From Ian:
Rabbi Abraham Cooper: How the documentary “Chosen and Excluded – The Hate for Jews in Europe” was chosen to be excluded from the German-French Network
The film goes on to show how the many centuries old Christian tradition of Jew-hatred gets a modern makeover with the World Council of Churches’ financing of anti-Israel incitement. Hate-mongering against Israel in the margins of a national gathering of the German Protestant Church is shown as well.
It is one thing to show a single anti-Semitic murder resulting from extreme Islamist ideology. But the film recounts a number of extreme anti-Semitic crimes committed by Muslims. These include, the 2006 murder of Ilan Halimi, the 2012 Toulouse Jewish school killings, the 2015 Paris hypermarket murders and those in 2014 at the Brussels Jewish museum. The movie further shows the pogrom-like Muslim attacks in 2014 against synagogues in Paris and Sarcelles as well as the 2014 Islam-inspired robbery and rape in another Paris suburb, Creteil.
Many European politicians and media outlets have attempted for more than a decade to dilute or hide mention of extreme Muslim anti-Semitism. The suppression of these facts takes place even as it is the most violent expression of the ancient Jew-hatred in contemporary Europe. During the French socialist Jospin government at the beginning of this century, the huge increase of anti-Semitic incidents – mainly caused by Muslims – was to a large extent hidden by the police and the Ministry of Interior under the general heading “hooliganism.”
The censored movie was initially made available thanks to a – probably illegal — 24 hour long showing on the internet by the German daily, Bild. The movie was for a time also viewed on You Tube. It is remarkable that it has taken more than fifteen years before a major documentary on European anti-Semitism was produced by a European broadcaster. Due to the Arte censorship the documentary has generated far more publicity than had the broadcasters simply screened it.
The Arte management uses two arguments to explain its suppression of the documentary. Their first argument was that the movie was not professional enough. The German public broadcaster ARD apparently does not share this opinion as it is willing to broadcast the documentary. The second claim was that the documentary did not cover a number of countries that the broadcaster had agreed on with the filmmakers. Arte also claimed that the documentary gave too much attention to the Middle East.
So it’s all about the, er, settlements then?
Leaving aside the sweeping arrogance and self-absorption of such thinking, it is plainly divorced from reality. Run that logic past the Copts of Egypt, who just buried their dead after 29 of their people were ambushed by jihadists while travelling to a monastery south of Cairo. Tell them that if only their foreign policy outlook or posture towards radical Islam were more accommodating they wouldn’t suffer periodic massacres. Tell it to the enslaved Yazidi or the beleaguered nation of Assyria. Tell them that is their conduct and their policies that are at the root of their own misfortune.
In our desperation to conceive of a coherent strategy for insulating ourselves from the medieval barbarism emanating from parts of the Middle East, we inevitably rationalise and search for change by looking inward at our own conduct or else outward not at the culprits but at rational actors like Israel whose conduct we feel we can control. We foolishly assume that the fundamentally unreasonable will respond to reason.
The hard truth is that evil has always existed and it can never be satiated, negotiated with or reformed.
The murderers of civilians in London and Manchester or Christian pilgrims in Cairo, the vandals of Palmyra and the arsonists of Joseph’s Tomb in the West Bank are moved by irrational hatred and a compulsion to destroy things of beauty until our lives take on the misery of theirs. The greatest mistake we could make in our war against jihadism is to respond to irrational acts with our own irrational thinking.
Douglas Murray: Finsbury Park attack: We need a consistent response to terror
All that is needed is some consistency. At present the same people whose response to any act of terror carried out in the name of Islam is that everybody should look away, and respond with no more than a chorus of ‘Don’t look back in anger’ are now pretending that everyone they disagree with has spent years inciting people to drive vans at crowds of Londoners. I see that JK Rowling is among those pointing the finger at Nigel Farage.
