From Ian:
Israel’s aid team to Nepal larger than any other country’s
Israel’s aid team to the earthquake-battered Himalayan nation of Nepal is the largest in manpower of any international aid mission.
Over 250 doctors and rescue personnel were part of an IDF delegation that landed Tuesday in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, in the wake of Saturday’s magnitude-7.8 earthquake that devastated large swaths of the mountainous country, killing at least 5,000 and leaving some 8,000 wounded and tens of thousands seeking shelter and food.
The Israeli group set up a field hospital with 60 beds that began operations on Wednesday in coordination with the local army hospital.
Nepal’s Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and the Nepalese Army’s chief of staff visited the field hospital to attend its opening ceremony.
Nepal field hospital, Israel’s largest ever, set to open Wednesday
After a series of delays, the Israel Defense Forces field hospital in Kathmandu will start treating thousands of those injured in the weekend’s devastating earthquake Wednesday morning, kicking off Israel’s largest ever effort of its kind.
The hospital’s opening will come a day after Israeli teams began search and rescue operations, though they did not find any survivors.
An IDF spokesperson said the hospital, located next to the Nepali military hospital, will be operational by 8:30 a.m. local time and treat some of the thousands of injured Nepalis hurt in the 7.8 magnitude quake, which claimed the lives of over 5,000 as of Tuesday afternoon.
Nepalese officials expect the death toll to climb to as high as 10,000. Around 8,000 people have been injured while the United Nations estimated that eight million people had been affected.
The Israeli hospital and crew only landed in Kathmandu Tuesday morning, after a series of strong aftershocks delayed the flight by a day, and soldiers immediately began setting up, said Col. Yoram Laredo, who is heading up the army’s relief effort.
PMW: Palestinian Antisemitism: Jewish plan to conquer the world; Judaism permits killing Gentiles
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is an Antisemitic forgery describing how Jews allegedly plan to subjugate the world under Jewish rule. It was published in Russia in 1903 and translated into multiple languages. In 1921, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was exposed as a false document. Palestinian Media Watch has documented that Palestinians present The Protocols as a true manifestation of Jews' and Israelis' aspirations for the future.
PA TV also recently served as a platform for demonizing statements by a Gazan university professor. In an interview, Dr. Ibrahim Abrash, political science professor at the Al-Azhar University, explained that Judaism is based on extremism and that it permits stealing from and killing Gentiles:
Judaism permits stealing from and killing Gentiles, says Gaza university professor
Fatah official speaks about "Protocols of Elders of Zion" as true Jewish document
Fatah Spokesperson Osama al-Qawasmi: "According to Israel's ideology, strategy and policy from 1956 until now, Gaza is outside the Israeli ideological thinking. Even in their Protocols [of the Elders of Zion] and even in their Bible [it says]: 'Don't live in Gaza.'" [Official PA TV, April 5, 2015]
IDF Blog: An Inside Look at the IDF’s Unique Medical Technology in Nepal
As part of the IDF’s humanitarian mission to Nepal, a field hospital is being built near Kathmandu. In the next few hours, people affected by the earthquake will begin receiving the same treatment as offered in the most high-tech medical facility in Israel. Here’s an inside look at the advanced technology that will assist the medical teams on the ground.
The 260-member team includes 40 medical personnel on a mission to save lives. One of their priorities is to set up a field hospital near Kathmandu. “The team brought the most recent technology possible,” explains Lt. Col. Asi Hempel, a doctor in the IDF’s Medical Corps. “The field hospital will be equipped with everything: x-rays, operating rooms that will work 24/7, laboratories and more.”
The hospital will have the ability to receive and provide care for around 200 patients a day. “Israel’s top specialists for traumatic injuries are among the medical team in Nepal,” says Lt. Col. Hempel.
The IDF has gained much experience from past humanitarian missions, and as a result has developed unique technology for its field hospital. “We pioneered a state-of-the-art system with the IDF’s C4I Branch, that allows us to create an internal digital medical file for every patient.”
