US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman tore into the Haaretz daily Friday after the left-wing outlet ran an op-ed criticizing his financial support for the settlement enterprise.

“What has become of .@Haaretz ? Four young children are sitting shiva for their murdered father and this publication calls their community a ‘mountain of curses.’ Have they no decency?” he tweeted.

The “mountain of curses” remark with which Friedman took particular issue was a play on words by columnist Gidon Levy referring to the Har Bracha, or “Mount of blessing,” settlement.

The northern West Bank community was home to Rabbi Itamar Ben-Gal, a 29-year-old father of four who was stabbed to death by an Israeli Arab terrorist outside the Ariel settlement on Monday.

A day after the murder, Friedman recalled having donated an ambulance to Har Bracha years ago “hoping it would be used to deliver healthy babies.”

“Instead, a man from Har Bracha was just murdered by a terrorist, leaving behind a wife and four children. Palestinian ‘leaders’ [sic] have praised the killer. Praying for the BenGal family,” his Tuesday tweet concluded.

In his Haaretz column, Levy addressed the ambassador’s tweet, taking issue with his donation’s beneficiaries.

“With Friedman’s ambulance or without it, Har Bracha is a mountain of curses. It was a settlement established, like all the others, to poke a stick in the Palestinian eye and drive a stake into any chance of an agreement,” Levy wrote, highlighting the settlement’s location deep inside the northern West Bank.

Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken replied to Friedman’s tweet Friday, posting to the social media network that “Gideon Levy is right. As long as the policy of Israel that your Government and yourself support is obstructing peace process, practical annexation of the territories, perpetuating apartheid, fighting terror but willing to pay its price, there will be more Shivas.”

At a meeting of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation last December, Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, said that Jews are really excellent at faking and counterfeiting history and religion. I was struck by that because I refuse to assault the principles of their faith. They can say whatever they want about their faith as long as they don't try and assault my faith. Part of the tragedy of the current period is this overall assault on the connections between Israel, the Jewish people, and Jerusalem.

In October 2016, UNESCO asserted that the Temple Mount was connected to Islam, but it refused to acknowledge any Jewish connection whatsoever - or for that matter any Christian connection - to the Temple Mount. In the resolution adopted in Paris, it used only the Islamic term for the Temple Mount - Haram al-Sharif, but the actual terminology "Temple Mount," which had been used by international organizations for years, suddenly vanished. A few months later in December 2016, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2334 which called the Old City of Jerusalem, the Western Wall, and the Temple Mount "occupied Palestinian territory."

The entire international community met together after World War I and said the Jews have a right to reconstitute their ancient homeland. That ought to be worth something. Israel is the only country in the international system whose historical rights were confirmed by both the League of Nations and the United Nations. To completely dismiss the rights of Israel is to dismiss how our rights have been understood by the international community for more than a century.

The cardinal question is who is going to protect Jerusalem in the future. Will it be national movements that doubt the legitimacy of various faiths' connections to Jerusalem, or will it be national movements that understand that there are other national groups that have connections to Jerusalem. If Jerusalem is important to people, if freedom of religious expression is important to people, then only a free and democratic Israel will protect Jerusalem for all the great faiths.

According to a 2016 Haaretz interview with Adnan Ghosheh, a senior water and sanitation specialist at the World Bank, the Gaza Strip will become uninhabitable for human beings by 2020.

This grim forecast is supported by the Institute for National Security Studies in a report titled "Water and Energy Crisis in Gaza: Snapshot 2017."

According to the report, the "lack of clean water for domestic use and unsafe sanitary conditions pose a serious public health threat to the two million people living in the Gaza Strip. By now, large amounts of untreated wastewater have already crossed Gaza's borders and created additional repercussions for several neighboring communities in Egypt and Israel, with Israel at one point forced to close two of its beaches."

When unlimited drinking water flows from the taps in Ashkelon, just north of Gaza, it is too easy to accuse Israel of unjustly dividing this precious resource, as self-righteous Israelis, and Europeans, sometimes do. These voices continue to condescend, absolving the local leadership of any responsibility. But it is the Palestinian leaders who actually bear the blame for this disgraceful situation.

The fact is that the deterioration of Gaza's water aquifers is a perfect reflection of the deterioration of the Oslo Accords. It is not a military or diplomatic issue, but rather a refusal to take any responsibility for providing basic infrastructure that is essential for maintaining the most fundamental aspects of life – preventing disease and death. If only they dug sewer tunnels for the betterment of Gaza rather than terror tunnels to the detriment of Israel.

Egyptian journalist and TV host Ibrahim Eissa said recently that the Palestinians who carried out the 1972 Munich Olympics attack on Israeli athletes were terrorists. "When people storm the Olympic games and the Olympic village, and kidnap athletes – even if they are Israelis – they cannot be called 'fedayeen,' in my view. They should be called 'terrorists,'" he said. Eissa made the comment while reviewing a book on his show on the Egyptian ON TV, in which he said that the use of terrorism was "the backbone of the wretched political exploitation of the Palestinian cause."

Arab Culture Was The First To Use Sports Events In Politics, And To Make Terrorist Use Of Sports Events In Politics

Ibrahim Eissa: "Arab culture was the first to use sports events in politics, and to make terrorist use of sports events in politics. The great Palestinian cause, which has been the life cause of us all, was peddled by some, used by some, and exploited by some, but the backbone of the wretched political exploitation of the Palestinian cause has been the use of violence and terror under the false pretext that this constitutes resistance against the colonialist West, Israel, or the Americans.

"The highlight of this was the famous operation in the 1972 Munich Olympics. It demonstrated that the catastrophe has always originated from the same culture. It is exploiting religion today just as it exploited pan-Arabism and the Palestinian cause in the past. What happened in the Munich Olympics? A group of what we used to call Palestinian fedayeen...

"The truth is they had nothing to do with fedayeen... Fedyaeen fight the enemy, fedayeen fight the occupation forces, but when people storm the Olympic games and the Olympic village, and kidnap athletes – even if they are Israelis – they cannot be called 'fedayeen,' in my view. They should be called 'terrorists.'"

Egyptian Journalist And TV Host Ibrahim Eissa: The Palestinians Who Carried Out The 1972 Olympics Massacre Were Terrorists, Not Fedayeenhttps://t.co/p1AsNsUTc0pic.twitter.com/2x3kC9qgjD

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 9, 2018

In announcing the embassy move to Jerusalem, President Trump gave credence to this history and recognized Israel’s sovereign right to determine her own capital. He also signaled that US policy would no longer be dictated by false narratives denying the Jews’ connection to their homeland. In so doing, he broke with his predecessors in office, whose endorsement of contrary Palestinian claims served only to undermine Israel’s legitimacy.

Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were naive to think a two-state solution could be workable despite the Palestinians’ oft-stated goals of exterminating Israel and her people (and refusal to amend their charter calling for Israel’s destruction). Still, Clinton and Bush never expressed personal disdain for the Jewish State. In contrast, Barack Obama disrespected Israel, sought to appease Islamists, and validated the theory of linkage, which became a mantra for the progressives, BDS advocates, and radical regimes who were enabled by his policies.

Given the absence of evidence suggesting Israel has any impact on regional tensions, it becomes easy to see the bigoted underpinnings of the linkage theory. Claiming Israel is responsible for extraterritorial conflicts dating back 1,500 years or more is the same as accusing Jews of manipulating the global economy, controlling governments, or seeking world domination. Just as classical conspiracy theories accuse Jews of exercising power beyond their numbers, so too the linkage doctrine blames Israel for situations well beyond her influence and control.

When analyzed critically, the theory of linkage resembles a modern reworking of the ancient canard of undue Jewish influence. Whereas Clinton and Bush did not see through the theory’s subterfuge, Obama affirmatively indulged its worst impulses. In contrast, Trump has rejected it altogether and signaled that US foreign policy will no longer be governed by revisionist fiction. And this may augur well for America’s regional interests and Israel’s continuity as a Jewish state.

US President Donald Trump said in an interview published Friday that recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was a “high point” of his first year in office, but that Israel will have to make “hard compromises for peace” in return.

Speaking to the Sheldon Adelson-owned Israel Hayom, Trump noted the December 6 recognition as a highlight.

“I think Jerusalem was a very big point. And I think it was a very important point. The capital, having Jerusalem be your great capital, was a very important thing to a lot of people,” said Trump according to an excerpt of the interview released Friday ahead of its full publication Sunday in the conservative Hebrew daily.

“I have been thanked and in some cases not thanked, to be 100% honest about it. But it was a very important pledge that I made and I fulfilled my pledge,” he said, noting that “the lobbying against it was tremendous.”

The move was hailed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by leaders across much of the Israeli political spectrum. Guatemala has since announced it will follow the US in moving its embassy to the city.

But the decision sparked protests in some countries and was rejected in a non-binding UN General Assembly resolution. Arab and Muslim leaders have railed against it and the Palestinians cut off contacts with the US, saying Washington could no longer be an “honest broker” in peace talks.

US President Donald Trump spoke with Boaz Bismuth, a journalist for the Israel Hayom newspaper, about his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital city.

At the beginning of the interview, Trump explained that prior to becoming President, he was a man of his word. Now, after his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, he has proof of that, and does not for one second regret his decision.

When asked which moment during his first year in office was most memorable, Trump didn't hesitate: "I think that Jerusalem was my high point. It was very important that I recognized Jerusalem as your beautiful capital city. This was an extremely important decision for many people, who thanked me [for it]. To be completely honest, there were others who did not thank me. But it was an extremely important promise - and I fulfilled it."

"Did you know ahead of time that you would recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital during your first year in office?"

"Yes, I said that I wanted to do this during my first year," Trump said. "I understand why other presidents failed to keep this promise. They were under extraordinary pressure not to do it. All of the other presidents failed to keep this promise, despite the fact that they promised it during their election campaign. But I understand, because there were enormous efforts to prevent them from keeping their promises."

"What did you mean when you said that your recognition took Jerusalem off the table?"

"By removing Jerusalem from the negotiating table, I made it clear that Jerusalem is Israel's capital. When it comes to the specific borders, I will support whatever decision the sides reach."

A new warning on Iran’s destabilizing behavior in Lebanon was sent to the United Nations Secretary General and Security Council. The letter, which has been seen by Fox News, warned of the consequences of leaving Hezbollah’s actions unchecked by the U.N.

The letter was written by Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon, and was shown to Fox News by a U.N. diplomat. It warns that continued inaction by the U.N. and the Lebanese government will lead to Iran and its U.S. designated terrorist organization, Hezbollah, further disrupting the region.

The two-page letter describes a recent visit by a senior Iranian official, Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi, to the Lebanese/Israeli border where he was escorted by Hezbollah officials who were uniformed and armed — which is a blatant violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. The visit took place within a U.N. buffer zone free of any armed personnel.

The letter refers to pictures on social media showing Raisi inspecting Hezbollah military sites. The letter reports that he made provocative comments about the imminent liberation of Jerusalem, and thanked Hezbollah for its “stand against the Zionist regime.”

The letter states in part, “ I write, once again, to alert you and members of the Security Council to the dangerous and destabilizing actions taken by Hezbollah, the internationally recognized terrorist organization that serves as an Iranian proxy in our region.”

In yet another sign of rapprochement with the Persian Gulf states, a group of prominent US Jewish organizational leaders led by Malcolm Hoenlein will travel in the coming days to the United Arab Emirates.

Members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which Hoenlein leads as its executive vice chairman, will travel to Abu Dhabi and Dubai as part of their annual leadership mission before coming to Israel. The group’s annual conference in Jerusalem will begin a week from Sunday.

The visit comes amid increasing small signs of normalized interaction between Israel and the Gulf states, including reports on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia will allow Air India to fly over its territory on flights to and from Israel, and a 23-person delegation from Bahrain that visited Israel in December.

Hoenlein told The Jerusalem Post that the aim is to “foster better ties with the US, the American Jewish community and Israel.”

Although this is not the first time his organization will bring a delegation to the UAE, he said it will be the largest.

“Each year the conference goes to another country before coming to Israel,” he said. Among countries visited in previous years were Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Bahrain, Qatar, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

The trip comes quickly on the heels of a trip Hoenlein made to Qatar in November, when he met with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. A number of other prominent US Jewish leaders have also visited Qatar in recent weeks.

But all the option he listed would include the United States, despite the fact that the Palestinian leadership has repeatedly stated in recent weeks, since U.S. President Donald Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital on Dec. 6, that the U.S. can no longer mediate peace negotiations due to its obvious bias in favor of Israel.

"We're saying a collective approach involving several players at minimum would have a better chance of succeeding than the approach of only one country that is so close to Israel," Mansour told reporters.

The Palestinians are also furious at Trump for cutting the funding for the U.N. agency dedicated to assisting Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA.

Mansour said a collective peace process could "be in the format of the [U.N.] Security Council – that would be something that we will look at seriously."

"The Quartet plus China plus the League of Arab States plus maybe others ... we could also look at that," he added, referring to the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators that comprises the U.N., the U.S., the European Union and Russia.

"Or the collective process might be of the nature of the French Paris conference or international conference," he said.

Israel named a new ambassador to Jordan on Thursday, seven months after recalling its ambassador amid a diplomatic crisis sparked by an incident in which an Israeli embassy guard killed two Jordanian citizens after being attacked with a screwdriver.

Israel's Foreign Ministry said that Amir Weissbrod, head of the ministry's Middle East bureau, would be appointed head of mission to Amman pending government approval. Weissbrod is a career diplomat who has served in both Jordan and Morocco. He also served as part of the Israeli mission to the U.N.

The embassy was closed after July's incident, and then-Israeli Ambassador Einat Schlein returned to Israel along with the guard. The guard claimed self-defense, saying one of the Jordanians attacked him with a screwdriver. He received a hero's welcome upon returning to Israel, angering the Jordanians.

The shooting triggered a crisis between the two countries, which signed a peace treaty in 1994 and cooperate on security and other issues.

Israel reopened the embassy last month, after reportedly expressing regret for the incident, and offering compensation to the victims' families.

An influential committee responsible for accrediting non-governmental organizations at the United Nations is drawing criticism for shooting down applications from U.S.-based groups dealing with human rights in Iran and North Korea.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley called the decision “shameful.”

Haley said the two NGOs – the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC) and the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) – “have a long track record of success and have amply demonstrated that they would add value to the U.N. system.”

IHRDC and HRNK were established in 2004 and 2001 respectively, to monitor and report on abuses and promote human rights in Iran and North Korea.

At a session in New York, the 19-member NGO Committee, which falls under the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), voted against their applications, first made years ago, for “consultative status” at the world body.

The committee voted down HRNK’s application 9-5 on Friday, after North Korea’s representative said it was an entity controlled by the U.S. government.

On Monday, the committee voted not to approve IHRDC’s application 9-4, after Iran’s delegate charged that the group was financed by the U.S. government to undermine Iran’s sovereignty.

The nine “no” votes came from Burundi, China, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa and Venezuela.

“It’s a shameful day at the U.N. when Iranian and North Korean human rights violations are protected,” Haley said afterwards.

State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert called out Russia on Thursday for enabling the Syrian regime's use of chemical weapons on civilians.

Russia has supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his regime's fight against rebels and in laying siege to the city of Aleppo, which resulted in a large number of civilian casualties. Chlorine has been one of the regime's frequently used methods to gain control in the civil war.

Russia continues to deny having a role in the attacks.

"The Secretary recently talked about this and let me just underscore and highlight some of the important things that we would like to see take place in regard to Russia as it pertains to Syria: They need to stop using chemical weapons, Syria does," Nauert said. "But we also know that chemical weapons use is enabled by Russia."

Nauert mentioned the frequency of the use of chemical weapons that have been used on Syrian civilians, which includes an attack last Sunday.

"Let me remind you, six times in the last 30 days, some form of chemical weapons have been used on the Syrian people," Nauert said. "It's disgusting, it's horrific, and it's evil. And we would like to see that stopped. But we'll keep following this. We'll keep working on it. The government is meeting; I have to assure you that this is a top issue for us."

Border Police on Friday arrested an Arab resident of Hevron after he attempted to enter the Cave of the Patriarchs (Me'arat Hamachpelah) with a knife hidden in his sock.

Border Police officer stationed at the Cave of the Patriarchs noticed that the 23-year-old Arab arriving at the site was behaving oddly, and asked him to walk through a metal detector.

After the metal detector beeped a few times, the officers found a large kitchen knife hidden in one of the Arab's socks.

Following an initial investigation, Border Police estimate that the Arab planned to carry out a stabbing attack at the Cave of the Patriarchs.

The suspect has been taken for questioning.

Since January 1, 2018, six stabbing attacks planned for the Cave of the Patriarchs have been foiled.

Gunshots were fired from Syria at an Israeli drone on Thursday night, missing it, but hitting a house in the town of Majdal Shams on the Golan Heights, the army said.

There were no injuries reported, but the house sustained some light damage, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The military said that soldiers and police officers were searching the area around Majdal Shams for additional signs of gunshots. The town is home to Druze residents, many of whom maintain a level of support for Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and therefore eschew Israeli citizenship.

The unmanned aerial vehicle was not damaged in the attack, an army spokesperson said.

The IDF said it was flying within Israeli airspace at the time the shots were fired.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday pulled legislation aimed at annexing Israeli settlements in the West Bank that was slated to come before a key Knesset committee for a vote next week.

A spokesman for a senior member on the Knesset’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation told The Times of Israel that the prime minister wants to coordinate the measure with the White House first, but that the bill would still be debated by coalition leaders in their own meeting scheduled to take place on Sunday.

The proposal, drafted by Yoav Kisch (Likud) and Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) seeks to apply Israeli sovereignty over all areas of Jewish settlement in the West Bank, which are currently under military rule.

“In the 70th year of the rebirth of the State of Israel and after the 50th anniversary of the return of the Jewish people to its historic homeland in Judea and Samaria (West Bank)…we move to designate the status of these territories as an inseparable part of the sovereign State of Israel,” the legislation reads.

The Palestinian Authority on Thursday denounced a visit by Arab journalists to Israel and called for punishing them to deter others from following suit.

Last week, the Israeli Foreign Ministry hosted a delegation of nine Arab journalists from Morocco, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and Syria, in a bid to let them get to know Israel, its history, and its society from up close, the ministry said.

But the PA said that the visit was aimed at “promoting normalization” between the Arabs and Israel. The Palestinians oppose other Arab nations establishing ties with Israel until a peace deal is signed with between Israel and the Palestinians.

The PA Ministry of Information denounced the visit of the Arab journalists and called on Arab media bodies to place them and the media outlets they work for on the Arab boycott “blacklist.”

It called on the Arab Journalists Union to take “punitive and deterring measures” against the journalists and their media outlets.

“Siding with Israel and its terrorism marks a departure from the Arab rank and the decisions of the Council of Arab Ministers of Information,” the PA information ministry said, calling the visit an “inexcusable and unjustified disgrace.”

The Palestinian Information Center reports on a supposed kidnap attempt by “settlers.”

Palestinian residents of the northern West Bank city of Nablus managed on Wednesday to foil an Israeli settlers’ attempt to kidnap two children from Madama town south of the city.

Local activist Ghassan Duglas affirmed that 12 settlers from Yitzhar settlement infiltrated into the town and kidnapped two children while playing near their house.

The two children were identified as Hossam Ziadeh, 10, and Taha Ziadeh, 8.

Fortunately, local youths managed to catch up the settlers before reaching their settlement and to save the two children.

Following the incident, violent clashes broke out between local residents and the settlers who later fled the scene under Israeli forces’ protection.

A clue that this is a lie (besides the fact it seems highly unlikely to begin with) is the photo accompanying the story, which is supposed to evoke images of “settlers” either torturing or trying to capture a palestinian child. I have dealt with this photo before here – it is actually a photo of “settlers” trying to pull a fellow “settler” as he is dragged away by border policemen.

A Palestinian rioter was reportedly shot dead Friday by Israeli fire as security forces faced down riots on the Gaza border and at several locations across the West Bank.

The Palestinian, a teenager according to Palestinian media, was reportedly shot in the head in Jabaliya in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, near the border with Israel.

Two Palestinians were reported injured in the Ramallah area of the West Bank in a separate violent protest.

The clashes broke out at the end of Friday prayers in mosques as Palestinians heeded calls by the Hamas terror group and other organizations to wage yet another “day of rage” against Israel — the first for a month but the tenth since US President Donald Trump’s December 6 announcement that his administration recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Hadashot television news reported that some 500 Palestinians took part in the rioting at six West Bank flashpoints and that Israeli forces used live fire on demonstrators at the village of Beita, near Nablus.

A top Qatari official on Thursday called on the international community to send aid to the people of the Gaza Strip, saying the dire conditions in the coastal enclave could potentially lead to renewed violence.

Mohammed Al-Emadi, the head of Qatar's Gaza reconstruction committee, said he hopes that his country's support for Gaza, highlighted by a $9 million pledge on Thursday, will encourage other nations to join the effort. He also shined a rare light on his working relationship with Israel, which does not have formal diplomatic relations with the energy-rich Gulf state.

"When you want to do work in Gaza, you have to go through the Israelis," he said. "Without the help of Israel, nothing happens."

Since a 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, the terrorist group that rules Gaza, Qatar has been a leading player in internationally backed reconstruction efforts.

Under Al-Emadi's supervision, Qatar has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into large-scale projects, including a new highway, state-of-the-art rehabilitation hospital and high-rise housing. Al-Emadi, an architect, has been a frequent visitor to personally oversee some of the work. He is expected to return later this month.

The EU parliamentarians urged Trump to reconsider his decision and asked Arab states, most of whom are not large contributors to UNRWA, to give more funds to the organization.

The resolution also called on UNRWA to enhance transparency and accountability “to ensure timely and accurate program.”
UNRWA should ensure that its “facilities are not misused” and “investigate allegations of neutrality violations by its staff members,” the resolution stated.

At a parliamentary debate on Tuesday about UNRWA, an EU commissioner Johannes Hahn warned that “the EU will not be able to compensate for substantial US cuts, given the pressure on available funds.”

Hahn is the commissioner of the European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiation.

“We can and will actively assist UNRWA in reaching out to non-traditional donors in order to help the agency to broaden its donor base and, given the magnitude of the problem, we also need to work with host governments on how they might consider providing certain services that UNRWA cannot and maybe should not provide,” Hahn said.

