fischmann, the so-called Promised Land extends "from the River of Egypt up to the Euphrates" and "includes parts of Syria and Lebanon.”
Herzl did use that phrase in his diaries as a proposed negotiating position with the Ottoman Empire.
But who is "Rabbi Fischmann"?
It turns out that he was Rabbi Yehuda Leib Fishman, later known as Yehuda Leib Maimon, a founder of the Mizrachi religious Zionist movement in America. He gave testimony to the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, and he was answering a question from an Indian representative:
Sir ABDUR RAHMAN (India) : Rabbi Fishman, I do not know the Bible, I do not pretend to know it, but I should like to get information from you, your point of view, and I hope you will enlighten me as to what you have to say in regard to a few matters which I will put to you.
Rabbi Fishman, what was "the Promised Land"?
RABBI FISHMAN: The Promised Land was quite a large one, from the river of Egypt, up to the Euphrates.
The rabbi was answering a history question, not saying what he wanted the borders of Israel to be.
In fact, Rabbi Fishman did not even think it was realistic to have a Jewish state in all of British Mandate Palestine!
Not exactly a proponent of "Greater Israel!"
(The dual quotes of Herzl and "Rabbi Fischmann" are all over anti-Israel websites, showing that not a single anti-Israel activist bothers to check quotes before blindly copying and pasting.)
IMEMC then reveals how crazy its writers are:, and now out of touch the Arab world is to reality:
From this context, the current crisis in the Middle East, including the war on Syria and Iraq (as well as any proposed "humanitarian intervention" by Western powers) has often been perceived by geopolitical analysts to be merely a part of a process for Israeli territorial expansion, via proxy war and any number of destabilization methods affecting vital Arab interests.
Yes, the Palestinian intelligentsia believe that Jews are behind a worldwide conspiracy to foment civil wars in Syria and Iraq in order for Israel to grab those lands.
I've read this plenty of times, but it is rare to see this insanity in English.
We already know that when a performing artist announces a concert in Israel, he or she will face insults and even death threats because of a heartfelt desire for peace and justice.
So it would be disappointing if we don't see the same types of threats against Queen Elizabeth from the moral BDS crowd:
Ben-Gurion University president Prof.Rivka Carmi – the first woman to head an Israeli university and previously to serve as dean of a medical school here – has another honor to celebrate.
Buckingham Palace announced Monday that the leading pediatrician and geneticist is to receive a rare honor from Queen Elizabeth – an honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) – for her work to deepen scientific and academic relations between the UK and Israel.
Ben Gurion University has been a specific target of the BDS crowd, and Carmi has been an outspoken opponent of the boycott movement.
OK, haters. Time to show the Queen the same concern for morality and justice that you show to those who don't oppose Israel.
God save the Queen from anti-Israel idiots.
(h/t Zvi)
From Ian:
Re-liberating Jerusalem
It's been almost 50 years since Israel unified Jerusalem and turned it from a dusty and depressed backwater into a truly radiant international capital city sparkling with energy and creativity.
There is more to come. The dynamic vision for Jerusalem 2020 in the transportation, cultural, recreational and business fields unveiled this week by Mayor Nir Barkat is exciting and uplifting.
Yet as we approach Jerusalem Liberation Day this Sunday, hefty question marks hang over the city's future. These uncertainties stem from government hesitations in the face of international and Arab pressure for re-division of the city (Heaven forbid).
Instead of acting decisively to buttress Israel's sovereignty, security, economy and social vibrancy in Jerusalem, we have a stalemate in government decision-making.
In fact, the threats to Jerusalem as a living, breathing, growing, safe and open city -- and to Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state and the epicenter of the global Jewish community -- come mainly from neglect on Israel's part.
The fourth Netanyahu government, taking office this weekend, must rebuff deleterious foreign pressures, stop dithering and act to re-establish forward motion, Zionist momentum, in Jerusalem. Here's how: (h/t Bob Knot)
The state of Palestine? Still mired in Jew hatred
With the Palestinians taking Israel to the International Criminal Court and trying to kick Israel out of the international soccer league, FIFA, while still boycotting normal, constructive, personal, economic or cultural ties with Israel, their war against the Jews continues. Even if Pope Francis – whom I respect – has been seduced by Palestinian self-pity to recognize the “state of Palestine,” even if much of the world continues to blame Israel exclusively, the fact remains. Palestinian rhetoric and behavior reflect their honest intentions: their official organs and most of their leaders seek Israel’s destruction and hate the Jewish people – not just “Zionists” – so much, they keep their people miserable rather than make any accommodation with the Jewish state. The Palestinians’ self-destructive commitment to delegitimizing Israel rather than building their state or improving their lives proves they are motivated by bigotry.
Pope Francis ignored those realities, added to the Jewish people’s collective anguish, and showed he believed in ghosts by recognizing “the state of Palestine” – a phantom entity. Whether or not he called the BDS bully, stalemate king and terrorist cheerleader Mahmoud Abbas an “angel of peace” is irrelevant. The pope’s recognition discourages peace by encouraging Palestinian intransigence and extremism without encouraging Palestinian compromise and realism.
I understand the pope’s need to mollify Palestinians.
Palestinian Christians and churches are vulnerable to the whims of cruel neighbors, who have destroyed Christian religious sites, raped young Christian girls, brutalized Christian families. Flattering the Palestinian Authority is an attempt to help oppressed Christians, who are suffering en masse and leaving in droves.
Unfortunately, mollifying bullies encourages them, denying crimes legitimizes them and coddling Palestinians only feeds their all-or-nothing rigidity. Although it is fun to blame Israel’s “occupation” for all Palestinian Christians’ troubles, a 2012 report by the nonpartisan Gatestone Institute on “The Disquieting Treatment of Christians by the Palestinians” noted that the Christian Arab population plummeted between 1949 and 1967. When Jordan and Egypt illegally controlled the West Bank and Gaza, two-thirds of Palestinian Christians fled. The situation stabilized when Israel fully controlled the areas, then deteriorated with increased Palestinian autonomy since the 1990s’ Oslo Peace Accords.
Israeli national judo team detained at Morocco airport, passports confiscated
After Moroccan authorities refused to allow an armed Israeli escort
Members of Israel's national judo team were detained on Wednesday at a Morocco airport and had their passports confiscated by local officials, Israeli media reported. At the time of reporting the nature of the complication was unclear.
The seven-member Israeli national judo team flew to Morocco early Wednesday for an important tournament despite recommendations from Israel’s national security agency to avoid travel to the Arab nation without bodyguards.
According to the Ynet website, Moroccan authorities refused to grant permission for an armed Israeli security detail to accompany the 11-member delegation. The team decided nonetheless to attend the fifth annual World Judo Masters event May 23-24 in Rabat, Morocco since the event could provide the judokas with sufficient points to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics. (h/t Bob Knot)
Zion Awakening: Back! But not with a bang! Natalie Bennett BDS supporter dodges the question on 'Boycott Israel'
Been a while. But no better place to resume duties on the front line than with the 'Queen of BDS' Natalie Bennett of the green party. Watch how she dodges my question. I then proceeded to disrupt the event just to make the evening uncomfortable for her and her minions.
The UN’s Delivery of Metaphorical Palestinian Keys
Is the pope seeking to a new replacement theology, where not only has the Vatican replaced Jerusalem as the center of divine revelation, but history itself can be updated? Is Israel being supplanted today the way the painting at the Vatican shows Judaism being replaced?
The news media has certainly rallied to such vision. The New York Times decided to cover the celebrations of Jerusalem Day on May 17, 2015 from a purely Arab point of view. The day in which Israelis celebrate the reunification of their holiest city from which they were expelled and barred from reentry was characterized as a moment of protest. The atrocities committed by Jordanian and Palestinian Arabs during 1949-1967 vanished and this year’s celebration was mocked.
The Times questioned the very essence of Israeli rights to Jerusalem as it quoted a Palestinian man ““How would you feel if somebody marched through your living room, without your permission?”” Whose house is this anyway?
A Vanishing Point has interesting features: our eyes are drawn there; but the subject matter blurs and disappears.
The world’s attention is focused on the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Jews and Palestinian Arabs are focused on Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. As they do, Palestinians grab hold of the dangling key and Israelis don’t see the golden key in their hand. Everyone wonders what the future will bring and ventures predictions as they gaze into the distance.