IDF Mission Commander in Nepal Motivates his Soldiers
IDF's Mission Field Hospital Preparation
Wounded IDF vet Israel’s last missing citizen in Nepal
All but one of Israel’s citizens located in Nepal at the time that a massive earthquake shook the nation have been accounted for, as dozens were still waiting to be evacuated on Wednesday.
Or Asraf, a 22-year-old freshly released from the IDF, was the only remaining Israeli who has not shown any signs of life since Saturday’s 7.8-magnitude quake, which has so far claimed the lives of over 5,000 people.
Asraf’s parents remained hopeful on Wednesday, as a rescued Israeli traveler told them she had made contact with Asraf an hour after the earthquake, Channel 2 reported.
Earlier on Wednesday, ten more Israelis were rescued from the Himalayan country’s Langtang National Park north of Kathmandu on the border with Tibet, and taken to a local army base, from which they will be driven to Kathmandu.
Eight more backpackers who were threatened by Nepalese locals were retrieved by a private Israeli search and rescue squad, Ynet reported. There are still 30-40 Israeli backpackers awaiting rescue, according to Israeli officials.
Two Israelis skip rescue, stay in Nepal to help
The two were in Nepal for the traditional “gap year” trip many Israelis take after finishing military service and before beginning academic studies. When the time came and Israelis lined up for their place on the rescue helicopters, Rosen and Molcho refused.
Yaffa Rosen, mother of Aviv, told the Ynet news outlet they had stayed behind to help the area recover from the devastating Saturday earthquake, which killed at least 5,000 people and destroyed whole villages in Nepal.
“It is certainly not easy, but I understand he has values and thinks about others beside himself,” she said. “I am very proud of my son; I think the entire country should be proud of such a boy who doesn’t just up and leave but stays behind to help dozens of people. He stayed behind [and didn’t fly back home] because of his love for mankind, not in order receive anything.”
IsraellyCool: More Appalling Reactions To Israeli Nepal Action
We can also add the BBC to the hall of shame, which although does not criticize Israel, could not bring itself to mention her.
China, India, the UK and US are among those sending aid from abroad. Nepal says it needs everything from blankets and helicopters to doctors and drivers.
Dozens of people are also reported to have been killed by the earthquake in neighbouring China and India.
Both countries have sent emergency teams to Nepal, along with Pakistan, which said it was dispatching four C130 transport planes carrying a 30-bed hospital. Other countries, including Britain, Australia and New Zealand are also contributing aid, alongside international agencies.
Given the scope of Israel’s aid, the omission is telling.
Senate Rejects Toughening of Legislation on Iran Deal
The United States Senate on Tuesday rejected an amendment toughening legislation that would require that any nuclear agreement with Iran be approved by Congress, hours after Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid warned Republicans not to use the bill as a "platform for their political ambitions."
The amendment specified that a nuclear deal would have to be approved by a two thirds majority.
According to Reuters, the Senate voted 57-39 to reject the measure, which Republican Senator Ron Johnson offered as an amendment to the Iran Nuclear Review Act, a bill requiring an Iran nuclear deal to be reviewed by Congress.
The amendment's backing by 39 Republicans signaled that there could be intense debate in the coming days as the Senate hammers out its final version of the legislation.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other top Senate Republicans were among those voting for the amendment, despite an emotional appeal against it from Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and author of the bill, noted Reuters.
Iran’s Rouhani Declares Sanctions Regime on Verge of Complete Collapse
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared on Tuesday that the sanctions regime against his country was on the verge of complete collapse and that no country would be able to continue exerting pressure on Iran, in a speech he delivered to 12,000 workers in Tehran.
Rouhani said those benefiting from the sanctions, established to combat his country’s nuclear program, should start looking for another way to benefit. He claimed that Iran would “continue the path of constructive interaction with the world under the guidance of the [Supreme] Leader and support of and support of our people, and no country in the world can continue exerting pressure and imposing sanctions against Iran in the future.”
