From Ian:
The Anti-Israel Bias of the UN Human Rights Council
The Council’s lack of true concern for human rights violations around the world and its single-minded focus against Israel became most conspicuous in June 2007 when its members voted 46-1, to make Israel’s actions a permanent item on the Council’s agenda. From that point and onward, every meeting of the UNHRC includes Item #7 on the agenda: Israel and its “human rights violations.” The United States, Australia, and numerous European countries have been critical of the Council for this fixed agenda item, noting that the Council does not scrutinize countries with far worse rights records than Israel. (In June 2018, the United States pulled out of the UNHRC because of its anti-Israel bias, labeling the organization as “a cesspool of political bias.”)The final dimension of the UNHRC farce are the countries which have been allowed to sit on the 47-member council. Just to give one example, in 2017, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola were given seats on the Council. Angola and the DRC are countries known for gender-based violence, restrictions of freedom of expression, harassment of opposition leaders, lack of fair and free elections, suppression of freedom of assembly, discrimination against women, minorities, and people with disabilities, and persecution of the LGBT community.
Part of the mandate of the UNHRC is to “address important thematic human rights” such as “freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, freedom of belief and religion, LGBT rights, and the rights of racial and ethnic minorities.” How can they have been given the reins to monitor and condemn human rights violations around the world if they are in constant violation of those rights as outlined by the UN itself?
This stands in stark contrast with Israel where there is complete freedom of speech, freedom to protest, religious freedom, full equal rights for women, LGBT rights, open and fair democratic elections, and laws protecting women, minorities, and people with disabilities from discrimination.
JCPA: The Truth about Jerusalem’s City of David – The Lies about Silwan
The ancient Pilgrimage Road in the City of David is one of the most sensational archaeological discoveries to be made in Jerusalem since Israel’s establishment. On this road, remarkably preserved under the ashes of the Roman destruction, many thousands of Jews in Second Temple times, after a ritual bath in the Shiloah Pool, walked about 700 meters up the hill to the Temple Mount.The site was first excavated more than a hundred years ago by French, British, and American archaeologists, at a time when the State of Israel did not exist and Jerusalem was under Muslim rule.
The City of David, which is under archaeological examination, covers about 15 acres – or about 6 percent of the Arab Silwan neighborhood. The Israeli Supreme Court has rebuffed claims that the digging endangers the homes of Silwan residents and has clarified that it is done under strict engineering supervision and in line with professional standards.
Hundreds of Arab residents of Silwan have been employed in the excavations under the houses of the village – so much so that Hamas and the Palestinian Authority threatened them and forced them to leave their jobs.
The excavations are being done in the vicinity of the Temple Mount and not under it. That has been true of all the excavations Israel has carried out over the years in other parts of the Old City and the Temple Mount vicinity. Al-Aqsa is not in danger; what is in danger is the freedom of scientific archaeological research in this area.
July 1938: The evil Evian Conference on the Jews
Exactly 81 years ago the Evian Conference on the Jews, took place from July 6-15, 1938Helpless in the face of anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed an international conference to rescue Jews who no longer wanted to live in Germany.
The so-called cvilized world gathers from 6 to 14 July 1938 at the Royal Hotel Evian, on the shores of Lake Geneva.
Several factors determine the ebb and flow of the emigration of Jews from Germany at different times. These include the degree of pressure on the Jewish community in Germany and the willingness of other countries to admit Jewish immigrants. With the intensification of legal repression and physical violence, many Jews wish to flee Germany.
Until October 1941, German policy officially encourages Jewish emigration. Gradually, however, the Nazis sought to deprive Jews fleeing Germany of their property by levying an increasing emigration tax and limiting the amounts that could be transferred abroad by German banks.
In January 1933, there are about 550,000 Jews in Germany, less than 1% of the total population of the country.
A newly-published report from a leading Norwegian university on antisemitic violence in Europe has concluded that in six of the seven countries it surveyed, “individuals with backgrounds from Muslim countries stand out among perpetrators of antisemitic violence in Western Europe.”“Antisemitic Violence in Europe” — authored by Johannes Due Enstad of the Center for Research on Extremism at the University of Oslo — examines incidents of antisemitic violence in France, the UK, Germany, Russia, Norway, Sweden and Denmark between 2005-15. Only in Russia — where the lowest level of violence against Jews was recorded during that ten-year period — do far-right skinheads and Neo-Nazi extremists predominate overwhelmingly among the perpetrators of these acts.