Here’s a test. Yesterday the annual Khomeinist ‘Al-Quds Day’ parade took place in London. The march calls for the destruction of the state of Israel and in our allegedly zero-tolerance-to-terror city of London supporters of the terrorist group Hezbollah openly paraded with the terrorist group’s flags. What twist of popular logic allows that people waving the flags of a terrorist group in London on Sunday have no connection with terror, but that a van-driver committing an act of terror later that same day should be blamed on Nigel Farage?
If it does turn out that Sunday evening’s terrorist was a non-Muslim deliberately targeting Muslims here are some things you will not hear:
- Nobody will claim that we must rethink our foreign policy to better align itself with the views of the attacker.
- Nobody will claim that we must carry out an analysis of all other views held by the terrorist, the better to understand ‘where he is coming from’ and then act on them.
- There will be no talk of ‘legitimate grievances’.
- Nobody will blame the ‘Prevent’ programme for the attack or claim that the already existing far-right element of the Prevent programme must be completely scrapped or wholly re-thought. More likely is that there will be calls for this element to receive even more resourcing than it currently does.
Approximately 10,000 Muslims were expected to show up to a “peace march” in Cologne, Germany on Saturday. Guess how many showed up? A couple hundred at most. Organizers hoped that an event featuring slogans like “Together against terror” and “Hatred makes the earth hell” would galvanize the so-called “peaceful Muslims” we’ve all been hearing so much about from the Left. In the wake of a wave of terror attacks across major cities in Europe, one would expect some solidarity with the victims, perhaps a few words of condemnation against violent jihad. Instead, a couple hundred people, many of whom were not Muslim, showed up to an underwhelming event that could hardly be called a “march.”
“The turnout was far fewer than the tens of thousands the organizers expected — Germany’s biggest Islamic association had said earlier in the week that it wouldn’t take part in the march,” reports Euronews.
Rather than standing up for victims, Germany’s Islamic community appears to have been more concerned about its PR image.
“The Turkish-Islamic Union argued it would send the wrong signal by suggesting that international terrorism is mainly a Muslim problem,” notes ABC News. “It also said Muslims observing the Ramadan fast couldn’t be expected to march for hours in summer temperatures. That stance drew criticism from the government, which welcomed the march.”
The disturbing lack of solidarity with terror attacks comes as German voters debate the the costs and benefits of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-borders migration.
Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters marched through the streets of central London on Sunday on the annual “Al Quds (Jerusalem) Day” demonstration convened by the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), a British Muslim organization with close ties to the Iranian regime.
At a rally outside the US Embassy following the march, one speaker blamed this week’s tragic fire at west London’s Grenfell Tower public housing project on “Zionists.”
“Some of the biggest supporters of the Conservative Party are Zionists,” the speaker ranted. “They are responsible for the murder of the people in Grenfell. The Zionist supporters of the Tory Party.”
Many of the marchers brandished signs calling for a boycott of the State of Israel. A number of flags of the Lebanese Islamist terror organization Hezbollah were also in evidence, including one at the front of the protest that was tied atop a Palestinian flag.
An energetic counter-rally organized by British Jewish organizations under the banner “Stand Against Hate” was staged close to the route of the march. Protesters waved Israeli flags and chanted “terrorists, off our streets.”
The counter-rally was addressed by Kay Wilson, who survived a terrorist attack in Israel in 2010.
“It is a racist slur to say that all Muslims are terrorists,” Wilson said. “However, it is deluded, dangerous and disingenuous to claim that terrorism has absolutely nothing to do with Islam.”
Today’s march took place just a fortnight after eight people were murdered in an Islamist car-ramming and stabbing attack near Borough Market in south London.
IsraellyCool: It’s Just The “Political Wing”
Aussie Dave has already pointed out the absurdity of the London Police following the IHRC guidelines allowing Hezbollah flags as long as protesters do so “to show support for the political wing of Hizbullah. This is because the political wing of Hizbullah is not a proscribed organisation.” [sic]
During the march, some protesters terror supporters, tried to follow these guidelines. Since there is no flag for the political wing, they resorted to placing stickers on their flags saying “this flag is to show my support for the political wing of Hezbollah.”