During the speech, Rouhani stressed the importance of Iranian self-reliance, concentrating the country’s capital within its territory, and prioritizing what he called “the resistance economy,” according to semi-official state news agency Mehr.
Iranian 'Cultural Centers' Established to Promote Shiite Islam Blossom in Latin America
Iranian “cultural centers,” established across Latin America to enhance the Shiite country’s influence in the region, have proliferated in the last three years, while the Obama administration has been trying to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran.
“As the foremost state sponsor of terrorism, Iran’s involvement in the region and these cultural centers is a matter for concern, and its diplomatic, economic, and political engagement is closely monitored,” Gen. John Kelly, the commander of U.S. Southern Command (Southcom), told lawmakers last month, as the P5+1 powers approached a self-imposed deadline to draw up a framework for a nuclear deal with Iran.
Breitbart News found that the number of Iranian “cultural centers” in Latin America have more than doubled, from 36 in 2012 to more than 80 today.
That information was gleaned from Southcom’s posture statements—annual assessments of its challenges and programs. The various U.S. military commands submit posture statements to Congress on an annual basis.
Ayatollah Khamenei thinks you’re a racist monster, #BaltimoreRiots edition
Just as a point of reference, I’m 29. I grew up in the internet era, got my first e-mail address in the 7th grade (ish?) and was a Facebook pioneer during undergrad. I embrace Reddit and follow celebrities on Instagram and still, it will never ever ever stop being bizarre to see world leaders—especially world leaders who regularly mull over the destruction of an entire people—troll each other on Twitter.
Never.
The real takeaway here isn’t that the Ayatollah is an infamously, belligerently dangerous troll. The takeaway is that, over the course of the past year, the messaging coming out of Ferguson that wound its way through cases in New York, South Carolina, and now Baltimore, has become so pervasive and normal that the Ayatollah of Iran is using it as a weapon against the United States on the international stage.
He’s using our own insanity against us—and knowing the state of the world, it’s probably working.
Report: Kerry Told Iran He Wishes ‘U.S. Had a Leader like Iran’s Supreme Leader’
Secretary of State John Kerry told his Iranian counterpart that he wished the United States had a leader more like Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, according to comments made by a senior Iranian cleric and repeated in the country’s state-run media.
Ayatollah Alam al-Hoda claimed during Friday prayer services in Iran that in negotiations over Tehran’s contested nuclear program, Kerry told the country’s foreign minister that he “wished the U.S. had a leader like Iran’s supreme leader,” according to a Persian-language report on the remarks published by the Asriran news site.
“In the negotiations Kerry told [Iranian Foreign Minister Javad] Zarif that he [Kerry] wished U.S. had a leader like Iran’s supreme leader,” according to Alam al-Hoda, who is a senior member of the Iran’s powerful Assembly of Experts.
A senior administration official told the Washington Free Beacon that such a contention is patently absurd.
JCPA: Iran Keeps Defying the United States in the Persian Gulf – So Far with Impunity
Violent Seizure of a Commercial Vessel
In a defiant and belligerent move, the navy of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGCN) seized a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship at the Strait of Hormuz after firing several warning shots at it on April 28, 2015.
Since the 1980’s, Iran has a history of threatening U.S. and allied shipping in the Persian Gulf. On April 24, Iranian warships harassed, but did not board, another large commercial ship, the U.S.-flagged Kensington.
IRGC Navy fighters boarded, took over the Marshall Islands ship and diverted it to Iranian territorial waters near the port of Bandar Abbas. Iranian authorities claimed that the cargo ship has entered Iranian territorial waters. The Pentagon spokesman confirmed that Iran had commandeered the Maersk Tigris M/V and that it was now in the “vicinity of Larak Island, in the Strait of Hormuz.” The ship had been on its way from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates.
Iran’s Fars News Agency, which is associated with the IRGC, originally reported that the IRGC’s navy (IRGCN) had seized an “American commercial vessel” carrying 34 people. A knowledgeable source said the ship had been captured by the IRGCN, which is responsible for patrolling the sensitive Persian waters, at the request of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization. “The ship was seized after a relevant court order was issued for its confiscation,” it claimed.