“Attitude surveys corroborate this picture insofar as antisemitic attitudes are far more widespread among Muslims than among the general population in Western Europe,” Enstad wrote.
The report will make for particularly grim reading in France, where over 4,000 incidents — classified as “physical violence against individuals and serious attacks on buildings that potentially threatened human life,” and not including vandalism or verbal harassment — were recorded. France is currently in the throes of a media and political scandal around the brutal murder of Parisian Jewish pensioner Sarah Halimi by an Islamist intruder in April.
The report stressed that in France especially, Jews in general felt far less safe and were much less likely to visibly identify as Jewish. “France scores much higher than the other countries on questions on considering emigration, worrying about being physically attacked, and regarding antisemitism as a major problem in the country,” the report said.
Orthodox Presbyterian Church Doctrine Feeds Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism
In the wake of the second deadly attack in six months on American Jews in their houses of worship on Shabbat, David French, a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), published an article in National Review titled, “Dealing with the Shock of an Evangelical Terrorist.” The piece demonstrates an honest attempt to grapple with the fact that a person affiliated with the same Christian denomination of which he, French, is a member, could enter Chabad of Poway near San Diego, CA on the last day of Passover and kill one person while wounding three others.In his article, French made an understandable attempt to separate the beliefs and actions of the Poway shooter from the theological position of the OPC in relation to Jews and Israel. Unfortunately, however, the result was an ill-informed defense of his opinion that the beliefs of the OPC, or “any church’s adherence to so-called ‘replacement theology,’” do not make antisemitism acceptable in any way.
The OPC’s adherence to “so-called ‘replacement theology’” – which results in the belief that “the nation of Israel, as it existed as the people of God in the Old Testament is no more” – is quite evident on their denomination’s website. On a page devoted to a question and answer concerning the OPC and national Israel, the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms, chapter 19, paragraph 3 is quoted. It purports in part that “God’s people in the Old Testament are a church under age,” and that the ceremonial laws and ordinances only existed to prefigure Christ.
In their own words, the OPC believes “that Old Testament Israel was the Church before Christ came.” Paragraph 4 of the Westminster Confession adds, “To them also, as a body politic, He gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the state of that people (emphasis added), not obliging any other now, further than the general equity thereof may require.”
Gilad Atzmon, his Defenders, and their Enablers
Not an antisemite? Feel free to revisit the bullet points at the top of this piece. Atzmon is guilty of nearly every variant of antisemitism invented in the long history of the world’s oldest hatred, short of the view that Jews are shape-shifting lizard people from space.By exonerating Atzmon, Mearsheimer went from endorsing an antisemite’s book to the greater sin of endorsing the antisemite himself, and defending his antisemitism.
And it gets worse yet. Walt and Mearsheimer’s fervent defense of Atzmon’s hate speech appeared in Foreign Policy, a mainstream publication in which Walt has a recurring column.
We don’t know whether his editors paused to consider whether pro-antisemite polemics are in line with the Foreign Policy brand. We do know that Walt is still a regular contributor to the publication.
And what about Mearsheimer, the man who, in exculpating Atzmon from the charge of antisemitism, gave a thumbs up to denying the Holocaust, to slurring modern Jews as Christ-killers, to casting American Jews as disloyal citizens, to invoking the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and to alleging the Jews seek world domination? Was he, at least, rejected by polite society? Not quite. Just last week Mearsheimer was welcomed onto the New York Times Opinion pages to pen an Op-Ed on world affairs.
Walt and Mearsheimer have insisted that criticism of Israel is a “third rail” for American writers. What we actually learn from the duo, and their continued prominence long after advocating for Gilad Atzmon and defended his bigotry, is that, alas, even antisemitism is not a third rail.
SCHACHTEL: Elizabeth Warren Completes Her Total Abandonment Of Israel
Sen. Warren’s abandonment of our most vital Middle East ally began gradually, in 2015, when she and fellow Democrats boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress.In 2017, she slammed the Trump administration for publicly recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. A few months later, Warren targeted the Israeli military for its response to Gaza rioters.
Then, in 2018, Warren signed onto a letter (along with fellow anti-Israel presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders) calling on the secretary of state to do more to address the several crises in the Gaza Strip. The letter makes no mention of Hamas, the terrorist group that rules Gaza.