“The EU and its Member States are by far the largest provider of assistance to Palestinian refugees – they provide around €460m. a year,” Hahn said.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told the parliamentarians that “supporting UNRWA is a humanitarian duty and it is also in our collective interest for peace and security in the Middle East.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to arrive in Ramallah on Saturday and become the first Indian prime minister to visit the West Bank.

Modi is not scheduled during this visit to travel to Israel, which he toured for three days in July.

B. Bala Bhaskar, a joint secretary in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, told reporters earlier this week that Modi’s decision to exclusively visit Ramallah is a part of his country’s “de-hyphenation policy.”

According to Bhaskar, India sees its ties with Israel and the Palestinians as “exclusive and independent” of each other.

Modi will fly by helicopter on Saturday morning from Jordan to the Palestinian Authority’s presidential headquarters in Ramallah, according to a PA security official.

“He will not pass through any Israeli checkpoints on his way to Palestine, but we are coordinating his flight with Jordan and Israel,” the official said in a phone conversation.

Egyptian security forces recently uncovered an Islamic State (ISIS) cell which plotted to kill Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, the Egyptian Al-Dustour newspaper reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, the cell which was made up of 18 terrorists, was arrested while trying to sneak into Gaza.

The terrorists reportedly plotted to blow up the mosque in Gaza in which Haniyeh prays on Fridays.

ISIS's Sinai affiliate, which is known as the Sinai Province, has claimed the majority of the attacks in the Sinai Peninsula in recent years.

ISIS, which follows a Salafist interpretation of Islam, has also targeted Hamas. In August, a suicide bombing near Egypt's border with Gaza killed a Hamas guard. It was the first time a suicide attack has targeted Hamas forces in Gaza.

A Palestinian Authority Arab collapsed while exiting a checkpoint near the Cave of the Patriarchs (Me'arat Hamachpelah) in Hevron.

Border Police officers called their troop paramedic, who administered first aid to the PA Arab and helped him regain consciousness.

Red Crescent paramedics arriving later on transferred the man, a resident of Hevron, to a local hospital.

In December, a similar incident occurred, in which Border Police officers saved a PA man who had lost consciousness and stopped breathing.

In July 2017, a PA father from Hevron approached Israel Border Police officers asking them to help his son, who had fallen in the family's home and suffered an injury to his head.

The officers immediately called over their unit's paramedic, who administered first aid. Afterwards, the Red Crescent arrived to take the boy to a local hospital.

Palestinian Arabs see their local Israeli security forces as a place to go whenever there is a problem or need, despite the complexity of the security situation.

Ever wondered what Operation Good Neighbor's main logistical facility looks like? Join Lt. Col. Jonathan for Episode 4 of Inside the IDF for an inside look at the operation and a recap some of the highlights of January.

When Rep. Keith Ellison ran for Democratic National Committee chairman, he faced questions about past associations with the Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan. On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in December 2016, Mr. Ellison angrily accused his critics of a “smear campaign” for “talking about something that happened in 1995,” when Mr. Ellison was 32. It turns out Mr. Ellison—who lost his bid but is now the DNC’s deputy chairman—wasn’t telling the full story.

In 2006, during his first run for Congress from Minnesota, Mr. Ellison conceded he had worked with the Nation of Islam for 18 months before the October 1995 Million Man March. In a letter, he assured Jewish groups: “I reject and condemn the anti-Semitic statements and actions of the Nation of Islam [and] Louis Farrakhan. ”

A decade later, during the DNC leadership contest, he accused Mr. Farrakhan and his organization of sowing “hatred and division, including, anti-Semitism, homophobia and a chauvinistic model of manhood. I disavowed them long ago, condemned their views, and apologized.”

In September 2013, however, Messrs. Ellison and Farrakhan dined together. The occasion was a visit by Iran’s newly elected President Hassan Rouhani to the United Nations. Mr. Rouhani invited Muslim leaders from around the U.S. to dinner after addressing the U.N. General Assembly. Contemporaneous news reports placed Mr. Farrakhan at the dinner. Unreported by mainstream outlets was the presence of Mr. Ellison, along with Reps. Gregory Meeks of New York and Andre Carson of Indiana. (All three are Democrats; Messrs. Ellison and Carson are Muslim.)

The Nation of Islam website documents the event, noting that Mr. Rouhani “hosted the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, Muslim leaders from different Islamic communities and members of the U.S. Congress at a private meeting . . . at the One UN Hotel in Manhattan Sept. 24, 2013 across the street from the UN headquarters.” The Final Call, a Nation of Islam publication, added that “ Keith Ellison of Minnesota . . . participated in the dialogue” after dinner and includes photos of Messrs. Farrakhan and Ellison at the tables. The Michigan-based Islamic House of Wisdom also reported on the meeting, with additional photos. (h/t MtTB)

Given that Obama repeatedly denounced Farrakhan in the years since and is no longer president, the photo’s release did not cause much of a stir. But unlike Obama, many of the other politicians in that meeting with Farrakhan are still in office, and have not denounced the man the Southern Poverty Law Center calls “an anti-Semite who routinely accuses Jews of manipulating the U.S. government and controlling the levers of world power.” And on Monday, one of Farrakhan’s congressional friends opted to vocally defend him.

“I personally know [Farrakhan], I’ve been to his home, done meetings, participated in events with him,” Democratic Rep. Danny Davis told The Daily Caller’s Peter Hasson. “I don’t regard Louis Farrakhan as an aberration or anything, I regard him as an outstanding human being who commands a following of individuals who are learned and articulate and he plays a big role in the lives of thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people.”

In actuality, Farrakhan is a racist and homophobic cult leader who blames Jews for everything from the slave trade to 9/11. The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have exhaustively documented Farrakhan’s viciously anti-Semitic outbursts. Here is Congressman Davis’s “outstanding human being” in his own words:

“You are wicked deceivers of the American people. You have sucked their blood. You are not real Jews, those of you that are not real Jews. You are the synagogue of Satan, and you have wrapped your tentacles around the U.S. government, and you are deceiving and sending this nation to hell.” (Saviours’ Day Speech, Chicago, 2/25/96)

“Did you know that Jesus had a real problem with the Jewish community? They had power, the rabbis of that day, over the Roman authorities just as they have power today over our government.” (Remarks at Indianapolis Convention Center, Indianapolis, Indiana, 12/1/13)

Twenty-one members of the Congressional Black Caucus facing questions about their ties to Nation of Islam chief Louis Farrakhan have all refused to condemn the hate group leader.

The CBC, it was recently revealed, held a secret meeting with Farrakhan in 2005 but hid it from the public to avoid controversy. Twenty-one members of the caucus today were part of the caucus at the time of the secret Farrakhan meeting. All 21 declined to denounce Farrakhan when asked by The Daily Caller.

The Nation of Islam is so extreme that even the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center recognizes it as a hate group, citing the group’s “theology of innate black superiority over whites and the deeply racist, anti-Semitic and anti-gay rhetoric of its leaders.”

Farrakhan has praised Hitler, claimed Jews are “Satantic” and said that white people “deserve to die,” among other racist and anti-Semitic statements.

The 21 CBC members, all Democrats, include high-profile Trump critics like Maxine Waters and Al Green, who have long demanded the president’s impeachment.

By the end of our trip to Poland a number of years ago, part of our group had been roughed up in the streets of Krakow, and the disgust that many Poles had for a Jewish group exploring history was beyond denying. Even my wife eventually admitted that, yes, many of the Poles we’d encountered made no effort to conceal their disgust.

But Polish antipathy is hardly the main issue. The important question is what role the Jewish state will take in leading the fight for historical accuracy and nuance. As the world has twisted the story of Israel’s birth into one only of colonialism and dispossession, it has diminished its sense of Israel’s right to exist and of Arabs’ responsibility for a good portion of their plight.

Now the Poles want to rewrite another portion of Jewish history.

Can a Jewish state stand idly by? Israel has vested interests in good relations with Poland, but it must also stand for something, no? Hasn’t speaking truth to power long been what Judaism has been about? How Israel should respond is not at all obvious.

One thing, though, is clear to me. As individuals, we do have the option of standing for truth, of refusing to be party to the rewriting of history. If my wife and I still had a kid in high school and were summoned to a parent meeting prior to the class trip to Poland, I suspect it’s much more likely that we might be among those saying, “To that place, now, our kid is simply not going.”

I had always assumed that when the war ended, my mother — along with her sister and mother — had immediately emigrated to Palestine. But this was not the case. Almost all of the surviving Jews simply returned to their towns and villages, with many of their homes now occupied by their neighbors. Still, the idea of picking up and moving to another war-torn region was the furthest thing from their minds. My mother ended the war in an orphanage in nearby Czestochowa, where she stayed until my grandmother could earn enough money to look after her. Back in Kielce, only a hundred or so Jewish families returned, everyone doing their best to assume some kind of normalcy.

But on July 4, 1946, one year after the war ended, almost to the day, a young Catholic boy went missing. It was just after Passover and rumors quickly spread. Security forces surrounded a known Jewish apartment building. By mid-morning, 22 of the residents were shot dead in what was quickly deemed a “misunderstanding.” Naturally, people — many of them Jewish friends and relatives — started to gather to catch a glimpse of the ambulance workers removing the bodies. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, a mob of workers — some say a thousand — who had just been let out from the factories, came marching up the street with clubs, bats and rods, and started swinging at the heads of anyone who looked Jewish. Meanwhile, the police simply looked on. In the end, 42 Jews were killed and 47 were injured.

It was after this that my mother — and almost all the other survivors — took a risk and moved to Palestine, or wherever else that would take them.

The Polish government might not want to have a public debate as to whether the Poles played an instrumental role in the Holocaust, but there is no denying that the reason that there are so few Jews living in Poland today rests squarely on their shoulders.

At least, let them come to terms with that.

Israelis stole folk dancing from the Palestinian Arabs in an act of “cultural appropriation,” The New York Times claims.

The accusation is made in a question-and-answer style interview in the Times arts section conducted by a Times dance critic, Siobhan Burke, with a choreographer, Hadar Ahuvia.

The Times article, which is accompanied online by three photographs and a video, includes this passage:

One issue you explore is cultural appropriation, how the pioneers of Israeli folk dance, mostly Eastern European women, drew from social dance forms like Palestinian dabke.

It’s well-documented that these women went to Palestinian villages and watched them dancing and felt they held the steps for what new Israeli dances could be. And so they borrowed steps and wrote new music and created dances that were directly synchronous to the new music, and in this way it becomes a new Israeli dance.

This was their way of participating in the nation-building and what for them was this revolutionary moment. I don’t think that cultural exchange is bad, but I think it’s about the context of whose narratives get told and seen.

This is an old claim. What’s new is the Times letting it slide unchallenged.

In his 1986 book Arab and Jew, David K. Shipler, who was a New York Times correspondent in Israel, quoted “Ibrahim Kareen of East Jerusalem” claiming, “The Israelis have stolen a lot of Palestinian culture…For instance, many dances. The Hora. This is Palestinian. Many dishes.”

A US appeals court has thrown out a 2014 jury verdict finding Arab Bank Plc liable for knowingly supporting militant attacks in Israel linked to Hamas, a decision that triggers a settlement agreement with hundreds of plaintiffs.

Friday's decision by the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals ends 13-1/2 years of litigation over Arab Bank's liability, which the Jordanian lender has disputed, for 24 attacks in and around Israel in the early 2000s.

The appeals court said jurors in Brooklyn were instructed incorrectly by the trial judge that under federal law, Arab Bank committed an "act of international terrorism" by knowingly providing material support to Hamas, which the Department of State designated in 1997 as a foreign terrorist organization.

In August 2015, 11 months after the verdict, Arab Bank had reached a confidential settlement with 527 victims or relatives of victims of 22 of the attacks, pending the bank's appeal of the verdict.

Both sides agreed to forgo a retrial if the verdict were thrown out. Had it been affirmed, the plaintiffs would have been entitled to at least $100 million, Friday's decision said.

"The plaintiffs will receive meaningful and very substantial compensation for their injuries," their lawyer, Gary Osen, said in an email. "Today's decision doesn't diminish the fact a jury found Arab Bank liable for knowingly supporting Hamas."

On Wednesday night Israelis received yet another demonstration of the country’s desperate need for legal reform.

The media in Israel – like their counterparts in the US – tout themselves as democracy’s watchdogs. But on Wednesday night, we saw once again that our fiercest journalists are actually the lapdogs of our unelected legal fraternity, whose members share their hatred for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and their general attachment to the ideological Left.

Wednesday night’s primetime news broadcasts all opened with the sensational news that the police’s top investigators from the Lahav 433 unit – Israel’s equivalent of the FBI – were sitting at that very moment with Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich to decide what crimes to recommend Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit indict Netanyahu for.

According to police leakers, their intention is to recommend that Mandelblit indict Netanyahu for at least one count of bribery.

Netanyahu allegedly helped his old friend Hollywood movie mogul Arnon Milchan renew his US visa. Over the years, Milchan allegedly showered Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, with cigars and champagne.

An hour after the news broadcasts all ended, Israel’s flagship investigative news magazine Uvda broadcast a slickly edited, hour-long interview its anchor, Ilana Dayan, conducted over several weeks with Alsheich.

To be clear, Dayan’s interview wasn’t a complete love-fest. She asked Alsheich several biting questions. But overall, Dayan did everything she could to present Alsheich as a hero, a self-made man and all all-around awesome guy.

Three days ago, on 6th Feb, the University of Warwick held another anti-Israel meeting. The third such event in a month. Rather than directly discuss Israel, they wanted to focus on antisemitism. Or as it turned out to focus on how there isn’t really much of it about. Antisemitism is apparently rare these days, and the only reason it is in the news, is because Jews are a mix of devious, stupid and heartless people. Jews make up charges of anti-Jewish racism, and are then mobilised by western governments to suppress freedoms, so that land-grabbing Jews elsewhere can carry on killing children without criticism. No it isn’t a quote, but it is the inherent logic of the evening.

The event was titled ‘Palestinian rights, Prevent’ and the Misuse of antisemitism‘. This follows the argument that rather than being used to shed light on unacceptable hatred and defend victims of anti-Jewish racism, an accusation of antisemitism is a weapon at war, designed to silence all criticism of Israel. The event was chaired by Justine Mercer, Warwick UCU President. There were three speakers:

Nicola Pratt, University of Warwick
Richard Seaford, University of Exeter
Sai Englert, SOAS, University of London

There is much on the event that could be written, but I intend only to focus only on the central argument. So take it as given, that during the course of the event there was as much self-righteous indignation, hypocrisy, distortion and blatant propaganda, as is normally present during an anti-Israel event on campus. As usual, outright lies also peppered the talk.

Last week, at an event entitled ‘US embassy in Jerusalem, what’s the big deal?’, Dilly Hussain calls for a;

“unified military effort by the Islamic world to remove the Zionist occupation”.

Hussain, deputy editor of 5Pillars made the comment in response to a question by an “Irish student who appeared to be pro-Palestine” (his description).

Hussain is calling for an attack by an Islamic army on Jews in the Middle East, invoking language and sentiment of Quranic battles and subsequent victories over Jews. In fact, Hussain in his talk (which can be viewed here) refers to such Quranic battles as a model for which action should be taken today.

Without a hint of irony even as Hussain calls for a slaughter he also calls for “justice and security for all three Abrahamic faiths to live in peace”.

Imagine tomorrow Hussain gets his wish and a unified Islamic military arrives on the doorstep of Israel to liberate Palestine and rid it of said Zionist occupation.

Millions of Jews (of which there are currently over 6 million) would be slaughtered as they fought to save their state and their way of life. What Jews would be left to live in peace?

None – that’s the point.

Participating in a panel discussion at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, Robert Benne—an expert on Lutheran theology—found himself deeply disturbed by one of his co-panelists, the prominent Palestinian Lutheran pastor Mitri Raheb. Raheb, “something of a celebrity” on the campus, has been influential in bringing the anti-Israel cause—including boycotts—to mainline Protestant churches. In his talk, Raheb repeated, to enthusiastic applause, the standard anti-Israel talking points about apartheid, colonialism, and the like, adding the claim that Jews have no ancestral connection to the ancient Judeans and Israelites. Even more troubling, Benne found in Raheb’s words a revival of supersessionism—the doctrine that the advent of Christianity has completely voided God’s prior covenant with Israel:

[In his presentation], Raheb proceeded to reduce Christian faith to a crude liberation theology, one essentially without mention of [traditional Christian notions of redemption]. Those oppressed by “empire” (Israel as a tool of the U.S.) are the Palestinians, whom all good people will support in their effort to end occupation. The faith demands justice for the Palestinians! To top it off, he asserted, the cross of Jesus is “the ultimate critique of political and religious terror.” I presume that “political terror” refers to Rome in the ancient world and Israel today; “religious terror” is Jewish in both eras. Jesus is all about “liberation,” not “salvation.” (An alert Lutheran pastor in the audience asked if there were not more meaning to the cross, to which Raheb shook his head, claiming that his “contextual theology” is the way Palestinians interpret it.)

Entirely absent was the reality on the ground: Muslim oppression of Christians in the West Bank, as well as the danger that militant Muslims would present to Raheb and his family—and the many West Bank institutions he leads—were he to criticize them or the Palestinian Authority. He spoke not a word about the flight of Christians from his own hometown, Bethlehem, and the protective strategy of Christians in the West Bank to gather into small enclaves distant from their Muslim neighbors. . . .

To mark the 20th anniversary of our founding on February 7, 1998, MEMRI is releasing a video compilation of excerpts from clips it has published over the years from Arab and Iranian TV, featuring journalists, officials, analysts, and other leading figures commenting on, condemning, and praising MEMRI.

The commentators are shown discussing MEMRI's direct impact among U.S. Congressmen, European legislators, and decision-makers worldwide. Noting MEMRI research and monitoring capabilities, speakers state that this has led to bans on Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV, Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam TV, and Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV in Europe, and to Apple's and Google's removal of Al-Manar's social media apps from their app stores. Other speakers advise their audiences not to make antisemitic statements or deny the Holocaust because of MEMRI's monitoring.

The compilation shows MEMRI's impact and influence in the Arab countries and Iran, and underlines their awareness that MEMRI is monitoring, translating, and publishing their words.

Rutgers University is no longer employing a former Syrian diplomat who defended the regime of President Bashar al-Assad during the country’s ongoing civil war, the school confirmed on Thursday.

Mazen Adi first drew controversy in early November, after The Algemeiner reported that he had represented the Syrian government — which has been accused of carrying out mass killings, systematic torture, and chemical weapons attacks against civilians — at the United Nations in New York between 2007 and 2014. He repeatedly targeted Israel while at the global body, including by accusing “some Israeli officials” of “trafficking children’s organs,” according to a translation by a UN interpreter. Israeli officials say such charges amount to a modern-day blood libel.

After leaving Turtle Bay, Adi was hired by Rutgers — New Jersey’s largest state-funded university — as a part-time lecturer in 2015. A former student told The Algemeiner on condition of anonymity that Adi defended Palestinian terrorism in class as a legitimate form of “resistance” to Israeli “occupation.”

The university first defended Adi’s “expertise in international law” once his background came under public scrutiny, and reaffirmed that he would teach an international criminal law and anti-corruption class during the spring 2018 semester. Rutgers President Robert Barchi personally confirmed at a town hall event later in November that Adi’s history was “well-known to us and well-known to the people who employed him,” and that the former diplomat “has not said or done anything in his academic life here that would be actionable.”

MK Nava Boker (Likud) on Thursday sent a letter to Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu), asking him to cancel the economic benefits given by the State of Israel to Amnesty International.

"The organization is conducting an international campaign to place IDF soldiers on trial in the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The organization also calls for an international arms embargo on the State of Israel,” wrote Boker.

"In addition,” she continued, “the organization publicly supports those who refuse to serve in the IDF, and recently launched an international campaign calling for the release of the detained terrorist, Ahed Tamimi, who was documented hitting an IDF officer in the village of Nabi Salih.”

Amnesty acts “against the IDF, against IDF soldiers and against the State of Israel. Absurdly, it seems that Amnesty's improper activity is not enough to deprive it of the benefits it receives from the Ministry of Finance, since it enjoys tax benefits under section 46 of the Income Tax Ordinance,” added Boker.

"Under the Boycott Law, you have the authority as Finance Minister to cancel the benefits given to organizations and bodies that call for a boycott against the State of Israel,” she pointed out.

A pro-Israel organization on Thursday evening filed documents with an Arizona court to uphold an anti-BDS (Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions) bill in the state.

StandWithUS, in cooperation with The Israel Project and Israel Allies Foundation, filed an Amicus Brief with a federal court to uphold HB 2617, a legislation which prohibits state commerce with a company which “discriminates on the basis of nationality, national origin, or religion.”

The law, passed in March 2016, directly forbids Arizona government agencies from engaging contractors who participate in boycotts of Israeli goods or services.

Amicus briefs are legal documents filed in appellate court cases by non-litigants with a strong interest in the subject matter, according to Public Health Law Center.

“The briefs advise the court of relevant, additional information or arguments that the court might wish to consider,” the PHLC added.

Arizona is one of 23 states and “dozens of municipalities” which have passed similar anti-BDS laws to bar discrimination against Israelis and Jews.

StandWithUS, which describes itself as “an advocacy organization that promotes education and understanding of Israel,” says Arizona’s legislature recognizes that BDS is the “modern-day manifestation of anti-Jew bigotry resurrecting stereotypes and demonization that Jews have met for centuries.”

The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund is actively supporting anti-Israel boycotts, NGO Monitor watchdog group president Gerald Steinberg contends.

Steinberg recently revealed to members of the Canadian Parliament how money donated by their government for educational programs was being misused by organizations to which UNICEF had transferred the money and which promote the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

In 2015, the Canadian government donated approximately $1 million to UNICEF for the purpose of funding an educational program for Palestinians. The funds were supposed to go toward training teachers, purchasing textbooks, rebuilding old school structures and the provision of psychological services to children and young adults.

UNICEF, however, invested the funds in the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Accompaniment Program, which trains boycott, divestment and sanctions movement activists from around the world.

As part of their training, activists at times use anti-Semitic rhetoric in the anti-Israel campaigns they introduce in churches around the world.

Another BDS organization by the name of Christian Peacemaker Teams also received some of the Canadian funds.

Canadian Jewish organizations expressed disappointment after a McGill University report found that the removal of a Jewish student from student government was anti-Israel, but not anti-Jewish, calling it a missed opportunity for the university to reckon with its culture of anti-Jewish hostility.