Can Iran Do Whatever It Wants?
In the Persian Gulf, the U.S. commitment to that doctrine led President Reagan to order U.S. Navy ships to escort tankers and protect them from Iranian attacks, precipitating a short and sharp conflict (the Tanker War of 1987-88) between the U.S. and Iran. This was the last time, incidentally, that the U.S. used force to respond to Iranian attacks and it was an unqualified success—the Iranians lost some oil platforms and boats that they had been using to harass shipping. Finally the accidental shootdown of an Iranian airliner in 1988 by the USS Vincennes (an unintended and unfortunate consequence of these operations) helped convince the Iranian leadership to end their war with Iraq.
Today the U.S. still remains committed, at least on paper, to protecting freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf. In 2011, a 5th Fleet spokesman put it well: “The free flow of goods and services through the Strait of Hormuz is vital to regional and global prosperity. Anyone who threatens to disrupt freedom of navigation in an international strait is clearly outside the community of nations; any disruption will not be tolerated.”
Thus if the Obama administration were, in fact, to “tolerate” this disruption of the free flow of shipping it would send a dangerous signal, or to be more accurate, to reinforce a signal already sent: The U.S. lacks the will to stand up to predators in the international system, and in particular to Iran. Put another way, it would signal to the entire region that the president is so invested in reaching a deal with Iran that no Iranian misconduct—not the dropping of barrel bombs on Syrian civilians, not the takeover of Yemen, not the ethnic cleansing of Sunni communities in Iraq, and now not the seizure of a Western cargo ship—will be allowed to interfere with his objective.
The fate of the Maersk Tigris does not matter much in and of itself, but it will say much about this administration’s commitment to maintaining America’s traditional security responsibilities.
State Department Declines to Condemn Iran’s Cargo Ship Seizure in the Strait of Hormuz
The State Department refused to condemn the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ interception of a western commercial cargo vessel.
When asked to describe the attack or to forwardly condemn Iran’s aggression, spokesperson Jeff Rathke indicated he was unwilling to because the State Department was still collecting information.
“This is underway,” Rathke said. “I’m not going to apply an adjective to it right now.”
On Tuesday, Iranian ships forced a Marshall Islands cargo ship named the Maersk Tigris further into Iranian waters. The cargo vessel was traveling through the Strait of Hormuz when it was confronted at 5:05 a.m. Eastern time.
The Marshall Islands vessel’s captain initially refused Iranian patrol crafts call to divert course but acquiesced after a patrol craft fired a warning shot across the bow of the Maersk Tigris.
The United States is obligated by international treaty to treat any attack on the Marshall Islands as an attack on the U.S. itself and is sworn to defend the islands and their interests abroad.
Cargo ship crew ‘safe’ after boarding by Iranian forces
The MV Maersk Tigris was en route Wednesday to Bandar Abbas, the main port for Iran’s navy, under escort by Iranian patrol boats, according to Maersk Line, the company that had chartered it.
Tehran has not offered any clarification on the incident, which comes at a critical time during Iran’s relations with the United States and the West.
Cor Radings, a spokesman for the ship’s operator, Rickmers Ship Management in Singapore, said the company had been in touch by phone with the crew earlier in the day.
“We have had the confirmation that they are in relatively good condition and safe on board the ship,” he said.
US Sends Destroyer to Persian Gulf after Iran Boards Freighter
The U.S. Navy Farragut destroyer is speeding to the Persian Gulf Wednesday after Iran boarded a Marshall Islands-flagged freighter that the regime said had trespassed into its waters while sailing through the key oil and gas tanker route of the Straits of Hormuz, also known as the Persian Gulf.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Navy fired shots at the ship, which the Pentagon says was in international waters.
The United States also has ordered an aircraft carrier to remain on standby in another mini-crisis that Iran seems to have created to put pressure on the Obama administration during the new round of talks between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran on an agreement to allow Tehran to continue its nuclear development program.