Not only is such a distinction foreign from Hezbollah’s own operating structure and statements, but it is a distinction that would not be acceptable for a terror group that didn’t specifically target Jews. There was an uproar recently as it was revealed that at least one of the recent London terrorists openly waved the ISIS flag in a tv documentary. But that outrage was apparently short-lived as thousands of people were then given the go-ahead to march with the flag of another genocidal terrorist organization on Al Quds Day.
But in keeping with the Judean People’s Front’s commitment to bringing levity to otherwise horrible situations, we decided to try to have some fun with this rampant display of hypocrisy to drive home just how ludicrous this really is:
Richard Millet: Hezbollah humiliated on streets of London as their Al Quds Day protest is blocked by pro-Israel activists.
We came we saw we conquered! While the Hezbollah Al Quds Day terror parade was allowed to take place on Sunday 18th June in the heart of London’s West End a group of 20 to 30 pro-Israel activists stepped out into the road to block the march no sooner than after it had just started.
The 300 or so Hezbollah supporters looked frustrated and bemused after expecting their usual easy ride shouting their slogans calling for Israel’s destruction.
Anti-semites will continue to block us from their anti-Israel meetings and have us thrown out of their anti-Israel events by making up accusations that we “disrupt” but they can’t stop us taking it to them on the streets of London.
As soon as the Iranian-regime inspired terror parade had set off down Portland Place from the BBC we stepped out in front of the Hezbollah supporters and for the next hour all they could do was watch as we chanted at them “TERRORISTS, OFF OUR STREETS!” while we walked slowly and danced to Israeli tunes down Portland Place and Oxford Street to the old American Embassy where Hezbollah held their terror rally accusing “Zionists”, inter alia, of causing the tragic Grenfell fire.
How in 2017 is a terror organisation like Hezbollah with a rifle emblazoned on its flag allowed to parade through London?
Richard Millett: Al Quds Day Terror March in London 18th June 2017
David Collier: Marching with (and stopping!) terrorist supporters in London in 2017
Because the pro-Israeli activists kept slowing down or stopping the demonstration, it took far longer to reach the US Embassy than expected, but eventually we reached the main group of pro-Israeli activists, the official counter demonstration.
And so the two groups finally faced each other. Speaking on the one side, Kay Wilson, a survivor of a brutal terror attack in Jerusalem, and speaking on the other, those that wave the flag of Hezbollah. Scottish PSC were represented, driven by a hate that blinds them to the colours of the Hezbollah flag. So too Naomi Winborne Idrissi. There is no excuse for a self stated ‘humanitarian’ of any shade to be walking with such toxic antisemitic elements. Rarely have Idrissi’s internal failings been so clearly exposed. On the 18th June 2017, she stood with the flag of Hezbollah. Under the banner of radical Islamic terrorism.
But the real failing here is that the march was allowed to take place at all. It is a disgraceful message to send that we are so impotent in the fight against terrorism, that terrorists can wave their flags freely in London.
The 18th June was Fathers day in the UK. Seeing the Hezbollah flag waved in London was a direct insult to all the absent fathers that were ripped from their families through Islamic terrorism. How sickening, that on a day that would know mourning in hundreds of households in the UK, Hezbollah should be honoured in the UK capital. The politicians had left it so the victims of terror were not remembered on the streets of London, their killers were. How fortunate that some people took to the streets to remind everyone of the truth.
CORBYN PRAISED AT LONDON HEZBOLLAH RALLY
The annual Al Quds day rally took place in central London yesterday afternoon. The Khomeinist march – in support of the destruction of the State of Israel – openly supports Hezbollah, whose military wing is a proscribed organisation in the UK. Jeremy Corbyn was photographed in front of a Hezbollah flag when he spoke at the march in 2012. This year he sensibly chose not to attend…
As the march snaked to the US Embassy in Grovsenor Square, anti-Israel chants rang out under dozens of yellow AK-47 emblazoned Hezbollah flags. Addressing the rally, Mick Napier from the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign accused “Zionists” of trying to depose Corbyn:
“This is a dramatic moment… Jeremy Corbyn has stood by the Palestinian people for 30 years, the Zionists hate him, they tried to get him prevented from becoming leader, they’re trying to get him removed.”