The report by former Student Ombudsperson Spencer Boudreau, released Tuesday, found that an October vote by student government (SSMU) officials not to ratify three board members, including Jewish student Noah Lew, was not motivated by anti-Semitism.

Instead, it was "Lew's affiliation with Jewish organizations that are clearly supportive of the State of Israel," and his opposition to the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement, that were the reason for him being kicked off of the board.

"It is simply inexplicable how such a conclusion could be reached when the group leading the charge even admitted and apologized for the anti-Semitic tropes used leading up to the campaign," said Avi Benlolo, president and CEO of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, adding that "this report may well serve to deepen the divisive and poisoned atmosphere on campus."

B'nai Brith Canada said McGill's investigation failed to take into account important campus context, such as a policy by the student paper banning publication of pro-Israel content. B'nai Brith CEO Michael Mostyn called the report a "whitewash."

The University of Manchester BDS Campaign celebrate a victory – causing Sabra hummus to be removed from the campus shop, in what is clearly a huge blow to the Israeli economy! (Because everyone knows Israel’s economy is heavily dependent on the University of Manchester campus shop)
We are delighted to hear that the university will no longer be financially supporting human rights violators like the Golani Brigade through their sale of Sabra products. However, the university still holds financial and institutional ties to Israel and its war crimes, which does not comply with their socially responsible investment policy. The university continues to aid Israel’s apartheid regime through its multi-million dollar investments in complicit companies such as Caterpillar, whose specially-modified armed bulldozers are used to demolish homes, schools, olive groves and communities in Palestine.

This triumph is great motivation to continue our campaign which pushes for an end to the university’s compliance in Israel’s war crimes and investments in companies that breach the university’s own ethical investment policy. This success illustrates the power of student activism in working towards an end to ties with Israel’s war crimes and we encourage students at other universities to investigate their institution’s complicity and pursue BDS campaigns to divest from Israel’s apartheid regime.

Yeah, about that..
An an email to MEMO, a university spokesperson said: “Sabra products are available from a wide range of shops in the UK and the decision to remove this product from the University shop was made by a new member of staff who was not aware of the correct procedure for making these choices. Coincidentally, and unconnected to the student representations, the shop has recently moved to a new supplier which does not have this product in its range. The decision to go with another supplier is in no way related to the student campaign.”

These sad people object more to hummus than Hamas.

A New York Times news story about this morning's National Prayer Breakfast broad-brushes American Jews who back recognition of Israel's capital in Jerusalem as hard-liners. In the article, White House correspondent Mark Lander asserts:

Mr. Trump’s remarks were most notable for what he did not say. He made no mention of his recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a landmark shift in American policy that was extremely popular with evangelical voters and a segment of hard-line pro-Israel American Jews.

Evangelical support for the decision could conceivably be based on polling data. But unlike with evangelicals, there's no defined subgroup of "hard-line" American Jews, and such a characterization wouldn't appear in polling crosstabs. On what, then, does the reporter base his characterization?

On his opinion, it would seem – his feeling about who would support recognition of Israel's capital, notwithstanding that this group includes overwhelming, bipartisan congressional majorities in 1995 and 2017, President Obama's ambassador to Israel, and mainstream groups like AIPAC, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the American Jewish Committee, Hadassah and the Jewish Federations of North America.

At any rate, opinions belong in the Opinion pages, not the news section.

As has been known for several years, the BBC has a serious comprehension problem as far as UN GA resolution 181 – also known as the Partition Plan – is concerned.

In March 2013 the BBC Trust’s Editorial Standards Committee published its findings regarding appeals made (but not upheld) following complaints concerning the BBC’s failure to list Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in its 2012 Olympics coverage (see page 34 onwards here).

A year later, in March 2014, the ESC published its findings regarding yet another request for an appeal on the topic of Israel’s capital city.

In both those rulings, the BBC stated that:

“The [BBC Trust’s Editorial Standards] Committee noted that while there is no expectation that in a two-state solution West Jerusalem would become Palestinian territory, a UN resolution passed in 1947 has not been rescinded. It calls for the whole of Jerusalem to be an international city, a corpus separatum (similar to the Vatican City), and in that context, technically, West Jerusalem is not Israeli sovereign territory. “

The “UN resolution” to which the BBC referred is of course UN GA resolution 181 – the Partition Plan – which, like most UN General Assembly resolutions, was non-binding and no more than a recommendation, the implementation of which depended upon the agreement of the parties concerned.

As is well known the Arab nations rejected the Partition Plan en masse and even threatened to use force to oppose it. The recommendation hence became a non-starter and its various clauses immaterial.

However, what makes the misleading quote so pernicious is that it has the effect of legitmising comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis. Such comparisons are codified as antisemitic by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances’s Working Definition of Antisemitism (which was adopted by the British government).

Tellingly, Pelham began his Economist article by casually dismissing concerns over such toxic comparisons:
COMPARISONS with dark chapters in Jewish history tend to elicit the knee-jerk Israeli response of asur le’hashvot, the Hebrew for “you can’t compare”. But a government plan to deport more than 34,000 African migrants to Rwanda is provoking more hand-wringing than usual, not least because Israel itself was created by refugees and survivors of the Holocaust.

Whatever objections there may be towards Israeli policy regarding African migrants, suggesting that their detention and planned deportation evokes the Nazis’ treatment of Jews is ahistorical and intellectually unserious.

The decision by The Economist to leave the false impression that a leading Holocaust historian evoked such a comparison does not reflect well on the seriousness of editors in upholding their own editorial standards, which includes a pledge to “consider whether the context and presentation of the facts are fair”.

The same year, one day after a jihadist terrorist attack in Nice in which 86 people died, she seemed to peddle a popular conspiracy theory that Muslims are being framed for false-flag attacks.

“It’s becoming a routine: An attack each week!! And sure enough, the ‘terrorist’ takes with him his identity CARD. Of course, when planning a dirty you always take papers! #DontTakeUsForFools,” she wrote on Facebook.

In a separate post in 2016, Ibtissem said her country has “a shitty society,” that she is “sick of the French system” and that she’s “eager to get the hell out of here.”

Henda Ayari, a French feminist and author who grew up in a Muslim family, said L’Affaire Mennel indicates an eagerness in the French media and beyond to seek the semblance of tolerance rather than the real thing.
“Wearing a veil does not make one a saint, modesty needs no veil, beauty needs no pretty face to shine, external beauty does not mean internal one. Never rely on appearances, they’re deceiving,” Ayari wrote Tuesday on Twitter about Ibtissem.

The debate about Ibtissem comes on the heels of a similar brouhaha surrounding the hiring by the French cosmetics firm L’Oreal of a British Muslim woman to model a line of hair products.

Initially celebrated as a milestone for diversity, Amena Khan’s contract fell apart following the discovery of statements she wrote about Israel. In 2014 she tweeted that the country is an “illegal and sinister state.” She also labeled Israel a “child murderer” that Allah will ultimately defeat.

Tunisian Cleric Mounir Al-Kamantar Praises Violent Protest against Holocaust Exhibition, Says: The Jews Are Prophet Slayers Who Spread Hatred and Corruption pic.twitter.com/LkuaTJ1MkL

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 9, 2018

A group of executives from the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center (BYHMC) met with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Thursday and briefed him about their effort build a museum at the site of the September 1941 massacre in which more than 33,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis in a ravine near the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.

“Ukraine remains a blind spot on the map of the Holocaust memorials,” BYHMC CEO Gennadii Verbylenko said. “Our goal is not about construction, but it is about building trust. We intend to be a community building institution. BYHMC is about remembering the past and building the future.”

Marek Siwiec — the BYHMC’s director for international affairs — said, “In a world where extremism grows stronger it is our goal not only to build a center, but to create a space that will form such a consciousness, with which it will become impossible to repeat the tragedies of World War II.”

Yana Barinova — the BYHMC’s chief operating officer — said, “I am sure that the implementation of the BYHMC project will not only change the historical consciousness of Ukraine, but, given the great interest and attention in the world to the problems of the Babi Yar, it will undoubtedly become one of the significant events in the life of the international community.”

Rivlin praised the BYHMC’s work, saying, “It is a pleasure to meet all of you, because this is something so necessary. The new generations, even the current generation, they don’t know exactly what happened all over.”

Heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne has never failed to entertain, whether onstage or in a press conference — like the one he held on Tuesday in his home, ahead of his “No More Tours 2” tour.

Osbourne will perform at Rishon Lezion’s Live Park on July 8 for a stop on what he said is his farewell tour, along with members of Black Sabbath, the band he founded and fronted 49 years ago.

Osbourne and Black Sabbath helped define the heavy metal genre with classic songs like “Black Sabbath,” “Paranoid” and “Master of Reality.” But it was Osbourne’s wife and manager, Sharon Osbourne, who turned him around after years of drug and alcohol abuse.

Sharon Osbourne sat next to Ozzy at Tuesday’s press conference, which was streamed on Facebook.

When discussing which destinations Osbourne is looking forward to on tour, Sharon Osbourne surprised him by letting him know that their children, Kelly and Jack Osbourne, “really want to come to Israel.”

Osbourne was asked if he’s felt any pressure not to play in Israel, and Sharon Osbourne quickly responded, “I’m half a Heeb; we play where we want to play.”

An American billionaire and confidant of US President Donald Trump is making a major donation to Israel’s National Library.

Stephen Schwarzman, chairman and chief executive of private equity firm Blackstone, says the $10 million donation is his first in Israel.

The donation will fund classrooms and education workshops in the library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Education Center, which the investor hopes will foster inclusiveness and “cross-cultural relationships” between Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

In a statement, the National Library said the center will include a multi-purpose space for up to 100 people for classes, lectures, and performances​; three distinct spaces for activities and workshops; and state-of-the-art technology and infrastructure, to connect with peers in Israel and around the world.

The library broke ground in 2016 on a new home for its collection, which includes the world’s largest assemblage of Jewish texts, plus materials about Islam and the Middle East.

The new building lies across the street from Israel’s Knesset and the Israel Museum.

Schwarzman said on Wednesday the collection “enables all different types of groups to be comfortable in that setting and see things that reflect their historical backgrounds.”

Egypt on Friday closed its border with the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said, after Cairo launched a major operation against jihadists in the Sinai Peninsula.
The head of Hamas, the Islamist group which runs Gaza, was however permitted to travel to Cairo for talks before the border was closed a day earlier than planned.
Friday was supposed to be the final of a three-day border opening for humanitarian cases from Gaza, the first time the Rafah border crossing with Egypt had been open in 2018.
"The Rafah border was closed today due to the security situation in Sinai, we were informed by the Egyptian authorities," said Saleh al-Zaq, head of the civil affairs committee which controls the borders.

On February 10, 2018, an Apache helicopter successfully intercepted an Iranian UAV that was launched from Syria and infiltrated Israel. The aircraft was identified by the Aerial Defense Systems early on and was under surveillance until the interception. In response, IDF attacked the Iranian aircraft's launch components in Syrian territory.

Later, also in response to the Iranian UAV that was launched at Israeli territory and was intercepted by the IDF, Israeli Air Force (IAF) aircraft targeted 12 targets in Syria, including three aerial defense batteries and four Iranian targets that are part of Iran's military establishment in Syria.

During the attack, multiple anti-aircraft missiles were fired at IAF aircraft. The two pilots of an F-16 jet ejected from the aircraft as per procedure, one of whom was seriously injured and taken to the hospital for medical treatment.

“The Syrians and the Iranians, from our point of view, are playing with fire. The Syrians are playing with fire when they allow the Iranians to attack Israel from their soil. We are willing, prepared, and capable to exact a heavy price on anyone that attacks us. However, we are not looking to escalate the situation,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, Head of the International Media Desk.

The IDF sees the Iranian attack and the Syrian response as severe violations of Israeli sovereignty. The IDF will continue to act against any attempt to infiltrate Israeli airspace and will act with determination to prevent any breach of Israeli sovereignty.

In a major flare up on Israel’s northern border, Israel carried out a large-scale attack against Syrian air defenses and Iranian targets in the war-torn country after an Israeli F-16 crashed during operations to strike Iranian targets in Syria early Saturday morning.

The operation, which was carried out by eight Israeli jets struck 12 targets in Syria, including thee Syrian SA5 and SA17 air defense batteries and four Iranian targets.

According to Syrian media reports, Israel struck the Abu Al-Thaaleb airbase near the town of Kiswah, which is home to Syria’s 1st armored division and part of the Islamic Republic’s buildup in Syria.

The Israeli attack was met with anti-aircraft fire, triggering air raid sirens in the Golan Heights and upper Galilee, warning residents of potential rocket strikes. According to IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Ronen Manelis, several missiles hit open areas in northern Israel.

“Iran and Syria are playing with fire,” he said. "The results of our strikes are not yet fully known to them (Iran), and they may be surprised when they discover what we targeted."

Early on Saturday morning, an Iranian drone, which was launched from a Syrian base in the Homs desert, was identified approaching Israeli airspace by the IDF around 4 a.m., setting off alarms across Golan Heights and the Jordan Valley. The drone entered Israel via Jordanian airspace and flew for a minute and a half before it was intercepted by an Israeli Air Force Apache helicopter near the town of Beit She’an.

“We waited for it to cross into our territory,” said IAF chief of air staff Brigadier General Tomer Bar who stressed that it was important for Israel “to get our hands on the drone that was operated by the Iranians.”

“It was the most extensive attack against Syrian anti-aircraft batteries carried out by the IAF since 1982,” Brig.-Gen. Bar stated, stressing that, nonetheless, “we consider this to be a fully successful operation. Israel’s air superiority was not affected today.”

Tensions have been rising along the northern border recently, as Israel has warned repeatedly against Iranian efforts to set up weapons production facilities in Lebanon and establish a presence near the Israeli border with Syria.

According to unconfirmed reports, Israel has carried out dozens of airstrikes on the Syrian armed forces and their allies since the civil war broke out there in 2011.

The prime minister and senior defense officials have said that the country takes action in Syria when a “red line” is crossed, generally meaning in retaliation to deliberate or accidental attacks on Israel from southern Syria or when advanced weapons are being transferred to the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group.

There have, however, been reports of additional Israeli actions that do not appear to have been in response to a violated “red line,” including in attacks against suspected chemical weapons facilities.

Early Wednesday morning, according to Syrian reports, Israeli aircraft bombed a military scientific research facility outside Damascus, which is suspected of both developing chemical weapons for Assad and assisting Iran and Hezbollah in improving their missile technology.

Netanyahu has said that if Iran continues to try and entrench itself in Syria, Israel will “stop it.”

Israel’s military attacked 12 Syrian and Iranian targets in Syria on Saturday in a new wave of strikes it described as a ‘large-scale’ attack, following exchanges of fire earlier in the day sparked by an Iranian drone infiltration from Syria.

The military called the drone infiltration a “severe and irregular violation of Israeli sovereignty” and said Iran would be held responsible for its outcome, marking a dramatic escalation in tensions along its northern border.

The morning’s clashes also saw the crash of an Israeli F-16 jet after it was targeted by Syrian anti-aircraft missiles.

Israeli aircraft “targeted the Syrian Aerial Defense System and Iranian targets in Syria,” a military statement said. “Twelve targets, including three aerial defense batteries and four Iranian targets that are part of Iran’s military establishment in Syria were attacked.”

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said that during the attack 15-20 Syrian anti-aircraft missiles were fired towards aircraft, but did not hit them. Syria state TV said its air defenses responded to new Israeli raids.

The missiles triggered alarms that were heard in northern Israel.

“Syrians and Iranians are playing with fire,” Conricus said. “We are willing to extract a heavy price on anyone who attacks us.” He called that attacks on Iranian targets “quite significant.” However he stressed that “we are not interested in escalating the situation.”

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon called on the UN Security Council to immediately condemn Iran for its “provocations” after an IAF jet was shot down in northern Israel on Saturday.

"This is not the first time we have warned you against Iran's dangerous actions that undermine the security situation in the region,” Danon stated in a letter to the UNSC.

“This incident proves that every one of these warnings proved true. Israel will defend its citizens and will not tolerate any violation of its sovereignty,” the Ambassador added.

The fiery statement comes less than 24 hours after the IDF said an Iranian drone launched from Syria entered into Israeli airspace. In response, Israel launched a heavy air strikes against its northern neighbor, saying it hit air defenses and Iranian targets stationed in Syria.

One F-16 fighter jet, however, crashed on its way back from the mission, leaving the pilot in serious condition after he and his navigator ejected from the damaged aircraft. Syrian media claims the country’s military downed the IAF jet.

The violent altercation marks the most serious confrontation yet in Syria between Israel and Iranian and Iran-backed forces that have established a major foothold in the country while fighting in support of President Bashar Assad in the civil war.

“Council members must not stand idly when Iran acts to dangerously escalate the situation in the region,” Danon said, adding that the international executive body must “condemn this dangerous step in and immediately end the Iranian provocations.”

The condition of a seriously wounded Israeli pilot began to improve Saturday, after he underwent surgery for injuries he sustained while ejecting from his plane over northern Israel, in the midst of a severe confrontation between Israel, Syria, and Iran. The F-16 jet he was piloting took part in Israeli airstrikes in response to an Iranian drone that entered Israeli airspace from Syria in the early morning hours on Saturday.

The Israeli Air Force said it was investigating what caused the pilots to eject and if the aircraft was hit by Syrian anti-aircraft missiles. If the plane was in fact shot down by enemy fire, it would mark the first such instance for Israel since the 1982 Lebanon War.

Dr. Rafi Beyar, the head of Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center, said the pilot was in stable condition after suffering injuries to his chest and abdomen. He said the pilot, who was still unconscious and connected to a respirator, also required blood transfusions.

Beyar said a second pilot, who was lightly injured while abandoning the aircraft, was set to be released from the hospital on Sunday.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin received a briefing on Saturday's IAF operation and the downed F-16I fighter plane, as well as on the Iranian drone which infiltrated Israeli airspace.

Rivlin spoke at length with IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot, as well as IAF Commander Amikam Norkin.

Rivlin commended Israel’s security forces for their firm and resolute defense measures in the face of further proof of the danger of Iranian consolidation in the region, which the State of Israel would not allow.

He also asked Eizenkot and Norkin to convey the appreciation and thanks of the entire nation to the commanders and soldiers, and to all the forces working to defend Israel, for their full control over the operational events and for the greatly valued return to calm for all the residents and tourists of the north.

Rivlin also met with the IAF pilot who was lightly injured on Saturday, thanking him and hearing from him abut his recovery.

"”My heart is with you and your comrades," Rivlin said. "I hope I will be able to meet you soon. You and the entire squadron have proven that you do not come back until your mission is fulfilled. I am thankful to G-d, as is the entire nation, that you have come home."

Israel inflicted serious harm to Syria’s air defenses, said IAF Air Staff Commander Brig. Gen. Tomer Bar on Saturday, after the IDF launched a number of airstrikes on Iranian and Syrian targets in Syria, following the interception on Saturday morning of an unmanned Iranian drone in Israeli airspace.

Bar, the Israeli Air Force’s second-in-command, said the response was “the biggest and most significant attack the air force has conducted against Syrian air defenses since Operation Peace for the Galilee” in 1982 during the First Lebanon War.

Syria’s responding anti-aircraft fire led to the downing of an Israeli fighter plane in which two pilots were injured, one seriously and another lightly. Both were being treated at Rambam Hospital in Haifa.

Israel said the drone infiltration was a “severe and irregular violation of Israeli sovereignty,” and warned of further action against unprecedented Iranian aggression.

Bar said the Iranian drone remained in Israel’s airspace for a minute and a half before being taken out by a combat helicopter over the city of Beit Shean, near the Jordanian border. He added that the drone was quite advanced and emulated Western technology.

Bar said Israel would study the drone.

The military alliance fighting in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad said on Saturday Israel will witness a "severe and serious" response to its "terrorism" from now on.

In a statement, the alliance said Israeli claims that a drone entered Israeli airspace were a "lie."

The statement said Israel attacked a drone base in central Syria. The alliance added that drones had left the T4 air base in the morning to conduct routine operations against Islamic State in the Syrian desert.

"When the base was targeted our aircraft were still flying over the town of Sokhna, towards the desert," the statement said. Sokhna is a town northeast of the city of Palmyra in central Syria.

The deputy head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps, meanwhile, declined to comment on reports that Israel had intercepted an Iranian drone launched from Syria on Saturday, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Brigadier General Hossein Salami "did not comment on the reports about the Iranian drone when asked by journalists, but he said that Iran could destroy all American military bases in the region and create a hell for the Zionist regime (Israel)," according to Tasnim.

"We cannot confirm this report on the drone because Israelis are liars... if Syrians confirm it, Iran will confirm it as well," Salami said.

Iran and Syria on Saturday denied that an unmanned drone Israel said it shot down violated the Jewish state’s airspace, calling Israeli allegations “lies” and saying the drone was on a regular mission gathering intelligence on Islamic State.

The drone incident led to a barrage of Israeli airstrikes on Iranian and Syrian targets in Syria. Syria responded with heavy anti-aircraft fire that set off multiple warning sirens in Israel and managed to down one Israeli F-16 in Israeli territory, seriously wounding a pilot.

A spokesman for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said the Syrian response was “a clear warning to Israel. The era of Israeli strikes on Syria is over.” He vowed a “relentless response” to “all further aggression.”

A Syrian statement said Israeli jets targeted a drone base in central Syria whose mission is to gather intelligence on IS in the area. It said the station was hit while drones were on regular missions in the country’s desert in Homs province. The statement said it was “a lie and misleading” to say the drone had entered Israel’s airspace.

A statement on Central Military Media, which is allied with the Syrian military, called Israel’s attack on the drone site a “terrorist act,” warning of “a tough and serious response.”

Hezbollah hailed Syria’s air defenses after they reportedly downed an Israeli fighter jet on Saturday, saying it marked the start of a “new strategic era.”

“This is the beginning of a new strategic era which puts an end to the violation of Syrian airspace and territory,” the Lebanese terror group said in a statement published by Lebanon’s ANI news agency.

Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy backing Syrian President Bashar Assad in his country’s civil war, praised the “vigilance of the Syrian army,” and said it had “bravely blocked Israeli warplanes and downed an F-16.”

It also said the Syrian response marked “a decisive end to old arrangements.”

Hezbollah supporters were celebrating the incident on Saturday across from the Israeli city of Metulla, according to Israeli TV reports.