The Marshall Islands, once an American territory, is independent of the United States but has a “free relationship” with Washington that includes a security pact.
Prosor Demands UN Condemn Attack on Golan Heights
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor sent a letter to the UN Security Council on Tuesday demanding action, after four Arab terrorists from Syria breached Israeli territory on Sunday night and placed an explosive on the Golan Heights border before being eliminated by the IDF.
After briefly describing the incident, Prosor wrote, "Israel holds the Syrian government responsible for all attacks originating from its territory. In recent months, the Syrian government has allowed terrorists to use its territory as a launching base to plant roadside bombs, fire rockets into Israel, and open fire on IDF forces inside Israel."
A report on Monday revealed that two of the four Arab terrorists were the sons of an Israeli Druze, a man from the Golan Druze town of Majdal Shams which is loyal to Syria who fled to the country in the 1980s after having been jailed in Israel for terrorism.
"I have repeatedly warned about the growing threat in northern Israel. In my remarks last week to the Security Council, I described how Hezbollah, backed by Iran, is openly operating in the Golan Heights and preparing for a violent confrontation with Israel," Prosor added.
Mortar Rounds on Golan Heights Were Fired by ISIS
The two mortar rounds fired on Israel's Golan Heights from Syria on Tuesday in estimated "spillover" were launched by the brutal Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization, which is the closest it's ever been to the Israeli border with Syria.
The ISIS-linked Jaish al-Jihad has captured the border town of Qahtaniya in southern Quneitra province on the Syrian Golan, thereby taking up its closest position to Israel yet at a distance of just 2.5 to 3 kilometers (1.5-1.8 miles), according to Walla!.
Qahtaniya had been in the hands of the Free Syrian Army and the Al Qaeda affiliate Nusra Front which had kept the status quo vis-a-vis Israel, concentrating their efforts against the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Now that the town has fallen to ISIS, it may turn into a base of attacks against the Jewish state.
On Tuesday morning Nusra Front launched an operation to try and recapture the town, with clashes between it and ISIS including machine gun fire, anti-tank missiles and mortar rounds. During the clash two mortar shells slammed into Israel near Kibbutz Ein Zivan.
Iran Tells Syria to Attack Israel on the Golan Heights
Syrian Defense Minister General Fahd al-Freij arrived in Iran on Tuesday for a rare two-day visit, the first since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, and was reportedly told by his Iranian backers to attack Israel.
As the Syrian regime continues to suffer key losses that have sharpened in the last month, Iran continues to exert ever-growing influence in the country which it is financially and militarily propping up.
Al-Freij was told by senior Iranian sources that Syria and Iran's terror proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, need to open a war front against Israel on the Golan Heights, according to the Hebrew-language Channel 10.
Iran told the Syrian defense minister to stir up conflict against Israel on the Golan, with the Islamic republic apparently unperturbed by the significant damage the move will cause to the Syrian regime, given that its goal is to expand its regional hegemony at all costs.
The Golan has been heating up with four terrorists eliminated on Sunday while placing an explosive on the Israeli border, and a day later stray mortar shells struck from Syria, as Al-Qaeda affiliate Nusra Front and Islamic State (ISIS) fight on the Syrian side, right on Israel's doorstep.
Iranian Analyst: Iran Will Respond to Israel’s Attacks in Syria and Open a Front in the Golan
An analyst with close ties to the Iranian defense ministry has said that Iranian, Syrian, and Hezbollah officials will meet shortly to discuss their combined response to recent attacks in Syria that have been attributed to Israel.
Amir Mousavi, director of the Center for Strategic and International Relations in Tehran and a former advisor to the Iranian Ministry of Defense, quoted a knowledgeable source saying that the recent attacks were “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” He said Iran would respond to the attacks in Syria:
I have emphasized, again and again, in many media outlets, that the Iranian leadership will not remain silent about the Israeli terrorist entity attacks which aimed to help its stepdaughters – the terrorist groups in Syria.