Meanwhile a speaker from Stop the War suggested Labour Friends of Israel are also trying to undermine Jez. “Zionists” were blamed for the Grenfell tower fire by a speaker at the rally, underlining the level of blatant lunacy displayed at the event. This is a terror-linked rally that lavished praise on Jeremy Corbyn and which he formerly backed…
Al-Quds day marchers blame London apartment fire on ‘Zionists’
Marchers in the annual Al-Quds Day parade in London blamed a fire in a low-income apartment complex that left at least 58 dead on “Zionists.”
Hundreds marched Sunday afternoon behind the Palestinian flag and behind a flag of Hezbollah, which has been named in Britain as an illegal terror organization. Many marchers also carried paper versions of the Hezbollah flag. No effort was made by London police to stop them, the Jewish Chronicle reported.
“This demonstration calls on justice for Grenfell. Some of the biggest supporters of the Conservative Party are Zionists. They are responsible for the murder of the people in Grenfell. The Zionist supporters of the Tory Party. Free, Free, Palestine!” one man shouted into a microphone during the march, according to the Chronicle.
Other chants included: “Zionists/ISIS are the same. Only difference is the name.”
Supporters on the anti-Israel parade route held up banners reading : “Zionism is Racism” and “We are all Hezbollah.”
Al-Quds is he Muslim name for Jerusalem. The annual march is a call for the destruction of Israel.
A man with an Israeli flag is moved away from the Al Quds demo , but the Hezbollah flag fly’s high
UK: Tensions high as Al Quds march is disrupted by pro-Israeli activists
IsraellyCool: What The Finsbury Park Attack May Mean
Yesterday Hezbollah flags flew over London. Muslims and supporters made outrageous speeches denouncing as evil the country I live in. Each speaker projected onto a giant screen which must have cost a fortune: don’t worry, Iran picked up the tab, possibly with the pallets of cash Obama had shipped to them in the middle of the night.
A few hours later at midnight it seems someone drove his van into a crowd of obviously Muslim people outside an Islamic centre in Finsbury Park. The Mayor of London has quickly called this a terrorist attack (very quickly). This is the same Sadiq Kahn who was powerless to prevent a deadly terrorist attack outside Westminster, powerless to prevent a deadly terrorist attack at London Bridge and powerless to prevent a terrorist supporting march in London. Seems he’s powerless to prevent vans mounting the kerb in front of Mosques too.
I think we’re going to learn something in the coming years. Jews and Israelis have acted with unbelievable restraint for a century. I think the way we’ve behaved in Israel, as Jews, following our Jewish laws and values, has been at times ridiculous. We’ve been attacked every single day for over a century for taking back ownership of our indigenous land and we have barely responded. It’s obvious Israel has the military might to destroy Gaza or commit horrific atrocities this afternoon: I can tell you, as a nation, we won’t ever do that. I do believe we’d respond to a nuclear attack, but short of that, the insurgency to remove us is not going to prompt a mass slaughter of Arabs. Because of who we are and how we look at the world.
Jewish groups condemn London mosque attack, express solidarity with UK Muslims
Several Jewish groups extended their condolences and issued condemnations on Monday after a van plowed into a group of worshippers leaving a London mosque in the early hours of the day.
At least 10 people were injured in the incident that British authorities were treating as a potential terrorist attack. If confirmed would make it the fourth since March in Britain and the third to involve a vehicle deliberately driven at pedestrians.
One man, who was already being given first aid at the scene before the vehicle was driven into pedestrians, has died but police said it was not clear whether his death was directly linked. The attack comes during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
ISIS Reacts to Suggestion That Finsbury Park Van Driver Is Not Muslim
Islamic State channels celebrating the news about a van driving into people outside a welfare house near the Finsbury Park Mosque reacted after learning the white, male driver, Darren Osborne, 47, may not be Muslim.