And as they do so, all reality disappears.
Jewish anti-Zionism: The proxy honor-killing
Not having the constitution to actually kill their embarrassing family member – most Jewish anti-Zionists, like Judith Butler and “Jewish Voice for Peace,” are pacifists – they have to outsource the job, a proxy honor-murder if you will. Thus they connect with groups that do have both the constitution and the will to kill their offending family member, namely Jihadi groups like Students for Justice in Palestine, and American Muslims for Palestine.
Ironically, these latter groups are engaged in their own form of extra-familial honor-killing, namely killing those who have shamed them by establishing their autonomy in the midst of – in the heart of – Dar al Islam. The Palestinian notion of justice involves revenge for lost honor, washing one’s blackened face in the blood of the dishonoring enemy. If that sounds improbable to you, consider the following a fortiori: if they will kill their own daughters for shaming them, how much the more will they kill outsiders for doing so?
So when Jews, Israelis or Diasporic, adopt the Palestinian lethal narrative about Israel, when they ally with sworn enemies of Israel, when they ignore all the evidence that the journalists’ lethal narratives are dishonest violations of all the principles of a responsible free press, when they promote causes (like BDS) that target Israel’s very existence, they engage in this proxy honor-murder.
Apparently nothing short of perfection is acceptable to these honor-driven moralists. Anything short of that perfection brings on the wrath of a shamed family member, determined to save his or her moral stature at the expense of his beleaguered people.
This shame motivation explains the irrational drive behind the moral posture. Not only do these Jews hold their own people to the highest standards, but (in a deeply racist fashion) they hold the Palestinians to no moral standards. On the contrary, their murderous hatreds are merely the expected response to the unbearable suffering Israelis inflict upon them.
And, alas, like the enemies of their people, who kill their daughters on suspicion alone, these Jews do so even though their family member, Israel, is not guilty as charged, is indeed one of the most cutting-edge progressive and inclusive cultures on this deeply troubled planet.
European Jews fearful a year after Belgium museum attack
A year after a gunman murdered four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels, Jews across Europe increasingly fear for their safety and warn they are on the front-line of an Islamist war against democracy itself.
Since the attack in the Belgian capital on May 24, 2014, Jews have been slain in jihadist attacks in Paris and Copenhagen. Jews were also murdered in a similar attack in the French city of Toulouse in 2012.
“The threat of jihadist attacks in Europe is not limited to the Jewish community,” European Jewish Congress chief Moshe Kantor told AFP.
“Islamist extremists see European democracy and freedom as their primary enemy. However, Jews remain on the frontlines,” he added.
When Professors Turn Foolish They Turn Really Stupid
It took a George Orwell to point out that higher learning and stupidity make a regular couple. “There are notions so foolish that only an intellectual will believe them,” wrote Orwell, laconic and lucid together. The luminary of that era who left a bonanza of political idioms, among them “Big Brother,” “Doublethink”, and “More equal than others,” found that intelligent people can be gullible people. He’s a reminder that professors may lack a modicum of common sense. He learnt that to parley with learned people may be to parley with fools. We don’t have to upturn rocks to uncover Orwell types. Look no further than a fashionable cause or a conventional wisdom and you’d find them – fool believers clinging for dear life to nonsensical notions.
In our troubled landscape one collecting point attracts more such pairings than any other point. A vast deposit of learned fools sticks to the brouhaha over Palestinian rights and Israeli wrongs. “A sore evil under the sun,” old King Solomon said. He might have been prophesying the cock-and-bull morality play called BDS. The boycotting of Israel is a fashionable cause that brings learned fools out in droves. Everyone and his aunt glow with righteous wrath when the boycott show hits town. Clever people love to hang their faculty gowns on the peg of anti-Zionism. It’s a cause that thought leaders and their disciples can’t afford to miss.
A state for the Palestinians is conventional wisdom writ large. Overbearing professors kicking up dust swell the BDS bubble to the point of bursting. If a rousing brass band accompanied all the fuss and bother it would play a rendition of John Brown’s Body. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of Palestine. It will trample over Israel where victims of occupation pine. As foot soldiers of human rights for their favorite people, intellectuals have found their holy grail. And it’s known by three capital letters.
“BDS is a rights based movement which is opposed to racism in all its forms – including, explicitly anti-Semitism.”
You can picture Orwell beaming.
Hundreds of UC Alums Join 23 Groups Urging Schools to Adopt State Department Antisemitism Definition
Fueling a roiling debate over antisemitism on college campuses, more than 500 alumni from the University of California wrote a letter to UC President Janet Napolitano on Tuesday urging the UCs to adopt a number of measures to rein in antisemitic acts against students.
Joining a coalition of 23 organizations that simultaneously sent a missive to the UC president, the alumni called on UC administrators to adopt the State Department definition of antisemitism, which includes the demonization or delegitimization of Israel along with a more religious or ethnic prejudice or hatred directed against Jews.
The students called on the UCs to train campus staff and authorities to “identify anti-Semitic behavior, and direct them to develop clear protocols for addressing campus antisemitism with the same promptness and vigor as they do other forms of racial, ethnic, and gender bigotry and discrimination.”
They called for greater on-campus initiatives aiming to educate students about antisemitism and anti-Jewish behavior.
“No student should feel harassed, intimidated, threatened or marginalized. We implore you to better protect Jewish students at the University of California,” they said, commending three UC student bodies for adopting resolutions condemning antisemitism.
Natan Sharansky: Campuses are flooded with Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
A great deal has been written recently, and rightly so, about the rise of anti-Israel sentiment on American college campuses. Twelve years ago, when I first proposed that one could use the “three Ds” – double standards, delegitimization and demonization – to distinguish legitimate criticism of Israel from anti-Semitism, most of the examples I found to illustrate my points came from Europe and international organizations. Yet today, nearly every American campus is as awash in double standards, efforts to delegitimize the Jewish state and rhetoric demonizing Israel as the newspapers of Europe or the committees of the United Nations.
For this reason, the Jewish Agency’s Israel Fellows program, designed to connect Jewish college students with Israel, is the most quickly growing of all of the agency’s initiatives. From its humble origins just five years ago, with representatives, or shlichim, on a dozen campuses, it now reaches more than 80 colleges and universities, with more to come. These fellows are what we might call the special forces of our nearly 2,000 shlichim to Jewish institutions worldwide. And this year, because of the unique challenges that arose following last summer’s war in Gaza, we strengthened our efforts and sent in reserves, fellows who had served in previous years and were ready to do so again.
These dedicated men and women, who operate as part of each college’s local Hillel team, work to bring Israel- related events to their campuses, to encourage students to visit Israel, and to strengthen the pro-Israel voice in campus debates. They are charged not only with convincing students to join Israel-experience programs, but also with accompanying them while there, developing relationships and encouraging them to speak up for Israel when they return to school. Such trips are among the most important and successful of all the post-Birthright programs, in that they use students’ positive energy about Israel to help change the atmosphere on campus.
Foreign Ministry Indirectly Assists Boycott of Judea and Samaria
There is anger in the Jewish community in New York City following a decision by the Israel Consulate to allow the radical New Israel Fund (NIF) to march in the Celebrate Israel parade in Manhattan on May 31.
"We were surprised to learn that we, in New York, have to fight the NIF while it is the Israel Consulate, which is supposed to represent the Israeli interest, that harms us and indirectly encourages a boycott of Israel or of Judea and Samaria,” Rabbi David Algaze, one of the most important rabbis in NYC, told Arutz Sheva.
"How can it be that we receive a slap in the face from – of all places – the Israeli Consulate, which is supposed to represent Israel proudly and uprightly, without folding before organizations that do not send a clear and consistent message against political movements that pretend to be Jewish and Zionist, but support harming the state of Israel, in Tel Aviv, Hadera, Ariel or Kfar Adumim. This takes gall,” he said.
The Vice President of Public Affairs at the New Israel Fund, Naomi Paiss, has written that the NIF sees the boycott on Judea and Samaria as legitimate and has no problem giving grants to groups that support that boycott.
The Biggest Mistakes Pro-Israel Advocates Make #5: How to Win Over the Next Generation
Mistake #5: Same old, same old.