Today, in 2019, you can find Warren drafting and co-sponsoring resolutions blasting Israeli government security policies. In February, she engaged in a total character assassination of the Israeli prime minister, claiming that Mr. Netanyahu is a criminal who is “embracing right-wing extremism” and “manipulating a free press.”
Of course, Sen. Warren is just one of many 2020 Democrats who have completely abandoned our most vital Middle East ally to accommodate the loud, leftist, pro-Palestinian extremists that make up part of the Democratic base.
Warren Uses Campaign Bully Pulpit to Pile on Pro-Israel Trump Donor
The #resistance beat goes on targeting GOP donors and their involvement with all things Trump. Presidential hopeful and Senator Elizabeth Warren reported for duty on Twitter, participating in the disturbing trend of criminalizing political differences.
I called for an investigation into Elliott Broidy’s actions surrounding president Trump’s inauguration last year. Now a real investigation is happening. This is exactly why I’m fighting to end corruption in Washington. https://t.co/x7I43PuwQo
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) July 8, 2019Is this a fight to end corruption or a fight to use government agencies as weapon against political enemies? The “good Samaritans” at the DoJ cloaked themselves in virtuous intentions when they decided to use the federal intelligence apparatus to cook up a fake Russia-collusion hoax to stop Trump.
AP explains about the investigation:
Prosecutors appear to be investigating whether Broidy exploited his access to Trump for personal gain and violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it illegal for U.S. citizens to offer foreign officials “anything of value” to gain a business advantage. Things of value in this case could have been an invitation to the January 2017 inaugural events or access to Trump.“Exploited his access to Trump for personal gain”?? That’s literally the business model inside the beltway. All of the sudden, offering inauguration tickets to people you know or work with merits a federal investigation? Whatever happened to the Clinton donors who spent the night in the Lincoln bedroom by the way? Or the foreign governments who donated to the Clinton Global Initiative when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State? Where were the “good Samaritans” at that time?
AOC Chief Of Staff Comes Under Fire For Wearing T-Shirt Featuring World War II Nazi Sympathizer
On Monday, it was pointed out that the chief of staff for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Saikat Chakrabarti, smilingly wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the picture of Nazi sympathizer Subhas Chandra Bose in a NowThis News video featuring Chakrabarti.
In case it’s not clear, AOC’s chief of staff is wearing a T-shirt with Subhas Chandra Bose on it — the Indian nationalist whose plan for fighting British colonialism involved sucking up to, uh, Hitler. https://t.co/Mvgcoa1R6a
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) July 8, 2019
The Washington Free Beacon noted of Bose:
Bose met with Hitler in 1942, later praising Hitler’s rule in 1944, saying that India’s government “should be a synthesis between National Socialism and Communism.” According to the Times of India, Bose “fancied himself as a world leader like Hitler and Mussolini.”The Jewish Standard reported in 2017 that although roughly 5,000 Jews fled Nazi persecution and came to India, Bose did not want Jewish refugees coming to India:
There also were Indian groups who did not want to allow Jewish refugees into India. Dr. Shimon Lev, who did comparative research on Indian and Zionist national movements at Hebrew University (and who also spoke at the New Delhi conference) points to Subhash Chandra Bose, an Indian freedom fighter who was president of the Indian National Congress from 1897 to 1945. In 1938, Bose blocked the passage of a resolution sponsored by Jawaharlal Nehru, who later became India’s first prime minister, to welcome Jewish refugees “who could contribute to India’s progress.”
Louis Farrakhan’s 2018 tweet comparing Jews to termites is gone
A 2018 tweet in which Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan compared Jews to termites was no longer available on Twitter.On Tuesday, the social media platform introduced new rules prohibiting “language that dehumanizes others on the basis of religion.” Twitter said accounts that had posted such tweets prior to the policy change would have to delete offending tweets before being able to post new ones.
Farrakhan’s tweet was no longer available on the site as of Tuesday afternoon.
Last year the leader, who has a long history of making anti-Semitic and homophobic comments, wrote on Twitter, “I’m not an anti-Semite. I’m anti-Termite.” The tweet linked to a video of a speech he gave marking the 23rd anniversary of the Million Man March, his 1995 rally advocating empowerment for black men.