The term “terrorist groups” refers to the rebels fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
IDF training to retake Gaza in any future round with Hamas
Assessing that Hamas will continue to rule the Gaza Strip for the foreseeable future, the IDF is training for the possible reconquering of the entire coastal Palestinian territory in a future confrontation with the Islamic organization, the Times of Israel has learned.
Despite the harsh blow Hamas and Islamic Jihad sustained in Operation Protective Edge last July and August, Israel’s military command is convinced that another round of fighting between Israel and Gaza is only a matter of time.
The Israeli leadership sees no prospect of the Palestinian Authority gaining control of the Strip, as it continues to demand, and would prefer to face a weakened Hamas than the anarchy of unruly organizations, some of which harbor extremist Islamist ideologies.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad lost 1,000 combatants in the 50 days of fighting with Israel, including many low- and mid-ranking commanders. The remaining 1,100 Palestinian fatalities in the war are believed to be innocent civilians caught in the line of fire.
Israel Lets 14,000 Tons of Building Material into Gaza
Israel allowed 14,000 tons of building material into Gaza on Wednesday, the defense ministry said of the largest single shipment since last summer's Hamas terror war - despite the fact that Hamas is using such materials to rapidly rebuild its terror tunnels to attack Israel.
COGAT, the IDF Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, told AFP that some 354 trucks passed through the Kerem Shalom goods crossing in southern Gaza carrying "construction materials," without elaborating what goods were let in.
The news comes as Hamas is working to rebuild its tunnels into Israel that were used to attack Israelis in Operation Protective Edge to lethal effect.
Hamas is intensively rebuilding its terror tunnel infrastructure, with the digging reportedly taking place six days a week with three shifts each day.
Over 1,000 diggers are said to be employed by Hamas to construct the tunnels, and the current estimation is that the tunnels lead up to Israeli territory - Hamas will extend them beyond when it feels the time is right to strike.
Exiled Palestinian leader looks for regional allies in mediation of Nile dam deal
Exiled Palestinian politician and former leader of Fatah in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, mediated the signing of an agreement for the construction of a controversial River Nile dam project between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan last month, Newsweek can exclusively reveal.
Analysts believe that the move demonstrates Dahlan’s continuing efforts to increase his international influence, potentially setting up a push for the Palestinian leadership in the future.
The leaders of the three African countries convened in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, last month to sign an agreement which confirmed the principles on which Ethiopia’s Renaissance Dam would be built after Cairo raised concerns that the project would hit their vital Nile water supply.
Hamas police beat, arrest protesters at Gaza rally
More than 400 demonstrators gathered in Shejaiya, a neighborhood in eastern Gaza City that was razed during a July-August war between the Hamas terrorist group and Israel, urging reconstruction and calling for an end to intra-Palestinian division.
Plainclothes police officers entered the crowd, beating a number of protesters without causing serious injury, the AFP correspondent said.
They then arrested at least seven people, according to witnesses.
The Hamas-run interior ministry said in a statement that the crowd had grown violent, forcing police to intervene “to protect the lives of those participating, after which calm prevailed.”
Report: Hamas recruiting Palestinians in Malaysia for attacks
According to a report in Haaretz Tuesday, the security service presented detailed allegations of Hamas’s operations in Malaysia in a recent indictment against a Hebron resident who was captured in February as he returned to the West Bank from Malaysia.
In the indictment filed to the Ofer Military Court in March, 24-year-old Hebron resident Waseem Qawasmeh was charged with belonging to and transferring funds for a banned organization.
Qawasmeh said he swore allegiance to the Islamist group while studying at the Islamic University in Kuala Lumpur where he was recruited by a top Hamas activist in the university’s student association, according to the report, which cited the indictment.
According to the report, the recruits were expected to return home to act as undercover operatives and messengers for already-established Hamas networks in the West Bank and Gaza.
Hamas International Terror-Financing Smuggling Ring Nabbed
In the latest in a string of exposed smuggling operations by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, a gag order was lifted on Tuesday revealing that the Israel Security Agency (ISA), IDF and police in a joint operation thwarted a Hamas terror fund smuggling network.