The ISIS channels remind Muslims that “the war is starting now.”
Driver in suspected car-ramming attack in Paris dies
The driver of a vehicle which crashed into a police van and then burst into flames in Paris has died, the BBC reported
The French Interior Minister confirmed that the shooter died in the collison. He was also reportedly armed.
Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told the Associated Press that authorities believe the collision was a deliberate attack and should be considered terrorism. Two gas canisters, two handguns and one Kalashnikov were found in the car which was set on fire by the driver before the collision.
No one was injured in the attack, which took place on the Champs Elysees.
Al-Haq, Law in the Service of Man, a UN-accredited non-governmental organization with special consultative status with the UN’s Economic and Social Council, claims that Israeli security forces defending against Palestinian stabbing, shooting, and car-ramming terror attacks are committing “extrajudicial executions” and suppressing “peaceful assemblies.” The blood libel comes in a written statement to the UN Human Rights Council under the infamous agenda item 7, the permanent agenda item dedicated solely to the demonization of the Jewish state, which is scheduled for debate on June 19, 2017. As a UN-accredited NGO, Al-Haq is entitled to submit written statements, as well as to make oral statements, for consideration at the UN Human Rights Council.
In the words of the statement:
“Since 1967, Palestinians have been victims of various forms of violence and use of excessive force by the Israeli Occupying Forces to instill control and fear. Extrajudicial killings, shoot-to-kill policies, torture and ill-treatment of political prisoners, and the violent suppression of peaceful assemblies and demonstrations are a few examples of the persistent use of excessive force by Israel against Palestinians. Although a mainstay of the occupation, Israel’s shoot-to-kill policy has been starkly flaunted over the past few years. Al-Haq has documented countless cases where Palestinians have been killed by Israeli Occupying Forces, where lesser, non-lethal means could have been used to control a situation. Importantly, in many cases, eyewitness testimony conflicted with Israel’s account of an incident, and Palestinians appear to have been arbitrarily killed. In other cases, Israel has stated that Palestinians were killed ‘by mistake,’ however, no steps towards accountability were taken. In addition to these incidents, Israel has implemented its shoot-to-kill policy at demonstrations, along with other tools of suppression.”
The Norwegian Refugee Council, a UN-accredited non-governmental organization with special consultative status with the UN’s Economic and Social Council, is urging the UN Human Rights Council to create a “fact-finding mission” to investigate Israel’s “prolonged occupation” – not Palestinian terror and incitement to violence. The request comes in a written statement to the UN Human Rights Council under the infamous agenda item 7, the permanent agenda item dedicated solely to the demonization of the Jewish state, which is scheduled for debate on June 19, 2017. As a UN-accredited NGO, the Norwegian Refugee Council is entitled to submit written statements, as well as to make oral statements, for consideration at the UN Human Rights Council.
In the words of the statement:
“The Human Rights Council is competent to deal with violations of human rights law and in practice includes in its scope of competence also international humanitarian law. The Council uses a number of tools for promoting respect for human rights and international humanitarian law. One of them is the appointment of special rapporteurs… Another possibility would be a fact-finding mission mandated by the Council to address the questions arising from prolonged occupation.”
UN “Human Rights” Body Circulates NGO Statement Flaunting Palestinian “Resistance
As Palestinians stab, shoot, and drive cars into Israelis, two Palestinian UN-accredited non-governmental organizations are promoting “Palestinian society’s resistance” at the UN Human Rights Council. The BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights and the Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights are UN-accredited NGOs and therefore entitled to submit written statements for consideration at the UN Human Rights Council . The NGOs’ support of Palestinian “resistance” comes in a written statement to the Human Rights Council, which was circulated as an official UN document. It was submitted under the infamous agenda item 7, the permanent agenda item dedicated solely to the demonization of the Jewish state, which is scheduled for debate on June 19, 2017.