At the time, Facebook removed a similar post but Twitter said it did not violate its policies.
Labour Go On the Offensive Against Peers Who Resigned Over Anti-Semitism
Fresh from threatening their whistleblowers over the weekend with heavy-handed legal letters from the attack dogs at Carter Ruck, Labour have responded in a similarly measured fashion to their three peers who resigned today in protest at Labour’s “institutional anti-Semitism”. Labour have opted to go strongly on the attack, saying “we completely reject these false and offensive claims”.Guido suspects that going aggressively after two Jewish peers who’ve just resigned from the party over it no longer being “a safe political environment for Jewish people or other opponents of anti-Semitism” is probably not going to down as well as Labour think it is. We’ll find out soon enough who’s in the right when the Panorama documentary airs on Wednesday…
Lansman’s Extraordinary Attempt to Smear Anti-Semitism Whistleblowers
Corbyn’s outriders are continuing their all out pre-emptive war to try to discredit Labour’s anti-Semitism whistleblowers ahead of tonight’s Panorama exposé. Now it’s Momentum founder Jon Lansman who’s been wheeled out to make an extraordinary allegation against the whistleblowers, suggesting that they deliberately sabotaged Labour’s attempts to tackle anti-Semitism in order to make Corbyn look bad. Looks pretty defamatory if he doesn’t have any proof:Momentum themselves have already put out an attack video against producer John Ware while Corbyn’s spokesman has been briefing heavily against the BBC. It’s a radical change from Corbyn’s past approach of putting out bland statements paying lip-service to tackling the problem. They are seriously worried…
U.K.-Based Socialist Fight Organization Activist Gerry Downing: We Think Israel Must Be Destroyed Because It Is a Racist, Genocidal Endeavor pic.twitter.com/5w5T4VPjlJ
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) July 10, 2019
The Radicalization Of Campus Anti-Semitism In North Carolina
While Duke University’s student newspaper, The Chronicle, characterizes Israel as a “murderous” country with “genocidal policies” and defends Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) anti-Semitic tropes, the Ford Foundation makes the Tar Heel State the focus of intense “social-justice investing.”Long a hotbed of anti-Israel activism, the left-wing, New York-based philanthropic institution is the fifth-largest in the United States as of 2017, reporting $13.7 billion in assets.
The foundation’s original benefactor, automaker Henry Ford, was a Nazi sympathizer admired enough by Adolph Hitler to be mentioned by name in “Mein Kampf.” Ford distributed anti-Jewish propaganda in the form of a book titled “The International Jew,” and promoted the fraudulent work of anti-Semitic hatred known as “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
The Ford Foundation today carries on Henry Ford’s shameful legacy by funding anti-Israel activism.
In 2003, Ford’s grantmaking was too much even for far-left U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), now House Judiciary Committee chairman, who complained when the Ford Foundation was caught funding “organizations that openly instigate anti-Semitism, call for the destruction of Israel, or engage in the promotion of violence.”
Ford gave the notorious New Israel Fund $42.3 million from 2000 – 2011, according to IRS filings. New Israel Fund, in turn, donated to hundreds of smaller nonprofits, many of which engaged in anti-Israel advocacy.
But nowadays, Ford advances its anti-Israel agenda more stealthily.
Using U.S., Qatari Funding, Duke University Teaches K-12 Teachers Biased Info About Islam
By accepting more than $111,000 from Qatar Foundation International to provide U.S. teachers anti-Israel training, Duke University is abusing its status as one of only 14 Middle East National Resource Centers funded by the U.S. Department of Education to provide guidance on curriculum materials and teacher training for K-12 Middle East studies.From June 23 to June 28 on the Duke campus this year, “Dimensions of the Middle East” was an immersion program for grades 6-12 U.S. educators. Presented by the Duke Islamic Studies Center, Duke University Middle East Studies Center, and Qatar Foundation International, the institute trains 40 teachers who are hand-selected by QFI, according to a Duke University spokesman.
Qatar Foundation International (QFI), based in Washington, DC, is a subsidiary of the Qatar Foundation (QF), with direct ties to the Sharia-law government of Qatar. While QFI cuts a moderate, even scholarly image in public, its parent QF has been tied to supporting terrorist organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood. QFI partners with other elite universities for student outreach, but will resort to lawsuits to keep the financial details of these programs secret once the public begins to ask questions.