The mistake I’m about to talk to you about is committed by pretty much every single pro-Israel group ever. It also annoys me to no end. It’s not like it’s any more damaging than the other mistakes, I just find it the most grating. After all, why are organizations paying thousands of dollars to bring in top speakers like Prof. Alan Dershowitz or the Israeli Ambassador who deliver brilliant, passionate speeches, only to have around 10 people show up, all Jewish senior citizens who are already converted (and maybe the one young student who works part time for a production company who was paid to film the event – in other words most likely me)?
The problem is, young Jews in general aren’t raised with a sense of pride in their heritage. They take our history for granted as a result, and don’t seem to care enough to organize events on their own. Therefore, members of the older generation, in other words, Holocaust survivors and their children, usually end up taking all the initiatives. The reason for this is obvious – those who survived the Holocaust saw firsthand what widespread antisemitism can do so they are determined to stop it. They also intimately understand how important Israel’s existence is in order to protect us from what they have known to be a long history of very fickle governments.
Edgar Davidson: Charles meets IRA leader but won't visit Israel
Prince Charles has upset some people today by meeting IRA leader Gerry Adams, although nobody ever bats an eyelid when he - and the Queen - visit terrorist-sponsoring corrupt Arab regimes, which they do all the time.
Charles did make one visit to Israel in 1995 to 'represent the Queen' at the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin. It is the ONLY 'official' visit ever made by a member of the British Royal Family (his father Prince Philip visited his mother's grave in Jerusalem in 1994 but the Royal Family and the British Government made clear that this was only in a 'private capacity'). The anti-semitic Arab arse-licking goons who have dominated the British Foreign Office for years have never allowed the Queen to visit Israel in case it 'upsets our Arab friends'. But Prince Charles's aides went further than that in 2007 when they ruled out any official visit declaring:
"Acceptance would make it hard to avoid the many ways in which Israel would want HRH [Prince Charles] to help burnish its international image."
If David Cameron is even half the 'friend' of Israel that he and some of his naive Jewish supporters think then he should demand that the Queen finally accepts Israel's long-standing invitation to visit their country.
Common Core-Approved Workshop Teaches Sympathy for Hamas
A Common Core-approved workshop on the Middle East conflict titled “Whose Jerusalem?” has sparked controversy among critics who charge that the program portrays Israel and America in a negative light while cultivating sympathy for terrorist group Hamas.
The “Whose Jerusalem?” curriculum was created by Boston University professor Carl Hobert, who describes the goal of his program as “educational civil disobedience, where students are learning about the Middle East and they’re putting pressure on our government to create a Palestinian state.” It has already been used in numerous high schools and has now been approved as part of the Common Core national curriculum.
Students participating in the program are assigned to portray various parties to the Middle East conflict including Arab, Israeli and American leaders, and to negotiate an agreement on how to divide Jerusalem.
Describing how he uses the program to influence students’ thinking, Hobart explains, “When a student goes, 'I am devoutly Jewish and I’ve got family members in Israel. I would like to be a member of Likud Party.' Guess what we make that student? A member of Hamas.”
LegalInsurrection: Let My Apology Tour To Israel begin
I’m leaving Friday for a two week Apology Tour to Israel. I will deliver the speech referenced in the link, possibly.
I hope I don’t violate the Logan Act.
I’ll start in Haifa and northern Israel, where I’ll be a guest at the University of Haifa Law School and will travel up the coast and then to towns and places of interest along the Lebanese border. After that it’s down to Tel Aviv, then to the South along the coast to Sderot, and the areas bordering Gaza. After a visit with faculty at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, it’s to Jerusalem, where I’ll be staying in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.
Along the way, I’ll focus on meeting people, not just visiting places. Among others, I’ll visit with the families of Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner, killed in the terrorist bombing by Rasmea Odeh of the SuperSol Supermarket in Jerusalem in 1969. I’ll also see many of the bloggers we link to, and many others with whom I’ve become acquainted online over the past couple of years.
Building relationships and strengthening ties is what The Apology Tour is all about. It’s not actually about the apology.
Could Israel really be barred from world soccer?
When Palestinian motion comes up for FIFA vote on May 29, it will need a three-quarters majority to pass. If it does, Israel’s teams would be banned from int’l competition
Israel’s diplomatic battles have spread to the soccer field.
On May 29, the body that governs world soccer, FIFA, will vote on whether to suspend Israel from international play.
FIFA’s 209-member countries will vote on a motion introduced by the Palestinian Football Association, which is calling for the suspension on claims that Israel is hindering Palestinian soccer and breaking international law.
Here’s what the Palestinians want, how Israel is fighting back, and how this could all shake out.
Jewish Rights Group Slams Palestinian Attempts to Suspend Israel From FIFA
Jewish human rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) said on Tuesday it was “appalled” by a Palestinian Football Association initiative to suspend Israel from FIFA, calling it another “front waged in the context of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign.”
“We are appalled at the temerity of the Palestinan Football Association (PFA) demand that FIFA suspend Israel at your forthcoming Congress in Zurich,” wrote the group’s international relations director, Dr. Shimon Samuels, in a letter to FIFA President Joseph Sepp Blatter.
The center said the initiative was “redolent of the ‘Kaufen nicht bei Juden’ boycott of Jewish stores across Nazi Germany in the 1930′s.”
The group slammed Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub, saying “he has recruited one more arm against Israel, abusing FIFA as collateral damage … and vilifying the beautiful game.”
Israel urges UNESCO to knock Palestinian bid for FIFA ban
Israel’s envoy to UNESCO on Tuesday called on the international body’s director general to express opposition to the Palestinian move to have Israel banned from FIFA, as the head of the world soccer body said his hands were tied on the issue.
Ambassador Carmel Shama-HaCohen said in a letter to Irina Bokova that the move by the Palestinian Authority was “negative and false politics by the Palestinians against Israel” which “broke records of audacity and depravity,” according to a Hebrew translation of the missive published by Israeli news site Ynet.
“Sport, culture and education are meant to bridge and join people together. In their way the Palestinians are insistent upon using them as political explosive vests and roadside bombs,” he said.
Former UK soccer chief comes to Israel’s defense in FIFA row
One of English soccer’s former top executives, Simon Johnson, has launched a campaign to stop Israel being suspended from FIFA.
Speaking exclusively to The Jerusalem Post, he disclosed that he has written to FIFA and to many of his soccer management contacts internationally in an attempt to stave off the proposal of the Palestinian soccer association which is due to be debated by FIFA next week.
Johnson, now the chief executive of the UK Jewish Leadership Council, said he sent letters to a wide range of international figures including FIFA’s General Secretary Jerome Valcke; the president of CONCACAF (the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football) and FIFA Vice President Jeffrey Webb; the Oceania Football Confederation’s General Secretary Tai Nicholas; and the president of the US Soccer Federation and FIFA Executive Committee member Sunil Gulati.
Johnson, who until a year ago was director of corporate affairs at the English Football Association and in charge of the England’s bid for the 2018 World Cup, told the Post that if the Palestinians’ proposal to exclude Israel were to pass, “It would be an appalling act of delegitimization.
PA soccer head looks to outplay Israel on diplomatic field
For many years Israelis knew Rajoub, who is also known by his nom de guerre Abu Rami, as the strongman of the West Bank by virtue of his position as the commander of the Palestinian Preventive Security Force, at least during Yasser Arafat’s reign in the PA. Subsequent events, such as Operation Defensive Shield, the major 2002 anti-terror campaign in the West Bank; the collapse of the organization he led; and a falling-out with his Fatah rival Mohammed Dahlan — weakened him considerably. But that was many years ago.
More recently, Rajoub became chairman of the Palestinian Football Association and of the Palestinian Olympic Committee. While it seemed like an odd career move at first, it helped him reestablish his status in Fatah and on the Palestinian street.
Anyone familiar with Palestinian politics knows that Rajoub has become one of the strongest people in the local political arena in recent years. He is a close associate of Abbas, is intimately involved in talks with Hamas and with Israel, and is beloved of Fatah’s field operatives. He holds Fatah’s third-highest position (Mohammed Gheim, also known as Abu Maher, who officially holds Fatah’s second-highest position as secretary-general of its central committee, has retired), and many governors of the various West Bank cities and commanders of security agencies were once officers under his command.
So after having lost his power in the West Bank, as the Israelis thought, Rajoub is once again in the headlines here.