In the words of the statement:
“To continue and facilitate implementing policies of colonization, including population transfer, Israel also has developed a system of control and suppression of Palestinians in the oPt. By suppressing Palestinian resistance through excessive use of force, unlawful killings, collective punishment, widespread arrests and other measures seek to break Palestinian society’s resistence [sic] to the implementation of Israel’s colonization.”
Anne Bayefsky: Israelis are expected to die laughing. 6/19/17, UN, Geneva
Lamis Deek spread a modern day blood libel
Lamis Deek of the National Lawyers Guild has no trouble spreading a modern day blood libel.
Deek, an attorney, has forwarded a completely unsubstantiated article that claims:
A Palestinian child from Beit Furik town in Nablus survived certain death on Wednesday after Jewish settlers kidnapped and tortured him inside their settlement.
Local sources told reporters that eight-year-old Bashar Ghazal was found in the illegal Itamar settlement, handcuffed and injured as a result of his exposure to severe torture at the hands of extremist settlers.
The sources added that the Israeli occupation army handed over the boy to the Palestinian Authority liaison office on Wednesday night, confirming that the settlers brutally tortured the child and burned his skin with molten plastic.
No, Lamis Deek did not attempt to fact check before forwarding this modern day blood libel.
The truth, via the Times of Israel
The Israeli military handed over to Palestinian police an apparently mentally challenged Palestinian child who walked up to the fence of a Jewish settlement in the northern West Bank on Wednesday, the army said.
The 8-year-old child was spotted walking in an area adjacent to the Itamar settlement, near Nablus, on Wednesday morning. IDF troops were called out to investigate.
When the soldiers started speaking with the boy, who apparently had a mental disability, they noticed that his body was covered in “signs of harsh physical abuse,” an army spokesperson said.
The child told them that he was being abused at home,” the spokesperson said.
New Zealand festival removes ‘Israel’ from Joseph musical
A New Zealand production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” sponsored by a local council has been forced to issue an apology to famed lyricist Tim Rice after removing “Israel” from the lyrics to one of the songs.
Festival organizers said they were doing so to keep things simple for students who would be performing, but did not explain why they found the word Israel in the play problematic.
The substitution was discovered by Twitter user, Kate Dowling, who noted on Friday that in the song “Close Every Door,” the line “Children of Israel” had been replaced with “Children of kindness.”
She wrote to the Wellington city council and to Rice, one half of the famed musical writing team, together with Andrew Lloyd Webber, to ask for clarification.
The changed lyrics were the work of the New Zealand capital’s Artsplash festival, in which 10,000 elementary school pupils take part. They distributed song sheets to those who were taking part with the changed lyrics to one of the best known songs.
Israeli “apartheid walls” and N. Ireland “peace walls”: A case study in media double standards
These walls began to be set up by the British army after rioting in Belfast in 1969. The walls were set up as a security measure to stop violence between the two communities, and over the years, more and more were built. The walls can be up to 30 feet high, and many have barbed wire on top. Some of the walls have gates in them to allow people to pass through them – they are open at day, and closed at night. In fact, there have been many peace walls built even after the Good Friday Peace Agreement in 1998, and peace walls now exist outside Belfast all over the country – there are currently 109 peace walls in Northern Ireland. Each year, tensions flare near some of the central walls during the marching season, where the Protestant side has a large public march through the centre of Belfast. This video captures the ongoing tensions between the two sides, and the walls that keep the peace.
Israel of course, also built a wall in order to stop violence. The Second Intifada claimed the lives of over 1,100 Israelis, as suicide bombings in cafes, buses and cinemas took the lives of innocent civilians all over the country. In 2003, Israel began constructing a barrier after attacks originating in the West Bank killed hundreds of Israelis. Since the building of the wall, there has been a 90% reduction in the number of terrorist attacks in Israel.
Yet somehow, Israel’s wall is often labelled not a security wall, but an “apartheid wall.” Why? And why are the walls keeping Catholics and Protestants apart in Northern Ireland called “peace walls” but the walls keeping terrorists out of Israel is an “apartheid wall”?