Documents received by the Haym Salomon Center shed light on the workings of Duke University’s unique influence operation targeting the U.S school system.
Amnesty steps up campaign for TripAdvisor to shun West Bank settlements
Amnesty International on Wednesday stepped up its campaign for a boycott on tourism in Israel’s West Bank settlements, urging TripAdvisor staff to press the site’s management to stop “profiting from war crimes.”“We are writing to ask you to join us in speaking out against TripAdvisor’s role in driving human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” read an open letter from Amnesty to the tourism website.
The British-based NGO said that the TripAdvisor, which hosts tourism listings, user generated reviews and other content, was a prime driver of business to settlements.
“By promoting tourism in these illegal settlements, TripAdvisor is helping boost their economies and contributing to the immense suffering of Palestinians who have been uprooted from their land, had their homes destroyed and their natural resources plundered for settlement use,” said Mark Dummett, Head of Business and Human Rights at Amnesty International.
The NGO urged the workers to speak out to pressure management.
“As TripAdvisor employees, we believe you too have a real power to make a difference by speaking out and demanding that the company stops listing accommodation and tourist attractions based in Israeli settlements,” it wrote.
If your problem is tourist services in occupied territory, why is our campaign vs @TripAdvisor limited to Israel, and ignores its larger activities in WSahara, NCyprus, Karabakh? You may want to drop the “International” from your name. https://t.co/HcKQYeAq24
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) July 10, 2019
Toronto church cancels Palestinian event called an ‘open glorification of terrorists’
A downtown Toronto church has cancelled a youth scholarship event hosted by a Palestinian group that was condemned as “the open glorification of terrorists and murderers.”The Ghassan Kanafani Resistance Arts Scholarship launch party was cancelled after complaints from members of the Jewish community and a decision by the directors of Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church that the event was “inconsistent with church policy.”
Originally scheduled for July 13, the launch party was to feature spoken word, music and food “to celebrate the artistic and cultural contributions of Palestinians in the diaspora,” organizers said in promotional material, and showcase winners of an annual scholarship contest. Written works from the scholarship contest were published in an online anthology entitled We Feel a Country in Our Bones.
The event was organized by the Toronto chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement, which describes itself as “a transnational, independent, grassroots movement of young Palestinians in Palestine and exiled worldwide as a result of the on-going Zionist colonization and occupation of our homeland.”
Its mission statement includes motivating young people to take an active role “in our national struggle for the liberation of our homeland and people.”
The scholarship program, open to Palestinians in the United States and Canada, is in the name of a polarizing figure.
Ghassan Kanafani, who the PYM calls a “heroic novelist,” was a noted Palestinian writer but is better known to the wider world for his involvement in the Lod airport massacre near Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1972, during which 26 civilians were killed, including a Canadian, and 80 people injured.
Ezra Levant: Antisemitism in Canada at tipping point into mainstream
On last night’s episode of The Ezra Levant Show, we found that foreign media was covering the fact that a United Church in downtown Toronto was letting their event space to laud a Muslim terrorist.
BBC News coverage of terrorism in Israel – June 2019
The Israel Security Agency’s report on terror attacks (Hebrew) during June 2019 shows that throughout the month a total of 123 incidents took place: 63 in Judea & Samaria, 18 in Jerusalem and 42 in the Gaza Strip sector.In Judea & Samaria and Jerusalem the agency recorded 53 attacks with petrol bombs, fifteen attacks using pipe bombs, one shooting attack, ten arson attacks and two attacks using grenades.
Incidents recorded in the Gaza Strip sector included 30 attacks with petrol bombs, one attack with an IED, five attacks using pipe bombs, one attack using an improvised grenade, one shooting attack and 3 separate incidents of rocket launches.
No fatalities or injuries were recorded in June.
The BBC News website did not report any of the month’s incidents, including a direct missile hit (the second attack of the day) on a yeshiva in Sderot.