No to peace match, yes to Israel soccer ban, Palestinians say
While Rajoub did not dismiss out of hand the idea of a “match for peace” between the Israeli and Palestinian teams, he said conditions are not yet ripe for such a game.
“Yesterday, you raised a very great idea … It’s a creative idea, I like it,” he told Blatter at the press conference.
“But we have to pave the road for that. We have to prepare the environment. But this should be an endgame. This should be a purpose for you and I urge you not to give up,” he said.
Blatter is visiting Jerusalem and Ramallah to try to mediate the dispute between the two governments and convince the Palestinian Football Association to drop the bid to suspend Israel from FIFA’s agenda in a May 29 meeting in Zurich. Israel in turn has been making efforts to blunt the effort by the Palestinians.
Why Does Israel's Football Team Play In Europe?
Israel began competing in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in 1954 despite significant opposition from some existing members.
A number of Muslim states refused to play against the new national side, which culminated in the bizarre spectacle of the 1958 World Cup qualifying stage for Asia and Africa - won by Israel without playing a single game.
FIFA, determined to avoid the embarrassment of a country qualifying for the fledgling international tournament without kicking a ball, arranged a play-off with Wales.
Israel duly lost the two-legged tie, suffering 2-0 defeats at home and away.
Six years later, Israel hosted and won the 1964 AFC Asian Cup, which remains the country's sole international football trophy.
However, the achievement was arguably undermined by the pre-tournament withdrawal of 11 of the 16 intended participating countries.
Israel triumphed with just three wins, against India, South Korea and Hong Kong.
An official video history of the competition released by the AFC in January 2015 omitted any mention of the 1964 tournament.
Honestreporting: An Inciting Angel and Missing Trees
The New York Times doesn’t believe that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas incites to violence, saying Israel only “claims” he does; and what happened to all those olive trees that CNN says were chopped down and “seized” by Israeli settlers?
Get the latest information on press distortion when HonestReporting’s Yarden Frankl joins Voice of Israel’s Josh Hasten in-studio to provide this week’s examples of media bias.
How a BBC WS News bulletin misled on Jerusalem Day
MacDonald is of course describing Jerusalem Day or Yom Yerushalayim – the national holiday marking the reunification of the city after nineteen years of division due to the occupation by Jordan between 1948 and 1967. That context is glaringly absent from her distorted description of the purpose of the event.
Among the numerous events taking place on May 17th to mark the occasion was the traditional march to the Western Wall, which for geographical reasons obviously has to pass through what MacDonald bizarrely finds necessary to describe as “the predominantly Muslim old walled city”.
Not unrelated to the content and style of this news item is the fact that this year, two political NGOs unsuccessfully petitioned the High Court in an attempt to prevent the march (now in its thirtieth year) from passing through the Old City’s Muslim Quarter. One of the political NGOs which filed the rejected petition was the foreign funded Ir Amim.
One of Ir Amim’s employees is Ahmad SubLaban – apparently the same inadequately introduced man given a platform by the BBC World Service from which to promote political propaganda.
Robert Fisk misrepresents Stephen Harper’s views on antisemitism (Part 2)
Blaney’s office further dismissed the CBC story by noting that they “won’t dignify [their] bizarre conspiracy theory with further comment.”
So, while Fisk likely based his column on the original CBC report, published on May 11th, he evidently didn’t notice the CBC’s follow-up story (and subsequent news articles elsewhere), published later in the day, contradicting their original report.
It seems reasonable to expect a professional journalist with decades of experience to engage in some basic fact-checking before making such a allegation. We encourage editors at The Independent to revise Fisk’s column accordingly.
Poland to Publish Extensive List of Auschwitz Staff
Poland is preparing an extensive list of the personnel who served in the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz, the EFE news agency reported on Tuesday.
According to new data, more than 8,700 people worked at the camp, nearly double the previous figure.
The initiative could lead to new war crime charges being brought up against the few dozens of the workers still living, the report noted.
An investigation by the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), a public body which is responsible for investigating Nazi and communist war crimes against Polish citizens brought the new information to light.
Media reports on Tuesday specified that the updated list of people who served in the camp includes more than 8,700 names, including 186 women.
Older documents calculated between 4,000 and 5,000 staff members, of which only about 770 were convicted in the aftermath of World War II.
London Jews Mobilize to Oppose Potentially Large Neo-Nazi Rally
Jewish residents of the London neighborhood of Golders Green are bracing themselves for a potentially sizable neo-Nazi rally organized by a coalition of far-right fascist groups.
The rally's organizers say they are targeting "Jewish privilege" through their protest, to be held on July 4 - the first Shabbat of the month - in what is the heart of northwest London's Jewish community.
It follows a largely unsuccessful demonstration by anti-Semites in Stamford Hill, northeast London, which is home to the largest Orthodox Jewish community in Europe.
But unlike the previous demonstration - which featured less than 30, largely middle-aged neo-Nazis, who were kept away from Jewish areas by a police cordon - there are genuine concerns that July's rally could be more successful, given the momentum the campaign has gained among the far-right on social media.
British Jewish community leaders have approached Home Secretary Theresa May with a request to ban the event.
70 years on, Hitchcock Holocaust doc finds an audience
“This was a woman,” the narrator explains, as the camera pans over a figure so emaciated and burnt that the dead body is barely recognizable as human.
It’s one of the more arresting scenes in “German Concentration Camps Factual Survey,” a highly unusual Holocaust documentary, shot and scripted 70 years ago, and crafted with the help of the legendary director Alfred Hitchcock. But it almost didn’t see the light of day.
The recently completed film had its New York premiere Tuesday night at Manhattan’s Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.
“German Concentration Camps” draws heavily on the footage taken at Bergen-Belsen, Auschwitz and Dachau by combat and newsreel cameramen in the weeks after liberation. It shows those who had managed to survive gas chambers, typhus epidemics and starvation conditions taking the first steps toward rebuilding their lives. They are deloused. They get hot showers for the first time in years and hot meals. There are piles of clean clothes, and women rejoicing in trying on the donated dresses, pumps and wide-brimmed hats.
“Some of the most touching parts show the restoration of what I can only call humanity,” said Jane Wells, a documentarian and the daughter of the film’s producer, Sidney Bernstein.
Backstreet Boys play to more than 8,000 Israeli fans
American boy band The Backstreet Boys performed for a sold-out crowd of more than 8,000 Israeli fans in the central city of Ra’anana on the first night of its three concerts Tuesday night.
The five band members, A. J. McLean, Howie Dorough, Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson, and Brian Littrell, said the performance was a “big honor” for them and apologized for not making it to Israel sooner.
“Thanks for your love. We’ll be back here,” they told the crowd.
They are set to play two more gigs, tickets for which were sold out weeks ago.
The band arrived in Israel on Sunday and took to social media to document some of its travels to the Jerusalem, the Dead Sea and Masada, before Tuesday’s performance.
Record Number of French Jews to Visit Israel With Taglit-Birthright
A historic number of young French Jewish adults will be arriving to Israel this summer on the Taglit-Birthright Israel program. The educational organization will bring 1,500 French Jews to Israel to learn about the Jewish state and immerse them in their Jewish heritage.
“This is the largest number of French Jews to ever come on the program,” Recruitment Director, Emmanuel Sion told Tazpit News Agency. “In 2013, we only had 82 participants and last year, we had 940 summer participants.”
Europe’s largest Jewish community is located in France, which has an estimated population of 500,000 Jews.
“The Jewish community in France is in a crisis. Many young Jews are asking themselves about their future and what their place is in French society due to the anti-Semitism,” Sion told Tazpit.
Anti-Semitism scholar Robert S. Wistrich dies at 70
Robert S. Wistrich, one of the world’s foremost scholars of anti-Semitism, died late Tuesday evening after suffering a heart attack in Rome, where he was due to address the Italian Senate about rising anti-Semitism in Europe.
Wistrich, 70, was the Neuburger Professor of European and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the head of the University’s Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism.
Over the course of his career, Wistrich edited and published dozens of books about the fate of Jews and their treatment by other nations.
Among his notable works was the 1989 book “The Jews of Vienna in the age of Franz Joseph,” which won the Austrian State Prize in History. Two years later he published “Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred,” which later served as the basis for a three-hour British-American television documentary on anti-Semitism.