Israel’s main airport briefly halted all departures and delayed some landings Saturday morning due to military clashes along the northern border.

Flights at Ben Gurion International Airport were delayed for around an hour starting at 9 a.m. following a security assessment. Regular air traffic later resumed.

The airport is considered a strategic location that could be targeted by Israel’s enemies during military conflict.

The Israeli military shot down an Iranian drone that infiltrated the country early Saturday before launching a “large-scale attack” on at least a dozen Iranian targets in Syria. Israel called it a “severe and irregular violation of Israeli sovereignty.”

The military said its planes faced massive anti-aircraft fire from Syria that forced two pilots to abandon an F-16 jet that crashed in northern Israel. One pilot was seriously wounded and the other lightly.

Despite the escalation on the northern border, some 100,000 people visited national parks throughout the country on Saturday, including in the north, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority said.

Among the sites in northern Israel to see thousands of visitors were Mount Hermon, as well as the Banias and Hula Valley nature reserves, the Parks Authority said.

Both Mount Hermon and the Banias Nature Reserve are located in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War.

There are two possible explanations. Neither is good enough.

First, there are those who claim that terrorism against Israelis is part of a broader political conflict — that such terrorism isn’t religious in nature, but rather a tactic in a territorial war. That’s absolute nonsense. This week, 29-year-old Itamar Ben Gal, a teacher at a yeshiva in Ariel, was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist while waiting by the roadside; he left four children behind. That follows the murder of Rabbi Raziel Shevach, a father of six, in the same area, as he drove along the highway. These are civilian, not military targets. These were family men murdered for no reason other than their Judaism.

And no, this isn’t about settlements. In 2017, Israel saw a wave of terror attacks across Israel; most of those attacks were perpetrated inside so-called Green Line Israel: stabbings on the streets, truck attacks on civilian crowds. The Palestinian leadership celebrates such killings and offers the families of terrorists financial incentives to pursue them. And the Palestinian leadership is clear about the rationale for such killings. That rationale is the same as the al-Qaida rationale or the ISIS rationale: a radical Islamic political viewpoint that sees the slaughter of non-Muslim innocents as a tool in the jihad against the infidel. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas isn’t a “moderate” leader seeking peace; he’s a radical who stated openly just weeks ago that “Israel is a colonialist project that has nothing to do with the Jews.”

Then there’s the second explanation for why the world would downplay terrorist attacks against Jews: an anti-Semitic attempt to separate off the Jews from the West. That’s certainly the tendency in Europe, where it’s convenient to view anti-Semitic attacks inside the continent by radical Muslims not as attacks on European citizens but as internecine warfare between two outsider groups. That’s convenient because it allows Europe to treat the rise in anti-Semitic crime as an aberration rather than a serious internal problem. But it also reinforces the lie that Jews cannot be full citizens of the West.

There’s no true excuse for leaving dead Israelis off the list of terror victims. But those who do it don’t need an excuse. They’ll keep on doing it so long as the Jewish community remains silent about the omission. And so long as that omission remains the rule rather than the exception, the West will continue to ignore a basic, simple truth: The Jews of Israel are the canary in the coalmine in radical Islam’s war against the West, not an outlier nation that can be cast aside for political convenience. What starts on the streets of Jerusalem usually finds its way to the streets of London. The non-Israeli West would be smart to recognize that fact, if only to protect itself.

A United Nations agency has been accused of breaking Israeli law by improperly expanding its Jerusalem headquarters.

According to Regavim, an Israeli non-governmental organization (NGO), the accusations include illegal encroachment and seizure of public property.

The agency being blamed is the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization. Incidentally, UNTSO is based in the same south Jerusalem neighborhood where the new U.S. Embassy will soon relocate, following President Donald Trump’s decision to move it from Tel Aviv last year.

Regavim says it first discovered the U.N. agency's building activity in March of last year, and petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court to get the government to enforce the law.

The NGO describes itself as a “research-based think tank and lobbying group dedicated to the preservation of Israel’s resources and protection of Israeli sovereignty through unbiased application and enforcement of the law.”

Regavim’s spokesperson, Naomi Kahn, showed Fox News aerial pictures that she said reveals the illegal building. She explained that the unlawful work include demolition of historic buildings, construction of an illegal storage facility and a gas station, which she said has caused environmental damage to the surrounding area. Kahn said, “To make matters worse, the compound has grown through illegal encroachment and seizure of public property from 11 acres to just over 19.”

Eugene Kontorovich, a professor of international and constitutional law at Northwestern University, told Fox News that Regavim’s lawsuit is aimed against the Israeli government to compel them to enforce the law, but the U.N. is shielded by its longstanding immunity. “Immunity means they cannot be sued in court — even if the court agrees their action is unlawful.”

He said, “The U.N. is behaving absolutely lawlessly in Jerusalem. Even if it considers Israel an occupying power, it is bound to heed the municipal and safety regulations of such a power, which are entirely lawful. The U.N. does not own the building and does not pay rent.”

The Republican Party of Wisconsin has launched a campaign to draw attention to the record of Democratic congressional candidate Dan Kohl during his time at a controversial far-left Middle East advocacy organization.

Kohl, who is challenging Rep. Glenn Grothman (R), cofounded the J Street PAC, a Washington D.C-based organization that self-identifies as "pro-Israel" and "pro peace" but is often labeled by critics as being "anti-Israel."

During Kohl's time with the group, J Street was an ardent supporter of President Barack Obama's foreign policy and pushed for the Iran Deal, which the Israeli government called a "historic mistake." J Street backed the campaign with a multi-million dollar public relations blitz.

Kohl's involvement with J Street will now take center stage in Wisconsin's sixth district as part of the "Stop J Street" campaign, which will include a joint fundraising committee between the Wisconsin GOP and Grothman.

"Radical pro-Iran deal J Street activists are using D.C. millions to win back Congress by running against pro-Israel conservatives in strategic seats across the country," the group's website reads. "Stop J Street is a group committed to fighting this takeover and keeping America from ever going back to Obama's dangerous anti-Israel policies."

Alec Zimmerman, the communications director of the Wisconsin GOP, says that Kohl spent years putting "dangerous Obama-era policies" ahead of national security.

"J-Street co-founder and former lobbyist Dan Kohl has moved to Wisconsin with the goal of buying a Congressional seat to push his radical foreign policy agenda," Zimmerman told the Washington Free Beacon. "Kohl and J-Street spent years putting dangerous Obama-era foreign policy goals—like the Iran Deal that sent piles of cash to a terrorist backing anti-American regime—ahead of our national security and the safety of Wisconsin families."

Lebanon on Friday signed its first contract to drill for oil and gas off its coast with a consortium comprising energy giants Total, ENI, and Novatek, including in a block disputed by Israel.

Israel says one of two blocks in the eastern Mediterranean where Lebanon wants to drill for oil belongs to it, and last week denounced any exploration by Beirut as “provocative.”

President Michel Aoun said at a signing ceremony that Lebanon has “entered a new chapter in its history and is now a member of energy-producing countries.”

Looking to tap potential oil and gas reserves after major offshore discoveries by neighboring Israel and Cyprus, the Mediterranean country in December approved a bid on blocks four and nine.

Block nine is the disputed block with Israel.

Exploration is set to begin in 2019.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged his country's support to the Palestinian people during a visit to Ramallah on Saturday.

“I have assured President Abbas that India is committed to the Palestinian people’s interests,” Modi said in a joint press conference with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. “The relations between India and Palestine have stood the test of time."

Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that the two parties signed agreements worth $41.35 million to fund multiple Palestinian projects.

Abbas reportedly thanked India for its support for the Palestinian cause, saying the Palestinians count on India to play a role in peacemaking because of its position as a world power of great stature and weight.

He also rejected recent accusations by Israel and the US claiming the Palestinians have abandoned the peace process over the PA's rejection of the Americans as peace mediators.

“We have never rejected negotiations; we have been and are still ready for negotiations,” said Abbas.

The Palestinians are trying to shore up international support for a process that will see multiple brokers replacing Washington as the sponsors of a future peace deal.

An adviser to Poland’s president has said that Israel’s reaction to a law criminalizing some statements about Poland’s actions during World War II stems from a “feeling of shame at the passivity of the Jews during the Holocaust.”

Andrzej Zybertowicz made the remark in an interview published Friday in the Polska-The Times newspaper. Zybertowicz tweeted a link to the article on Friday.

The bill prohibiting blaming the Polish nation for Holocaust crimes was signed into law Tuesday by President Andrzej Duda but has yet to receive final approval from the country’s Constitutional Court.

The law has sparked anger in Israel, where Holocaust survivors and others with roots in Poland fear it will allow the government to whitewash the role some Poles had in killing Jews during WWII.

A Lithuanian official responsible for ethics in academia offered a cash reward for students or scholars willing to write a thesis about Jews’ involvement in war crimes or murder.

Vigilijus Sadauskas, ombudsman for academic ethics and procedures, made the offer for subsidy on his blog. The speaker of the Lithuanian parliament, Viktoras Pranckietis, called on Sadauskas to resign.

In the blog entry, Sadauskas offered 1,000 euros, or $1,221, to “a school student, a university student, a postgraduate student, a teacher, or a scientist who will collect information, documents, materials and write a thesis (at least 10 printed pages) or a publication about individuals of the Jewish nationality who killed people, contributed to deportations or tortures,” the LETA news agency reported Thursday.

Sadauskas plans to stay on until the end of his tenure in June as ombudsman, to which he was appointed in 2013 by parliament, LETA reported.

But Pranckietis, the speaker of parliament, said about Sadauskas: “I am convinced he should resign.”

A Florida lawmaker is demanding that venues in Miami and Tampa cancel upcoming concerts by New Zealand pop star Lorde, who called off a show in Israel to comply with the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

“BDS is an antisemitic, terrorist movement and we should not force taxpayers to subsidize it,” State Representative Randy Fine (R-Palm Bay) told The Algemeiner on Friday.

In letters to the Miami Sports and Exhibition Authority and the Tampa Sports Authority, Fine warned that Lorde’s April performances would violate Florida law, which bars state and local governments from conducting business exceeding $1 million with any organization engaged in a boycott of Israel.

“Florida has no tolerance for antisemitism and boycotts intended to destroy the State of Israel,” Fine wrote. “That’s why Florida passed groundbreaking anti-BDS legislation several years ago … Current statues are clear — local governments cannot do business with companies that participate in antisemitic boycotts of Israel.”

“When Lorde joined the boycott in December, she and her companies became subject to that statute,” the representative continued. “The taxpayers of Miami and Tampa should not have to facilitate bigotry and antisemitism.”

Lorde is currently scheduled to perform in Tampa on April 11th and in Miami on April 12th. The singer cancelled a Tel Aviv concert set to take place in June as part of her world tour, which will include stops in Russia and Indonesia.

The Hamas-ISIS war comes at a time when the Gaza Strip is experiencing a severe humanitarian crisis, including shortages of fuel and medicine, that has forced a number of hospitals and medical centers to suspend their services. The suffering of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, however, is apparently of no concern to Hamas.

Instead of attending to the needs of his people, Mahmoud Abbas is busy picking a fight with the U.S. administration and its "Zionist" representatives, David Friedman and Jason Greenblatt.

Once again, the Palestinians have fallen victim to their leaders, who are seemingly preoccupied with one thing alone: pumping millions of dollars of public donations into their own private coffers.

In March 2015, Sen. Tom Cotton (R – Ark.) posted a letter on his website, signed by 46 other Republican senators, arguing that any deal with Iran that was not approved by the United States Senate would just be an executive agreement that would not necessarily have force in American law after President Barack Obama’s term in office ended.

While Cotton called it a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the intent of the letter was to get the administration to acknowledge that the nuclear deal it was negotiating with no Congressional oversight would be an executive agreement and not a treaty.

Confirmation came from then-Secretary of State John Kerry who acknowledged that the deal would be an executive agreement, even as he disparaged the senators who authored it.

(Politifact, interestingly judged Cotton’s contention to be “mostly true,” writing that “the upside of pursuing an executive agreement is that they are easier to negotiate — they don’t require approval from Congress, which (as the current episode makes clear) removes a major obstacle. The downside of an executive agreement, however, is that it’s easier to reverse.” Politifact added some non-legal qualifications to its judgment, but still backed the central assertion of the Senate letter.)

A more interesting response to the Senate letter came from Iran’s foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator Mohammad Javad Zarif. Posting on Iran’s foreign ministry website, Zarif wrote that the deal “will not be a bilateral agreement between Iran and the US, but rather one that will be concluded with the participation of five other countries, including all permanent members of the Security Council, and will also be endorsed by a Security Council resolution.

When hundreds of hardcore Verona soccer fans chanted “Adolf Hitler is my friend,” and sang of their team’s embrace of the swastika, Italian Jewish communities complained, and waited.

Local officials initially dismissed the incident — which was filmed and circulated on social media by the so-called “ultras” themselves — as a “prank.” Condemnation only came several months later, after another video from the same summer party, this time profaning Christian objects, also went viral.

“These episodes should absolutely not be dismissed,” said Bruno Carmi, the head of Verona’s tiny Jewish community of about 100, speaking at the Verona synagogue, which is flanked by two armed police patrols. “In my opinion, whoever draws a simple swastika on the wall knows what it means.”

Racist and anti-Semitic expressions in Italy have been growing more bold, widespread, and violent. Anti-migrant rhetoric is playing an unprecedented role in shaping the campaign for the country’s March 4 national election, which many say is worsening tensions and even encouraging violence.

Hate crimes motivated by racial or religious bias in Italy rose more than 10-fold, from 71 incidents in 2012 to 803 in 2016, according to police statistics. The five-year period corresponded with an explosion in migrant arrivals.

As Hurricane Harvey ripped through Houston last August, the trauma didn’t even spare those whose job is to help others cope. One social worker, barricaded on the second floor of her house, watched in horror as water and mud flooded her first floor. Another was stuck in a closet with her dog for 24 hours.

Many mental-health professionals felt helpless or guilty for their inability to respond to people in need as they usually would. And other professionals, such as educators, did not feel adequately prepared to tend psychological wounds among those they work with.

Israel, as always, was quick to send various forms of immediate support to Houston. But the Israel Trauma Coalition knew from experience in Israel and many other countries that a long process of healing was only beginning. The organization reached out to Houston’s Jewish Family Services in September.

“They said they’d like to do their ‘train the trainer’ model in their method of helping people deal with trauma,” says JFS Houston Special Projects Coordinator Gittel Francis.

A British organization has launched an ambitious project aimed at restoring old, abandoned synagogues across Europe and bringing them back to community life, and in many cases commemorating communities that were wiped out in the Holocaust.

The Foundation of Jewish Heritage officially launched the Historic Synagogues of Europe project at an event Wednesday in the UK parliament building. It has identified 19 synagogues it hopes to initially put back into use out of over 3,000 buildings that still exist.

Historian Simon Schama led the launch event that was attended by dozens of lawmakers from all parties.

“Synagogues were always places of gathering, they were social gatherings … so when we remember, and try to restore and look after places not affected by the Holocaust we are essentially putting back together memory of living communities, even when Jews are absent,” Schama said.

Schama continued that the restoration work in places where Jewish communities no longer exist is especially important.

“The present is, in the chain of memories, about human vitality, the vitality of communities,” he said “So, if you do this, you bring back not only Jewish memory, you bring what Europe was. Europe had Jewish life as much as it had Christian life so we are, in a sense, validating the entirety of our historical memory when we do this, bad memories as well as good memories, memories of a living community.”

Removal Proceedings
You will lose your permanent resident status if an immigration judge issues a final removal order against you.
INA sections 212 and 237 describe the grounds on which you may be ordered removed from the United States.

INA: ACT 212 - GENERAL CLASSES OF ALIENS INELIGIBLE TO RECEIVE VISAS AND INELIGIBLE FOR ADMISSION; WAIVERS OF INADMISSIBILLITY
(VII) endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse
 or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization;

On Saturday, February 10, 2018, Iran launched an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from Syria, which violated Israeli sovereign airspace. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) dispatched an Apache attack helicopter to intercept the UAV and destroyed it. “The UAV was detected long before crossing Israeli territory” said Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, Head of the International Branch.


In response, Israeli Air Force aircraft targeted the control vehicle from which the UAV was operated in the Syrian T-4 Airbase near Tadmor. During the attack, multiple surface-to-air missiles were launched at IAF aircraft and hit an F-16I fighter jet. The two pilots were forced to eject and parachuted to safety in Israeli territory.

In total, the IDF targeted 12 military objectives, including 3 aerial defense batteries and 4 Iranian targets that are part of Iran's military establishment in Syria. “We carried out a wide-scale attack on the aerial defense system - radars, rockets, batteries, posts, and we performed a substantial strike, which as can be seen - they are trying to hide” says Brig. Gen. Amnon Ein Dar, Head of the Air Group in the IAF. According to Brig. Gen. Ein Dar, it is “the biggest and most significant attack the air force has carried out against Syrian air defenses since 1982.”

"What we've known for a long time is now clear to everyone: Iran wants to establish a front in Syria that is aimed at harming Israel. We are not looking to escalate the situation, but we have abilities that we are not afraid to use,” said Maj. Gen. Yoel Strick, Head of the Northern Command.

For a long time Iran and the Quds Force have been operating, with the backing of Syrian forces and the approval of the Syrian regime, from the Syrian T-4 Airbase near Tadmor. pic.twitter.com/U9H33vDF4O

— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) February 10, 2018

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said airstrikes targeting key Iranian military facilities in Syria over the weekend inflicted heavy damage on the Iranian and Syrian militaries, and vowed that Israel would act decisively to counter any further provocations.

“Yesterday we dealt a serious blow to the armies of Iran and Syria,” Netanyahu told ministers at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. “We made it unequivocally clear to everyone that our rules of engagement have not changed in any way.”

“We will continue to strike back at any attempt to harm us,” Netanyahu said, according to a statement. “This has been our policy and will remain our policy.”

The wave of Israeli airstrikes came after the IDF intercepted an Iranian drone that had infiltrated its airspace and an Israeli F-16 was downed upon its return from Syria on Saturday. It was Israel’s most serious engagement in neighboring Syria since fighting there began in 2011 — and its most devastating air assault on the country in decades.

The IDF said it destroyed the drone’s Iranian launching site along with four additional Iranian positions and eight Syrian sites, including the Syrian military’s main command and control bunker.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war in Syria through a network of activists on the ground, said Sunday that at least six Syrian troops and allied militiamen were killed in the airstrikes. The six included Syrian troops as well as non-Syrian allied troops, the Britain-based Observatory said.

The United States "strongly supports" Israel's right to defend itself, the State Department spokeswoman Heather Naeuert said on Saturday, several hours after Israel hit 12 Iranian and Syrian targets in Syria, including Syrian air defense systems, after an Iranian drone launched from a base in Syria attempted to violate Israeli airspace.

"The United States is deeply concerned about today's escalation of violence over Israel's border and strongly supports Israel's sovereign right to defend itself," said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.

"Iran's calculated escalation of threat and its ambition to project its power and dominance, places all the people of the‎ region – from Yemen to Lebanon – at risk."‎

A spokesman for the U.S. Defense Department echoed Nauert, saying that Washington supports Israel's right to defend itself against threats to its territory and its citizens, but emphasized that the U.S. did not take part in the attack on Syrian territory.

The spokesman said the U.S. was interested in generating a tougher global stance against Iran's actions.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the latest escalation in Syria in a telephone call on Saturday, Russia's Interfax news agency cited the Kremlin as saying.

"They discussed the situation around the actions of the Israeli air force, which carried out missile strikes on targets in Syria," Interfax quoted the Kremlin as saying.

The Israeli F-16 pilot who was seriously hurt when an apparent Syrian anti-aircraft missile downed his fighter jet on Saturday regained consciousness on Sunday and was taken off a respirator.

After his condition improved on Saturday due to emergency surgery, Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center reported “an additional improvement in the pilot’s condition” on Sunday.

“The medical team has taken him off respiration,” said Yaron Bar-Lavie, director of the critical care division at the northern Israel hospital.

“He is fully conscious and his injuries are now defined as moderate,” he added. “He is still in the critical care department.”

The F-16 jet took part in Israeli airstrikes in response to an Iranian drone that entered Israeli airspace from Syria in the early morning hours on Saturday. A second pilot who ejected from the plane was lightly hurt and is set to be released from the hospital on Sunday.

The Israeli Air Force said it was investigating what caused the pilots to eject and if the aircraft was hit by Syrian anti-aircraft missiles. If the plane was in fact shot down by enemy fire, it would mark the first such instance for Israel since the 1982 Lebanon War.

At the end of January 2018, in the midst of the warnings by the Israeli prime minister, defense minister, and military spokespersons against Iran and its plan to build facilities in Lebanon for manufacturing precision weapons, Sayyed Ebrahim Raisi came for a visit to Syria and Lebanon. Raisi is a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts and is thought to be the designated successor of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

In 2017, he lost the elections for the Iran presidency to Hassan Rouhani. During the elections, Rouhani accused Riasi of being behind the 1988 mass murder of political prisoners in Iran in which thousands were killed.
Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi with Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.

Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi, custodian the multi-billion dollar Astan Quds Razavi bonyad (foundation), held talks with Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.2

In Lebanon, Raisi met with Hizbullah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashim Safi al-Din; Speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri; and the chairman of the Shiite Islamic Council, Abdul-Amir Kabalan. Raisi also visited the family homes of the deceased terrorist leaders Imad Mughniyeh and Mustafa Badr al-Din.

The high point of Raisi’s visit occurred in southern Lebanon when he toured the border with Israel escorted by Hizbullah military commanders and Iranian officers. In pictures published by his office, the escorts’ faces were blurred.

The decision by the Iran-led “Shiite Axis” in the region to send an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) into Israeli territory was a dangerous miscalculation by Tehran and its puppets in Syria and Lebanon.

Following strategic victories over the Islamic State and Turkey-backed rebels inside Syria, an overly confident Iran apparently decided to test regional boundaries and its own capabilities by sending the UAV over the border into the Jewish state.

Aviation analysts described the Iranian drone as a new stealthy model similar in design to the American RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone that Iran claimed to have shot down and seized in December 2011. It’s likely the Iranians were testing the model’s ability to penetrate Israeli airspace undetected, making Israel’s discovery of the UAV a remarkable display of regional military superiority.