Kudos to @MEMRIReports for this full page ad in section A of @washingtonpost. Qatar is one of the world’s largest supporter of Islamist terrorism worldwide. Shame on @FIFAcom for excusing this behavior & hosting the @FIFAWorldCup there. pic.twitter.com/KqYyWWO4Cn
— Samantha R Mandeles (@SRMandeles) July 9, 2019
The @TheSun has done something similar: pic.twitter.com/9ESu5Ix8SJ
— Daniel Sugarman (@Daniel_Sugarman) July 10, 2019
I am guessing Goldstein asked @Owencomedy to remove the video, and the latter only agreed to “hide” it. But Goldstein needs to apologize for legitimizing his “friend’s” antisemitism and condemn it! https://t.co/1M0zuS4hnh cc: @DennisPrager @prageru
— Ozraeli Dave (((דיויד לנג))) (@Israellycool) July 10, 2019
Yad Vashem invites Florida school district to learn about Holocaust
Yad Vashem’s Echoes and Reflections program has invited principals and teachers from School District 5 of Palm Beach County, Florida, to participate in a Holocaust education seminar.This comes after the principal of Spanish River Community High School, a school in this district, told a parent, who had inquired about Holocaust education at the school last year, that “not everyone believes the Holocaust happened,” and that he’s unable to say if “the Holocaust is a factual, historical event.” The remarks were publicized on Friday by The Palm Beach Post and the principal, William Latson, has since been removed from his position.
In a letter to the school district’s board chairman, Frank A. Barbieri Jr., Echoes and Reflections program director Sheryl Ochayon invited the teachers and principals to take part in a “professional development program about the Holocaust.”
She said that “In light of the recent incident in the Spanish River Community High School… we are sure that an Echoes and Reflections PD program will give your valued teachers a better understanding, not just about the Holocaust as a landmark event in world history, but also about the importance of teaching it in US public schools and in your school district of Palm Beach County.”
Ochayon explained in the letter that the teachers’ knowledge about Holocaust history and its human story will be enriched by the program.
Dutch mainstream party activist says Jews came to Israel ‘to be Nazis’
A member of the mainstream Dutch Green Left party, which has publicly endorsed attempts to boycott Israel, has said Holocaust-traumatized Jews came to Israel “to be Nazis.”Alireza Taimurizadeh, an activist in the Arnhem area for Green Left, in recent remarks on Facebook called Israel “a country which makes a Jew feel shame. Israel, the bribe for 6 million lives, far away, where they can live out their trauma, react to it WHERE THEY CAN BE THE SS.”
He included a link to an article on Haaretz about the alleged mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners.
The party distanced itself from Taimurizadeh, with a spokesman telling the RTV Arnhem broadcaster on Monday that the post was “inappropriate and unacceptable.”
Ronny Naftaniel, vice chairman of the Dutch Central Jewish Board, called on Taimurizadeh, who has not been the subject of any disciplinary action by Green Left, to apologize, saying this is “the least that should be done.”
The motion on Israel adopted by Green Left, the party of the current mayor of Amsterdam, called the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel “a legitimate means to help Palestinians in their fight for justice.”
It was the first endorsement of BDS by a mainstream political party in the Netherlands, where critics of the campaign often compare it to the boycott of Jewish businesses during the Holocaust.
Iraqi man gets life in jail for rape, murder of Jewish teen in Germany
An Iraqi man was sentenced to life in jail by a German court on Wednesday for the rape and murder of a teenage girl that fueled far-right protests against a mass influx of mostly Muslim migrants.Rejected asylum seeker Ali Bashar, 22, was convicted of the killing and handed the maximum sentence of life in prison by the court in Wiesbaden, the city where the murder took place in May last year.
The judge, Juergen Bonk, also found the crime to be of exceptional severity, meaning that Bashar will not be granted parole after 15 years as is usually the case in Germany.
Bashar committed a “coldblooded murder” and showed “neither remorse nor empathy,” said the presiding judge, adding that during his trial the defendant had “voiced no sincere word of regret.”
The Iraqi man battered, raped and strangled the Jewish schoolgirl to death in a wooded area near railway tracks on May 23, 2018.