His book “A Lethal Obsession: Antisemitism — From Antiquity to the Global Jihad,” published in 2010, was awarded the Best Book of the Year Prize by the New-York based Journal for the Study of Antisemitism
Robert Wistrich, "Antisemitism and the Left From Marx to the Present”
Professor Robert Wistrich, Director Vidal Sasson International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
From AP:
The leader of the Palestinian militant Hamas government in Gaza has condemned the United States for killing al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.
Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh says the operation is "the continuation of the American oppression and shedding of blood of Muslims and Arabs."
Haniyeh told reporters in Gaza on Monday that although Hamas had its differences with al-Qaida, his group condemns the assassination of "a Muslim and Arabic warrior" and prays that bin Laden's "soul rests in peace."
(Update: In Arabic he called Bin laden a "mujahid" - a holy warrior.)
This is the group that Jimmy Carter believes is the key to peace.
Based on my years of contacts with Fatah and Hamas, I am confident that, if handled creatively and flexibly by the international community, Hamas' return to unified Palestinian governance can increase the likelihood of a two-state solution and a peaceful outcome.
Jimmy believes that a group that considers Bin Laden a warrior and hero, and that shoots guided missiles at schoolbuses, is going to make peace. What a tool.
Meanwhile, Islamic Jihad's Palestine Today's headline on Osama Bin Laden's death reads "Martyrdom of "the leader of al Qaeda" bin Laden through a precise operation, and the United States has his body."
Islamic Jihad, it will be recalled, hosted a reconciliation meeting between Hamas and Fatah last week. So they must be a great group by Carter's standards as well, since they also encourage the PA to include radical Islamist terror groups into its government.
Someone should really ask "The Elders" what their official position on the assassination of Bin Laden is. Since their entire shtick is that they are so old that they can speak their minds without any political pressure (sort of like Helen Thomas), it would be most enlightening to see if Carter condemns it as an extrajudicial killing in another country and an illegal act.
From Ian:
Khaled Abu Toameh: Fatah's Armed Militias Warn Israelis: "You Must Leave!"
Many in the international community often refer to the Palestinian Fatah faction, which is headed by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, as a "moderate" group that believes in Israel's right to exist and the two-state solution.
What these people do not know is that Fatah, the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), consists of several groups that hold different views than those expressed by Abbas and other English-speaking Fatah officials.
Some of these Fatah groups do not believe in Israel's right to exist and continue to talk about the "armed struggle" as the only way to "liberate Palestine and restore Palestinian national rights."
One of these groups is called The Aqsa Martyrs Brigade - El Amoudi Brigade.
The Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is Fatah's armed wing, established shortly after the beginning of the second intifada in September 2000. Although the Palestinian Authority leadership maintains that the group has been dissolved and its members recruited into its security forces, scores of gunmen continue to operate freely in Palestinian villages and refugee camps in the West Bank.
Based in the Gaza Strip, the El Amoudi Brigade, which consists of dozens of Fatah gunmen, is named after Nidal El Amoudi, a top Fatah operative killed by the Israel Defense Forces on January 13, 2008, after he carried out a series of armed attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers during the second intifada.
During the last war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas ("Operation Protective Edge"), the El Amoudi Brigade claimed responsibility for firing dozens of rockets at Israeli cities and IDF soldiers.
US Reps. Grace Meng and Lee Zeldin: It’s Time to Give Israel the Means to take out Iranian Nukes
The negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program have engendered furious debate in Washington and in capitals across the world. But there are steps outside of the nuclear talks that President Obama can take to help ensure that the United States and its allies are stronger and more secure the day after a deal than they were the day before.
One such step would be to provide Israel with GBU-57 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs (known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrators, or MOPs) and the means to carry them, in a quantity sufficient to destroy Iran’s most deeply buried nuclear sites.
At present, Israel possesses US-supplied 5,000-pound bunker-buster bombs. But experts doubt these bombs could seriously impede Iran’s nuclear development. On the other hand, there is little doubt that MOPs, which Israel lacks, are capable of destroying Iran’s nuclear sites.
As Michael Makovsky and Lt. Gen. David Deptula noted in a 2014 Wall Street Journal op-ed, the Defense Department has MOPs to spare, aircraft in storage that could carry the MOP payload and legal authority to transfer such arms to the Israelis.
Newsweek Mangles the Green Line
A story in Newsweek includes the following paragraph:
More than 350,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, with a further 200,000 in east Jerusalem. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, the international community considers it illegal for Israel to encroach on Palestinian land by building settlements outside the Green Line, which was set out in 1949 to demarcate the Palestinian state following the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
The 1949 so-called Green Line certainly did not set out to “demarcate the Palestinian state.” The Green Line refers to demarcation lines that separated Israeli and Arab forces at the conclusion of the 1948 War of Independence. These armistice lines were never intended to set permanent borders. In addition, the West Bank that Newsweek refers to was occupied by Jordan until 1967.
Following HonestReporting’s correspondence with Newsweek, the following correction has been added to the article:
Correction: This piece was updated on May 20 to clarify the definition of the Green Line as a demarcation line set out between Israeli and Arab forces following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The Green Line was not set out to demarcate a Palestinian state, as previously reported.
Palestinian Statehood - Separating Fact from Fantasy
The irony is that there never was a “peace process” except in the minds of the Western media and most Western leaders who have bought into all these lies and deceptions. The intention, rather, was to use international diplomatic pressure to force Israel into making strategic concessions that would ultimately lead to its destruction ….. as Arafat openly admitted in Johannesburg over twenty years ago.
Critics should note as well that the Palestinian educational system includes Palestinian poetry, schoolbooks, crossword puzzles and children’s music videos that teach Palestinian children that “Jews are the descendants of pigs and monkeys” and must be killed, and Palestinian leaders have openly declared that any future Palestinian state would be “Jew-free”. They are also using US and European foreign aid dollars to pay Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons as well as the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, and they continue to name marketplaces, town squares, tournaments, and cinemas after these suicide bombers whom they hail as “heroes” and “martyrs”. Nor is mention ever made of Hamas’s founding Charter that openly calls for the murder of Jews wherever they are, and for the destruction of their State.
The sad truth is that the Palestinians want a state not beside Israel, but in place of it. If critics would take the time to read what the Palestinians are saying to each other in Arabic (as translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute and Palestine Media Watch) as opposed to what they are saying to Western leaders and the Western media in English, they would understand the Islamic concept of taqqiyah (deception) and discover the real truth behind the Arab-Israeli conflict – not Israel’s refusal to accept a State of Palestine, but the Arab refusal to accept the existence of Israel as a Jewish state on what they consider to be Islamic lands.
Netanyahu’s new government needs to reject any such pressure to recognize a Palestinian state under current circumstances as should all Western leaders. To give up further lands in exchange for a deceitful peace is something that Israel tried in the 1990s with tragic results. It should not be repeated again.
Hotovely to Mogherini: The Palestinians, not Israel, walked out of negotiations
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is committed to a diplomatic process with the Palestinians, and it is the Palestinians who abandoned US-led negotiations a year and a half ago, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely told the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Wednesday.
According to Hotovely’s office, the newly appointed deputy foreign minister told Mogherini that Israel's message to the Palestinians is that in order for a diplomatic process to take place they need to return to the negotiating table and not take unilateral steps against Israel in the international arena. .
Referring to the Jerusalem terror attack earlier in the day in which two Border Police officers were hurt by a Palestinian terrorists who tried to run them down, Hotovely said that Europe should strongly condemn terrorism, as well as back Israel’s demand for Palestinian recognition of Israel as the national home of the Jewish people.
Hotovely welcomed Mogherini's comment that she was interested in coming now after the establishment of the new Israeli government to listen to both sides, saying that her visit had a “great deal of importance.”
Hotovely to Norwegian FM: Press Palestinians to recognize Israel as Jewish state
Israel expects Norway to pressure the Palestinian leadership to recognize Israel as the Jewish national home, newly appointed Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely told visiting Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende on Tuesday.
Hotovely, in her first high-level diplomatic meeting since her surprise appointment last Thursday, said it is very important for Israel that Europe and the Norwegian government do not support unilateral Palestinian steps in the international arena.