Iran, Syria and Hezbollah have outrageously been attempting to frame Israel’s massive airstrikes as unprovoked aggression, even fueling conspiracies that no drone was intercepted. In reality, the timeline is self-evident. Following Iran’s ill-conceived provocative UAV move, Israeli jets pounded an Iran-controlled airbase outside the Syrian city of Palmyra that Israel says was utilized to launch the drone. Syrian forces then launched anti-aircraft missiles, reportedly forcing an Israeli F-16 pilot to abandon his jet and sending Israel’s northern communities into bomb shelters. Israel in turn dispatched bombers into Syria to target a series of important Syrian and Iranian military installations, prompting more anti-aircraft fire from Iran-backed Syrian forces.

The Israeli army identified some of the targets of the retaliatory airstrikes it conducted in Syria after an Iranian drone infiltrated Israeli airspace the day before, while Syrian rebel forces provided details on the rest.

The targets included anti-aircraft missile batteries and an anti-missile defense system near Damascus and a mobile command center near Palmyra, according to the military.

Six pro-regime fighters were killed in the raids, according to a monitor.

At approximately 4:25 a.m. on Saturday, an Iranian drone from Syria entered Israeli territory from Jordan and was shot down by an Apache attack helicopter near the northern Israeli city of Beit Shean, according to the army.

Israel said the drone infiltration was a “severe and irregular violation of Israeli sovereignty,” and warned of further action against unprecedented Iranian “aggression.”

In response, the Israeli Air Force quickly conducted a series of reprisal strikes in Syria.

One F-16 fighter jet was apparently hit while flying over Syria during the raid, but managed to return to Israel, where its two pilots bailed out of the plane, which crashed into a field in the Jezreel Valley, according to IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus. One of the airmen was severely injured, while the second was lightly wounded.

Palestinians on Saturday hailed the shooting down of an Israeli F-16 by Syria, with some celebrating in the streets and terror groups in the Gaza Strip calling the incident a “severe blow” to Israel.

Meanwhile, the military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, announced that it was “raising the state of alert” along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel in wake of the tensions in northern Israel.

Abu Obaida, a spokesperson, said the move was aimed at “defending our people and responding to any Zionist aggression.”

In Jenin in the West Bank, some Palestinians celebrated the downing of the jet and handed out sweets and candies to passersby.

#بالصور... فلسطينيون يوزعون الحلوى في مدينة #جنينابتهاجًا بإسقاط طائرة حربية تابعة للاحتلال في سوريا pic.twitter.com/b79JnOmunT

— Pal.Info.Center (@PalinfoAr) February 10, 2018

Qais al-Khazali, the head of the Iraqi Shi’a Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq militia, celebrated the downing of an Israeli F-16 by Syrian air defense in a series of tweets over the weekend. Although most responses were supportive, one mocked him and Iran for being “pawns, luring children to their death.”

This is part of the much wider debate unfolding between opponents and supporters of the Syrian regime. In this debate, Israel’s actions and any perception of Iranian gains have ramifications across the region. For supporters of Assad and Tehran, the “axis of resistance” has scored a great victory against the “Zionists.” For those who have stood with the Syrian rebellion and watched Assad’s barrel bombs killing civilians for years, the Israeli air strikes against the Iranians in Syria are a welcome sign.

“A happy day that Israeli planes bomb Hezbollah and Iran sites in Syria and other sites of the Bashar [Assad] regime,” a Saudi named Mansour al-Khamis tweeted in Arabic to his 29,000 followers on Saturday. He claimed the Muslim Brotherhood stands with Iran, the Syrian regime and Hezbollah, but today “I will stand not to salute the Israeli Army but to that the oppressors will destroy the unjust.” Replies to his tweet included accusations that “Wahhabi Saudi Arabia” was collaborating with Israel.

Twelve years ago, during the Israel-Hezbollah war, the region was vastly different. Then, the support for Hezbollah and its claims of “victory” over Israel were more widespread. Now, the cleavages in the region between supporters of Assad, Iran and Hezbollah and those who look on with more favor as Israel targeted a dozen sites in Syria on Saturday, are more stark. Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian civil war irretrievably tarnished the group’s image for many people. Iran has been portrayed in cartoons in the region as a grasping octopus with bloody hands reaching into Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq.

In a rare public expression of support for Israel by a radical Islamist figure in Syria, a former leader in al-Qaeda’s Syrian militia on Saturday welcomed Israeli airstrikes against Syrian and Iranian targets in the country after an Iranian drone infiltrated Israeli airspace, and called on the Jewish state to quickly “uproot” Iran from its northern neighbor.

“We welcome any Israeli aerial or naval bombardment against the [Syrian] regime and Iran in Syria. We urge them to do more. And we say to Israel: Your silence over Iran’s intervention in Syria will turn against you. It’s inevitable. Act with haste to uproot them,” Saleh Al-Hamwi wrote on Twitter.

Hamwi was a founder of the Nusra Front in 2012. In July 2015, the jihadist group said it dismissed him for not falling in line with the group’s internal politics.

He is now reportedly affiliated with the hardline Islamist group Ahrar il-Sham.

Headlines matter. Here’s why: rightly or not, we don’t read most of the articles in our daily papers; we skim the headlines before being drawn to whatever grabs our attention – both on news sites and also on social media. So for better or worse, headlines tell a story: sometimes the only story a newsreader will remember.

The IDF began releasing information yesterday at 6:30 a.m. local time, and all the articles below were written after that time. So there is no legitimate reason why we should be seeing headlines like these:

New Zealand Herald: No mention that the drone was flying in Israel, which is really the heart of the story.

The Observer: The attack wasn’t just “after fighter jet crashes,” but after Iran sent a military drone into Israel, and Israel’s fighter jet was downed while responding. But why mention any of that critical context? It might appear as if Israel had acted reasonably.

The Times UK: Emotionally evocative phrasing (“blasts”) is always a convenient substitute for responsible, fact-based journalism. And of course, as usual, the cause of the whole situation is entirely missing.

Financial Times: Seriously? No context at all?

The Washington Post has treated an Iranian attack against Israel with unwarranted skepticism, using the event to unfairly question the motives of the Israeli military.

The Post asserted in a Feb. 10, 2018 report (“Israel claims incursion by Iranian drone”) that the Jewish state used an Iranian drone's “alleged incursion” into Israeli airspace as a “pretext for Israeli strikes on what it described as Iranian targets in Syria.” The Post's claim was part of a problematic and inaccurate caption that accompanied a video that the paper posted online to describe events that transpired in the early morning hours of Feb. 10, 2018.

As the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) noted, the IDF intercepted an Iranian made unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) after it entered Israeli airspace from Syria. During the attack, several anti-aircraft missiles were launched at Israeli fighter jets and sirens sounded in northern Israel. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) responded by engaging twelve targets, including three aerial defense batteries and four Iranian military targets, all of which were located in Syria. An Israeli attack helicopter successfully destroyed the Iranian UAV. An IAF F-16 jet also crashed, after its two pilots ejected. The pilots are currently hospitalized and it's unclear at the time of this writing what led to the downing of the IAF plane.

The IDF has released footage showing the Iranian drone infiltrating Israeli airspace and the IDF's response.

Hostilities over the weekend on both sides of the Syrian-Israeli border began early Saturday morning when an Iranian drone entered Israeli airspace and was then shot down by an IDF Apache attack helicopter. On this point – the location of the UAV when it was shot down – there’s been no serious disagreement in mainstream media reports on the incident.

Yet, a report in the Independent by Daniel Khalili-Tari (Russia urges restraint after Israeli air strikes target Iranian forces in Syria, Feb. 11th) managed to get this crucial detail wrong, claiming that the drone was shot down over Syria, despite prior reports at the same publication noting that it was shot down only after it crossed the northern border into Israel.

We alerted the journalist to the error in a tweet shortly after the article was published.

However, the BBC – which, notably, recently took it upon itself to launch “a new scheme to help young people identify real news and filter out fake or false information” – had no qualms about amplifying Iranian disinformation.

“Meanwhile Iran and the Tehran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon – which are allied with the Syrian government – dismissed reports that an Iranian drone had entered Israeli airspace as a “lie”.”

The third event to take place on the morning of February 10th was an IAF strike on the mobile command vehicle that launched and guided the Iranian UAV at the T4 airbase near Tadmor in central Syria. The BBC reported that event as follows:

“The drone was shot down. Israel later launched further strikes in Syria. […]

In a further response, the IDF “targeted Iranian targets in Syria”, according to the military. The mission deep inside Syrian territory was successfully completed, it said.”

In other words, BBC audiences were not informed that the drone was launched from a Syrian airbase used by Iran’s Quds Force.

Despite events being clear, the world media got their headlines wrong, with many going with the “Israeli attacked first” boilerplate.

International world media get the headlines wrong. Cause: Iranian drone infiltrated into Israel, Effect: Israel retaliates downs the drone targets Syrian and Iranian assets, one IAF aircraft crashed, pilot severely wounded. pic.twitter.com/52cvLQbmC5

— LTC (R) Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) February 10, 2018

But by far the worst example I saw was from The Metro, which is, according to Wikipedia, “a free newspaper published in tabloid format in the United Kingdom..distributed from Monday to Friday on many public-transport services and stations in cities and towns across the United Kingdom.” It has a circulation of almost 1.5 million.

Syria has been subjected to brutal air strikes after the Israeli military shot down an Iranian drone that infiltrated the country. The military said its planes faced massive anti-aircraft fire from Syria that forced two pilots to abandon an F-16 jet that crashed in northern Israel.

Besides the fact the headline and opening paragraph of the report focus on the Israeli airstrikes, the word “brutal” is totally unnecessary and designed to elicit anger towards Israel and sympathy towards Syria. The headline is also wrong – it was the Syrians (and/or the Iranians) who shot down an Israeli fighter jet – we shot down an Iranian drone.

Again, I go back to The Metro’s circulation – 1.5 million UK commuters. Is it any wonder we are seeing so much antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment over there?

In interview with Israel Hayom Editor-in-Chief Boaz Bismuth, U.S. President Donald Trump says, "I have achieved more than I had promised" in first year of term • "Israel has to be careful with settlements," he says, adding that Israelis and Palestinians would be "foolish" not to make a peace deal.

"I expect to be here a long time," U.S. President Donald Trump said to me when I asked him whether the ayatollah regime would still be in place in Iran when he leaves office. "We will see."

When it comes to the leader of the free world, a remark like this can be taken as a semi-threat. One thing is clear: The U.S. no longer views Iran as a "stabilizing" power, or even remotely as one of the good guys in the region, the way Trump's predecessor, President Barack Obama, often did.

I interviewed Trump before the latest escalation in Israel's north, before Israel clashed with Syrian and Iranian forces at the Syrian border on Saturday. But even then, it was painfully clear that Syria and Iran are testing the U.S., checking how far they can push the Americans (including reports of chemical attacks and hospital bombings in recent days).

When I asked Trump if Israel is free to operate in Syria and in Lebanon against Iranian targets, he adopted an air of uncharacteristic ambiguity. But the message was clear – when it comes to Iran, it is best to let actions do the talking. The U.S. is keeping its cards close to the chest.

Over half of the Democrats in Congress are urging US President Donald Trump to rethink his decision to significantly slash aid to the UN agency working with Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

In a letter on Friday, 102 lawmakers said cutting tens of millions of dollars in US contributions to the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) would intensify anti-Israel sentiment, damage national interests in the region, and diminish prospects for a two-state solution.

“Continuing to freeze this aid will harm American interests by exacerbating the threats facing both peoples and reducing the United States’ ability to help the Israelis and Palestinians reach a two-state solution,” the letter said.

They warned that “deliberately exacerbating the hardship of the Palestinian people and reducing the ability of their government to function would only contribute to the benefit of those who reject engagement.”

“Extremist and anti-Israel groups would be all too eager to fill in the vacuum, deepening their hold in the region and expanding their destructive influence on the prospects for a peaceful resolution of the conflict,” the US lawmakers said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday became the first Indian prime minister to visit Judea and Samaria, where he held talks with Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas as part of a Middle East tour.

The visit, which came weeks after Modi hosted Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, was seen as an Indian effort to balance its strengthening ties with the Jewish state.

"I have once again assured President Abbas that India is bound by a promise to take care of the Palestinian people's interests," Modi said following a meeting with the Fatah leader.

"India hopes that soon Palestine will become a free country in a peaceful manner."

Modi and his entourage had flown in by helicopter from Jordan, landing near Abbas's Ramallah headquarters and laying a wreath at the mausoleum of late Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat.

Arafat, who founded the Fatah terrorist organization in 1959, led the PLO, an umbrella organization of anti-Israel terror groups, from 1969 until his death in 2004.

Born in Egypt in 1929, Arafat spent most of his life at the helm of organizations dedicated to the destruction of Israel, and directed numerous terror attacks against Israeli civilians and military personnel.

Contradicting Mahmoud Abbas' claims that the PA "seeks peace," his Fatah Movement continues to glorify terrorists and promote terror. On Wednesday last week, just hours after a terror attack, Fatah was already honoring the terrorist. The terrorist, Hamza Yusuf Zamaarah, who was killed while trying to stab an Israeli security guard, was immediately hailed as the "heroic Martyr... who carried out the heroic stabbing operation," by Fatah's Bethlehem branch. Fatah also asked Allah to "have mercy on the Martyr, let him dwell in Paradise, and grant his family consolation and patience." [Facebook page of the Fatah Movement - Bethlehem Branch, Feb. 7, 2018]

A second post in his honor showed his picture and wrote: "Praise and eternity to our righteous Martyrs"

Posted text: "Martyr (Shahid) released prisoner Hamza Yusuf Nu'man Zamaarah, 19, from Halhoul. Praise and eternity to our righteous Martyrs" [Facebook page of the Fatah Movement - Bethlehem Branch, Feb. 7, 2018]

Fatah doesn't only glorify terror. It also calls for terror. On Friday, Fatah posted two posters calling for Friday to be a day of "rage" and "Martyrdom."

The interactive map of El Al's new Dreamliner plane shows Jerusalem as a "holy city" - but not as the capital of Israel, as mentioned of other capitals around the world, reports Makor Rishon.

By clicking on "Jerusalem" on the touch screen a window opens that reads: "Jerusalem combines the old and modern city and is filled with monuments rich in history stretching over 4,000 years. Jerusalem is one of the most sacred sites in the world for Christianity, Judaism, and Islam and contains a large number of places that have profound significance for the three religions."

El Al explained that the application on all Dreamliner planes in the world has been translated into Hebrew for El Al. As a result, Panasonic's application appears in El Al as it appears on other planes, with text that does not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The company said that they are aware of the issue and that it is already being rectified. According to them, this is a complicated amendment requiring intervention of Israeli, European, and US officials, and that in the coming days the text will be updated. The company promises that in the upcoming Dreamliner airplanes, updated text will appear that defines Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Nayef Hawatmeh, secretary-general of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has met Hezbollah commander Hassan Nasrallah and the two have agreed to act together against Israel, the Palestinian terror figure told the pro-Iranian Al Mayadeen network based in Beirut.

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine is the third-most important group under the umbrella of the PLO, behind Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Hawatmeh’s organization has carried out dozens of terrorist attacks against Israel, the worst of which is known in Israel as the Ma’alot massacre in 1974 when armed Palestinians infiltrated from Lebanon and took over a school in the town of Ma’alot before murdering 22 hostages.

The organization maintains a so-called military wing to this day, active mostly in the Gaza Strip under the name of the National Resistance Brigades.

“The meeting dealt with a number of issues, first and foremost the resistance and the need to fight off any Israeli aggression whether on the Lebanon or Palestinian front,” Hawatmeh told Al Mayadeen.

The Palestinian jihadist highlighted that the Palestinian “resistance is the mother of all resistance movements in the region and the Palestinian revolution has managed to survive all attempts to destroy it.”

Palestinian terrorist groups regularly utilize the word “resistance” as a euphemism for terrorist attacks targeting Israelis.

Egypt's army is bulldozing homes and olive groves to build a buffer zone around the airport in troubled North Sinai Province, but the operation will displace thousands, according to residents.

The residents have been told they will be removed from at least a dozen hamlets around al-Arish airport. They say they are being moved to nearby cities where the government has promised them compensation.

Al-Arish is the main airport in the region but has been closed to the public for more than three years. However, it is used when high-ranking officials travel to North Sinai.

The new fortifications underline how the army is digging in for a longer-term insurgency that shows no sign of abating, despite years of fighting in which hundreds of soldiers have been killed. They will stretch 5 kilometers (3 miles) around three sides and 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) to the north, Egypt’s state news agency quoted North Sinai Gov. Abdel-Fatah Harhour as saying.

In what amounts to the latest escalation, Defence Minister Sedki Sobhy and Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar, who is in charge of police, were in al-Arish on an unannounced visit Dec. 19 when a missile struck their helicopter. Although they were not in the aircraft, the missile killed an officer and wounded two others.

President Abdel-Fatah Sisi ordered the creation of the zone outside the airport walls two weeks ago, and it is unclear if it will eventually contain fences or other obstacles.

The buffer zone will destroy dozens of hamlets around the airport, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes for an unknown future, sparking some protest by residents despite the government promises of compensation.

Turkey's foreign ministry criticized Cyprus again Sunday for a "unilateral" offshore hydrocarbons search after Turkish warships prevented an Italian rig from reaching an area off the east Mediterranean island nation where it was to start exploratory drilling for gas.

Turkish warships on Friday stopped a rig belonging to the Italian energy firm ENI as it headed toward an area southeast of Cyprus.

Turkey, in a statement Sunday, said Greek Cypriots were disregarding the "inalienable rights on natural resources" of Turkish Cypriots and jeopardizing the region's stability.

Turkey's foreign ministry said the Cyprus government was acting like "the sole owner of the island" and warned it would be responsible for any consequences. It also urged foreign companies not to support the Cyprus' government's activities.

Cyprus was split into an internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north in 1974 when Turkey invaded following a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence and keeps more than 35,000 troops in the north.

An ENI spokesman told The Associated Press that the Turkish warships told the rig not to continue because there would be military activities at its destination. The spokesman said the rig would remain where it stopped until the situation is resolved.

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades said Sunday that Cypriot authorities are taking actions that will neither lead to an escalation of tensions nor overlook the fact that Turkey was violating international law.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Sunday called on Poles to refrain from making anti-Semitic statements at a time when the country is under fire over a controversial Holocaust law.

“I would like to invite every one of you to contribute to positive thinking… to avoid anti-Semitic statements, because they are grist to the mill for our enemies, for our adversaries,” Morawiecki said at a town hall meeting in the eastern city of Chelm.

“Let’s avoid it like the plague, even the dumb, unnecessary jokes. Most importantly, let’s all explain together how things really were.”

The new law sets fines or a maximum three-year jail term for anyone ascribing “responsibility or co-responsibility to the Polish nation or state for crimes committed by the German Third Reich — or other crimes against humanity and war crimes” and set off criticism from Israel, the United States and France.

An adviser to Poland's president says he thinks Israel's negative reaction to a law criminalizing some statements about Poland's actions during World War II stemmed from a "feeling of shame at the passivity of the Jews during the Holocaust."

Andrzej Zybertowicz, a Nicolaus Copernicus University sociology professor who also serves as a presidential adviser, called Israel's opposition to the new law "anti-Polish" and said it shows the Mideast nation is "clearly fighting to keep the monopoly on the Holocaust."

"Many Jews engaged in denunciation, collaboration during the war. I think Israel has still not worked it through," Zybertowicz said in the interview in the Polska-The Times newspaper Friday.

He said, "The 'religion' of the Holocaust has become a sort of symbolic shield for the Jewish state, in which the genocide of Jews was used to create a special status for Israel in the world, a symbol meant to protect it from any criticism."

Zybertowicz further suggested that Israel had manufactured a crisis with Warsaw in order to distract from the investigations into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The influential leader of Poland’s ruling conservative party on Saturday accused “enemies” of the country of trying to fan anti-Semitism, as Warsaw is under fire over a controversial Holocaust law.

The new law sets fines or a maximum three-year jail term for anyone ascribing “responsibility or co-responsibility to the Polish nation or state for crimes committed by the German Third Reich — or other crimes against humanity and war crimes” and set off criticism from Israel, the United States and France.

“Today, the enemies of Poland, one can even say the Devil, are trying a very bad recipe… This sickness is anti-Semitism. We must reject it resolutely,” said Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of the Law and Justice (PiS) party.

“But this doesn’t mean that we provide fodder” for those who insult Poland, he said.

Israel this month said it had observed a “wave of anti-Semitic statements” in Poland.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel declined to comment on Saturday on a Polish law that imposes jail terms for suggesting the country was complicit in the Holocaust, saying she did not want to wade into Poland’s internal affairs.

The law would impose prison sentences of up to three years for using the phrase “Polish death camps” and for suggesting “publicly and against the facts” that the Polish nation or state was complicit in Nazi Germany’s crimes.

“Without directly interfering in the legislation in Poland, I would like to say the following very clearly as German chancellor: We as Germans are responsible for what happened during the Holocaust, the Shoah, under National Socialism (Nazism),” Merkel said in her weekly video podcast.

She was responding to a question from a student who had asked whether the new Polish law curbs freedom of expression.

Israel and the United States criticized President Andrzej Duda for signing the bill into law this week. Israel says the law will curb free speech, criminalize basic historical facts and stop any discussion of the role many Poles played in Nazi crimes.

A Polish government spokeswoman welcomed Merkel’s remarks, the PAP news agency reported. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki will hold talks with Merkel in Berlin next week.

Remembering the historic day of Natan Sharansky's release - Sharansky remains a true hero and defender of human rights worldwide. This is his story: Happy Aliyah-versary Natan Sharansky!

Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in the Gaza Strip, announced on Sunday that it was suspending all surgeries, with the exception of emergency cases, due to a cleaners’ strike over unpaid salaries.

“It has been decided to postpone all scheduled surgeries, including those for patients with tumors,” the hospital said, noting that the decision excluded “life-saving cases.”

The strike, which began on Sunday, threatens patients’ and workers’ lives because of the dangerous accumulation of medical garbage in the hospital, the staff warned.

It was the second time in recent weeks that the hospital cleaners in the Gaza Strip went on strike.

Last month, the cleaners agreed to return to work after the Palestinian Authority government promised to pay them their salaries. However, the government has since paid salaries for only two months, prompting the cleaners to renew their strike.