The operation, which brought funds from Gaza to Judea and Samaria via Jordan, was conducted with the aid of Palestinian Arab lawyers, and three Arab suspects were arrested by the ISA as part of investigations.
The three consisted of Yakub Ashak Abd Alguwad Dais born in 1990, a Jordanian resident originally from Hevron in Judea; Yazan Abd Alrazak Abd Almati Shaur born in 1991, an attorney living in Hevron with connections to Hamas activists; and Yasser Mohammed Raduwan Kukas born in 1972, an attorney and Hamas activist originally from Beit Umar northwest of Hevron.
In the investigation it was discovered that the three worked to establish routes to transfer terrorist funds from senior Hamas leaders in Gaza to Dais in Jordan, and from there to transfer them to Shaur who would illicitly bring them into Judea and Samaria.
Haniyeh: Deif is proof of Israel's failure to reach senior Palestinians
Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ deputy political bureau chief in Gaza, said on Wednesday that his organization was vindicated by Israel’s acknowledgment that its longtime target, military wing commander Mohammed Deif, was still alive and active.
“The fact that the occupation confirmed that the general commander of the Al-Kassam Brigades is alive and engaged in the missions of his command is proof of Israeli intelligence’s failure to reach senior Palestinians,” Haniyeh said.
The former Islamist prime minister of the Hamas-ruled regime in Gaza said that the news constituted “a victory for the Palestinian resistance over the occupation.”
Sources in Israel believe that Deif, who has survived numerous assassination attempts by the IDF, most recently during Operation Protective Edge nearly a year ago, is now trying to forge closer ties between the Palestinian Islamist group and Iran.
According to Israel Radio, Deif is seeking to procure more armaments and funding for Hamas.
'Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal vetoed large-scale terror attack against Israel'
Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal vetoed a plan by the Islamist group’s military wing to carry out a large-scale terrorist attack in an Israeli community near the Gaza border just after the outbreak of Operation Protective Edge, Army Radio is reporting on Wednesday.
Citing Israeli intelligence sources, Army Radio reported that Hamas was set to deploy dozens of armed terrorists poised to cross into Israeli territory from Gaza through one of the group’s underground tunnels just days after Israeli warplanes began pounding targets in the Strip.
The plan is believed to have centered around Kibbutz Kerem Shalom. The mastermind of the operation, Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif, wanted to surprise Israel by carrying out an attack via the tunnels just as the Israeli air force was in the midst of its bombing campaign. This was also before the extensive network of tunnels became the focal point of Israeli military efforts.
According to Army Radio, dozens of Hamas gunmen trained for the operation in which they would infiltrate the kibbutz, slaughter a number of civilians, and take a number of others alive as hostages before returning through the tunnels to Gaza.
Hamas’ intention was to then use the hostages as bargaining chips to be exchanged for prisoners in Israeli jails.
One Year Since Fatah-Hamas Agreement, Unity Government Still Not Functioning
In April 2014, Fatah, the dominant faction in the Palestinian Authority (PA), and the terrorist organization Hamas announced the end of the longstanding and violent rift between them, which began in 2007 when Hamas staged a bloody coup to take over Gaza. Both movements announced a series of reconciliation measures. But the agreement, in addition to effectively ending American-sponsored peace negotiations, also failed to bring about a functioning government to serve Palestinian interests.
A year later, many major issues are still outstanding. Israel saw the reconciliation as antithetical to the peace process. While PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party states it supports the two-state solution, the Iran-backed terror organization Hamas is violently opposed to peace with Israel, as its stated goal is the destruction of the Jewish state and its replacement with a fundamentalist Islamic state.
Measures agreed upon by the two parties, such as renewing the activities of the Palestinian Legislative Council and holding elections, never came close to fruition. The only achievement was the establishment of a national unity government, and analysts say even this government did not perform its duties and became “the Government of Abbas.”