Hotovely, who has come out against a two-state solution, told Brende that a government was established in Israel which “represents a will for dialogue and is opposed to Palestinian unilateral moves.”
The deputy foreign minister told her guest Norway needs to understand that there is a consensus in Israel regarding preserving the unity of Jerusalem.
Not Pro-Peace? Judge Palestinians By the Same Standard as the Israelis
That’s a key point that Western Israel-bashers consistently forget. Israel has already offered the Palestinians statehood and almost all of the territory they demanded three times between 2000 and 2008 and refused to talk seriously to Livni last year in what amounts to a fourth “no” to peace. Were they to come to the talks prepared to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders would be drawn they would find that no Israeli government would be able to resist taking them up on a two-state solution. But they can’t or won’t, a fact that renders the identity of the Israeli negotiators a piece of meaningless trivia.
But even if you want to be cynical about Shalom’s commitment to the process, it bears asking why the same people who think him insufficiently devoted to peace have no problem accepting and even praising Palestinians who do far worse. PA negotiator Saeb Erekat has regularly denounced Israel and engaged in libelous attacks on it while always denying it the right to be a Jewish state. His boss, PA leader Abbas, embraces and honors terrorists with Jewish blood on their hands, and has also incited Palestinians to attack Jews in order to compete with Hamas for popularity with a public that links bloodshed with political legitimacy. There has never been a Palestinian negotiating team that hasn’t stated positions that are far more extreme than anything Shalom ever said, yet never are they denounced as obstacles to peace.
Unlike with the Israelis, no one says Erekat’s belief in the “right of return” disqualifies him for the talks even though that marks him as a man that will never accept Israel’s existence. But Shalom’s skepticism is treated as proof that Israel won’t negotiate. Instead of worrying about the Israelis, who have already shown they’ll trade land for the hope of peace (and got terror instead), it’s time for the international community to start holding the Palestinians accountable. Until they do, they’ll never have an incentive to start talking in good faith.
Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Says Better Iran Deal Still Possible (VIDEO)
A “better deal” over Iran’s nuclear program that will not “scare [U.S.] allies half to death” has yet to be achieved, but is still possible, contended former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in an interview with Face the Nation on Monday.
To achieve a good deal, sanctions must be phased out over time “based on performance,” which Gates said was always the U.S. position, and which Iran’s leaders reject in favor of immediate relief.
He said Iran was likely to cheat unless an “on-demand inspection at all facilities, including military facilities” is established.
The former defense secretary said he had “several concerns” over the current framework, which faces a June 30 deadline and needs congressional approval.
As talks resume, Iran vows no inspection of military sites
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday ruled out allowing nuclear inspectors to visit military sites or to question scientists, state media reported.
“We have already said that we will not allow any inspections of military sites by foreigners,” the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
“They also say that we must allow interviews with nuclear scientists. This is interrogation. I will not allow foreigners to come and talk to scientists who have advanced the science to this level,” Khamenei said.
Other Iranian officials have repeatedly claimed that inspectors would not be given freedom of access to nuclear facilities — directly contradicting US officials who tout comprehensive inspections as being a key element of a final deal.
Iran willing to extend nuclear talks
If Iran and the world powers powers fail to hammer out a nuclear accord by a July 1 deadline, Tehran would be willing accept an extension of talks, an Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman said Wednesday.
In a framework deal signed between the sides in early April, Iran agreed to curb some aspects of its contentious nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of economic sanctions.
Israel has warned that the deal in its current form is insufficient and may still enable Iran to to develop nuclear weapons. Iran insists its nuclear project will be used for peaceful purposes only.
“We have said that if the path of drafting the text and reaching a possible agreement requires prolonging the talks, we won’t have any problem and will be ready to do it,” Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said, according to Fars News.
Clifford D. May: The summit that wasn't
I'd venture to guess that most of what you heard about U.S. President Barack Obama's summit last week was wrong. To start, it wasn't a "summit." That term, coined by Winston Churchill, implies a meeting of heads of government. But the most important Arab leader invited by Obama, King Salman of Saudi Arabia, stayed home, as did the rulers of the United Arab Emirates and Oman. King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain decided his time could be spent more productively at the Royal Windsor Horse Show outside London.
You also may have heard that the reason the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council didn't attend was that they were put off by the prospect of international travel. Trust me: Flying in one's own customized jet is a lot less wearying than going coach.
It is true that by not showing up they were making a statement. But to say they "snubbed" the president, as several commentators did, is imprecise. They were demonstrating not disdain but distrust: They know Obama wants to convince them that the agreement he's bending over backwards to conclude with the Islamic Republic of Iran will help stabilize a Middle East that grows more chaotic by the day. They're not buying it. So they sent envoys empowered only to say: "Thank you, Mr. President. I will convey your views to His Majesty."
Negotiations with Iran were intended to prevent the world's leading sponsor of terrorism from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability. At this point, they are veering toward providing Iran's rulers with two paths to that capability: a slow but sure one if they abide by the agreement's stipulations; a faster one if they violate their obligations -- as they have in the past.
Elliott Abrams: 7 years in prison for 7 Baha'i leaders
This week marks a landmark in the Islamic Republic of Iran's crimes against that country's small Baha'i community: Seven years ago this week, the regime imprisoned seven peaceful Baha'i leaders. What is the true nature of Iran's clerical regime? The answer is visible in its continuing brutal treatment of this religious minority, just 300,000 people in a nation of 70 million -- less than 0.5% of the population.
From its early days, the Islamic republic has singled out the Baha'i for discrimination and then persecution. They are seen as apostates from Islam, because their faith originated in Iran in the 19th century. The existence of the Baha'i international headquarters and shrine in Haifa, Israel have led to repeated accusations of spying and treason. Hundreds of Baha'i were killed and thousands imprisoned in the early decades of theocratic rule after the revolution in 1979. Baha'i institutions were all closed in 1983; Baha'i marriages are not recognized; Baha'i's are discriminated against in employment; their holy places have been destroyed; and Baha'i children are kept out of universities. The U.N.'s "special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran," in his March 2015 report, noted one emblematic and shameful incident: When roughly 1 million students took the national math exam in 2014, a Baha'i student placed 113th in the entire country. But he was nevertheless barred from attending a public university.
Expert: Turmoil and Repression in Kurdish Iran Exposes Regime’s Fears of Ethnic Separatism
The recently suppressed unrest in the Kudish region of Iran, “is an indication not of the regime’s strength, but of its potential weakness,” Jonathan Spyer, director of the Rubin Center, wrote in a column for The Jerusalem Post on Friday.
The suppression of any hint of Kurdish separatism has remained in place ever since. Education in Kurdish remains forbidden; any sign of attempts at political organization is ruthlessly suppressed by the Revolutionary Guards.
The hostility of the Iranian regime to the slightest hint of separatism derives not solely or mainly from ethnic tensions between Persians and Kurds. Even the most modest Kurdish demands for greater local autonomy raise the specter for the regime of ethnic separatism. Iran is a divided society ethnically, with only 49 percent of the population consisting of ethnic Persians; the rest are a mixture of Azeris, Baluchis, Kurds and Arabs.
Thus, the brutal and total repression of Kurdish demands is an indication not of the regime’s strength, but of its potential weakness. Tehran fears that were the demands of one minority ethnicity to be accommodated – even partially – this would risk opening the floodgates for other demands.
Washington Post Reporter’s Espionage Trial in Iran To Start Next Week
According to the report, Rezaian’s defense lawyer, Leila Ahsan, confirmed that Rezaian had “been charged with ‘espionage’ offences, but said it was unclear whether the trial would be open to the public.”
Rezaian is charged with, among other things, having ties with the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), an organization that supports stronger ties between the United States and Iran.
In a statement released today, Martin Baron, executive editor of The Washington Post, criticized the injustice of Iran’s judicial system, and revealed the paper’s efforts to send an editor to Iran to observe the trial.
MEMRI: Iranian Attempt To Break The Saudi Sea Blockade On Yemen Could Lead To Violent Confrontation
In MEMRI's assessment, neither Iran nor the Saudis are going to back down in this matter. Saudi Arabia will only allow the Iranian vessel through after it undergoes UN inspection, and Iran will not permit the Saudis to board it. Either a violent confrontation or a Saudi takeover of the ship is likely.