Hamas officials have accused the PA government of failing to provide funds to the health system in the Gaza Strip despite a Hamas-Fatah “reconciliation” agreement signed in Cairo in 2017. According to the officials, many hospitals are suffering from a severe shortage in medicine and generator fuel as a result of the PA’s failure to carry out its duties.

More than 830 cleaners work in 13 hospitals and 73 other medical centers in different parts of the Gaza Strip. The cleaners are employed by 13 companies at a cost of NIS 943,000 ($267,000) per month.

Israel’s position today is analogous to Hitler having positioned 150,000 missile batteries in, say, Ireland, all pointing at Britain; and then advancing into France and reaching the Normandy coast, all the while steadily embedding his forces in the Channel Islands.

Britain finally went to war when Hitler invaded Poland. Even in appeasement Britain, no-one suggested it should have waited until the Nazis reached the French coast before it decided to fight them. Had it do so, Britain along with Europe would now be a Nazi dictatorship. Yet people expect Israel to sit on its hands while genocidal fanatics intent on its destruction encircle it unimpeded.

Just as with Hitler’s intentions in the 1930s, the Iranian regime’s implacable intention to exterminate Israel has been ignored, downplayed or denied. Now the significance of the Iranian drone is being downplayed, mischaracterised or denied.

No civilised country wants war, and Israel will do everything it can to avoid an all-out conflict. But Iran is already at war with Israel – a war Iran has initiated. The question today is whether the strength and accuracy of Israel’s response to the drone will deter Iran from further aggression.

There will be a far greater chance of averting all-out war if Britain and Europe finally come to their senses and start holding Iran’s feet to the fire rather than seeking to sanitise, excuse and reward it at every opportunity.

The answer to the question, however, depends on what Iran was intending when it dispatched its drone into Israel. From the information that has so far been made public, it is impossible to tell.

We must hope Israel itself knows the answer, and that it will do accordingly whatever it needs to do. Western nations may disapprove; but in the past when Jews faced extermination, these western nations chose to look the other way. And when today Israelis are murdered by Arab or Islamic fanatics these western nations still look the other away or, worse still, blame Israel for its own victimisation.

These nations may afford themselves the luxury of setting the value of Jewish lives at zero. But the State of Israel was founded on the principle “never again”; and if needs be it will also say, just as the defiant British soldier declared in the famous David Low cartoon in that darkest hour: “Very well, alone”.

These developments represent a strategic setback for the United States and its allies. America had an opportunity to prevent this outcome during the previous six years. The Obama administration’s expressed policy at the time, however, was to respect Iran’s “equities” in Syria. This opportunity was squandered and the position of Syrian anti-Iranian forces is far weaker today. But the overriding US interest in Syria has not changed: disrupt this Iranian territorial link and degrade Hezbollah and the IRGC and their weapons capabilities in Syria and Lebanon. This is a priority that the United States still can, and should, pursue, even if it requires a more direct involvement today than it would have a few years ago.

The Iranian forces are vulnerable. They are overstretched and, in certain cases, they are operating in exposed terrain. The new military structures they are building are equally exposed. Israel has been exploiting these vulnerabilities to target military installations, bases, and weapons shipments, as well as senior IRGC and Hezbollah cadres. The Russian presence has not deterred the Israelis. The United States should reinforce this Israeli policy by adopting Israeli red lines as its own. And, using the considerable elements of US power in the region, it can expand this campaign against Iran’s and Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, arms shipments, logistical routes, and senior cadres. Local Syrian groups in eastern and southern Syria, and their sponsors, should also be empowered to take part in this endeavor.

Having the United States behind this policy strengthens Israel’s position vis-à-vis the Russians and provides it more room to maneuver, especially in the case of a conflagration with Hezbollah that expands to Lebanon. Throughout the Syrian war, the US position has held sacrosanct Lebanese stability, even as Lebanon was the launching pad for Hezbollah’s war effort in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, and even as the group multiplied its stockpile of missiles aimed at Israel. Should the targeting of IRGC and Hezbollah assets lead to an escalation that encompasses Lebanon, the United States should offer full backing to Israel as it destroys Iran’s infrastructure in Lebanon and degrades its long arm on the Mediterranean. Lebanon’s stability, insofar as it means the stability of the Iranian order and forward missile base there, is not, in fact, a US interest.

The Trump administration’s anti-Iran posture and its recognition that Iran is an adversary, not a partner, is a much-needed corrective to the previous administration’s policy. The profound strategic challenges and geopolitical shifts which resulted from Obama’s policy of realignment with Iran severely complicate the task of pushing back against Tehran in the region and significantly narrow US options. The moment calls for strategic clarity and a set of policies that rise to the nature of the challenge. While there’s room for measures that work over the long term, the United States also needs other options to address immediate priorities.

Netanyahu’s last meeting with Putin was on January 29. In media briefings before and after their meeting, Netanyahu said that he spoke to Putin about three issues. First, due to Israel’s success in blocking Iran from transferring precision-guided missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon through Syria, Iran is now building missile factories for Hezbollah inside of Lebanon. Netanyahu pledged to destroy those factories.

In his words, “Lebanon is becoming a factory for precision-guided missiles that threaten Israel. These missiles pose a grave threat to Israel, and we cannot accept this threat.”

Second, Netanyahu warned Putin that Israel will not accept Iranian military entrenchment in Syria through the construction of permanent bases, among other things. Netanyahu explained, “The question is: Does Iran entrench itself in Syria, or will this process be stopped. If it doesn’t stop by itself, we will stop it.”

Third, Netanyahu spoke to Putin about improving Obama’s nuclear deal with the Iranian regime.

Russia is both a resource and a threat to Israel. It is a resource because Russia is capable of constraining Iran and Hezbollah. Israel treated Russia as a resource Saturday, when in the wake of its violent confrontations with Iran, which included Israel’s Air Force’s first combat loss of an F-16 since the 1980s, Israel turned to the Russians with an urgent request for them to restrain the Iranians.

Russia is a threat to Israel because it is Iran’s coalition partner. Until Russia deployed its forces to Syria, it appeared that the regime and its Iranian overlords were losing the war, or at least unable to win it. After Russia began providing air support for their ground operations, the tide of the war reversed in their favor.

At any rate, Israel is in no position to persuade Russia to abandon Syria. Russia’s presence in the region limits Israel’s actions but also guarantees that Israel will continue to act, because its vital interests will continue to come under threat and intermittent attack.

In all, the situation in Syria is and will remain unstable and exceedingly violent for the foreseeable future. Syria is not only a local battlefield where various Syrian factions vie for control over separate areas of the country – although it remains such a local battlefield.

Fatah celebrated the anniversary of the death of a "heroic Martyr" and "giant" who blew himself up on a bus in Jerusalem and murdered 11 Israelis and wounded dozens, on Jan. 29, 2004. The suicide bomber Ali Munir Yusuf Ja'ara was from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (Fatah's military wing) and a member of the PA police force.

Fatah's Bethlehem branch praised the murderer and celebrated his killing of "11 Zionists":
"Ali Munir Yusuf Ja'ara... This giant, who rose up, shattered the enemy's myth, crossed its separation fence, its fortifications, and its feeble Israeli Security Agency forces, got on bus number 19, and blew his body up in exactly the same neighborhood where arch-murderer [then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon lived. Martyrdom-seeker Ali Munir Ja'ara from the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem blew himself up inside a Zionist bus next to the home of the terrorist Sharon in occupied Jerusalem, which led to the death of 11 Zionists and the wounding of approximately 53 others."
[Facebook page of the Fatah Movement - Bethlehem Branch, Jan. 29, 2018]

The branch expressed "admiration" for the murderer and vowed to "keep loyal to the Martyrs' blood." Moreover, it advocated seeking death fighting Israel, urging Palestinians to engage in "revolution... until victory or Martyrdom":

"We in the Bethlehem branch of the Fatah Movement send a blessing of honor and admiration to the soul of heroic Martyr Ali Munir Ja'ara on the anniversary of his death as a Martyr, and we vow to Almighty Allah that we will continue to be loyal to the blood of all of the heroic Martyrs. The revolution is until victory or Martyrdom."

The lesson that Iran and Syria are liable to learn from this weekend’s clashes is that they have the power to seriously challenge Israel on its northern border. Their ability to infiltrate Israeli airspace with a drone might make them believe they can do it again on a larger scale.

They might also place undue weight on their anti-aircraft abilities. Instead of looking at the dozens of Israeli air attacks carried out against targets in Syria in recent years, without a single Israeli aircraft downed as proof of their substandard aerial defense capabilities, Iran and Syria might be artificially emboldened by a single incident.

Hezbollah said on Saturday, for instance, that the downing of the Israeli F-16 jet by the Syrian Army marked the “start of a new strategic phase,” which would limit Israeli exploitation of Syrian airspace. “Today’s developments mean the old equations have categorically ended,” the Lebanese Shi’ite group said in a statement.

Therefore it is absolutely imperative that Hezbollah, Iran and Syria be disowned of this distorted perception of reality.

In addition to Israeli words and actions, the US plays an important role in maintaining Israel’s deterrence. That’s why it was important to hear unequivocal statements from the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon defending Israel’s right to protect itself.

Complicating matters, however, is Russia. Although Israel regularly coordinates with Moscow on military matters pertinent to Syria, ultimately Russia’s alliance with the Assad regime and with Iran against the Sunni opposition forces in Syria could create a situation in which Israeli and Russian interests clash.

Russia hinted at its displeasure with Israel’s air attacks when it said in a Foreign Ministry statement, “It is absolutely unacceptable to create threats to the lives and security of Russian soldiers that are in the Syrian Arab Republic on the invitation of the legal government to assist in the fight against terrorism.”

If it wants to avoid a full-blown conflict in Syria or in Lebanon between Israel and Iranian-backed forces, Russia must take a more proactive role. Instead of warning Israel, Moscow needs to stop Iranian belligerence before it’s too late.

Q: Doesn't the downing of an Israeli jet deliver a devastating blow to Israel?
A: No. Just as a downed American jet in Afghanistan or a Russian jet in Syria are viewed as an inevitable, inherent part of war, so is it with Israel. Israeli aerial dominance is overwhelming and impressive. We have state-of-the-art detection and deflection systems, and carry out missions wherever necessary throughout the Middle East. But nothing is foolproof.

Q: Wasn't targeting the Iranian ground station overdoing it?
A: No. This is totally consistent with Israeli doctrine - if you target Israel you will be targeted back. Not only were we able to detect and intercept a small UAV, but we knew exactly where it was launched from and who was controlling it. The fact that we had this information and were able to act on it and strike these components deep inside Syria demonstrates an incredible operational capability. So, Iran's message has been answered with a message of our own. The writer served in the IDF for 25 years as a helicopter pilot and in various international relations positions in the General Staff.

While the downing of the F-16 might not indicate a change in Israeli air dominance, it is not yet fully clear what impact this weekend will have on the air force’s freedom of operation in Syria.

On the one hand, the air force’s destruction of a large percentage of Syria’s air defense would indicate that Israel could operate more freely in the country in the future.

The serious blow to the Syrian anti-aircraft systems, which air force officials say was the most significant of its kind since 1982, was also meant to send a message to Assad of what’s to come if he again fires on Israeli aircraft. If that was internalized by the despot, this too could smooth the way for future Israeli missions in Syria.

But on the other hand, there is rising concern over how Russia — by whose grace Israeli pilots are currently flying — will react to its ally, Assad, getting pummeled by Israel.

Moscow, which has not accepted Israel’s claims, could make its efforts more difficult, risky and complicated, Ben-Shalom said, though he is convinced that Israel could get by even if Russia took a more antagonistic view.

According to Shapir, the problem is not the capabilities of Russia’s S-400 themselves, but that Israel would rather not go to direct war by attempting to disable the system, which it might be more inclined to do if it belonged to another country.

“[Israel’s freedom of movement] isn’t limited because the system is an S-400, but because it is flying the Russian flag,” he said.

A day after an Israeli fighter jet was shot down over northern Israel prompting both crew members to eject, doctors at the Rambam Medical Center announced that the pilot who sustained serious injuries in the incident was well on his way to a full recovery.

The other pilot, who sustained moderate injuries in the crash, has been released from the hospital altogether.

The pilots recounted the tense moments leading up to the crash, recalling their fateful decision to eject at the last minute, mere seconds before the Israeli Air Force F-16 Sufa jet went up in flames.

According to the pilots' testimony, when the anti-aircraft missile targeting their aircraft exploded, they immediately realized they had been hit. "It is a very uncomfortable feeling. Losing control," said one of the pilots. "Ejection is very much immediate. There is no long process – there is no time. Only seconds. There is an immediate realization that you have to hurry up and eject, both because of the physical injuries and because of the damage to the aircraft, which stopped functioning."

On February 11 2018, the Commander of the Israel Air Force, Major General Amikam Norkin visited the pilot who was severely wounded on Saturday.

Major General Norkin told the pilot, Major E.: "From the moment you understood the dangerous situation you were in, you made the right decision to eject from the fighter jet. With this decision, you not only saved your own life but also that of the navigator, Major A."

State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said Saturday that the U.S. "strongly supports Israel's sovereign right to defend itself....The U.S. continues to push back on the totality of Iran's malign activities in the region and calls for an end to Iranian behavior that threatens peace and stability." (State Department)

Secretary of Defense James Mattis said Sunday: "Everywhere we find trouble in the Middle East, you find the same thing behind it. Whether it be in Yemen or Beirut, or in Syria, in Iraq, you always find Iran engaged....If you live in the region, there's no doubt what Iran is doing."
"So when Syria, which has made no...excuse for what they're doing alongside Iran, when they are providing throughput for Iran to give weapons, including more sophisticated weapons, to the Lebanese Hizbullah, Israel has an absolute right to defend themselves. They don't have to wait until their citizens are dying under attack before they actually address that issue."

According to his press office, US Senator Ted Cruz issued a statement condemning Iran for it's actions over the past few days.

“This weekend, Iran committed an unprecedented, blatant act of aggression against our close friend and ally, Israel. Previously, Iranian proxies like Hezbollah and Hamas have used Iranian-provided resources to target Israel, but this escalation was a direct operation by the Iranian military against Israeli territory. This is utterly unacceptable. America stands with Israel, and resolutely against Iran's unprovoked act of war," the statement reads.

“For some time, Israel has been calling attention to Iran’s efforts to establish another front on its border and attempt to build a permanent military presence in Syria, a call that has been largely ignored by much of the international community. This dangerous and provocative attack should serve as a wake up call to the entire world to take decisive action to stop Iran's expanding terrorist activities. The world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism that pledges to wipe Israel off the map has become much more emboldened since the Obama administration’s disastrous nuclear deal offered up billions of dollars in sanctions relief. And those billions have been used, in turn, to support even more terrorism. I commend Israel for its vigorous response, and the American people unequivocally support Israel's right to defend itself.”

Britain’s foreign affairs chief backed Israel’s military response to Iranian provocations over the weekend.

“The United Kingdom is concerned at developments over Israel’s border with Syria this weekend,” said the UK’s Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Boris Johnson, after Israeli aircraft bombed a Syrian military center near Damascus.

“We support Israel’s right to defend itself against any incursions into its territory.”

Johnson added that the British government was “concerned” by Iranian activity in the area, saying they impaired efforts to reboot the peace process.

“We are concerned at the Iranian actions, which detract from efforts to get a genuine peace process underway. We encourage Russia to use its influence to press the regime and its backers to avoid provocative actions and to support de-escalation in pursuit of a broader political settlement.”

A retired Israeli general said over the weekend that Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, "plans from the end," following the downing of an Israeli F-16.

Gen. Moshe (Chico) Cohen (ret.) was referring to military activity beyond Iran's borders.

Cohen implied that the Iranian drone that penetrated Israeli territory before dawn Saturday before being shot down was an opening move towards the end game Soleimani was preparing for.

When the terms of nuclear arms deal with Iran wind down in about a decade, Cohen told Israel’s Channel 10, Iran would rush to produce nuclear weapons. The Iranian general wants to have forces in place around Israel by then, said Cohen, to prevent the Israeli air force from taking off to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. According to published reports, Israel had indeed prepared for such an attack before the international community won suspension of Iran’s nuclear weapons program in return for the lifting of economic sanctions against Tehran.

Some Israeli analysts have suggested that the dispatch of the Iranian drone was a coordinated Iranian-Syrian trap aimed at eliciting an Israeli counter strike for which Syrian anti-aircraft units, massed across Israel’s border, were prepared. Israeli officials say that the drone had been monitored from the moment it was sent aloft from Palmyra, some 300 miles from Israel, despite its stealth features. Israel permitted the drone to cross its border, in order to be able to prove Iranian penetration of Israeli airspace, and to examine it. Although Israeli warplanes were in the air, an Apache helicopter was assigned to bring the drone down without destroying it.

The warplanes reached Palmyra and destroyed the command trailer from which the drone had been sent aloft. It is not known whether any of Gen. Soleimani’s men were inside it at the time.

Knock-off of American drone brought down in Iran in December 2011, which Obama refused to destroy on the ground before the Iranians got to it.
One of the questions has been whether this was an Iranian ambush, in which the Israeli attack deliberately was provoked for a waiting barrage of 25 or more SAM missiles fired at different altitudes. The Israeli General doesn’t think so, noting the Iranians might have thought the drone could pass over Israel undetected because it was a knock-off of an American stealth drone.

The IDF’s working assumption, Ein Dar explained, is that this was not a planned Iranian ambush intended to drag Israel into an operational blunder. Rather, the belief is that the Iranians assumed that they could succeed in sending the drone without the IDF defenses noticing and they were mistaken….

According to Ein Dar, “The drone was of top quality technology, it was a copy of an American drone that fell into their hands.” He added: “The Iranians are operating in Syria and we therefore hit them in addition to intercepting the drone; and we will continue to do so wherever we find them.”

And, indeed, based on photos of the downed drone, it seems to have been an imitation of an American stealth drone that was felled over Iran in 2011. Aviationist Magazine noted that the drone is based on the American RQ-170 model, which is manufactured by Lockheed Martin and was nicknamed the Beast of Kandahar for its intelligence gathering over the Afghan city.

The reference to American technology falling into Iranian hands refers to December 2011, when an American stealth drone operating from Afghanistan crashed in Iran. Rather than bomb the downed drone so the Iranians couldn’t get the cutting edge design and technology, the Obama administration did nothing.

The drone that came from Syria and entered Israel’s airspace, triggering off a significant confrontation between Syria, Iran and Israel was a knockoff of the United States’ RQ-170. Its distinct silhouette is clearly visible on video of the drone intrusion provided by Israel’s Defense Ministry.

The RQ-170, built by Lockheed Martin, is a stealth drone, meaning that it is specially designed to evade radar. The Syrians, Iranians, Hezbollah and the Russians have been using drones heavily in the civil war in Syria, but they also have been sent into Israeli airspace.

Last July a drone that may have been Iranian or Russian – it has never been positively identified – entered Israel’s airspace. The Israeli launched two Patriot missiles, both of which missed their target. It then tried to shoot down the drone with an air to air missile from an F-15, but that also missed. The drone escaped to Syria.

This could have been the first test of Iran’s RQ-170 clone. If so, it was successful and the drone turned out to be effective, and not just a toy as some experts allege. It also appears to have at least some radar-evading characteristic, enough to fool two Patriot missiles.

Here, in brief, is the background on how the Iranians got the RQ-170. It entered Iranian airspace from Afghanistan on Dec. 4, 2011. It appears to have been diverted by the Iranians, who were able to get control over it and land it at an air base, even though it was damaged.

The Western media continue their Will Rogers’ ways: they never met a Communist dictator they didn’t like—especially if he hates Trump!

Ethan Epstein on why the North Korean cheerleaders are the perfect symbol for the NoKo psycho dictatorship

Omri Ceren on Israel vs. Iran

A senior Israeli minister told a Saudi-linked news outlet that Israel would “teach Iran a lesson it will never forget” if Tehran launches an attack, and that Syrians could end up paying the price as well.

The strongly worded threat from intelligence minister Israel Katz, published late Sunday, came a day after cross-border violence flared in northern Israel and southern Syria following weeks of warnings from Jerusalem that it would not tolerate what it said were Iranian plans to establish a foothold on Israel’s northern border for eventual use in attacks against the Jewish state.

“If Iran continues to threaten and carry out offensive operations against Israel from Syria, Israel will teach Iran a lesson that it will never forget,” Katz told the London-based Arabic-language outlet Elaph.

The site, run by Saudi publisher Othman Al Omeir, has become a go-to news outlet for Israeli officials seeking to speak to the Arab world, and has run interviews with several high-ranking figures, including IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot.

Housing Minister Yoav Galant, a member of the high-level security cabinet, on Monday cautiously predicted Moscow will ultimately seek to uproot the growing Iranian military presence in Syria.

The former IDF general also claimed that Russia, which is allied with Hezbollah and Iran in the Syrian civil war, is not “against us, which is amazing.”

Meanwhile, from the opposition, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid urged Israel to lobby the United States to take on a more active role in Syria, while calling the Russian military relationship with Iran-backed forces in the country “very worrying and dangerous.”

The Israeli politicians were addressing recent tensions on the northern border after Israel shot down an Iranian drone over its territory on Saturday. The Israel Air Force also bombarded Syrian and Iranian targets in a series of reprisal strikes over the weekend, and an Israeli F-16 crashed during the exchange, apparently as a result of Syrian anti-aircraft fire, in a major escalation of hostilities.

The Daily Telegraph‘s initial story on the Israeli interception of an Iranian drone and the subsequent downing of an Israeli F-16 made a real mess of the facts and the timeline.

Israel sent a helicopter gunship, not an F-16 to intercept the drone. The downed F-16 was on a subsequent mission shortly afterwards to strike Iranian military targets in Syria.

When a media outlet enters into an arrangement to republish another’s stories, there’s always a risk that errors in the original and any subsequent updates will go unnoticed.

Such was the case with the Sydney Morning Herald‘s republication of the Washington Post‘s coverage of an Iranian drone incursion into Israeli airspace and the subsequent Israeli military response.

While the WaPo only took a few hours to update its story to correct the inaccurate claim that the Iranian drone was downed over Syrian territory, the SMH failed to follow suit.

Aside from a simple factual error which should be corrected on those grounds alone, the mistaken claim that the drone was shot down in Syrian territory is serious enough to skew the entire narrative of the story. After all, if the drone had not been over Israeli airspace, it would have been far harder for Israel to justify its actions.