On June 25, 2019, Dr. Ahmed Al-Raissouni, head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), reposted on the organization’s website an article he wrote in 2003 on the subject of antisemitism. In this article he claims that accusations of antisemitism have become a deadly weapon in the West that is used to stifle freedom of thought, expression and research. This weapon, he explains, is used against figures who criticize Israel or various “Western and Jewish positions,” causing them to be maligned and sometimes even prosecuted or fired from their posts. As an example he mentions Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad, who faced a “vicious campaign” based on the “routine accusation” of antisemitism. This is presumably a reference to the harsh criticism incurred by bin Mohamad in 2003 after he said at an October 16 summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) that “the Jews rule this world by proxy” and “get others to fight and die for them,” adding that “1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews” but must find a way to “strategize and then to counter attack.”[1] Al-Raissouni also mentions French philosopher Roger Garaudy, who in 1998 was prosecuted for Holocaust denial under French law for challenging the veracity of the Holocaust in his 1996 book The Founding Myths of Israeli Politics.The article goes on to say that, despite the excessive rights, status and sympathy gained by the Jews as a result of the deeds of the Nazis, the Zionist movement continues to make accusations of antisemitism at every opportunity. This, despite the fact that the real antisemitism today is not directed against Jews but rather at Islam and the Muslims, who are the ones who now face hate campaigns and require protection from them.
It should be noted that the IUMS is supported not only by Qatar but also by Turkey. In an interview with Al-Raissouni on Al-Jazeera in November 18, 2018, shortly after he replaced Al-Qaradawi as the head of the IUMS, he revealed that Qatar has supported the organization since its inception and that Turkey now funds it as well, and said: “There is nothing wrong with that and we don’t hide it. On the contrary, we are proud of it and we urge all the countries to follow in the footsteps of those two.”[2]
ELTA Systems joins Lockheed Martin to offer radar for US ‘Sense Off’
Lockheed Martin and ELTA Systems, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), successfully completed a demonstration of their radar solution for the US Army’s Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS) during the “sense-off” demonstration.The two-week demonstration period at the “sense-off” at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico saw several companies demonstrate radars for the LTAMDS. A selection is expected to be made by the end of the year of one vendor to build six prototypes by the end of 2022.
The ELTA radar used for the event was the combat-proven ELM-2084 Multi-Mission Radar (MMR), which is used by Israel’s fame Iron Dome, David’s Sling and IAI’s land-based Barak weapon systems.
During the demonstration period, a series of air and missile defense exercises showcased the MMR radar solution and “how it will meet the Army’s requirements for the LTAMDS system, while providing additional deployment strategies for the air and missile defense mission,” read a statement provided by IAI.
The ELM-2084 systems allow for the monitoring, tracking and interception of several airborne projectiles simultaneously at an altitude between 100 meters and 3,000 meters (330 to 10,000 feet), and cover a wide area of about 250 kilometers.
Israeli Firm Launches World-First Expandable Nanosatellite
A new era in satellite communications will be ushered in with the launch of NSLSat-1, the world’s first expandable high-performance communications nanosatellite, on Friday by Israeli space-tech startup NSLComm of Airport City.The nanosatellite, designed with a unique “expandable” technology to meet the growing global demand for increased connectivity, will launch at 1:42 AM ET on July 5 at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Far-Eastern Russia on the payload of the Soyuz launch vehicle along with 27 other commercial and educational satellites from Germany, France, the US, the UK, Sweden, Finland, Thailand, Ecuador, the Czech Republic, and Estonia.
NSLSat-1 NSLComm features fabric-like, flexible dish antennas that expand in space to offer high-throughput communications for small satellites at a speed of up to 100 times faster than that of today’s best performing nanosatellites but is about 10 times cheaper, according to the company.
This technology permits antennas to be stowed compactly during launch and deploy in orbit, saving mass, volume and supporting structures. After deployment, the antenna’s FlexoSub subreflector compensates for any reflector shape imperfections and change ground patterns on the fly.
Intel self-driving venture will start with robotaxis, Mobileye’s Shashua says
The first self-driving cars will likely be taxis rather than private vehicles, according to Mobileye founder Amnon Shashua.Shashua, considered a pioneer in the autonomous car industry, laid out his vision, and Intel’s strategy, in an op-ed published Tuesday on the website of Intel Corp., which acquired Mobileye for $15.3 billion in 2017.
There are three aspects to autonomous vehicles, Shashua explained: advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), robo-taxis, and fully autonomous private cars that will replace the cars we use today, which Shashua refers to as “series-production passenger car autonomy.”
With ADAS, which is already in use, drivers are in control of their vehicles but the autonomous system intervenes when necessary to prevent accidents.
“This critical phase of auto-tech-AI is well underway, with today’s penetration around 22% and expected to climb sharply to 75% by 2025,” Shashua wrote, referring to ADAS.
The next stage will see the rise of robotaxis, autonomous vehicles that are hailed via an app.