It should be noted that the Iranians would like the Saudis to instigate a violent confrontation, in which Iran would play the role of a provider of humanitarian aid that is being attacked.
This tense scenario could erupt into a localized conflict at sea that could escalate to a broader confrontation in the Arabian Peninsula and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia has, in recent days, made diplomatic efforts. Alongside this Iranian provocation, it convened the May 18-19 Riyadh summit, an intra-Yemeni dialogue among all Yemeni political parties except the Houthis, passing resolutions backing the position of Saudi Arabia and the coalition for resolving the Yemen crisis on several levels – domestic, regional, and international – via the UN.
Under these circumstances, it can be assumed that the U.S. will intervene to try to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis; such a solution might be attainable, although in light of the stances of both sides, this cannot be certain. However, even if a last-minute diplomatic solution is found, this skirmish could exacerbate the ongoing conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran and lead to a violent escalation at some point in the near future.
In this context, it should be mentioned that the five-day ceasefire that began on May 12 has not been renewed, and, according to Yemeni Foreign Minister Yassin, the ceasefire collapsed following violations by the Houthis – thus legitimizing the ongoing Saudi airstrikes against them.
Defying US, Iranian warships escort cargo vessel toward Yemen
Two Iranian warships have joined a cargo ship that Tehran says is carrying supplies to Yemen.
US Army Col. Steve Warren said the ships linked up overnight Monday, setting up a possible conflict as the US insists the supplies go to Djibouti, where the United Nations is coordinating humanitarian aid for Yemen.
A US official said there’s no evidence the Iranian ship is carrying lethal or military aid. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The vessel, the Iran Shahed, is carrying nearly 2,800 tons of aid including flour, rice, canned food, medical supplies and bottled water, all urgently needed in the conflict-wracked and impoverished state, according to Iran. It is expected to reach port on Thursday, and entered the Gulf of Aden on Sunday.
American, Foreign Activists on Iranian Flotilla to Yemen
There are some important things to know about the Iranian cargo shop Iran Shahed, which left Bandar Abbas, Iran on 11 May and expects to get to the Houthi-held port of Hodeidah, on the Red Sea, on 20-21 May. Iran claims the ships is carrying only humanitarian-aid cargo.
1. The ship itself is on the U.S. Treasury list of vessels and shipping entities under sanction due to complicity in arms proliferation.
2. We aren’t going to do anything about that.
3. The Saudis have imposed a blockade on Yemen and are determined to prevent the importation of arms (i.e., from Iran to the Houthis) by air or sea.
4. Iran is escorting Iran Shahed with naval ships, and has basically threatened to fight if the Saudis try to stop the ship.
5. There are two Americans riding Iran Shahed, along with activists from France and Germany, and members of the Iranian media – because in radical circles, the ship’s mission is now a cause célèbre like the occasional “flotilla” attempts to break the blockade of Gaza’s coast.
Potential Iran Deal Sends Terror Stocks Soaring (satire)
Leaks from Washington, Tehran, and Switzerland of an imminent nuclear deal roared through Wall Street today sending terror stocks soaring in afterhours trading. Reports indicate than any deal will include the release of over $100 billion in frozen Iranian funds. Noted hedge fund manager, Gree D. Bassard, seemed to speak for the mood. “$100 billion’s a lot of scratch. And what are the Iranians going to spend it on? Give you a hint – it won’t be booze or bacon.”
Of course this isn’t the first time that investors risked getting burned in the terror market. The sector slumped after President Obama announced his plan for the US to leave Iraq. Despite a brief spike, the sector failed to make much progress after ISIS burst onto the scene. Market analysts forecast that this time it will be different. “Iran has a lot of unfulfilled demand for these sorts of supplies,” Ms. Brea KN Rekrd said in a conference call. “This sector’s awash in undervalued assets. I’ve already made strong buy recommendations for e-Shrapnel.com and C4-4U. I’m telling you – this sector is going to explode.”
As if to prove this prediction, CNBC reported that Mad Money host Jim Cramer was killed today as he urged his viewers to “dive in” and buy Boomy Vest, a manufacturer of explosive clothing. Cramer was wearing one of the company’s top of the line, ‘Martyr Makers’ at the time of the explosion. Boomy Vest CEO, Herman Lipshitz, issued a statement. “My heart goes out to the Cramer family. I would note that our vest took out half of Jim’s crew and injured 20% of the live audience. And that was without the optional rat poison laced shrapnel! We make a quality product.”
Terrorist shot dead after running down 2 Border Police officers in east Jerusalem
According to Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, the attack took place shortly before 10 a.m. when the unidentified assailant rammed his car into a male and female officer, who sustained light-to moderate wounds to their legs and hips.
“The terrorist drove into them while they were on patrol in A-Tur and both were treated at the scene and then evacuated to Hadassah University Medical Center in Ein Kerem and Shaare Zedic Medical Center,” he said.
“A police officer at the scene shot the terrorist, leaving him in critical condition,” Rosenfeld continued. “He died shortly after from his injuries.”
Rosenfeld said multiple police units arrived to cordon off the area and initiated an investigation to determine if the suspect acted alone.
Hit-and-Terrorist Cousin of Mercaz HaRav Mass Murderer
The Jerusalem Arab terrorist who ran over two police officers and tried to kill them is the cousin of the driver who carried out the massacre of eight Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva students in Jerusalem in 2008, according to Arab media.
Wednesday’s hit-and-run terrorist was identified as Amran Omar abu Dahim, 42, from the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood located between the Talpiot and A-Tur neighborhoods in southeastern Jerusalem.
He is the cousin of Ala abu Dahim, who drove his vehicle in 2008 to the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva in Jerusalem, entered the building with a violin case and then pulled out a rifle and gunned down yeshiva students,.
The massacre shocked the world, even the bleeding-heart liberals since it occurred at a widely-known yeshiva that is located less than a mile from the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem.
More Than a Dozen Terror Suspects Arrested in West Bank Raids
Israeli soldiers detained more than a dozen suspected terrorists overnight Monday into Tuesday in raids across Judea and Samaria. A total of 17 suspects were arrested.
Seven of the detainees were members of the Hamas terrorist organization, according to IDF officials.
Two were taken into custody in the village of Fara’a, located northeast of Shechem (Nablus.) Two others were detained in a raid carried out southwest of Jenin, in Jaba’a.
Another member of the Gaza-based terror group was arrested in Beit Fajar, southwest of Bethlehem and quite close to the Gush Etzion junction. Three other suspects – including two alleged Hamas members – were arrested in nearby Hebron.
Israelis Mock New Hamas Propaganda Video Seeking to Scare IDF Recruits
Israelis mocked a new Hamas propaganda music video that appeared on the Facebook page of the Hamas-affiliated Shehab News Agency on Tuesday meant to scare the country’s citizens away from joining the Israeli Army and confronting the terror group.
The soundtrack in the clip, which is sung to the tune of “Be A Man” by popular Israeli singer Zohar Argov, quickly went viral in the Jewish state.
The video sought to demoralize Israelis and discourage them from joining the ranks of the IDF through highlighting the benefits that a non-military life has to offer, like clubbing and partying. It features an Israeli who wants to be a soldier, but instead enjoys various luxuries of the civilian high-life including a flashy car and a house in Savyon, one of Israel’s most affluent neighborhoods.
The video has attracted almost 120,000 views so far, many of them from Israeli web surfers who took a humorous and nonchalant approach to what they termed a “great Zohar Argov cover song.”
“Hamas puts out the anthem of the summer,” said one. Another commented that Hamas was “continuing the grand tradition” of soldiers making complaint songs about their army service, “so they deserve some applause.”
New York Times Report Reveals Libya New Leader ‘Sought Discreet Relationship With Israel’
The exposé of personal correspondences between Hillary Clinton and a longtime friend and adviser reported by the New York Times on Monday indicated, among other things, an inchoate back channel facilitating new ties between post-Gaddafi Libya and Israel.
The emails between Clinton and Sidney Blumenthal about the inner-workings of Libya following the death of the North African country’s dogged dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, included one correspondence that suggested new Libyan leader, Mohamed Magariaf, would “seek a discrete relationship with Israel.”
Clinton, encouraged by the news, forwarded the message to her deputy Jake Sullivan — a current adviser to the Obama administration for negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program — saying he “should consider passing to Israelis,” according to the Times report that was released on Monday.