We contacted SMH editors who responded by changing the text of the story as the Washington Post had already done – making it clear that the drone had been shot down in Israeli territory.

Russian Political Analyst Viacheslav Matuzov: I believe Russia gave the Syrian Army the Green Light to Down the Israeli F-16 pic.twitter.com/f21dHacSCm

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 12, 2018

Egyptian TV Host Gaber Al-Karmoty Hands Out Chocolates to Celebrate Downing of Israeli F-16 pic.twitter.com/OtH42fqE5B

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 12, 2018

Advocates of offering full residential rights to illegal migrants criticized the Israeli military today for shooting down an Iranian unmanned vehicle Saturday, arguing that the aircraft should have been given all the legal protections due someone escaping oppression to another country.

Activists demonstrating and petitioning on behalf of tens of thousands of Africans who entered the country by unlawful means made similar contentions in the case of the Iranian drone, and claimed that the military violated its rights by shooting it down from an Apache attack helicopter instead of providing it with free housing, food, medical care, and jobs.

“Those who come to Israel undocumented do so for various reasons,” explained Mista Nenn, who holds weekly rallies in South Tel Aviv on behalf of Eritrean, Sudanese, and other migrants whom Israel seeks to deport. “They are looking for a better life – some because the economy in their native country is dismal, and some because they face persecution if they return. In the case of this drone, we will never know, because the military, typically, shot first and won’t even ask the questions later.”

“This is a violation of the drone’s human rights,” declared Amnesty International. “While not every undocumented migrant is a refugee, all must be provided the opportunity to apply for asylum, and plainly, that opportunity was not provided here. We call on the international community to take measures that ensure Israel respects the rights of of all foreign aircraft, especially those that might be escaping the carnage in Syria.”

What’s today – Sunday? That’s the day Mahmoud Abbas threatened to cut off all ties with Israel.

On Friday, he threatened to cut off all ties with the United States.

On Thursday, he threatened to go to the Security Council to have Israel and the United States cut off from the United Nations.

On Wednesday, he threatened to go before the ICC, International Criminal Court to have everybody cut off and arrested.

On Tuesday, through his propaganda minister Saeb Erekat who told her to “shut up,” Abbas threatened to cut off all ties with Nikki Haley.

On Monday, he threatened to cut off all ties with President Trump.

I may have the days wrong, off a day or two, but not the facts…clearly, that the man has lost his marbles.

This terrorist in a suit can’t take it that finally one President, Trump, is not buying that PA/Fatah/Hamas Palestinian garbage anymore…and that many around the rest of the world have come around to Trump’s point of view. Abbas will try anything to get the world’s attention as the result of the abrupt cold shoulder.

That’s what’s got him going berserk… Trump’s official Declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel…followed by cuts in US funding for his PA and his UNRWA…the UN division which the Palestinian Authority owns to the brim. Ouch. That’s not the way it used to be under previous administrations that came running whenever Abbas whistled.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that he has been in talks with the White House on a “historic” initiative to annex Israeli settlement areas in the West Bank.

“I can tell you that for a while now I’ve been talking about it with the Americans,” Netanyahu said during a Likud faction meeting in the Knesset.

“I’m guided by two principles in this issue… optimal coordination with the Americans, whose relationship with us is a strategic asset for Israel and the settlement movement; and the fact that it must be a government initiative rather than a private one because it would be a historic move,” he added.

Getting US backing for such a move would be a major shift in policy for the Americans, who have long considered the settlements illegal under international law.

US President Donald Trump, in an interview published Sunday in the Israel Hayom daily, expressed concerns about Israeli settlement building, although his administration has been far less critical of the enterprise than was that of his predecessor Barack Obama.

Trump’s ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, has long been a supporter of settlements in the West Bank.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Monday morning spoke at the fifteenth Jerusalem Conference, and gave an interview to Channel 2.

Answering Channel 2's question of why much of the public believes he is a leftist, Rivlin said, "All my life, I have been on the side that is correct- or as you'd say in English, the right side. I always stood up for my values, even when they weren't agreed upon by the right. I believe that as president, after I have been chosen, I must make it clear that there is no contradiction between Israel being a Jewish country, and its being a democratic country."

"I continue to say it again and again....we are turning into people who only believe in our individual beliefs, and have no idea what the other side believes.

"It could be that people think I was elected only in order to provide them with what they want. But I was elected by the Knesset, which has Jews and Arabs, left and right, and I must make sure that we speak to each other, that there is dialogue. We need to know that there are people who don't think the way I do. It was always clear to me that not everyone who doesn't think as I do is against me."

When asked about his support for the left, Rivlin said, "When the Haaretz newspaper writes good things about me, I am very concerned and I start examining my actions." However, Rivlin also said that he will not change his mind, and blamed "others" for changing theirs.

American Ambassador to Israel David Friedman addressed the opening gala of the 2018 Jerusalem Conference on Sunday.

The conference, hosted by Besheva in the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, has been held every year since 2004, and brings together policy-makers and other Israeli leaders for discussions on the top issues facing the State of Israel.

On Sunday, Besheva held a special gala ahead of the conference, slated for Monday and Tuesday.

Speaking at the opening gala, Ambassador Friedman hailed President Donald Trump’s December 6th declaration recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and the administration’s Israel Independence Day celebration last year – the first ever held at the White House.

“For the 70th anniversary of the State of Israel, I can’t help but think back to how I celebrated the 69th anniversary of the State of Israel. It was my pleasure for the last anniversary to be the master of ceremonies at the very first Yom Haatzmaut [Independence Day] ceremony ever held at the White House.

“We have turned the page with regard to the United States’ relationship with Israel from that 69th Yom Haatzmaut celebration in the White House, we moved ahead to Yom Yerushalayim [Jerusalem Day]. I was the first US Ambassador to celebrate an [event] for Yom Yerushalayim. The very next day, President Trump became the first sitting president in history to visit the Kotel Hamaaravi [the Western Wall].

“All of those things… pale by comparison to the historic…determination by President Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel.”

Canada’s official opposition Conservative Party announced its recognition that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital.

Conservative Foreign Affairs Critic Erin O’Toole matter-of-factly made the announcement Saturday during a foreign policy plenary at the Manning Networking Conference, where Canadian social and fiscal conservatives meet every year to discuss policy.

The statement was prompted when an audience member asked O’Toole if Jerusalem was the capital of Israel.

”Yes,” he responded.

Since President Donald Trump decided to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and move the U.S. embassy there, there has been virtual silence from both the Canadian government and opposition.

“The strong presence of the Jewish people there is thousands of years old. But the modern era of Israel — the Knesset is in Jerusalem, the Supreme Court, most of the foreign affairs and government ministries in West Jerusalem. And you can support an option of the two-state solution while also recognizing that Jerusalem will be the capital of Israel,” O’Toole, an Ontario Member of Parliament, told the audience.

Shai Maimon, who was wounded in a shooting attack in which his friend Malachi Rosenfeld was murdered, came to the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Monday to attend a hearing on a bill that would withhold Israeli fund transfers to the Palestinian Authority.

Since the establishment of the PA following the 1993 Oslo Accords, Israel has collected taxes from PA residents working in pre-1967 Israel, transferring the funds every month to the PA. Critics of the policy have cited the PA's funding for jailed terrorists and called on the State of Israel to halt its monthly transfers to the PA.

PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas has defended the policy of providing stipends to jailed terrorists and the families of terrorists killed during terror attacks.

On Monday, the committee discussed security officials' request to introduce a clause granting the government the option of bypassing the law and transferring the funds, even if the Palestinian Authority continues paying salaries to terrorists.

Maimon objected to this proposal saying, "If the government decides to suspend the law and transfer the funds, it doesn't encourage terrorism or give it a prize, it decrees that more Israelis will die."

Maimon spoke about his personal case in which the verdict stated the terrorist purchased the weapons used to carry out the attack from the Palestinian Prisoners' Office.

"For 30 years we've been transferring money to terror, and only in 2018 we begin to deal with this issue; does that make sense?" wondered Maimon.

Two Israeli soldiers came under attack, getting pelted with rocks and beaten by a mob, after they accidentally drove their military car into the Palestinian city of Jenin in the northern West Bank on Monday, the army said.

In the attack, one of the soldiers’ guns was stolen by the rioting Palestinians, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

The army said forces were searching the area for the weapon.

When the two soldiers, a man and a woman, drove into the city on Monday afternoon, local residents began attacking the car with rocks and chairs, breaking the windows and bloodying the soldiers.

Before the riot began, the female soldier could be seen holding an M-16 assault rifle, without a magazine, across her lap. It was not immediately clear if the male soldier had a gun as well.

The Shin Bet security service announced Monday that it had arrested an Arab Israeli man and a Turkish citizen suspected of helping the Hamas terrorist group raise and launder money to fund its military activities against Israel.

Cemil Tekeli, the Turkish national, was enlisted by Zaher Jabarin, a senior figure in Hamas responsible for its finances, the Shin Bet said. Jabarin was one of a thousand convicted Palestinian terrorists released from Israeli prisons as part of a 2011 deal to secure the return of captured soldier Gilad Shalit.

The statement did not say where they were arrested. Tekeli was deported from Israel after his interrogation, the Shin Bet said.

The Arab Israeli suspect, Durgham Jabarin, a resident of the northern town of Umm al-Fahm, is expected to be charged in the coming days.

The Shin Bet did not specify Durgham Jabarin’s relationship to Zaher Jabarin, who recruited him as well.

MK Hanin Zoabi (Joint Arab List) on Monday morning was removed from an Education Committee discussion after she called IDF soldiers "murderers."

"Do you think is is appropriate to say that all Arabs are murderers? What kind of comparison is that? IDF soldiers are dealing with a complex reality, one that you yourselves have created," MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli (Jewish Home) said.

"Terrorists who are killed brought it on themselves. You should be ashamed of yourself."

When Zoabi was ordered to leave the discussion, she refused, forcing two guards to physically remove her. She then insisted that she would "leave on her own," but insisted on screaming into her microphone as she gathered her belongings, forcing the guards to physically remove her from the room.

A human-rights-monitoring group showcased a survey today of Arabs who hold Israeli citizenship regarding the impending deportation of illegal African migrants as evidence that the Jews of Israel harbor ethnically prejudiced attitudes.

The Rights-Auditing Committee on Israeli Social Trends (RACIST) released a report today citing that because half of the Arab-Israelis surveyed in a recent poll supported the expulsion of illegal migrants from Africa to either their country of origin or a stable third state, the Jews of Israel must be racist.

A poll this week revealed that half of the Arab citizens of Israel who responded agreed with the government’s stated intention to deport thousands of such migrants. In response, RACIST issued an analysis of the survey that asserts such numbers demonstrate the systemic racism inherent in Israel’s Jewish majority, and called on the international community to take measures to punish Israel for such depravities.

“First, we dispute the relevance of categorizing people as ‘Jewish’ or ‘Arab’ Israelis for purposes of the poll,” the report read. “Standard practice in NGO work calls for that distinction to be made only when it fits the narrative of evil-Jews, evil-Israel, victim-Arab. Methodologically, then, this poll only shows that half of Israelis want black Africans expelled, which is a bona fide indicator of racism.”

It has been cleared for publication Monday that the Israel Security Agency (ISA) and Israel Police last month arrested two men suspected of having recruited individuals for the Hamas terror organization and directing their activities from Turkey.

On January 1st, 2018, a Turkish citizen named Cemil Tekeli, a lecturer in law, was arrested on suspicion of aiding Hamas terrorists in Turkey. On January 21, Dara'am Jabarin, an Israeli citizen and resident of Umm al-Fahm was also arrested.

During the investigation, it was learned that the two had been recruited in Turkey by senior Hamas terrorist Zaher Jabarin, who was released in the Shalit deal. He is responsible for Hamas' budget and promotes terrorist operations in Judea and Samaria on instruction from Salah Aruri, who serves as the deputy chairman of the organization and head of its operations in Judea and Samaria.

In Tekeli's investigation, it was learned that Turkey contributes to the military wing of Hamas via, among others, the SADAT company that was established at the behest of Adnan Basha, an adviser who is close to senior Turkish officials. The company was founded to assist, with funds and war materiel, the creation of the 'Palestine Army', the purpose of which is to fight Israel. One of its employees even helped senior Hamas officials to visit a 2015 weapons show in Turkey, during which they expressed interest in UAVs.

Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in the Gaza Strip, announced on Sunday that it was suspending all surgeries, with the exception of emergency cases, due to a cleaners’ strike over unpaid salaries.

“It has been decided to postpone all scheduled surgeries, including those for patients with tumors,” the hospital said, noting that the decision excluded “life-saving cases.”

The medical staff at Shifa called on all relevant parties to work toward ending the strike of the cleaners immediately.

The strike, which began on Sunday, threatens patients’ and workers’ lives because of the dangerous accumulation of medical garbage in the hospital, the staff warned.

It was the second time in recent weeks that the hospital cleaners in the Gaza Strip went on strike.

Trump cutting aid to UN agency in Gaza because he says they're politicized, biased, & wasteful.

In response employees from that UN agency participated in protest, against US, & printed a bunch of signs and banners for it.

🤔 pic.twitter.com/rori6zHpMp

— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) February 12, 2018

In a bid to counter Trump's chest-beating about human rights in Iran, the mullahs acted out of character when they chose not to massacre people in the streets during the recent nationwide uprising.

More interestingly, all regime grandees, including Khamenei himself, dwelling on the "benefits of protest and criticism in Islam," have donned their fake Swedish mask, hiding the North Korean face behind it.

At regional level, too, the mullahs are trying to talk Swedish.

They muse on reducing their footprint in Syria, claiming that they have already won the war for their protégé Bashar al-Assad.

And last Sunday, Defense Minister General Amir Hatami even offered to give Afghanistan military aid to fight ISIS and its groups installed there.

The next issue on which I expect Tehran to start singing Swedish concerns Trump's demand for renegotiating the nuclear "deal", concocted by Obama.

The initial tune from Tehran was a "No! No! Nannette" number! with a harsh North Korean accent. Recently, however, I hear a "Maybe baby!" number with a soft Swedish accent.

Tehran Friday Sermon by Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami: We Will Produce as Many Missiles as We Can and Increase Their Range as Much as We Want pic.twitter.com/9ZgLM5yWAG

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 12, 2018

The evolving U.S.-Kurdish partnership has alarmed Turkey. Ankara fears that establishing a Kurdish-led entity on its southern borders would empower its restive Kurdish population, particularly PKK fighters.

Washington needs to ensure that its Kurdish partners on the ground are protected and not distracted from the main mission, which is defeating terror in Syria.

Turkey's offensive against Syrian Kurds will serve only to aggravate the multi-layered conflict in Syria, making it even harder for international interlocutors to bring an end to the seven-year civil war and secure a much-needed political settlement for the country.

With the conflict in war-torn Syria escalating, the United Nations has appointed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a special envoy to combat gender-exclusionary language in the country.

“Years of bombing, torture, and chemical warfare have tragically led some participants in the Syrian Civil War to turn to words that alienate whole groups of people based on their race, sex, or gender orientation,” Trudeau said in a statement. “I mean, does ISIS think about how calling its offshoot the ‘Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade’ makes people who have not been martyred feel?”

The appointment came after Trudeau bravely corrected a woman who referred to “mankind” instead of the made up “peoplekind.” Already, he has seen success in his role in Syria. Joint airstrikes by the Canadian and Syrian government have forced the Army of Free Men to change its name to the “Army of Free People.”

“If we are successful, participants in this conflict will be able to gas, shoot, and torture each other without fear of someone wrongly assuming their gender,” Trudeau added. “That would be a great victory for homosapienkind – and heterosapienkind, too.”

Iran’s probe with the drone is the latest in a growing series of probes and pushes in the region: probes against the postures of others, pushes against the status quo, pushes to establish new “realities on the ground.”

The region itself isn’t in balance anymore, and hasn’t been for some time.  The last chance to certify balance without an extended shoving match first was right around the latter half of 2013, when the Obama administration failed to defend a publicly declared “red line” on Syria, and did nothing to thwart the rise of ISIS.

In default of a “hyperpower” (as France used to call the U.S.) enforcing stasis, the natural state of human affairs is probing and pushing.  We forgot that after nearly 70 years of a Pax Americana.  But since the Arab Spring – and with hints of it even before that – we’ve been reminded of it almost daily.  Eventually it may sink in.

In the Middle East, Iran has been the chief prober and pusher, with ISIS, until last year, close behind.  But additional probes have developed through first- and second-order effects, and they are ongoing almost literally everywhere, from Morocco to the Philippines.

Iran affects, and is affected by, the whole complex mix of these probes.  The situation is especially unstable because the biggest factors for Iran are all changing at the same time.  Internal stability is crumbling.  The mullahs’ chief power projection project – the land bridge through Syria – has bogged down in recent weeks.

And the status quo in the larger region is in significant flux.  Events that Western observers don’t even recognize as related are presenting Iran with the prospect of unmanageable changes to the strategic status quo.

Anything that thwarts the revolutionary regime in Iran can be held to have a salutary effect.  But the more such effects there are, the more Iran will shift tactics and try to create problems where problems are advantageous to Iran.

In order to keep a cost-effective defense posture functional and realistic, Israel has to deter incursions like this one, not just keep responding to them. Hence the counter-strikes: first against the drone command vehicle, and then against the Syrian air defense force, to ensure that Syria pays a price – one that is useful to Israel and does relevant damage to Syria – for letting Syrian territory be used by Iran.
...

I am not alone in thinking the BBC is not objective in its coverage. Even Lord Grade, the corporation’s former chairman, has accused the corporation of bias against Israel and said the BBC failed to give viewers ‘the wider context’ about the Palestinians.

This is not true of all BBC output: BBC Arabic will (like other Arabic language media) sometimes report on Gaza’s more prosperous side (see for example, this BBC Arabic report on restaurants in Gaza), in a way that most Western media (including the BBC in English) will not. Yet many Western journalists (and some diplomats) seem bent on painting a distorted picture of everyday life in Gaza, in what can only be seen as an attempt to portray Israel as some kind of monster-oppressor. (With Israel demonised in this way, no wonder anti-Semitic feelings in Britain are now running at an all-time high).

If the situation in Gaza is as bad as many Western journalists and diplomats claim, then why is Gaza’s life expectancy (74.2 years) now five years higher than the world average? I don’t recall any Western reporter mentioning that life expectancy there is higher than, for example, in neighbouring Egypt (73 years). Indeed, life expectancy in Gaza is almost on the same level as wealthy Saudi Arabia, and higher for men than in some parts of Glasgow.

In recent years, it has been difficult to escape reports of the dire situation in Gaza; former US president and Nobel peace prize laureate Jimmy Carter, for example, told us that ‘the people in Gaza … are literally starving’. Only three weeks ago, the lead front page story of the international edition of the New York Times contained further warnings about the risk of starvation. Meanwhile, Qatar’s own Al Jazeera is broadcasting analysis of the thriving consumer sector in Gaza’s economy, complete with restaurant owners discussing the expansion of their business to keep up with demand, and shots of plentiful fruit and vegetable markets.
Gaza’s thriving economy: Al Jazeera shows a side to Gaza that Western media won’t

Day in and day out, two men—two crucial world leaders—remain under a constant barrage of verbal attacks. They are subjected to an obsessional, unhinged and unprecedented stream of abuse, distortion, character assassination and malicious fantasies.

If you haven’t guessed, they are Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald J Trump. The campaign against them signifies a cultural disorder in the West that borders on the pathological.

Netanyahu certainly has his faults. One might list arrogance, moral cowardice and his tendency to be a control freak. He doesn’t take criticism well. He has failed to organize his government to deal with the psy-ops war waged so devastatingly against Israel in the court of Western public opinion. And maybe, who knows, some of the multiple corruption charges against him will stick.

Yet his achievements are formidable. Netanyahu enabled Israel to survive the sustained attempts to weaken it by President Barack Obama, arguably the most hostile American president to date regarding Israel. Netanyahu has led the Jewish state to become a dynamo in the fields of technology and R&D in large measure because of his liberalization of the Israeli economy. He has opened up new alliances through the pivot to Asia. He has held the line against the Palestinian /European axis of attrition. And he is riding the wave of a new regional order involving alliances with Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

In Israel and among the Western intelligentsia, however, it’s hard to overestimate the loathing he provokes. His achievements are ignored or blatantly dismissed. Instead, he is blamed (ludicrously) for preventing a solution to the Middle East impasse. No less risibly, he was held responsible for Obama’s hostility for eight years running. He is said to be an incipient dictator, a racist ethno-nationalist and an “alt-Zionist.” These are not criticisms; these are ravings.

Over in the United States, Trump certainly has his faults. One might list his zero concentration span, his disregard for detail, his carelessness with accuracy, his reckless and compulsive tweeting, his coarse and bombastic talk, and his failure to take criticism.

Yet his achievements after only one year in office are formidable. He presides over a booming economy with huge job growth; he is restoring the rule of law to immigration; he’s rolling back regulation; he’s made stellar appointments to the judiciary; he’s forcing Saudi Arabia to reform; and is confronting Iran, the United Nations and the Palestinians.

It’s impossible, however, to overestimate the contempt and horror with which he is viewed. He is accused of being racist and anti-Semitic, of undermining the rule of law, of behaving like Mussolini. While not a shred to evidence supports the claims against him of colluding with Russia, there is mounting evidence that elements of the FBI and justice department under the Obama administration have acted illegally against him.

In December, Nikki Haley, the current U.S. ambassador to the UN, denounced the world body for its condemnation of America’s recognizing of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Her performance put many in mind of a 1975 speech given by her late predecessor, Daniel P. Moynihan, assailing the UN’s infamous “Zionism is racism” resolution. Six years later, Moynihan returned to the same themes in a seminal Commentary essay, “Joining the Jackals,” in which he skewered the then-outgoing Carter administration for abstaining from two anti-Israel votes at the Security Council and for the generally craven attitude of its UN delegation. Greg Weiner, the author of a biography of Moynihan, revisits the statesman’s career in Turtle Bay and his commitment to Israel and to the West—and to the meaning of words. (Interview by Jonathan Silver. Audio, 31 minutes. Options for download and streaming are available at the link below.)