Slash lets the music do the talking in Tel Aviv
On Tuesday night, guitar legend Slash played to an enthusiastic crowd at the Tel Aviv Exhibition Center with his backing band Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators.The animated icon who shot to superstardom in the 1980s as the lead guitarist of Guns N’ Roses is showing no signs of losing anything in middle age.
He’s been to Israel a couple times, with ‘Guns’ in the 1990s and again a couple of years ago on their reunion tour, but this is the first time he’s been here as bandleader.
Vocalist Myles Kennedy and his band The Conspirators are decent accompaniment for Slash and helped to put on a fantastic show, but Slash is on a different stratosphere of stardom and simply sucks the audience into his area of the stage regardless of what the rest of the band are doing at any time. With his trademark top hat still atop his curly hair, he played rousing, headbanging-inducing guitar riffs and solos aplenty while strutting up and down the stage and exuding cool in a way that only very few of the biggest superstars can.
While the set list cannot possibly compare to the vast array of classics Slash has at his disposal when playing with Guns N Roses, his work with Kennedy and the Conspirators has produced some decent songs.
Coldplay’s Chris Martin visits coexistence kindergartens in Israel
Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin was in Israel Monday on an unannounced visit.Martin was spotted in Jaffa’s bilingual kindergarten network for Jewish and Arab children, Bustan Yafa, according to Channel 12’s “Good Evening with Guy Pines.”
Martin has in the past made contributions to “The Orchard of Abraham’s children” Foundation behind the kindergarten network, which seeks to promote coexistence.
According to Channel 12, Martin toured the educational institutes in Jaffa and later went on a tour in the West Bank. He was set to depart the country on Tuesday.
Interview: Yankees legend Mariano Rivera explains why he’s a strong supporter of Israel
New York Yankees legend Mariano Rivera will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 21 as the first player to be unanimously selected. But this week, the five-time World Series winner was in Washington to make the pitch for Israel.Rivera was on hand to appear at the annual Christians United For Israel summit, a gathering of the largest pro-Israel group in the United States. Other speakers included Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser John Bolton, and (via satellite) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Rivera explained how his faith led him to develop a deep connection to Israel.
“As a Christian, I do believe that the Lord gave us the Bible,” he said. “The Bible speaks about Israel. Everything — from New Testament, Old Testament — it’s all about Israel and the relationship his people have. So as a Christian, I understand that the chosen people of God is Israel — Jewish Israel. The country was made by him. All the other countries were made by men. This country was built by him for his people.”
Rivera said his bond with Israel was forged on two trips he made there: one with his family and one last summer with his church and a group of friends who are rabbis.
Netanyahu visits grave of Yoni, killed during Operation Entebbe 43 years ago
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the grave of his brother Yoni Netanyahu on Tuesday, commemorating the 43rd anniversary of his death, which falls on the sixth of the Hebrew month of Tammuz.Yoni Netanyahu was killed in action during Operation Entebbe in 1976, a hostage rescue mission at Entebbe Airport in Uganda.
“Today is the annual memorial for my brother, a hero of Israel, Yoni Netanyahu. May his memory be a blessing,” Netanyahu tweeted on Tuesday. “My brother, Yoni, it’s been 43 years. I miss you every day.”
Yoni Netanyahu was born in New York in March of 1946 and with his family moved back and forth between the United States and Israel. As a high school junior, after a brief return to the United States in 1963, he returned to the Jewish homeland, enlisting in the IDF Paratroopers Brigade. He then fought in the Six Day War as a commander.
After the war, Yoni Netanyahu married his girlfriend, Tuti. They soon left for Boston where he enrolled at Harvard University.
During his studies, Israel was in the midst of fighting a “War of Attrition” against Egypt and Jordan. Because of this, Netanyahu believed he should be in his homeland. So, in 1968, he and Tuti returned to Israel. He enrolled at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem studying mathematics and philosophy.
Netanyahu commanded a Sayeret Matkal force in the Golan Heights during the Yom Kippur War. The unit killed more than 40 Syrian commandos and thwarted the attempted Syrian raid in the Golan’s heartland. He also rescued wounded Lieutenant Colonel Yossi Ben Hanan from Tel Shams.
He is remembered as a charismatic, tough leader who defined post-state Zionism. The prime minister said his “hard line against all terrorists” views came as a result of the death of his brother.
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