S Florida Muslim Leader Sofian Zakkout Posts Video of Moroccan March Dehumanizing Jews
Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout, the founder and President of the American Muslim Association of North America (AMANA), does many things for the Muslim community. He organizes rallies, he acts as a mosque liaison, he arranges relief missions, and he gives out books and educational materials through his group. Zakkout, as well, does things to affect the Jewish community, however in a horrifically negative way. He uses social media to spread the most insidious forms of anti-Semitism. Recently, he continued in this path, by posting a video onto Facebook of a march taking place in Morocco that celebrated violence and bigotry against Jews.
In October 2015, a heavily anti-Semitic Palestinian solidarity march took place in Casablanca, Morocco. A video of the march found its way onto the Facebook page of Muslim leader Sofian Zakkout, this past April. In this video, marchers held signs displaying Nazi swastikas and fists breaking through Jewish stars; a Jewish star was spray-painted on the ground with a red “X” painted atop it. The video also portrayed individuals dressed as Orthodox Jews held on the ground at gunpoint by masked men wearing keffiyehs. As one Jew lie helpless, his beard was ripped from his face by one of the gunman. A separate video from the march showed the Jews being stabbed to death.
Of course, this is not the first social media posting perpetrated by Zakkout that attacked Jews. Indeed, there have been many, too numerous to list. The following are but some of the more incendiary ones.
In April 2016, Zakkout published a post promoting fictional conspiracy theories about Jewish involvement in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A photo from the report shows the burning towers with a Jewish Star affixed to one. The report begins, “It ain’t debatable! Soup to nuts, top to bottom, the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington D.C. were an ‘Israeli’-Jewish job.”
International Jewish Athletes ‘Return’ to Jerusalem for 20th Maccabiah Games
During the 20th Maccabiah Games next month, approximately 7,000 Jewish athletes from 80 countries will descend upon the Holy Land to join 2,500 Israeli athletes in the Olympic-style competition.
Held every four years, the Jewish multi-sport competition is the world’s third-largest sporting event. This year, from July 4 to 18, the Maccabiah Games will have the added significance of coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the reunification of this year’s host city: Jerusalem.
“Fifty years after unification, we have finally returned the Maccabiah to its rightful place, Jerusalem — the capital of Israel,” Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat told reporters last week.
Tamir Goodman, an entrepreneur and motivational speaker who gained fame during his high school basketball career when Sports Illustrated nicknamed him the “Jewish Jordan,” noted that some of the most successful Jewish athletes are “deeply rooted” in their spiritual connection to Judaism, or their connection to Israel.
Goodman, who in his playing days was known for balancing a busy secular game schedule with his observance of Orthodox rituals, was given the honor of lighting the torch at the opening ceremonies of the 2001 Maccabiah Games in Atlanta.
“It’s very exciting that this year’s athletes will be able to showcase their skills in Jerusalem, especially now during the 50th reunification year,” Goodman told JNS.org. “Hopefully the experience will further their connection to Israel, their Jewish identity, and also enhance their skill level.”
Rare recordings of Holocaust survivors recovered after decades
A long-missing reel of Holocaust survivors recorded singing after World War II were recently rediscovered at the University of Akron in Ohio, PBS reported last week.
The songs were part of a collection of testimonies recorded over 70 years ago by Chicago-based psychologist David Boder following the liberation of Nazi camps in Europe. The mysterious wire recordings were delivered to the American university in 1967, and remained unheard for decades.
“Scholars were telling us that there was a missing reel. There was a reel of songs that were sung to Boder by Holocaust survivors in a camp in France after the war,” Akron Professor David Baker told PBS affiliate WVIZ ‘ideastream’ in Cleveland. “We had a box of reels, and scholars would ask from time to time, do you know what’s on those? And we had to say, no, we don’t.”
Therefore, media specialist Jon Endres and his colleague James Newhall spent three year building a mid-century-style playback machine from spare parts that would transmit the audio stored on the spools of thin silver wire.
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