In spectacular contrast, on 22 January, Dr M. Al Issa, the Secretary-General of the Muslim World League, a Saudi-based Islamic organisation, wrote to the director of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, expressing ‘great sympathy with the victims of the Holocaust’, calling the Holocaust, an ‘incident that shook humanity to the core, and created an event whose horrors could not be denied or underrated by any fair-minded or peace-loving person.’ The significance of the letter cannot be understated given the prevalence of both Holocaust denial and glorification in the Islamic world. Yet as with Abbas’s ramblings and the Polish legislation, the Saudi letter was surely motivated by a deeper purpose. One suspects that for the Saudis, just as for the Polish Government and Abbas, the Holocaust is not a crime of unimaginable scale and barbarism, rather, it is something expendable, malleable, a literary device through which to signal virtues and stigmatise opponents.

Abbas admitted as much in response to a call from the Simon Wiesenthal Center requesting that he explain himself for his revisionism. Abbas responded, ‘When I wrote The Other Side… we were at war with Israel. Today, there is peace and what I write from now on must advance the peace process.’ Now, in a less conciliatory mood, mutilating the national tragedy of his foes is Abbas’s way of expressing his disgust and his nihilism.

For the Poles, as with much of Europe, the reality that locals were often only too happy to see the demise of their Jewish neighbours, undermines glorious national traditions and collective memories of pure victimhood and righteousness. This is the real reason for the latest attempt by the Polish government to ‘protect’ its history from prying eyes.

Taken at face value, the Saudi letter could constitute a watershed moment in Jewish-Muslim relations. Viewed more cynically, it’s a calculated attempt to ingratiate the Saudis to American Jewry by standing apart from the revisionists and deniers who infest the ranks of the Saudis’ bitter rivals in Tehran. Whatever the motives underpinning the Saudi letter, Abbas’s delirium and Polish attempts at revisionism by decree, the history of the Holocaust is a truth that cannot be altered and will forever overshadow humanity.

During the opening of the May 22 debate in the House of Commons regarding the 1939 White Paper, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Malcolm MacDonald, said, regarding the the treaty contemplated by subparagraph (6) that "adequate provision has been made for: the security of, and freedom of access to the Holy Places, and protection of the interests and property of the various religious bodies",

Finally, in addition, the unique characteristic of Palestine is that within its borders are Holy Places which are dear to millions of Christians, Moslems and Jews throughout the world. We could not give up our trust in Palestine without being assured that everything that appertains to them, and the right of their devotees to have access to them, are preserved for all time. It is indeed a tragedy that around those sacred shrines should be repeated in modern times the folly of human hatred, violence and dispute. The whole world yearns for peace in Palestine, but it cannot be secured unless each people in the present dispute is ready to give up some part of its demands and to pursue a policy of conciliation with its fellow-citizens in that country.

This was predicated on the 1937 Peel Commission Partition Plan:

Chapter XXII. - A Plan of Partition
...2. The Holy Places
The Partition of Palestine is subject to the overriding necessity of keeping the sanctity of Jerusalem and Bethlehem inviolate and of ensuring free and safe access to them for all the world. That, in the fullest sense of the mandatory phrase, is "a sacred trust of civilization"--a trust on behalf not merely of the peoples of Palestine but of multitudes in other lands to whom those places, one or both, are Holy Places.

Victims of Iran-sponsored terrorism have won a major victory in an ongoing lawsuit against the Islamic Republic.

The US Department of Justice told a Chicago court last week that it saw no overriding national security interest in preventing the plaintiffs from receiving information on Boeing’s recent $16.6 billion deal with Iran’s national airline, IranAir.

Boeing fought to stop the disclosure of any aspect of its secret deal with the Islamic Republic for fear that the money might be used to settle judgments in favor of the terror victims and their families.

One of the arguments used by the aircraft manufacturing giant was that disclosure could threaten former president Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran and thus damage US national security.

The Department of Justice’s decision effectively invalidates Boeing’s claims.

In a statement, Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center, an NGO representing the victims in court, said, “Instead of adopting Boeing’s position that US foreign policy interests on this issue supersede those of terror victims, the government condemned the terrorist acts that gave rise to the case and reaffirmed its interest in US victims of terrorism being able to seek compensation for their injuries.”

The Palestine Childrens Relief Fund (PCRF), which, it is detailed,

does promote a clear political agenda, based solely on the Palestinian narrative of victimization [and] Presents a biased and distorted view of the conflict, omitting Palestinian terror attacks against Israeli civilians, including rocket attacks and terror tunnels, as well as Israel’s legitimate right to self-defense.

has an arm called Wear the Peace which raises charitable funds through the sale of fashion items:

In case you missed it, a map erasing Israel and making it all-Arab

is not a peaceful statement.

Pennsylvania Democrat Conor Lamb wrote in a 2002 post on his college newspaper's website that the Israeli government committed "terrorism" and was intentionally targeting civilians in the Gaza Strip.

The comments by Lamb, currently running for Congress in a special election taking place next month, were made in response to a pro-Israel ad published in the Daily Pennsylvanian, a University of Pennsylvania paper, which Lamb said was "disheartening to see."

"It was disheartening to see the add [sic] in the DP the other day which read, ‘Wherever we stand, we stand with Israel,'" wrote Lamb in October 2002 as a student at UPenn.

Lamb went on to say Israel was targeting "innocent civilians" and guilty of "terrorism."

"Just the other day, the Israeli Government launched an attack on innocent civilians in Gaza, citing them as ‘armed terrorists,'" Lamb wrote. "Among the dead were a 14 year-old boy and woman in her late 40s. The army intentionally fired on a medical facility treating the over 100 wounded."

"There is no doubt that both sides of this conflict have committed wrongs, but if this latest attack is not terrorism, I don't know what is," he concluded.

Lamb's campaign did not respond to a request for comment on his Israel statement.

The comments by Lamb came during the spate of suicide bombings and other attacks on Israel by Palestinian terrorists during the Second Intifada.

In recent years, the government’s investment into efforts to minimize delegitimization campaigns against Israel has been on the rise. Thus, the BDS movement and similar organizations exercise a minor effect on the Israeli economy, which is in very good shape compared to the rest of the world thanks to increased investments and exports.

However, the government is currently witnessing that BDS is becoming more successful in other areas, especially in culture, academia and among professional unions.

This is obviously a source of concern.

It is true that a boycott by the Anthropological Society or the cancellation of the performance in Israel by an artist has no dramatic impact on the lives of most Israeli citizens. However, the general trend is serious. We live in a global era in which international networks set the pace of the economy. If Israel “disappears from the map” from time to time, the boycott will turn from an idea to a reality, and will filter into areas that heretofore have appeared to be immune.

In the struggle against the boycotts, which is first and foremost an effort to gain awareness, one of the most important tools at the disposal of the State of Israel is its support for international events in Israel.

Every day, thousands of small and large professional conferences and events are held around the world. In fields like technology or medicine, they are the highlight of the sector. It is in these events that professionals are exposed to critical developments, where headhunters go to acquire new talent, and where the biggest deals are negotiated and closed. Reports from these conferences appear in the economic and professional press, and visitors from around the world bend over backwards to try and secure participation.

Hosting professional conferences is perhaps the best answer to delegitimization because it can bring thousands of thought leaders from many fields, who then return to their countries with a stronger resistance to boycotting Israel. Such publicity can reach virtually every corner of the globe without any additional investment on our part, and will likely result in a series of initiatives and events that further reinforce Israel’s international standing.

The American-based New Israel Fund (NIF) has never hidden its mission to save Israel from itself, and its bedrock conviction that the chauvinist particularism of a Jewish State should be replaced with a more "democratic" state of its citizens.

Implicit in this posture is a belief that the enlightened folks at the NIF know better than we Israelis what is in our best interest, and even what is the moral high ground in any given situation irrespective of the real world considerations that would apply.

While we have seen time and time again the NIF supporting organizations that bolster BDS, accuse Israel of war crimes and slander Israel as an apartheid state, in its current hissy fit over the planned deportation of tens of thousands of illegal African migrants back to third party African nations, the NIF has thrown all decency to the wind.

The NIF has chosen to liken the illegal migrants to Holocaust survivors, with the clear and deliberate implication that Israel must be likened to the Nazis.

By doing so, and by standing by as its supported organizations use Holocaust-themed analogies such as demeaning the memory of Anne Frank, the NIF has clearly telegraphed that there are no red lines, there are no off-limits depictions, arguments or tactics.

A Norwegian lawmaker defended his nomination of the “legitimate, peaceful, non-violent” Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel for a Nobel Peace Prize.

“The BDS movement is a legitimate, peaceful, non-violent movement trying to push the Israeli government to abide by international law, and trying to struggle for a peaceful solution in Palestine and in the Middle East,” Bjornar Moxnes told the Middle East Eye news site in a Friday interview.

Despite targeting Israeli academics and business, he insisted the campaign is one aimed solely at the Israeli government and not at the Israeli people or the Jewish people.

The BDS movement was one of over 200 nominees for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, which can be proposed by a host of individuals, including parliamentarians from any country and university professors.

Responding to the nomination, Likud MK Sharren Haskel penned a letter to Norway’s Ambassador to Israel Jon Hanssen-Bauer along with several Norwegian lawmakers, expressing her dismay.

“There is nothing peaceful about delegitimizing a country’s academic and cultural institutions that are critical to creating an environment conducive for peace,” she wrote.

Yesterday’s palestinian “Cat Man” story really inspired me – to mock it even more! Heck, I cannot resist a ridiculous propaganda attempt.

So I thought I’d enhance it.


I’d say this is an improvement, wouldn’t you?

The Polish government has financed an online propaganda effort targeting Israeli web users in an attempt to sway public opinion, following tensions between Poland and Israel since Poland announced a new law banning statements alleging Polish complicity in Nazi activities in Poland.

When Israelis turned to Youtube on Sunday, they found their videos were preceded by an advertisement from Poland that dealt with an unusual issue: Polish-Jewish relations during World War II. The video also appeared as an advertisement on news websites and other outlets around Israel.

The film, created by the Polish National Foundation, was posted Saturday on the Youtube channel of Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. The film is in English, with Hebrew subtitles available to Israeli users, and claims that Jews and Poles faced the Nazi and Soviet occupations "together," and that Poles treated Jewish citizens of Poland as "friends and allies."

The interview below was conducted in response to a new Polish law that criminalizes speech recognizing any Polish role in the Holocaust; the possible sentences for violating this law include up to three years in prison.

The interview was conducted by Rochel Sylvetsky.

Q: What is the significance of Poles using the term “Jewish death camps”?

IR: The whole process of passing the notorious Polish law that aims to censor the narrative on World War II, the Shoah, and the activities around them, reveals the real face of modern-day Poland. And this face, in my opinion, is an ugly one.

Who could imagine that 74 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, the world would hear the phrase “Jewish death camps” followed by the mocking question asking “who actually did run the crematoria?” in an exchange of ‘jests’ by two Polish authors on a TV broadcast dealing with the new law?

This new low of modern-day Polish antisemites is a qualitative change.

The bill's provisions also make the export of kosher meat illegal. According to a statement released by the EJA on Sunday, the bill's restriction on exporting kosher meat from Poland "would affect a very large part of the Jewish communities in Europe" because kosher slaughterhouses sell their products all across the continent and beyond.

The bill is expected to go up for a vote this week in the lower house of parliament. Under the bill, violators will face up to four years in jail. The latest controversy comes just a week after Poland passed a new law that makes it a criminal offense to blame Polish authorities or the Polish people as a whole for the atrocities of the Nazis during World War II. That law has led to tension between the Israeli and Polish governments. Last week the Polish president said he would refer the bill to the country's constitutional court after signing it, which paves the way for additional amendments and challenges.

Margolin warned Sunday that the upcoming vote could be a bad omen for what lies ahead in the country. "The situation in Poland is unacceptable. I call on the government in Poland to avoid enacting this shameful law and to take into account that the Jewish people's faith in the Polish leadership is deteriorating. I can't imagine what the next stage will be after the Holocaust law and imposing restrictions on kosher slaughter in the country," Margolin wrote on Facebook.

A leading Muslim women’s activist sought to allay concerns over her alleged lack of attention to murderous antisemitism in Nazi-occupied Poland this week by explaining that unlike other forms of prejudice, Polish collaboration with Nazis in the mass murder of Jews is not systemic.

Linda Sarsour, a prominent leader of the Women’s March and an advocate for the rights of Muslims, stoked controversy late last year with a comment that whereas Islamophobia and bias against people of color are entrenched in society, hate toward Jews is not embedded structurally in the culture, and therefore deserves less attention. She elaborated Sunday on her contention in the context of Poland’s recent legislation banning invocation of official Polish involvement in the murder of millions of Jews on Polish soil during the Holocaust, by noting that the hundreds of thousands of Jewish deaths at the hands of Poles during and after the Second World War should similarly not be treated as a deep-seated issue in Polish culture.

“There are more important forms of prejudice and hate to combat,” she stated in an interview. “Some places want to ban the hijab, threatening the freedom of religious expression for me and countless other Muslims, and a handful of agitators with a regressive agenda want to make people think collaboration with genocide is a serious issue. I’m sorry, but we have pressing matters of concern in this society, and I am not going to sit here and be dictated to by those who are probably white, male, and non-Muslim about what I should be fighting.”

“I don’t have a single antisemitic bone in my body,” she continued. “I understand that three million Polish Jews are dead, and that a large number of their Polish neighbors took eager part in the massacres and in turning Jews over to the Nazis, but that pales in comparison to the urgency of making Americans understand we have to stand up for the oppressed women in our inner cities, and under occupation in Palestine.”

France will return three paintings by the Flemish master Joachim Patinir Monday to the descendants of a Jewish family that was forced to sell them as they fled the Nazis.

The Bromberg family fled to Paris from Germany in late 1938 and the following year was forced to sell the 16th-century “Triptych of the Crucifixion” depicting Christ on the cross, along with several other paintings, so they could get to the United States via Switzerland.

The paintings are to be formally handed over to the descendants of Herta and Henry Bromberg at the Louvre Museum by French Culture Minister Francoise Nyssen.

It is the second time in two years that the French state has returned despoiled art to the family.

In 2016 it handed over another 16th-century painting, “Portrait of a Man,” by one of the followers of Antwerp artist Joos van Cleve.

The Patinir paintings had languished for nearly seven decades unclaimed in the French state collections after they were recovered in Munich after World War II.

The triptych had been bought at a knock-down price after the German occupation of Paris and was destined for Hitler’s Fuhrermuseum in his home town of Linz in Austria, where he wanted to build “the ideal museum.”

A 24-year-old refugee, believed to be Muslim, was briefly detained by Belgian police for anti-Semitic hate crimes, including the destruction of at least 20 mezuzahs in Antwerp, local Jews said.

In recent weeks, the same man was filmed in Antwerp destroying at least 20 mezuzahs, religious objects containing a parchment with biblical text inked on it that Jews affix to their door frames, and vandalizing the entrance doors of several Jewish institutions, Joods Actueel, the Jewish monthly reported Sunday.

He was detained for 12 hours Friday based on footage from security cameras of him destroying the mezuzahs.

He had also placed a Quran near a synagogue, and was filmed knocking off the hat of an Orthodox Jew on the street. He shouted at Jewish passersby: “This is our land, Palestine!” and: “We will show you!”

The man was spotted hanging around an area of the city that is heavily populated by Orthodox Jews after his release Saturday, Joods Actueel reported based on information from Shmira, the Jewish community’s security service. (h/t Yenta Press)

Anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered Wednesday on the walls of a Barcelona synagogue, Israel's Channel 10 reported.

The word "pigs" was written in English, and near it was a sentence in Catalan reading "get out of the country."

Barcelona's Deputy Mayor Gerardo Pisarello ordered the graffiti erased and condemned the act, promising that the municipality's department for fighting discrimination would help deal with the incident.

"Barcelona is a city which is proud of its differences," he said in a statement. "We will not allow actions of intolerance."

According to the report, the synagogue in question is no longer used for daily prayers, but is still used for community events, and serves as a cultural center and a museum.

World renowned Israeli author David Grossman was named Monday as a winner of Israel’s top civilian honor, the Israel Prize, for a “series of masterpieces” during his 35-year career.

Grossman, 64, is already one of Israel’s most celebrated writers, and the winner of three top Hebrew-language honors: the prestigious Sapir literary prize in 2001, the city of Tel Aviv’s Bialik literary prize in 2004 and the 2007 Emet prize for his contributions to Israeli culture. Last year, he won the Man Booker International Prize, one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, for his novel “A Horse Walks into a Bar.”

“I’m thrilled to have just told David Grossman that he won the Israel Prize for literature on the State of Israel’s 70th anniversary,” Education Minister Naftali Bennett said at a conference in Jerusalem on Monday.

“Grossman is one of the most exciting, profound and influential voices in Israeli literature. With deep wisdom, sensitivity to fellow human beings and a unique linguistic style, he has become an internationally renowned artist. We are honored that he is one of our own,” Bennett said.

“‘Someone to run with,’ indeed,” the education minister concluded, in a reference to one of Grossman’s well-known novels.

The Israeli Wolf Prize will be awarded at the end of May to nine laureates in the fields of music and science, including legendary British rocker Paul McCartney.

The Wolf Foundation announced on Monday that it selected McCartney – who will share the prize with conductor Adam Fischer – for being “one of the greatest songwriters of all time.” McCartney’s songs, the prize jury noted, “Will be sung and savored as long as there are human beings to lift up their voices.”

The nine laureates – in the fields of music, agriculture, physics, chemistry and mathematics – are invited to a special ceremony at the Knesset hosted by President Reuven Rivlin at the end of May.

Until now, McCartney’s only appearance in Israel was in 2008, when he performed for a near-capacity crowd of 50,000 at Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv. During his stay, the former Beatles member, also visited the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Beit Sahur east of Bethlehem and met with representatives of the NGO OneVoice. At the meeting, McCartney said: “I’m not a politician – I just want to bring a message of peace.”

Fischer, who will split the $100,000 prize with McCartney, is recognized for his work as conductor of the Vienna State Opera, the Dusseldorf Symphony, the Danish National Chamber Orchestra, the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra and many others, as well as for his political activism.

Within four weeks, the government will approve the immigration of 1,000 Ethiopians residing in Gondar and Addis Ababa, the Interior Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office told the State Control Committee on Monday.

Director-General of the Interior Ministry’s Population and Immigration Authority Shlomo Mor-Yosef and Deputy Director-General of the Prime Minister's Office Udi Praver said they submitted an urgent request to the Government Secretariat to discuss the matter at a cabinet meeting.

They informed the Chairman of the State Control Committee MK Shelly Yacimovich (Zionist Union) that the approval would be given within four weeks for funds for the aliyah to be included in the 2018 budget.

In 2017, 1,308 Ethiopians immigrated to Israel, in accordance with the latest cabinet decisions on the issue, which stated that up to 9,000 Ethiopians could be brought to Israel by the end of 2020. A new cabinet decision is needed to allow for continued aliyah from Ethiopia this year.

The group of Ethiopians waiting to immigrate are known as known as Falash Mura, the name given to those members of the Beta Israel community in Ethiopia and Eritrea who – under compulsion and pressure from missionaries – converted to Christianity during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Since their ancestors converted to another religion, they are not covered by the Law of Return, which grants the right to immigrate to Israel and gain citizenship to anyone with a Jewish grandparent. Instead they are brought according to the Law of Entry and are required to convert to Judaism once they are in Israel.

The path to peace in the Middle East might be navigated not via a dove carrying an olive branch but by a lowly barn owl.

Barn owls have been used in Israel since 1982 as an alternative to toxic chemicals for killing voles, which at the time plagued Israeli agricultural fields. The preferred chemical against rodents – known as compound 1080 – had been banned a decade earlier in the United States, although not in Israel.

Ornithologist Yossi Leshem thought that owls might be able to control the rodents more naturally.

Leshem set up an experiment at Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu in 1983. Three decades later, the barn owl approach has spread throughout the Palestinian territories and into Jordan as well.

“Birds have the power to bring people together, because they know no boundaries,” says Leshem, who teaches at Tel Aviv University.

That’s in part how 22 participants from 10 governments (including Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Cyprus, Greece, France and Switzerland in addition to Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan) came together in January to share research from their barn owl vs. rodent experiences.

The group met at the Crowne Plaza resort hotel on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea where they discussed scientific findings and hatch plans. Field trips were organized to visit barn owl nesting boxes in the Jordan Valley, as well as to Amman and Petra. A follow-up in March will see some of the Middle Eastern researchers visit California State University in Sacramento, where they will be hosted by conservation biologist Sara Kross.

While the topic was formally owls, regional peace was never far from discussion.

“Scientists should continue their cooperation for the benefit and peace of people in the area,” emphasized Mansour Abu Rashid, who works with Leshem and directs the Amman Center for Peace and Development.

Pick up a basic guidebook on Jerusalem and it will have plenty of popular restaurant rankings and lists of facts and figures. What it won’t tell you is how to smell, taste and listen to the city of golden stone.

With the recently published “Jerusalem City Stories,” explorers can now ditch their smartphones and “Lonely Planets” to experience Jerusalem as a native. The guide weaves readers through hidden corridors and secret staircases towards the best cappuccinos and most authentic street food in town.

At times, Jerusalem can seem to be a city of disjointed sections, separated by Jews and Arabs or religious and secular. However, “Jerusalem City Stories” introduces readers to Jerusalem as a community of connected neighborhoods, each with its own flavor, but blended into one shared experience.

The guide combines short vignettes with dynamic illustrations of Jerusalem’s best spots to eat and experience, with plenty of empty space for readers to write and draw their own adventures into the book’s crisp pages.

The project was a three-way collaboration between friends sharing a love for the city and its people.

Eva Lavi’s earliest memories are of the Holocaust.

She remembers how her mother made her hide outside in below-zero weather, clutching a standing pipe, as Nazis searched her home in Poland. She remembers her father telling her to swallow a spoonful of cyanide — better than death at the hands of the Nazis — only to have her mother object at the last minute. She remembers seeing her twin cousins shot to death as they ran up a hill at a labor camp.

Lavi was 2 years old when Nazi Germany took over her hometown of Krakow in September 1939. Now 80, she wants to make sure her stories aren’t lost after she’s gone.

“There was no childhood for children my age,” she said in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly following International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27. “Regularly, we saw, heard, and understood everything the Nazis were doing to us. At 6 years old, children were cynical old people trying to survive.”

Lavi is the youngest survivor to have been on Schindler’s List, the Jews saved by German industrialist Oskar Schindler and immortalized in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film. Lavi was put in a ghetto in Poland with her family immediately after the Nazi takeover, transferred to a labor camp, and then to Auschwitz.