Libya and Israel had no diplomatic ties under Gaddafi, and neither do any exist today. From 2011 to 2012, when these Clinton-Blumenthal intelligence-style correspondences were written there were no open relations between Libya’s de facto National Transitional Council government, either.
But in 2011, politically active French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy generated a brief scandal when he apparently outed the NTC’s plan to forge better ties with the Jewish state.
Smuggled ISIS Rings Seized at Tel Aviv Airport: Israel Officials
The "delivery of 120 rings bearing an insignia associated with Daesh terrorist organization" was intercepted at Ben Gurion Airport, Israel's main international hub, according to a statement released by the Israel Tax Authority. Daesh is the the group's acronym in Arabic.
Israeli officials told NBC News that the seizure had taken place around two-and-a-half weeks ago but they would not give a specific date. News of the rings only came out on Tuesday.
The jewelry, which had been imported from Turkey, was classified as "prohibited propaganda" and destroyed, the authority added.
Israel denies talks with Hamas on seaport, prisoner swap
An Israeli official denied a Jordanian report Tuesday that Israel was negotiating directly with Hamas over the establishment of a floating seaport between Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus and the Gaza Strip.
Quoting unnamed “Western diplomatic sources,” ad-Dustour daily claimed that Israeli and Hamas negotiators have been meeting both in Israel and in various European capitals to discuss the establishment of the commercial port, a long-sought demand by Palestinians in Gaza.
According to the report, they also discussed the exchange of a body of an Israeli-Ethiopian man who had entered Gaza in recent months for a number of Hamas prisoners serving time in Israeli jails.
Speaking to The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity, an Israeli official denied “any negotiations with Hamas.”
Has the Pentagon Found a Solution to 'Terror Tunnels'?
Detecting such tunnels is currently extremely difficult, but the US military may have developed a solution.
According to Channel Two, at a recent Department of Defense exhibition held by the Pentagon developers showcased a new system which can detect tunnels up to eight meters underground, and even track tunneling progress in realtime.
The system uses both soundwaves and vibration receptors to track underground tunnels, and has reportedly already proven itself after being deployed along the US border with Mexico, where drug-smuggling tunnels are a major problem.
Each time a tunneler drills or strikes the ground the sensors pick up the vibrations and are able to track them back to their source, providing operators with an accurate location.
The technology could also provide a solution to growing concerns along Israel's northern border with Lebanon over possible attack tunnels dug into Israel by Hezbollah.
The next Gaza war that nobody wants
Israel and Hamas would probably rather not go to war again this summer, but rogue Hamas factions may push the two into conflict again.
Hamas’s Gaza-based political leaders, who have failed to attract funding to rebuild homes and other key civilian needs after Israel laid waste to much of their military infrastructure, understand that another war would be devastating. Likewise, Israel would rather keep its powder dry for more serious threats, including Hezbollah to its north, Islamic State in Syria, and possibly even Iran.
Of the two, Hamas’s political leadership is probably more wary. The regime in Egypt, which sees Hamas as an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood movement it toppled in 2013, has destroyed an estimated 2,000 smuggling tunnels – and even flooded some with tear gas – thereby cutting off Hamas’s access to weapons, cash and goods. Hamas leaders know that if they are ever to convince Egypt to open its borders, they will need to charm Cairo’s financial patrons in Saudi Arabia, who are busy leading an air campaign in Yemen against the Iran backed Houthis in Yemen.
Hamas knows that another war with Israel, especially one fought with Iranian weapons, will not necessarily earn the favor of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the other Sunni states. Between the Iranian nuclear threat, the expansion of the Islamic State and other regional threats, the Sunnis don’t want any more conflict in the region – even against Israel – if it can yield Iran any more leverage than it currently has.
Hamas Using Truce to Prepare for Next Clash With Israel
In the nine months since Hamas fought a 50-day war with Israel, the terrorist group has exploited the months of recent quiet to prepare itself for the next clash, which it assumes will inevitably come.
Hamas is in the midst of a full-scale rocket rearmament and tunnel reconstruction drive. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is also preparing its responses for the next time the Gazan regime attacks.
Despite its extremist ideology, Hamas does not appear interested in sparking another costly and damaging war now – and yet, a large number of potential triggers are in place that could start one anyway.
The Hamas military wing, the Izzadin Al-Qassam Brigades, has restarted its domestic rocket and mortar production program, and built, in all likelihood, more than 1,000 rockets since the August 26 ceasefire went into effect.
IMF Calls for Donor Support for PA Territories
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) called on Tuesday for more donor aid to support the economic recovery of the Palestinian Authority (PA)-assigned areas of Judea and Samaria and of Gaza, AFP reported.
The IMF said in a report that the reconstruction process in Gaza following last summer’s war between Israel and Hamas "is moving far more slowly than expected."
The economic cost of the 50-day war is estimated at $4 billion for Gaza, the IMF noted.
"While notable progress has been made recently with the provision of materials for the repair of individual homes, larger construction projects that are required for a job-creating economic recovery are still pending," the report said.
According to the IMF, of the $3.5 billion promised for the reconstruction of Gaza at the Cairo Conference in October, only about 27 percent had been disbursed by mid-April.
Egypt: Police Accused of Sexual Assault on 'Massive Scale'
Egyptian authorities are using sexual assault on a 'massive' scale against detainees, NGO the International Federation for Human Rights said Tuesday.
The report suggested that men, women, and children are being abused systemically to "eliminate public protest," according to the BBC.
Charges state that police, intelligence officers, and the military are subjecting prisoners to "virginity tests" and rape as they await trial. Students, human rights activists, homosexuals, and children are the most common victims, it said.
Egypt has refused to respond to the allegations until it sees a copy of the report.
Kurdish musician in Turkey sentenced to 10 years in prison for singing in Kurdish
If you are planning to visit Turkey soon, keep in mind that singing a Kurdish song, choosing a Kurdish name for your child, or just saying a few Kurdish words is still unacceptable and might even constitute a crime.
Nudem Durak, 24, a musician who sings and teaches Kurdish folk songs at the Mem û Zîn Culture and Art Center in the Kurdish town of Cizre has recently been arrested and sentenced to 10.5 years in prison for “being a member of a terrorist organization.”
“All kinds of activities that Kurds engage in – cultural, linguistic or even personal ones – are used as evidence against them in their court files,” Rojhat Dilsiz, Durak’s lawyer said. “Even the telephone conversations that Durak had with fellow artists were used as evidence against her.”
Durak was first arrested in 2009 and spent about eight months in jail until her first trial, as a result of which she was released pending trial. But after the Supreme Court approved of her punishment, she was arrested again.
Teen Girl Shot in the Head for Appearing in Turkish Version of The Voice
A teenage Turkish woman competing in a televised singing contest similar to The Voice is in critical condition after being shot in the head Monday.
The Daily Mail reports Mutlu Kaya, 19, previously received death threats for her decision to join Turkey’s Sesi Çok Güzel competition on the country’s private channel Fox.
According to the site, the young woman once told producers, “When they heard that I was going to join the competition, they told me they would kill me. I am afraid.”
Her fears were validated Monday as she rehearsed inside her home in the Ergani district of Diyarbakir province, when an attacker broke into her backyard and shot her through a back window from the residence’s garden, striking her in the head.
The state Anatolia news agency said Tuesday a suspect in the shooting had not been named, but the New York Daily News reports one of four people who have been arrested in connection with the attack is the woman’s former-boyfriend.
The country’s Posta newspaper reported prior to the attack that Kaya had been threatened by someone within her own family for going to Istanbul to take part in the show.
From JPost and BBC:
Saboteurs on Wednesday blew up a pipeline running through Egypt's North Sinai near the town of El-Arish that supplies gas to Israel and Jordan, a security source told Reuters.
"An unknown armed gang attacked the gas pipeline," the security source said, adding that the flow of gas to Israel and Jordan had been hit.
"Authorities closed the main source of gas supplying the pipeline and are working to extinguish the fire," the source said, adding there was a tower of flame at the scene.
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Neighbouring Jordan depends on Egyptian gas to generate 80% of its electricity while Israel gets 40% of its natural gas from the country. Syria also imports gas from Egypt.
Israel's Tamar and Leviathan gas fields can't go online fast enough.