PreOccupied Territory: Palestinians Puzzled Why Israeli Unity Gov’ts Not Violently Divided (satire)
Israeli politics continues to surprise Palestinian observers, researchers say, specifically the unfamiliar practice Israeli unity governments follow of not having its component factions oppose each other with protracted, deadly clashes.
Israeli leaders have formed national unity governments on a number of occasions, among them the early-to-mid-1980’s, when Menachem Begin of Likud and Shimon Peres of Labor rotated as Prime Minister. Currently, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud is attempting to assemble a coalition that does not include Labor, and Labor leaders have specifically spoken out against joining a unity government, but the prospect of such an alliance has been invoked by political figures across the spectrum ever since Likud won an unexpectedly strong electoral victory a month ago. Such discourse has sparked confusion among Palestinians, whose only experience of a unity government to date involves gunfire, bombs, arrests, trumped-up charges, and reciprocal accusations by rival factions of betraying the Palestinian people.
Hamas and Fatah, the two major political factions vying for leadership of the Palestinian Authority – and the Palestinian people as a whole – have repeatedly engaged in an on-again, off-again unity arrangement under which the disparate geographic territories of the Gaza Strip, under Hamas sway, and the autonomous areas of the West Bank, where Fatah reigns, are theoretically under one government. Despite brief periods of rapprochement and declarations of shared purpose, Fatah and Hamas remain at loggerheads over every major issue except adherence to the long-term goal of removing Israeli sovereignty from every inch of “Historic Palestine.” The tension is further exacerbated by the clan-based demographics of Palestinian political organizations, in which extended family loyalty trumps any larger political aims. In contrast, Israeli unity governments, even at their most troubled, have seldom, if ever, featured such deep and deadly divisions, leaving Palestinian observers to wonder whether Israel even knows what it is doing.
Last year, Egypt convicted 26 members of Hezbollah for espionage and planning terror attacks.
Earlier this year, many of these Hezbollah members managed to escape during Egypt's uprising.
Now, Egypt has released two of the remaining Hezbollah prisoners. One, Mohamad Ramadan, went back to his home - in Gaza.
After all, why should Egypt be concerned about a cell that planned to attack tourists? Chances are they will only go after the "Zionists" anyway.
At Hamas-supporter Vittorio Arrigoni's funeral in Bulciago, Italy, one of the speakers was Archbishop Hilarion Capucci of the Greek-Melchite Catholic Church. (Italian media said he is the archbishop of Jerusalem, but that appears to be wrong.)
Capucci said, "For us Vittorio is a martyr, a hero and a saint, a bishop who has defended the his flock and the flock was the Palestinian people."
And who is Hilarion Capucci?
From Wikipedia:
On August 18, 1974 [Capucci] was arrested by Israeli police for smuggling weapons into the West Bank in a Mercedes sedan.[2] He was subsesquently convicted by an Israeli court of using his diplomatic status to smuggle arms to the Palestine Liberation Army and sentenced to 12 years in prison.[3][4] Capucci was among the prisoners whose release was demanded by the Palestinian hijackers of the Kfar Yuval hostage crisis in 1975 and of the Palestinian hijackers of Air France Flight 139 in 1976. He was released two years later due to intervention by the Vatican.[2] The governments of Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria have honored Capucci with postage stamps.
This man of peace has also publicly sided with Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on civilians in Syria:
Archbishop Hilarion Capucci of Jerusalem in Exile on Monday stressed that the conspiracy against Syria aims at undermining its pan-Arab principles and firm stances towards the just Arab issues and its support to the just Palestinian Cause.
In his statement on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of Evacuation Day (Syria's Independence Day), Capucci said "President Bashar al-Assad's decisions and directives were appeasing on all levels," expressing pride in Syria's leadership and its steadfastness in the face of hatched conspiracies.
Capucci expressed his belief that Syria and the Syrian people with the wisdom of President al-Assad would foil all conspiracies.
You can see how this fake supporter of human rights would fit right in with Vittorio Arrigoni.
(h/t Rudi)
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.
